Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
underscores: _italics_. The cover of this ebook was created by the
transcriber and is hereby placed in the public domain.
THE LAST BOER WAR
"I am told that these men (the Boers) are told to keep on agitating in
this way, for a change of Government in England may give them again the
old order of things. Nothing can show greater ignorance of English
politics than such an idea. I tell you there is no Government--Whig or
Tory, Liberal, Conservative, or Radical--who would dare, under any
circumstances, to give back this country (the Transvaal). They would
not dare, because the English people would not allow them."--(_Extract
from Speech of Sir Garnet Wolseley, delivered at a Public Banquet in
Pretoria, on the 17th December 1879._)
"There was a still stronger reason than that for not receding (from the
Transvaal); it was impossible to say what calamities such a step as
receding might not cause.... For such a risk he could not make himself
responsible.... Difficulties with the Zulu and the frontier tribes
would again arise, and looking as they must to South Africa as a whole,
the Government, after a careful consideration of the question, came to
the conclusion that we could not relinquish the Transvaal."--(_Extract
from Speech of Lord Kimberley in the House of Lords, 24th May 1880.
H.P.D., vol. cclii., p. 208._)
"Our judgment is that the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish the
Transvaal."--(_Extract from Reply of Mr. Gladstone to Boer Memorial,
8th June 1880._)
THE LAST BOER WAR
BY
H. RIDER HAGGARD
_THIRTY-FIFTH THOUSAND_
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO. LTD.
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD
1900
WORKS BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.
CETYWAYO AND HIS WHITE NEIGHBOURS.
DAWN.
KING SOLOMON'S MINES.
THE WITCH'S HEAD.
SHE.
ALLAN QUATERMAIN.
JESS.
COLONEL QUARITCH, V.C.
MAIWA'S REVENGE.
MR. MEESON'S WILL.
ALLAN'S WIFE.
CLEOPATRA.
BEATRICE.
ERIC BRIGHTEYES.
NADA THE LILY.
MONTEZUMA'S DAUGHTER.
THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST.
JOAN HASTE.
HEART OF THE WORLD.
DOCTOR THERNE.
SWALLOW.
A FARMER'S YEAR.
_IN COLLABORATION WITH ANDREW LANG._
THE WORLD'S DESIRE.
_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved._
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
It has been suggested that at this juncture some students of South
African history might be glad to read an account of the Boer Rebellion
of 1881, its causes and results. Accordingly, in the following pages
are reprinted portions of a book which I wrote so long ago as 1882. It
may be objected that such matter must be stale, but I venture to urge,
on the contrary, that to this very fact it owes whatever value it may
possess. This history was written at the time by one who took an active
part in the sad and stirring events which it records, immediately after
the issue of those events had driven him home to England. Of the
original handful of individuals who were concerned in the annexation of
the Transvaal by Sir Theophilus Shepstone in 1877, of whom I was one,
not many now survive. When they have gone, any further accurate report
made from an intimate personal knowledge of the incidents attendant on
that act will be an impossibility; indeed it is already impossible,
since after the lapse of twenty years men can scarcely trust to their
memories for the details of intricate political occurrences, even
should they be prompted to attempt their record. It is for this reason,
when the melancholy results which its pages foretell have overtaken us,
that I venture to lay them again before the public, so that any who are
interested in the matter may read and find in the tale of 1881 the true
causes of the war of 1899.
I have written "which its pages foretell." Here are one or two passages
taken from them almost at hazard that may be thought to justify the
words:
"It seems to me, however, to be a question worthy of the consideration
of those who at present direct the destinies of the Empire, whether it
would not be wise, as they have gone so far, to go a little farther,
and favour a scheme for the total abandonment of South Africa,
retaining only Table Bay. If they do not, it is now quite within the
bounds of possibility that they may one day have _to face a fresh
Transvaal rebellion, only on a ten times larger scale_, and might
find it difficult to retain even Table Bay."
And again: "The curtain, so far as this country is concerned, is down
for the moment on the South African stage; when it rises again, there
is but too much reason to fear that it will reveal a state of confusion
which, unless it is more wisely and consistently dealt with in the
future than it has been in the past, may develop into chaos."
One more quotation. In speaking of the various problems of South
Africa, I find that I said that "unless they are treated with more
honest intelligence, and on a more settled plan than it has hitherto
been thought necessary to apply to them, the British taxpayer will find
that he has by no means heard the last of that country and its wars."
Perhaps in a year from the present date the British taxpayer will be in
a position to admit the value of this prophecy.
Nearly two decades have gone by since these words were written. Put
very briefly, what has happened in that time? In 1884, at the request
of the Transvaal Government, the Ministry, of which the late Lord Derby
was a member, consented to modify the Convention of 1881, and to
substitute in its place what is known as the London Convention. This
new agreement amended the terms of the former document in certain
particulars. Notably all mention of the suzerainty of the Queen was
omitted, from which circumstance the Boers and their impassioned
advocates have argued that it was abrogated. There is nothing to show
that this contention is correct. Mere silence does not destroy so
important a stipulation, and it appears to be doubtful whether even a
Lord Derby would have been prepared to nullify the imperial rights of
his sovereign and his country in this negative and novel fashion. It is
more probable to suppose that had such action been decided on, effect
would have been given to it in direct and unmistakable language. But
even if it could be proved that this view of the case is wrong, the
general issue would scarcely be affected.
That issue, as I understand it, is as follows: The Convention of 1881
guaranteed to all inhabitants of the Transvaal equal rights--"Complete
self-government subject to the suzerainty of her Majesty, her heirs and
successors, will be accorded to the _inhabitants of the Transvaal
territory_"--Mr. Kruger explaining verbally at a meeting of the
conference, that the only difference would be that in the case of young
persons who became resident in the Transvaal, there might be some
slight delay in granting full burgher privileges, limited, it would
appear, to one year's residence.[1] After that time, then, according to
the terms of this solemn agreement, which in these particulars were not
modified or even touched, by the supplementary and amending paper of
1884, any one who wished to claim the advantages of Transvaal
citizenship might do so.
[1] In 1881, when the Convention was being discussed,
President Kruger was asked by our representative what
treatment would be given to British subjects in the
Transvaal. He said, "All strangers have now, and will always
have, equal rights and privileges to the Burghers of the
Transvaal."--_Quotation from Speech of_ MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN,
_June 26, 1899_.
Some years later an event occurred fated profoundly to influence the
destinies of South Africa, namely, the discovery of the Witwatersrand
gold deposits, perhaps the richest and the most permanent in the whole
world. Instantly adventurers, most of them of Anglo-Saxon origin,
flocked in thousands to the place where countless wealth lay buried in
the earth, and on the plains over which I have seen the wild game
wandering, sprang up the city of Johannesburg with its motley and
cosmopolitan population, its speculators, company promoters, traders,
miners, and labouring men.
To the Transvaal, at any rate in the beginning, the arrival of these
wealth-engendering hordes was what the fall of copious rain is to the
sun-parched veld. By this time the country was once more almost
bankrupt, but now, as though by the waving of a magician's wand, money
began to flow into its coffers. One of the characteristics of the Boer
is his hatred of taxation; one of his notions of terrestrial bliss is
to live in a land where the necessary expenses of administration are
paid by somebody else, an advantage, I understand, that among all the
civilised nations of the earth is enjoyed alone by the inhabitants of
the Principality of Monaco. It is not usual, either in the instance of
communities or individuals, that such ideals should be absolutely
attained. Yet to the fortunate possessors of the South African Republic
this happened. For quite a long period they lived at ease in their
dorps and on their farms, while the dwellers at Johannesburg, delving
like gnomes in the reefs of the Rand, provided them with magnificent
and never-failing supplies of cash. Then questions began to arise, as
they will do in this imperfect sphere. The Uitlanders, as the strangers
were called, remembering the terms of the Conventions, drawn under a
very different condition of affairs but still binding, hinted at a wish
for burgher rights.
The Boers, who if they liked their money objected to the money-makers,
instantly took alarm. If the vote were given to the Uitlanders it was
obvious that very soon they would outnumber the original electors. Then
in a natural, but to them terrifying, sequence would come a
redistribution of the burdens of taxation, the abolition of monopolies,
the punishment of corruption, the just treatment of the native races,
the absolute purity of the courts, and all the other things and
institutions, in their eyes abominable, which mark the advent of
Anglo-Saxon rule. Behind these also loomed another danger, that of the
ultimate reappearance of the English flag. So legislation was resorted
to, and bit by bit the Uitlanders were stripped of the rights inherent
to their position as "inhabitants of the Transvaal territory," till at
last none were left to them at all. Indeed Press laws were passed and
other enactments controlling the privilege of free speech and public
meetings. Of course had the British Government put down its foot firmly
and at once at the first symptom of a desire on the part of the Boers
to whittle away such advantages as the Conventions secured to our
fellow-subjects, the present sad situation need never have arisen. But
British Governments are seldom fond of doing things at the right time,
more especially if the issue is not sufficiently distinct to be
appreciated by the masses of the electorate. Therefore matters were
allowed to drift, and they drifted into that outrageous fiasco, the
Jameson Raid of 1895.
Into the history of that event I do not propose to enter; it is
sufficiently well known. Suffice it to say in this brief summary, that
it was the result of a compact under which Dr. Jameson was to come to
Johannesburg with a large armed force of Rhodesian police, with the
view of assisting the Uitlanders to obtain by arms what was denied to
their petitions.
The agreement is undoubted and admitted, but all the rest is chaos.
Failure in a hundred shapes dogged the steps of these ineffective
conspirators. Dr. Jameson, with 500 men instead of 1200, took the bit
between his teeth and started at the wrong time. The Uitlanders did not
sally forth to meet him, the wires were not cut, the railway line was
not destroyed, the Boers were warned, and assembled in great numbers.
Dr. Jameson, who apparently lost his way on the veld, was entrapped
into a bad position, where, after a space of somewhat feeble combat, he
and his whole force surrendered, their lives being guaranteed to them.
The despatch-box of the raiders, with the ciphers and sundry
incriminating documents, was allowed to fall into the hands of the
enemy, and, on their own ammunition-waggons, the personnel of the Raid
performed the journey to that city of Pretoria, which when reinforced
by the Uitlanders they were to have entered in triumph. Thence they
were in due course despatched to London for trial. The members of the
Reform Committee were also seized and tried at Pretoria, several of
them being condemned to death, a sentence which was not executed; the
whole story, coming to its end to an accompaniment of the clash not of
swords, but of gold; the fines inflicted upon the conspirators by the
Transvaal Government amounting to a total of many tens of thousands of
pounds.
Such, except for mutual recriminations which still continue, was the
end of Johannesburg's armed attempt to throw off the yoke of the Boer,
and of the efforts of the ruling powers of Rhodesia to assist them in
the task. Of course the upshot was that the poor Uitlanders fell into a
still deeper pit of oppression and despair. Lord Rosmead, then Sir
Hercules Robinson, never a proconsul remarkable for an iron will, it is
true visited the Transvaal in a great flurry, and assured, or caused
Sir Sidney Shippard and the British agent, a gentleman of the somewhat
alien-sounding name of Sir Jacobus de Wet, in substance to assure the
Uitlanders that if only they would disarm probably their wrongs must
shortly be righted by a beneficent Boer president, assisted to the task
by a Raad full of forgiveness and charity. Moreover, Sir Jacobus de Wet
told them explicitly that the lives of Jameson and his men depended
upon their laying down such weapons as they possessed, although of
course those lives were already guaranteed by the terms of the
surrender.
But this raid had wider issues of an imperial nature. Thus it provoked
the famous telegram from the Emperor William II., which at one time
threatened to bring about a war between Great Britain and Germany.
Also, so far as these South African troubles were concerned, it put our
country hopelessly in the wrong in the eyes of the civilised world,
whom it proved difficult to persuade, although in fact this was the
case, that such strange and tortuous developments of political and
martial activity were purely local in their origin. Again it armed the
Boer with a sword of wondrous power. If Providence had sent all the
German legions to his aid it could scarcely have served him better. Now
indeed he was able to point to his land violated by the foot of the
invader, and to talk of raids as though such a wicked word had never
defiled the innocence of his ears; as though in truth he had never
heard of the plains of Stellaland, and of a certain expedition sent by
the British Government under the command of Sir Charles Warren to
preserve those territories to the peaceful enjoyment of their owners;
nor of that stretch of country which once belonged to the Zulus, but is
now called the New Republic; nor of the trek into Rhodesia that was
"damped"; nor of the extension of authority over Swaziland in defiance
of the provisions of the Convention, and of other kindred matters.
Also it enabled him to claim "moral and intellectual damages" to a
considerable amount, although, so far as the public is aware, these
have never been satisfied, and indeed caused Pharaoh to harden his
heart, and while demanding from the new Israelites of Johannesburg an
even heavier tale of bricks in the shape of direct and indirect
taxation, to deprive them one by one of their last straws of freedom.
Thus things fell back into their former courses, the old abuses
flourished like bay trees, the lucky holders of dynamite and other
monopolies grew fabulously rich, and--so powerful is the love of
gold--_auri sacra fames_--so much more do men value it than
freedom and pure government--the population of Johannesburg still
increased.
More than two years have gone by since Sir Alfred Milner was sent as
High Commissioner to South Africa, during all which time, backed by her
Majesty's present Government, he has been doing his best to secure
redress for the Uitlanders, and to arrange various differences that
have arisen between the Empire and the Transvaal Republic. At length
these efforts resulted in the meeting between himself and President
Kruger, known as the Bloemfontein Conference, which took place about
four months ago. At that Conference Sir Alfred Milner advanced the
request, modest enough seeing that they are entitled to nothing less
than equal rights with the other "inhabitants of the Transvaal," that
those Uitlanders who wished to adopt the country as their home should
be entitled to the franchise after five years' residence. This was
refused by President Kruger as endangering the independence of the
State, and the Conference broke up. It was from this time forward that
war came to be looked upon as probable. In reply to various despatches
and representations of the Imperial Government, the President and
Volksraad made certain offers of a franchise which, if they were ever
seriously meant, were hampered with provisos, such as rendered them
impossible for this country to accept. Thus the five years' offer of
August 19 was coupled with the conditions that in the future there
should be no interference in the internal affairs of the Republic, that
her Majesty's Government would not further insist on the assertion of
the suzerainty, and that the principle of arbitration in the event of
future differences arising should be admitted.
Had the Government agreed to these terms it would have meant, of
course, that the last shadow of the Queen's authority would have
vanished from the Transvaal, and as they had bound themselves not to
interfere in future, that they might be forced to look on while the
franchise which was granted one year was repealed or rendered nugatory
the next. Also, it must be remembered that this question of the
franchise does not cover all the grounds of difference between the two
parties; indeed, it seems that a great deal too much importance has
been given to the matter. Even if a certain number of Uitlanders
elected to become citizens of a Boer state, it is difficult to see,
however advantageous that circumstance might prove to themselves, in
what way it would directly assist the Imperial power on such a
question, let us say, as the treatment of our Indian subjects settled
in the Transvaal. To begin with, the new-born burghers might be
indifferent to the needs and wishes of the country they had renounced.
They might even consider that their oath of allegiance bound them to
oppose those wishes. At the least, even if they had the power to help
us, which could not be the case for many years, surely it would be
neither wise nor dignified for the power to which they once belonged to
trust solely to their good offices.
In the newspapers and elsewhere Johannesburg and its Uitlanders are
spoken of continually as though they made up the sum of the situation.
It is the common cry of Liberal Forwards and of those gentlemen who
might perhaps be called Radical Backwards, that this war is to be waged
for the Uitlander and the millionaire. Of course this is not in the
least true. The Uitlander, with his woes, is only the blister that has
brought the sore of Transvaal misrule and Dutch ambitions in South
Africa to so proud a head, that at last the South African Republic has
come to describe itself as "a Sovereign independent State." That he and
his "Magnates," as Rand millionaires are called, will profit enormously
from a successful war waged by the Imperial Power is admitted; but
because the effect of such a struggle will be ultimately to put a
number of annual millions into certain pockets, it does not follow that
the war is fought for that purpose. Indeed the veriest "jingo" could
scarcely show himself self-sacrificing and altruistic. This is no local
but an Imperial question to be decided in the interests of the Empire.
To return to the course of the negotiations. Offers, withdrawals,
stipulations, palliative clauses, proposals for further conferences
followed each other in bewildering variety, till at length, worn out,
Mr. Chamberlain, on September 22, intimated to the Government of the
South African Republic, through Sir Alfred Milner, that it was "useless
to further pursue a discussion on the lines hitherto followed, and her
Majesty's Government are now compelled to consider the situation
afresh, and to formulate their own proposals for a final settlement of
the issues which have been created in South Africa by the policy
constantly followed for many years by the Government of the South
African Republic. They will communicate to you the result of their
deliberations in a later despatch."
It is rumoured that this later despatch has been delivered at Pretoria,
but has as yet received no reply. Three days later, however, namely, on
September 25, that industrious body, the Liberal Forwards, was honoured
with a telegram from the State Secretary of the Transvaal, which runs
as follows:--
"Liberal Forwards, London. Many thanks for your telegram. We stick
to the Convention, and rely upon England doing the same, as
Convention does not allow interference in internal affairs."
When, however, it is remembered that the Convention did allow equal
rights to all the "inhabitants of the Transvaal," it will be admitted
that this cable is about the strangest of the remarkable series of
State documents which of late have emanated from Pretoria. Very aptly
it crystallises the spirit of Boer diplomacy--a bold disregard of
inconvenient facts.
Meanwhile in South Africa various events of importance have happened.
The Orange Free State has openly thrown in its lot with the Transvaal.
The Uitlanders have fled by thousands from Johannesburg. The Boers have
massed their commandos at various points on the Natal and other British
borders, presumably for offensive purposes, since at present they can
expect no invasion of their territory. The first of these occurrences
reveals the hidden purpose of the Dutch party in South Africa, as at
night a sudden flash of lightning reveals the face of the veld. We have
never threatened the Orange Free State; it has no grievance, no cause
of quarrel, yet suddenly it appears in arms against us. Why? Because
its citizens believe that the time has come to translate into action
the old dream of the Boers, which so long as five-and-twenty years ago
was familiar to the late President Burgers when he spoke of the coming
Dutch Republic, with its eight millions of inhabitants ruling supreme
in the vast territories between the Zambezi and the Cape. Now the great
conspiracy that it has proved so hard to persuade the British public,
or a blind section of it, to credit stands unveiled, and it has for
object nothing less than the expulsion of the English power from
Southern Africa--a vain thing fondly imagined, but still a thing with
which we must reckon, and it is to be feared by the last stern
expedient of arms, since here soft words and diplomacy are of no avail.
Difficult as it is to make the fact understood among a proportion of
the home electorate and publicists, it cannot be stated too often or
too clearly that this war, which is to come, is a war that was forced
upon us by the Boers in their blind ignorance and conceit. The mass of
them believe, because they defeated our troops in various small affairs
in 1881, that they are a match for the British Empire. Their leaders
are better instructed. They trust not so much, perhaps, to the rifles
of their compatriots as to the prowess of certain party captains in
England, and to the enthusiasm of their advocates among the English
Press and public. They remember that the activity of these forces
eighteen years ago was followed by a miserable surrender on the part of
the English Government, and not understanding how greatly opinion has
changed in this country, they hope that history may repeat itself, and
that England, wearying of an unpopular struggle, will soon cede to them
all they ask. They are mistaken, but such is their faith. They hope
also, perchance with better reason, that other complications may force
us to stay our hand. If no more telegrams can be extracted from the
German Emperor, still there is a German regiment fighting on their side
who will take with them the sympathies of the Fatherland, and they know
that the hearts of the great Powers of Europe will go out towards any
people who try to strike a blow at the root of the ever-growing tree of
the might of the British Empire. Buoyed up by bubbles such as these
they have determined to tempt the stern arbitrament of battle.[2]
[2] See the very remarkable letter of the Boer "P.S." to the
_Times_ of October 14th, printed as Appendix III. to this
book, p. 241.
Can it still be avoided? It would seem that except by our surrender,
which is out of the question, for that means the loss not only of South
Africa, but of our prestige throughout the world, this is not in any
way possible. Already acts of war have taken place, such as the seizure
of the gold from the mines, and the commandeering of goods belonging to
British subjects, and perhaps days before these lines can appear in
print the guns will have begun their reasoning.[3]
[3] Since the above was written, in the swift march of
events, the Transvaal has despatched its "ultimatum," perhaps
the most egregious document ever addressed to a great Power
by a petty State. In effect it is a declaration of war, and
hostilities have now commenced with the destruction by the
Boers of an armoured train at Kraaipan, and the capture or
slaying of its escort.
H. R. H.
_9th October _ 1899.
After the rebellion of 1881 a Boer jury, to whom the case was committed
by the tender mercies of Mr. Gladstone's Government, with the murdered
man's bullet-riddled skull lying before them upon the table of the
Court, acquitted the brutal slaughterers of Captain Elliot, not because
they had not done the deed with every circumstance of horrible
treachery and premeditation, but because to find them guilty was
against their brethren's wish. In much the same way, with all the facts
staring them in the face, there are men in England, some of them of
high position and character, who urge the righteousness of the Boer
cause, and with tongue and pen paint our national iniquity in hues
black as ink and red as blood. They write of the "Objects of the War,"
which they do not hesitate to describe as self-seeking and infamous, so
far of course as the English people are concerned, for according to the
same authorities, the Boer objects are uniformly pure and noble. Would
it not be better if they looked back a little and tried to discover the
causes of the war? I think that if they could have witnessed a certain
scene upon the market-square at Newcastle, at which it was my
misfortune to be present, on that night of the year 1881 when the news
of the base betrayal of the loyalists by England became known, they
would win a better understanding of the question. In the spectacle of
that maddened crowd of three or four thousand ruined and deserted men,
English, Boer, and Kaffir, raving, weeping, and blaspheming in the
despair of their shame and bitterness, they might have found
enlightenment. Even now a study of the following forgotten letter
written by Mr. White, the chairman of the Committee of Loyal
Inhabitants, to Mr. Gladstone, might give to some a food for thought:--
"If, sir, you had seen, as I have seen, promising young citizens of
Pretoria dying of wounds received for their country, and if you had had
the painful duty, as I have had, of bringing to their friends at home
the last mementoes of the departed; if you had seen the privations and
discomforts which delicate women and children bore without murmuring
for upwards of three months; if you had seen strong men crying like
children at the cruel and undeserved desertion of England; if you had
seen the long strings of half-desperate loyalists, shaking the dust off
their feet as they left the country, as I saw on my way to Newcastle;
and if you yourself had invested your all on the strength of the word
of England, and now saw yourself in a fair way of being beggared by the
acts of the country in whom you trusted, you would, sir, I think, be
'pronounced,' and England would ring with eloquent entreaties and
threats which would compel a hearing.... We claim, sir, at least as
much justice as the Boers. We are faithful subjects of England, and
have suffered and are suffering for our fidelity. Surely we, the
friends of our country, who stood by her in the time of trial, have as
much right to consideration as rebels who fought against her. We rely
on her word. We rely on the frequently repeated pledges and promises of
her ministers in which we have trusted. We rely on her sense of moral
right not to do us the grievous wrong which this miserable peace
contemplates. We rely on her fidelity to obligations, and on her
ancient reputation for honour and honesty. We rely on the material
consequences which will follow on a breach of faith to us. England
cannot afford to desert us after having solemnly pledged herself to
us."
"England cannot afford to desert us!" but England, or her rulers, could
and did afford itself this luxury. In vain did such men as the late
Lord Beaconsfield, the late Lord Cairns, and Lord Salisbury protest and
point out dangers. In vain did agonised loyalists flourish their own
words and promises in the face of her Majesty's Government; the spirit
of party, or the promptings of a newly acquired conscience proved too
strong. Her Majesty's loyal subjects were sneered at, insulted, and
abandoned, and the Boer, who had butchered them, was bid to go on and
prosper.
Now, nearly twenty years afterwards, England is called upon to pay the
bill of what is in effect, whatever may have been its motives, one of
the most infamous acts that stains the pages of her history. From the
moment that the Convention of 1881 was signed it became as certain as
anything human can be, that one of two things would happen--either that
the Imperial Power must in practice be driven out of South Africa, or
that a time would come when it must be forced to assert its dominion
even at the price of war.
Now that miserable hour is with us, and we are called upon to suppress
by arms a small, but sullen and obstinate people, whom we have taught
to believe themselves our equals, if not our superiors. Unless they
will yield at the last moment, which seems impossible seeing that the
war is of their own choosing, the new settlement of South Africa must
be celebrated by a mighty sacrifice of their blood and our blood. Not
to dwell upon other griefs and dangers, when, I ask, will the smoke and
the smell of it depart from the eyes and nostrils of the dwellers in
that unhappy land? As they troop back merrily to their mines and
workshops the money-spinners of Johannesburg may forget a past of
which, in many instances at least, their chief impression will be that
it was unpleasant and unprofitable. But after the Rand is worked out,
when the stamps cease to fall heavily by day and night, when the great
heaps of tailings no longer increase from month to month, when the
broker's voice is quiet in the Exchange, and the promoter inhabits some
new city, still the Boer women in the farmhouses will tell their
children how the "damned English soldiers" shot their grandfathers and
took the land. In South Africa new Irelands will arise, and from the
dragon's teeth that we are forced to sow the harvest of hate will
spring, and spring again. Thus must we eat of the bitter bread which we
have baked, and thus the ill fowl that we reared have come home to
roost, bringing their broods with them.
Again and again we have blundered in our treatment of the Dutch. For
instance, with kinder and fairer management they would never have
trekked from the Cape sixty years ago. Also, had the promises which
were made to them at the annexation in 1877 been kept, and had not Sir
Theophilus Shepstone, who grew up amongst them and to whom they were
attached, been removed in favour of a military martinet, there would
have been no rebellion, let the Cape wire-pullers working under a cloak
of loyalty to the Crown strive as they might. But the rebellion came
and the defeats, and after these that surrender whereof this country is
called upon to pluck the fruit to-day, which, by the Boers, is
attributed to those defeats with the fear of their prowess and to
nothing else.
And now, in due season, the war comes; an inevitable war which cannot
be escaped, and must be fought out to the end. There is only room for
one paramount power in Southern Africa!
How all these things happened is told briefly, but I trust clearly, in
the following pages. My excuse for reprinting them must be the desire
which, it is said, exists among some readers to become better
acquainted with the facts that engendered the present fateful crisis.
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
_9th October _1899.
CONTENTS.
PAGES
AUTHOR'S NOTE v
CHAPTER I.
ITS INHABITANTS, LAWS, AND CUSTOMS.
Invasion by Mosilikatze--Arrival of the emigrant Boers--Establishment
of the South African Republic--The Sand River Convention--Growth of
the territory of the republic--The native tribes surrounding it--
Capabilities of the country--Its climate--Its inhabitants--The Boers
--Their peculiarities and mode of life--Their abhorrence of settled
government and payment of taxes--The Dutch patriotic party--Form of
government previous to the annexation--Courts of law--The commando
system--Revenue arrangements--Native races in the Transvaal 1-22
CHAPTER II.
EVENTS PRECEDING THE ANNEXATION.
Mr. Burgers elected president--His character and aspirations--His
pension from the English Government--His visit to England--The
railway loan--Relations of the republic with native tribes--The
pass laws--Its quarrel with Cetywayo--Confiscation of native
territory in the Keate Award--Treaty with the Swazi king--The
Secocoeni war--Capture of Johannes' stronghold by the Swazi
allies--Attack on Secocoeni's mountain--Defeat and dispersion of
the Boers--Elation of the natives--Von Schlickmann's volunteers--
Cruelties perpetrated--Abel Erasmus--Treatment of natives by Boers
--Public meeting at Potchefstroom in 1868--The slavery question--
Some evidence on the subject--Pecuniary position of the Transvaal
prior to the annexation--Internal troubles--Divisions amongst the
Boers--Hopeless condition of the country 23-49
CHAPTER III.
THE ANNEXATION.
Anxiety of Lord Carnarvon--Despatch of Sir T. Shepstone as Special
Commissioner to the Transvaal--Sir T. Shepstone, his great
experience and ability--His progress to Pretoria, and reception
there--Feelings excited by the arrival of the mission--The
annexation _not_ a foregone conclusion--Charge brought against
Sir T. Shepstone of having called up the Zulu army to sweep the
Transvaal--Its complete falsehood--Cetywayo's message to Sir T.
Shepstone--Evidence on the matter summed up--General desire of
the natives for English rule--Habitual disregard of their
interests--Assembly of the Volksraad--Rejection of Lord
Carnarvon's Confederation Bill and of President Burgers' new
constitution--President Burgers' speeches to the Raad--His
posthumous statement--Communication to the Raad of Sir T.
Shepstone's intention to annex the country--Despatch of Commission
to inquire into the alleged peace with Secocoeni--Its fraudulent
character discovered--Progress of affairs in the Transvaal--Paul
Kruger and his party--Restlessness of natives--Arrangements for
the annexation--The annexation proclamation 50-86
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRANSVAAL UNDER BRITISH RULE.
Reception of the annexation--Major Clarke and the Volunteers--Effect
of the annexation on credit and commerce--Hoisting of the Union
Jack--Ratification of the annexation by Parliament--Messrs. Kruger
and Jorissen's mission to England--Agitation against the annexation
in the Cape Colony--Sir T. Shepstone's tour--Causes of the growth
of discontent among the Boers--Return of Messrs. Jorissen and Kruger
--The Government dispenses with their services--Despatch of a second
deputation to England--Outbreak of war with Secocoeni--Major Clarke,
R.A.--The Gunn of Gunn plot--Mission of Captain Paterson and Mr.
Sergeaunt to Matabeleland--Its melancholy termination--The Isandhlwana
disaster--Departure of Sir T. Shepstone for England--Another Boer
meeting--The Pretoria Horse--Advance of the Boers on Pretoria--
Arrival of Sir B. Frere at Pretoria and dispersion of the Boers--
Arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley--His proclamation--The Secocoeni
expedition--Proceedings of the Boers--Mr. Pretorius--Mr. Gladstone's
Mid-Lothian speeches, their effect--Sir G. Wolseley's speech at
Pretoria, its good results--Influx of Englishmen and cessation of
agitation--Financial position of the country after three years of
British rule--Letter of the Boer leaders to Mr. Courtney 87-119
CHAPTER V.
THE BOER REBELLION.
Accession of Mr. Gladstone to power--His letters to the Boer
leader and the loyals--His refusal to rescind the annexation--The
Boers encouraged by prominent members of the Radical party--The
Bezeidenhout incident--Despatch of troops to Potchefstroom--Mass
meeting of the 8th December 1880--Appointment of the Triumvirate
and declaration of the republic--Despatch of Boer proclamation to
Sir O. Lanyon--His reply--Outbreak of hostilities at Potchefstroom
--Defence of the court-house by Major Clarke--The massacre of the
detachment of the 94th under Colonel Anstruther--Dr. Ward--The Boer
rejoicings--The Transvaal placed under martial law--Abandonment of
their homes by the people of Pretoria--Sir Owen Lanyon's admirable
defence organisation--Second proclamation issued by the Boers--Its
complete falsehood--Life at Pretoria during the siege--Murders of
natives by the Boers--Loyal conduct of the native chiefs--Difficulty
of preventing them from attacking the Boers--Occupation of Lang's
Nek by the Boers--Sir George Colley's departure to Newcastle--The
condition of that town--The attack on Lang's Nek--Its desperate
nature--Effect of victory on the Boers--The battle at the Ingogo--
Our defeat--Sufferings of the wounded--Major Essex--Advance of the
Boers into Natal--Constant alarms--Expected attack on Newcastle--
Its unorganised and indefensible condition--Arrival of the
reinforcements and retreat of the Boers to the Nek--Despatch
of General Wood to bring up more reinforcements--Majuba Hill--Our
disaster, and death of Sir George Colley--Cause of our defeat--A
Boer version of the disaster--Sir George Colley's tactics 120-155
CHAPTER VI.
THE RETROCESSION OF THE TRANSVAAL.
The Queen's Speech--President Brand and Lord Kimberley--Sir Henry
de Villiers--Sir George Colley's plan--Paul Kruger's offer--Sir
George Colley's remonstrance--Complimentary telegrams--Effect of
Majuba on the Boers and English Government--Collapse of the
Government--Reasons of the surrender--Professional sentimentalists
--The Transvaal Independence Committee--Conclusion of the armistice
--The preliminary peace--Reception of the news in Natal--Newcastle
after the declaration of peace--Exodus of the loyal inhabitants of
the Transvaal--The value of property in Pretoria--The Transvaal
officials dismissed--The Royal Commission--Mode of trial of persons
accused of atrocities--Decision of the Commission and its results
--The severance of territory question--Arguments _pro_ and _con_--
Opinion of Sir E. Wood--Humility of the Commissioners and its cause
--Their decision on the Keate Award question--The Montsioa difficulty
--The compensation and financial clauses of the report of the
Commission--The duties of the British Resident--Sir E. Wood's
dissent from the report of the Commission--Signing of the
Convention--Burial of the Union Jack--The native side of the
question--Interview between the Commissioners and the native
chiefs--Their opinion of the surrender--Objections of the Boer
Volksraad to the Convention--Mr. Gladstone temporises--The
ratification--Its insolent tone--Mr. Hudson, the British Resident
--The Boer festival--The results of the Convention--The larger
issue of the matter--Its effect on the Transvaal--Its moral
aspects--Its effect on the native mind 156-202
CHAPTER VII.
Extract from Introduction to new edition of 1888 203
APPENDIX.
I. The Potchefstroom Atrocities, &c. 231
II. Pledges given by Mr. Gladstone's Government as to the
Retention of the Transvaal 239
III. A Boer on Boer Designs 241
_THE TRANSVAAL._
CHAPTER I.
ITS INHABITANTS, LAWS, AND CUSTOMS.
The Transvaal is a country without a history. Its very existence was
hardly known of until about fifty years ago. Of its past we know
nothing. The generations who peopled its great plains have passed
utterly out of the memory and even the tradition of man, leaving no
monument to mark that they have existed, not even a tomb.
During the reign of Chaka, 1813-1828, whose history has been sketched
in a previous chapter, one of his most famous generals, Mosilikatze,
surnamed the Lion, seceded from him with a large number of his
soldiers, and striking up in a north-westerly direction, settled in or
about what is now the Morico district of the Transvaal. The country
through which Mosilikatze passed was at that time thickly populated
with natives of the Basuto or Macatee race, whom the Zulus look upon
with great contempt. Mosilikatze expressed the feelings of his tribe in
a practical manner, by massacring every living soul of them that came
within his reach. That the numbers slaughtered were very great, the
numerous ruins of Basuto kraals all over the country testify.
It was Chaka's intention to follow up Mosilikatze and destroy him, but
he was himself assassinated before he could do so. Dingaan, his
successor, however, carried out his brother's design, and despatched a
large force to punish him. This army, after marching over 300 miles,
burst upon Mosilikatze, drove him back with slaughter, and returned
home triumphant. The invasion is important, because the Zulus claim the
greater part of the Transvaal territory by virtue of it.
About the time that Mosilikatze was conquered, 1835-1840, the
discontented Boers were leaving the Cape Colony exasperated at the
emancipation of the slaves by the Imperial authorities. First they made
their way to Natal, but being followed thither by the English flag they
travelled further inland over the Vaal River and founded the town of
Mooi River Dorp or Potchefstroom. Here they were joined by other
malcontents from the Orange Sovereignty, which, though afterwards
abandoned, was at that time a British possession. Acting upon
"The good old rule, the simple plan,
Of let him take who has the power,
And let him keep who can,"
the Boers now proceeded to possess themselves of as much territory as
they wanted. Nor was this a difficult task. The country was, as I have
said, peopled by Macatees, who are a poor-spirited race as compared to
the Zulus, and had had what little courage they possessed crushed out
of them by the rough handling they had received at the hands of
Mosilikatze and Dingaan. The Boers, they argued, could not treat them
worse than the Zulus had done. Occasionally a chief, bolder than the
rest, would hold out, and then such an example was made of him and his
people that few cared to follow in his footsteps.
As soon as the Boers were fairly settled in their new home, they began
to think about setting up a Government. First they tried a system of
Commandants, with a Commandant-general, but this does not seem to have
answered. Next, those of their number who lived in Lydenburg district
(where the gold-fields now are) set up a Republic, with a President and
Volksraad, or popular assembly. This example was followed by the other
white inhabitants of the country, who formed another Republic and
elected another President, with Pretoria for their capital. The two
republics were subsequently incorporated.
In 1852 the Imperial authorities, having regard to the expense of
maintaining an effective government over an unwilling people in an
undeveloped and half-conquered country, concluded a convention with the
emigrant Boers "beyond the Vaal River." The following were the
principal stipulations of this convention, drawn up between Major Hogg
and Mr. Owen, Her Majesty's Assistant-Commissioners for the settling
and adjusting of the affairs of the eastern and north-eastern
boundaries of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope on the one part, and
a deputation representative of the emigrant farmers north of the Vaal
River on the other. It was guaranteed "in the fullest manner on the
part of the British Government to the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal
River the right to manage their own affairs, and to govern themselves
according to their own laws, without any interference on the part of
the British Government, and that no encroachment shall be made by the
said Government on the territory beyond to the north of the Vaal River,
with the further assurance that the warmest wish of the British
Government is to promote peace, free trade, and friendly intercourse
with the emigrant farmers now inhabiting, or who hereafter may inhabit
that country, it being understood that this system of non-interference
is binding on both parties."
Next were disclaimed, on behalf of the British Government, "all
alliances whatever and with whomsoever of the coloured nations to the
north of the Vaal River."
It was also agreed "that no slavery is or shall be permitted or
practised in the country to the north of the Vaal River by the emigrant
farmers."
It was further agreed "that no objection shall be made by any British
authority against the emigrant Boers purchasing their supplies of
ammunition in any of the British colonies and possessions of South
Africa; it being mutually understood that all trade in ammunition with
the native tribes is prohibited both by the British Government and the
emigrant farmers on both sides of the Vaal River."
These were the terms of this famous convention, which is as slipshod in
its diction as it is vague in its meaning. What, for instance, is meant
by the territory to the north of the Vaal River? According to the
letter of the agreement, Messrs. Hogg and Owen ceded all the territory
between the Vaal and Egypt. This historical document was the Charta of
the new-born South African Republic. Under its provisions, the Boers,
now safe from interference on the part of the British, established
their own Government and promulgated their "Grond Wet," or
Constitution.
The history of the Republic between 1852 and 1876 is not very
interesting, and is besides too wearisome to enter into here. It
consists of an oft-told tale of civil broils, attacks on native tribes,
and encroachment on native territories. Until shortly before the
Annexation, every burgher was, on coming of age, entitled to receive
from the Government 6000 acres of land. As these rights were in the
early days of the Republic frequently sold to speculators for such
trifles as a bottle of brandy or half a dozen of beer, and as the
seller still required his 6000 acres: for a Boer considers it beneath
his dignity to settle on less, it is obvious that it required a very
large country to satisfy all demands. To meet these demands, the
territories of the Republic had to be stretched like an elastic band,
and they were stretched accordingly,--at the expense of the natives.
The stretching process was an ingenious one, and is very well described
in a minute written by Mr. Osborn, the late magistrate at Newcastle,
dated 22d September 1876, in these words:--
"The Boers, as they have done in other cases and are still doing,
encroached by degrees on native territory, commencing by obtaining
permission to graze stock upon portions of it at certain seasons of the
year, followed by individual graziers obtaining from native headmen a
sort of right or license to squat upon certain defined portions,
ostensibly in order to keep other Boer squatters away from the same
land. These licenses, temporarily intended as friendly or neighbourly
acts by unauthorised headmen, after a few seasons of occupation by the
Boer, are construed by him as title, and his permanent occupation
ensues. Damage for trespass is levied by him from the very man from
whom he obtained the right to squat, to which the natives submit out of
fear of the matter reaching the ears of the paramount chief, who would
in all probability severely punish them for opening the door to
encroachment by the Boer. After a while, however, the matter comes to a
crisis in consequence of the incessant disputes between the Boers and
the natives; one or other of the disputants lays the case before the
paramount chief, who, when hearing both parties, is literally
frightened with violence and threats by the Boer into granting him the
land. Upon this the usual plan followed by the Boer is at once to
collect a few neighbouring Boers, including a field cornet, or even an
acting provisional field cornet, appointed by the field cornet or
provisional cornet, the latter to represent the Government, although
without instructions authorising him to act in the matter. A few cattle
are collected among themselves, which the party takes to the chief, and
his signature is obtained to a written document alienating to the
Republican Boers a large slice of all his territory. The contents of
this document are, as far as I can make out, never clearly or
intelligibly explained to the chief, who signs and accepts of the
cattle under the impression that it is all in settlement of hire for
the grazing licenses granted by his headmen. This, I have no hesitation
in saying, is the usual method by which the Boers obtain what they call
cessions to them of territories by native chiefs. In Secocoeni's case
they allege that his father Sequati cedes to them the whole of his
territory (hundreds of square miles) for a hundred head of cattle."
So rapidly did this process go on that the little Republic to the
"North of the Vaal River" had at the time of the Annexation grown into
a country of the size of France. Its boundaries had only been clearly
defined where they abutted on neighbouring White Communities, or on the
territories of great native powers, on which the Government had not
dared to infringe to any marked degree, such as those of Lo Bengula's
people in the north. But wheresoever on the State's borders there had
been no white Power to limit its advances, or where the native tribes
had found themselves too isolated or too weak to resist aggressions,
there the Republic had by degrees encroached, and extended the shadow,
if not the substance, of its authority.
The Transvaal has a boundary line of over 1600 miles in circumference,
and of this a large portion is disputed by different native tribes.
Speaking generally, the territory lies between the 22° and 28° of South
Latitude and the 25° and 32° of East Longitude, or between the Orange
Free State, Natal and Griqualand West on the south, and the Limpopo
River on the north; and between the Lebombo mountains on the east, and
the Kalihari desert on the west. On the north of its territory live
three great tribes--the Makalaka, the Matabele, (descendants of the
Zulus who deserted Chaka under Mosilikatze), and the Matyana. These
tribes are all warlike. On the west, following the line down to the
Diamond Field territory, are the Sicheli, the Bangoaketsi, the
Baralong, and the Koranna tribes. Passing round by Griqualand West, the
Free State, and Natal, we reach Zululand on the south-east corner; then
come the Lebombo mountains on the east, separating the Transvaal from
Amatonga land, and from the so-called Portuguese possessions, which are
entirely in the hands of native tribes, most of them subject to the
great Zulu chief, Umzeila, who has his stronghold in the north-east.
It will be observed that the country is almost surrounded by native
tribes. Besides these there are about one million native inhabitants
living within its borders. In one district alone, Zoutpansberg, it is
computed that there are 364,250 natives, as compared to about 750
whites.
If a beautiful and fertile country were alone necessary to make a state
and its inhabitants happy and prosperous, happiness and prosperity
would rain upon the Transvaal and the Dutch Boers. The capabilities of
this favoured land are vast and various. Within its borders are to be
found highlands and lowlands, vast stretches of rolling veldt like
gigantic sheep downs, hundreds of miles of swelling bushland, huge
tracts of mountainous country, and even little glades spotted with
timber that remind one of an English park. There is every possible
variety of soil and scenery. Some districts will grow all tropical
produce, whilst others are well suited for breeding sheep, cattle, and
horses. Most of the districts will produce wheat and all other cereals
in greater perfection and abundance than any of the other South African
colonies. Two crops of cereals may be obtained from the soil every
year, and both the vine and tobacco are cultivated with great success.
Coffee, sugar-cane, and cotton have been grown with profit in the
northern parts of the State. Also the undeveloped mineral wealth of the
country is very great. Its known minerals are gold, copper, lead,
cobalt, iron, coal, tin, and plumbago: copper and iron having long been
worked by the natives. Altogether there is little doubt that the
Transvaal is the richest of all the South African states, and had it
remained under English rule it would, with the aid of English
enterprise and capital, have become a very wealthy and prosperous
country. However there is little chance of that now. Perhaps the
greatest charm of the Transvaal lies in its climate, which is among the
best in the world, and in all the southern districts very healthy.
During the winter months--that is, from April to October--little or no
rain falls, and the climate is cold and bracing. In summer it is rather
warm, but not overpoweringly hot, the thermometer at Pretoria averaging
from 65° to 73° and in the winter from 59° to 65°. The population of
the Transvaal is estimated at about 40,000 whites, mostly of Dutch
origin, consisting of about thirty vast families; and one million
natives. There are several towns, the largest of which are Pretoria and
Potchefstroom.
Such is the country that we annexed in 1877, and were drummed out of in
1881. Now let us turn to its inhabitants. It has been the fashion to
talk of the Transvaal as though nobody but Boers lived in it. In
reality the inhabitants were divided into three classes: 1. Natives; 2.
Boers; 3. English. I say were divided, because the English class can
now hardly be said to exist, the country having been made too hot to
hold it since the war. The natives stand in the proportion of nearly
twenty to one to the whites. The Boers were in their turn much more
numerous than the English, but the latter owned nearly all the trading
establishments in the country, and also a very large amount of
property.
The Transvaal Boers have been very much praised up by members of the
Government in England, and others who are anxious to advance their
interests, as against English interests. Mr. Gladstone, indeed, can
hardly find words strong enough to express his admiration of their
leaders, those "able men," since they inflicted a national humiliation
on us; and doubtless they are a people with many good points. That they
are not devoid of sagacity can be seen by the way they have dealt with
the English Government.
The Boers are certainly a peculiar people, though they can hardly be
said to be "zealous of good works." They are very religious, but their
religion takes its colour from the darkest portions of the Old
Testament; lessons of mercy and gentleness are not at all to their
liking, and they seldom care to read the Gospels. What they delight in
are the stories of wholesale butchery by the Israelites of old; and in
their own position they find a reproduction of that of the first
settlers in the Holy Land. Like them they think they are entrusted by
the Almighty with the task of exterminating the heathen native tribes
around them, and are always ready with a scriptural precedent for
slaughter and robbery. The name of the Divinity is continually on their
lips, sometimes in connection with very doubtful statements. They are
divided into three sects, none of which care much for the other two.
These are the Doppers, who number about half the population, the
Orthodox Reform, and the Liberal Reform, which is the least numerous.
Of these three sects the Doppers are by far the most uncompromising and
difficult to deal with. They much resemble the Puritans of Charles the
First's time, of the extreme Hew-Agag-in-pieces stamp.
It is difficult to agree with those who call the Boers cowards, an
accusation which the whole of their history belies. A Boer does not
like fighting if he can avoid it, because he sets a high value on his
own life; but if he is cornered, he will fight as well as anybody else.
The Boers fought well enough in the late war, though that, it is true,
is no great criterion of courage, since they were throughout flushed
with victory, and, owing to the poor shooting of the British troops, in
but little personal danger. One very unpleasant characteristic they
have, and that is an absence of regard for the truth, especially where
land is concerned. Indeed the national characteristic is crystallised
into a proverb, "I am no slave to my word." It has several times
happened to me to see one set of highly respectable witnesses in a land
case go into the box and swear distinctly that they saw a beacon placed
on a certain spot, whilst an equal number on the other side will swear
that they saw it placed a mile away. Filled as they are with a land
hunger, to which that of the Irish peasant is a weak and colourless
sentiment, there is little that they will not do to gratify their
taste. It is the subject of constant litigation amongst them, and it is
by no means uncommon for a Boer to spend several thousand pounds in
lawsuits over a piece of land not worth as many hundreds.
Personally Boers are fine men, but as a rule ugly. Their women-folk are
good-looking in early life, but get very stout as they grow older.
They, in common with most of their sex, understand how to use their
tongues; indeed, it is said that it was the women who caused the rising
against the English Government. None of the refinements of civilisation
enter into the life of an ordinary Transvaal Boer. He lives in a way
that would shock an English labourer at twenty-five shillings the week,
although he is very probably worth fifteen or twenty thousand pounds.
His home is but too frequently squalid and filthy to an extraordinary
degree. He himself has no education, and does not care that his
children should receive any. He lives by himself in the middle of a
great plot of land, his nearest neighbour being perhaps ten or twelve
miles away, caring but little for the news of the outside world and
nothing for its opinions, doing very little work, but growing daily
richer through the increase of his flocks and herds. His expenses are
almost nothing, and as he gets older wealth increases upon him. The
events in his life consist of an occasional trip on "commando" against
some native tribe, attending a few political meetings, and the journeys
he makes with his family to the nearest town, some four times a year,
in order to be present at "Nachtmaal" or communion. Foreigners,
especially Englishmen, he detests, but he is kindly and hospitable to
his own people. Living isolated as he does, the lord of a little
kingdom, he naturally comes to have a great idea of himself, and a
corresponding contempt for all the rest of mankind. Laws and taxes are
things distasteful to him, and he looks upon it as an impertinence that
any court should venture to call him to account for his doings. He is
rich and prosperous, and the cares of poverty, and all the other
troubles that fall to the lot of civilised men, do not affect him. He
has no romance in him, nor any of the higher feelings and aspirations
that are found in almost every other race; in short, unlike the Zulu he
despises, there is little of the gentleman in his composition, though
he is at times capable of acts of kindness and even generosity. His
happiness is to live alone in the great wilderness, with his children,
his men-servants, and his maid-servants, his flocks and his herds, the
monarch of all he surveys. If civilisation presses him too closely, his
remedy is a simple one. He sells his farm, packs up his goods and cash
in his waggon, and starts for regions more congenially wild. Such are
some of the leading characteristics of that remarkable product of South
Africa, the Transvaal Boer, who resembles no other white man in the
world.
Perhaps, however, the most striking of all his oddities is his
abhorrence of all government, more especially if that government be
carried out according to English principles. The Boers have always been
more or less in rebellion; they rebelled against the rule of the
Company when the Cape belonged to Holland, they rebelled against the
English Government in the Cape, they were always in a state of
semi-rebellion against their own Government in the Transvaal, and now
they have for the second time, with the most complete success, rebelled
against the English Government. The fact of the matter is that the bulk
of their number hate all Governments, because Governments enforce law
and order, and they hate the English Government worst of all because it
enforces law and order most of all. It is not liberty they long for,
but license. The "sturdy independence" of the Boer resolves itself into
a determination not to have his affairs interfered with by any superior
power whatsoever, and not to pay taxes if he can possibly avoid it. But
he has also a specific cause of complaint against the English
Government, which would alone cause him to do his utmost to get rid of
it, and that is its mode of dealing with natives, which is radically
opposite to his own. This is the secret of Boer patriotism. To
understand it, it must be remembered that the Englishman and the Boer
look at natives from a very different point of view. The Englishman,
though he may not be very fond of him, at any rate regards the Kafir as
a fellow human being with feelings like his own. The average Boer does
not. He looks upon the "black creature" as having been delivered into
his hand by the "Lord" for his own purposes, that is, to shoot and
enslave. He must not be blamed too harshly for this, for, besides being
naturally of a somewhat hard disposition, hatred of the native is
hereditary, and is partly induced by the history of many a bloody
struggle. Also the native hates the Boer fully as much as the Boer
hates the native, though with better reason. Now native labour is a
necessity to the Boer, because he will not as a rule do hard manual
labour himself, and there must be some one to plant and garner the
crops and herd the cattle. On the other hand, the natives are not
anxious to serve the Boers, which means little or no pay and plenty of
thick stick, and sometimes worse. The result of this state of affairs
is that the Boer often has to rely on forced labour to a very great
extent. But this is a thing that an English Government will not
tolerate, and the consequence is that under its rule he cannot get the
labour that is necessary to him.
Then there is the tax question. If he lives under the English flag the
money has to be paid regularly, but under his own Government he pays or
not as he likes. It was this habit of his of refusing payment of taxes
that brought the Republic into difficulties in 1877, and that will ere
long bring it into trouble again. He cannot understand that cash is
necessary to carry on a Government, and looks upon a tax as though it
were so much money stolen from him. These things are the real springs
of the "sturdy independence" and the patriotism of the ordinary
Transvaal farmer. Doubtless there are some who are really patriotic;
for instance, one of their leaders, Paul Kruger. But with the majority,
patriotism is only another word for unbounded license and forced
labour.
These remarks must not be taken to apply to the Cape Boers, who are a
superior class of men, since they, living under a settled and civilised
Government, have been steadily improving, whilst their cousins, living
every man for his own hand, have been deteriorating. The old
Voortrekkers, the fathers and grandfathers of the Transvaal Boer of
to-day, were, without doubt, a very fine set of men, and occasionally
you may in the Transvaal meet individuals of the same stamp whom it is
a pleasure to know. But these are generally men of a certain age, with
some experience of the world; the younger men are very objectionable in
their manners.
The real Dutch Patriotic party is not to be found in the Transvaal, but
in the Cape Colony. Their object, which, as affairs now are, is well
within the bounds of possibility, is by fair means or foul to swamp the
English element in South Africa, and to establish a great Dutch
Republic. It was this party, which consists of clever and well educated
men, who raised the outcry against the Transvaal Annexation, because it
meant an enormous extension of English influence, and who had the wit,
by means of their emissaries and newspapers, to work upon the feeling
of the ignorant Transvaal farmers until they persuaded them to rebel;
and finally, to avail themselves of the yearnings of English radicalism
for the disruption of the Empire and the minimisation of British
authority, to get the Annexation cancelled. All through this business
the Boers have more or less danced in obedience to strings pulled at
Cape Town, and it is now said that one of the chief wire-pullers, Mr.
Hofmeyer, is to be asked to become President of the Republic. These men
are the real patriots of South Africa, and very clever ones too--not
the Transvaal Boers, who vapour about their blood and their country and
the accursed Englishman to order, and are in reality influenced by very
small motives, such as the desire to avoid payment of taxes, or to hunt
away a neighbouring Englishman, whose civilisation and refinement are
as offensive as his farm is desirable. Such are the Dutch inhabitants
of the Transvaal. I will now give a short sketch of their institutions
as they were before the Annexation, and to which the community has
reverted since its recision, with, I believe, but few alterations.
The form of government is republican, and to all intents and purposes
manhood suffrage prevails, supreme power resting in the people. The
executive power of the State centres in a President elected by the
people to hold office for a term of five years, every voter having a
voice in his election. He is assisted in the execution of his duties by
an Executive Council, consisting of the State Secretary and such other
three members as are selected for that purpose by the legislative body,
the Volksraad. The State Secretary holds office for four years, and is
elected by the Volksraad. The members of the Executive have all seats
in the Volksraad, but have no votes. The Volksraad is the legislative
body of the State, and consists of forty-two members. The country is
divided into twelve electoral districts, each of which has the right to
return three members; the Gold Fields have also the right of electing
two members, and the four principal towns one member each. There is no
power in the State competent to either prorogue or dissolve the
Volksraad except that body itself, so that an appeal to the country on
a given subject or policy is impossible without its concurrence.
Members are elected for four years, but half retire by rotation every
two years, the vacancies being filled by re-elections. Members must
have been voters for three years, and be not less than thirty years of
age, must belong to a Protestant Church, be resident in the country,
and owners of immovable property therein. A father and son cannot sit
in the same Raad, neither can seats be occupied by coloured persons,
bastards, or officials.
For each electoral district there is a magistrate or Landdrost, whose
duties are similar to those of a Civil Commissioner. These districts
are again subdivided into wards presided over by field cornets, who
exercise judicial powers in minor matters, and in times of war have
considerable authority. The Roman Dutch law is the common law of the
country, as it is of the colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal,
and of the Orange Free State.
Prior to the Annexation justice was administered in a very primitive
fashion. First, there was the Landdrosts' Court, from which an appeal
lay to a court consisting of the Landdrost and six councillors elected
by the public. This was a court of first instance as well as a court of
appeal. Then there was a Supreme Court, consisting of three Landdrosts
from three different districts, and a jury of twelve selected from the
burghers of the State. There was no appeal from this court, but cases
have sometimes been brought under the consideration of the Volksraad as
the supreme power. It is easy to imagine what the administration of
justice was like when the presidents of all the law courts in the
country were elected by the mob, not on account of their knowledge of
the law, but because they were popular. Suitors before the old
Transvaal courts found the law surprisingly uncertain. A High Court of
Justice was, however, established after the Annexation, and has been
continued by the Volksraad, but an agitation is being got up against
it, and it will possibly be abolished in favour of the old system.
In such a community as that of the Transvaal Boers the question of
public defence was evidently of the first importance. This is provided
for under what is known as the Commando system. The President, with the
concurrence of the Executive Council, has the right of declaring war,
and of calling up a commando, in which the burghers are placed under
the field cornets and commandants. These last are chosen by the field
cornets for each district, and a Commandant-general is chosen by the
whole laager or force, but the President is the Commander-in-Chief of
the army. All the inhabitants of the State between sixteen and sixty,
with a few exceptions, are liable for service. Young men under
eighteen, and men over fifty, are only called out under circumstances
of emergency. Members of the Volksraad, officials, clergymen, and
school-teachers are exempt from personal service, unless martial law is
proclaimed, but must contribute an amount not exceeding £15 towards the
expense of the war. All legal proceedings in civil cases are suspended
against persons on commando, no summonses can be made out, and as soon
as martial law is proclaimed no legal execution can be prosecuted, the
pounds are closed, and transfer dues payments are suspended until after
thirty days from the recall of the proclamation of martial law. Owners
of land residing beyond the borders of the Republic are also liable, in
addition to the ordinary war tax, to place a fit and proper substitute
at the disposal of the Government, or otherwise to pay a fine of £15.
The first levy of the burghers is, of men from eighteen to thirty-four
years of age; the second, thirty-four to fifty; and the third, from
sixteen to eighteen, and from fifty to sixty years. Every man is bound
to provide himself with clothing, a gun, and ammunition, and there must
be enough waggons and oxen found between them to suffice for their
joint use. Of the booty taken, one quarter goes to Government, and the
rest to the burghers. The most disagreeable part of the commandeering
system is, however, yet to come; personal service is not all that the
resident in the Transvaal Republic has to endure. The right is vested
in field cornets to commandeer articles as well as individuals, and to
call upon inhabitants to furnish requisites for the commando. As may be
imagined, it goes very hard on these occasions with the property of any
individual whom the field cornet may not happen to like.
Each ward is expected to turn out its contingent ready and equipped for
war, and this can only be done by seizing goods right and left. One
unfortunate will have to find a waggon, another to deliver over his
favourite span of trek oxen, another his riding-horse or some slaughter
cattle, and so on. Even when the officer making the levy is desirous of
doing his duty as fairly as he can, it is obvious that very great
hardships must be inflicted under such a system. Requisitions are made
more with regard to what is wanted than with a view to an equitable
distribution of demands; and like the Jews in the time of the Crusades,
he who has got most must pay most, or take the consequences, which may
be unpleasant. Articles which are not perishable, such as waggons, are
supposed to be returned, but if they come back at all they are
generally worthless.
In case of war, the native tribes living within the borders of the
State are also expected to furnish contingents, and it is on them that
most of the hard work of the campaign generally falls. They are put in
the front of the battle, and have to do the hand-to-hand fighting,
which, however, if of the Zulu race, they do not object to.
The revenue of the State is so arranged that the burden of it should
fall as much as possible on the trading community, and as little as
possible on the farmer. It is chiefly derived from licenses on trades,
professions, and callings, 30s. per annum quit-rent on farms, transfer
dues and stamps, auction dues, court fees, and contributions from such
native tribes as can be made to pay them. Since we have given up the
country, the Volksraad has put a very heavy tax on all imported goods,
hoping thereby to beguile the Boers into paying taxes without knowing
it, and at the same time strike a blow at the trading community, which
is English in its proclivities. The result has been to paralyse what
little trade there was left in the country, and to cause great
dissatisfaction amongst the farmers, who cannot understand why, now
that the English are gone, they should have to pay twice as much for
their sugar and coffee as they have been accustomed to do.
I will conclude this chapter with a few words about the natives who
swarm in and around the Transvaal. They can be roughly divided into two
great races, the Amazulu and their offshoots, and the Macatee or Basuto
tribes. All those of Zulu blood, including the Swazis, Mapock's Kafirs,
the Matabele, the Knob-noses, and others are very warlike in
disposition, and men of fine physique. The Basutos (who must not be
confounded with the Cape Basutos), however, differ from these tribes in
every respect, including their language, which is called Sisutu, the
only mutual feeling between the two races being their common
detestation of the Boers. They do not love war; in fact, they are timid
and cowardly by nature, and only fight when they are obliged to. Unlike
the Zulus, they are much addicted to the arts of peace, show
considerable capacities for civilisation, and are even willing to
become Christians. There would have been a far better field for the
Missionary in the Transvaal than in Zululand and Natal. Indeed, the
most successful mission station I have seen in Africa is near
Middleburg, under the control of Mr. Merensky. In person the Basutos
are thin and weakly when compared to the stalwart Zulu, and it is their
consciousness of inferiority both to the white men and their black
brethren that, together with their natural timidity, makes them submit
as easily as they do to the yoke of the Boer.