Fifty Years in South Africa ... Illustrated

Chapter I

Introductory. PAGE Early Memories— Some Reminiscences — Celebrities I Met— Chats with Naval and Military Veterans of the Napoleonic Wars— Paris in 1830— The Street Fighting- Costumes of the English and French Working Classes contrasted— Boating— Fencing— Archery— A Visit to the Highlands 1

Chapter II

First Years in South Africa. The Voyage Out — Cape Town— Its Inhabitants — Fox hunting on "The Flats"— Unsuitable Immigrants— Trip to Graaf Reinet— Sport— A Bivouac— Stock Farming- Game— The " Totties "—Kaffir Warfare— Game on the Limpopo — Gordon Cumming — Oswell — David Living stone — Kuruman — Motits — Then and Now - - 12

Chapter III

Game and Sport in South Africa. Available Sport in South Africa— The Game Lands- Best Localities— Equipment for Travel — A Trip into " The Great Thirst Land " 33

Chapter IV

Lions. Lions and Methods of Hunting Them— An Awkward Rencontre— Boers as Lion Hunters— As Game Shots — Fate of an Englishman in Lion Hunting— Boer Com- VI contents. PAGE mandos against Lions — Personal Encounters — North- Eastern Transvaal as a Field for Sport— Man-eating Lions — My Losses from Lions ------- 47

Chapter V

About Sporting Guns and Military Weapons. Various Sporting Arms— Military Weapons — Best Fire arm for Travellers— The " Smooth " Bore— Oval Bores — The Bottle-necked Cartridge Condemned — "Old Brown Bess " — Novelty v. Efficiency — Large Bore Rifles Obsolete — Hints as to the Build of Rifles and Guns— Effective Charges — Express Rifles — Smooth-bore Underrated — Sporting Distances — Blundering at Majuba Hill — Results 68

Chapter VI

The Great Thirst Land. The Kaliharri Desert—Soil—Climate—Pasturage—In habitants — Game — Dunes — The T'samma Melon — A Scientific Exploration Advocated— Ancient River Beds — The Road to Lake N'Gaami — Botletle River — My Friend D 's Adventures— Hunting Trips in the "Thirst Land" —Ostrich Hunting— As Practised by the Native "Bas taards"- ---------- 91

Chapter VII

Natal. Essentially an English Colony — Natal contrasted with Cape Colony — Variable Climate — Water Abundant — Sugar Industries — Horse-sickness — The Highlands — Zulus — Missions— Durban — Pietermaritzburg — Hotels — Ladysmith — The Boers and Dingaan — The Klip River and Drakensberg— Harrysmith — Natal no place for the For tune-hunter — Sport not good — In the Zulu Country better — Tsetse Fly — Snakes— The Native Question - - - 115

Chapter VIII

The Orange River Free State. Offers few attractions to Sportsmen — Bloemfontein — Ecclesiasticism — Climate Healthy— A Prosperous State — Scarcity of Fuel — Presidents — The Power of the Dutch Clergy — Diamonds — Sport — Agriculture — Grazing — Horse-sickness - - - - - - - - -128 contents. VII PAGE «3S 148

Chapter IX

How the Diamond Fields were acquired by England. A Land Swindle — Incompetence of the Orange River Free State Government— Difficulties — David Arnott — Cornelius Kok — Waterboer — The Scheme — Arnott's Triumph — Result — A Royal Commission Appointed — Losses of the Kaffirs — Redress — Major Lanyon— " Hush Money " — Ultimate Purchase — The Griqua War

Chapter X

The Transvaal. The Political History — Gladstone's Mistakes — The War — Boer Tactics — Loss of an Opportunity after Majuba — Administration Inexcusably Ignorant — A Boer Account of Majuba Hill — Boers will not Fight in the Open — What the War cost Me — My Stay in the Transvaal during the War — My Escape — A Midnight Adventure — How the News was received at Mafeking — Topography — Pastur age — Agriculture — Horse-sickness— The Gold Fields — Kaffir Labour— Paul Kruger— His Thrift— His Youth— His Hatred of the Blacks — His Cruelties — His Rise — Poverty of the Boers — Cheating the Kaffirs — Native Wars — Ignorance of the Boers — The cause of the strained re lations between the Transvaal and England — The Con vention—The Characteristics of the Transvaal Govern ment — Big Game necessary to Boer success— "Treks" — Boers would have been massacred but for Sir Bartle Frere — Robbing Kaffirs — Transvaal Government a Dis grace to Civilisation — British Supremacy a " Dead Letter " — Some Characteristics of the Boer — Crime — Sins — Library of a Transvaaler — Immigration to Johannes burg — Famine, Fever, Rinderpest — Its National Debt — Delagoa Bay .-.------

Chapter XI

Rhodesia. Rhodesia in 1897— Native Question — The Chartered Company — Mineral Resources of the Company—Mata beleland as a Stock Raising Country— Agricultural Suc cess Depends upon Mines being worked profitably — Difficulties of Transport— Horse-sickness— The Ass- Camels — Game in Rhodesia — Shooting Licenses — contents. PAGE Hunting Parties— Restrictions— Lions still Plentiful — The Limpopo — Rhodesia not a Poor Man's Country — The Native Rising— Nomad Farming— Village Sites— Kaffirs Successful as Stock-breeders— Their System worth a Trial 198

Chapter XII

On Emigration to South Africa. The Outlook not Cheerful — Superabundance of Cheap Native Labour — South Africa no place for the Poor Settler — Life of Shop Assistants — Employment Unobtainable in most Healthy Districts — South Africa, generally, Unfit for Invalids — No Hospitals — Unskilled Labour wholly in hands of Natives— Cape Colony a "Sleepy Hollow" — The Diamond Fields— A Monopoly — No Demand for White Labour — Kruger — Future of the Diamond Fields — Note for Intending Settlers — The Situation in the Transvaal — Kruger and Germany — Paramountcy— Sufferings of the Boers — Locusts — Droughts — Rinderpests — Starvation of Farmers — A Rush to the Rand- - 2 17 £HAPTER XIII. Boer Marksmanship. A Vulgar Error — Boer no longer a Shot — Never remarkably Good — "The Aggregate Fair" — The Extermination of Big Game ends Boer Supremacy — Skill Deteriorating — Some Instances — No Love of Sport — No Target Practice — Some Experiences when Hunting — The Buffalo— A Boer "Trek"— N'Gaami Land— The Riding Ox — An Uninviting Country ------ 238

Chapter XIV

Postscript — The Political Situation. Kruger's Re-election — British Paramountcy—" Suzerainty" to be Defined— Continuance of Krugerian Regime Inimical to British Interests — The Indemnity for the Jameson Raid— Vote some Relief for Starving Boers — Boers ought to be Grateful to England— Boer Inroad into Stellaland— Boer Misrule— Liberties — Kruger and the Justices— Releasing a Convict— Mr. Chief-Justice Kotze and Oom Paul — The Population of Johannesburg "Helo tised" — Two-thirds of the Transvaal owned by English men—A Suggestion to the Chartered Company — An Enticement to " Trek." - ------ 2ee Fifty Years in South Africa*

Introduction

. Many books have been written about South Africa. Its people, its resources, its politics, and more par ticularly its future as part of the British Empire, are of ever increasing interest, and no apology is needed for any writer who has had long acquaintance and intimate knowledge of the Colonies stating his experiences and opinions. The author is a man who has lived the ordi nary life of a South African pioneer settler * for more than half a century his interests have been identical with those of the Colonists, and he, if anyone, is able to judge from actual experience what may be beneficial and what has proved harmful. Unlike many who have X

INTRODUCTION.

. written on South African affairs, he has " no axe to grind," has no prejudices, and whatever there may be of bias in his arguments pro and con the claims of Uit lander and Boer is but the natural outcome of a long study of evidence received at first hand in daily inter course with men belonging to different races and parties. As an expert, his opinion deserves attention and his suggestions for ameliorating the present tension merit consideration. No one can read the chapters on game and shooting without being convinced that although a hunter for the market the author is a thorough sportsman. Of personal adventures he is slow to write, remarking that one episode is very much the same as another ; many sportsmen will regret that one who has killed so many lions and much other large game is so reticent on the subject of his sporting exploits, but those who intend visiting South Africa in search of sport will read with greater profit the particulars he gives of the game-lands, and his remarks on the subject of game pre servation should be borne in mind by those who have the interest of South Africa at heart.

To the Boer large game has been a source of wealth, and its rapid extinction in the Transvaal will probably result at no distant date in a " trek " of the Boer stock-raisers to districts within British territory, and this must react on the division of parties within the Transvaal and so has a political as well as an economical aspect.

INTRODUCTION.

. xi It is the intending emigrant the author more par ticularly addresses. His advice to those about to try their fortune in South Africa is pertinent and sound. In no sense can he be considered an emigration agent ; he has the interests of his adopted country at heart, and wishes to attract those only who are likely to succeed and make the Colonies more prosperous, and at the same time better their own positions. In his desire to disillusion the sanguine he may have coloured too darkly the difficulties which beset the intrepid settler, but, in all, there is nothing set forth that will deter those of the right sort who resolve to make a fair livelihood in South Africa, and there is much that will help them to decide upon the best districts, seasons, and means for making a beginning. The author's simple recountal of his journeyings and doings in the Great Thirst Land and on the banks of the Limpopo bring vividly to mind the wild, weird, waterless waste of sand dunes and the thick jungles on its eastern edge.

His recollections of the im mense herds of large game on the veldt and the mention of his intercourse with hunters like Gordon Cumming and Oswell are as interesting as instructive. We seem to see these mighty hunters, and the shadowy form of the intrepid explorer, David Livingstone, standing before the erect and wiry man who writes of him. The native Kaffirs, the bastard Hottentots and wild bushmen gather round his lumbering ox-drawn waggon

INTRODUCTION.

. as it is slowly moving across the loose stones and sand of the grassless burning waste. Thrilling in its simplicity is the description of the flight by moonlight from the Transvaal in the time of war, and no mere multiplication of words could give the imaginative reader a better idea of the crude, ignorant, retiring Boer than the outline the author has given when seen by the sidelights he has thrown upon his family life, his religion, and his hopes of betterment. In reading what the author has written one feels that it is not of the Boer he is learning, but that it is the Boer himself with whom he is brought face to face. And what is true in respect of the Dutch race in like manner applies to the rest of the book ; it is in truth Africa in its crude reality — that, and no more. THE EDITOR.

Preface

. This little book owes its existence to what is usually called an accident It came about in this way. A gentleman, personally unknown to me, himself an author, very kindly sent me a copy of one of his works on a technical subject of interest to me, and the fact of this book having reached its sixth edition is a sufficient proof of its merits. As some little return for this act of kindness, I posted to him a bundle of the MS. memoranda into which this book has developed. I acceded to my friend's request to publish, and agreed to furnish him with some additional copy, so as to bring it up to date. If the public endorse my editor's opinion of this crude attempt to amuse or interest some of them, one more pleasure will have been added to those enjoyed by one who is now far on his way to complete an existence passed among three genera tions of fellow mortals of divers colours and nationalities. The natural "camaraderie" of my brother sportsmen induces me to hope that they at least will treat my shortcomings leniently.

PREFACE.

. XIV Of the sympathies of Exeter Hall enthusiasts 1 hardly hope to be a recipient • for they are generally as cocksure of the infallibility of their own fads as if their community consisted wholly of Popes, and I have my doubts as to the validity of their claims. Anyhow, I hear that my editor has excised many of my remarks on missionary enterprise in South Africa. I endorse his action, without, however, altering my private opinions — which do not count. I am no enemy to Missions qua. Missions, and these remarks mostly applied to a past period, when the chief occupation of the reverend functionaries seemed directed towards accentuating the normal antipathies between the white and coloured races. Undoubtedly too many missionaries of former days used their alleged converts as tools to obstruct trade, a good deal of which they for a time monopolised by these means.

At present such practices are no longer in vogue, and the personnel of the missionary enterprise are most respectable men. However, the consensus of South African opinion seems to be that but little beneficial impression has been made on the pure African negro race, whatever may be said on the subject in regard to benefits conferred on and accepted by the " off-coloured " Colonial population.

PREFACE.

. XV As regards my dissertations on outstanding disputes between the Imperial Government and the Transvaal Autocrat, I can only hope they may give effect to criticism, and thus draw public opinion. The notes on the prospects of the Chartered Company's Territory (Rhodesia) may be read with advantage by intending investors and settlers ; and my opinion of the country is, shortly, that its prosperity as a field for European immigrants is dependent on the amount of its possible gold output, but that from an African point of view, it being a fairly well watered land, superior as regards its capabilities for stock-raising and agriculture to most other parts of South Africa, it will at no distant date attract a considerable population of Africanders, both of Boer and English blood. Finally, I trust that the reader will perceive that I have not written up to any special objective, but with a view to express honest opinions, in it may be rather blunt terms.

And here, perhaps, it will be as well to mention that I have no pecuniary interests in South Africa, but, notwithstanding this deficiency, the welfare of the country enlists my sincerest best wishes. G. NICHOLSON. Robertson, Cape Colony. FIFTY YEARS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Chapter I. Early Recollections

Over sixty years have passed since I was a Cantab of Trinity Hall, and during this time greater changes in political and social life have been wrought than in any other like term at any previous period. I did not care for the life of a London resident. I had a fixed aversion to crowds indoors ; avoided balls, theatres, and frivolities generally. Studying law was not more to my fancy, and my chief amusement was fencing, which I took up with great zest, frequenting Angelo's Rooms, near the Horse Guards. There I met few men who could successfully compete with me, and but one who could beat me easily. This was Sir George Duckett, a short, middle-aged man of great strength B and remarkable activity — in fact, the best man with the foils I ever met. Of soldiers and sailors, of English country life, too, I saw a good deaL At my father's place in Devonshire, and elsewhere, I met such well-known people as Sir Robert Peel, Bulwer, Lord Mahon, Lord Melbourne, and the great and good " Iron Duke," and many of his Peninsula and Waterloo heroes.

Often I would take a trip to Greenwich, for a long chat with some of the armless or legless old pensioners who had fought under Nelson and other naval heroes of the great war. Of these veterans there were at that time two thousand comfortably cared for in the grand old palace, and it was de lightful to sit under a tree in the park and, while filling their pipes with the best tobacco, listen to the well-told yarns of these cheery old Vikings, whose conversation was far more instructive than that with which one is usually bored in more polished circles. With many of the non-commissioned military officers of the armies led by Wellington in the Peninsula and at Waterloo I struck up a close acquaintance and acquired much information. These men generally were remarkable for broader views than their fellow heroes in the naval service, and I especially remember three of them — Ser geant-Major Fairbrother, of the Life Guards ; Sergeant Biggs, 14th Light Dragoons ; and Ser geant-Major Robertshaw, Life Guards — all fine men physically, in the prime of life, and of superior intelligence.

Fairbrother and Biggs died in the service of two of our titled landed proprietors, as land stewards with salaries of £500 a year. Robertshaw was a fine old soldier, but a "roue," and was comfortably settled as instructor of a yeomanry regiment, and died in that service. Biggs was attacked at Waterloo when temporarily separated from his regiment by three Cuirassiers, all of whom he killed. His Colonel had his sabre engraved with an account of the exploit on the blade, which I have often handled. I remember being much impressed with one of his remarks to the effect that if we had had a cavalry force equal in numbers to that of the enemy at Waterloo, we should have won the battle in two hours, because our cavalry would at least have neutralised that of the enemy, and enabled our infantry to fight continuously in line, and thus inflict fearful loss on the French who attacked in columns.

As it was the French cavalry were able to force our infantry into squares, when, of course, their offensive powers were minimised and their losses increased by artillery fire. I was a good horseman, a crack shot, and un usually strong and active for a man who never weighed more than 164 lb. in his best days. Coarse dissipation was never a temptation to me, and all kinds of gambling distasteful, nor were society's frivolities much more attractive. Law I hated from my soul, and although I had exceptional opportunities of a brilliant career by following its thorny and miry ways, I threw away the unwelcome chances, and hankered after a life of adventure and more freedom than is consistent with existence in civilised lands. In 1830 I went to Paris on a visit to Bishop Luscombe, in company with my father and a Mr. Kemble ; during our stay there the Revolution by which Charles lost his crown occurred.

On the first of the three days' battle we were returning from a visit to a chateau some miles from the city, and when near the Champs Elysees were startled on hearing heavy firing in the direction of the Place Vendome, near which was our hoteL There was nothing for it but to endeavour to reach it and get shelter as soon as possible. Our hired carriage was seized by the insurgents, and we were politely but firmly ordered away — the carriage being wanted to add to a barricade. There was a good deal of firing going on between the troops and the mob all round. I remember noticing the blue marks made by the bullets which struck the pavement, and the appearance of wounded men slowly trickling out of the fight Being foreigners, we were not molested, but rather assisted on our way by the mob, and at last reached the corner of the Rue de la Paix, but found it impossible to get to our quarters in the Place Vendome, where a furious battle between the Royal Guards and the mob was just beginning.

In spite of the surrounding terrors, any number of heedless gamins were mixed up with the com batants, and seemed to enjoy the hubbub im mensely — although every now and then one of them would fall from a shot, and die murmuring a farewell to his mother, who is much more sacred to the average Frenchman than " le bon Dieu " himself. Our party came in for lots of chaff from these gamins, and Kemble, who, like Saul, towered a full head and shoulders above everybody — standing about 6 ft. J in. — and a very fine man to boot, came in for more than his share, but retaliated with effect, and was rapidly becoming inconveniently popular when we were obliged to halt now and then under shelter to let a passing shower of mitraille and bullets pass by. By dodging into doorways and taking such chances to progress as we could, we at length found temporary lodgings in a small hotel where Kemble was known.

It was not far from the Tuileries, and it served us until the long battle ended and the crown of the Bourbons passed to the newer regime. On subsequent visits to Paris I was very much struck with the superior taste in costume shown by the French working classes, in contrast with English of the same grade. The French work man aims at appearing what he is, and on Sunday and other gala days in a neat cap and a clean blouse is a far more agreeable spectacular object than the English workman encased in a bad copy of the costume of a higher class, including a cheap and hideous " top-hat," generally a misfit, and evidently very uncomfortable, but none the less an object of worship to its suffering wearer. And then the " grisette " — small, sallow, and seldom pretty — she trips along with infinite grace in the neat and tasteful costume of her class, and is far more attractive than her insular sister, albeit the latter is generally of superior physique and good looks, but spoils all by a vulgar unsuccessful attempt at copying the costume of the classes above her, and only succeeds in exhibiting herself as the personification of a fraud, often slatternly, and always pretentious and vulgar.

Chat for five minutes with a French "grisette," and you will find that she can speak her own language pleasantly and correctly. Converse with an English girl of the same class, and you will hear Cockneyisms which will make you wish you were deaf. At this period Paris, taken as a whole, was by no means a handsome city; its best and brightest quarters were but of relatively small extent. Grouped, however, as these parts were, closely together, and visible almost at a glance by visitors, the effect of the first sight of the place was certainly cheery, and at the same time imposing ; and as the visitor's carriage rolled down the Champs Elysees, along the Rue de Rivoli, and through the Place Vendome on to the boulevards, he could not but feel that he was gazing on a charming picture. The rest of the vast city consisted mainly of very narrow streets, bordered by high houses, and were without any foot-pavement for the comfort and protection of the pedestrian.

Down the middle of each street was a malodorous sewer, and at distant intervals dingy-looking oil-lamps swung on cords, and by night served only to make darkness visible. Coming from England, one missed the numerous neat and well-finished carriages, splendidly horsed, common then with us. In Paris, rope traces generally formed part of the harness of the few carriages to be seen, and the horses were either round, chubby Norman cobs — good enough in their way, but decidedly out of place in anything but a country cart — or were lean, gaunt equine specimens of a washy nondescript breed, un attractive and dejected in aspect. To compensate for these things, every one seemed light-hearted and cheerful, with little to do — and doing that little rather as if acting in a drama than as a serious matter of business.

" Vive la bagatelle ! " seemed to be the universal motto ; young as I was, I was much interested by witnessing its practical application on a national scale. Here and there only was a horseman to be seen, and he almost invariably turned out to be an English man who had brought his own cattle and eccen tricities across the Channel wherewith to astonish the natives. A happy interlude of travel and sport in the Scottish Highlands occurred in 1837, and this started again my natural bent for adventure. I never cared for the usual school games, such as cricket, football, or, indeed, any pastime in volving disciplined action. Boating I delighted in, and could manage a small craft under sail or oar to perfection. At the University I occasionally pulled an oar in our college boat, and participated in several winning races (bumps), but much preferred solitary excursions.

Of archery I was passionately fond — not in the shape of formal target-shooting, but when roaming away over the fields, practising at any tempting mark, and doing a little poaching when opportunity offered. A pheasant or two, or a hare, killed with my bow afforded more pleasure than a whole bagful obtained with the gun. Sometimes a little mischief tempted me while out with the bow, and once I tried a long pull at a huge pig, which fell to the shot. However, I sought the irate owner and got out of the scrape by paying rather more than the value of the animal. Experience proved to me that many of the marvellous feats attributed to ancient archers, disbelieved in by modern votaries of the art, are nevertheless approximately true, making, of course, a little occasional allowance for an abnormal pull at the " long bow " by the historians.

If any modern archer should read this, he will know that a bow with a pull of between fifty and sixty pounds is quite as strong as an average man can effectually use, but it must be allowed that practice is now only occasional, and merely intended to facilitate " hits " at the target, whereas not only accuracy but range were desiderata when the bow was a weapon of war, and the art of shooting was practised with a view to the attainment of success on those lines. By practice I eventually found that a bow of ninety-five pounds draw was quite within manageable limits ; that a range of four hundred yards could be attained ; and that at forty or fifty yards an arrow with a square pyramidal steel head could be sent through an iron spade. For foxhunting I never cared much, as the ostentation, the crowd, and the absence of opportunity for the exercise of any individual hunting instincts in the participator were distasteful con comitants.

To be obliged to concentrate all one's energies and strain the powers of one's horse :n overcoming artificial obstructions, to the exclusion of any of the more legitimate operations of real hunting, seemed to verge on boredom, and hardly repaid one for wearing the conspicuous red coat and uncomfortable leg-gear.

Chapter II. First Years In South Africa

IN January, 1844, I found myself on board ship, beating out against a tremendous adverse gale across the Bay of Biscay, bound for the Cape — which we reached early in March. Cape Town in those days was a quiet, prosperous, but old-fashioned non-progressive place. The coloured working population, principally of Malay extraction, wore a costume of their own, and looked wonderfully clean and well fed. There seemed to be an entire absence of bustle or hurry, and soon after the noontide meal every one turned in for a comfortable " siesta," which possibly accounted in some measure for the total absence of that haggard, worn expression so observable in most of the urban inhabitants of all classes at home. A few substantial merchant firms, headed by cour teous well-bred gentlemen, transacted the extensive wholesale and shipping business of the place, and, strange to say, the ordinary official classes repudiated the manners and customs of bumble dom, and were genial and polite.

Showy plate glassed shop fronts were unknown, but a sufficiency of dark, cool retail shops, containing good stocks, supplied luxuries and necessaries at moderate prices. Upon the whole, the place, with its sur rounding villages, villas, and climate, impressed the visitor pleasantly, notwithstanding a great dearth of hotels, the paucity of the clerical element, and the prevalence of that quiet content which the modern age of progress abhors. At that time — and until the overland route to India was available — the Cape was the great sanitarium where military and civil officers of the Honourable East India Company came to recover from wounds or to freshen up exhausted con stitutions. Some two thousand of these visitors, with wives and families in proportion, enlivened the place, and circulated a very appreciable amount of welcome coin while recovering their health.

Tasteful carriages, well horsed, and driven by stately Indian coachmen clad in turbans and spotless white muslin, were numerous in the town and suburbs ; railways were unknown, and active little Cape hacks were the general locomotive factors employed by the more sturdy classes. Society was based on unostentatious principles; manners were decidedly better than those of the modern type, and morals probably no worse, although less encased in the fortifications of more modern cant and pretension. A member of the heroic Napier family, who had left an arm on one of the grand battlefields of the Peninsula, worthily represented Royalty, and made the shabby old Government House a pleasant and hospitable centre liberally accessible. On the Cape flats jackals did duty for foxes, and were hunted by a good subscription pack, well ridden to by a not too numerous field, including both sexes.