Our life at Essexvale—Tree-planting and farming—Friendly
disposition of the natives—Umlugulu visits us—His anxiety to
know the truth about Jameson's surrender—Rumours of coming
disaster—The Umlimo's prophecy—Appearance of the rinderpest
in Matabeleland—Mr. Jackson's distrust of the native
police—Superstitions regarding the Umlimo—I am appointed
cattle inspector—Spread of the rinderpest—Apprehensions of
famine—Rumours of a disturbance with the natives—Murder of a
native policeman by the Matabele.
Of our life on Essexvale I have but little of interest to relate.
In September and October the weather became intensely hot, but our
well-thatched house we found to be much cooler than any building in
Bulawayo, to which seat of light and learning we paid but occasional
visits. Our wire-wove house did not arrive in Matabeleland until late
in November, just as the rainy season was setting in, and it was not
until towards the end of the year that it was put together and stood
ready to receive us, on the site I had chosen for it. This was a very
picturesque position on the top of a cliff about eighty feet above the
Ingnaima river. Here we lived happily and contentedly for three months,
and were apparently on the most friendly terms with all the natives
living near us. Our Company bought about 1200 head of cattle, and these
I distributed amongst the natives living on Essexvale—an estate of
nearly 200,000 acres—to herd for us in lots of from ten to thirty in
number, which they were very glad to do for the sake of the milk. To
all the headmen living immediately round the homestead I gave a larger
proportion of milk cows, on the condition that they brought me daily
half the milk.
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR'S HOMESTEAD ON ESSEXVALE, MATABELELAND.
Destroyed by the natives in April 1896.]
I was assisted in the management of the estate by a young German, Herr
Blöcker, who had taken his diplomas in a German School of Forestry, as
it was part of our Company's scheme to start a plantation of gum trees,
the timber of which is valuable for mining purposes. We therefore
cleared and ploughed up about forty acres of land, and planted out over
5000 trees raised from seed on a strip of eight acres near the house.
The rest of the ploughed land we sowed with maize, reserving about an
acre near the river for a vegetable garden. The ground round the house
my wife laid out in flower-beds, and I had also beds prepared for the
planting of orange and other fruit trees, which I had ordered from
the Cape Colony; whilst several banana and grenadilla plants, which
had been given us by the Rev. Mr. Helm, were already growing well.
Altogether, in spite of the most unseasonable drought which prevailed
during January, February, and March, our homestead commenced to look
quite pretty, and another year's work would have made a nice place of
it; whilst the view from our front door up the river, with our cattle
and horses grazing on the banks, and ducks and geese swimming in the
pools or sunning themselves on the sand, was always singularly homelike.
As I have said above, up to the day of the native insurrection, which
broke out towards the end of March, all the natives on Essexvale
appeared to be on the most friendly terms with us, and were always
most civil and polite to my wife, who had grown to like them very
much. We had done them many good turns, and I believe they liked us
as individuals. Umlugulu, a relation of Lo Bengula's, and one of the
principal men in that king's time, as well as a high priest of the
ceremonies at the annual religious dance of the Inxwala, was living
about fifteen miles away, and often came to see us. He was a very
gentle-mannered savage, and always most courteous and polite in his
bearing, and by us he was always treated with the consideration due
to one who had held a high position and been a man of importance in
Lo Bengula's time. It is now supposed, and I think with justice, that
this man was one of the chief instigators of the rebellion; but if
this is so, I have strong reasons for believing that he only finally
made up his mind that the time had come for the attempt to be made to
drive the white men out of the country when he learnt that the whole
of the police force of Matabeleland, together with the artillery,
munitions of war, etc., which had been taken down to the Transvaal by
Dr. Jameson, had been captured by the Boers. My reason for thinking so
is, that before he heard this news he asked me several times to take
some unbranded cattle from him, and have them herded amongst my own, or
bought from him at my own price. This request I could not grant, but
advised him to go and tell Dr. Jameson the story he had told me, as to
how these cattle came to be in his possession without the Company's
brand on them. After he heard the news of Dr. Jameson's surrender,
Umlugulu never said anything more about these cattle, but he often
came to see me, and always questioned me very closely as to what had
actually happened in the Transvaal. Although at that time I had no
idea as to the lines on which I now think his mind was working, I gave
him little or no information, the more so that I could see he was very
anxious to get at the truth.
Towards the end of February, Mr. Jackson, the native commissioner in
my district, who was living with a sub-inspector and a force of native
police at a spot on one of the roads through Essexvale about twelve
miles distant from our house, informed me that rumours of coming
disaster to the white man, purporting to emanate from the "Umlimo" or
god of the Makalakas, who dwells in a cave of the Matopo Hills, were
being spread abroad amongst the people of Matabeleland. Shortly before
this there had been a total eclipse of the moon. This the Umlimo told
the natives meant that white man's blood was about to be spilt. Further
than this, they were informed that Lo Bengula was not dead, but was
now on his way back to Matabeleland with a large army from the north,
whilst two other armies were coming to help him against the white man
from the west and east. "Watch the coming moon," said the Umlimo,
"and be ready." He also claimed to have sent the rinderpest, which
had just reached the cattle in the north of Matabeleland—though of
what advantage that scourge was to the natives I don't quite see—and
promised that he would soon afflict the white men themselves with some
equally terrible disease.
Now, although these rumours of a native rising were current in
Matabeleland some time before the insurrection actually broke out, and
were reported to the then acting chief native commissioner, Mr. Thomas,
and to the heads of the Government, I do not think that they would have
been warranted in taking any steps of a suppressive nature at this
juncture; for there was absolutely nothing tangible to go upon, nor
could any commission of inquiry have come to any other conclusion than
that the natives had no intention of rebelling; for they were as quiet
and submissive in their demeanour towards Europeans as they ever had
been since the war, and there was absolutely no evidence of any secret
arming amongst them; and the fact remains that, with one exception,
all those Europeans in Matabeleland who had had a long experience of
natives—that is, the native commissioners, missionaries, and a few old
traders and hunters, amongst whom I must include myself—were unanimous
in the opinion that no rebellion on the part of the Matabele was to
be apprehended. I say there was one exception, as I have been told
that Mr. Usher, an old trader long resident in Matabeleland, and who
since the first war has been living altogether amongst the natives,
has always maintained that the Matabele would one day rise against the
white man.
For myself, I had many conversations with Mr. Jackson on the subject,
and we came to the conclusion, after talking with several intelligent
natives regarding the rumours going about, that the Matabele were not
likely to rebel until Lo Bengula appeared with his army. "However,"
said Mr. Jackson one evening, "it is very difficult to worm a secret
out of a native, and if there should be an insurrection those are the
devils we have to fear," pointing to his squad of native Matabele
policemen, sitting about round their huts all armed with repeating
Winchester rifles. At that time no one would have imagined that these
native policemen—all fine, active-looking young fellows, and very
smart at their drill—would have been likely to mutiny, since they
were not only very well disciplined but most civil and obedient to
their white officers; whilst, on the other hand, they were constantly
at loggerheads with their compatriots, whom they had to bring to
book for any transgression of the Chartered Company's laws, and more
particularly for evasion of the regulations exacting a certain amount
of labour annually at a fixed rate of pay from every able-bodied young
man. However, as subsequent events have shown, Mr. Jackson was right in
his prognostication, for when the rebellion did break out, about half
the native police at once turned their rifles against their employers.
The remainder were true to their salt, but had to be disarmed as a
precautionary measure.
I will now before going further say a word concerning the "Umlimo" or
god of the Makalakas, who has apparently played such an important part
in the present rebellion, but who, I think, has in reality only been
the instrument employed by the actual leaders of the insurrection to
work upon the superstitions of the people, and mould them to their
will. To the best of my belief, there exists amongst the Makalakas,
as amongst all the tribes of allied race throughout South-Eastern
Africa, an hereditary priesthood, confined to one family, though from
time to time certain other young men are adopted by the high priest
and initiated into the mysteries of his profession. These men in
common with the actual sons of the high priest are known henceforth as
children of the god. The head of the family lives in the Matopo Hills,
and is known as the Umlimo, but as far as one can understand from the
rather conflicting statements made concerning him by the natives, he
is not actually the Umlimo, but a being possessed of all the ordinary
attributes of man,—in fact a human being, with a spiritual nature
superadded which enables him to commune with the unseen Deity that
pervades space, and communicate the wishes or commands of the invisible
spirit to the people. The temple of the Umlimo is a cave in the Matopo
Hills, whither the people repair to consult him; and I believe that the
voice which is heard in answer to their questions from the depths of
the cave is supposed to emanate not from the human Umlimo or priest,
but to be the actual utterance of the invisible god. The human Umlimo
is kept wonderfully well posted up concerning everything that happens
in Matabeleland, probably by the various members of his family, who
live in different parts of the country, and who often visit him. He
is thus often enabled to make very shrewd answers to the questions
asked him, and to show himself conversant with matters which his
interlocutors thought were known only to themselves; and in this way he
has gained a great ascendency over the minds of the people.
If one asks who the Umlimo is, the answer is that he is a spirit or
supernatural being of infinite wisdom, known to man only as a voice
speaking from the depths of a cave. He is said to be able to speak all
languages, as well as to be possessed of the faculty of roaring like a
lion, crowing like a cock, barking like a dog, etc. On the other hand,
the human Umlimo accepts or rather demands presents from those who
visit his cave for the purpose of consulting the Deity, and possesses
not only cattle, sheep, and goats, but also a large number of wives.
The great mass of the Matabele people seem to me to have very vague
ideas concerning the Umlimo; and sometimes I think that besides the
priest in the Matopos through whom the voice of God is supposed to
be heard, there are other priests,[4] or so-called Umlimos, in other
parts of the country through whom they believe that the commands of
the Almighty can be conveyed to them. At any rate, both prior to and
during the present rebellion, utterances purporting to emanate from the
"Umlimo" have been implicitly believed in, and the commands attributed
to him obeyed with a blind fanaticism, that one would not have looked
for in a people who always seem to be extremely matter of fact and
practical in everyday life. It may seem strange that this "Umlimo,"
or god of the despised Makalakas, should be accepted as an oracle by
the Matabele, but I know that Lo Bengula professed a strong belief in
his magical powers, and from time to time consulted him. I believe,
however, that the Umlimo was made use of for the purposes of the
present rebellion by Umlugulu, and other members of the late king's
family.
These men were naturally not content with their position under the
white man's rule, and as ever since the war they had probably been
rebels at heart, they only wanted an opportunity to call the people to
arms. This opportunity they thought had come when they heard that the
entire police force of Matabeleland, together with most of the big guns
and munitions of war up till then stored in Bulawayo, had been captured
by the Boers. For to them the police represented the fighting or
military element amongst the white men, and they more or less despised
all other classes, whom they usually saw going about altogether unarmed
and defenceless. When the police were gone, therefore, they at once
probably set about stirring up a rebellion, and got the Umlimo to play
their game and work upon the superstitions of the people. This at any
rate is my own opinion of the origin of the insurrection.
About the middle of March I was appointed cattle inspector for the
district between the Umzingwani and Insiza rivers, and had to do a lot
of riding about in my endeavours to assist the Government to arrest the
spread of the rinderpest. However, one might as well have tried to stop
a rising tide on the sea-shore, as prevent this dreadful disease from
travelling steadily down the main roads, leaving nothing but rotting
carcasses and ruined men behind it. Therefore, while still strictly
prohibiting all movement of cattle from infected districts to parts of
the country yet free from the terrible scourge, the Government declared
the main roads open for traffic on Tuesday, 24th March, in order that
as many waggon-loads of provisions as possible might be brought into
Bulawayo, whilst any oxen were still left alive to pull them; for at
this time the only calamities apprehended in Matabeleland were famine,
and the complete dislocation of transport throughout the country owing
to the terrible mortality amongst the cattle from rinderpest. These
dangers indeed seemed so pressing that the Government was called upon
by a deputation from the Chamber of Commerce to at once purchase 2000
mules, to be used for the importation of food-stuffs into Bulawayo, and
their distribution from that centre to the various mining districts.
On Sunday, 22nd March, I reached Bulawayo late in the evening, after
a very long day's ride inspecting cattle, and I then heard rumours of
a disturbance having taken place between some of Mr. Jackson's native
police and the inhabitants of a Matabele kraal near the north-western
boundary of our Company's property of Essexvale. On the following day
I got a fresh horse and rode twenty-five miles down the Tuli road to
Dawson's store on the Umzingwani river—the limit of my beat in this
direction—issuing passes to all the waggons I met with to proceed on
their way up or down the road on the following morning. Arrived at the
store, I there met my friend Mr. Jackson, the native commissioner,
and Mr. Cooke, and learned from them that a native policeman had
been murdered by the Matabele on the previous Friday night, and that
the murderers had fled into the Matopo Hills, taking all their women
and children as well as their cattle with them. My friends were only
waiting for a detachment of native police, under two white inspectors,
to follow up the murderers and endeavour to bring them to justice.
[Illustration:
_By permission of the Proprietors of "Black and White."_
AN ANT-HEAP IN MATABELELAND.]