Precautions against native attack—Conference with the
neighbouring headmen—I take my wife into Bulawayo—Insurrection
reported general—Armed forces sent to disturbed districts—Return
to Essexvale with small mounted force—Short supply of horses
and rifles—My views of the Kafir rising—The progress of the
insurrection at Essexvale and the neighbourhood—Wholesale murders.
The first thing to be done was to take my wife into Bulawayo, and
then return at once with a body of armed men to Essexvale, in order
to make a display of force which might deter those natives, who were
still sitting quiet watching events, from joining the rebels; for I
knew that the general idea was, that there being now no longer any
police force in the country, the Government was practically powerless
to cope with an organised rebellion. I therefore had all our horses
saddled up immediately to be ready for emergencies, and in order to
guard against surprise placed George as a vidette on the top of a rise
behind the house, from which a good view of the surrounding country was
obtainable. Then, whilst we were having breakfast, I sent messengers
to summon all the headmen of the kraals in the immediate vicinity
of the homestead. These men, I may say, were all in possession of
cattle belonging to my Company, and as none of them were pure-blooded
Matabele, I imagined they would have no sympathy with the insurgents.
They all answered my summons, accompanied by many of their people,
and before leaving I spoke to them, and did my best to impress upon
them the folly of rebelling against the white man. They professed
themselves in perfect accord with all I said; averred that they were
quite content to live with me as their "inkosi,"[6] and protested that
they had nothing to hope for from the overthrow of the white man by the
Matabele. In conclusion, I told them that I was going into Bulawayo
to place my wife in a position of safety, but that I would return
immediately with an armed force and endeavour to recover some of the
cattle stolen by Gwibu and the rest of the Matabele. Mr. Blöcker wished
to remain at the homestead until my return, but this I would not allow,
as I did not care to leave a white man all by himself; and besides
I required him to help me in getting some men together. George—the
colonial Kafir—however, stopped behind, as he considered himself quite
safe with Umsetchi's people,—Umsetchi being the headman of several
little kraals close to the house, with the inhabitants of which we had
always been on the most friendly terms.
Our ride into Bulawayo was altogether uneventful, as our road lay
almost entirely through uninhabited country, and did not cross the line
that the rebel natives of the district would have been likely to take
on their way to the fastnesses of the Malungwani Hills. As, however, it
was a scorching hot day it was a very trying experience for my wife.
Just before reaching town we met Mr. Claude Grenfell, who, with
Messrs. Norton and Edmonds, was on his way out to Essexvale with a
cart and horses to bring in my wife, and from them we learned that
the insurrection was becoming general all over the country, and that
forces had already been raised and sent out to relieve miners and
settlers in the outlying districts. The Hon. Maurice Gifford had left
the previous day for the Insiza, whilst Messrs. Napier and Spreckley
were just on the point of starting for other disturbed parts of the
country.
After handing over my wife to the kind care of her good friend Mrs.
Spreckley, I at once set to work to get together a mounted force with
which to return immediately to Essexvale, and thanks to the energetic
assistance of Mr. Blöcker and Mr. Norton I was able to leave Bulawayo
again at eight o'clock the same evening with thirty-six mounted men.
I had wished to raise a force of 100 men, but found it impossible
to do so, nearly all the horses and rifles in the possession of the
Government having been given out to equip the forces already sent out
before my arrival in town. There were men enough left, and good men
too, ready to go with me anywhere, but the Government could only supply
six horses—and not good ones at that—and twenty rifles. However, I
managed to raise thirty private horses, and some private rifles, and
got away about two hours after sundown with a compact little force of
thirty-six mounted men.
The moon was now getting near the full, and by its light we pushed
on, and at 2 A.M. on Thursday, 26th March, were back at my homestead,
which is just twenty-three miles distant from Bulawayo. Here I found
everything as I had left it, George having installed himself with some
of Umsetchi's men in the stable, which being built very solidly of
stone, they might easily have held against any ordinary attack.
I had left Essexvale a few hours before, without any very bitter
feeling against the Kafirs, for after all, looking at things from their
point of view, if they thought they could succeed in shaking off the
white man's rule, and retaking all the cattle that once were theirs
or their king's, and all those brought into the country since the war
as well, why shouldn't they try the chances of rebellion? I knew they
would have to fight to accomplish their ends, and it was for them to
consider whether the game was worth the candle or not. At that time,
however, I was far from realising what had happened, and was inclined
to judge the Kafirs very leniently. But my visit to Bulawayo had
changed my sentiments entirely, and the accounts which I had there
heard of the cruel and treacherous murders that had been perpetrated
on defenceless women and children, besides at once destroying whatever
sympathy I may have at first felt for the rebels, had not only filled
me with indignation, but had excited a desire for vengeance, which
could only be satisfied by a personal and active participation in the
killing of the murderers. I don't defend such feelings, nor deny that
they are vile and brutal when viewed from a high moral standpoint; only
I would say to the highly moral critic, Be charitable if you have not
yourself lived through similar experiences; be not too harsh in your
judgment of your fellow-man, for you probably know not your own nature,
nor are you capable of analysing passions which can only be understood
by those Europeans who have lived through a native rising, in which
women and children of their race have been barbarously murdered by
savages; by beings whom, in their hearts, they despise; as rightly or
wrongly they consider that they belong to a lower type of the human
family than themselves.
I offer no opinion upon this sentiment, but I say that it undoubtedly
exists, and must always aggravate the savagery of a conflict between
the two races; whilst the murder of white women and children, by
natives, seems to the colonist not merely a crime, but a sacrilege,
and calls forth all the latent ferocity of the more civilised race.
For, kind and considerate though any European may be under ordinary
circumstances to the savages amongst whom he happens to be living, yet
deep down in his heart, whether he be a miner or a missionary, is the
conviction that the black man belongs to a lower type of humanity than
the white; and if this is a mistaken conviction, ask the negrophilist
who professes to think so, whether he would give his daughter in
marriage to a negro, and if not, why not?
At any rate the lovers and admirers of the Matabele would do well to
caution their protégés not to commence another insurrection by the
murder of white women and children, for should they do so, they will
once more have cause to rue a war of retaliation, that will be waged
with all the merciless ferocity which must inevitably follow upon
such a course; as, although the murder of Europeans by savages may
commend itself to certain arm-chair philosophers in England, who can
see no good in a colonist, nor any harm in a savage, yet the colonists
themselves cannot look upon such matters from the same point of view,
and will take such steps to prevent the recurrence of any farther
ebullitions of temper, as were taken by the United States troops after
the massacres of Minnesota, or by the British troops at Secunderabad
and other places in suppressing the Indian Mutiny.
Before resuming my personal narrative, I will give a short account
of what had already taken place in the progress of the insurrection
on Essexvale itself, and in those parts of the Insiza and Filibusi
districts which border upon Essexvale.
There is reason to believe that the outbreak of the rebellion,
commencing as it did with the murder of a native policeman on Friday,
20th March, was somewhat premature, and thus there was an interval of
nearly three days between the date of this murder and the day when the
first white men were killed by the natives. From the Umzingwani, the
flame of rebellion spread through the Filibusi and Insiza districts,
to the Tchangani and Inyati, and thence to the mining camps in the
neighbourhood of the Gwelo and Ingwenia rivers, and indeed throughout
the country wherever white men, women, and children could be taken
by surprise and murdered either singly or in small parties; and so
quickly was this cruel work accomplished, that although it was only on
23rd March that the first Europeans were murdered, there is reason to
believe that by the evening of the 30th not a white man was left alive
in the outlying districts of Matabeleland. Between these two dates many
people escaped or were brought in to Bulawayo by relief parties, but a
large number were cruelly and treacherously murdered.