SECOND CONTACT OF AFRICANDER AND BRITON—IN NATAL.
The British authorities at Cape Colony suffered the Africanders to go
forth in peace on their Great Trek in search of isolation and
independence. But the light of succeeding events shows that, without
formally announcing it at first, the government held that the
Africanders, go where they might, were to be considered British
subjects, and that any territory they might occupy would become British
territory by virtue of such occupancy.
About the time when the Republic of Natalia was being organized by the
Africanders a small detachment of British troops which had been landed
at Port Natal was withdrawn. This was construed by the emigrants as an
abandonment by the British government of all claim to the country.
It soon became evident, however, that the proceedings of the new
settlers in Natal were narrowly watched by the authorities at the Cape,
and that some of the measures taken were looked upon with serious
displeasure. The expulsion of the Kaffirs, and an attempt to force them
into a territory already occupied by another tribe, were condemned as
being likely to provoke further disorder and conflict. And then, the
Cape government, since the Great Trek, had asserted over and over again
its right to control the Africanders in any region they might occupy,
as subjects of the British crown. Their action in establishing a new
and independent white state on the coast was viewed with alarm; for it
would certainly affect trade with the interior tribes, and it might
create a local rival to Britain’s maritime supremacy within what had
been considered her own borders. Besides, the colonial government held
that it was the natural guardian and protector of the natives, and the
attack of the Africanders on the Kaffirs living in near neighborhood to
the eastern borders of the Cape settlements was regarded as an insolent
aggression which ought to be resented and checked.
The Africanders, on the other hand, denied that the Cape government had
any authority over them. The British government, they averred, was
territorial and had no authority outside the region hitherto formally
claimed by the British crown. And they had trekked out of the territory
to which Great Britain had laid claim purposely to be a separate, free
and independent people. England’s thirty million dollars had purchased
such territorial rights and public improvements in South Africa as were
formerly possessed by the Netherlands, but her money had not bought
people.
At this time the British government was unwilling to add to its already
too extensive colonial possessions and the heavy responsibilities
connected with them. Nevertheless, after careful consideration of all
that would be involved in not checking the Africander aspirations and
movements towards independence, it was determined to establish British
dominion over Port Natal and the territory west of it as far as the
crest of the Quathlamba chain of mountains and the extension of them to
the north. Pursuant to this policy a small military force under Captain
Smith was sent to take possession of Port Natal in 1842.
Smith’s command was selected from the post garrison at Umgazi River,
and consisted of only two hundred men and two field pieces. The route
was over nearly three hundred miles of sea coast in a wilderness state,
across numerous rivers, and through the habitat of elephants and lions
whose fresh spoor the men saw frequently. After an arduous march of
thirty-five days, from the 31st of March to the 4th of May, they
reached Port Natal and camped on a hill about six miles from the town.
The resident English, while rejoiced to see the soldiers, were both
amused and alarmed when they saw how small a force had been sent to
deal with a people who could muster 1,500 well-armed men. Nothing
daunted, however, Captain Smith took a few of the artillery and marched
into the town on the 5th day of May, hauled down the flag of the
Natalia Republic, hoisted in its place the British Union Jack, and
spiked the one Africander gun found beside the flagstaff.
For the next few days there was much diplomatic correspondence between
the Africander leader, A. W. Pretorius, and the English
commander—without coming to any terms of agreement. In the meantime the
English moved their encampment to a piece of level ground in front of
the town, and the Africanders began to gather a force at the old Dutch
camping ground on the Congella, about three miles from the British
force. Captain Smith had written instructions to give the “emigrant
farmers” fifteen days to come to a decision, which time the farmers
used in strengthening their ranks and intrenching their camp.
It will throw light on the policy pursued at this time by the
Africanders to take into view the action of a certain Dutch ship-master
who put into Port Natal one day before the arrival of the British. This
man, Captain Reus, speaking as one having authority, gave the
Africanders to understand that the Dutch government would espouse their
cause and interest other European powers therein. He also advised them
to pursue an evasive policy, to avoid collision, and to keep the
English in play till their friends in Europe could act. In accordance
with this advice the Africanders drew up a declaration of allegiance to
the Dutch government, coupled with a protest against the occupation of
the country by the English. With the exception of the occasional
lifting of cattle, they refrained from acts of hostility.
Matters continued in this state until the 23d of May—three days in
excess of the fifteen allowed the Africanders for consideration—when a
night attack was made on their camp by the British. Captain Smith found
his enemy on the alert, and after a sharp engagement in which the
British lost 103 men in killed, wounded and missing, and both the field
guns, he retired to the fortified camp near Port Natal.
The Africanders immediately laid siege to the British garrison and,
doubtless, would have compelled it to surrender in the end had it not
been for the bravery and endurance of a young Englishman named Richard
King. It was six hundred miles, across the breadth of Kaffraria, from
Port Natal to Grahamstown, the nearest point at which help for the
beleaguered garrison could be found. Young King made the distance,
crossing two hundred rivers on the way, in ten days—really in eight,
for he was compelled by fever to rest two days out of the ten.
Immediately on receipt of the news at Grahamstown, a force under
Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete was dispatched by sea, and reached the
famished garrison after it had endured a close siege of thirty-one
days. The approach of the re-enforcements was resisted in an action in
which the British succeeded in landing, drove the Africanders from
their positions, and effected a junction with the garrison in Port
Natal. The loss of life in this engagement was not severe, but the
siege was raised, and no fresh hostilities were undertaken at that
time. The Africanders withdrew to a camp about twelve miles from Port
Natal, where they awaited developments—expecting to be attacked. But
the British commander was not in a position for immediate aggression.
His provisions and ammunition were to be landed, and there were safe
magazines to be provided and strategic posts to be established.
On the 30th of June, 1842, A. W. Pretorius, commandant of the
Africander force—now four hundred strong—sent a communication to
Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete, asking if he wished to confer with them. The
reply was to the effect that no negotiations would be entered into
without a previous declaration by the Africanders of their submission
to the British government.
On the 3rd of July Mr. Pretorius again wrote the British commander,
complaining that the Kaffirs were committing serious outrages upon his
people and plundering them of their cattle, which were being sold to
the English. He also informed the commander that, anxious as they were
to put an end to the war and so prevent all future bloodshed, the
Africanders found it impossible to accede to the condition imposed as a
necessary preliminary to negotiations for peace, viz.: that the
Africanders should declare their submission to the British crown. Mr.
Pretorius added, as a reason for this, that they had already made over
the country to the king of the Netherlands, and had invoked his
protection.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete replied on the same date, deploring the
melancholy prospect of continued war, which would doubtless be
complicated with such barbarities as the native savages might be
expected to perpetrate. But he maintained that the Africanders were
themselves responsible for that prospect, because of their determined
acts of hostility to the British government. He intimated that, if they
were sincere in the professed desire to avert the coming bloodshed,
there would be nothing degrading in giving in their submission to her
Britannic Majesty’s government, and assured them that there was every
disposition on the part of the British authorities to make the final
adjustment of affairs both just and generous toward the emigrant
farmers. He also expressed much regret that they had allowed themselves
to be deceived with regard to the intentions of the King of Holland by
a person possessed of no authority to act in the matter. He should be
happy, he added in closing, to use his best efforts to prevent acts of
violence by the Zulus and Kaffirs, but felt his inability to do much in
that respect as long as the Africanders continued in arms against her
Majesty’s authority, and thus gave these tribes reason to think that
whatever injury done to her rebellious subjects must be pleasing to her
government.
The diplomatic correspondence was prolonged into 1843, when a meeting
between Mr. Pretorius and other Africander leaders and
Lieutenant-Colonel Cloete attended by three or four advisers took a
place at Pietermaritzburg. The outcome of the conference was a treaty
by which Natal was declared a British colony, but it was remarkably
indefinite as to other particulars. The Africanders were to acknowledge
themselves British subjects, but were not required to take the oath of
allegiance to the queen. The guns they had captured, as well as all
their own ordnance, were to be given up. All public and private
property was to be restored to the rightful owners or custodians. All
prisoners were to be released, and a general amnesty was to be
proclaimed to all persons who had been engaged in hostilities against
her Majesty’s troops and authority, with the exception of four persons,
among whom was Mr. Pretorius. By a subsequent article in the treaty the
lieutenant-colonel included Mr. Pretorius in the amnesty in
consideration of his valuable services and co-operation in arranging
the final adjustment of the terms of surrender.
The Volksraad of the little Africander republic submitted to the terms
of the treaty, and to the British administration, in much bitterness
and wrath, protesting vehemently but without effect against a certain
leveling up process, introduced soon after the transfer of authority,
by which the savage blacks were given equal civil rights with the
whites.
How the Africanders of Natal in general received the new regime, and
how they acted under it, will be the subject of another chapter.
The annexation of the young republic by the English defeated the first
attempt of the Africanders to secure access to the sea. It seemed to be
a turning point in the history of South Africa, for by it Great Britain
obtained command of the east coast, and established a new center of
British influence in a part of the country which has come to be called
the garden of Africa. Moreover, it opened the way for the acquisition
of large contiguous territories in Zululand and in Tongaland.
It has been said that if the little Dutch republic had been left to
itself the natives would have suffered under a more rigorous treatment
than they have experienced at the hands of the British government, and
that the internal dissensions which became quite serious during its
brief history would have necessitated British interference in the
general interest of European South Africa. But one cannot feel perfect
confidence in uninspired prophecy. And one cannot repress the feeling
that the people who had trekked into an unclaimed and unoccupied
country for the sake of being isolated from the British, who had
subdued the savage Zulu tribes and set up a civilized government of
their own, were seized of sacred rights to peaceful possession and
independence.