[Illustration: LIEUTENANTS MELVILL and COGHILL (24th REGIMENT) DYINGTO SAVE THE QUEEN'S COLOURS. An Incident at the Battle of Isandlwana. Painting by C. E. Fripp. ] SOUTH AFRICA AND THE TRANSVAAL WAR BY LOUIS CRESWICKE AUTHOR OF "ROXANE, " ETC. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS IN SIX VOLUMES VOL. I. --FROM THE FOUNDATION OF CAPE COLONY TO THE BOER ULTIMATUM OF 9TH OCT. 1899 EDINBURGH: T. C. & E. C. JACK 1900 PREFATORY NOTE In writing this volume my aim has been to present an unvarnishedtale of the circumstances--extending over nearly half acentury--which have brought about the present crisis in SouthAfrica. Consequently, it has been necessary to collate the opinionsof the best authorities on the subject. My acknowledgments are dueto the distinguished authors herein quoted for much valuableinformation, throwing light on the complications that have beenaccumulating so long, and that owe their origin to politicalblundering and cosmopolitan scheming rather than to the racialantagonism between Briton and Boer. L. C. CONTENTS--VOL. I. PAGECHRONOLOGICAL TABLE ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I PAGE THE GROWTH OF THE TRANSVAAL 13 THE BOER CHARACTER 15 SOME DOMESTIC TRAITS 18 CHAPTER II PAGE THE ORANGE FREE STATE 24 THE GRONDWET 26 TRANSVAAL DISSENSIONS 29 ZULU DISTURBANCES 30 THE POLITICAL WEB 33 THE WEB THICKENING 36 THE ZULU WAR 38 ISANDLWANA 40 AFFAIRS AT HOME 43 TOWARDS ULUNDI 49 THE VICTORY 57 CHAPTER III PAGE SIR GARNET WOLSELEY AT PRETORIA 62 GLADSTONE OUT OF OFFICE AND IN OFFICE 65 COMMENCEMENT OF REBELLION 69 THE FATE OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT 73 LAING'S NEK 77 INGOGO 84 MAJUBA 86 THE SIEGE OF PRETORIA 95 RETROCESSION 99 THE BETRAYED LOYALISTS 101 CHAPTER IV PAGE THE CONVENTIONS 106 MR. KRUGER 110 GERMANS AND UITLANDERS 114 CHAPTER V PAGE MR. RHODES 118 RHODESIA--UNCIVILISED 120 RHODESIA--CIVILISED 124 GOLD 127 DIAMONDS 131 CHAPTER VI PAGE THE TRANSVAAL OF TO-DAY 136 ACCUMULATED AGGRAVATIONS 138 MONOPOLIES AND ABUSES 143 THE FRANCHISE 146 THE REFORM MOVEMENT 149 THE CRITICAL MOMENT 153 THE RAID 156 AFTER DOORNKOP 172 THE FATE OF THE MISCREANTS 177 THE ULTIMATUM 178 APPENDIX--CONVENTIONS OF 1881 AND 1884 191, 197 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS--Vol. I. 1. _COLOURED PLATES_ PAGE DYING TO SAVE THE QUEEN'SCOLOURS. An Incident of the Battleof Isandlwana. By C. E. Fripp _Frontispiece_ COLONEL OF THE 10TH HUSSARS(H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES) 16 2ND DRAGOONS (ROYAL SCOTS GREYS) 32 OFFICER OF THE 16TH LANCERS 64 DRUM-MAJOR AND DRUMMERS, COLDSTREAMGUARDS 80 COLOUR-SERGEANT AND PRIVATE, THE SCOTS GUARDS 104 SERGEANT AND BUGLER, 1ST ARGYLEAND SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS 140 COLOUR-SERGEANT AND PRIVATE (INKHAKI), GLOUCESTER REGIMENT 172 2. _FULL-PAGE PLATES_ PAGE CAPE TOWN, DEVIL'S PEAK, TABLEMOUNTAIN, AND LION'S HEAD, FROM TABLE BAY 10 A KAFFIR KRAAL IN THE TRANSVAAL 20 BLOEMFONTEIN, FROM THE SOUTH 26 THE DEFENCE OF RORKE'S DRIFT. By Alphonse de Neuville 42 THE BATTLE OF ULUNDI: THE FINALRUSH OF THE ZULUS. By R. CatonWoodville 58 THE ORANGE RIVER AT NORVAL'SPONT 74 THE BATTLE OF MAJUBA HILL. ByR. Caton Woodville 90 WHERE COLLEY FELL. Rough Cairnof Stones on Majuba Hill 92 THE MATABELE WAR--DEFENDINGA LAAGER. By R. Caton Woodville 118 "TO THE MEMORY OF BRAVE MEN. "The Last Stand of Major Wilson onThe Shangani River, 1893. By AllanStewart 124 A MATABELE RAID IN MASHONALAND. By W. Small 128 KIMBERLEY, AS SEEN FROM THEROCK SHAFT 132 PRETORIA, FROM THE EAST. 138 SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVES--BOUNDFOR THE GOLDFIELDS 148 JAMESON'S LAST STAND--THE BATTLEOF DOORNKOP, 2nd January 1896. By R. Caton Woodville 160 JOHANNESBURG, FROM THE NORTH. 166 3. _FULL-PAGE PORTRAITS_ PAGE SIR HENRY BARTLE FRERE, Bart 48 GENERAL SIR EVELYN WOOD, G. C. B. , V. C. 96 PAUL KRUGER, PRESIDENT OF THETRANSVAAL REPUBLIC 112 RIGHT HON. CECIL JOHN RHODES, P. C. 144 DR. LEANDER STARR JAMESON 152 RIGHT HON. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M. P. , Secretary for the Colonies 176 SIR ALFRED MILNER, K. C. B. , HighCommissioner for South Africa 184 VISCOUNT WOLSELEY, Commander-in-chiefof the British Army 188 4. _MAPS_ PAGE MAP OF BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA _At Front_ MAP OF THE BOER REPUBLICS " MAP OF ZULULAND AND THE ADJOININGPORTIONS OF NATAL 41 MAP OF COUNTRY ROUND LAING'SNEK AND MAJUBA HILL 81 PLAN OF DISPOSITION OF FORCESON TOP OF MAJUBA HILL 89 MAP OF MATABELELAND 121 MAP ILLUSTRATING THE JAMESONRAID 163 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE--VOL. I. #1851. #--First Basuto war. #1852. #--Sand River Convention, granting independence to TransvaalBoers. #1853. #--Province of British Kaffraria created. Introduction of representative government in Cape Colony. #1854. #--Convention of Bloemfontein and Treaty of Aliwal, grantingindependence to Orange Free State. Free State abandoned to Dutch. #1855. #--Establishment of a Constitution for South African Republic;not completed till 1858. #1856. #--Natal created a separate Colony. 2000 German legion and2000 German labourers arrived. #1858. #--War between Orange Free State and Basutos. #1859. #--First railway constructed. #1865. #--British Kaffraria incorporated with Cape Colony. War between Free State and Basutos. #1867. #--First discovery of diamonds near Orange River. First discovery of gold in Transvaal. #1868. #--Annexation of Basutoland. #1869. #--Discovery of diamonds near Lower Vaal River, whereKimberley now stands. Commercial Treaty concluded between Portuguese Government and theSouth African Republic, which led to British claims to Delagoa Bay. #1871. #--Annexation of Griqualand West (Diamond Fields). Basutolandadded to Cape. #1872. #--Responsible Government granted to Cape Colony. Cetchwayo succeeds his father, Panda, as king in Zululand. #1872-75. #--Delagoa Bay arbitration. #1874. #--Ichaboe and Penguin Islands annexed. #1875. #--Delagoa Bay award. #1875-80. #--Lord Carnarvon's scheme for making the differentcolonies and states of South Africa into a confederation with commonadministration and common legislation in national matters. #1876. #--Fingoland, Idutywa Reserve, and No-Man's-Land annexed. Acceptance by Free State of £90, 000 for Griqualand West. Khama, Chief of Bamangwato, seeks British protection against Boeraggressions. #1877. #--Annexation of Transvaal by Sir T. Shepstone, after thecountry had been reduced to a state of anarchy by misgovernment. #1877-78. #--Gaika and Gealika rebellion. #1878. #--Walfish Bay proclaimed a British possession. #1879. #--Zulu war. Transvaal declared a Crown Colony. #1880. #--Basuto war. Sekukuni campaign. Boer protest against British rule at a mass meeting held in Decemberat Paardekraal (now Krugersdorp). They seize Heidelberg. South African Republic established. December 16. --Kruger, Joubert, and Pretorius proclaimed SouthAfrican Republic by hoisting flag on Dingaan's Day. Kruger madePresident on December 17. British treacherously surrounded atBronkhurst Spruit, December 20, when about 250 of 94th Regiment, after losing nearly all their men, surrendered. Colonel Bellairsbesieged in Potchefstroom, but Boers retire when shelled. December29. --Captain Elliot treacherously murdered while fording the Vaal. #1880-81. #--Reinforcements sent out December and January. Griqualand West incorporated with the Cape. #1881. #--Transvaal rebellion. Pretoria Convention, creating"Transvaal State" under British suzerainty. Sir George Colley takes command of our troops, January. His attackon Laing's Nek repulsed with heavy loss. Colonel Deane and MajorsPoole and Hingiston killed. #1881. #--Severe engagement near Ingogo River, Feb. 8. Britishrepulsed after 12 hours under fire. Sir E. Wood joined Colley withreinforcements. Orange Free State neutrality declared. Colley andMajuba Hill, Feb. 27; Colley killed with 3 officers and 82 men; 122men taken prisoners. Sir F. (now Lord) Roberts sent out, Feb. 28. Armistice proposed by Boers, March 5; accepted March 23. Peace proclaimed, March 21. Potchefstroom surrendered with honours of war in ignorance ofarmistice, April. Commission appointed to carry out Treaty of Peace, April 5. Convention agreed to, ceding all territory to Transvaal, with theQueen as suzerain, and a British resident at Pretoria, Aug. 8. Convention ratified, Oct. 25. Evacuation of Transvaal by British troops began on Nov. 18. #1884. #--London Convention restoring to the Transvaal the title of"South African Republic. " Annexation of Damaraland by Germany. Boer Republics of Stellaland and Goshen set up in Bechuanaland. Boers seize and annex Montsioaland; sanctioned by proclamation;withdrawn on remonstrance. Ultimatum by Sir H. Robinson, requiring protection of frontiers. British annexation of Southern, and protectorate of NorthernBechuanaland. Basutoland made independent. Port St. John annexed. British flag hoisted in Lucia Bay, Zululand (ceded to England in1843, by Panda). #1884-85. #--Sir Charles Warren's expedition. #1885. #--Annexation of Bechuanaland to Cape Colony. #1885. #--British protectorate over Khama's country proclaimed as faras Matabeleland. Discovery of great goldfields in Witwatersrandt, Transvaal. #1886. #--Opening of principal goldfields in Transvaal. British Government put a stop to Boer raids into Zululand, andconfined them to a territory of nearly 3000 square miles; to beknown as the "New Republic. " #1887. #--British annexation of the rest of Zululand. British treaty with Tonga chiefs, in which they undertook not tomake treaties with any other power. #1888. #--"New Republic" annexed to South African Republic. Treaty concluded between British and Lo Bengula, the Matabele king, in which he undertook not to cede territory to, or treat with, anyforeign power without British consent. #1889. #--Charter granted to British South Africa Company. #1890. #--First Swaziland Convention, giving Boers certain rights toa railway to the coast. British and German "spheres of influence" defined by formalagreement. #1891. #--Southern boundary of Portuguese territory fixed by treatywith Great Britain. #1893. #--Responsible government granted to Natal. Matabele war. #1894. #--Malaboch war. Question of "commandeering" British subjects raised in South AfricanRepublic. Second Swaziland Convention, placing Swaziland under Boer control. Annexation of Amatongaland. Annexation of Pondoland. British subjects exempted from military service by TransvaalGovernment, June 24. Protest by British Government against closing the Vaal Drifts, ascontrary to Convention; Nov. 3. Agreed to Nov. 8. #1895. #--Crown Colony of Bechuanaland annexed to Cape Colony. Proclamation of Reform movement by Uitlanders in Johannesburg(National Union), Dec. 26. Jameson Raid--he crossed the frontier with a force from PitsaniPitlogo, Dec. 29. Sir H. Robinson telegraphed to Jameson to retire, Dec. 30. Mr. Chamberlain and Sir H. Robinson sent order to stop hostilities, Dec. 31. #1896. #--Dr. Jameson's party, outnumbered and without resources, defeated by Boers near Krugersdorp, Jan. 1. Fight at Vlakfontein, and surrender of Jameson, Jan. 2. Johannesburg surrendered unconditionally by advice of BritishGovernment, Jan. 2. Dr. Jameson and other prisoners handed over to Sir H. Robinson, Jan. 7. #1897. #--Judicial Crisis in South African Republic. Annexation of Zululand to Natal. #1899. #--Petition of Uitlanders to the Queen, May 24. Conference, at Bloemfontein, between Sir A. Milner and Kruger, May30. Terminated without result, June 6. British Despatch to Transvaal, setting forth demands for immediateacceptance, Sept. 8. Unsatisfactory reply, Sept. 16. Troops despatched to Natal, Sept. And Oct. Insulting Boer Ultimatum, making war inevitable, Oct. 9. Orange Free State joins with the Transvaal. [Illustration: MAP OF THE BOER REPUBLICS. ] [Illustration: GENERAL MAP OF BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA] SOUTH AFRICA AND THE TRANSVAAL WAR INTRODUCTION The Transvaal War--like a gigantic picture--cannot be considered atclose quarters. To fully appreciate the situation, and all that itembraces, the critic must stand at a suitable distance. He must gazenot merely with the eye of to-day, or even of the whole nineteenthcentury, but with his mind educated to the strange conditions ofearlier civilisation. For in these conditions will be found the rootof the widespread mischief--the answer to many a riddle whichsuperficial observers have been unable to comprehend. The racialhatred between Boer and Briton is not a thing of new growth; it hasexpanded with the expansion of the Boer settlers themselves. Infact, on the Boer side, it is the only thing independent of Britishenterprise which has grown and expanded since the Dutch first setfoot in the Cape. This took place in 1652. Then, Jan Van Riebeck, ofthe Dutch East India Company, first established an Europeansettlement, and a few years later the burghers began life ascattle-breeders, agriculturists, and itinerant traders. Theseoriginal Cape Colonists were descendants of Dutchmen of the lowerclasses, men of peasant stamp, who were joined in 1689 by acontingent of Huguenot refugees. The Boers, or peasants, of that daywere men of fine type, a blend between the gipsy and the evangelist. They were nomadic in their taste, lawless, and impatient ofrestrictions, bigoted though devout, and inspired in all and throughall by an unconquerable love of independence. With manners they hadnothing to do, with progress still less. Isolation from thecivilised world, and contact with Bushmen, Hottentots, and Kaffirs, kept them from advancing with the times. Their slaves outnumberedthemselves, and their treatment of these makes anything butenlivening reading. From all accounts the Boer went about with theBible in one hand and the _sjambok_ in the other, instructinghimself assiduously with the Word, while asserting himself liberallywith the deed. Yet he was a first-rate sporting man, a shrewdtrafficker, and at times an energetic tiller of the soil. The earlysettlements were Rondebosch, Stellenbosch, and Drakenstein, in thevalley of the Berg River. Here the Dutch community laboured, andsmoked, and married, multiplying itself with amazing rapidity, andexpanding well beyond the original limits. Dutch domination at the Cape lasted for 143 years after the landingof Van Riebeck, but gradually internal dissensions among thesettlers resulted in absolute revolt. Meanwhile the Dutch in Europehad lost their political prestige, and the country was overrun by aPrussian army commissioned to support the House of Orange. In 1793, in a war against allied England and Holland, France gained the day, and a Republic was set up under French protection, thereby renderingHolland and her colonies of necessity antagonistic to Great Britain. After this the fortunes of the Cape were fluctuating. In 1795Admiral Elphinstone and General Craig brought about the surrender ofthe colony to Great Britain. Later on it was returned to theBatavian Republic at the Peace of Amiens, only to be afterwardsrecaptured by Sir David Baird in 1806. Finally, in 1814, our claimto the Cape and other Dutch colonies was recognised on payment ofthe sum of £6, 000, 000 sterling. Now for the first time began the real emigration of the British. They settled at Bathurst, near Algoa Bay, but though their numbersgradually swelled, they never equalled the number of the inhabitantsof Dutch origin. At this time South Africa was an ideal place for the pioneer. Thescenery was magnificent. There were mountain gorges or kloofs, roaring cataracts, vast plains, and verdant tracts of succulentgrasses. There was big game enough to delight the heart of a race ofNimrods. Lions, elephants, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, antelopes, andbirds of all kinds, offered horns, hides, tusks, and feathers to theadventurous sportsman. All these things the nomadic Boer hadhitherto freely enjoyed, plying now his rifle, now his plough, andtaking little thought for the morrow or for the moving world outsidethe narrow circle of his family experiences. With the appearance ofBritish paramountcy at the Cape came a hint of law and order, ofprogress and its accompaniment--taxation. The bare whisper ofdiscipline of any kind was sufficient to send the truculent Boertrekking away to the far freedom of the veldt. Quantities of themtook to their lumbering tented waggons, drawn by long teams of oxen, and put a safe distance between themselves and the new-comers. Allthey wanted was a free home, conducted in their own gipsyfashion--their kraals by the river, their camp fires, their flocksand herds, and immunity from the vexation of monopolies and taxes. And here at once will be seen how the seeds sprang up of a rootedantagonism between Boer and Briton that nothing can ever remove, andno diplomacy can smooth away. The Boer nature naturally inclines toa sluggish content, while the British one invariably pants foradvance. The temperamental tug of war, therefore, has been one thathas grown stronger and stronger with the progress of years. Theprinciples of give and take have been tried, but they have failed. Reciprocity is not in the nature of the Boer, and withoutreciprocity society and States are at a standstill. The Boer isaccredited with the primitive virtues, innocence, sturdiness, contentment. If he has these, he has also the defects of hisqualities. He is crafty, stubborn, and narrow, and intolerant ofeverything beyond the limits of his native comprehension. Innovations of any kind are sufficient to fill him with suspicion, and those started by the British in their first efforts at Capegovernment were as gall and wormwood to his untrammelled taste. These efforts, it must be owned, were not altogether happy. Therewas first a rearrangement of local governments and of the LawCourts; then, in 1827, followed a decree that English should be theofficial language. As at that time not more than one colonist inseven was British, the new arrangement was calculated to makeconfusion worse confounded! The disgust of the Cape Dutch may beimagined! The finishing touch came in 1834. By the abolition ofslavery--humane though its object was--the Cape colonists wereexceedingly hard hit; and though the owners of slaves werecompensated to the tune of a million and a quarter (the slaves werevalued at three millions sterling), they continued to maintain asimmering resentment. Added to this came the intervention of themissionaries, who attempted to instil into the Boer mind a sense ofthe equality, in the sight of Heaven, of the black and the whiteraces. At this time 12, 000 Kaffirs had crossed over the border and invadedthe settlements, dealing death and destruction wherever they went. They were finally repulsed by the British, and Sir Benjamin D'Urban, the Governor at the Cape, proclaimed the annexation of the countrybeyond the Keiskamma, on the eastern boundary of the Colony, as faras the Kei. But no sooner had he accomplished this diplomatic movein his wise discretion, than orders came from the British Governmentto the effect that the land was to be restored to the Kaffirs andthe frontier boundary moved back to its original place--Keiskamma. Sir Benjamin D'Urban carried out these orders much to his disgust, for he deemed the annexation of the province to be necessary to thepeace of all the surrounding districts. But this was neither thefirst nor the last occasion in the history of Cape government onwhich men of practical experience have had to give way before wiseheads in Downing Street arm-chairs. This action on the part of the Government was as the last straw tothe overladen camel. The patience of the Dutch Boers broke down. Theintroduction of a foreign and incomprehensible tongue, the abolitionof slavery, and finally the restoration to the despised Kaffirs of aconquered province, were indignities past bearing. There was ageneral exodus. Off to the neighbourhood of the Orange and the VaalRivers lumbered the long waggon trains drawn by innumerable oxen, bearing, to pastures new and undefiled by the British, the irateBoers and their household gods. It was a pathetic departure, thisvoluntary exile into strange and unknown regions. The firstpioneers, after a long and wearisome journey to Delagoa Bay, fellsick and retraced their steps to Natal only to die. The next greatcompany started forth in the winter of 1836. Some went to thedistricts between the Orange and the Vaal Rivers--the district nowknown as the Orange Free State; others went into the country northof the Vaal River--the district now called the Transvaal; whileothers again went beyond the mountains to the district now namedNatal. Here the Boer hoped to lead a new and a peaceful life, toencamp himself by some river course with his kraal for his sheep andhis goats, the wide veldt for his carpet, and the blue dome ofheaven or the canvas of his waggon for his untaxed roof. But hishopes were of short duration. The poor trekker--to use the vulgarphrase--had fallen out of the frying-pan into the fire. He had fledfrom the "British tyrant" only to encounter the Matabele Zulusavage. A terrible feud between the Bantu tribes was then causingmuch violence and blood-spilling, and the Zulu chief Moselekalse, having driven the Bechuanas beyond the Limpopo, had established thekingdom of the Matabele. With this chief, the Boer Potgieter and aparty of burghers, on exploration intent, came suddenly intocollision. Some of the Boers fled, the rest were promptly massacred. Those who remained alive made plans for self-defence. They lashedtheir waggons together to form a laager, and within it placed theirwomen and children in partial safety. They then gave the warriors ofMoselekalse a warm reception. The fight was maintained with greatenergy, the Zulus raining assegais over the waggons, while the Boersreturned the compliment with their firearms. For these they hadplenty of ammunition, and relays of guns were loaded and handed outgallantly by their women from within the laager. The Boers werevictorious. Their aim was true, their pluck enormous, and after asharp engagement the enemy were forced to retire. The savages werenot vanquished, however, till terrible damage had been inflicted onthe laager. Not content with the loss of many of their number, theirsheep and their cattle, the plucky Boers started forth to punish theMatabele. Though few in number the burghers had the advantage ofrifles, and succeeded in triumphing over the enemy and establishingthemselves at Winburg, on the Vet River, to west of Harrismith. Later on the Boer farmers prepared to trek into Natal. They hadprospected the place and found it entirely suited to theiragricultural needs. Water and game were plentiful, and the wholecountry was fertile as a garden. Here they proposed to settle down. At Port Natal--now known by the name of Durban--was a party ofEnglishmen with whom the Boer explorers got on friendly terms. BothEnglishmen and Boers were aware that the district was under Zulusway, and it was decided that the chief, Dingaan, should beinterviewed as to the approaching settlement of the Boers. The wilyZulu received his late enemies with every show of amity. He offeredthem refreshments, he made entertainments for their amusement. Hefinally agreed to cede such territory as was demanded by the Boers, provided they would secure to him certain cattle that had beenstolen from him by a chief named Sikonyela. This the Boers agreed todo. They promptly travelled to see Sikonyela, and by threats, persuasions, or other mysterious means, extracted from him hisill-gotten gains. With the restored cattle the whole party of Boersthen passed on their way from Drakensberg to Natal, full of the hopeof finally making a settlement in a region so well suited to theirpastoral instincts. On again visiting the chief Dingaan, they were again received withhonour. More festivities were arranged, and the date of the signingof the treaty was fixed for the 4th of February 1838. The day came. The burghers arrived in the customary picturesquenessof woollen shirts, round hats, rough coats, and leathernveldt-broeks. Dingaan, amiable to excess, insisted that they shouldaccompany him to his kraal, and there make a formal leave-taking. They were requested to leave their arms outside as an earnest ofgood faith, and, with some suspicion, they acceded. Their receptionwas splendid. Their health was drunk, the calabash passed round, andthen--then, at a given signal from the chief, the Zulu hordes rushedin, fully armed and raging. In less time than it takes to describethe deed, the defenceless company of Boer farmers were slaughteredin cold blood--slaughtered before they could lift even a fist inself-defence! This horrible act of treachery served to do away atone fell swoop with the whole Boer party. Their bones, piled in aheap without the kraal, alone remained to tell to their kindred thetale of their undoing. The Zulus then proceeded in their tens ofthousands to attack the nearest encampment, and cut down all whocame in their way. Men--women--children--they spared none. Thetidings being carried to the outer encampments of the Boers, theyprepared themselves for the worst. They and their gallant _vrows_, who fought with as cool and obstinate a courage as their husbands, resisted the onslaught staunchly and successfully; but they paiddearly for their boldness. Their cattle were demolished, and theirnumbers were miserably thinned. Some thought of retiring from Natal;some contemplated revenge. The pathetic state of the Boers attracted the sympathy of theEnglishmen then in Natal, and they joined hands. Potgieter and Uysthen commanded a force, and marched out on the enemy, butunfortunately fell into an ambush and were slain. Among the deadwere the commandant Uys and his son. Then the Englishmen, not to be behindhand in the fray, came to therescue. Though there were but seventeen of them, they went outaccompanied by 1500 Hottentots to meet the enemy. They followed theretreating savages beyond the Tugela, when suddenly they foundthemselves face to face with a fierce multitude of 70, 000 Zulus. Aconflict of the most terrible kind ensued: a conflict the moreterrible because at the same time so heroic and so hopeless. Fromthis appalling fight only four Englishmen escaped. These hadsucceeded in cutting their way through the enemy; the rest had beensurrounded, and died fighting valiantly, and were almost buriedamong the dead bodies of their antagonists. But this was not to be the finale of the Boer resistance to the wildZulu. The above tragic engagement between the Englishmen and Zulustook place in April 1838. By December of the same year they hadgathered themselves under the banner of their fine leader AndriesPretorius, a farmer from the district of Graff Reinet, and startedforth again to meet the treacherous Dingaan, and pay him the debtthey owed him. A word or two of this Pretorius, after whom the now notable town ofPretoria was named. He was a born leader of men: he was a Cromwellin his way. At that date he was forty years of age, in the prime ofstrength and manhood. He was tall, and vigorous in mind as well asin body, calm and deliberating in counsel, but prompt and fiery inaction. His descent is traced from one Johannes Pretorius, son of aclergyman at Goeree in South Holland, one of the very earlysettlers--a pious and worthy man, whose piety and worth had beeninherited by several generations. Like the rest of his countrymen, Pretorius would brook no control. Though he was indubitably braveand immensely capable, he had the conservative instincts of hisrace. He shrunk from all innovations, he disliked everythingconnected with civilisation that might in the smallest degreeinterfere with the personal liberty of the individual. Freedom wasas the very breath of his nostrils, and here was the great linkbetween this really exceptional man and the body of his pastoralfollowers. Pretorius, bent on the punishment of the treachery of Dingaan, setout, as has been said, with his expedition in the winter of 1838. This expedition has been named by the Boers the Win Commando. He hadbut three small pieces of cannon and a force composed of about fourhundred white men and some native auxiliaries, yet the admirabletactics of Pretorius, the stout hearts and fine shooting of hisfollowers, combined to bring about a victory over the Zulus. Thesewere totally routed, and lost one third of their number. The bravery and splendid persistence of the Boers filled all heartswith admiration, particularly when, after several well-directedattacks, they eventually succeeded in utterly breaking the Zulupower. Dingaan was dethroned and driven into exile, and his kraaland property burnt. A Christian burial service was read over theplace where lay the bones of the assassinated Retief and hiscompanions. The date, the 16th December 1838, on which the Zulupower met its first check from white men, is one ever remembered inBoer history. It goes by the name of Dingaan's Day, and is annuallycelebrated with great rejoicings throughout the Transvaal. The Boers had now succeeded in inspiring wholesome awe in the heartof Panda, the new chieftain who occupied the place once held by hisbrother, the exiled Dingaan. He was not a person of bellicosedisposition, and thinking discretion the better part of valour, wasready enough to swear to keep peace with his late enemies. In thesecircumstances the Boers with prayer and thanksgiving were able topursue the promptings of their long-checked ambition. Soon severalhundreds of waggons drawn by long teams of oxen came lumbering intoNatal, for the purpose of establishing there the Republic, which hadso often been planned out in imagination and never yet found any butan abortive existence. This ideal State was eventually formed andcalled the Republic of Natalia, and it enjoyed for several years anindependent existence. As Natal became the first cause of armed conflict between theBritish and the Boers, its then position in regard to theauthorities at the Cape may as well be reviewed. Though the newRepublic maintained its perfectly independent existence, itsinhabitants were still mentioned by the Governor of Cape Colony asBritish subjects. It must be remembered that prior to theoccupation of Natal by the Boers, and the formation of theircherished Republic, the Governor of Cape Colony had issued aproclamation announcing his intention of occupying Natal later on, and stating that the emigrants--who were then making activepreparations for the attack of Dingaan--- were British subjects. InGreat Britain, however, the authorities had not yet decided tofollow the advice so often given by their representatives at theCape. They were still declaring it inexpedient to extend theirterritory, and likewise their responsibilities, in South Africa. Butthe incursion of the Boers in the neighbourhood of Port Natal put anew complexion on affairs. The British Government began to open itseyes to the value of a seaport, with two good harbours on the SouthAfrican coast, as a colonial possession. It could not fail torecognise also that the members of the new State were already bitterfoes to the British and their ways; and that it would be dangerousto allow them to establish themselves as an independent power on thecoast, and entirely throw off their duty of allegiance. AccordinglySir George Napier, the then Governor of the Cape, sent troops tooccupy Natal. He remained undecided as to the mode of dealing withthe emigrant Boers, however, for, while declaring them Britishsubjects, he yet was not prepared to afford them protection fromattacks of the natives. It is scarcely surprising that thishalf-and-half paternity of the Government failed to satisfy the menwhose kith and kin had fallen in their numbers at Weenen and theHill of Blood, and the consequent disaffection of the Boers grewdeeper as signs of British authority increased. But at first, in the rest of their territory outside Natal the BoerGovernment remained unmolested. Their district was bounded by thesea and the Drakenberg mountains, the Tugela and Umzimubu Rivers, and there for a time things went well. Pretorius was CommandantGeneral in Natal, Potgieter Chief Commandant in the allied WesternDistricts. The legislative power was in the hands of a Volksraad oftwenty-four members, whose ways were more vacillating and erraticthan advantageous. "Every man for himself and God for all" seemed tobe the convenient motto of this assembly, except perhaps on urgentoccasions, when Pretorius and Potgieter were called upon as jointdictators to settle some knotty problem relating to externalaffairs. At the close of 1840 this Volksraad commenced negotiations with theCape Government with a view to getting their independence formallyrecognised. The Governor at the Cape was again in the old quandary. While he personally desired to put an end to troubles from withinand without by establishing a strong government over the wholecountry, he was crippled by the Ministry at home, which wasconsistent in maintaining its policy of inconsistency, and tried tomaintain its hold on the Cape, while steadily refusing to increaseGreat Britain's responsibility in South Africa. The demands of the Volksraad (presented in January 1841) werescarcely acceptable at headquarters. The nature of them isinteresting, and shows the then attitude of people who describedthemselves as "willing and desirous to enter into a perpetualalliance with the Government of Her Majesty. " They bargained that the Republic of Natalia was to be acknowledgedas a free and independent State, in close alliance with the BritishGovernment. If attacked by sea by any other power, Great Britainmight interpose either by negotiation or arms. If Great Britain wereat war, however, the Republic was to remain neutral. Wine, strongliquors, and articles "prejudicial to this Republic, " were to betaxed more highly than other things, which would be taxed as for aBritish Colony. British subjects residing in the Republic would haveequal protection, and the same taxes as burghers, while in case ofwar every assistance would be given to a British or Colonial forcemarching through the territory. The slave trade would not bepermitted, and every facility for the propagation of the Gospelamong the neighbouring tribes would be afforded. The Republicguaranteed to make no hostile movements against natives in thedirection of the Colony without permission of the Governor, unlesscircumstances of violence, or the inroad of tribes, renderedimmediate action obligatory. There were other clauses of less importance which need not bespecified. Suffice it to say, that while these terms were beingconsidered, a cattle and slave-stealing Boer raid, headed byPretorius, took place. The excuse for the proceeding was the liftingof certain of their own cattle, but the action served as an objectlesson for those in power at the Cape. The Volksraad was politelyinformed that the Boers were still British subjects, and a letterfrom the Home Government to Sir George Napier was received, statingthat Her Majesty "could not acknowledge a portion of her ownsubjects as an independent Republic, but that on their receiving amilitary force from the Colony, their trade would be placed on thefooting of the trade of a British possession. " But the Boers floutedauthority--they refused to accept the situation. They put forth aproclamation appealing against the oppression of man and to thejustice of God, with all the fervour of the Old Testament Christiansthey were. The arrogance of Pretorius and his crew had now so seriouslyincreased that Sir George Napier, seeing danger ahead, decided toestablish a camp near the border of the State, and Durban wasoccupied. Captain Smith, in command of some three hundred men, madea rapid march across country to Natal, merely to be informed thatthe Boers had placed themselves under the protection of Holland. It may be noted that when this statement reached the ears of theKing of Holland, he emphatically repudiated it. He addressed theBritish Government, saying "that the disloyal communication of theemigrant farmers had been repelled with indignation, and that theKing of Holland had taken every possible step to mark hisdisapproval of the unjustifiable use made of his name by theindividuals referred to. " Captain Smith, who fortunately had notbeen imposed upon by what the Boers considered their neat ruse, madepreparations to attack them. But he overestimated his own orunderrated his adversary's strength. He fell into ambush and lostheavily. He was then driven to entrench himself in Durban. One ofhis men managed to escape, however, and by riding to Grahamstownthrough dangerous country, contrived to convey the intelligence ofCaptain Smith's misfortune, and to bring reinforcements to his aid. These reinforcements arrived in Durban harbour on the 25th of June1842. At sight of the British frigate and the goodly display ofredcoats, the Boers, who had been besieging Captain Smith for amonth with three guns and six hundred men, made good their escape, leaving Pretorius no alternative but to make terms. Thus Natalbecame a British possession. In 1844 the place was declared to be a dependency of Cape Colony. Many of the emigrants admitted themselves to be British subjects andremained there, but the great majority took to their waggons andlumbered back across the Drakenberg to their old settling-place. There the original Voortrekkers had scattered themselves on bothsides of the Vaal River, and helped to found the Transvaal and theOrange Free State. As may be imagined at this juncture, the naturalhostility to the British, which has now become part of the Boercharacter, was growing apace. The voluntary exiles from Natal, onmoving to the north of the Orange River, determined to evade theBritish, and proclaim the whole of that locality an independentRepublic. The authorities at the Cape, however, frustrated the newstruggle for independence. They laid claim for Great Britain to thewhole territory east of E. Long. 22° and south of S. Lat. 25°, withthe exception of the land already owned by Portugal or by friendlynative chiefs. [Illustration: CAPE TOWN, DEVIL'S PEAK, TABLE MOUNTAIN, AND LION'SHEAD FROM TABLE BAY. Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen] It may be remembered that one of the causes of the great Trek wasthe restoration of their province to Kaffirs, thereby accordingto the blacks an independence that was not enjoyed by the Boers. No astonishment, therefore, will be felt at the exasperation of theBoers when they found that the Cape Government had entered intotreaties with the Griquas--treaties which seemed to them to promisemore freedom to the savage than was accorded to themselves. Grievances of many kinds--some real and some ridiculous--continueddaily to occur. Things serious and things trivial were liable tocause them equal indignation. According to Livingstone, the ignorantfollowers of Potgieter--who were posted at Magaliesberg, a thousandmiles from the Cape--were moved to wrath merely by the arrival ofHerschel's great telescope at the Cape Observatory! What right, saidthey, had the Government to erect that huge instrument at the Capefor the purpose of seeing what they were doing behind the Kashanmountains? But of just grievances they had several, and these Pretorius, asspokesman of his people, wished to lay before the Governor at theCape. Sir Henry Pottinger, who occupied that post in 1847, unfortunately declined the interview; consequently affairs went frombad to worse. In the end of the year Sir Henry Smith arrived asGovernor of the colony, and great things were expected of him. Heknew the native races, he knew the Boers, and they both knew him. Pretorius, who was arranging a final emigration from Natal, wassummoned to confer with the new Governor. Sir Henry wished to gaugethe feelings of the farmers prior to issuing a proclamation (datedFebruary 3, 1848), declaring the Queen's sovereignty over the wholecountry between the Orange and Vaal Rivers to eastward of theQuathlamba Mountains. According to Pretorius, the conference was anunsatisfactory one. He assured the Governor that his people wouldnever consent to it. Sir Henry Smith nevertheless considered himselfjustified in taking the step, and the Home Government, whose policyit had been to consolidate the peaceful native States along theborder, eventually coincided with his view. No sooner was the proclamation generally known than the horde ofPretorius' followers flew to arms. They swept southward, drivingevery British official beyond the Orange River. Major Warden, theResident at Bloemfontein, where a British fort and garrison had beenplaced some two years before, was forced to capitulate. Sir Harry Smith, on becoming acquainted with the news, at onceoffered a thousand pounds for the arrest of Pretorius. He also begana march to the front. The Governor thought that he had but to come, see, and conquer; but he was mistaken. He had tough work before him. The Boers, about a thousand strong, had entrenched themselves in aformidable position. They were superior in point of numbers, horses, and guns to Sir Harry's forces; but he pursued his way, nothingdaunted. He stormed the position, and, after a hard fight, scatteredthe enemy. They fled from Boomplaats, where the engagement had takenplace, and hastened back across the Vaal to their native haunts. Thedate of the battle was the 29th of August 1848, and the father ofPresident Kruger is said to have been the first man to fire a shotat the British on that occasion! After this period various dissensions arose in the Boer camp betweenPretorius, who styled himself "Chief of the whole united emigrantforce, " and Potgieter, who looked upon himself somewhat in the lightof a rival. While these worthies fell out Sir Harry Smith saw theannexation carried through, and the territory of the modern FreeState was united to Cape Colony, under the title of the Orange RiverSovereignty. The contumacious Boers took themselves off with theirleader across the Vaal, and fresh European settlers came in andestablished themselves in the fertile plains that were deserted. Forsome time after this things prospered, and Sir Harry saw before himthe prospect of a new self-governing Dutch colony, which wouldresemble and equal those of Natal and the Cape. But he reckonedwithout his host, and all that he had taken the trouble to do wasultimately undone. In 1852 the Government at home declared itspolicy to be the ultimate abandonment of the Orange RiverSovereignty. For this pusillanimous policy there were severalreasons, the greatest being a fear of a Basuto rising and thetrouble it would entail. The British Government therefore decided tomaintain its rights over the Transvaal no further, and by the SandRiver Convention, signed on the 17th of January 1852, the emigrantfarmers beyond the Vaal River were given the right to manage theirown affairs, subject only to the condition that they should neitherpermit nor encourage slavery. About this time commenced the threatened rise of the Basutos in theneighbourhood of the Orange River territory. The Basutos are abranch of the Bechuana race, who had been formed by their chiefsMotlume and Moshesh into a powerful nation, which could hold its ownagainst Boer or Zulu. With this race the Home Government desired tohave nothing to do, and the Colonial Office, viewing the politicalgame as not worth the candle, definitely withdrew from the OrangeRiver Sovereignty, leaving the Free State to come into being, anddevise its own plans for overawing its enemies on the other side ofthe border. Accordingly, in 1854, Sir Harry Smith's programme ofannexation was entirely wiped out, British sovereignty renounced, and the Orange Free State left to become a Republic and take care ofitself! CHAPTER I THE GROWTH OF THE TRANSVAAL Fifty years ago there was no Transvaal. To-day its area is ratherlarger than Great Britain. It extends over some 75, 000, 000 acres. Originally, at the time of the great Trek, a small portion of landwas seized from natives who fled before the pioneers, and settled inwhat is now known as Matabeleland. Other Boers soon joined theircomrades, and, by applying the steady policy of "grab and hold" (apolicy that, unfortunately, has not been imitated by ourselves), they gained strip on strip and acre on acre of land till theTransvaal became the vast province it now is. It expanded first intoa portion of Zululand; later on, lapped over into Swaziland. Bydegrees it encroached on the British boundaries, and most probablywould have gone on encroaching had not active steps been taken tosave the north from the invaders. The original _Voertrekkers_, or pioneers, came in three detachments. British-born subjects, but discontented with British civilisation, they moved on from Natal, whence they were chased by the Union Jack, and settled themselves first in land captured from King Umziligatze, secondly in Lydenburg and Dekaap, and thirdly in the Zulu country. The history of this Zululand expansion remains to be told. Atpresent it is interesting to follow the geographical growth of thestate which has become so troublesome, and whose self-assertion hasincreased according to its size. Originally each Boer was entitled to a farm with a minimum of 6000acres of the "Transvaal, " and this custom of apportioning 6000-acrefarms lasted as long as the Kaffir lands lasted. The Boers, alwaysworking on the principle that "God helps those who help themselves, "helped themselves freely, sometimes with bloodshed and sometimeswithout, until they became owners of vast tracts of country, whoseboundaries had never been discussed, far less fixed. Land was apparently cheap at that time, for trustworthy authoritiesdeclare that it was purchasable at from a farthing to a penny peracre. The area of the Transvaal before the Boers began to migrate therehas been eloquently described as the hunter's Arcadia. Mr. GordonCumming gives a graphic account of the scene:-- "It was truly a fair and boundless prospect. Beautifully woodedplains and mountains stretched away on every side to an amazingdistance, until the vision was lost among the faint blue outlines ofthe distant mountain ranges. Throughout all this country, and vasttracts beyond, I had the satisfaction to reflect that a never-endingsuccession of herds of every species of noble game which the hunterneed desire pastured there in undisturbed security; and as I gazed Ifelt that it was all my own, and that I at length possessed theundisputed sway over a forest, in comparison with which the tame andherded narrow bounds of the wealthiest European sportsman sink intoutter insignificance. " The number of elephants and lesser game bagged by Mr. Gordon Cummingafter this touching meditation fully bore out his hopes. But the most interesting account of the Transvaal, before theinvasion of white men, is to be found in Captain William CornwallisHarris's account of his expedition into the interior of South Africain the years 1836 and 1837. He paints the new country in colourslively and alluring:-- "Instead of the dreary waste over which we had lately passed, wemight now imagine ourselves in an extensive park. A lawn, level as abilliard-table, was everywhere spread with a soft carpet ofluxuriant green grass, spangled with flowers, and shaded byspreading _mokaalas_--a large species of acacia which forms thefavourite food of the giraffe. The gaudy yellow blossoms with whichthese remarkable trees were covered yielded an aromatic andoverpowering perfume--while small troops of striped quaggas, or wildasses, and of brindled gnoos ... Enlivened the scene. "I turned off the road, " he continues, "in pursuit of a troop ofbrindled gnoos, and presently came upon another, which was followedby a third still larger--then by a vast herd of zebras, and again bymore gnoos, with sassaybys and hartebeests pouring down from everyquarter, until the landscape literally presented the appearance of amoving mass of game. " Further on he describes the extensive and romantic valley of theLimpopo, "which strongly contrasts with its own solitude, and withthe arid lands which must be traversed to arrive within its limits;Dame Nature has doubtless been unusually lavish of her gifts. A boldmountain landscape is chequered by innumerable rivulets abounding infish, and watering a soil rich in luxurious vegetation. Forests, producing timber of the finest growth, are tenanted by a multitudeof birds, which, if not generally musical, are all gorgeouslyattired; and the meadows throughout are decked with blossominggeraniums, and with an endless profusion of the gayest flowers, fancifully distributed in almost artificial _parterres_. Let theforeground of this picture, which is by no means extravagantlydrawn, be filled in by the animal creation roaming in a state ofundisturbed freedom, such as I have attempted to describe, and thishunter's paradise will surely not require to be coloured by thefeelings of an enthusiastic sportsman to stand out in strikingrelief from amongst the loveliest spots in the universe. " A recent traveller discourses pathetically over the changes thathave come over the country, which at that time was described as "theZoological Gardens turned out to graze. " He says the lawyer andfinancier thrive where in recent years the lion and the leopardfought for food, and townships have sprung up on spots where livingBoers have formerly shot big game. As an instance of the truth of this lament, one may make somequotations from Mr. Campbell's valuable article, "The Transvaal, Oldand New. " He says, "The advent of British folk and British gold andbrains led to a change, and land, by reason of British purchases, became more valuable, and beacons and boundaries became necessary. "Here we may see the thin end of the wedge. We may picture the firstlawyer and the first financier advancing with Arcadia parchment andbank-note in hand. The Boers steadily sold their best and surplus lands, and these theBritish as steadily bought, till the value rose from their originalprice of one penny an acre to half-a-crown, and then five shillings. Subsequently, in many cases, as much as ten, and even twentyshillings an acre was offered for ordinary raw arable land. But ofthat time too much has to be said to be recounted here. THE BOER CHARACTER In discussing the events of the past with a view to obtaining lighton the development of the present, it is needful, and indeed just, to inquire into the character of the Boers as a race. It is acomplex character, with multitudinous lights and shades, so subtleand yet so marked, that they are difficult to define accurately. Itis therefore necessary that the opinions of many writers on thesubject of the Boer temperament should be taken--of writers who havemade it their business to look upon the subject with the eye of thehistorian rather than the eye of the advocate, and who may betrusted to have given their verdict without passion or favour. But regarding one fact connected with the case, all writers ofpractical experience are inclined to agree. They declare that theBoer of the past was a very much finer fellow than the Boer of thepresent--finer morally and physically; and that in his obstinatedetermination to resist the march of progress he has allowed himselfto suffer deterioration. The reason for this deterioration is notdifficult to comprehend. In the first place, as we all know, nothingin creation stands still. We must advance, or we go back. Both inmoral and in mental qualities we must maintain our vitality, orpractically ossify! The Boer, from having been essentially a sporting man and a free anda robust tiller of the soil, has come under the influence ofschemers, who have played upon his natural avarice, and polished hisinherent cunning, till these qualities have expanded to thedetriment of those earlier qualities for which the Boer of to-daystill gets credit, but which are fast dying out of the nationalcharacter. In one respect there has been little change. In the matter of hisnative piety he remains as he was. The Boer, if one may use a phraserecently coined by Lord Rosebery, is an "Old Testament Christian. "No one can describe his race better than the writer who says of theoriginal settlers in 1652, that "they are a mixture in religion ofthe old Israelite and the Scotch Covenanter. " There is some questionabout Boer hypocrisy, and Dr. Theal says on the subject, "Where sideby side with expressions of gratitude to the Creator are foundschemes for robbing and enslaving natives, the genuineness of theirreligion may be doubted. " But it must be remembered that in bygonecenturies the world's morality differed much from that of thepresent day, and therefore the Boer, who has not progressed inproportion to the world at large, can scarcely be judged by theethics of the world at large. To be just, we must look at him as abeing apart, and place him always in the frame of the seventeenthcentury. Some historians declare that the Boer borrowed from theFrench refugees much religious sentiment. Other authorities--andthese, considering the Boer disinclination to expansion, seem to beright--declare that under the French influence he deteriorated. [Illustration: COLONEL of the 10th HUSSARS. (H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. ) Photo by Gregory & Co. , London. ] He was by nature bloodthirsty and cruel, but these qualities alwaysfound for themselves a comfortable apology in the Old Testament. TheBoer prided himself on his likeness to the Israelite of old, and hisenemies to the Canaanite, whom it was doing God a service todestroy. He kept all the rites of the Church with rigid punctuality. He partook of the Communion (the Nachtmaal) once every three months, and the whole community gathered together from great distances toshare it. The observances were made the occasion for rejoicing andmerrymaking, for the holding of fairs, the transfer of cattle, the driving of bargains in hide or ivory, or other goods necessaryto traders. He has been described by a friend of his people "as, according to his own lights, a citizen pioneer, a rough, God-fearing, honest, homely, uneducated Philistine. " The opinion of his ancient enemy, Cetchwayo, differs, however, fromthis estimate. Sir Frederick Godson has told us that this potentateinformed his brother, who was his captor, that the Boers were "amean, treacherous people, people who trusted no one, not even eachother, and their word was not to be trusted. " He had had ampleopportunities of forming a judgment by experience. And there aremany of us nowadays who are inclined to agree with him. Cetchwayofurther asserted that "the British were making the greatest mistakethey ever made in befriending them; for if they had not rescued theBoers from him, he would very soon have eaten them all up. " As regards the military organisation of the Boers, it may bedescribed as similar to that of the Republic of Greece or that ofmediĉval England. Every man, from the age of sixteen to sixty, considered himself a soldier. Every man, when the country demandedhis services, was ready to get under arms--to protect his hearth andhome in the face of a common enemy. The country was divided into districts, and these districts weresubdivided into wards. To each of these wards was appointed afield-cornet, who had military duties when a commando was calledout. The officer who took the chief command of the field-cornets wasstyled the commandant. This arrangement first originated in theearly days of their emigration to the Cape, when the natives, lawless and inimical, were perpetually bursting out without rhyme orreason. Naturally prompt defence became necessary. To many peoplethe Boer appears to be a "first-class fighting man. " Certainly he isdetermined, obstinate, and, in his peculiar fashion, brave. Butthere are others who can recall events in the battle with Dingaan, in the tragedy of Majuba Hill, which scarcely add to the honour ofthe Boer as a soldier. It has been said that the Boer prefers to dohis fighting without risking his skin, but this may be somewhatunjust. He is ready enough to risk his skin, but he is equally readythat some one shall pay for the risk, and he makes him pay by fairmeans if he can--if not, by foul. However, Livingstone knew his man, and thus it was that he wrote ofhim: "The Boers have generally manifested a marked antipathy toanything but 'long shot' warfare, and sidling away in theiremigrations towards the more effeminate Bechuanas, have left theirquarrels with the Kaffirs to be settled by the English, and theirwars to be paid for by English gold. " Obviously their methods ofwarfare were, to say the least of it, curious. Sometimes they woulddrive a battalion of friendly natives or slaves in front of them, and shoot down their enemies from behind the shelter of theseadvanced guards. Occasionally they employed a method similar to thatused against the Zulus of Dingaan. According to Livingstone's essay, written in 1853, and not published till after his death, "the Boersapproach the Zulus to within 300 or 400 yards, then fire, and retireto a considerable distance and reload their guns. The Zulus pursuinghave by this time come sufficiently near to receive anotherdischarge from the Boers, who again retire as before. This processsoon tires out the fleetest warriors, and except through anaccident, or the stumbling of a horse or its rider's drunkenness, noBoer ever stands a chance of falling into their hands. The Boersreport of themselves that they behaved with great bravery on theoccasion. " In fact they said that they had killed from 3000 to 5000Zulus, with the loss to themselves of only six men. Mr. Fisher, inhis book on "The Transvaal and the Boers, " avers that in thesubsequent war with the Griquas--who, being the bastard children ofthe Boers, possess many of their peculiarities--the two opposingparties kept at such ludicrous distances that the springboks quietlygrazing on the plains between were frequently shot instead of thecombatants. SOME DOMESTIC TRAITS For the domestic character of the Boer we will consult theScandinavian traveller Sparrmann, who gives us one of the earliestsketches of the Boer "at home. " Though the illusion that theindustrious and cleanly Hollander was merely transplanted from onesoil to another is somewhat dispelled, the picture is generallyacknowledged to be a true one. "It is hardly to be conceived, " he wrote in 1776, "with what littletrouble the Boer gets into order a field of a moderate size ... Sothat ... He may be almost said to make the cultivation of it, forthe bread he stands in need of for himself and his family, a merematter of amusement.... With pleasure, but without the least troubleto himself, he sees the herds and flocks which constitute his richesdaily and considerably increasing. These are driven to pasture andhome again by a few Hottentots or slaves, who likewise make thebutter; so that it is almost only with the milking that the farmer, together with his wife and children, concern themselves at all. Todo this business, however, he has no occasion to rise before sevenor eight o'clock in the morning.... That they (the Boers) might notput their arms and bodies out of the easy and commodious posture inwhich they had laid them on the couch when they were taking theirafternoon _siesta_, they have been known to receive travellers lyingquite still and motionless, excepting that they have very civillypointed out the road by moving their foot to the right or left.... Among a set of beings so devoted to their ease, one might naturallyexpect to meet with a variety of the most commodious easy-chairs andsofas; but the truth is, that they find it much more commodious toavoid the trouble of inventing and making them.... Nor did theinhabitants exhibit much less simplicity and moderation; or, tospeak more properly, slovenliness and penury in their dress than intheir furniture.... The distance at which they are from the Capemay, indeed, be some excuse for their having no other earthenware orchina in their houses but what was cracked or broken; but this, methinks, should not prevent them being in possession of more thanone or two old pewter pots, and some few plates of the same metal;so that two people are frequently obliged to eat out of one dish, besides using it for every different article of food that comes uponthe table. Each guest must bring his knife with him, and for forksthey frequently make use of their fingers. The most wealthy farmerhere is considered as being well dressed in a jacket of home-madecloth, or something of the kind made of any other coarse cloth, breeches of undressed leather, woollen stockings, a stripedwaistcoat, a cotton handkerchief about his neck, a coarse calicoshirt, Hottentot field-shoes, or else leathern shoes with brassbuckles, and a coarse hat. Indeed, it is not in dress, but in thenumber and thriving condition of their cattle, and chiefly in thestoutness of their draught oxen, that these peasants vie with eachother. It is likewise by activity and manly actions, and by otherqualities that render a man fit for the married state, and therearing of a family, that the youth chiefly obtain the esteem of thefair sex.... A plain close cap and a coarse cotton gown, virtue andgood housewifery, are looked upon by the fair sex as sufficientornaments for their persons; a flirting disposition, coquetry andpaint would have very little effect in making conquests of young menbrought up in so hardy a manner, and who have had so homely andartless an education as the youth in this place. In short, here, ifanywhere in the world, one may lead an innocent, virtuous, and happylife. " When viewing this study of rustic indolence, we must remember alsothe conditions under which it was found. The natural fertility ofthe country, the demoralising influence of slave-owning, the greatheat of the climate, were responsible for the change that so sooncame over the primitive Dutch character. Dr. Theal's account of theBoer adds colour to the picture given by the Swede, and shows usthat a certain sense of refinement was lurking in the stolid andnot too picturesque disposition:-- "The amusements of the people were few.... Those who possessednumerous slaves usually had three or four of them trained to the useof the violin, the blacks being peculiarly gifted with an ear formusic, and easily learning to play by sound. They had thus the meansat hand of amusing themselves with dancing, and of entertainingvisitors with music. The branches of widely extended families wereconstantly exchanging visits with each other. A farmer would makehis waggon ready regularly every year, when half the household ormore would leave home, and spend a week or two with each relative, often being absent a couple of months. Birthday anniversaries ofaged people were celebrated by the assembling of their descendants, frequently to the number of eighty or a hundred, at the residence ofthe patriarch, when a feast was prepared for their entertainment. These different reunions were naturally productive of greatpleasure, and tended to cement the friendship and love of those whootherwise might seldom see each other. The life led by the peoplewhen at home was exceedingly tame. The mistress of the house, whomoved about but little, issued orders to slaves or Hottentot femalesconcerning the work of the household. If the weather was chilly ordamp, she rested her feet on a little box filled with live coals, while beside her stood a coffee-kettle never empty. The head of thefamily usually inspected his flocks morning and evening, and passedthe remainder of the day, like his helpmate, in the enjoyment ofease. When repose itself became wearisome, he mounted his horse, and, with an attendant to carry his gun, set off in pursuit of someof the wild animals with which the country then abounded. Thechildren had few games, and, though strong and healthy, were farfrom sprightly. " [Illustration: A KAFFIR KRAAL IN THE TRANSVAAL. Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen. ] A dislike for the English seems to have been felt by the Cape Dutchvery early. This dislike later hostilities must have heightened; butas far back as 1816 we learn that even shrewd and sensible farmerswere heard to declaim against our methods of scientific agriculture, and resist all efforts at its introduction into their work. One ofthem, when informed of the saving of time and labour that certainimplements would effect, answered with characteristic conservatism. "What, " said he, "would you have us do? Our only concern is to fillour bellies, to get good clothes and houses, to say to one slave, 'Do this, ' and to another, 'Do that, ' and to sit idle ourselves andbe waited upon. As to our tillage, or building, or planting, ourforefathers did so and so and were satisfied, and why should not wedo the same? The English want us to use their ploughs instead of ourheavy wooden ones, and recommend other implements of husbandrythan those we have been used to; but we like our old things best. " This preference for the old instead of the new has been the rock onwhich friendship between Briton and Boer has split. All ideas ofreform have been met with suspicion--a kind of suspicion that, though now confined to the Boers, was very prevalent in Europe ahundred years ago. The present writer in extreme youth met here, inadvanced England, a grandam of ninety (the mother of a verydistinguished politician), who stated that she could "never make afriend of a man who took a bath. " It will be seen by this howprejudice may become a matter of habit all the world over. Mr. Nixon tells a story of an equally conservative Boer. This worthywent to a store at Kimberley with bundles of tobacco for sale. TheBoer carefully weighed them out with some scales of his own thatwere evidently an heirloom. The storekeeper reweighed the bundles, remarking on the antiquity of the scales, and observing that theygave short weight. He suggested the use of the store scales as thestandard for computing the price, which was to be fixed at so much apound. But the Boer would not hear of it. "No, " said he, "these weremy father's scales, and he was a wise man and was never cheated, andI won't use anybody else's. " The storekeeper dryly remarked that hedid not desire to press the matter, since he found himself a gainerby £12 in consequence of the Boer's conservative instincts! Many writers urge that the Boer is naturally uncivil, that he lacksthe true feeling of hospitality. The original Boer, before he wasseized with a hatred for the British, was more justly speakinglacking in civility than what we term uncivil. He knew nothing ofthe art of being obliging to his fellow-creatures, merely becausethey were his fellow-creatures. He would entertain a stranger, andask nothing in return, but he would do so without courtesy, andwould put himself out of the way for no one. The traveller mighttake him or leave him, conform to his hours and habits entirely, and, to use the vulgar phrase, "like them or lump them" as histemperament might decide. "Africanus, " who, in his book on "TheTransvaal Boers, " writes of them with judgment and withoutprejudice, gives a very true sketch, which exactly describes thestrange blend of piety, indolence, ignorance, and ferocity which weare endeavouring to study. He says-- "The Dutch farmer is in some respects very unlike his supposedcounterpart in England. His pursuits are pastoral, not agricultural, for in most parts of South Africa the want of irrigation renders thecultivation of cereals impossible. His idea of a 'farm' is a tractof at least 6000 acres, over which his flocks and herds can movefrom one pasture to another. His labourers are all natives, andthough, before the advent of storekeepers, he used often to make hisown clothes, boots (veld-schoen), and harness, he looks on actualfarm-work as a menial pursuit. He was, and is, wont to pass wholedays in the saddle, but, to an English eye, his horses seem unkemptand often ill-used. The magnificent herds of game which wanderedover South Africa sixty years ago tempted him to become a keensportsman, but he has never shown much 'sporting instinct, ' and theBoer is responsible for the wanton destruction of the African fauna. The unsophisticated Boer is a curious blend of hospitality andavarice; he would welcome the passing stranger, and entertain him tothe best of his ability, but he seized any opportunity of makingmoney, and the discovery that hides and skins were marketableinduced him to slaughter antelopes without the slightestforethought. That the Boer is no longer hospitable is very largelydue to the way in which his hospitality has been abused by straypedlars and ne'er-do-wells of various kinds. He still retains asincere and primitive piety, but his belief that he is a member ofthe chosen people has sometimes tended to antinomianism rather thanto strict morality. His contempt and dislike for the Kaffir haspreserved the Dutch stock from taint of black blood, and althoughthere is a large Eur-African population, it has sprung partly fromthe old days of domestic slavery, partly from the laxity induced bythe recent influx of low-class Europeans. The Boer has a strongnational feeling, and although not exactly daring as a rule, he isperfectly ready to risk his life in what he believes to be a goodcause. He fights better behind cover than in the open, and has aprofound contempt for soldiers who expose themselves unnecessarily. At the same time, he is capable at times of embarking on a forlornhope. As regards his private character, his notions of honesty andof truth are lax. But then, from bitter experience, he assumes thatthe stranger will try to cheat him, and it is not surprising that heshould consider a certain amount of _finesse_ justifiable. He iscomparatively free from that drunkenness which is the besetting viceof the low-class Englishman in Africa. "Although he is incredibly ignorant, and very self-satisfied, it issomewhat irritating to notice the way in which the town-bredEnglishman is apt to depreciate him. It is not so certain as thelatter thinks that an ignorant peasant is necessarily a lower typeof man than a 'smart' and vicious shop-boy. "The most unpleasing trait in the Boer character is his callousness, amounting to brutality, in the case of natives and of animals. " It must always be remembered that in discussing the early Boer weare discussing the peasant, and that neither his ignorance nor othershortcomings must be viewed in comparison with the failings ofpersons of a higher social grade. When the Boers left the CapeColony they had no knowledge of what the word education meant. Thestate of public education in 1837 was deplorable. There weremissionary schools and a few desultory teachers, who had in very fewcases the mental or the moral qualities to fit them for the task ofinstruction. The most they did was to teach the young idea how toread or scribble its name. For this they received trifling fees, butdoubtless these fees were no more trifling than the servicesrendered. Such free schools as existed, and were nominally supportedby Government, were so indifferently managed that they were treatedwith contempt, even by the farmers. So long as they could thumb outtheir favourite passages of the Psalms, and sign what few documentsthey required, they were content. Of their ignorance they were eveninclined to be proud. Their own notions of geography and historyseemed to them infinitely preferable to any that might be offered, and in this state of blissful ignorance they trekked away from CapeColony to learn no more. When they started forth, some, it isaverred, imagined by steadily working north they would reachJerusalem; others, covered with faith, and armed with gospel andsjambok, sincerely believed that eventually they would reach thePromised Land. CHAPTER II THE ORANGE FREE STATE The young State, almost before it was fledged, found itself engagedin military operations with the Basutos, and an arbitrator nominatedby the British Government was appointed. But the good offices of thecommissioner were to no purpose; despite the defining of boundariesand the laying down of landmarks, the natives broke out afresh. Anengagement followed, and the Basutos were defeated. As aconsequence, a large tract of land (the conquered territory) wasannexed by the Free State, yet even this was insufficient to quellthe fury of the farmer's inveterate foes, and later on they brokeout afresh, only to be again overthrown. In the year 1861 theyappealed for help to the Governor of the Cape and were declaredBritish subjects. It was then that a definite boundary line betweenBasutoland and the Orange Free State was laid down. The populationof Basutoland is estimated at about 130, 000. The people are bynature warlike and energetic. Some authorities declare them to bethe most intelligent of the Kaffir tribes. They are a branch of theBechuana race who were formed by their chiefs, Motlune and Moshesh, and held their country--the Switzerland of South Africa--againstboth Zulu and Boer. This aggressive and ferocious tribe was devotedto plunder, and remained well-nigh exempt from punishment inconsequence of its mountain fastnesses, which were almostimpregnable. The Basutos formed a continual menace to the Boers ofthe Free State until Great Britain assumed their direct control in1884. It is now governed by a Resident Commissioner under the HighCommissioner for South Africa. It is divided into seven districts, and subdivided into wards, presided over by hereditary chiefs alliedto the Moshesh family. Laws are made by proclamation of the HighCommissioner, and administered by native chiefs. Europeans are notallowed to settle there. But to return to 1854. The relations between the two Boer Statessoon became strained. Jealousy commenced and continued to simmer. Then the Boers, alarmed lest the Government would again follow themup, and lest their treatment of the natives should be investigatedand stopped, began to discourage the presence of visitors across theVaal. Of course missionaries were the most unwelcome of all. With the terms of the Sand River Convention they had soon becomeimpatient, and to help to an understanding of this impatience someof the Articles of the Convention may be quoted:-- _Article 1. _--"The Assistant-Commissioners guarantee in the fullestmanner on the part of the British Government to the emigrant farmersbeyond the Vaal River the right to manage their own affairs, and togovern themselves according to their own laws, without anyinterference on the part of the British Government, and that noencroachment shall be made by the said Government on the territorybeyond, to the north of the Vaal River; with the further assurancethat the warmest wish of the British Government is to promote peace, free trade, and friendly intercourse with the emigrant farmers nowinhabiting, or who hereafter may inhabit that country, it beingunderstood that this system of non-interference is binding upon bothparties. " _Article 2_ arranges, in case of misunderstanding, for a subsequentdelimitation of boundaries. _Article 3. _--"Her Majesty's Assistant-Commissioners hereby disclaimall alliances whatever, and with whomsoever of the coloured nations, to the north of the Vaal River. " _Article 4. _--"It is agreed that no slavery is or shall be permittedor practised in the country to the north of the Vaal River by theemigrant farmers. " _Article 5_ provides for mutual facilities and liberty to tradersand travellers on both sides of the Vaal River. _Article 6_ allows the "emigrant Boers" to obtain ammunition inBritish colonies and possessions, "it being mutually understood thatall trade in ammunition with the native tribes is prohibited both bythe British Government and the emigrant farmers on both sides of theVaal River. " _Article 7_ stipulates for the mutual extradition, "as far aspossible, " of criminals, and mutual access to courts of justice. _Article 8_ validates, for purposes of inheritance in Britishpossessions, certificates of marriage issued by the properauthorities of the emigrant farmers. _Article 9_ allows free movement of all persons, except criminalsand absconding debtors, between the British and the Boerterritories. As we see, the Convention had declared that slavery would not bepractised in the Transvaal, but though the original declaration mayhave been made in all good faith, the Boer by degrees, and after thelapse of years, found it expedient to acquire native "apprentices, "who could not change master nor task without permission. They beganto fear that these natives could not be dealt with, as they were inthe habit of dealing with them, without fear of comment from suchBritish visitors as came across them; and they therefore attemptedto block up the path of travellers, refusing them a passage throughthe Republic, and in some instances ordering the expulsion ofvisitors across the Vaal. About this time one of the most gruesomeof all the many massacres in which the Boers were concerned tookplace. One Potgieter (not the Potgieter who was the rival ofPretorius), in charge of a small party of thirty men, women, andchildren, went forth to barter ivory unlawfully with Makapau, aKaffir chief. The Kaffirs, owing the Boers a grudge for many a day, pounced on the whole party, leaving not one behind to give anaccount of the awful tragedy. The chief Potgieter was flayed alive, and his skin made into a kaross or cloak. The Boers were swift torevenge. President Pretorius, with an army of some four hundred, sethimself to track down the assassins. The Kaffirs fled at theapproach of the enemy, enclosing themselves in a huge cave, wherethey hoped to escape detection. This cave was blockaded by theBoers. Here the unhappy blacks went through all the horrors offamine and thirst, and when their agony became unbearable, and theysallied forth in desperation in search of water, they wereremorselessly shot down one by one. Nine hundred in all were killedoutside the cave. Within was more than double that number who hadperished in the frightful agonies of starvation. President Krugerhimself was a witness of the terrible scene, and took an activeshare in his countrymen's revenge. And this was not the first northe last time in which he figured conspicuously in the bloodyrecords of his country's history. It was only on the occasion of theJameson Raid that Oom Paul awakened to sentimental qualms regardingthe spilling of blood. [Illustration: BLOEMFONTEIN FROM THE SOUTH. Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen. ] THE GRONDWET To thoroughly grasp the methods of the New South African Republic, it may be interesting to study some of "the Articles" of a Grondwetor Constitution, which superseded those originally adopted by thePotchefstroom Raad. The Grondwet was started in 1857, and was framedentirely to suit the then condition of the Boer community. Theordinary idea of a written constitution was at that time unknown, and the meaning of such words as "rigid" or "elastic" was, ofcourse, beyond their comprehension. These only developed asignificance when the judicial crisis of 1897 put a fresh face onRepublican affairs. _Article 4_ states that "the people desire no extension ofterritory, except only on principles of justice, whenever theinterests of the Republic render it advisable. " _Article 6. _--"Its territory is open to every stranger who submitshimself to the laws of the Republic; all persons who happen to bewithin the territory of this Republic have equal claim to protectionof person and property. " _Article 8. _--"The people claim as much social freedom as possible(_de meest mogelyke maatschappelyke vryheid_), and expect to attainit by upholding their religion, fulfilling their obligations, submitting to law, order, and justice, and maintaining the same. Thepeople permit the spread of the Gospel among the heathen, subject toprescribed provisions against the practice of fraud and deception. " _Article 9. _--"The people will not allow of any equality betweencoloured and white inhabitants, either in Church or in State. " _Article 10. _--"The people will not brook any dealing in slaves orslavery in this Republic (_will geen slavenhandel, noch slaverny indeze Republick dulden_). " Before passing on to other sections, Article 10 calls for attention. In spite of its terms, the Boers of that period had a practice whichmight be described as sailing very near the wind. The "apprenticeship"of children taken prisoners in the native wars was uncommonly likeslave-owning. They were called "orphans"--sometimes they had been madeorphans by the conquerors--and they were then "apprenticed" to theBoer farmers till grown up. Though opinions differ on this point, ithas been asserted by those who know that there was a curious system of"transfer" connected with these so-called apprentices, and that evenwhen grown they seldom gained their liberty save by escape. Further articles entrust legislation to a Volksraad chosen by voteof the burghers, providing at the same time that the people shall beallowed three months' grace for intimating to the Raad their viewson any prospective law, "those laws, however, which admit of nodelay excepted. " Others constitute an Executive Council, "whichshall also recommend to the Raad all officers for the publicservice"; others refer to the liberty of the press; restrictmembership of the Volksraad to members of the Dutch ReformedCongregations; state that "the people do not desire to allow amongstthem any Roman Catholic Churches, nor any other Protestant Churchesexcept those in which such tenets of the Christian belief are taughtas are prescribed in the Heidelberg Catechism"; and give theVolksraad the power of making treaties, save in time of war or ofimminent danger. The members of the Raad were to be twelve in number at least, andwere to be between the ages of thirty and sixty. They must beburghers of the Dutch Reformed Church, residents, and owners oflanded property in the Republic; no native nor bastard was to beadmitted to the Raad. At the age of twenty-one every burgher, provided he belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, was entitled tothe franchise. The election of the President to a five years' termof office was in the hands of the burghers, and in this office hewas to be supported by an Executive Council consisting of theCommandant-General, two burghers qualified to vote, and a Secretary. All the able-bodied men of the Republic, and if necessary natives, were liable to military service. No sooner was the Grondwet arranged than Marthinus WesselsPretorius, the son of the chief Andries Pretorius, --who died in1853--was elected President of the South African Republic. The nextfew years were spent in internal dissension, consequent on theambition of the President and the jealousy of his political rivals. Finally Lydenburg, which had struggled to proclaim itself anindependent Republic, yielded, and affairs relating to thegovernment of the country seemed to be mending. Still there werealways Messrs. Kruger and Schoeman, two adventurous politicians, whokept things lively in the councils of the State. On the retirementof Pretorius from the Free State Presidency in 1864, and hisre-election to that of the South African Republic, Mr. Kruger wasappointed Commandant-General, and for the time being his ambitiouslongings were appeased. At that period the white population consisted of merely about thirtythousand all told. The native community almost trebled the Dutch. Mr. Bryce, in his "Impressions on South Africa, " describes the thenstate of the affairs of the Republic as anything but satisfactory:"There were hundreds of thousands of natives, a few of whom wereliving as servants under a system of enforced labour which wassometimes hardly distinguishable from slavery, while the vastmajority were ruled by their own chiefs, some as tributaries of theRepublic, some practically independent of it. With the latter warswere frequently raging--wars in which shocking cruelties wereperpetrated on both sides, the Kaffirs massacring the white familieswhom they surprised, the Boer commandos taking a savage vengeanceupon the tribes when they captured a kraal or mountain stronghold. It was the sight of these wars which drove Dr. Livingstone to beginhis famous explorations to the north. The farmers were too few toreduce the natives to submission, though always able to defeat themin the field, and, while they relished an expedition, they had aninvincible dislike to any protracted operations which cost money. Taxes they would not pay. They lived in a sort of rude plenty amongtheir sheep and cattle, but they had hardly any coined money, conducting their transactions by barter, and they were too rude tovalue the benefits which government secures to a civilised people. " TRANSVAAL DISSENSIONS Among other things an attempt was made on the part of the Boers toannex the Orange Free State. President Pretorius crossed the Vaal in1857, at the head of a large commando, with the intention of seizingon the neighbouring territory. He was doomed to disappointment, however, for his intended raid was stopped by the timely resistanceof the forewarned President of the Orange Free State. An encounterwas happily avoided through the intervention of Mr. Kruger, andfinally the two Republics decided to mutually recognise each other'sindependent States. But the ambitions of Pretorius merely smouldered. He still kept agreedy eye on the Orange Free State, and machinated for the union ofthe two States into a gigantic whole. He therefore refused thePresidency of the Transvaal for that of the Free State, in the hopeof gathering into his own hands the reins of both governments. Hewas again disappointed, however, and in 1864 he returned and wasre-elected President of the Transvaal. The return of Pretorius was the signal for temporary peace. Duringhis second Presidency, however, the little rift within the lute--therift of insolvency, which eventually wrecked South Africanindependence--began to be observable. Mr. Nixon, who took great pains to acquaint himself with the truestate of the country, says "that the intestine disturbances and theincessant Kaffir wars had well-nigh exhausted the finances of theRepublic. The exchequer was only tardily replenished under a loosesystem of taxation. The Boers have never been good taxpayers, and noGovernment has been able to enforce the proper payment of taxes dueto the State. A decade after its establishment the Republic waspractically insolvent. Even as early as 1857 the Government wascompelled to issue _mandaten_, or bills, wherewith to raise money tobuy ammunition, and to pay its servants. In 1866 a regular issue ofpaper money was sanctioned by the Volksraad. This was followed byfurther issues, until, in 1867, a Finance Commission found thatthere were more notes in circulation than had been authorised by theVolksraad. Nevertheless, the financial requirements of the Statebecame so pressing that still more issues had to be made, and in1870 there were over £73, 000 worth of notes in circulation. Thenotes were declared a legal tender, but the Government were unableto keep up their value by artificial methods. They fell to a lowebb, and passed from hand to hand at a discount of about 75 percent, from their nominal value. " In 1867 occurred two events which served to change the wholepolitical and financial outlook of the Transvaal. Diamonds werediscovered in the district of Kimberley. Gold was unearthed inLydenburg. From that hour a procession of European miners beganslowly to march north from the Cape. A highway was opened up betweenthe two promising districts, and diggers of every race, pioneersbent on the propagation of modern ideas, teachers, missionaries, andtraders of all kinds, attracted by the promise of wealth, flocked tothe scene and settled themselves among the trekkers. ZULU DISTURBANCES After this period, when, as stated before, small but promisingquantities of gold had been unearthed, it was no longer possible toprevent parties of miners and speculators from trickling into theTransvaal, to the annoyance of its inhabitants. Outside, too, therewere troubles, disputes, and skirmishes with the Zulus, and furthernorth was waged a fierce fight between the Boers and the chief ofthe Bapedi, one Sekukuni, whose father had signed away hisindependence to the Boers, and who refused in his turn to abide bythe conditions of the compact. In this fight Sekukuni wassuccessful, and the Boers, worsted and discontented, and believingthat the Almighty was displeased with them and with their President, Mr. Burgers, retired from the campaign. At the same time, in thesouth, Cetchwayo was itching to be on the warpath, and the generalstate of affairs suggested a possible annihilation of the Transvaalby an uncontrollable horde of natives. Things went from bad toworse, and in October 1876 Lord Carnarvon remonstrated with thePresident of the South African Republic regarding the unprovokedbarbarity of the Sekukuni war, which had again been renewed. Thereason for the interference of Lord Carnarvon is to be found in thefollowing despatch, forwarded by Sir Henry Barkly, the then Governorof the Cape:-- "As Von Schlickman has since fallen fighting bravely, it is notwithout reluctance that I join in affixing this dark stain on hismemory, but truth compels me to add the following extract from aletter which I have since received from one whose name (which Icommunicate to your lordship privately) forbids disbelief:-- "'There is no longer the slightest doubt as to the murder of the twowomen and the child at Steelpoort by the direct order of Schlickman, and in the attack on the kraal near which these women were captured(or some attack about that period) he ordered his men to cut thethroats of all the wounded! This is no mere report; it ispositively true. " And in a subsequent letter the same writer informsme that the statements are based on the evidence, not alone ofKaffirs, but of whites who were present. "'As regards the even more serious accusations brought against AbelErasmus' (the Kruger's Post field-cornet), 'as specially alluded toin my letter to President Burgers, on the 28th ult. ' (viz. Oftreacherously killing forty or fifty friendly natives, men andwomen, and carrying off the children), I beg to invite yourlordship's attention to an account derived, I am assured, from arespectable Boer who accompanied the expedition, and protestedagainst the slaughter and robbery of friendly Kaffirs, committed byorder of the above-named field-cornet. "'Should I not shortly receive such a reply from the President to myletters of last month, as to convince me that his Honour has takeneffectual steps to check such outrages and punish the perpetrators, I will enter another protest, if only for form's sake. "'Seeing, however, that Aylward, who is said to boast, whether trulyor not, that he took part with his brother Fenians in the murder ofthe police constable at Manchester, as well as in the attempt toblow up the Clerkenwell prison, had succeeded Schlickman in thecommand of the Steelpoort Volunteers, I question whether theGovernment of the South African Republic has the power, evensupposing it to have the will, to put a stop to further atrocitieson the part of this band of "Filibusters, " as they are commonlystyled in the newspapers. "'In my opinion it will be requisite to call in the aid of Britishtroops before this can be done, and I am not without hope that oneof the results of the mission on which Sir T. Shepstone is about tostart, will be a petition from persons of education and propertythroughout the country for such an intervention on the part of herMajesty's Government as will terminate this wanton and uselessbloodshed, and prevent the recurrence of the scenes of injustice, cruelty, and rapine, which abundant evidence is every dayforthcoming to prove, have rarely ceased to disgrace the Republicsbeyond the Vaal ever since they first sprang into existence. '" Von Schlickman was an ex-Russian officer, commanding a force offilibusters which had been engaged by the Transvaal Government, andhis men being unpaid, were allowed to reimburse themselves by cattleor land seized from the natives. As a natural consequence, the war assumed a character ofunrestrained ferocity. On receiving this information Lord Carnarvonwrote that his Government "could not view passively, and withindifference, the engagement of the Republic in foreign militaryoperations the object or the necessity of which had not been madeapparent. " The quarrel with the chief had originated, as stated, in a Boerclaim to his land, and the Boer President in replying urged thenatural right of the Boers to all the land of the Transvaal. Thechief magistrate at that time was President Burgers, a man who, ifreport may be believed, was far superior to those with whom heassociated. This man, a Cape Dutchman, and sometime minister of theReformed Church, had been called to the onerous post of President ofthe South African Republic in 1872. He was bent on the advancementof his nation, and his intelligence was remarkable. He was a man ofsterling character, fanciful, enthusiastic, an idealist even, with ahorror of slaveholding, and a hankering for the pure life of thehumanist. In a measure he was too much in advance of the people withwhom he was connected. To them he was something of a Freethinker, aman too ready to judge for himself while the Gospel was at hand tojudge for him. Such liberal views were not in accord with peasantlimitations. His desire to raise his country to the level of othernations, to bring commerce and railways within touch of his people, savoured of heresy. The appreciation for civilisation was so strongwithin him that he is even said to have carried it to extremes, tohave favoured the prompt and regular payment of taxes, and to haveexecuted an elaborate design for an international coat-of-arms! Nowthis reformer, like most reformers, was not appreciated among hisown people. He had no police to support him, no means of puttingpressure on those who should have served his cause. The Conservativeparty, with Mr. Kruger at their head, did their best to circumventevery innovation and to save themselves and the country from whatthey believed to be the dangerous inorthodoxy of their President. Mr. Burgers in his posthumous "Vindication" outlines some strangehints regarding the character of his compatriots, which outlines maynow be readily filled in by personal experience. He therein assertsthat had he chosen to publish to the world a faithful description ofthe Transvaal Boers, they would have forfeited the appreciationgained from the Liberal party in Europe. Mr. Burgers' reserve ismuch to be regretted, as a few sidelights thrown on the Boercharacter at that period might have helped to educate the Liberalparty of whom he spoke, and thereby saved much of the vacillation ofpolicy for which the country now has to suffer. [Illustration: SERGEANT-MAJOR of the 2nd DRAGOONS. (ROYAL SCOTS GREYS. ) Photo by Gregory & Co. , London. ] THE POLITICAL WEB Before going further, we must examine the situation between theGovernor of the Cape, the President of the South African Republic, and the Home Government. When we look back at Boer history, we find the details of annexationand restoration repeating themselves with the consistency of thechorus of a nursery rhyme. What the Government of the Capeaccomplished the Government at home proceeded promptly to undo, tillthe problems connected with Boer liberty and British rights becameso tangled and so intricate that they could only be solved by thesword. It may be remembered that in 1854 Sir George Grey, the then Governorof the Cape, applied himself to the puzzle. He started with the besthopes. He saw before him a vista of labour, of argument, ofcontradiction, but the tangles, he believed, could eventually besmoothed out. In the anxiety to avoid trouble and responsibility, and possibly in an amiable desire to conciliate the parties at home, the Imperial Government had conceded territories and alienatedsubjects without having made an effort to discover the wishes of thepeople, or to try a free form of government suited to South Africa. He was in favour of a Federal Union wherein the separate Coloniesand States, each with its local government and legislature, shouldbe combined under one general representative legislature, led by aresponsible Ministry, specially charged with the duty of providingfor common defence. This plan of Federal Union seemed to appeal tothe Burghers of the Orange Free State, for the Volksraad decidedthat "a union of alliance with the Cape Colony, either on the planof federation or otherwise, is desirable. " Sir George Grey was notpermitted to pursue his policy, for the British Government decidedagainst the resumption of British sovereignty over the Orange FreeState. The same forward and backward movement, the same sort ofpolitical _chasé et croisé_, was again carried on from 1876 and 1877to 1881. It was decided that a Federal Union should be createdbetween such African Colonies as were willing to join. To furtherthis scheme Sir Bartle Frere, after a long and arduous career inIndia, was appointed Governor and High Commissioner by LordCarnarvon, the then Colonial Secretary. But Sir Bartle was too late. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who had been sent out to the Transvaal onSpecial Commission to confer with the President on the question ofConfederation, had already annexed the Transvaal. The reasons forthe annexation were many and excellent. Firstly, the TransvaalRepublic, vulgarly speaking, was out at elbows. It was bankrupt, helpless, languishing. The sorry sum of 12s. 6d. Represented theentire wealth of the Treasury. The Zulu chief Cetchwayo was waitingto "eat up" the Boers, and the Boers were unceasing in their effortsto encroach on Zulu territory. But the deplorable state of affairsis better described by quoting Sir T. Shepstone's letter on thesubject. "It was patent to every observer, " writes Sir T. Shepstone, "thatthe Government (of the Transvaal) was powerless to control eitherits white citizens or its native subjects; that it was incapable ofenforcing its laws or of collecting its taxes; that the Treasury wasempty; that the salaries of officials had been and are months inarrear; that sums payable for the ordinary and necessary expenditureof government cannot be had, and that such services as postalcontracts were long and hopelessly overdue; that the whiteinhabitants had become split into factions; that the large nativepopulations within the boundaries of the State ignore its authorityand laws; and that the powerful Zulu king, Cetchwayo, is anxious toseize upon the first opportunity of attacking a country the conductof whose warriors has convinced him that it can be easily conqueredby his clamouring regiments. " He again writes: "I think it necessaryto explain, more at length than I was able to do in my lastdespatch, the circumstances which seem to me to forbid all hope thatthe Transvaal Republic is capable of maintaining the show even ofindependent existence any longer, which induced me to consider it myduty to assume this position in my communications with the Presidentand Executive Council, and which have convinced me that, if I wereto leave the country in its present condition, I should but exposethe inhabitants to anarchy among themselves, and to attack from thenatives, that would prove not only fatal to the Republic, but in thehighest degree dangerous to her Majesty's possessions and subjectsin South Africa. " The proclamation of the annexation of the Transvaal was issued onthe 12th of April 1876, and on the previous day Sir T. Shepstonewrote: "There will be a protest against my act of annexation issuedby the Government, but they will at the same time call upon thepeople to submit quietly, pending the issue. You need not bedisquieted by such action, because it is taken merely to saveappearances, and the members of the Government from the violence ofa faction that seems for years to have held Pretoria in terror whenany act of the Government displeased it. You will better understandthis when I tell you privately that the President has from the firstfully acquiesced in the necessity for the change, and that most ofthe members of the Government have expressed themselves anxious forit--but none of them have had the courage openly to express theiropinions, so I have had to act apparently against them, and this Ifelt bound to do, knowing the state and danger of the country, andthat three-fourths of the people will be thankful for the changewhen once it is made. " As a matter of fact the annexation was received with rejoicing allover the country. "God save the Queen" was sung, and specialthanksgiving services were held in many of the churches. The UnionJack was run up, the Republican flag hauled down without adissentient voice. The arrival of British troops--the firstbattalion of the 13th Regiment--was hailed with curiosity andpleasure, the Boers with their women and children turning out tomeet it and hear the band play. The financial effects of the newdeparture were magical. Credit and commerce were at once restored. Valueless railway bonds rose to par, and the price of landedproperty was nearly doubled. On the Queen's birthday, the firstafter the annexation, the 24th of May 1877, the native chiefs wereinvited to attend, and the Union Jack was formally hoisted to thestrains of the National Anthem. This same flag was within a fewyears ignobly hauled down during the signing of the Convention atPretoria, and formally buried by a party of Englishmen and loyalnatives. But for the time being all seemed pleased with the newstate of affairs. As Mr. Haggard says, it is difficult to reconcilethe enthusiasm of a great number of the inhabitants of the Transvaalfor English rule and the quiet acquiescence of the remainder at thistime, with the decidedly antagonistic attitude subsequently assumed. His description of the situation in "The Last Boer War" seems to bemore near the truth than any forthcoming: "The Transvaal, when weannexed it, was in the position of a man with a knife at his throat, who is suddenly rescued by some one stronger than he, on certainconditions which at the time he gladly accepts, but afterwards, whenthe danger is passed, wishes to repudiate. In the same way theinhabitants of the South African Republic were in the time of needvery thankful for our aid, but after a while, when the recollectionof their difficulties had grown faint, when their debts had beenpaid and their enemies had been defeated, they began to think thatthey would like to get rid of us again, and start fresh on their ownaccount with a clean sheet. " In the management of affairs it appears that Mr. Burgers began toset an example of the policy which Mr. Kruger has since followed:the policy of trying to sit on either side of the fence. Mr. Krugerhas struggled more and more violently to accomplish this feat as theyears advance and he advances in years. He has tried to grab theadvantages attendant upon the possession of gold mines and schemedto acquire a great financial status, and yet at the same time tokeep up his affectation of piety and to maintain his pristinecondition of bucolic irresponsibility. Brought face to face with SirT. Shepstone's scheme for annexation, Mr. Burger privatelyencouraged the proposed action of the Government--he and hiscolleagues even stipulating for pension and office--while publiclyhe lifted up his protest against the innovation. The Boer, with his usual craft, had decided that the BritishGovernment should set him financially on his feet, which feet hemeant promptly to use for running away from his responsibilities. Some declare that the policy of Sir T. Shepstone was premature, thathe should have waited until the Boer had soaked further in theslough of insolvency into which he was fast sinking. But Sekukuniwas threatening, and on the south-eastern frontier Cetchwayo, with aforce some thirty thousand strong, was waiting his opportunity. Thepromise of the future was a general holocaust, in which Boer men, women, and children, farms and flocks would be annihilated. Sir T. Shepstone, had he been other than a Briton, might have stayed hishand and waited till the Boers were effectually swept away, butbeing a Briton he acted as such, doubtless arguing that, "As we under Heaven are supreme head, So, under him, that great supremacy, Where we do reign, we will alone uphold. " THE WEB THICKENING It must be remembered that between the Zulus and the Boers noboundary line had ever been fixed, and that for over a dozen yearsthe Zulu chiefs had repeatedly implored the British Governor inNatal for advice and help in their dealings with these aggressors. It had been part of the Dutch policy--if policy it may be called--toforce the Zulu gradually to edge further and further from the richpasture lands sloping eastward of the Drakensberg Mountains, andspreading to right and left into the north and west of Zululand. Little notice had been taken of their petitions, and the Zulus haddetermined to take the law into their own hands. Cetchwayo, therefore, when the news of our annexation of the Transvaal reachedhim, was like a wild beast baulked of its prey. He was anxious foran occasion for his young warriors "to wash their spears" in thegore of his enemies, and was naturally disappointed to find themunder the protection of the white man. The Natal Governmentattempted to soothe him--to promote peace. He remained sullen andsimmered. He vented his spleen by putting several young women todeath for having refused to marry his soldiers. On beingremonstrated with by the Natal Government, he expressed himself withengaging candour. His own words, without comment, describe thecharacter with which we had to deal. "Did I ever tell Mr. Shepstone, " his Majesty cried, "that I wouldnot kill? Did Mr. Shepstone tell the white people I made such anarrangement? Because if he did he deceived them. I do kill; but I donot consider that I have done anything yet in the way of killing. Why do the white people start at nothing? I have not yet begun. Ihave yet to kill. It is the custom of our nation, and I will notdepart from it. Why does the Governor of Natal speak to me about mylaws? I shall not agree to any laws or rules from Natal, and by sodoing throw the large kraal which I govern into the water. My peoplewill not listen unless they are killed, and while wishing to befriends with the English I do not agree to give my people over to begoverned by laws sent to me by them. Have I not asked the English toallow me to wash my spears since the death of my father, Upandi, andthey have kept playing with me all the time, treating me as achild?" ... A good deal more followed in this strain. Since hisaccession the gallant Cetchwayo had decided to "wash his spears" inthe blood of his neighbours, and whatever the British might have tosay in the matter, wash them he would. It was obvious, therefore, that a ruffian of this kind, backed by a bloodthirsty following, wasa permanent danger to our Colony of Natal and to its whiteinhabitants. Something must be done to remove the disquiet caused bythe utterances of the savage. Sir Henry Bulwer (the Governor ofNatal)--to conciliate the king and to allay his fears lest histerritory, like that of the Boers, should be annexed--proposed thata commission should investigate the rival claims of Boers and Zuluson border questions, and settle them by arbitration. But what Sir H. Bulwer proposed Sir Bartle Frere, High Commissioner in South Africa, disapproved. He felt that Cetchwayo and his host would be a standingmenace to the borders of Natal. Nevertheless he agreed to adiscussion of the vexed boundary question between Boer and Zulu, inwhich the commissioners declared unanimously against the claims ofthe former. Certain land only to west of the Blood River, held bythe Boers and unchallenged by the Zulus, was confirmed to the Dutchsettlers in their occupation of the same. But to this decision SirBartle Frere considered it expedient to add some saving clauses. These demanded, first, that Cetchwayo should adhere to theguarantees he had given and not permit indiscriminate shedding ofblood; second, that he should institute from his existing militarysystem the form of tribal quotas; third, that he should accept thepresence of a British Resident; fourth, that he should protect themissionaries and their converts; and lastly, that he shouldsurrender certain criminals and pay certain fines. His Zulu Majestywas given thirty days to consider the subject. Instead ofconsidering he flouted it. The result was war. THE ZULU WAR According to the opinion of Sir Bartle Frere there was, and for along time had been, a growing desire on the part of the great chiefsto make this war into a simultaneous rising of Kaffirdom againstwhite civilisation. A spirit of mutiny had been in the air since theterrible events in India in 1857, and there was a general convictionamong the native tribes that the authority of Great Britain wouldeventually be overthrown. Now the most powerful of all the nativetribes in South Africa were the Zulus, whose military organisationhad long been celebrated, and who had earned a great reputationsince the days of Gaika, and more especially in the time thatfollowed when Chaka, who was a born warrior, brought the giganticarmy into a state of marvellous efficiency. A few words regarding the career of this great chieftain may befound interesting, for to him is accorded the credit of theindubitably warlike and brave disposition of his countrymen. Thisman, who has been at times called the Attila and the Napoleon ofSouth Africa, was born in 1783. He became chief officer toDingiswayo, a man of remarkable ability, who studied Europeanmilitary systems and modelled on their principle a highly efficientarmy. Chaka, heir to a chieftainship of the Amazulu tribe (the Zulusproper), took the fancy of Dingiswayo, who elevated him first to apost of high command, and eventually to the vacant Zuluchieftainship. On the death in battle of Dingiswayo, Chaka assumedthe command of both tribes, to which he gave his name. The alreadyexcellent army he proceeded to improve till it became one of themost efficient military organisations ever originated in anuncivilised country. The whole kingdom was ordered on a militaryfooting, and expanded so wondrously that the original two tribes atfirst commanded by Chaka became an hundred, each tribe having beendefeated in warfare and incorporated in the Zulu nationality. Hispolicy, unlike that of Cetchwayo later on, was not to destroy but tosubdue, and thus he soon ruled with undisputed sway over a completeempire covering the desolated regions of Natal, Zululand, and themodern Boer States. His methods of military training were entirelySpartan; his discipline was a discipline of iron. Disobedience wasmet with the penalty of death. To tread out a roaring bush-fire, orcapture alive a wild beast, were some of the tasks imposed as dailytraining for his would-be warriors. An order was an order, and this, however dangerous or seemingly impossible, had to be obeyed byindividual or regiment on pain of the most horrible forms of death. It may easily be imagined that this stern regime was calculated tocreate a military following of the most brave and adventurous order. Naturally enough, all the other Kaffir tribes looked to the Zulus astheir leaders and champions in the contest. Captain Hamilton Parrtells a tale of an old Galeka warrior who said to a nativemagistrate, "Yes, you have beaten us--you have beaten us well; butthere, " pointing eastward, "there are the Amazulu warriors. Can youbeat them? They say not. Go and try. Don't trouble any more aboutus, but go and beat _them_ and we shall be quiet enough. " Thisanecdote serves to describe the general sentiment of disdain forBritish authority which Sir Bartle Frere detected almost immediatelyafter his arrival among the natives, and to account in a measure forwhat has been declared to be his high-handed policy. He wasconvinced that we could never expect peace among the chiefs until wehad satisfied them who was master. A lesson was necessary to showthat the British Government could govern and meant to govern, andthat lesson he felt must be taught sooner or later. For a long timeCetchwayo had been instigating rebellion and preparing for war. Asmay be seen from Lord Carnarvon's letter of the 24th of January 1878to Sir Bartle Frere, the Government was fully conscious of theexisting necessity to protect the Transvaal and to maintain Britishprestige in South Africa. The despatch runs: "It seems certain thatthe Zulu king has derived from his messengers the unfortunate ideathat the Kaffirs are able to cope with the Colony on more than equalterms, and this belief has, as was inevitable, produced a verythreatening change in his language and conduct towards the TransvaalGovernment. It is only too probable that a savage chief such asCetchwayo, supported by a powerful army already excited by therecent successes of a neighbouring tribe over the late Government ofthe Transvaal, may now become fired with the idea of victory overher Majesty's forces, and that a deliberate attempt upon herMajesty's territories may ensue. Should this unfortunately happen, you must understand that at whatever sacrifice it is imperativelynecessary that her Majesty's forces in Natal and the Transvaal mustbe reinforced by the immediate despatch of the military and navalcontingents now operating in the Cape, or such portion of them asmay be required. This is necessary not only for the safety of theTransvaal, for the defence of which her Majesty's Government areimmediately concerned, but also in the interest of the Cape, sincea defeat of the Zulu king would act more powerfully than any othermeans in disheartening the native races of South Africa. " On this subject Sir H. Bulwer wrote: "There has been for the lasteight or nine months a danger of collision with the Zulus at anymoment. " And in November 1878 he said: "The system of government inthe Zulu country is so bad that any improvement seems hopeless. Weshould, if necessary, be justified in deposing Cetchwayo. " Consequently, Sir Bartle Frere was not surprised when all efforts toreduce Cetchwayo to yield to British demand failed. As time went byit became clear that enforcement of these demands must be placed inthe hands of Lord Chelmsford and the military authorities, andaccordingly, on the 10th of January 1879, the Commander-in-Chief ofthe forces of South Africa crossed the frontier. As the frontier extended for some two hundred miles, to assume apurely defensive attitude would have been impossible. Our forces soplaced would not have been sufficiently strong to resist an attackmade at their own time and place by a horde of some ten to twentythousand Zulus. Lord Chelmsford had no alternative, therefore, butto invade Zululand. ISANDLWANA The force under Lord Chelmsford's command was divided into four columns. These were composed partly of British soldiers, partly of Colonists, andpartly of blacks. The first column, under Colonel Pearson, crossed theLower Tugela; the second, under Lieutenant-Colonel Durnford, R. E. , consisting of native troops and Natal Volunteers, was to act in concertwith column three; the third, under Colonel Glyn--but directed by theGeneral, who assumed all responsibility--crossed the Buffalo River; andthe fourth, under Colonel Evelyn Wood, entered Zululand from nearNewcastle on the north-west. The plan was for the four columns toconverge upon Ulundi, in the neighbourhood of the king's kraal, wherefighting might be expected to begin. [Illustration: MAP OF ZULULAND AND ADJOINING PORTIONS OF NATAL. ] The crossing of the Buffalo River was effected without difficulty orresistance, and ten days after the central column formed a camp atthe foot of the hill Isandlwana (the Little Hand). On the morning ofthe 22nd the Commander-in-Chief advanced at daybreak, for thepurpose of attacking a kraal some miles distant. The camp atIsandlwana was left in charge of a force of some eight hundred mixedtroops--regulars, volunteers, and natives. Strict orders to defendand not to leave the camp were given, but in spite of these ordersportions of the force became detached. Suddenly, unobserved by them, there appeared a dense impi of some twenty thousand Zulus. Thesavage horde rushed shouting upon the small British detachments, rushed with the swiftness of cavalry, attacked them before theycould unite, and swooping down with tremendous velocity, seized thecamp and separated the British troops from their reserves ofammunition. In face of this warrior multitude our troops weredefenceless. A few moments of wild despairing energy, a hand-to-handstruggle for life between the white man and the bloodthirsty savage, groans of wounded and yells of victory, and all was over. Of the sixcompanies of the 24th, consisting of more than half the infantryengaged, but six souls escaped. The rest died where they fell, withno kindly hand to give them succour, no British voice to breathe aburial prayer. But some before they dropped managed to cut their waythrough the ring of Zulu spears. Two gallant fellows, LieutenantsMelvill and Coghill, almost succeeded in saving the colours of thefirst battalion of the 24th Regiment. They made a bold rush, butmerely reached the Natal bank of the Buffalo to be struck down. Thecolours, wrapped round Melvill's body, were discovered in the riversome days afterwards. The Zulu plan of fighting, in this case so successful, is curious. The formation of their attacks represents the figure of a beast withhorns, chest, and loins. While making a feint with one horn, theother, unperceived in long grass or bush, swoops round and closes inon the enemy. The chest then advances to attack. The loins are keptat a distance, and simply join in pursuit. The news of the disaster spread fast. Sir Bartle Frere, on themorning of the 24th, was awakened by the arrival of two almostdistraught and wholly unintelligible messengers. Their report, whenit could be at last comprehended, seemed too horrible for belief. That they had escaped some terrible ordeal was evident; that theywere members of the company of naval volunteers that formed part ofthe General's army, their uniform proclaimed. But of the Generalthey could say nothing--he might be dead, he might be missing--allthey knew was of their own miraculous escape from a scene ofslaughter. Colonel Pulleine they declared was dead, but further newshad to be awaited with anxious hearts. Meanwhile Lord Chelmsford had heard the horrible news. The camp hadbeen seen in the possession of the Zulus. Worn and weary with heavymarching in a baking sun, he and his troops began to retreat. Atnightfall, thoroughly jaded, they returned to a grim scene. Allaround lay the still silent dead--the corpses of the comrades theyhad parted with but a few hours before. There, amid the patheticwreckage, were they forced to lay them down to rest! Fortunately the Zulus, having plundered the camp, had made off, andthe British force was able the next day to proceed to the relief ofRorke's Drift. At Rorke's Drift the now world-celebrated defence ofLieutenant Bromhead, of the 24th, and Lieutenant Chard, R. E. , tookplace. These young officers had been left with one hundred and foursoldiers to take charge of a small depôt of provisions and anhospital, and to keep open the communication with Natal. Some hoursafter the disaster of Isandlwana their post was attacked byDabulamanzi (brother of Cetchwayo) and over three thousand of hisfinest warriors. The little garrison had made for themselves alaager of sacks of maize and biscuit-boxes, and behind these theydefended themselves so stubbornly and so heroically throughout thenight of the 23rd, that the Zulu chieftain, discomfited andharassed, eventually retired. For their magnificent pluck the twoyoung officers received the Victoria Cross. Their action had savedNatal from invasion by the enemy. Of the little garrison seventeenfell and ten were wounded. The loss of the Zulus was about threehundred. [Illustration: THE DEFENCE OF RORKE'S DRIFT, 22nd to 23rd JANUARY1879. Painted by Alphonse de Neuville, Etched by L. Flameng. Reproduced by special arrangement with the Fine Art Society, London. ] Colonel Pearson's column, as we said, crossed the Lower Tugela nearthe sea, with the intention of joining the other columns at Ulundi. On the way thither he was attacked by a Zulu force at Inyesani. Thisforce, though it more than doubled the strength of his own, he droveback with heavy loss, and marched to the Norwegian Mission station, Eshowe. On his arrival there on the 23rd of January, he learnt theawful news of the disaster, and instantly sent his cavalry back toNatal, fortified his station, and waited there the arrival ofreinforcements. The third column, commanded by Colonel Evelyn Wood (consisting of1700 British soldiers, 50 farmers under Commandant Pieter Uys, andsome 300 blacks), reached Kambula in safety, and fortified a postthere. Colonel Wood harassed the enemy by frequent sallies, however, and on one occasion the attack on the Zlobane Mountain lost aboutninety-six of his men. Among these were Colonel Weatherley, hisyoung son, and Commandant Uys. The following day the British laagerwas attacked by a horde of Zulus, who were routed. In thisengagement Colonel Wood, Colonel Buller, and Captain Woodgateespecially distinguished themselves. Lord Chelmsford, with a force of soldiers and sailors, marched inApril from Natal to the relief of Colonel Pearson at Eshowe. Hearrived there in safety, after having encountered and beaten backthe Zulus at Ginginlova: yet it was not until the 4th of July thatthe troops eventually reached Ulundi, where the final battle andvictory took place. But of this later. AFFAIRS AT HOME Two days after the arrival of the news of the disaster atIsandlwana, Parliament met. The reverse in Zululand naturallyengrossed all thoughts. Questions innumerable were addressed toGovernment, as to the strength of reinforcements to be sent out--asto the further necessity for war at all--as to the so-calledhigh-handed action of Sir Bartle Frere, and the so-called blundersof Lord Chelmsford. Scapegoats were wanted, and, as a naturalconsequence, the two most energetic and hard-worked of the Queen'sservants were attacked. A political pitched battle was imminent. The Ministers declined towithdraw their confidence from the Lord High Commissioner, thoughthey passed on him censure for his hasty and independentproceedings. That the members of Government had a high appreciationof his great experience, ability, and energy was apparent, for theydeclared they had "no desire to withdraw in the present crisis ofaffairs the confidence hitherto reposed in him, the continuance ofwhich was now more than ever needed to conduct our difficulties inSouth Africa to a successful termination. " On the 19th of March 1879the Secretary of the Colonies wrote to Sir Bartle Frere, to theeffect that Ministers were unable to find, on the documents placedbefore them, "that evidence of urgent necessity for immediate actionwhich alone would justify him in taking, without their fullknowledge and sanction, a course almost certain to result in a war. " The day for discussion of South African affairs in the Upper Housearrived. Lord Lansdowne moved, on the 11th of March, "That this House, whilewilling to support her Majesty's Government in all necessarymeasures for defending the possessions of her Majesty in SouthAfrica, regrets that the _ultimatum_, which was calculated toproduce immediate war, should have been presented to the Zulu kingwithout authority from the responsible advisers of the Crown, andthat an offensive war should have been commenced without imperativeand pressing necessity or adequate preparation; and the Houseregrets that, after the censure passed upon the High Commissioner byher Majesty's Government, in the despatch of March 19, 1879, theconduct of affairs in South Africa should be retained in his hands. " A keen debate ensued. The Opposition clamoured for the recall of SirBartle Frere, as the example of independent action set by him mightbe followed by other and more distant representatives of the Crown. The war was ascribed to Lord Carnarvon's impatience for SouthAfrican confederation and his "incurable greed" for extending thelimits of the Colonies, and the annexation of the Transvaal wasdeclared to be a mistake, unless the Government was prepared to sendout a large military force to South Africa. The Government combated these arguments. They denied they hadcensured Sir Bartle Frere, and stated that they had passed noopinion on his policy, but merely asserted as a principle that "HerMajesty's advisers, and they only, must decide the grave issues ofpeace and war. " It was argued that war with Cetchwayo was inevitable sooner orlater, and that the Lord High Commissioner had thought it advisableto be prompt in the matter. His conduct, it was true, had not theentire approval of the Ministry, but every one knew it was unwise tochange horses in crossing a stream, and his action had not been suchas to outweigh the many considerations which required thecontinuance of his service in South Africa. Lord Beaconsfield, addressing the House, defended Sir Bartle Frere, and expressed opinions on the policy of confederation as opposed tothat of annexation, opinions which afford so much instruction inregard to our relations with the Transvaal that they are bestrepeated in their entirety. "I generally find, " he said, "there is one advantage at the end of adebate, besides the relief which is afforded by its termination, andthat is that both sides of the House seem pretty well agreed as tothe particular point that really is at issue; but the rich humour ofthe noble duke (Duke of Somerset) has again diverted us from theconsideration of the motion really before the House. If the nobleduke and his friends were desirous of knowing what was the policywhich her Majesty's Government were prepared generally to pursue inSouth Africa, if they were prepared to challenge the policy of SirBartle Frere in all its details, I should have thought they wouldhave produced a very different motion from that which is now lyingon your lordships' table; for that is a motion of a most limitedcharacter, and, according to the strict rules of parliamentarydiscussion, precludes you from most of the subjects which havelately been introduced to our consideration, and which principallyhave emanated from noble lords opposite. We have not been summonedhere to-day to consider the policy of the acquisition of theTransvaal. These are subjects on which I am sure the Governmentwould be prepared to address your lordships, if their conduct wereclearly and fairly impugned. And with regard to the annexation ofthe province, which has certainly very much filled the mouths of menof late, I can easily conceive that that would have been a subjectfor fair discussion in this House, and we should have heard, as wehave heard to-night, though in a manner somewhat unexpected, fromthe nature of the resolution before us, from the noble lord who wasrecently the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the principalreasons which induced the Government to sanction that policy--apolicy which I believe can be defended, but which has not beenimpugned to-night in any formal manner. "What has been impugned to-night is the conduct of the Government insanctioning, not the policy of Sir Bartle Frere, but his taking amost important step without consulting them, which on such subjectsis the usual practice with all Governments. But the noble lordopposite who introduced the subject does not even impugn the policyof the Lord High Commissioner; and it was left to the noble duke whohas just addressed us, and who ought to have brought forward thisquestion if his views are so strongly entertained by him on thematter, not in supporting a resolution such as now lies on yourlordships' table, but one which would have involved a discussion ofthe policy of the Government and that of the high officer who isparticularly interested in it. "My noble friend, the noble marquis (Lord Salisbury), who veryrecently addressed the House, touched the real question which isbefore us, and it is a very important question, although it is notof the expansive character of the one which would have beenjustified by the comments of the noble lords opposite. What we haveto decide to-night is this--whether her Majesty's Government shallhave the power of recommending to the sovereign the employment of ahigh officer to fulfil duties of the utmost importance, or whetherthat exercise of the prerogative, on their advice, shall besuccessfully impugned, and that appointment superseded by noblelords opposite. That course is perfectly constitutional, if they areprepared to take the consequences. But let it be understood what theissue is. It is this--that a censure upon the Government is calledfor, because they have selected the individual who, on the whole, they think is the best qualified successfully to fulfil the dutiesof High Commissioner. The noble lords opposite made thatproposition, and if they succeed they will succeed in that which hashitherto been considered one of the most difficult tasks of theexecutive Government; that is to say, they will supersede theindividual whom the sovereign, in the exercise of her prerogative, under the advice of her Ministers, has selected for an importantpost. I cannot agree in the general remark made by the noble duke, that because an individual has committed an error, and even aconsiderable error, for that reason, without any reference either tohis past services or his present qualifications, immediately achange should be recommended, and he should be recalled from thescene of his duties. "I remember myself a case not altogether different from the presentone, " continued Lord Beaconsfield, alluding to Sir James Hudson, who, when Minister at Turin, had been charged with having expressed himselfunguardedly upon the subject of Italian nationality. "It happened someyears ago, when I was in the other House. Then a very high official--adiplomatist of great eminence, a member of the Liberal party--hadcommitted what was deemed a great indiscretion by several members of hisown party; and the Government were asked in a formal manner, by aLiberal member, whether that distinguished diplomatist had been inconsequence recalled. But the person who was then responsible for theconduct of public affairs in that House--the humble individual who isnow addressing your lordships, made this answer, with the fullconcurrence of his colleagues--denied that that distinguisheddiplomatist was recalled, and said that _great services are notcancelled by one act or one single error however it may be regretted atthe moment_. That is what I said then, with regard to Sir James Hudson, and what I say now with regard to Sir Bartle Frere. But I do not wishto rest on that. I confess that, so keen is my sense of responsibility, and that of my colleagues, and I am sure also that of noble lordsopposite, that we would not allow our decisions in such matters to beunduly influenced by personal considerations of any kind. What we had todetermine is this, Was it wise that such an act on the part of SirBartle Frere as, in fact, commencing war without consulting theGovernment at home, and without their sanction, should be passedunnoticed? Ought it not to be noticed in a manner which should convey tothat eminent person a clear conviction of the feelings of her Majesty'sGovernment; and at the same time was it not their duty to consider, werehe superseded, whether they could place in his position an individualequally qualified to fulfil the great duties and responsibilitiesresting on him? That is what we had to consider. We considered itentirely with reference to the public interest, and the public interestalone; and we arrived at the conviction that on the whole the retentionof Sir Bartle Frere in that position was our duty, notwithstanding theinconvenient observations and criticisms to which we were, of course, conscious it might subject us. And, that being our conviction, we haveacted upon it. It is a very easy thing for a Government to make ascapegoat; but that is conduct which I hope no gentleman on this side, and I believe no gentleman sitting opposite, would easily adopt. If SirBartle Frere had been recalled--if he had been recalled in deference tothe panic, the thoughtless panic of the hour, in deference to those whohave no responsibility in the matter, and who have not weighed well anddeeply investigated all the circumstances and all the arguments whichcan be brought forward, and which must be appealed to to influence ouropinions on such questions--no doubt a certain degree of odium mighthave been diverted from the heads of her Majesty's Ministers, and theworld would have been delighted, as it always is, to find a victim. Thatwas not the course which we pursued, and it is one which I trust noBritish Government ever will pursue. We had but one object in view, andthat was to take care that at this most critical period the affairs ofher Majesty in South Africa should be directed by one not only qualifiedto direct them, but who was superior to any other individual whom wecould have selected for that purpose. The sole question that we reallyhave to decide to-night is, Was it the duty of her Majesty's Governmentto recall Sir Bartle Frere in consequence of his having declared warwithout our consent? We did not think it our duty to take that course, and we do not think it our duty to take that course now. Whether we areright in the determination at which we have arrived is the sole questionwhich the House has to determine upon the motion before it. "The noble duke opposite (the Duke of Somerset) has told us that heshould not be contented without being made acquainted with the wholepolicy which her Majesty's Government are prepared to pursue inSouth Africa. If the noble duke will introduce that subject we shallbe happy to discuss it with him. No one could introduce it in a moreinteresting, and, indeed, in a more entertaining manner than thenoble duke, who possesses that sarcastic faculty that so wellqualifies him to express his opinion on such a matter. I think, however, that we ought to have had rather longer notice before wewere called upon to discuss so large a theme, which has now beenbrought suddenly before us. If the noble marquis who introduced thissubject had given us notice of a motion of this character, we shouldnot have hesitated for a moment to meet it. I have, however, nodesire to avoid discussing the subject of our future policy in SouthAfrica, even on so general a notice as we have in reference to itfrom the noble duke. Sir Bartle Frere was selected by the noble lord(Lord Carnarvon), who formerly occupied the position of Secretary tothe Colonies, chiefly to secure one great end--namely, to carry outthat policy of confederation in South Africa which the noble lordhad successfully carried out on a previous occasion with regard tothe North American Colonies. "If there is any policy which, in my mind, is opposed to the policyof annexation, it is that of confederation. By pursuing the policyof confederation we bind States together, we consolidate theirresources, and we enable them to establish a strong frontier; andwhere we have a strong frontier, that is the best security againstannexation. I myself regard a policy of annexation with greatdistrust. I believe that the reasons of State which induced us toannex the Transvaal were not, on the whole, perfectly sound. Butwhat were the circumstances under which that annexation waseffected? The Transvaal was a territory which was no longer defendedby its occupiers. The noble lord opposite (Lord Kimberley), whoformerly had the Colonies under his management, spoke of the conductof Sir Theophilus Shepstone as though he had not taken dueprecautions to effect the annexation of that province, and said thathe was not justified in concealing that he had not successfullyconsummated his object. The noble lord said he had not assembledtroops enough in the province to carry out properly the policy ofannexation. But Sir Theophilus Shepstone particularly refers to thevery fact to show, that so unanimous and so united was the sentimentin the province in favour of annexation, that it was unnecessary tosend any large force there to bring it about. _The annexation ofthat province was a necessity--a geographical necessity. _" [Illustration: Sir HENRY BARTLE FRERE, Bart. Photo by Maull & Fox. London. ] TOWARDS ULUNDI It may be remembered that Lord Chelmsford's original idea had beenfor Colonel Pearson's column to march from Eshowe to the chief'skraal at Ulundi. In consequence of the disaster, however, ColonelPearson decided to remain where he was. He constructed a fort forthe protection of the garrison against an army of some 20, 000 Zuluslying in wait between Eshowe and Tugela. On the 30th of January allthe troops came within this embryo fort, and as tents wereforbidden, officers and men had to make the best of what shelter thewaggons afforded. The troops spent the time in completing the fortand cutting roads, and early in February excellent defences werecompleted. Though in hourly expectation of attack they seem to havekept up their spirits, for an officer in Eshowe wrote:-- "The troops inside consisted of three companies of the 99thRegiment, five companies of the second battalion of the 3rd Buffs, one company of Royal Engineers, one company of the Pioneers, theNaval Brigade, a body of Artillery, and nineteen of the NativeContingent, amongst them being several non-commissioned officers, whom we found exceedingly useful, two of them being at once selectedas butchers, whilst two were 'promoted' to the rank of 'bakers tothe troops. ' Others attended to the sanitary arrangements of thegarrison, and altogether they were found to be also exceedinglyuseful. As a portion of the column, the company of Pioneers underthe command of Captain Beddoes did a great deal of very importantwork. This company was composed of ninety-eight natives, onecaptain, and three lieutenants, and their proceedings in connectionwith the making of the new road were watched with much interest. They worked with the Naval Brigade, about three companies ofsoldiers, and several men of the Royal Artillery. This road wasfound useless, in consequence of the numerous swampy places at thefoot of each of the numerous hills which occurred along the route. Very thick bush had to be cut through, and at first but slowprogress was made. The road, as is generally known, took a directiontowards the Inyezane. Whilst out on one occasion, the road party sawa torpedo explosion which took place about three miles from wherethe party was working. It had been accidentally fired by Kaffirs, who were unaware of the clangers connected with the implement, andit is believed that several of them were killed. The road wasaltogether a bad one. The relief column used it on their way up, butonly the Pioneers and the mounted men went by that route on the wayback. In fact, it would have been useless to have attempted to useit for the passage of waggons. Whenever the road party went out theywere fired on by Kaffirs, but of course shots were returned, andmany a Zulu warrior was knocked over whilst the work was beingproceeded with. Everything in camp was conducted in a most orderlymanner. We were roused at half-past five sharp, and at eighto'clock, sharp, lights were out. For one month we existed verycomfortably on full rations, but at the end of that time we were puton short rations, made up as follows:--One pound and a quarter oftrek-oxen beef, six ounces of meal, one ounce and a quarter ofsugar, third of an ounce of coffee, one sixth of an ounce of tea, one ninth of an ounce of pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of salt. "Life of course was very monotonous. The bands of the two regimentsplayed on alternate afternoons, and every morning they were to beheard practising outside the entrenchment. The most pleasant part ofthe day was just after six o'clock, when we used to be enlivened inthe cool of the evening by the fife and drum band playing the'Retreat. ' The water with which we were supplied was indeedexcellent, and the bathing places, I need not say, were veryextensively patronised. The grazing was not nearly sufficient forthe cattle, and from the first they must have suffered very muchfrom want of nourishment. You will have heard of the fate of theeleven hundred head of oxen and the span of donkeys which we sentaway from the camp in expectation of their reaching the LowerTugela. They left us in charge of nineteen Kaffirs, but at theInyezane they were attacked by a large body of Kaffirs. The nativesin charge of the cattle decamped and reached the fort in safety, andthe enemy got possession of the whole of the cattle, which theydrove off. The donkeys were all killed with the exception of one, and this sagacious animal surprised everybody in camp by returningsoon after the Kaffirs had come back. " The prices of food at this time were scarcely in keeping with thoseof the London market. A bottle of pickles fetched 25s. , and a ham£7, 10s. ! Milk was purchasable for 23s. A tin, and sardines for 12s. As may be imagined, the arrival of Lord Chelmsford at Eshowe was amatter for general thanksgiving. One who was present records in_Blackwood's Magazine_ the joy on the arrival of the firstoutsiders: "On the afternoon of the 3rd of April, the columndetailed on the 31st of March (about 500 whites and 50 blacks, andthe mounted infantry, with one gun) left the fort under GeneralPearson, to meet the relief column.... A solitary horseman was seentowards 5 P. M. Galloping up the new road to the fort. He had anofficer's coat on, and we could see a sword dangling from his side. Who is he?... He proved to be the correspondent of the _Standard_. 'First in Eshowe, ' he said, 'proud to shake hands with an Eshowian. 'A second horseman appeared approaching the fort, his horseapparently much blown, Who is he?... The correspondent of the_Argus_ (Cape Town). They had a race who would be first at Eshowe, the _Standard_ winning by five minutes!" Thus ended happily thecrushing anxiety under which Colonel Pearson and his party hadlived, and the foretaste of the future triumph seemed already toremove the memory of many weeks of bitterness. Serious differences of opinion soon arose between Lord Chelmsfordand Sir Henry Bulwer, the Governor of Natal, but on the intricaciesof these it is unnecessary to dwell; suffice it to say, that theywere in a measure the cause of Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival on thescene somewhat later, as Sir Garnet united in his own person bothsupreme civil and supreme military power. A complete account of the movements of the various columns duringthe dreary months that elapsed before the final victory at Ulundi onthe 4th of July cannot be attempted here. The history of skirmishesand raids, of daring sorties, of captures of cattle, and gallantryof troops, of hopes and disappointments, of successes and scares, ofhardships and horrors, would fill many pages that must be otherwiseoccupied. Yet one tragic and memorable event of the war cannot be passed over, for we lost a gallant volunteer whose young life was full of promiseand distinction. At the beginning of June the Prince Imperial ofFrance, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, having studied at the MilitaryCollege at Woolwich, and desiring to see war in all its reality, wasattached to the Quartermaster-General's department at GeneralNewdigate's camp. He set out with a reconnoitring party consistingof Lieutenant Carey of the 98th Regiment, six men of Bellington'sHorse, and a Kaffir. The place they intended to reach was situatedbetween the camps of Lord Chelmsford and General Wood. Having gaineda picturesque spot near a brook which forms a tributary to theTlyotyozi River, the Prince decided to sketch. He was a cleverdraughtsman, and had some ability in recognising the capabilities ofpositions. The party afterwards moved on, examining various emptykraals by the way. At one of these they halted, and the Prince gaveorders to "off-saddle" for an hour. The place seemed deserted; therewere remains of a recent cooking fire, and a stray dog or twosniffed suspiciously at the strangers. Round this spot near theriver tambookie grass about six feet in height formed a screen. Theofficers made coffee, turned out their horses to graze, and lay fora short rest in the peaceful security of a complete, or seeminglycomplete, desolation. But unknown to them, fifty Zulus, tiger-like, had crawled fromambush and were preparing to spring. It was from the cover of theriver vegetation that they eventually burst forth. A hurried orderto remount, and the crash of rifles at a distance of twenty yardsfollowed. The tragic scene is well described by Mr. A. Wilmot in his"History of the Zulu War":-- "At this time the party were standing in a line close to theirhorses, with their backs to the kraal and their faces turnedeastward, the Prince being in front and nearest to the Zulus. Thenwith a tremendous cry, 'Usutu!' and 'Lo, the English cowards!' thesavages rushed on. The horses immediately swerved, and some brokeaway. An undoubted panic seized the party; every one who couldspring on his horse mounted and galloped for his life. There was nothought, no idea of standing fast and resisting this sudden attack. The Prince was unwounded, but unable to mount his charger, which wassixteen hands high and always difficult to mount. On this occasionthe horse became so frightened by the firing and sudden stampedingas to rear and prance in such a manner as to make it impossible forthe Prince to gain the saddle. Many of the others saw thedifficulty, but none waited or tried to give the least assistance. One by one they rushed their horses past, Private le Tocq exclaimingas he went by, lying across his saddle, 'Dépêchez-vous, s'il vousplaît, monsieur!' The Prince, making no reply, strained every nerve, but, alas! in vain, to gain the back of his horse, holding hisstirrup-leather with his left hand and the saddle with his right. With the help of the holster he made one desperate effort, but theholster partially gave way, and it must have been then that thehorse trod upon him and galloped off, leaving his master prostrateon the ground. The Prince then regained his feet and ran after hisfriends, who were far in advance. Twelve or thirteen Zulus were atthis time only a few feet behind him. The Prince then turned round, and, sword in hand, faced his pursuers. From the first he had nevercalled for help, and now died bravely with his face to the foes, fighting courageously to the last. "It is thought that the Zulus hurled their assegais at him, and thathe quickly fell dead, pierced through the eye by a mortal wound. " There is a certain sad satisfaction in remembering that this nobleyouth, the hope of France, the worthy descendant of a great name, should have died as a soldier and without more than a moment'ssuffering. The rest of the party had galloped off at full speed, thinking eachwas engaged in the business of getting away. Lieutenant Carey, whohas been blamed for not having stood by the Prince in his perilousposition, shouted orders and imagined they were followed, and in hishasty retreat had not time to do more than believe the whole partythus surprised were galloping away together. Arguments regarding this deplorable affair have been so many that itis best to quote the evidence taken at the court-martial and thestatement of Lieutenant Carey:-- "The Court is of opinion that Lieutenant Carey did not understandthe position in which he stood towards the Prince, and, as aconsequence, failed to estimate aright the responsibility which fellto his lot. Colonel Harrison states that the senior combatantofficer, Lieutenant Carey, D. A. Q. M. G. , was, as a matter of course, in charge of the party, whilst, on the other hand, Carey says, whenalluding to the escort, 'I did not consider I had any authority overit after the precise and careful instructions of Lord Chelmsford asto the position the Prince held. ' As to his being invariablyaccompanied by an escort in charge of an officer, the Courtconsiders that the possibility of such a difference of opinionshould not have existed between two officers of the same department. The Court is of opinion that Carey is much to blame for havingproceeded on the duty in question with a portion only of the escortdetailed by Colonel Harrison. The Court cannot admit theirresponsibility for this on the part of Carey, inasmuch as he tooksteps to obtain the escort and failed in so doing. Moreover, thefact that Harrison was present upon the Itelezi range gave him theopportunity of consulting him on the matter, of which he failed toavail himself. The Court, having examined the ground, is of opinionthat the selection of the kraal, where a halt was made and thehorses off-saddled, surrounded as it was by cover for the enemy, andadjacent to difficult ground, showed a lamentable want of militaryprudence. The Court deeply regrets that no effort was made after theattack to rally the escort, and to show a front to the enemy, whereby the possibility of aiding those who had failed to make goodtheir retreat might have been ascertained. --Signed by GeneralMARSHALL; Colonel MALTHUS, 94th Regiment; Major LE GRICE, R. A. " On this report a court-martial was summoned by Lord Chelmsford forthe trial of Lieutenant Carey for having misbehaved before the enemyon the 1st June 1879, when in command of an escort in attendance onthe Prince, who was making reconnaissances in Zululand; in having, when the Prince and escort were attacked by the enemy, gallopedaway, and in not having attempted to rally them or otherwise defendthe Prince. The Court, under the presidency of Colonel Glyn, consisted of Colonels Whitehead, Courtney, Harness, Major Bouverie, and Major Anstruther. Judge-Advocate Brander prosecuted, and Captain Crookenden, R. A. , wasfor the defence. When the Court opened the plan of the ground was proved. Corporal Grubb said the Prince gave the order "Off saddle" at thekraal, and "Prepare to mount. " The Prince mounted. After the volleyhe saw Carey putting spurs to his horse, and he did the same. He sawAbel fall, and Rogers trying to get a shot at the Zulus. Le Tocqpassed him and said, "Put spurs to your horse, boy; the Prince isdown!" He looked round and saw the Prince under his horse. A shorttime after the Prince's horse came up, and he (Grubb) caught it. Noorders were given to rally. Le Tocq was called and said: The Prince told the natives to searchthe kraals, and finding no one there they off saddled. At the volleyhe mounted, but, dropping his carbine, stopped to pick it up. Inremounting he could not get his leg over the saddle. He passed thePrince, and said in French, "Hasten to mount your horse. " The Princedid not answer. He saw the Prince's horse treading on his leg. ThePrince was in command of the party. He believed Carey and the Princewould have passed on different sides of a hut in fast flight, and itwas possible that Carey might have failed to see that the Prince wasin difficulties. It was 250 yards from where he saw the Prince downto the spot where he died. Trooper Cochrane was called and said: The Prince was not in thesaddle at the time of mounting. He saw about fifty yards off thePrince running down the donga with fourteen Zulus in close pursuit. Nothing was done to help him. He heard no orders given, and did nottell Carey what he had seen until some time after. He was an oldsoldier. He did not think any rally could have been made. The Court then adjourned to the next day. On reassembling, the firstwitness called was Sergeant Willis, who stated that he had seen Trooper Rogers lying onthe ground by the side of his horse, close to the kraal, as he leftthe spot. He thought he saw the Prince wounded at the same time thatTrooper Abel threw up his arms. He thought the Prince might havebeen dragged to the place where he was found after death, and that arally might have been made twenty yards beyond the donga. Colonel Harrison being called, stated that Carey was seniorcombatant officer, and must therefore have been in command of theparty. Carey volunteered to go on the reconnaissance to verifycertain points of his sketch. The Prince was ordered to go toreport more fully on the ground. He had given the Prince intoCarey's charge. Examined by the Court, Colonel Harrison stated that when the Princewas attached to his department he was not told to treat him as aroyal personage in the matter of escort, but as any other officer, taking due precaution against any possible danger. Dr. Scott (the Prince's medical attendant) was then called, andstated that the Prince was killed by eighteen assegai wounds, anyfive of which would have been fatal. There were no bullet wounds. The Prince died where the body was found. This closed the case for the prosecution. The defence called again Colonel Harrison, who testified to Carey'sabilities as a staff officer, and said he had every confidence inhim. Colonel Bellairs was also called, and stated that it was inconsequence of the occurrence of the 1st June that Carey had beendeposed from his staff appointment the day previous to his trial. Lieutenant Carey here submitted that his case had been pre-judged, and that he had been punished before his trial. The following is Lieutenant Carey's statement:-- "On the 31st May I was informed by Colonel Harrison, A. Q. M. G. , thatthe Prince Imperial was to start on the 1st June to ride over theroad selected by me for the advance of the column, for the purposeof selecting a camping-ground for the 2nd June. I suggested at oncethat I should be allowed to go with him, as I knew the road andwanted to go over it again for the purpose of verifying certainpoints. To this Colonel Harrison consented, reminding me that thePrince was going at his own request to do this work, and that I wasnot to interfere with him in any way. For our escort, six Europeansof Bettington's Horse and six Basutos were ordered. Bettington's menwere paraded at 9 A. M. , but owing to some misunderstanding theBasutos did not turn up, and, the Prince being desirous ofproceeding at once, we went without them. On arriving at the ridgebetween Itelezi and Incenci, I suggested waiting for them, but thePrince replied, 'Oh no; we are quite strong enough, ' or words tothat effect. We proceeded on our reconnaissance from there, haltingabout half-an-hour on a high hill overlooking the Ityotyozi for thePrince to sketch. From here the country was visible for miles, andno sign of the enemy could be discovered. We then descended into thevalley, and, entering a kraal, off saddled, knee-haltering ourhorses. We had seen the deserted appearance of the country, and, though the kraal was to the right, surrounded by mealies, we thoughtthere was no danger in encamping. If any blame is attributable toany one for this, it is to me, as I agreed with the Prince that wewere perfectly safe. I had been over this ground twice before andseen no one, and the brigade-major of the cavalry brigade had riddenover it with only two or three men, and laughed at me for taking solarge an escort. We had with us a friendly Zulu, who, in answer tomy inquiries, said no Zulus were about. I trusted him, but stillkept a sharp look-out, telescope in hand. In about an hour--that is, 3. 40 P. M. --the Prince ordered us to saddle up. We went into themealies to catch our horses, but took at least ten minutes saddling. While doing so, the Zulu guide informed us he had seen a Zulu in thedistance, but as he did not appear concerned, I saw no danger. ThePrince was saddled up first, and, seeing him ready, I mounted, themen not being quite ready. The Prince then asked if they were allready; they answered in the affirmative, and he gave the word, 'Prepare to mount. ' At this moment I turned round, and saw thePrince with his foot in the stirrup, looking at the men. Presently Iheard him say, 'Mount, ' and turning to the men saw them vault intotheir saddles. At this moment my eyes fell on about twenty blackfaces in the mealies, twenty to thirty yards off, and I saw puffs ofsmoke and heard a rattling volley, followed by a rush, with shoutsof 'Usutu!' There was at once a stampede. Two men rushed past me, and as every one appeared to be mounted, I dug the spurs into myhorse, which had already started of his own accord. I felt sure noone was wounded by the volley, as I heard no cry, and I shouted out, 'Keep to the left, and cross the donga, and rally behind it!' At thesame time I saw more Zulus in the mealies on our left flank, cuttingoff our retreat. I crossed the donga behind two or three men, butcould only get beyond one man, the others having ridden off. Ridinga few hundred yards on to the rise, I stopped and looked round. Icould see the Zulus after us, and saw that the men were escaping tothe right, and that no one appeared on the other side of the donga. The man beside me then drew my attention to the Prince's horse, which was galloping away on the other side of the donga, saying, 'Ifear the Prince is killed, sir!' I immediately said, 'Do you thinkit is any use going back?' The trooper pointed to the mealies on ourleft, which appeared full of Kaffirs, and said, 'He is dead longago, sir; they assegai wounded men at once. ' I considered he hadfallen near the kraal, as his horse was going from that direction, and it was useless to sacrifice more lives. I had but one man nearme, the others being some 200 yards down the valley. I accordinglyshouted to them to close to the left, and rode on to gain a driftover the Tombokala River, saying to the man at my side, 'We willkeep back towards General Wood's camp, not returning the same waywe came, and then come back with some dragoons to get the bodies. 'We reached camp about 6. 30 P. M. When we were attacked our carbineswere unloaded, and, to the best of my belief, no shots were fired. Idid not see the Prince after I saw him mounting, but he was mountedon a swift horse, and I thought he was close to me. Besides thePrince, we lost two troopers, as well as the friendly Zulu. Twotroopers have been found between the donga and the kraal, coveredwith assegai wounds. They must have fallen in the retreat and beenassegaied at once, as I saw no fighting when I looked round. " The court-martial condemned Lieutenant Carey, and he was sent homeunder arrest. But eventually, owing to the intervention of thebereaved Empress, and many sympathetic friends, the unfortunateofficer was released. The news of the calamity was received withprofound grief throughout the country. Some mourned the death of aPrince, some sighed over the extinction of Napoleonic hopes, officers regretted the loss of a promising comrade, and mothersspent tears of sympathy for the great lady, Empress and mother, whohad thus been bereft of her only child. THE VICTORY To return to the progress of the war. On the 26th of June thelong-expected junction of the columns was on the eve of beingeffected. Cetchwayo was pretending to make overtures for peace, though at the same time his people were endeavouring to enter intoalliance with rebellious Boers. He even sent the sword of the PrinceImperial as a peace-offering. On the envelope, however, hisamanuensis, one Cornelius Vjin (a Dutchman), pencilled the fact thatthe king had 20, 000 men with him. The reply of Lord Chelmsford wasas follows:---- "If the Induna, Mundula, brings with him the 1000 rifles taken atIsandlwana, I will not insist on 1000 men coming in to lay downtheir arms, if the Zulus are afraid to come. He must bring the twoguns and the remainder of the cattle. I will then be willing tonegotiate. As he has caused me to advance by the great delay he hasmade, I must now go to the Umvolosi to enable my men to drink. Iwill consent, pending negotiations, to halt on the further bank ofthe river, and will not burn any kraals until the 3rd of July, provided no opposition is made to my advance to the position on theUmvolosi, by which day, the 3rd of July, at noon, the conditionsmust be complied with. If my force is fired on, I shall considernegotiations are at an end, and to avoid any chance of this, it isbest that Mundula come to my camp at daybreak or to-night, and thatthe Zulus should withdraw from the neighbourhood of the river toUlundi. I cannot stop the general in command of the coast army untilthese conditions are complied with. " Of course nothing was seen of Mundula, and preparations were madefor the reception of the enemy. Newdigate and Wood laagered theirwaggons and prepared for the arrival of an impi of some 20, 000 Zulusadvancing from Ulundi. On the following day a large force underColonel Buller advanced to Nodwengu kraal, and some stragglers werekilled. One of these was struck by Lord William Beresford, who, inthe sporting manner characteristic of him, cried, "First spear, byJove!" On the morning of the memorable 4th of July the army, crossingUmvolosi River, marched to a higher plateau--where once the Zulushad vanquished the Boers--there to prepare for battle. The Zulus, some 20, 000 strong, after many war dances and cries, were marshalledforth by their king to an open plain between the Nodwengu and Ulundikraals. Our troops were formed up in a hollow parallelogram, in thecentre being the native contingent with ammunition waggons. The foursides of this parallelogram were formed of eight companies of the13th Regiment, five of the 80th Regiment, the 90th, 58th, and 34thRegiments, together with the 17th Lancers and the mountedirregulars. At the corners and centre artillery was placed. The Zulus advanced steadily, in horn fashion, with theircharacteristic coolness and courage. The deadly fusillade from ourguns had no perceptible effect. On and on they came, surging in adense brown crescent, till within twenty yards of the British lines, when, with the hail and storm of bullets crashing and blinding them, they hesitated! That moment's hesitation was fatal--their one chanceslipped! A few warriors rushed onwards, many wavered, and graduallythe powerful horns were broken and disorganised. Then our Lancerswith a gallant charge dashed into the fray, plunging into the blackswarm that still met fury with fury. Captain Edgell was killed, andmany other officers had miraculous escapes. Once the enemy strove torally, but the effort was hopeless, and the magnificent Zuluwarriors were forced at last to turn and flee. Their defeat wassignal. Though the enemy numbered 20, 000 to 5000 of our troops, theLancers with the Irregular Horse did splendid work, and ere all wasover 1000 Zulus bit the dust. Then came the final march to Ulundi. This place, wholly deserted, was fired, and while the sky glowed with red and gold reflections ofthe conflagration, the victorious forces, worn out yet triumphant, returned to the laagered camp they had left at daybreak. [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF ULUNDI--FINAL RUSH OF THE ZULUS. THEBRITISH SQUARE IN THE DISTANCE. Drawing by R. Caton Woodville. ] The first news of the victory was carried to the Colony by Mr. Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent of the _Daily News_, who washimself wounded in the struggle. Starting instantly after thedecisive battle, in fourteen hours he rode a distance of 110 milesto the nearest telegraph station at Landman's Drift, on the BuffaloRiver. In thus exposing his life in the interests not only of hisjournal but his country, he for ever associated himself with one ofthe most interesting and thrilling campaigns of the century. Lord Chelmsford's despatch gives a concise description of the day'swork:-- "Cetchwayo, not having complied with my demands by noon yesterday, July 3, and having fired heavily on the troops at the water, Ireturned the 114 cattle he had sent in and ordered a reconnaissanceto be made by the mounted force under Colonel Buller. This waseffectually made, and caused the Zulu army to advance and showfight. "This morning a force under my command, consisting of the seconddivision, under Major-General Newdigate, numbering 1870 Europeans, 530 natives, and eight guns, and the flying columns underBrigadier-General Wood, numbering 2192 Europeans, 573 natives, fourguns, and two Gatlings, crossed the Umvolosi River at 6. 15, andmarching in a hollow square, with the ammunition and entrenchingtool carts and bearer company in its centre, reached an excellentposition between Nodwengu and Ulundi, about half-past 8 A. M. Thishad been observed by Colonel Buller the day before. "Our fortified camp on the right bank of the Umvolosi River was leftwith a garrison of about 900 Europeans, 250 natives, and one Gatlinggun, under Colonel Bellairs. Soon after half-past seven the Zuluarmy was seen leaving its bivouacs and advancing on every side. " "The engagement was shortly afterwards commenced by the mounted men. By nine o'clock the attack was fully developed. At half-past ninethe enemy wavered; the 17th Lancers, followed by the remainder ofthe mounted men, attacked them, and a general rout ensued. "The prisoners state that Cetchwayo was personally commanding andhad made all the arrangements himself, and that he witnessed thefight from Gikarzi kraal, and that twelve regiments took part in it. If so, 20, 000 men attacked us. "It is impossible to estimate with any correctness the loss of theenemy, owing to the extent of country over which they attacked andretreated, but it could not have been less, I consider, than 1000killed. By noon Ulundi was in flames, and during the day allmilitary kraals of the Zulu army and in the valley of the Umvolosiwere destroyed. At 2 P. M. The return march to the camp of thecolumn commenced. The behaviour of the troops under my command wasextremely satisfactory; their steadiness under a complete belt offire was remarkable. The dash and enterprise of the mounted brancheswas all that could be wished, and the fire of the artillery verygood. A portion of the Zulu force approached our fortified camp, andat one time threatened to attack it. The native contingent, forminga part of the garrison, were sent out after the action, and assistedin the pursuit. "As I have fully accomplished the object for which I advanced, Iconsider I shall now be best carrying out Sir Garnet Wolseley'sinstructions by moving at once to Entonganini, and thence toKmamagaza. I shall send back a portion of this force with emptywaggons for supplies, which are now ready at Fort Marshall. " All were rejoiced that Lord Chelmsford should have been able to gainthis victory before the arrival on the scene of Sir Garnet Wolseley, and there were many among his friends who regretted when heresigned. The following quotation from the _London Gazette_ explains the mostconspicuous of the brave deeds that were done during this campaign, though there were many more which came near to rivalling them, somany, indeed, that it would have been impossible to have givenhonours to all who deserved them:-- "WAR OFFICE, _June 17_. "The Queen has been graciously pleased to signify her intention toconfer the decoration of the Victoria Cross on the undermentionedofficers and soldier of her Majesty's army, whose claims have beensubmitted for her Majesty's approval for their gallant conductduring the recent operations in South Africa, as recorded againsttheir names, viz. :-- "Captain and Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel Redvers H. Buller, C. B. , 60thRifles, for his gallant conduct at the retreat at Zlobane on the28th of March 1879, in having assisted, while hotly pursued, byZulus, in rescuing Captain C. D'Arcy, of the Frontier Light Horse, who was retiring on foot, and carrying him on his horse until heovertook the rear-guard; also for having on the same date and underthe same circumstances conveyed Lieutenant C. Everitt of theFrontier Light Horse, whose horse had been killed under him, to aplace of safety. Later on Colonel Buller, in the same manner, saveda trooper of the Frontier Light Horse, whose horse was completelyexhausted, and who otherwise would have been killed by the Zulus, who were within eighty yards of him. "Major William K. Leet, first battalion 13th Regiment, for hisgallant conduct on the 28th of March 1879, in rescuing from theZulus Lieutenant A. M. Smith of the Frontier Light Horse, during theretreat from Zlobane. Lieutenant Smith while on foot, his horsehaving been shot, was closely pursued by the Zulus, and would havebeen killed had not Major Leet taken him upon his horse and rodewith him, under the fire of the enemy, to a place of safety. "Surgeon-Major James Henry Reynolds, Army Medical Department, forthe conspicuous bravery during the attack at Rorke's Drift on the22nd and 23rd of January 1879, which he exhibited in his attentionto the wounded under fire, and in his voluntarily conveyingammunition from the store to the defenders of the hospital, wherebyhe exposed himself to a cross fire from the enemy both in going andreturning. "Lieutenant Edward S. Browne, first battalion 24th Regiment, for hisgallant conduct on the 29th March 1879, when the Mounted Infantrywere being driven in by the enemy at Zlobane, in galloping back andtwice assisting on his horse, under heavy fire and within a fewyards of the enemy, one of the mounted men, who must otherwise havefallen into the enemy's hands. "Private Wassell, 80th Regiment, for his gallant conduct in having, at the imminent risk of his own life, saved that of Private Westwoodof the same regiment. On the 22nd of January 1879, when the camp atIsandlwana was taken by the enemy, Private Wassell retreated towardsthe Buffalo River, in which he saw a comrade struggling andapparently drowning. He rode to the bank, dismounted, leaving hishorse on the Zulu side, rescued the man from the stream, and againmounted his horse, dragging Private Westwood across the river, undera heavy shower of bullets. " CHAPTER III SIR GARNET WOLSELEY AT PRETORIA Our disaster at Isandlwana caused enormous excitement in Pretoria. Great and unconcealed rejoicing among the Boers took place; work wassuspended, all heads were put together to make capital out of GreatBritain's misfortunes. Notices were sent out on the 18th of March, summoning the burghers to a mass meeting to be held some thirtymiles from the town. These meetings, it must here be noted, werescarcely attended by invitation. A large number of the peopleappeared on compulsion, brought "to the scratch" by threats. One ofthe menaces, a favourite one according to Mr. Rider Haggard, wasthat those who did not attend should be made "biltong" of when thecountry was given back. Biltong is meat cut into strips and hung inthe sun to dry. The result of the notices, backed by threats, was ameeting of some three thousand armed Boers, who evidently meantmischief. The threatening aspect of the Boers caused the corps known as thePretoria Horse, a corps raised for the purpose of acting as cavalryon the Zulu border, to be retained for service in and around thecapital. While matters stood thus, and the general discontent seemedto portend even further hostilities, Sir Bartle Frere went toPretoria for the purpose of discussing affairs with the Boerleaders. These all clamoured for their independence. They had goneas far as to assert it by stopping posts, carts, and persons, andsending armed patrols about the country. Nothing definite resulted from this attitude, however, for beforevery long the conclusion--the successful conclusion--of the Zulu warappeared imminent, and those in revolt against British authority sawplainly that there would shortly be troops in plenty at hand torestore law and order. Consequently for the time being theysubsided. The loyal inhabitants of the Transvaal entertained SirBartle Frere prior to his departure, and at the public dinner givenon that occasion at Potchefstrom, he took the opportunity to assurethem that the Transvaal would never be given back! It may beinteresting to some to know, that at a public meeting on the 24thof April in Pretoria, within a week of the breaking up of the campwhich had been threatening its safety, the following resolution waspassed:-- "This meeting reprobates most strongly the action of a certainsection of the English and Colonial press for censuring, withoutsufficient knowledge of local affairs, the policy and conduct of SirBartle Frere, and it desires not only to express its sympathy withSir Bartle Frere, and its confidence in his policy, but also to goso far as to congratulate most heartily her Majesty the Queen, theHome Government, and ourselves, on possessing such a true, considerate, and faithful servant as his Excellency the HighCommissioner. " Having made allusion to Sir Bartle Frere's departure, it may be aswell to explain that before the battle of Ulundi it was arrangedthat Sir Garnet Wolseley should be sent out from home to supersedeLord Chelmsford in the command of the army, Sir H. Bulwer asGovernor of Natal, and Sir Bartle Frere as High Commissioner of theTransvaal, Natal, and all the eastern portion of South Africa. SirGarnet reached Cape Town on the 28th of June, and proceeded withoutdelay to Natal. But, as we know, before he could reach the seat ofwar the battle of Ulundi was won. The fighting was now at an end; the Zulus expressed themselvesbeaten, and Cetchwayo, after an exciting chase, which space does notpermit us to describe, was taken prisoner on the 28th of August. Hewas afterwards removed to Cape Town, and rooms were given him in thecastle. Hostilities having happily terminated in Zululand, SirGarnet Wolseley then started for Pretoria. He there finally set upthe government of a Crown Colony with a nominative Executive Counciland Legislative Assembly. One of his first acts on reaching Pretoria was to issue a notableproclamation. It ran thus:---- "Whereas it appears, that notwithstanding repeated assurances ofcontrary effect given by her Majesty's representatives in thisterritory, uncertainty or misapprehension exists among some of herMajesty's subjects as to the intention of her Majesty's Governmentregarding the maintenance of British rule and sovereignty over theterritory of the Transvaal: and whereas it is expedient that allgrounds for such uncertainty or misapprehension should be removedonce and for all beyond doubt or question: now therefore I do herebyproclaim and make known, in the name and on behalf of her Majestythe Queen, that it is the will and determination of her Majesty'sGovernment that this Transvaal territory shall be, and shallcontinue to be for ever, an integral portion of her Majesty'sdominions in South Africa. " On the same subject Sir Bartle Frere, writing to England, said thathe was very certain "that to give up the Transvaal is as little tobe thought of as surrendering Ireland or India. " In his opinion theBoer malcontents were few and inconsequential, most of the leadersand instigators being foreigners, who were personally interested inmaking themselves prominent, owing to the prevailing notion that thecountry would be given up. As to the effect of the abandonment ofthe Transvaal on the prospects of confederation he said: "To everycolony concerned such a step would appear as a confession ofweakness, of infirmity of purpose, and of disregard for solemnpledges and obligations, which would destroy all respect, all wishto belong to a Government which could so behave. " In writing to Sir M. Hicks Beach, in December 1879, Sir Bartle gavehis personal impression of the feeling in Pretoria at the time ofthe annexation:-- "When our power of enforcing the law and upholding the authority of Government were at the lowest, in April last, ... Experienced men at Pretoria gave me, through Colonel Lanyon, the following estimate of the strength of parties in the malcontent camp. The educated and intelligent men of influence, who advocated the most extreme measures, or were prepared to acquiesce in them, were reckoned at not more than eight. Three, or perhaps four, were men of property in the Transvaal; the rest foreign adventurers, with no property and little weight beyond that due to their skill as political agitators. Their unflinching and uncompromising followers in the Boer camp were not reckoned at more than eighty. The disaffected waverers who, according to circumstances, would follow the majority either to acts of overt resistance to Government and lawless violence, or to grumble and disperse, 'accepting the inevitable, ' were reckoned at about eight hundred at the outside. The rest of the camp, variously estimated as containing from sixteen hundred to four thousand in all, but probably never exceeding two thousand five hundred present at one time, were men brought to the camp by intimidation, compulsion, or curiosity, who would not willingly resist the authority of Government, and would, if assured of protection, prefer to side with it. " Viewed in the light of later events, these opinions are extremelyinteresting and cannot be disregarded. [Illustration: OFFICER of the 16th LANCERS. Photo by Gregory and Co. , London. ] Before passing on, it is necessary to state that during the periodfrom 1878 to 1879, the native chief Sekukuni--Cetchwayo's dog, asthe blacks called him--had become obstreperous. He had been engagedin raids into the Transvaal--raids of the same character as thosewhich, as has been already mentioned, had helped to bring about thecollapse of the Republic. Colonel Rowland's expedition, whichstarted in November 1878 for the suppression of this ruffian, wasbaffled by fever and horse sickness. Colonel Lanyon in the followingJune returned to the attack, and was on the eve of success, when SirGarnet Wolseley (who arrived late in that month) sent orders tocease operations. These orders he found, on reaching theTransvaal, to be a mistake. Sekukuni was not a person to be trifledwith nor ignored, so the campaign began again in November, with theresult that within a period of eight days the chief's stronghold wastaken and himself made prisoner. About fifty Europeans and some fivehundred Swazi allies were killed or wounded. Here we see, within one year, how much was done for the protectionof the Transvaal at the cost of British money and British blood. Looking back, it is easy to perceive that, but for our intervention, the South African Republic would have been slowly but effectuallyswallowed up. Cetchwayo and Sekukuni between them would have made ameal of the Transvaal. The brilliant and complete success of Sir Garnet Wolseley was highlypraised, and the names of Colonel Lanyon, Captain Clark, R. A. , andCaptain Carrington especially mentioned as deserving a share of thecredit for the accurate information they had collected during theprevious months. So much having been done for the security of the Boers and for themaintenance of British prestige, it is no marvel that Sir GarnetWolseley thought himself justified in expressing the trend ofBritish policy in plain terms. At the dinner given at Pretoria onthe 17th of December 1879 he took the opportunity of making theBritish programme well understood. He declared with emphasis thatthere could be no question of resigning the sovereignty of thecountry. "There is no Government, " he said, "Whig or Tory, Liberal, Conservative, or Radical, who would dare under any circumstances togive back this country. They would not dare, because the Englishpeople would not allow them!" At that time it was evident that SirGarnet had never heard the story of the philanthropic Belarmine, anindividual who gave himself to the she-bear to save her and heryoung ones from starvation. Or, if the tale was known to him, heprobably took it for what it was worth, and never foresaw that theBritish Government would emulate the action of the self-sacrificinglunatic, and spend precious blood for the sole purpose of nourishingand resuscitating the powers of a languishing enemy. MR. GLADSTONE OUT OF OFFICE AND IN OFFICE But British speeches and proclamations had ceased to impress theBoers. They had had too many of them, and they began to think theBritish Government a somewhat knock-kneed institution whose jointshad ceased to hold together. Sir Garnet Wolseley, however, withcharacteristic energy and determination, dealt with the malcontentsone by one, converting them, and causing them to sensibly consideron which side their bread was buttered. Indeed, so diplomaticallydid he conduct his work, that a sop was given to the aggressivePretorius, who, instead of being put in prison as he deserved, wasoffered a seat on the Executive Council, with a salary attached. This he was inclined to jump at, but, at the time, public feelingran too high to allow of his making a decision. The fact was thatthe political speeches delivered by Mr. Gladstone in the south ofScotland, during the months of November and December 1879, wereputting a new complexion on affairs. They were reprinted all theworld over, and they were profusely circulated among the Boers. TheBoer leaders and obstructionists at once saw in this Britishstatesman their saviour, and were convinced that, on the return ofMr. Gladstone to power, their independence would be assured. Theytherefore sent Messrs. Kruger and Joubert as a deputation to theCape, and these two gentlemen persuaded the Cape Parliament toreject the Confederation Scheme then being proposed by Sir BartleFrere. Selections from the attacks on the Government, from which theBoers then derived their encouragement and support, are herereprinted in order that the sincerity of Mr. Gladstone's attitudemay be examined. Speaking in Edinburgh, he said of the Government:-- "They have annexed in Africa the Transvaal territory, inhabited by afree European, Christian, Republican community, which they havethought proper to bring within the limits of a Monarchy, althoughout of 8000 persons in that Republic qualified to vote upon thesubject, we are told--and I have never seen the statement officiallycontradicted--that 6500 protested against it. These are thecircumstances under which we undertake to transform Republicans intosubjects of a Monarchy. " Now, Sir T. Shepstone's despatches show that the ground on which theTransvaal was annexed was because the State was drifting intoanarchy, was bankrupt, and was about to be destroyed by nativetribes. He said "that most thinking men in the country saw no otherway out of the difficulty, " and Carlyle has taught us what is theproportion between thinking men and the general public. He alsosaid, in the fifteenth paragraph of his despatch to Lord Carnarvonof the 6th of March 1877, that petitions signed by 2500 people, representing every class of the community, out of a total adult malepopulation of 8000, had been presented to the Government of theRepublic, setting forth its difficulties and dangers, and praying it"to treat with me for their amelioration or removal. " He likewisestated, and with perfect truth, that many more would have signed hadit not been for the terrorism that was exercised, and that all thetowns and villages in the country desired the change. Mr. Gladstone went on to say:-- "We have made war on the Zulus. We have thereby become responsiblefor their territory; and not only this, but we are now, as itappears from the latest advices, about to make war upon a chieflying to the northward of the Zulus; and Sir Bartle Frere, who wasthe great authority for the proceedings of the Government inAfghanistan, has announced in South Africa that it will be necessaryfor us to extend our dominions until we reach the Portuguesefrontier to the north. So much for Africa. " At Dalkeith he remarked:-- "If we cast our eyes to South Africa, what do we behold? That anation whom we term savages have, in defence of their own land, offered their naked bodies to the terribly improved artillery andarms of modern European science, and have been mowed down byhundreds and by thousands, having committed no offence, but having, with rude and ignorant courage, done what were for them, and donefaithfully and bravely what were for them the duties of patriotism. You may talk of glory, you may offer rewards, --and you are right togive rewards to the gallantry of your soldiers, who I think areentitled not only to our admiration for courage, but to ourcompassion for the nature of the duties they have been called toperform--but the grief and pain none the less remain. " At Glasgow he continued in the same strain:-- "In Africa you have before you the memory of bloodshed, of militarydisaster, the record of 10, 000 Zulus--such is the computation ofBishop Colenso--slain for no other offence than their attempt todefend against your artillery, with their naked bodies, theirhearths and homes, their wives and families. You have the invasionof a free people in the Transvaal, and you have, I fear, in onequarter or another--I will not enter into details, which might beinjurious to the public interest--prospects of further disturbanceand shedding of blood. " These speeches, as may be imagined, did an incalculable amount ofmischief. Besides fanning the smouldering sparks of discontent, theyserved up catchwords wholesale for that section of the Britishpublic whose political machinery is largely fed by catchwords. But, as has been decided by axiom, "any stick will serve to beat a dogwith, " and the Transvaal difficulty was a convenient weapon for theattack on the Government. The real feeling of the Boer community wasan outside matter, and, as we shall presently see, had nothing to dowith the case, though in March 1880 Mr. Gladstone had thesatisfaction of receiving a letter from a committee of Boermalcontents, wherein "he was thanked for the great sympathy shown intheir fate. " The thanks were a little premature. In April 1880 theelections took place, and Mr. Gladstone came into power with alarge majority. Then he was asked the great question: Would hemaintain his oft-repeated pledge to retain the Transvaal, or wouldhe continue to take up the tone of his Midlothian denunciations? The riddle was shortly to be solved. In the debate on the Queen'sSpeech the Prime Minister thus expressed himself: "I do not knowwhether there is an absolute union of opinion on this side of theHouse as to the policy in which the assumption of the Transvaaloriginated. Undoubtedly, as far as I am myself concerned, I did notapprove of that assumption. I took no part in questioning it nor inthe attempt to condemn it, because, in my opinion, whether theassumption was wise or unwise, it having been done, no good but onlymischief was to be done by the intervention of this House. Butwhatever our original opinions were on that policy--and the opinionsof the majority of those who sit on this side of the House weredecidedly adverse to it--we had to confront a state of facts; andthe main fact which met us was the existence of the large nativepopulation in the Transvaal, to whom, by the establishment of theQueen's supremacy, we hold ourselves to have given a pledge. That isthe acceptance of facts, and that is the sense in which my righthonourable friend, and all those who sit with him, may, if theythink fit, say we accept the principles on which the late Governmentproceeded. It is quite possible to accept the consequences of apolicy, and yet to retain the original difference of opinion withregard to the character of that policy as long as it was a matter ofdiscussion. " And shortly after he wrote to Messrs. Kruger and Joubert:-- "It is undoubtedly matter for much regret that it should, since theannexation, have appeared that so large a number of the populationof Dutch origin in the Transvaal are opposed to the annexation ofthat territory, but it is impossible to consider that question as ifit were presented for the first time. We have to deal with a stateof things which has existed for a considerable period, during whichobligations have been contracted, especially, though notexclusively, towards the native population, which cannot be setaside. "Looking to all the circumstances, both of the Transvaal and therest of South Africa, and to the necessity of preventing a renewalof disorders, which might lead to disastrous consequences, not onlyto the Transvaal, but to the whole of South Africa, our judgment is, that the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish her sovereignty overthe Transvaal, but, consistently with the maintenance of thatsovereignty, we desire that the white inhabitants of the Transvaalshould, without prejudice to the rest of the population, enjoy thefullest liberty to manage their local affairs. We believe that thisliberty may be most easily and promptly conceded to the Transvaal asa member of a South African Confederation. " THE COMMENCEMENT OF REBELLION When the Liberal Ministry came into power, it will be observed, Mr. Gladstone's attitude changed, and that he was compelled to abandonthe sympathetic tone of his Midlothian speeches. How far he reallymeant to be bound by the promise made that "the Queen cannot beadvised to relinquish her sovereignty over the Transvaal" is notknown, for later on, in June 1881, in a letter to the Transvaalloyalists, he explains that there was "no mention of the terms ordate of this promise. If the reference be to my letter of the 8th ofJune 1880 to Messrs. Kruger and Joubert, I do not think the languageof that letter justifies the description given. Nor am I sure inwhat manner, or to what degree, the fullest liberty to manage theirlocal affairs, which I then said her Majesty's Government desired toconfer on the white population of the Transvaal, differs from thesettlement now about being made in its bearing on the interests ofthose whom your committee represents. " This letter was a masterpiece of one whose talent for ambiguity wasbecoming world famous, and a stone in shape of a loaf was thushurled at the heads of the expectant loyalists. But to return to the events of 1880. Finding that the Premier was nolonger to be the mainstay of their hopes, the Boers began to renew theiragitations. These agitations, it will be remembered, during the end ofthe Zulu war and Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival in the Transvaal, weremerely suppressed, because at that time British ascendency throughoutthe country seemed to be established. An excellent opportunity forrebellion now suggested itself. The Cape Government was engaged with theBasuto war. Sir Owen Lanyon, who succeeded Sir T. Shepstone in March1879, had supplied a body of 300 or more volunteers--mostlyloyalists--to assist in the military operations, while the only regimentof cavalry had been sent elsewhere by Sir Garnet Wolseley. Big thingshave often small beginnings, and the Boer rebellion, that has brought somany complications in its train, commenced with a very small incident. Acertain Bezeidenhout, having refused to pay his taxes, had, by order, some of his goods seized and put up to auction. This was the signal forthe malcontents to attack the auctioneer and rescue the goods. So greatbecame the uproar and confusion, the women aiding and abetting the menin their disobedience of the law, that military assistance was summoned. Major Thornhill, with a few companies of the 21st Regiment, was sent tosupport the Landrost in arresting the rioters, and special constableswere enrolled to assist him in restoring order. But these unitedexertions were unavailing. All attempts to carry out the arrests wereopenly set at defiance. This scene occurred on the 11th of November1880. On the 26th Sir George Colley--who had relieved Sir GarnetWolseley as Commander-in-Chief--was applied to for more troops. SirGeorge, who was daily expecting an outbreak of Pondos, and a possibleappeal for help from Cape Colony, merely suggested that the "authoritiesshould be assisted by the loyal inhabitants. " This, it must be owned, was hard on the royalists, who from that time to this have had to paydearly for their allegiance to the Crown. A mass meeting was held atPaade kraal, where Krugersdorp now stands, and the rioters unanimouslydecided to commit their cause to the Almighty, and to live or die in thestruggle for independence. Thereupon Messrs. Kruger, Pretorius, andJoubert were elected a triumvirate to conduct the Government, and on the16th of December 1880 (Dingaan's Day) the Republic was formallyproclaimed, and its flag again hoisted. The proclamation, dealing withthe events of the preceding years, and offering terms to her Majesty'sGovernment, was forwarded to Sir Owen Lanyon. The Boer leaders thereinexpressed their willingness to enter into confederation and to guidetheir native policy by general rules adopted in concurrence "with theColonies and States of South Africa, " and at the same time declared thatthey had no desire for war or the spilling of blood. "It lies, " theysaid, "in your hands to force us to appeal to arms in self-defence. " On the very day of the proclamation, however, blood was shed. Commandant Cronjé, with a party of burghers, marched intoPotchefstroom for the purpose of printing the proclamation. Theypromptly seized the printing-office, and Major Clarke, who thoughtit advisable to interfere, was refused admittance. Soon after a Boerpatrol fired on our mounted infantry, who returned the compliment. That was the signal for the opening of hostilities. On this matterit may be urged that Boer reports differ from ours, but Boerveracity may be defined by the algebraic quantity _x_, and cannot beaccepted. Lieutenant-Colonel Winsloe, of the 21st Regiment, who wascommanding at a fort outside the village, signalled orders to MajorClarke to begin firing. This officer was fortified in the Landrost'soffice with a small force of some twenty soldiers and twentycivilians, while the Boers occupied positions in the surroundinghouses. The siege lasted two days (during the 17th and the morningof the 18th), and then when one officer (Captain Falls) and five menhad been killed and the thatched roof fired, Major Clarke deemed itbest to surrender. Colonel Winsloe held the camp throughout the war, surrendering only after an armistice was declared. A still more terrible disaster was in store. Mr Rider Haggard, who isperhaps the best authority on the subject, describes it as a "most crueland carefully planned massacre. " Other writers, however, hold that theoutrage could scarcely be called a massacre, since Colonel Anstrutherhad been fully warned of the risks he ran of Boer treachery and Boerartifice. It appears that Colonel Anstruther had received orders fromSir Owen Lanyon to concentrate his forces in Pretoria. Accordingly, hemarched from Lydenburg--situated about 180 miles from Pretoria--withsuch troops as he had at his disposal. These were two companies of the94th Regiment. They were accompanied by three women, two children, and aponderous train of luggage-waggons. Their progress was necessarily slow, but the Colonel, in spite of having been warned of Boer ways and Boertactics, evinced no anxiety. Indeed, from all accounts it appears thathe followed the good old British habit of under-estimating the enemy'sphysical, while over-estimating his moral, qualities. For this reason heprobably disregarded the precautions necessary after the warnings he hadreceived on starting. Be this as it may, on the 20th of December he andhis long waggon-train were nearing a point called Bronker's Spruit, about thirty-eight miles from Pretoria, when suddenly there appeared ahuge crowd of some five hundred mounted Boers. From this crowd a man wasseen approaching with a white flag. The column, about half a mile inlength, halted; the band ceased; Colonel Anstruther advanced to theparley. The messenger then handed a letter. It was an intimation of theestablishment of the South African Republic, and declared that till SirOwen Lanyon's reply to the proclamation was received, and they wereaware whether war was or was not declared, they could not allow theprogress of troops. The Colonel's reply was plain. He was ordered toproceed to Pretoria, and proceed he would. Then, before Colonel Anstruther had rejoined his column, a volleywas poured in on them by the farmers, who, emerging from the coverof rocks and trees, had gradually closed round the troops. Avigorous but short resistance followed. The Boers, skilled by longpractice in marking their most cherished enemies, picked off theofficers one by one. Seven out of nine dropped to their guns, whilea perpetual hailstorm of bullets beat over men, women, and waggons. In a few minutes so many were disabled that the Colonel, himselfmortally wounded, had to surrender. Out of the party 56 were killedand 101 wounded. One of these was a woman. A great deal was said at the time by British sympathisers of thekindness of the Boers to the prisoners and wounded of theirantagonists; but the opinions of Mr. Rider Haggard and Sir OwenLanyon are worth considering. The former, in writing of thisengagement, says that "after the fight Conductor Egerton, with asergeant, was allowed to walk into Pretoria to obtain medicalassistance, the Boers refusing to give him a horse, or even allowhim to use his own.... I may mention that a Zulu driver, who waswith the rear-guard, and escaped into Natal, stated that the Boersshot all the wounded men who formed that body. His statement was toa certain extent borne out by the evidence of one of the survivors, who stated that all the bodies found in that part of the field, nearly three-quarters of a mile away from the head of the column, had a bullet-hole through the head or breast, in addition to theirother wounds. " The Administrator of the Transvaal in Council thuscomments on the occurrence in an official minute: "The surroundingand gradual hemming in under a flag of truce of a force, and theselection of spots from which to direct their fire, as in the caseof the unprovoked attack of the rebels upon Colonel Anstruther'sforce, is a proceeding of which very few like incidents can bementioned in the annals of civilised warfare. " Sir Owen Lanyon, writing from the scene of action in Pretoria, says--"The Boers were very clever in being kind to our woundedsoldiers, for they well knew that such action would obtain sympathyat home. But where it was impossible for their deeds to become knowntheir conduct was far from creditable to them. Poor Clarke and Raafwere kept for two months in a dark room, and were only allowed outtwice for exercise. Barlow was robbed of everything, and only leftthe clothes he stood in. A Hollander, who is secretary to Cronjé atPotchefstrom, is still wearing the rings of poor Captain Falls, whowas shot. Englishmen have been murdered, flogged, and robbed ofeverything. The Boers at Potchefstrom forced the prisoners of war todig their trenches, and some were shot from the Fort while soemployed. Woite and Van der Linden were shot as spies, because theyhad been in the Boer camp and left it some days before theyproclaimed the Republic. Carolus, a Cape boy, was shot by Boercourt-martial because he left the Fort when food became scarce. Awhite man and nine natives were similarly shot without any trial. Explosive bullets were used, notwithstanding that Colonel Winsloepointed out to the Boer leader in a letter that such was against therules of war. " There is ample evidence that acts of treachery and barbarity similarto and worse than those mentioned by Colonel Lanyon were perpetratedby the insurgents. THE FATE OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT The sole officer who escaped from the massacre at Bronker's Spruitwas Captain Elliot, who was subsequently treacherously murderedwhile crossing the Vaal. The account of this tragedy was given byMajor Lambart in a report to Sir George Colley, and should be readby all who wish to get a fair view of the events of that period, particularly by those who insist on our brother-relationship to theBoers:-- "SIR, --I have the honour to report, for the information of hisExcellency, that as I was returning from the Orange Free State onDecember 18 (where I had been on duty buying horses to mountCommandant Ferreira's men for the Basuto war, and also remounts formy troop of Mounted Infantry and the Royal Artillery), when aboutthirty miles from Pretoria, on the road from Heidelberg, I wassuddenly taken prisoner by a party of twenty or thirty Boers, whogalloped down on me (all around), and, capturing the horses, wastaken back to Heidelberg. After being there some six or eight days, I was joined by Captain and Paymaster Elliot, 94th Regiment (theonly officer not wounded in the attack on the detachment of the 94thRegiment), who arrived with some forty prisoners of war of the 94thRegiment. On the following day (the 24th of December) we received awritten communication from the Secretary of the RepublicanGovernment, to the effect 'that the members of the said Governmentwould call on us at 3. 30 that day, ' which they did. The purport oftheir interview being 'That at a meeting of Council they had decidedto give us one of two alternatives. (1) To remain prisoners of warduring hostilities in the Transvaal. (2) To be released on _parole, d'honneur_, that we would leave the Transvaal at once, cross intothe Free State under escort, and not bear arms against theRepublican Government during the war. ' Time being given us fordeliberation, Captain Elliot and myself decided to accept No. 2alternative, and communicated the same to the Secretary of the SouthAfrican Republic, who informed us, in the presence of theCommandant-General, P. Joubert, that we could leave next day, takingwith us all our private property. The following days beingrespectively Christmas Day and Sunday, we were informed we could notstart till Monday, on which day, having signed our _paroled'honneur_, my horses were harnessed, and we were provided with aduplicate of our parole or free pass, signed by Commandant-General, and escort of two men to show us the road to the nearest drift overthe Vaal River, distant twenty-five miles, and by which P. Joubertpersonally told us both we should cross, as there was a punt there. We started about 1 P. M. From the Boer camp, passing through the townof Heidelberg. After going about six or eight miles I noticed wewere not going the right road, and mentioned the fact to the escort, who said it was all right. Having been 'look-out' officer in theTransvaal, I knew the district well. I was certain we were goingwrong, but we had to obey orders. At nightfall we found ourselvesnowhere near the river drift; and were ordered to outspan for thenight, and next morning the escort told us they would look for thedrift. In spanning at daybreak we again started, but after drivingabout for some hours across country, I told the escort we would stopwhere we were while they went to search for the drift. Shortly afterthey returned and said they had found it, and we must come, which wedid, eventually arriving at the junction of two rivers (Vaal andKlip), where we found the river Vaal impassable, but which they saidwe must cross. I pointed out that it was impossible to get mycarriage or horses over by it, and that it was not the punt theGeneral said we were to cross. The escort replied it was toPretorius' Punt that the General told them to take us, and we mustcross; that we must leave the carriage behind and swim the horses, which we refused to do, as we should then have had no means ofgetting on. I asked them to show me their written instructions, which they did (written in Dutch), and I pointed out that the nameof Pretorius was not in it. I then told them they must either takeus back to the Boer camp again or on to the proper drift. We turnedback, and after going a few miles the escort disappeared. Notknowing where we were, I proposed to Captain Elliot we should go tothe banks of the Vaal and follow the river till we came to theproper punt. After travelling all Monday, Tuesday, and up tillWednesday about 1 P. M. , when we found ourselves four hours, ortwenty-five miles, from Spencer's Punt, we were suddenly stopped bytwo armed Boers who handed us an official letter, which was openedand found to be from the Secretary to the Republican Government, stating that the members were surprised that as officers andgentlemen we had broken our _parole d'honneur_ and refused to leavethe Transvaal; that if we did not do so immediately by the nearestdrift, which the bearers would show us, we must return as prisonersof war; that as through our ignorance of the language of the countrythere might be some misunderstanding, they were loth to think we hadwillingly broken our promise. We explained that we should reply tothe letter, and request them to take it to their Government, andwere prepared to go with them at once. They took us back to afarmhouse, where we were told to wait till they fetched theirCommandant, who arrived about 6 P. M. , and repeated to us the samethat was complained of in our letter of that day. We told him wewere ready to explain matters, and requested him to take our answerback to camp. He then ordered us to start at once for the drift. Iasked him, as it was then getting dark, if we could start early nextmorning, but he refused. So we started, he having said we shouldcross at Spencer's, being closest. As we left the farmhouse, Ipointed out to him that we were going in the wrong direction, but hesaid, 'Never mind, come on across a drift close at hand. ' When wegot opposite it, he kept straight on; I called to him, and said thiswas where we were to cross. His reply was, 'Come on. ' I then said toCaptain Elliot, 'They intend taking us back to Pretorius, ' adistance of some forty miles. Suddenly the escort (which had all atonce increased from two to eight men, which Captain Elliot pointedout to me, and I replied, 'I suppose they are determined we shallnot escape, which they need not be afraid of, as we are too keen toget over the border') wheeled sharp down to the river, stopped, andpointing to the banks, said, 'There is the drift; cross. ' Beingpitch dark, with vivid lightning, the river roaring past, and as Iknew impassable, I asked, 'Had we not better wait till morning, aswe do not know the drift?' They replied, 'No; cross at once. ' Idrove my horses into the river, when they immediately fell; liftedthem, and drove on about five or six yards, when we fell into ahole. Got them out with difficulty, and advanced another yard, whenwe got stuck against a rock. The current was now so strong, anddrift deep, my cart was turned over on to its side, and water rushedover the seat. I called out to the Commandant on the bank that wewere stuck, and to send assistance, or might we return? to which hereplied, 'If you do we will shoot you. ' I then tried, but failed toget the horses to move. Turning to Captain Elliot, who was sittingbeside me, I said, 'We must swim for it, ' and asked could he swim?to which he replied, 'Yes. ' I said, 'If you can't, I will stick toyou, for I can. ' While we were holding this conversation, a volleyfrom the bank, ten or fifteen yards off, was fired into us, thebullets passing through the tent of my cart, one of which must havemortally wounded poor Elliot, who only uttered the single word 'Oh!'and fell headlong into the river from the carriage. I immediatelysprang in after him, but was swept down the river under the currentsome yards. On gaining the surface of the water, I could see nothingof Elliot; I called out his name twice, but received no reply. Immediately another volley was fired at me, making the water hissaround where the bullets struck. I now struck out for the oppositebank, which I reached with difficulty in about ten minutes; but asit was deep, black mud, on landing I stuck fast, but eventuallyreached the top of the bank, and ran for about two thousand yardsunder a heavy fire the whole while. The night being pitch dark, butlit up every minute by vivid flashes of lightning, showed the enemymy whereabouts. I found myself now in the Free State, but where Icould not tell, but knew my direction was south, while, though itwas raining, hailing, and blowing hard, and bitterly cold, anoccasional glimpse of the stars showed me I was going right. Iwalked all that night and next day till one o'clock, when Ieventually crawled into a store kept by an Englishman called Mr. Groom, who did all in his power to help me. I had tasted no foodsince the previous morning at sunrise, and all the Dutch farmersrefused me water, so without hat or coat (which I had left on banksof Vaal), and shoes worn through, I arrived exhausted at the abovegentleman's place, who kindly drove me to Heilbron, where I took thepost-cart to Maritzburg. I fear that Captain Elliot must have beenkilled instantly, as he never spoke, neither did I see him again. Ihave to mention that both Captain Elliot and myself, on being toldby South African Republican Government that the soldiers who hadbeen taken prisoners were to be released on the same conditions asourselves, expressed a wish to be allowed to keep charge of them, which was refused, but we were told that waggons, food, and moneyshould be supplied to take them down country. But when they reachedSpencer's Punt over the Vaal were turned loose, without any of theabove necessaries, to find their way down country. They met anEnglish transport rider named Mr. F. Wheeler, who was going toPietermaritzburg with his waggon, which had been looted by theBoers, and who kindly gave them transport, provided them with food, and is bringing them to the city, which, as I passed them at theDrakensburg on Tuesday, they should reach on Sunday next--consistingof one sergeant and sixty-one men, all that remain of our Leydenburgdetachment and headquarters of the 94th Regiment. --I have the honourto remain, Sir, your obedient servant, "R. H. LAMBART, _Captain Royal Scots Fusiliers_. " Major Lambart's report speaks more eloquently than many descriptionsas to the character of the "simple-minded Boer. " We discovered toour cost during the Indian Mutiny that the "gentle native" was notall our fancy painted him, and it may be as well to realise that oursimple-minded and pious brother in the Transvaal is scarcely sorighteous as we have been led to suppose. [Illustration: THE ORANGE RIVER AT NORVAL'S PONT. Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen. ] LAING'S NEK Since we have been tracing the causes of the Boer rebellion, it maybe advisable to refer to a letter written on the 28th of December1880 by Sir Bartle Frere to Mr. F. Greenwood, editor of the _St. James's Gazette_. He therein throws a most important light on thepolitical position. He wrote: "In 1879, when I was among the Boersin the Transvaal, I found that the real wire-pullers of theirCommittee were foreigners of various nationalities, notably someHollanders (not Africanders), imbued with German SocialistRepublicanism, and an Irishman of the name of Aylward. I was told hewas a man of great natural ability, educated as a solicitor, anex-Fenian pardoned under another name (Murphy, I think), for turningQueen's evidence against others who had murdered the policeman atManchester. Emigrating to the Diamond Fields, he was tried, convicted, and suffered imprisonment there for homicide. When hecame out of prison he betook himself to the Transvaal and had acommand of foreign free lances under Mr. Burgers, then President ofthe Transvaal Republic, in his unsuccessful attempt to takeSecocoeni's stronghold. After the annexation of the Transvaal hecame to England and published one of the few readable books on theTransvaal, and went out to Natal during the darkest hours of ourZulu troubles, seeking employment; but he was an impossible man, andwas urging the Boers to rise at the same time that he was offeringhis services to me and Lord Chelmsford. Finally he settled atPietermaritzburg, where he was, when I last heard of him, as editorof the _Witness_, writing anti-English republicanism and seditionwith much ability, especially when opposing the Cape Government andits governor, whom he never forgave for warning the Boers againstfollowing Fenian advice. When I was in the Transvaal and afterwardsI found him always connected with any opposition to the EnglishGovernment. He knew all the leaders of the simple-minded but verysuspicious Boers, and had gained their ear, so that he had nodifficulty in persuading them to reject any good advice I offeredthem--'Wait-a-bit' being always the most acceptable suggestion youcan offer to a Boer. "Directly I heard of the attack on our troops in the Transvaal, Ifelt assured that my old acquaintance was pulling the wires with aview to create a diversion in favour of his old colleagues inIreland. "The attack took place apparently near the farm of Solomon Prinsloo, one of the most bitter malcontent Boers, who was always a firebrand, and who, when I visited the Boer camp in 1879, was with difficultyheld back by Pretorius and Kruger from directing an attack upon usin Pretoria. I very much doubt whether, without some such externalinstigation, the Boers would have broken out.... "The facts I have mentioned and many more about Aylward are onrecord in Scotland Yard, and in the Colonial Office, and I amanxious you should know the truth and not attribute too much of theblame in this sad business to the unfortunate, misguided Boers, thevictims of his bad advice, still less to any fault of ColonelLanyon's administration. " Sir Bartle was right in his conjecture, for Aylward had joined theinsurgents and was one of the acknowledged leaders of Joubert'sstaff. Major-General Hope Crealock, in a letter to Sir Bartle, wrote(January 7, 1881): "A young Irishman named S----, who knew Aylwardin Natal, and who was under my command in the Natal Pioneers, calledon me to-night and told me Aylward formerly used to boast of being aFenian, and vowed he would pay the English Government off for whathe had got, by raising the Boers whenever Ireland was rising; andwithin the last few days has written to him saying he gloried inbeing one of the instigators of the present Boer revolt, &c. , &c. Hewrote from Utrecht.... " It will be seen from these quotations that our relations with theTransvaal, hostile as they may have been, were scarcely truerelations--that the real enmity and rancour, the blood-spilling andwretchedness that commenced at this period, and are at the moment ofwriting still continuing, were due, firstly, to party spirit inGreat Britain, and secondly, to the machinations of adventurers, who, having no status elsewhere, put the ignorance of a race offarmers to their own vile uses. To return to the events of the last chapter. When Sir Owen Lanyonheard of the misfortune that had befallen Colonel Anstruther'stroops, he issued a proclamation placing the country under martiallaw, and Sir George Colley, dreading the results of bad blood raisedbetween Boers and British soldiers by the affair at Bronker'sSpruit, caused the following general order to be published:-- "HEADQUARTERS, PIETERMARITZBURG, _December 28th, 1880_. "The Major-General Commanding regrets to inform the troops of hiscommand, that a detachment of 250 men of the 94th Regiment, on itsmarch from Leydenburg to Pretoria, was surprised and overwhelmed bythe Boers--120 being killed and wounded, and the rest takenprisoners. The attack seems to have been made while the troops werecrossing a spruit, and extended to guard a long convoy. TheMajor-General trusts to the courage, spirit, and discipline of thetroops of his command, to enable him promptly to retrieve thismisfortune, and to vindicate the authority of her Majesty and thehonour of the British arms. It is scarcely necessary to remindsoldiers of the incalculable advantage which discipline, organisation, and trained skill give them over numerous butundisciplined forces. These advantages have been repeatedly proved, and have never failed to command success in the end against greaterodds, and greater difficulties, than we are now called on to contendwith. To all true soldiers the loss we have suffered will serve asan incentive and stimulus to greater exertions; and theMajor-General knows well he can rely on the troops he has tocommand, to show that endurance and courage which are the proudinheritance of the British army. The stain cast on our arms must bequickly effaced, and rebellion must be put down; but theMajor-General trusts that officers and men will not allow thesoldierly spirit which prompts to gallant action to degenerate intoa feeling of revenge. The task now forced on us by the unprovokedaction of the Boers is a painful one under any circumstances, andthe General calls on all ranks to assist him in his endeavours tomitigate the suffering it must entail. We must be careful to avoidpunishing the innocent for the guilty, and must remember, thatthough misled and deluded, the Boers are in the main a brave andhigh-spirited people, and actuated by feelings that are entitled toour respect. In the operations now about to be undertaken, theGeneral confidently trusts that the good behaviour of the men willgive him as much cause for pride and satisfaction as their conductand gallantry before the enemy, and that the result of their effortswill be a speedy and successful termination to the war. "The proclamation had a good effect, particularly among the Dutch, who, though loyal to the Crown, were much in sympathy with theirkinsmen in the Transvaal. On the 23rd of January 1881, GeneralColley sent an ultimatum ordering the insurgents to disperse. Ofthis no notice was taken until General Joubert, from Laing's Nek onJanuary the 29th, sent the following reply:---- "_To_ SIR GEORGE P. COLLEY. "We beg to acknowledge receipt of yours of the 23rd. In reply, we beg to state that, in terms of the letter, we are unable to comply with your request, as long as your Excellency addresses us as insurgents, and insinuates that we, the leaders, are wickedly misleading a lot of ignorant men. It is nearly hopeless for us to attempt to find the proper words for reply; but before the Lord we would not be justified if we did not avail ourselves of this, perhaps the last, opportunity of speaking to you as the representative of her Majesty the Queen and people of England, for whom we feel deep respect. We must emphatically repeat, we are willing to comply with any wishes of the Imperial Government tending to the consolidation and confederation of South Africa; and, in order to make this offer from our side as clear and unequivocal as possible, --although we have explained this point fully in all our documents, and especially in paragraphs 36 to 38 of our first proclamation, --we declare that we would be satisfied with a rescinding of the annexation and restoration of the South African Republic under a protectorate of her Majesty the Queen, so that once a year the British Flag shall be hoisted, all in strict accordance with the above-mentioned clauses of our first proclamation. If your Excellency resolves to reject this, we have only to submit to our fate; but the Lord will provide. " Sir George Colley started on the 24th of January from Newcastle forthe border. The road from Newcastle to Laing's Nek runs up aprecipitous hill for three miles, and thence leads down the steepmountain of Skheyns Hoogte. The movement of the column was slow andlaborious, the roads, if roads they could be called, were almostimpassable owing to great ruts, mud-holes deep enough to bury awaggon up to the bed-planks, with boulders and other impedimentsthrown in. Here, as Laing's Nek is so prominent a feature in our history, itmay be well to give Mr. Carter's concise description of thegeographical nature of the position:-- "Laing's Nek is the lowest point in an unbroken ridge which connectsthe Majuba Mountain with hills running right up to the banks of theBuffalo River. A slight cutting, not more than four or five feetdeep, forms the waggon road over this ridge; from the waggon road oneither side the ground runs up somewhat abruptly, and is stony andirregular. How gentle the rise is to the Nek from the level groundin front of it towards Newcastle (and along which the approach is bythe main road), may be judged from the fact that a horse can cantereasily up the slope, or for the matter of that, over the two milesof ground which lead to the foot of the slope. From the top of theridge to the level ground at the base is not more than five hundredyards. The chain of hills, in the centre of which is the Nek, issemicircular, the horns of the crescent pointing towards Newcastle, and offering strong positions for any force intent on defending theonly practicable approach to the Nek; but to occupy these flankpositions a large body of men would be necessary, as the area frompoint to point is great. On the reverse, or Coldstream side of theNek, the ground at the foot of the incline is broken and marshy, aregular drain for all the water running from the surrounding hills. " [Illustration: DRUM-MAJOR and DRUMMERS, COLDSTREAM GUARDS. Photo by Gregory and Co. , London. ] To return to the troops. While this column was advancing, the Boerswere also advancing in a parallel line to the Nek. The followingday, 25th, the British column reached the high ground overlookingthe Ingogo River, where they encamped (here the engagement of the8th of February took place). At dawn on the 26th the column againlaboriously mounted the terrible steeps leading to Mount Prospect, and fixed their camp about four miles from the Nek. Owing to theabominable state of the weather the nearing of the Nek was notattempted, and attack was postponed till the following day. Thenight was passed at Mount Prospect, and a laager made. [Illustration] At six o'clock on the morning of the 28th the advance was sounded, and at 9. 55 A. M. The guns began shelling the Nek. The Boers were notyet ready. Some took shelter behind the walls of Laing's Farmhouse, while others kept on the heights above, covered by the ridge fromshells. Those in Laing's kraals had a warm time when the NavalBrigade began to play on them with their guns, and they soonevacuated the place. Those on the Nek, after being for twenty minutes under a hot fire, were beginning to think they had had enough of it, when our linesceased firing, and the mounted squadron advanced to take ahillock--the most advanced spur of the Boer left flank position. The58th also prepared to charge. The officers commanding the mountedsquadron were Major Brownlow and Captain Hornby, while ColonelDeane, Major Essex (an officer with a charmed life, who survivedIsandlwana and the engagement at the Ingogo heights), Major Poole, Lieutenant Elwes, and Lieutenant Inman were in front of the 58th. The leading companies of the 58th having got half-way up the rise--aheavy business considering the slipperiness of the slopes--the firsttroop of the mounted squadron charged the kopje, going to right andleft of the lines taken by the 58th. No sooner were they withinsight of the Boers than they were greeted by a heavy fire thatemptied half their saddles. Still, those who were left mounted, reformed in a pouring shower of bullets, and again charged. But gallantry was of no avail, for there was no reserve to back upthe charge of mounted troops. Seventeen men were killed and wounded, and thirty-two horses killed. The repulse of this charge took place just as the 58th gained sightof the foe, who, flushed with triumph, could now turn theirattention from the mounted troops to the right flank of the 58th. The men, worn out with their sufficiently arduous task of climbing, crushed together, in consequence of their not having been ordered todeploy before making the ascent, dropped like nine-pins under theheavy fire of the Boers. Before the order to deploy could be carriedout, volley after volley was delivered into their ranks, and anenfilading fire was opened by the Boers on their right flank withdisastrous results. Meanwhile the Boers were well under cover behindtheir sheltered trenches, and it was impossible, while the 58th werecoming to closer quarters with them, to fire from the plains belowwithout risk to the assailants. As a natural consequence, therefore, the Boers, skilled as they are in marksmanship, were able at theirleisure to pick off each man as he approached. Seeing that the Boers were more than a match for him, Colonel Deaneresorted to the bayonet. But, just as the order was being obeyed hishorse was shot under him. Rising again on the instant, and crying "Iam all right, " to encourage his men, he rushed on, heading hisregiment, and again fell, this time mortally wounded. MajorHingeston, who then took command, fell also, and his gallant brotherofficers, Major Poole and Lieutenant Dolphin, shared the same fate. They were at that time within some thirty yards of the enemy. Sogreat was our loss that the charge could not be sustained, and manyofficers, who still persisted in emptying their revolvers on theenemy, were severely wounded. At last there was nothing for it butto fall back. The Boers, intoxicated with victory, now boldly cameout from cover, and poured volley after volley on the retiring men. But for the guns at the base of the hill, which were now able toplay on the enemy, these must have been entirely swept away. Sosmall was the margin between our men and the victors, that but forthe nicety of this artillery practice many of the men of the 58thmust have been accidentally killed. During the retreat LieutenantBaillie, carrying the regimental colours, was mortally wounded. Suchmagnificent deeds of heroism took place on this occasion that ofthemselves they would form an inspiriting volume. Lieutenant Hill ofthe 58th earned the Victoria Cross by his repeated deeds of valourin saving soldiers under heavy fire. The whole force fell back towards the camp, the casualties amongstthe 58th being seventy-three killed and one hundred wounded. A flagof truce was sent forward to the enemy, and both parties engaged inthe sad work of burying their dead and removing the wounded. Report says that on this occasion Kaffirs or Hottentots were seen tobe fighting among the Boer ranks. Very pathetic and very manly was the speech addressed by Sir GeorgeColley to the camp on the evening after the fight:--"Officers, non-commissioned officers, and men, --I have called you together thisevening, being desirous of saying a few words to you. I wish everyone present to understand that the entire blame of to-day's repulserests entirely upon me, and not on any of you. I congratulate the58th Regiment for the brave and noble manner in which they foughtto-day. We have lost many gallant men, and amongst them my intimatefriend, Colonel Deane. (Emotion. ) I might say, however, thatnotwithstanding the loss of many troops to-day, we have not lost oneatom of the prestige of England. It is my duty to congratulate MajorBrownlow on the gallant charge he made this day. Owing to the losswe have suffered, I am compelled to await the arrival ofreinforcements, but certainly we shall take possession of that hilleventually, and I sincerely hope that all those men who have sonobly done their duty to-day will be with me then. Good-night. " Of the mistakes that marked this attack it is unnecessary to write, for they have been freely discussed, and those who were responsiblehave laid down their lives in payment of whatever errors in judgmentthey may have committed. INGOGO Life in camp continued as usual until the 7th of February, when anescort proceeding with the post from Newcastle to the General'scamp, having encountered the enemy, been fired at, and forced toreturn, Sir George Colley thought a demonstration in force would besufficient to deter the Boers from further interference with theline of communication. Consequently the next morning, the 8th ofFebruary, he marched with five companies of the second battalion ofthe 60th Regiment, four guns and thirty-eight men of the MountedSquadron. The force crossed the river Ingogo, then only knee-deep, and gained a plateau in shape like an inverted L, the base being theside nearest Newcastle. On arrival here an orderly suddenly reportedthat the enemy, concealed among boulders and large blocks ofgranite, was waiting in great force. Almost immediately afterwardsabout a hundred mounted Boers became visible on the right. The orderwas given to prepare for action, and, just as the guns were on thepoint of firing, the Boers wheeled round and went off. They gallopedaway to the bottom of the ravine, followed by a shell which, unfortunately, burst beyond them. The Rifles were also firing, butunsuccessfully, at the retreating riders. Soon it became apparent, however, that the British party was surrounded on all sides by theenemy, who were comfortably screened by the tall tambookie grass andthe immense boulders that were to be found in clumps all round theposition. Our men were also hiding behind rocks and boulders, andfiring whenever a Boer head became visible. Soon after, theengagement opened in earnest. A hot fire was kept up by the9-pounder in charge of Lieutenant Parsons, R. A. , to which the enemyreplied, directly the gun was discharged, by a hail of bullets aimedat the gunners while they reloaded. In order to rout the Boers from their cover, an order was given tothe mounted men to charge. At that moment the Boers fired a heavyvolley, which incapacitated most of the horses and forced MajorBrownlow to retire to the plateau. Fortunately only one of the menwas wounded. The artillerymen now suffered considerably, having noshelter but the doubtful shelter of their guns, which afforded aconvenient mark for the Boers. As soon as the General, who was goingfrom point to point with his usual coolness, saw the state ofaffairs--ammunition and even gunners having run short--he sent toMount Prospect camp for reinforcements. Still the fight continued. The Boers now steadily and surely crept to close quarters, while theBritish columns became momentarily thinner and thinner. Yet everyman continued to hold his ground till hopelessly struck down. Hopelessly is a word used advisedly, for many who were struck downrose several times and continued to fire till mortally wounded. Of the splendid gallantry of the force it is impossible to sayenough. The fighting continued for six terrible hours through rainthat fell literally in torrents, in an arena where wounded and dyinglay thick, their despairing cries mingling with the continued growlof thunder interspersed with the roar of artillery. Then a whiteflag was displayed by the Boers. But, when the Rev. Mr. Ritchie inreturn displayed the British white flag, he was instantly firedupon. The object of the use of the white flag on the part of theBoers was to enable them to take advantage of the temporary inactionto make rushes to cover nearer to the British lines than that theyhad previously occupied! The fighting began, and, for the small bodyof British troops, continued disastrously. At last, when darknesscame on, both sides were forced to cease firing. Now and then, onlywhen a flash of lightning lit up the terrible scene, the firing ofbullets demonstrated that the Boers were still thoroughly on thealert. The darkness descended, and in the middle of the pouring rain andthe murky obscurity the noble British dead were counted. The woundedwere also tended as well as it was possible to tend them when waterand restoratives were wanting, and the only relieving moisture hadto be sucked from the storm-drenched grass. Finally, the General, viewing the deplorable state of the men, decided to withdraw theforce from the field. It was plain that any renewal of attack on themorrow by the reinforced Boers could but mean annihilation orsurrender. So the remnants of the force started on their returnjourney. This was now a terrible task, the Ingogo, which had beencrossed at knee-depth, had swollen dangerously; the gentle streamhad become a torrent. The bed of the river being full of holes, itwas in some places some ten to twelve feet deep. Of the perils by field and flood it would be impossible to speak atlength. Mr. Carter, who was present at the melancholy fight and awitness of all connected with the reverse, gives in his wonderfulnarrative of the Boer war an interesting description of the miseryof that return march:-- "Knowing that moments were precious in the then state of the river, I went ahead with the advance guard and crossed the stream; it wasthen nearly up to my armpits, and running very swiftly. By holdingmy rifle aloft, I managed to keep it dry, but every cartridge in mypockets was under water. Only with the greatest care, and thanks toa knowledge of the whereabouts of the treacherous hole in thedrift, did I manage to keep on my legs. On gaining the oppositebank, I scooped up and drained off a helmetful of the preciousfluid, and then urging on through the next ford--an insignificantone compared to the first--gained admission at Fermistone's hotel, after being duly cross-questioned through the keyhole of the door. Some hot tea and whisky was recommended by the host, and palatableit was. In a short time the other "Correspondent" arrived, _minus_his rifle. He had been carried down the stream like a cork, and onlysaved from drowning by being washed against some reeds at a bend ofthe river. He decided that he had had enough of the march for thatnight, and elected to go to bed. Next came in the General, and agentleman who claimed to be a surgeon (a Transvaal surgeon) escapedfrom the Boer lines. He had been allowed free access to the camp atMount Prospect, and had accompanied the Ingogo expedition, but notas a surgeon. From the General I learnt that there had been some menwashed down the stream in spite of the precaution adopted of joininghands. " The return to camp was still more trying. The roads were slippery asglass, and men and horses, thoroughly worn out, dropped exhausted bythe way. But it is needless to dwell on this melancholy event--anevent rendered so much more melancholy by regret for sublime effortwasted in the support of a Government that was at that very momententertaining the proposals for craven surrender. MAJUBA On Sunday, the 27th of February, Sir George Colley made his lastmove. During the afternoon of the previous day the General, who wasa great theorist, had been cogitating some scheme which he onlycommunicated to Colonel Stewart, and to one or two others. No soonerhad "lights out" been sounded, than an order was passed round fordetachments of the 58th, third battalion of the 60th Rifles, NavalBrigade, and Highlanders, to parade with three days' rations. Thenthe order came that the force was to form up by the redoubt nearestthe main road on their left. At ten a start was made, the Generaland staff riding in front, with the 58th leading, followed by the60th, and the Naval Brigade in the rear. The direction taken wasstraight up the Inguela Mountain. Arrived on a plateau abouthalf-way up, the troops proceeded by a path, narrow almost as asheep path, which winds across the steepest part of the mountain. Great boulders edged the hillside, and masses of rock hungperpendicularly above the surface of the ground. One false step andthe climber would have been hurled down some thirty feet, to bedashed to pieces against the stones, or entangled in the bush. Thismarch was conducted in strict silence, no voice being raised, andindeed not a breath more than was required for climbing expended. Men and officers, all were bent on the one great feat of mountingand gaining the summit. The march continued over loose stones, andboulders and obstacles multifarious--sometimes round wrong tracks, owing to mistakes of the guide, and sometimes over grass and glassyslopes, where a man could make progress merely by means of hands andknees. Thus the force stealthily ascended, creeping up in ones andtwos, the General and staff leading the way in ever-increasingdarkness and silence. So heavy was the work of ascent that, when at last they reached thetop, the troops almost dropped from exhaustion. It was thisexhaustion that is said by some to have influenced the General'splans, but others declare that he was not likely so to beinfluenced. Instead of attempting at once to throw up a roughentrenchment, he refused to permit it, declaring that the men werealready over fatigued. A slight entrenchment might have made all thedifference in the sad history of Majuba, but the General gave noorders to entrench, and thus the troops were left open to the enemy. At early dawn, on looking towards the Nek, it was obvious that alarge Boer force was there congregated, while at the base of themountain was the right flank of the Dutch camp. Gazing down from thegreat height which had been so perseveringly gained, all heartswarmed with a glow of triumph and of anticipation. The rocket tubesand Gatlings would soon arrive, and then those below would beawakened to the tune of the guns! From their point of vantage itseemed as though the British had the Boers at their mercy. The hilltop of Majuba was hollowed out basinwise, and there seemedonly a necessity to line the rim of it in the event of a rush fromthe enemy. But the suspicion that the Boers would creep from ridgeto ridge, and mount the crest, never dawned on any one. In the densedarkness it was impossible to become acquainted with the nature ofall sides of the hill, and the troops imagined them all to beequally impregnable. Mr. Carter, who was there, says that at this time some twentyHighlanders stood on the ridge watching the lights of the enemy, andpointing to the camp below them, and laughingly repeating theirchallenge, "Come up here, you beggars. " They never imagined it wouldbe possible for them indeed to come! He further states his beliefthat the reason why no entrenchments were attempted was that everystaff officer on Majuba felt certain "that the Boers would neverface the hill--entrenchments or no entrenchments on the summit--aslong as the British soldier was there. " For this almost fatuousbelief in their own security these gallant soldiers were destined topay heavily. So soon as daylight served to show our troops standing against thesky-line, the enemy began to advance at the base of the mountain. The first shot on that eventful day was fired at a Boer scout byLieutenant Lucy of the 58th, but the General, hearing it, sent wordto "stop that firing. " Silence again reigned. But in the meantimethe Boers were crawling cautiously up the hill after leaving theirhorses safely under cover. About 6 A. M. They opened a steady fire, to which the British troops responded cordially. The Boer bullets, though doubling those of the British, did little damage, as thetroops were partially sheltered within the basin of the hilltop. Thus the fight continued till nine, none of the officers at thattime even suspecting that the enemy would venture to "rush" theirstronghold. No one was wounded, and nothing was to be seen on anyside of the hill, as the Boers kept closely under cover. At thisjuncture many men, worn out and fatigued, laid themselves down tosleep. Suddenly Lieutenant Lucy appeared asking for reinforcements, and saying that the fire was "warming up" in his direction. Someminutes later the General, who was perpetually moving round theline, cool, collected, and calculating as ever, flashed a message toMount Prospect camp, ordering the 60th Rifles to be sent fromNewcastle to his support. Later the General espied two Boers within 600 yards or so of himmounting the ravine, and pointed them out. He had scarcely done thiswhen Commander Romilly fell. This gallant sailor was deservedlypopular, and gloom suddenly spread over the hitherto cheerful force. Still, no one dreamed that the Boers would really get to closequarters. The first awakening came when the firing, which had beentill then in single shots, poured upwards in volleys. From the soundit was evident that the enemy was much nearer than had beensupposed. The Highlanders, who were facing this unexpectedfusillade, were soon reinforced by the reserves which had beenordered to their assistance. [Illustration: TOP OF MAJUBA] The 58th, 92nd, and Naval Brigade disappeared over the ridge to meetthe enemy, and vigorously returned their fire. For one moment thatof the Boers appeared to slacken; then suddenly there came aprecipitate retreat of our men, the officers shouting, "Rally on theright! rally on the right!" This order was obeyed, the troopsdescribing a semicircle and coming back to the ridge to a point atleft of that from which they had been so suddenly driven. But themomentary retreat had been demoralising. At this standpoint the menhad become hopelessly mixed up--sailors, Highlanders, and 58th menall in a wild melee. Over this heterogeneous mass the officers hadlost their personal influence. While order was being restored theBoer firing ceased. The pause was just sufficient to allow breathingtime, for they almost instantaneously reopened with redoubledvigour. Their shooting was scarcely successful, but a hail of leadfrom the upturned muzzles of rifles continued to traverse the thirtyyards which now separated the foes. The enemy numbered only about200, but they hoped by rapidity of fire to hold the British in checktill their comrades should come to the rescue. Mr. Carter thusgraphically describes what was really the last despairing effort ofour men:-- "The order was given in our lines, 'Fix bayonets, ' and immediatelythe steel rang from the scabbard of every man, and flashed in thebright sunlight the next second on the muzzle of every rifle. 'That's right!' cheerily called Major Fraser. 'Now, men of the 92nd, don't forget your bayonets!' he added, with marked emphasis on theword bayonets. It was the bayonet or nothing now, and the officer'swords sent quite a pleasant thrill through all. Colonel Stewartimmediately added, 'And the men of the 58th!' 'And the NavalBrigade!' sang out another officer, Captain MacGregor, I think. 'Show them the cold steel, men! that will check them, ' continuedFraser, whilst volley after volley came pouring in, and volley aftervolley went in the direction of the enemy. But why this delay? Thetime we were at this point I cannot judge, except by personallyrecalling incidents in succession. When the bayonets rang into therifle-sockets simultaneously with the reopening of the Boers'volleys, I felt convinced that in two minutes that murderous firewould be silenced, and our men driving the foe helter-skelter downhill. After the bayonets had been drawn and fixed, and remainedfixed, our men still firing for at least four or five minutes, andno order came to 'charge, ' I changed my opinion suddenly. " Here we may imagine the agony--hope, doubt, suspense--that passedlike a lightning flash through the minds of all who were present. The uproar at this time grew appalling. Commands of the officers, the crash of shot, the shrieks of the wounded, all helped toaggravate the din. Boers were fast climbing the mountain sides, andthe troops, worn out and almost expended, were beginning to lose thespirit of discipline that hitherto had sustained them. The officersstepped forward boldly, sword in one hand and revolver in the other, but to no purpose. Only an insignificant number of men now respondedto the command. [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF MAJUBA HILL. Drawn by R. Caton Woodville, from Notes supplied by Officerspresent. The officer to the left, with the glass in his hand, is GeneralColley, who, to facilitate his ascent of the hill, took off hisboots, and, during the engagement, wore only socks and slippers. He, with others, is urging the soldiers to maintain their position. TheHighlander with the bandage on his face was wounded, but bravelycontinued to fight. The Highlander on the right, apparently asleep, was shot dead while taking aim. The officer in the immediateforeground towards the right, to whom the doctor is offering aflask, is Major L. C. Singleton, of the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, whodied of his wounds. The figure pressing forward on the extreme leftof the picture is the Special Correspondent of the _Standard_newspaper. ] Mr. Carter declares that when Lieutenant Hamilton of the 92nd askedSir George Colley's permission to charge with the bayonet, hereplied, "Wait a while. " Such humanity was almost inhumanity, forwaiting placed at stake many lives that might have been saved. Thecorrespondent says:-- "Evidently Sir George Colley allowed his feelings of humanity tostand in the way of the request of the young officer. We were fortyyards at the farthest from the enemy's main attacking party. Intraversing these forty yards our men would have been terriblymauled, no doubt, by the first volley, but the ground sloped gentlyto the edge of the terrace along which the enemy were lying, and theintervening space would be covered in twenty seconds--at all events, so rapidly by the survivors of the first volley, that the Boers, mostly armed with the Westley-Richards cap rifle, would not have hadtime to reload before our men were on them. I am not sure that thefirst rush of the infantry would not have demoralised the enemy, and that their volley would have been less destructive than someimagined. If only a score of our men had thrust home, the enemy musthave been routed. At a close-quarter conflict, what use would theirempty rifles have been against the bayonets of our men, who wouldhave had the additional advantage of the higher ground? If thebayonet charge was impracticable at that moment, then, as anoffensive weapon, the bayonet is a useless one, and the sooner it isdiscarded as unnecessary lumber to a soldier's equipment the better. It was our last chance now, though a desperate one, because thesewithering volleys were laying our men prostrate; slowly incomparison with the number of shots fired, but surely, despite ourshelter. Some out of the hail of bullets found exposed victims. In afew seconds our left flank, now practically undefended, andperfectly open to the Boers scaling the side of the mountain in thatdirection, would be attacked with the same fury as our front. "Looking to the spot Cameron had indicated as the one where theGeneral stood, I saw his Excellency standing within ten pacesdirecting some men to extend to the right. It was the last time Isaw him alive. " It is unnecessary to dwell further on the tragic events of thatunlucky battle. After midday our troops retreated, and the retreatsoon became a rout. At this time Sir George Colley was shot. Dismayseized all hearts, followed by panic. The British soldiers rushedhelter-skelter down the precipitous steeps they had so cheerfullyclimbed the night before, many of them losing their lives in theirefforts to escape from the ceaseless fire of the now triumphantenemy. [Illustration: WHERE COLLEY FELL. ROUGH CAIRN OF STONES ON MAJUBA HILL. Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen. ] Before leaving this sad subject, it may be interesting to note aBoer account of the day's doings which is related by Mr. RiderHaggard in his useful book on "The Last Boer War":-- "A couple of months after the storming of Majuba, I, together with afriend, had a conversation with a Boer, a volunteer from the FreeState in the late war, and one of the detachment that stormedMajuba, who gave us a circumstantial account of the attack with thegreatest willingness. He said that when it was discovered that theEnglish had possession of the mountain, he thought that the game wasup, but after a while bolder counsels prevailed, and volunteers werecalled for to storm the hill. Only seventy men could be found toperform the duty, of whom he was one. They started up the mountainin fear and trembling, but soon found that every shot passed overtheir heads, and went on with greater boldness. Only three men, hedeclared, were hit on the Boer side; one was killed, one was hit inthe arm, and he himself was the third, getting his face grazed by abullet, of which he showed us the scar. He stated that the first toreach the top ridge was a boy of twelve, and that as soon as thetroops saw them they fled, when, he said, he paid them out forhaving nearly killed him, knocking them over one after another 'likebucks' as they ran down the hill, adding that it was 'alter lecker'(very nice). " A complete and reliable narrative of affairs on that fateful day inthe ridge below Majuba was given in the _Army and Navy Gazette_. Itis here reproduced, as it shows the finale from the point of view ofan eye-witness of one of the most lamentable fights known in Britishhistory. The correspondent says:-- "As our mysterious march on the night of the 26th February began, two companies of the 60th Rifles, under the command of Captains C. H. Smith and R. Henley, were detached from General Colley's small column, and left on the Imquela Mountain. These companies received _no orders_, beyond that they were to remain there. The rest of the column then marched into the dark night on their unknown mission, our destination being guessed at, but not announced. The road was rough, and at some places little better than a beaten track, and the men found it hard to pick their steps among the loose stones and earth mounds. But all were cheerful and ready for their work. The ridge at the foot of the heights was reached at about midnight, and here the column made a brief halt, to allow of one company of the 92nd (which had lost its touch) coming up. Here one company of the 92nd Highlanders, under Captain P. F. Robertson, was detailed to proceed with Major Fraser, R. E. , to a spot about one hundred yards distant, General Colley himself giving the order that they were to remain there, 'to dig as good a trench as time would permit of, ' and further to select a good position to afford cover for the horses and ammunition, &c. , that were to be left in charge of the detachment. They were also desired to throw out sentries in the direction of the camp, also a patrol of four men, with a non-commissioned officer, to watch the beaten track along which we had just come, and to act as guides for a company of the 60th Rifles expected from camp to reinforce the Highlanders on the ridge. These orders having been given, the column again moved off, leaving the Highlanders to make their arrangements. "The men had a brief rest after their walk, and then, assisted by their officers--Captain P. F. Robertson and Lieutenant G. Staunton--began the work of making their entrenchments. At about 5 A. M. The expected company of the 60th Rifles arrived, under the command of Captain E. Thurlow and Second Lieutenants C. B. Pigott and H. G. L. Howard. Surgeon-Major Cornish also accompanied this detachment, with some mules laden with hospital requirements. Captain Thurlow, who had received _no orders_, and who had brought out his men without either their greatcoats or their rations, joined the Highlanders in their entrenchments. They had to work hard, so as to complete their work rapidly, and consequently the men had little or no rest that night. At about 6 A. M. We were visited by Commissariat-General J. W. Elmes, who was returning to the camp, and promised to send out the 60th their rations. Shortly afterwards a conductor named Field arrived with a led mule, laden with stores, &c. , for the staff. He was hurrying on to try and reach the summit of the hill before day. Doubts were expressed as to the advisability of his going on alone; but he had his orders, he said (about the only man who had that day!), and so he went on his way. About an hour afterwards a shot was heard, and we afterwards learnt that the conductor had been wounded, and he and his mule taken prisoners! By this time the day had quite broken, the heavy curtain of the night had rolled away, and disclosed before us the rugged and precipitous ascent to the Majuba Mountain, which stood directly in front of us, about 1400 yards distant. It stood out in bold relief against a blue-grey sky, and on the summit, and against the sky, the figures of men could be distinctly seen passing to and fro. These were only discernible with the aid of field-glasses, and at that time no great certainty was felt as to their being our own men. "Away to the south of us, in the direction of the camp, sloped the Imquela Mountain. The glasses were brought to bear on this spot also, where a man was detected signalling with a flag. The officer commanding our party (Captain Robertson, 92nd) then signalled the question, 'Who are you?' and the answer returned was, 'We are two companies of the 60th Rifles, who have been left here all night. ' A second message was then sent, asking what their orders were, and the reply returned was, 'None. ' Their position was consequently much the same as ours. All the morning our sentries heard occasional shots, and from time to time were seen small bodies of mounted Boers galloping to and fro near our entrenchments, seemingly to reconnoitre our position. At about eleven o'clock we were joined by a troop of the 15th Hussars, who had just come from the camp, bringing with them the rations for the 60th Rifles. This troop was commanded by Captain G. D. F. Sulivan, and accompanied by Second Lieutenant Pocklington and Lieutenant H. C. Hopkins, 9th Lancers, attached. Captain Sulivan, having received no orders, remained with our party, dismounting his men, and placing them under cover on the slope, just in rear of our entrenchment. For an hour or two afterwards all remained perfectly quiet. The distant figures on the summit of the Majuba Hill could still be seen passing and repassing against the grey sky. We had come to the definite conclusion that they were our own men, entrenching themselves on the top of the mountain. They had gained by strategy a strong position; but could they hold it? Even then the question was mooted. All at once, while we were quietly waiting, a continuous and heavy firing broke out on the mountain. We saw the blue smoke rolling across the still sky; we saw an evident stir and excitement among the party on the hill. What was it? Were they attacked, or attacking? Volley after volley rolled forth; it was a heavy and continuous fire, never ceasing for a moment. All glasses were brought to bear on the mountain, and every eye was strained to catch a sight of what was going on. After a few minutes the figure of a man hurrying down towards us was visible--a wounded man, no doubt--and a mounted Hussar was sent out to bring him in. He proved to be a wounded man of the 58th, and from him we learnt something of the disaster which had befallen our column. The General was dead, lying on his back, with a bullet through his head. Our men were nearly all either wounded or taken prisoners. The hilltop was covered with the bodies of the brave fellows, who had fought to the last. Even while he spoke we could see the desperate retreat had begun, and a few desperate figures were seen struggling down among the stones and boulders. Our men were flying, there was no doubt about that now. In a few minutes the enemy would be upon us, but we were prepared for them. I never saw men steadier or more prepared to fight, although, as I glanced round, I felt how hopeless such a fight would be. My fear, however, did not seem to be participated in by either officers or men, for Captain Robertson (the officer in command) at once began his preparation for a determined resistance. The ammunition boxes were opened, and placed at equal convenient distances all round the entrenchment. Half the entrenchment was manned by the Highlanders, and the other half by Rifles. These preparations were quietly and promptly made. The men were silent, but steady. Looking round, every face was set with a grave determination 'to do, ' and there was not a word audible as the orders were spoken and the commands obeyed. The low (and to an experienced eye) fragile turf walls that were to offer shelter seemed but poor defences, now that they were to be tried. They were only about four feet high by two feet thick, with one exit at the rear, and could never have stood before a fire such as was even now pouring down the slope of Majuba. The wounded were now being brought in rapidly by our mounted Hussars, who did their work steadily. Some of the poor fellows were terribly wounded, and though Surgeon-Major Cornish did his best for them unassisted, many had to lie unattended to in their suffering. All brought the same bitter news of defeat and annihilation, not very reassuring to our little force, which was now about to take its part in the day's engagement. As suddenly as it began, the firing as suddenly ceased; and we knew that the dreadful task of clearing the heights was done, and our resistance about to begin. We could see the Boers clustering like a swarm of bees at the edge of our ridge. Every moment we expected a rush and an attack. But they hesitated. They were waiting--waiting for the party of some 600 or 700 mounted Boers, who presently appeared upon our left flank. Our entrenchment was now almost surrounded. The mounted Boers were the first to attack us on our left flank, and their fire was spiritedly replied to by the Rifles. At this moment, and while we were actually engaging our enemy, the order came from the camp desiring Captain Robertson to retreat his force without delay. No such easy matter now, for the order came almost too late; the Boers were within easy range of us, and determined to attack. Nevertheless, in the same orderly and steady manner in which the preparations for defence had been made, the preparations for retreat were begun. Much credit is due to Captains Robertson and Thurlow for the energetic manner in which they helped to load the mules, securing a safe retreat for the ammunition and stores, and then assisting Surgeon-Major Cornish to get off the wounded. All this time we were under fire, and it was while retreating that poor Cornish was killed. When our little entrenchment had been cleared of its stores, the real retreat began, made under a murderous fire, which followed us as we hurried down the steep slope into the ravine below. Captain Sulivan, with his troop of Hussars, was placed on the right flank to try and cover the retreat in that direction. By this time the Boers had partially occupied our entrenchment, having broken down its defences easily enough. And we had scarcely retreated down the steep slope and into the ravine before they occupied the ridge above us in hundreds, sending volley after volley after our retreating men. It was a case now of _sauve qui peut_, and to me the only marvel is how we lost so few under the circumstances. Our casualties were four killed (including Surgeon-Major Cornish), eleven wounded, and twenty-two prisoners. The Highlanders suffered the most. The officers were the last to leave the ridge. I saw Captain Robertson standing on the crest of the slope giving some final directions just a moment before the ridge was entirely covered by the Boers, and his escape consequently was almost a miraculous one. I was in the ravine before I heard our artillery open fire upon the Boers. Second-Lieutenant Staunton, 92nd Highlanders, was taken prisoner. We were never joined by the two companies of the Rifles who were left on the Imquela Mountain the night before, nor did I see them under fire at any part of the day. Thus ended our brief battle, and only those who took part in it can tell the bitterness of having to retreat, utterly routed and defeated as we were. " THE SIEGE OF PRETORIA As may be remembered, Sir Owen Lanyon's proclamation announcingmartial law was read, and the town handed over to the militarygovernment. Colonel Gildea (introduced by Colonel Bellairs) acted asCommandant of the Garrison, Major F. Mesurier, R. E. , was in chargeof the Infantry Volunteers, and Captain Campbell, 94th Regiment, filled the post of Provost-Marshal. Sympathisers with the Boers wereordered to leave the place on pain of being handed over to theProvost-Marshal to be dealt with by military law. It was decided to evacuate the town, and form two laagers, one atthe camp, and one between the Roman Catholic church and the jail. Inthe camp the women and children were to be placed, while theInfantry Volunteers garrisoned the convent laager. Within theconvent, women and children were packed tightly as sardines, whilethe nuns turned out on errands of mercy. All night and all day, scarcely stopping to eat a mouthful, men worked, sandbagging windowsand doors--building barricades and defences of various kinds. Waggons were sent round to gather all families within the shelter ofthe camp. Rich and poor, good and bad, some 4000 souls, were herdedtogether in tents for their protection. Here they remained for threemonths, enduring hardships of the most variegated and worrying kind, and loyally waiting for the relieving column that never came. Descriptions of the rations served out to each man daily are notappetising: Bread, 1-1/4 lb. , or biscuit, 1 lb. ; coffee, 2/3 oz. ;sugar, 2-1/2 oz. ; meat, 1-1/4 lb. ; tea, 1/6 oz. ; and salt, 1/2 oz. These were reduced as the siege proceeded. The meat was _trek_ beef, a leathery substitute for steak, and the biscuits were veterans, having "served" in the Zulu and Sekukuni campaigns, and now beingnothing better than a swarm of weevils. Life in Pretoria wasenlivened by occasional sorties against the Boer laagers, where theenemy was supposed to number some 800 strong. The laagers weredistributed at distances of four and eight miles from the town, andwere connected by a system of patrolling, which renderedcommunication from within or without almost impossible. A fewmessengers (natives) occasionally came into the town, but thesewere mostly charged with the delivery of delusive messages inventedfor special purposes by the Boers. There was an ever-presentdifficulty--that of keeping the natives in check. Many examples ofBoer cruelty to these poor blacks are recorded, and they naturallyshuddered at the prospect of once more being delivered over to therule of the sjambok. Mr. H. Shepstone, the Secretary for native affairs, took immensepains to keep things quiet among the various chiefs. He said he hadbut to lift his little finger, and the Boers would not hold thefield for a couple of days. Almost every native he knew would be inarms, and by sheer weight of numbers would overpower the Boers. Several of the chiefs sheltered refugees, and Montsiwe gathered hisforce in the hope that he would be allowed to come to the relief ofPotchefstroom. Government reports regarding the loyalty of thenatives were numerous, and the natives' longing to come to theassistance of the British in fighting their ancient oppressors wasobvious. The subsequent desertion of these people whom Great Britainhad taken under her wing, is one of the most grievous of the manygrievous things that accrued from the exercise of British"magnanimity. " Sir Morrison Barlow and Sir Evelyn Wood both agreedthat the natives were "British to a man!" They were thoroughly sickof Boer cruelty, and the Kaffirs and Basutos had learnt to look toGreat Britain for a reign of peace. Rather than again be ruled bythe Boer despots, they were ready to spill the last drop of theirblood, and only the high principled, almost quixotic action of theBritish officials prevented the utilisation in extremity of thismassive and effective weapon of defence. Besides the garrison inPretoria there were other forts defended by soldiers and loyalists, forts which were none of them taken by the enemy. These werePotchefstroom, Rustenburg, Sydenburg, Marabastad, and Wakkerstroom. The fort of Potchefstroom was surrendered during the armistice byfraudulent representations on the part of the Boers. The absorbing topic of the time was naturally the future of theTransvaal. Hope warmed all hearts and helped every one to keep up afictitious air of cheerfulness. All thought that the rebellion wouldserve to strengthen the British in their determination to establishan effectual Government in the country and promote an enduringpeace. The suspicion that the territory would be given back wouldhave come on these hoping, waiting, and longing sufferers like ablast from the pole. Fortunately it was not given to them to foreseethe humiliating end of their staunch endurance. Anathemas long anddeep were sounded at the mention of Dr. Jorissen, who was lookedupon as the fuse which set alight the rebellious temper of theBoers. [Illustration: General Sir EVELYN WOOD, G. C. B. , V. C. Photo by Maull & Fox, London. ] The enemy, however, never directly attacked the town. They contentedthemselves with attempting to steal cattle and skirmishing, andgenerally harassing those within. Such fights as these were mainly dueto British initiative, and these were not fraught with success to us. Ofthis period it is pitiful to write. British valour and endurance wereexhibited to the uttermost, and many gallant actions at differentsorties might be recorded. So also might be given, did space allow, manyinstances of Boer cunning and Boer treachery--notably the acts of firingon the flag of truce, and on ambulance waggons. There can be no doubtthat the firing on the flag of truce by the Boers was intentional. Theirown explanation of the cause of this uncivilised proceeding may be takenfor what it is worth. It appears that their troops were divided inopinion--that one party wished to continue fighting while another wishedto surrender. Hence the exhibition of double-dealing which had soconfounding an effect on their enemies, and so convenient a one forthemselves. The Boers on the Majuba Hill fired on a flag of truce, theattack at Bronker's Spruit was made under cover of the white flag, anddelay at Ingogo, to cover their movement from shelter, was gained bymeans of the same vile expedient. When the news of the British reverses at Laing's Nek and Majubareached Pretoria there was general consternation. But, as yet, noneknew of the crushing blow that was still in store. On the 28th, 102days after the hoisting of the Republican flag at Heidelberg, therecame the almost incredible news that a peace had been concludedinvolving the surrender of the Transvaal to the Boers. At first itseemed impossible that the British Government could have consentedto leave its loyal supporters in the terrible position in which theynow found themselves. All who had sat patiently through trouble andtrial, working with might and main, suffering from endless ills, inperil of their lives, and deprived of property and home, now joinedin one heartrending wail of woe and disappointment. Theconsternation that followed the announcement of the ignoblesurrender is thus described by Mr. Nixon, who was an eye-witness andsharer of the general grief and humiliation:-- "The scene which ensued baffles description. The men hoisted thecolours half-mast high. The Union Jack was pulled down and draggedthrough the mud. The distinctive ribbons worn round the hats of themen as badges were pulled off and trampled underfoot. I saw mencrying like children with shame and despair. Some went raving up anddown that they were Englishmen no longer; others, with flushed andindignant faces, sat contemplating their impending ruin, 'refusingto be comforted. ' It was a painful, distressing, and humiliatingscene, and such as I hope never to witness again. While I write, the remembrance of it comes vividly before me; and as I recall tomind the weeping men and women, the infuriated volunteers, and thedespairing farmers and storekeepers, half crazy with the sense ofwounded national honour, and the prospect of loss and ruin beforethem, my blood boils within me, and I cannot trust myself to committo paper what I think. The lapse of two years has but deepened thefeeling which I then experienced. The subject may perhaps be onlyunpleasant to people at home, but to me personally, who have seenthe ruin and dismay brought upon the too credulous loyalists, therecollections it stirs up are more bitterly mortifying than wordscan describe. " Mr. Rider Haggard, who at this time was at Newcastle, has alsorecorded his experiences on the unhappy occasion. He says:--"Everyhotel and bar was crowded with refugees who were trying to relievetheir feelings by cursing the name of Gladstone with a vigour, originality, and earnestness that I have never heard equalled; anddeclaring in ironical terms how proud they were to be citizens ofEngland--a country that always kept its word. Then they set to workwith many demonstrations of contempt to burn the effigy of the righthonourable gentleman at the head of her Majesty's Government, anexample, by the way, that was followed throughout South Africa. "Talking of the loyal inhabitants in the Transvaal on whom the newsburst 'like a thunderbolt, ' he explains that they did not saymuch--because there was nothing to be said! They simply packed uptheir portable goods and chattels, and made haste to leave thecountry, "which they well knew would henceforth be utterly untenablefor Englishmen and English sympathisers. " Here was another greattrek--a pathetic exodus of British loyalists whom Great Britain hadbetrayed. Away they went, these poor believing and deceived people, to try and make new homes and new fortunes, for as soon as theQueen's sovereignty was withdrawn houses and land were not worth asong, and their chances of earning a living were now entirely over, on account of their mistaken loyalty. The condition of the town is thus described in a journal of theperiod:-- "The streets grown over with rank vegetation; the water-furrowsunclean and unattended, emitting offensive and unhealthy stenches;the houses showing evident signs of dilapidation and decay; the sidepaths, in many places, dangerous to pedestrians--in fact, everythingthe eye can rest upon indicates the downfall which has overtakenthis once prosperous city. The visitor can, if he be so minded, betake himself to the outskirts and suburbs, where he will perceivethe same sad evidences of neglect, public grounds unattended, roadsuncared for, mills and other public works crumbling into ruin. These palpable signs of decay most strongly impress him. A blightseems to have come over this lately fair and prosperous town. Rapidly it is becoming a 'deserted village, ' a 'city of the dead. '" RETROCESSION The Government, through the medium of the Queen's Speech, hadannounced its intention of vindicating her Majesty's authority inthe Transvaal. This was in January 1881. About that time PresidentBrand, of the Orange Free State, formed himself into a species ofBoard of Arbitration between the contending parties--Boers andBritish. The reason for this intervention was threefold--first, hegenuinely desired to avoid further bloodshed; second, he asgenuinely hoped, under a mask of neutrality, to advance the Dutchcause throughout South Africa; and third, he amicably wished to puthimself in the good graces of the British Government. Prior toGeneral Colley's death Mr. Brand had urged him to allow peace to bemade, and to guarantee the Boers not being treated as rebels if theysubmitted. General Colley was no quibbler with words. He would giveno such assurance. He proposed, in a telegram to the ColonialSecretary, to publish an amnesty on entering the Transvaal to allpeaceable persons--excepting one or two prominent rebels. On the 8thof February (the day of the battle of the Ingogo), a telegram wasreceived from home, promising a settlement upon the Boers ceasingfrom armed opposition. This showed that the Government had earlybegun to put their foot on the first rung of the ladder ofdisgrace--it can be called by no other term--and that the"climb-down" policy was already coming into practice. An unfortunategame at cross-purposes seems to have been going on, for Mr. Brandwas proposing to Lord Kimberley that Sir H. De Villiers--theChief-Justice of the Cape, should be appointed as Commissioner to goto the Transvaal to arrange matters, while at the same time SirGeorge Colley was telegraphing a plan to be adopted on entering theTransvaal, a plan which should grant a complete amnesty only toBoers who would sign a declaration of loyalty. Lord Kimberley welcomed the suggestion of Mr. Brand, and agreed, ifonly the Boers would disperse, to appoint a Commission with power to"develop the permanent friendly scheme"; and "that, if this proposalis accepted, you now are authorised to agree to suspension ofhostilities on our part. " At the same time the War Office informedGeneral Colley that the Government did not bind his discretion, butwas anxious to avoid effusion of blood. Lord Kimberley's telegramwas forwarded to Colley and to Joubert. Colley was dumfounded. Hetelegraphed back: "There can be no hostilities if no resistance ismade; but am I to leave Laing's Nek in Natal territory in Boeroccupation, and our garrisons isolated and short of provisions--oroccupy former and relieve latter?" Lord Kimberley's reply was characteristically ambiguous. Thegarrisons were to be left free to provision themselves, but SirGeorge was not to march to the relief of garrisons or occupy Laing'sNek if an arrangement were proceeding. Meanwhile President Brand and Lord Kimberley held an unctuoustelegraphic palaver, which may diplomatically be viewed as thebeginning of the end. This humiliating end was hastened by thefiasco of Majuba on the 27th of February, though before it came topass Sir Frederick Roberts was despatched with reinforcements toNatal. Sir Evelyn Wood assumed temporary command of the forces afterColley's death. Colonel Wood was asked by Lord Kimberley to obtainfrom Kruger a reply to a letter General Colley had forwarded beforeMajuba, requesting a reply in forty-eight hours. The reply, aningenuous one, came on the 7th of March. Kruger was glad to hearthat her Majesty's Government were inclined to cease hostilities, and suggested a meeting on both sides. On the 12th of March LordKimberley telegraphed to Sir Evelyn Wood, saying that if the Boerswould desist from armed opposition, a Commission would be appointedto give the Transvaal complete internal self-government underBritish suzerainty, with a British Resident to look after thenatives. The Boers at the same time made a communication. They refused tonegotiate on the basis of Lord Kimberley's telegram of the 8th, asit would be tantamount to an admission that they were in the wrong. They would accept nothing short of the restoration of the Republicwith a British protectorate. This the Home Government accepted, andthus the "climb down" was complete. On the 23rd of March 1881, Sir Evelyn Wood, under orders from theMinistry, signed a treaty on behalf of the British, while the Boerleaders did the same on behalf of their constituents. By it, theBoers engaged to accept her Majesty as Suzerain "of the Transvaal, with a British Resident in the capital, but to allow the Republiccomplete self-government, to operate in six months' time. TheSuzerain was to have control over the foreign relations of theTransvaal, and a Royal Commission for the protection of the nativesand the decision of the boundary of the Republic would be appointed. Persons guilty of acts contrary to laws of civilised warfare were tobe punished; and property captured by either party was to bereturned. " In conclusion, it was arranged that all arms taken bythe British Government when they annexed the country were to behanded back. The Commission appointed by her Majesty's Government consisted ofSir Hercules Robinson, who replaced Sir Bartle Frere at the Cape;Sir Henry de Villiers, now Chief-Justice of Cape Colony; and SirEvelyn Wood; President Brand was present in a neutral capacity. Though nominally under the control of the British Government, itsactions were pro-Boer. In justice to Sir Evelyn Wood, it isnecessary to state that he did no more than obey orders laid down byhis Government. Indeed it is said that when he was required to makethe disgraceful peace, he called his officers around him, and askedthem to witness that he was merely obeying orders, so that in daysto come he might not submit a tarnished name to posterity. Sir Frederick Roberts, on his arrival at Cape Town, was thereforeinformed that his services were no longer needed. Sir Evelyn Woodretained a force of 12, 000 men in Natal, but the Government haddecided on peace at any price, and peace was therefore restored. THE BETRAYED LOYALISTS Of the sufferings of the loyalists we must say little. Suffice it topicture the breaking up of homes gathered together with muchpatience after years of steady labour; the insults daily enduredfrom a people who now held Great Britain in contempt; thedisappointment and indignation, the wretchedness and despair causedto all who had faithfully adhered to the Crown. A petition was drafted to the House of Commons, but signatures werecomparatively few. Many had no hope of redress from Great Britain, others naturally feared further Boer oppression. Some passages ofthe petition ran thus:-- "That your petitioners believe that the annexation was acquiesced inby a majority of the inhabitants, and was looked upon as an actcalculated to create confidence and credit to the country, a beliefwhich is borne out by the fact that almost all the old officialsappointed by the former Government, or elected by the people, remained in office under the new Government; and your petitionersfurther believe, that if the promises expressed and implied in theannexation proclamation had been carried out fully in the spirit ofthe proclamation, the whole of the inhabitants would, in time, havebecome loyal subjects of her Majesty. "That the annexation was followed by an immediate accession ofconfidence, and it marked the commencement of an era of progressand advancement, which has steadily increased up to the presenttime, despite the numerous drawbacks and disadvantages to which thecountry has been subjected, and some of which have been the resultof Imperial action. "That, notwithstanding the promises expressed and implied in theannexation proclamation, the country has been governed as a CrownColony, and no opportunity has been afforded to the inhabitants ofcontrolling the policy which has regulated its administration, andyour petitioners are in no way responsible for the late lamentablewar, or for the disgraceful peace which has concluded it. * * * * * "That the value of property increased at least threefold during theEnglish occupation, and that the increase progressed in a ratiocorresponding with the reliance placed on the promises of Englishofficials. Indeed, some of your petitioners are prepared to state, on oath if required, that they invested money immediately after orin direct consequence of a statement by a Governor of the Transvaalor a Minister of the British Crown. "That the towns are almost exclusively inhabited by loyal subjects, and English farmers and traders are scattered all over the country. * * * * * "That most of the loyal inhabitants intend to realise theirproperty, even at a sacrifice, and to leave the country, but thatthose who are compelled by force of circumstances to remain in itwill be deprived of the protection and security afforded by Englishrule, and they respectfully submit they have a right to ask that thefullest and most substantial pledges be exacted from thecontemplated Boer Government for their safety, and for the exerciseof their privileges as British subjects. " In reference to the unfortunate natives, and the humiliating peace, Mr. Rider Haggard, who had been Shepstone's private secretary, wrotepathetically to Sir Bartle Frere from Newcastle, Natal:-- "_June 6, 1881. _ "I do not believe that more than half of those engaged in the laterebellion were free agents, though, once forced into committingthemselves, they fought as hard as the real malcontents.... Thenatives are the real heirs to the soil, and should surely have someprotection and consideration, some voice in the settlement of theirfate. They outnumbered the Boers by twenty-five to one, taking theirnumbers at a million and those of the Boers at forty thousand, afair estimate, I believe.... As the lash and the bullet have beenthe lot of the wretched Transvaal Kaffir in the past, so they willbe his lot in the future.... After leading those hundreds ofthousands of men and women to believe that they were once and forever the subjects of her Majesty, safe from all violence, cruelty, and oppression, we have handed them over without a word of warningto the tender mercies of one, where natives are concerned, of thecruellest white races in the world. "Then comes the case of the loyal Boers, men who believed us andfought for us, and are now, as a reward for their loyalty, left tothe vengeance of their countrymen--a vengeance that will mostcertainly be wreaked, let the Royal Commission try to temper it asthey will. "Lastly, there are the unfortunate English inhabitants, threethousand of whom were gathered during the siege in Pretoria alone, losing their lives in a forsaken cause. I can assure you, sir, thatyou must see these people to learn how complete is their ruin. Theyhave been pouring through here, many of those who were well-to-do afew months since, hardly knowing how to find food for theirfamilies. " On this subject Colonel Lanyon, who since the first outbreak hadbeen shut up in Pretoria, also wrote tragically:-- "_March 29, 1881. _ "Last night the saddest news I ever received in my life came in theshape of a letter from Wood.... After three Secretaries of State, three High Commissioners, and two Houses of Commons had said thatthe country should not be given back, it seems a terrible want ofgood faith to the loyals that this decision should have been arrivedat. The scene this morning was a heart-breaking one; the women, whohave behaved splendidly all through the siege, were crying andwringing their hands in their great grief; the children were hushedas if in a chamber of death; and the men were completely bowed downin their sorrow. Well they might, for the news brought home ruin tomany, and great loss to all. I am ashamed to walk about, for I hearnothing but reproaches and utterances from heretofore loyal menwhich cut one to the very quick.... How I am to tell the natives Iknow not, for they have trusted so implicitly to our promises andassurances.... One man who has been most loyal to us (an Englishman)told me to-day, 'Thank God my children are Afrikanders, and need notbe ashamed of their country!'" The feelings described by Sir Owen were openly echoed by allsensible men who knew anything of the country: they were certainthat it was not within the power of Boer comprehension to understand"magnanimity" in an opponent. To the Boer, as to many an Englishman, this long-sounding word seemed more neatly to be interpreted by themore ugly but concise term "funk. " Sir Bartle Frere, writing of Sir George Colley in a letter to afriend, expressed his opinion roundly:-- "_March 31, 1881. _ "Let no one ever say that England lost prestige through Sir GeorgeColley. I do not like the word so much as 'character' or 'conduct'which create it. But no country ever lost real prestige throughdefeat. Nelson, wounded and repulsed at Teneriffe; Grenvil, overpowered and dying on the deck of the _Revenge_, did as much forEngland's prestige as Marlborough at Blenheim or Wellington atWaterloo. Sir George Colley miscalculated his own and his enemy'sstrength, but he had nothing to do with disgraceful surrender, and Iam sure had rather be where he now rests than sign a disgracefulpeace, which is the only thing that can injure England's prestige. " Mr. R. W. Murray, of the _Cape Times_, writing to Sir Bartle Frere, thought bitterly indeed. "Ask your English statesmen, " he wrote, "if, in the history of theworld, there was ever such a cruel desertion of a dependency by theparent State. How can England hope for loyalty from South Africans?The moral of the Gladstone lesson is, that you may be anything inSouth Africa but loyal Englishmen. " These letters, taken haphazard from volumes of correspondence on themelancholy event of the time, serve better than the words of anoutsider to show the terrible position in which the "magnanimity" ofthe British Ministers had placed their countrymen. One more extractand we must pass on. [Illustration: COLOUR-SERGEANT and PRIVATE, THE SCOTS GUARDS. Photo by Gregory & Co. London. ] Colonel Lanyon, writing again to Sir Bartle Frere, said:-- "_April 26, 1881. _ "The Boers are practically dictators, and have been ruling thecountry in a manner which is simply humiliating to Englishmen. Active persecution is going on everywhere, and consequently all thatcan are leaving the country. Thirty families have left Pretoriaalone; B---- and M---- have left, having been frequently threatenedbecause of their having been members of the Executive, and those twopoor fellows J---- and H---- are completely ostracised for thesame reason. They are both ruined men, practically speaking, and allbecause they trusted to England's assurances and good faith.... "But hard as these cases are, I feel that the natives have had thecruellest measure meted out to them, and they feel it acutely. Themost touching and heart-breaking appeals have come from some of thechiefs who live near enough to have heard the news. They ask whythey have been thrown over after showing their loyalty by payingtheir taxes and resisting the demands made upon them by the Boersduring hostilities. They point out that we stopped them from helpingus, and that, had we not done so, the Boers would have been easilyput down. They say that, as we so hindered their action, it is acruel wrong for us now to hand them back to the care of a race whichis more embittered against them than ever, and who have alreadybegun to harass them because of their loyalty. These points areunanswerable, and I do not see how we can reply to them. " CHAPTER IV THE CONVENTIONS As may be remembered, Sir Evelyn Wood was ordered to conclude anarmistice, whereby the troops that had garrisoned the Transvaalmight evacuate it. In the case of Potchefstrom, the execution ofthis design was treacherously prevented by Commandant Cronjé. Thisofficer, after the armistice had been arranged, withheld the newsfrom the garrison, and prevented supplies from reaching the fort. Asa natural consequence, he became a national hero, and led theburghers against Dr. Jameson in 1895 and the forces on the Westernfrontier in 1899. The armistice was concluded in March 1881, and in August theConvention of Pretoria was signed. Some form of inquiry was heldinto the conduct of persons who had been guilty of acts contrary tothe rules of civilised warfare, but the whole thing proved to be amere farce; and, as a matter of fact, not one of the perpetrators ofmurder and other crimes during the course of the war was brought tojustice. The Commission insisted on a definite agreement for thepurpose of securing British persons from oppressive legislation, but, as we know, Boer promises were as completely pie-crust as Boercontracts were mere waste paper. At the beginning of June Mr. Gladstone wrote a letter in answer tothat received from the loyal inhabitants. In this he said:-- "Her Majesty's Government willingly and thankfully acknowledge theloyal co-operation which her Majesty's forces received at Pretoriaand elsewhere by the inhabitants, and we sympathise with theprivations and sufferings which they endured. I must, however, observe that so great was the preponderance of the Boers who rose inarms against the Queen's authority that the whole country, exceptthe posts occupied by the British troops, fell at once practicallyinto their hands. Again, the memorialists themselves only estimatethe proportion of settlers not Transvaal Boers at one-seventh. Nearly, though not quite, the whole of the Boers have appeared to beunited in sentiment, and her Majesty's Government could not deem ittheir duty to set aside the will of so large a majority by the onlypossible means, namely, the permanent maintenance of a powerfulmilitary force in the country. Such a course would have beeninconsistent alike with the spirit of the Treaty of 1852, with thegrounds on which the annexation was sanctioned, and with the generalinterests of South Africa, which especially require that harmonyshould prevail between the white races. "On the other hand, in the settlement which is now in progress, every care will be taken to secure to the settlers, of whateverorigin, the full enjoyment of their property, and of all civilrights. " The pledges conveyed in the last sentence received such fulfilmentas they were to have by the insertion in the Convention of thefollowing clauses:-- "Article XII. --All persons holding property in the said State, onthe 8th day of August 1881, will continue to enjoy the rights ofproperty which they have enjoyed since the annexation. No person whohas remained loyal to her Majesty during the recent hostilitiesshall suffer any molestation by reason of his loyalty, or be liableto any criminal prosecution or civil action for any part taken inconnection with such hostilities, and all such persons will havefull liberty to reside in the country, with enjoyment of all civilrights, and protection for their persons and property. "Article XXVI. --All persons, other than natives, conformingthemselves to the laws of the Transvaal State (_a_) will have fullliberty, with their families, to enter, travel, or reside in anypart of the Transvaal State; (_b_) they will be entitled to hire orpossess houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops, and premises;(_c_) they may carry on their commerce either in person or by anyagents whom they may think fit to employ; (_d_) they will not besubject, in respect of their persons and property, or in respect oftheir commerce or industry, to any taxes, whether general or local, other than those which are or may be imposed upon Transvaalcitizens. " The Convention itself is now well known, but brief allusion to itmay not be out of place. The preamble is important, and runs asfollows:-- "Her Majesty's Commissioners for the settlement of the Transvaalterritory, duly appointed as such by a Commission passed under theRoyal Sign Manual and Signet, bearing date the 5th April 1881, dohereby undertake and guarantee, on behalf of her Majesty, that fromand after the 8th day of August 1881 complete self-government, subject to the suzerainty of her Majesty, her heirs and successors, will be accorded to the inhabitants of the Transvaal territory, uponthe following terms and conditions, and subject to the followingreservations and limitations.... " The new State was to be styled "The Transvaal State. " A BritishResident was appointed, and the right to move British troopsthrough the State guaranteed. External relations were to be underBritish control, and intercourse with foreign Powers to be carriedon through her Majesty's diplomatic and consular officers. Theindependence of Swaziland was guaranteed. Article 4 of the SandRiver Convention, forbidding slavery, was re-affirmed in Article 16. Natives were to be allowed to acquire land, and to move about thecountry "as freely as may be consistent with the requirements ofpublic order. " Complete freedom of religion was established. Protection to loyalists was guaranteed by the Triumvirate. TheBritish Resident was given wide authority in native affairs; was, infact, constituted as an official protector of natives. Theboundaries of the State were defined, and it engaged not totransgress them. The government of the country was handed over to the Triumvirate, who engaged to summon a Volksraad as soon as possible. The Volksraadwhen it assembled, however, was disinclined to ratify the PretoriaConvention. The burghers wanted the Old Republic of the Sand RiverConvention, and fretted at the idea that they should have agreed toacknowledge British suzerainty. This acknowledgment was made acondition of the grant of autonomy, and the British Resident inPretoria was to have large powers in the direction of nativeaffairs. The position of the post of British Resident was to besimilar to that held by a British Resident in one of the NativeStates of India. "Africanus, " in his useful book on "The TransvaalBoers, " thus describes the practical difference between the statusof the two officials: "A Resident in an Indian State, thoughsometimes exposed to the risk of assassination, or of a generalmutiny, is known by the inhabitants to have behind him the enormousmilitary force of the Indian Empire, whereas the unhappy Resident atPretoria was given no means of enforcing any protests which he mightbe called upon to make. His only course was to report disobedienceto the High Commissioner; and if the disobedience was not of such acharacter as to force the Imperial Government to undertake militarymeasures, it was sure to be overlooked. Thus the Resident, so farfrom controlling the policy of the Transvaal, was reduced to theposition of counsel holding 'a watching brief. '" As will be seen, the interests of the Uitlanders were protected, butno provision was made by the Convention for future immigrants. Mr. Kruger, whose assurances at the time were believed to be sound, hadpromised to place them on equal footing with the burghers as regardsfreedom of trade. His words were: "We make no difference as far asburgher rights are concerned. There may, perhaps, be some slightdifference in the case of a young person who has come into thecountry, " but the term "young person, " it was afterwards explained, had no reference to age, but to time of residence in the country. Mr. Kruger, as leader of the reactionary section of the Boers, finally became the President. The rival of Mr. Kruger was Mr. Joubert, otherwise known as "Slim Piet, " on account of his wilyways, and between them from that day up to the present timeconsiderable jealousy existed. They were always of one accord, however, in struggling to slip or squeeze out of any Conventionswith the British. The first contravention of treaty engagements wasthe return of the State to the old title of South African Republic. The Home Government feebly remonstrated--it was too sunk in theslough of "magnanimity" to do more. As a natural result the Boerssnapped their fingers at such remonstrances. After taking an inchthey helped themselves to an ell! They had engaged to respectboundaries, but soon they began to lap over into Zululand andBechuanaland. The Boer process of expansion is simple and time-honoured. A case ofspirits is exchanged for the right to graze on land belonging to anindependent chief. The cattle graze, the master locates himself. Ifthe intrusion is resented, a campaign follows, and the strongerousts the weaker. Sometimes the Boer lends his services in warfareto a petty chief, and those services are rewarded with a grant ofland. When the British annexed the Transvaal and conquered Sekukuni, theother chiefs submitted to the British Government. On the resumptionof Boer rule, however, the chiefs were inclined to defy theirauthority. The territories of the Mapoch, Malaboch, and Mpefu wereassigned to the Boers by the Convention of 1881, and consequentlyquarrels began. In 1883 Mapoch broke out against authority, andthere was a campaign to subdue him. Malaboch became obstreperous in1894, and Mpefu followed his example in 1898. Most of the campaignsarose over the refusal to pay the hut tax. Before the Mapochcampaign in 1883 the Volksraad made a change in the terms of thefranchise. It may be remembered that for burgher rights a residenceof one year in the country and an oath of allegiance were necessaryconditions. It was arranged that in future all candidates forcitizenship must have resided and been registered in the FieldCornet's lists for five years, and must pay the sum of £25. About this time Messrs. Kruger, Du Toit, and Smith travelled toEngland to agitate for a new Convention. The Transvaal Governmenthad "broken the spirit, and even the letter, " of the old Convention, and Lord Derby in the House of Lords expressed his opinion that "itwould be an easy thing to find a _casus belli_ in what had takenplace. " In spite of all this, Mr. Gladstone in 1884 obliginglyagreed to a new Convention. By examination of its terms, it will beseen how far and how ignobly the Government went on the road toconcession. By this Convention the British Resident was replaced bya diplomatic agent; the old title of South African Republic wasrestored; the Republic was allowed to negotiate on its own accountwith foreign Powers, limitations on treaty-making alone beingimposed. Complete freedom of religion was promised, and the Republicagreed to "do its utmost" to prevent any of its inhabitants frommaking any encroachments upon lands beyond the boundaries laid down. Article 14 will be seen to be verbally similar to Article 26 of thePretoria Convention of 1881, only the words _South African Republic_being substituted for _Transvaal State_. Nothing was said about thepreamble to the Pretoria Convention or the question of British"suzerainty. " The word was omitted from the new text; but it wassupposed to be operative as before. Over this matter there has beenso much argument that, unless we can devote a volume to solving theConvention riddle, it is best left alone. We must allow that theambiguity of an already ambiguous Ministry had here reached itsclimax! Certain it is that the Transvaal representatives returned toinform the Raad that the suzerainty had been abolished, and thatstatement they were allowed to maintain without contradiction! As anatural consequence of this indecision and weakness on the part ofthe then Government, subsequent Governments have been placed in anunenviable quandary. The Boers contend that the omission of the word"suzerainty" in 1884 was intentional, and designed to permit theState to style itself an independent Republic, while alllevel-headed persons are fully aware that no Republic could havebeen granted complete independence while under a weight of debt formoney and blood spent for years and years to save it from collapseand annihilation. Moreover, the guarantee of independence of theTransvaal was so unmistakably a result of suzerainty that therepetition of the word was unnecessary. MR. KRUGER Of the man who now began to play so prominent a part on thepolitical stage, the world at that time knew but little. Even nowopinions regarding him are many and varied, and it may beinteresting to read, in close juxtaposition, sketches of hischaracter and ways which have from time to time been drawn by thosewho have come in contact with him. Perhaps no more impartial sketch can be presented than that of Mr. Distant, a naturalist, who visited the Transvaal about eight yearsago. He said:--"President Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger was bornon the 10th October 1825, in the district of Colesburg in the CapeColony, and is without doubt the greatest and most representativeman that the Boers have yet produced. Uneducated, or self-educated, he possesses a very large amount of that natural wisdom so oftendenied to men of great learning and of literary cultivation. Withmany prejudices, he is fearless, stubborn, and resolute, and hereally understands Englishmen little better than they understandhim. In his earlier days he has been a somewhat ardent sportsman anda good shot. He has been engaged and honourably mentioned in most ofthe Kaffir fights of his time.... Socially, he has always lived in asomewhat humble position, and it is to the credit of his nature as aman that he bears not the slightest trace of the _parvenu_. Plainand undistinguished in appearance, he combines the advantages of aprodigious memory with a remarkable aptitude for reading hisfellow-man, and this last quality would be more valuable were it notleavened by a weakness in resisting flattery and adulation. He isvery pious and self-reliant, which is provocative of bigotry and hottemper; and surrounded and approached on all sides by clever andoften unscrupulous financiers and speculators, his scutcheon hasworn wonderfully well, and his character and reputation passedthrough many fiery ordeals. He is also a rough diplomatist of nomean rank. " The picture is distinctly interesting, but it does Mr. Kruger aninjustice. Mr. Distant says that "he understands Englishmen littlebetter than they understand him. " Surely this remark is an insult toMr. Kruger's great sagacity. He long ago "took the measure" of theEnglishman, and he has enjoyed himself immensely in seeing how farit was possible--vulgarly speaking--to "try it on" with the Britishnation. If Mr. Kruger could be induced to write a book entitled "MyLife and Games with the British Government for the last TwentyYears, " he might afford our politicians some useful and instructiveentertainment. To Mr. Distant's portrait of the President of the South AfricanRepublic another and a later one may be appended. It is drawn by theable pen of Mr. Fitzpatrick, the author of "The Transvaal fromWithin. " "In the history of South Africa the figure of the grim oldPresident will loom large and striking--picturesque, as the figureof one who, by his character and will, made and held his people;magnificent, as one who, in the face of the blackest fortune, neverwavered from his aim or faltered in his effort; who, with a couragethat seemed and still seems fatuous, but which may well be calledheroic, stood up against the might of the greatest empire in theworld. And, it may be, pathetic too, as one whose limitations weregreat, one whose training and associations, whose very successes, had narrowed and embittered and hardened him; as one who, when thegreatness of success was his to take and hold, turned his back onthe supreme opportunity and used his strength and qualities to fightagainst the spirit of progress and all that the enlightenment of theage pronounces to be fitting and necessary to good government and ahealthy State. "To an English nobleman who, in the course of an interview, remarked, 'My father was a Minister of England and twice Viceroy of Ireland, ' theold Dutchman answered, 'And my father was a shepherd!' It was not priderebuking pride; it was the ever-present fact which would not have beenworth mentioning but for the suggestion of the antithesis. He, too, wasa shepherd, and is--a peasant. It may be that he knows what would beright and good for his people, and it may be not; but it is sure that herealises that to educate would be to emancipate; to broaden their viewswould be to break down the defences of their prejudices; to let in thenew leaven would be to spoil the old bread; to give unto all men therights of men would be to swamp for ever the party which is to himgreater than the State. When one thinks of the one-century history ofthis people, much is seen that accounts for their extraordinary love ofisolation, and their ingrained and passionate aversion to control; much, too, that draws to them a world of sympathy. And when one realises theold Dopper President hemmed in once more by the hurrying tide ofcivilisation, from which his people have fled for generations--trying tofight both Fate and Nature, standing up to stem a tide as resistless asthe eternal sea--one sees the pathos of the picture. But this is asanother generation may see it. To-day we are too close, so close thatthe meaner details, the blots and flaws, are all most plainly visible:the corruption, the insincerity, the injustice, the barbarity--all theunlovely touches that will by-and-by be forgotten, sponged away by thegentle hand of Time, when only the picturesque will remain. " [Illustration: PAUL KRUGER, President of the Transvaal Republic. Photo by Elliott & Fry, London. ] Mr. Fitzpatrick speaks somewhat more plainly in another place:-- "Outside the Transvaal Mr. Kruger has the reputation of being freefrom taint of corruption from which so many of his colleaguessuffer. Yet within the Republic and among his own people one of thegravest of the charges levelled against him is, that by his exampleand connivance he has made himself responsible for much of theplundering that goes on. There are numbers of cases in which thePresident's nearest relations have been proved to be concerned inthe most flagrant jobs, only to be screened by his influence;such cases, for instance, as that of the Vaal River Water SupplyConcession, in which Mr. Kruger's son-in-law 'hawked' about for thehighest bid the vote of the Executive Council on a matter which hadnot yet come before it, and, moreover, sold and duly delivered theaforesaid vote. There is the famous libel case in which Mr. EugeneMarais, the editor of the Dutch paper _Land en Volk_, successfullysustained his allegation that the President had defrauded the Stateby charging heavy travelling expenses for a certain trip on which hewas actually the guest of the Cape Colonial Government. " The light thus thrown on the dealings of Mr. Kruger is not asolitary gleam. It may be remembered that during the period ofBritish rule in the Transvaal he had an appointment underGovernment. The terms of his letter of dismissal can be found onpage 135 of Blue-Book, c. 144, and involving as they do a seriouscharge of misrepresentation in money matters, are useful when viewedin line with the above quotation. Mrs. Lionel Phillips imagines that every one must by this time havegauged the nature of the President, as she herself has done. Shesays:-- "Paul Kruger is so well known from the many portraits andcaricatures that have appeared in recent years, as well asdescriptions of him, that one from me seems superfluous. His clumsyfeatures, and small cunning eyes, set high in his face, with greatpuffy rings beneath them, his lank straight locks, worn longer thanis usual, the fringe of beard framing his face, even his greasyfrock-coat and antiquated tall hat have been pourtrayed timeswithout number. He is a man of quite 75 years of age now, and hisbig massive frame is bent, but in his youth he possessed enormousstrength, and many extraordinary feats are told of him. Once seen heis not easily forgotten. He has a certain natural dignity ofbearing, and I think his character is clearly to be read in hisface--strength of will and cunning, with the dulness of expressionone sees in peasants' faces. 'Manners none, and customs beastly, 'might have been a life-like description of Kruger. The habit ofconstantly expectorating, which so many Boers have, he has neverlost. He is quite ignorant of conversation in the ordinaryacceptation of the word; he is an autocrat in all his ways, and hasa habit of almost throwing short, jerky sentences at you generallyallegorical in form, or partaking largely of scripturalquotations--or misquotations quite as often. Like most of the Boers, the Bible is his only literature--that book he certainly studies agood deal, and his religion is a very large part of his being, butsomehow he misses the true spirit of Christianity, in that he leavesout the rudimentary qualities of charity and truth. " GERMANS AND UITLANDERS It appears that a German traveller, Herr Ernest Von Weber, as longago as 1875, had cast a loving eye on the Transvaal. Hewrote:--"What would not such a country, full of such inexhaustiblenatural treasures, become, if in course of time it was filled withGerman immigrants? A constant mass of German immigrants wouldgradually bring about a decided numerical preponderance of Germansover the Dutch population, and of itself would by degrees affect theGermanisation of the country in a peaceful manner. Besides all itsown natural and subterraneous treasures, the Transvaal offers to theEuropean power which possesses it an easy access to the immenselyrich tracts of country which lie between the Limpopo, the CentralAfrican lakes and the Congo (the territory saved for England by Mr. Rhodes and the Chartered Company). It was this free unlimited roomfor annexation in the North, this open access to the heart ofAfrica, which principally impressed me with the idea, not more thanfour years ago, that Germany should try, by the acquisition ofDelagoa Bay, and the subsequent continual influx of Germanimmigrants to the Transvaal, to secure the future dominion over thiscountry, and so pave the way for a German African Empire of thefuture. There is, at the same time, the most assured prospect thatthe European power, who would bring these territories under itsrule, would found one of the largest and most valuable empires ofthe globe; and it is, therefore, on this account truly to beregretted that Germany should have quietly, and without protest, allowed the annexation of the Transvaal Republic to England, becausethe splendid country, taken possession of and cultivated by a Germanrace, ought to be entirely won for Germany; and would, moreover, have been easily acquired, and thereby the beginning made andfoundation laid of a mighty and ultimately rich Germany in thesouthern hemisphere. Germany ought at any price to get possession ofsome points on the East as well as the West Coast of Africa. " Partof Mr. Von Weber's ambition was subsequently realised. In 1884 the introduction of Germany upon the political scene wassuccessfully accomplished. The hoisting of the German flag at AngraPeguena was due to the unscrupulous and clever machinations ofPrince Bismarck. The new German Colony comprised Damaraland andGreat Namaqualand, and between it and the Boer Republic lay theKalari Desert and Bechuanaland. Now, the Bechuana chiefs were old enemies of the Boers. A good dealof border fighting took place, and at last the Boers establishedtheir authority over a district which they christened "The NewRepublic, " and which was annexed to the Transvaal in 1888. Theyendeavoured to capture in the same way Stellaland and Vryburg, buton this subject the British Government had something to say, and foronce they said it definitely. Sir Charles Warren with a militaryforce took these districts under British protection. This expeditionwas resented by the Cape Dutch and their English friends, Messrs. Spriggs and Upington, who hastened to Bechuanaland to effect asettlement before the arrival of Sir Charles Warren's force. Owingto the firmness and decision of Sir Charles Warren and hissupporters, Sir Charles Dilke, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Mackenzie, their anti-Imperialistic efforts fortunately failed! It must be remembered that in Cape Colony the Dutch sympathies had, for the most part, been given to the Boers. Racial ties in Africaare strong, and at the time of the war many people, not thoroughlydisloyal, felt that there had been aggression on the freedom of theRepublicans, and were inclined to admire the efforts of the Boers torepel that aggression. There were others, too, who believed that, owing to fear of rebellion on the part of the Cape subjects, GreatBritain had been forced into chicken-hearted surrender, and thisbelief naturally encouraged the Cape Dutch to assume that, onemergency, the policy of the Empire might be directed by threats ofrebellion. Much of the bad feeling was due merely to political agitation. Theassociation known as the Africander Bond was started as a species ofpolitical nursery wherein to expand the ideas of the budding Boer, and "coach" him in his duties as a free-born subject. "A littleknowledge is a dangerous thing, " as we all are aware, and it seemsto have been the object of this organisation to implant justsufficient knowledge in the mind of the ignorant farmer to fosterhis hostility to Great Britain, without encouraging him to progresssufficiently to gauge the advantages to himself of peace andgoodwill with a sovereign power. Before the existence of thisorganisation he was contented to choose as his Parliamentaryrepresentative some sound and respectable citizen, a Britishsubject, or some colonist who, well versed in the British tongue, could understand the laws at first hand. But machinating politiciansconceived the notion that the dissatisfied Boer might be made todance marionette-wise while they pulled the strings, and theypromptly went to work to pretend he could think for himself, andproceeded to inflate his mind with so vast an idea of his ownpolitical importance that he even began to conjure up dreams of anentirely Dutch South Africa on an Africander basis, with theVierkleur in place of the Union Jack floating bravely over his head! For his benefit the Cape _patois_ was promoted to the rank of alanguage. Parliament expressed itself both in English and so-calledDutch, while Blue-Books and official papers were printed inbi-lingual fashion, for the convenience of farmer members, who, forthe most part, could neither read, write, nor speak the language ofthe Netherlands! The battle-cry of the Bond was "Africa for the Africander" and the"Elimination of the Imperial factor. " The Colonists naturally grewto imagine that, as Great Britain was powerless to govern, government on their own behalf would be advantageous. In justice itmust be said that the Eastern Province and Natal adhered to theCrown, though the Western Province was led by the nose by the Bond. From this time Mr. Hofmeyr--a man of great ability, and generallydevoted to the Africander cause--became an important factor in thepolitical caucus. Mr. Rhodes also was conspicuous. At that date hewas inclined to lean toward Africander principles, but, like allgreat men on seeing the error of their judgments, he readjusted histheories--with the results we all know. The expedition of Sir Charles Warren was entirely successful. As hasbeen said, a Protectorate was established over Bechuanaland. The country south of the Moloppo River, whose chief towns areMafeking and Vryburg, became a Crown Colony. It was afterwardstransferred to the Cape. The territories of Khama, Sebele, andBathoen still form an Imperial Protectorate. When gold was first discovered, the fable of "the dog in the manger"began to be enacted in the Transvaal. The Boers were quiteincompetent to start mining operations on their own account, and yetwere intolerant of the presence of outsiders who were willing toexpend their energies in the business. Gradually, however, theyagreed to admit foreigners on terms which on the surface were fairlyliberal, and became indirectly almost extortionate. These foreigners--British, Americans, Germans, and Poles--were theantithesis of all that Boer traditions held dear. To begin with, they were progressive; they were also energetic and commercial, andtheir motto, instead of being "God will provide, " was the practicalone of "_Carpe diem_. " The dawn of the "golden age" has beendescribed, and there is no reason, therefore, to dwell on theattractions which converted the Transvaal, for many, from afortune-hunter's goal to a permanent home. Unfortunately theseUitlanders were not bound up in Transvaal politics. The ways of thestolid and the ignorant, the narrow and the bigoted, were not theirways; they had no sympathy for "masterly inaction, " and this theBoers knew. In 1887, to protect themselves from the outsider, the Republicansarranged that invaders could not be admitted to burgher rights underfifteen years. The Uitlanders agitated for increased privileges, andin 1890 a "Second Raad" was created. For this Chamber it wasnecessary to take the oath of allegiance, to reside two years in theState before being entitled to vote, and another two before becomingeligible for election. Upon the scene now came Dr. Leyds, a Hollander of certain ability, acosmopolitan schemer, and as such naturally opposed to the prestigeof Great Britain. He had his ideal of a great AfricanderConfederation! On the other hand, there was Mr. Rhodes, who had alsohis ideal--that of a Confederated South Africa stretching to theZambesi. Fortunately, with Mr. Rhodes went the Cape Dutch. And herewe may break off to consider the Colossus, as he has been called. His enemies were many. By some it was asserted that Mr. Rhodes wasat heart no Imperialist; by others he was declared to be merely anunscrupulous adventurer. But, as the proof of the pudding is in theeating, so must any criticism of this marvellous man be confined toresults. CHAPTER V MR. RHODES Of the chief personage in the political and financial history ofSouth Africa it is desirable we should know something definite, though space does not allow of any long appreciation of all he hasaccomplished for the advancement of the empire. The Right Hon. CecilJohn Rhodes was born in 1853. He was the fourth son of the late Rev. Francis W. Rhodes, Rector of Bishop Stortford. In 1871 he went toSouth Africa, there to join his brother Herbert, who was engaged incotton-growing in Natal. His constitution was delicate, and it wasbelieved that a journey to the Cape would be beneficial to him. In1872 he returned in much better health to England, and entered OrielCollege, Oxford. While there he contracted a chill, and foundhimself again under orders to return to South Africa. At that timeHerbert Rhodes had forsaken cotton-growing, and had becomefascinated by the prospect of wealth offered by the diamond fieldsin the locality now known as Kimberley. The two youths joined hands, and in 1873 we find the elder brother leaving his claim in charge ofthe younger, the hard-working, astute, and masterful Cecil, whosename has become almost a household word. The young man, who took hisdegree at Oxford in the interval of his work, brought to every taskhe attempted an educated mind and a certain dogged obstinacy, whichcaused him to surmount all difficulties. He prospered amazingly. Butmoney, instead of numbing his activities, only sharpened them, andhe soon began to formulate his ideal--the Utopian dream of anentirely British Africa from the Cape to the Zambesi! [Illustration: THE MATABELE WAR--DEFENDING A LAAGER. Drawing by R. Caton Woodville. ] His most conspicuous financial work was the De Beers Company, ofwhich we have treated elsewhere. From one big venture he went toothers more gigantic still. The famous Chartered Company and thesplendid province of Rhodesia came virtually into existence as theresult of his magnificent foresight. In 1881, in Basutoland, Mr. Rhodes, the newly-elected member for Barkly West, had the goodfortune to meet General Gordon, who was struck at once by theimmense ability of the young man. In character, it seems, they werethe extremes that meet! These two men, of equally strongpersonality, had an antagonism of character which, clashing, gaveforth a resonance that was vastly inspiriting. Gordon and Rhodes would take long walks together, and discuss theaffairs of nations. The General, who was as dictatorial as hisassociate, on several occasions severely criticised the opinions ofyoung Rhodes. "You always contradict me, " he declared. "I never metsuch a man for his own opinion. You think your views are alwaysright, and every one else's wrong. You are, " he went on to say, "thesort of man who never approves of anything unless you have had theorganising of it yourself. " It was a new edition of the pot calling the kettle black, andafforded much amusement to onlookers. On another occasion Gordon begged him to remain in Basutoland andwork with him, but Rhodes refused. He demonstrated that his work layin Kimberley, and there he would remain. "There are very few men inthe world, " argued Gordon, "to whom I would make such an offer. Veryfew men, I can tell you; but, of course, you _will_ have your ownway. " Once, when they were together, Gordon related to Rhodes the story ofan offer of a room full of gold which had been made to him by theChinese Government, after the suppression of the Tai-Ping revolt. "What did you do?" asked Rhodes. "Refused it, of course. What wouldyou have done?" said Gordon. "I would have taken it, " answeredRhodes, "and as many more roomfuls as they would give me. It is nouse for us to have big ideas if we have not got the money to carrythem out. " When Gordon went to Khartoum he invited Rhodes to accompany him, butRhodes refused. He accepted the offer made by the same post of theTreasurer-Generalship in the Scanlin Ministry. In 1884 he becameDeputy-Commissioner for Bechuanaland, which, as the key to SouthAfrica, he determined to keep under his watchful eye. He was at thesame time Treasurer-General of Cape Colony. In 1889 he becameDirector of the British South Africa Company and Chairman till thefiasco of 1896, at which time he was Premier of Cape Colony. Inaddition to holding these posts, his activities have been unending. He has been the moving spirit in every enterprise for the expansionand development of South Africa. He has gained the esteem of theloyal Dutch, and has succeeded in making himself feared if notbeloved by the disloyal. His great work of attempting to weldtogether the two races into one united people is for the noncesuspended, but should life be spared him he will doubtless see therealisation of his dream. In addition to his other labours Mr. Rhodes was Commissioner of the Crown Lands in 1890-94, Minister ofNative Affairs 1894-95, and served in Matabeleland in 1896. RHODESIA--UNCIVILISED In sketching the history of Rhodesia it is necessary to go at leastas far back as our friend Chaka, the great chieftain of the Zulus, whose military prowess has been described. In the days of thiswarlike personage, Matshobane, who governed the Matabele tribe onthe north-west of Zululand, preferred to submit to Chaka rather thanto be "eaten up. " Matshobane was the grandfather of Lobengula, whois intimately associated with the infant history of this promisingcountry. His son Mosilikatze, however, was not so amenable to Zuludiscipline. He broke out, annihilated all men, women, and childrenwho happened to come in his way, and betook himself finally toremote regions where he had no masters save the lions. Later on, in1837, he conceived the ingenious notion of exterminating all thewhite men north of the Orange River; but the white men were too muchfor him, and so he promptly retired to fresh fields and pasturesnew--in fact, to the country now known as Matabeleland. Itsinhabitants were then settled between the Limpopo and the Zambesi. Here he again carried on his fell work of extermination. Of thehorrors of his triumphant progress nothing need be said. They arebest left to the imagination. It is enough to explain that thetribes of the Makalas, Mashonas, and others that happened to be inthe way, were speedily wiped out. The Matabele, reigning in thisvast now almost desolate region, soon became the terror of othertribes. The ravagers continued their fiendish operations, andfinally set up military kraals and installed their chief in theprincipal of these at Buluwayo. How long this state of things would have endured it is difficult tosay. Fortunately there appeared on the scene a man--The Man--whoconceived in his mighty brain a way to clear this Augean stable andtransform it into a comparative fairyland. Mr. Cecil Rhodes came--hesaw--and he conquered in all senses of the word. He decided thatBritish civilisation must be extended to this "hinter-land"--as theBoers called it--and, being a keen man of the world and nosentimentalist, he argued, moreover, that British civilisation mightbe made to pay its way! The idea that Mr. Rhodes is "the walkingembodiment of an ideal, " without personal ambition in his schemes, is as absolutely absurd as are the reverse pictures that have beenpainted of him. He is no angel and no ogre, Mr. Rhodes is one ofNature's sovereigns, who, conscious of his power and the limitationsof human life, uses every minute at his disposal to write his namelarge in the records of his country. And, since his name is large, he wants as a natural consequence a large and clear area to write itin, and that area he means to have! [Illustration: MATABELELAND. ] Now, Mr. Rhodes had decided that the British were the bestadministrators of South Africa, and that if the British shirked the taskit would be undertaken by some other nation. He saw the key to SouthAfrica in his hands--he saw the Boer overspreading his borders, he sawGermans and Portuguese intriguing for footholds--there was but onecourse open, and he followed it. On the 30th of November 1888, Lobengula, the chief of the Matabele, signed a document giving theBritish the right to search for and extract minerals in his territory. Upon that the British South Africa Company was started. In 1889 acharter was granted by the Imperial Government. The Company was createdwith a capital of one million sterling. There were eight directors, three appointed by the Crown, and five elected by the shareholders. Mr. Cecil Rhodes occupied the position of managing director. In a briefspace of time the wildernesses and the forests were traversed, roadswere made, and a strong protective force installed in the country. Dr. Jameson was appointed administrator at Salisbury. A railroad was plannedand forts were built. These were occupied by the Company's police. While the pioneers were at work prospecting for gold, and improvingthe country in all manner of ways, Lobengula became cantankerous. Itmust be remembered that he suffered from gout, for which he wastreated by Dr. Jameson. Now, Lobengula without gout was sufficientlysavage to cause much apprehension; with it, it is impossible todescribe the nature of the alarm he must have occasioned. He fellout first with the Mashonas for trivial reasons, and murders werecommitted. Dr. Jameson then came to the conclusion that, if theplace was to be held at all, Lobengula must be crushed. Morecommotions followed. The Matabeles and Mashona tribes between themcontrived to render the country uninhabitable. The peaceableEuropeans would stand it no longer. The Matabele war ensued. The High Commissioner gave Dr. Jameson permission to protect thecountry, and the forces advanced in two columns upon Buluwayo. MajorPatrick Forbes acted as commander-in-chief, with Major Alan Wilsonas next in command. This column, with guns, baggage, and attendantblacks (who assisted as camp-followers), kept as much as possible toopen country to avoid surprise. They marched from the Iron-mineHill, at the source of the Tokwe River. The second column, commanded by Colonel Goold Adams, was composed inequal numbers of Bechuanaland police and South Africa Company'smounted men. In all they numbered about 450. It was accompanied bysome 1500 Bemangwats under their chief. With Major Forbes's column were Dr. Jameson, Sir John Willoughby, and Bishop Knight Bruce. The advance was carefully managed. Thecolumn destroyed all military kraals in its line of march, skirmishing at times, but cautiously providing against attacks ofthe enemy. One of these attacks took place while the force was inlaager, on the 25th of October. A Matabele army, 5000 strong, madethree savage onslaughts, but were driven back on each occasion withheavy loss. The column still continued to advance, and Lobengula, hearing of itsvictory and approach, sent forth to meet it a company of pure Zulus, the flower of his army. The Imbezu and Ingubo in front of the Matabele army then approachedthe laager that was being formed near the source of the ImbembesiRiver. They advanced with all their accustomed dash, and a warlikeintrepidity worthy of Chaka, their renowned ancestor. But they could make no stand against the Maxim and machine guns, andin a few hours all was over. Lobengula's day was practically done! On hearing of the victory he set fire to his kraal himself, and fledtowards the Zambesi, leaving his magazine, whenever the flamesshould reach it, to explode with ferocious uproar. In November 1893 the Chartered Company's force came into possessionof the smoking, deserted region. Messengers were sent in search ofthe chief. Lobengula was courteously advised to surrender. Hispersonal safety was assured to him by Dr. Jameson, but he refused tolisten. Efforts were then made to capture him. After a long andfatiguing march, news was brought in that Lobengula's waggons hadbeen seen on the road the day before. Major Wilson, with a well-mounted party, went off to follow thespoor, being advised to return before dark. This he did not do. Heremained for the night beyond the Shangani River, and by daylightreached the waggons of the chief. Lobengula's followers immediately attacked the small company ofthirty-four Europeans, which was speedily annihilated. Some of thesemight have escaped, but they preferred, though largely outnumbered, to fight side by side with their comrades till the last! Very little remains to be told. Lobengula endeavoured to arrangeterms with the British force, but his messengers and money neverreached their destination. Babyane and four other indunas--followedafter a few days by others--came to inquire what terms of peacewould be granted. They were required to surrender their arms beforereturning to their kraals, which they did with alacrity. Most of thenatives followed their example, being well satisfied with Britishrule. The death of Lobengula, of fever and gout, in January 1894 putan end to further complications. RHODESIA--CIVILIZED So far we have seen the establishment of the British in a hithertoabsolutely savage arena. It may be interesting to hear whattravellers have had to say regarding the region that has recentlybecome our own. Its present aspect, and its prospects for thefuture, are best learnt from authorities who have personallyinspected the place. Mr. Charles Boyd discourses thus on thesubject:-- "When you have got out of the train before the corrugated ironbuilding which stands on the edge of the illimitable grey, greenveldt, to mark where the great station of the future is to arise, there is one feature of Buluwayo which is making ready to seize holdupon you. It is not, perhaps, the most important feature, but it isconspicuous enough to entitle it to a first place in any jotting oflocal impressions. It is what a logician might call the_differentia_ of Buluwayo. Put it bluntly it comes to this, that youhave arrived in a community of gentlemen. A stranger making his wayabout the brown streets, neat brick and corrugated iron buildingsset down on red earth, and divided into alternate avenues andstreets--'little New York, ' said a policeman complacently--astranger pauses to ask himself if he dreams, or if the HouseholdBrigade, the Bachelors' Club, and the Foreign Office have depletedthemselves of their members, and sent them, disguised inbroad-brimmed hats and riding-breeches, to hold the capital ofMatabeleland. Young men of the most eligible sort are everywhere. Some of them are manifestly youthful, others are well on in thethirties, there is even a sprinkling of men of years; but the massof the population presents the same aspect of physical fitness, thatindefinable something besides, which is perhaps not to be expressedsave under the single head of 'race. '" In fact, our authorityasserts that nowhere can be found a healthier, shrewder, orfriendlier set of men. He believes in them, and in the disciplinethat has toughened them to meet the real needs of life, and keptthem alive to a sense of their political and social importance. Hesays-- "Buluwayo now possesses a population of 5000, a mayor andcorporation, daily and weekly papers, and several public buildings, including banks, clubs, and an hospital built as a memorial to MajorWilson. "The rapid increase in the value of land at Buluwayo is shown by thefact that whilst in 1894 the average price of a town stand was £103, in 1897 it had advanced to £345. By the opening of the railway, inNovember 1897, it is placed in direct communication with CapeTown, and a still greater increase in value may be anticipated. " [Illustration: "TO THE MEMORY OF BRAVE MEN. " THE LAST STAND OF MAJOR WILSON ON THE SHANGANI RIVER, 1893. Painting by Allan Stewart. Reproduced by special arrangement with the Fine Art Society, London. ] Things in Rhodesia are as yet expensive, but Mr. Boyd thinks thatrailroads will have a cheapening influence. He quotes some presentprices, which would make the hair of a Londoner stand on end!Imagine the feelings of the comfortable cockney who found himselfface to face with a breakfast bill for nine shillings! For thismodest sum Mr. Boyd was supplied with tea, ham, eggs, marmalade, andtoast, in fact, the little commonplace things that we have come toconsider as the natural fixtures of the metropolitan table! Of the library, whose foundation-stone was laid by Sir AlfredMilner, he speaks in highly favourable terms. He says that in layingthe foundation-stone no one seemed more keenly impressed than theHigh Commissioner himself. He prophesied the foundation of a richuniversity at Buluwayo to replace that other and easy one which alibrary is avowed to supply. At this some one smiled. But Sir Alfredrebuked him for the frivolity. He had seen enough, Sir Alfreddeclared, of the temper of this place, to believe a university atBuluwayo to be a consummation neither fanciful nor impossible. Inregard to the agrestic qualities of this new district, Mr. H. Marshall Hole has spoken at some length in an article which appearedin an issue of _Colonia_, a magazine published by the ColonialCollege, Hollesley Bay, Suffolk. He declares that "the greatadvantage of Rhodesia as an agricultural country is the facilitywith which irrigation can be carried on; the conformation of theland is undulating, and even the so-called 'flats' are intersectedin all directions by valleys, each of which possesses itswatercourse, so that by the simple expedient of throwing a damacross these valleys, water may be stored and led on to the adjacentfields as required. The soil is in all parts naturally fertile, butthe farmer sometimes has great difficulty in reducing it to a properstate for cultivation, owing to the roots and growth which must beexterminated before the seed is sown. The strongest ploughs and themost careful harrowing are required for this work, otherwise thesettler will have to face the annoyance and delay of brokenploughshares, and the disaster of a crop choked by tangle-grass andweeds. The crops to which farmers have hitherto most devotedthemselves in Rhodesia are mealies (maize) and forage (oat hay). These find a ready market at all times, as they form the staple foodof horses. The next most popular crop is potatoes, which do well, are not liable to disease, and are in so great request that theysometimes fetch 1s. 6d. , and seldom fall below 3d. Per pound in themarket. All kinds of English vegetables prosper with very littletrouble, beyond careful watering in dry weather, and weeding duringthe rains; but, for some unexplained reason, vegetable culture isleft almost entirely to the coolies or Indians, who, despite theirvery primitive methods of irrigation and tillage, make immenseprofits thereby. " Further on he says that farms of about 3000 acres may be bought atfrom £250 to £2000, according to their situation as regardsneighbouring towns, or the extent of cultivation done on them; andwhile the farmer will not derive much more than a bare subsistencefor the first year or two, he may, by combining dairy-farming andtimber-cutting with his more extensive operations, make both endsmeet at any rate, and enhance the value of his land without beingout of pocket. One with a small capital has, of course, a betterchance of immediate profit, and such an one would do well to joinsome established and experienced man in partnership, or as a pupil, in order to learn something of the business before entering itfinally. His advice to adventurous youth is, "By all means go, ifyou can manage to put together enough money to pay your passage andto keep yourself for two or three months after your arrival. " Of the towns he speaks appreciatively. "We have buildings of a verysubstantial type, built for the most part of brick. There are blocksof rooms which form bachelor 'diggings' for single men, and smallbut comfortable suburban houses for families, while the railways onthe east and west afford facilities for the importation of excellentfurniture. Eight years ago it was so difficult to obtain furniturethat every little packing case was carefully treasured, its nailsdrawn out and straightened, and its boards converted into tables, stools, and shelves. To-day it is no uncommon thing to find pianosand billiard tables in private houses in Buluwayo, and even inSalisbury, which has not yet been reached by the railway, while theclub-houses at both places are models of comfort and luxury. " A writer, who signs himself "W. E. L. , " in _British Africa_ says ofRhodesia, "That the soil is mostly very fertile; in Matabelelandalone 6000 square miles are suitable for cultivation without anyartificial irrigation, or other extensive preliminary work. In 1891, a commission of Cape Colony farmers visited the country, andreported favourably on the land from an agricultural standpoint. Mr. Lionel Decle said, 'I am the first traveller who has crossed Africafrom the Cape to Uganda, and I must say the British South AfricaCompany may certainly boast of possessing the pick of Central Africaon both sides of the Zambesi. ' "Teak forests cover 2000 square miles in North-West Matabeleland;and Mashonaland is very well timbered, mostly with trees of theacacia family. "The native crops are rice, tobacco, cotton, and india-rubber. AllEuropean vegetables can be grown to perfection, especiallycabbages, lettuces, beetroot, turnips, carrots, and onions. Therewere in 1897 over eighty market gardens in the neighbourhood ofBuluwayo, and for the half-year ending September 1897, the value ofthe produce sold was £9630. "Fruit orchards are being planted, and nearly all fruit appears toflourish, especially grapes, figs, oranges, peaches, almonds, walnuts, lemons, bananas, quinces, apricots, pomegranates, andapples. All kinds of European cereals can be grown, and maize doeswell. "The average rainfall is 30 to 35 inches, 90 per cent. Of whichfalls during the wet season--November to March. "The temperature rarely touches freezing point, except on thehighlands round Salisbury and Fort Charter, and owing to the greatelevation (4000 to 5000 feet) of most of the country, rarely exceeds90° in the shade. In the low-lying Zambesi valley, however, it isvery hot from December to March. " Of the mineral wealth, it seems as yet dangerous to prognosticate. Prophecies are many, and there is every reason to believe that themines will be prolific as those of the Transvaal. In regard to thismatter, however, time alone can show. GOLD It may be remembered that in and after 1854, the Boers commenced toblock up the path of travellers, and in some cases to causeexpulsion of visitors across the Vaal. Doubtless this policy ofexpulsion originated in the nefarious traffic in "apprentices, "which they wished to carry on uninterruptedly, but there was alsoanother reason for their precautions. Stray discoveries of gold hadbeen made from time to time, and gold prospectors began to take anuncomfortable interest in the district. Now the Boers had no desireto open up their country to the mining population, or to run anyrisks which might interfere with their hardly won independence. After the discoveries of the German explorer Manch, however, theywere unable entirely to resist invasion. The ears of the public weretickled. The hint of nuggets in the Transvaal naturally drew thithera horde of adventurous Europeans who would not be denied. The firstimmigrants betook themselves to Barberton, and some three or fouryears later to the Witwatersrandt. These appear mostly to have beenScotsmen, for President Burgers christened the earliest goldfieldsMac Mac, in consequence of the names of the invaders. Miners andspeculators of all kinds commenced to pour into those districts, some to make a fortune as quickly as possible, and rush off tospend it elsewhere, others to settle themselves in the country anddevelop schemes for financial outlay, profitable alike to themselvesand to the land of their adoption. Now these permanent visitors werescarcely appreciated by the Boers. They foresaw the alientransformed into the citizen, and objected to him. The power whichthey had acquired, both by long years of hardship and long hours ofscheming, they wished to keep entirely in their own hands. With thearrival of further settlers they feared this independence would bematerially weakened. In order that further possible citizens mightnot be attracted to the Transvaal, the Volksraad passed a lawcalculated to damp their ardour. This law imposed on all candidatesfor the franchise a residence of five years, to be accompanied byregister on the Field Cornet's books, and a payment of £25 onadmission to the rights of citizenship. The first discoverers of the great goldfield are reported to be theBrothers Struben, owing to whose perseverance and patience theWitwatersrandt became the Eldorado of speculators' dreams. In 1886this locality was declared a public goldfield by formalproclamation, and the South African golden age began. In a little while the regions north of the Limpopo began to beinvestigated, and each in their turn to yield up their treasures. In1888 a concession to work mineral upon his territory was obtainedfrom Lobengula, the Matabele king. A year later the British SouthAfrica Company was founded. The Company having obtained its charter, no time was lost. In 1890, we find the now noted pioneer expeditionplying its activities in Mashonaland. Mr. Basil Worsfold, in a most instructive article in the_Fortnightly Review_, affords an excellent insight into the energythat characterised the Company's proceedings:--"In the space ofthree months, a road 400 miles in length was cut through jungle andswamp, and a series of forts was erected and garrisoned by theCompany's forces. After the Matabele war, which occupied the closingmonths of 1893, the prospecting and mining for gold was commenced inMatabele, as well as in Mashonaland, and at the present timeBuluwayo, Lobengula's kraal, has become the chief centre of theindustry. These operations were checked by the revolt of theMatabele and Mashona in 1896, but since that period gold mining hasbeen steadily progressing. The Buluwayo yield for December 1898amounted to 6258 oz. : while that of the four last months--Septemberto December--of the same year was 18, 084 oz. , of the value of about£70, 000!" [Illustration: A MATABELE RAID IN MASHONALAND. Drawn by W. Small, from Sketches by A. R. Colquhoun, FirstAdministrator of Mashonaland. ] The other fields which yield gold are the Transvaal, Lydenberg, andDe Kaap fields, and the Klerksdorp and Potchefstrom fields. Theoutput of these fields continues to grow apace, but how muchlonger the growth will be maintained is uncertain. The opinion ofMr. Hamilton Smith, who wrote to the _Times_ on the subject in 1895, is worth consideration. He says, "In 1894 the value of the Randtgold bullion was £7, 000, 000, and this without any increase from thenew deep-level mines; these latter will become fairly productive in1897, so for that year a produce of fully £10, 000, 000 can be fairlyexpected. Judging from present appearances, the maximum product ofthe Randt will be reached about the end of the present century, whenit will probably exceed £12, 500, 000 per annum. " It is interesting to find that Mr. Smith's maximum figure wasalready exceeded in the year 1898, when the total yield of gold was4, 295, 602 oz. , valued at £15, 250, 000! The following table, based on Mr. H. Smith's and Dr. Soetbeer'sestimates, affords us an opportunity for comparing the South Africanoutput with that of other countries, and the world's present supplywith that of former years:-- GOLD OUTPUT FOR 1894. | WORLD'S OUTPUT. ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Average annual Value | From value. United States £9, 000, 000 | 1700 to 1859 £ 2, 000, 000Australasia 8, 000, 000 | 1850 to 1875 25, 000, 000South Africa 7, 000, 000 | 1875 to 1890 20, 000, 000Russia (1892) 4, 000, 000 | 1894 (one year only) 36, 000, 000 Of the stimulus given to railway construction by the establishmentof the gold industry Mr. Worsfold speaks with authority. He says, "To-day, Johannesburg--built on land which in 1886 was part of anabsolutely barren waste--is approached by three distinct lines, which connect it directly with the four chief ports of SouthAfrica--Delagoa Bay, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. Of theselines the earliest, which traverses the Free State from end to end, and links the Randt with the Cape Colony, was not opened until July1892. The Pretoria-Delagoa Bay line was completed in the autumn of1894; and the extension of the Randt railway to Charlestown, theconnecting-point with the Natal line, was not effected until thefollowing year. These, together with some subsidiary lines, represent a total of 1000 miles of railway constructed mainly underthe stimulus of the gold industry in the Transvaal. To this totaltwo considerable pieces of railway construction, accomplished in theinterest of the gold industry in the Chartered Company'sterritories, must be added. Of these, the first extended the maintrunk line of Africa from Kimberley successively to Vryburg andMafeking, in 1890 and 1894, and then finally to Buluwayo in 1897, and the second, the Beira line, by securing a rapid passage throughthe 'fly country, ' brought Salisbury into easy communication withthe East Coast of Africa at the port so named. Taken together, theymeasure 930 miles. It should be added also that arrangements arealready in progress for the extension of the trunk line fromBuluwayo to Tanganyika--a distance of about 750 miles. This willform a new and important link in Mr. Rhodes' great scheme ofconnecting Cape Town with Cairo. " The telegraph advanced more speedily even than railroads, and thepopulation has kept pace with wire and rail. Johannesburg has apopulation of 120, 800 souls, and Buluwayo, a savage desert not longago, has now an European society of over 5000 persons. It istherefore somewhat questionable if Mr. Froude is justified in hisopinion that diamonds and gold are not the stuff of which nationsare made. Nations, if they are to expand, must be fed, and whilediamond and gold mines give up of their wealth, we are assured ofsufficient food to foster expansion. That done, it remains merelywith the Government of the flourishing nation to decide whether itswork shall be little or large. It is curious to note that in spite of the disturbance in theTransvaal the mines continued to maintain their position, with theresult that the gold output from the Randt for July shows aconsiderable increase upon previous months. According to theofficial figures received from the Chamber of Mines, the returnswere as follows:-- 456, 474 ozs. For the Witwatersrandt district 22, 019 ozs. For the outside district -------- 478, 493 ozs. The production in June 1899 was:-- 445, 763 ozs. For the Witwatersrandt district 21, 508 ozs. For the outside district --------In all 467, 271 ozs. And in July 1898:-- 359, 343 ozs. For the Witwatersrandt district 22, 663 ozs. For the outside district --------In all 382, 006 ozs. This table shows that during the twelve months since July 1898 theproduction of gold on the Randt has increased by 100, 000 ozs. Amonth--equivalent to 1, 200, 000 ozs. A year. It will be found that, if these returns are compared with the estimates made by competentauthorities, the actual output is far in excess of all estimates, following is the gold output table, Transvaal, to July 1899:-- +----------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------------+| MONTH. | 1895. | 1896. | 1897. | 1898. | 1899. | TOTAL TO DATE. |+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------------+| | Ozs. | Ozs. | Ozs. | Ozs. | Ozs. | Ozs. ||January | 177, 463 | 148, 178 | 209, 832 | 336, 577 | 431, 010 | 369, 557--1889 ||February | 169, 296 | 167, 019 | 211, 000 | 321, 238 | 425, 166 | 42, 000--'87-8-9||March | 184, 945 | 173, 952 | 232, 067 | 347, 643 | 464, 036 | 494, 817--1890 ||April | 186, 323 | 176, 003 | 235, 698 | 353, 243 | 460, 349 | 729, 238--1891 ||May | 194, 580 | 195, 009 | 248, 305 | 365, 016 | 466, 452 | 1, 210, 867--1892||June | 200, 942 | 193, 640 | 251, 529 | 365, 091 | 467, 271 | 1, 478, 473--1893||July | 199, 453 | 203, 874 | 242, 479 | 382, 006 | 478, 493 | 2, 024, 163--1894||August | 203, 573 | 213, 418 | 259, 603 | 398, 285 | ... | 2, 277, 640--1895||September | 194, 765 | 202, 562 | 262, 150 | 408, 502 | ... | 2, 281, 175--1896||October | 192, 652 | 199, 890 | 274, 175 | 423, 217 | ... | 3, 034, 674--1897||November | 195, 219 | 201, 113 | 297, 124 | 413, 517 | ... | 4, 555, 009--1898||December | 178, 429 | 206, 517 | 310, 712 | 440, 674 | ... | 3, 193, 777--1899|+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------------+|Total |2, 277, 640|2, 281, 175|3, 034, 674|4, 555, 009|3, 193, 777|21, 899, 562 ozs. |+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------------+Government Returns; some additions to be made for Rhodesia. DIAMONDS The discovery of diamonds in South Africa was made by a curiousaccident. One day a trader travelling along in the neighbourhoodnorth of Cape Colony happened to stop at a farm. While there, he wasinterested in a small child who was toying with a bright andsingularly lustrous pebble. His curiosity was aroused, and hesuggested that the thing might be rare enough to be of some value. Thereupon the stone was sent to an expert in Grahamstown, whodeclared it to be a diamond. The stone weighed twenty-one carats andwas valued at £500. From that date search was made in and around thelocality, and more diamonds, smaller and of inferior quality, werefound. During the years 1867-68 nothing very active was done, thoughnow and again these precious stones were discovered near the VaalRiver. In the month of March, 1869, the world was startled and began toopen its eyes. The diamond known as "the Star of Africa, " weighingsome eighty-three carats in its raw state, was obtained from aHottentot. This individual had been in possession of the valuableproperty for some time, and had kept it solely on account of itsrarity as a charm. The stone was eventually sold for the sum of£11, 000. The north bank of the Vaal where the discoveries were made was, atthat time, a species of "No-Man's-Land. " The southern bank belongedto the Free State, but for the other side there were many claimants, none of whom could prove a title to it. The community of minerswhich there gathered was consequently lawless and ruffianly, and itsmode of government was distinctly primitive. The various claimants, notably the Griqua Captain, NicholasWaterboer, commenced disputes regarding the valuable portion of theFree State territory, and finally it was decided to submit toBritish arbitration. President Brand refused the offer, butPresident M. W. Pretorius of the South African Republic, who hadgrievances against the Barolong, Batlapin, and Griqua tribes, agreed. A Court was appointed, the Governor of Natal acting asumpire. The interests involved were many, and on the subject oftheir rights the various claimants seemed somewhat hazy. The FreeState was not represented, and the umpire, acting on the evidence ofMr. Arnot (the agent of Nicholas Waterboer) gave judgment againstthe South African Republic, and allowed the claim of the GriquaCaptain, including in the award the tract claimed by him in the FreeState. The complicated situation is thus described by Mr. Bryce inhis "Impressions of South Africa":-- "As Waterboer had before the award offered his territory to theBritish Government, the country was forthwith erected into a CrownColony, under the name of Griqualand West. This was in 1871. TheFree State, whose case had not been stated, much less argued, beforethe umpire, protested, and was after a time able to appeal to ajudgment delivered by a British Court, which found that Waterboerhad never enjoyed any right to the territory. However, the newColony had by this time been set up, and the British flag displayed. The British Government, without either admitting or denying the FreeState title, declared that a district in which it was difficult tokeep order amid a turbulent and shifting population ought to beunder the control of a strong power, and offered the Free State asum of £90, 000 in settlement of whatever claim it might possess. Theacceptance by the Free State, in 1876, of this sum closed thecontroversy, though a sense of injustice continued to rankle in thebreasts of some of the citizens of the Republic. Amicable relationshave subsisted ever since between it and Cape Colony, and thecontrol of the British Government over the Basutos has secured forit peace in the quarter which was formerly most disturbed. "These two cases show how various are the causes, and how mixed themotives, which press a great power forward even against the wishesof its statesmen. The Basutos were declared British subjects, partlyout of a sympathetic wish to rescue and protect them, partly becausepolicy required the acquisition of a country naturally strong, and holding an important strategical position. Griqualand West, taken in the belief that Waterboer had a good title to it, wasretained after this belief had been dispelled, partly perhapsbecause a population had crowded into it which consisted mainly ofBritish subjects, and was not easily controllable by a small State, but mainly because Colonial feeling refused to part with a region ofsuch exceptional mineral wealth. And the retention of GriqualandWest caused, before long, the acquisition of Bechuanaland, which inits turn naturally led to that northward extension of Britishinfluence which has carried the Union Jack to the shores of LakeTanganyika. " [Illustration: KIMBERLEY, AS SEEN FROM THE ROCK SHAFT. Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen. ] Griqualand West, whose capital is the salubrious Kimberley, wassettled in 1833 by the Griquas or Baastards, a tribe of DutchHottentot half-breeds. As we have seen, the territory was claimed bythe chief, Waterboer, and his claim was allowed by the Governor ofNatal. When he subsequently ceded his rights, the province wasannexed to Cape Colony, but with independent jurisdiction. In 1881it became an integral part of Cape Colony. Griqualand East comprisesNo-Man's-Land, the Gatberg and St. John's River territory, undereight subordinate magistrates. A word, before passing on, of Kimberley. This town, hitherto knownas the City of Diamonds, has now the distinction of being the casketwhere Mr. Rhodes, with the price of £5000 on his head, wasincarcerated. Its real birth dates from 1869-70, when all the worldrushed out to win fortune from its soil. Happily at that time Mr. Cecil Rhodes happened to be in the neighbourhood. With his usualgift of foresight, he recognised that some process of amalgamatingthe various conflicting claims and interests, and merging them inone huge whole, would be necessary if the value of diamonds was tobe kept up. He invented a scheme, and succeeded--the greatcorporation, the De Beers Consolidated Mining Company, limited theoutput of diamonds to an annual amount such as Europe and the UnitedStates were able to take at a price high enough to leave an adequateprofit. This arrangement has, in a measure, had the effect ofdepopulating the place. At least it has thinned it of the crowd ofadventurers who previously infested the region and struggled tomaintain an independent existence there. In the absence of theseloafers the town is civilised, and comparatively refined. There aregroves of gum-trees to promote shade, and thickets of prickly pear, which have ever a rural, though touch-me-not aspect. Thelow-storeyed houses, built bungalow-wise, have an air ofcapaciousness and ease; and further out, in Kenilworth, there arecomfortable dwellings, surrounded with trees, and suggestive of acertain suburban picturesqueness. This region owes its cheerful andwell-ordered aspect entirely to Mr. Rhodes, who is at the same timethe parent and the apostle of all progress in South Africa. The diamonds have their home in beds of clay, which are usuallycovered with calcareous rock. These beds are the remains of mudpits, due to volcanic action. Mr. Bryce, in his "Impressions ofSouth Africa, says:-- "Some of the mines are worked to the depth of 1200 feet by shaftsand subterranean galleries. Some are open, and these, particularlythat called the Wesselton Mine, are an interesting sight. This deephollow, one-third of a mile in circumference and 100 feet deep, enclosed by a strong fence of barbed wire, is filled by a swarm ofactive Kaffir workmen, cleaving the 'hard blue' with pickaxes, piling it up on barrows, and carrying it off to the wide fields, where it is left exposed to the sun, and, during three months, tothe rain. Having been thus subjected to a natural decomposition, itis the more readily brought by the pickaxe into smaller fragmentsbefore being sent to the mills, where it is crushed, pulverised, andfinally washed to get at the stones. Nowhere in the world does thehidden wealth of the soil and the element of chance in its discoverystrike one so forcibly as here, where you are shown a piece ofground a few acres in extent, and are told, 'Out of this pitdiamonds of the value of £12, 000, 000 have been taken. ' Twenty-sixyears ago the ground might have been bought for £50. " To encourage honesty in the miner good wages are given, and ten percent. Is allowed to finders of valuable stones who voluntarilydeliver these to the overseer. Apropos of this subject, Mr. Brycerelates an amusing tale, which, if not true, is certainly _bentrovato_: "I heard from a missionary an anecdote of a Basuto who, after his return from Kimberley, was describing how, on oneoccasion, his eye fell on a valuable diamond in the clay he wasbreaking into fragments. While he was endeavouring to pick it up heperceived the overseer approaching, and, having it by this time inhis hand, was for a moment terribly frightened, the punishment fortheft being very severe. The overseer, however, passed on. 'Andthen, ' said the Basuto, 'I knew that there was indeed a God, for Hehad preserved me. '" Before leaving the subject of diamonds, it may be interesting tonote the material increase of the products of the mines year byyear. The following is a table of statistics of the De BeersConsolidated Mines, Limited, since its formation, 1st April 1888:-- TABLE OF STATISTICS. [Transcriber's Note: In order to fit into the limits required by