CONCLUSION.
I have now finished my task and am writing my last chapter as I make my
way home across the Bay of Biscay. It has been laborious enough but has
been made very pleasant by the unvarying kindness of every one with whom
I have come in contact. My thanks are specially due to those who have
travelled with me or allowed me to travel with them. I have had the good
fortune never to have been alone on the road,--and thus that which would
otherwise have been inexpressibly tedious has been made pleasant. I must
take this last opportunity of repeating here, what I have said more than
once before, that my thanks in this respect are due to the Dutch as
warmly as to the English. I am disposed to think that a wrong impression
as to the so-called Dutch Boer of South Africa has become common at
home. It has been imagined by some people,--I must acknowledge to have
received such an impression myself,--that the Boer was a European who
had retrograded from civilization, and had become savage, barbarous, and
unkindly. There can be no greater mistake. The courtesies of life are as
dear to him as to any European. The circumstances of his secluded life
have made him unprogressive. It may, however, be that the same
circumstances have maintained with him that hospitality for strangers
and easy unobtrusive familiarity of manners, which the contests and
rapidity of modern life have banished from us in Europe. The Dutch Boer,
with all his roughness, is a gentleman in his manners from his head to
his heels.
When a man has travelled through a country under beneficent auspices,
and has had everything shewn to him and explained to him with frank
courtesy, he seems to be almost guilty of a breach of hospitality if, on
his coming away, he speaks otherwise than in glowing terms of the
country where he has been so received. I know that I have left behind me
friends in South Africa who, when they shall have read my book or shall
hear how I have spoken of their Institutions, will be ill satisfied with
me. I specially fear this in regard to the Cape Colony where I can go on
all fours neither with the party in power who think that parliamentary
forms of Government must be serviceable for South Africa, because they
have been proved to be so for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; nor
with those opposed to them who would fain keep the native races in
subjection by military power. I would make the Kafir in all respects
equal to the white man;--but I would give him no voting power till he is
equal to the white man in education as in other things.
It will be brought against me as an accusation that I have made my
enquiries and have written my book in a hurry. It has been done
hurriedly. Day by day as I have travelled about the continent in the
direction indicated in its pages I have written my book. The things
which I have seen have been described within a few hours of my seeing
them. The words that I have heard have been made available for what
they were worth,--as far as it was within my power to do so,--before
they were forgotten. A book so written must often be inaccurate; but it
may possibly have something in it of freshness to atone for its
inaccuracies. In writing such a book a man has for a time to fill
himself exclusively with his subject,--to make every thought that he has
South African for the time, to give all his energy to the work in hand,
to talk about it, fight about it, think about it, write about it, and
dream about it. This I have endeavoured to do, and here is the result.
To spend five years in studying a country and then to come home and
devote five more to writing a book about it, is altogether out of my
way. The man who can do it will achieve much more than I shall. But had
I ever attempted it in writing other books I should have failed worse
than I have done. Had I thought of it in regard to South Africa my book
would never have been written at all.
I fancy that I owe an apology to some whom I have answered rather
shortly when they have scolded me for not making a longer stay in their
own peculiar spots. “You have come to write a book about South Africa
and you have no right to go away without devoting a day to my ----” sugar
plantation, or distillery, or whatever the interesting enterprise may
have been. “You have only been three days in our town and I don’t think
you are doing us justice.” It has been hard to answer these accusations
with a full explanation of all the facts,--including the special
fact,--unimportant to all but one or two, that South Africa with all its
charms is not so comfortable at my present age as the arm-chair in my
own book room. But in truth the man who has an interesting enterprise of
his own or who patriotically thinks that his own town only wants to be
known to be recognized as a Paradise among municipalities would, if
their power were as great as their zeal, render such a task as that I
have undertaken altogether impossible. The consciousness of their own
merit robs them of all sense of proportion. Such a one will acknowledge
that South Africa is large;--but South Africa will not be as large to
him as his own mill or his own Chamber of Commerce, and he will not
believe that eyes seeing other than his eyes can be worthy of any
credit. I know that I did not go to see this gentleman’s orchard as I
half promised, or the other gentleman’s collection of photographs, and I
here beg their pardons and pray them to remember how many things I had
to see and how many miles I had to travel.
That I have visited all European South Africa I cannot boast. The
country is very large. We may say so large as to be at present
limitless. We do not as yet at all know our own boundaries. But I
visited the seat of Government in each district, and, beyond the
Capitals, saw enough of the life and ways of each of them to justify me,
I hope, in speaking of their condition and their prospects. I have also
endeavoured to explain roughly the way in which each of these districts
became what it now is. In doing this I have taken my facts partly from
those who have gone before me in writing the history of South
Africa,--whose names I have mentioned in my introductory
chapter,--partly from official records, and partly from the words of
those who witnessed and perhaps bore a share in the changes as they
were made. The first thing an Englishman has to understand in the story
of South Africa is the fact that the great and almost unnatural
extension of our colonization,--unnatural when the small number of
English emigrants who have gone there is considered,--has been produced
by the continued desire of the Dutch farmers to take themselves out of
the reach of English laws, and English feelings. The abolition of
slavery was the great cause of this,--though not the only cause; and the
abolition of slavery in British dominions is now only forty years old.
Since that time Natal, the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and
Griqualand West have sprung into existence, and they were all, in the
first instance, peopled by sturdy Dutchmen running away from the to them
disgusting savour of Exeter Hall. They would encounter anything, go
anywhere, rather than submit to British philanthropy. Then we have run
after them with our philanthropy in our hands,--with such results as I
have endeavoured to depict in these pages.
This is the first thing that we shall have to understand,--but as the
mind comes to dwell on the subject it will not be the chief thing. It
must be the first naturally. To an Englishman the Cape of Good Hope, and
Natal, and now the Transvaal are British Colonies,--with a British
history, short or long. The way in which we became possessed of these
and the manner in which they have been ruled; the trouble or the glory
which have come to us from them; the success of them or the failure in
affording homes for our ever-increasing population;--these are the
questions which must affect us first. But when we learn that in those
South African Colonies though we may not have succeeded in making homes
for many English,--not even comparatively for many Europeans,--we have
become the arbiters of the homes, the masters of the destinies, of
millions of black men; when we recognize the fact that here we have
imposed upon us the duty of civilizing, of training to the yoke of
labour and releasing from the yoke of slavery a strong, vital,
increasing and intelligent population; when this becomes plain to us, as
I think it must become plain,--then we shall know that the chief thing
to be regarded is our duty to the nations over which we have made
ourselves the masters.
South Africa is a country of black men,--and not of white men. It has
been so; it is so; and it will continue to be so. In this respect it is
altogether unlike Australia, unlike the Canadas, and unlike New Zealand.
And, as it is unlike them, so should it be to us a matter of much purer
gratification than are those successful Colonies. There we have gone
with our ploughs and with our brandy, with all the good and with all the
evil which our civilization has produced, and throughout the lands the
native races have perished by their contact with us. They have withered
by commune with us as the weaker weedy grasses of Nature’s first
planting wither and die wherever come the hardier plants, which science
added to nature has produced. I am not among those who say that this has
been caused by our cruelty. It has often been that we have struggled our
very best to make our landing on a shore an unmixed blessing to those to
whom we have come. In New Zealand we strove hard for this;--but in New
Zealand the middle of the next century will probably hear of the
existence of some solitary last Maori. It may be that this was
necessary. All the evidence we have seems to show that it was so. But it
is hardly the less sad because it was necessary. In Australia we have
been successful. We are clothed with its wools. Our coffers are filled
with its gold. Our brothers and our children are living there in
bounteous plenty. But during the century that we have been there we have
caused the entire population of a whole continent to perish. It is
impossible to think of such prosperity without a dash of suffering,
without a pang of remorse.
In South Africa it is not so. The tribes which before our coming were
wont to destroy themselves in civil wars have doubled their population
since we have turned their assagais to ploughshares. Thousands, ten
thousands of them, are working for wages. Even beyond the realms which
we call our own we have stopped the cruelties of the Chiefs and the no
less fatal superstitions of the priests. The Kafir and the Zulu are free
men, and understand altogether the privileges of their freedom. In one
town of 18,000 inhabitants, 10,000 of them are now receiving 10s. a week
each man, in addition to their diet. Here at any rate we have not come
as a blighting poison to the races whom we have found in the country of
our adoption. This I think ought to endear South Africa to us.
But it must at the same time tell us that South Africa is a black
country and not a white one;--that the important person in South Africa
is the Kafir and the Zulu, the Bechuana and the Hottentot;--not the
Dutchman or the Englishman. On the subject of population I have already
shewn that the information at my command is a little confused. Such
confusion cannot be avoided when only estimates are made. But if I take
credit for 340,000 white people in South Africa, I certainly claim as
many as the country holds;--and I am probably within the mark if I say
that our direct influence extends over 3,000,000 of Natives. What is the
number of British subjects cannot even be estimated, because we do not
know our Transvaal limits. There are also whole tribes to the
North-West, in Bechuanaland, Damaraland, and Namaqualand anxious to be
annexed but not yet annexed. To all those we owe the duty of protection,
and all of them before long will be British subjects. As in India or
Ceylon, where the people are a coloured people, Asiatic and not
European, it is our first duty to govern them so that they may prosper,
to defend them from ill-usage, to teach them what we know ourselves, to
make them free, so in South Africa it is our chief duty to do the same
thing for the Natives there. The white man is the master, and the master
can generally protect himself. He can avail himself of the laws, and
will always have so many points in his favour that a paternal government
need not be much harassed on his account. Compared with the Native he is
numerically but one to ten. But in strength, influence, and capacity he
has ten to one the best of it.
What is our duty to the Kafir or Zulu? There are so many views of our
duty! One believes that we have done the important thing if we teach him
to sing hymns. Another would give him back,--say a tenth of the land
that has been taken away from him, and then leave him. A third, the most
confident of them all, thinks that everything hangs on “a rod of
iron,”--between which and slavery the distance is very narrow. The rod
of iron generally means compelled work, the amount of wages to be
settled by the judgment of the master. A fourth would give him a
franchise and let him vote for a Member of Parliament,--which of course
includes the privilege of becoming a Member of Parliament, and of
becoming Prime Minister if he can get enough of his own class to back
him.
I am afraid that I cannot agree altogether with any of these four. The
hymns, which as I speak of them include all religious teaching, have as
yet gone but a very little way. Something has been done,--that something
having shewn itself rather in a little book-learning than in
amelioration of conduct as the result of comprehended Christianity. But
the work will progress. In its way it is good, though the good done is
so little commensurate with the missionary labour given and the
missionary money spent!
The land scheme,--the giving up of locations to the people,--is good
also to some extent if it be unmixed with such missionary attempts as
some which I have attempted to describe as existing in the western
province of the Cape Colony. There is a certain justice in it, and it
enables the people to fall gradually into the way of working for wages.
It has on the other hand the counterbalancing tendency of teaching the
people to think that they can live idle on their own land,--as used to
be the case with the Irishmen who held a couple of acres of ground.
“The iron rod” is to me abominable. It means always some other treatment
for the coloured man than that which is given to the white man. There
can be no good done till the two stand before the law exactly on the
same ground. The “iron-rodder” desires to get work out of the black
man;--and so do I, and so does every friend of the black man. The
question is how the work shall be got out of them. “Make him work,” says
the iron-rodder. “There he is, idle, fat as a pig on stolen mutton, and
doing nothing; with thews and sinews by which I could be made so
comfortable, if only I could use them.” “But how are you entitled to his
work?” is the answer readiest at hand. “Because he steals my cattle,”
says the iron-rodder, generally with a very limited amount of truth and
less of logic. Because his cattle have been stolen once or twice he
would subject the whole race to slavery,--unconscious that the slave’s
work, if he could get it, would in the long run be very much less
profitable to him than the free labour by which, in spite of all his
assertions to the contrary, he does till his land, and herd his cattle,
and shear his sheep and garner his wealth.
Then comes the question of the franchise. He who would give the black
man a vote is generally the black man’s most advanced friend, the direct
enemy of the iron-rodder, and is to be found in London rather than in
South Africa. To such a one I would say certainly let the black man have
the franchise on the same terms as the white man. In broadening or
curtailing the privilege of voting there should be no expressed
reference to colour. The word should not appear in any Act of any
Parliament by which the franchise is regulated. If it be so expressed
there cannot be that equality before the law without which we cannot
divest ourselves of the sin of selfish ascendancy. But the franchise may
be so regulated that the black man cannot enjoy it till he has
qualified himself,--as the white man at any rate ought to qualify
himself. Exclusion of this nature was intended when the existing law of
the Cape Colony was passed. A man cannot vote till he has become a fixed
resident, and shall be earning 10s. a week wages and his diet. When this
scale was fixed it was imagined that it would exclude all but a very
small number of Kafirs. But a few years has so improved the condition of
the Kafirs that many thousands are now earning the wages necessary for a
qualification. “Then by all means let them vote,” will say the friend of
the Negro in Exeter Hall or the House of Commons,--perhaps without
giving quite time enough to calculating the result. Does this friend of
the Negro in his heart think that the black man is fit to assume
political ascendancy over the white;--or that the white man would remain
in South Africa and endure it? The white man would not remain, and if
the white man were gone, the black man would return to his savagery.
Very much has been done;--quite as much probably as we have a right to
expect from the time which has been employed. But the black man is not
yet civilized in South Africa and, with a few exceptions, is not fit for
political power. The safeguard against the possible evil of which I have
spoken is the idea that the Kafir is not as yet awake to the meaning of
political power and therefore will not exercise the privilege of voting
when it is given to him. It may be so at present, but I do not relish
the political security which is to come, not from the absence of danger
but from the assumed ignorance of those who might be dangerous. An
understanding of the nature of the privilege will come before fitness
for its exercise;--and then there may be danger. Thus we are driven back
to the great question whether a country is fit for parliamentary
institutions in which the body of the population is unfit for the
privilege of voting.
Our duty to the Kafir of course is to civilize him,--so to treat him
that as years roll on he will manifestly be the better for our coming to
his land. I do not think that missionaries will do this, or fractions of
land,--little Kafrarias, as it may be, separated off for their uses. The
present position of Kreli and his Galekas who were to have dwelt in
peace on their own territory across the Kei, is proof of this. The iron
rod certainly will not do it. Nor will the franchise. But equality of
law, equality of treatment, will do it;--and, I am glad to say, has
already gone far towards doing it. The Kafir can make his own contract
for his own labour the same as a white man;--can leave his job of work
or take it as independently as the white workman;--but not more so.
Encouraged by this treatment he is travelling hither and thither in
quest of work, and is quickly learning that order and those wants which
together make the only sure road to civilization.
The stranger in South Africa will constantly be told that the coloured
man will not work, and that this is the one insuperable cause by which
the progress of the country is impeded. It will be the first word
whispered into his ear when he arrives, and the last assurance hurled
after him as he leaves the coast. And yet during his whole sojourn in
the country he will see all the work of the world around him done by
the hands of coloured people. It will be so in Capetown far away from
the Kafirs. It will be so on the homesteads of the Dutch in the western
province. It will be so in the thriving commercial towns of the eastern
province. From one end of Natal to the other he will find that all the
work is done by Zulus. It will be the same in the Transvaal and the same
even in the Orange Free State. Even there whenever work is done for
wages it is done by coloured hands. When he gets to the Diamond Fields,
he will find the mines swarming with black labour. And yet he will be
told that the “nigger” will not work!
The meaning of the assertion is this;--that the “nigger” cannot be made
to work whether he will or no. He will work for a day or two, perhaps a
week or two, at a rate of wages sufficient to supply his wants for
double the time, and will then decline, with a smile, to work any longer
just then,--let the employer’s need be what it may. Now the employer has
old European ideas in his head, even though he may have been born in the
Colony. The poor rural labourer in England must work. He cannot live for
four days on the wages of two. If he were to decline there would be the
poor house, the Guardians, and all the horrors of Bumbledom before him.
He therefore must work. And that “must,” which is known to exist as to
the labouring Englishman and labouring Frenchman, creates a feeling that
a similar necessity should coerce the Kafir. Doubtless it will come to
be so. It is one of the penalties of civilization,--a penalty, or, shall
we say, a blessing. But, till it does come, it cannot be
assumed,--without a retrogression to slavery. Men in South Africa, the
employers of much labour and the would-be employers of more, talk of the
English vagrancy laws,--alleging that these Kafirs are vagrants, and
should be treated as vagrants would be treated in England;--as though
the law in England compelled any man to work who had means of living
without work. The law in England will not make the Duke of ---- work; nor
will it make Hodge work if Hodge has 2s. a day of his own to live on and
behaves himself.
This cry as to labour and the want of labour, is in truth a question of
wages. A farmer in England will too often feel that the little profit of
his farm is being carried away by that extra 2s. a week which the state
of the labour market compels him to pay to his workmen. The rise of
wages among the coloured people in South Africa has been much quicker
than it ever was in England. In parts of Natal a Zulu may still be hired
for his diet of Indian corn and 7s. a month. In Kafraria, about King
Williamstown, men were earning 2s. 6d. a day when I was there. I have
seen coloured labourers earning 4s. 6d. a day for the simple duty of
washing wool. All this has to equalize itself, and while it is doing so,
of course there is difficulty. The white man thinks that the solution of
the difficulty should be left to him. It is disparaging to his pride
that the black man should be so far master of the situation as to be
able to fix his own wages.
In the meantime, however, the matter is fixed. The work is done by black
men. They plough, they reap; they herd and shear the sheep; they drive
the oxen; they load the waggons; they carry the bricks; they draw the
water; they hew the wood; they brush the clothes; they clean the boots;
they run the posts; they make the roads; they wait at table; they cook
the food; they wash the wool; they press the grapes; they kill the beef
and mutton; they dig the gardens; they plaster the walls; they feed the
horses;--and they find the diamonds. A South African farmer and a South
African wool grower and a South African shopkeeper will all boast that
South Africa is a productive country. If it be so she is productive
altogether by means of black labour.
Another allegation very common in the mouth of the “iron-rodders” is
that the Kafir--steals. “A nasty beastly thief that will never leave
your cattle alone.” The eastern province Cape Colony farmer seems to
think that he of all men ought to be made exempt by some special law
from the predatory iniquities of his neighbours. I fear the Kafir does
occasionally steal sheep and cattle. Up in the Diamond Fields he steals
diamonds,--the diamonds, that is, which he himself finds. The
accusations which I have heard against Kafirs, as to stealing, begin and
end here. It is certainly the case that a man used to the ways of the
country will leave his money and his jewelry about among Kafirs, with a
perfect sense of security, who will lock up everything with the greatest
care when some loafing European is seen about. I remember well how I was
warned to be careful about my bag at the little Inn in Natal, because a
few British soldiers had quartered themselves for the night in front of
the house. The Innkeeper was an Englishman, and probably knew what he
was talking about.
The Kafirs ought not to steal cattle. So much may be admitted. And if
everything was as it ought to be there would be no thieves in London.
But perhaps of all dishonest raids the most natural is that made by a
Savage on beasts which are running on the hills which used to belong to
his fathers. Wealth to him is represented by cattle, and the wealth of
his tribe all came from its land. To drive cattle has to his mind none
of the meanness of stealing. How long is it since the same feeling
prevailed among Englishmen and Scotchmen living on the borders? It is
much the same in regard to diamonds. They are found in the ground, and
why should not the treasures of the ground be as free to the Kafir as to
his employer? I am using the Kafir’s argument;--not my own. I know, as
does my reader, and as do the angry white men in South Africa, that the
Kafir has contracted for wages to give up what he finds to his employer.
I know that the employer has paid for a license to use the bit of land,
and that the Kafir has not. I know that a proper understanding as to
meum and tuum would prevent the Kafir from secreting the little stone
between his toes. But there is much of this which the Kafir cannot yet
have learned. Taking the honesty and the dishonesty of the Kafir
together, we shall find that it is the former which is remarkable.
The great question of the day in England as to the countries which I
have just visited is that of Confederation. The Permissive Bill which
was passed last Session,--1877,--entitles me to say that it is the
opinion of the Government at home that such Confederation should be
consummated in South Africa within the next three or four years. Then
there arise two questions,--whether it is practicable, and if
practicable whether it is expedient. I myself with such weak voice as I
possess have advocated Australian Confederation. I have greatly rejoiced
at Canadian Confederation. My sympathies were in favour of West Indian
Confederation. I left England hoping that I might advocate South African
Confederation. But, alas, I have come to think it inexpedient,--and, if
expedient, still impracticable. A Confederation of States implies some
identity of interests. In any coming together of Colonies under one
flag, one Colony must have an ascendancy. Population will give this, and
wealth,--and the position of the chosen capital. It clearly was so in
Canada. In South Africa that preponderance would certainly be with the
Cape Colony. I cannot conceive any capital to be possible other than
Capetown. Then arises the question whether the other provinces of South
Africa can improve their condition by identifying themselves with the
Cape Colony. They who know Natal will I think agree with me that Natal
will never consent to send ten legislators to a Congress at Capetown
where they would be wholly inefficient to prevent the carrying of
measures agreeable to the Constitution of the Cape Colony but averse to
its own theory of Government. I have described the franchise of the Cape
Colony. I am well aware that Confederation would not compel one State to
adopt the same franchise as another. But Natal will never willingly put
herself into the same boat with a Colony in which the negro vote may in
a few years become predominant over the white. In Natal there are
320,000 coloured people to 20,000 white. She might still exclude the
coloured man from her own hustings as she does now; but she will hardly
allow her own poor ten members of a common Congress to be annihilated
by the votes of members who may not improbably be returned by coloured
persons, and who may not impossibly be coloured persons themselves.
With the Transvaal the Government at home may do as it pleases. At the
present moment it is altogether at the disposal of the Crown. If the
Cape Colony would consent to take it the Transvaal can be annexed
to-morrow without any ceremony of Confederation. The Cape Colony would
in the first place probably desire to be secured from any repayment of
the debts of the late Republic. This would not be Confederation, though
in this way the Cape Colony, which will soon have swallowed up
Griqualand West, would be enabled to walk round the Free State. But the
Boers of the Transvaal would, if consulted, be as little inclined to
submit themselves to the coloured political influence of the Cape as
would the people of Natal. What should they do in a Parliament of which
they do not understand the language? Therefore I think Confederation to
be inexpedient.
But though the Cape Colony were to walk round the Free State so as to
join the Transvaal,--though it were even to walk on and reach the
Eastern Sea by including Natal,--still it would only have gone round the
Free State and not have absorbed it. I understand that Confederation
without the Free State would not be thought sufficiently complete to
answer the purpose of the Colonial Office at home. And as I think that
the Free State will not confederate, for reasons which I have given when
writing about the Free State, I think that Confederation is
impracticable.
It is again the great question of coloured races,--the question which
must dominate all other questions in South Africa. Confederation of
adjacent Colonies may be very good for white men who can rule
themselves, and yet not suit the condition of territories in which
coloured men have to be ruled under circumstances which may be
essentially different in different States.
Looking back at our dominion over South Africa which has now lasted for
nearly three quarters of a century I think that we have cause for
national pride. We have on the whole been honest and humane, and the
errors into which we have fallen have not been greater than the extreme
difficulty of the situation has made, if not necessary, at any rate
natural. When we examine the operations of different Governors as they
have succeeded each other, and read the varying instructions with which
those Governors have been primed from the Colonial Office, it is
impossible not to see that the peculiar bias of one Secretary of State
succeeding to that of another has produced vacillations. There has been
a want of what I have once before ventured to call “official tradition.”
The intention of Great Britain as to her Colonies as expressed by
Parliament has not been made sufficiently plain for the guidance of the
Colonial Office. This shewed itself perhaps more signally than elsewhere
in Lord Glenelg’s condemnation of Sir Benjamin D’Urban at the close of
the third Kafir war in 1835, when he enunciated a policy which was not
compatible with the maintenance of British authority in South
Africa,--which had to be speedily revoked,--but which could not be
revoked till every Kafir had been taught that England, across the seas,
was afraid of him. Again I think that by vacillating policy we foolishly
forced upon the Dutch the necessity of creating Republics, first across
the Vaal and then between the Vaal and the Orange, when, but a short
time before, we had refused them permission to do the same thing in
Natal. I myself think that there should have been no Republic;--that in
the Transvaal, and in the Orange State, as in Natal, we should have
recognized the necessity of providing Government for our migrating
subjects.
But in all this there has been no lust of power, no dishonesty. There
has been little, if anything, of mean parsimony. In that matter of the
Diamond Fields as to which the accusations against the Colonial Office
have been the heaviest, I feel assured not only of the justice but of
the wisdom of what was done. Had we not assumed the duty of government
at Kimberley, Kimberley would have been ungovernable.
But the question which is of all the one of moment is the condition of
the coloured races. Just now there is still continued among a small
fraction of them a disturbance which the opponents of the present
Government in the Cape Colony delight to call a War. In spite of this,
throughout the length and breadth of South Africa,--even in what is
still called Kreli’s country,--the coloured man has been benefitted by
our coming. He has a better hut, better food, better clothing, better
education, more liberty, less to fear and more to get, than he had when
we came among him, or that he would have enjoyed had we not come. If
this be so, we ought to be contented with what our Government has done.
INDEX.
THE CAPE COLONY.
Acres under cultivation, i. 232
Bain’s Kloof, i. 130
Bathurst, i. 177
Bowker, Mr., i. 93
Brandy, i. 232
British troops, i. 194
Caledon, i. 156
Caledon Missionary Institution, i. 150
Cango Caves, i. 117
Cape Carta, i. 185
Cape Smoke, i. 116
Capetown, i. 68
Catberg, i. 226
Cathedral, The, i. 73
Ceres, i. 133
Cogman’s Pass, i. 145
Confederation, i. 49
Constantia, i. 82
Debe Nek, i. 193
Diamonds found, i. 44
Diaz, Bartholomew, i. 10
D’Urban, Sir Benjamin, i. 37
Dutch and English Languages, i. 32
Dutch, as divided from English, i. 56
Dutch, First condition of, i. 13
East London, i. 202
Education of Kafirs, i. 209
English occupation, i. 25
Esselin, M., i. 136
Feathers, manner of selling, i. 163
Federation, i. 49
Fort Brown, i. 186
Franchise, The, i. 89
French, Coming of, i. 20
George, i. 103
Germans, in British Kafraria, i. 184
Glenelg, Lord, i. 37
Grahamstown, i. 167
Healdtown, i. 187, 211
Hot Spring, i. 139
Hottentots, Manumission of, i. 33
Hottentots, their name, i. 16
Hunting a buck, i. 155
Hunting in Kafraria, i. 190
“Iron Rod” School, i. 227
Irrigation, i. 143, 232
Kafir Chiefs, i. 199
Kafir Famine, i. 43
Kafir Hymns, i. 213
Kafir Labour, i. 178
Kafir Schools, i. 207
Kafir War, 1st, i. 29
“ 2nd, i. 36
“ 3rd, i. 36
“ 4th, i. 39
“ 5th, i. 41
Kafirs at school, i. 221
Kafirs, Treatment of, i. 182
Kafraria, British, i. 181
Kalk Bay, i. 81
Karoo, The, i. 115
King Williamstown, i. 198
Knysna, The, i. 105
Legislative Assembly, i. 95
Legislative Council, i. 87
Library, The Capetown, i. 74
Lovedale, i. 217
Malmesbury, i. 122
Mitchell’s Pass, i. 131
Molteno, Mr., i. 95
Montague Pass, i. 113
Mossel Bay, i. 99
Mountains, i. 141
Mounted Police, i. 201
Museum, The, i. 73
Observatory, The, i. 78
Oodtahoorn, i. 115
Orange Free State, i. 52
Ostriches, i. 170
Paarl, The, i. 123
Pacaltsdorp, i. 111
Panmure, i. 206
Parliamentary Government, i. 45, 90
Peeltown, i. 223
Population of South Africa, i. 51, 234
Port Alfred, i. 176
Port Elizabeth, i. 160
Portuguese, The, i. 10
Provinces, i. 47
Queenstown, i. 226
Railways, i. 48, 79, 123
Riebeek, Jan van, i. 13
Robertson, i. 145
Sandilli, Chief of the Gaikas, i. 198
Siwani, i. 199
Slagter’s Nek, i. 30
Slavery, Abolition of, i. 33
Slaves, First landed, i. 14
Slaves, their manumission, i. 35
Solomon, Mr. Saul, i. 96
Somerset, East, i. 157
Stellenbosch, i. 157
Swellendam, i. 148
Tradouw, The, i. 149
Uitenhage, i. 163
Vasco da Gama, i. 11
Vines, i. 232
Wages, i. 235
Wagon-makers’ valley, i. 130
Wheat, i. 231
Wine, i. 127, 232
Wool, i. 228
Wool-washing, i. 101
Worcester, i. 135
Wynberg, i. 80
Zonnebloom, i. 211
NATAL.
Apollo, i. 279
Bar, The sand bar at Durban, i. 264
Bathing, i. 298
Berea, The, i. 275
Cathedral, The, i. 284
Cetywayo, i. 307
Chaka, the Zulu Chief, i. 243, 306
Coal, i. 352
Colenso, Bishop, i. 258, 284
Coolie Labour, i. 270
Delagoa Bay, i. 307
Dingaan, the Zulu Chief, i. 247, 307
Durban, i. 243
Dutch, The. How they entered Natal, i. 246
Estcourt, i. 348
Executive, The, i. 295
Expense of living, i. 287
Farewell, Mr., i. 243
Farmer, English, i. 299
German village, i. 300
Glenelg, Lord, i. 251
Greyton, i. 304
Kafir Labour, i. 273
Langalibalele, i. 258, 311, 327
Legislative Council, Members of, i. 260
Legislature, The, i. 295
Maritz, Gerrit, i. 245
Missionaries, The, i. 311
Newcastle, i. 344, 349
Park, The, i. 276
Pieter Maritzburg, i. 285
Pine, Sir B., Second Governor, i. 258
Pinetown, i. 283
Population, i. 277
Potgieter, Hendrick, i. 245
Pretorius, Andreas, i. 256
Railways, i. 265
Retief, Pieter, i. 247
Soldiers in Natal, i. 292
Speaking, After dinner, i. 291
Sugar, i. 267
Travelling, Difficulties of, i. 340
Trees, Planting of, i. 302
Volksraad, The, i. 255
War declared with the Dutch, i. 252
West, Mr., First Governor, i. 256
Wolseley, Sir Garnet; his coming, i. 260
York, Emigrants from, i. 258
Zulu dress, i. 318
Zulu honesty, i. 322
Zulu Labour, i. 273, 323
Zululand, i. 313
Zulus, i. 306
Zulus, Scarcity of, i. 347
THE TRANSVAAL.
Annexation, Effects of, ii. 61
Apprentices, ii. 33
Blignaut’s punt, ii. 127
Bloomhof, ii. 123
Boers, ii. 9
Boundaries, ii. 26
Burgers, Mr., ii. 39, 47, 65
Carnarvon, Lord, to Mr. Burgers, ii. 47
Christiana, ii. 123
Coal, ii. 20, 96
Copper, ii. 96
Cost of Living, ii. 77
Dishonesty, ii. 14
Domestic service, ii. 77
Dutchmen, old and new, ii. 115
Education, ii. 13, 81
Eersteling, ii. 93
Elton, Captain, ii. 93
Farmers’ houses, ii. 11
Farms, The size of, ii. 21
Freying, ii. 15
Fruits, ii. 111
Gardens, ii. 71
Gold, ii. 90
Heidelberg, ii. 23
Hollander, The, ii. 18
House on fire, ii. 52
Keate’s award, ii. 39, 123
Klerksdorp, ii. 32
Land, Division of, ii. 108
Loan, Proposed, for railway, ii. 101
Lydenburg district, ii. 94
Marabas Stad, ii. 93
Mazulekatze, ii. 31
Nichtmaal, The, ii. 75
Pilgrim’s Rest, ii. 94
Potchefstroom, ii. 32, 118
Pretoria, ii. 25, 67
Pretorius, Andreas, or the elder, ii. 32, 68
Pretorius, M. W., the younger, ii. 37, 69
Proclamation, The, ii. 55
Railways, ii. 98
Saltpan, The, ii. 86
Secocoeni, ii. 46
Shepstone, Sir Theophilus, ii. 47, 53
Slavery, ii. 35
Standees Drift, ii. 4, 19
Tatin, ii. 91
Taxes not paid, ii. 48
Transvaal, Condition of, ii. 52, 89
Transvaal Mails, ii. 8
Troops in the Transvaal, ii. 22
Wheat, ii. 107
Wonder Fontein, ii. 116
GRIQUALAND WEST.
Annexation to Cape Colony, ii. 151
Barkly, ii. 164
Brand, Mr., ii. 150
British rule--a blessing, ii. 148
Bultfontein, ii. 169
Churches at Kimberley, ii. 206
Colesberg Kopje, ii. 163, 169
Custom Duties, Increase of, ii. 200
De Beer, ii. 163
Diamond dealers, ii. 196
Diamond Fields a separate Colony, ii. 137, 151
Diamond-stealing, ii. 182, 197
Diamonds, how sent to Europe, ii. 195
Diamonds, imperfect, ii. 202
Diamonds, Notice of, in 1760, ii. 161
Diamonds--Off colours, ii. 196
Du Toit’s Pan, ii. 169
Franchise, The, ii. 167
Guns, Sale of, ii. 198
Hebron, ii. 164
Hospitals at Kimberley, ii. 205
Jacobs, Mr., ii. 162
Kimberley, ii. 173, 186
Kimberley Mine, ii. 169, 172, 174
Klipdrift, ii. 164
Kok, Adam, ii. 138
Lanyon, Major, ii. 137
Mine, Subdivision of, ii. 177
Modder, The, ii. 168
Morton, Mr., ii. 161
New Hush, The, ii. 173
No Man’s Land, ii. 140
Old De Beers, ii. 169
Orange Free State: its claims, ii. 139;
compensation given, ii. 140
O’Reilly, Mr., ii. 162
Population, ii. 166
Prison at Kimberley, ii. 206
Religion for Kafirs, ii. 188
River diggings, ii. 167
Southey, Mr., ii. 164
Star of South Africa, ii. 163
Vaal, The, ii. 168
Van Niekerk, Mr., ii. 162
Van Wyk, Mr., ii. 169
Vooruitzuit Farm, ii. 153, 172
Waterboer, Andreas, ii. 140, 141
Waterboer, Nicholas, ii. 138, 144
Work for Kafirs, ii. 187
THE ORANGE FREE STATE.
Baralongs, The, ii. 224
Basutos, ii. 218, 224
Bloemfontein, ii. 217, 236, 266, 261
Boers, The, ii. 235, 241
Boom Plats, Battle of, ii. 218
Boshof, Mr., ii. 216, 224
Boundaries of the Cape Colony, ii. 212
Brand, Mr., ii. 215, 226, 227, 262
Burgers, Mr., ii. 216
Cetywayo, ii. 216
Churches, ii. 267
Clerk, Sir George, ii. 223, 232
Custom Duties, ii. 246
Dams for water, ii. 236
Difficulties of the State, ii. 225
English language, ii. 235, 265
Executive, The, ii. 255
Fiji Islands, ii. 211
Franchise, The, ii. 253
Grey, Sir George, ii. 232
Hotel, The, ii. 259
Independence, Love of, ii. 243, 249
Irrigation, ii. 237
Maitland, Sir Peregrine, ii. 217
Ministers, Colonial, ii. 229
Moshef, ii. 215, 224
Napier, Sir George, ii. 216
Nichtmaal, The, ii. 267
Pretorius, Mr., ii. 215, 217, 224
Public offices, ii. 258
Railway, Proposed, ii. 263
Schools, ii. 263
Sovereignty, The, established, ii. 219;
abandoned, ii. 221
Telegraph wires, ii. 263
Treaty, Our, with the Free State, ii. 223
Vacillation of our policy, ii. 210
Volksraad, The, ii. 243, 251
Warden, Major, ii. 217
NATIVE TERRITORIES.
Aliwal North, Convention at, ii. 318
Baralong Law, ii. 282
Baralong, The tribe, ii. 275, 311
Basutos, The, ii. 277, 308, 310
Bechuanas, The, ii. 276, 311
Bomvanas, The, ii. 289, 308
Bowker, Mr., ii. 314
British Kafraria, ii. 287
Burial of a Chief, ii. 304
Bushmen, ii. 313, 326
Cannibalism, ii. 313
Casselin, M., ii. 313
Cogha, The River, ii. 291
Conquered Territory, ii. 317
Copper, ii. 321
Cultivation of land, ii. 284
Damaraland, ii. 320
Daniel, Mr., ii. 277
East London, ii. 286
Expense of the wars, ii. 297
Fingos, The, ii. 292, 308
Gaikas, ii. 287, 298
Galekaland, Occupation of, ii. 291
Galekas, ii. 287, 298, 308
Gatberg, The, ii. 307
Great Fish River, ii. 287, 292
Griquas--Bastards, ii. 308
Hintsa, ii. 292
Höhne, Mr., ii. 277
Hottentots, ii. 320
Huts at Thaba ’Ncho, ii. 279
Jenkins, Mrs., ii. 309
Justice, Administration of, ii. 305
Kafir habits, ii. 299
Kafir, What is a, ii. 287
Kafraria, ii. 287
Keiskamma, The, ii. 292
Kei, The River, ii. 286, 291
King Williamstown, ii. 286
Kok’s, Adam, Land, ii. 307
Korannas, ii. 320, 326
Kreli, ii. 286, 291, 294
Langalibalele, ii. 297
Maralong, The, language, ii. 278
Maroco, The Baralong Chief, ii. 277, 281, 316
Moni, a sub chief, ii. 289
Moriah, ii. 312
Moshesh, ii. 315
Namaqualand, ii. 320
Ngquika, ii. 288
Ookiep Mine, ii. 321, 324
Phillips and King, Messrs., ii. 323
Poisoning, ii. 283
Pondomisi, ii. 308
Pondos, ii. 288, 308
Population of Transkeian districts, ii. 308
Port Nolloth, ii. 323
Rain-makers, ii. 306
Robben Island, ii. 296
Sandilli, ii. 287
Sapena, The Assistant Chief, ii. 278
Scotchman at Thaba ’Ncho, ii. 285
South Africa--British annexation, ii. 296
Springbok Fontein, ii. 321
St. John River, ii. 307, 309
Tambookies, ii. 288
Taxes in Basutoland, ii. 318
Tembus, ii. 288, 308
Thaba Bosio, ii. 312
Thaba ’Ncho, ii. 275, 311
Theal, Mr., his description of Namaqualand, ii. 322
Transkeian Territory, ii. 307
Witch-doctors, ii. 306
Wodehouse, Sir P., ii. 290, 317
Xosas, ii. 288
Zwidi, ii. 289
THE END.
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In 1864 by a treaty between the Portuguese and the Republic the
Lobombo range of mountains was agreed upon as a boundary between
them, but I am not aware that the natives living to the east of these
mountains were ever made a party to this treaty.
[2] Vol. ii. p. 164.
[3] “South Africa,” by John Noble, p. 173 B.
[4] The Italics are my own.
[5] I believe he did receive the stipend all through.
[6] The purchasers were in treaty for De Beer’s farm at the time when
the first diamond was found by a lady’s parasol on the little hill
where is now the Kimberley mine, and £600 was added to the purchase
money in consequence. It is calculated that diamonds to the value of
£12,000,000 have since been extracted from the mine.
[7] I find the story told with slight variation by different persons.
I have taken the version published in the second edition of Messrs.
Silver’s Handbook, having found ample reason to trust the accuracy of
that compilation. See p. 378 of that volume.
[8] This is an abominable word, coined as I believe for the use of the
British Diamond Fields;--but it has become so common that it would be
affectation to avoid the use of it.
[9] Since this was written a mail steamer with a large amount of these
diamonds among the mails has gone to the bottom of the sea. The mails,
and with the mails, the diamonds have been recovered; but in such a
condition that they cannot be recognised and given up to the proper
owners. They are lying at the General Post Office, and how to dispose
of them nobody knows.
[10] In 1869 the amount was £295,661. In 1875 it was £735,380. In 1869
the total revenue was £580,026. In 1875 it was £1,602,918; the increase
being nearly to three-fold. The increase in the expenditure was still
greater;--but that only shews that the Colony found itself sufficiently
prosperous to be justified in borrowing money for the making of
railroads. The reader must bear in mind that these Custom Duties were
all received and pocketed by the Cape Colony, though a large proportion
of them was levied on goods to be consumed in the Diamond Fields. As
I have stated elsewhere, the Cape Colony has in this respect been a
cormorant, swallowing what did not rightfully belong to her.
[11] Mr. Theal’s “History of South Africa,” vol. ii. p. 147.
[12] Lord Carnarvon was Colonial Secretary when this was written.
[13] Nevertheless there is a beautifully self-asserting clause in a
treaty made in 1876 between the Orange Free State and Portugal, which
provides--“That ships sailing under the flag of the Orange Free State
shall in every respect enjoy the same treatment and shall not be liable
to higher duties than Portuguese vessels.”
[14] What I have said here as to duties levied say at Fort Elizabeth
on goods for the Orange Free State applies equally to goods for the
Transvaal landed in Natal at Durban.
[15] Moselekatze himself was no doubt a Zulu; but the Matabeles whom he
ruled were probably a people over whom he had become master when he ran
away from Zululand.
[16] The Legislature of the Cape of Good Hope has already taken steps
towards the annexation of this territory by sending a Commissioner
north of the Orange River, both to Great Namaqualand and Damaraland to
ascertain the wish of the natives.