O'Connor's wonderful escape—The importance of the Native Question
in Rhodesia.
In the course of conversation, during our journey to Bulawayo, Mr.
Boyce, the manager of Mr. Dawson's store on the Umzingwani, told me
that, on the night before our arrival there, a miner named O'Connor had
reached the store in a dreadful condition, having been terribly beaten
about the head by Kafirs, from whose tender mercies he had escaped on
24th March. This poor fellow had been sent in to the hospital on the
morning of the day on which we readied the store, and as his escape was
a most remarkable one, I will tell it as I heard it from the man's own
lips.
O'Connor, it appears, was engaged in mining work together with two
other miners named Ivers and Ottens, on a reef called the Celtic,
situated some mile and a half from Edkins' store.
On the morning of Tuesday, 24th March, after their early cup of
coffee, the three miners were discussing matters in general, and more
particularly the fact that during the last few days thirteen of their
boys had run away for no apparent reason, unless it were that they
had gone off to take part in a beer drink at the neighbouring kraal
of Gorshlwayo. About seven o'clock they had an early breakfast, and
shortly afterwards Ottens went off to see the Native Commissioner,
Mr. Bentley, who was living at the police camp not far from Edkins'
store. Then Ivers went away to see how the work was progressing at one
of the shafts on the Celtic reef, leaving O'Connor alone. He, after
kneading a loaf of bread and placing it in the sun to rise, went into
his hut, and sitting down on his bed, threw his hat on a chair beside
him, and lit his pipe. He had been sitting smoking some few minutes,
when he was suddenly startled by the loud and angry barking of Ottens'
dogs, Captain and Snowball, just outside his hut. "The angry condition
of the dogs was so unusual," said O'Connor, "that I give you my word
I thought there was a lion in the camp." Jumping up, he ran to the
door of the hut, only to find a Kafir standing just on one side of
the entrance with a musket pointed towards him in his hands. "For an
instant," said O'Connor, "I was paralysed, and retreated back into
the hut, the door of which was immediately afterwards blocked by a
crowd of Kafirs all armed with heavy knob-kerries. Then, seeing that
they had come to murder me, I became mad, and rushed in amongst them.
I succeeded in wresting two knob-kerries from them, and with these I
fought desperately, always making my way towards the mouth of No. 1
shaft, which was something over 100 yards from my hut. I was repeatedly
knocked down, and heavy blows were continually rained upon me, but,
now on my knees, again on my feet, and sometimes rolling, I got to the
mouth of the shaft with the remains of two broken sticks in my hands."
During this desperate struggle, O'Connor remembers hearing the Kafirs,
who were attacking him with sticks, continually calling to the one with
the gun, _u injani wena ai posa_—"why don't you shoot?"—and says that
this man actually fired at him more than once, holding his gun at his
hip, and always missing him. Just as he fell at the mouth of the shaft
he was fired at for the last time. Then O'Connor rolled down the shaft
"like a football," as he expressed it.
This was what is called an "incline shaft," going down for 136 feet
at an angle of about 45 degrees. From the bottom of the incline shaft
a tunnel had been driven into the reef 170 feet in length. Arrived at
the bottom of the shaft, the hapless miner was at once attacked by his
own boys—ten in number—who had been working in the tunnel. These devils
fell upon him with hammers and drills, O'Connor defending himself as
best he could with stones, and finally driving them all, as he thought,
up the shaft.
After the terrible punishment he had received, which included thirteen
scalp wounds—one of which had broken the outer table of the skull
above the left temple—heavy blows with a hammer on each cheek-bone,
and bruises and contusions all over the body, it may be wondered how
O'Connor managed to retain his senses. But the fact remains that he
did, and, thanks to a good old Irish head, still lives to tell the tale
of the sufferings he endured, which, however, were not yet over by any
means.
Believing that all his assailants had left the mine, he bethought him
of a place of refuge, at a spot some half-way up the incline, where
a vertical shaft had been cut into it. Here the shafts cut through
some old workings, which formed a recess, into which O'Connor crept.
Just as he was about to avail himself of this hiding-place, a Kafir,
who, during the last fight, must have run back down the tunnel, rushed
past him up the incline shaft. This man must have told the rest of the
would-be murderers where the white man was hiding, and they did not
leave him long in peace, for shortly afterwards several Kafirs came
down the shaft, some with lighted candles, and four with guns. Two
of these men carried muzzle-loaders, whilst the other two were armed
with breech-loading rifles. The latter O'Connor recognised by the light
of the candles as "boys" who had been working for himself and his
companions. Their names were "Candle," and "Makupeni," and they had
been in the employ of the miners for nearly eighteen months, and as
they were both good shots they had often been sent out with the only
two rifles in camp to shoot game for the sake of the meat. Latterly, so
implicit was the trust reposed in them by their masters that the rifles
had been left entirely in their possession, but now they were among the
first to volunteer their services to put an end to their employer in
his sore extremity.
When O'Connor recognised his own trusted servants amongst his
assailants he spoke to them, asking what harm he had done them, and
why they wished to kill him, to which they answered, "We're going to
kill you and all the white men in the country." However, although their
would-be victim could see them, they could not see him, and seemed
afraid to advance their heads into the recess where he lay—as they
would have had to do in order to shoot him—for fear probably of being
hit with a lump of quartz, which, even though it had been gold-bearing,
might have made a nasty mark on their skulls.
During this time the Kafirs at the top of the shaft kept continually
calling out to those below with the guns, "What are you doing; why
don't you shoot the white man?" but still the cowardly murderers lacked
the courage to creep into the recess and finish their victim. Suddenly
there was a commotion at the top of the mine, and shouts of "_Amakiwa_,
_Amakiwa_"—"white men, white men,"—and the four men with guns, together
with those who were holding the candles, ran up the shaft, leaving the
white man once more alone.
This cry of "white men" must have been a false alarm, as all the
Europeans at the neighbouring police station and at Edkins' store were
murdered without offering any resistance, having been taken completely
by surprise. However, it gave O'Connor a few minutes' respite and
enabled him to gain the shelter of another hiding-place where he
thought he would be more secure from the guns of his enemies. This was
a spot about half-way down the tunnel, where some loose ground had
fallen in and rendered a certain amount of timbering necessary. Here,
behind some boulders, O'Connor took refuge, but his enemies having
recovered from their alarm and again come down the mine with candles,
soon found out, probably by his tracks, where he had hidden. And now
the fruits of education were brought to the aid of native devilry to
compass his destruction, for some of his own boys threw two charges
of dynamite with short fuses into his hiding-place. Then the Kafirs
all ran out of the mine, nor did they return, thinking probably that
they had blown the white man to pieces. Having only seen the wonderful
effects of dynamite when employed for blasting rocks and exploded at
the bottom of a hole drilled deep into solid stone, they did not know
that a loose charge exploded on the surface of the ground would have
comparatively little effect. However O'Connor, except that he was
nearly suffocated by the fumes of the dynamite, remained uninjured
in the shelter of the boulder behind which he lay. Shortly after the
explosions he thinks he must have become unconscious and remained
so for many hours. When he came to himself, hearing no sound that
betokened the proximity of his enemies, he crept from his hiding-place,
and made his way to the mouth of the tunnel, and then ascended the
incline shaft.
It was a bright moonlight night, and from the position of the moon he
judged that it was about eight o'clock. A glance showed him that his
camp had been destroyed and all the huts burnt down, but he could see
no Kafirs about. He then made his way to an old mining camp about one
and a half miles distant, called Nelson's Camp, from which he could
look down on the police station, which he still hoped to find in the
possession of white men. In the brilliant moonlight he saw the huts
still standing; but there was no life or movement perceptible, and no
lights or fires burning, and he therefore felt assured that the whites
had either been murdered or left the camp. Then he went down to the
stream which ran between the police camp and Edkins' store, and as he
expressed it "wallowed in it like a pig."
After having quenched his thirst and washed the blood from his wounds
he carefully approached Edkins' store, which he found had been burnt
down, whilst the smell of murder was in the air, and the deathlike
stillness was unbroken by even the bark of a dog. Then, indeed, the
unfortunate man recognised to the full all the terrors of his dreadful
position. All hope of succour from his immediate neighbours was gone;
they had all been killed or forced to flee for their lives, whilst he
stood alone amongst a nation of murderers. But his stout Irish heart
never quailed, and weakened as he was by loss of blood he set out to
the north-west, towards Bulawayo.
Leaving the Matabele kraal of Gorshlwayo as far as possible to his
left, he at length reached the Insiza river some four miles from the
camp he had left. By this time he was completely exhausted, and lay
down in the reeds on the river's edge. Here he remained hidden all that
night and the next day. On Wednesday night he again tried to get on
towards Bulawayo, but by this time he was becoming more or less light
headed, and unable to steer a good course, nor does he know exactly
where he wandered. He lay hidden by day, and only moved at night, nor
was it until Saturday night at about eleven o'clock, more than 110
hours after he had been attacked by the Kafirs, that he found his way
to Mr. Dawson's store on the Umzingwani river.
All this time he had had no food. On approaching the store he found
two men standing outside—Messrs. Schultz and Judge—whom he knew well,
but who had looked upon him as dead. As he approached them in the
moonlight, hatless, his face and head covered with wounds, he thinks
they took him for an apparition come to call the white men to avenge
his murder, for they fell back as if they had seen a ghost, and he
said, "What, don't you know me—Joe O'Connor?" Then as they rushed up
and seized him by the hands, he fell down senseless and they carried
him to the store. Mr. Judge at once rode in to Bulawayo to try and get
a doctor to come out and dress his wounds.
The following morning he was sent on by waggon from the Umzingwani
store, and was met half-way by Mr. Lyons, the dispenser at the
hospital, who, as no doctor could be spared, had volunteered to go to
the wounded man's assistance. On Sunday afternoon he reached Bulawayo,
where he lay a long time in hospital. All that medical skill and kindly
nursing could do for him was done, and he eventually recovered from the
dreadful injuries he had received; but the terrible experiences he has
passed through have turned his hair partially grey, he being a young
man of only twenty-six years of age. He has, too, to mourn the loss of
his brother and cousin, both of whom were murdered by the Matabele.
[Illustration: O'CONNOR'S ARRIVAL AT THE STORE.
"As he approached them in the moonlight, hatless, his face
and head covered with wounds, he thinks they took him for an
apparition come to call the white men to avenge his murder."]
I was present in Colonel Napier's office, when a Zambesi boy, who had
been working for them, gave evidence as to the manner in which they
had been killed. He said, "I saw them killed with my eyes; they were
killed by their own boys. O'Connor's brother was drawn up from the
bottom of the shaft in which he was working by two men, who held the
windlass still when his head came above the level of the ground, whilst
others beat his brains out with knob-kerries; the other man—O'Connor's
cousin—was stabbed to death with assegais." I have made many inquiries
concerning O'Connor, and find that he bears the character of being a
hard-working man, whilst he was known to the Native Commissioner of his
district as one who always got on well with the natives.
From some remarks which he made, however, subsequent to the relation of
his trying experiences, I judge that he has now abandoned any latent
intention he may ever have had of becoming a member of the Aborigines
Protection Society, nor do I think that the funds of that admirable
institution are likely to be added to by any donation from Mr. O'Connor.
The worst feature in the foregoing history of the attempted murder of
O'Connor and the actual murder and mutilation of his two companions,
Messrs. Ivers and Ottens, is the participation in the crimes by two
trusted servants who had been in the employ of the murdered men for so
long a time as eighteen months, since the very fact that these boys had
worked for so many months for the same white men shows conclusively
that they must have been kindly treated by them, for no Kafir will
remain long in the service of a master who ill-treats him.
Now I am not so unreasonable as to think that the natures of the
Matabele natives ought to be judged of by the unamiable qualities shown
by two individuals; indeed I know that as a set-off, even during the
present rebellion, the lives of some few white men have been saved
by the fidelity of natives in their employ. But unfortunately the
evil deeds get more noised abroad, and they add to the bitterness of
the exasperation felt by the whites against the blacks; for it seems
inevitable that during an insurrection such as the present, the average
nature of the native will be judged of by the average European on the
spot, according to the worst atrocities that have been committed,
and such an instance of treachery as I have related will harden the
kindest heart and produce a feeling of distrust in the whole race that
can never be eradicated from the mind. In many, too—and these by no
means the most brutal or worst educated in the community—such acts,
coupled with the indiscriminate murder of women and children, produce
a conviction that beings who are capable of such deeds, who can lick
your hand and fawn upon you for eighteen months and then one day turn
and murder you, and afterwards perhaps mutilate your senseless corpse,
are not men and brothers, but monsters in human shape, that ought to be
shot down mercilessly like wild dogs or hyaenas, until they are reduced
to a state of abject submission to the white man's rule.
In time, however, let us hope that the cruel deeds of the last few
months will be forgotten, and the fierce passions they have evoked on
both sides gradually smoulder out and die from the lack of fresh fuel.
Henceforth it will, I trust, be recognised by the authorities that
the native question in Rhodesia is one of the very first importance,
and that it is also one which demands the most careful handling in
order to ensure the future peace and prosperity of the country. When
this rebellion is quelled and the natives have once more submitted
themselves to the white man's rule, they must know exactly the terms on
which their submission has been accepted; and they must also understand
precisely what will be required of them in the shape of hut-tax,
labour, etc. Then if they are treated kindly and justly, as well as
firmly, they ought not to have any valid reason for again rebelling
against the government of their white conquerors; but lest they should
ever be inclined to make such an attempt without any valid reason, they
must now be so thoroughly and completely disarmed as to render any such
action futile.