THIRD CONTACT OF AFRICANDER AND BRITON—IN THE ORANGE FREE STATE.
The “Great Trek” of 1836 and 1838 removed from the old colony at the
Cape an element in the population which, however worthy in some
regards, was unrestful and disaffected, leaving abundant room for a new
immigration from Europe. It was some years, however, before there was
any considerable influx from continental Europe. Judged by the grim
rumors that were afloat everywhere, South Africa was a dangerous
country to live in because of the warlike and merciless Kaffirs; and
the trend of British emigration was yet towards America.
About 1845 the tide of fortune-seeking people was turned towards Cape
Colony. The British government of this time stimulated immigration to
that field so liberally that in five years between four and five
thousand loyal subjects from the mother country removed to the Cape.
Later, a considerable number of disbanded German soldiers who had
served under the British colors in the Crimean war were sent there as
citizens, and in 1858 over two thousand German civilians of the peasant
order were settled along the south coast on lands once occupied by the
Kaffirs.
Industries natural to the climate and soil were slowly but steadily
developed. Sheep and cattle raising, and agriculture to a limited
extent, became sources of wealth, and correspondingly expanded the
export trade. Public finances were gradually restored to a healthy
state, churches and schools sprang up, and there was no serious
drawback to the progress of the colony but the frequent Kaffir
invasions across the eastern border. These cost much loss of life and
property to the raided settlements, but the expense of the resulting
wars was borne by the home government. Under British rule the
population had increased from 26,000 Europeans in 1806 to 182,000 in
1865.
With the growth of population there came changes in the form of
government. The earlier governors exercised almost autocratic power,
fearing nothing but a possible appeal against their acts to the
Colonial Office in London. It should be stated, however, that the
colonists found as frequent cause to complain of the home government as
of their governors. The occasional irritation which broke out into open
protest was caused, for the most part, by difficulties with the
natives. The Europeans, dwelling among an inferior race, naturally
looked upon the natives as existing for their benefit, and bitterly
resented the disposition of both the imperial authorities and the
governors to give equal civil rights and protection to the blacks. The
missionaries were the special objects of this resentment, because they
held themselves bound by their sacred office to denounce the wrongs
inflicted on the Kaffirs, and to even defend their conduct in rebelling
against oppression.
These unfortunate dissensions had the effect of uniting the English and
the Dutch colonists in questions of policy and government regarding the
natives. After various attempts to satisfy the people with a governor
appointed by the crown and a Legislative Council constituted by the
governor’s nomination and imperial appointment, the home authorities,
in 1854, yielded to the public demand for representative institutions.
A legislature, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of
Assembly, was established, both to be elected on a franchise wide
enough to include people of any race or color holding the reasonable
property qualification. The sole check upon the colonial legislature
retained by the imperial government was the right of the British crown
to disallow any of its acts considered objectionable, on constitutional
or other grounds, by her Majesty’s ministers. The executive power
remained, for a time, with the governor and his council, who were
appointed by the crown and in no way responsible to the colonial
houses. Later, the executive power was taken from the governors and
vested in a cabinet of ministers responsible to the colonial
legislature and holding office during its pleasure.
The range of industries followed by the people of Cape Colony was not
enlarged until the discovery of diamonds in 1869. This brought in a
sudden rush of population from Europe and America and so inflated trade
that the colonial revenue was more than doubled in the next five years.
Then began that unparalleled development of mineral resources in South
Africa which created immense wealth and furnished the elements of a
political situation whose outcome the wisest cannot foresee.
With this general view of the condition of Cape Colony in the three
decades succeeding the Great Trek of the Africanders, we turn again to
the special study proposed and consider the chain of events that led up
to the third unfriendly contact between Boer and Briton—this time
beginning in the Orange Free State.
By the conventions of 1852 and 1854 Great Britain formally relinquished
all claim to that part of the interior of South Africa lying to the
north of Cape Colony, and recognized the republics of the Orange Free
State and the Transvaal. There can be no doubt of the sincerity of the
British government in taking this action. The prevailing desires
actuating both the parliament and the executive were to be rid of the
responsibility and expense of governing these regions, and to leave the
two new Africander republics to work out their own destiny in their own
way.
For a few years the relations of the Cape government and its northern
neighbors were friendly. The first occurrence that disturbed the
welcome peace and harmony was a serious war which broke out in 1858
between the Basutos under Moshesh and the Orange Free State. The
Basutos laid claim to certain farms, held under English titles, in
Harrismith, Wynberg and Smithfield districts. These were taken
possession of by the petty Basuto captains, and when attempts were made
to eject the intruders, Moshesh, the paramount chief, and his eldest
son Letsie, assumed the right to interfere. This episode, together with
other unfriendly acts on the part of the Basutos, brought on a
condition which, it became evident, nothing but war could remedy.
Accordingly, the Volksraad of the Orange Free State authorized the
President, Mr. Boshof, to take any steps necessary to prevent intrusion
upon the territory of the State. After much and very insincere
diplomatic correspondence, the time of which was used by the Free State
government in collecting the forces of its western and northern
divisions, and by the Basutos in assembling their warriors, petty raids
began the conflict and led on to hostilities on a larger scale near the
end of March, 1858.
By the 26th of April Mr. Boshof became convinced that the Free State
could not hold its own against the Basutos, and that the salvation of
the country from being overrun by its enemies depended upon obtaining
aid from some quarter. Acting on this conviction, on the 24th of April
Mr. Boshof wrote Sir George Grey, governor of Cape Colony, informing
him of the critical condition of the Free State, and imploring his
mediation. Sir George, after obtaining the sanction of the House
Assembly to such a course, immediately tendered his services as
mediator to Mr. Boshof and Moshesh, and was unconditionally and
cordially accepted by both. Thereupon a cessation of hostilities was
agreed to pending the arrangement of final terms of peace by Sir
George.
In the meantime, the Free State was being ravaged on its western border
by petty chiefs, who saw in the struggle between the whites and the
powerful Basutos a favorable opportunity to enrich themselves with
spoil. In the distress occasioned by these forays the Free State was
aided by a force of burghers from the Transvaal Republic, under
Commandant Paul Kruger.
Out of this friendly act there grew up a desire and even a proposition
to unite the two republics in one. President Pretorius, Commandant Paul
Kruger, and about twenty other representatives from the Transvaal
visited Bloemfontein to confer with the Free State Volksraad on the
matter of union—a measure considered by many the only means of saving
the country from its savage foes.
While the conference on union was in progress there arrived, on the
11th of June, a letter from Sir George Grey announcing that in case an
agreement to unite the two republics were concluded, the conventions of
1852 and 1854—guaranteeing their separate independence—would no longer
be considered binding by Great Britain. Undoubtedly this action evinced
a desire, not to say a determination, that the Free State should find
safety not by union with the sister republic to the north, but by
coming again under British sovereignty and forming one of a group of
colonies to be united in a great British Dominion in South Africa. The
negotiations for union were dropped on the receipt of Sir George’s
letter, and both parties resolved to appoint commissioners to confer
with him after peace with the Basutos should be arranged.
It was not until the 20th of August that Sir George Grey arrived at
Bloemfontein to act as mediator between Moshesh and the Free State.
While preliminaries were being discussed the governor received urgent
dispatches from London ordering him to send all available troops to
India, where the Sepoy rebellion was raging. It became, therefore, a
matter of supreme importance to establish peace between the Free State
and the Basutos at once—for not a soldier could safely be spared until
that was accomplished. On the 29th of September the treaty was
completed and signed. It settled a new frontier for the Free State next
to Basutoland, and bound Moshesh to either punish marauders of his
people himself, or consent that the Free State authorities should do
so.
This peace lasted only seven years. In 1865 new troubles arose leading
to a renewal of war between the Free State and Moshesh. Again the
governor of Cape Colony acted as mediator, but his decisions were
rejected by the Basutos, and new hostilities began. This time, by a
heroic effort made in 1868, the whites defeated and scattered the
Basutos with great slaughter, and were at the point of utterly breaking
their power, when the always politic Moshesh appealed to the British
High Commissioner at the Cape to take his people under British
protection.
The commissioner doubtless considered the interests of Cape Colony
which, in the event of a dispersion of the Basutos, might be overrun by
the fugitives, and suffer injury thereby. And it is evident that he was
unwilling that the Free State should strengthen itself, beyond the
necessity of ever seeking readmission to the British dominions, by the
annexation of Basutoland. So, looking to the safety of the old colony,
and to the hope of some day adding thereto the Orange Free State, the
commissioner took the defeated Basutos under the wing of the imperial
government and declared them British subjects.
The Free State was allowed to retain a considerable area of good land
which it had conquered on the north side of the Caledon River, but the
adjustment reached was anything but satisfactory. The British had now
established their authority to the south of the republic all the way
from Cape Colony to Natal, and, thus, had extinguished a second time
the persistent Africander hope of extending their territory to the sea.
Thus, in 1869, recommenced the British advance toward the interior.
Another momentous step towards enlarging the sphere of British
influence was taken almost immediately. Diamonds were discovered in
1869, in a district lying between the Modder and the Vaal rivers, where
the present town of Kimberley stands. Within a few months thousands of
diggers and speculators from all parts of South Africa, Europe,
America, and from some parts of Asia, thronged into the region and
transformed it into a place of surpassing value and interest. The
question of ownership was raised at once. The Orange Free State claimed
it. The Transvaal Republic claimed it. It was claimed by Nicholas
Waterboer, a Griqua captain, son of old Andries Waterboer; his claim
being based on an abortive treaty made with the elder Waterboer in
1834, when, at Doctor Philip’s suggestion, the attempt was made to
interpose between the old colony and the northern populations a line of
three native states under British protection. And it was claimed by a
native Batlapin chief.
Three of these claimant—the Transvaal Republic, Nicholas Waterboer for
the Griquas, and the Batlapin chief for his clan—agreed to settle the
conflict by arbitration, naming the governor of Natal as arbitrator.
The governor promptly awarded the disputed ownership to Nicholas
Waterboer the Griqua, who as promptly placed himself under the British
government, which, with equal promptitude, constituted the district a
crown colony under the name of Griqualand. The Orange Free State, not
having been a party to the arbitration, protested, and was afterwards
sustained by the decision of a British court, which found that
Waterboer’s claim to the territory was null and void. But the colony
had been constituted and the British flag unfurled over it before the
finding of the court could stay proceedings.
Without admitting or denying the Free State’s contention, the British
government obtained a quitclaim title for a money consideration. It was
represented that a district so difficult to keep in order, because of
the transient and turbulent character of the population, should be
under the control of a more vigorous government than that of the Free
State. Finally, the British offered and the Free State authorities
accepted, £90,000 in settlement of any claim the republic might have to
the territory of Griqualand.
The incident closed with the payment and acceptance, in 1876, of the
price agreed upon. But the Africanders of the Free State had the
feeling at the time—and it never ceased to rankle in their breasts—that
they had been made the victims of sharp practice; that the
diamond-bearing territory had been rushed into the possession of the
British and made a crown colony without giving them a fair opportunity
to prove their claim to it; and that, while the price offered and paid
was a tacit recognition of the validity of their claim, it was so
infinitesimal in proportion to the rights conveyed as to imply that in
British practice not only is possession nine points in ten of the law
but that it also justifies the holder in keeping back nine parts out of
ten of the value.
Nor was this the only British grievance complained of at this time by
the Free State. The project of uniting the two republics for greater
strength and mutual safety had been vetoed for no apparent reason than
to keep them weak so that they might the sooner become willing to
re-enter the British dominions in South Africa. And the British High
Commissioner at the Cape had taken the vanquished Basutos and their
territory under imperial protection at the moment when the victorious
Free State was about to reduce them to permanent submission, and to
extend its territory to the sea—again interposing the arm of Great
Britain to prevent the strengthening of the republic by its proposed
acquisition of Basutoland and the gaining of a seaport at the mouth of
the St. John River.
Nevertheless, the Orange Free State accepted the situation
philosophically and, outwardly, continued on friendly terms with the
British government until the outbreak of war between that power and the
Africanders of the Transvaal in 1899.