1881--MARITZBURG
Advice as to entertaining--Bishop Colenso--The opening of the
Legislative Council--Preparations in the event of Boers
declining to ratify the Convention--A long ride to the
Drakensberg--Isandwhlana--My unpopularity dies out--How
Colonists died around Colonel Durnford--Return to Chatham.
The day after my arrival I received much advice as to my social duties,
from official and unofficial personages, male and female, all kindly
meant; but I made no distinctions in invitations, and disregarded also
the suggestion I should not entertain, but save my salary and take it
home.
I was under no misapprehension as to my unpopularity, for at the end of
May, when I thought it was possible that the offer of the Governorship
of Natal might be made to me later, I desired a friend to inquire
whether the feeling in the Colony was so bitter, as to render such an
appointment undesirable in the public interest.
After the Zulu War of 1879, Natal had given me a beautiful testimonial
in recognition of my services in the Zulu War, and my correspondent
asked the Honorary Secretary of the Committee, who not only selected
the offering, but who had moreover come to Chatham in 1880 to present
it to me, on behalf of the Colony, for an opinion. That gentleman
answered: “Yes, the feeling is very bitter against him. Although some
few still respect him, the majority regard him as the mouthpiece of Mr.
Gladstone.”
I therefore answered my adviser: “Yes, I am quite aware of the fact
that I am unpopular, and I must be now as the instrument of the
Government; but a long experience has shown me that dinner parties
judiciously arranged afford satisfactory opportunities of dispelling
unfavourable impressions. I do not suppose for a moment that the
question of dinner influenced the Colonists, but it gave them an
opportunity of seeing me, and learning my views. The Durban people had
but little opportunity of meeting me, but Messrs. Escombe[229] and
Robinson[230] lived there. Both were in the Legislative Council, and
were therefore brought in contact with me more frequently than many
others, and when I left the country the inhabitants of Durban give a
dinner and a ball in my honour, at which such pleasant things were said
of me that I do not venture to repeat them. A more important gain,
however, was that owing to my better acquaintance with the ministers
they treated me as a friend, asked me later how much they ought to give
an able Governor, and on my advice raised the salary by £1500 per annum.
One entertainment I gave was of an unusual nature, but afforded me
great pleasure. Thinking my guests would be happier without my company,
I got Redvers Buller to ask me and my Aides-de-camp to dine, so as
to enable me to invite forty-five soldiers, a Sergeant, three of the
escort of the 15th Hussars, and the band of the 58th Regiment, which
played at Government House at least three times a week. The escort
had been with me since March, and as a soldier, regarding the band
as comrades, I had objected to pay them, and indeed never gave them
anything beyond refreshments. I told Slade, my Aide-de-camp, I wanted
the table dressed with flowers, and that the wines and food should be
exactly as if I was entertaining the Legislative Council, which was
done.
I entertained within three months three bishops, a dean, and an
archdeacon, a Church of England missionary who had come from India
to carry out a series of Revival services, and a Church of England
chaplain who was the brightest of them all. He had behaved courageously
in the fight near the Ingogo River, and with a copious vocabulary, a
musical voice, and a seraphic face, filled every Sunday an iron Drill
Hall which he hired, in spite of his charging a shilling entrance.
The greater dignitaries of the Church agreed in one point, their
dislike to Bishop Colenso. He was about sixty-eight years of age, with
a noble face, an accurate reflection of his mind. Although I could not
defend his retention of the Bishopric when he ceased to accept the
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, I considered it to be my duty as
Governor to attend the Church of the lawful Bishop of the Colony.
It was difficult for him to believe anything good of a white man, and
although I became intimate with him, I never heard him admit anything
against a Zulu. This mattered the less, however, as a great majority of
Boers, and some Colonists acted on precisely opposite principles, and
Colenso’s championing of the black races was absolutely disinterested.
He was greatly distressed because he heard I had referred to Cetewayo
at the meeting of Chiefs under the Inhlazatze as a scoundrel (Ishinga),
which was absolutely incorrect. On the other hand, it was commonly said
that two years earlier, immediately after the Zulu War, that the Bishop
generally referred to me as “the man of blood.”
The Bishop lived frugally, giving away a great part of his stipend in
charity. As his house, Bishopstowe, was 7 miles from the church, I
induced him occasionally to come in to Government House from Saturday
to Monday; and though he and I disagreed on most Zulu questions, as
indeed he had done with all my predecessors, yet I believe he felt that
he was ever welcome by me. In a letter dated the 22nd October I wrote:
“I trust whatever views you take of our respective duties, it will make
no difference to our private relations.”
I generally attended his church as a point of duty, though I went also
to the Bishop of Maritzburg’s church, and to the Army chaplain’s. What
the Bishop of Natal read was uncontroversial sound doctrine, but as a
preacher he was singularly ineffective. Very short-sighted, he held his
manuscript close to his eyes, thus his beautiful snowy white hair was
the only thing visible to the small congregation.
In the house he was a delightful companion. He made my acquaintance
as I passed through Maritzburg in 1878, mainly, I believe, because he
supposed I had been oppressing Umquikela, chief of the Pondos, and now
in 1881 I found him a delightful guest. Sitting alone together one
evening, I asked: “Are you the man who wrote that terrible Arithmetic
over which I shed tears at school?” “Did you really shed tears over my
Arithmetic?” “Yes, often.” “Well, when I was a small boy I shed tears
over every Arithmetic put into my hands, and I resolved I would write
one by which boys would learn without tears.” I replied: “Ah, Bishop,
but you could not write down to my level.”
One of the other bishops, when attacking Dr. Colenso, virulently
observed to me: “I do not know why you call him Bishop; he is not one.”
“Well, he is the Bishop of Natal.” “But he is only a bishop from what
the lawyers say.” I answered: “They did not appoint him, the Queen did,
and She is the only Head of the Church whom I recognise.”
On the 6th of October I opened the Legislative Council, and the
comments in the local papers were varied and amusing. The writers,
despairing of finding something on which they could remark, turned to
my delivery of the Speech. The Editor of the Radical paper observed
the only good point in it was the perfect delivery; but he wound up by
saying it was exactly like Edison’s phonographic machine!
Another paper declared that I spoke exactly like a Sergeant-Major
giving an order to a Squad, while the Government Gazette remarked on
my foreign habit of rolling my _r_’s. This last interested me most of
all, because I still remember the tears which came into my eyes at
Marlborough in 1847 as I counted the verses in the Bible which each boy
had to read on Sunday afternoon, and saw that my fate would bring me to
the 40th verse of the 18th Chapter of St. John, and when my turn came I
popped up and said, “Now, Bawabbas was a wobber.”
Early in October the British Cabinet became perturbed by reports that
the Raad sitting in Pretoria would not ratify the Convention under
which the Boers had assumed the Government of the Transvaal in August,
and Mr. Gladstone determined that they should either ratify it, or lose
their Self-government. I was offered any reinforcements I required, but
asked only for horses, mules, and one battery of Horse Artillery.[231]
I no longer got all the telegrams from Pretoria, as the Resident
communicated direct with the High Commissioner at Cape Town; but what
made the Government uneasy was a strongly worded telegram sent by the
Boers to Mr. Gladstone. I explained in a telegram to the Colonial
Office that in my opinion the Boers fully intended to ratify, and
that the aggressive telegram had been drafted by a Hollander, and the
result showed that my surmise was correct. Doubtless it was difficult
for the Government at Home to read between the lines of the information
which they had received. I asked the Resident for his views, and in a
cypher telegram he answered: “Impossible to predict course the Raad
will resolve on; I doubt if Leaders know. Equally difficult to predict
action in case of non-ratification, nothing allowed to be divulged;
Raad sits in secret.”
I did not believe the Boer Government would prosper, for, writing to
my wife on the 31st of May, I said: “I cannot believe that the Boer
Republic will last.” And again on the 13th October I wrote to her: “I
am very glad the English Government has answered the Boers in firm
language.... In a few years, however, we shall have to take over the
country.”
This forecast would have been absolutely correct had it not been that
the discovery of gold kept Mr. Kruger and his associates in power for
eighteen years.
Although I anticipated the Convention would be ratified, I took
precautions, and bought, in different parts of Natal, a number of oxen
and a great quantity of mealies, at normal rates, without attracting
attention.
I was satisfied with my preparations for secret service. As I wrote to
Mr. Childers: “I ought to learn what goes on South of the Vaal; one man
is entirely with us in heart, and I have two more I can buy. I had a
Zulu in my service who brought me information from near Ulundi in 1879,
and he was always accurate, although it is more difficult with the
Boers.”
I enjoyed on the 4th of November a long ride to Langabalele’s location.
I had been suffering from intestinal complaints for eight days, induced
by overwork, and I thought, and as it proved correctly, that I should
get better from change of air and exercise, so Slade and I left after
lunch and rode to Weston on the Mooi River, 42 miles. Next day, leaving
at 4.30 a.m., we covered 71 miles before two o’clock; I settled a land
question,[232] overruling the decision given four years previously,
and then rode 42 miles into Maritzburg by seven o’clock. It was a good
day’s work, 110 miles in 14½ hours. My Aide-de-camp complained that he
had to carry a chemist’s shop for me, for besides a phial of medicine
the doctor had made up for me, I had a bottle of essence of ginger and
chlorodyne.
At the end of November I enjoyed another interesting ride by Rorke’s
Drift and Isandwhlana to the Ityatosi and back. I started Major
Fraser, the Assistant Military Secretary, and the Aides-de-camp on the
Saturday, and left with Sir Redvers Buller after church on Sunday,
riding as far as Burrups, about 50 miles, and starting at three o’clock
on Monday, crossing the Tugela, and afterwards riding up the Buffalo
River, we reached Rorke’s Drift, another 60 miles, in time for dinner.
The heat was great, and the skin peeled off our noses and eyelids.
Next morning I conducted Sir Redvers over the battlefield of
Isandwhlana, which he had never seen, and we had the story told by
combatants who took part in the fights; Englishmen of the Natal Police,
by Basutos, by friendly Zulus fighting on our side, and by two or three
mounted officers of Cetewayo’s army, which overwhelmed our forces.
Their respective accounts tallied exactly; indeed, it seems as if
uneducated men who cannot write are more accurate in their description
of events than are the Western nations.
When Sir Redvers was quite satisfied that he knew all about the battle,
he turned back, and went straight to Umsinga, I riding to the Ityatosi,
where I had sent a photographer whom I had engaged to photograph the
spot where the gallant Prince Imperial fell. This added another 50
miles to my journey beyond Rorke’s Drift, where I dined on Monday
night. Leaving after dinner, I joined Redvers Buller about 2 a.m., and
rested for an hour at Umsinga, then, starting for Maritzburg, 80 miles
distant, we arrived in time for dinner.
I had left the Sivewrights[233] in Government House, and found they
were giving a small dinner party, not anticipating my return till the
following evening; so telling the butler to lay an additional plate,
I sat in the Governor’s place as they entered the room, much to their
astonishment.
On the 12th of December, at ten o’clock at night, while listening to
a selection of Sacred music which the Colonel of the 21st Royal Scots
Fusiliers had arranged that the band should perform for my pleasure,
I got a telegram from Lord Kimberley, saying: “I shall have much
satisfaction in recommending you for the appointment of Governor of
Natal.” I thought over it till six o’clock next morning, and then
replied: “I appreciate highly the expression of your confidence, but
must respectfully beg leave to decline.”
I had ascertained some weeks earlier that the future Governor would
not be permitted to command the troops, and decided not to accept if I
got the offer, writing to my sister on 30/10/’81: “I propose to return
through Egypt. That country must fall to us, or to France, or both, and
it is as well I should have a look at it.” The last week of my stay in
the Colony showed plainly that the unfavourable impression regarding
my conduct had died out, and indeed had been succeeded by a kindly
sentiment for which I am still grateful.
Although the work had been unceasing, yet I had had the assistance of
loyal and capable comrades. Sir Redvers Buller had taken all military
details off my hands, while Major T. Fraser, R.E., afforded me the
help of his fertile brain in Political matters. Captain Sandeman, the
private secretary, had saved me from many mistakes as regards Natal
affairs; while Lieutenant Slade, R.A., not only took all the trouble
of entertaining upwards of two thousand guests in the three months off
my hands, but gave me a slip of paper every Monday morning showing the
numbers, and the cost per capita.
My visit to Isandwhlana was of great interest, the fall of the heroic
Colonel Durnford, R.E., and the stand made by Natal policemen who
stayed to die with him, in order to cover the retreat of the guns on
the 22nd of January 1879, was the more touching in that he had spoken
in terms of the conduct of the Police in the suppression of the Native
outbreak in 1874, which had made him for some time unpopular in the
Force.
[Illustration: NATAL AND PART OF ZULULAND]
I presented medals to a corps of Volunteers at Durban, many of whom
had served in the war, and took the opportunity of speaking to the
Colonists on the occasion of this parade,[234] which to some slight
extent may explain the enthusiastic send-off I received at the end of
December.
Kind friends, agreeing to forget the unpleasant memories following
the disaster on the Majuba, vied with each other in offering me
entertainments, the Burgesses of Durban presenting me with a beautiful
vase and cups. The ladies said, “You may give him as many dinners as
you like, but we must give him a Ball,” and I went from one which
followed the Farewell Dinner to me, direct on board a Union Steamship
Company’s vessel, which carried me to Lorenzo Marques, and there a
few days later transhipped into another vessel, visiting Inhambane,
Quillimane, Mozambique, and Zanzibar; we saw as much as was possible in
a short time of Naples and Rome, and I resumed command at Chatham on
the 14th February 1882.