The history of the Orange Free State

Front matter

THE LIBRARY OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

Preface

O God ! for a man with a heart, head, hand Like some of the simple great ones gone For ever and ever bye : —

One still strong man in a blatent laud ;

Whatever they call him what care I ?

Who can rule and dare not lie.

— Tennyson.

These " Jottings " on the Orange Free State are but the utterings, voicings, and articulatings of one who has honestly attempted to pourtray that State as he found it.

Many doubtless have experienced similar thoughts but lacked the energy and the heart to give them utterance.

I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to others for their noble efforts in the past for the amelioration of man's condition, whilst contributing my humble quota on behalf of human-kmd.

If I have succeeded in opening up any new train of thought that may have afforded pleasure or information to the readers, I shall be gratified ; and if the pecuniary results of this little venture in the cause of human progress merely suffice to pay the printer, I shall be satisfied ; but as one does not live by paying printers only, my satisfaction will of course be enhanced should the harvest be more bountiful than would be required to cover typographical disbursements.

I offer no apology for anything I have written. The questions herein mooted affect not only the Orange Free State but the whole of South Africa.

The Author.

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Chapter I. Pp. 1 to 18

A glance at the early history ol the Free State — Traditions and speculations as to the Aborigines — The first definite records about the years 1816 to 1820 — The Griquas under Adam Kok settle at Griqua Town, and gradually spread themselves along the Orange River, concentrating chiefly at Philippolis — The colonial Dutch farmers commence crossing the Orange River, and take up their abode in the new territory, whether they are soon followed by whole bodies of emigrants — The new comers purchase or lease lands from the Native Chiefs — The Emancipation of slaves in the Cape Colony caused large numbers to place themselves beyond British control and take up their abode on the Orange River — The settlers form a government for themselves after the model of the old Dutch Government of the Cape Colony — Matters go on quietly up till 1845 — After some fracas between the Emigrant Boers and the Griquas open hostilities break out — The British Government inter, venes, and assisting the Griquas with Her Majesty's troopsthe Boers are defeated at Zwart Koppies— A British Resident is established in the country, with a small force to support his authority — A treaty is concluded between the British Government and Adam Kok- The terms of the treaty cause great dissatisfaction amongst the Emigrant Boers — Their acknowledged chief Andries Pretorius, fails to obtain any amelioration of the conditions — In February, 1848, Sir Harry Smith jaoclaimed Her Majesty's

Contents. V«

sovereignty over tlie territory — Discontent now breaks out into hostilities, and in July the British Px,esident is driven back across the Orange River — Sir Harry Smith comes up in person with a stronger force, defeats the Boer Commando at Bloomplats and re-establishes British authority in the Orange River Sovereignty — The territory remains under the British Government represented by a Resident at Bloemfontein up to the year 1854 — Continual embroilments between the burghers and the Basutos — The cost of keeping up a large military force to preserve order induces the British Government to abandon the Orange River Sovereignty— On the 23rd February, 1854, a Convention is entered into between tne British Government and a body of delegates which forms the Charter of Independence of the Orange Free State — A Provincial Government formed under the presidency of Mr. Hoffman — A Volksraad, or assembly of the people elected, and a Republican Constitution drawn up and adopted — The difhculties of the young Republic — President BoshofT— War with the Basutos from March till September, 1858 — The Convention of Aliwal North — President BoshofF resigned his office and is succeeded by President Pretorius — Territorial annexations — Resignation of President Pretorius and election of President Brand — Renewal of hostilities between the Orange Free State and the Basutos — A treaty of peace and a definite boundary line agreed upon — The diamond fields by the Vaal River — The British Government takes forcible possession of the disputed territory — The rascality of the Trek Boers — "Land and loot" the watchwords of the Dutch from the time they occupied the Cape — the Dutch only know one book, the Bible — From it they gather that they are the elect of God and the sons of Ham are to be their servants for ever — They start with the idea that they are of the House of the Lord and all others mere interlopers— What they call their " advanced mission " amongst the natives really means extermination — England's interposition for the protection of the natives from Dutch violence— History and facts give the lie to the pretensions of the Dutch — The Raad, the Executive, and the Sovereignty vi.'-'" Contents.

of the people — " Commandeering " or *' requisitioning " neither more nor less than .spoliation or repudiation — The constitution, duties, payment, and conduct of the Raad or Parliament — The elements of sound political character not to be found either in the Free State or Transvaal Republics — Hollanders fand Germans thrive upon the credulity of the Dutch — The Free State governed by foreigners — Exposure of the many bad acts of omission and commission on the part of the Volksraad and the remedies for the same — Money agencies, or suckers and parasites — The Queen of Sheba and her treasures — South Sea Bubble-believers — Majuba, Sir G. P. Colley, and Sir Garnet Wolseley — The Dutch love of English sovereigns — The Free Staters very, very brave behind rocks and stones, but perfect cowards in the open — How the Basutos and the Transvaal Government were supplied with arms and ammunition — England's gold and Germany's poverty — The Moses of the Express — The best to command are they who know best how to obey, independently of consequences.

Chapter II. Pp. 19 to 31

The Free State Express on the dismissal of Dr. Jorissen irom his position of State Attorney — The policy and cry of the Dutch party throughout South Africa " Africa for the Africanders " — The German-Hollander — Jewish faction — A magnified Cape Town dressmaker — The President of the Transvaal after conquering the natives, Shoots the leaders, appropriates their lands, cattle, &c., and enslaves eight thousand prisoners — " All shall right come " — Monarchical and Republican Governments contrasted — The Kind of Government wanted in the Free State — The presence of barristers and lawyers in Parliament inimical to the simplification of the laws — The election of medical men and scientists desirable — " Grand old men " — Napoleon the Third, but the Little, an ai'ch- traitor, perjurer, and bedizened villain — Sir John Brand and William the Silent of Orange

Contents. viu

—The Capital of the Free State described— The Public offices a disgrace to the architect— The Church-home and hospital the result of charity and debt— The chronic poverty of the " Sisters "—The holy, idiotic, itinerant bishop and his wretched acolytes so many walking imposters— The Dutch Church the outcome of beef, mutton, and farming produce — Any literary man would feel ashamed to own the Public Library— The Building Society "a delusion and a snare " — Although a Dutch Capital with five thousand inhabitants not a tenth are Dutch — Its Eag Alley and Petticoat Lane— Its poverty disgusting, and its immorality and disease an eye-sore to decent people — Hot-beds of disease exposed in all their intensity and all their horrors — The prisons of South Africa including that of the Capital of the Free State— Their filthy and disgusting condition render them " living hells " — The Neapolitan dungeons of King Bomba would bear favourable comparison with them — The dishonesty and corruption of the gaolers — The cruelty of long sentences of imprisonment and the physical and mental torture endured by the victims thereof — Judge or Jury,

Chapter III. Pp. 32 to 44

The extortions of lawyers and agents — Political judges a nuisance in the Free State — They talk bunkum and spout treason —The Chief Justice of the Free State goes into the Cape Colony and takes an active part in setting up a " Bestuur " — Judge Reitz preferring the Presidency of the Free State to the " Judgemisfitship " sticks at no meanness to secure it — Mr. Hofmeyer and " Kitchen Dutch " — The Dutch Artillery manned by young men too lazy to work, and not fit for much better than targets to be shot at — The attack on Colonel Anstruther not fair fighting but simply sudden murder — Free State Doctors mostly quacks — Their ignorance and extortions — Twenty-five shillings for a visit, and seven and sixpence for a box of viii. Contents.

pills — Their stock-in-trade for the most part consists of impudence and a few bottles with Latin inscriptions upon them — The officials as a rule are of German or Jewish nationality — The diamond mine swindle at Jagersfontein — A member of the Free State Eaad proposes to annex the Cape Colony — Free State official puppies snarling at John Bull's big dog — The Climate — The summer heat intolerable? and the winters cold and unbearable — Whatever grass or vegetation may be grown in the summer to fatten the cattle, the frost destroys in the winter, and the wind blows away for ever — German and Jewish hunger for John Bull's money — England and the Hanoverian connection and German intermarriage combination — Downing Street a curse to all our Colonies — All mineral wealth must be public property — The Compulsory working of claims at the diamond mines.

Chaptek IV. Pp. 45 to 49.

An extraordinary piece of hasty legislation — The New Wine and Spirit Ordinance — Cutting off the patients head to cure the tooth-ache — Drunkenness amongst the natives, and the stringent enactment passed to suppress it — Contributions by Plato, Pliny, Saint Chrysostom, Luther, Matthew Arnold, Maccall and Boon to the Temperance Question.

Chapter V. Pp. 60 to 58

The Bill to punish the illegal possession of diamonds — Trap-stones sold in the dark by Kaffirs — Gross perjury and treachery resulting in cruel and unjust sentences — Free State lawyers — Their ability limited, their extortion unlimited — As a rule, like the Doctors, they are old missionaries— The " black sheep " of the legal flock — Some of

Contents. ix.

the dodges resorted to by lawyers for levying black mail — A Ipersonal momento of the Free State lawyers way of making Englishmen pay for being fools enough to dwell there in opposition to Germans and Jews. — The members of the Free State Bar on strike— Mr. Sheriff Crosby as Taxing Master takes a very determined stand against the extortionate practices of the legal fraternity and gains the Jay — The Dutch are beginning to see that under the sneaking " ferneuking " Jew, German, and Hollander, they are in the hands of Shylocks— President Brand and his title, salary, and many public gifts— The Alsatia of Basutoland —The Dutch Thunderer or Express liar paper, edited by a Jew and owned by a German, secures by flattery and sycophancy a contract for three years' printing— The old Free State notes and the French assignats—ll^Qix mode of issue, value, and the security upon which they were based explained—Surreptitious issue into France by " the political vagabond " Pitt of assignats that were produced in England—Pitt sued in the King's Bench to recover the engraver's charges for making the same — Gold owners and hard money supporters oppose some monetary arrangements—The solution of the financial problem means the redemption of farmers and manufacturers throughout the world.

Chapter VI. Pp. 59 to 70

The Free State still a heathen country, a land still occupied with both white and black barbarians— The Free State Dutchman dirty, mean and cruel — Many an Englishman has met foul play at their hands—They would feel no Compunction in being the death of all the English but for the difficulty of burying them on the quiet— The Dutch meeting Houses are virtually courting houses where the young men look out for wives and the young women sigh for husbands —The opening of the New Town Hall and Public Library — Dutch gluttony and drunkenness at the banquet — The

X. Contents.

Englisli the salt of the Free State — A Presidential bereavement— One Cape Town dressmaker taken and the other left — Polygamy often practised in the Capital though not sanctioned by law and to have a plurality of wives is not considered a crime — The clergy are the public advocates of lying hypocrisy and stealing — Hollanders and Dutchmen repudiate their just debts and stink in the nostrils of the English — Debts and dishonour the constant companions of all the officials in the Free State from the President and his sons down to all his army of supporters.

Chapter VII. Pp. 71 to 83

The inestimable value of Public Libraries and Homes of Painting, Sculpture and ail our Fine Arts — These repositories of imperishable things will form our future churches to the shame of the preachers of all denominations — Bible criticisms— A plea for the free discdssion of theological difficulties — The philosophy of secularism — Orthodoxy and Agnosticism — Revelation — Lucifer in the Confessional — "The Pirates of Penzance " — The House of Peers a house of hereditary vagabonds — The Queen only a figure-head and in no case useful.

Chapter VIII. Pp. 84 to 99

The construction of j)ublic works of utility by means of national paper-money — The dangers of making acquaintances in Bloemfontein — Africa peculiarly a black man's playground and a place for no honest man — To cheat and be cheated is the system all round ; honesty is positively unknown — The Religious Orders and Churches in Bloemfontein are compounded of idiotcy, poverty and commercialism. The Theological College is a disgrace in every respect — The kiss of Sisterhood and after pleasures — Carnal pleasures

CONSTENTS. ^1'

increase spiritual delights— All the younger ones do it when the opportunity offers, although they may afterwards rue it— Dr. Twells, the young half-blood Beck and his companions— Edwin Heron on the Confessional-" Under which Lord ? ' — The decline of Orthodoxy— Protestants and the Bible— The triumph of truth— The Religion of the future — What we need— Press on.

Chapter IX. Pp. 100 to 121

The uncertainty of the law ; unique and instructive personal experiences thereof— The Hollander and German arrangements to fleece all producers— A Maitland Street Post-cart-contractor-of-an-attorney— The faith of the Dutch Government in stamps— The advantages of the Code Napoleon— The white adult Africander population lazy, thriftless and roguish— The Cape no land for emigration, hut merely a half-way place to India— Oath or affirmation— The Guelphs and the Throne of England— The " jumping " proclivities of Free State born commercial assistants— The Free State, from the President, members of the Parliament, &c., downwards, a nest of polite and impolite robbers Boon re-chi-istened without godfather or godmother— Bloemfontein a most unhealthy spot and the " Queen City of Cesspools, Cow-Kaals and pigsties— Boon declared to be a Mormon in heart and a Turk in practice— Bloemfontein the home of the vilest and most contemptible of human wretches — " Trust none you know not, and trust none you "know"— Morality not Christianity— Self-improvement—The morality of the future— The coming man's religion— The animalism of the Free State burghers and women and its baneful results.

xii. ' COKTENTS.

Chapter X. Pp. 122 to 133

Drunken and idiotic judges — Victims of the Blasphemy Laws — The Dutch and English could live side by side happily, but the German, the Hollander, and the Jew cause strife — The Parliaments of the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State — Their manners, customs and attire — The alleged apathy and indifference of voters in the Cape Colony — More " legal " abuses and suggestions for their removal — Boon's political economy — The enormous increase in number of lawyers in the United States, or an army of locusts forming a greater pest than the host of monks and friars that intested Europe on the Eve of the Reformation — M. J» Boon V. V. Van Reenen — The Press a power to harass and injure as will as to support.

Chapter XL Pp. 134 to 146.

A woman's description of the Free State lawyers — A black-blooded Dutch Sheriff — " Paradise " a hell to Boon and the finishing stroke to his patience — A Free State lawyer's bill of Costs in Extenso — Boon shows that private, legal, Parliamentary, and public robberies (in that of Paradise* Hell) cost him over £1500 in the course of a iew months — Boon's panacea or " perlect cure " for all legal, clericah commercial, agricultural, legislative and Presidential rascality in the Orange Free State.

Chapter XII. Pp. 147 to 153

The President of the Free State as the lountain of c/zshonour meets the old Dutch-£2-per-day-men and Town Council — Boon proposes and describes an installation of the order oi Knighthood with very i^uggestive titles — Bully swart Dutchmen, or^ half blacks with Dutch namee — their insolence to the English due to the (oily of a Colley and the weakness of a

Contents. xiii.

Gladstone — A modern Daniel — Idolatry — The policy of the Gladstone Administration and its results in South Africa.

Chapter XIII. Pp. 154 to 167

Sepinare the Free State made Chief of the Barolongs not the rightful heir — The rivalry between Sepinare and Samuel Moroka — Sepinare giving farms to lawyers, missionaries, and the Bishop of Bloemfontein to ensure their support — The extortions practised upon the Barolongs to pay the Resident and the white forces under Commandant Raaff — The defeat and death of Sepinare by the followers of Samuel — The Friend of the Free State on the Barolong disturbances — The annexation of the Barolong Territory — Diplomatic Relations — The beginning of the end — Aiders and Abettors — Is it Peace ? — Proclamation by President Brand — A Treaty of amity ayid TreacJm'y .

Chapter XIV. Pp. 168 to 188

The financial position of the Free State in 1884 — The failure to negotiate a loan in England and the causes thereof — Extraordinary Session of the Volksraad — " The way it should be done " — Patent Law — National paper-money and its use — A perfect buck animal or human monster — Express views on the Free State legal profession — The Free State Balance Sheet — Mr. Higgo and his day of prayer — Hard Times — More Swindling — Jewish Fire Kings and Fire Dragons defrauding their creditors and the insurance offices — The descendants of the Impenitent Thieves of the Roman Era deserve the liatred of m;>nkind.

Chapter XV. Pp. 189. to 203

A lively and amusing " Skit " on the Bloemfontein Town Council by Blikoor — The Sanitary surroundings of Bloemfontein xiv. Contents.

— Paying the piper — The water supply of Bloemfontein — How to construct public municipal water works by means of national paper- money — " Utopia is a pleasant place, but how shall I c;et there ? "

Chapter XVI. Pp. 204 to 217

Preparations for a May day ' Festival' — Meeting of the Volksraad The Treasurer-General's balance Sheet — A Serious debit balance of £39,722 4s. 3jd — Trade influencing Revenue — Bad Times — Measures for peace in Basutoland — What a New Ministry means — The Natal Wityiess on Railways and the Rebate Customs — But for its connection with England the Free State would be an uninhabited wilderness — German and Hollander human asvogals — Boon has a holiday and goes sight- seeing — The Town Council votes £10 for a National day of rejoicing — The swearing-in of His Honour J. H. Brand as President — The procession amusements, and illuminations.

Chapter XVII. Pp. 218 to 222

Banking] power a monopoly — " Blue-backs " issued on the public and their securities stolen, consequently their market value diminished — Interested parties oppose the issue of paper-money — Boon's opinion of a few of the " big ones " — A magistrate not knowing his duties — Commercial trickery.

Chapter XVIII. Pp. 223 to 228

Settling with a Landlord — Roman-Dutch Law and E(|uity — Cause of hatred to a squint-eyed man — Information is vouchsafed that it is not legal to rob — The Africander Bond says that

Contents. xv.

lawyers are to be extirpated — Hostile feeling to the legal profession, why and wherefore — The remedy for reformation lies with the profession itself — The scarcity of " free men ' » in Bloemfontein, the remainder of business houses expecting by every mail to receive their conge— K cry to John Bull.