History of the Boers in South Africa ... with three maps

Front matter

fflSTORY OF THE BOERS IN SOUTH AFRICA. -s. London : S*wazi Sonrie: ichein^owrey & HISTORY OF THE BOERS IN SOUTH AFRICA OK THE WANDERINGS AND WARS OF THE EMIGRANT FARMERS FROM THEIR LEAVING THE CAPE COLONY TO THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THEIR INDEPEND- ENCE BY GREAT BRITAIN. EY GEORGE MCCALL THEAL, OF THE CAPE COLONIAL CIVIL SERVICE ; MEMBER OF THE MAATSCHAPPIJ DER NEDER- LANDSCHE LETTERKUNDE TE LEIDEN, MEMBRE CORRE8PONDANT DE LA COMMISSION POUR L'HISTOIRE DES EGLIBES WALLONNES. AUTHOR OF "A COMPENDIUM OF SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY," '•KAFFIR FOLK LORE," &c, &o. mitk Ihree Jtlaps. LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LOWREY, & CO., PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1887.

Preface

. sllHE emigration of tlie Boers from the Cape Colony -*- and the establishment of the two Republics in the interior of South Africa have never before this been recorded in detail. The most complete account, indeed, previously given, is that in my " Compendium of South African History and Geography " (454 demy octavo pages), the third edition of which was published at the Lovedale Missionary Institution in 1877. For that work I received my information partly from bluebooks and earlier authors, and partly from narratives which I obtained from a great manjT individuals, European and native, who had been actors in the events described. I happened to be in possession of unusual facilities for collecting oral information, and I availed myself of them. Mr. John Noble's account in his admirable work entitled "South Africa, Past and Present: a Short History of the European Settlements at the Cape " (345 crown octavo pages), published in London in 1877, is Preface.

VI with respect to several occurrences, more complete than my own here referred to. A great many other writers have devoted a few pages to the subject, but none have entered deeply into any portion of it except the occurrences in Natal. After a long residence on the Cape Frontier in a position which brought me into constant contact with the different races, on the outbreak of the Kaffir War towards the close of 1877, I was requested by the Government to undertake a diplomatic task requiring special knowledge of native character. Having succeeded in performing the duties entrusted to me, when the war was over I asked for and obtained the charge of the Colonial Archives preserved in Cape Town. During the period from March 1879 to January 1881, I prepared a volume of Abstracts of Early Cape Records, which was published by the Government, and I collected a quantity of material for a History of the Foundation of the Cape Colony.

Transferred again to the Native Department, I returned to the frontier and acted as magistrate of Tamacha until the close of the Basuto war, when I obtained leave of absence for six months and proceeded to the Hague to complete by research in the Archives of the Netherlands the infor mation required for my early Cape History. That Preface. VII volume was published in Cape Town in 1882, under the title of " Chronicles of Cape Commanders : an Abstract of Original Manuscripts in the Archives of the Cap3 Colony, dating from 1651 to 1691, compared with Printed Accounts of the Settlement by various Visitors during that time." A few months earlier a volume containing a selection from a number of Kaffir Folklore Stories and Proverbs, collected by me while residing on the frontier from 1861 to 1877, was published in London.

Upon my return from Europe the Cape Government instructed me to collect, arrange, aud publish all the authentic records that could throw light upon the history of the Basuto tribe. While engaged in this work, which occupied my time until March 1884, a very large amount of correspondence relating to the Emigrant Farmers passed through my hands. I found that the most important of these documents, those which were of the greatest historical value, had never appeared in bluebooks. In these papers the motives of the various actors could be clearly traced. After read ing, comparing, and digesting them, the only labour in writing the history of the emigration was that of guid ing the pen. Of books upon South Africa I have a fair collection. Preface. After obtaining all those in ordinary circulation, ex cluding only such as are devoted to theological contro versy, poetry, fiction, and special sciences, I made lists of rare works from the catalogues of great libraries in England and Holland, and succeeded gradually in pro curing many of them.

To C. A. Fairbridge, Esq., of Cape Town, whose collection is unrivalled, I am in debted for the use of those which are not on my own shelves. But something more than bare knowledge is needed in writing history. Determination to be strictly im partial, freedom from prejudices which might involun tarily affect that determination, are equally requisite. I believe that I possess these qualifications, at any rate I have done my utmost to work in that direction. I have no interests to serve with any particular party, and I am on equally friendly terms with all. Though a resident in South Africa for more than a quarter of a century, I am by birth a Canadian, the descendant of a family that sided with the king at the time of the American Revolution, and afterwards removed from New York to New Brunswick with the other Royalists.

The early years of my life after boyhood were spent in the United States and in Sierra Leone. Thus no ties of blond, no prejudices acquired in youth, stand as barriers Preface. IX to my forming an impartial judgment of events that transpired in South Africa a generation ago. In the most important matters in dispute between the Emigrant and the Missionary parties, when the evidence is not overwhelming on one side or the other, I have given the leading points of the case for both, and left the reader to judge for himself. Regarding the acts of various missionaries, there is certainly a difference in the tone of this volume and of my " Compendium of South African History " written sixteen years ago. I had not then read the mass of missionary correspondence in the colonial records nor the comments upon their complaints and the refutations of many of their statements made by officers of the Colonial Government.

But no one will find a word in this volume condemnatory of mission work properly so called, for no one can be more favourably disposed towards it than I am. Having thus stated what the material at my disposal has consisted of, and that circumstances have placed me in a position to write without bias, I must leave to others the decision as to the manner in which I have carried out the work. While the last sheets of this volume were in the Preface. X press, the Imperial Bluebook C — 4889 of 1886 reached South Africa. Among its contents is an Outline History of the Barolong to the end of the year 1884, by Mr. A. H. F. Duncan, a member of the Betshuana land Land Commission. Considerable labour has been expended in the preparation of this paper, and from the position of its compiler and the fact of its publication in an important bluebook, it will probably be regarded as authoritative.

In it the following paragraph appears : " Friendly relations subsisting between the Barolong and the Boers led to an offensive alliance for the destruction of the common enemy. One stipulation, however, which afterwards assumed importance, made by the Barolong before taking arms, was that should Moselekatse be defeated, they should be guaranteed the independent and continued right to the land of their forefathers, and that they should live under their own rule. The combined commandos attacked and defeated Moselekatse in the neighbourhood of Marikwa; but he was subsequently driven out of the country by Tshaka. After the Marikwa fight, a written agreement was signed by the Boer Commandant, Hendrik Potgieter, restoring their lands to the Barolong. Some years seem to have elapsed before a move was made.

Preface. XI In 1850 Tawane and people took up their residence at Lotlakana. In consequence of encroachments made by the Boers on the Barolong territory, a remonstrance and protest were sent on the 14th Decem ber, 1851, to the Commandant General A. W. Pretorius, by Montsiwa, who had then succeeded his father Tawane. The Boers thereupon appointed a commission, who met Montsiwa on the Molopo, and on the 30th of the same month agreed to a boundary, which ran from Mosega by a waggon road to Buurman's Drift, and thence to the sources of the Hart River. The Boers further desired that the boundary should proceed thence along the Hart River to its junction with the Vaal, but Montsiwa demurred, saying that the line further down the Hart River than opposite to the Makwasi Spruit was that part of the land of Tao which was the inheritance of Moroko, who was not present.

Montsiwa, however, was induced to accept the boun dary so far as he himself was concerned, and thus the matter remained." The authorities upon which these statements are made are given by Mr. Duncan, and are solely the evidence of certain "natives before the Bloemhof Com missioners in 1871, letters written in the name of Montsiwa in 1868 and produced at the Bloemhof arbit- Preface. XII ration, and, for the boundary, the testimony of the Rev. Mr. Ludorf on the same occasion. The rebutting evidence, which was that given by some of the natives and by all the Europeans who were examined, except Mr. Ludorf, is not referred to, and has not been weighed. The Bloemhof award, as is generally known, was the origin of much of the trouble that South Africa has experienced since 1871, as it developed an intensely bitter sectional feeling.

For that result the Govern ment of the South African Republic was more to blame than most people in this country are willing to admit. The republic had a case very different from that which was shown at Bloemhof by the documentary evidence. Its Government went into court without pre paration, without a proper search for written and printed records, without even a consistent plan of action, with nothing but chance to guide it. It had one of the keen est intellects in South Africa as an advocate in opposition, and it did not examine the volumes from which he put in attested extracts. It was not even aware of their existence until it was too late to procure them. With the knowledge of events which a close study of the records of 1836-54 has given me, I am simply amazed at the imbecility of the government of Mr. Preface.

XIII Pretorius in this matter. From the evidence at the Bloemhof arbitration a great deal of information can be gathered, but the historian must go beyond it to as certain the truth of the early intercourse between the Boers and the Barolong. The arbitrators disagreed ; and the final referee, Lieu tenant Governor Keate of Natal, gave judgment against the republic. Then there was an outcry, coupled with the assertion that the production of other evidence would not have made any difference, for the award was a foregone conclusion. Such an assertion I take to be unjust. Lieutenant Governor Keate was bound to be guided solely and entirely by the evidence, docu mentary and oral, recorded at Bloemhof, and though I am in a position to see the defective nature of that evidence, he could not see it, and if he had seen it he would have had no right to take it into consideration.

President Burgers tried to repudiate the arbitration, but the High Commissioner would not allow him to do so. The Transvaal people were very sore, and not in a mood to admit that Mr. Keate was justified in giving the award that he did. His acceptance of the fiction of Tawane's alliance with Potgieter on condition of the " country of Tao " being handed over to him was spoken of with indication. In the body of this wo^k I have Preface. XIV shown that no such alliance took place. There is not a word in support of it in any document for more than a quarter of a century after the expulsion of Moselekatse by Potgieter. It then appears for the first time as a clumsy invention of the European advisers of Mont siwa. I am not writing to support any theory or any party or nationality, but to place on record an accurate version of events ; and before 1854, I have found no thing to indicate that Tawane and Montsiwa were other than subjects of the Emigrant Government, but over whelming evidence that they were.

As for Moselekatse having been driven out of the Betshuana country by Tshaka, as set forth in some of the native evidence at Bloemhof and accepted as cor rect by Mr. Duncan, it will be sufficient to say that Tshaka was assassinated nine years before the expulsion took place. There are some genealogical tables of the Barolono chiefs following Mr. Duncan's paper. In two unimpor tant instances they do not agree with those given in thL volume. Mine were compiled in the first instance from those furnished by Montsiwa to Governor Sir Henry Barkly; they were then sent to various Barolong chiefs and councillors for revision, and have been submitted to a great many authorities since, without any alteration Preface. XV being made in them. The differences arise from Mr. Duncan's using the word son in the European sense, and I in the native signification.

I have explained one such difference in the body of this work, when treating of Moshesh's descent. If the native rule be not followed in such instances, the history of the tribes becomes in volved in inextricable confusion. One of the differences is the parentage of Tsepinare. I have put him down as son of Moroko ; Mr. Duncan puts him down as son of Seatsale and grandson of Tawane. It is perfectly true that Moroko was not his father in the English acceptation of the word. But in correspondence with the Colonial Government, Moroko invariably termed Tsepinare his son, he put him forward as his representative, the clan officially received him as Moroko's son and proper heir, and at Moroko's death he succeeded to the chieftainship with the concurrence of the council. Under such circumstances, it seems to me that native ideas ought to be respected, and that Tsepinare should be placed in the genealogical table where I have placed him.

The case of Moshete is different, because his right to chieftainship was not derived from Gontse, but from another descendant of Ratlou, who was nominally his father, though his actual parentage, as Mr. Duncan Preface. shows, is a matter of dispute. He does not appear in South African history until 1871, and it is only inciden tally that he is mentioned in this volume. I have on one occasion termed him Gonste's son, though if I had to refer to him at any length, I would not use that word to explain the relationship between them. I have, how ever, before me several lists of Ratlou's descendants, drawn up by natives, and in all of them Moshete is re presented as Gontse's son. He is so termed because he is received by the Baratlou branch of the tribe as their principal chief, and Gontse was before him the principal chief of the same people. GEORGE M. THEAL. Cape Town. CONTENTS.

Chapter II

Tshaka — Dingiswayo — Tshaka's Military Organisation and Rule — Gubela — Bungane — Ravages of the Batlokua and Makololo — Devastation of the Mountain Tribes — Moshesh — Umsilikazi — The Matabele — The Missionaries and their Operations — Establishment of the French Mission in the Lesuto — Bethulie — The Barolong Tribe — Tao — Foundation of the London Society's Station of Kuruman — The Bangwaketsi — Ravages of Moselekatse — The Barolong and the Wesleyan Missionaries — Other Natives — Wesleyan Missionary Settlements — Increase in the Population of the Lesuto — Beersheba — Additional Works of Reference. ... 25

Chapter III

The Causes of the Great Emigration from the Cape Colony— Fate of the First Party of Emigrants — Purchase by Commandant Potgieter of a Tract of Land from the Bataung Chief, Makwana— Massacre of Emigrants by the Matabele — War with Moselekatse — The b Contents. XVIII American Mission to the Matabele— Foundation of the Village of Winburg— Appointment of Pieter Retief to be Command ant General of the Emigrants — Moselekatse driven away to the far North, and his Conquests taken possession of by Commandant Potgieter. 59

Chapter IV

Formation of an English Settlement at Port Natal— Assassination of Tshaka, and Accession of Dingan to the Zulu Chieftainship- Flight of the Amakwabi— Murder of Mr. Farewell and others, by the Amakwabi— Failure of the Exploring Expedition under Messrs. Cowie and Green — Visit of Colonial Farmers to Natal — Captain A. F. Gardiner in Natal and Zululand — Foundation of the Town of Durban —Treaty between Captain Gardiner and Dingan — Establishment of the American Mission in Natal and Zululand — The Cape of Good Hope Punishment Bill — Visit of Pieter Retief to Dingan — Conditions on which Dingan offered Natal to the Emigrant Farmers — Fulfilment of the Conditions — Arrival of a Large Party of Emigrant Farmers in Natal — Second Visit to Dingan of Pieter Retief, with Sixty-five White Men and Lads, and about Thirty Hottentots — Deed of Cession of Natal — Massacre of Retief's Party by the Zulus — Dreadful Massacre of Men, Women, and Children, in Natal — LTnsuccessful Expeditions against the Zulus — Proceedings of the Emigrant Farmers in Natal — Arrival of Mr. A. W. J. Pretorius, and his Election as Commandant General— Commando against Dingan — Battle and Victory at the Blood River — March to Umkungunhlovu — Occupation of Port Natal by a Military Force — Foundation of Pietermaritzburg — Negotiations with Dingan — Withdrawal of the Troops from Port Natal — Revolt of Panda against his brother Dingan — March of Allied Forces of Pretorius and Panda against Dingan — Unjustifiable Execution of two Zulus — Great Battle between the Forces of Dingan and Panda, and Victory of the latter — Flight of Dingan, and his Assassination — Installation by Mr. Pretorius of Panda as King of the Zulus— Proclamation of Mr. Pretorius, taking possession of the country to the Umvolosi River. Contents. XIX

Chapter V

Boundaries of the Republic of Natal — Foundation of the Village of Weenen — Constitution of the Republic— Form of Union with the Districts of Winburg and Potchefstroom — Correspondence with Sir George Napier concerning Recognition of Independence — History of the Pondo Tribe — The Bacas — Attack upon the Bacas by the Emigrant Farmers — Application to Sir George Napier by the Wesleyan Missionaries in Pondoland for Protection of Faku — British Troops sent to Pondoland — Resolution of the Natal Volksraad with regard to the Natives — The Troops in Pondoland moved on to Natal — Mr. J. A. Smellekamp in Natal — Action between the Farmers and the Troops — Siege of the English Camp at Durban — Relief of the Camp by Troops under Colonel Cloete— Conditions of the Capitulation of the Republic — Views of the Imperial Government — Advocate Cloete sent to Natal as Commissioner — Murder by Panda of his Brother Xoxo — Rush of Zulu Refugees into Natal — Proceedings of Commissioner Cloete— Stormy Meetings at Maritzburg — Submission of the Volksraad — Retirements from Natal of the Great Body of Emigrant Farmers — Proposals of the Volksraad as to Future Government — Treaties with Panda — Treaty of Sir Peregrine Maitland with Faku, giving to the Pondos the Country as far north as the Umzimkulu — Natal made a Dependency of the Cape Colony — -New Boundaries — Appointment of a Staff of Officials. ... ... ... ... 134

Chapter VI

Cleverness of Moshesh — Rapid Growth of the Basuto Tribe— Settlement at Mekuatling of the Bataung of Molitsane — Growth of the Baphuti under Morosi — Removal of some Barolong Clans to the Mooi River District— Acts of Lawlessness along the Lower Caledon — Missionary Project of Native States under British Protection — Application of Moshesh to the Colonial Government — Proclamation of Sir George Napier concerning the Emigrants and the Clans north of the Orange — Views of the Imperial Government — History of the Griquas— Treaty with Andries Waterboer— The Emigrant Farmers and the Griquas of Adam Kok — Establishment of Contents.

XX a Magistracy at Colesberg — Proclamation of Judge Menzies — Movement of Troops to Colesberg — Application of Adam Kok to the Colonial Government — Creation by Treaty of Griqua and Basuto States— Contentions raised by the Treaties — Violent Pro ceedings of Adam Kok — Commandant Jan Kock — War between the Emigrant Farmers and the Griquas of Adam Kok — Troops sent to Kok's Assistance — Skirmish at Zwart Kopjes — Visit of Sir Peregrine Maitland to the Country north of the Orange — New Treaty with Adam Kok — Appointment of Captain H. D. Warden as British Resident in the Territory north of the Orange — Preten sions of Moshesh — Report of Commandant Gideon Joubert — Pur chase of Land between the Modder and Vaal Rivers by David Fourie — Expansion of the Basuto Tribe — Removal of Poshuli to Vechtkop — Meeting of Chiefs at Platberg — Submission by the Chiefs of their Disputes to the Governor's Decision — Foundation of Bloemfontein — Progress of the French Mission — Movements of the Emigrants north of the Vaal — Foundation of the Villages of Ohrigstad and Lydenburg and of the District of Zoutpansberg — Account of the Bapedi — Proceedings at Winburg — Mission of Messrs. A. W. Pretorius and J. Duplooy to Sir Henrj' Pottinger — Attitude of the Governor — Its Results. 192

Chapter VII

Arrival of Governor Sir Harry Smith — Enlargement of the Cape Colony — Creation of the Crown Colony of British Kaffraria — Proclamation of Her Majesty's Sovereignty over the Territory between the Orange and Vaal Rivers— Armed Resistance of the Emigrant Farmers — Battle of Boomplaats— Confiscation of the Property of the Insurgents — Constitution of the Orange River Sovereignty — Commission of the Dutch Reformed Church The . Synodical Commission— Regulations for the Government of the Sovereignty— Feuds of the Basuto and Batlokua — Definition of Natives Reserves — Movements of the Barolong. ... Contents. XXI

Chapter VIII

Treatment of Natives outside the Reserves — Churches and Schools — Revenue and Expenditure — Publication of a Newspaper — Assignment of Locations to Kausop or Scheel Kobus, Goliath, Yzerbek, David Danser, and Jan Bloem — Claims of the Captains Cornells Kok and Andries Waterboer — Issue of Letters Patent creating a Constitution for the Orange River Sovereignty — Murders by Bushmen — Dealings with Poshuli — Feuds of the Batlokua and Basuto — Interference of the British Resident — Plunder of Moroko's Barolong — Conduct of Poshuli — Hostilities with the Baphuti — Objection of the Farmers to interfere in Native Feuds — Commando against Moshesh — Battle of Viervoet — Disastrous Results of the Defeat at Viervoet — Arrival of Troops and Native Auxiliaries from Natal — Plunder of the Loyal Farmers by the Basuto — Views of the Imperial Governments — The Kaffir War — Action of the Republican Party in the Sovereignty — Alliance of Moshesh with the Party hostile to England — Attitude of Mr. Pretorius— Arrival in the Sovereignty of the Assistant Commissioners Hogge and Owen — Proceedings of the Assistant Commissioners —Conference between the Assistant Commissioners and Delegates from the Country north of the Vaal — The Sand River Convention, by which the Independence of the Transvaal Emigrants was acknowledged — Ratification of the Convention by the Volksraad and its Approval by the Imperial Authorities— The Barolong of Montsiwa, 280

Chapter IX

Condition of the Republican Party in the Sovereignty — Negotiations with Moshesh — Agreement of Peace— Neglect of the Basuto to carry out the Conditions — Devastation of the Batlokua Country — Raid by the People of Carolus Baatje — Mr. Henry Green's Appointment as Successor to Major Warden — Plunder of the Baralong by the Basuto — Meeting of Representatives of the People at Bloemfontein— Resolutions adopted — March of General Cathcart with a Strong Army to the Lesuto — Terms offered to Moshesh — Rejection of the Terms by the Basuto— Battle of Berea— Re- Contents. XXII treat of General Cathcart — Prudent Conduct of Moshesh — De claration of Peace by General Cathcart — Murmuring in the Army — General Cathcart's Retirement from the Sovereignty — Constt-r nation of the Europeans and Allied Natives — Decision of the Imperial Government to abandon the Sovereignty — Politic Attitude of Moshesh — Ejection of Tulu from his Location.

Effects of Moshesh's Attitude upon the Tribes north of the Vaal — Correspondence concerning the Supply of Arms to the Northern Tribes— Campaign against the Bapedi — Events that led to Hostilities with the Bakwena — Destruction of the Rev. Dr. Livingstone's Property at Kolobeng — Flight of Montsiwa's Barolong from Lotlakana — Trial of the Rev. Messrs. Inglis and Edwards and their Banishment from the South African Republic — Effects of the Battle of Berea upon the Northern Tribes — Trouble with the Barolong of Montsiwa — Their Migration to the Country north of the Molopo — Death of the Commandants General Hendrik Potgieter, and Andries Pretorius — Appointment by the Volksraad of their eldest Sons as their Successors — Arrival of a Clergyman from the Netherlands — Last Letter of Andries Pretorius — Form of Government in the South African Republic.

Appointment of Sir George Clerk as Special Commissioner to withdraw British Rule from the Sovereignty — Wretched Condition of the Country — State of Affairs in the Griqua Reserve— Meeting of the Delegates convened— Proceedings of the Delegates— Invitation to the Republicans to elect a rival Assembly — Mission of the Rev. Mr. Murray and Dr. Fraser to England— Conquest of the Batlokua Country by the Basuto— Death of Gert Taaibosch in Battle— Fate of Sikonyela— Memorials against Abandonment— Investigation of Charges made against the Boers— Meeting of the two Assemblies. at Bloemfontein in February 1854— Dissolution of the Obstructionist Assembly by Sir George Clerk— Agreement with the Well-disposed Assembly — Terms of the Convention — Negotiations with Adam Kok— Failure of the Mission of Messrs. Murray and Fraser — Additional Literature 309-10 GLOSSARY OF COLONIAL WORDS USED IN THIS VOLUME.

ASSAGAI, a javelin or light spear. The word comes to us from the Portuguese. BERG, a mountain. Plural bergen. This is a pure Dutch word. BOER, a Dutch word signifying a tiller of the ground. In South Africa the word is now used as a proper name to denote any one of European descent who uses ordinarily the broken Dutch language of the country. BURG, a village. It is the same word as the English borough, and originally meant a stronghold, but it is now used in South Africa in a less restricted sense. COMMANDO, a military force, either composed exclusively of burghers, or of burghers and soldiers united. DRIFT, a ford of a river. KjiROSS, a garment used by natives, made of skins sewn together in the form of a square. A corruption of a Hottentot word. KRAAL, a group of native huts. The word comes to us from the Portuguese.

LAGER, a fortification usually made by drawing waggons in a circle, but sometimes constructed of stone walls or earthen banks. It is an old Dutch word corresponding to the English Icagver. POORT, a short passage between two hills or mountains. A corruption of the French word forte. Glossary. XXIV RAAD, a Council. This is a pure Dutch word. HEEMRAAD, the council that administers justice with the landdrost or magistrate (plural heemraden). KRIJGSRAAD, a council of military officers. VOLKSRAAD, the elective council representing the people. RIEM, a thong of raw hide usually seven or eight feet in length, made supple by rubbing it with grease. Diminutive RIEMPJE, a little thong. SPOOR, the marks left by cattle in travelling, whether hoofprints, turned pebbles, bent grass, or anything else that can be detected by the keen eye of a trained native.

SPRUIT, a tributary stream. STAD, a town. TSETSE, a kind of fly found in certain localities in the interior, whoBe sting is poisonous to horses and horned cattle. VLEI, a patch of swampy ground or a shallow lakelet. HISTORY OF THE BOERS.

Chapter I

Comparison of Bantu Tribes. THE whole of Central and South-Eastern Africa is occupied by a section of the human race which European writers now usually term the Bantu. This word in the dialects spoken along the coasts of the Cape Colony and Natal simply means people.1 In the division of mankind thus named are included all those Africans who use a language which is inflected principally by means of prefixes, and which in the construction of sentences follows certain rules depending upon harmony in sound. The Bantu family is divided into numerous tribes politically independent of each other. Each tribe is composed of a number of clans, which generally have traditions of a common origin at no very remote date; in some instances, however, the tribes consist of clans pressed together by accident or war, and whose relationship is too remote to be traced bjr themselves.

The individuals who make up the Bantu group vary in colour from light bronze to deep black. Some have features of the lowest negro type : thick projecting lips, broad flat 1 In the language of the Xosa, Tembu, Pondo, Zulu, and other coast tribes . UMNTUa per.-on, plural ABANTU people; diminutive umntwana a child, i.e., a little person, plural ABANTWANA children, abstract derivative UBUNTU the qualities of human beings, diminutive ubuntwana the qualities of children. In the language of the Basuto MOTHO a personal plural BATHO persons. The pronunciation, however, is nearly the same, the h in batho being sounded only as an aspirate and the o as oo, baat-hoo. A noses, and narrow receding foreheads; while others are almost Asiatic in appearance, with prominent and in rare instances even aquiline noses, broad upright foreheads, and lips but little thicker than those of Europeans.