South Africa ... Abridged by the author from the fourth edition

Front matter

SOUTH AFEICA SOUTH AFRICA BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE. ABRIDGED BY THE AUTHOR FROM THE FOURTH EDITION. LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1879. [All rights reserved.] LONDON : BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITE FRIARS. PKEFACE. My object in this short preface is to explain to the reader that in offering to the public an abridgement of the work on Soutb Africa which I published last year I have omitted, for the most part, those portions of the longer work which applied to tbe Cape Colony as a country inhabited by Europeans, and have retained gene rally that which bas reference to the native races and to our intercourse with them. I have not followed any sucb rule absolutely, as I have, I think, still left enough to explain tbe social and political condition of the various Colonies and governmental departments into which South Africa is divided, and I have excluded one or two short chapters as to outlying tribes with whom English readers are not likely to be specially interested at present. In this way tbe book, as it will now appear, will concern itself VI

Preface

. chiefly with the eastern portion of South Africa, — with Kafraria, Natal, and the Transvaal. The burning question in Soutb Africa now is the treatment to be employed to the native tribes in those districts. As savages they are intelligent, as human beings they are healthy, as neighbours and fellow-countrymen they are pleasant when once they have been made accustomed to our ways. AVe cannot get rid of them. God forbid that we should wish to do so. And as we must govern them, our chief object should be to govern them for their own good. AVbile we are reckoned only by thousands, they are to be reckoned by millions. I have added one short chapter on our war with Zululand, written since the news of our first disaster was received. It will stand in the volume as Chapter XI. March, 1879. CONTENTS. PAGE

PREFACE.

v THE CAPE COLONY. Chapter I. Capetown — the Capital 1 „ II. The Legislature and Executive . . .15 „ III. Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown ... 26 ,, IV. British Kafraria 44 ,, V. Kafir Schools 61 ,, VI. Condition of the Cape Colony . . . . 75 „ VII. Kreli and his Kafirs 84 NATAL. Chapter VIII. History of the Colony Ill ,, IX. Condition of the Colony . . . .130 ,, X. The Zulus of Natal 158 XI. Zululand 1'3 „ XII. Pieter, Maritzburg to Newcastle . . 18-t THE TRANSVAAL. Chapter XIII. Its History .... . . 197 XIV. Its Annexation 219 „ XV. Pretoria 234 XVI. Its Condition and Products . . . . CONTENTS. GRIQUALAND WEST. PAGE Chapter XA'II. "Why we took it 273 ,, XVIII. The Story of the Diamond Fields . . 294 „ XIX. Kimberley 315 THE ORANGE FREE STATE. Chapter XX. Its Early History 335 ,, XXI. Its Present Condition 357 ,, XXII. Bloemfontein CAPE COLONY *• NATAL ftriti-ili WJm SOUTH AFRICA

Chapter I. Capetown

J THE CAPITAL. I had always heard that the entrance into Cape town, which is the capital of the Cape Colony, was one of the most picturesque things to be seen on the face of the earth. It is a town lying close down on the sea shore, within the circumference of Table Bay so that it has the advantage of an opposite shore, which is always necessary to the beauty of a seashore town ; and it is backed by the Table Mountain with its grand upright cliffs and the Lion with its head and rump, as a certain hill is called which runs from the Table Mountain round with a semicircular curve back to wards the sea. The " Lion " certainly put me in mind of Landseer's lions, only that Landseer's lions he straight. All this has given to Capetown a character for landscape beauty, which I had been told wras to be seen at its best as you enter the harbour.

But as we entered it early on one Sunday morning neither could the Table Mountain nor the Lion be seen because of the mist, and the opposite shore, with its hills towards The Paarl and Stellenbosch, was equally invisible. B _■ Seen as I first saw it, Capetown was not an attractive port, and when I found myself standing at the gate of the dockyard for an hour and a quarter waiting for a Custom House officer to tell me that my things did not need examination, — waiting because it was Sunday morning, — I began to think that it was a very dis agreeable place indeed. Twelve days afterwards I steamed out of the docks on my way eastward on a clear day, and then I could see what was then to be seen, and I am bound to say that the amphitheatre behind the place is very grand. But Capetown in truth is not of itself a prepossess ing town.

It is hard to say what is the combination which gives to some cities their peculiar attraction, and the absence of which makes others unattractive. Neither cleanliness, nor fine buildings, nor scenery, nor even a look of prosperity wrill affect this, — nor will all of them combined always do so. Capetown is not specially dirty, — but it is somewhat ragged. The buildings are not grand, but there is no special defici ency in that respect. The scenery around is really fine, and the multiplicity of Banks and of Members of Parliament, — which may be regarded as the two most important institutions the Colonies produce, — seemed to argue prosperity. But the town is not pleasing to a stranger. It is as I have said ragged, the roadways are uneven and the pavements are so little continuous that the walker by night had better even keep the road.

I did not make special enquiry as to the muni cipality, but it appeared to me that the officers of that body were not alert. I saw a market out in the open street which seemed to be rather amusing than ser- CAPETOWN. 3 viceable. To this criticism I do not doubt but that my friends at the Cape whT object ; — but when they do so I would ask whether their own opinion of their own town is not the same as mine. " It is a beastly place, you know," one Capetown gentleman said to me. " Oh no ! " said I, in that tone which a guest is obliged to use when the mistress of a house speaks ill of anything at her own table. " No, no ; not that." But he persisted. " A beastly place," — he repeated. " But we have plenty to eat and plenty to drink, and manage to make out life very well. The girls are as pretty as they are anywhere else, and as kind ; — and the brandy and water as plentiful."

The population is something over 30,000, — which when wre remember that the place is more than two centuries old and that it is the capital of an enormous country, and the seat of the colonial legislature, is not great. Melbourne which is just two hundred years younger than Capetown contains above a quarter of a million of inhabitants. Melbourne was of course made what it is by gold ; — but then so have there been diamonds to enhance the growth of Cape town. But the truth, I take it, is that a white work in" population will not settle itself at any place where it will have to measure itself against coloured labour. A walk through the streets of Capetown is sufficient to show the stranger that he has reached a place not in habited by white men, — and a very little conversation wiU show him further that he is not speaking wdth an English-speaking population.

The gentry no doubt are white and speak English. At any rate the Members of Parliament do so, and the clergymen, and the editors b — for the most part, and the good-looking young ladies ; — but they are not the population. He will find that everything about him is done by coloured persons of various races, who among themselves speak a language which I am told the Dutch in Holland will hardly condescend to recognise as their own. Perhaps, as regards labour, the most valuable race is that of the Malays, and these are the descendants of shaves whom the early Dutch settlers introduced from Java. The Malays are so-called Mahomedans, and some are to be seen flaunting about the town in turbans and flowing" robes. These, I understand, are allowed so to dress themselves as a privilege in reward for some pious work done, — a journey to Mecca probably.

Then there is a Hotten tot admixture, a sprinkling of the Guinea-coast negro, and a small but no doubt increasing Kafir element. But all this is leavened and brought into some agreement with European modes of action and thought by the preponderating influence of Dutch blood. So that the people, though idle, are not apathetic as savages, nor quite so indifferent as orientals. But yet there is so much of the savage and so much of the oriental that the ordinary Englishman does not come out and work among them. Wages are high and living, though the prices of provisions are apt to vary, is not costly. Nor is the climate averse to European labourers, who can generally work without detriment in regions out side the tropics. But forty years ago slave labour was the labour of the country, and the stains, the apathy, the unprofitableness of slave labour still remain.

The most striking building in Capetown is the Castle, wdiich lies down close to the sea and which was CAPETOWN. 5 built by the Dutch,— in mud when they first landed, and in stone afterwards, though not probably as we see it now. It is a low edifice, surrounded by a wall and a ditch, and divided within into two courts in which are kept a small number of British troops. The barracks are without, at a small distance from the walls. In architecture it has nothing to be remarked, and as a defence would be now of no avail whatever. It belongs to the imperial Government, who thus still keep a foot on the soil as though to show that as long as British troops are sent to the Cape whether for colonial or imperial purposes, the place is not to be considered free from imperial interference. Round the coast of Simon's Bay, which is at the back or eastern side of the little promontory which constitutes the Cape of Good Hope, Great Britain possesses a naval station, and this is another imperial possession and supposed to need imperial troops for its defence.

And from this possession of a naval station there arises the fiction that for its need British troops are retained in South Africa when they have been with drawn from all our other self-governing Colonies. But we have also a station for ships of war at Sydney, and generally a larger floating force there than at Simon's Bay. But the protection of our ships at Sydney has not been made an excuse for having British troops in New South Wales. About thirty years ago Dr. Gray was appointed the first bishop of Capetown and remained there as bishop till he died, — serving in his Episcojtacy over a quarter of a century. He has been succeeded by Bishop Jones, wdio is now Metropolitan of South Africa to the entire Satisfaction of all the members of the Church. Bishop Gray inaugurated the building of a Cathedral, wdiich is a large and serviceable church, containing a proper ecclesiastical throne for the Bishop and a stall for the Dean; but it is not otherwise an imposing building and certainly is anything but beautiful.

That erected for the use of the Roman Catholics has been built with better taste. Near to the Cathedral, — behind it, and to be reached by a shady walk which is one of the greatest charms of Caj>etown, is the Museum, a hand some building standing on your right as you go up from the Cathedral. This is under the care of Mr. Trimen who is well known to the zoologically scientific world as a man specially competent for such work and whose services and society are in high esteem at Cape town. But I did not think much of his African wild beasts. There was a lion and there were two lionesses, — stuffed of course. The stuffing no doubt was all there ; but the hair had disappeared, and wdth the hair all tbat look of martial ardour wdiich makes such animals agreeable to us. There was, too, a hippopo tamus who seemed to be moulting, — if a hippopotamus can moult, — very sad to look at, and a long since de ceased elephant, with a ricketty giraffe wdiose neck was sadly out of joint.

I must however do Mr. Trimen the justice to say tbat when I remarked that his animals seemed to have needed Macassar oil, he acknowledged that they were a " poor lot," and that it was not by their merits that the Capetown Museum could hope to be remembered. His South African birds and South African butterflies, with a snake or two here and there, were his strong points. CAPETO WN. 7 Under the same roof with the Museum is the public library, which is of its nature very pecuUar and valu able. It would be invidious to say that there are volumes there so rare that one begrudges them to a distant Colony which might be served as well by ordi nary editions as by scarce and perhaps unreadable specimens. But such is the feeUng which comes up first in the mind of a lover of books when he takes out and handles some of the treasures of Sh- George Grey's gift.

For it has to be told that a considerable portion of the Capetown library, — or rather a small separate library itself numbering about 5,000 volumes, — was given to the Colony by that eccentric but most popular and munificent Governor. But why a MS. of Livy, or of Dante, should not be as serviceable at Capetown as in some gentleman's country house in England it would be hard to say ; and the Shake speare folio of 1623 of which the library possesses a copy, — with a singularly close cut margin, — is no doubt as often looked at, and as much petted and loved and cherished in the capital of South Africa, as it is when in the possession of a British Duke. There is also a wonderful collection on these shelves of the native literature of Africa and New Zealand. Perhaps libraries of greater value have been left by individuals to their country or to special institutions, but I do not remember another instance of a man giving away such a treasure in his lifetime and leaving it where in all human probability he could never see it again.

The remaining, or outer library, contains over thirty thousand volumes, of which about 5,000 were left by a Mr. Dessin more than a hundred years ago to the Dutch Reformed Church in Capetown. These seem to have been buried for many years, and to have been disinterred and brought into use when the present public library was established in 1818. The pubhc are admitted free, and ample comforts are supplied for reading, — such as warmth, seats, tables, and a hand some reading-room. A subscription of £1 per annum enables the subscriber to take a set of books home. I was told that the readers in Capetown are not very numerous. When I visited the place there were but two or three. A little further up along the same shady avenue, and still on the right band side, is the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.

These, I was told, wrere valuable in a scientific point of view, but were, as regards beauty and arrangement, somewhat deficient, because funds were lacking. There is a Government grant and there are subscriptions, but the Government is stingy, — what Good Government ever was not stingy ? — and the subscriptions are slender. As a public pleasure ground the Capetown gardens are not re markable. As I walked up and down this somewhat dreary length I thought of the glory and the beauty and the perfect grace of the gardens at Sydney. Opposite to the Museum and the Gardens is the Government House in which Sir Bartle Frere with his family had lately come to reside. In many Colonies, nay in most that I have visited, I have heard complaints that Government Houses have been too small. Seeing such hospitality as I have seen in them I could have fancied that Governors, unless with long private purses, must have found them too CAPETOWN. 9 large.

They are always full. At Melbourne, in Victoria, an evil-natured Government has lately built an enormous palace which must ruin any Governor who uses the rooms placed at his disposal. When I was there the pleasant house at Toorak sufficed, and Lord Canterbury, who has now gone from us, was the most genial of hosts and the most sage of potentates. At Capetown the house was larger than Toorak, and yet not palatial. It seemed to me to be all that such a house should be ; — but I heard regrets that there were not more rooms. I know no office iii wdiich it can be less possible for a man to make money than in administering the government of a constitutional Colony. In a Colony that has no constitution of its own, — in which the Governor really governs, — the thing is very different. In the one there is the salary and the house, and that is all.

In a Crown Colony there is no House of Commons to interfere when this and the other little addition is made. We all know what coals and candles mean at home. The constitutional Gover nor has no coals and candles. I should weary my reader were I to tell him of all the civilised institutions, — one by one, — which are in daily use in Capetown. There is a Custom House, and a Sailors' Home, and there are hospitals, and an observatory, — very notable I believe as being well placed in reference to the Southern hemisphere, — and a Government Herbarium and a lunatic asylum at Robben Island. Of Mr. Stone, the Astronomer Royal and lord of the Observatory, I must say one word in special praise. " Do you care for the stars ? " he asked me. In truth I do not care for the stars. I care, I think, only for men and women, and so I told him.

" Then," said he, " I won't bother you to come to the Observatory. But if you wish to see stars I will show them to you." I took him at his word and did not then go to the Observatory. Afterwards I did make a special visit to the Observatory, — which is maintained by the imperial Government and not by the Colony, — and was shown all the wonders of the Southern Heavens. There is a comfortable and hospitable club at Cape town, to which, as at all colonial clubs, admission is given to strangers presumed to be of the same social standing as tlie members. The hour of lunch seems to be the hour of the day at which these institutions are most in request. This is provided in the form of a table d'hote, as is also a dinner later on in the daj'. This is less numerously attended, but men of heroic mould are thus enabled to dine twice daily.

Capetown would be no city without a railwa}'. The Colony at present has three starting-points for railways from the coast, one of which runs out of Cape town, with a branch to Wynberg which is hardly more than a suburb and is but eight miles distant, and a second branch to Worcester wdiich is intended to be carried up the country to the distant town of Graaf Reynet and so on through the world of Africa. The line to Wynberg is of infinite importance to the city as giving to the inhabitants easy means of access to a charming locality. Capetown itself is not a lovely spot on which to reside, but the district at the back of the Table Mountain where are Mowbray, Rondebusch, Wynberg and Constantia, — which district is reached CAPETOWN. 11 by the railway,— supplies beautiful sites for houses and gardens.

There are bits of scenery which it would be hard to beat either in form or colour, so grand are the outhnes of the mountain, and so rich and bountiful the verdure of the shrubs and timbers. It would be difficult to find a site for a house more charming than that occupied by the bishop, which is only six miles from town and hardly more than a mile distant from a railway station. Beyond Wynberg lies the grape dis trict of Constantia so well known in England by the name of its wine ; — better known, I think, forty years ago than it is now. All these places, Rondebuscb, Wynberg, Constantia, and the rest lie on that promontory which when we look at the map we regard as the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutch had once an idea of piercing a canal across the isthmus from sea to sea, from Table Bay to False Bay, — in which lies Simon's Bay where is our naval station, — and maintaining only the island so formed for its own purposes, leaving the rest of South Africa to its savageiy.

And, since the time of the Dutch, it has been suggested that if England were thus to cut off the Table Mountain wdth its adjacent land, Eng land would have all of South Africa that it wants. The idea is altogether antagonistic to the British notion of colonization, which looks to a happy home for colonists or the protection of natives, rather than the benefit or glory of the Mother Country. But were such a cutting off to be effected, the morsel of land so severed would be very charming, and would demand I think a prettier town than Capetown. Beyond and around Wynberg there is a little world of lovely scenery. Simonstown is about (twelve miles from Wynberg, the road passing by the now growing bathing-place of Kalk bay. It is to Kalk bay that the ladies of Capetown go with their children when in summer they are in search of fresh air, and sea breezes, and generally improved sanitary arrangements.

Beyond Kalk bay are Simonstown and Simon's bay, where Uves the British Commodore who has the command of these wTaters. The road, the whole way clown, lies between the mountain and the sea. Beyond Simonstown I rode out for six or seveiXmiles with the Commodore along the side of the hill and through the rocks till we could see the lighthouse at the extremity of the Cape. It is impossible to imagine finer sea scenery or a bolder coast than is here to be seen. Altogether the scenery of the Promontory on which the Dutch landed, the southern point of which is the Cape of Good Hope, and on wdiich stands Capetown, is hardly to be beaten for picturesque beauty by any landskip charms elsewhere within the same area. I was taken down to Constantia where I visited one of the few grape growers among whom the vineyards of this district are divided.

I found him with his family living in a fine old Dutch residence, — which had been built I was told by one of the old Dutch Governors when a Governor at the Cape was a very aristocratic personage. Here he keeps a few ostriches, makes a great deal of wine, and has around bim as lovely scenery as the eye of man can desire. But he complained bitterly as to the regulations, — or want of regulations, — prevailing in regard to labour. " If an idle people coidd only be made to work for reasonable CAPETO WN. 13 wages the place" would become a very Paradise ! " This is the opinion as to labour which is left behind in all lands in which slavery has prevailed. The man of means, who has capital either in sod or money, does not actually wdsh for a return to slavery. The feelings wdiich abolished slavery have probably reached his bosom also.

But he regrets the control over his fellow creatures which slavery formerly gave him, and he does not see that whether a man be good or bad, idle by nature and habits or industrious, the only compulsion to work should come from hunger and necessity,— and the desire of those good things which industry and industry alone wiU provide. I was taken to see two schools, the high school at Rondebusch, and a school in the town for coloured lads. At the high school the boys were away for their holidays and therefore I could see nothing but the outside material. I do not doubt but that lads are educated there quite as well as at similar institutions in England. It is under the guidance of a clergyman of the Church of England, and is thoroughly English in aU its habits. I found a perfect menagery of inte resting animals attached to it, which is an advantage which English schools seldom possess.

The animals, which, though wild by nature, were at this place re markably tame, had, fortunately for me, not gone home for their holidays,— so that, wanting the boys, I could amuse myself with them. I will not speak here of the coloured school, as I must, as I progress, devote a short chapter to the question of Kafir education. In speaking of the Capital of the Colony I need only further remark that it possesses a completed and adequate dock for the reception of large ships, and a breakwater for the protection of the harbour. The traffic from England to the Cape of Good Hope is now mainly conducted by two Steam Ship Companies, the Union and Donald Currie & Co., wdiich carry the mails with passengers and cargo each way weekly. Many of these vessels are of nearly 3,000 tons burden, some even of more, and at Capetown they are brought into the dock so that passengers walk in and out from the quay without the disagreeable aid of boats. The same comfort has not as yet been afforded at any other port along the coast.

Chapter II. The Legislature And Executive

It has come to be understood that the appropriate mode of governing a Colony is to have a King, Lords and Commons as we do at home. Where English men, — or white men whether they be of English or other descent, — have gone to labour and have thus raised a community in a distant land under the British flag, the old constitutional mode of arranging things seems alwajrs to act well, though it may sometimes be rough at first, and at starting may be subject to diffi culties. It has been set on foot by us, or by our Colonists, wdth a population perhaps not sufficient to give two members to an EngUsh borough, — and has then started with a full-fledged apjmnage of Governor, aide-de-camps, private secretaries, Legislative Council, Legislative Assembly, Prime Minister and Cabinet, — with a surrounding which one would have thought must have swamped so smaU a boat.

But the boat has become almost at once a ship and has ridden safely upon the waves. The little State has borrowed money like a proud Empire and has at once had its stocks quoted in the share lists. There have been causes for doubt, but I do not remember an instance of failure. This has been so universaUy the result that the British Government at home have become averse to Crown Colonies, and has of late invited her children to go out alone into the world, to enjoy their own earnings, and pay their own biUs, and do as may seem good to them each in his own sight. I find that there are many in the Cape Colony who say that she undertook to govern herself in the proper parliamen tary way not because she specially desired the independence to be thus obtained, but because the Colonial Office at home was anxious on the subject and put pressure on the Colony.

At any rate in 1872 the Cape began to rule itself. The process of ruling themselves rarely begins with Colonies all at once. The acme of independence is reached when a Colony levies and spends its own taxes and when the country is ruled by Ministers who are appointed because they have a parliamentary majority at their back and who go out of office when they are no longer so supported. There are various preliminary steps before this state of perfection be reached, and in no Colony, I think, have these various steps been more elaborated than at the Cape. In 1825 the Governor ruled almost as a despot. He was of course subject to the Secretary of State at home, — by wdiom he might be dismissed, or, if competent, would be promoted ; but he was expected to be autocratic and imperious. I may say that he rarely fell short of the expectation.

Lord Charles Somerset, who was the last of those Governors at the Cape, did and said firings which are charming in the simplicity of their tyranny. In 1825 an Executive Council was ap pointed. These were, of course, nominees of the Government ; but they divided the responsibility with The first legislative council. i7 the Governor, and .vere a check upon the exercise of his individual powers. The next step, in 1834, was to a Legislative Council. These were to be the lawmakers, but all of them were elected by the Governor. Six of the Council were tbe Governor's executive ministers, and the other six,— for the Council consisted of twelve, — were unofficial nominees. But tbe existence of such a Council, — a little Parliament elected by tbe Crown,— created a desire for a popular Parliament, and tbe people of the Colony petitioned for a representative House of Assembly.