THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES \/n PRESS CRITICISMS " The real case against the Boer Government cannot be summed up more tersely than it is summed up by Dr. Hillier."— 77/e Times, October 27th, 1899. "If any man is thoroughly conversant with Outlander politics, that man is Dr. Alfred Hillier. The importance, therefore, of his demolition of Miss Olive Schreiner's sloppily sentimental manifesto to the American people cannot be estimated too highly." — Pall Mall Gazette, November 2nd, 1899. "Dr. Hillier knows the Boers \Nit\V'— Daily Chronicle, Decem- ber 27th, 1899. " By far the most valuable contribution to the number (January Fortnightly)', is Dr. Hillier's really statesmanlike survey of ' The Issues at Stake in South Africa. ' " — Spectator. "Dr. Alfred Hillier's masterly article in The 7ywi?j' was copied into most of the papers all over America, east and west." — Beatrice Harraden in The Daily Mail. "We believe Mr. Bryce, while stating that he had not read the article {" Mr. Bryce's Manifesto to the Americans," May Fortnightly), declared that it did not require any reply. We doubt if that will be the view of even strong Liberals who will take the trouble to read the crushing and powerful criticism." — Aberdeen Journal, June 2nd, 1900. SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ^f SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES BY ALFRED HILLIER, B.A., M.D. AUTHOR OF " RAID AND REFORM " ILontion MACMJLLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1900 All rights reserved Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, london and bungay. PREFACE t3 I WROTE three years ago a book entitled ^" Raid and Reform." It is now out of print SBand several friends have urged me to bring out another edition. This I have decided not to do. The book has, at least to some extent, o served its purpose in its day ; and since it " appeared, a much more complete statement, ^^ bringing events up to date, has been produced '^^ in "The Transvaal from Within," by J. Percy Fitzpatrick. To the author of this admirable book, an old personal friend, I o gladly acknowledge as an ex-member of the ^ Reform Committee in Johannesburg, my great indebtedness. Mr. Fitzpatrick has viii PREFACE freely used the resources of material at his disposal as Secretary to the Reform Com- mittee, and he has faithfully and industriously compiled a statement of the Transvaal quarrel between Boer and Uitlander which will re- main a permanent record of the events of that stormy period. At the same time it has seemed to me that certain portions of " Raid and Reform," dealing with the early days of the Transvaal, and the testi- mony of leading Boers themselves, were worth reproducing, and I have embodied them in these pages. Thus with the ex- ception of the last, all the following papers have appeared in one form or another. Their reception has encouraged me to think that a collection of them might prove of interest. Of the papers themselves, some were written before thewar, others during its course. They therefore represent the views I have held and expressed at different stages of the great PREFACE ix South African quarrel, and I confess that after reading them again I have found Httle or nothing to alter. I believe to-day, as I believed five years ago, that the oligar- chical system of government in the Trans- vaal, now known to history as Krugerism, was unjust and impossible ; and that for the salvation of the Boer as well as for the peace of South Africa and the interests of civilization, its demolition was both just and inevitable. It had to be mended or ended, and Mr. Kruger selected the latter alterna- tive. In dealing with the whole question I have endeavoured to be impartial and I hope not entirely without success. Books on South Africa are so numerous to-day that a writer who produces another should have some claim of qualification for the work. My claim must rest, as best it can, on sixteen years participation in the life of South Africa, and a study for that X PREFACE period of the problems dealt with on the spot. For permission to reproduce the bulk of the Articles and Lectures I am indebted to the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Royal Colonial Institute, the Times and the Fortnightly Review, ALFRED HILLIER. 30, WiMPOLE St., London, W. September, 1900. CONTENTS SOUTH AFRICA, PAST AND FUTURE. Two Lectures delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in May, 1900.) PAGE European Occupation i Portuguese ......... 3 Dutch East India Company . . . . . • 3) 7 The Bantu .......... 5 British Title to South Africa ...... 10 British Settlers of 1820 ii Thomas Pringle . . . . . . . . -13 Pastoral and Agricultural Resources . . . . I5i 33 Modern South Africa . . . . . . . • 17 Diamond Fields .18 Gold 22 Transvaal . 24 Rhodesia .......... 25 Royal Charter . . 26 Railways .......... 28 Progress of Natal '31 Federation ......... 34 The Future 35 xii CONTENTS II. THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA. {An Address at the Royal Colonial Institute, Dec, 1898.) PAGE The Negro and his Varieties . . . . . -39 Hottentot .......... 44iL' Bushman 55/ Kaffir or Bantu .61 Divisions of the Bantu ........ 63 Native Policy ......... TzJ Liquor Traffic ......... 74 Prohibition .......... 80 Native Labour .84 Recapitulation ....... . . 88 856 in. BOER GOVERNMENT IN THE TRANSVAAL. {A Historical Review.") Boer Trek, 1836-7 British Exploration North ofthe Vaal . Dingaan's Day ...... Republican Boundaries fixed Orange Sovereignty afterwards Orange Free State The Transvaal Constitution, 1844 Reform demanded by Representative Assembly, i Rebellion ....... Lydenburg declared an Independent State, 1856 Intrigue with Free State .... Pretorius invades Free State Pretorius and Kruger surrender Pretoria becomes Seat of Government . Once more two Rival Governments established in vaal, i860 Kruger invests Potchefstroom British Annexation in 1877 . Shepstone and Lanyon Majuba and Retrocession, 1881 the Trans 95 95 96 97 97 97 99 100 102 103 104 105 106 109 109 112 "3 114 CONTENTS xlii rAGE Discovery of Gold, 1883 115 Status of Mining Community . . . . . .116 Kruger Policy 117 Second Volksraad .129 IV. BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID. The Fate of Small Republics The Uitlanders .... National Union formed, 1892 Constitutional Agitation, 1892-5 Retrogressive Legislation Franchise Laws .... Condemnation by prominent Burghers Other Uitlander Grievances . Warning to Kruger by Boer Chief Justice Englishmen Commandeered in 1894 The Hollanders .... Lionel Phillips .... Monster Petition to Raad, 1895 The Drifts Ultimatum Rejection of Monster Petition 123 125 131 131 132 132 134 136 137 142 143 144 145 146 147 ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA. {The Fortnightly Review, Jan., 1900.) The Spirit of Peace in War Motives for Boer Trek in 1837 Influence of Native Environment. Contempt for Great Britain . Caste Spirit .... The Virtues of the Boer The Issues at Stake for the Boer . The Future Attitude of Uitlanders and Loyal Colonists 150 152 155 160 162 164 167 xiv CONTENTS PAGE Loyalists and Disloyals 171 British Prestige . .172 Mr. Schreiner . . . . . , . . .172 Future of the Natives and Native Reserves . . . -174 Foreign Immigrants . . . . . . . • ^11 Material Issues Involved ....... 180 The Imperial Stake ........ 182 VI. A REPLY TO MR. SELOUS. {The Times, October 7.^th, 1899.) " We have our quarrel just " ...... 189 " The Sun of Liberty will shortly arise in South Africa " . 191 VII. THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR. {The Times, November 2iid, 1899.) Olive Schreiner (Mrs. Cronwright Schreiner) . . . 192 Capitalists loth to enter Uitlander Quarrel .... 195 VIII. UITLANDERS AS SOLDIERS. {The Times, November "jth, 1899.) The Imperial Light Horse . 205 Rejoinder to Mr. Selous 210 IX. MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO THE AMERICANS. {The Fortnightly Review, May, 1900.) Mr. Bryce and the Wild Fowl 215 His Impressions 216 The Free State Invasion 221 British Annexation . . 32? CONTENTS XV PAGE Retrocession and Betrayal. Resurgam .... 230 Sir Bartle Frere ......... 232 The Conventions ......... 234 The Jameson Raid ........ 237 Boer Armaments ......... 238 Mark Antony at the Grave of Csesar ..... 242 The Generations to Come ....... 243 The Boer Vrouw 246 The Two Prophets, Morley and Bryce 248 The Horns of the Dilemma ....... 249 X. THE GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE OF SOUTH AFRICA. {British Medical Journal, December, 1899.) The Mountains . 252 The Interior Plateau ....... 252, 267 The Coast Terraces ........ 253 Diversity of Climate ........ 254 Tables I. and II., and Map ....... 260 Diagrams .......... 263 Karroo and Grass Plains . . . . . . .271 XI. STRAIGHT SHOOTING FOR THE BRITISH SOLDIER. Lord Roberts on Musketry Training Personal Experience of Boers' Shooting Boer Explanation of Majuba Martini, Express and Lee-Metford Rifles British Soldiers in Colonial Garrisons in Time of Peace Ammunition Allowance Progress of Musketry Instruction in Army System of Training .... Changes Required , , , , 282 286 289 292 293 294 297 298 299 CONTENTS German System of Training .... German Musketry Instructions German and British Instructions Compared . Fire Discipline ...... Volley Firing, German and British Views German Injunction as to Marksmanship of Officers Obsolete Views of Lord Wolseley .... Royal Commission of Inquiry wanted . Boer Shooting in Present Campaign Colonists' Admiration for Gallantry of British Soldiers PAGE . 300 ■ 301 300, 302 ■ 303 • 305 . 308 • 309 • 309 • 309 • 3" APrENDIX. Letter to the Secretary — British South Africa Select Committee ,,,...... 313 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I SOUTH AFRICA, PAST & FUTURE {T7V0 Lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in May, 1900.) I European Occupation of South Africa So far back as the year i486, the Portu- guese navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, at- tempted to find an ocean pathway to that clime of untold resources and ancient tradi- tion, the mysterious East. In this endeavour he discovered, as it were by accident, the Cape of Good Hope. Twelve years later Vasco da Gama con- tinued in the path of Diaz, and established B 2 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I at the close of the fifteenth century the long- sought sea route to India. By this means the monopoly of the carrying trade between Europe and Asia, which for so long had been in the hands of the Moors and the Turks, came under the sway of Christendom and the control of Western Europe. For nearly one hundred years the bulk of this Eastern sea trade was, as a reward for the enterprise of her bold navigators, almost entirely in the hands of Portugal. But at the end of the sixteenth century other competitors appeared upon the scene, and Holland, England, and France vied with each other for the dazzling prizes of commerce. For many years, in times of peace and in times of war, in fair weather and in foul, that competition con- tinued. Which of the great Powers to-day carries the palm in this legitimate, inevitable and beneficent rivalry, so great a factor in the march of civilisation, we need not stop to consider. Let it remain one of those things for which we thank God and make no boast. I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 3 The first of the European Powers to ac- quire territory in South Africa was naturally Portugal. She annexed large areas in the East and West coast in the fifteenth century. She has held them ever since. With the exception of Delagoa Bay, which owes its development to the energy and enterprise of other colonies, these territories have made but little progress during the four and a half centuries of Portuguese occupation. In 1652, the middle of the seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company sent an expedition under Van Riebeck, a surgeon, to occupy Table Bay. The occu- pation was duly effected, and a naval station for the use of the Company in its East Indian trade was established. Land was given out to a small number of Dutch soldiers and sailors, and a plantation, to use a seventeenth century phrase, was founded. In 1679, the population of the Cape settlement was returned as 300 men and 90 women. Ten years later 200 Huguenot refugees were settled by the Company. The B 2 4 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I directors of the Company gave vigorous in- structions to Van der Stell, the Governor, to mingle them with the Dutch settlers. These instructions were acted on, and by the middle of the eighteenth century the French lan- guage had been forgotten, and the French, who formed about a fourth of the European blood of the country, became absolutely in- corporated in the Dutch majority. The foundations of the colony were thus laid. From the earliest days the Dutch settlers were in contact with wandering bands of Hottentots and Bushmen, who proved troublesome neighbours, but never offered very serious resistance. Gradual extension of territory went on, and in 1740, trekking eastward, the warlike Bantu were first encountered. From then down to the present day these Bantu tribes have, in innumerable wars, disputed the advance of European colonisation. The Bantu, like the Europeans, are invaders of South Africa, and the tide of their invasion, which flowed in successive waves from the north down the I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 5 east coast, met the tide of European invasion from the south. The strong European current has pressed the Bantu steadily back, but the meeting place of the two currents has been a scene of strife and unrest. All our Kaffir wars — Gaika, Galeka, Zulu, Basuto, Matabele, and the rest — have occurred with these same fearless, stalwart, dark-skinned warriors. The Kaffir tribes all belong to the great Bantu race, and from 1740 onwards the Dutch were continually at feud on their borders with them. On one point we may at least console ourselves— the strife which has occurred between the European and the Bantu, deplorable as it undoubtedly has been, was inevitable, and, broadly, its result has been a beneficent one. For whatever blood may have flowed in these wars, it is nothing in comparison to the awful massacres perpe- trated by any conquering Bantu tribe among the vanquished in earlier times, and Shaka, a great Zulu chief, may be taken as a type of the Bantu warrior. 6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES i Early in this century he invaded with 50,000 men the territories between Delagoa Bay and the Umzimvubu. His orders were to destroy utterly all of both sexes among the people he marched against, with the exception of a few lads as carriers and some of the women. These orders were carried out. The tribes disappeared, and the country became almost a desert. The area depo- pulated was as large as the present Colony of Natal, His rule makes all other records of despotism pale. Every one who dis- pleased him was put to death. He admitted no woman to the rank of wife, although the King's Kraals contained no less than 1200 women. For fear of political rivalry, no son of his was permitted to live. All who ap- proached him did so unarmed and in a crouching posture. And yet his people were devoted to him, so proud were they of the military fame which his genius allowed them to acquire. One woman for a time held out at the head of her tribe against Shaka, but eventually she shared the fate of the others. I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 7 Her name was Gubela, and in her honour a song was composed : — " At Gubela's they don't use bars to 'kraals, '^ But for gates make heaps of heads of men." Such were the Bantu, the rivals to Euro- pean invasion in South Africa, and such was the tide of barbarism which European colo- nisation had to encounter. The rule of the Dutch East India Com- pany lasted from 1652 to 1795, a period of 143 years, or considerably more than half of the entire period during which the Dutch have been resident in South Africa. The lot of the Dutch under this rule was neither happy nor prosperous. Theal, the South African historian, and the greatest student living of Dutch history in that country, speaks of that rule as follows : — '* The revenue of the Colony was nearly always below the expenditure. The civil service was corrupt, and the people were oppressed without the finances of the Govern- 1 A kraal is a cattle fold. 8 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES 1 ment deriving any benefit. There was no such thing known as free trade. There were no merchants in the Colony, its commerce being exclusively in the hands of the Com- pany. The laws were complicated and unin- telligible to the people, many were unjust and impolitic. The legislative, administra- tive and judicial powers were combined in one body, a union incompatible with justice. Personal liberty, where the Government had power, did not exist. A citizen who fell under the displeasure of the rulers was liable at any moment to be seized and expatriated without trial. His slaves, oxen, horses, waggons, and saddles could be impressed for the service of Government at any time with- out any remuneration whatever. Officials travelling through the Colony were thus forwarded from place to place entirely at the expense of the farmers. The natives had well nigh disappeared, and the whites in the interior were retrograding towards barbarism. A few slaves and a score of Hottentots were the only accessions to Christianity. Industry was discouraged, and I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 9 education was neglected. Evil habits, which were hardly eradicated in the next genera- tion, had been formed. The number of slaves had been constantly increasing, not only by importation, but by the retention in bondage of those whom the law of Holland declared free. Such were the effects of the rule of the East India Company. In a word, it was a curse instead of a blessing to the country. It misdirected energy, crushed freedom, eradicated humanity," This was the state of things before the English came upon the scene. These were the " rights enjoyed " under the government of the Dutch East India Company,! which Mr. Bryce, in his historical essay on the causes of the present war, written for the Americans in the North Aineidcan Review} says were reduced by the English. Z' By the end of the eighteenth century England had acquired large interests in India. She became in- volved in war with France. France and Holland were united against us. It became ^ The Historical Causes of the Prese?it War. By Rt. Hon. Jas. Bryce. North Amer. Rev., Dec. 1899. lo SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I obvious that if England did not secure the Cape, France would. In 1806, England landed a force, and seized the Cape. Sub- sequently, in 1 8 14, at the close of the war, England surrendered to Holland all colonies seized during the war with the exception of the Cape and a few islands. In considera- tion of retaining these she paid to Holland ^6,000,000. Our title to South Africa is thus as valid as titles to anything can be ; for we hold it both by conquest and by purchase. One of the first steps taken after England's occupation was to remedy many abuses, and Theal states that under the administration of Sir David Baird, the first English Governor, the Dutch Colonists were satisfied and tran- quillity was maintained. The establishment of British rule first enabled the Dutch Colo- nists to reap to the full the benefits to be de- rived from an industrious development of the country and its resources. And although in 1837 a section of the more turbulent Dutch spirits on the borders of the Colony, with whom opposition to all civilised government I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE n ^ had been handed down as a sort of tradition, trekked away and founded the repubHcs, the majority of the Dutch have remained loyal and contented subjects in the Cape Colony. Until 1820 there were very few English settlers. In that year the British Govern- ment spent ^50,000 on sending out and establishing in the Zuurveld, or eastern portion of the Colony, 5,000 emigrants. They were selected out of 90,000 applicants, and con- sisted of English, Scotch and Irish from all classes of the community Among them were cadets of old families, retired officers, professional men, farmers, tradesmen, mechanics, and labourers ; in fact, a number of recruits from that sturdy class of adventurers who have built up the British Empire. They had many difficulties and some suffering in their early days, but on the whole they throve and prospered, and, what- ever else they did, they multiplied as good Britons always do. Their descendants to- day are the backbone of the Eastern Pro- vince, and constitute a large portion of the 12 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES i progressive element in the Cape Colony. Bathurst was their first capital, then Gra- hamstown. And Port Elizabeth, King Wil Ham's Town, Queenstown, now thriving Colonial towns, were founded by them. Amoncr these emiorants was a g-ifted Scotch- man named Thomas Prinsfle. He was a man of sterling character and versatile talent, and among other things he was a poet. And when I say a poet, I do not mean a mere rhyming poetaster, but a poet of the highest quality. When Coleridge first read Pringle's poem, entitled "Afar in the Desert," he was so completely taken with it that he did little else but read and recite it. To the author himself he wrote, " I do not hesitate to de- clare it among the two or three most perfect lyrics in our language." The vast spaces of the veld ; the silence of the solitudes ; the marvellous varied and abundant animal life ; the savage, half-weird character of the na- tives ; and the wild adventure of the early colonists have been caught with a true spirit of genius, and in vivid, glowing language I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 13 have been portrayed for all time in the musi- cal lines of this ardent Scotchman. Time will not allow me to quote from this poet at any leng'th, I commend the little volume containing his works, entitled " Afar in the Desert I Love to Ride," and other poems, by Pringle,^ to your attention and your libraries. A few lines must suffice us, but they will serve to bring" before you the life and spirit of those early Colonial days better than I could hope to do by any words of my own. Take the followinor scene in the mountains of Cape Colony, then tenanted only by wild herds of game and wandering bands of Bushmen : — " THE DESOLATE VALLEY. " Far up among the forest-belted mountains, Where Winterberg, stern giant old and grey. Looks down the subject dells, whose gleaming fountains To wizard Kat ' their virgin tribute pay, A valley opens to the noontide ray. Where green savannahs, shelving to the brim Of the swift river, sweeping on his way 1 Published by Longmans, Green and Co. ^ Kat, the name of a river. 14 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I To where Umtoka hies to meet with him, Like a blue serpent gliding through the acacias dim. Round this secluded region circling rise A billowy waste of mountains, wild and wide, Upon whose grassy slopes the pilgrim spies The gnu and quagga, by the greenwood side, Tossing their shagj^y manes in tameless pride ; Or troop of elands near some sedgy fount ; Or kudu fawns, that from the thicket glide To seek their dam upon the misty mount, With harts, gazelles, and roes, more than the eye may count." " Then, couched at night in hunter's wattled sheiling, How wildly beautiful it was to hear The elephant, his shrill reveille pealing. Like some far signal-trumpet on the ear. While the broad midnight moon was shining clear. How fearful to look forth upon the woods. And see those stately forest-kings appear. Emerging from their shadowy solitudes. As if that trump had woke Earth's old gigantic broods." But beyond the encircling mountains are the lone levels of the Karroo. Hear for a moment how Pringle speaks of them : — " Afar in the desert I love to ride. With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side : O'er the brown Karroo, where the bleating cry Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively, And the timorous quagga's shrill whistling neigh Is heard by the fountain at twilight grey. Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane, I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 15 With wild hoof scouring the desolate plain, And the fleet-footed ostrich over the waste Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste, Hying away to the home of her rest, Where she and her mate have scooped their nest, Far from the pitiless plunderer's view In the pathless depths of the parched Karroo." I have already spoken of the Bantu tribes, this is Pringle's description of the fearless warriors and robbers : — "THE CAFFER. " Lo where he crouches by the cleugh's dark side, Eying the farmer's lowing herds afar, Impatient watching till the Evening Star Lead forth the twilight dim, that he may glide Like panther to the prey. With freeborn pride He scorns the herdsman, nor regards the scar Of recent wound — but burnishes for war His assagai and targe of buffalo-hide." From 1820 to 1870, the industries of South Africa were entirely pastoral and agricultural. Farms were taken up, the borders of the Colony had been gradually extended to the Fish River, then to the Kei, and latterly to Pondoland and Griqualand West and East. Native wars unfortunately occurred from time to time on the borders. I served my- i6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES i self through the Gaika-Galecka campaign in '78-9. In the early days, the farmers' stock consisted of cattle, sheep, and goats. Trade with the interior was also carried on, and large quantities of ivory and ostrich feathers found their way through Cape ports. At length, some time in the sixties, the idea of domesticating the ostrich occurred, and was put in practice. The result was a new and, for a time, extremely lucrative, in- dustry. Ostrich farming is still carried on at a profit, but the caprice of fashion and a plentiful supply have made the ostrich plume much less costly than it used to be. Unfor- tunately, South Africa as a whole is not a fertile country, and purely agricultural deve- lopment has been slow. Moreover, the Boer is neither enterprising nor energetic. The country thus remained, as compared with other Colonies of the same age, a poor country. In 1870, prospects changed, and Colonists began to find out that Nature, though meagre in her gifts to the soil itself, had been lavish in her endowments I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 17 beneath the soil. In 1870, diamonds were discovered. The corner was turned. Capital and population flowed in. Development went steadily forward. II The Development of Modern South Africa. But while the history of the present cen- tury in South Africa down to 1870 has been of great and romantic interest, the material development of the country, as compared with other colonies, had up to that time undoubt- edly been slow. 1870 marks the dawn of a new era. From that date, in spite of poli- tical complications, the progress of the coun- try has been steadily forward down to the outset of the present war. The beginning of this new era was marked by a curious and a dramatic incident. In the year 1867 a Boer observed a child playing in the sunshine with a pebble on the banks of the Orange River. The pebble c i8 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES i appeared to him to flash with an unusual brilliancy, even in the broad South African sunlight, and he picked it up and with the mother's consent carried it away. In due course the pebble was shown to a trader — the wicked British trader — the vil- lain of the piece, our Pro- Boer friends would say, the hero of the piece, I venture to say, and by the piece I mean the drama of the development of modern South Africa. The trader submitted the stone to Dr. Atherstone of Grahamstown. This gentleman, a distin- guished member of the medical profession, a son of one of the settlers of 1820, recog- nised the stone to be a diamond, and the trader sold his gem to the Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, for ^500. Search naturally followed, and what were known as the "river diggings " were started on the Vaal River. At this period, the whole of the Colonies and States were in a wretchedly depressed condition. Ostrich farming had but just started. Agriculture was of the poorest I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 19 character. Sheep and cattle farming gave but poor returns as compared with the same pursuits in other parts of the world. The Boer's wants were few, his enterprise limited, and trade was very restricted. Even the English farmers were far from rich. Diamond seeking therefore offered many- attractions, and men, chiefly of British race, were the means of at length demonstrating the fact that South Africa, barren and poor on the surface, was rich below the surface. It might take ten acres of karroo to feed a sheep, but a few square yards of diamondiferous blue ground would feed a dozen families. In 1870, the Du Toits Pan mine was discovered about eighteen miles from the Vaal River, and its claims were pegged out and worked. The scene at this time along the river banks and round Du Toits Pan was unique even in the history of mining. Mechanics, clerks, professional men, la- bourers, and farmers, all sorts and conditions of men flocked, to the banks of the Vaal, until that barren region, hitherto so lonely, re- c 2 20 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I sounded with the din and bustle of active labour. Under the burning sun this labour was performed cheerfully and willingly. Camps of canvas tents arose as if by magic. After the Du Toits Pan mine, and within two miles of it, were discovered the still richer mines of Kimberley and De Beers. The population rapidly increased ; the sur- face claims were worked deeper and deeper. Men made fortunes, and some of them retired. But others came and took their places. Underground working was next in- troduced, and in course of time amalgamation of smaller interests began. The day of the individual digger was passing. The output soon reached millions annually. There was even a danger of the diamond becoming too common. Dame Fashion had turned her back on ostrich plumes. Might she not begin to sneer at the diamond ? There was but one remedy. A combination of interests and control of the output. In 1889, this step was accomplished, chiefly by the efforts of Mr. Rhodes. All the mines I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 21 were amalgamated into one huge company, the De Beers Consolidated Mines. The output was regulated to meet the demand, and an industry which turned over several millions annually was preserved to South Africa. Thus the first great step in the new mineral development of South Africa was taken. A population of over 50,000 had been attracted to the diamond fields. A great trade sprang up with the coast ports. Oversea traffic was increased. A new market for farming produce had opened. Some of the wealth of Kimberley found its way to every corner of South Africa. And not only did the success and development of Kimberley revive a drooping country ; it put fresh vigour and fresh enterprise into her sons, and sent them forth once more to seek for and unearth the natural treasures of their country. In this way Kimberley was the mother of Rhodesia and of the Johannesburg gold industry. Kimberley men and Kimberley capital pioneered these new regions and developed 22 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES 1 the Gold Industry. So far back as 1874, gold was discovered in Lydenburg, a moun- tainous district of the Transvaal. But no great developments occurred in these moun- tains, although this district, with the adjoin- ing country of Swaziland, may yet have a prosperous future under favourable auspices. I visited this district in 1884, and I can well remember when Barberton, now a thriving little mining town, consisted of Mr. Harry Barber's hut and a few tents. But a greater field than this remained to be discovered to the world ; and who shall say what more may still remain ? Two brothers, the Messrs. Struben, worked hard during the years 1884 and 1885 pros- pecting the conglomerate beds of the Wit- watersrand district. Witwatersrand is a range of hills rising gradually from the great Orange plateau and forming its north- eastern border. It runs east and west, and is the watershed of the country. The streams flowing from its northern slope form the Crocodile or 1 SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 23 Limpopo River, and flow into the Indian Ocean. Those from the south join the Vaal and the Orange, and thus find their way across the Continent to the Atlantic. On these desolate hills, the fountain-head of the rivers of South Africa, and over whose slopes less than twenty years ago roamed large herds of antelope, there stands to-day the richest goldfield in the world. Land, the resources of which barely suf- ficed for the meagre wants of half a dozen semi-civilised Boers living on their isolated farms, in houses built of wattle and daub with floors of dried mud, served in 1896 to support a thriving population of over 100,000. Johannesburg sprang into exist- ence ; one of the industrial centres of the world. I have not much time,, and you, per- haps, not much inclination, for facts and figures, but a few we must, for a moment, consider. They show, better than anything else can, the effect of this development by the new-comers, the Uitlanders, upon the Boers themselves. 24 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I In the ten years following the commence- ment of gold mining on the Rand, the value of the agricultural land in the Transvaal — that is, the land not occupied as town or mining sites — increased from ^993,200 to ^10,000,000. In the course of the process about one-third of the land originally owned by the Boers passed into the possession, by purchase, of Uitlander, principally British, purchasers, and this holding, although one- third in area, is two-thirds in value of the agricultural land of the Republic available for European occupation. In 1876-77 the Tranvaal Revenue was ^62,762. In 1896-97 it was ^3,912,095. During that twenty years the gold industry was developed, first at Barberton, then at Johannesburg. The result of that develop- ment on the revenues is shown in the figures I have quoted. And in this development the fact must never be lost sight of that Kimberley was the first step, the mother ; Johannesburg, the second, the child of Kimberley. I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 25 And now let us turn to Rhodesia, another of Kimberley's creations. When the value and the permanent character of the Johannes- burg" deposits had been demonstrated, the territories beyond the Limpopo, which in 1895 hs-^ been declared within the sphere of British influence, began to attract fresh attention. It is of interest here to revert for a moment to what first attracted European colonisation in the fifteenth century to South Africa. The Portuguese for the most part confined themselves to centres of trading established by the Moors. And there is no doubt they were attracted to the coast on which Beira is situated by the gold obtained there. In the seventeenth century they made a treaty with a Kaffir chief whom they grandiloquently styled Monomotapa, which means Lord of the Mines. And through the Moors and the Kaffirs they continued to obtain gold from the mines of Mashonaland. In fact, the tract of country now known as Southern Rhodesia, situated between the Zambesi and the Lim- .26 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES 1 popo, was in all human probability the land of Ophir of the Old Testament ; it was worked by the Saboeans and Phoenicians ; later by the Moors ; later still, indirectly by the Portuguese ; to-day, by settlers under the British South Africa Company. These mines evidently paid the ancients, and there seems little doubt that many modern diggers will, in due course, be rewarded for their energy and enterprise. In applying for a Royal Charter the founders of the Company declared their objects to be these : — 1. To extend northwards the railway and telegraph systems in the direction of the Zambesi. 2. To encourage emigration and colonisa- tion. 3. To promote trade and commerce. 4. To develop and work minerals and other concessions under the manag-ement of one powerful organisation, therefore obvi- ating conflicts and complications between the various interests that had been acquired 1 SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 27 within those regions, and securing to the native chiefs and their subjects the rights reserved to them under the several con- cessions. These were the avowed objects of the Company, which has been in existence 1 1 years, and these objects have been sought and in a measure attained in that period. The area of the Company's territory is 750,000 square miles. The population is estimated to-day, I believe, at 13,000 whites and 200,000 blacks. The mineral resources of the district are gold chiefly — also coal and iron. Throughout South Africa generally the principal mineral resources hitherto dis- covered consist of diamonds, gold, silver and lead, copper and coal. Both silver and lead are found in the Transvaal, though up to the present it has not been found practic- able to work these mines at a profit. Coal occurs in various districts, chiefly Johannes- burg, North Natal, Eastern Province Cape Colony, and lastly Rhodesia. Copper has 28 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I been found in valuable mines in Namaqua- land ; several other copper mines are said to exist further inland. Asbestos and other valu- able mineral products have also been found. What more in the shape of mineral wealth may be forthcoming- it is impossible to say. One marked effect on the progress of the country brought about by the mineral de- velopment since 1870 deserves our closer attention. Look for a moment at this rail- way map. In 1859 — five years after the grant of representative institutions to the Cape Colony — the first sod of the railway from Cape Town to Wellington was turned. Half a million was borrowed from an Eno-lish Com- pany at 6 per cent, to construct this 58 miles of railway. In 1861, another 8 miles of rail- way was constructed by the Wynberg Railway Company. But railway development prac- tically made no advance till 1870, till after the dawn of the new era I am describing to you, till after the discovery of the mineral resources of the country. I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 29 Sir David Tennant, the Agent-General for Cape Colony, gave, in November, 1897, ^^ the Royal Colonial Institute, an extremely interesting paper on the " Railway Systems of South Africa." It is a subject worthy of a special lecture because it forms such an admirable record of the progress of the country. After the introduction of responsible gov- ernment in 1873, and as a result of the prosperity which diamonds were bringing the country, a great impetus was given to railway development. Lines were extended from the three great coast ports to Worcester and Beaufort West, to Grahamstown and Craddock, and to Graff Reinet, and from East London to Oueenstown, I can remember perfectly well personal experiences of the difficulties of travel in the early days before the railways. In 1 88 1 there was a fresh move forward along all these lines to the Orange River, to Aliwal North, Colesberg, and Hope Town. Eventually, in 1885, Kimberley was 30 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES i reached. Thus the tide of railway exten- sion, which began to flow on the discovery of diamonds, and which spread over hundreds of miles of barren veld, at length reached the diamond fields themselves. Here for a time was a pause — but not for long. Never for- get that Kimberley is the mother of modern South Africa. From Kimberley went the men, and the capital, the energy, and the enterprise that were chiefly instrumental in opening up the gold fields of the Transvaal ; in founding Rhodesia. It is into the mouths of pioneers of this class that Kipling puts the following words in his " Song of the English " : — " As the deer breaks — as the steer breaks — from the herd where they graze, In the faith of Uttle children we went on our ways. Then the wood failed— then the food failed — then the last water dried — In the faith of little children we lay down and died. On the sand drift — on the veldt side — in the fern scrub we lay, That our sons might follow after by the bones on the way. Follow after — follow after. We have watered the root, And the bud has come to blossom that ripens for fruit." I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 31 That is the story of pioneering of colonisa- tion. And the railway map, like a mariner's chart, marks the progress of civilisation in South Africa, With the new developments in the Transvaal and Rhodesia the railways once more went forward. In 1890 the line proceeded northward to Vryburg, and within the last few years, as you know, to Bula- wayo. To the Transvaal the line was extended first through the Free State, then to Johannesburg and Pretoria in 1892. I must say a word about Natal ; energetic stout-hearted little Natal. Her sons are always to the fore in peace or war. They got their railway up somehow — how I leave engineers to answer — I only know they carried it up the face of the Drakensberg by hook or by crook, and have secured in the past a good share of the gold- fields trade. Natal is a self-governing colony to-day. At different times emigrants have been settled there from England — and the 32 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I southern half of the country, Hke the eastern province of Cape Colony, is English largely in population, and entirely in sentiment. With the Natal line we come to. the end of the main lines of the country. Other branch lines too numerous to mention have been constructed, and still more are in con- templation. From Beira to Salisbury the Chartered Company have a railway, and negotiations are already afoot, if not con- cluded, to bring in a line from Mossamedes to Bulawayo, and thus carry London still nearer to Central Africa. Further than that, as you know, is the even greater scheme of carrying a line right through the continent to Cairo. The agricultural and pastoral resources of South Africa have been already re- ferred to in my last lecture. Wool, skins, mohair were the chief products until the minerals were discovered, then ostrich feathers followed. These are all of them still im- portant products, but not large in quantity. I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 33 The vine and fruit are successfully culti- vated in chosen spots, and both these industries will probably be extended in the future. Many places in the Transvaal, Free State, and in Rhodesia, round the upper waters of the rivers, are favourable to cultivation. The trees which have been planted and grown up in Johannesburg and Pretoria show what may be done in this way. In the future the agricultural resources of these countries will be more fully developed. In considering the development of the various resources of South Africa, one thing is, I think, inevitably borne in upon us. The unity of all European interests in the progress of the country. I use the term European in order to be perfectly fair, I include in that term British, Dutch, Americans, German, French, or any other inhabitants of European descent the country may contain. At the same time it is only just and historically accurate to point out D 34 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I that the dominant progressive element has been British and British Colonial. Many factors contribute to establish this unity of interest among the different communities and territories of South Africa. In the first place, the ports are few and the harbours are still fewer. Yet these same ports serve alike all the colonies and de- pendencies of South Africa. Then, again, the material resources of the different political divisions of the country are similar in character. Comparatively poor pastoral resources, rich and abundant mineral re- sources. In all alike the native question exists, with its attendant problems of native administration and native labour. The railway systems run on their course regardless of political boundaries. On all these grounds the identity of interests de- pendent on the material welfare and pros- perity of the country is fixed, almost, as it were, by natural law. If ever the natural conditions of a group of states render I SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 35 political federation desirable, assuredly those of South Africa do so. What estimate of the future does the history of the past enable us to form ? So eminent a writer as Mr. John Morley has said, " His- tory, it would seem, can speak with two voices, even to disciples equally honest, in- dustrious, and competent." With the former portion of Mr. Morley's statement I entirely agree. The latter I will not stop to discuss. I believe history does speak with two, indeed with many, voices. What, then, has history to say with reference to the future of South Africa.'* Her voice to-day is almost Babel- tongued. But what has she to say to us Englishmen ? I will tell you. To the faint heart, the uncertain mind, the irresolute will. History will seem to speak with a voice which is full of misp^ivinp; and fear. To the stout heart, the clear head, and the deter- mined of purpose, she speaks with a voice which is full of hope and promise. The more you search the records of human D 2 36 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES I progress, the more you acquaint yourselves with the principles which have led and guided your kinsmen of former years throughout this land, and in the uttermost parts of the earth, the more surely will you hear History speaking with a voice — aye, trumpet-tongued — that shall cheer and inspire you. The fate of humanity — the law of life — the course of evolution — is, in the main, forward and not backv/ard. There may be side eddies and backwashes, but the destiny of the Anglo- Saxon race has been, and still is, to supply a vigorous portion of the strong main current of Western Civilisation. Of course, if that complex growth, Civilisation, with all its advantages and its disadvantages, its virtues and its vices, its industries, its development of material re- sources, its educational and social institutions and influences, be in the main mistaken and wrong, then the world has gone astray under the guidance of Western Europe, and South Africa along with it. But if you have the SOUTH AFRICA— PAST AND FUTURE 37 confidence to believe, as I believe, that civilisation, progress, and freedom are good and desirable for mankind, you will look forward to the future of South Africa with an assurance and a hope that shall drown any touch of sadness the present struggle may have for you. ^^^JiSiiSS^t^^ UMRmB »>o. >3» > II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA. Before turning exclusively to the subject of the paper which I have the honour to read to you to-night, I will ask you to glance for a moment with me at the map of Africa, in order that we may remind ourselves that this continent, although pre-eminently the home of the negro and varieties of the negro race, has also been the home of other higher races, and of a civilisation in Egypt which was old when Europe was still inhabited by hordes of savages. Indeed, quite apart from the Egyptian, the Greek or the Roman civilisations, which may be held to have come only slightly into contact with the negro, we have in later centuries Arabs, Portuguese, II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 39 Dutch, English and French all founding States or Colonies in Africa and all un- doubtedly coming into some contact with the negro. Yet with civilisation thus upon his borders from time immemorial, the negro has remained uncivilised — apparently almost un- changed. Civilisation in Africa is like an embroidered fringe to some sable garment. It lines the coasts, but the heart of Africa is for the most part as savage to-day as if civilisation were an idle dream. Of the con- tact which the negro race had with the older civilisations of Egypt, Greece and Rome I have spoken guardedly — at the same time evidence even in the last few years has been brought to light which clearly indicates that the habitat of these negroid races was in prehistoric and early historic times much wider than it is to-day. In France and Malta prehistoric evidence of the negro at a very early date has been found ; during historic times in the Dynasties of Egypt there are traces of him ; and now in the very latest archaeological discoveries in Egypt among 40 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES il those wonderful tombs of the predynastic period — to which an antiquity of at least 5,000 years before Christ is assigned — un- mistakable figures of the negro have been discovered, described, and exhibited by Pro- fessor Flinders Petrie. We are thus led to believe that the negro race is not a young race upon the earth, that it has not been entirely cut off from contact with higher pro- gressive races, and that it is only in later historic times that it has been practically confined to Central and Southern Africa. The Negroid Races of Africa. in referring thus to the relationship be- tween the negroid races of Africa and civilisation I have no desire to disparage the native. I recognise that he is not without a certain dignity, and that he frequently dis- plays noble human traits in his character. But what I am desirous of making clear is that in considering the great negro family we must neither allow ourselves to be blinded II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 41 by sentiment nor rendered callous by indiffer- ence, but honestly endeavour to seek such facts as are to be ascertained with reference to this strange people, who have no history and but little knowledge of their own. We English, pre-eminently among- European races, have incurred great responsibilities towards the natives, and it is our duty, by the aid of our knowledge of the human race and its possibilities, to endeavour, without bias, to understand them, and honourably to do for them what seems wisest and best both in their interests and ours. With regard to the term Negro, I am using it in its wide ethnological sense, and although I recognise that it embraces many racial varieties I select the term as the only com- prehensive one which can be fairly applied to those races found chiefly south of the Sahara in Africa to-day, who have certain striking physical features in common, and who are invariably regarded and described as native races of Africa. The most important physical features common to these races, 42 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES 11 embraced provisionally under the wide term Negro, are : — 1. A thick skirt from black to yellowish- brown in colour. 2. Prominent facial bones — including both upper and lower jaws and cheek bones — thick protruding lips, and a short flat snub nose deeply depressed at base, broad at extremity with dilated nostrils, and concave ridge ; a long and not badly-shaped head, an exceed- ingly thick skull, and a somewhat small cranial capacity or brain accommodation. 3. A growth of wool, in place of hair, on the head and other parts of the body. With most of these peculiarities all of you, whether you have visited Africa or not, are probably acquainted. But in reference to the last it is necessary to say a few words. The covering of the head of a Kaffir or negro is usually described as a rough shock of woolly hair, and even such well-known authorities on anthropology as the late Professor Huxley continually speak of the woolly hair of the negro. Now, to be more accurate, this cover- II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 43 ing is wool — wool almost identical in micro- scopic structure with what you see on the sheep's back — and not hair. On this subject, Mr. P. A. Brown, who has made it his special study, shows conclusively that, unlike true hair and like true wool, the negro (so-called) hair is flat, is spirally twisted or crisped, and has no central duct, while the outer surface of each fibre is covered with numerous rough- pointed filaments adhering loosely to the shaft, by virtue of which peculiarities "the negro pile will felt like wool, whereas true hair cannot be felted." Nevertheless, in a tropical climate wool has advantages over hair, for it is a wonderful non-conductor of heat, and therefore a better protection against the sun. The negroid races enjoy a con- siderable though not complete immunity from the diseases so fatal to Europeans in the tropics, such as malaria and dysentery, but they are liable to virulent attacks of other infectious diseases common in temperate lati- tudes, such as consumption (tuberculosis), especially when dwelling in European towns. 44 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES il In South Africa the three varieties of native race known to Europeans from the earliest days of colonisation are the Hotten- tots, Bushmen, and the various Bantu or Kaffir tribes. They differ widely and mate- rially from one another, and also from the typical negro of the West Coast of Africa. Still they all have some negroid characters in common, and are undoubted varieties of the negro family. To take these native tribes in the order of their introduction to the Dutch and English settlers in South Africa we will begin with Hottentots. The Hottentots. — Most writers aver, and there is certainly considerable evidence to show, that the Hottentots and Bushmen, to whom, as we shall see, the Hottentots are closely allied, have been inhabitants of South-Western Africa from a very remote period. When first discovered, in the fifteenth century, by Portuguese navigators, II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 45 who bestowed on this people the name Hottentot, they occupied the Cape peninsula and surrounding country. In later years, when the Dutch settlement was founded by Surgeon, afterwards Commandant, Van Rie- beck at the Cape, the Hottentots were not only a source of considerable trouble to the early settlers, but were themselves being pressed upon to the north and east by the encroaching Kaffir or Bantu tribes. Careful records were kept by Van Riebeck, and a couple of quaint extracts from his Diary during 1659, the eighth year of occupation, will be sufficient to show what dangerous neighbours these Hottentots were, and what anxious troubled times the early settlers had. On May 20, 1659, Van Riebeck writes in his Journal as follows : — \ " We see that the Caepmans (an old Dutch word applied to the Hottentots) are not to be won by kindness, and that they threaten to kill all our cattle before they leave oflf, and to kill all who try to prevent them. " Eva (a Hottentot girl, who acted as interpreter) alone stays in the Commander's house, and, seeing and hearing all the preparations that are made — for, understanding Dutch well, they are not to be concealed from her — she seems 46 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ll much dejected. . . . We assured her ... we had now borne the insolence of the Caepmans too long, and had even on Sunday last requested them through her to make peace, which they not only would not accept, but had besides cruelly murdered a free burgher in the afternoon, and, in addition to what they had taken before, had carried off more than seventy sheep and forty cattle ; a matter which was most displeasing to the Almighty, when committed by such men as they were, who did not know Him, and that God therefore allowed us not only to offer all possible resistance, but to do them all the injury in our power, in order that, as they would not be influenced by kindness, they might be brought to a better understanding and behaviour by force, to which righteous cause God would lend His support and aid. '■'•June yd. — Wet weather as before, to the prevention of our operations ; our people, who are out against the plunder- ing Hottentots, can effect nothing, neither can they effect anything against us ; thus during the whole week they have been vainly trying to get at our cattle, and we have been trying vainly also to get at their persons : but we will hope that we may once fall in with them in fine weather, and that the Lord God will be with us." There we have the two most striking- features of South African history in a nut- shell : — the determination of the European to found his Colony among the natives, and the crude, narrow, but sturdy religious faith of the earliest of these European Colonists, the South African Boers. II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 47 But let US consider the Hottentot "in fine weather." The word Hottentot is a foreign term, and the people to whom it is applied call them- selves " Khoi Khoin," which means " Men of Men." The Hottentots, or " Men of Men," are yellowish-brown in colour. They are slightly under medium height, with small hands and feet, a face thinner than the Bantu face, but with high cheek-bones and projecting lips. The nose has the negroid character. Their hair — or strictly their wool — is arrano-ed in curious isolated tufts over o the scalp, and in this respect, as well as in their colour, they resemble the Bushmen. The Hottentots are, however, of greater stature than the Bushmen ; they speak a distinct, though not dissimilar language, and from their mode of life undoubtedly occupy a higher position in the scale of humanity than their wilder neighbours. There are several varieties of Hottentot, the most numerous being the Namaquas and the Korranas. One physical feature which they 48 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ll possess in an extraordinary degree, and which is also shared to some extent by the Bushmen, is a hollow back and great develop- ments of fat on the lower limbs. In some of the Koranna women this fatty develop- ment assumes enormous proportions. Now, with reference to this development in the Hottentots and Bushmen, as well as with regard to the peculiar tufted arrangement of the hair, which leaves bare spaces of scalp visible, I will offer you an explanation. It is theoretical, and you may estimate the value of it as you feel disposed ; nevertheless, the physical features of an individual or of a race have but little interest unless we en- deavour to arrive at some comprehension of their true significance. I will therefore submit to you my explanation of these phe- nomena, and perhaps it may serve as a subject for reflection until some one can give you a better one. South Africa is largely a barren country, especially the south-western portion of it, where the Hottentot and Bushman races are II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 49 chiefly found. It is subject, also, to periods of prolonged drought, and consequent famine among men and beasts. ^t these times animals are frequently reduced to dire straits for food, and we see in the large, fat tail of the Cape sheep, as we see in the humps of the dromedary and camel, a provision of nature to meet the peculiar demands of life in a desert country — in other words, an adaptation to environment. These accumu- lations of fat are reserve stores of food found of inestimable value to the fauna of a desert country where great fluctuations in the food supply are experienced. The peculiar developments of fat on the Hotten- tots are, I believe, for precisely the same purpose, and are directly the outcome of a similar adaptation to environment. In the same way I believe the tufted head of the Bushman and Hottentot is nothing less than a stalking cap provided by nature — another adaptation to the requirements of his environment, and developed in course of ages, like the reserve stores of fat, by a E 50 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II process of natural selection. The Bushman has neither flocks nor cultivated land — he travels about with the herds of o-ame and preys upon them. Armed with a bow and arrow, he has to be a clever stalker, and no one who has noticed the brown head, dotted over with woolly tufts, in its natural surround- ings will fail to notice there semblance between the two. The colour is almost identical with that of the veld, and the hair tufts are a close imitation, on a small scale, of the Karoo bush, which occurs in the shape of isolated tufts on the bare surface of the earth, and is itself a small tufted shrub. Peering out from among these bushes, or from behind an ant- heap, the brown dotted head is scarcely visible, where the black, thick pile of wool of a Bantu or Kaffir would be readily seen. But the Bantu have flocks and herds and culti- vate the ground, whereas the Bushman is a hunter pure and simple ; hence the greater value to him of this natural stalkingf cap. With regard to the origin of the Hotten- n THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 51 tot, there can be little doubt that he is closely allied to the Bushman. The physical fea- tures already referred to, common to both races, are so striking as to be incapable of explanation on any other hypothesis than that of at least a partially common origin. Hahn maintains them to be divisions of the same race. The philological researches of Dr. Bleek, showing a similarity in the Hottentot language with the Coptic, suggest a kinship with the old Egyptians, and it has been suggested that the Hottentots are the result of the intermingling of some Coptic or other North African race with the Bush- men. The Bushmen were, as we shall see, scattered over the borders of the Libyan deserts even in historic times, and have therefore been in contact with the old Egyp- tian race possibly from a remote period. The Hottentots, when first known to Europeans, possessed horned cattle and the fat-tailed Cape sheep, in which the tail weighs six to seven pounds. They lived in small communities in kraals or villages. The E 2 52 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ii kraal is a collection of huts, and the Hotten- tot hut was a poor hovel of wickerwork, covered with reed and grass mats. They sometimes cook their food, but not always, and they do not despise carrion. The lowest of the Hottentot tribes were those living on the sea shore and at the mouths of rivers, where they subsisted chiefly on shell fish, and probably founded those shell mounds which are found buried to-day beneath sand and bush, and which are, in many instances, of considerable age. The Hottentot lan- guage, which is totally different in construc- tion from other South African languages, has — as I have said, according to Dr. Bleek — its nearest relations in North Africa. It is still spoken by about 20,000 Namaquas and Korannas, but the bulk of the race to-day speak Dutch. Many within the Colony are the descendants of slaves, and the whole race has been so lonor associated with the Dutch farmers who first settled in the western districts of the Colony that the Hottentot language has practically died out II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 53 amongst them, while they have largely adopted European dress. Although the owners of herds, the Hotten- tots knew nothing of agriculture, and de- pended entirely for vegetable food on wild roots and fruits. They were in this respect intermediate between the Bushmen and Bantu tribes, although they have no blood relation- ship to the latter, and if they owe a slightly higher mode of life than that of the Bushmen to any racial element, it is, as already stated, probably due to some North African strain. Their dress was made of the skins of sheep and other animals. The skins were sewn into karosses or rugs, used at night and in cold weather, thrown aside during the day when warm. Their heads were adorned with bits of copper and shells, leopards' teeth, and any glittering ornaments they could obtain. They rubbed fat on their bodies. Their weapons were bows and arrows — the latter occasionally poisoned — club-headed sticks, or knobkerries, for throwing, and assegais (spears). They had some knowledge of 54 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ii smelting iron, but never used the copper which is abundant in Namaqualand for any- thing but ornaments. They still manufacture a certain beer, or intoxicating drink, from wild honey, though this is never very intoxi- cating, and only occasionally obtained ; and they smoke Dacha, a kind of wild hemp, identical with the " Bhang " of India, the " Hashish " of the Arabs, and the " Cannabis Indica" of the British Pharmacopoeia. In its effects it is like opium, but causes more mental excitement in the earlier stages of narcotism. They believe in ghosts and witchcraft, but have no definite idea about a God, although a form of ancestor- worship exists. They are a merry, light-hearted race, fond of dancing and feasting — when opportunity offers. While food lasts there is neither anxiety nor grief, nor thought for the morrow. They practice polygamy, and purchase their wives for a few cattle, which are, however, usually slain at the wedding. They are in- II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 55 capable of prolonged thought, and when first discovered by the Dutch could not count beyond ten. Each kraal or village had its hereditary chief with limited powers, but there was no great tribal chief, hence their speedy down- fall before the more highly organised Bantu tribes. Justice was administered by a court consisting of all the men of the kraal. Bushmen. The Bushmen are a race of pigmies, about four feet in height. They are yellowish- brown in colour, with tufted wool on the scalp, bright, sparkling eyes, high cheek- bones, and small feet and hands. They re- semble the Hottentots, as already pointed out, in many respects, but between the two races an inveterate hostility constantly ex- isted. Yet a clan of Hottentots would some- times have a party of Bushmen attached to it. Mr. G. M. Theal, the industrious South African historian, to whom South Africans now and for generations to come will ever be S6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ll indebted, writes of the relationship between them as being " of the nature of a treaty. The Bushmen gave notice of approaching enemies, and abstained from plundering their allies ; the Hottentots prevented them from starving when game was not to be had. With these exceptions, the Bushman's hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him." The Bushman, although chiefly to-day found in the deserts of the south-west, has a much wider distribution than the Hot- tentot. He existed throughout the Cape Colony when first colonised, living in the mountains and kloofs ; and he was met in large numbers by Stanley on his Central African march, where he describes the pig- mies as having a relationship to the higher native races similar to that which once ex- isted with the Hottentots. There is little doubt also that the Bushmen belong to the same race as the pigmies described by the Greek historian Herodotus "found beyond the Libyan deserts." II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 57 The Bushmen are classed with the Aus- tralian aboriofines as the lowest races in the human scale, and the cranial capacity, which is about equal in these two races, is lower than in any others. The Bushmen are a race of hunters, and they live essentially the same life as the Cave men of Europe once lived. They possess neither flocks nor herds, nor do they cultivate the ground. They are dependent for food on the game they kill, the carrion they find, and the wild roots and fruit of the bush and the desert. They are nomads, and follow the large herds of game in their migration just like any other carnivorous animal. Their habitations are of the crudest, being little more substantial than the nests of the gorilla and the chimpanzee. They live in caves covered with a few branches, in a circle of thorn trees covered with skins, or in holes in the ground sheltered by a few sticks and stones, and covered with a skin. " A little grass at the bottom of the hole formed a bed and, although it was not much larger than 58 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ll the nest of an ostrich, a whole family would manage to lie down in it." The Bushmen have a sense of direction and locality in the veld almost equal to that of animals, and powers of vision and observation which make them wonderful hunters and trackers. These little folk are capable of enduring long fasts, and make up for it whenever they get the chance by gorging themselves with meat. They take no thought for the morrow, and seldom preserve meat for future use when they have the opportunity. Their weapons are short wooden bows and arrows pointed with bone and dipped in poison. The poison is obtained from snakes, from a species of caterpillar, and also from plants. They make pits for entrapping game, and also conceal poisoned stakes in the game paths and near fountains. They have a curious language with a number of clicks in it ; it contains no word for any number higher than three, any- thing beyond that being described as a great many. The language is distinct from that of the Hottentots, though the two languages 11 THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 59 have clicks and other elements in common. The rearing of cattle by the Hottentot places him on a much higher level than the Bush- man, but, curious to relate, this little race — as if to establish its claim to humanity — has a rude knowledge of art. On the walls of caves and the rocky faces of a cliff, or on stones round some fountain, rough figures of animals and men are cut. In some instances these are coloured, and the colours remain unchanged on the rocks for many years. The Bushmen have one or two wives as a rule, and are entirely independent, recog- nising no chiefs. I have already compared the Bushmen to the Cave dwellers, men of the palaeolithic or early stone age in Europe. Stone imple- ments of almost precisely the same designs, including scrapers, arrow-heads and knives, have been discovered in the vicinity of old Bushmen dwellings, and although the round digging stone — a circular stone with a hole in the middle, which is used for weighting a pointed stick in digging up roots — is almost 6o SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II the only stone implement in use among them to-day, there is little doubt that they used stone arrow-heads at a comparatively recent date. Excellently shaped stone arrow-heads — of which I have specimens in my posses- sion — have been discovered round the margin of existing vleys, or swamps, and in other deposits of recent origin, which render their comparatively modern date almost cer- tain. In addition to these stone implements others of older pattern and remote antiquity are also found in the drift of South African rivers. I have oriven an account elsewhere of some of these palaeolithic implements in South Africa, and the deposits in which they were found. I believe their antiquity to be at least as great as that of the river drift imple- ments in Europe ; and looking to the fact that some stone implements are even yet in use among the Bushmen, I think it quite probable that this, the lowest of living human races, is descended from the South African palaeolithic men. Moreover, what I have already observed, with regard to the II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 6i adaptation to environment, as evidenced in the fatty developments of the Korannas and the tufted wool in both Hottentots and Bush- men, would, if this interpretation of the significance of these phenomena be accurate, argue that the Bushman is the true abori- ginal inhabitant of south-western Africa, and that he has been there from a very remote period of time ; for the natural selection which would lead to the development of these peculiarities could only operate to this ex- tent during a very long period. The rela- tion of the Bushmen to the stone aee in Africa is an extensive subject on which I must not attempt to say more here. It is, however, full of human interest for all of us, and I draw your attention to it in passing. Kaffirs or Bantu Tribes. The Bantu. — The last and most important race which we have to consider is the Bantu. This is a generic name given to all the Kaffir 62 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES 11 and Zulu tribes of South and Central Africa. The word Bantu is of native origin, and means people. The Bantu vary from black to brown in colour, and are much more like the typical West Coast negro in appearance than either the Bushman or the Hottentot. The hair is not tufted as in these races, but is a closely packed mass of thick black wool. Nevertheless, between the negro of the West Coast and the Kaffir or Bantu a con- siderable difference exists. The Bantu tribes I believe to be the result of an intermingling of a Libyan or Arab race with the typical neo^ro of the West Coast. The negroid element undoubtedly predominates, especi- ally in the common people, but the nose is more prominent, the cast of face higher than in the pure negro, and in the families of the chiefs the features are almost aquiline. The Bantu are certainly finer in appearance and more dignified in manner. In South Africa these tribes form three distinct groups, the tribes of the coast, the mountains, and the interior. As these II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 63 regions have different physical characters and climates, so do their Bantu inhabitants vary in character and even language. There is as much difference between a Zulu of the coast and a Bechuana of the interior as between an Englisman and an Italian. The coast tribes are too numerous to mention by name, but they include such well-known peoples as the Amakosa, Amatembu, Ama- pondo, and Amazulu. They live in the country south of Delagoa Bay, lying between the mountains and the sea, and extending through Natal and into the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony. Most of these tribes derive their titles from the name of their first great chief or founder ; thus the Ama- kosa are they of Kosa ; the Amatembu they of Tembu. The coast tribes are physically a fine, tall, stalwart race of warriors, and their history is one long succession of fierce tribal fights and the establishment of numerous petty tyrannies. As the frontiers of the Cape Colony were gradually pushed out beyond the territories of the Hottentots and 64 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ii Bushmen, who were retreating westward before the encroaching" Bantu, the colonists came into contact and into conflict with these fierce and haughty Kaffir clans. From that time to this we have had continuous wars with them, and none of us in our time are likely to forget either the Zulu or the Mata- bele campaigns. The Matabele, although situated to-day in the interior, are a true coast tribe, being an offshoot of the Zulu nation. The coast tribes are a strong ag- gressive people, and at the time of the Dutch settlement in South Africa were invaders making their way down the east coast. I served in the Gaika-Galecka campaign in 1878, and thus had personal opportunity of observing the indomitable courage which these men showed against superior force. On the inner slopes of the great mountain ranges running parallel with the coast are found the mountain tribes, and of these the most important are the Swazis and the Basutos. Basutoland is a magnificent moun- tainous country, the Switzerland of South II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 65 Africa. Its valleys are well watered, fertile, and thickly inhabited by one of the most intelligent and most prosperous of the Bantu tribes. Further inland are the interior plateaux of South Africa and the interior Bantu tribes — such as the Batlapin, the Baralong, and the Bakwena, all of which may be grouped under the term Bechuana. To the north again are innumerable branches of the great Bantu family — through Rhodesia, in British Central Africa, the East Africa Protectorate, up almost to Fashoda the Bantu tribes are found, all with physical features in common, and all from the Congo to the Indian Ocean speaking, with dialectic differences, prac- tically the same language. For example, take the following words : — Amakosa {Coast Delagoa English. Kaffir). Bechuana. Bay. Swaheli. Beef inyama nama inyahmo yamo Three Matatu mararu madato. The Bantu language, when uncorrupted by Hottentot clicks, is euphonious, and has a F 66 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES 11 certain alliterative concord consisting in the repetition of the same letter or letters at the beginning of many words in the same sen- tence. The following sentence will illustrate this : — " My sins are many ; they possess the heart until there is no forgiveness." " Izano zani zininze zihleli entliziweni zide, zingate nakuxolelwa." This alliteration is due to the system of inflection by prefixes instead of by the ter- minations of the word, and has a curious musical effect on Bantu speech. The last word has a click in it, and is a Hottentot corruption. The intermingling of the Bantu and the Hottentot has gone on to a considerable extent wherever the two races have come into contact. Thus among the Amakosa in the coast tribes is a strain of Hottentot blood, and among the Batlapin of Bechuana- land is a still larger mixture of the Koranna Hottentot. This inter-breedine with the II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 67 Hottentots has modified the language by introducing dicks and other corruptions into it, and also modified the colour of many Kafirs to a light brown. The dwellings of the Bantu are usually rounded, well-made huts of branches thatched with straw — they vary somewhat in different tribes, some having a sort of small verandah, others having an enclosure of reeds in front of the door, which forms an excellent roofless ante- room, where cooking and eating can be carried on in the open air, while, at the same time, some shelter from the wind and sun is obtained. The huts are collected in villages or kraals, and are variously situated, accord- ing to the peculiar circumstances of the tribe to which they belong. Thus among the Mashonas they are perched on hills and rocky fastnesses, which afforded some sort of security against the raids of their implacable foes, the Matabele. In other cases they are in open fertile valleys. Among the Bechuana and other interior tribes a better class of hut, with perpendicular walls containing one F 2 ■ A- 68 som:;^^MMfmms;njDiEs n central circular«aiiatal^~.a»a several outside apartments, is also found, and these were usually surrounded by a courtyard, inclosed with a sort of wooden stockade. These superior dwellings are evidence of what is no doubt the case, viz. that the interior tribes are more advanced in Bantu handicraft than the coast tribes. The latter are, however, a physically finer and a braver race. The weapons of the Bantu are assegais (spears), long for throwing, and short for stabbing at close quarters. They also carry a shield and kerries, or clubbed sticks. They have con- siderable knowledge of the arts of iron smelt- ing and moulding, pottery and wood-carving. The tribal organisation among the Bantu is considerable. Each tribe is presided over by a great chief, with petty chiefs ruling divisions of the tribe under him. The great chief usually comes of an ancient stock, and all the offshoots of his family are of aristo- cratic rank, more or less exempt from obedience to the laws which govern the commonalty. II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 69 The common people are theoretically the property of the rulers, and an offence against their persons is atoned for by a fine to the chief. The chief has a body of councillors around him, and with them he both makes the law and administers it. From the courts of the petty chiefs there is an appeal to the great chief. The only punishments are fines and death. The Kaffir dress is made of skins. For the chiefs the skin of the leopard was reserved ; the skin of all other animals might be used by the people. These skin mantles are now largely replaced among the Colonial Kaffirs by European blankets. Or- naments of shells, teeth, and beads strung on strips of skin are worn in the hair and on the body by both sexes. Horned cattle are the wealth of a Kaffir, and tending them is the only labour the warrior thinks worthy of a man. They are an agricultural as well as a pastoral people, but the women do the heavy hoeing work in the fields, and the men milk the cows. Manual labour is reserved en- tirely for the women, the Kaffir maintaining 70 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES H that fighting and robbery are the only fit occupations for a gentleman. The Bantu have a superstitious belief in departed spirits and other occult agencies — chiefly evil — whom they seek to propitiate by sacrifices. The spirits of great departed chiefs are believed to possess great powers, and are thus frequently sacrificed to. The detection of so-called witchcraft is practised by a host of witch doctors, both male and female, in a most diabolical manner, and is the cause of great cruelty and injustice. Any one accused and found guilty of withcraft has his property confiscated to the chief, and is put to death by torture, so that as soon as a man begins to acquire wealth, his life and property are in danger. Wives are purchased with cattle, and vary in number according to the buying powers of the purchaser. The warrior was, however, not always entirely dependent on purchase for obtaining his wives, for, during the con- tinuous inter-tribal fights which went on previous to European occupation, the women II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 71 of the vanquished were invariably carried off by the victors and became the wives of their masters. This was continually the fate of the Hottentot clans in the earlier days, and this practice was carried on by the Matabele systematically until the time of their downfall before the pioneer forces of Dr. Jameson, who by their victory put an end to one of the most iniquitous and bloodthirsty tyrannies that has ever existed even in Africa. Within the limits of a paper of this length, it is impossible to consider fully all that appertains to the origin, history, manners, habits, customs, and beliefs of these native races, but I hope that, without wearying you, I have said enough to bring a fairly accurate picture of these people and their life in a natural state before you, and in describing this life I have purposely as far as possible described it previous to its being affected by colonial administration. 72 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ii Native Policy. The question which now arises, and which is of the greatest interest and importance to us as British subjects, is : — Has the effect of British colonisation in South Africa upon the native races been for good or for evil ? In America, in Australia, and in New Zea- land the history of the native races is a sad one ; they have dwindled away and are dying out before civilisation. In South Africa no such pathetic spectacle presents itself. The native races under British rule have increased, and are increasing in numbers and also in peace and prosperity. Broadly to-day the effect of colonisation may be said to be — 1. The suppression of slavery. 2. The destruction of petty tribal tyrannies, the very principle of whose existence was the robbery, slavery, and destruction of their weaker neighbours. 3. The gradual conversion of the native to H THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 73 the belief that human labour is not without its dignity for men as well as women. 4. The establishment of tribunals uninflu- enced by the juggling knavery of the witch doctor, where justice alike for the rich and poor, for the chief and the follower, may be obtained. These effects constitute forces for the great, the increasing, the permanent welfare of the natives, and they are an honour to British colonisation and British rule. But, to be honest, let us ask ourselves if we have done these people no evil ? Remember, we have taken their country, we have conquered them, made ourselves their rulers : we owe them some recompense. And, to be frank, we must admit that our good is not without some admixture of evil. That the good transcends the evil, that it far more than justifies our conquest, I believe ; still it be- hoves us to reduce the evils of civilisation among the natives to the lowest possible point. 74 south african studies ii Native Liquor Traffic. The liquor traffic among the African natives I believe to be an evil and a great one. Unchecked by legislation, this traffic, whether in the hands of British or other mer- chants, assumes large proportions. For the credit of our race be it said that through the majority of our Protectorates and Colonies in Africa this traffic is either prohibited or under strict supervision. In the little Orange Free State the Boers have suppressed it. In fact, in South Africa the two chief offenders are the Cape Colony and the Transvaal. For the disappearance of the aborigines before civilisation in other parts of the world alcohol has in a large measure been respon- sible. The Bantu tribes in South Africa have increased and are increasing. It is true that the Bushmen are disappearing, but this would probably have been their fate at the hands of the Bantu if European colonisa- tion had never occurred, and their implacable II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 75 hostility to the early Boer settlers un- doubtedly led to terribly repressive measures on the part of the Boers. The Hottentots have probably suffered most from the effects of alcohol in the Cape Colony, for they were at one time the slaves, and are to-day the servants, chiefly of farmers in the western province of Cape Colony, which is the centre of the brandy industry, where "Cape smoke " is manufactured, and is very cheap and plen- tiful. They have not, however, appreciably diminished in numbers. The question of the native liquor traffic in Africa was introduced to the Brussels Conference in 1889-90. It has been referred to by several writers, and has received most able treatment and condemna- tion at the hands of Colonel Lugard, both in a paper read before this Institute,^ and in an article which appeared in the Nmeteenth Century. This traffic has its advocates, strangely enough, as well as its opponents. The Signatory Powers to the General Act of the Brussels Conference in 1889-90, in- ^ Proceedings, Royal Colonial Institute, vol. xxviii. p. i. 76 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ll eluding Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, and most of the other European Powers, dealt with this matter, and being, to quote the words of the Act, " equally animated by the firm intention of putting an end to the crimes and devastations engendered by the traffic in African slaves, protecting effectively the aboriginal popula- tions of Africa, and insuring for that vast continent the benefits of peace and civilisation," resolved that "within a zone extending from the 20th degree North latitude to the 22nd degree South latitude . . . where it shall be ascertained that, either on account of religious belief or from other motives, the use of distilled liquors does not exist or has not been developed, the Powers shall prohibit their importation. The manufacture of distilled liquors there shall be equally prohibited." Let us hope that after this compact the Powers will fulfil their duties. But, as I have said, there are advocates of, as well as objectors to, this traffic, and not a few of the former are to be found in the Cape Colony, which is responsible for its own. internal affairs and not governed by Imperial legislation. I will, therefore, place my own experience, which happens to be consider- able, on record. II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 77 During a sixteen years' residence in South Africa I have come into contact with natives employed in the towns, on farms, and in very large numbers on the diamond-fields and the gold-fields, and I have invariably found that where alcohol was accessible to the natives it wrought havoc among them. It is not diffi- cult to understand that it should do so. To devour meat to the utmost excess when op- portunity offers is the normal habit of the Bushman ; it is so in an only slightly less degree with the Hottentot and the Bantu. Meat is a luxury which, when opportunity offers, a native in his natural condition would consider it folly not to indulge in to the limit of his feeding-power. Alcohol appeals to the native in precisely the same way. He is unconscious of any moral obligation on the subject. Alcohol is apparently intended to be drunk, and he drinks it with the same' natural, robust appetite with which he would gorge himself on the flesh of an antelope or an ox. Thousands of these men, brought for the first time in their lives within reach of 78 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II spirit, which was supphed to them at one time on the diamond-fields, and is supphed them to-day on the Transvaal gold-fields, have come under my immediate notice as a medical officer. Where Kaffirs are earning wages, and are enabled to purchase liquor, from lo to 20 per cent, of them are con- stantly and continuously incapacitated by drink. The liquor sold to natives is inva- riably of the vilest quality, and many of the natives are killed outright by it, while many more acquire pneumonia and other fatal diseases as the result of exposure when drunk. Moreover, the half-drunken native is a dangerous criminal ; sober, the Kaffir workman is fairly honest, law-abiding, and peaceful ; drunk, he makes murderous as- saults on his fellow-natives, and even white men, with all the readiness of a savage instinct no longer restrained by fear of con- sequences. The fights which occasionally spring up on the mines among the natives when excited by drink often result in the death of several n THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 7g of their number. These seem to me facts more relevant to the question than the evi- dence of travellers who tro from one native kraal to another in the interior of Africa, where the means of obtaining liquor are re- stricted, and where, we are told by some of the pro-liquor advocates, there is no more drunken- ness amonor the natives than in the laro-e cities of England, The comparison is misleading. I am no apologist for the intoxication of white men ; it is, of course, an evil among them as amongst the natives, but the magnitude of it is infinitely greater among the natives. On the gold mines, and at the diamond mines in the old days, near Kimberley, the conditions requisite for comparison between the effect on the two races were perfect. There were white miners and natives both employed in the mines under similar circumstances, and both with equally free access to liquor. A white man who absented himself from drink soon lost his billet ; a mine manager who dismissed his drunken natives would soon have no natives at all. Not i per cent, of 8o SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES white men were incapacitated from drink, while from lo to 20 per cent, of natives con- tinually were so. And you may take it for practical purposes that the evil of alcohol where freely obtainable among natives is to the evil created by alcohol among white men as twenty to one. Alcohol is the one stain on native labour in Africa ; in other respects that labour is in itself an education and an improvement. Prohibition. For the prevention of this evil there is one remedy, and only one ; it is the total pro- hibition of liquor traffic among the natives. In Rhodesia this prohibition obtains and is enforced. In Bechuanaland the native chief Khama has steadily forbidden the importa- tion of liquor among his people, and in this attitude he has in the recent annexation of Bechuanaland to the Cape Colony been supported by Her Majesty's Government. Natal, Basutoland, and the Orange Free State enforce prohibition. 11 THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 8i In the Cape Colony are many prominent men keenly alive to the evil and anxious to abate it, and the name of Mr. Rose Innes will always be honourably associated with this endeavour. But in the Western Pro- vince of the Cape Colony are a number of brandy and wine farmers, and liquor is a large vested interest. Vested interests are delicate matters to deal with by representa- tive Governments where these same vested interests represent a number of votes. Cape politicians have found this one so. I am, however, glad to say that wherever in arranging the government of new territories it has been within his power, Mr. Rhodes has gone in firmly for prohibition. In ad- dition to Rhodesia, restrictions on the liquor traffic, though not, I am sorry to say, prohibition — have been imposed in the Transkeian territories, largely populated native districts recently added to the Cape Colony. The thousands of natives employed in the diamond mines are, by the system of keeping G 82 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II them in compounds when not in the mines, protected from the ravages of Hquor, which, were they at large, would be readily obtain- able by them under the laws of the Cape Colony. This work was principally the out- come of Mr. Rhodes's policy in regard to these diamond mines, and for the natives a most invaluable work it has been. As Mr. Rhodes is regarded by a number of well- meaning but ill-informed people in this country as an ambitious maker of Empire, to whom the natives are no more than the dust under his feet, I am glad to be able to ask your attention in connection with this subject to the really great work for the natives which Mr. Rhodes has done. In connection with the repression of the native liquor traffic in Africa, two English statesmen deserve to be honourably remem- bered. They are Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain. It is chiefly to Lord Salis- bury's efforts that the liquor clauses of the Brussels (Slave Trade) Act are due, and Mr. Chamberlain has not only publicly condemned II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 83 the traffic, but as Colonial Secretary he stipu- lated for its exclusion from Bechuanaland when that territory was incorporated as a part of the Cape Colony, In justice to the Transvaal it is only fair to say that an excellent Act prohibiting the sale of liquor to natives has recently been passed by the Volksraad. It is an ornament to their statute book ; but there for the present its claims to admiration end. The best friend of the Transvaal cannot deny that the liquor traffic among natives on the Witwatersrand mines is still an appalling evil. It is true this traffic is illegal, but it goes on. It is to be hoped that the Trans- vaal Government will eventually enforce re- spect for their law on this matter. When they have done so they may fairly claim to have surpassed the Cape Colony in suppress- ing the greatest evil to the native races in Africa. You will thus see that, in spite of shortcomings, the colonists of South Africa of late years have in the main recognised the evil of the native liquor traffic. But wherever G 2 84 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II in Africa, Central or South, it still exists, it is an evil crying trumpet-tongued to every race and every Government making the faintest claim to civilisation, within whose realms it may be found. Native Labour. The labour question, so intimately bound up, unfortunately, with that of liquor, is one on which I have already expressed an opinion. I believe the dignity of labour is the first les- son the native has to learn, and that it is the first step in his social advancement. The prosperity and wealth of Basutoland are largely owing to the fact that the men go in great numbers to the diamond mines and gold mines and return with their earnings to Basutoland. Here, where liquor is pro- hibited, in addition to cattle they have learnt to value cotton and woollen fabrics, as well as small articles of cutlery, earthenware, and furniture in their dwellings. The plough is gradually taking the place of the hoe, and 11 THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 85 agriculture is thus increased and improved. All this is good for the native and beneficial to British trade. In an Act entitled the Glen Grey Act, passed by the Cape Government in 1894, ^^ a time when Lord Loch was Governor of the Colony and Mr. Rhodes Prime Minister, the principle of the duty of labour devolving upon every able-bodied native living in the colony was affirmed, and a labour-tax em- phasising this was levied. The Act enjoins that " every male native residing in the dis- trict, exclusive of natives in possession of lands under ordinary quit-rent titles, or in freehold, who, in the judgment of the resident magistrate is fit for and capable of labour, shall pay in to the public revenue a tax of ten shillings per annum," unless he can show to the satisfaction of the magistrate that he has been in service beyond the borders of the district for at least three months out of the previous twelve, when he will be exempt from the tax for that year, or unless he can show that he has been employed for a total 86 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II period of three years, when he will be exempt altogether. Other territories than Glen Grey have been and may be brought under the opera- tion of this Act. The Act contains many other excellent regulations for the native, but for its labour clauses alone it ranks as the most statesmanlike Act dealing with the natives on the statute book, and the credit of it is chiefly Mr. Rhodes's. The franchise is granted to natives in the Cape Colony on the same terms as to white men, although the occupier's qualification was raised in 1892 to houses worth ;^75. In Natal, where the natives so largely out- number the white population, there are additional restrictions on the franchise. Basutoland is a sort of native sanctuary, where no European is allowed to own land, and is directly under the rule of the Crown. Native education is State aided in the Cape Colony, Natal, and Basutoland. In 1896, 58,900 coloured children, including half- n THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 87 castes, were under instruction at the abori- gines' mission, and other schools in the Cape Colony ; 7,809 in Natal ; and 7,543 in Basuto- land. The native population, the greater majority of which is of Bantu origin, is larger con- siderably throughout South Africa than the white, and is increasing. In Natal there are 512,918 natives — chiefly Zulus, and 37,598 Coolies — to 48,105 Europeans. In the Cape Colony there were 1,500,000 inhabitants in 1 89 1, of which over 1,000,000 were natives and half-castes ; the majority of these natives reside in the new territories recently incorpo- rated with the Colony. In Basutoland there are 578 Europeans and 218,000 natives. A few figures will show the steady increase in native population. Taking the Cape as constituted in 1875, previous to the incorpo- ration of new native territories, the native population has risen in round numbers from 287,000 in 1875 to 340,000 in 1891 ; in Basutoland, from 127,000 in 1875 ^o 218,000 in 1 89 1. And so on this increase has 88 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II occurred in Natal, the Orange Free State, and in fact throughout South Africa. ***** To briefly recapitulate the chief points of the position. We are faced in South Africa with a virile native race increasing in num- bers, prone to fight with and prey upon their neighbours, averse to labour, tenacious of their superstitious beliefs, and addicted to ex- cess of strong drink whenever it is accessible, but still amenable to a measure of reason and a gradual enlightenment, working for short periods of their life on hire, and returning from the scenes of their labour to their native kraals with new ideas and new wants. And to these South African natives are allied in nature and mode of life all the native tribes reaching from the Congo to the Indian Ocean. The future destiny of this huge native population is largely in our hands ; as development proceeds, and colonisation pene- trates the interior, the native question will assume even larger proportions. The British colonist, with the tradition II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 89 which he has inherited from the Mother Country and the race to which he belongs, protects the weak as well as the strong. He can tolerate no tyranny within his borders among white men or black. The strong na- tive tribe has from time immemorial preyed upon the weak. The men of the weaker tribes have been slain or enslaved, the women have become the spoils of the victor. Thus the Fingoes and the Mashonas — both Bantu tribes — were mere slaves of the Amakosa and Matabele when colonisation first reached them. This tyranny has been broken in the past and must be suppressed in the future, wherever it is found. The native is learning, and must continue to be taught, that the labourer is worthy of his hire, and that toil in one shape or another is the honour and duty of free manhood, and not a disgrace reserved for women or slaves. Industry, if liquor be withheld as it is in most territories, and should be in all, recon- ciles the native to peace and increases his prosperity. He acquires a knowledge of, 90 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES it and desire for, some of the products of manufacture, trade is developed, and civilisa- tion obtains a footing. Justice for the strong and the weak, and industry for all these seem to me the foundation-stones of native policy. All this involves change ; it has brought wars in the past, it will bring wars in the future. But the blood spilt in them has been, and will be, small indeed compared to that spilt previous to colonial rule in the old marauding, exterminating days under the native chiefs Tshaka, Moselikatse, and Lobengula. Facili- ties for education, more especially in the mechanical arts of life, are and may be ad- vantageously given to the natives ; but in the matter of education, the native has limitations. Mental development, which is often bright and satisfactory in childhood and youth, seems as a rule to end, or at least become seriously checked, in adult life. The belief that, with the same educational advantages, the native will be found mentally equal to the European is not in accordance with experience, either in America or in n THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 91 South Africa, though it is only fair to say that exceptions do exist. The past history of the negro races does not suggest rapid progress. The negro of the predynastic tombs in Egypt is as distinct physically from the neolithic man of that period on the shores of the Mediterranean as he is from the European to-day. Differ- ences which have existed so many thousand years — physical, intellectual, moral differences — are likely to continue into future ages. Between the white races of Europe and the black races of Africa a great distinction does exist — I believe will continue to exist. The black man is not simply a morally and intellectually undeveloped white man, but something different in the economy of human nature. Although both races have qualities in common, each also has qualities which the other does not possess. But on this subject a special paper might be written, and I have already detained you at sufficient length. I will say one last word on the future. Let us see to it that our influence on the natives 92 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES II is for good and not for evil ; I think I have shown that so far we have, at least, raised those under our orovernment from actual savagery to a condition of comparative peace and prosperity ; and I hope and believe that in the future we shall, by a policy of firmness tempered with justice, moderation, and sym- pathy, still further influence their destinies for their permanent progress, happiness and welfare. In the short time that has elapsed since this paper was read at the Royal Colonial Institute in December, 1898, two prominent figures who took part in the discussion that followed have passed away. Both in their respective spheres were good friends to the natives. The one was Lord Loch, during the period of whose High Commissionership in South Africa several excellent measures for the future welfare of the natives were put in force. The other was Miss Mary Kings- ley. I question whether any one since Living- stone has so completely won the confidence of the African natives with whom he may II THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA 93 have come in contact, as this fearless, quiet EngHsh woman. Her quick sympathy, subtle seQse of humour, and simplicity of heart carried her scathless in their midst. She used to say that in all her wanderings amongst the natives in West Central Africa she had never experienced either insolence or harsh treatment from them. Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN THE TRANSVAAL A Historical Review Young and growing countries have but little time for the production of literature, and South Africa is no exception to this rule. Nevertheless, South Africa has pro- duced a historian of talent, patriotism, and industry in McColl Theal. In five goodly volumes Mr. Theal has recorded for the benefit of his own and succeeding genera- tions the history of South Africa from its earliest times in the fifteenth century down to the year 1872. It is a history full of incident and interest, clearly and truthfully written, and I can cordially recommend it to South African readers. For the purpose of Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 95 this Review, however, I propose confining myself to that portion of the work which deals with the history of the emigrant farmers, who, leaving the Cape Colony in 1836 and 1837, gradually dispersed them- selves over the country to the north of the Orange River and in Natal. Previous to this date, in the early thirties, several English missionaries, traders, and hunters had visited these territories, and were familiar with the country as far north as the Limpopo. Among them were the Rev. Dr. Moffat, David Hume from Grahamstown, Captain Sutton, and Captain Cornwallis Harris, whose wonder- fully illustrated work on the fauna of South Africa is so well known to naturalists and hunters. We find, however, that in 1837, Commandant Potgieter, at the head of a Boer commando, after a successful encounter with Moselikatse, issued a proclamation form- ally annexing a large tract of country, includ- ing the present South African Republic. After the first settlement in the Trans- vaal fresh families continued to come in, and 96 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES iii the districts of Lydenburg, Potchefstroom, and Rustenburg were formed, each with a separate commandant. The district and township of Pretoria were founded in 1855. These earlier years of this northern RepubHc were stormy times for the emigrant farmers ; their hearts were great, their aspirations high, and in endeavouring to spread themselves over huge tracts of country they met with terrible losses from fever and from the numerous Kaffir tribes with which they came into conflict. The tragedy of Dingaan's Day, when Piet Retief and sixty-five followers were treacherously massacred to a man while on an expedition into Natal, will never be forgotten while South Africa has a history. Nor will the fate of that grallant little band of Engrlish- men, seventeen in number, who with some fifteen hundred native allies marched on the Zulu army from Durban to avenge the fate of their Dutch friends. Four of the English- men survived, the rest lay dead on the field of battle. The Zulu force was 7,000 strong. Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 97 but Theal says : " No lion at bay ever created such havoc among hounds that worried him as this little band caused among the warriors of Dingaan before it perished." The boundaries of the Transvaal Republic were at length practically determined by the establishment of the British in Natal and in the Orange Sovereignty after the battle of Boomplaats, in which Sir Harry Smith defeated the Boer force. The subsequent withdrawal from the Orange Sovereignty of the British Government against the wishes of a large number of inhabitants brought into existence the Orange Free State. In 1844 a code of thirty-three articles was drawn up and adopted by the Volksraad at Potchefstroom, and this was practically the Constitution in existence in the Transvaal Republic till the year 1857. At this date an event memorable in the history of the Republic occurred, an event highly interest- ing from a constitutional point of view, and of special interest to those — not yet citizens of the State — resident in Johannesburg. In H 98 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ill 1857 the Republic north of the Vaal attained its twentieth year. It had increased in population, and had taken on to some extent the habits and modes of life of a settled community. Mr. Pretorius and his followers began to feel that in the altered circumstances of the State the time had arrived for a remodelling of the Constitu- tion. Among these followers of Pretorius, these advocates for reform, it is interesting to find, was Mr. Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, now President of the Transvaal. Mr. Theal says : " During the months of September and October, 1856, Command- ant-General W. M. Pretorius made a tour through the districts of Rustenburg, Pretoria, and Potchefstroom, and called public meet- ings at all the centres of population. At these meetings there was an expression of opinion by a large majority in favour of an immediate adoption of a Constitution which should provide for an efficient Government and an independent Church." And again, later on, we have, in the words of South Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 99 Africa's historian, the gist of the complaint against the then existing state of things. " The community of Lydenburg was accused of attempting to domineer over the whole country, ivithout any other right to pre- eminence than that of being composed of the earliest inhabitants, a right which it had forfeited by its oppositio7i to the general weal'' Such was the shocking" state of things in this country in 1856, It was a great deal too bad for such champion reformers as Mr. Pretorius and his lieutenant, Mr. S. J. P. Kruger, as we shall see later on. Shortly after these meetings were held, a Repre- sentative Assembly, consisting of twenty- four members, one for each field-cornetcy, was elected, for the special purpose of fram- ing a Constitution and installing the officials whom it should decide to appoint. It had no other powers. The representatives met at Potchefstroom on the i6th December, 1856, and drafted a Constitution. I will not go into the details of this Constitution, but H 2 loo SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ill will merely remark with regard to it that all the people of the State of European origin — and not a mere section of them — were to elect the Volksraad, in which was vested the legislative power. On January 5th, 1857, the Representative Assembly appointed Mr. Marthinus Wessels Pretorius President, and also appointed members of an Executive Council. In order to conciliate the people of Zoutpansberg, the Commandant of their district, Mr. Stephanus Schoeman, was appointed Commandant- General. They chose a flag — red, white, blue, and green. The oaths of office were then taken, the President and executive installed, and the flag hoisted. When intelligence of these proceedings reached Zoutpansberg and Lydenburg there was a violent outburst of indignation. At a public meeting at Zoutpansberg, the acts and resolutions of the Representative Assembly at Potchefstroom were almost unanimously repudiated. Mr. Schoeman declined to accept office under Mr. Pretorius, and a Manifesto Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL loi disowning the new Constitution and every- thing connected with it was drawn up. The Government then issued a proclamation deposing Commandant-General Schoeman from all authority, declaring Zoutpansberg in a state of blockade, and prohibiting traders from supplying " the rebels " with ammuni- tion or anything else. This conduct on the part of the new Government under Mr. Pretorius appears to me distinctly adroit. Having taken upon themselves to remodel the entire Constitution of the country, they turn round on the adherents of the older Government, whom, by the bye, they had not thought it worth while to consult, and promptly call them "rebels." And so you have this striking- political phenomenon of a revolutionary party turning on the adherents of the Government of the State and denouncing them, forsooth, as "rebels." What matter for the student of Democracy does not this incident afford ! Here you have the democratic spirit carried to its 102 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES 111 extreme point, to its logical conclusion. What did these hardy Republicans think ? What did they say among themselves ? They said, " We, the people of the country, are the sovereign power of the country ; what the majority of us determine on is what we have a right to demand, is what we will have." By the people and for the people was the instinct which dominated them and guided all their movements. The old Government no longer represented the majority of the people, it must give way to the one that did. There was but one appeal ; it was to the sovereign power — the people themselves. They declared for a new order of things, a new Government, and all who resisted it became in their eyes rebels, even though, as we have seen, they were loyal to the original Government of the country. Loyalty ! there was but one loyalty they knew — loyalty to the common weal, loyalty to the people of the country. " The Volksraad under the old system of Govern- ment was to have met at Lyclenburg on Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL T03 December 17th, 1856. At the appointed time, however, no members for the other districts appeared. What was transpiring at Pochefstroom was well known, and a resolu- tion was therefore adopted declaring the district a Sovereign and Independent State under the name of the ' Republic of Lyden- burg.' " And thus two Republics, two Volksraads, two Governments, were formed and existed simultaneously in the Transvaal. And all this without a shot being fired, each party finding sufficient relief to their feelings by calling the other party " rebels." In order to strengthen their position the party of Pretorius now determined on a bold stroke. They sent emissaries to endea- vour to arrange for union with the Free State. The Free State Government re- jected their overtures ; but Pretorius was led to believe that so many of the Free State burghers were anxious for this union that all that was necessary for him to do in order to effect it was to march in with an armed force. He therefore placed himself at the head of a I04 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ill commando and crossed the Vaal, where he was joined by a certain number of Free State burghers. " When intelligence of this nvasion reached Bloemfontein, President Boshof issued a proclamation declaring mar- tial law in force throughout the Free State, and callinof out the burg-hers for the defence of the country. It soon appeared that the majority of the people were ready to support the President, and from all quarters men re- paired to Kroonstad." At this stage the Free State President received an offer of assistance from General Schoeman, of Zoutpansberg, against Pre- torius, in which object he believed Lyden- burg would also join. What the precise political status of Zoutpansberg may have been at this crisis I regret to say I have been unable to discover ; but the fact of the matter is, in the old days of the Transvaal they thought nothing of an extra Govern- ment or two in the country. As long as each individual white man was represented some- where and somehow he was approximately Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 105 happy. The one thing he did absolutely decline was being left out altogether, which appears to be the position, by the bye, to take a modern example of the little community of some hundred thousand Europeans living on the Rand to-day. The old burgher felt his individuality and respected it ; and while powder, shot, and shouting were available to him, he asserted it. " On May 25th the two commandos were drawn up facing each other on opposite banks of the Rhenoster River, and remained in that position for three hours." Threatened from the north as well as from the south, Pretorius felt his chance of suc- cess was small, and he therefore sent out Commandant Paul Krus^er with a flag- of truce to propose that a pacific settlement should be made. I can quite believe that in this graceful act Mr. Paul Kruger appeared to great advantage. The treaty arrived at was practically an apology on the part of the South African Republic. Many citizens of the Free State who had joined the northern lo6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES HI forces moved over the Vaal after this event. Those who remained, and those who had been previously arrested, were brought to trial for high treason. One man was sen- tenced to death, but the sentence was miti- gated subsequently to a fine, others were fined. These fines were again still further mitigated at the solicitation of Messrs. Paul Kruger and Steyn, until it came to little more than ten pounds each. In fact, I find there was a good deal of mitigation all round at the conclusion of the various political junketings which characterised the early history of these Republics. Shortly after this event Zoutpansberg was incorporated with the Republic, and General Schoeman was appointed Commandant-General of the country. The republic of Lydenburg fol- lowed suit in i860, after considerable nego- tiations on both sides. Pretoria was then chosen as the seat of Government. One might naturally suppose that after such a series of political disturbances as has already been recorded, the new Government Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 107 would have a peaceful and assured future. It was united, and founded on the will of the majority of the people. But the spirit of unrest was upon them. One of the principal causes of disturbance among the Boers was undoubtedly differences of opinion on ec- clesiastical matters. At this time, 1858, there came to the country a clergyman named Portma, sent out by the Separatist Church from Holland. The minister settled at Rus- tenburg, and there founded the first branch of what has since become a famous sect among the Dutch, both in the Free State and Cape Colony as well as the South African Republic, and which is known in South Africa as the Dopper sect. Their principal point of difference from the Re- formed Church was an objection to singing of hymns as part of the Church service. To this sect Mr. Kruger and his immediate fol- lowers belong. In i860, President Pretorius, then Presi- dent of the Transvaal, was elected President of the Free State, whither, after obtaining io8 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES III six months' leave of absence, he repaired, in the hope of bringing about union between the two Repubhcs. No sooner had he de- parted than the whole Lydenburg party showed signs of disaffection, protesting that union would confer much greater advantage on the Free State than on them. Mr. Cor- nelius Potgieter, Landdrost of Lydenburg, then appeared in the Volksraad as the leader of the disaffected party. They contended that it was illegal for any one to be Presi- dent of the South African Republic and the Oranore Free State at the same time, and the upshot was that Pretorius resigned. Mr. J. H. Grobbelaar, Acting President, was requested by the Volksraad to remain in office. The partisans of Mr. Pretorius here- upon resolved to resist. A mass meeting was held at Potchefstroom, and they resolved unanimously that (a) The Volksraad no longer enjoyed its confidence, and must be held as having ceased to exist, (d) That Mr. Pretorius should remain President of the South African Republic, and have a Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 109 year's leave of absence to bring about union with the Free State. (c) That Mr. S. Schoeman should act as President during the absence of Mr. Pretorius, and Mr. Grob- belaar be dismissed, (d) That before the return of Mr. Pretorius to resume his duties a new Volksraad should be elected. The complications that ensued on all this were interminable, too complicated for us to follow in detail, but suffice it to say some of the new party were arraigned for treason and fined ^100 each — one man ^15 — that after this for several months there were once more two Acting Presidents and two rival Governments in the South African Republic. Then Commandant Paul Kruger called out the burghers of his district and determined to establish a better order of things. Having; driven Schoeman and his ad- herents from Pretoria, Commandant Kruger then invested Potchefstroom, which after a skirmish in which three men were killed and seven wounded in all, fell into his hands. no SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES III He then pursued Schoeman, who fairly- doubled on his opponent, and re-entered Potchefstroom. Commandant Kruger hastily returned, and at this stage President Pre- torius interposed. After this followed elections and re-elections until Commandant Jan Viljoen raised the now familiar standard of revolt. He was engaged by Kruger's force, and after a skirmish, in which Viljoen's forces were defeated, Mr. Pretorius again in- tervened. A conference lasting six days now finally settled matters Mr. Pretorius took the oaths of office. The Volksraad met in May, 1864. "With this ceremony, the civil strife which had so long agitated the Republic ceased. When, a little later on, it was decided that all sentences of banishment, confiscation of property and fines which had been passed for political offences should be annulled, and that what- ever had been seized should be restored to its original owner, there was a general feel- ing of satisfaction." These prolonged civic hostilities were over, but they left their mark Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL in behind them. The Treasury was empty, salaries in arrear, and native taxes un- collected. Moreover, the natural enemy of the South African pioneer, whether Dutch or English, the various Kaffir tribes both within and without the Transvaal border, were menacing the Boers. On the Zulu border for a considerable distance from the frontier the farmers went into laaeer. Cetewayo was busy reviewing his troops, and in the Wakkerstroon district a com- mando was assembled ready to repel an invasion. In the early sixties both the Free State and the South African Republic found themselves involved in native wars. The Basuto chief Moshesh was the foe whom the Free State had to contend with. Zoutpans- berg was the scene of the Transvaal disturbances. In both instances the Kaffir belonged to the mountain tribes of the Bantu family. I have referred to the early history of this Republic in some detail because I think it is new to most of us, and because it is full 112 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES lii of incident and interest for all of us. What follows is better known to the world. In 1877 the Transvaal was annexed by the British Government, and was administered first by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and secondly by Sir Owen Lanyon. Some of the principal reasons alleged for this an- nexation were : — " The increasing weakness of the State as regards its relations with neighbouring native tribes, which invited attack on the country and upon the adjoin- ing British possessions." "The state of anarchy and faction that prevailed in the country." " The danger of invasion by Sekukuni and Cetewayo." The paucity of public funds with which to cope with this state of things." Of this period of the his- tory of the country a good deal has been written in a book called The History of the Transvaal hy John Nixon. The annexation at the outset appears to have been received with mixed feelings. Some strongly ap- proved, some sullenly acquiesced, while the Volksraad sent a deputation to protest in Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 113 England. Grumbling soon began among the Boers, and meetings were held. In 1879 Sir Theophilus Shepstone, a South African by birth, and one thoroughly in touch with the Boers, was superseded by Sir Owen Lanyon. Sir Theophilus was always ready to drink a cup of coffee and talk matters over with any disaffected Boer visitor. Sir Owen Lanyon was a stiff-necked British soldier, full of fads and prejudices, and soon felt that he was completely out of touch with the Boer population. Had some constitutional assembly been formed during Shepstone's regime, wherein the Boers had full representation and control of their own internal affairs, and Sir Theophilus been retained in office, there are writers who think it probable that peace would have been maintained. But be that as it may, events took a different course. In the meantime, it is worthy of notice that the two great native enemies of the Trans- vaal, Sekukuni within their borders, and Cetewayo in Zululand, were both attacked I 114 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ill and defeated, the former by a force under Sir Garnet Wolseley, the latter after con- siderable losses by Lord Chelmsford and Sir Evelyn Wood. In the Zululand campaign Piet Uys and a small body of Boers from the Republic did good service, Piet Uys, a brave leader, losing his life, but the large body of Boers held aloof. In 1880 affairs in the Transvaal again reached a crisis. According to Nixon, " the levying of taxes on the Boers by an admin- istration in which they were totally unrepre- sented " was the principal cause. Add to this the attitude of Mr. Gladstone, who, while in opposition, had condemned in un- measured terms the annexation of the Trans- vaal, and who had just now come into power, and the case for the Transvaal is an intelligible one. What followed early in 1 88 1 is too well known to need repetition. The British forces under Sir George Colley were hurried up to the Natal frontier, and, without waitinor for reinforcements, enorag-ed the Boers and were defeated. After this Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 115 the policy of retrocession was decided on by the Gladstone Cabinet, and the independence of the Republic recognised, Great Britain, in both the Pretoria and London Conven- tions, retaining the right to supervise treaties with foreio^n Powers, We have now to deal with another and important phase of this State's progress and material development. For some years pre- vious to the date at which we have now arrived in our historical review, gold had been discovered in the Lydenburg district, and this was followed by still further dis- coveries in 1883, which led to the formation of Moodie's Company and the foundation of Barberton. As the mineral resources of the country became known, new comers poured in and with their capital and enterprise opened up the mines of that district. Pro- specting went on all over the country, and in 1886 eold was discovered in the Witwaters- rand district. What that discovery meant for the South African Republic we now know. From being a thinly-populated graz- I 2 ii6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES m ing country, with very little in the way of funds in its State coffers, it has- become the wealthiest and most prominent State in South Africa. Its population has been in- creased four- or five-fold, and every farmer has been enriched by getting a market in the country for his produce. Farms have risen in value throughout the land ; and there is not a burgher to-day who in his heart does not thank heaven for the prosperity which the capital, the energy, and the enterprise of the mining community in the country have brought him. And yet, what is the political status of the mining men in the country ? — the men who provide four-fifths of the revenue, and who have poured wealth alike into the coffers of the Government and the pockets of the farmers. Their position is that they are allowed to have neither part nor lot in the government of the country. In thus enrich- ing the country it is true this community has materially enriched itself ; but wealth is not everything and it is as demoralising for the Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 117 Boers as it is for the mining population that all political rights should be withheld from the latter. Men amongst us are reproached for merely getting all the money they can together and then leaving the country. In the first place this is true of only a small minority, and who can blame them for leaving ? Entirely shut out from public life, what has the country to offer them to induce them to remain.'* In any large com- munity there are always a few men in whom the instincts of public service are so strong as to inevitably lead them to become public servants of that community, — men who feel themselves capable and anxious to serve the public, and who for the most part, let the motive be what it will, serve them faithfully and well. Year by year such men as these are driven from this country by the existing state of things. There is a question which arises in one's mind after this brief review of the history of the country which I think one may fairly address to the Government and burghers of Ii8 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES III this State : Are they to-day meting out to us the political justice which they have ever insisted upon from the State for themselves ? What induced them or their fathers to frame anew Constitution at Potchefstroom in 1857 ? The feeling that the majority of the white inhabitants were not properly represented in the Government of the country ; the feeling that the community of Lydenburg were attempting to domineer over the whole country without other right to pre-eminence than that of being the oldest inhabitants, a right which it had forfeited by its opposition to the general weal. What was one of the principal causes which led them to throw off the British yoke in 1881 ? The objection to being taxed by an Administration in which they were unrepresented. Are we not labouring under all these disabilities to-day ? The one retort to this is that we are Uitlanders. That is to say, that in a country not yet sixty years old, in which the population has been formed almost entirely by immigration, in which the Pre- Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 119 sident himself is an immigrant, the mining community, who have been coming in for at least fifteen years past, and have done more in developing the material resources of the country in that time than was ever conceived in the wildest dreams of the earlier inhabi- tants, are foreigners. What proportion of the burghers of this State were actually born in the country ? — this State, which owes its prosperity and its progress alike to the continuous stream of immigration. The President at least was not born here. The fact is that what was originally a Republic, and what we hope to see once more a Republic in deed as well as in name, has, by continually tinkering with the franchise law, become an oligarchy. I have had some little difficulty in obtain ing the information with regard to the various alterations in the franchise law, but I am indebted to Mr. Charles Leonard for the following. I gather that originally every white man had a vote. Subsequently every white man not born in South Africa had to I20 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES HI pay ^15 to get the vote. Later, in 1874, strangers who had no land in the country had to live here one year to get the vote. The acquisition of land qualified them at once. Next, in 1882, burghership could only be obtained after living in the country and being registered on the field-cornets' books for five years and paying ^25. In 1887, the law fixed fifteen years and the payment of ^25. In 1890 the Second Volksraad was estab- lished. The inestimable boon of a vote for this body, whose decisions are liable to re- vision by the First Raad, is obtainable after being resident two years, taking the oath and paying ^5. At the same time the law was altered to permit admission to the right to vote for the First Raad after ten years, and to become a member after fourteen years. In 1893, without reference to the people, the law was altered so that we are virtually ex- cluded for ever. The law was confirmed in 1894, and there was added a clause by which children born here cannot get the vote unless their fathers have taken the oath, an oath Ill BOER GOVERNMENT IN TRANSVAAL 121 which, remember, deprives a man of the citizenship of the country he came from, and offers him something less than half citizenship of this in return. The tendency of this legislation is perfectly clear ; it is from making the franchise difficult to making it impossible for the inhabitants of the Rand. We are growing old as the years go by, and if the Raad wishes to be logical and consistent it will assuredly next Session pass a Bill excluding the grandchildren of Uitlanders. We have sketched the growth of this State from its earliest days to the present time. Note. — The above paper was published in Johannesburg in the Star in December, 1895, ^i^d contains at the conclusion a statement of the position as it then appeared. IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID. " Let no one," says Machiavelli, " who begins an Innovation in a State, expect that he shall stop it at his pleasure or regulate it according to his intention." And Machiavelli, who lived in the early days of the small Republics of mediaeval Italy, and who had witnessed their intrigues, their corruption, and their decay, knew whereof he was writing. There seems to be a Nemesis, some mad but watchful Fury, who waits on political reform, who sees with jealousy its every movement, and tarries not in her pursuit. To Englishmen of this generation, reared in the free air of Anglo-Saxon liberty, she exists but as a shadow — to Machiavelli, the IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 123 child of political corruption, tyranny, and intrigue, she seemed as some dark spirit of destiny brooding for ever over the freedom of mankind. Have students of evolution, the philosophy of history, all the science of the ages, discovered any inexorable law of nature, or must we regard it as the irony of fate, whereby all small Republics (with only one exception), beginning with those of Greece and including those of mediaeval Italy and of South America, inevitably end either in per- petual faction strife, in oligarchy, or in tyranny ? That which was founded on the instincts of justice and freedom seems to en- gender licence, and the greed and ambition of the few govern the destinies of the many. In South Africa the Transvaal during the few decades of its existence has been no exception to the rule. Despising Anglo-Saxon civilisation, yet with no civilisation of their own to fall back upon, the Boers have hovered between savagery and the civilisation they have in vain endeavoured to forsake. 124 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV Having a language, ^patois with "neither a syntax nor a literature," the sons of the wealthy are sent to English schools and universities, and English books almost en- tirely fill the shelves of every library in the country, thus showing that in their hearts they appreciate the civilisation they affect to despise. In 1887 the influx of new comers began to settle on the Rand. And as this influx increased and advanced with ever-gaining strides, the Boers realised that the world and civilisation were once more upon them. In spite of all the opposition that patriarchal prejudice could muster, railways usurped the place of the slow moving ox- waggon, and in the heart of their solitude a city had arisen ; while to the north and to the east between them and the sea were drawn the thin red lines of British boundary. The tide of Anglo-Saxon civilisation — that strong ever-flowing current, on whose bosom all barks are borne as freely as on the open sea — had swept around and beyond them to the banks of the Zambesi and to territories IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 125 even further north in the interior of a con- tinent of whose existence they were but dimly conscious. A primitive pastoral people, they found themselves isolated, surrounded — '* shut in a kraal for ever," as Kruger is reported to have said — while the stranger was growing in wealth and numbers within their gates. Expansion of territory, once the dream of the Transvaal Boers, as their incursions into Bechuanaland, into Zululand, and the attempted trek into Rhodesia all testify, was becoming daily less practicable. One thing remained — to accept their isolation and strengthen it. Wealth, population, a position among the new States of the world had been brought to them, almost in spite of themselves, by the new comer, the stranger, the Uitlander. What was to be the attitude towards him politically? Materially he had made the State — he developed its resources, paid nine- tenths of its revenue. Would he be a strength or a weakness as a citizen — as a member of the body politic ? 126 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV Let US consider this new element in a new State — how was it constituted, what were its component parts ? Was it the right material for a new State to assimilate ? Cosmopolitan to a degree — recruited from all the corners of the earth — there was in it a strong South African element, consisting of young colonists from the Cape Colony and Natal — members of families well known in South Africa — and many of them old schoolfellows or in some other way known to each other. Then there was the numerous British contingent, self- reliant, full of enterprise and energy — Americans, French, Germans, and Hol- landers. A band of emigrants, and con- stituted, as I think all emigrants are, of two great classes — the one who, lacking neither ability nor courage, are filled with an ambi- tion, characteristic particularly of the British race, to raise their status in the world, who find the conditions of their native environ- ment too arduous, the competition too keen, to offer them much prospect, and who seek a new and more rapidly developing country IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 127 elsewhere ; and another, a smaller class, who sometimes through misfortune, sometimes through their own fault, or perhaps through both, have failed elsewhere. Adventurers all, one must admit ; but it is the adventurers of the world who have founded States and Kingdoms. Such a class as this has been assimilated by the United States and absorbed into their huQfe fabric, of which to-day they form a large and substantial portion. What should the Transvaal Boers have done with this new element "so full of enterprise and vigour ? This had been for ten years the great question for them to solve. Have they desired merely a political monopoly for a passing generation of men from the very nature of their lives and training but poorly qualified for the sole control and conduct of the affairs of a rapidly developing country — or have they desired to lay the foundation of a permanent State, a true Republic, that might be sustained and upheld by those very principles of democracy which inspired and guided the Boer voor- 128 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV trekkers in the State's foundation ? Hitherto they had steadily and with ever-increasing determination sought only political monopoly. Enfranchisement, participation in the politi- cal life of the State by the Uitlander — this means, they said, a transference of all political power from our hands to those of men whom we do not trust. " I have taken a man into my coach," said President Kruger, "and as a passenger he is welcome ; but now he says, Give me the reins ; and that I cannot do, for I know not where he will drive me." To the Boer it is all or nothing ; he knows no mean, no compromise. Yet in that very mean lies the vital spirit of republicanism. What is the position of the Boers in the Cape Colony ? Are they with- out their share, their influence, their African- der bond in the political affairs of the country ? And so it is throughout the world to-day — in the United States, in England, in France, in the British Colonies, wherever the individual thrives and the State is pros- perous — the compromise of divided political IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 129 power among all classes, all factions, is the great guarantee of their well-being. To this end all political evolution moves ; and whether it finds expression in a Republic or in an ancient Monarchy, " broad based upon the people's will " — will move while civilisa- tion continues. So trite are these reflections that one almost hesitates to record them ; and yet so many are the admirers of the so-called sagacity of the Boer — so many who take the "all or nothing" view — that a restatement of them can do no harm. That the enfranchisement of the Uitlander would mean a complete transference of politi- cal power into his hands involves two assumptions : the first is that the Uitlanders would form a united body in politics ; the second is that their representatives would dominate the Volksraad. The most super- ficial acquaintance with the action of the inhabitants of the Witwatersrand district on any public matter will serve to refute the first of these, while it is a well-recognised K I30 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES iv fact that there are amongst the Uitlanders — among the South Africans especially — a large number of men whose sympathies with the Boers on many matters would run directly counter to what one might describe as those of the ultra- English section. The second of these assumptions — though it is continually put forward — almost answers itself The number of representatives from the Uitlander districts under any scheme of redistribution of seats which the Boer could reasonably be expected to make would fall considerably short of those returned from the Boer constituencies. Such was the attitude of the Boers on this vital question which led to the Reform Move- ment of 1895 ; ^^^ ^ have stated what I believe to be the injustice of it as regards the Uitlanders and the unwisdom of it in the true interests of the Boers. From the earliest settlement on the Rand down to 1892 the Uitlander had continued to hope that something like political equality on a fair basis would be obtained In 1892 IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 131 the National Union was formed, and at its meetings enthusiastic crowds attended, while speakers from among the Pretoria Dutch residents, notably Mr. Esselen, an ex-Judge of the High Court, and Mr. Wessels, a well- known Pretoria advocate, were among those who addressed the meeting, expressing their sympathy for the desire of the Uitlander to attain citizen rank. From 1892 to 1895 the history of the Reform Movement in Johannesburg was practically the work done by the National Union and its adherents — unaided, and even be it said discouraged — by the capitalists, who held aloof Petitions to the Government were sent in year after year. Resolutions calling for some amelioration in the con- ditions of the franchise law, the dynamite trade, education, and the courts of justice were passed both at the National Union meetings and by other public bodies — but all without avail. And not merely without avail — matters did not even stand still : they went steadily back. What had been possible K 2 132 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES iv when men entered the country was made impossible to them a few years later. And it was this retrogressive legislation, this actual setting back of the hands of the clock, that convinced men of the hopelessness of the position, that exasperated them even to conspiracy. Facts showing this retrogressive move- ment have been set forth in Mr, Charles Leonard's printed statement to the British South Africa Committee, and in some sense made public ; but opportunity was not given to put them clearly in evidence before the Committee, and thus points of the most vital importance to the subject of the inquiry have been left out of that evidence, and the actual retroofression in Boer Les'islation is not even referred to in the Committee's Report. As the Franchise Law stood in 1882, to quote from Mr. Leonard's printed statement, " it was enacted that in order to become natural- ised and acquire full citizenship the new comer should have resided in the country or a period of five years, and should have IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 133 been registered on the field-cornets' list for that period, and should pay a sum of twenty- five pounds." A provision, restrictive un- doubtedly, but not wholly unreasonable. But mark what follows. " In 1890 a new departure was made. A law was passed in that year providing for the creation of a Second Chamber, called the Second Volksraad, to the powers and constitution of which further reference will be made hereafter. It was enacted that aliens could acquire the right to vote for mem- bers of the Second Chamber after having been registered upon the field-cornets' list and having resided in the country for a period of two years. They had to renounce their allegiance to their own country, and to take the oath of alle- giance to the Transvaal, and to pay the sum of five pounds for the privilege. After having been eligible to vote for the Second Chamber for a period of two years, the new-fledged voter, or naturalised person, as he is called in the Transvaal, became eligible for a seat in such Chamber. It was further provided in the same year that no person who had been so naturalised could vote for a seat in the First Volksraad until the lapse of a period of ten years after he had become eligible for the Second Chamber. " No one could be a member of the Second Chamber until he was thirty years of age, and it will thus be seen that under no circumstances could a man get the right to vote for the First Chamber until he was at least forty ; and during the interval that had elapsed from the period of his naturalisation he would be in the position of having renounced his alle- giance to the country of his origin and having rendered himself liable to all the burdens of a citizen, including 134 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV military service, and that in the meantime he would be deprived of the exercise of the most important rights of citizenship. But even then no one was of right entitled to the franchise. He could only get citizenship after fourteen years' residence and compliance with the above provisions, if the First Volkraad passed a resolution admitting him, and in pursuance of regulations which have never been fra7nedP " With regard to the Second Chamber it must be pointed out that this body bears no such relation to the First Volksraad as its name might at first sight imply. Its powers of legislation are strictly defined. It has no power to enforce its own acts, and no control whatever over the First Chamber. All its acts and resolutions must be submitted to the First Chamber, which has the right to veto them ; and even if not so vetoed they do not acquire the force of law until promulgated by the President, who has the right to withhold such promulgation at his discretion. It need scarcely be added that the Second Chamber has no control whatever over the finances. It cannot be wondered that even ardent South African patriots like the late John Cilliers should have described the Second Raad as a mockery and a sham, and that the Uitlanders decline to regard it as of any real benefit to them." A sham and a mockery indeed, a with- drawal of the substance and a substitution for ever by statute of the shadow ! John Cilliers was not the only Transvaal burgher and patriot who saw with indignation and foreboding this retrogressive action. Let us take the testimony of Mr. Esselen in 1892 IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 135 on the platform of the National Union. Mr. Esselen began his political career as a promi- nent member of the Africander Bond in the Cape House of Assembly ; he was then made a Judge of the High Court in the Transvaal, and having resigned that position took an active part in the politics of the country. On one occasion referred to at a meeting in Johannesburg he said : " I agree with this movement. I may tell you I am in entire accord with the movement of the National Union, and I am proud to be asked to say a few words. I wish to ask you whether you can give any credence to the statement of a man (President Kruger), who says he is going to unite two people, when the whole of his acts for the last ten years show it is absolutely untrue. I do not speak without knowing- what I am talking- about — I say you have been kept out of your political privileges, not because the people have kept you out from fear that your being granted these privileges would wreck or endanger the independence of this country, 136 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV but to enable a few, and a greedy few, to rule the country for their ends." Other matters there were innumerable that attracted, nay, even demanded the attention of every thoughtful man, Uitlander or burgher, in the country during the years from 1890 to 1895. I have placed the Franchise question first — and for assigning it that position, there is, as we have seen, abundant reason sfiven from intelligent and patriotic burghers themselves. The redress of all other evils was too obviously dependent on the redress of this one, and compared with it they became matters of secondary importance. Among them, however, were matters of such moment as an absence of municipal financial control for municipal pur- poses ; the dynamite monopoly, an iniquitous tax on the great industry of the country ; an education law, which, out of the revenue furnished to the State by the Uitlander, pro- vided in effect solely for the children of the Dutch ; and anomalies with reference to the administration of justice whereby in the first IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 137 place all juries were taken from the Dutch burghers, so that an Englishman living in the midst of a large English speaking com- munity was not even accorded a jury of his fellow-citizens. And then, finally, a con- tinual tampering with the Grondwet — the Constitution of the country — by resolutions hastily passed in the Volksraad which not only kept in perpetual uncertainty the posi- tion of every man in the State, but even threatened, and that in no uncertain manner, the independence and stability of that last refuge of the Uitlander, the Courts of Justice themselves. So menacing did the position of affairs appear — even to the Chief Justice of the Republic — a man who at the last Presi- dential election was supported as a candidate for the Presidency — that in October, 1894, he felt it his duty to issue to the burghers, in words which will remain memorable in the history of the Republic, a solemn warning. The address was delivered at Rustenbursf, and from it we shall do well to consider a 138 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV few extracts : — " No one who for a moment considers the condition of things in the State will deny that the country is at present in a very critical position. The unmistakable signs of an approaching change are apparent on every side. It entirely depends upon the people whether the impending change is to take place peaceably, or to be accompanied with violence. Do not let us close our eyes and ears to the truth. The people should thoroughly understand the true position of things. I repeat what I have just said, — the non-observance of and departure from the Grondwet menaces the independence of the State." " The country has a Constitution, and must be governed by its precepts, and in a statesmanlike manner. Let me repeat here what I said in 1892." " How frequently have we not seen that the Grondwet, which as the Constitution ought to stand on an en- tirely different footing from our ordinary law, has nevertheless been varied and treated as such ? Many a time has the Grondwet been altered by a simple resolution of the Legisla- IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 139 ture. By this means many a radical, and I am afraid often unwise change, has been brought about in the Constitution. This ob- jectionable and unstatesmanlike mode of procedure can no longer be followed without impairing the progress and jeopardising the independence of the State." " The trek spirit has well-nigh become extinct, the Re- public has its beacons and boundaries which, with the exception of our Eastern border, can no longer be extended. In the wise dis- pensation of Providence everything has its proper season. It is remarkable that, al- though our mineral treasures have for ages existed in the country, they have only re- cently been discovered and developed (by the Uitlander). It is equally remarkable that soon after we had to experience a move- ment which has definitely fixed the Limpopo as our northern boundary. These facts, together with the daily increasing population and the many complications arising there- from, indicate that we must more than ever devote our attention upon our internal and I40 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV domestic affairs. There is but one safe course to follow in dealing with public mat- ters under the altered conditions, — the coun- try must be ruled in accordance with the recognised rules of Constitutional Govern- ment." Further on in this same speech, the spirit in which a Volksraad Committee appointed to revise and piece together the ,jGrondwet "devoted its attention to these same internal and domestic affairs," is somewhat severely commented on by the Chief Justice. Re- ferring to their labours and the new draft Grondwet submitted to the Volksraad by them, he says it "contained such important radical and dangerous provisions that, had they been adopted, I do not hesitate to say the independence of the country would have come to an end," "the Courts of Justice from the lowest to the highest in the land would have been so affected in the independent exercise of their functions that it would simply have been an impossibility to have dispensed justice between man and man IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 141 without fear or prejudice. The altered pro- visions in question assign powers and func- tions to the Executive and the Lee^islature which at present belong exclusively to the Courts of Justice. The very safe and con- stitutional relation which, according to the Grondwet, existed between the three great powers" (Legislative, Executive, and Judi- cial), or " departments in the State would have been so violated that the Courts of Justice would have tottered to their deepest foundations. The liberty, property, and other rights of people would have been placed in the greatest jeopardy, aye, the very independence of the Republic, which is so inseparably connected with the independence of the Courts of Law, would thereby, as I have already observed, have come to an end." We had not been privileged to see this new Grondwet ; and by some miracle we escaped its enforcement ; the Volksraad was apparently in a cautious mood, and " these dangerous chanofes," recommended to them by a Committee chosen to deal with the 142 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES iv subject, were rejected. The incident is, however, sufficiently significant of the feeling of unrest which the Volksraad was calcu- lated to engender among every section of the community. It was in 1894 ^^so that occurred the com- mandeering incident. Englishmen, although accorded no civil rights, were commandeered to serve in the Malaboch Campaign. Five of them in Pretoria refusing to go were im- prisoned ; they appealed to the High Court, but their liability to service was upheld ; they were then taken under compulsion to the front. This caused the greatest indignation throughout the Uitlander community, and induced even the British Government to take action. Sir Henry Loch was despatched to Pretoria, and a pledge was given that no further commandeering of British subjects should occur. It was on this occasion that Sir H. Loch is reputed to have asked how many rifles the Uitlanders could muster. Another and continual source of irritation, not only to the South Africans among the IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 143 Uitlanders, but even among the burghers themselves, was the employment by the Exe- cutive of young freshly imported Hollanders to fill so many of the lucrative offices both high and low in the State, to the exclusion of South Africans, many of whom had en- joyed the advantage of university education, who were imbued with a genuine love for the country and who naturally regarded the public offices arising out of the development of South Africa as a heritage for her sons. The Hollanders introduced by the Govern- ment were more truly foreigners to the burghers in language, in manner of life and in the type of their civilisation than even the most lately arrived Englishman. The educated South African Dutchman is in many tastes an Englishman : he reads Eng- lish literature, English is his daily language, and he has the English love of athletics and field sports. To the Hollander neither the cricket bat nor the polo stick is a joy, nor is his literature that of Why te- Melville or of Shakespeare. 144 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES iv Of the corruption and abuses in the public administration I do not propose to burden this book with details. Their record has been revealed often enough ; they were, as the world well knows, one more continual source of exasperation. In the Volksraad itself it is only fair to say that there has always been a small minority of some few men who held enlightened views and a more far seeing patriotism. And among them must be remembered by the Uitlanders with some measure of gratitude such men as Mr. Carl Jeppe, Mr. Loveday and Mr. Lucas Meyer. Before concluding our brief review of events as they occurred in the Transvaal in rapid and even alarming succession between the years 1890 and 1895, some reference to one of the most prominent, energetic and public-spirited men among the Uitlander community itself is necessary. Mr. Lionel Phillips was the senior resident partner in the wealthy house of Eckstein, and for four years 1892-95 was President of the Chamber IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 145 of Mines. In common with other capitaHsts he held aloof from the political agitation which was proceeding under the auspices of the National Union until towards the end of 1895. Nevertheless, as President of the Chamber of Mines, and as a private citizen, he never ceased pressing upon the Government the urgent necessity for redress with regard to the material burdens upon the industry ; and as a member of the Council of Education he assisted both with money and personal supervision the furthering of its end. In 1895 the monster petition praying in respectful terms for admission to the Fran- chise, signed by 38,500 people, was pre- sented to the Volksraad. It was rejected with jeers and with insult. Such then was the position of affairs in the middle of 1895. And looking back on it all, with its opposing forces of stern unbending prejudice and ignorance on the one hand, and of an out- raged democracy demanding the common rights of man on the other, it was, one must L 146 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IV admit, a scene not unfamiliar to the pages of history. And it was a pretty quarrel as it stood. • At this time the sympathy of the Progressive party among the Boers them- selves, including, as we have seen, that of the Chief Justice of the country, the en- lightened minority in the Volksraad, and many educated burghers throughout the land, was with the Uitlander cause. The irritation amongst the Cape Colonists, Eng- lish and Dutch alike, over the recent ques- tion of the arbitrary closing of the Drifts (Fords) on the main wagon roads between the Cape Colony and the Transvaal, where they cross the Vaal River, was profound, and, as we now know, far reaching. So far had matters gone that towards the end of the year an arrangement was come to between the English and Cape Colonial Govern- ments, whereby, in the event of what was nothing less than an ultimatum to the Boer Government not attaining its end in com- pelling the Boers to throw open the Drifts, the two Governments undertook to share IV BEFORE THE JAMESON RAID 147 the expenses of a joint military expedition to the Transvaal. The ultimatum did attain its end, and the Drifts were thrown open ; but the incident was a significant one, and will show how near England then was to a policy of "an incursion into the South African Republic of an armed force." After the rejection of the monster petition of 1895 the men of Johannesburg realised once and for all that, whatever else might come, to look for redress of their grievances by constitutional means was about as hope- less as would be the prospects of a syndicate which had for its object the pegging out of another main reef on the surface of the moon. L 2 V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA " If there be any truth estabhshed by the universal expe- rience of nations, it is this, that to carry the spirit of peace into war is a weak and cruel policy. The time for negotia- tion is the time for deliberation and delay. But when an extreme case calls for that remedy which is in its own nature most violent, and which in such cases is a remedy only because it is violent, it is idle to think of mitigating and diluting. Languid war can do nothing which negotiation or submission will not do better ; and to act on any other principle is not to save blood and money, but squander them." The wisdom of Macaulay's eloquent utter- ance on that remedy which only extreme cases demand, and which is a remedy only because it is violent, may well be said to receive abundant if somewhat bitter confir- mation from our relations with the Trans- V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 149 vaal in 1881. At that time the spirit of peace was carried into war and it has proved to be a weak and cruel pohcy. That the senti- ment which inspired the poHcy was a lofty one, that the act of retrocession was a gener- ous one, avail nothing. If the cardinal prin- ciples which govern human nature in its conduct of public life are to be gathered from the pages of history and not from the visionary dreams of idealists, we must recog- nise to-day that policy to have been mistaken and its consequences to have been disastrous. The lesson has been learnt — a repetition of it is impossible. What high destiny the years to come may have for civilised humanity we cannot tell. War may cease to be, the prin- ciples of civil equality and impartial justice between both individuals and States may be so established among mankind that the " ex- treme case " will never arise. But this mil- lennium is not yet. And when we consider how few even of European States are ac- tuated in their public life by these same principles, what wonder that an uneducated ISO SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v race of peasant farmers should regard them as of little moment. Civil equality to the Boer is so sweet a thing it must for ever be conserved to himself, his family and his race. It is not for rights denied himself that he will fight, it is for the privilege of with- holding such rights from others that he de- clares himself prepared to die. While senti- ments such as these are capable of actuating a people, it behoves all self-respecting States to keep their powder dry. To rightly comprehend the Boer attitude in this latest Transvaal quarrel, it is necessary to bear in mind certain features in the attitude of the old Cape Colonial Boers, who orga- nised and executed the great trek to the terri- tories north of the Orange River in the thirties. Sixty years ago, a certain number of these turbulent spirits, impatient at British rule, emigrated from the Cape Colony into the great unknown plains beyond the Orange, and across these again to the fastnesses of the Zoutpansberg, in the northern portion of the Transvaal. Various theories to account V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 151 for this trek have been advanced, but one cause at least avowed by their leader, Retief, in a manifesto published at Grahamstown in 1837, cannot be overlooked. The clause in the manifesto referred to reads as follows : — " We complain of the severe losses we have been forced to sustain by the emancipation of our slaves, and the vexatious laws which have been enacted respecting them." It must be remembered that where com- pulsory emancipation of slaves was carried out, as it was in the Cape Colony, compensa- tion was made to the owner. That there were abuses in the payment and distribution of this compensation has been constantly alleged by Boer apologists, and it is not at all improbable that this was the case ; but, nevertheless, after making every allowance on this score, there can be no question that the resentment at the emancipation of their slaves, on the part of the Boers, was both deep and bitter. And we have the public avowal of Piet Retief, their leader, that it was one of the reasons which led the emigrant Boers to seek a fresh country and to estab- 152 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V lish their own laws. It is interesting to re- member, as showing the intimate relation between the trek Boers and the present Transvaal Boers, that Paul Kruger, as a boy, was one of the trekkers. He is, indeed, an Uitlander, not having been born in the country ; but in spite of that fact, up to the time of writing, he is President of the Trans- vaal Republic. The relation of the Boers to the natives may not appear to the reader to have any bearing on the present war. As a matter of fact, this relationship has been one of the strongest factors in moulding the Boer cha- racter, in influencing his public life, in leading even to the impairment of his national con- stitution. As far as I am aware, no student of history, of sociology, or of civilisation has ever yet fairly stated or discussed the rela- tionship between the white and the black races, and the effect that each tends to pro- duce upon the other during years of pro- longed and intimate contact. The relation- ship is a two-sided one : the influence is not V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 153 all on one side, nor the effect all on the other. In dealing briefly with this thorny subject, I am specially anxious to avoid the least in- justice or misrepresentation. The white races in South Africa are English as well as Dutch. The problem of what effect the contact of natives may have upon white races is of as ereat moment to us as it is to the Boers. I would not even suggest that, under the same conditions, the one white race is more or less susceptible to such influences than the other. But as a matter of fact, the contact of the Boers with the natives has been far longer ; from their almost universally living a secluded pastoral life, it has been more intimate than that which has existed between British and native. The men who emigrated from Cape Colony in 1837, who protested against the emancipation of their slaves, were the descendants of men who had owned slaves for over a century. The Boers' contact with the native races has lasted two hundred years. If, then, any appreciable effects from such 154 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v contact are to be found on any portion of the white races in South Africa, one may reasonably expect to find them manifest among the Boers, more especially among that section of the Boers which has lived continually on the frontiers of civilisation — that sturdy, roving, ever-trekking stock to which the Transvaal and Free State burghers belong. The Boer regards the native, whether Hottentot or Kaffir, as something little better than a lower animal, a hewer of wood, and drawer of water — a chattel. In the old days the native was his slave ; to-day the natives' Boer master may injure, or even murder, him almost with im- punity. There is nothing more notorious in South Africa than the impossibility of getting a Dutch jury to bring in a verdict of guilty against a Dutchman who has murdered a native. One effect of this peculiar attitude towards the native has been to develop in the Boer a belief that he belongs to a special caste — a governing race, superior not only to natives, but to other Europeans. The more V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 155 ignorant and cut-off from the world a people is, the more readily does contempt for the stranger develop. The Chinese, and many other instances in history, exemplify this. In the Boer the influence of isolation has had added to it the influence of his relation to the natives, whom he regards as dirt beneath his feet ; and the influence of his vic- tories over British soldiers in the skirmishes of 1 88 1. Of the overweening opinion of himself which these influences have engen- dered continual evidence has been forth- coming. Take the utterance of a member of the Cape Legislature, who said that the sturdy Transvaal Burghers would make a breakfast of 40,000 Englishmen. Other vain-glorious boasts of this sort innumerable might be adduced. But apart from this arro- gance, the offensive character of which has been felt so sorely by Uitlander residents in the Transvaal for many years past, and which I believe to be so largely due to the native influence on the Boer, there are other, more subtle, but equally certain, effects at- 156 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v tributable to this influence. Two centuries' contact between native and Boer has left an impress on the Boer character and Boer in- stitutions which is observable in almost every department of life. It has influenced his language ; it inspires his military tactics ; and lastly, at least of late years, in the Transvaal, the spirit of it has been allowed to stain the courts of justice and enter the Legislature. " Kaffir politik," a term synony- mous with duplicity and bad faith, in the conduct of public affairs, has been long familiar to the inhabitants of the Transvaal ; the spirit of it has at length been recognised by the English people and the Imperial Government. The effect of native influence upon the language is curious. It has a philological as well as an ethical interest, and deserves more study from experts than it has hitherto received. The Dutch spoken in South Africa differs somewhat from the language spoken in the Netherlands. The changes the Cape " Taal " (language) has undergone are rather V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 157 in the direction of simplicity than in that of modification by the introduction of words of foreign origin. Phrases have been simplified regardless of the rules of grammar. The vocabulary is much more limited, the forms of speech more archaic than in the Nether- lands Dutch to-day. A Dutchman of the seventeenth century would more readily understand the Boer than his Hollander kinsman of the present time. Theal, the Cape historian, and one of the kindliest of Dutch critics, says it is an "open question whether the language in ordinary use by the generality of the people has not changed more in the Netherlands than in South Africa since the middle of the seventeenth century, the lines of variation moving in opposite directions." The one has enriched its vocabulary, produced a literature, and advanced ; the other has diminished its vocabulary, produced no literature, and be- come impoverished. Theal's explanation of this phenomenon is significant. He says, speaking of Cape Dutch : " Phrases have 158 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V been simplified regardless of grammatical rules, because the early settlers were obliged to convey their ideas to imported slaves and to Hottentots, and necessarily did so in terms such as would be employed when addressing infants. The simple dialect then came into general use among themselves." And this same simple dialect, which has neither a syntax nor a literature, and which is appro- priately known among English colonists as kitchen Dutch, is the language of the Boer to-day. " Simplicity " is an excellent word, and appeals with wonderful effect to a certain number of people, but no competent student of language or of ethics will honestly maintain, that this peculiarity of the Boer language can tend, in the long run, to further either the " moral or the intellectual " interests of the Boer. The military tactics practised by the Boers are partially learnt from the Zulu and other Bantu tribes. When he attacks, his great idea is to advance in a sort of half-moon, sur- round his enemy, and at the right moment V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 159 overwhelm him. That these are tactics to be despised I do not suggest. They have on more than one occasion proved only too effective against our own forces, and they are particularly suited to an unenclosed country such as South Africa. I merely refer to them in this article as one more piece of evidence of the direct influence of native environment. I have stated, lastly, that I believe the spirit of native influence on the Boer cha- racter has been allowed to penetrate even the Courts of Justice and the Legislature. This may seem an extreme charge, but the most lenient Boer critic must admit that in the overriding of the independence of the High Court by the Boer Executive, which led to the resignation of the Chief Justice of the country, and in the gross miscarriage of jus- tice in the Edgar and other cases, the Boers departed widely from those principles of Roman- Dutch law and justice which are honourably associated with the Dutch race and their traditions. With regard to the i6o SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v Legislature, as represented by the Executive, the shuffling dupHcity of all its negotiation? both with the Uitlanders and the British Government, is notorious. In these actions, the arrogant caste spirit I have referred to, which is determined to uphold its supremacy at no matter what cost to the rights and liberties of others, is only too apparent. But, having said so much for the influence of native environment, no estimate of the Boer character could be held as either just or complete which did not recognise on the other hand the good qualities still inherent in the Boer stock. The Boers are not the only men of European race who have made slaves, who have ill-treated and are ill-treating natives, or who have caused justice to mis- carry, and political rights to be the privilege of the few. They are the descendants of the sturdy Nether-Teuton stock which peopled England and Scotland as well as the delta of the Rhine. The stubborn current of their old Batavian blood is still the dominant element in the race, and has absorbed all V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA i6i tributary streams. Of these the most im- portant was the Huguenot, which is said at one time to have made up a sixth of the whole blood, and the presence of which is evidenced by such names as Joubert, De Villiers, and a number of others of French origin. The extent to which the native blood has actually intermingled with the true Boer stock is small. It is true a bastard race exists in Africa as in Asia. Those in South Africa are largely the descendants of Boer slaves, and the stock is still added to when- ever the white and black races intermingle ; but the Boer race proper has kept itself dis- tinct and not assimilated this element except to a very limited extent. The Teutonic peoples, whether English or Dutch, have nowhere in the world imported native blood into their stock in the wholesale manner which has obtained among the Latin races in South America, or in the Portuguese territory of South Africa. Thus we must recognise that — notwithstanding two cen- turies of comparative isolation ; notwith- M i62 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V Standing that roving trekking life, ever on the frontiers of civiHsation, ever in the pre- sence of native foes whose savage onslaughts have been met, now by crushing blows, now by the cunning and the treachery of the hunter ; notwithstanding drought, famine, floods, pestilence and disease, encountered and overcome away from the world, in the heart of an almost unknown wilderness — the spirit of the old strain survives. Those in- stincts of individual liberty and justice, which led their kinsmen of Holland, and their more distant Anglo-Saxon kinsmen of England, to thrash out and solve for the benefit of all mankind he great constitutional problems of human government, still though momen- tarily effaced, linger deep in their inmost hearts. We have considered the vices, the partial, but let us hope only temporary demoralisa- tion of the emigrant Boer ; let us be just and even generous in estimating their virtues. We have to be friends hereafter. Let us remember that these men are not savages, V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 163 though they may be contaminated by pro- longed contact with savages. Au fond, they are of the same root-stock and with many of the same inherent quahties as ourselves. One practical illustration will show that at least in mental capacity the Boer has not degenerated. There are as yet throughout South Africa no medical schools at which a qualification to practise may be obtained. As a result of this all South Africans entering the medical profession, Dutch as well as English, must come to Europe to obtain the necessary education and qualification. Sons of Boers from every part of South Africa come to Europe yearly, and, for the most part, enter Scotch Universities. Here they come into competition with our own and other European youths, and their record at these Universities is a high and honour- able one. Many of them are industrious workers, and their intellectual endowments are equal to those of their European fellows. The raw material of the Boer is full of poten- tiality. M 2 i64 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V Such are the main facts as far I am able to estimate them with regard to the character and position of the Boers in South Africa to-day. What, then, is the issue for the Boer at stake in the present war? It is whether he shall progress with civilisation, under an equitable system of civil equality, impartial justice, and commercial freedom, or whether he shall continue to recede, under a system of tyranny, injustice and corruption. By deep-seated race instinct, by ancient but honourable historical tradition, by all that is reasonable, and all that is desirable for the future welfare of his people, he should wel- come the former alternative. By the mis- guidance and misrepresentation of an in- terested and corrupt oligarchy, by views narrowed and almost blinded by the ignor- ance born of his environment, by a departure from those principles of liberty which he should have cherished as a sacred heritage from his forefathers, he is seeking the latter. Should he be victorious, let there be no mis- V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 165 conception, this is the cause he champions, and this is the system he will uphold : Gov- ernment the privilege of the few, helotage the lot of the many. The triumph of his cause would be no liberation of a people struggling to be free, no victory of liberty against oppression. It would be a step backward in the history of civilisation, it would be ruin to South Africa, and, lastly, it would be utter demoralisation and final degradation of the Boer himself. Fortunately, such a contingency is too re- mote to require much consideration, and sig- nificantly enough the innate rottenness of the cause has been sufficiently obvious to the great majority of Cape Dutchmen to pre- vent them, in spite of their not unnatural race sympathy, from joining the Boers. In comparison to the principles involved for the future of South Africa, the mere question of the continued independence of the Republic was a detail. That this independence is now irretrievably lost, is the deliberate act of the Boers. At the time of the Reform i66 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V movement in 1895 during the only too long negotiations with the British Government preceding the present war, fair and just treat- ment of the Uitlander population would have obtained further guarantees of that independ- ence. The Boers scorned to effect such a compromise. Those opportunities are now gone for ever. They have staked their all upon a cast, and they must abide the hazard of the die. To-day no true friend of the Boer should desire his success in the field. He is fighting an unjust as well as a lost cause. For his ultimate salvation one thing is now absolutely essential, and that is the complete victory of British Arms. I have put the issue from the Boer point of view first, because I believe their true interests to be identical with ours. The bulk of the English nation would be sorry to think, in their calmer moments, that the ultimate effect of British victory would be to the detriment of the Boers. I have stated why I believe that in the years to come it will be of inestimable advantage. The Boers V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 167 will come to realise, as the French of Canada have realised, that the truest and soundest democracy which the world has yet evolved as a form of human government passes under the name of British rule. In the future, should the Transvaal come under British Administration, the Boer will have, as the French Canadian has to-day, a State con- ducted on truly democratic lines, in which every white man has equal rights ; a State with public credit and sound finances, with an independent Court of Justice, with public works commensurate to the public revenue, with facilities for education which the Boers' children have never yet had ; a State with the prospect of advancing steadily in every branch of civilisation. Such are some of the issues for the Boers. From these let us now turn to the issues at stake for the largest section of the Trans- vaal population, at present known as Uitlan- ders, and the loyal colonists of Natal and the Cape Colony. They can be very briefly stated. The result of the present war must i68 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v determine between continued British Alle- giance and a growing pride in belonging to an Empire whose strength is founded on her love and championship of liberty, independ- ence, and justice ; and a compromise with Boerdom and corruption leading to the ulti- mate founding of a Republic throughout South Africa, to which a parallel could only be found amonor the rottenest States of South America. For the maintenance and final establishment of British supremacy, the British colonist in South Africa has shown himself ready to fight and to die. British South African colonists mainly constitute the Imperial Light Horse, the Natal Car- bineers and the men under Colonel Baden- Powell. In numerous other volunteer and irregular forces they have served and are serving with gallantry. Their deeds will live in history and stand recorded side by side in the orlorious annals of our own sol- o diers. Natal as a State has staked her whole future on the result of the struggle. Long before war was declared, while negotiations V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 169 were still proceeding, her open advocacy of a firm attitude and a complete and lasting solution of the questions at issue, were such as to have brought upon her in the event of any weak compromise being arrived at, nothing less than commercial ruin. Her port and carrying trade would have been boycotted for ever by the Transvaal and Free State. Many of the Uitlanders com- pelled to leave Johannesburg were not Natalians by birth, and these with many young Englishmen, took refuge on the outbreak of hostilities in Natal ; there num- bers of them joined their kinsmen under arms, and to-day a fourth of the manhood of Natal is in the field. That this force is not even larger is no fault of Natal's ; the only check upon the enrolling of Colonial forces has been the refusal of the Imperial authorities to accept all the services offered them. Among the Uidanders in the Im- perial Light Horse, are a number of men who were on the Reform Committee in Johannes- burg at the time of the Jameson Raid. They I70 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V include Major Wools Sampson, now wounded for the third time in fighting against the Boers ; Captain Mullins, also wounded at Elandslaagte ; Captains Karri Davies and Douglas Gilfillan, and Surgeon W. T. Davies ; and I believe there are other members of that committee whose names have not appeared. The unjust aspersions once cast upon the Reform Committee render it only fair that the services of these men should not pass unnoticed, nor the gallantry displayed by their corps at Elandslaagte be overlooked. In the Cape Colony, as well as Natal, the colonists of English descent have been eager to serve. Restraint has been put upon them, both by the Colonial Government and by the Imperial authorities, lest a too ready enlistment of their services should provoke the Colonial Dutch to join their wilder kins- men of the Republic. That this policy was wise and expedient in the earlier stages of the conflict is probably true. But since then numbers of English colonists from the eastern V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 171 province and from the coast towns have been enrolled. The attitude of the Dutch who have remained loyal in the colony must not be ignored. It is true that their allegiance was at the outset, as voiced by Mr. Hofmeyer, a somewhat sullen and compulsory one ; but this is chiefly due to the fact that they shared the belief of their Transvaal friends that Eng- land never would or never could really assert and maintain her supremacy in South Africa. They remembered 1881 and the fate of the loyalists abandoned by Great Britain in the Transvaal, Loyalty then had been a delu- sion and a snare, a mistaken faith, expiated in many cases by ruin. England was a pusillanimous power with an " unloaded gun." Would the gun ever be loaded, and, if loaded, would it ever go off.-* Would not the hardy Boers of the Republic, as the Cape Dutch Legislator declared, "make a break- fast of 40,000 English soldiers " ? These forebodings are being dispelled. But on this point there is no shadow of doubt. Among the Dutch of South Africa, British 172 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v prestige was a myth only flaunted in English newspapers ; the British soldier was an over- dressed amateur rifleman, with no skill and not too much courage. Was allegiance to such a power either an honour or a privilege? It is true the Dutch had no political griev- ances to complain of; they had their own Ministry in power ; but if the Boers of the Transvaal were really determined to triumph over British Arms, why not at once throw in their lot with the coming victors ? The re- sult was a determination to follow the Dutch proverb and "wait a little." At the same time, while the above fairly accurately de- scribes the position of a large number of the Dutch, especially in the more remote dis- tricts, it must in common fairness be admitted that a large number of enlightened and sub- stantial Dutchmen, many of them holding high positions, are loyal subjects of Her Majesty, loyal not only to Great Britain, but to those principles of liberty and justice on which British rule is founded. Of Mr. Schreiner, the present Prime Minister of the V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 173 Cape Colony, who owes his position to the support of the Bond, many hard things have been said. His position has been one of great difficulty. If he has not filled it to the satisfaction of many of us, I submit that he has at least filled it honourably. He has never appeared to realise the nature of the questions at issue in the Transvaal ; he has continually minimised the grievances of the Uitlander ; and he has insisted that the posi- tion was not one which justified the final arbitrament of the sword. His own failure to induce President Kruger to concede even a moderate instalment of reform ought to have been enough to reveal to him a Gordian knot, which only the sword could sever. Perhaps it did. At any rate, he stated that should war arise he would be found a faithful servant of the Queen. War has arisen ; and he has both co-operated with the High Com- missioners in repressing a Dutch rising within the colony, and has continued to retain the confidence of the Africander Bond. To combine these two services is a task the 174 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V accomplishment of which might readily have failed in the hands of a statesman of entirely English sympathies. If great issues are at stake for Boers and colonists, so also are they at stake for the natives. Nothing has done so much for the welfare and peaceful prosperity of the native during two hundred years of European occu- pation in South Africa as the establishment in recent years of native reserves under British administration. Of these reserve territories, practically entirely given up to the natives, the largest is Basutoland, under direct Imperial control. Glengrey and other territories within Cape Colony are somewhat similarly treated by the Colonial Govern- ment. Within these reserves the natives thrive and prosper under a few British offi- cials. Liquor is prohibited, protection from external aggression secured, and industry en- couraged. From these reserves the men eo to the mines and to colonial farms to work, and with their wages are able to purchase British manufactures. On the other hand, V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 175 they grow cind export grain and some live stock. The Basutos have learnt to value cotton and woollen fabrics, as well as small articles of cutlery, earthenware, and furniture in their dwellings. The plough is gradually taking the place of the hoe, and agriculture is thus increased and improved. I rode through a portion of Basutoland only a few years ago, going to the foot of the Maluti Mountains. The prosperity and numbers of the Basutos are most striking. The fertile districts of Basutoland are the most thickly populated portion of South Africa. Below the krantzes (cliffs) and in the hills are dotted clumps of native huts, neatly built and thatched. At present the whole of the land in Basutoland is held and occupied by the natives ; no Englishman or Boer is allowed to possess a farm. The various chiefs have a petty jurisdiction under the executive officers of the British Govern- ment, Sir Godfrey Lagdon and his staff. Native laws, as far as possible, are re- spected and applied. Many schools are 176 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V established, and well attended, amongst them. Can any one for a moment suppose that if Boerdom were triumphant in South Africa this security to the life, property, and pros- perity of the natives would be continued ? Their fertile lands would be seized, their re- serves broken up whenever the Boer thought himself strong enough to take them. The British doubtless extend their territory and their rule as British colonisation advances, but they have shown a consideration for the natives which assuredly has never been ex- tended to them by the Boers. Under the native reserve system the native tribes have increased and flourished at a greater rate than they ever did under their own sys- tem of petty and perpetual inter-tribal strife. The Basutos are said to be anxious during the present war to attack the Boers. If British supremacy in South Africa is menaced, they may well be so. For if there is one people more than another whose future is at V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 177 Stake on this issue, it is the natives. Their interest is deeper even than ours, and they know it. We have restrained them from entrance into this quarrel, and on the ground of humanity and civilisation our action has been wise and befitting a great Power. Nevertheless, the cost of that action has been to liberate Free State forces on the Basuto border, who were thus enabled to increase a Boer army already outnumbering us in Natal, and to restrain a people whose future exist- ence is dependent on our success. Surely this might count for righteousness even with our enemies. One section of the inhabitants of South Africa, and their interest in the issue in- volved in the present conflict, remains to be considered. Foreign emigrants, or those of European origin who are neither British nor Dutch, are to be found both in the Republic and the British colonies. Of these, the most numerous are the Germans. With regard to the attitude of the Germans during the pre- sent conflict a good deal of misapprehension N 178 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v exists. To suppose that all the Germans in the Transvaal are in sympathy with the Boers is entirely erroneous. They are not. The most influential, and probably the most numerous section of the Germans actually engaged in the mining industry, although at one time they held aloof from any agitation for reform, have become convinced that re- forms were essential if peace and prosperity were to continue. In Natal, the German farmers of the Allpinakaar and Unisinga divisions, on being requested by the invading Boers to take the oath of allegiance to the Transvaal, despatched their pastor to the Boers with an emphatic refusal and a further message that the Boers might come and shoot them if they liked, but they were de- termined to stick to their homesteads, and remain loyal to the Natal Government. In Cape Colony there is settled on farms in the Eastern province, near King William's Town, a thriving German Colony, consisting largely of descendants of the German legion, a corps sent out by the British Government V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA 179 many years ago. These men have always been loyal colonists and subjects of Her Majesty. It is true that of late years a certain number have become members of the Bond, but to join a political party is not treason ; even Sir James Sievewright is a bondsman ! As a matter of fact, the differ- ence between the industrious German aori- o cultural farmer and the Dutch Boer is as great as that between the Scotch peasant and the Irish moonlighter. The one is a mine of energy, the other has neither in- dustry nor enterprise except in predatory undertakings. There is little doubt that were these Eastern Province Germans ap- proached by the Boers, as were their kinsmen in Natal, they would reply to the filibusters in identical terms. That the German has any special sentiment about the British flag I do not suggest, but that he has a square head, which enables him to distinguish be- tween English rule and Boer misrule, any one who knows him will recognise. For the other foreign immigrants in South Africa, it N 2 i8o SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES v is enough to say that those who are neither hirelings of the Boer Government nor men reaping pecuniary advantage from a corrupt and imperfect administration of the law in the Transvaal, the great majority will wel- come a change from the Kruger regime. Of the purely material issues involved, the chief is the future prosperity ol the great gold industry on the Witwatersrand. South Africa is a remarkable country. It has a climate that the Riviera might envy, but its soil is poor and barren. Farming has never, even in English hands, reached the success- ful developments of Australia, much less of Canada. But if nature has been meagre in her gifts to the surface, she has been lavish in her endowments below the soil. The mineral resources of South Africa first came to prominent notice in the seventies, when the diamond fields were discovered. Gold soon followed ; and the progress of the country, backward for so many years, ad- vanced by leaps and bounds. The future of South Africa is bound up with her mineral V ISSUES AT STAKE IN SOUTH AFRICA i8i wealth, and it is folly to contend that the development of those resources will only- benefit a few. Railways, commerce, en- lightenment, all those things which make up that complex growth, civilisation, have followed and will continue to depend chiefly on that development. How that development in the Transvaal has been retarded by mono- polies, abuses, and unrest, the world is aware. The enhanced prosperity which good government must tend to produce will react throughout South Africa. From the Imperial point of view the issues, now that war is actually raging, are too wide and too far-reaching to warrant more than a passing reference here. In these days Empire and Democracy are wedded. The union is a unique one in the world's history, a significant one, as I venture to believe, in human progress. One cannot spend thirteen years as I have done in a British colony, and then travel and observe conditions of life in other countries, old and new, without realising how admirable as a i82 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES V scheme of government is that democratic system which obtains both in England and her colonies. Under this system are com- bined the will of the people and the ad- ministrative ability of some of the strongest and ablest the race can provide. Public life is an honour both in England and her colonies. It is distasteful to most English- men to extol their own, or even to hear it highly praised by a fellow countryman, but in a time like this, when we are putting forth our strength to uphold certain principles and maintain a certain system of government, we may be forgiven if we assign some reason for the faith that is in us, and we may be pardoned if we say we believe those principles to be right and that system sound. It is in the fulness of faith in the justice of the cause that the colonies have sent their contingents, and if their faith is firm, so is their jealousy for the prestige of the Empire strong. It has been said that if Mr. Kruger and Mr. Steyn have put to hazard the so-called independence of their States, V Issues at stake in south Africa 183 it is equally true that " in defending British supremacy in South Africa England has put to hazard the British Empire." But this is only half a truth. Whatever hazard to the Empire there may be in defending that supremacy, it would have been greater a hundredfold had that supremacy been left undefended. For the English people one great issue remains. They are the controlling factor in this problem. Their trustees, the British Government, determine future policy and guide its execution. The Government have put their hand to the plough, and will not turn back. May they neither falter nor stumble till the end is reached. Note. — Since this article appeared in January, 1900, much has happened in South Africa. But the issues at stake remain unchanged, and nothing which has occurred has altered my estimate of them. Mr. Schreiner is no longer Premier of the Cape Colony, but the action which led to his resignation confirms the view I have taken of his attitude. VI A REPLY TO MR. SELOUS To the Editor of The Times Sir, — Mr. Selous tells us in his interesting letter to The Times this morning that he first went to South Africa in 187 1, that he has since then had a great deal to do with the Boers, whose language he has learned to speak, and amongst whom he numbers many friends. He therefore considers that he has some right to speak on the question at issue between the Transvaal Boers and the British Government, and no one will deny him that privilege. At the same time it must be borne in mind that Mr. Selous's relations with the Boers have been chiefly those of an accomplished traveller and sportsman, and VI A REPLY TO MR. SELOUS 185 that he, at any rate, never enjoyed the ex- perience of being a settled resident for any lengthened period of time in the Transvaal under the Government of that pastoral people whose virtues he so much admires. Now, I too may claim an extensive acquaintance with the Boer. I first went to South Africa in 1874 ; in 1878 I served through the Gaika- Galuka campaign in a corps of which more than half the men were Cape Boers. I learnt their language, I have lived and practised my profession amongst them. From 1893 to 1896 I lived in Johannesburg, participating in the movement for reform, and I was a member of the Reform Committee, for which honour, in conjunction with my colleagues, I suffered imprisonment and fine at the hands of Mr. Kruger's Government. My South African life has thus given me abundant opportunities for studying the Boer character, for I have known him as a fellow soldier, as a hospitable farmer and sportsman, and as a politician and ruler. I have had in the past, and, I hope I may say, I still have among i86 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES VI individual Boers the acquaintance of men whose personal friendship I value and respect. Further than that, I deplore as deeply as Mr. Selous the terrible war now raging in South Africa. I find myself, indeed, in the position of many a loyal subject of the Queen who has spent the whole or a portion of his life in South Africa, in the position of having friends and connections in both camps. But, Sir, no sentiment, however deep and strong, can be allowed to obscure for one moment the broad questions at issue and the great principles involved in the present con- flict. For Mr. Selous's sentiment many will feel every sympathy ; but for his indictment of British policy his letter at least contains no shred of justification. Has Mr. Selous taken the trouble to acquaint himself with the history of Boer legislation in the Trans- vaal since 1881.-* Is he aware that the spirit of the Conventions has been broken con- tinuously almost from the dates of their signature, the letter of them so frequently as to call for continuous protest and more than VI A REPLY TO MR. SELOUS 187 one ultimatum from the British Government ? The franchise from being a rational one was rapidly made difficult and finally impossible for the new comer. The independence of the Court of Justice, that last refuge of the Uitlander, was destroyed. Solemn promises to consider grievances were made only to be broken. Life on the Rand for any man of self respect among the Uitlanders was ren- dered impossible. There is a limit to human patience ; it was reached, and found, it has been said, unfruitful expression in the Reform Movement of 1895, so unfortunately com- plicated by the Jameson raid. It was reached once more this year, and found expression in an appeal to the Imperial Government. In response the patient and moderate demands of Her Majesty's Government were followed by the Boer ultimatum, the invasion of British territories, and war. And yet war, according to Mr. Selous, was only not avoided because we had not a sufficiently " liberal-minded and far-seeing statesman " at the Colonial Office. Will the pro- Boer critic never realise that it i88 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES VI is not because our statesmen do not see far enough, but because Kruger and his followers will not see at all ? Why were not all these protestations and deprecation of war ad- dressed to Mr. Kruger? The cry of all these critics has always been the same, from Sir James Sievewright to Mr. Selous ; if only Hofmeyr, or Schreiner, or this man or that were to approach Mr. Kruger, if only some other Minister were at the Colonial Office, the matter migrht be arrang-ed. Those of us who have lived in Johannesburg know this cry so well— some new emissary to Kruger was always to be counted on. The result was always the same, and the result would have been the same in this instance if the Archangel Gabriel had been at the Colonial Office instead of Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Kruger's offence is rank. In effect he desires to make of all but his own burghers a sepa- rate and inferior caste. Liberty and equality are too sweet save for a select few of his own people. Our first great quarrel with the Dutch in Cape Colony was largely due VI A REPLY TO MR. SELOUS 189 to the suppression among them of the slavery of the native races ; to-day we have insisted that white men shall be free. With Mr. Chamberlain we may well say *'we have our quarrel just." That the Boers have virtues we all admit, but it is no use citing this or that amiable private trait as a justification for public wrong. We accuse the Boer Government of corruption, injustice, and tyranny, and it is no reply to say, as Mr. Selous does, that the Boer is " eminently quiet, sober, and self- contained," and " but little given to brawling and bragging." There are more of Mr. Selous's statements which I should like to traverse did space permit. I will confine myself to three. For my own part, I neither believe in the permanent increase of race hatred nor the impossibility of a peaceful settlement after the war. That true liberty, independence, and justice, for which, in a dim way, the Boer believes he is fighting, will be much more truly his when a consti- tutional government and equality of citizen- 190 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES vi ship are established than under the old rigime. There is no sounder democracy than is to be found in a British colony. The present ordeal is a terrible one, and we all must hope for a speedy termination, but it will be the salvation of the Boer as well as the Uitlander. Why Mr. Selous should say that "a time will come when the mineral wealth of South Africa is exhausted " and " by that time the Dutch population of the colony will be double or treble what it is to-day," I am at a loss to understand. I quote his comment on the increase of Dutch population as assigning an approximate date for this " time." The Dutch increase I readily admit, but the exhaustion of mineral wealth is a very different matter. The Phoenicians started some of our English mines, and they are still worked. South Africa is a new country not half prospected, much less mined. To assign a period for the exhaustion of its mineral wealth is beyond any man's power, and with the growth of the mines will grow the British population. VI A REPLY TO MR. SELOUS 19T One more comment on Mr. Selous's letter and I have done. To compare, as he does, Switzerland and the United States struggling for independence and freedom with the Trans- vaal is more than enough to show the writer's failure to appreciate the true position. What these States fought for the Transvaal has staked its existence on crushing — liberty, equality, and justice between all white men in the State. Mr. Kruger has recently ex- pressed a hope that " the sun of liberty will shortly arise in South Africa." All well wishers to South Africa may join with him in that hope. It can only arise when the night of Boer "arrogance and ignorance" and tyranny has been brought to an end. Yours faithfully, Alfred Hillier, B.A., M.D. London. October 24, 1899. . VII THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR To the Editor of The Times. Sir, — A telegram to-day informs us that the New Yo7^k Journal pubHshes a cabled communication from Olive Schreiner (Mrs. Cronwright Schreiner) which has something of the nature of an Afrikander manifesto to the American people. If by an Afrikander manifesto be meant an expression of view or declaration of faith from the whole Dutch population of South Africa, there can be little doubt that the communication referred to is most inaccurately described. Never- theless, a message of this character, sent at the present juncture, from a South African VII THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR 193 writer of celebrity which is cabled freely about the world cannot, however wildly extravagant the terms of that message, be entirely ignored. Speaking of the present war in South Africa, this public cablegram reads as follows : — " It is an endeavour on the part of a small but immensely wealthy section of persons to gain possession of the Transvaal goldfields by means of mendacious and shameless lies against the Transvaal Republic and its people." At such a state- ment as this in the mouth of President Steyn or General Joubert, or any other avowed enemy of Great Britain in this hour of storm and stress, no special astonishment is evoked. But that such a message should be publicly delivered to the people of a foreign State, after war has actually begun, by a British subject, who declares herself "bound by ties of profoundest affection to England," is a different matter. The cablegram goes on to say, "The English people are not to blame. They are misled." In effect then the charges amount to 194 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES vil this : — The Uitlander capitalists are heartless knaves who initiated a bogus movement for reform, which they supported with " men- dacious and shameless lies." The English people, or, at least, their trustees, the British Government, are witless fools, who were deceived by the capitalist knaves. If these charges be true, England is indeed come to a sorry pass, and Englishmen may well "feel deeply the shame and sorrow " of their situation. Where such sweeping charges as these are made by persons with the faintest shadow of any claim to responsibility, surely some evidence or facts should be offered in support of them. The cablegram neither contains nor hints at any. Only the motive is assigned, "affection to England." In default then of other evidence, for or against this terrible indictment, what has recorded historical fact to offer us ? In one form or another, by people either ignorant or blind, this charge against the capitalist of eneineerinor a bogus agitation for reform for VII THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR 195 his own sordid ends has continually been made. And yet what is the true history of the Uitlanders' movement for reform ? From beginning to end the backbone of the Reform party has consisted of men who are not capitalists, who for the most part are comparatively poor men, and who, many of them, are now fighting gallantly and bril- liantly alongside British troops for the rights so long denied them. The movement for reform in the Transvaal did not beofin yesterday, it did not begin with the Jameson raid, it began at least ten years ago. In 1892 the National Union was formed in Johannesburg, and at its meeting enthusiastic crowds attended. But neither among the leaders nor in the ranks of this association was a single capitalist to be found. It consisted of professional and mercantile men, of clerks and mining employes. The mining magnates not only stood aloof, but the majority of them openly discouraged the movement, which they thought would en- o 2 196 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES Vll danofer their financial interests. In the course of a year or so the apparent want of sympathy on the part of the capitaHsts evoked very sharp criticism from the Reformers, who openly charged them with being pusillanimous and selfish. That the capitalists should have hesitated to join a movement of this sort and with apparently so hopeless a prospect of accomplishing its end — viz., the obtaining of rational reform from the Transvaal Government — is not to be wondered at. They could foresee the extreme friction which must inevitably arise, and they had large vested interests at stake. Nevertheless they realised that the move- ment for reform was a genuine one and could not be ignored. At heart they felt a public- spirited sympathy for the Reform party, and one by one, disliking the reproach that by holding aloof they were compromising with tyranny in order to obtain mere security for their mining interests, they assisted, if not with their personal influence, at least with their funds, the National Union. VII THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR 197 But things grew rapidly worse ; not merely was there no progress, there was steady retrogression in Boer legislation. For a desperate evil a desperate remedy was sought, and the capitalists, once having taken to politics, decided to "spare no expense," and in conjunction with Mr. Rhodes financed the Jameson plan. What the hazard of this undertaking- was results proved. Many capitalists who had now identified themselves with the Reform party risked their lives, their liberty, and their property to obtain, not, forsooth, the an- nexation of the country, but reform within the State which should leave to Kruger and his Boers the independence of that State. The errors in this move, with its temporarily disastrous termination, may have been great or they may have been small ; the blunders may or may not have been all that a thousand critics have asserted ; but this at least must be admitted — the capitalists within Johannesburg who participated in it, and who, when pressure was put on from outside, igS SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES VII peremptorily refused to proceed under any but the Republican flag, cannot be accused of having tried to bring about annexation of the country, nor can they be accused of having been actuated by only one impulse, a desire to fill their own pockets. In the face of the facts such charges fall to the ground. To come to a later phase in Transvaal politics, to a period early in the present year. Another incident occurred which marks another creditable chapter in the history of the capitalist as a politician. Recognising that once more the oppressed Uitlanders, in spite of past failure, were bent on bringing things to a head, Mr. Kruger employed his usual crafty and by this time familiar means of approaching them through an intermediary who would record and hold to any statements made on the part of the Uitlanders, but whose own statements would, if found in the least inconvenient during subsequent nego- tiations, be entirely repudiated by Mr. Kruger. In this instance an approach was made to the capitalists, and the offer sug- VII THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR 199 gested was of n somewhat Mephistophelian character. In effect it amounted to a proffer of certain economical reforms which would benefit the mining industry, and thus put money into the pockets of the capitalists, provided that a mutilated franchise law which would have been useless to the general body of Uitlanders was also cheerfully accepted. In fact the Uitlanders — the mass of the people in Johannesburg — were to find them- selves between the upper and the nether millstone, Kruger and the capitalist. The proposals were not accepted. The State Secretary then adopted the usual device and declared proposals had never been made, and the status quo was re-established. Here again, then, the much-abused capitalists stood by the popular cause, and refused to be bought or to come to terms with tyranny to the detriment of the public weal. Such has been the relation of the capitalist to reform. At the outset of the movement he hesitated and not unnaturally held aloof, gradually he threw in his lot with the 200 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES vil Reformers, and from that time forward, in spite of failure in 1895, '^^^ spite of seductive overtures from the Transvaal, he has stood by the cause until to-day he finds himself with his mines closed down and his financial future staked on the result of war. As a member of the Reform Committee myself, and not a capitalist, I am able to bear impartial testimony to the action of the capitalist contingent. We are dealing with the capitalists as politicians, and I submit that the history of the relation of this class in Johannesburg to the cause of liberty, political equality, and justice has been an honest and public-spirited one. No doubt honesty is the best policy in politics as in everything else, and in the end they may reap even financially their reward. As a class I do not wish to represent them either as immaculate philanthropists or as burning patriots. They are successful, shrewd business men, and among them is doubtless as much variety of personal character as obtains among finan- ciers in London or New York. In relation VII THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR 201 to the Reform movement all the capitalists did not bear an equal share, and some have consistently held aloof throughout. With this latter section I have naught to do ; they will remain unhonoured, unsung, and not even abused. May they find the limbo to which both friends and enemies will consign them a congenial one ! But wealth has its obligations, and in the Transvaal one of those obligations was to support a rational demand for reform. For the section who threw in their lot with the cause of right and justice, when the drama is over and the story told, a verdict not dishonourable to them and their public action will be recorded by history. But beyond and above the efforts of capitalists or the intervention of British statesmen, the motive power, the backbone, of the Reform movement in the Transvaal has been the determination of men of Anglo-Saxon race never to tolerate the injustice and degradation of that class distinction which President Kruger has upheld with an iron hand. The cause has been voiced now by one man, and 202 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES VII now by another, but in spite of rebuff, jeers, retrogression, and failure it has always burnt steadily in men's hearts. The movement originated by the people has carried with it first the capitalists, then the opinion of England, and lastly the British Government and British arms. One peculiarity of such critics as the one referred to in this letter is that they neither adduce facts nor discuss principles. Wild and reckless charges only are made, and the passions of people such as the American public, who are but partially informed as to the facts, are appealed to. " The strong are oppressing the weak " ; "a mighty Empire is murderinof a small nation " — such are the charges freely made. Was there ever such a travesty of criticism ? In the first place, are these States so weak and small ? By a system of wholesale expenditure of revenues derived from the Uitlander the entire Boer population in them has been equipped as a standing army, which at short notice has invaded our colonies on every one of the Republics' Vii THE CAPITALISTS AND THE WAR ^03 borders. And, further, if compared with Great Britain the Transvaal is but a small State, is tyranny to go unchecked because the tyrant is not an Emperor ? Have petty tyrants never been crushed in the past ? Have they been spared simply because they were brave and tenacious in contesting an iniquitous cause ? The fact is, to have withheld her hand in South Africa at this juncture would have been the beginning of England's downfall. The postponement of that downfall is more than her enemies can bear. Yours faithfully, Alfred Hillier. London. October 29, 1899. VIII THE UITLANDERS AS SOLDIERS To the Editor of The Times Sir, — A letter appeared in your columns the other day signed " South African," in which the writer called attention to the services already rendered to our forces by the Imperial Light Horse. The gallantry with which they fought alongside veteran soldiers both at Elandslaagte and in the engagement at Ladysmith on Monday has been testified to by several correspondents, and commented on in official despatches. In the same man- ner the splendid defence at Mafeking has elicited general admiration. Yet in both these forces the majority of the men are colonists of English descent, born in the VIII THE UITLANDERS AS SOLDIERS 205 eastern frontier districts of the Cape Colony and in Natal. Many of these men now in the Light Horse, it is true, have of late years been residing and working at Johannesburg, but it does not appear that they are any the worse soldiers on that account. "South African's" letter contains a portion of a letter from a correspondent in Natal, from which it is quite clear that this source of magnificent fighting material had been up to the date of his writing (September 26) very sparingly drawn upon by the Imperial authorities. Thus, writing from Maritzburg, this corre- spondent says : — " There is terrible disappointment here among those who cannot get into the Imperial Light Horse. Old hands are turning up from everywhere ; some are coming back from home ; giving up their trips to England so long waited for. ... I believe that we could easily get together 3,000 men out of the Johannesburg lot in Natal, and there must be plenty more in Cape Town and other coast towns ; but the Imperial Government have not yet agreed." It is true that since this letter was written we have received cables stating that the 2o6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES viii formation of an infantry corps in Maritzburg from among Johannesburg residents was being considered : but as far as I am aware, no definite step of this sort was actually- reported as taken. Of the remarkable efficiency of the South African colonist of English descent as a soldier I have myself had personal experience. I served in the Gaika Galeka War with a corps consisting half of Cape Colonial Dutch colonists and half of En- glish colonists. In spite of laying myself open to the charge of being a prejudiced observer, I have not the least hesitation in saying that the English colonists were the smartest and best soldiers of the two. If volunteers were called for to follow the Kaffirs on foot into the bush the English colonists were the men who volunteered, and the Dutch were the men who remained outside and took care of the horses. Our losses in killed and wounded, of which my brother was among the former, were small, but in every instance they occurred among the English and not the Dutch colonists. I, of course, do not for VIII THE UITLANDERS AS SOLDIERS 207 a moment wish to make the suggestion that the Dutchmen are not brave men and good soldiers when they choose. I have always recognised them to be both, and, indeed, for some time past have insisted whenever opportunity offered in the Press and else- where on the formidable military qualities of the Boer. In fighting natives, however, the Dutch have always been chary of risking life. But my point is that among British colonists are men who are as good, if not better, than the Boers at their own game of sharpshooting and guerilla warfare. Now, Sir, for this war we are shipping colonists from Australia and Canada, and most proud and delighted we all are at the loyal and devoted way in which they have proffered their services to the mother country. There is, doubtless, a significance in their services which transcends the mere question of military requirements, and, while their aid will be a great and valuable one in the field, the fact of their presence carries a moral to the whole world. At the same 2o8 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES vni time we are in the throes of a great struggle in South Africa, and I cannot but feel that even now the Imperial authorities might with advantage consider raising two or three more corps, like the Imperial Light Horse, of men who can shoot and ride and who are accustomed to the veld. Our mounted con- tingent as compared with the large one possessed by the Boers, is undoubtedly our weakest arm. Of course, at this distance and with the imperfect information to hand 1 make the suggestion with all diffidence to the military authorities, but in view of the splendid services men of this class have already rendered, and in view of the limited extent to which the material referred to has apparently been drawn upon, it does seem worth further consideration. I am aware that the volunteers are now being mobilised throughout our South African colonies, and in Natal they are a splendid body of men, many of them being farmers. But outside the volunteers — among the Johannesburg re- fuorees — there are in the different colonial o VIII THE UITLANDERS AS SOLDIERS 209 towns numbers of young English colonists of the right sort. Had the war been confined to the Republics there might have been some objection to recruiting in the colonies, but now that the Boer flags are hoisted in both Natal and Cape Colony, and the Johannesburg refugees have been compelled to leave the Rand, there can be no political objection to recruiting either among them or their loyal colonial kinsmen. Further than this, there is another aspect of the question. Hitherto the Uitlanders have been compelled to remain unarmed, while every Boer had liis rifle and ammunition. Whatever settlement may eventually be arrived at, it is inconceiv- able that any such one-sided arrangement will exist in the future, and the arming of such Uitlanders as are anxious to serve to-day will only be anticipating what will be necessary in the future. For if the Boers be eventually deprived of their artillery, as of course they will be, it will be extremely difficult to prevent their retaining rifles on their isolated farms. p 2IO SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES Vili In The Times of October 31 Mr. Selous endeavours to refute the charge that the Transvaal has been deliberately aiming since 1 88 1 to o^et rid of British rule throuorhout South Africa. He says : — " That the Trans- vaal Government has spent immense sums on forts and armaments since 1895 admits of no dispute, but the evidence available seems to me to show that these costly pre- parations were made for purposes of defence against the British rather than for an aggres- sive war." Does Mr. Selous include in his " evidence available " in favour of the non- aggressive character of Transvaal aspirations the following facts? Since 1881, the year of Mr. Gladstone's magnanimous retro- cession of the country — the year of that convention for which every gratitude at the time was expressed by the Boers, and which defined the State's boundaries — the Boers invaded in 1884 the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, and proclained a portion of it to be under Transvaal protection. This " non-aggressive " and purely self-defending VIII THE UITLANDERS AS SOLDIERS 2U people were only induced to remedy this breach of their then three-year-old convention, and withdraw this proclamation, on receipt of an ultimatum from Great Britain backed by the Warren expedition, which cost Great Britain a million and a half. In the same year, 1884, the Boers proceeded to seize a portion of Zululand ; and some five years ago their attempted armed trek into the territories of the Chartered Company was only frustrated by the prompt action of Dr. Jameson, who met them with a force at the Border. For a non-aggressive people even Mr. Selous must admit this is rather a disturbed ten years' record. He goes on to say, " At any rate, there were no forts in the Transvaal before 1895, and except that most of the burghers possessed a rifle of some kind, very little in the way of armaments." On these points Mr. Selous has either been misinformed, or he is mistaken about his dates. The so-called Johannesburg prison, a massive building placed on the hill commanding the p 2 212 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES vill town, the headquarters of the Boer police, was really a fort, and it was standing early in 1893. It '^^ true that the military expendi- ture was constantly increasing as funds derived from the Uitlanders poured into the State exchequer, but that the amount ex- pended in 1895 was due to sundry drilling operations going on with a few hundred men at Bulawayo is a very extreme hypothesis. The Transvaal State Artillery was in exist- ence as early as 1892, while the ammunition magazines were always kept sufficiently stocked to equip a burgher force. But, further than this, have not the Boers notori- ously endeavoured for years past, long previous to the Jameson raid, to intrigue through Dr. Leyds, the foreign Press, and secret service money with half the Powers in Europe ? To regard these various measures as of a purely defensive character is im- possible. Mr. Selous says he would be interested to hear the personal grievances which weighed upon me prior to 1895. I thought I had VIII THE UITLANDERS AS SOLDIERS 213 given them pretty clearly in my last letter but, if Mr, Selous desires them more fully stated, perhaps he will do me the honour to read my book entitled " Raid and Reform." In conclusion, I will simply say this, that knowing and respecting Mr. Selous as I do, I am quite sure that had he resided in Johannesburg for a few years he would have become a reformer, and, further, that he would have demanded of the Boer Govern- ment those rights and privileges, for the obtaining of which his friends the American colonists, whose action he is so fond of quoting in this connexion, very properly rebelled. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Alfred Hillier. London. November ■\, 1899. IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO THE AMERICANS In the December number of The North American Review there appeared an article on " The Historical Causes of the present War in South Africa," by the Right Hon. James Bryce. Perhaps since Gladstone wrote for The North American Review no one of its articles has been so widely read by Englishmen, and no other, I am quite certain, has been so unanimously condemned. A few days ago I met a distinguished old American officer in London, who was at one time in the United States army, and who served in the American War. His sym- pathies, I am glad to say, are entirely with the English in the present South African IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 215 War, and, speaking to him on the subject, I asked him what he thought about opinion in America. His reply was : " No man has done England so much harm in America as Mr. Bryce. Many Americans now won't listen to argument. They say we've got Bryce on the War. See what he says. The other wild fowl don't count." Mr. Bryce has many advantages. He is a fairly well-known public man. He is one of the distinguished writers of his day, and he is the author of at least one work, which will remain a classic both for English and Americans. In this instance he has written a professedly historical review. Confronted with Mr. Bryce I confess myself no more than one of the wild fowl our American friends refer to. Still, even wild fowl have a certain knowledge incidental to their life, and born of their surroundings. They at least are at home on the marsh. And they are more intimate with the peculiarities and inhabitants of the marsh than the most accomplished passer-by. Thus in forming 2i6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ix an opinion on the South African question, I have this humble advantage over Mr. Bryc^ : I have Hved sixteen years in the country. I was in South Africa both before and after Majuba, on which occasion Mr. Bryce was engaged in England in supporting the Government responsible for the retrocession of the Transvaal. Mr. Bryce has travelled through a portion of South Africa and gathered " Impressions," which he published in the form of a book, and some of which he has considerably modified and reproduced in the article referred to. During my resi- dence in South Africa I have, on the other hand, had formed, not by any conscious effort of the mind or will, but by a gradual mental process of evolution, convictions. They may be right, or they may be wrong, but they are at least something more than impressions. But for the moment I desire to deal neither with Mr. Bryce's " Impressions," nor my own convictions, but with what are of infinitely greater importance to this contro- IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 217 versy, historical facts, some of them as recorded by Mr. Bryce, others, inexpHcably to my mind, omitted by him. No one, I take it, will deny, not even Mr. Bryce him- self, that in writing the article under con- sideration, for the perusal of the people of a friendly foreign State at the present juncture in the fortunes of his country, a member of the Legislature and an ex-Minister of State, was under every obligation of honour and patriotism to present a picture which should be accurate, fair, and without personal or political bias. Have these conditions been fulfilled ? I submit, with all deference to the distinguished writer, that, whether through misinformation, or through what- ever unknown cause there may be, they have not. The picture presented to the American reader is incomplete. The drawing is inaccurate ; the perspective is wrong. Details are dark and obscure that should have been light and clear. The picture may be the work of an artist, but the work itself is poor ; it shows no trace of 2i8 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ix the master hand ; fortunately for him it will not permanently endure ; but assuredly so long as it lasts it will detract from his fame. Let us turn for a moment to some of these defects. In the course of a rdsumd of the early history of South Africa, Mr. Bryce says : " The Hottentots, too, vanished, many tribes being swept off by small-pox, while the rest have either died out or become mixed with the negro slaves whom the Dutch brought from the Coast of Guinea." Now the fate of the Hottentot may not be one on which the gaiety of nations hangs. It may not even be held to have any very important bearing on the question at issue. But it is a historical fact. Indirectly it is of interest in relation to the Boers, and it has been imported by Mr. Bryce into his historical review. Mr. Bryce's statement on the sub- ject is entirely erroneous. The Hottentots as a race have no more vanished, or died out, than the English bull-dog or the Manx cat. They are as distinct a race of men to-day in IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 219 Namaqualand, at Kat River, and parts of the Western Province of the Cape Colony, as either the Dutchmen or the Kaffirs. It is true that some of them have interbred with the negro slaves. It is true that others of them have Dutch blood in their veins ; but the race still persists. The main stock is much as it always has been, and both the Koranna and Namaqua Hottentots continue as pure as any other race in South Africa, and speak the Hottentot language. The race is not a numerous one, it never has been so in historical times, and it has suffered a good deal from the effects of small-pox and alcohol. But to suppose that the Hottentot is, like the Bushman, almost extinct, is an error which only a writer principally depend- ent on second-hand information could make. A careful siftinsf even of such evidence would have prevented the mistake Mr. Bryce has made. His error, as it stands, would be laughed at by Macaulay's proverbial school- boy, at least the schoolboy educated in South Africa. Mr. Bryce will do well to revise his 220 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX information should he ever again write upon this subject. For the most part it must be admitted that Mr. Bryce's errors, from a historical point of view, are rather errors of omission than commission. But the article has that most dangerous of all qualities in historical writing, the distortion which arises from giving undue prominence to some minor facts, and barely mentioning or omitting others which are of the deepest importance. All historians possibly are liable to this charge at the hands of those who hold political views differing from their own. But the onus on Mr. Bryce to avoid even the semblance of such errors was exceptionally ^reat. Further consideration of the article will enable the reader to determine whether he has avoided even greater errors than these. In dealing with the history of the two Republics from 1852 to 1877, Mr. Bryce lightly refers to " numerous contending factions " within the Transvaal. Might he IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 221 not have found space to record, for the en- lightenment of the American public, that this "faction" strife included a deliberate conspiracy on the part of Messrs. Pretorius and his lieutenant, Paul Kruger, to invade the Free State, overturn the Free State Government, and compulsorily amalgamate the two States under one Government, in which it is fair to presume that neither Pretorius nor Kruger proposed to take up subordinate positions ? Less important events have found a place in Mr. Bryce's by no means short article. As a matter of fact, Pretorius and Krug-er did lead a strono- armed commando into the Free State with the intention of executing this plan, having previously intrigued with some rebels within the Free State itself Their design was only frustrated by the prompt action of the Free State President, who called out his burghers and marched to oppose the invaders. There- upon Mr. Kruger was sent with the white flag to arrange terms of peace. The result was the withdrawal of the invadine force. 222 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX an apology from the Transvaal Republic, and an arrest of such Free State rebels as did not escape, on a charge of high treason. At the present moment there is perhaps no point of deeper interest in the past history of the Transvaal than the British annexation of the country in 1877. The circumstances attending this act deserve the careful study of every intelligent British citizen. They demanded scrupulous exactness at the hands of Mr. Bryce. They not only receive from him but scant consideration. I submit that he has incompletely and unfairly stated them. Referring to the annexation he writes : — " It was a high-handed act, for the Republics had enjoyed complete independence, and Britain had no more legal right to annex it than she had to seize the neighbouring territories of Portugal. The only justification was to be found in the circumstances of the State which had only three dollars in ts treasury, with no prospect of obtaining any more, because the citizens who distrusted the President on account of his supposed theological errors, seemed to care very little whether they had a government at all, and were certainly unwilling to contribute to its support." This is a grave charge against the action IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 223 of the accredited agent of Great Britain, Sir Theophilus Shepstone. But what are the saHent facts of the case ? Facts which have been suppressed by Mr. Bryce, but which determined Shepstone's action. Out of 8,000 votes in the Trans- vaal no less than 3,000 actually signed petitions in favour of annexation. Burgers, the then President of the State, dealing with the question of the future relationship of Great Britain to the Transvaal, made a speech in the Volksraad just previous to annexation, from which the following ex- tracts are given. A fuller account of the speech will be found in Mr. Fitzpatrick's book, The Transvaal from Within. "'It is asked,' said President Burgers, 'what have they (the EngHsh) to do with our position ? I tell you, as much as we have to do with that of our Kaffir neighbours. As little as we can allow barbarities among the Kaffirs on our borders, so little can they allow that, in a State on their borders, anarchy and rebellion should prevail.' " ' The Great Powers,' said Burgers, ' with all their great- ness, all their thousands of soldiers, would fall as quickly as this State had fallen, and even more quickly, if their citizens were to do what the citizens of this State had done ; if the citizens of England had behaved towards the Crown as the 224 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ix burghers of this State had behaved to their Government, England would never have stood as long as she had, not even as long as this State had stood. This State owed obli- gations to other countries : they knew that the fire which had nearly consumed this State would, if felt by them, very soon consume them also.' " ' Let them make the best of the situation, and get the best terms they possibly could : let them agree to join their hands to those of their brethren in the south, and then from the Cape to the Zambesi there would be one great people. Yes, there was something grand in that — grander even than their idea of a Republic — something which ministered to their national feeling. And would this be so miserable ? Yes : this would be miserable for those who would not be under the law, for the rebel and revolutionist ; but welfare and prosperity for the men of law and order.' " Such were the views of the Boer President, pubHcly expressed in the Boer Volksraad. Were they not to weigh with Shepstone in his action ? Did they deserve no record at the hands of Mr. Bryce ? So far from their affording no possible justification for annexa- tion, is it not clear that Burgers distinctly pointed out to the Boers that annexation was the only possible alternative in the interest of the Boers themselves, as well as of South Africa to the chaos which then existed in the Transvaal ? IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 225 The facts, in brief, which determined Shepstone's action, were these : — The Transvaal, after years of continuous faction strife, including the incident of the endeavour to force the Free State into amal- gamation, already referred to — but omitted by Mr. Bryce — had at length got an en- lightened and patriotic President in Burgers. Had the Boers been loyal to their Govern- ment, and supported it by payment of taxes and fulfilling- their other obligations as citizens, they might have secured for their State some stability. This they did not and would not do. Kruger, playing upon the ignorant superstition of the Dopper sect, intrigued, in the most shameless manner, against Burgers, actually inciting the Boers to pay no taxes, and opposing every effort at progress and reform. The result was anarchy and bankruptcy. The evil influence which Kruger has ever exercised over the destinies of his people was as apparent here as it had been at every other critical period of their history. People Q 226 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX who regard this crafty old peasant as a simple-minded patriot are mistaken as to his true character. He has never scrupled for the purpose of his own advancement to use whatever weapon suited him best. To oust Burgers, he raised sectarian religious issues and destroyed the government of the State, rather than see his rival remain in power. But to the chaos then existing another fact had to be added. Not only were the Boers absolutely opposed to any government what- ever, of their own or any one else's making, but they had not sufficient sense of the necessity for organised action to combine and successfully crush their native foes, Secocoeni within, and Cetewayo upon their borders. The menace which this state of things offered to the peace of South Africa was thus of the gravest character. The Boers had become a helpless, bankrupt, irresponsible horde. Things had reached an impasse, and some new development was essential for their own as well as for all South Africans' sake. What other shape could it have taken IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 227 than that of absorption by the one civiHsed stable power in the land ? To speak of the empty treasury as the only justification of annexation, and in vague terms to refer to the other " circumstances of the State " in a few trivial lines is not an accurate picture of the true condition of things in the Transvaal in 1877, but it is the picture offered the American reader by Mr. Bryce. Even Mr. Bryce, while he would appear to deprecate the act of annexation as wrong and ill-judged, does not point out any other pos- sible course which might have saved the situation. It could not remain as it was. Mr. Bryce merely commits himself to the comment that "Shepstone had acted foolishly because precipitately. If he had waited a few weeks or months longer, it is possible, indeed probable, that the Boers would have asked him to promise them a British pro- tectorate." Now this is an expression of opinion, and assuming that Mr. Bryce has really acquainted himself with the facts of the position, he is, of course, as much Q 2 228 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX entitled to form an opinion as any one else. Nevertheless, I venture to think, in justice to Shepstone, whom I believe to have acted with judgment and skill throughout most difficult negotiations, that this view is erro- neous. There is no criticism so common, so difficult to refute, and therefore so popular, as to say that the moment of the perform- ance of any specific political act was not the psychological one, not the one which should have been selected. And yet, in this in- stance, what in the name of all that is reasonable was Shepstone to wait for } Was he to wait for the Zulus to raid and lay waste still more Boer farms on the Zulu border, and to massacre still more of their owners } Was he to wait until the remaining three dollars in the Transvaal treasury were expended ? As a cautious Scotchman Mr. Bryce might approve of the latter course, but he would surely hesitate to advocate the former. That the Boers protested after the annexa- tion was natural. They always had pro- tested, verbally and by rebellion, against IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 229 every form of government placed over them, whether appointed by themselves or any one else ; witness the evidence of their own Pre- sident Burgers. The Boer ideal at that time was to remain an ungoverned, uncivilised horde, free to enslave the native, free from any taxation, free from any obligation or responsibility towards mankind in general, whether to their neighbours or to each other. As to those of their numbers who were un- fortunate enough to live in the vicinity of the Zulus, they must look after themselves as best they could. Retrogression, degradation, and isolation expressed their prejudices and constituted their policy, and they have been played upon throughout his entire life by the evil genius of Paul Kruger. Annexation was not a mistake. It was a statesmanlike act, and the one solution of the position both for the Transvaal Boers and the rest of South Africa. It was approved by Sir Bartle Frere ; it was recognised as inevitable by Burgers ; it will be commended by history. The mistakes that arose on our side occurred 230 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ix subsequently to this. They may briefly be said to have been, firstly, administration by incompetent officials, subsequent to the an- nexation ; secondly, the fatal act of retroces- sion after Majuba. In this act of retrocession the spirit of peace was carried into war. And it proved, as it always has proved in history, a weak and cruel policy. English troops, hurrying to the support of their defeated and overpowered comrades, were countermanded. Loyal soldiers and colonists, stoutly holding Pretoria and other towns, were deserted and betrayed. Concessions refused in the days of England's power were granted under pressure of temporary defeat, and English prestige was left so shattered and pitiful a thing as to shake to its foundation British rule in South Africa. The British flag was taken down by the bitter, betrayed loyalists of Pretoria, who successfully held the town throughout the war, and buried. At a later date a tablet was erected over its grave, and on its face was inscribed the word " Resurgam." Such was the act of retrocession for which IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 231 the Government, supported by Mr. Bryce, was responsible. Such was the act which, with all the efforts of pedantry, he defends to his American readers. Not one tribute has he to offer to his countrymen who so gal- lantly held Pretoria ; not one regret for the ruin they suffered for relying on the state- ment of an officer under the Government of which he was a supporter and still is a defender. "As long as the sun shines," said Lord Wolseley, " the British flag will fly over the Transvaal." And the British in Pretoria believed him, so firmly believed him, that when news of the retrocession was brought them, strong men shed tears and covered their faces for shame. Has history naught to do with facts like these ? Among the historical causes of the present war which Mr. Bryce professes to set forth, has this betrayal no place ? With the Boer sentiments at this period he is most careful to deal. To the betrayal he ac- cords not one line, not one word. I venture to say that the burial of the British flag, the 232 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX burning sense of injustice and betrayal of the loyalists in Pretoria, to whom death would have been more acceptable than the sur- render they had no power even to protest against, will be remembered and recorded in history in the years to come, when half the historical causes recorded by Mr. Bryce are as forgotten as the Dodo. " The Moving Finger writes ; and, having writ, Moves on : nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all your tears wash out a Word of it." These things were. No historian worthy of the name dare omit them. The most pre- judiced writer of a political polemic could not ignore them without a blush. Yet, for the people of America, they find no place in the article of Mr. Bryce. The policy which Mr. Bryce so partially describes, and which he regards with such emasculate complacency, was referred to by Sir Bartle Frere in terms that are memorable. Of all the victims to the policy there was, perhaps, none more pathetic, and certainly IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 233 none more distinguished, than this British Pro-Consul. In 1882, the year after the re- trocession, he wrote, " I have never been able to discover any principle in our policy in South Africa except that of giving way when- ever any difficulty or opposition is en- countered." In the future may the policy, to which Frere referred, and which has proved so cruel, so weak, and so calamitous in the past, never be repeated. If history teaches anything with reference to the emigrant Boers, it teaches this. Their protest and their rebellion were not merely directed against British rule, they were directed against civilised government in any shape or form. The history of the Transvaal, from the Sand River Convention in 1852 down to the annexation in 1877, when they had full and complete independence, was one long record of intestine strife. In 1877, as we have seen, chaos alone reigned. President Burners saw that there was 234 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX only one logical and inevitable solution to such chaos then, and that was British an- nexation. Any fair-minded man, be he American, or of any other nationality, will recognise that that is the only possible solution to the chaos now. After reading to this point in Mr. Bryce's article, the reader who knows something of South African history is almost, though not quite, prepared for what follows. Among the historical events of interest, the " his- torical causes " which Mr. Bryce passes under review, we presume that even he would not deny the Conventions made between Great Britain and the Transvaal in 1881 and 1884 have some importance. Has he sketched them for the enlightenment of his American readers ? Has he given a fair idea of their contents ? Out of twenty-one pages devoted to Mr. Bryce's article, three lines serve him to describe the Convention of 1 88 1. Yet on that document the re- cognition of the independence of the Trans- vaal has depended to this day. IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 235 The " Preamble " to the London Conven- tion of 1 88 1, which was not superseded by the subsequent Convention of 1884, is so brief, and yet so pregnant, that it will bear quotation here. It reads as follows : — " Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Settlement of the Transvaal territory, duly appointed as such by a Commission passed under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet, bearing date the 5th of April, 1881, do hereby undertake and guarantee on behalf of Her Majesty that, from and after the 8th day of August, 1881, complete self-government, subject to the suzerainty of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, will be accorded to the inhabitants of the Transvaal territory, upon the following terms and conditions, and subject to the following reservations and limitations." Then follow the Articles. Here we have an explicit recognition of " self-government " on certain specific con- ditions. Among these conditions defined in the Articles of the Convention of 1881, and again defined in the substituted Articles of the Convention of 1884, was an observance of the Transvaal boundaries as detailed in the First Article of each of the Conventions. Thus Article II. of the Convention of 1884 begins as follows ; — 236 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX " The Government of the South African Republic will strictly adhere to the boundaries defined in the First Article of this Convention." Yet in that very year, almost before the ink was dry, the Boers had invaded Bechuanaland, and proclaimed the territory under Transvaal protection. This proclama- tion was only withdrawn after an expedition under Sir Charles Warren, costing a million and a half, had been despatched to South Africa by the British Government. Such was the reward for that Majuba order of magnanimity, of which Mr. Bryce is so ardent an admirer. His article contains not one word to show that this act was a gross violation of the very first condition on which the Boers' independence was granted. For all the American reader might gather from his record of " historical causes," the Boers were merely legitimately pioneering new territories. And our repression of this raid into Bechuanaland was, one might suppose, almost a wanton act, not the expression, at the cost of a million and a half, of a determination on the part of IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 237 Great Britain that, however unsatisfactory the terms of the Convention might be, she would at least endeavour to have them respected. The ether efforts at territorial expansion — the raid into Zululand — are touched on by Mr. Bryce with an equally light hand, or not at all. It will scarcely be believed, yet such is the case, that in Mr. Bryce's article not one line is given referring to breaches of the Conventions. The term does not once occur in the article. Yet, in addition to the Warren expedition, at a cost of a million and a half, these breaches of the Conventions called for continual protest, and at least one ultimatum, at the hands of the British Government. Dealing with the Johannesburg rising and the Jameson Raid, the inferences Mr. Bryce draws are as unwarrantable as his facts are incomplete. He finds in them the causes of all the subsequent troubles of South Africa, including the " outbreak of the present war." He is positively aglow with " unctuous rectitude." 238 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX I have never defended the Jameson Raid, and I do not propose to do so now. The grafting of the Jameson plan on to the internal movement for reform was a disastrous blunder. But, if the present war is due to the Jameson Raid, why has Mr. Bryce devoted more than three-fourths of his article on " The Historical Causes of the Present War " to what occurred before the Jameson Raid ? There is a discrepancy here which it will tax even Mr. Bryce's ingenuity to explain. Speaking of what followed the Raid, down to June last, he says : — " The policy of repression had been pursued [by the Boer Government] not only by restricting the right of public meetings, and of writing in the press, but also by the con- struction of a fort to dominate Johannesburg-, and by the continued importations of large quantities of munitions of war. These latter precautions were perfectly natural. Any Government which had escaped destruction so narrowly as did that of President Kruger in December, 1895, would have done the like." Now I submit that there is only one inference which an impartial reader could draw from these statements, and it is. IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 239 presumably, the inference Mr. Bryce intended should be drawn in America, viz., that the building of forts and the importation of large quantities of arms by the Boer Government, were entirely the result of the Raid. Mr. Bryce not only says not one word about the preparation for forts, and extensive arming of the Boers before the Raid, but, as I have shown, he implies, with a subtlety which even Dr. Leyds might envy, that it occurred only as a natural and legitimate consequence after the Raid. What, then, are the facts ? Some months before the Raid occurred, large sums of money, out of the Revenue derived from the Uitlanders, were voted by the Boer Government for the fort at Johannesburg and other forts at Pretoria. The policy of coercion had been so clearly revealed by this and other measures, that it was actually denounced as one of the most unwarrantable of the Boer acts in the Reform manifesto, issued by the Chairman of the National Union in Johannesburg, befoi'e the 240 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX Raid occurred. The words of the Manifesto on this point are so significant that I will quote them in full. "We now have openly the policy of force revealed to us. ;^2 50,000 is to be spent upon the completing of a fort at Pretoria; ^100,000 is to be spent upon a fort to terrorise the inhabitants of Johannesburg ; large orders are sent to Krupp's for big guns, Maxims have been ordered, and we are even told that German officers are coming out to drill the burghers. Are these things necessary, or are they calculated to irritate the feeling to breaking point ? What necessity is there for forts in peaceful inland towns ? Why should the Government endeavour to keep us in subjection to unjust laws by the power of the sword, instead of making themselves live in the hearts of the people by a broad policy of justice? What can be said of a policy which deliberately divides the two great sections of the people from each other, instead of uniting them under equal laws, or the policy which keeps us in eternal turmoil with the neighbouring States ? What shall be said of the state-craft, every act of which sows torments, discontent, or race hatred, and reveals a conception of republicanism under which the only privilege of the majority of the people is to provide the revenue, and to bear insult, while only those are considered Republicans who speak a certain language, and, in greater or less degree, share the prejudices of the ruling classes ? " Of all the flagrant and misleading descrip- tions of events in Mr. Bryce's historical essay, his account of the proceedings previous and subsequent to the Raid, is perhaps the IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 241 worst. Having said that, no further con- demnation of the injustice of the account is necessary. These, then, in brief are some of the leading errors and omissions of Mr. Bryce's account of the " Historical Causes of the Present War," as told to his American readers. To these errors and omissions still more might be added, but we have had enough. We have seen that the picture presented is a distorted one ; that the warning of the inevitable by President Burgers ; the betrayal of the loyalists with its legacy of deep resentment ; the breaches of the Conventions ; the extensive schemes for arming, previous to the Raid, are not mentioned by Mr. Bryce ; while every excuse that may be urged is offered for the duplicity and tyranny of the Boers. So much for Mr. Bryce's history. Let us pause for a moment in awe and wonder before the immaculacy of his code of political ethics. At the grave of Caesar, when Mark Anthony addressed the Roman people with the mten- R 242 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX tion of rousing them to fury, he used words which are irresistibly recalled by those about to be quoted, addressed by Mr. Bryce to the American people. What did the correct Mark Anthony say ? " O masters : if I were disposed to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, Who, you all know, are honourable men : I will not do them wrong : I rather choose To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, Than I will wrong such honourable men." Mr. Bryce is as punctilious as Mark Anthony. Was his motive similar ? These are his words : — " This was the state of facts in South Africa, these the feelings of the various sections of its population, when the controversy which has led to the present war became acute. I must not attempt to describe the negotiations which went on during the summer and autumn of this year, or to appor- tion the blame for their failure between the British Govern- ment and that of the Transvaal. To do so would lead me into a criticism of the conduct of the Colonial Office and the Cabinet of Lord Salisbury ; and I do not think it desirable that one who is actively engaged in political life in his own country should address to the public of another country strictures on his political opponents, even when he believes that party feeling has nothing to do with those strictures." IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 243 At the close of his article Mr. Bryce might well have exclaimed with Mark Anthony : — " Now let it work ; Mischief thou art afoot." Mr. Bryce's article has worked. An unsolicited offer of mediation has been sent by America to the British Government. We made no such offer during the American War with Spain. We did not expect such an offer from America now. That it was ever sent, in no matter what courteous terms, is largely owing to Mr. Bryce. But let us pass beyond the sphere of controversy. Let us soar with Mr. Bryce into the empyrean. Let us brood with him on the "generations to come." " To some of us," writes Mr. Bryce at the close of his essay, "it," the war, "appears a calamity for Eng- land also, since it is likely to alienate, per- haps for generations to come, the bulk of the white population in one of her most important self-governing colonies. It may, indeed, possibly mean for her the ultimate loss of South Africa." We presume that by the self- R 2 244 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES ix governing colony is meant Cape Colony. By the bulk of the population in Cape Colony the writer doubtless means those of Dutch origin. Whether they actually be a majority is a moot point. That the war will have the effect upon them predicted, I totally disbelieve. But, for the sake of argument, let us suppose that the Dutch in Cape Colony be in a majority, and that they be alienated in senti- ment from Great Britain. What even of that ? Were they bursting with loyalty before the war ? Were they not distrustful of England because, under the evil genius of that Government which Mr. Bryce supported in his day, and still defends, they had been taught to regard England as weak, irresolute, and effete ? Was not calamity already written on the feeble policy of Great Britain in the past ? What other or more disastrous could there be in store ? And to turn for one moment to that side of the picture which appears for Mr. Bryce not merely to have no attraction, but not even IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 245 to exist, the Colonists of British race in the land. They, with the Uitlander element in the Transvaal, an element chiefly British and colonial, are actually in a majority, if not in Cape Colony, at least throughout South Africa. Have they no calamities to avoid ? Is disaster for them a matter of no concern ? Were they for ever to be repressed by the Imperial Government one day, and betrayed, after trusting their fate to that same Imperial Government's hands, the next ? And all, forsooth, for what ? — for the conciliation of the Dutch in the Cape Colony who, for the past eighteen years, have laughed this same fawning, impotent, Majuba policy to scorn ? These quaking doubts of Mr. Bryce are the veriest purblind offspring of academic pedantry. I know the Boers and the Dutch of the Cape Colony. There is much in their character I admire and respect. They are men, and for friends they are like men, and not poltroons. For eighteen years past in 246 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX South Africa, thanks to the pohcy of the Gladstone Government, the British have been made to appear in their eyes, poHtically, at least, in the latter capacity. Henceforth they will be entitled to respect as men. And respect is the first essential to all true friendship. Now this is not mere Jingo extravagance, as Mr. Bryce, who examines the facts "with calmness six thousand miles away," may imagine. It is fact. It is one more of those many "historical causes " which he has over- looked. A simple story straight from the mouth of the Boer vrouw on a lonely Transvaal farm, current for many years in South Africa, will illustrate my meaning. A Boer seated on his stoep, and smoking his evening pipe, sighted a cloud of dust away on the distant road. He discerned horsemen, travellers, and turning to his wife he said, " Vrouw, you must get coffee ready. Here are some men coming." Having put the kettle on, the vrouw returned to scan for herself the travellers. Raising her hand, and throwing IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 247 back her big sun-bonnet, she gazed for a moment at the strangers, now gradually approaching. Then turning to her husband, she said, " No, they are not men, they are English." There would appear to be something in the work of many distinguished literary men which disqualifies them for affairs, for public life. Is it the smell of the midnight lamp, the shadows that lurk around it, that engender a certain moral dyspepsia, or what is it ? On the same bench as Mr. Bryce there sits in the House of Commons another famous writer, Mr. John Morley. The colonies have often been the object of his special solicitude. He, like his distinguished literary col- league, has indulged in political prophecy. Mr. Bryce's latest prophetic utterance as to the political future in South Africa has its parallel in an essay written by Mr. John Morley, a good many years ago, on Seeley's work, The Expansion of England. To read 248 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX that essay to-day in the light of current events is to be convinced that Mr. John Morley is fully entitled to be described as the falsest political prophet of his genera- tion. But, henceforth, he has a rival in prophecy. A few lines from Mr. Morley must suffice us. His essay should be read afresh — at Arbroath. He says : — "What is the common bond that is to bring the Colonies into a Federal Union ? " Is it possible to suppose that the Canadian lumbermen and the Australian sheep-farmer will cheerfully become contributors to a Greater Britain fund for keeping Basutos, Pondos, Zulus quiet ? " Is there any reason to suppose that South Africa would contribute towards the maintenance of cruisers ? " No : we may depend upon it that it would be a niajidat imperatif on every federal delegate not to vote a penny for any war, or preparation for war, that might arise from the direct or indirect interests of any colony but his own." Such are the political ethics of Mr. Morley. Such the insight of this renowned but sceptical writer. Well may Kipling exclaim, " What do they know of England, who only IX MR. BRYCE'S MANIFESTO TO AMERICANS 249 England know?" It is true no Federal Council has yet been formed. But how have British Colonists fulfilled the spirit of these lugubrious predictions ? Let their deeds make answer, and bear witness to the robust faith, the patriotism, and the devotion to Mother Country, which is in them. But, to make an end of Mr. Bryce. He is on the horns of a dilemma. He has written and had published an article, pro- fessedly to lay before the American people, " The Historical Causes of the Present War in South Africa." In this article some vital facts are misrepresented. Others equally vital are omitted. Either Mr. Bryce wrote an article in iofnorance of the omitted vital facts, and was, therefore, incompetent to perform the task he undertook, or, he wit- tingly presented an imperfect picture, which could have but one effect, to prejudice a friendly people against the country of which he is a citizen and legislator, and to which 250 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES IX he owes allegiance, and every honourable support. These are the horns of Mr. Bryce's dilemma, and it remains for him to say on which of them he prefers to be hoist Alfred Hillier. X THE GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE OF SOUTH AFRICA. Approaching Table Bay on a typical southern day, a blue and cloudless sky over- head, " the many-twinkling smile of ocean " spreading broad to the westward and Cape- town, of which, says Mr. Froude in his Oceana: "In all. the world there is no place so beautifully situated," lying clear and white beneath the dark stern face of Table Moun- tain ; the traveller will see, if he turns his eyes eastward, perhaps the grandest part of all this vast panorama, a rugged, serried line of noble mountains running in broken masses far inland, and nigh lOO miles from the deck of the vessel on which he stands. And in 252 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X these mountains may be found an index to the whole of South African geography, and an explanation of the superb qualities of the South African climate. These mountains are a portion of a huge series of ranges which, in one broad chain following the curve of the coast and running parallel to it at a distance of from one to two hundred and fifty miles, form the watershed of the country and divide the temperate com- paratively fertile terraces of the coast belt from the far-stretching and more barren level plateaux of the vast interior. Within the semicircle of these mountains there exists a large interior tableland, consisting of immense plains, now level almost as a lake, with hills like islands planted here and there upon its surface, as in the great Karoo, now rolling in slight undulations over the grass plains of Griqualand West and the Free State. The plains are of the highest altitude in the east, where they approach that portion of the mountain chain running through Basutoland Basutoland, with its lofty Mont Aux Sources X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 253 and other peaks nearly 10,000 feet high, has been described as the Switzerland of South Africa, and at the foot of the mountains the plains are some 5,000 feet above sea level. To the westward the altitude of these plains is lower ; at Kimberley, for instance, they are only 4,000 feet, and still lower to the south and westward. The fall from east to west is very gradual and scarcely perceptible. On the seaward side of the great mountain chain encircling the plains of the interior, a series of plateaux are again found, which rise from the sea one above the other in great broken steps or terraces. These terraces often present bold fronts towards the sea, and viewed from the coast, have the appearance of separate moun- tain ranges. These coast plateaux have not the regular even character of those of the interior, and are broken by spurs of moun- tains, the beds of streams and rivers, forest- clad kloofs and gorges, which, with their frowning krantzes (cliffs) and silent unfre- quented solitudes present some of the most impressive and beautiful scenery the traveller 254 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X can ever hope to behold. It is among these coast terraces, which are more broken in Natal than in the Cape Colony, that both Ladysmith and Estcourt are situated, al- though Estcourt is surrounded by a more level country than Ladysmith. The foregoing brief sketch of the natural features of the country will sufficiently serve to show that with such diversity of physical conditions a corresponding diversity of climate must necessarily obtain. For the purpose of more clearly understanding these diversities, the natural divisions of the country into, first, the coast terraces, secondly, the mountains, and thirdly, the plains of the interior, must be considered. On the coast line itself some of the finest and most interesting towns are naturally situated, and Capetown, Port Elizabeth, and East London in the Cape Colony, and Durban in Natal, are names familiar to the English readers. Durban being considerably further north than the other seaports on the Indian Ocean, the climate both summer and winter is much X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 255 warmer. These coast towns have, from their immediate proximity to the sea, all the climatic characteristics which this situation gives them. Their climate is more agree- able throughout the year, it is less liable to sudden changes, and has less diversity between summer and winter, as well as be- tweeen day and night temperatures, than that of the inland, or, as the South Africans say, up-country towns. The moisture in the air is by far the most trying part of the coast climate during the summer, rendering oppres- sive and enervating a temperature which, in the dry rare air of the plains, would hardly be felt unpleasantly. The mean annual temperature of Capetown is 6 1 "9°, or practically that of Nice and the Riviera, which is given as 63°, while that of London is only 49 '6°. The mean for the hottest month in Capetown, February, is 69*2°, while that of the coldest month, July, is 54*4°, the difference between summer and winter being considerably less than on the interior plateaux or the mountains. The climates of Port 256 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES x Elizabeth and East London approximate to that of Capetown, while all three are subject to gales from the south-east, which are rendered intensely disagreeable by the duststorms they arouse, and undoubtedly form an unpleasant element in the climate of these towns. But to do the terrible south-easter — so familiar to all South Africans — ^justice, it is only fair to say that in Capetown, at all events before sanitary arrangements had reached their present stage, it was known as the "Cape Doctor," its searching gusts and eddies effectually clearing even the lowest slums of pestilent odours for many days afterwards. The rainfall of Capetown is 2 3 "308 inches, or within an inch and a half of that of London, and occurs principally during the winter months from May to September ; in this respect being at variance with what pre- vails in the coast towns to the eastward and in the interior, where the rains fall chiefly during the summer months. There are suburbs of Capetown immediately under the mountain, such as Wynberg, X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 257 where the rain fall is much greater than in Capetown. The prevailing winds, both on the coast and in the interior, are south-east in summer and north-west in the winter. Rarely a north wind blows off the deserts of South Central Africa in a hot and stifling blast, but this is never of long duration. Proceeding inland from the coast the land soon rises in abrupt ascents from one vast terrace or plateau to another ; and as the distance from the sea increases, there is a marked rise in the summer maximum and a distinct fall in the winter minimum temperatures, while the air becomes appreciably drier. The mean tem- peratures — very misleading guides as to the real nature of any climate — do not so vary, owing to the greater differences between the night and day temperatures, which pro- duce about the same average or mean as on the coast. From Capetown the nearest inland towns are those quaint old Dutch centres. The Paarl, Stellenbosch, and Worcester. At no great 258 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES x altitude above the sea, they nestle among trees, with water running through the streets in streams before the doors of the houses. Here fruit is of the best, cheap and plentiful, a perfect godsend in the hot summer weather. Still further inland, 1,700 feet above sea level and picturesquely placed among the mountains, which form a sort of amphitheatre, is situated the little summer health resort of Ceres. The air is cool and bracing, and the town has a few hotels and lodging-houses, where the residents of Capetown in search of health and a more invigorating climate frequently spend a few weeks. Dr. Guybon Atherstone, of Grahamstown, a scientific observer and writer, has in his contribution to the Official Ha^idbook of the Cape of Good Hope, divided the coast terraces of the eastern portion of the Cape Colony into three groups, as follows : "(i) A coast plateau, extending to the base of the first mountain range, about i,ooo ft. high, embracing the districts of Alexandria, Bathurst, Peddie, East London, and Komgha. "(2) The midland terrace, between the altitudes of i,ooo and 2,500 feet, comprising Albany, Somerset, Bedford, Fort X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 259 Beaufort, Victoria East, Stockenstrom, and King William's Town. " (3) The upper plateau, from 2,500 to 5,000 feet above the sea, in which are situated the districts of Cradock, Tarkastad, Queenstown, Stutterheim, Cathcart, Wodehouse, and Aliwal North." The third division trenches somewhat upon what I have described as the mountain and interior plateaux regions, and will be con- sidered later on. These divisions of Dr. Atherstone's are, of course, accurate for that portion of the coast in the Eastern Province of Cape Colony with which they directly deal ; they are also of con- siderable interest as indicating the sort of division which may be applied even to the coast terraces of Natal, although, as already pointed out, these are more broken than in the Cape Colony. Both Ladysmith and Estcourt would have to be placed under the third of these divisions. The oldest and, as a place of residence, one of the most agreeable towns in the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony is Grahamstown. It is situated at an altitude of 1,800 feet, and has a tolerably equable climate, s 2 •a ^ c > w".N ^c/5 WW w^: r^ c^;^';^ c/5^' cfic/3 c/5;2i •^§•9 c ^ • — , — ' >— ,— ' ^^,— ' >-v— ' (/I ^ •«2 S ON r>. On N o ^^ Tj- r^ vo ON ^^0=* '^ X. C M o\ o\ \r\ cq 3.5 — o C^ ON vo d\ oo' 4 " N '"' ro ^ i.i . '■3 "art 2 \r> o tM^ ■* ro "^ (D "e S a |, o - 1 t^ CO r^ t^ '^t^ t^OO 3 K UJ? 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V rt « V 3) a i c 3 ■3-S X CI u 1.1 •§•§ 3 04 rt rt - X >< W •JcaAaqjuiipj uiB^ qoiqAV (C 00 ■^ ,s M ui sXt>q j6 -o^ t^ VO •j> VO 10 VO „ VO UIBJ JO saqouj " vo o> 1^ f « 1 " M VO •OOI = uoijEjnjcs Aijpiuinjj 1 t^vo « 00 "^ K^ T t^ -^ T |-p c 4) o 0\ N 10 CO 1 'c o G 1 "^ CO o\ o\ « Oi »od 1 VO -«- 1 o . c >< 1 00 vo covo "0 9 00 VO i!l 1 ovm 1 c ■3 c tx d E ^^ 1 5) ''' 00 •9- N * 1 lo 10 « 1 Ij m VO 1 !C "^ 1 1 H ^"^ 01 r.. t^ Ov t^ J=.>< .i=±> J= >• ^ >> ri >< -0^ ^^ £A (^4 (i;^ 1 ^^^ 1 1 -a 1 v6 4-100 l< P3 in 00 ■a ~" s " U 4) ^ hfl.^ Kimberley, Alt. 4,012 ft. gsback Homestea Cape Colony, Alt. 5,170 ft. 3'Tl c ■§< c 'i . §8 111 1 0\ 1 X \ ; .H 2 .•8 ■5 * 0.2 P Qvo- c CO c maOS a " f^ |8 ^.H •S^.Sii < < -i- :2; 262 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X with a drier air than the coast towns. It is the old capital of the British settlers who first landed in the Eastern Province in 1820 ; and, in addition to pleasant society, it has some historical interest, and an excellent library and museum. The following three diagrams are after Theal. They show in a striking manner the peculiar configuration of the country. The Boers of the Transvaal and Free State, as a glance at these diagrams will show, are on the plateau. Their object has always been to force the fighting in the mountain and on the coast terraces, keeping it off the plateau. They succeeded entirely in 1881. They are now fighting under the Drakensberg, in Natal, and will endeavour to meet us in the Strom- berg. To the West there are no mountains, and our columns will have to be met on the plateau. The whole country, as these draw- ings readily show, is a huge tableland. The region between the Drakensberg Mountains and the sea in Natal is a beauti- ful one, more broken and wooded than the corresponding region in the greater part of Durban. c6i( L on don TAt>/e Bay Port £/li^abefh C /IguJhas ■ Diagram i : South Africa. — A. Johannesburg ; B. Pretoria ; C. Kimberley ; D. Bloemfontein ; E. Estcourt ; F. Maritzburg ; G. Ladysmith. The mountains are continuous, though different parts of the range have diiferent names. Thus from W. to E. are the (Ka.) Kamiesberg ; (Ro) Roggeveld ; (Ni) Nieuweld ; (Sn) Sneenberg ; (St) Stormberg ; (Dr) Drakensberg. ■S ^ •^ Drakansbtry leaooft. Coist T»mc»t. .5»a Leue/, Diagram 2. — Section through South Africa at the thirtieth parallel of latitude, showing the configuration of the land. The heights are, of course, shown greatly increased — the section being diagrammatic and not drawn to scale. A drawing to scale would render the mountains almost invisible. Diagram 3. — Section of typical South African coast, showing sea level, successive coast terraces. A, B, and C, and interior plateau. This diagram more truly represents the relative proportion of flat surface to steep faces in those terraces than Diagram 2. 264 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X Cape Colony, but hotter in the summer, more enervating, and with a greater rainfall. In the Portuguese territory north of Natal, whether round Delagoa Bay or Beira, the low coast regions and river valleys are hotbeds of malaria, and, although not so dangerous in the winter months, are deadly in the summer. On the coast in Natal itself, although the summer heats are great, and the moisture renders the climate enervating, the amount of malaria which occurs is small and by no means severe, the fevers which arise there would many of them come under what Dr. Manson calls " unclassified fever of the tropics." Travelling inland from any of the coast ports in South Africa the mountainous parts of the coast terraces are successively ascended until the main chain of the mountains is reached. Following the curve of the coast these mountains attain there greatest altitude in Basutoland ; from their to the north through Natal the altitude is considerably less, and the passes over the Drakensberg from Natal are by no means precipitous, and may X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 265 be crossed by waggons without much difficulty. In the Southern Transvaal a range occurs westwards, and at right angles to the main ranges. This is known as the Magalies Bergen, of which the Witwatersrand is a section. This range of mountains, or perhaps in view of their insignificant size, placed as they are on a lofty plateau, we should more correctly speak of them as hills, forms the great watershed of the country. The Lim- popo takes its rise to the north, and flows on its course to the Indian Ocean. The streams from the south are all tributaries of the Vaal and Orange rivers. The Orange, after it is joined by the Vaal, forms the great river of the interior plateau, and flows on to the Atlantic, draining an area of between 300,000 and 400,000 square miles, the greater portion of which to the westward is a desert and almost rainless country. The Magalies Bergen are, moreover, a sort of natural division placed between the healthy and the unhealthy portions of Eastern South Africa. To the north, following the valleys of the 266 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X Limpopo and its tributaries, malaria is very prevalent and severe ; the bilharzia parasite also infests the Limpopo. To the south malaria is scarcely found, and, curiously enough, in none of the streams running south of the Witwatersrand does the bilharzia parasite occur, although it is again prevalent on the Natal and Eastern Province coasts. The most important point about these moun- tains is that the Witwatersrand is the site of the Johannesburg gold fields. Johannesburg is placed at an altitude of 5,600 feet ; the barometer ranges at about 24*5 inches, the temperature in summer is never high, and the nights are delightfully cool ; the air is rare without being too dry to feel pleasant, and the atmosphere has an exhilarating and bracing effect, which entirely prevents the feeling of languor so frequently experienced during summer on the coast. The two great drawbacks are the terrific thunderstorms and hailstorms in the summer and the duststorms in the winter. Pretoria, considerably lower than X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 267 Johannesburg, lies under the Magalies Bergen at an altitude of 4,450 feet. It has a hotter and less invia-orating- climate than Johannesburg, and although at about the same altitude as Bloemfontein and Kimber- ley the air is not so dry. The interior plateaux already referred to are the great plains lying inside the semi- circle of mountains which run parallel to the coast, and are bounded by the Magalies Bergen to the north-east. They are drained by the Orange River and its tributaries, and comprise the Southern Transvaal, the Free State, Griqualand West, of which Kimberley is the chief town, British Bechuanaland, and the northern part of the Cape Colony known as the Karroo. To the north-west they are continuous with the Kalahari Desert, and to the westward with Namaqualand, though for practical purposes we need not consider the last two regions. These plains lie at an alti- tude of from 2,500 to 4,500 feet. They have an extremely dry atmosphere, and, especially towards the west, a very limited rainfall. 268 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X Spring and autumn can scarcely be said to exist on these plateaux, the season changing rapidly from summer to winter and vice versa. The rain falls almost entirely in the summer, generally ushered in by thunderstorms. The winter is undoubtedly the pleasantest and most healthy season of the year ; then the skies are clear, both day and night. The air is dry, exhilarating, and not too warm. The nights are cold, and a fire is generally necessary or at least desirable in the sitting- room, and warm clothing at this time of year is as necessary as in England. For although the temperature at midday is occasionally as high as 75°, the mornings and evenings are cold, and not infrequently throughout the day a cold wind blows. The principal objection to the summer, of which it must be borne in mind January and February are the hottest months, is the heat by day, 105° in the shade being sometimes reached ; but from this relief is not infre- quently found by a thunderstorm in the afternoon, and always by a big drop in the X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 269 temperature at night. The cool nights are the most delightful feature of these high plateaux, and they distinguish the climate from that of so many other subtropical countries. The soil throughout the plains is shallow, with a hard rocky subsoil. Water, even after the heavy tropical downpour, quickly runs off and, while gratefully cooling both the air and the land, soon leaves the latter dry without its dust, and the former balmy and delightful. The dewpoint is seldom reached, the degree of saturation of the atmosphere, even with a big drop in the night temperature, not being sufficient to cause dew to be deposited ; so that by night and day, except after the occasional summer downpour, both earth and air are dry. As practical proof of the peculiar dryness of the air on these plains, guns and surgical instruments carried in a waggon on the open veld never rust, and any one with a delicate skin requires vaseline or some other ointment as an occasional application to the small cracks and blisters 27o SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X produced. The thunderstorms at these high altitudes — more terrific on the mountains and at Johannesburg even than on the plains, although grateful to every living thing in their after-effects — are anything but agreeable at the time of their occurrence, especially to the traveller caught in one. To the majority of people they are, however, not more than disagreeable, and these grand displays of heaven's artillery inflict upon them neither fear nor suffering. But in some few people, in whom a peculiar susceptibility to a highly electrical condition of the atmosphere ap- pears to exist, this influence, combined with the continuous flash and roar of the storm, produces a condition of nervousness and even alarm. Froude, who at the time was travelling by waggon in the south of the Transvaal, has described one of these storms in his diary, and the following is that dis- tinguished writer's graphic account : "The lightning was rose colour, deepening at times to crimson. Each flash appeared like a cross, a vertical line seemed to strike the earth, a second line crossed it horizontally. The air was a blaze of fire ; the rain fell in X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 271 such a deluge that the plain in a few minutes was like a lake. Of course we could not move ; the horses stood shivering up to their fetlocks in water. At one time there was no interval between the flash and the report, so that we were in the very centre of the storm. The sense of utter helplessness pre- vented me from being nervous ; I sat still and looked at it in mere amazement. In two hours it was over, the sky cleared almost suddenly, and, with the dripping landscape shining^in the light of a summer sunset, we splashed- on to the river." From this description it will be readily seen that a large proportion of a limited annual rainfall may come down in two or three storms. The great plains naturally arrange them- selves in two broad divisions : the one, the plains of the Great Karroo, are covered with the Karroo bush, which leaves patches of bare earth visible all over the surface ; the northern or second division consists of the rolling grass plains, which cover the Free State and Griqualand West, and extend to the Magalies Bergen in the Transvaal. 1. Kimberley and Bloemfontein are situated in the midst of the grass plains. Some of the Little Karroo towns deserve a reference here. In the western portion of the Cape 272 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X Colony, on the main trunk line of railway from Capetown to the north, is situated, well out in the heart of the great lone levels of the Karroo, the little town of Beaufort West. It has an altitude of 2,850 feet, a very limited rainfall, and contains some shaded streets and gardens. Seen from the railway as the train approaches, it looks like an oasis in the midst of the brown parched country around. The heat in the summer is the most trying feature, and an occasional trip to the mountains at this time of year will be found refreshing. Further east, at about the same altitude, are the towns of Graaf Reinet, Middelburg, and Cradock, the last named being an especial favourite resort with invalids, on account of the mountains in the neighbourhood, which render the scenery less monotonous than it becomes further out on the plains. Cradock has also another point of interest ; it is the centre of a great farming district, principally occupied by the well-to-do English colonists of the Australian squatter class. X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 273 Here South African country life may be seen at its best. Stock breeding of all sorts, especially horses, sheep, and ostriches, is extensively carried on, and good sport, both with rifle and gun, is obtainable. Many of the wealthier farmers here — and for that matter elsewhere in South Africa — live very much the life of English country squires ; and the English lady or gentleman, with some knowledge of, and love for, the country life of England will find many congenial spirits in this interesting and in many respects charming neighbourhood. Dr. Arthur Fuller, of Kimberley, in his excellent little work South Africa as a Health Resort, gives the annual rainfall of Cradock as 9 inches, or rather lower than the returns for 1895 and 1896, and writes of this town as follows : " I should therefore advise no in- valid to leave South Africa uncured without, if it is in his power, first trying this, one of the best health resorts." The Karroo is covered by a short scrub or bush growing in scanty patches and tufts, from a few inches T 274 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X to a foot in height. These plains take their name from this shrub. Further north, in the second or northern division of the plains, are Griqualand West, the Free State, and the Southern Transvaal, The Karroo bush gradually disappears, and the country becomes an undulating prairie covered with grass. In Griqualand West is situated Kimberley, the site of the famous South African diamond mines, at an altitude of about 4,360 feet. Kimberley is, after Capetown and Port Elizabeth, the most populous and important town in the Colony. It has over 40,000 inhabitants, black and white ; it contains a general hospital, and has recently had established a sanatorium for the use of invalids. This sanatorium, stand- ing as it does on the highest ground in the neighbourhood of the township, is at present used as headquarters for the garrison. Kimberley has many excellent public insti- tutions, including public gardens and large library, theatre, and municipal buildings. Owing to its summer heat, which is often X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 275 great, and its duststorms, it does not form an ideal health resort. In the Free State, Bloemfontein, the capital, at an altitude of 4,500 feet, is a pleasant little town, though the sanitary ar- rangements are said to be very deficient, and during the summer typhoid is unusually rife there. In Bechuanaland, the Northern Transvaal, and Rhodesia, as the tropics are actually entered, the heat becomes greater, although in all these territories the land above 4,000 feet is healthy, and has approximately the same climatic characteristics as the plateau further south. In the valleys and on the coast, as lower altitudes are reached, how- ever, the heat becomes very intense, and malaria is prevalent and severe during the summer and early winter months ; and although burning off the rank vegetation and the introduction of stock and agriculture will all tend to diminish the virulence of this disease, it is doubtful whether in these tropi- cal latitudes the low country will ever be T 2 276 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X quite healthy for Europeans. Bulawayo, the capital of Southern Rhodesia, at an altitude of about 4,000 feet, is the centre of a healthy district, with an excellent climate. From the tables I. and II. and the accom- panying map (p. 260), it will be seen that on the interior plateau both altitude and rainfall are higher in the east as the mountains are approached, while temperature and dryness of the atmosphere increase towards the west as the distance from the mountains increases, even Kimberley being sufficiently west of Bloemfontein to illustrate this climatic dif- ference. What discrepancies there are in localities not far apart from one another in the incidence of rainfall occur principally in or near mountains, and of this the Cape peninsula is the best illustration. The map, in which as much as space would allow has been sketched, will be found a ready guide to the approximate altitude of the different parts of the country. Reference to the rainfall has been made so frequently X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 277 that it is as well to say that away from the coast and mountains, even on the higher plains themselves, rain is so rare as to be little con- sidered in everyday life except for the short summer delug-es falling" in a dozen or so thunderstorms during the season. Sunshine is the normal condition. In the vicinity of Capetown, where cloud is of much more common occurrence than on the plains, and at the Royal Observatory, which for a portion of the day is in the shade ot Table Mountain, the daily average of bright sunshine recorded during the months of November, December, January, and Febru- ary, 1896, was ten hours. It is of course less in the winter, which is Capetown's rainy season, and when more cloud occurs ; but ten hours is not more than the summer average on the plains, while on the plains in the winter clouds are rarely seen. In fact, on the plains over which our army will march through the Free State and Trans- vaal the sun reigns supreme. In the morning his coming is ushered in with a 278 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X frinore of crimson Horht over half the wide horizon, which rapidly spreads upwards into the clear blue of the heavens. Thus comes the dawn, the rooi dag of South Africa, an hour familiar to all her children. It is then in times of peace the day's labour begins in earnest. It is then in times of war that the native and the Boer alike commence their attacks upon the enemy. By the sun throughout the day the native both marks the hour and steers his course. When evening approaches the sky is again re- splendent, bathed in orange and green and crimson, and throwing dark purple into the shadows of the hills. Abundant sunshine, a dry, rarefied, and exhilarating air, and a temperature which is only at midday exces- sively hot, are the leading features of the climate on the plains. The habit of the Dutchman in travelling over this high veld is to remain quiet and in shelter from the sun during the middle hours of the day. This plan is undoubtedly a wise one, and if practicable should, when the heat is severe. X GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE 279 be followed by our army. The early morn- ing, the evening, and often the hours of the magnificent moonlight nights are the times for movement. One hour of work or march- ing at midday is more exhausting than three in the early morning or at night. XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING FOR THE BRITISH SOLDIER " Fire is everything ; the rest is of no account." — Napoleon In South Africa the British Army has had a magnificent exercising ground, and it should do for England's legions what Gaul is said to have done for those of Csesar. War seems destined to continue, in spite of all the philanthropy of emperors and all the conferences of peace. So long as this is so, warfare must be studied both as a science and an art. There is little doubt that the British and Colonial army, now engaged in South Africa, will return from the field accomplished in that art, strong in the con- XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 281 fidence of the British Empire and able to defend it against all comers. Criticism of every branch of warfare, both expert and amateur, now fills the columns of the daily press. With attacks on individual generals, based on imperfect infor- mation, which are neither generous nor likely to be beneficial to the public cause, I confess I have little sympathy ; but I submit that free consideration of traditions and systems which are becoming obsolete can do the country nothing but good. The country is determined to go into committee on the war and its lessons. They will cost many millions ; and British subjects, both at home and in the Colonies, would like to have plain answers to a few plain questions. I will endeavour to deal with two of them. Our soldiers are armed with a rifle of great pre- cision, range, and possible rapidity of fire. Is individual accuracy of aim in the use of this weapon important.-* Does our system of training tend to produce it ? I have by me, in a collected form, a copy 282 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES xi of the speeches deHvered during the last fifteen years on " Musketry Training and Artillery Practice," by Lord Roberts. The book is admirable and most instructive read- ing, and undoubtedly should be, if it has not already been, added to the somewhat meagre stock of literature prepared by the War Office for its students. In answer to the first of the two questions to be considered I will quote from its pages. Addressing the Simla Rifle Meeting in September, 1889, Lord Roberts said : — " We have all heard of a terrific fire, probably most of us have not only heard of it, but have heard it either in action or on field days. But what is a terrific fire ? Is it a fire which terrifies the enemy ? That depends altogether on its effect, for we must carefully bear in mind that what appears terrific to an on-looker may really be a very harmless display of fireworks, if the men behind the rifle are bad shots, or even good shots who have got out of hand. Indeed a fire of this sort, far from terrifying a courageous enemy, is more likely to have the effect of raising his spirits, and producing in him a feeling of self-confidence and audacity. When such an enemy finds that, after having been exposed to this terrific fire, his casualties are but trifling, he is apt to form a very poor opinion of the men against whom he is fighting ; and if he is fortunate enough to possess a leader who can appre- ciate the situation, victory will most probably be his. The ?l STRAIGHT SHOOTING 283 moral of this is, that it is better not to fire at all than to fire wildly. Further, if you will accept my experience as a guide, you will believe that a steady and well delivered fire, intelli- gently directed by the section leaders, is the equivalent to victory, and I am convinced that it is the martial accom- plishment, par excellence, which will win us battles in the future. Such an accomplishment, like most others, can only be thoroughly mastered by constant practice. It is in order to learn to shoot straight you prepare for and come to such meetings as this." Later on, in this same speech, referring to the new magazine Lee-Metford rifle, then about to be introduced. Lord Roberts says : — *' Some of you may think that, because the new rifle is so perfect a weapon, it will do all the shooting of itself. Let me entreat you to disabuse your minds of this fatal concep- tion as soon as possible. The more perfect the weapon, the more carefully trained should be the man who handles it. . . . I think you will all see that as the rifles improve, we are required to proportionately improve ourselves ; Rifles are weapons the value of which depends on the skill of those using them a.nd^for all the harm he will do his enemy, the inveterate third-class shot inight just as well be armed with a blunderbuss or a sky rocket as with a "303 magazine rifle" " A French writer says, in connection with the Franco- German war : — ' The small amount of instruction in rifle fire that the greater part of the French troops had received annihilated the superior qualities of their rifle.' " 284 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI The reader may here be disposed to exclaim that all these statements are such self-evident truths that it is superfluous to quote them. In reply I would merely state that however self-evident these propositions may be, they have never yet been realised and acted upon by our military authorities. Many other of Lord Roberts's speeches in this same spirit, all containing something new, all of great interest, follow in these pages. I will quote from the latest, made at the Curragh Camp of Exercise so recently as July of last year. " High courage, sound health, power of endurance, disci- pline, organisation, and leading are the qualities which have enabled British to win battles from Cressy to the present day ; and, though the qualities are as essential now as ever to an army which hopes to achieve great successes, yet, under the existing conditions of war, they all become more or less subservient to musketry at the supreme moment of actual conflict with the enemy. However steadily and rapidly troops may have been trained to move, and however boldly and intelligently they may have been taught to take up positions, unless they are able to use their rifles with effect when they have gained the vantage ground, they will be of little avail for the culminating point of all military training and instructions, viz. : — the struggle for victory XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 285 between two forces, each armed with far-reaching death- deahng weapons. " I should probably not continue so persistently to advo- cate my views as to the value of musketry did I not re- member that it is not so very long ago when some officers, if not positively antagonistic, gave but little thought to that most essential part of their men's training. It is not easy, as we all know, to get rid of old habits and customs, and I have always felt that allowances should be made for officers who had been brought up with troops armed with a weapon which needed no special training, and which was so inaccu- rate that, as was commonly reported, it could not be de- pended upon to hit St. Paul's from the bottom of Ludgate Hill. There was, no doubt, some excuse to be made for those officers failing to realise the extraordinary change required in the training of their soldiers, when the old smooth-bore musket was replaced by a rifle which could be trusted to kill a man almost as far as he could be seen. "There are, however, very few officers now serving, cer- tainly none with regiments, who were in the army at the time to which I am alluding ; and, although I am thankful to think that matters have greatly improved since then, we have not yet, I regret to say, arrived at the stage (not far off, I trust), when musketry will be recognised as the sine qua non of infantry soldiers' training, and as very important to cavalry soldiers also. " But efficiency in musketry, like everything else in the army, depends upon the officers ; and to enable musketry to be given its proper place in the curriculum of military educa- tion, it is essential that officers should prove, in a practical manner, their belief in its importance, by frequently taking part in range practices, and by competing at meetings such as this." 286 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI There may be, as Lord Roberts here says, ** very few officers now serving, certainly none with regiments," of the old time and fatally erroneous views referred to. I should be sorry to say there are none at the War Office. Probably some of the " few " are connected with that institution, and we represent to Lord Roberts's mind when he made this observation. Further expert evidence in support of the importance, the necessity, for the straight shooting of the soldier is superfluous. In view, however, of the peculiar interest which now attaches to the war in South Africa, some notes of my experiences on this subject amongst the Boers may be worth recording. I was staying on an Ostrich farm in South Africa shortly after I had left school in England, when the Gaika-Galecka war of 1 877-7 8 broke out. My brother who had just joined me, and I, at once volunteered to serve as troopers in a Burgher's corps which was formed among the young farmers, both English and Dutch, of the Eastern Frontier XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 287 districts. The burghers were formed into a corps known as Bowker's Rovers, with a roving commission under Commandant Bowker, and throughout the campaign we were continually engaged — my brother being killed in a skirmish at Isidinore. I hadduringr this campaign ample opportunity of seeing soldiers of our line regiments, the Naval brigade and the South African burghers in the field ; and although a poor enough shot myself, I learnt to appreciate the deadly effect of accurate shooting in action, and the almost worthlessness of bad shooting. Curiously enough, the incident which led to my brother's death was a striking instance of the difference which exists between skilful and unskilful use of the rifle. A small body of volunteers — many of them European clerks and storekeepers — recruited from one of the colonial towns, not trained in the use of the rifle like the burghers of our corps, had been surprised on foot in the bush by a large number of Kaffirs, who drove the volunteers out before them. They were in 288 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES X full retreat when a patrol of some forty of our burgher corps came on the scene, my brother being one of the number. The captain in command ordered his men to follow him, and riding in between pursuers and pursued, gave the order to dismount and fire upon the enemy. The farmers quietly obeyed, and began coolly and deliberately to pick off the advancing Kaffirs at every shot ; in a few minutes the tables were turned, and the Kaffirs retreated. In the meantime the volunteers, finding themselves thus relieved, rallied, and began firing from the rear in somewhat reckless fashion. In doing so, one of them shot my brother through the back. It was one of the accidents of war, but it arose from a mistake which a skilled rifleman would be unlikely to make. In fact, one of the greatest vices of the man who cannot shoot with skill, and who lacks any of the confidence which marksmanship — beyond everything else — gives, is, that the moment fighting begins, he starts firing reck- lessly ; he knows his shooting to be so un- XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 289 reliable that he does but little more than try to fire in the direction of the enemy. He fires at the enemy en 7nasse, and the result is no more satisfactory than it is with the sportsman who ** fires into the brown " when partridge or grouse shooting. This is notoriously what our soldiers did in the Boer War of 1 88 1, when they killed twenty-three men, and notoriously what the Boers did not do, when in these same engagements they killed and wounded seven hundred. Some years later, in 1883, I had oc- casion to travel with some friends through Natal and the Transvaal by waggon. Shortly after leaving Maritzburg we secured the services of a Boer who had fought on the Boer side throu2!"h the various eng-aee- ments in 1881. With him I visited the Ingogo, Laing's Nek, and Majuba, and from him I had a full account of these enoao^ements told from the Boer point of view. He attri- buted the result to the following" causes : — (i) The accurate shooting of the Boer, and the confidence it gave him. 290 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI (2) The inaccurate shooting of the British soldier — who fired more frequently than his more deadly opponent, but with scarcely a serious attempt at picking off his man. (3) The ignorance which British officers and men appeared to be in of the deadly nature of the rifle skilfully used, and the consequent terribly hazardous exposure to which our men were subjected — notoriously at Laing's Nek. (4) The conspicuous character of the scar- let uniforms, which formed an ideal target. That Kruger has always shared these views there is little doubt — his continuous exhortations privately to his burghers to keep up their shooting are notorious. As a matter of fact — although to-day the marks- manship of the Boer, since the disappearance of game from the high veld, is not what it was — marksmanship, combined with stalking, are the portion of the art of warfare which the Boer considers of the highest importance, and no gathering ever occurs without its shooting competition. XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 291 During this Transvaal trip I had an oppor- tunity of witnessing Boers shooting spring- buck and blessbuck at distances from two to five hundred yards — and to hit a springbuck at say four hundred yards requires accurate shooting. With the Martini- Henry rifle, the one principally in use among the Boers until quite recently, a knowledge of judging distance was essential, and this they pos- sessed in a remarkable degree. With the Lee-Metford for these distances this is not so necessary — as it fires nearly point blank for three hundred yards — and little or no sighting is required. At the same time, there was in Boer shooting nothing that cannot be imparted to any average rifleman by adequate train- ing. During twelve years subsequent to this date I was living in South Africa, practising in Kimberley and Johannesburg, and during that period I spent most of my short holidays in the veld with gun and rifle — visiting in these excursions the various parts of the u 2 292 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI country — and observing the use of the rifle with different varieties of game and at different ranges. I can remember the superior claims and improved shooting of the Express rifle when it came to be more generally used among South African sports- men, and I recall vividly the description of the shooting of the Lee-Metford when first introduced into South Africa for game shoot- ing purposes. I had many friends among some of the largest and most intelligent colonial farmers — whom I often accompanied on shooting expeditions, and it was one of them, a beautiful shot himself with any rifle, and one of my old officers in the campaign of 'yS, who related to me the havoc that a man, only a fair colonial shot, had wrought among the springbuck on the first occasion of his using" the Lee-Metford. His execution was so much better than with his old Martini- Henry rifle, that the farmer whose farm they had been shooting on, and who preserved his game, declared he would not allow any one to shoot his springbuck with a Lee-Metford XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 293 rifle again, as if he did he would soon have his herd killed off. In 1896 I paid a visit to one of the British garrison towns in South Africa, where I had some acquaintances among the officers of the garrison. I spent a fortnight there, and thanks to the kindness and hospitality of my friends, I was enabled to study with some care the internal machinery of a British regiment on foreign service and on a peace footing. The Lee-Metford rifle had been supplied to the troops. The cavalry carried the Lee-Metford carbine. I witnessed various evolutions in the field, squadron training, sham fights, outpost exercises, mounted infantry work, &c. ; I will not permit myself to criticise any of these exer- cises, but confine myself to what I consider transcends everything else in importance — the rifle shooting. Some of the soldiers were firing their annual course, and, on the invitation of the officer in command, I went to the butts and witnessed the shooting. The average per- 294 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI formance was certainly not good ; It was that of amateurs, not experts. The percentage of actual marksmen, even in the military definition of the term, was small. At the same time I found that non-commissioned officers and men, an intelligent and smart lot of Englishmen, were really anxious to do their best, and I am convinced that nothing but opportunity is wanted on their part to become efficient riflemen. The Lee-Metford rifle is a beautiful arm and the recoil nil, a most important matter, especially for small men, as many of. our soldiers are. I was, I confess, much surprised and disappointed to learn that the supply of ammunition per man was only 119 per annum, with a further 81 at the discretion of the commanding officer and captain. On this allowance, and with the amount of shooting which it enables the men to have, it is very difficult for them to become experts. And it is this false economy which is principally to blame for the ineffective shooting of a large number of our soldiers. One hundred and twenty cartridges are often XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 295 fired from a rifle by a man in a couple of days springbuck shooting ; more than double that number of shots are not infrequently fired from a gun in a day's pheasant or grouse shooting. This meagre supply to serve a man for a whole year is simply an absurd anomaly. The matter made a deep impression on my mind, and I discussed it freely with several of the officers. To my satisfaction I found that the greater number of those to whom I spoke entirely shared my views as to the necessity for more ammunition and more rifle practice ; and I asked why they did not represent their view at headquarters ? Their reply was : — That they would either receive no attention at all, or if they did it would result in their getting themselves dis- liked by the authorities, as the only thing which was appreciated at headquarters was a suggestion for effecting economy. Any " faddish " ideas involving increased expen- diture were received with the severest dis- favour. One of the last things said to me 296 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES xi before leaving by one of the officers was : " It is hopeless for us to try and get anything done about more ammunition and shooting for the men, but if you think you can do any- thing, I wish you would." During my residence in England for the last three years I have made what efforts a humble civilian might, through the Press and other channels, to call attention to the subject, but, I fear, with no practical result. The soldier who would beg the attention of the War Office to such a point is apt to be regarded as a "faddist," the civilian as a bore. One soldier, at least, has spoken out on this subject emphatically and well ; Colonel Wyndham Murray, M.P. for Bath, with whom I have discussed the question on several occasions, spoke in the House of Commons in July, 1898, while the House was in Com- mittee of Supply. I will quote one passage : — " His (i.e., the British soldier's) course of shooting is compressed into a few days, and all at one time, the rest of the year being XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 297 given to other exercises, important enough, but, in my opinion, nothing like as important as shooting." But I am anticipating the reply to the second question we have to con- sider. I submit that the evidence, expert, military, civil, and Boer, is overwhelming as to the importance of straight shooting in warfare. To what extent is our system of musketry training calculated to produce it ? The extent to which it does produce it throughout the service may be gathered from the following returns. A report dealing with the " Progress of Musketry Instruction in the Army," issued from time to time, states that in the whole 150 battalions of British Infantry in 1894, there were 3,480 marksmen, or 3*29 per cent. This percentage was increased in 1896 to 12 per cent., and in 1897 to 16 per cent. But in spite of this, in 1896, 60 per cent, of the men were only classed as second and third class shots, and in 1897 64 per cent, came into this category. 1 have not yet seen reports for 1898 and 298 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES xi 1899, but there is no reason to suppose that the shooting for these years is materially better. In plain English, then, the position is this — we have far more indifferent or bad shots in the ranks of our infantry than good shots. Lord Roberts's comment on the third- class shot has already been quoted. It is now necessary to consider the system which produces these highly unsatisfactory results. The system adopted for the infantry soldier is approximately as follows. He is put through an annual firing course at the target, for which purpose he receives 119 rounds. This supply may be supplemented at the dis- cretion of the captain and the commanding officer to the extent of another 81 rounds, though this is not an essential part of the course nor invariably supplied. In addition to this, the soldier may purchase ammunition if he so desires to invest a portion of his slender pay, at a cheap rate from the Govern- ment, and use it in rifle practice as a recrea- tion. Further than this, again, he is served during the field-firing — a most unfortunately XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 299 limited part of the soldier's training — with some six more ball cartridges. The developments of recent years in the rifle are such as to demand corresponding developments in the system of rifle training. I submit that some such changes as the fol- lowing are imperatively required : — (i) The present annual course, supple- mented with a much larger amount of field- firing at natural objects, should be gone through every two or three months. (2) That straight shooting should count as an important factor in promotion. The few apologists for the present system whom I have ever met advance two reasons why it cannot well be improved upon. The first is the difficulty of getting ranges, the other the cost of additional ammunition. In reply to the first, I would point out the admirable lessons which may be learnt from a perusal of Mr. Bailie Grohman's article in the February number of The Fortnightly. Marksmanship can be perfectly well learnt at short ranges, and such ranges could be 300 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES xi obtained and controlled without great expense or difficulty. As to the question of cost for additional ammunition, this objection will not hold water for one moment. What is the value of second and third class shots such as our system now produces ? As a matter of fact, in any warfare to-day, one marksman is worth at least four such men. In rifle duels it is quality of shooting not quantity of men that tells. If, therefore, for the sake of argu- ment, only a certain sum can be expended on the army, we had better have a smaller army of men who are experts with their weapons than a larger one of which the majority are second and third class shots. Unfortunately, not only is our system of inadequate musketry training bad in itself, but it is relatively bad. It cannot, for instance, compare with that followed in Germany ; and yet we keep a small paid army of theoretic- ally expert soldiers to meet the requirements of a world-wide Empire, while Germany makes nearly every citizen a soldier practically to protect her integrity as a XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 301 European State. Nevertheless, the citizen soldier of Germany receives a better training in musketry than the British regular. The points of distinct superiority in the German system of training are — a more liberal supply of ammunition, a greater degree of attention to field-firing exercises, encouragement of individual firing, and individual exercise of judgment as to distance and advantageous moment of fire. The Musketry Instructions for the German Infantry ^ provide that " for field-firing forty- five rounds per man of the establishment " be set aside. In addition to the annual allowance already referred to for the British soldier, our musketry regulations state that the general may draw " 4,000 rounds of ball ammunition per battalion of infantry for field-firing." This supplies to the individual soldier less than a sixth of the ammunition, set aside for this purpose in the German army. It is difficult to arrive at the exact ammu- 1 Translated by Col. Bowdler licll. 302 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI nition supplied to each man in the German army, but it is given out to the soldiers on a more liberal scale ; and at each separate exercise unless a certain standard is passed with the nominal amount of ammunition, additional ammunition is at once provided till the requisite standard be passed. Thus one man will accomplish with five cartridges at one particular exercise what another will require twenty for. A German who has been through the course assures me that between three and four hundred cartridges are often fired by a German soldier during his instructional year, and in succeeding years he is equally well exercised in musketry. There are other points for comparison between the two systems. The Musketry Instructions for the German Infantry, which is the text-book used by officers and non- commissioned officers in Germany, is a far more lucid, practical, and instructive work than our diminutive volume entitled The Musketry Regulations. The former is an XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 303 admirable treatise on the most important part of the act of warfare, the latter is a dry little volume on a part of military discipline. One instance will illustrate my meaning. Take the two definitions of " Fire Dis- cipline." Our Musketry Regulations say : — "The general expression 'fire discipline' embraces the several connecting links in the chain of responsibility from the issue of the order to the actual delivery of the fire ; these links represent the directing, regulating, executive control over, and delivery of the fire. It may therefore be subdivided into the following three heads : — " I. The intelligent general direction and regulation of fire on the part of the senior and subordinate officers or leaders. " 2. Subject to the above, the judicious executive control of fire on the part of the fire unit commanders. " 3. A rigorous discipline or unhesitating obedience to the will and orders of fire unit commanders on the part of the men who deliver the fire." What is the value of "unhesitating obedience," which seems to be the chief virtue of the " men who deliver the fire," if the individual fire be wide of the mark, or the " intelligent general director " has been shot down ? Compare what the German instructions say : — 304 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI " Fire discipline includes the conscientious carrying out of orders during the musketry combat, and the rigid obsei-vance of the regulations regarding the handling of the rifle and conduct during the fight. It demands, further, calm endur- ance under the enemy's fire, even when this cannot yet be replied to, carefulness in firing, and utilisation of the ground so as to ensure the most effective result possible, constant attention both to the leadeis and to the enemy, and ceasing to fire the moment the object disappears, the leader's whistle sounds, or in any other way the order to stop the firing is given. " Fire discipline must be so ingrained in the men that it will continue to influence them even when, in the course of the engagement, the direction of fire on the part of the leader can be but imperfectly exercised or ceases altogether, and when, at last, the behaviour of the firing line can only be determined by the individual reflection of each man, or the example of exceptionally daring and observant men. In order to develop and quicken the power of acting indepen- dently, the men must be accustomed to situations of the fight in which the direction of the fire ceases altogether, and must be instructed as to their conduct in such circum- stances." This appeals not only to the discipline but also to the intelligence and the bravery of every individual soldier. How often has not leadership "been but imperfectly exer- cised or ceased altogether " in our present campaign ? We are apt to pride ourselves on our individualism, and smile at the XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 305 bureaucratic methods of our continental neighbours. But, as a matter of fact, the training of the German soldier appeals far more to the intelligence of the individual than does our own. One last point remains on which the divergence of the two systems is of the utmost importance ; and here, again, I believe the German prac- tice to be right and our own wrong. I refer to the question of volley firing. Some time ago I discussed this question with a German attache at a European court, who had served for several years as an officer in the German army. He told me that volley firing was almost abandoned in Germany, and that our great attachment to it as a method of fire was the subject of some amusement to German military men. Per- sonally I have always felt convinced that with modern rifles the volley should only be used under exceptional circumstances. It no doubt sounds very well at a review to hear a volley go off almost like a cannon shot, but what is involved in this perform- X 3o6 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI ance ? Everything else is sacrificed to pull- ing the trigger at a given second or fraction of a second. Nothing can be more demoral- ising to really fine shooting than this neces- sity to "loose off" at a given moment. The man who delays long enough to draw a bead on his foe is rated by his officer for spoiling the volley ! Let us compare once more the two text-books on this subject. The British Musketry Regulations say : — " But everything considered, volley firing is the descrip- tion of collective fire generally employed, while independent is exceptional ; and some of the reasons for this selection are now given, " Volley firing admits of complete control of direction and concentration of fire ; it also admits of correction of eleva- tion and direction " (it is interesting to note that direction is considered of some importance), " enables the expenditure of ammunition to be regulated, keeps men well in hand, and is an aid to discipline." Why not say at once that the chief object in putting a rifle into the hands of a soldier is that it is " an aid to discipline " ? But what do the German Musketry Regu- lations say ? — " As in the din of battle the voice will with difficulty be XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 307 heard throughout a zug^ in close formation, and will seldom be plainly heard in the case of a zug in swarm formation, the employment of the volley is restricted to the commence- ment of the engagement and moments when the troops are not actually under fire. " b. Mass Fire. — The fire of a firing hne (Schutzenlinie) will, as a rule, be delivered in the form of mass fire. This has the probability of producing the most effective result, owing to the men being able to aim calmly and wait for the most favourable moment for firing. " The firer must be so trained as to look for success, as a rule, not so much in rapid shooting as in well-aimed ana deliberate fire. As regards habituation to firing slowly, each man must, as a rule, work in concert with the man next to him ; while one of them fires, the other watches, and the latter may (but need not necessarily) fire when the former has again loaded. If rapid fire is required this alternate fire is discontinued. Each man fires as soon as he sees the object distinctly, or finds a good opening in the 'powder- smoke in front of the enemy's line." The Boer Musketry instructors might have written this paragraph. But our regulations say nought of "the din of battle," "the openings in the powder smoke," or the calm watchinor for the most " favourable moment to fire." They deal with the barrack square, the rifle ranges, and the parade ground. The injunctions laid upon German officers ^ Zug is a portion of a company. X 2 3o8 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES XI to acquire marksmanship are of a very strin- gent characler. Thus § 32 says : — " Nothing makes a greater impression on the men, or has a better influence on their musketry instruction, than the ability of the ofificer to illustrate the latter practically in his own person, and to serve as a model to his men. " Opportunity must therefore be given to the ofificer to perfect his shooting powers in a special manner, outside the routine company exercises. " The battalion commander will call the officers together several times during the best season of the year for practice in shooting with precision, and so direct the exercise in a voluntary way — allowing special targets and private fire- arms to be used, so as to engender a liking for shooting and steadily to improve the powers of the officers as marksmen." I am afraid the traininor amongr British officers in musketry is not conducted as thoroughly as is here indicated. I began this article by quoting from the admirable speeches of Lord Roberts. I regret that I do not find in the utterances of our present Commander-in-Chief, Lord Wolseley, on the question of musketry, by any means the same tone of conviction as to the para- mount importance of straight shooting. Thus, in a speech at Brighton, in addressing the Volunteers in February, 1898, Lord XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 309 Wolseley is reported to have said : — *' Many- points had to be attended to for military efficiency. First came discipline, next came drill, and then came efficiency in shooting." Perhaps this view at headquarters accounts for the fact that out of the year's fifty-two weeks about two are g-iven to shooting- and fifty to discipline and drill. If Lord Roberts and South Africa do not change all this, then the War Office must, as some of its critics declare, be past praying for. If ever a Royal Commission was called for on the working of any public institution, I submit that at the close of this war, if not before, it is demanded in the interest of public safety for the reorganisation of the War Office. Many military critics and correspondents persist in telling us that the shooting of the Boers in the present campaign is no better than that of our soldiers. I trust this is so. At the same time it has nothing to do with the question of the expediency of making our men marksmen instead of indifferent shots. The soldier's main 3IO SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES xi function, I venture to contend, is to shoot straight when called upon. He should be an expert with the rifle, and many degrees better than any body of farmers, even though they be South African Boers. As a matter of fact I believe the facts with reference to the Boers' shooting to-day to be these. The averag-e Boer is no lono-er what he was as a marksman. With the disappearance of the game his marksmanship has deteriorated. Moreover, there are in the Boer ranks recruits of all sorts from the towns and from the Cape Colony, and many of these are almost untrained in the use of the rifle. Still, a number of Transvaal veterans remain who for the greater part of their lives have shot continually. In the Ermelo Commando are a number of this class. The Ermelo Boers live in the heart of the high veld, they trek every winter to the low country, around the valley of the Crocodile, with their waggons and families, and there they still do a con- siderable amount of game shooting. These men were to the fore at Majuba. They XI STRAIGHT SHOOTING 311 were the men who captured eleven guns from General Duller at Colenso. Not only did they shoot down all our men manning the guns, but they were apparently able to prevent our force from even defending these guns from subsequent removal by the Boer forces. In this feat these Ermelo Boers relied almost entirely on their rifle fire, and knowing the facts I have referred to as I do, I have little doubt their rifle fire was accurate and deadly. While criticising what I believe to be the entirely antiquated and inadequate system of our musketry training, I cannot conclude without expressing my admiration for our non-commissioned officers and men. I have already stated that in time of peace I found many of them, as well as many commissioned officers, fully alive to the necessities of the case, and only eager to obtain more am- munition and further opportunities for practice. During the present campaign I have heard from many friends in the Colonial forces that the gallantry of young soldiers 312 SOUTH AFRICAN STUDIES xi with our line regiments has both delighted and astonished the Colonists. England has cordially recognised the brave services of her colonial sons. It is gratifying to know that the Colonists, who have had opportunities of judging, have nothing but admiration for the gallantry and dogged pluck of the British soldier. Alfred Hillier. APPENDIX. Letter to the Secretary British South Africa Select Committee appomted by the House of Commons. 40 Weymouth Street, Portland Place, W. March ^oth, 1897. Dear Sir, — In reply to your request that I should give some account of my connection with the Reform movement in Johannesburg, I may state that I became a member of the Reform Committee at the end of last year, and was subse- quently imprisoned and fined with the rest of that body in Pretoria. I was actuated in joining the movement — not so much from a sense of the burdens placed upon the gold mining industry by the Government as by a desire to obtain some liberal instalment of reform, and if possible a remodelling of the constitution of the country — especially dealing with the Fran- chise, Education, and the Courts of Justice. 314 APPENDIX I was for some years in medical practice in Johannesburg, with no special desire nor leisure for public work ; but I was placed upon the Council of Education and other public committees, and thus came gradually to realise the hopeless- ness, by simply constitutional means, of obtaining redress from the Government. Resolutions at public meetings embodying civil requests to the Government were not even vouch- safed an answer, e.g. the combined meeting of the Chambers of Commerce and of Mines in Sep- tember, 1895. Petitions were jeered at and deputations insulted. Under these circumstances I with many others felt some action to be a public duty, and on this ground we joined the Reform Movement. Should the British South Africa Committee desire to hear my evidence, I will submit a precis of such evidence at the earliest opportunity. I am, Sir, Yours very truly, Alfred P. Hillier, B.A., M.D. RICHARD CLAV AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. WORKS ON SOUTH AFRICA, Important New Work Just Published. 8vo, los. net. The Settlement after the War in South Africa. By M. J. FARRELLY, LL.D., Barrister-at-Law, Advocate o^ the Supreme Court of Cape Colony. SOUTH AFRICA OF TO-DAY. By Captain Francis YouNGHUSBAND, CLE., Indian Staff Corps. With Illustrations. New Edition. Crown 8vo, ds. By the RT. HON. JAMES BRYCE, M.P. IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA. By the Right Hon. James Bryce, M.P., Author of " The Holy Roman Empire," &c. With Three Maps. Third Edition, Revised throughout. With a New Prefatory Chapter dealing with the Events which have Induced the Present Crisis, and with the Text of the Transvaal Conventions of 1881 and 1884. Crown 8vo, 6.y. DAILY NEiyS.—" Of gre&t and varied interest." AFRICAN REVIEW. — " There can he no doubt of the permanent value of Mr. Bryce's work." STANDARD. — "The merit of his book lies less in the freshness of his material than in the skill with which it is handled, and the lucidity and pene- tration of his reflections." A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS IN AFRICA. Nine Years amongst the Game of the Far Interior of South Africa. With full Notes upon the Natural History and Present Distribution of all the large Mammalia, and including acco\ints of Explorations beyond the Zambesi, on the ChobiS, and in the Matabele and Mashuna countries. By Frederick Courtenev Selous. With Map and Nineteen full-page Illustrations by Smit and Whymper. 8vo, \Zs. AFRICAN HUNTING AND ADVENTURE FROM NATAL TO THE ZAMBESI, including Lake Ngami, the Kalahari Desert, &c., from 1852 to i860. By William Charles Bald- win, F.R.G.S. With numerous Illustrations by Joseph Wolf and J. B. ZwECKKR. A Third and Cheaper Edition, with Portrait of the Author, and Map. 8vo, i8f. By MISS MARY KINGSLEY. WEST AFRICAN STUDIES. With Illustrations. 8vo, 2ii. net. TRAVELS IN WEST AFRICA. Congo Fran- ^aise, Corisco and Cameroons. Extra crown 8vo, •;$. 6d. MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON. THE CRISIS IN CHINA. New Works /ust Published. The Attache at Peking. By A. B. Freeman-Mitford, C.B., author of "Tales of Old Japan." Crown 8vo, 6s. GLOBE. — "A book which will rank with the best of our literature concerning China, for it is at once informing and entertain- ing, and the work of an expert to boot." China, the Long-lived Empire. By Eliza R. SciDMORE. With a Portrait of the Empress- Dowager and over 50 other Illustrations. Extra crown 8vo, Sx. 6d. net. TIMES. — " Fascinating and instructive. ... It is much more than a book of travel. In her studies of the people, in her character- sketches of the leading personalities, foreign and native, who fill the stage of the great Chinese drama, in her quick-witted appreciation of the political issues at stake, she shows herself an acute and well- informed observer who has sought diligently for the solution which must underlie the mystery of a ' land of contradictions, puzzles, and enigmas.' " SPECTATOR.— "Tht most brilliant and interesting picture ot the long-lived Empire that we are acquainted with. . . . Her knowledge is great, her power of pictorial writing remarkable, and her style is full of light and grace." PALL MALL (^.^Z^rr.?.—" A most charming and readable book. . . . Once taken up the book is as hard to put down as a good novel. . . . We cannot too strongly recommend the perusal of this book to all at the present time. It will serve as '-a most admirable commentary to the all-engrossing events now passing in the Far East. There are many good illustrations." DAILY NEWS. — " The book is to be recommended as a lively and vivid account of Chinese life and character. With its sketches of scenes and persons wherewith the entire world is now cencerned. ' China, the Long-Lived Empire,' appears at an opportune moment. It contains a large number of good illustrations." DAILY CHRONICLE.— "■ Miss Scidmore unites to the keen and sympathetic observation of a travelled woman the judicial mind of a veteran judge. This is high praise, we know, but nobody who has studied China and reads this book will think it exaggerated." ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE.—'' Her book is certain to be widely read, and it is deserving of study in all respects. The portraits and other illustrations are extremely interesting." MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON. 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