[Contents]CHAPTER IX.THIRD CONTACT OF AFRICANDER AND BRITON—IN THE ORANGE FREE STATE.The “Great Trek” of 1836 and 1838 removed from the old colony at the Cape an element in the population which, however worthy in some regards, was unrestful and disaffected, leaving abundant room for a new immigration from Europe. It was some years, however, before there was any considerable influx from continental Europe. Judged by the grim rumors that were afloat everywhere, South Africa was a dangerous country to live in because of the warlike and merciless Kaffirs; and the trend of British emigration was yet towards America.About 1845 the tide of fortune-seeking people was turned towards Cape Colony. The British government of this time stimulated immigration to that field so liberally that in five years between four and five thousand loyal subjects from the mother country removed to the Cape. Later,[136]a considerable number of disbanded German soldiers who had served under the British colors in the Crimean war were sent there as citizens, and in 1858 over two thousand German civilians of the peasant order were settled along the south coast on lands once occupied by the Kaffirs.GENERAL JOUBERT.GENERAL JOUBERT.Industries natural to the climate and soil were slowly but steadily developed. Sheep and cattle raising, and agriculture to a limited extent, became sources of wealth, and correspondingly expanded the export trade. Public finances were gradually restored to a healthy state, churches and schools sprang up, and there was no serious drawback to the progress of the colony but the frequent Kaffir invasions across the eastern border. These cost much loss of life and property to the raided settlements, but the expense of the resulting wars was borne by the home government. Under British rule the population had increased from 26,000 Europeans in 1806 to 182,000 in 1865.With the growth of population there came changes in the form of government. The earlier governors exercised almost autocratic power, fearing nothing but a possible appeal against their acts to the Colonial Office in London. It should be stated, however, that the colonists[137]found as frequent cause to complain of the home government as of their governors. The occasional irritation which broke out into open protest was caused, for the most part, by difficulties with the natives. The Europeans, dwelling among an inferior race, naturally looked upon the natives as existing for their benefit, and bitterly resented the disposition of both the imperial authorities and the governors to give equal civil rights and protection to the blacks. The missionaries were the special objects of this resentment, because they held themselves bound by their sacred office to denounce the wrongs inflicted on the Kaffirs, and to even defend their conduct in rebelling against oppression.These unfortunate dissensions had the effect of uniting the English and the Dutch colonists in questions of policy and government regarding the natives. After various attempts to satisfy the people with a governor appointed by the crown and a Legislative Council constituted by the governor’s nomination and imperial appointment, the home authorities, in 1854, yielded to the public demand for representative institutions.A legislature, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly, was established, both to be elected on a franchise wide[138]enough to include people of any race or color holding the reasonable property qualification. The sole check upon the colonial legislature retained by the imperial government was the right of the British crown to disallow any of its acts considered objectionable, on constitutional or other grounds, by her Majesty’s ministers. The executive power remained, for a time, with the governor and his council, who were appointed by the crown and in no way responsible to the colonial houses. Later, the executive power was taken from the governors and vested in a cabinet of ministers responsible to the colonial legislature and holding office during its pleasure.The range of industries followed by the people of Cape Colony was not enlarged until the discovery of diamonds in 1869. This brought in a sudden rush of population from Europe and America and so inflated trade that the colonial revenue was more than doubled in the next five years. Then began that unparalleled development of mineral resources in South Africa which created immense wealth and furnished the elements of a political situation whose outcome the wisest cannot foresee.With this general view of the condition of Cape Colony in the three decades succeeding the[139]Great Trek of the Africanders, we turn again to the special study proposed and consider the chain of events that led up to the third unfriendly contact between Boer and Briton—this time beginning in the Orange Free State.By the conventions of 1852 and 1854 Great Britain formally relinquished all claim to that part of the interior of South Africa lying to the north of Cape Colony, and recognized the republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. There can be no doubt of the sincerity of the British government in taking this action. The prevailing desires actuating both the parliament and the executive were to be rid of the responsibility and expense of governing these regions, and to leave the two new Africander republics to work out their own destiny in their own way.For a few years the relations of the Cape government and its northern neighbors were friendly. The first occurrence that disturbed the welcome peace and harmony was a serious war which broke out in 1858 between the Basutos under Moshesh and the Orange Free State. The Basutos laid claim to certain farms, held under English titles, in Harrismith,Wynbergand Smithfield districts. These were taken possession[140]of by the petty Basuto captains, and when attempts were made to eject the intruders, Moshesh, the paramount chief, and his eldest son Letsie, assumed the right to interfere. This episode, together with other unfriendly acts on the part of the Basutos, brought on a condition which, it became evident, nothing but war could remedy. Accordingly, the Volksraad of the Orange Free State authorized the President, Mr.Boshof, to take any steps necessary to prevent intrusion upon the territory of the State. After much and very insincere diplomatic correspondence, the time of which was used by the Free State government in collecting the forces of its western and northern divisions, and by the Basutos in assembling their warriors, petty raids began the conflict and led on to hostilities on a larger scale near the end of March, 1858.By the 26th of April Mr. Boshof became convinced that the Free State could not hold its own against the Basutos, and that the salvation of the country from being overrun by its enemies depended upon obtaining aid from some quarter. Acting on this conviction, on the 24th of April Mr. Boshof wrote Sir George Grey, governor of Cape Colony, informing him of the critical condition of the Free State, and imploring his mediation.[141]Sir George, after obtaining the sanction of the House Assembly to such a course, immediately tendered his services as mediator to Mr. Boshof and Moshesh, and was unconditionally and cordially accepted by both. Thereupon a cessation of hostilities was agreed to pending the arrangement of final terms of peace by Sir George.In the meantime, the Free State was being ravaged on its western border by petty chiefs, who saw in the struggle between the whites and the powerful Basutos a favorable opportunity to enrich themselves with spoil. In the distress occasioned by these forays the Free State was aided by a force of burghers from the Transvaal Republic, under Commandant Paul Kruger.Out of this friendly act there grew up a desire and even a proposition to unite the two republics in one. President Pretorius, Commandant Paul Kruger, and about twenty other representatives from the Transvaal visited Bloemfontein to confer with the Free State Volksraad on the matter of union—a measure considered by many the only means of saving the country from its savage foes.While the conference on union was in progress there arrived, on the 11th of June, a letter[142]from Sir George Grey announcing that in case an agreement to unite the two republics were concluded, the conventions of 1852 and 1854—guaranteeing their separate independence—would no longer be considered binding by Great Britain. Undoubtedly this action evinced a desire, not to say a determination, that the Free State should find safety not by union with the sister republic to the north, but by coming again under British sovereignty and forming one of a group of colonies to be united in a great British Dominion in South Africa. The negotiations for union were dropped on the receipt of Sir George’s letter, and both parties resolved to appoint commissioners to confer with him after peace with the Basutos should be arranged.It was not until the 20th of August that Sir George Grey arrived at Bloemfontein to act as mediator between Moshesh and the Free State. While preliminaries were being discussed the governor received urgent dispatches from London ordering him to send all available troops to India, where the Sepoy rebellion was raging. It became, therefore, a matter of supreme importance to establish peace between the Free State and the Basutos at once—for not a soldier could safely be spared until that was accomplished.[143]On the 29th of September the treaty was completed and signed. It settled a new frontier for the Free State next to Basutoland, and bound Moshesh to either punish marauders of his people himself, or consent that the Free State authorities should do so.This peace lasted only seven years. In 1865 new troubles arose leading to a renewal of war between the Free State and Moshesh. Again the governor of Cape Colony acted as mediator, but his decisions were rejected by the Basutos, and new hostilities began. This time, by a heroic effort made in 1868, the whites defeated and scattered the Basutos with great slaughter, and were at the point of utterly breaking their power, when the always politic Moshesh appealed to the British High Commissioner at the Cape to take his people under British protection.The commissioner doubtless considered the interests of Cape Colony which, in the event of a dispersion of the Basutos, might be overrun by the fugitives, and suffer injury thereby. And it is evident that he was unwilling that the Free State should strengthen itself, beyond the necessity of ever seeking readmission to the British dominions, by the annexation of Basutoland. So, looking to the safety of the old colony, and to the[144]hope of some day adding thereto the Orange Free State, the commissioner took the defeated Basutos under the wing of the imperial government and declared them British subjects.The Free State was allowed to retain a considerable area of good land which it had conquered on the north side of the Caledon River, but the adjustment reached was anything but satisfactory. The British had now established their authority to the south of the republic all the way from Cape Colony to Natal, and, thus, had extinguished a second time the persistent Africander hope of extending their territory to the sea. Thus, in 1869, recommenced the British advance toward the interior.Another momentous step towards enlarging the sphere of British influence was taken almost immediately. Diamonds were discovered in 1869, in a district lying between the Modder and the Vaal rivers, where the present town of Kimberley stands. Within a few months thousands of diggers and speculators from all parts of South Africa, Europe, America, and from some parts of Asia, thronged into the region and transformed it into a place of surpassing value and interest. The question of ownership was raised at once. The Orange Free State claimed it. The Transvaal[145]Republic claimed it. It was claimed by Nicholas Waterboer, a Griqua captain, son of old Andries Waterboer; his claim being based on an abortive treaty made with the elder Waterboer in 1834, when, at Doctor Philip’s suggestion, the attempt was made to interpose between the old colony and the northern populations a line of three native states under British protection. And it was claimed by a native Batlapin chief.Three of these claimant—the Transvaal Republic, Nicholas Waterboer for the Griquas, and the Batlapin chief for his clan—agreed to settle the conflict by arbitration, naming the governor of Natal as arbitrator. The governor promptly awarded the disputed ownership to Nicholas Waterboer the Griqua, who as promptly placed himself under the British government, which, with equal promptitude, constituted the district a crown colony under the name of Griqualand. The Orange Free State, not having been a party to the arbitration, protested, and was afterwards sustained by the decision of a British court, which found that Waterboer’s claim to the territory was null and void. But the colony had been constituted and the British flag unfurled over it before the finding of the court could stay proceedings.[146]Without admitting or denying the Free State’s contention, the British government obtained a quitclaim title for a money consideration. It was represented that a district so difficult to keep in order, because of the transient and turbulent character of the population, should be under the control of a more vigorous government than that of the Free State. Finally, the British offered and the Free State authorities accepted, £90,000 in settlement of any claim the republic might have to the territory of Griqualand.The incident closed with the payment and acceptance, in 1876, of the price agreed upon. But the Africanders of the Free State had the feeling at the time—and it never ceased to rankle in their breasts—that they had been made the victims of sharp practice; that the diamond-bearing territory had been rushed into the possession of the British and made a crown colony without giving them a fair opportunity to prove their claim to it; and that, while the price offered and paid was a tacit recognition of the validity of their claim, it was so infinitesimal in proportion to the rights conveyed as to imply that in British practice not only is possession nine points in ten of the law but that it also justifies the holder in keeping back nine parts out of ten of the value.[147]Nor was this the only British grievance complained of at this time by the Free State. The project of uniting the two republics for greater strength and mutual safety had been vetoed for no apparent reason than to keep them weak so that they might the sooner become willing to re-enter the British dominions in South Africa. And the British High Commissioner at the Cape had taken the vanquished Basutos and their territory under imperial protection at the moment when the victorious Free State was about to reduce them to permanent submission, and to extend its territory to the sea—again interposing the arm of Great Britain to prevent the strengthening of the republic by its proposed acquisition of Basutoland and the gaining of a seaport at the mouth of the St. John River.Nevertheless, the Orange Free State accepted the situation philosophically and, outwardly, continued on friendly terms with the British government until the outbreak of war between that power and the Africanders of the Transvaal in 1899.[148]
[Contents]CHAPTER IX.THIRD CONTACT OF AFRICANDER AND BRITON—IN THE ORANGE FREE STATE.The “Great Trek” of 1836 and 1838 removed from the old colony at the Cape an element in the population which, however worthy in some regards, was unrestful and disaffected, leaving abundant room for a new immigration from Europe. It was some years, however, before there was any considerable influx from continental Europe. Judged by the grim rumors that were afloat everywhere, South Africa was a dangerous country to live in because of the warlike and merciless Kaffirs; and the trend of British emigration was yet towards America.About 1845 the tide of fortune-seeking people was turned towards Cape Colony. The British government of this time stimulated immigration to that field so liberally that in five years between four and five thousand loyal subjects from the mother country removed to the Cape. Later,[136]a considerable number of disbanded German soldiers who had served under the British colors in the Crimean war were sent there as citizens, and in 1858 over two thousand German civilians of the peasant order were settled along the south coast on lands once occupied by the Kaffirs.GENERAL JOUBERT.GENERAL JOUBERT.Industries natural to the climate and soil were slowly but steadily developed. Sheep and cattle raising, and agriculture to a limited extent, became sources of wealth, and correspondingly expanded the export trade. Public finances were gradually restored to a healthy state, churches and schools sprang up, and there was no serious drawback to the progress of the colony but the frequent Kaffir invasions across the eastern border. These cost much loss of life and property to the raided settlements, but the expense of the resulting wars was borne by the home government. Under British rule the population had increased from 26,000 Europeans in 1806 to 182,000 in 1865.With the growth of population there came changes in the form of government. The earlier governors exercised almost autocratic power, fearing nothing but a possible appeal against their acts to the Colonial Office in London. It should be stated, however, that the colonists[137]found as frequent cause to complain of the home government as of their governors. The occasional irritation which broke out into open protest was caused, for the most part, by difficulties with the natives. The Europeans, dwelling among an inferior race, naturally looked upon the natives as existing for their benefit, and bitterly resented the disposition of both the imperial authorities and the governors to give equal civil rights and protection to the blacks. The missionaries were the special objects of this resentment, because they held themselves bound by their sacred office to denounce the wrongs inflicted on the Kaffirs, and to even defend their conduct in rebelling against oppression.These unfortunate dissensions had the effect of uniting the English and the Dutch colonists in questions of policy and government regarding the natives. After various attempts to satisfy the people with a governor appointed by the crown and a Legislative Council constituted by the governor’s nomination and imperial appointment, the home authorities, in 1854, yielded to the public demand for representative institutions.A legislature, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly, was established, both to be elected on a franchise wide[138]enough to include people of any race or color holding the reasonable property qualification. The sole check upon the colonial legislature retained by the imperial government was the right of the British crown to disallow any of its acts considered objectionable, on constitutional or other grounds, by her Majesty’s ministers. The executive power remained, for a time, with the governor and his council, who were appointed by the crown and in no way responsible to the colonial houses. Later, the executive power was taken from the governors and vested in a cabinet of ministers responsible to the colonial legislature and holding office during its pleasure.The range of industries followed by the people of Cape Colony was not enlarged until the discovery of diamonds in 1869. This brought in a sudden rush of population from Europe and America and so inflated trade that the colonial revenue was more than doubled in the next five years. Then began that unparalleled development of mineral resources in South Africa which created immense wealth and furnished the elements of a political situation whose outcome the wisest cannot foresee.With this general view of the condition of Cape Colony in the three decades succeeding the[139]Great Trek of the Africanders, we turn again to the special study proposed and consider the chain of events that led up to the third unfriendly contact between Boer and Briton—this time beginning in the Orange Free State.By the conventions of 1852 and 1854 Great Britain formally relinquished all claim to that part of the interior of South Africa lying to the north of Cape Colony, and recognized the republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. There can be no doubt of the sincerity of the British government in taking this action. The prevailing desires actuating both the parliament and the executive were to be rid of the responsibility and expense of governing these regions, and to leave the two new Africander republics to work out their own destiny in their own way.For a few years the relations of the Cape government and its northern neighbors were friendly. The first occurrence that disturbed the welcome peace and harmony was a serious war which broke out in 1858 between the Basutos under Moshesh and the Orange Free State. The Basutos laid claim to certain farms, held under English titles, in Harrismith,Wynbergand Smithfield districts. These were taken possession[140]of by the petty Basuto captains, and when attempts were made to eject the intruders, Moshesh, the paramount chief, and his eldest son Letsie, assumed the right to interfere. This episode, together with other unfriendly acts on the part of the Basutos, brought on a condition which, it became evident, nothing but war could remedy. Accordingly, the Volksraad of the Orange Free State authorized the President, Mr.Boshof, to take any steps necessary to prevent intrusion upon the territory of the State. After much and very insincere diplomatic correspondence, the time of which was used by the Free State government in collecting the forces of its western and northern divisions, and by the Basutos in assembling their warriors, petty raids began the conflict and led on to hostilities on a larger scale near the end of March, 1858.By the 26th of April Mr. Boshof became convinced that the Free State could not hold its own against the Basutos, and that the salvation of the country from being overrun by its enemies depended upon obtaining aid from some quarter. Acting on this conviction, on the 24th of April Mr. Boshof wrote Sir George Grey, governor of Cape Colony, informing him of the critical condition of the Free State, and imploring his mediation.[141]Sir George, after obtaining the sanction of the House Assembly to such a course, immediately tendered his services as mediator to Mr. Boshof and Moshesh, and was unconditionally and cordially accepted by both. Thereupon a cessation of hostilities was agreed to pending the arrangement of final terms of peace by Sir George.In the meantime, the Free State was being ravaged on its western border by petty chiefs, who saw in the struggle between the whites and the powerful Basutos a favorable opportunity to enrich themselves with spoil. In the distress occasioned by these forays the Free State was aided by a force of burghers from the Transvaal Republic, under Commandant Paul Kruger.Out of this friendly act there grew up a desire and even a proposition to unite the two republics in one. President Pretorius, Commandant Paul Kruger, and about twenty other representatives from the Transvaal visited Bloemfontein to confer with the Free State Volksraad on the matter of union—a measure considered by many the only means of saving the country from its savage foes.While the conference on union was in progress there arrived, on the 11th of June, a letter[142]from Sir George Grey announcing that in case an agreement to unite the two republics were concluded, the conventions of 1852 and 1854—guaranteeing their separate independence—would no longer be considered binding by Great Britain. Undoubtedly this action evinced a desire, not to say a determination, that the Free State should find safety not by union with the sister republic to the north, but by coming again under British sovereignty and forming one of a group of colonies to be united in a great British Dominion in South Africa. The negotiations for union were dropped on the receipt of Sir George’s letter, and both parties resolved to appoint commissioners to confer with him after peace with the Basutos should be arranged.It was not until the 20th of August that Sir George Grey arrived at Bloemfontein to act as mediator between Moshesh and the Free State. While preliminaries were being discussed the governor received urgent dispatches from London ordering him to send all available troops to India, where the Sepoy rebellion was raging. It became, therefore, a matter of supreme importance to establish peace between the Free State and the Basutos at once—for not a soldier could safely be spared until that was accomplished.[143]On the 29th of September the treaty was completed and signed. It settled a new frontier for the Free State next to Basutoland, and bound Moshesh to either punish marauders of his people himself, or consent that the Free State authorities should do so.This peace lasted only seven years. In 1865 new troubles arose leading to a renewal of war between the Free State and Moshesh. Again the governor of Cape Colony acted as mediator, but his decisions were rejected by the Basutos, and new hostilities began. This time, by a heroic effort made in 1868, the whites defeated and scattered the Basutos with great slaughter, and were at the point of utterly breaking their power, when the always politic Moshesh appealed to the British High Commissioner at the Cape to take his people under British protection.The commissioner doubtless considered the interests of Cape Colony which, in the event of a dispersion of the Basutos, might be overrun by the fugitives, and suffer injury thereby. And it is evident that he was unwilling that the Free State should strengthen itself, beyond the necessity of ever seeking readmission to the British dominions, by the annexation of Basutoland. So, looking to the safety of the old colony, and to the[144]hope of some day adding thereto the Orange Free State, the commissioner took the defeated Basutos under the wing of the imperial government and declared them British subjects.The Free State was allowed to retain a considerable area of good land which it had conquered on the north side of the Caledon River, but the adjustment reached was anything but satisfactory. The British had now established their authority to the south of the republic all the way from Cape Colony to Natal, and, thus, had extinguished a second time the persistent Africander hope of extending their territory to the sea. Thus, in 1869, recommenced the British advance toward the interior.Another momentous step towards enlarging the sphere of British influence was taken almost immediately. Diamonds were discovered in 1869, in a district lying between the Modder and the Vaal rivers, where the present town of Kimberley stands. Within a few months thousands of diggers and speculators from all parts of South Africa, Europe, America, and from some parts of Asia, thronged into the region and transformed it into a place of surpassing value and interest. The question of ownership was raised at once. The Orange Free State claimed it. The Transvaal[145]Republic claimed it. It was claimed by Nicholas Waterboer, a Griqua captain, son of old Andries Waterboer; his claim being based on an abortive treaty made with the elder Waterboer in 1834, when, at Doctor Philip’s suggestion, the attempt was made to interpose between the old colony and the northern populations a line of three native states under British protection. And it was claimed by a native Batlapin chief.Three of these claimant—the Transvaal Republic, Nicholas Waterboer for the Griquas, and the Batlapin chief for his clan—agreed to settle the conflict by arbitration, naming the governor of Natal as arbitrator. The governor promptly awarded the disputed ownership to Nicholas Waterboer the Griqua, who as promptly placed himself under the British government, which, with equal promptitude, constituted the district a crown colony under the name of Griqualand. The Orange Free State, not having been a party to the arbitration, protested, and was afterwards sustained by the decision of a British court, which found that Waterboer’s claim to the territory was null and void. But the colony had been constituted and the British flag unfurled over it before the finding of the court could stay proceedings.[146]Without admitting or denying the Free State’s contention, the British government obtained a quitclaim title for a money consideration. It was represented that a district so difficult to keep in order, because of the transient and turbulent character of the population, should be under the control of a more vigorous government than that of the Free State. Finally, the British offered and the Free State authorities accepted, £90,000 in settlement of any claim the republic might have to the territory of Griqualand.The incident closed with the payment and acceptance, in 1876, of the price agreed upon. But the Africanders of the Free State had the feeling at the time—and it never ceased to rankle in their breasts—that they had been made the victims of sharp practice; that the diamond-bearing territory had been rushed into the possession of the British and made a crown colony without giving them a fair opportunity to prove their claim to it; and that, while the price offered and paid was a tacit recognition of the validity of their claim, it was so infinitesimal in proportion to the rights conveyed as to imply that in British practice not only is possession nine points in ten of the law but that it also justifies the holder in keeping back nine parts out of ten of the value.[147]Nor was this the only British grievance complained of at this time by the Free State. The project of uniting the two republics for greater strength and mutual safety had been vetoed for no apparent reason than to keep them weak so that they might the sooner become willing to re-enter the British dominions in South Africa. And the British High Commissioner at the Cape had taken the vanquished Basutos and their territory under imperial protection at the moment when the victorious Free State was about to reduce them to permanent submission, and to extend its territory to the sea—again interposing the arm of Great Britain to prevent the strengthening of the republic by its proposed acquisition of Basutoland and the gaining of a seaport at the mouth of the St. John River.Nevertheless, the Orange Free State accepted the situation philosophically and, outwardly, continued on friendly terms with the British government until the outbreak of war between that power and the Africanders of the Transvaal in 1899.[148]
CHAPTER IX.THIRD CONTACT OF AFRICANDER AND BRITON—IN THE ORANGE FREE STATE.
The “Great Trek” of 1836 and 1838 removed from the old colony at the Cape an element in the population which, however worthy in some regards, was unrestful and disaffected, leaving abundant room for a new immigration from Europe. It was some years, however, before there was any considerable influx from continental Europe. Judged by the grim rumors that were afloat everywhere, South Africa was a dangerous country to live in because of the warlike and merciless Kaffirs; and the trend of British emigration was yet towards America.About 1845 the tide of fortune-seeking people was turned towards Cape Colony. The British government of this time stimulated immigration to that field so liberally that in five years between four and five thousand loyal subjects from the mother country removed to the Cape. Later,[136]a considerable number of disbanded German soldiers who had served under the British colors in the Crimean war were sent there as citizens, and in 1858 over two thousand German civilians of the peasant order were settled along the south coast on lands once occupied by the Kaffirs.GENERAL JOUBERT.GENERAL JOUBERT.Industries natural to the climate and soil were slowly but steadily developed. Sheep and cattle raising, and agriculture to a limited extent, became sources of wealth, and correspondingly expanded the export trade. Public finances were gradually restored to a healthy state, churches and schools sprang up, and there was no serious drawback to the progress of the colony but the frequent Kaffir invasions across the eastern border. These cost much loss of life and property to the raided settlements, but the expense of the resulting wars was borne by the home government. Under British rule the population had increased from 26,000 Europeans in 1806 to 182,000 in 1865.With the growth of population there came changes in the form of government. The earlier governors exercised almost autocratic power, fearing nothing but a possible appeal against their acts to the Colonial Office in London. It should be stated, however, that the colonists[137]found as frequent cause to complain of the home government as of their governors. The occasional irritation which broke out into open protest was caused, for the most part, by difficulties with the natives. The Europeans, dwelling among an inferior race, naturally looked upon the natives as existing for their benefit, and bitterly resented the disposition of both the imperial authorities and the governors to give equal civil rights and protection to the blacks. The missionaries were the special objects of this resentment, because they held themselves bound by their sacred office to denounce the wrongs inflicted on the Kaffirs, and to even defend their conduct in rebelling against oppression.These unfortunate dissensions had the effect of uniting the English and the Dutch colonists in questions of policy and government regarding the natives. After various attempts to satisfy the people with a governor appointed by the crown and a Legislative Council constituted by the governor’s nomination and imperial appointment, the home authorities, in 1854, yielded to the public demand for representative institutions.A legislature, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly, was established, both to be elected on a franchise wide[138]enough to include people of any race or color holding the reasonable property qualification. The sole check upon the colonial legislature retained by the imperial government was the right of the British crown to disallow any of its acts considered objectionable, on constitutional or other grounds, by her Majesty’s ministers. The executive power remained, for a time, with the governor and his council, who were appointed by the crown and in no way responsible to the colonial houses. Later, the executive power was taken from the governors and vested in a cabinet of ministers responsible to the colonial legislature and holding office during its pleasure.The range of industries followed by the people of Cape Colony was not enlarged until the discovery of diamonds in 1869. This brought in a sudden rush of population from Europe and America and so inflated trade that the colonial revenue was more than doubled in the next five years. Then began that unparalleled development of mineral resources in South Africa which created immense wealth and furnished the elements of a political situation whose outcome the wisest cannot foresee.With this general view of the condition of Cape Colony in the three decades succeeding the[139]Great Trek of the Africanders, we turn again to the special study proposed and consider the chain of events that led up to the third unfriendly contact between Boer and Briton—this time beginning in the Orange Free State.By the conventions of 1852 and 1854 Great Britain formally relinquished all claim to that part of the interior of South Africa lying to the north of Cape Colony, and recognized the republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. There can be no doubt of the sincerity of the British government in taking this action. The prevailing desires actuating both the parliament and the executive were to be rid of the responsibility and expense of governing these regions, and to leave the two new Africander republics to work out their own destiny in their own way.For a few years the relations of the Cape government and its northern neighbors were friendly. The first occurrence that disturbed the welcome peace and harmony was a serious war which broke out in 1858 between the Basutos under Moshesh and the Orange Free State. The Basutos laid claim to certain farms, held under English titles, in Harrismith,Wynbergand Smithfield districts. These were taken possession[140]of by the petty Basuto captains, and when attempts were made to eject the intruders, Moshesh, the paramount chief, and his eldest son Letsie, assumed the right to interfere. This episode, together with other unfriendly acts on the part of the Basutos, brought on a condition which, it became evident, nothing but war could remedy. Accordingly, the Volksraad of the Orange Free State authorized the President, Mr.Boshof, to take any steps necessary to prevent intrusion upon the territory of the State. After much and very insincere diplomatic correspondence, the time of which was used by the Free State government in collecting the forces of its western and northern divisions, and by the Basutos in assembling their warriors, petty raids began the conflict and led on to hostilities on a larger scale near the end of March, 1858.By the 26th of April Mr. Boshof became convinced that the Free State could not hold its own against the Basutos, and that the salvation of the country from being overrun by its enemies depended upon obtaining aid from some quarter. Acting on this conviction, on the 24th of April Mr. Boshof wrote Sir George Grey, governor of Cape Colony, informing him of the critical condition of the Free State, and imploring his mediation.[141]Sir George, after obtaining the sanction of the House Assembly to such a course, immediately tendered his services as mediator to Mr. Boshof and Moshesh, and was unconditionally and cordially accepted by both. Thereupon a cessation of hostilities was agreed to pending the arrangement of final terms of peace by Sir George.In the meantime, the Free State was being ravaged on its western border by petty chiefs, who saw in the struggle between the whites and the powerful Basutos a favorable opportunity to enrich themselves with spoil. In the distress occasioned by these forays the Free State was aided by a force of burghers from the Transvaal Republic, under Commandant Paul Kruger.Out of this friendly act there grew up a desire and even a proposition to unite the two republics in one. President Pretorius, Commandant Paul Kruger, and about twenty other representatives from the Transvaal visited Bloemfontein to confer with the Free State Volksraad on the matter of union—a measure considered by many the only means of saving the country from its savage foes.While the conference on union was in progress there arrived, on the 11th of June, a letter[142]from Sir George Grey announcing that in case an agreement to unite the two republics were concluded, the conventions of 1852 and 1854—guaranteeing their separate independence—would no longer be considered binding by Great Britain. Undoubtedly this action evinced a desire, not to say a determination, that the Free State should find safety not by union with the sister republic to the north, but by coming again under British sovereignty and forming one of a group of colonies to be united in a great British Dominion in South Africa. The negotiations for union were dropped on the receipt of Sir George’s letter, and both parties resolved to appoint commissioners to confer with him after peace with the Basutos should be arranged.It was not until the 20th of August that Sir George Grey arrived at Bloemfontein to act as mediator between Moshesh and the Free State. While preliminaries were being discussed the governor received urgent dispatches from London ordering him to send all available troops to India, where the Sepoy rebellion was raging. It became, therefore, a matter of supreme importance to establish peace between the Free State and the Basutos at once—for not a soldier could safely be spared until that was accomplished.[143]On the 29th of September the treaty was completed and signed. It settled a new frontier for the Free State next to Basutoland, and bound Moshesh to either punish marauders of his people himself, or consent that the Free State authorities should do so.This peace lasted only seven years. In 1865 new troubles arose leading to a renewal of war between the Free State and Moshesh. Again the governor of Cape Colony acted as mediator, but his decisions were rejected by the Basutos, and new hostilities began. This time, by a heroic effort made in 1868, the whites defeated and scattered the Basutos with great slaughter, and were at the point of utterly breaking their power, when the always politic Moshesh appealed to the British High Commissioner at the Cape to take his people under British protection.The commissioner doubtless considered the interests of Cape Colony which, in the event of a dispersion of the Basutos, might be overrun by the fugitives, and suffer injury thereby. And it is evident that he was unwilling that the Free State should strengthen itself, beyond the necessity of ever seeking readmission to the British dominions, by the annexation of Basutoland. So, looking to the safety of the old colony, and to the[144]hope of some day adding thereto the Orange Free State, the commissioner took the defeated Basutos under the wing of the imperial government and declared them British subjects.The Free State was allowed to retain a considerable area of good land which it had conquered on the north side of the Caledon River, but the adjustment reached was anything but satisfactory. The British had now established their authority to the south of the republic all the way from Cape Colony to Natal, and, thus, had extinguished a second time the persistent Africander hope of extending their territory to the sea. Thus, in 1869, recommenced the British advance toward the interior.Another momentous step towards enlarging the sphere of British influence was taken almost immediately. Diamonds were discovered in 1869, in a district lying between the Modder and the Vaal rivers, where the present town of Kimberley stands. Within a few months thousands of diggers and speculators from all parts of South Africa, Europe, America, and from some parts of Asia, thronged into the region and transformed it into a place of surpassing value and interest. The question of ownership was raised at once. The Orange Free State claimed it. The Transvaal[145]Republic claimed it. It was claimed by Nicholas Waterboer, a Griqua captain, son of old Andries Waterboer; his claim being based on an abortive treaty made with the elder Waterboer in 1834, when, at Doctor Philip’s suggestion, the attempt was made to interpose between the old colony and the northern populations a line of three native states under British protection. And it was claimed by a native Batlapin chief.Three of these claimant—the Transvaal Republic, Nicholas Waterboer for the Griquas, and the Batlapin chief for his clan—agreed to settle the conflict by arbitration, naming the governor of Natal as arbitrator. The governor promptly awarded the disputed ownership to Nicholas Waterboer the Griqua, who as promptly placed himself under the British government, which, with equal promptitude, constituted the district a crown colony under the name of Griqualand. The Orange Free State, not having been a party to the arbitration, protested, and was afterwards sustained by the decision of a British court, which found that Waterboer’s claim to the territory was null and void. But the colony had been constituted and the British flag unfurled over it before the finding of the court could stay proceedings.[146]Without admitting or denying the Free State’s contention, the British government obtained a quitclaim title for a money consideration. It was represented that a district so difficult to keep in order, because of the transient and turbulent character of the population, should be under the control of a more vigorous government than that of the Free State. Finally, the British offered and the Free State authorities accepted, £90,000 in settlement of any claim the republic might have to the territory of Griqualand.The incident closed with the payment and acceptance, in 1876, of the price agreed upon. But the Africanders of the Free State had the feeling at the time—and it never ceased to rankle in their breasts—that they had been made the victims of sharp practice; that the diamond-bearing territory had been rushed into the possession of the British and made a crown colony without giving them a fair opportunity to prove their claim to it; and that, while the price offered and paid was a tacit recognition of the validity of their claim, it was so infinitesimal in proportion to the rights conveyed as to imply that in British practice not only is possession nine points in ten of the law but that it also justifies the holder in keeping back nine parts out of ten of the value.[147]Nor was this the only British grievance complained of at this time by the Free State. The project of uniting the two republics for greater strength and mutual safety had been vetoed for no apparent reason than to keep them weak so that they might the sooner become willing to re-enter the British dominions in South Africa. And the British High Commissioner at the Cape had taken the vanquished Basutos and their territory under imperial protection at the moment when the victorious Free State was about to reduce them to permanent submission, and to extend its territory to the sea—again interposing the arm of Great Britain to prevent the strengthening of the republic by its proposed acquisition of Basutoland and the gaining of a seaport at the mouth of the St. John River.Nevertheless, the Orange Free State accepted the situation philosophically and, outwardly, continued on friendly terms with the British government until the outbreak of war between that power and the Africanders of the Transvaal in 1899.[148]
The “Great Trek” of 1836 and 1838 removed from the old colony at the Cape an element in the population which, however worthy in some regards, was unrestful and disaffected, leaving abundant room for a new immigration from Europe. It was some years, however, before there was any considerable influx from continental Europe. Judged by the grim rumors that were afloat everywhere, South Africa was a dangerous country to live in because of the warlike and merciless Kaffirs; and the trend of British emigration was yet towards America.
About 1845 the tide of fortune-seeking people was turned towards Cape Colony. The British government of this time stimulated immigration to that field so liberally that in five years between four and five thousand loyal subjects from the mother country removed to the Cape. Later,[136]a considerable number of disbanded German soldiers who had served under the British colors in the Crimean war were sent there as citizens, and in 1858 over two thousand German civilians of the peasant order were settled along the south coast on lands once occupied by the Kaffirs.
GENERAL JOUBERT.GENERAL JOUBERT.
GENERAL JOUBERT.
Industries natural to the climate and soil were slowly but steadily developed. Sheep and cattle raising, and agriculture to a limited extent, became sources of wealth, and correspondingly expanded the export trade. Public finances were gradually restored to a healthy state, churches and schools sprang up, and there was no serious drawback to the progress of the colony but the frequent Kaffir invasions across the eastern border. These cost much loss of life and property to the raided settlements, but the expense of the resulting wars was borne by the home government. Under British rule the population had increased from 26,000 Europeans in 1806 to 182,000 in 1865.
With the growth of population there came changes in the form of government. The earlier governors exercised almost autocratic power, fearing nothing but a possible appeal against their acts to the Colonial Office in London. It should be stated, however, that the colonists[137]found as frequent cause to complain of the home government as of their governors. The occasional irritation which broke out into open protest was caused, for the most part, by difficulties with the natives. The Europeans, dwelling among an inferior race, naturally looked upon the natives as existing for their benefit, and bitterly resented the disposition of both the imperial authorities and the governors to give equal civil rights and protection to the blacks. The missionaries were the special objects of this resentment, because they held themselves bound by their sacred office to denounce the wrongs inflicted on the Kaffirs, and to even defend their conduct in rebelling against oppression.
These unfortunate dissensions had the effect of uniting the English and the Dutch colonists in questions of policy and government regarding the natives. After various attempts to satisfy the people with a governor appointed by the crown and a Legislative Council constituted by the governor’s nomination and imperial appointment, the home authorities, in 1854, yielded to the public demand for representative institutions.
A legislature, consisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly, was established, both to be elected on a franchise wide[138]enough to include people of any race or color holding the reasonable property qualification. The sole check upon the colonial legislature retained by the imperial government was the right of the British crown to disallow any of its acts considered objectionable, on constitutional or other grounds, by her Majesty’s ministers. The executive power remained, for a time, with the governor and his council, who were appointed by the crown and in no way responsible to the colonial houses. Later, the executive power was taken from the governors and vested in a cabinet of ministers responsible to the colonial legislature and holding office during its pleasure.
The range of industries followed by the people of Cape Colony was not enlarged until the discovery of diamonds in 1869. This brought in a sudden rush of population from Europe and America and so inflated trade that the colonial revenue was more than doubled in the next five years. Then began that unparalleled development of mineral resources in South Africa which created immense wealth and furnished the elements of a political situation whose outcome the wisest cannot foresee.
With this general view of the condition of Cape Colony in the three decades succeeding the[139]Great Trek of the Africanders, we turn again to the special study proposed and consider the chain of events that led up to the third unfriendly contact between Boer and Briton—this time beginning in the Orange Free State.
By the conventions of 1852 and 1854 Great Britain formally relinquished all claim to that part of the interior of South Africa lying to the north of Cape Colony, and recognized the republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. There can be no doubt of the sincerity of the British government in taking this action. The prevailing desires actuating both the parliament and the executive were to be rid of the responsibility and expense of governing these regions, and to leave the two new Africander republics to work out their own destiny in their own way.
For a few years the relations of the Cape government and its northern neighbors were friendly. The first occurrence that disturbed the welcome peace and harmony was a serious war which broke out in 1858 between the Basutos under Moshesh and the Orange Free State. The Basutos laid claim to certain farms, held under English titles, in Harrismith,Wynbergand Smithfield districts. These were taken possession[140]of by the petty Basuto captains, and when attempts were made to eject the intruders, Moshesh, the paramount chief, and his eldest son Letsie, assumed the right to interfere. This episode, together with other unfriendly acts on the part of the Basutos, brought on a condition which, it became evident, nothing but war could remedy. Accordingly, the Volksraad of the Orange Free State authorized the President, Mr.Boshof, to take any steps necessary to prevent intrusion upon the territory of the State. After much and very insincere diplomatic correspondence, the time of which was used by the Free State government in collecting the forces of its western and northern divisions, and by the Basutos in assembling their warriors, petty raids began the conflict and led on to hostilities on a larger scale near the end of March, 1858.
By the 26th of April Mr. Boshof became convinced that the Free State could not hold its own against the Basutos, and that the salvation of the country from being overrun by its enemies depended upon obtaining aid from some quarter. Acting on this conviction, on the 24th of April Mr. Boshof wrote Sir George Grey, governor of Cape Colony, informing him of the critical condition of the Free State, and imploring his mediation.[141]Sir George, after obtaining the sanction of the House Assembly to such a course, immediately tendered his services as mediator to Mr. Boshof and Moshesh, and was unconditionally and cordially accepted by both. Thereupon a cessation of hostilities was agreed to pending the arrangement of final terms of peace by Sir George.
In the meantime, the Free State was being ravaged on its western border by petty chiefs, who saw in the struggle between the whites and the powerful Basutos a favorable opportunity to enrich themselves with spoil. In the distress occasioned by these forays the Free State was aided by a force of burghers from the Transvaal Republic, under Commandant Paul Kruger.
Out of this friendly act there grew up a desire and even a proposition to unite the two republics in one. President Pretorius, Commandant Paul Kruger, and about twenty other representatives from the Transvaal visited Bloemfontein to confer with the Free State Volksraad on the matter of union—a measure considered by many the only means of saving the country from its savage foes.
While the conference on union was in progress there arrived, on the 11th of June, a letter[142]from Sir George Grey announcing that in case an agreement to unite the two republics were concluded, the conventions of 1852 and 1854—guaranteeing their separate independence—would no longer be considered binding by Great Britain. Undoubtedly this action evinced a desire, not to say a determination, that the Free State should find safety not by union with the sister republic to the north, but by coming again under British sovereignty and forming one of a group of colonies to be united in a great British Dominion in South Africa. The negotiations for union were dropped on the receipt of Sir George’s letter, and both parties resolved to appoint commissioners to confer with him after peace with the Basutos should be arranged.
It was not until the 20th of August that Sir George Grey arrived at Bloemfontein to act as mediator between Moshesh and the Free State. While preliminaries were being discussed the governor received urgent dispatches from London ordering him to send all available troops to India, where the Sepoy rebellion was raging. It became, therefore, a matter of supreme importance to establish peace between the Free State and the Basutos at once—for not a soldier could safely be spared until that was accomplished.[143]On the 29th of September the treaty was completed and signed. It settled a new frontier for the Free State next to Basutoland, and bound Moshesh to either punish marauders of his people himself, or consent that the Free State authorities should do so.
This peace lasted only seven years. In 1865 new troubles arose leading to a renewal of war between the Free State and Moshesh. Again the governor of Cape Colony acted as mediator, but his decisions were rejected by the Basutos, and new hostilities began. This time, by a heroic effort made in 1868, the whites defeated and scattered the Basutos with great slaughter, and were at the point of utterly breaking their power, when the always politic Moshesh appealed to the British High Commissioner at the Cape to take his people under British protection.
The commissioner doubtless considered the interests of Cape Colony which, in the event of a dispersion of the Basutos, might be overrun by the fugitives, and suffer injury thereby. And it is evident that he was unwilling that the Free State should strengthen itself, beyond the necessity of ever seeking readmission to the British dominions, by the annexation of Basutoland. So, looking to the safety of the old colony, and to the[144]hope of some day adding thereto the Orange Free State, the commissioner took the defeated Basutos under the wing of the imperial government and declared them British subjects.
The Free State was allowed to retain a considerable area of good land which it had conquered on the north side of the Caledon River, but the adjustment reached was anything but satisfactory. The British had now established their authority to the south of the republic all the way from Cape Colony to Natal, and, thus, had extinguished a second time the persistent Africander hope of extending their territory to the sea. Thus, in 1869, recommenced the British advance toward the interior.
Another momentous step towards enlarging the sphere of British influence was taken almost immediately. Diamonds were discovered in 1869, in a district lying between the Modder and the Vaal rivers, where the present town of Kimberley stands. Within a few months thousands of diggers and speculators from all parts of South Africa, Europe, America, and from some parts of Asia, thronged into the region and transformed it into a place of surpassing value and interest. The question of ownership was raised at once. The Orange Free State claimed it. The Transvaal[145]Republic claimed it. It was claimed by Nicholas Waterboer, a Griqua captain, son of old Andries Waterboer; his claim being based on an abortive treaty made with the elder Waterboer in 1834, when, at Doctor Philip’s suggestion, the attempt was made to interpose between the old colony and the northern populations a line of three native states under British protection. And it was claimed by a native Batlapin chief.
Three of these claimant—the Transvaal Republic, Nicholas Waterboer for the Griquas, and the Batlapin chief for his clan—agreed to settle the conflict by arbitration, naming the governor of Natal as arbitrator. The governor promptly awarded the disputed ownership to Nicholas Waterboer the Griqua, who as promptly placed himself under the British government, which, with equal promptitude, constituted the district a crown colony under the name of Griqualand. The Orange Free State, not having been a party to the arbitration, protested, and was afterwards sustained by the decision of a British court, which found that Waterboer’s claim to the territory was null and void. But the colony had been constituted and the British flag unfurled over it before the finding of the court could stay proceedings.[146]
Without admitting or denying the Free State’s contention, the British government obtained a quitclaim title for a money consideration. It was represented that a district so difficult to keep in order, because of the transient and turbulent character of the population, should be under the control of a more vigorous government than that of the Free State. Finally, the British offered and the Free State authorities accepted, £90,000 in settlement of any claim the republic might have to the territory of Griqualand.
The incident closed with the payment and acceptance, in 1876, of the price agreed upon. But the Africanders of the Free State had the feeling at the time—and it never ceased to rankle in their breasts—that they had been made the victims of sharp practice; that the diamond-bearing territory had been rushed into the possession of the British and made a crown colony without giving them a fair opportunity to prove their claim to it; and that, while the price offered and paid was a tacit recognition of the validity of their claim, it was so infinitesimal in proportion to the rights conveyed as to imply that in British practice not only is possession nine points in ten of the law but that it also justifies the holder in keeping back nine parts out of ten of the value.[147]
Nor was this the only British grievance complained of at this time by the Free State. The project of uniting the two republics for greater strength and mutual safety had been vetoed for no apparent reason than to keep them weak so that they might the sooner become willing to re-enter the British dominions in South Africa. And the British High Commissioner at the Cape had taken the vanquished Basutos and their territory under imperial protection at the moment when the victorious Free State was about to reduce them to permanent submission, and to extend its territory to the sea—again interposing the arm of Great Britain to prevent the strengthening of the republic by its proposed acquisition of Basutoland and the gaining of a seaport at the mouth of the St. John River.
Nevertheless, the Orange Free State accepted the situation philosophically and, outwardly, continued on friendly terms with the British government until the outbreak of war between that power and the Africanders of the Transvaal in 1899.[148]