favour of "suspension" is based upon the fact that a re-distribution Act
is absolutely necessary if fair play is to be bestowed on all
nationalities, and the reign of the Bond be not allowed to again become
supreme. The suspensionists are really fighting for liberty against the
rule of a section. Their motto is that of the Union Jack--"Equal rights
for all"--whereas, as we know, the Africanders will in the future, as in
the past, demand "Africa for the Africanders." No delusion is greater
than to imagine that they will change their purpose. Their plan is to
adhere to their principles, consolidate their party, and wait for an
opportunity. After spending more than two hundred millions of money, and
much more than this--40,000 noble lives--for the sake of upholding
British supremacy in Southern Africa, nothing should be done even to
risk a recurrence of the trouble. This certainly was the opinion of Lord
Milner, and of the great majority of the British people in the Cape
Colony. The advice now referred to was not taken, and history must
record the result.
The real aims and objects of the Bond are as decipherable to-day as they
were three years or ten years ago. The people who belong to it are
thoroughly tenacious of these opinions, and to do them justice, make no
pretence of having changed them. At the Paarl the popular General Botha
has just declared that they are not vanquished, retain their traditions,
and will yet conquer. They look with unutterable scorn on the men who
joined the National Scouts, and entertain feelings of coldness and
dislike for those who did not join the enemy either actively or
passively. In the great Dutch Church of Cape Town, the Republican
Generals received an unanimous ovation, and were carried shoulder high,
in triumph, from the edifice. The truth is that the Bond exists, remains
extremely powerful, and is only waiting and watching for an opportunity.
British rule is now comparatively easy both in the Transvaal and Orange
Colonies. Effective progress is being made under the rule of wise and
firm Governments; but it is in the Cape Colony, where a treacherous and
powerful enemy is allowed to plot with impunity, that the real danger to
British Imperial interests lies.
How history repeats itself! When the fatuous policy of abandoning 35,000
square miles of excellent territory styled the Orange River Sovereignty
was pursued in 1853, there was only one man in the House of Commons who
opposed it,[9] and subsequent circumstances amply justified his
judgment. In 1902, Mr. Chamberlain would have found it absolutely
impossible to obtain a majority in the House of Commons favourable to
suspension of the Cape Colony Constitution. What is now to be done? Our
answer is, "Accept with loyalty the decision of the Government, and show
by wise moderation that we are most desirous to be friends with our
fellow-subjects of Dutch extraction. No recriminations nor abuse should
proceed from our side. Nothing will please us better than to find the
Bond abandoned and all men cordially uniting as one free people under
the British flag. If this be not done--and masses of the people have
already declared that it will not--we will have to fight the Bond again
at elections, on public platforms, and in the press, as well as in
Parliament. It would have been well for both nationalities if this could
have been avoided, but this is now impossible."
LET GOD DEFEND THE RIGHT.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] See "From Boer to Boer and Englishman," by Paul M. Botha. London:
Hugh Rees, 1901.
[4] See _Macmillan's Magazine_, May 1900.
[5] This is published in full in the _Weekly Times_ of December 1, 1899,
and is fully referred to in Wilmot's "History of Our Own Times in South
Africa." See also "The Truth about the Transvaal" and various other
publications.
[6] See _Daily News_ of May 10, 1900.
[7] Reported in the _Times_ of May 24, 1900.
[8] Paper read at the Cradock Farmers' Association in October 1893.
[9] This was Mr. Norton. See the dramatic manner in which this is
referred to in the second volume of "The Life of Sir Harry Smith."
RHODESIA
SOME PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
BY E. F. KNIGHT
_Author of "Where Three Empires Meet"; "The Cruise of the 'Falcon,'"
&c._
In all the long romantic story of the making of the British Empire, no
episode more strongly appeals to the imagination than the foundation of
Rhodesia. Well is it named Rhodesia; for the history of Great Britain's
acquisitions on either side of the Zambesi, the 750,000 square miles of
magnificent territories which lie under the sway of the British South
Africa Company, is the history of the Englishman, Cecil John Rhodes: had
it not been for whose foresight, statesmanship, untiring vigilance,
determined but patient endeavour for years towards the accomplishment of
his mighty schemes, the South African Plateau, with its gold-bearing
reefs, its vast tracts of rich arable and pastoral lands, would have
fallen into the hands of one or other of the foreign Powers which keenly
contested with him its possession.
It is a trite saying that when the time is ripe for great doings on the
part of a nation the necessary man invariably appears. It is a saying
hardly warranted by fact, for many a golden opportunity have nations,
Great Britain as often as others, lost because the right man was not
forthcoming. Happily it has not been so in South Africa. It is almost
certain that, had it not been for the accident of Mr. Rhodes seeking the
South African shores for his health when a lad, the Germans and the
Boers would have cut off the Cape Colony from all possibility of
expansion to the north. Those Powers had even found their right men. The
Transvaal had her stubborn Kruger; Germany had her shrewd and energetic
agents and explorers preparing the way to annexation in different
portions of the Dark Continent; while even Portugal had her D'Andrade, a
man who displayed much of the spirit and enterprise of the Portuguese
discoverers and conquerors of olden days. Cecil Rhodes took his place in
South African affairs but just in time. The Transvaal War had been
followed by a period of extraordinary apathy both in England and in the
Cape Colony. No one seemed to care in the least what became of the
territory lying beyond our then limits. At home men were sick of the
very name of South Africa. Many would have gladly abandoned all our
possessions about the Cape of Storms, and abdicated an Empire which
seemed to bring us nothing but futile wars, disaster, and disgrace. It
was at this critical period that Mr. Rhodes came to the front to save
our supremacy in South Africa--too late, indeed, to save for us much
that should have been ours; too late, for example, to secure our
sovereignty over Namaqualand and Damaraland, territories which had been
long recognised as being within Britain's sphere of influence, which
formerly had been annexed to the Cape, but which latterly had been
totally neglected both by the Imperial and Cape Governments, so that the
watchful Germans were left at liberty, first to establish their trading
missions, and finally to assert their sovereignty over those extensive
regions.
[Illustration: FIVE-MILE SPRUIT ON MELSETTER ROAD, RHODESIA]
The richness and beauty of the highlands, extending over an immense area
both north and south of the Zambesi, had for many years been known to
both English and Boer travellers. Mr. Rhodes, in his early days at
Kimberley, met many an adventurous wanderer who had come from that
wonderful region, and their glowing tales perhaps first inspired in him
that ambitious dream of the creation of a great new British colony that
should include all the finest country in South and Central Africa. As
far back as 1882, having commenced to take an active part in Cape
politics, Mr. Rhodes took the initial steps towards the attainment of
the one absorbing purpose of his life.
[Illustration: A HUNTER'S WAGGON, RHODESIA
Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen]
Of fascinating interest is the story--a story for the most part yet
untold to the world--of Cecil Rhodes' long struggle with the Boers and
Portuguese who attempted to keep the Empire-builder out of the Promised
Land, and of his frequent forestallings of further German expansion at
our expense. The first, the most critical and anxious period of all, was
occupied with the contest for the very gate of the country, the
right-of-way to the north, which we were so nearly losing, and without
which our advance would have been hopelessly barred. The only outlet to
the north from the Cape Colony lay through Bechuanaland, a vast region
that was divided into several independent native kingdoms, and hemmed in
between the Germans, then advancing from the west, and the Transvaal
Boers on the east. This gateway to the north has been likened to the
neck of a bottle; the narrow neck which, once passed, opens out into the
broad and precious Zambesia. Kruger, clever and obstinate, commenced his
career of attempted expansion by seizing this neck with the intention of
thus cutting us off completely from the north. It was his ambition to
extend the Boer rule westward to the German line, eastward to Delagoa
Bay and the Indian Ocean, and northwards over the steppes of Zambesia.
Pretorius had declared that the Transvaal had no boundary on the west,
unless it were the Atlantic Ocean. The first struggle therefore between
Rhodes and Kruger was for this vital point of vantage, the neck. Had
Kruger grasped it the British flag would never have floated on the
northern plateau, the Boers and Germans would have joined hands--there
had been a talk of a German Protectorate over the Transvaal--and theirs,
not ours, would have been the splendid prize. And what is more, seeing
what a vast conspiracy had been organised against us, we should probably
have lost the Cape Colony itself: the foundations of our Empire would
have been shaken. Immense was the threatening peril to which we shut our
eyes. The Transvaal War had left the Cape Colonists in a distinctly
anti-British frame of mind. Disgusted at the follies of the Imperial
Government, even those of British blood sympathised with the Transvaal
Boers, and had no objection to the north falling into the hands of the
Dutch Republicans. Indeed, the general feeling at the Cape at that time
appears to have been republican. Cecil Rhodes had not only to
out-manoeuvre Germany, the Transvaal, and Portugal, but had also to
overcome the opposition of colonial prejudice, and the complete
indifference of the English to all affairs South African. He stood
almost alone, and had to create a party for himself. Not only man of
action, but diplomatist and opportunist in the best sense of the word,
he played his game with wondrous skill, and succeeded at last in winning
over the reluctant colonists to his views. The very Africander Bond
became his ally for a time.
[Illustration: CAPE TO CAIRO RAILWAY. LAYING THE RAILS]
That struggle for the neck of Bechuanaland is an interesting story that
cannot be told here. First Kruger attempted to establish himself in
Mankoroane's territory. Mankoroane, to protect himself, offered to cede
his country to the Cape Colony, which point-blank refused it. Rhodes, in
1882, went himself to the chieftain, and so arranged matters that the
Imperial Government found itself compelled to take over the district.
Thwarted at this point, Kruger attempted to cut us off further to the
north, and sent his agents to establish the freebooting republics of
Goshen and Stellaland. Again Rhodes checked him. Going himself to
Stellaland, he persuaded the Boers in possession to accept the British
flag on the condition that our Government ratified their titles to the
land they had occupied. The Warren expedition, despatched at last in
consequence of the strong representations of Rhodes and his far-seeing
ally, Sir Hercules Robinson, the then High Commissioner, resulted in the
expulsion of the Boer freebooters from Montsioa's country, where
Mafeking now stands, and the extension of our protectorate over the
whole of Bechuanaland. Then Rhodes arranged for the taking over of
Khama's land, and the gateway to the north was won. Foiled again, and
thus hemmed in on the west, the stubborn Kruger sent his very able agent
Grobler to Lobengula to obtain from him a Matabele concession to the
Transvaal. Rhodes found that it was hopeless to attempt to bring the
Imperial Government to a sense of the danger of the position, so now,
before it was too late, he had to act promptly for himself. He sent
Maguire Thomson and Rudd to Lobengula to obtain a concession from him
before Grobler had carried out his mission. They were successful; the
Governor ratified the concession. Dr. Jameson and Dr. Harris went to
Matabeleland to deliver to the king the stipulated arms and ammunition;
and despite the bitter opposition of the Cape statesman and consistently
anti-British Englishman, Mr. Merriman, the deed of concession was
sealed, and its validity was recognised by the Government. And thus in
1888, after years of patient endeavour, Cecil Rhodes at last had made
the way clear for the realisation of his mighty scheme.
The sinews of war had now to be found; and Rhodes, in anticipation,
before the granting of the concession, had made his provisions. First he
had brought about the amalgamation of the diamond-mining companies, and
then, as head of the great De Beers Corporation with its rent-roll of
four millions sterling a year, he, in 1887, effected the alteration of
the De Beers Trust Deed by a liquidation of the Company, so as to give
the De Beers directors power to apply the Company's funds to outside
objects, that is, to the development of the North. Messrs. Barnato and
Beit agreed to this on the condition of being made life governors, and
ever since loyally co-operated with Rhodes in the execution of his
scheme.
The next step was the granting of the charter by the British Government
in 1889, and the creation of the British South Africa Company. Then
Rhodes sent out the famous Pioneer Expedition to Mashonaland, and the
white men established themselves in Rhodesia. It must be borne in mind
that at that time and for years afterwards Rhodes had to be ever closely
watching and cunningly circumventing the German Boers and Portuguese,
who spared no effort to keep us from the north. Bismarck's agent, Count
Pffeil, was sent on a secret mission to South Africa and all but
succeeded in anticipating Rhodes, and in winning for Germany a broad
strip of territory that would have connected her eastern and western
possessions, so forming a bar across Africa from ocean to ocean that
would have effectually shut us out. Then there was the Boer trek into
Mashonaland in 1891, when the Rhodesians guarded the drifts against the
invaders--a scheme of Kruger's that was frustrated without the shedding
of blood. Even when the Pioneer Expedition was on its way, the
energetic Portuguese D'Andrade was distributing the flags of his country
among the chiefs, and attempting to get concessions that would cut
Mashonaland off from Matabeleland. To defeat his plans Rhodes entered
into a treaty with Umtassa, and obtained the Gazaland concession from
Gungunyana, a concession which would have extended the Chartered
Company's possessions to the shores of the Indian Ocean had not Lord
Salisbury refused to ratify it and acknowledged the claims of Portugal.
Then again in 1889 Rhodes, whose Intelligence Department always supplied
him in good time with information as to the doings of his rivals,
hearing that Germany intended to cut us off at the head of Lake Nyassa,
secretly sent Mr. H. H. Johnson to hoist British flags at Port Abercorn
on Lake Tanganyika and other places, as proof of our occupation. The
Portuguese also hoped to erect a wall against our expansion by
connecting her eastern and western territories, and for this purpose an
expedition set out from Angola to seize the Barotse country, but here
Rhodes again forestalled them; his mission was the first to arrive in
the country, and Barotseland was placed under our protection. The way
these things were done by Rhodes' agents, the hardships endured, the
perils incurred by these adventurous men who--unlike the Portuguese
agents who were always accompanied by large bands of armed men--plunged
alone into these savage regions to carry out their hazardous missions,
makes a wonderful story indeed of British pluck and enterprise.
The Pioneer Expedition set out in June 1890. The Pioneer Column, which
had been enrolled by Major Frank Johnson, consisted of 187 men who had
decided to try their fortunes in the new country, and it was accompanied
by 650 mounted police, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Pennefather.
The famous hunter, Selous, acted as guide. The ox-waggons carried
provisions and other stores sufficient to supply the whole force for six
months. For four hundred miles the Pioneers marched into Mashonaland,
constructing a road as they went, and making drifts at the many rivers
to enable the waggons to cross. Forts were built at intervals, and small
garrisons were left in them. At last they came to their objective point,
Mount Hampden; and hard by it they built Fort Salisbury, now the capital
of all Rhodesia. The Pioneer Force was now disbanded, each man
receiving, in addition to his pay, the right to peg out fifteen gold
claims and 3000 acres of land. The men scattered over the country,
prospecting for gold and pegging out their claims and farms. The first
rainy season was a terrible one for them; it was an exceptionally bad
year; all transport was interrupted, supplies fell short; the men had to
live on native foodstuffs; great privations were endured; many died;
and, as in every other part of our Empire, the ways of Rhodesia are
strewn with the bones of the men who won the land for their country.
But the men who go out as the pioneers of the Empire are not easily
discouraged. The settlement and development of the country was at once
undertaken with energy. Arrangements were made for the administration of
the new State; a legal system was created; roads were constructed;
mining plant was brought up; mining operations commenced; land was
brought under cultivation; stores were opened; townships were surveyed,
and rose rapidly from the wilderness, handsome brick buildings taking
the place of the huts in which the pioneers roughed it at first. But the
development of the country was much retarded by the difficulty of
communication and the enormous cost of transport. Little could be done
until Rhodesia was afforded railway communication with the coast; so Mr.
Rhodes made arrangements for the extension of the Cape railway from its
then terminus at Kimberley, and for the construction of a line to Beira
on the east coast.
The Chartered Company had not long effected its active occupation of
Mashonaland before the Matabele impis resumed their murderous raids on
the Mashonas, and in 1893 the Matabele war broke out, leading to the
overthrow of Lobengula and the absorption of Matabeleland by the
Chartered Company. Nearly every able-bodied white man in Mashonaland
volunteered his services. Three columns, numbering nine hundred men in
all, marched through the country, defeating the Matabele impis on the
Shangani and Zambesi; Bulawayo was occupied, and with the gallant stand
of Wilson and his little force, the war was brought to a conclusion.
Then the white man's city began to rise from the veldt, hard by the
burnt kraal of Lobengula. Towards the close of the war I travelled in an
ox-waggon with some Boer transport riders from the Marico Valley in the
Transvaal--about thirty miles from Mafeking--to Bulawayo. This beautiful
valley ("the Granary of the Transvaal") was the old home of Moselekatse,
Lobengula's father. It was a fat land; there is none so rich for a
hundred leagues around; for tribes of Zulu blood will establish
themselves in none but the best country, and they will trek far to find
it. The rolling land of Marico is as fertile as it is beautiful. It is
as green as Devon, and the pretty farmhouses of the prosperous people
are scattered among rich pastures, great fields of corn, and fruit
orchards. Fifty years ago the Boers and their Baralong allies drove
Moselekatse and his raiding warriors out of Marico, and sent them
trekking north to seek a new home. So northward they travelled,
murdering and cattle-lifting as they went, traversing good country, but
not such as would satisfy the Zulu, until at last, nearly five hundred
miles from Marico, they came to a land even more favoured than that
they had left, and settled down in what is now called Matabeleland. I
followed their route, and could then understand their choice. Fair
indeed to the eye appears the green, well-watered high veldt of
Matabeleland as the traveller from the south opens it out on reaching
the watershed between the Crocodile and the Zambesi rivers. Lieutenant
Maund, who some years before had been sent to spy out Matabeleland, with
justice reported that, "when compared to the country south of it, it was
as Canaan after the wilderness." When I reached the place where
Bulawayo, with its stately buildings, now stands, I found a few hundred
white men occupying a little temporary settlement of native huts and
tattered tents that had sprung up round the newly-constructed fort; the
building of the modern city had not commenced. A little later I was
present at the first auction of township stands. The alternate land lots
bearing even numbers, lining one side of what was to be the chief
street, were sold. They fetched about £50 apiece. A few months
afterwards the alternate stands bearing odd numbers were sold by
auction; they all fetched over £400 apiece, the highest price realised
being £900. Some of the stands, that could have been purchased for £50
each in 1893, are at the present time worth six or seven thousand pounds
apiece, and realise that price when put on the market. I quote these
figures to show that whatever critics at home may think of the future of
Rhodesia, those on the spot have confidence in it. The Matabele War was
scarcely over before the volunteers, having received their mining, farm,
and loot rights, scattered over the country to prospect and peg out
their claims. It was wonderful to observe how quickly, under Dr.
Jameson's able administration, everything was put in order, and
Matabeleland began to assume the aspect of a settled country. Bulawayo
was soon a fine city, having its water-works, electric lighting,
hospitals, public schools, its imposing court-house and other handsome
public buildings. Townships sprang up like mushrooms all over the high
veldt in the vicinity of the gold-bearing reefs. The population rapidly
increased. The Chartered Company, in the meanwhile, pushed on the
railway from Mafeking towards Bulawayo, proceeded to construct the line
from Umtali to Beira, and quickly placed Bulawayo into telegraphic
communication with the outer world. And now there was every sign of
prosperity; the development of the gold mines gave encouraging results;
trade was good; the value of the land for farming was proved, and
excellent crops were raised; Rhodesia's future seemed assured. But it
was fated that its progress should be retarded by an extraordinary
succession of disasters; surely no new country was ever so sorely
tried.