The memoirs of Paul Kruger, four times president of the South African republic

Front matter

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CHAPTER I Early Days and Private Life PAGE

Homeless — In the new home — Himting adventures — Kruger kills his first lion — The dead lion roars — Further lion-himts — Panther and rhinoceros hunting — Under a rhinoceros — Buffalo hunting — A fight with a bufi'alo-cow — Elephant hunting — Race between Kruger and an elephant — Canine fidelity — Kruger amputates his own thumb 1

CHAPTER II Commencement of Public Activity

Journey to the Sand River in 1852 — The Sand River Convention — Punitive expedition against the Kaffir Chief Secheli — Kruger's life in danger — Vindictive raid on the Kaffir chiefs Makapaan and Mapela — Kruger alone in the cave among the besieged Kaffirs — He recovers Potgieter's body — Expedition against Montsioa — Kruger charges a band of Kaffirs singlehanded 35

Chapter III

The first Basuto War — Kruger assists the Orange Free State against the Basutos and negotiates the peace with Moshesh — Kruger as general in the field against the Kaffir chief Gasibone 53

CHAPTER IV The Civil War: 1861-1 86 i PAGE

Krugcr's protest against the violation of the constitution by Commandant General Schoeman — Assembly of the people at Pretoria — Kruger's declaration of war — Attempts at a settlement and their frustration by Schoeman — Kruger is nominated a voting member of the Reformed Church, in order that he may be qualified to hold office in the State without opposition — Fresh negotiations — Military preparations on both sides — The political contest develops into a religious war — Battle of Potchefstroom — Schoeman's flight — Renewed negotiations — The arbitration award of the Supreme Court rejected — Kruger insulted — Battle of Zwartkopje — Fresh negotiations — Mutual amnesty — The new elections — Kruger again Commandant General .... 67

Chapter V

Tlie Transvaalers again come to the Orange Free State's assistance against the Basutos, under Moshesh, but break up in discord — Kruger's accident in 1866 — Fighting in the Zoutpansberg — Lack of ammunition and support — Kruger alone among the Kaffirs ... 93

Chapter VI

Dispute about Kimbcrley — Kruger's })rotcst against the court of arbitration to which President Prctorius has yielded — Prctorius resigns the Presidency — T. F. Burgers elected by a large majority, notwithstanding Krugcr's agitation — Explanation between Kruger and Bur-

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gers — Burgers's policy — ^War with Secucuni — Dispute about the arbitrary war-tax imposed by the President — Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the British Governor of Natal, arrives with his plans for annexation — Conferences with Shepstone — Burgers's difference with Kruger and the Volksraad — Kruger elected Vice-president — The annexation of the Transvaal — Protest of the Executive Raad against the annexation 103

CHAPTER VII The Interregnum under the British Flag

Kruger's first visit to London with the deputation sent to procure the repeal of the annexation — Popular meetings and popular voting in the Transvaal — The second visit to London — The Kaffir chief Secucuni puts the English doctrine into practice — The British Governor seeks Kruger's assistance against Cetewayo, the Zulu king — Further assemblies of the people and protests against the annexation — Kruger pacifies the masses — The High Commissioners, Sir Bartle Frere and Sir Garnet Wolseley, interfere — The other Afrikanders ask for the freedom of their Transvaal brothers — Kruger suspected of treachery — The delegates of the burgher meetings arrested for high treason — Kruger once more allays the storm — Plans for confederation opposed by Kruger — Sir Bartle Frere tries to treat privately with Kruger — Kruger refuses on the grounds of Frere's double-dealing — Kruger and Joubert have recourse to Gladstone by letter — ^All hopes of a peaceful solution abandoned 123

Chapter VIII

The seizure of Bezuidenhout's wagon — Meeting of the burghers at Potchefstroom — The " Irreconcilables " at

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Paadcr Kraal elect a triumvirate, consisting of Kruger, Joubert and Pretorius, to carry on the government — The first shot — Battle of Bronkhorstspruit — Majuba Hill — Paul Kruger during the war — His negotiations with the Kaffir chief Magato, whom England was trying to gain as an ally — Armistice and peace negotiations — Protests in the Volksraad — " Transvaal " or " South African Republic " ? 147

CHAPTER IX Paul Kruger's First Presidency

The election — The war with the Kaffirs in the Lydenburg district — Kaffir disturbances on the south-western frontiers of the Republic — Boer volunteers, in spite of the President's proclamation, enlist under the Chiefs Moshette and Mankoroane, for their war against other Kaffir chiefs, and found the Republics of Stellaland and Goshenland on the territory awarded them for their services — The Chiefs Montsioa and Moshette place themselves under the protection of the Transvaal — England protests against this arrangement — Negotiations regarding the western borders between Kruger, Sir Charles Warren and Cecil Rhodes — Kruger's third visit to London — Sir Hercules Robinson — Repeal of the suzerainty by the London Convention of 188i — Visits to the European Governments — Dr. Lcyds — Internal situation of the Republic in 1885 — The Dclngoa Bay Railway — L'^nsatisfactory condition of the finances — Disturbances on the western frontiers — Discovery of the gold-fields — The population of the gold-fields: the " L^itlandcrs " — Negotiations with tlie Free State for a closer alliance — Incorporation of the " Now Republic" ^(i5

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CHAPTER X Paul Kruger's Second Presidency: 1888-1893 PAGE

Dr. Leyds appointed State Secretary — Cecil Rhodes causes trouble on the northern frontiers of the Republic: the Chartered Company; Lobengula; Khama — Treaty of alliance between the Orange Free State and the South African Republic — Arrangements in favor of the Uitlanders: the Law Courts at Johannesburg; the Second Volksraad — Paul Kruger's " hatred of the Uitlanders " — The Swaziland Agreement — British perfidy — ^the Adendorff trek — Religious differences — Kruger the " autocrat " — The educational question — New elections 187

CHAPTER XI Paul Kruger's Third Presidency: 1893-1898

The Transvaal National Union — The second Swaziland Agreement — Difficulties with the Kaffir tribes in the Blue Mountains — The English immigrants refuse to perform military service — Sir Henry Loch at Pretoria — ^The President insulted — Annexation of Sambaanland and Umbigesaland by England — Solemn opening of the Delagoa Bay Railway and tariff war with Cape Colony — The Jameson Raid — Mr. Chamberlain's policy of provocation — The report of the Mining Commission — The struggle between the Government and the Supreme Court — Sir Alfred Milner — New elections — The Queen of England a '' hwaaie vrouw " — Closer alliance with the Orange Free State . . . . 211

CHAPTER XII Paul Kruger's Fourth Presidency

The Bunu Question — Sir Alfred Milner — F. W. Reitz — J. C. Smuts — The agitation of the South African

CONTEXTS

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League — The Edgar Case — The Crisis: the suffrage, the suzerainty — The Ultimatum — The War — President Kruger during the War — On the way to Europe — On foreign soil — Homeless — Conclusion 261

Speeches delivered at the Solemn Inauguration of His Honor S, J. P. Kruger as State President of the South African Republic, on Thursday, 12 May 1898 . . . 333

B

Speech of State President Kruger in the First Volksraad

on Monday, 1 May 1899 368

Two Speeches of President Kruger at the Decisive Sitting of the First and Second Volksraad of 2 October 1899 376

D

Opening Speech of President Steyn at the Annual Session of the Volksraad of the Orange Free State at Kroonstid, 2 April 1900 SSI

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Opening Speech of Presidtnt Kruger at the Ordinary Annual Session of the First and Second Volksraad of the South African Republic at tlic Joint Sitting of 7 May 1900 385

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Speech delivered on the 7th of May by President Kruger in explanation of his Opening Speech at the Ordinary Session of IpOO 391

G

Circular Dispatch from State President Kruger to the Commandant Generals, Assistant Commandant Generals and Officers 399

H

Telegram from the State President to the Commandant General ^ 403

I

Circular Dispatch from the State President to the Commandant General, the Assistant Commandants General and the Officers 405

J

Proclamation by President Steyn against the Annexation of the Orange Free State 409

Index 411 zni

Chapter I Early Days And Private Life Chapter I

EAKLY DAYS AND PRIVATE LIFE

Homeless — In the new home — Hunting adventures — Kruger kills his first lion — The dead lion roars — Further lion-hunts — Panther and rhinoceros hunting — Under a rhinoceros — Buffalo hunting — ^A fight with a buffalo-cow — Elephant hunting — Race between Kruger and an elephant — Canine fidelity — Kruger amputates his own thumb.

MY recollections go back to the time when, as a boy of nine, I left the land of my birth with my parents and my uncles Gert and Theunis Kruger. Till then we had lived at Vaalbank Farm, in the Colesberg district in Cape Colony, where I was born on the 10th of October 1825 as the third child of Caspar Jan Hendrik Kruger ^ and Ehsa Steyn, his wife, daughter of Douw Steyn, of Bulhoek Farm, behind the Zuurberg in Cape Colony. My parents were simple farmers, and I grew up at the farm like other farmers' lads, looking after the herds and lending a hand in the fields. With the exception that an old woman prophesied to my mother that her son

^ The President declares that his ancestors originally came from Germany, but his family do not know from which town. He only knows that the foimder of the African branch of the family married a Frenchwoman, and was obliged to fly from the coxintry on account of his religion. — Note by the Editor of the German Edition.

Stephaniis Johannes Paulus was destined for a superior position in life, I do not laiow that any one could have had the least notion that God would entrust me with a special mission.

The first event of importance in my life was our departure from home, our trek. I was too young at the time to occupy myself much with the reason of the great emigration. But I kfiow that my parents said they emigrated because the English first sold the slaves and, after they had got the money, set these slaves free again; and that the money which had been awarded in compensation was made payable in England, where it could be received either personally or through an agent. The expenses entailed by this method of payment in many cases amounted to more than the capital, so that a great many preferred to sacrifice what was due to them, rather than be put to so much trouble and vexation. But they refused to continue to live under such unjust masters. Added to this, the Kaffirs repeatedly raided the colony and stole the Boers' cattle, and the English general, after the Boers had themselves recovered their cattle, declared the collective herds to be so much booty, out of which tlie Britisli Government must recover their war-costs before the rest could be distributed among tlie former proprietors, wlio had themselves joined in the fighting in order to get back tlieir own. The discontcnl caused by this uu just ])roceed-

EAKLY DAYS AND PRIVATE LIFE

ing took a firm hold of the Boer mind; especially since each child when quite young receives as his personal property a couple of sheep, oxen or horses from his parents, which he tends with special care and to which his heart becomes attached. Among the stolen beasts were naturally those belonging to the children, and when those presents, made sacred by custom, were detained in such an arbitrary way and used for the purposes of a war-indemnity, much bitterness was caused. Ajid so my parents and relatives left house and home for a wild and unknown country, and set out, about twenty of them, with nearly thirty thousand African sheep and a few hundred horses and cattle, which they had received largely in exchange for the goods they left behind.

The exodus over the Orange River commenced in May 1835. Here my father sold about three thousand wethers, at a dikketon^ (an old coin, worth a little over two shillings) apiece to a butcher, after which the expedition proceeded towards the neighborhood of the Caledon River, and there encamped. My occupation here, as well as on our further marches, was to drive the cattle and keep them together. The children of most of the emigrants had to do this work, for the black servants had nearly all remained in the Colony, and, just at that time, when

1 Obviously a corruption of "ducatoon," the old silver ducat of Venice. — Translator's Note.

the whole property of the families consisted of herds of cattle, their services would have proved specially useful.^

Other burghers left their home at the same time as my parents and were also encamped near the Caledon River. But this was not the Great Trek. That took place during the following year, 1836, mider Hendrik Potgieter, and was joined by the single groups of earlier emigrants. Immediately after this junction, a meeting was held, resolutions were passed to which all the emigrants had to submit, and a sort of government was instituted. But God's Word constituted the highest law and rule of conduct. Potgieter was chosen for the fii*st position, that of commandant. The resolutions which came into general force contained, for example, the decree that it was unlawful to take away from the natives, by force, land or any other of their property, and that no sla-

' I <im on this occasion able to confirm the authenticity of an ane<'dote which tells how a ffcntleman wlio introduced an Enj^lish lord to President Kru^rer, thinkinj; that the latter did not bike sufficient account of his aristocratic visitor, and hoping; to make a greater impression iijKjn him, bcjran to enumerate the important positions which this nobleman occupied, and to tell what his ancestors had been. Whereupon the President answered drily :

" Tell the tfentleman that I was a cow-herd and iny father a farmer."

The gentleman who introduced this nobleman was the proprietor of a large distillery at Zwartkop in the neighborhood of Pretoria. — X>^' hy Ihf F.diUtr of thf (Sfrnuin Kditinn.

Tlur anecdote is (juite well known in Kngland, where I have often heard it told of a certain noble duki- who, at that time, had held no imrticuhr |x>- sition outside the (V)urt. but whose father, who was then living, had filled more than one important jKJst under Government. — TruiinlaUir'ii X<itt>.

very would be permitted. They now proceeded jointly to the Vet River and crossed the whole of the Free State without depriving the weak native races which Hved there of a single thing. The land between the Vet and the Vaal Rivers was bartered in exchange for oxen and cows by the Kaffir chief who ruled there.

When the first emigrants arrived at the Vaal, and were encamped both here and on the Rhenoster River in small scattered parties, they were attacked unexpectedly and without having given the least provocation by the Zulu chief Moselikatse. This Mosehkatse was at that time lord and master of the entire country west of the Lebombo and Drakensberg Moimtains. All the Makatese tribes in this district had submitted to his sway. He treated them hke dogs and called them so, and, when vultures passed over his " town," he gave orders to kill a few poor old men and women and throw them for food to his "children," as he called the vultures. The subjugated races hid from him in caves and gorges. When Moselikatse heard that men with white faces had come from the south, he sent a couple of thousand warriors with orders to massacre the invaders. The trekkers who were encamped along the Rhenoster and Vaal Rivers were divided into small parties, which was necessary on account of the dimensions of the herds, so as not to cause quarrels about the grazing lands. They were surprised by Moselikatse's robber band, and the greater number of them murdered.

After this massacre the JNIatabele went back to their towTi, taking the cattle ^^^th them ; but they returned a fortnight later in great numbers and attacked the emigrants at Vechtkop, in the Orange Free State. But here Sarel Celliers had built a strong laager and, -with the 33 men whom he had at his disposal, repelled the impetuous attacks of the Zulus, from his wagon fortress, causing them heaiy losses. Women and children bravely assisted the defenders of the camp, casting bullets, loading the rifles and, in some instances, even taking rifle in hand themselves to shoot down the enemy. On their retreat to the jSIoselikatse Pass, near Pretoria, and to Marico, two of their principal places, the Kafl^irs carried off all the emigrants' cattle, as natin-ally they could not be taken into the laager, and so were improtected. They also took with them two white children and three half-breeds, of whom nothing was ever heard again.

A small party of burghers, under Potgieter, pursued tlie enemy as far as the Marico River: God M'as witli them and gave them the victory at Zeerust. They continued to pursue the enemy further, and in the end entered into possession of liis territory.

They recovered part of their property and, when Mosehkatse had fled, the commando returned.

A small nmnber of the emigrants now proceeded to Natal. To develop the conquered country and make it independent, it was necessary to be in communication with the outer world, and, in Natal, where already a number of emigrants had settled and were in treaty for the necessary acquisition of land, they hoped to obtain the harbor of Durban. But after the treacherous murder of Piet Retief and the attack on the settlers by Dingaan's hordes, most of the emigrants, including my father, returned to the district which is contained within the Free State and Transvaal of to-day. My people settled at Liebenberg Vlei, in what has since become the Orange Free State ; a tract of country which became so well known through Kitchener's operations against De Wet.

A commando again crossed the Vaal, in 1839, to find and punish Moselikatse, who continued to rob and plunder, and also to recover the stolen cattle. I took part in this expedition. Potgieter left the wagon laager behind at Wonderfontein, in what is now the Potchef stroom district, and, with a mounted commando, pursued Moselikatse, who continued to fall back. The whole country had been devastated and all the settlers murdered. Potgieter discovered the Chief iNIagato at Klein Bueffelshoek, near the well-known Elephant River in the MagaHesberg, where he was hiding. We shall hear of him again, for he settled, later, in the neighborhood of Rustenbui'g. He had only a few followers with him and, when Potgieter asked him w^here oMoselikatse was, he told him that he had already crossed the Crocodile River. Asked why he had remained behind and was in hiding, he said that he had escaped dui'ing the night on the march to the north, and was now hiding because he stood in fear of IMoselikatse's bands which had been left behind on the oMoselikatse Pass. Seeing that it was impossible to overtake Moselikatse and that an attack on the entrenched position at Moselikatse Pass was out of the question, the commando returned to the women's camp on the Rhenoster and Vaal Rivers. But as early as the following year, 1840, Potgieter started with another commando, and this time went direct to Moselikatse Pass. I took part in this expedition too. Potgieter there found a large Kaffir town, wliich he stormed. Wlien it was in our hands we recovered a niunber of things which had formerly belonged to the trekkers who had ])een murdered by Mosclikatsc's orders.

During tlie pursuit of Moselikatse, the cliief INIanuigah' lold Potgieter that tlicre was still a force of Moselikatse's savages at Strijd])oort in tlie Waterhcrg (list rift. Potgieter went tlierc at once and attacked the Kaffir camp. But it turned out that we were fighting the wrong people. They were not Zulus but Rooi, or red Kaffirs who had been forced to join Moselikatse's hordes. Directly Potgieter was informed of this fact he put a stop to the fighting. Mamagali, who had been the cause of this battle, was arrested and, after a regular trial by court martial, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. He would not have got off so cheaply had he not been able to prove that the Rooi Kaffirs had always been associated with Moselikatse on the war-path, and that he had taken them for Zulus.

At last the wanderers had found a comparatively safe home. It is obvious that the disturbed life which they had led till then must have occasioned great losses. To institute schools or churches, or a firm and regular management of external affairs, was out of the question. But the Boer fathers and mothers, for all that, looked after the education of their children to the very best of their ability. They knew that they lived in a country where anything that was once neglected was difficult to recover, and that to neglect the rising generation meant the ruin of their nationality. Therefore every Boer taught his children to read and write, and, above all, instructed them in God's Word. At dinner and supper, as the children sat round the table, they had to read part of the Sacred Scriptures, and to repeat from memory or write down now this and now that text ; and this was done day by day unless unusual circumstances made it impossible. That is how my father taught me the Bible, and instructed me in its teaching during the evenings. My other course of instruction was covered altogether by a period of about three months, with* frequent interruptions. My master's name was Tielman Roos, who found much difficulty in carrying out his mission. Whenever the trek came to a restingplace and we out-spanned, a small hut was built of grass and reeds, and this became the school-room for the trekkers' children. This was done during the whole journey to the Magaliesberg, where my father settled.

When I was sixteen years old I was entitled to choose two farms like any other independent member of our community; one as a grazing-place and the other for sowing with crops. I lived at Waterkloof, and, in 1842, fetched Miss Maria du Plessis, from the country south of the Vaal, to be my wife.^

1 During a journey which he had undertaken in order to visit his betrothed, young Kruger found that the torrential waters of the Vaal were so swollen as to render it impassable. But his ardor was greater than the danger, and his strength mightier than the force of the stream. He drove his horses into the water, and, dressed as he was, swam with them across the river under conditions which threatened almost certain death. The old ferryman, who had not dared to cross the river that day with his boat, read him a fine lecture. But it was thrown away. Fortunately the engagement did not last long enough to render a repetition of this hazardous enterprise necessary. — Note by the Editor of the German Edition.

The wedding took place in the village of Potchefstroom, which began to flourish at that time.^

After a period of rest, a new expedition was fitted out, in 1845, in order to colonize the conquered country. Every participant received the promise of another farm in that part of the country. A commission, to which my father belonged, had gone to Delagoa Bay during the previous year in order to come to an understanding with Portugal regarding the mutual frontier, and had agreed that the ridge of the Lebombo Mountains should form the frontier between Portugal and that part of the country which the Boer emigrants wished to colonize. I accompanied this expedition, as deputy field cornet, with my father and the other members of our family. We went as far north as the present Lydenburg district, and there founded the village of Ohrigstad. But we found no abiding-place there. Fever, cattle-sickness and other evils determined us to return to the Magaliesberg, where I continued to live and acquired several farms by barter. Here, in January 1846, I had the misfortune to lose my wife and the little baby

1 There was at that time as Httle opportunity for church weddings as for school instruction or proper preparation for confirmation. The Boer was obhged to be, more or less, his own schoolmaster, minister and civil servant. Even as in the late war, a landdrost had often to appoint himself, so as to provide for an official qualified to "legalize" marriages. Perhaps that accounts for the fact that the otherwise so religious Boers looked upon civil marriage as a perfectly natural rite for many years before we began to fight for it as a " necessity of our enlightened times." — Note by the Editor of the German Edition.

to whom she had given birth. God gave me another hfe-companion in Miss Gezina Suzanna Frederika Wilhehnina du Plessis. From this marriage sprang nine sons and seven daughters, of whom three sons and five daughters are still alive.

The first care of the new settlers was to secure reliable labor and to induce the black inhabitants of the country to undertake it. That was not an easy matter. For, although the Kaffir was willing enough to work, he was always endeavoring to cheat his master in one way or another. And, as soon as he had learned his work, his arrogance often became unbearable. We had constantly to fight this difficulty in great ways and small, and the contest sometimes had its humorous side. For instance, one New Year's Day, I sent a Kafiir from my farm at Waterkloof to my mother's farm (I had lost my father in 1852) to fetch some raisins. My mother sent me about five or six pounds, and said so in a note, which the Kaffir conscientiously delivered. But the letter was a proof that the Kaffir had robbed me, for the raisins which he brought weighed much less than the quantity mentioned in the letter. I asked him what he meant by trying to cheat me and why he had eaten nearly all the raisins.

" The letter tells me," I said, " that there were a great many more than you brought me."

" Baas," he replied, " the letter lies, for how could it have seen me eat the raisins? Why, I put it behind the big rock under a stone and then sat down on the other side of the rock to eat the raisins."

After I had convinced him that the letter knew aU about it nevertheless, he humbly acknowledged his fault ; still the thing was not quite clear to him.

I had a very faithful Kaffir, called April, on one of my other farms at Boekenhoutf ontein in the Rustenbui'g district. During the winter I traveled with my cattle to Saulspoort, near Pilaansberg. Before going away I called him aside and said:

" I wiU teach you how to read a letter."

I then took a piece of paper and drew lines on it.

" The longest Hues," I continued, " stand for melons, the next oranges and the shortest lemons," and I added that he was to send me from time to time just as many of each of these as were indicated by the number of strokes in the letter which I should send by a messenger. He was also to send back a letter by the messenger and inform me, by means of similar lines, how many he had sent of each sort, and to close the letter carefully. The Kaffir was immensely proud of his scholarly attainments, and from that moment considered himself immeasurably above every other Kaffir. There was really no need to tell him not to give my secret away; nothing would have induced him to do so. Later on, I sent two messengers to him and said simply :

" Give this letter to April; he will give you what I want."

This was done ; and when they returned, bringing a letter from April, I said:

" Give me the letter which April has written, so that I may see if you have cheated me or not,"

They were simply amazed, and April's scholarship roused their unbounded envy and admiration. They told everybody about the wise April who had suddenly learned to read and write.

At that time there were no missionaries in our country; but a pious Kaffir, called David, went round among his countrymen in order to teach them religion. When this David wanted to teach the Kaffirs in my district the Bible and how to read it, they refused to learn to read or write.

" Why," they asked, " should we first learn the ' book ' and then bother to learn to write, in order to be able to read again what we have already learned, when Paul Kruger's Kaffir reads and writes without knowing the book and without having learned to write? "

David came to me and told me his difficulties, and, in order to break down the resistance of the Kaffirs, I was obliged to let David into my secret. April did not forgive me for a long time, for his importance and the admiration of his comrades were now things of the past.

During the first years of our settlement as well as during our wanderings it was our task to clear the recently acquired land of wild animals, which had hitherto roamed about unrestrained side by side with the wild races, and thus to protect our pastures. Every Boer took an active part in this work, and the rising youth, in whom the love of adventure had turned hunting into a passion, did a great deal, in this way, to make the country habitable.