Chapter XI

THE BRITISH IN AFRICA, II
(_South and South-Central._)

Towards the close of the 18th century Great Britain cast longing
eyes at the Cape of Good Hope, as a victualling station for her
ships on the way to India which could not remain much longer in the
weak grasp of a Dutch company and must not fall into the hands of
France. In 1795 the British Government despatched a strong
expedition with the authority of the Prince of Orange and took
possession of Cape Town, after a brief struggle with the local
authorities. Free trade, with some preference for British goods, at
once took the place of the grinding monopoly and vexatious
restrictions of the old Dutch company; and various other liberal
measures were enacted, which would have done much to reconcile the
Dutch colonists to British rule were it not that, when England at
the Peace of Amiens in 1803 restored the Cape of Good Hope to the
Dutch Republic, there followed three years of direct Dutch rule
under two most enlightened men, De Mist and Janssens, who did much
to efface from the settlers’ remembrance the justly hated
selfishness of the old Dutch East India Company. Therefore, when
Great Britain resumed, in a manner intended to be permanent, the
administration of Cape Colony in 1805, a still more decided
opposition was shown to her forces than before; and even after the
cession of this colony by Holland in 1814 there remained among the
Dutch settlers a certain lukewarmness, and a disposition to find
fault with the actions and motives of the Colonial Government and of
the British people. In 1806, when Cape Colony passed definitely
under British control, it had an area of about 125,000 square
miles[141]. The boundary on the East was the Great Fish river, and
thence a curving line which ended at Plettenberg’s Beacon, about
fifty miles south of the Orange river. The boundary on the north was
an irregular line from Plettenberg’s Beacon (dipping far south in
the middle) to the mouth of the Buffalo river (Little Namakwaland)
on the Atlantic Ocean. The population of the colony (not counting
the military forces) was about 26,000 Europeans (of whom 6,000 lived
in Cape Town), about 30,000 Malay and negro slaves, some hundred
thousand Hottentots and half-breeds, perhaps another hundred
thousand Kafirs and a few thousand Bushmen. The industries and
pursuits of the European settlers were limited to vine-growing, the
raising of grain, and the care of large herds of cattle and sheep.
The cattle were mostly the long-horned native cattle of the
Hottentots, and the sheep the hairy, fat-tailed, domestic sheep of
Africa. Ostrich farming was unknown, and although the Dutch
commissioners, De Mist and Janssens, had begun to introduce merino
sheep just before the expiration of their administration, wool had
not yet figured amongst the exports.

The first beneficial effect of British rule was felt in the stemming
of the tide of Kafir invasion. This race of Bantu negroes had during
the previous century been pressing closer and closer on the
extremity of South Africa from the northeast. The earliest branch of
the Bantu to reach South Africa were the Herero, who invaded what is
now known as Damaraland. But the desert and the Hottentots kept them
from either reaching the Atlantic coast or penetrating any further
south. Then came the Bechuana, who barely crossed the Orange river;
and then, overriding these latter, latest of all in the field, the
Zulu-Kafirs, who attempted to enter Cape Colony from the coast
region bordering on the Indian Ocean. The _first_ British-Kafir war
took place in 1811-12, and ended in the Kafirs being driven eastward
of the Sunday River, and further led to their expulsion from the
Zuurveld (the modern district of Albany), to the west of the Great
Fish river, which was then fixed as the Kafir boundary. In 1817 Lord
Charles Somerset, the Governor of the Cape, visited the Zuurveld,
and decided that the best obstacle in the way of repeated Kafir
invasions would be to settle that district with a stout race of
colonists. He therefore obtained a grant from the British Government
of £5,000 to promote emigration to the Cape; and in 1820-21, 5,000
British emigrants landed in South Africa, 4,000 of whom were settled
in the eastern districts, principally in the county of Albany. This
settlement was at first a failure. Few if any of the settlers were
skilled agriculturists; they were without any experience of life in
a semi-tropical country; the cost of land transport pressed heavily
on them; and the grants of land made to each individual were too
small. The first few years Nature played her usual tricks; for
Nature seems to hate the movement of species and the upsetting of
her arrangements. Therefore she sent blight during three years, then
floods for another season. The settlers fell into great distress,
but in time things righted themselves. Some immigrants moved to the
towns of the colony and obtained high wages as artisans; and others
who held on to the Zuurveld at last attained prosperity by extending
the area of land they occupied, and going in for sheep and cattle
runs in preference to corn-growing. The Kafirs however had poured
over the frontier in hordes under the leadership of Makana in
1817-18. They raided the Boer flocks and herds and attacked
Grahamstown; and the _second_ Kafir war which ensued ended in these
warlike negroes being driven back to the east of the Chumi or
Keiskamma river.

The immigrants of 1820 and 1821 created for the first time a strong
British element in the population of Cape Colony. They were
principally English in origin, but also included Scotch, Irish, and
Welsh, though the Irish immigrants, who had settled in the western
part of Cape Colony, did not prosper. Gradually, owing to the
distribution of the new settlers, the eastern part of Cape Colony
became English in race and language, as compared to the western and
central parts, which remained principally Dutch. The X̓osa[142]
Kafir boundary having been shifted to the Keiskamma, the frontier
district between that stream and the Great Fish river was at first
regarded as a neutral land to be possessed by neither Kafir nor
white man. Gradually, however, this system became impossible, and at
last, in 1831, the Colonial Office gave its assent to grants of land
being made in the ceded territory to respectable settlers.
Unfortunately in this despatch a distinction was drawn between
Englishmen and Hottentots on the one hand and the Dutch Boers on the
other, and the latter were not permitted to obtain land in the new
frontier district. This tactless and unjustified announcement,
together with the attacks made on the Boers by the British
missionaries, and the knowledge that the abolition of slavery was
near at hand, made many of the Dutch settlers profoundly
dissatisfied with the British Government and anxious to move beyond
its control.

An unhappy incident had occurred sixteen years previously which left
bitter memories behind. The British Governor had enrolled about 1811
a regiment of Hottentot soldiers under British officers. The
Hottentots had many grievances to avenge, dating from the former
rule of the Dutchmen; and these soldiers comported themselves with
arrogance towards their former masters. Most unwisely they were used
as policemen and sent now and again to arrest Dutch settlers who had
broken the law. From one such incident arose in 1815 the riot over
the arrest and death of the Bezuidenhout brothers in northern
Albany, and the hanging at “Slagter’s Nek” of five of the rioters—an
excessively severe punishment for which some writers have condemned
Lord Charles Somerset as the originator of a race quarrel which
lasted nearly a hundred years.

Till 1825 the Cape had been governed despotically by the Governor,
but in that year an executive council of six members, all Government
officials, was appointed to advise the Governor in his legislation.
In 1828 two colonists were introduced into this council in place of
two official members. But in 1833 the Cape received a regular
constitution as a Crown colony with a legislative council in which
the unofficial element was fairly represented. In 1827 the English
language had been substituted for Dutch in courts of law (an
additional cause of dissatisfaction to the Boers); but the
administration of justice in that year was greatly improved by the
appointment of a supreme court with judges appointed directly by the
Crown, while the lower courts were entirely remodelled, and civil
commissioners and resident magistrates were appointed. In 1822 the
number of Europeans settled in South Africa was about 60,000. In
1828, owing to the growing importance of the Albany settlement, Cape
Colony was divided into two provinces, the western and the eastern;
and the latter was for a time governed with some degree of
independence. By 1824 Cape Colony had taken what is now the southern
limit of the Orange Free State as its northern boundary.

At this time there was a slave population in British South Africa of
about 60,000, of whom less than half were Hottentots (who were
rather serfs than slaves), and the remainder Malays introduced by
the Dutch, and black negroes brought from Moçambique and from
Angola. The British Government having abolished the slave trade in
1807, the further importation of slaves ceased; but there came into
the colony a certain number of free negroes, who were rescued from
the slave ships by cruisers, and landed in South Africa. In 1833
slavery was abolished. It was however enacted that, although the
emancipation should come into effect on December 1st, 1834[143],
complete freedom should not be given to the slaves till December
1st, 1838; further, that the Imperial Government should pay
compensation to the extent of 1¼ million pounds. As this
compensation was saddled with various deductions and drawbacks, the
slave-owners—chiefly Dutchmen—did not get fair value for their
slaves, and therefore had further cause for grumbling.

At the end of 1834, shortly after one of the most distinguished of
South African Governors, Sir Benjamin d’Urban, had arrived to take
up his appointment, 12,000 armed Kafirs crossed the eastern border
into the colony with a determined resolve to oust the Europeans from
the newly settled districts. For nearly a fortnight the X̓osa clans
under Makoma and Chali had it all their own way from Somerset East
to Algoa Bay, killing many of the white men, burning their houses,
destroying or carrying off their property, and turning a beautiful
province into a desert. This raid was absolutely unprovoked, except
in so far that for years the Kafirs had been nursing a grievance on
account of their expulsion from the country west of the Keiskamma,
which they themselves had not long before taken from the Hottentots.
Prompt measures (the _third_ Kafir war) were taken to repel this
invasion and punish the X̓osa tribe. Colonel Smith—afterwards
Governor Sir Harry Smith—mustered what forces were available, and
drove the X̓osa Kafirs beyond the Keiskamma. Early in 1835 the
British forces had reached the Kei river on a counter invasion of
Kafirland. Sir Benjamin D’Urban dealt mercifully with the conquered
Kafirs; very few even of the enemy were dispossessed of their homes,
while those natives who had remained friendly were rewarded by
grants of land. Beyond the Kei river Kareli the son and heir of
Hintsa, chief of the Galeka clan (who had been killed while
attempting to escape from imprisonment), was recognized as ruler
over a section of the X̓osas; while in the new province, afterwards
to be known as British Kaffraria, British residents were placed with
the Kafir chiefs to advise them, and missionaries were encouraged to
return to their work. Yet this settlement (statesmanlike and
far-sighted in its details—which there is not space to give—as in
its general outlines) was upset, and the prosperity of South Africa
seriously damaged by the Secretary of War and the Colonies, Lord
Glenelg[144]; a sentimental doctrinaire, who had evolved from his
inner consciousness an unreal South Africa in which Kafir raiders of
oxen were noble-minded black kings, whom a harsh pro-consul was
dispossessing from their ancestral territories. He not only upset
all that was new in Sir Benjamin D’Urban’s arrangement, but even
compelled the retrocession to the Kafirs of land which had long been
occupied by white settlers, and further damaged the authority of the
popular Governor of the Cape by erecting the eastern province into a
separate governorship, over which he placed a Boer named Andries
Stockenstrom. The immediate result of this reversal of Sir Benjamin
D’Urban’s policy was ten years of intermittent war with the Kafirs
(who took generosity of treatment for weakness), and grave
dissatisfaction among those colonists of Dutch origin who had
suffered from the Kafir raids. In fact, Lord Glenelg’s blunder
proved the last straw that broke the back of Dutch tolerance of
British rule; and in 1836 a number of the Dutch colonists (who had
come to be known as the “Boers,” or farmers) trekked away from the
limits of Cape Colony across the Orange river and the Vaal river,
and south-eastwards into Natal. So far back as 1815 the Dutch
farmers, as already related, had risen against the government of
Lord Charles Somerset because it interfered with their summary
treatment of the natives, and their rising had ended in the hanging
of five of the rioters at Slagter’s Nek; but in modern historical
works dealing with Cape Colony it is reiterated that the main cause
of the shaking-off of British citizenship by so many Boer farmers
was not the resentment over the Slagter’s Nek execution so much as
Lord Glenelg’s reversal of D’Urban’s frontier settlement. The
adventures of these Boers after leaving British territory I have
dealt with in the chapter on Dutch Africa.

In 1823 a small enterprise under the leadership of Farewell and
King, officers in the Royal Navy, started from Cape Town to explore
the coast of Natal. They landed at Port Natal (now Durban), visited
the Zulu king Chaka, and obtained from him in 1824 a grant of the
port of Natal with 100 square miles of territory inland, and a
coast-line of 35 miles. Other territories in what is now the modern
colony of Natal were also obtained later on from the Zulu chief. The
purchasers of these lands proclaimed them to be British territory.
Although these adventurers were occasionally driven away by the
violent wars and disturbances going on amongst the Zulus and Kafirs,
they held on to their possessions; and in June 1834 Sir Benjamin
D’Urban forwarded to the Colonial Office a petition from Cape Colony
for the establishment of a definite government in Natal. This
petition the fatuous Lord Glenelg declined on the score of expense.
In 1835 the white element in Natal was increased by missionaries
from America, and by Captain Allen Gardiner, a pioneer of missionary
enterprise on behalf of the Church of England. These settlers drew
up the plans of a regular township, built a church, christened their
territory Victoria (in honour of the heir to the British throne),
and proposed to call the town they were laying out Durban, after the
energetic Governor of Cape Colony. In 1835 they petitioned that
their territory might be made a colony, but again the Imperial
Government refused, then, as for many years afterwards, preferring
to postpone action until it was costly and fraught with bloodshed.
The Dutch immigrants were allowed to form a republic in the interior
of Natal. In July 1838 General Napier, acting no doubt on
instructions from home, invited the British settlers in Natal to
return to Cape Colony; but a few months afterwards he sent a small
detachment of troops to keep order at the port, and again pressed
the Home Government to declare Natal a British colony, though the
following year the soldiers were withdrawn. This was taken by the
Boers to be a tacit consent to the establishment of a vassal
republic under British suzerainty. They would probably have had
their way but for imprudent dealings on their part with natives
placed under British protection. At the same time, a feeling began
to grow that the United States of America were going to have
political dealings with the territory of Natal (as another
“Liberia”); while a vessel had come out from Holland, sent, it is
true, by private persons, but seeming to convey a promise of Dutch
alliance to the Burghers of Natal. British troops had again occupied
Durban. In 1842 they were attacked by the Boers, who were eventually
repulsed, and afterwards tendered their submission to the Queen’s
authority. At length, in 1843, a Conservative ministry being in
power, it was intimated that the settlers on the coast of Natal
might be taken under British protection, with the eventual object of
constituting Natal a self-governing colony, in which the Boers were
to have a share proportionate to their numbers. After much
negotiation, Natal became a British colony with a legislative
council in 1843. The fighting Boers left the country and retired
beyond the Orange river under a somewhat indefinite assurance that
British rule would not follow them. The king of the Zulus received a
recognition of his independence, and in return recognized the Tugela
as the boundary of the British colony on the north-east. To the
south, the territory of Natal was somewhat restricted, and the
portion cut off from it became known as Pondoland, which remained an
independent Kafir state till 1884; it was finally annexed to Cape
Colony in 1894. In 1847 the mistake of Lord Glenelg was to some
extent repaired under Governor Sir Harry Smith; and the eastern
boundary of Cape Colony was once more advanced to the Kei river.
This step was taken after a very serious Kafir war (the _fourth_, or
“War of the Axe”) which broke out in 1846. In 1850, however, a war
began again (the _fifth_, or “Sandile” war) with the restless X̓osa
Kafirs. It extended far and wide, and was marked by not a few
disasters; one being the loss at sea off Simon’s Bay of the
troopship _Birkenhead_, which foundered with large reinforcements of
troops on board, 400 soldiers and seamen being drowned. At length,
in 1853, General Cathcart, who had succeeded Sir Harry Smith,
captured all the strongholds of the Kafirs in the Amatola Mountains,
and deported the Kafirs from that district, which subsequently
became (from its settlement by Hottentot half-breeds) Grikwaland
East[145]. In this native uprising the Kafirs had been joined by
over a thousand pure-blood Hottentots, dissatisfied with British
treatment and wanting to create a “Hottentot republic.”

In 1852 the Sand River Convention was concluded, by which the
independence of the Transvaal Boers was recognized; but the Orange
River Sovereignty still remained under British control, and its
difficulties with the Basuto compelled an intervention of the
British forces. The invasion of mountainous Basutoland began with a
drawn battle in which the Basuto held their own. They afterwards
secured favourable terms of peace by sending in their submission.
This incident discouraged the British Government, who decided to
abandon the Orange River Sovereignty rather than be under any
responsibility for its defence. Accordingly, independence was forced
on the settlers, many of whom were Englishmen. Basutoland, after
having frequently engaged in wars with the Orange Free State, and
having to cede a portion of its territory to them, was finally taken
under British protection in 1868. In 1871 it was annexed to the
Cape, but, owing to the turbulence of its people and the
mismanagement of the Colonial Government, it was transferred to
direct Imperial administration in 1883.

During several years prior to 1849 the Imperial Government had been
endeavouring to arrange for the despatch of British convicts to
South Africa, as it was becoming inconvenient to maintain the penal
establishments in Australia. Whenever the question came up the Cape
Colonists protested against the idea. Nevertheless, in September
1849, a ship brought over from Bermuda a number of ticket-of-leave
men to be landed at the Cape. The ship anchored in Simon’s Bay, but
the colonists took strong measures to prevent the landing of the
convicts. All were united to this end. The Governor met the
dangerous situation with great wisdom. He kept the convicts on board
ship until the order could be reconsidered in England. The Home
Government, for a wonder, did not push the point to the raising of
rebellion; the convicts were sent on to Van Diemen’s Land, while an
Order-in-Council authorizing transportation to the Cape was revoked.
By 1850 the prosperity of Cape Colony had become established. Its
population, white and coloured, at that time reached a total of
220,000. The revenue at the same period stood at about £220,000 per
annum, while the value of the colonial produce exported during that
year was approximately £800,000. Wine was no longer the principal
export, and even the export of grain had diminished; wool had taken
the first place. In 1850 it represented 53 per cent. of the total
exports. Hair from Angora goats, which had been introduced during
the thirties, was beginning to take an important place in the list
of exported products; and ostrich feathers (chiefly derived from the
wild bird, however) were also an important item. Ostrich farming,
which has now placed the ostrich—happily—on the list of
inextinguishable domestic birds, did not come into vogue till the
sixties, though the emigrant Boers at a much earlier date had been
accustomed to hatch and rear young ostriches about their farms.

On the 23rd of May, 1850, the Government and Council of Cape Colony
were authorized to prepare for the establishment of a representative
government; and three years later this was established, a Colonial
legislature being formed; but the ministry was to be responsible
only to the Governor. Responsible government, similar in many
respects to that which obtains in the daughter nations of Canada and
Australasia, was brought into force in 1872.

In 1854 the great Sir George Grey became Governor of the Cape. He,
even more than his predecessors, was anxious to build up against
Kafir invasion on the East a wall of military colonists, who should
be able to defend their flocks from raids without continually
calling on the Colonial Government for intervention. After the
Crimean War a means presented itself in the disbanding of the
Foreign Legion, which Great Britain had recruited, and which
consisted of German, Swiss, and Italian soldiers. After the
conclusion of peace it was necessary to disband this force, and they
were invited to volunteer for African colonization. The result was
that 2300 Germans accepted the terms offered, and started for South
Africa. They were settled in the Eastern Province. But trouble then
began to arise from their being unmarried men, and Sir George Grey
sought to remedy the defect by importing a large number of German
women. The Imperial Government, however, thought that this would not
be a politic step to take, to create a little Germany in British
Africa. Finally the Cape Government sent on 1000 of the German
bachelors to India, and the 1300 who remained behind found wives in
the colony, and merged their own nationality in that of British
subjects. Nevertheless, the introduction of these German settlers
led to the going out of many emigrants from Germany for some years
afterwards, and these settled in such numbers in independent
Kaffraria that there seemed a danger at one time of their invoking
German intervention.

In 1856 a terrible delusion took hold on the X̓osa Kafirs. They had
endured a good deal of misery from the destruction of much of their
cattle by an epidemic of rinderpest, and were in a mood to be
influenced by the wild sayings of their witch doctors. One of these
wizards, Umhlakazi, who had received a smattering of education at a
mission school, arose and proclaimed a strange gospel. He announced
that the dead and gone Kafir chiefs would return to earth with their
followers, and bring with them a new race of cattle exempt from
disease, and that following on this resurrection would come the
triumph of the black man over the white. The prophet had heard of
the Crimean War, and announced that the dead Kafir chiefs would
bring with them many Russian soldiers and attack the British. But
one thing was necessary to secure this millennium—the existing
cattle and crops must be destroyed. A portion of the Kafir tribes
believed this rubbish. Some of the chiefs even who knew better, and
who smiled at the imposture, encouraged it, thinking that after
taking these desperate measures their men would stick at nothing,
and would really break down the British power. Therefore, most of
the X̓osa Kafirs of the Galeka and Gaika clans, set to work to
slaughter their oxen and cut down their corn; and all looked forward
eagerly to the dawning of February 18, 1857, on which date the
resurrection was to take place. Nothing happened, however; and the
consequences of this hateful imposture were terrible. It is stated
that 25,000 Kafirs died of starvation, and nearly 100,000 others
left British Kaffraria and the territories beyond the Kei to seek
another home. Some 40,000 of these Kafirs settled in Cape Colony,
being taken into service there through the intervention of the
Government; and from them, mixed with Hottentots and emancipated
slaves, are descended the “Cape Boys,” who have since attracted
attention by their value as soldiers in suppressing the Matebele
revolt. Sir George Grey in 1858 was obliged to send a military force
(the _sixth_ Kafir war) against some of the Kafir tribes rendered
desperate by destitution, and they were driven for a time into
Pondoland; British Kaffraria being annexed to Cape Colony, and the
Transkei being taken under British protection. This Transkei
territory was subsequently repeopled, partly with Fingo[146] Kafirs,
and partly by the descendants of the Kafir tribes who were ruined by
the teaching of the false prophets. In 1877 the Galeka, a clan of
the X̓osa tribe, commenced fighting the Fingos. They were joined
later by the Gaika, another X̕osa people, who had long been dwelling
peaceably in the Eastern province, and during 1877 and 1878 the
_seventh_ and last Kafir war raged, ending inevitably in conquest
and submission.

The British had taken from the Dutch in 1651 the little island of St
Helena[147] (in the Atlantic Ocean), the Dutch having previously
occupied it in 1645. This island became of some value as a place of
call for ships passing to and from India round the Cape. In 1815 it
was selected as the place of banishment for the deposed Napoleon
Bonaparte; and to make security doubly sure, the islands of
Ascension, to the north, and Tristan d’Acunha, to the extreme
south[148], were occupied also about the same time, and have
remained British ever since. Whereas Ascension has always been
managed directly by the British Admiralty, St Helena was from 1673
until 1815, and from 1821 to 1834, governed by the East India
Company. In 1834 it became a Crown Colony. Tristan d’Acunha was
occupied by a British garrison from 1815 to 1821, of which three men
remained behind voluntarily and with some shipwrecked sailors
started the existing colony, which is a self-governing community.

St Helena was profoundly affected by the opening of the Suez Canal
in 1869. She lost nearly all the shipping which formerly sought her
harbour, and three-quarters of her trade; but she is now beginning
to recover prosperity to some degree as a valuable health resort,
especially for the ships of the West African Squadron, and as a
possible coaling station in time of war.

Cape Colony might also have suffered from the opening of the Suez
Canal but that she was already beginning to build up an importance
of her own, due to her exports of wool, hides, wine, and ostrich
feathers. Moreover a happy discovery intervened which effectually
guarded against any waning of interest in South Africa. In 1867
the first diamond was discovered near the Orange river, but it was
not until 1870 that a large find of these precious stones was made
near the site of modern Kimberley. This discovery of diamonds to
the north of the Orange river, and in country of doubtful
ownership, but claimed by the Orange Free State, drove the now
awakened British Government to rather sharp practice. The
diamond-bearing land was claimed by a Grikwa (Hottentot
half-caste) chief named Waterboer. On the other hand, the Orange
Free State asserted that it had acquired the greater part of the
country from the original Grikwa owners; and the northern part of
Diamondland was claimed by the Transvaal. This last claim was
submitted to the arbitration of the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal,
who awarded most of the diamond country to the Grikwa and Bechuana
chiefs. These latter had really become the men of straw hiding the
hand of the British Government. Finally, in 1871 Waterboer and
other Grikwa chiefs ceded their rights to the British Government,
who promptly erected the diamond country into a province under the
name of Grikwaland West. The Orange Free State protested, and no
doubt the action of the British Government was rather high-handed,
and in rare contrast to the abnegatory policy usually pursued.
Finally, the claims of the Orange Free State were settled by Lord
Carnarvon, who in 1876 awarded to its government the sum of
£90,000 in consideration of the abandonment of their contention.

In 1845 Natal had been annexed to Cape Colony, but later on in the
same year it was given a separate administration, consisting of a
Lieutenant-Governor and an executive Council; though in legal
matters it still remained dependent on Cape Town. In 1848 a local
Legislative Council was created, and finally in 1856 the colony was
entirely severed from the Cape, and was endowed with a partially
representative government. Some years previously the Governor of
Cape Colony had been also created H.M. High Commissioner in South
Africa, so that he might have power to represent the British
Government outside the limits of Cape Colony. In this capacity
therefore he continued to retain some authority over the government
of Natal and its relations with the adjoining states. (The influence
of the High Commissioner now extends over all South and Central
Africa under the British flag, except, at present, the Protectorate
of Nyasaland; in other words, over Rhodesia, the South African
Union, Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Swaziland.) The territory of
Natal was not capable for some time of any great extension, being
girt about with Boer states and negro tribes whose independence was
to some extent guaranteed by the Imperial Government. But in 1866 it
received back a small territory on the south (the county of Alfred),
which was within the original limits claimed by the founders of
Natal, but had been for a time handed over to a Pondo chief. The
settled government of Natal and the kindly attitude of the British
Colonial Government brought about the repeopling of that fertile
country by Kafir tribes.

This “Garden of South Africa” had been almost depopulated by the
Zulu kings, who had slaughtered something like 1,000,000 natives
from first to last. Before the rise of the Zulu tribe, Natal or
“Embo[149]” had been a thickly populated country. Under white rule
the native immigration and population increased so rapidly that when
the colony was only nine years old it contained 113,000 Kafirs. The
white colonists were of mixed origin, about one-third being the
original Dutch settlers, while the remainder were either emigrants
from Great Britain, Cape Colonials, or Germans. The German families
mainly came from Bremen. At first the principal article of export
was ivory, obtained from Zululand, where elephants still rioted in
great numbers; but this was not to last long, for what with British
sportsmen and Dutch hunters and the introduction of firearms amongst
the natives, big game was rapidly exterminated. Then, during the
fifties, the sugar cane and the cotton plant were introduced[150],
the export of sugar rising in 1872 to an annual value of £154,000.
These semi-tropical plantations brought about a fresh want—that of
patient, cheap, agricultural labourers. Unhappily, the black man,
though so strong in body and so unaspiring in ideals, has as a rule
a strong objection to continuous agricultural labour. His own needs
are amply supplied by a few weeks’ tillage scattered throughout the
year; and even this is generally performed by the women of the
tribe, the men being free to fight, hunt, fish, tend cattle, and
loaf. Therefore, the 100,000 odd black men of Natal[151], though
they made useful domestic servants and police, were of but little
use in the plantations. As sugar cultivation was introduced from
Mauritius, so with this introduction came naturally the idea of
employing Indian kulis, already taking the place in the Mascarene
Islands which was formerly occupied by negro slaves. In 1860 the
first indentured kulis reached Natal from India, and by the end of
1875 12,000 natives of British India were established in Natal. A
number of these had passed out of their indentures, and had become
free settlers and petty traders. Nowadays the Indian population of
Natal has risen to something like 142,000. From Natal these British
Indians have crept into the Transvaal, into the Orange Free State,
and even into Bechuanaland and Rhodesia. Many of them are employed
on the Natal railways, and in the towns they form a thriving class
of petty traders. Here and there they have mingled with the Kafirs,
producing a rather fine-looking hybrid, similar in appearance to the
black Portuguese on the Zambezi, who are descended from a cross
between natives of Goa, in Portuguese India, and Zambezi Negroes.
Added to the ordinary Kuli class are traders who belong partly to
Tamul and other Dravidian races of South India and partly to coast
tribes from Western India, mostly professing the Khoja faith. The
Khojas are in a far-off way Muhammadans. The inhabitants of Natal
have with great inaccuracy taken to calling these West Coast Indians
“Arabs.”

This Indian element—already about 150,000 in number—is likely to
have its effect on the history of Natal. It is strongly unpopular
amongst the white colonists for selfish reasons. On the whole, it is
not unpopular among the blacks, but the idea of an eventual fusion
between Negro and Indian is not an agreeable one to contemplate from
the colonist’s point of view, as it would create a race strong both
mentally and physically, far outnumbering the whites, and likely to
make a dangerous struggle for supremacy. On the other hand, from the
Imperial point of view,—from what may be called the policy of the
Black, White, and Yellow—it seems unjust that the King-Emperor’s
Indian subjects should not be allowed to circulate as freely as
those of his lieges who can claim European descent. Perhaps on the
whole the solution which has been initiated in the British
protectorates north of the Zambezi is the best—namely, that Indian
immigration should be drawn rather to those countries which are
administered on the same lines as India, than to the temperate
regions south of the Zambezi, where the white man might be allowed
to expand without let or hindrance.

The first railway worked in South Africa is said to have been a line
connecting the town of Durban with the landing-place of its harbour,
which was opened in 1860. But soon afterwards a railway began to
start northwards from Cape Town to Paarl; and this was directed,
with many zigzags and with a seeming aimlessness, towards the Karoo.
The discovery of the diamond fields gave railway extension an
objective, and Kimberley became the goal which was finally reached
in 1885[152]. In 1872 the Cape Government by Act of Parliament took
over the existing railways in Cape Colony, which then only consisted
of a total length of 64 miles. Soon afterwards an expenditure on
railway extension of £5,000,000 was authorized. In Natal a
Government railway was commenced in 1876 connecting Durban with the
capital, Pietermaritzburg. This line now traverses the Colony to the
Transvaal border and in another direction enters the Orange Free
State.

The history of Natal has been comparatively peaceful and prosperous,
as compared with the weary Kafir warfare of the Eastern Province of
Cape Colony. But in 1873 the natives of Natal required a lesson. On
its north-western frontier the Hlubi refugees from Zululand had been
allowed to establish themselves under a chief of great importance,
Langalibalele. His young men had gone to work in the Diamond fields
of Kimberley, and had returned with guns, the introduction of which
into the colony without registration was prohibited. Langalibalele,
taking no notice of a summons to answer for this breach of the law,
fled into Basutoland. Fortunately the Basuto gave him no support,
and he was eventually captured and exiled for a time to Cape Colony.
But this outbreak called attention to the great increase of the
native population of Natal, and the unwisdom of allowing it any
longer to remain under the government of irresponsible Kafir chiefs.
Accordingly in 1875 Sir Garnet, afterwards Viscount, Wolseley was
sent to Natal to report on the native question, and initiated
changes which had the effect of bringing the natives more completely
under the control of the Executive, and approximating them more
towards the position of citizens of the colony.

All this time diamonds had been attracting many emigrants to South
Africa, chiefly from Great Britain, but also from France and
Germany. Among these emigrants were numerous Jews[153] belonging to
all three nationalities, who were naturally attracted to the diamond
trade. The growing interest taken in South Africa owing to the
discovery of diamonds had not only tended to make the British
Government very particular as to the exact rights it possessed in
the vicinity of the Dutch republics, but also led it to revive its
claims to the south shore of Delagoa Bay. The Portuguese Government,
foreseeing this, had commenced to reassert its right to that harbour
in its boundary treaty with the Transvaal in 1869. In 1870-71 the
British Government raised its claim in the manner I have already
described in the chapter on Portuguese Africa. In 1872 Great Britain
agreed to submit the question at issue to the arbitration of Marshal
MacMahon, whose award, delivered in 1875, was wholly in favour of
the Portuguese. But Great Britain had already secured from Portugal
a promise, confirmed by a more recent convention, that she should be
allowed the right of pre-emption over Delagoa Bay[154]. During the
fifties and sixties missionaries and traders had pushed due north
across the Orange river, through Bechuanaland, to the Zambezi, and
westward to Lake Ngami and Damaraland. In the sixties a good deal of
trade was done in the last-mentioned country in ostrich feathers and
ivory; and the Damara, who should more properly be known as the
Ova-herero[155], came under European influence. Wars arising between
the Damara and the Hottentot Namakwa, and the complaints of the
German missionaries at work in these countries, brought about the
despatch of a commissioner (Mr W. C. Palgrave) to Damaraland by the
Cape Government. He reported in 1876 in favour of extending British
protection over Damaraland; but all that Downing Street would
concede was the annexation of Walfish Bay. (Twelve little islets off
the S. W. coast had been annexed in 1867, because they were leased
to a guano-collecting company.) A little later another commissioner
was despatched from the Cape to settle the intertribal quarrels
north of the Orange river, and a further recommendation was sent
home by the Governor; but Lord Kimberley, the new Colonial
Secretary, definitely forbade the extension of any British influence
over Namakwaland or Damaraland. In 1883 Germany directly questioned
England as to whether she laid claim to territory north of the
Orange river. An evasive reply was sent, in which delay was asked
for so that the Cape Government could be consulted. Eventually the
Germans were told that England laid claim to Walfish Bay and the
Guano Islands only, but that the intervention of another Power
between the Portuguese frontier and the Orange river would infringe
legitimate British rights. The inaction of the British Government on
this occasion seems in the present day, and by our modern lights,
inconceivable. Literally the only reason they had in not politely
declaring that South-West Africa was under British protection was
the remote dread that they would have to protect German missionaries
and traders.

Yet not only Downing Street in the greater degree but the Cape
Government in the lesser was to blame for this inactivity. The Cape
Government at that time was directed by ministers who were much
under purely colonial influence, and who, discouraged by their
failure to administer Basutoland, had no very strong desire to spend
the money of the colony in annexing and administering a vast
territory mainly desert. Besides, the idea of Germany becoming a
colonial power was laughed at in those days in Government circles as
an impossibility. At length all doubts were ended by the declaration
of a German protectorate over South-West Africa in 1884.

In 1882 measures were passed in the Cape Parliament which gave equal
rights throughout Cape Colony to the Dutch language. In the same
year the “Afrikander Bond” was established, an institution with the
avowed object of building up an Afrikander Dutch-speaking nation
which should eventually be independent of the British flag. Its
principal creators and supporters were Mr J. H. Hofmeyr of Cape
Town, Mr Borckenhager of the Orange State, and Mr Reitz of the
Transvaal. Measures for bringing about a federation of the British
and Dutch states had failed (as will be subsequently narrated), and
an annexation of the Transvaal had been reversed. British influence
in South Africa seemed on the wane and the Dutch element in the
ascendant.

British missionaries during the thirties and forties had crossed the
Orange river and settled in Bechuanaland, a sterile plateau between
the Namakwa and Kalahari deserts on the one hand, and the relatively
well-watered regions of the Transvaal and Matebeleland on the other.
By 1851, British sportsmen, roving afield after big game, and the
great missionary-explorer Livingstone had reached the Zambezi, which
till then was only known from the sea upwards for about 500 miles
inland. Livingstone’s exploration of the Zambezi attracted the
attention of the British Government, which at that time was more
interested (from philanthropic motives) in acquiring territories in
Tropical Africa than in extending its influence over more valuable
regions enjoying a temperate climate. Livingstone was sent back as a
consul to the mouth of the Zambezi in 1858 with a well-equipped
expedition to explore Zambezia and discover the reported Lake Nyasa,
then known as Lake Maravi. For five years his expedition traversed
these countries, adding immensely to our geographical knowledge; but
its members suffered terribly from ill-health. Although the
Portuguese treated them with kindness and put no obstacle in their
way, still Portuguese political susceptibilities were aroused. For
this and other reasons, Livingstone was recalled, and his proposals
in regard to Lake Nyasa quashed. Nevertheless, the seed had been
sown, and produced a sparse crop of adventurers, elephant hunters,
missionaries and traders, who found their way to Nyasaland.
Livingstone himself resumed his explorations there (in 1866); and an
expedition, under Lieutenant Edward Young, R.N., which was sent to
obtain news of him (1868), kept the British in favourable
remembrance amongst the natives. Finally, Livingstone’s death
revived missionary enthusiasm; and two strong Scotch missions in
1875-6 occupied the Shiré Highlands and the west coast of Lake
Nyasa, putting a steamer on that lake. Two years later the African
Lakes Trading Company sprang from missionary loins, and the
Universities’ Mission in 1881 advanced overland from Zanzibar to the
east shore of Lake Nyasa.

In consequence of the increase of British interests in this quarter
the British Government decided to establish a consulate for Lake
Nyasa in 1883. Portuguese susceptibilities again became ruffled.
Although no attempt had ever been made by Portugal to establish
herself anywhere near Lake Nyasa, or even on the river Shiré, which
connects that lake with the Zambezi and the sea, it was felt in
Portugal that the growing British settlements in Nyasaland should be
made to contribute to the revenue of Portuguese East Africa; and
that, since through further extension they might force a way to the
coast, it would be better that they should be brought under
Portuguese control. Although the British Government was absolutely
determined if possible not to assume direct responsibilities in
Nyasaland, it was equally anxious that its subjects should be left a
free hand, and not be fettered by Portuguese control. Therefore an
attempt was made by Lord Granville (in the projected Congo Treaty of
1884) to define the sphere of Portuguese influence on the Shiré, so
as to leave the greater part of that river and all Nyasaland outside
the Portuguese dominions. Had that Congo Treaty been ratified, there
would probably never have arisen the Nyasa Question with the
Portuguese. But it was not ratified, and therefore Portugal was
equally free with Great Britain to make the best use of her
opportunities, which she did by means of several expeditions in the
manner already described in Chapter IV. But nevertheless Nyasaland,
including the Shiré Highlands, was declared to be a British
Protectorate, based on treaties with native chiefs concluded by two
consuls, (Sir) H. H. Johnston and John Buchanan; and the former,
assisted by (Sir) Alfred Sharpe, further brought within the British
sphere of influence the rest of “British Central Africa” from the
central Zambezi to Lakes Tanganyika and Mweru and the frontier of
the Congo Independent State. To this sphere of influence was shortly
afterwards added the Barotse Kingdom, made known to us by Dr
Livingstone and by the French Protestant missionaries. Treaties with
Germany (1890) and Portugal (1891) having sanctioned these
acquisitions north of the Zambezi, the administration of the new
territory was divided between the Imperial Government—which decided
to control the more organized territories round Lake Nyasa—and the
newly-founded British South Africa Chartered Company. After 1895 the
Chartered Company assumed the direct administration of its North
Zambezian territories which are now known as Northern Rhodesia.

Since 1890 much has been effected in developing and making known
these territories of British Central Africa, which are perhaps not
sufficiently healthy in all parts or void of an indigenous
population to permit of more than a restricted European
colonization, though they are already becoming of great value as
tropical “plantation” colonies and as mining districts, and will
support an abundant native population. During the seven years of the
existence of this British sphere north of the Zambezi the slave
trade had to be met and conquered. Numerous Arabs from Zanzibar had
established themselves in Nyasaland as sultans, and had
Muhammadanized some of the tribes and infused into them a dislike to
European domination. The countries west of Lake Nyasa were ravaged
by the Angoni, a people of more or less Zulu descent, the remains of
former Zulu invasions of Central Zambezia. In seven years, however,
these enemies were all subdued by means of Sikh soldiers lent by the
Indian Government, by the native levies that were drilled by the
Sikhs, and by five gunboats, which were placed on the Zambezi, the
Shiré, and on Lake Nyasa. The Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes began in 1893
his great scheme of connecting Cape Town with Cairo by a telegraph
line. In five years he had at any rate connected Cape Town with
Tanganyika through British Central Africa. The Shiré Highlands and
much else of Nyasaland and Eastern Northern Rhodesia proved
moderately favourable to the cultivation of coffee (which was
originally introduced by Scottish missionaries and planters); but
the product which will probably make the fortune of this part of
Africa is cotton—as Livingstone predicted more than half a century
ago. These countries possess other valuable resources in tobacco,
maize, and timber, in minerals, and in ivory; and are well adapted
for the growth of certain kinds of rubber. Through the middle of
Northern Rhodesia the “Cape to Cairo” railway is now built with
several branch lines; and regions unmapped and unknown when the
first edition of this work was published are now familiar to many a
sightseer and tourist, brought within a few days’ railway journey
(across the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi) of Cape Town. The Shiré
Highlands are connected by a railway with the Lower Zambezi, a line
which will before long terminate at the port of Beira in South-East
Africa and be extended northwards to Lake Nyasa. Large towns have
sprung into existence in Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia; the native
population has nearly doubled in numbers since 1890; and “British
Central Africa” is well on the way to becoming one of the most
prosperous portions of the British Empire.

During the 4th Earl of Carnarvon’s presence at the Colonial Office
between 1874 and 1878 that statesman endeavoured to repeat in South
Africa the success which had attended his consolidation of the North
American colonies into one confederated Dominion. He sent out the
historian Froude to represent him at the proposed conference of
South African states. Already, Sir George Grey had tried hard to
bring about this unification of South Africa under the British flag
during the fifties; and in 1858 had pressed strongly upon the
Imperial Parliament a scheme which would have well effected this
desired end. For his pains he was recalled and sharply reprimanded,
but, mainly owing to the influence of Queen Victoria, he was sent
back to his governorship, though he was not allowed to carry out the
far-reaching policy he had formulated. In Cape Colony the Federation
Commission was appointed in 1872. But the always present, more or
less bitter divergence of sympathies between the English and the
Dutch-speaking settlers—a discord constantly discernible in the
debates of the Cape Parliament—prevented any ripening of the
federation idea; and Lord Carnarvon’s commissioner, Mr J. A. Froude,
was snubbed for his pains by the Cape Dutch. Foiled in one
direction, Lord Carnarvon sought to effect his end in another way.
He sent out Sir Bartle Frere to be Governor and High Commissioner at
the Cape. He had been chosen by Lord Carnarvon six months before as
the statesman most capable of consolidating the South African
Empire; “within two years it was hoped that he would be the first
Governor-General of the South African Dominion.” The second step in
what seemed to Lord Carnarvon to be the right direction was the
annexation of the Transvaal. With this territory of about 120,000
square miles in extent, in British hands, there would only remain
the Orange Free State as an obstacle to the unification of South
Africa. The Transvaal as an independent state had between 1853 and
1877 come to grief. It was bankrupt, and it was powerless to subdue
the powerful native tribes within its borders, some of whom had real
wrongs to avenge. Moreover, it was threatened by Zulu invasion. It
was therefore annexed by the British Commissioner, Sir Theophilus
Shepstone, in the beginning of 1877.

Unfortunately, Sir Bartle Frere’s administration, after two and a
half years of excellent work, was clouded by unmerited misfortune.
The Zulu power to the east of Natal had been growing threateningly
strong. At the beginning of the 19th century an obscure tribe of
Kafirs known as the Ama-zulu rose into prominence under a chief
named Chaka, who became a kind of negro Napoleon, and a bloodthirsty
slaughterer of all who stood in his way[156]. He and his chiefs
included in their conquests all modern Natal and Zululand, much of
the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and Amatongaland up to
Delagoa Bay[157]. Chaka’s son, Dingane, though he most treacherously
attacked the Boers, was fairly friendly in his relations with the
British, and tolerated their establishment in Natal. In fact he
seems to have allowed them to reorganize the territory of Natal
which his father had almost depopulated. Owing to the founding of
the Transvaal Republic and the Orange River Sovereignty in addition
to the colony of Natal, the Zulus were henceforth shut up in a
relatively small tract of South-east Africa represented by modern
Zululand and Amatongaland; though the Amatonga were practically
another people. Dingane was succeeded by Panda, and Panda by
C̓echwayo (Cetewayo). The last-named chief perfected the system of a
standing army of well-drilled bachelors. Anxious to find an outlet
for his energies, he openly menaced the Transvaal, and was one of
the causes of British intervention in the affairs of that republic.
Shut off from this outlet, he seemed becoming dangerous; and,
thinking it best to prick the boil before it burst, Sir Bartle Frere
forced war on him by an ultimatum. The invasion of Zululand at the
outset was not very wisely conducted, and led to a terrible disaster
in which 800 British and over 400 native soldiers were cut to pieces
at Isandhlwana; and subsequently, through mismanagement, the Prince
Imperial of France, who had come out as a volunteer, was allowed to
stray into danger, and be killed by the Zulus. After a time,
however, Lord Chelmsford succeeded in completely conquering the
country, and C̓echwayo was taken prisoner. Although Sir Bartle Frere
was in no way answerable for these mistakes in a campaign which was
eventually successful, his prestige was dimmed; and as the Liberal
Government of 1880 was inclined to pursue a reactionary policy in
Africa, Sir Bartle Frere was recalled.

The Boers, taking advantage of British discouragement and the change
of government in England, rose and demanded their independence. It
was refused by Mr Gladstone’s Administration, and troops were
hastily sent out to subdue them, with the results detailed in