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Title: Through South Africa
His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal
Author: Henry M. Stanley
Release Date: June 20, 2010 [EBook #32913]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA ***
Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
Through South Africa, by Henry M. Stanley, MP, DCL.
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THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA, BY HENRY M. STANLEY, MP, DCL.
PREFACE.
This little volume consists of the letters I wrote from Bulawayo,
Johannesburg and Pretoria for the journal _South Africa_, which is
exclusively devoted to matters relating to the region whence it derives
its title. Each letter contains the researches of a week. As the
public had already a sufficiency of books dealing with the history,
geography, politics, raids and revolts, I confined myself to such
impressions as one, who since 1867 had been closely connected with
equatorial, northern and western Africa, might derive from a first view
of the interior of South Africa. Being in no way associated with any
political or pecuniary concern relating to the country, it struck me
that my open-minded, disinterested and fresh impressions might be of
some interest to others, who like myself had only a general sympathy
with its civilisation and commercial development. And as I had
necessarily to qualify myself for appearing in a journal which had for
years treated of South African subjects, it involved much personal
inquiry and careful consideration of facts communicated to roe, and an
impartial weighing of their merits. To this motive, whatever may be the
value of what I have written, I am greatly indebted personally; for
henceforth I must carry with me for a long time a valuable kind of
knowledge concerning the colonies and states I traversed, which no
number of books could have given to me.
If, from my point of judgment, I differ in any way from other writers,
all I care to urge is, that I have had some experience of my own in
several new lands like the South African interior, and I have lived long
enough to have seen the effects of what was good and what was bad policy
in them. I prefer peaceful relations between England and the Boers of
South Africa, if possible; I love what is just, fair, and best to and
for both Britons and Boers. I naturally admire large-minded enterprise.
I pity narrow-mindedness, and dislike to see a people refusing to
advance, when all the world is so sympathetic and helpfully inclined
towards them. These explanations, I think, will enable anyone to
understand the spirit of these letters.
A curious thing occurred in connection with my sudden departure for
South Africa. In the latter part of September, 1897, I was debating
with my family, at a seaside hotel near Dieppe, as to the place we
should visit after the adjournment of Parliament in 1898. After
discussing the merits of many suggestions, it was finally determined
that we should all try South Africa, because it was said to have such a
divine climate; the country was, moreover, so interesting politically,
and as it loomed so much in public interest it would be worth while to
obtain some personal knowledge of South Africans at home. We had
scarcely arrived at this conclusion, when the postman brought to us a
telegram, which, to our intense surprise, was a request from the
Bulawayo Festivities Committee that I would go to Bulawayo to attend the
celebration of the arrival of the Great Peninsular Railway at the
Capital of Matabele Land. We regarded it as a strange coincidence.
This opportunity to visit Bulawayo I considered rather premature, as
towards the end of autumn many engagements crowd upon one, but after
another animated family council it was resolved that I should accept the
invitation were it only to qualify myself as a pioneer for the ladies.
We left Southampton on the _Norman_ on the 9th October. I found then
that there were five other members of the House of Commons on board--
Messrs. Saunderson, Llewellyn, Hayes Fisher, Peace, and Paullton, and
the Duke of Roxburghe representing the House of Lords. Among the
passengers there were Boers from Pretoria and Cape Colony, British
Uitlanders from Johannesburg, English residents from the Cape and the
two Dutch Republics, Afrikander farmers and vine-growers, and
townspeople, some from the Cape District, others from the Eastern and
Western Provinces, and not a few from Kimberley and Natal, besides a few
ex-Raiders and Reformers. As may be imagined, there was no lack of
instructive material, and naturally much divergence of political
opinion. The smoking-room soon become like a debating club, but,
notwithstanding the frankness and partisan character of the debates, the
good temper with which each person delivered himself of his opinions was
most astonishing.
From the Boers and Afrikanders I heard not one favourable remark about
England, but all indulged in banter and irony, to prove that argument
with them was of no avail. So extreme was their dislike that they even
said "English servants and clerks are of no use, and they are most
unreliable, as for instance," and here followed incidents to prove what
they said. While the English were false and could not be trusted, it
was said that the Germans were "good" in the colonial sense, and made
the best citizens. They were industrious and thrifty, and their
improved condition did not alter their habits. The indenturing of the
Bechuana rebels was a subject upon which much was said on both sides.
But a Boer's way of putting it was characteristic. "England, you say,
considers it illegal. Ah, well, the English know nothing of the matter,
and what they say don't count. Rose-Innes, however, ought to have known
better. Had he been asked by a Cape farmer whether, to keep the rebels
from starving, we should give them work to do for wages, Rose-Innes
would have said, `It is a good thing, and the best that can be done for
them;' but with the view of forming a party against the Government, of
course, he denounces indenturing as illegal and iniquitous." I have
cited these extracts to show the process of how we became initiated into
South African politics.
The treatment of natives by the Rhodesian Government was, according to
the general opinion of Cape people, more liberal than they deserved, and
such as any white colonist of no matter what country would approve. It
was said, "Why, if we were to be governed by what these sentimental
English societies--referring to the A.P.S.--think is right, we should
have to abandon Africa altogether, for neither our lives nor property
would be safe. Law-abiding men and lawless natives cannot live together
unless one or the other is compelled to, and as we have taken the
country and intend to live in it, common sense tells us that the natives
must submit to the same law under which we must live."
The greatest majority by far denounced the Raid, and yet everyone spoke
kindly of the personality of Dr Jameson. A gentleman from the Eastern
Province informed me that the Jameson family has suffered greatly in
public estimation. One of the brothers who lived at King Williamstown
had felt himself obliged to leave the Province and return to England,
and if the Doctor succeeded in being elected to the Cape Parliament, it
was said he would be certain to meet with much unpleasantness.
I believe there were 1,097 souls on board the _Norman_ on this voyage.
The noise was therefore terrific and continuous, and if any of the
weaker constitutions suffered as much as I did through want of sleep and
rest, they must on arrival at Cape Town have been in a pitiable state.
Above and below it was perpetual unrest and uproar. Though large and
beautiful, these Cape steamers are badly designed internally, and the
cabins are extremely small, and so arranged that a passenger is subject
to the caprices of his neighbours on either side. My neighbours were
unfortunately quite ignorant of the meaning of the word "considerate."
When an Ismay, such as he who reformed the Anglo-American service,
becomes interested in the passenger traffic to the Cape, he will find a
multitude of little things to improve. On returning to England, I found
the S.S. _Moor_ much superior for passenger accommodation.
The inconveniences arising from an overcrowded steamer are too many to
be disposed of in a paragraph, but it is enough to say that I was
uncommonly glad when the voyage was ended, and I was free to seek a
hotel.
It must impress anyone who takes a sympathetic interest in what he sees
in South Africa, that in some things the country is far behind New
Zealand, Tasmania, or any of the Australian Colonies. It is more
backward than any of them in its hotels. There are, within my
knowledge, only three hotels in all South Africa to which I would
venture to recommend a lady to go. South Africans, of course, are able
to endure anything, and as the Veld is comparatively but a step from
most towns, any place that offers a decent lodging must be regarded by
the men at least as infinitely superior to an ox-wagon, a zinc hut, or a
farm shed. But I am thinking more of the effect such hotels as those of
Cape Town must have on people from Europe. This city, which is the
capital of Cape Colony, contains a population of about 52,000, exclusive
of the suburbs, but it does not possess a single hotel that would bear
comparison with those of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Auckland,
Christchurch or Dunedin. The very best is only just suited for
commercial travellers, who must needs be satisfied with whatever may
offer. The suburbs, however, which are peopled by about 32,000--and it
is well that invalids and tourists should remember it--contain hotels
where rest and quiet may be found, in the midst of oak and fir groves
and scenes of surpassing beauty. No city that I know of in our colonies
possesses superior suburbs. They are simply lovely. They are stretched
along the base of Table Mountain, and an entire day's carriage-drive
would not exhaust the exquisite beauty for which the suburbs of Cape
Town are famed.
Cape Colony possesses three valuable assets, which seem to me to have
received scant attention. A traveller who has visited Southern
California and Arizona will understand immediately he visits South
Africa what fortunes might be made of the waste land, the rainfall, and
the glorious climate with which Nature has blessed it. The land is
unworthily despised, the rainfall is allowed to waste itself in thirsty
sands deep down beneath the level of hungry plains, while the climate
does not seem to have suggested to any capitalist that a revenue
superior to that obtained from the Main Reef at Johannesburg might be
drawn from it. The leaders of South African enterprise appear all
absorbed in diamonds, gold mines, or dynamite.
If I were to follow the authorities of Worsfold in his "South Africa,"
pages 126, 127, I should have to admit that this indifference to the
land, the rainfall and climate, is due to the Boers. Captain Percival,
in 1796, a hundred years ago, wrote:--
"The Dutch farmers never assist the soil by flooding; their only labour
is sowing the seed, leaving the rest to chance and the excellent
climate."
"No part of the world has had its natural advantages so abused as the
Cape of Good Hope. The very minds and dispositions of the settlers
interfere with every plan of improvement and public utility."
It may be that the Boers do cling to old-fashioned ideas somewhat more
tenaciously than they ought to do; but they cannot possibly interfere
with capitalists uniting to build up-to-date hotels on the most
salubrious and scenic sites in Cape Colony, and beautifying their
neighbourhoods with shade trees and gardens, so that the thousands of
invalids who throng the watering-places and hydros of Europe, endure the
snows of Davos, and the winter of the Engadine, might be tempted to try
the Karroo of the Colony. They did not interfere with John D. Logan
when he bought 100,000 acres of the Karroo at Matjesfontein and
proceeded to turn it to remunerative account. They do not object to
private companies or individuals making irrigation works, or planting
groves, which thrive so wonderfully; and as Cape Colony has been British
for over ninety years, it is rather hard that the Boers should bear all
the blame.
Now the Cape Government may well plead guilty to having left many things
undone which they ought to have done. I sincerely believe that the time
will come when the climate, which has the quality of making old men
young, and the consumptive strong, will become universally known and
appreciated; but to attract invalids from the crowded Riviera and
Switzerland, visitors must not be lodged in third-rate hotels, near
noisy tram-lines, and fed on tinned meats.
I was about concluding this preface, when a South African appeared at my
house and drew my attention to the Scriptural quotation in my
Johannesburg letter--"It is expedient that one man should die for many,"
and begged me to make my meaning clear. I read the paragraph over
again, and as I see that to a wilfully contentious mind it might be
construed into a meaning very different to what I intended, I will try
to make it clearer.
Certain Johannesburgers at the Club had related to us the story of the
various efforts they had made to obtain their political rights, and the
reforms which were needed to work their mines profitably; and after they
had finished, I replied that everyone was well aware of the
demonstrations, mass-meetings, speeches, petitions to Kruger, menaces,
Jameson's Raid, and so on, and they themselves had just informed me how
often they had yielded to bribery of officials, and yet withal they
confessed they were not a whit further advanced. Their position had not
been bettered, but was somewhat worse. "The corrective of it all," I
said, "seems to me to lie in the Scriptural verse, `it is expedient that
one man should die for many.' There is a vast mass of sympathy in
England with you, but it is inert and inactive. To make that sympathy a
living force in your behalf, it must be proved that you are in earnest,
that nothing sordid lies behind this dissatisfaction. You must prove
that you have a cause for which you are willing to suffer, even to the
death. You say that you can do nothing without arms. You do not need
any arms that I see. If you fight with weapons, you will be overcome,
and I do not think your defeat will excite great sympathy. But if it be
true that the impositions on you are intolerable, your taxes heavy, the
claims of Government extortionate, and the demands excessive, why submit
to them? It seems to me that if you were all united in the
determination to pay no more of these claims, taxes and bribes, and
folded your arms and dared them to do their worst, that Kruger must
either yield or proceed to compulsion of some kind. He would probably
confiscate your property, or put you in prison or banish you. Whatever
he does that is violent and tyrannical will cause such an explosion of
opinion that will prove to you all that England does not forget her
children. No cause was ever won without suffering, and I am afraid that
your cause, however good it may be, cannot be won without sacrifice and
suffering of some kind. The leader of any movement is sure to be the
object of a tyrant's hate, and the leader or leaders of your cause ought
not to venture in it without being prepared to suffer and endure
whatever ills may follow."
Having explained the Scriptural quotation at the request of others, I
now proceed to be more definite in my own behalf with regard to the
statement in the same letter, that "we cannot interfere until we know
what Johannesburg has resolved upon doing."
A gentleman present said that, during his recent visit to London, an
English statesman asked him, "What would be the effect of sending 30,000
British troops to the Transvaal." Whereupon he answered that he would
be the first man who would take up his rifle against them.
This gentleman was an Englishman by birth. He had been the loudest and
the most eloquent against the British Government for their disregard of
the rights guaranteed by the Convention of 1884, he knew as well as
anyone present the tenour of the despatches that had been exchanged
between the British Government and the Transvaal Republic, and was
perfectly acquainted with the patient and continuous efforts the
Colonial Office had made to obtain a just consideration for the
grievances of the Uitlanders. It was obvious to us that, if a British
statesman had asked such a question, it must have been with the view of
knowing--if diplomacy failed--what result would follow the final attempt
to induce Kruger to listen to reason. From the shock this declaration
from such a prominent Uitlander gave me and a colleague of mine, we
understood what the feelings of the statesman referred to must have
been, and we had no option left than to suppose the Uitlanders, despite
all their clamour and affected indignation against the Transvaal
Government, would prefer the Colonial Office to continue writing
despatches than to take coercive measures. It must be an immense relief
to Englishmen all over the country, as well as it was to me, to know
that we were not expected to be at the trouble and cost of sending
troops, and we may all feel sure that as despatch-writing is considered
to be so efficacious, the Colonial Office will not begrudge the labour
nor spare expense in stationery.
At any rate, seeing that the Uitlanders have told us frankly what to
expect if we resort to force for their assistance, it is too obvious
that nothing more can be done by our Government further than courteous
diplomacy permits--until the united voice and the united action of the
whole body of the Uitlanders certify to us in what other way England can
serve them.
Henry M. Stanley.
London, January 28th, 1898.
CHAPTER ONE.
BULAWAYO, NOVEMBER 5, 1897.
This extraordinary town does not disappoint expectations by its progress
or present condition. It is in about as advanced a state as it could
well be, considering the troubles it has endured. War and cattle-plague
have retarded the progressive growth of a town that would have been by
this, judging from the spirit of the people, a phenomenon in a century
which has seen cities grow like mushrooms. It is cast on broad lines;
its streets rival those of Washington for breadth, and its houses occupy
as much space as decency requires, for unless they were pulled down and
scattered over their respective lots, it is scarcely possible, with due
respect to height, that they could occupy more.
BULAWAYO.
Its situation, however, does not approach what I had anticipated to
find. From its association with Lo Bengula, the dread Matabele despot
on whose single word hung life and death, I had expected to find
Bulawayo situate on a commanding eminence, looking down on broad
lowlands and far-reaching views that fed the despot's pride of power;
instead of which we found it squatted low on a reddish plain, the ridges
of its houses scarcely higher than the thorn bush that surrounds it.
There are no hills or eminences anywhere in view, whence a large
prospect could be obtained. In fact, the greater part of South Africa
appears different to what I had imagined. Probably the partiality of
all South African writers for Dutch terms had contributed to give me
erroneous impressions. When I read Fenimore Cooper and Mayne Reid's
descriptions of the West, I fancied I knew what a prairie or plain was,
and when, years afterwards, I came in view of them my impressions were
only confirmed. But high, low, and bush _veld_, and _Karroo_, etc.,
have been always indefinite terms to me, and so I came to conceive
aspects of land which were different to the reality. For a thousand
miles we have been travelling over very level or slightly undulating
plains, bush-covered over large spaces, the rest being genuine grassy
prairie. After a thousand mites, or nearly three days by rail, over a
flat country of this description, one naturally thinks that the
objective point of such a journey must be of a different character.
Most of the guests were on the _qui vive_ for a pleasing change of
scenery until we were within five minutes of Bulawayo station. All at
once we caught sight of a few gleams of zinc roofs through the low thorn
bush, and a single iron smoke-stack. When we came out of the bush,
Bulawayo was spread out before us, squatted on what is undeniably a
plain. This plain continues to be of the same character of levelness as
far as Salisbury, ay, even as far as the northern edge of Mashonaland;
it spreads out to Fort Victoria equally level; and as the land declines
to N'gami and the Victoria Falls, it still retains the appearance of
plains. Now, the wonder to me is, not that I am 1360 miles north of
Cape Town, but that the railway limit should be fixed at Bulawayo, a
mere bit of undistinguishable acreage in a flat area which extends to
over half a million square miles. Why this place more than any other?
There is no river near it, there is no topographic feature to
distinguish it. Why not have continued this trunk line on to Salisbury,
on to Tete, and the Zambesi? Why not have continued it on to the
Victoria Falls?
THE NEW RAILWAY.
Considering that we have come all the way from London, 7300 miles away,
to celebrate the arrival of the locomotive at Bulawayo, such questions
may sound ungrateful, and considering that last night at the banquet
every speaker had something favourable to say of the Bechuanaland
Railway and its builders, such questions may be supposed to indicate
disagreement with the general opinion. There is really no necessity to
suppose anything of the kind. Both the builders and the railway deserve
praise. The fact that some eight trains have already arrived at
Bulawayo, and that every passenger expresses himself warmly as to the
condition of the line, and the pleasure derived from the journey, ought
to satisfy everyone that the railway is ready for traffic, and will
serve for many years, I hope, to connect Bulawayo with Cape Town.
But I want my readers to thoroughly understand what has been done,
without prejudice to Bulawayo, the railway, or its builders. I am not
so surprised at the railway, as at the length of time people in South
Africa were content to be without it. The whole country seems to have
been created for railway making. It offers as few difficulties as the
London Embankment Hyde Park is extremely uneven as compared with it.
For nearly a thousand miles the railway sleepers have been laid at
intervals of thirty inches on the natural face of the land; the rails
have been laid across these, and connected together; the native navvies
have scraped a little soil together, sufficient to cover the steel
sleepers; and the iron road was thus ready for traffic. In March, 1896,
the railway was but a few miles beyond Mafeking--say, about 880 miles
from Cape Town--on November 4, 1897, it is 1360 miles in length from
Cape Town, showing a construction of 480 miles in 19 months. There is
nothing remarkable in this. The Union Pacific Railway between Omaha and
Denver progressed at three, four, even five miles a day, over a much
more irregular surface; but then, of course, the navvies were Irishmen,
who handled the shovel like experts, and the rails with the precision
and skill of master workmen. Natives could not be expected to attain
the proficiency and organisation of the American Celts.
IN ONE OF THE CAPE SPECIALS.
Our special train left Cape Town on Sunday at 4 p.m. A corridor train
of six coaches, marked Bulawayo, at an ordinary provincial-looking
station, seemed somewhat strange. Had it been marked Ujiji, or Yambuya,
it could not have been more so. Three of us were put in a compartment
for four. The fourth berth was available for hand luggage. Soon after
starting we were served with tea and biscuits, and were it not for the
flat wilderness scenery we might have imagined ourselves in an
International sleeping car. Time tables were also furnished us, from
which we learned that we were due at Kimberley, 647 miles, at 10:15 p.m.
on the next day, November 1; at Mafeking, 870 miles, at 3:12 p.m. on
November 2; Palachwe, in Khama's country, 1132 miles, at 12:47 p.m.,
November 3; and at Bulawayo, 1360 miles, at 9:30 a.m. on November 4,
which would be ninety hours at fifteen miles per hour.
It took us an hour to cross the Lowry Strait, which at no very distant
period must have been covered by sea and separated the Cape Peninsula
from the Continent.
At 5:30 we arrived at the Paarl, 35 miles, a beautiful place suggestive
of Italy with its vineyards, gardens and shrubbery, and lovingly
enfolded by the Drakenstein Range. With its groves of fir and
eucalyptus, bright sunshine, and pleasant-faced people, with picturesque
mountains round about, it seemed a most desirable place.
The Paarl Station and others we passed bear witness to the excellence of
Cape railway administration. The names of the stations were boldly
printed on japanned iron plates, and though the passage of so many
trains crowded with distinguished strangers had drawn large assemblages
of the Colonists, male and female, whites, mulattoes, and negroes, the
cleanliness and orderliness that prevailed were very conspicuous.
A MESSAGE TO MR LABOUCHERE.
At 6 p.m. we had passed Wellington, 45 miles, which went to prove the
rate of travel. This town also drew from us admiring expressions for
its picturesque situation in one of the folds of the Drakenstein, for
the early summer green of its groves, vineyards, and fields, and its
pretty white houses. I thought, as I marked the charming town and its
church spires, and the sweet groves around, what a contrast it was to
the time when the Hottentot reared his cattle in the valley, and the
predatory bushman infested the neighbourhood, and preyed on ground game
and goats.
On the platform, among those who welcomed our coming, were a dozen
Radical shoemakers lately arrived from Leicester. They charged Colonel
Saunderson, M.P., my fellow traveller, with an expressive message to Mr
Labouchere. It is too forcible and inelegant for print, but it
admirably illustrates the rapidity with which Radicals become perverted
by travel.
Darkness found the train labouring through the mountainous defile of the
Hex River. We could see but a loom of the rugged heights on either
side, but from all accounts this part of the line is one of the show
places which strangers are asked to note.
At daylight we were well on the Karroo, which at first sight was all but
a desert. However, we were not long on it before we all took to it
kindly. The air was strangely appetising, and we could not help
regarding it with benevolence. The engineers who designed the line must
have been skilful men, and by the track, as the train curves in and out
of narrowing valleys and broadening plains, we are led to suppose that
the Continent slopes gently from the interior down to Table Bay. The
railway is a surface line, without a single tunnel or any serious
cutting. The gradients in some places are stiff, but a single engine
finds no difficulty in surmounting them.
At 4 p.m. of November 1 we reached the 458th mile from Cape Town, so
that our rate of travel had been nineteen miles the hour. On tolerably
level parts our speed, as timed by watch, was thirty miles; stoppages
and steep gradients reduce this to nineteen miles.
We were fast asleep by the time we reached Kimberley. Night, and the
short pause we made, prevented any correct impressions of the chief city
of the Diamond Fields. At half-past six of November 2 we woke up at
Taungs, 731 miles. The small stream over which we entered the late
Crown Colony of Bechuanaland serves as a frontier line between it and
Griqualand.
THE CAPABILITIES OF BECHUANALAND.
The first view of the country reminded me of East Central Africa, and I
looked keenly at it to gauge its capabilities. To a new-comer it would
not seem so full of promise as it was to me. It would appear as a
waterless region, and too dry for a man accustomed to green fields and
flowing rivers, but I have seen nothing between the immediate
neighbourhood of the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains to surpass
it, and each mile we travelled in Bechuanaland confirmed that
impression. Every few miles we crossed dry watercourses; but, though
there was no water in sight, it does not derogate from its value as farm
land. The plateau of Persia is a naked desert compared to it, and yet
Persia possesses eight millions of people, and at one time contained
double that number. The prairies of Nebraska, of Colorado, and Kansas
are inferior in appearance, and I have seen them in their uninhabited
state, but to-day they are remarkable for the growth of their many
cities and their magnificent farming estates. All that is wanted to
render Bechuanaland a desirable colony is water, so that every farm
might draw irrigating supplies from reservoirs along these numerous
watercourses. For Nature has so disposed the land that anyone with
observant eyes may see with what little trouble water could be converted
into rich green pastures and fields bearing weighty grain crops. The
track of the railway runs over broad, almost level, valleys, hemmed in
by masses of elevated land which have been broken up by ages of
torrential rains, and whose soil has been swept by the floods over the
valleys, naturally leaving the bases of the mountains higher than the
central depression. If a Persian colonist came here he would say: "How
admirable for my purpose! I shall begin my draining ditches or
_canauts_ from the bases of those hills and train them down towards the
lower parts of these valleys, by which time I shall have as many
constant and regular running streams as I have ditches, and my flocks
and herds and fields shall have abundance of the necessary element." A
thousand of such Persians would create thus a central stream with the
surplus water flowing along the valley, and its borders would become one
continuous grove. As the Persians would do, the English colonists whose
luck it may be to come to this land may also do, and enrich themselves
faster than by labouring at gold mining.
These dry river-beds, now filled with sand, need only to have stone dams
built across, every few hundred yards, to provide any number of
reservoirs. They have been formed by rushing torrents which have
furrowed the lowlands down to the bed rock, and the depth and breadth of
the river courses show us what mighty supplies of water are wasted every
year. As the torrents slackened their flow, they deposited their
sediment, and finally filtered through underneath until no water was
visible, but by digging down about two feet, it is found in liberal
quantities, cool and sweet.
Even the improvident black has discovered what the greenness of the
grass shows, that, though water is not visible, it is not far off. At
one station the guards told me that they could find plenty of water by
an hour's digging, which was a marvel to many of our party. I was told
in Khama's territory that Khama, the chief, owned eight hundred thousand
head of cattle before the rinderpest made its appearance and reduced his
stock by half. If true, and there is no reason to doubt it, it shows
what Bechuanaland might become with trifling improvements.
MAFEKING.
Before we came to Vryburg, the continuous valley had broadened out into
a prairie, with not a hill in sight. The face of the land was as bare
as though ploughed. By 4 p.m. we had come to the 850th mile, showing
that the rate during the last twenty-four hours had been sixteen and a
third miles an hour. Since Taungs, 731 miles, we had been closely
skirting the Transvaal frontier, while to the west of the line lay what
was once the mission-field of Livingstone and Moffatt. An hour later we
arrived at Mafeking, on the Moloppo River, a tributary of the Orange
River. Mafeking will always be celebrated in the future as the place
whence Jameson started on his desperate incursion into the Dutch
Republic. The Moloppo River contains lengthy pools of water along its
deepened course, but the inhabitants of Mafeking are supplied by copious
springs from Montsioa's old farm. The town lies on the north, or right
bank, and is 870 miles from Cape Town. It is 4194 feet above the sea.
Already it has been laid out in broad streets which are planted with
trees, and as these are flourishing they promise to furnish grateful
shade in a few years. Outside of the town there is not a tree in sight,
scarcely a shrub, and consequently it is more purely a prairie town than
any other. Due east of it lies Pretoria, the Boer capital, about 180
miles distant, and it may be when the Boers take broader views of their
duty to South Africa at large, and their own interests, that they will
permit a railway to be constructed to connect the two towns, in which
case the people of Mafeking cannot fail to profit by having exits at
Delagoa Bay, Durban, and Cape Town. It will be passing strange also if
the neighbourhood of Mafeking will not be found to contain some of the
minerals for which the Transvaal is famous. The Malmani Gold Field is
about 50 miles off, and the Zeerust Lead and Quicksilver Mine but a
trifle further. For the growing of cereals it ought also to be as
distinguished as the neighbouring state, for the soil is of the right
colour.
IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY.
On leaving Mafeking we were in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, a country
of even greater promise than the Crown Colony. The next morning
(November 3) we were well into Khama's country, 1071 miles from Cape
Town. A thin forest of acacia trees, about 20 feet in height, covered
the face of the land. The soil was richly ochreous in colour. The
grass was young and of a tender green, and the air cool and refreshing.
The railway constructors must have rejoiced on finding so little labour
required to perform their contract in this section. By skilfully chosen
curves they were enabled to easily surmount any unevenness on the
surface, and nothing more was required than to lay the steel sleepers on
the ground, cross them with the rails, and add a few spadefuls of earth
to complete the railway. The train runs wonderfully smooth and steady,
and we experienced less discomfort than on some English trains I know.
This is naturally due in a great measure to the slower and safer rate of
speed we travel, and the newness of the rolling stock. During the whole
day we were not once reminded by any jolt, jar, or swaying, of any
imperfections, and our nights were undisturbed by loose play of rails or
jumping.
At Three Sisters, 388 miles from Cape Town, we were at the highest
altitude of the line, being 4518 feet above the sea. Thence to
Bulawayo, a thousand miles, the greatest variation in altitude is 1500
feet; but were it not for the Railway Guide we should never have
supposed that the variation was over 100 feet, so imperceptible are the
ascents and descents of the line.
Magalapye Station (1088 miles) consisted of a third-class carriage and a
goods van laid on three lengths of rail. We were halted nearly an hour
near the Magalapye River, and learned that we were sixty miles inside of
Khama's country. Improvements are proceeding to make the line more
secure during the torrential season. At present it descends into the
bed of the broad stream of sand, and here, if anywhere, a smart rainfall
would destroy the line. Consequently, a high embankment has been made,
stone piers have been built, and an iron bridge will span the river at a
sufficient height. Here we heard also that one of the special trains
ahead of us had suffered an accident from the explosion of an oil
engine, which generated the electric light, resulting in the burning of
two men, one of them badly.
The Magalapye River is one of those sandy watercourses so common in
South Africa. To provide water for the station a broad ditch was cut
across the sandy course, which was soon filled with clear and excellent
water--enough, in fact to supply a small township. It is to be hoped
that all the guests noted this and carried away with them the object
lesson.
WHAT WATER STORAGE WOULD DO.
The sight of this suggested to me that there was an opportunity for a
genius like Rhodes to do more for South Africa than can be done by the
discovery and exploitation of gold fields. A company called the United
South African Waterworks might buy land along the principal
watercourses, build a series of stone dams across them, clean out the
sand between them, and so obtain hundreds of reservoirs for the
townships that would certainly be established in their neighbourhood.
Beyond Palachwe (1132 miles) the thorn trees begin to disappear, and
leafier woods, which resemble dwarf oak, take their place, though there
are few trees higher than twenty feet. The soil is good, however,
despite the fact that each dry season the fires destroy the grasses and
the loams which are necessary for their nourishment. Most of the
stations in this part are mere corrugated-iron cottages, or railway
carriages, temporarily lent for the housing of the guards.
PAUPERISING THE NATIVE.
At each halting place since arriving in Bechuanaland, we have been made
aware how quickly the Englishman's generous disposition serves to teach
natives to become beggars. Italy, Switzerland, Egypt, have thus
suffered great harm. From Taungs to Palachwe, crowds of stalwart and
able-bodied natives of both sexes have flocked around the kitchen-car to
beg for bread, meat, and kitchen refuse. It is a novel and amusing
sight at present, but in the course of time I fancy this practice of
patronising beggars will make a callous and offensive breed that will
not easily be put off with words.
At Shashi River, 5 p.m., the three special trains lay close together,
because of the difficult gradient leading out of the bed of the river.
While the engines assisted the trains up the steep, I came across an
impromptu presentation of an address by the Mayor of Cape Town to Mr
Logan, the caterer of the excursion parties. According to what was
said, we were all made to believe that we could not have been better
served had the first European caterer undertaken the provisioning, to
which no one could make objection, and a duly signed testimonial to that
effect was presented to that gentleman. The scene, however, seemed odd
at unknown Shashi, and strongly illustrated a racial characteristic for
speech-making and presentation of testimonials.
NEARING BULAWAYO.
On the morning of November 4 we saw as we looked out of the carriage
that the country was a continuation of that of the previous day. It was
still as level, apparently, as a billiard table. We were drawing near
to Bulawayo--were, in fact, due there about 9 a.m. We had been led to
expect a more tropical vegetation, but as yet, though we were only sixty
miles off, we saw no signs of it, but rather a return to the thorn bush
of the Karroo and Southern Bechuanaland. One variation we noted, the
rocky kopje is more frequent. These curious hill-heaps of rock are
remnants of the primeval tableland that rose above the present face of
the country from 100 to 300 feet. The sight of these curious kopjes
deepened the idea that the seat of the "Killer," Lo Bengula, would be
found on a high eminence, protected by a cluster of these kopjes, but we
looked long in vain for such a cluster of hills. Even the sight of a
lordly tree would be welcomed, for the tame landscape was growing
monotonous. The absence of scenery incidents did not diminish our
friendly sympathies towards Rhodesia, and we made the most of what was
actually visible, the blue sky, the dwarf trees, the low green herbage
which dotted the ground in the midst of wide expanses of tawdiness, the
burnt grass tussocks, which we knew would in a few days be covered as
with a carpet of green. We see the land just before the season changes,
and signs of vivifying spring approaching are abundant. A few days ago
the first rains set in. The last two nights have witnessed a wonderful
exhibition of electric display in the heavens, and severe thunderstorms
have followed. In another fortnight it is said the plains will have
become like a vast garden.
At thirty-five miles from Bulawayo we came to the Matoppo Siding. The
engineers stopped for breakfast at a restaurant and boarding house!
which was a grass hut 20 feet long. Near by a diminutive zinc hut was
called "General Store." Several tarpaulins sheltered various heaps of
miscellanea. There a Matabele servant of a fur trader informed us that
Lo Bengula was still alive, near the Zambesi, happy with abundance of
mealies and cattle, and that any white man approaching his hiding-place
would be surely killed, but that if any large number of white men went
near him, he would again fly.
At the 1335th mile from Cape Town an accident to the special train ahead
of us retarded us four hours. The engine, tender, water tank, and bogie
car ran off the track. No one was hurt, fortunately, and by 1 p.m. we
were all under way again, though the first lunch we were to have eaten
together at Bulawayo was necessarily changed to the first dinner.
At 2:30 we were on the alert to catch a first view of Bulawayo, and at
2:55 p.m. a few stray gleams of white, seen through the thorn bush, were
pointed out to us as the capital of Matabeleland. We had passed the
famous Matoppo Hills to the right of us, but, excepting for their
connection with the late war, there was nothing interesting in them.
They consist of a series of these rocky kopjes of no great height, lying
close together, mere wrecks of the crest of a great land wave, terrible
enough when behind each rocky boulder and crevice a rifleman lies
hidden, but peaceful now that the war is over, and the white man has
made himself an irremovable home in the land.
SIR A. MILNER AT BULAWAYO.
As was said, we entered Bulawayo a few minutes later, and saw the crude
beginnings of a city that must, if all goes well, grow to a great
distinction. As a new-comer with but an hour or two's experience of it,
I dare not venture upon saying anything more. We heard that the
Governor, Sir A. Milner, had already officiated at the ceremony of
opening the line, that his speech was not remarkable for any memorable
words, that he had given the Victoria Cross to some trooper for gallant
conduct in the field. I heard that Sir Alfred had also read a despatch
from Mr Chamberlain, which was to the effect that at the opening of the
railway to Bulawayo he was anxious to send a message to the settlers
assembled to celebrate the event. He sympathised with their troubles,
but he was gratified to think that there was a happier future in store
for them. The railway would be a stimulus to every form of enterprise,
and would effectually bind the north and south together.
In the evening the dinner took place at the Palace Hotel, which is a
building that does not deserve such a title, as might be inferred from
the haste with which it was constructed. Ten days ago, few believed
that it would be in a fit state to receive any guests, but we found it
sufficiently advanced to house the 400 who have arrived. Some portions
of it, especially the reception room, would be no discredit to the best
hotel at the Cape. The accounts of what occurred at the banquet, as
described by the local reporters, I do not reproduce here, and refer my
reader to the next chapter for what I have gathered of value from
personal observation.
CHAPTER TWO.
BULAWAYO, NOVEMBER 10, 1897.
"RHODESIA HAS A GREAT AGRICULTURAL FUTURE BEFORE IT."
The exploration and the development of Rhodesia have always been
regarded by me with sentimental interest. Every new advance in this
region has been hailed by me with infinite satisfaction, and no man
regretted more than myself the lapses of the Founder and Administrator
in December, 1895, which threatened to involve the whole of South Africa
in trouble, and to arrest the progress which had begun. It appeared for
a moment as if Rhodes and Jameson had relinquished golden substance for
a shadow. It is not in human capacity to realise from a far distance
the truth of the rumours which came from here respecting the intrinsic
value of the land, and so I came here at a great inconvenience to myself
to verify by actual observation what had been repeatedly stated. I have
been rewarded for so doing by clear convictions, which, though they may
be of no great value to others, are very satisfactory to myself, and
will for ever remain fixed in my mind, despite all contrary assertions.
There was a little speech delivered by Commandant Van Rensburg on Monday
night, which, perhaps, will be thought by London editors of no
importance, but it was most gratifying to me, inasmuch as I had become
possessed with the same ideas. He said that it was generally supposed
that without gold Rhodesia could not exist, but he differed from that
view, as, he was certain in his own mind, it would remain an important
country because of its many agricultural products, its native wood,
coal, cement, etc., etc. He had come to the conclusion that Rhodesia
was as fit for agriculture as any part of South Africa, though he had
been rather doubtful of it before he had seen the land with his own
eyes. That is precisely my view. It is natural that the large majority
of visitors who have come here to satisfy themselves about the existence
of gold in Rhodesia should pay but little attention to what may be seen
on the surface; but those who have done so now know that Rhodesia has a
great agricultural future before it.
THE OPENING OF THE BULAWAYO RAILWAY.
"FEW EVENTS OF THE CENTURY SURPASS IT IN INTEREST AND IMPORTANCE."
Several hundreds of men, eminent in divers professions, have come from
England, America, the Cape, Orange Free State, Natal, Basuto and Zulu
Lands, the Transvaal, Bechuanaland, and Northern Rhodesia, to celebrate
the railway achievement by which this young Colony has become connected
with the oldest Colony in South Africa. In any other continent the
opening of five hundred miles of new railway would be fittingly
celebrated by the usual banquet and the after-dinner felicitations of
those directly concerned with it; but in this instance there are six
members of the Imperial Parliament, the High Commissioner of the Cape,
the Governor of Natal, scores of members of the Colonial Legislatures,
and scores of notabilities, leaders of thought and action, bankers,
merchants, and clergy from every colony and state in the southern part
of this continent. They all felt it to be a great event. Few events of
the century surpass it in interest and importance. It marks the
conclusion of an audacious enterprise, which less than ten years ago
would have been deemed impossible, and only two years ago as most
unlikely. It furnishes a lesson to all colonising nations. It teaches
methods of operation never practised before. It suggests large and
grand possibilities, completely reforms and alters our judgment with
regard to Africa, effaces difficulties that impeded right views, and
infuses a belief that, once the political and capitalist public realises
what the occasion really signifies, this railway is but the precursor of
many more in this continent. In fact, we have been publicly told that
we are to expect others, and that the railway to the Victoria Falls of
the Zambesi is the next on the programme.
AN EMBRYO STATE "FAIRLY STARTED INTO EXISTENCE."
The Rudd-Rhodes Concession was granted by Lo Bengula in 1888. The
Charter to the South Africa Company was given in 1889; possession of
Mashonaland was taken by Jameson and his pioneers on September 12th,
1890; Bulawayo was entered in 1893, and thus the Lo Bengula Concession
grew to be Rhodesia. Only four years ago! But during this brief
interval the advance has been so rapid that, though at home people may
vaguely believe in it, one has to see the town of Bulawayo and to come
in personal contact with its people to fully comprehend what has been
done, and to rightly understand the situation. With the clearer view
gained by a personal visit the huge map in the Stock Exchange, which
shows the estates, farms, townships, and mines of Rhodesia, becomes an
encyclopaedia of information--the plans of Bulawayo and Salisbury, and
other towns which have arisen in Rhodesia, valuable directories. If
fresh from an inspection and study of these you step out and look at the
town of Bulawayo, and glance at the country, you begin to share the
local knowledge of the inhabitants, see with their eyes, understand on
what they base their hopes, and grasp the real meaning of pushing a
railway 500 miles to reach a town of 3000 people. So that, while at
home men were arguing that the Rudd-Rhodes Concession was valueless, and
Rhodesia a fraud, the land was being avidly bought, prospectors had
discovered gold reefs, shafts had been sunk, tunnels had been made to
get a fair idea of the value of the reefs, a nominal capital of many
millions--some say twenty millions, some say double that sum--had been
assured for operations, towns had been created with all the comforts
suited to new colonists, and the embryo State was fairly started into
existence.
"ENORMOUS POSSIBILITIES IN VIEW."
While being instructed in the hopes and ambitions of several of the
local people, my knowledge of how other young countries, such as the
States, Canada, Australia, had been affected by the extension of the
railway into parts as thinly inhabited as Rhodesia, induced me to cast
my glance far beyond Rhodesia, that I might see what was likely to be
its destiny, whether it was to be a Free State like Orange,
self-sufficient and complacent within its own limits, or broadly
ambitious like Illinois State, of which Chicago is the heart. Assuming
that the energy which has already astonished us be continued, there are
enormous possibilities in view. Bulawayo is 1360 miles from Cape Town,
but it is only 1300 miles of land travel from Cairo, for the rest of the
distance may be made over deep lakes and navigable rivers; it is but
1300 miles to Mossamedes, in Angola, which would bring the town within
fifteen days from London; it is only 450 miles from Beira, on the East
Coast, which would give it another port of entry open to commerce from
the Suez Canal, India, Australia, and New Zealand; it is but 350 miles
from N'gami; it must tap British Central Africa and the southern parts
of the Congo State.
That is the position acquired by Bulawayo by the railway from Cape Town.
Chicago, less than 60 years ago, had far less pretensions than this
town, and yet it has now a million and a half of people.
Something of what Chicago has become Bulawayo may aspire to. The vast
coal fields to which the new railway is to run, the stone, granite,
sandstone, trachyte, the woods, minerals, gold, copper, lead, and iron,
the enormous agricultural area, are valuable assets which must nourish
it to an equal destiny. Then the Victoria Falls, larger than Niagara,
what mighty electrical power lies stored there! I merely mention these
things hap-hazard with the view of assisting my readers to understand
the significance of these festivities. Many men will think and meditate
on them, and new confidence, courage, and energy will be begotten to
stimulate them to greater designs and larger effort.
THE FOUNDING OF RHODESIA WILL CAUSE A RE-SHAPING OF POLICIES.
But how does the scene at Bulawayo affect the political world? It seems
to me to have great importance for all South African and British
politicians for the way it affects Germany, Portugal, the Congo Free
State, and Cape Colony. It will cause people to revise their opinions,
and to clear their minds of all previous policies. Any influence that
Germany may have hoped to exercise on South African politics has
received a check by the insuperable barrier that has been created by
those slender lines of steel between its South-West African Colony and
the Dutch Republics. The Bechuana Crown Colony and Protectorate,
through which they run, must receive a percentage of all immigrants to
Rhodesia. These last two are far in advance of the German Colony, and
each day must see them strengthened, so that they will become formidable
obstacles in the way of German aspirations. These colonies lying along
the length of the western frontier of the Transvaal State are four times
larger than the Transvaal, and their grand stock-raising areas and
agricultural plains having now become easily accessible, cannot remain
long unoccupied. I fancy, therefore, that the ambition of Germany to
rival our claims to the paramountcy will become wholly extinguished now,
and that her thinkers, like wise men, will prepare their minds for the
new problems which must be met in a not remote future.
THE LESSON FOR PORTUGAL.
The populating of Rhodesia by mixed races of whites of a superior order
to any near it must exercise the Portuguese, whose territory lies
between Rhodesia and the Indian Ocean. The iron road leading to it
cannot be closed. The future of the country is no longer doubtful. We
have tested its climate ourselves; we have heard the general conviction
that these lofty plains, 4500 feet above the sea, suit the constitution
of the white race; we have seen a hundred English children going from
Bulawayo to a picnic to celebrate the arrival of the railway, and
assuredly that would have been impossible on a tropical day in any other
tropical country I know of. We have seen scores of infants on the
streets, in the suburbs, on the plains outside, in arms, and in
perambulators, and they all looked thriving, pink, and happy. The
market of Bulawayo each day shows us English vegetables fresh from the
garden. We have seen specimens of the cereals. Well, then, it appears
to me certain that there will be a masterful population in this country
before long, which it would be the height of unwisdom to vex overmuch
with obsolete ordinances and bye-laws such as obtain in Portuguese
Africa, and burdensome taxes and rates on the traffic that must arise as
this country grows in wealth and population. It may be hoped that
intelligent Portuguese will do all in their power to promote concord and
good feeling with their neighbour, to check refractory chiefs from doing
anything to disturb the peace, for nothing could make the people of
Rhodesia more restless than interruption to traffic, and a sense of
insecurity. If they do that the Portuguese territory must become
enriched by the neighbourhood of Rhodesia.
LESSONS TO NORTHERN NEIGHBOURS.
The Congo State will doubtless recognise its profit by the advent of the
railway to Bulawayo and the extension of the line towards its southern
borders, and the arrangements of the Government will be such as to
ensure respect for boundaries and to teach the native tribes that
transgression of such will be dangerous.
The British Government have a valuable object lesson for the development
of African colonies. For over two hundred years the West African
colonies have been stagnating for lack of such means of communication.
They have been unable to utilise their resources. Their natural
pretensions to the hinterlands have been grievously curtailed, and what
ought to have been British is now French. Nyasaland has also too long
suffered from Imperial parsimony. The function of government should
comprise something more than police duty or the collection of taxes.
The removal of causes injurious to health and life, and the
establishment of communication as required by circumstances of climate,
and needful to augment commerce, are just as urgent as the prevention of
lawlessness and the collection of imposts. The climate of Nyasaland has
slain more valuable men than the assegais of the Angoni. Against the
latter the Government sent their Sikhs; against the former they have
done nothing. Many of the sick colonists might have been saved, if,
when weakened by anaemia, a little railway past the Shire Rapids had
taken them quickly through the malarious land. If it be worth while to
retain and administer Nyasaland, it is surely worth while to supply the
population with certain means to send the fruits of their industry to
the world's markets, and to enable them to receive the necessaries of
existence without endangering their lives in the effort or risking the
loss of their goods. Therefore, to a Government that has shown such
dread of constructing an insignificant railway a hundred miles in
length, the enterprise of the Chartered Company in constructing one five
hundred miles long--and starting immediately upon an extension two
hundred and twenty miles--at the cost of one and three-quarter millions,
must be exceedingly stimulative. The antique and barbarous method of
porterage should be abolished in every British colony, more especially
in tropical colonies, where exposure to sun and rain means death to
white and black.
HOW AN ENLIGHTENED TRANSVAAL SHOULD VIEW THE SPREAD OF FREE INSTITUTIONS
IN THE NORTH.
To the South African Republic it is vitally important to weigh well in
what manner the Bulawayo railway will affect her future. The Republic
will soon be surrounded by a rampart of steel on three sides and alien
land and ocean on the other. From Beira, north of the Republic, a
railway will run west to Salisbury, and thence south to Bulawayo and the
Cape. With two ways of ingress from the sea a country like Rhodesia--
with as good a climate as the Transvaal State, with resources which tend
to rapid prosperity, enjoying impartial and liberal laws, just and pure
administration, opening its arms widely to the whole world without
regard to race, blessed with ample domains and suited to the needs of
all classes--must necessarily prove more attractive to all people in
search of homes, than a country which only favours Dutch burghers; and
Rhodesia therefore bids fair in a few years to overtake the Republic in
population, and even to surpass it. The Boers do not avail themselves
of the advantages of their position to that fulness which would make it
doubtful whether Rhodesia or the Transvaal offered the most inducements
to intending settlers. On the contrary, the common report is that the
object of the Boers is to restrict population and reserve the State for
Boer progeny. I shall see the country for myself, I hope, and either
verify or disprove it. But if true, the attempt to suppress population
and growth by restrictions, monopolies, and vexatious ordinances is
simple imbecility, as compared to the Chartered Company's policy of
stimulating commerce by giving free rein to enterprise, and keeping the
paths and gates to its territory freely open to all comers. If there is
an intelligent man in the Transvaal, it must be clear to him that the
Republic must soon lose the rank among South African States to which she
was entitled by her wonderful resources and undoubted advantages; and
the only thing that can save her from degradation, neglect, and
financial difficulties, is the absorption of that alien population which
crowds her cities and clamours for political rights.
THE CAPE AND GERMAN PUSHFULNESS.
Cape Colony, though much is due to it for its support of the Bechuana
railway, is not wholly free from the blame of inertness in the past.
One cannot look at the map of Africa and miss seeing that extraordinary
territory labelled German close to Cape Colony, without being reminded
of the obtuseness shown by the Cape democracy. But the Germans are a
great nation, rich, commerce-loving, and enterprising, and the Cape
people need to be warned, considering that they are largely mixed up
with Dutch Boers who are slow to move and sadly behind the times. If
the Germans chose to invest 4,000,000 pounds in railways from the mouth
of the Swakop to the banks of the Orange, they would be formidable
competitors for the trade of Bechuanaland and the north of the colony,
and Swakop is three days nearer Europe than Table Bay. The railways in
America created cities and filled the wastes with settlers, and every
new settler was supposed to be worth 200 pounds to the nation; and in
that country they have a mile of railway to every twenty square miles of
country.
The Cape has but a mile of railway to every 112 square miles. The
railways should spread out like a fan from Cape Town. The existing
lines require straightening greatly. It is not good policy that the
line to Natal should run through alien States, nor is it conducive to
the development of the Colony. Some railways may not show large
dividends, but they are indispensable to development and communication:
they give value to acres which otherwise would be worthless, and
indirectly contribute to revenue in other ways than by dividends. Hence
Cape Colony may learn a good deal from this new railway.
BULAWAYO REMINDS MR STANLEY OF WINNIPEG.
I think I have said enough to illustrate the position in which Bulawayo
has been placed by the arrival of the railway. At present its broad
avenues and streets give one an idea that it has made too much of
itself. When the avenues are about 90 feet wide and the streets 130
feet wide, naturally the corrugated-iron one-storeyed cottages and the
one-storeyed brick buildings appear very diminutive; and the truth is
that, were the streets of proportionate width to the height of the
buildings, the town would appear very small. The plain upon which it
stands gives an idea of infinity that renders poor one-storeyed Bulawayo
very finite-looking indeed. The town, however, has laid itself out for
future greatness, and the designers of it have been wise. Winnipeg, in
Manitoba, which Bulawayo reminds me of by the surrounding plain, was
laid out on just such a spacious plan; but ten years later six-storeyed
buildings usurped the place of the isolated iron hut and cottage, and
the streets were seen to be no whit too wide. Ten years hence Bulawayo
will aspire higher towards the sky, and when the electric trams run in
double lines between rows of shade trees, there will be no sense of
disproportion between buildings and streets. On the walls of the Stock
Exchange I found hanging plans and elevations of the brick and stone
buildings already contracted for. They are not to be very lofty, none
over two storeys, but architecturally they are most attractive. These
new buildings will, perhaps, stand for about five years, for, according
to my experience, it is not until the tenth year that the double storey
becomes the fashion. At the twentieth year begins the triple storey; at
thirty years the fourth storey begins to appear.
East of the town area devoted to commerce is a broad strip of park. It
occupies a gentle hollow in the plain, watered by a crooked ditch,
called spruit here, running through a rich, dark, and very thirsty
earth. It contains a few puddles here and there along its course. Only
a portion of the park is laid out as yet, and that has been well and
carefully done. Its plots contain a few hundreds of grape vines, which
look like currant bushes. There are also about a hundred very young
orange trees, a few flowers, shrubs, etc. A stone column to the memory
of Captain Lendy occupies an eminence in it. The whole park has a
sombre appearance, owing to the dark soil and ironstone freely
sprinkling it. But as the bushes, shrubs, and flowers have only been
lately planted, and as around the forcing houses there is a large number
of young plants in tins and pots, soon to be transplanted, a couple of
years will make an immense difference in the appearance of the
pleasaunce.
Beyond and east of the park is the residential part of Bulawayo, divided
into two avenues and nine streets running east and west, and eight roads
running north and south, named respectively Townsend, Lawley,
Livingstone, Pauling, Clark, Duncan, and Heyman, and Park Road, parallel
with the park.
PRICES OF PROPERTY AND STANDS IN BULAWAYO.
Messrs. Adcock and Norton have furnished me with the prices of stands,
or town lots, obtained by them during the last six months. The most
noteworthy are Lot 708, with large wood and iron house, 1900 pounds; Lot
234, southern half only, bought by Curtis and Co., outfitters,
Johannesburg, 3500 pounds; Lot 239, half only, bought by Gowie and Co.,
seedsmen, of Grahamstown, 2000 pounds; Lots 451-452 bought by a London
firm, 3000 pounds; Lot 333, bought by Stuart Campbell and Co.,
merchants, Johannesburg, 2000 pounds; eastern half of Lot 133, 70 feet
frontage, on 8th Avenue, purchased by Hepworths, manufacturers, Leeds,
England, and South Africa, 5000 pounds; Lot 346, corner portion, bought
by Knight and Co., boot and shoe makers, Grahamstown, 3600 pounds.
HOTEL LIFE AT BULAWAYO.
From various people I have learned that the average estimate of the
population is 3000 whites, one-fifth of whom are women and children.
There are several hotels, the best of which are the Palace, Maxim, and
Charter; but none of them are fit for ladies, and scarcely for
gentlemen. The noise and clatter at these forbid sleep, except between
midnight and 5 a.m. The food is somewhat coarse, but plentiful; the tea
and coffee such as one may obtain on a Cape liner--that is, too strong
an infusion of one, and a watery decoction of the other. The cooks
evidently are common ship-cooks, as one may gather by the way they boil
potatoes and cabbages. The bread is good, the butter is tolerable, the
meat is like leather. The waiters, though civil and willing enough, are
awkward and new to their work. Board and lodging may be obtained for
from 14 to 18 pounds per month, two beds in a room 12 feet by 12 feet.
At the cheaper boarding-houses it will cost between 4 and 10 pounds.
The rent of lodgings in a small room amounts to 15 shillings per week.
PRICES OF LIVING AND WAGES AT BULAWAYO.
Prices are likely to be much lower shortly. At present tea is 3
shillings per pound, coffee 2 shillings 6 pence, rice 10 pence per
pound, fresh meat 1 shilling 6 pence, corned beef 3 shillings per tin of
2 pounds, flour 6 pence per pound, soap per bar 1 shilling 6 pence,
fresh butter 7 shillings to 8 shillings per pound, sugar 1 shilling,
matches 1 penny per box, eggs 15 shillings to 18 shillings per dozen,
candles 3 pence each, fowls 5 shillings each, potatoes 160 pounds for 4
pounds; vegetables dear.
Wages are high, as might be supposed. Masons and bricklayers obtain 30
shillings per day, tailors 35 shillings per day, carpenters 25 shillings
to 30 shillings per day, compositors 9 pounds per week, plumbers and
painters 9 pounds per week, waiters, 12 to 15 pounds per month, clerks,
first-class, 35 pounds per month, ordinary clerks, 15 to 25 pounds per
month, white labourers, 5 shillings per day, black labourers from 1
shilling 3 pence to 2 shillings per day. The Government lately gave
eighty white labourers work on the park at 5 shillings per day to keep
them from starvation.
BULAWAYO'S BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.
The finest buildings of Bulawayo are, first, the long, low building
occupied by the Stock Exchange, Telegraph, and Post Office, the Bulawayo
Club building, which is extremely comfortable, Sauer's Chambers, and the
Palace Hotel, the latter being incomplete; when finished commercial
travellers will, no doubt, find it comfortable, and it may be suitable
for ladies.
There are two daily papers, the _Bulawayo Chronicle_ and _Matabele
Times_, sold at 3 pence per copy. I have also seen the _Rhodesia
Review_, which is, I believe, a weekly issue. There are seven
churches--the Wesleyan, Congregational, Church of England, Dutch
Reformed, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic, and one Temperance Hall.
There is, of course, a gaol, a fire brigade, and police station. In the
gaol are several prisoners, white and black. The crimes of the whites
have been burglary, theft, and drunkenness. Among the blacks are
fourteen prisoners under sentence of death.
The railway station is fairly adapted for its purpose, though its
construction was, necessarily, rapid. The settling reservoirs, fed by
pipes from the dams, are not| far from it; but I fear that they will be
of little use, as the soil is too porous. A coating of cement would
make them effective, but the general opinion is that cement would be too
costly.
BULAWAYO'S GREAT DEFECT.--BETTER WATER SUPPLY IMPERATIVE.
The great defect of Bulawayo is the smallness of the water supply and
the badness of it. At present the inhabitants depend on wells, and
water is easily obtainable at 30 and 40 feet, but the water is of a hard
and indifferent quality. Up on the Maatschesmuslopje stream, about two
and a half miles from the town, there have been constructed three dams
of different lengths and varying heights. Number 1 dam is the nearest
to Bulawayo, and has a solid stone and cement core starting from the
bedrock 10 feet wide, and decreasing by set-backs of 6 inches to a width
of 2 feet at the top. Number 2 dam has a puddled core of clay faced
with stone, and Number 3 is of similar construction. In April last
these dams were full and overflowing, but unfortunately, through bad
construction and want of care, there were several leaks, and it is now
decided to demolish two of the dams and rebuild them. Numbers 2 and 3
are quite fit to retain the water catchment, and Number 1 will be
finished by the end of the year. The estimated storage of water by the
three dams is calculated to be between 40 and 45 million gallons. A
fourth dam, about to be erected, will, it is thought, considerably
increase the storage.
Several critics are of the opinion that the dams will not retain any
water, though they were full last April.
We have had four copious showers of rain since our arrival on the 4th
inst, but a few hours later the spruits, gullies, and watercourses were
almost waterless, the streets showing scarcely a trace of the rain, so
porous and thirsty is the soil. Daily it becomes apparent to me that
the inhabitants of Bulawayo should lose no time in studying the art of
water conservation. In a country just within the tropics an abundant
supply of water is essential, and thirty gallons per head per day would
not be excessive. Ten thousand inhabitants should be able to command
300,000 gallons daily, but Bulawayo within twenty years will have
probably 20,000, and there is no river between here and Khama's country
that could supply 600,000 gallons daily. Numbers of little watersheds
may be drained into reservoirs, but if I were a citizen of Bulawayo my
anxiety would be mainly on the subject of water. The water question is
not at all an insoluble one, because, for the matter of that, Bulawayo
will have always the Zambesi tributaries to fall back upon, especially
the Guay River.
LO BEN'S KRAAL.
At the north end of the town we come to a gate leading to an avenue
which ran perfectly straight for two miles and a half. The carriage
road, which it is intended to macadamise, is about 30 feet wide, and
running parallel with it on either side is an enclosure 50 feet wide, to
be planted with shade trees. Thus the avenue embraces a width of about
130 feet. At the extremity of it is the Government House, standing in
grounds which four years ago were occupied by Lo Bengula's kraal. We
were all curious to see the place, and one of the first objects shown to
us was the small tree under which the Matabele king dispensed his bloody
judgments.
Here is a description of the place from "Zambesia": "The King's capital
stands upon a ridge on the northern side of the Bulawayo River, in a
most commanding position, overlooking as it does the entire country
round. Every yard of the ground was covered with dung, layer after
layer; the whole place was filthily dirty. The King used to sit on a
block of wood in the middle of a great pole stockade, surrounded by
sheep and goats."
The first sentence is most misleading, though not inaccurate. The kraal
stood upon the same level as the plain of New Bulawayo, but the
"Bulawayo River"--a dry watercourse most of the year--has scoured out a
broad hollow to a depth of about 20 feet in the plain, and, as the kraal
was seated on the brow above it, it enables one to have a view of a
circle of about fifteen miles in diameter, within which are probably
three or four of these long, broad swells of plain land.
Government House is a long, low, white-washed house, in Dutch Colonial
style, with a pillared verandah outside. It is the property of Mr
Rhodes, as well as the avenue just mentioned. I am told he possesses
about eighty square miles altogether hereabouts, and, by the way he is
developing his estates, it will some day be a beautiful as well as
valuable property.
FROM CAPE TOWN TO BULAWAYO MR RHODES SPOKEN OF "WITH UNQUALIFIED
ADMIRATION."
This reminds me that I have not once mentioned Rhodes, though when
describing Rhodesia one ought not to omit his name; but the fact is he
has preferred to remain in the veld rather than undergo the fatigue of
the banquets and ceremonies. From Cape Town here many men have spoken
of him to me, and always with unqualified admiration. I know no man who
occupies such a place in men's thoughts. His absence has given rise to
all kinds of conjectures as to the cause of it. Some say it is due to
the fact that the Cape elections are approaching, and he did not wish to
be forced to a pronouncement of policy; others that it is due to Dr
Jameson's zealous care of his health, as he suffers from heart
complaint; others again say it is due to a wounded spirit, which too
long grieving might easily end in a Timonian moroseness. Whatever the
true cause may be, he has so planted himself in the affections of the
people that no eccentricity of his can detract from his merits. When a
man scatters 200,000 a year on the country out of which he made his
wealth, it covers a multitude of sins in the minds of the recipients of
his gratuitous favours.
"He does mad and fantastic execution
Engaging and redeeming of himself,
With such a careless face and forceless care,
As if that luck, in very spite of cunning,
Bade him win all."
The festivities of the celebration end to-night, or rather to-morrow
morning at 1 a.m., and then Bulawayo will be left to itself to begin its
own proper work of development. We have seen what Bulawayo is as it
terminated the employment of the ox-wagon, and had just emerged out of
the sore troubles caused by war, famine, and rinderpest. The next train
that arrives after our departure will be the beginning of a new era.
The machinery that litters the road will be brought up, and the
ox-wagons drawn by fourteen oxen, and the wagons drawn by twelve mules,
and those drawn by twenty donkeys, will haul it to the mines, and hence
we may hope at the end of a year or so that Rhodesia will have proved by
its gold output its intrinsic value as a gold held. In my next letter I
mean to touch upon this subject.
CHAPTER THREE.
BULAWAYO, NOVEMBER 11, 1897.
THE NEW ERA IN RHODESIA.
The festivities are over, and the guests are departing. For seven days
we have been entertained as well as the resources of Bulawayo would
admit, and the Administrator and Committee have been continuously
unflagging in their attentions to us. Next Monday the trains and
railway will be occupied in bringing stores and machinery and cattle to
supply the needs of the mining industry, and henceforward the traffic
will be ordinary and uninterrupted between Cape Town and Bulawayo. On
Monday morning also every Bulawayan intends to resume his own proper
work, and I suppose that should be the real date of the beginning of the
new era in Rhodesia.
What is Rhodesia?
And here, it seems to me, is a fitting place to ask: What is Rhodesia,
about which so much has been said and written? What are its prospects?
I cannot help but wish I were more qualified by local and technical
knowledge to describe the country; but as I have been at some trouble in
soliciting the judgment of experienced men, conscientiously weighing the
merits of what was told me, and carefully considering what I have
personally seen, I can only hope the following summary may have some
value to those interested in Rhodesia.
The Land to the North.
I have been asked by my fellow guests at Bulawayo how the face of the
country appeared as compared with the tropical regions further north
with which I am more familiar. With regard to the superficial aspect of
Rhodesia, I see but little difference between it and East Central
Africa, and the southern portion of the Congo basin. Indeed, I am much
struck with the uniformity of Inner Africa on the whole. Except in the
neighbourhood of the great lakes, which mark the results of volcanic
action, where great subsidences have occurred, and the great plains have
been wrinkled up or heaved into mountains of great height, the body of
Inner Africa away from the coasts is very much alike. The main
difference is due to latitude. From the Cape Peninsula to north of
Salisbury, or the Victoria Falls, the whole country is one continuous
plain country. Between the tops of the highest hills and the highest
grassy ridge in the Transvaal the difference of altitude seems solely
due to the action of the rain. In the Zambesi basin you have a great
shallow basin, and directly you cross the river and travel northward the
ascent is being made to reach the crest of the watershed between the
Zambesi and the Congo, which is but little higher than the highest
grassy ridge in the neighbourhood of Salisbury. From thence a gradual
descent is made to reach the central depression of the Congo basin.
Northward of the Congo watershed, you gain the average altitudes of the
grassy ridges of South Africa, and then begin a descent into the basin
of the Tchad Lake, and from thence to the Mediterranean the same system
of great land waves rolling and subsiding continues.
NOBLE TIMBER IN RHODESIA.
Latitude--and I might say altitude--however, changes the appearance of
the land. Rarely on the tableland of Equatorial Africa do we see the
scrub and thorn trees of South Africa. The vegetation there is more
robust, the trees taller, the leafage thicker and of a darker green; the
mere grasses of the tropics are taller than the trees growing on the
plains of Cape Colony, Bechuanaland, and Rhodesia, though in the latter
country there are oases favourable to the growth of noble timber. In
nitrous belts--fortunately of no great width--in Ugogo, Nyasaland, East
Africa, we should be reminded of the thorny productions of Bechuanaland,
and ten degrees north of the Equator we should again see a recurrence of
them.
A MAGNIFICENT FOREST OF TEAK.
It must have struck even the most unobservant of our guests how the land
improved as we travelled northward. How the ungrateful looking Karroo
of Cape Colony was presently followed by expansive plains covered with
dwarf shrubs; how the plains became more promising after we passed the
Hart River: how the rolling grassy prairie-like country of Southern
Bechuana was followed by the acacias and mimosas of Northern Bechuana;
and how as we neared Rhodesia these trees in a few hours of travel rose
from 10 feet to 20 feet in height; how the land became more compact, and
lost much of its loose porous texture, and consequently the grasses were
higher and water might be found at a lesser depth. That improvement, I
am told, continues as we go northward towards Salisbury, even though we
may keep on a somewhat uniform level, that is on the tableland
separating the river flowing eastward, south to the Limpopo and
north-west to the Zambesi. So rapid is the effect of a lower altitude,
and consequent greater heat and moisture, that about 80 miles from
Bulawayo to the north-west a magnificent forest of teak has been found,
from whose grand timber we saw several specimens of furniture, such as
tables, desks, and bureaus, a log of 20 feet long and a foot square,
besides a quantity of planks.
Rhodesia's Fine Climate.
Now, this Rhodesia consists of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and covers
about a quarter of a million square miles. It is the northern portion
of the Great South African tableland, and its highest elevations run
north-east and south-west, varying from 4000 to nearly 6000 feet above
the sea. This height declines on the eastern, southern, and
north-western sides, as it slopes along with the rivers flowing from
them. This high land, which is eminently suitable for European
families, is about 70,000 square miles in extent, of solid, unbroken
agricultural country as compared with Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Those who remember what countries of similar superficial area in Europe
can contain in population may be able to gauge what numbers of the white
race may exist in Rhodesia. Outside the limit I have mentioned the
resident must expect to be afflicted with malarial fevers, and the lower
one descends towards the sea, the more frequent and severe will they
become. There is this comfort, however, that long before the upper
plateau is over-populated, population will have made a large portion of
the malarious districts healthy and inhabitable--at least, it has been
so found in every land that I have visited. On the upper lands, the
resident who has come by way of the Cape and Bechuanaland need have no
fear of malaria. I regard my own oft-tried system as a pretty sure
indicator of the existence of malaria, for a very few hours' residence
in a country subjected to this scourge would soon remind me of my
predisposition to it; but during the whole of the time I have spent in
Rhodesia I have not felt the slightest symptom. I have seen white women
driving their babies in perambulators on the plain outside Bulawayo in a
sun as hot as any in the Egyptian or Moroccan desert, and, though I felt
they were unwise, it was clear to me that in such a climate a sufficient
head protection was the only thing necessary to guard against a
sunstroke or the feverish feeling which naturally follows a rash
exposure to heat.
The Rainy Season.
Rhodesia has been visited by us during what is generally said to be its
worst period. The rainy season begins in November and ends in March.
We arrived November 4, and, though we have been here only a week, we
have had four showers and one all-night downpour. The rainfall during
the season amounts to as much as 45 inches. I fancy few men have had
larger experience of the pernicious effects of cold rains alternating
with hot suns than I, and the composure of the Bulawayo population under
what seems to promise four months of such weather strikes my
imagination, and is to me a strong testimony of the healthfulness of the
climate.
No Stint of Vegetables.
The park of Bulawayo, the grounds of Government House, and especially
the advanced state of Mr Colenbrander's charming gardens, afforded to
me valuable proofs that the soil responded very readily to civilised
treatment; but the most conclusive proof to me of the capacity of the
soil was furnished by a large market garden laid out in a depression
just outside of the town. From end to end the garden, supplied with
water by a windpump from a well, was a mass of robust European
vegetables, whence cabbages weighing 30 pounds each, and tomatoes of
extraordinary size, have been sent to market. At the Palace Hotel the
hundreds of guests made large demands for vegetables, and there was no
stint of them. Further on towards old Gubulawayo we were attracted by
native women hoeing in a field, and our attention was drawn to the
native fields, which showed by the old corn-stalks that the Matabele
must have found the black earth of the plains gracious to their toils.
Here and there in these villa gardens, market gardens, public
pleasaunces, and ornamental grounds we found sufficient evidences that,
given water, the soil of Rhodesia was equal to supplying anything that
civilised man with his fastidious taste and appetite could possibly
demand.
The Gold of Rhodesia--Something to Satisfy an Anxious Mind.
The next thing to do was to find out something relating to the precious
metal, whose presence in Rhodesia was the immediate cause of the
railway. I remember last session having heard in the Smoking Room of
the House of Commons the most disparaging views regarding the prospects
of Rhodesia and the quality of the reefs. The gold of Rhodesia was said
to be "pocket" gold, and that the ancients, whose presence long ago in
this land is proved by the multitude of old workings and disused shafts,
were too clever to have left any for us moderns. Not knowing how to
controvert such statements, I had left them unanswered, half believing
that they were true. Sir James Sivewright, in his speech on the first
festal night, said that Bulawayo was built upon faith, and the majority
of the guests I discovered held the most doubtful views, and I must
confess little was needed to confirm the scepticism which had been
planted in me in England. But when I heard that there was an exhibition
of ores to be seen in the Hall of the Stock Exchange, I felt that the
Reception Committee had provided for us something more valuable than
banquets--something which should satisfy an anxious mind. Within a
well-lighted, decent-sized hall, on an ample shelf ranged around it, a
few of the mining companies of Rhodesia had sent various specimens of
the ores. Above these shelves hung admirably-drawn maps to illustrate
the reefs whence they were taken. I had noticed, as I went in, other
specimens of Rhodesian products ranged along the passages--bulky lumps
of coal from the Zambesian coal district, a coal that is said to give
only from 8 per cent, to 12 per cent, of ash; fine red sandstone blocks,
a stone closely resembling that of which most of the houses on Fifth
Avenue, New York, are built; blocks of grey sandstone, to which
substance I had already been attracted, it being so much used for
lintels and doorways of Bulawayan houses; and rough and polished granite
blocks, which reminded me of the famous Aberdeen stone, besides several
limestone briquettes.
PLENTY OF EVIDENCES OF GOLD.
The first exhibits of ores I happened to inspect were from the
Camperdown Reef, in which the virgin gold was conspicuous enough to
satisfy the most unbelieving. The next exhibit consisted of a number of
briquettes of cement manufactured in Bulawayo. The third was a glass
case which contained old gold beads, discovered at Zimbabwe, and
attracted a great deal of attention from the dusky appearance of the
metal which centuries had given it, the rude workmanship, evidently
African, and the puerility of the ornaments. Beyond this the Rhodesia
Ltd. Company had specimens from the Criterion Reef, situate eight miles
from Bulawayo. The rock contained no visible gold, and the Curator who
guided me round had the assurance to say that the quartz where gold was
not visible was more appreciated than that which showed nuggets. This
made me think of the mountains of white quartz I had seen on the Congo,
and to wonder whether the Curator was indulging in unseemly levity.
However, perceiving some doubt in my glance, he said it would be
demonstrated shortly. Adjoining the Criterion ores was a heap from the
Nellie Reef in the Insiza district, fifty miles from Bulawayo. The
Curator said these were "very rich," and taken from old workings; but
despite the Curator and the old workings, I could not see a trace of
gold in the rock, even with a magnifier. Next to the Nellie exhibit was
a pile of rock from the Unit and Unicorn Reef--in the Selukwe district,
Eastern Rhodesia--but I saw no gold in any one of these rocks.
A Successful Crushing of Gold Quartz.
Just at this juncture the Curator told me that one of these apparently
valueless rocks was about to be crushed and panned for our instruction.
We went out into a yard, where there was quite a crowd of curious people
assembled. The lump of rock was put into a small iron mortar, and in a
few minutes it was pounded into a dusty looking mass. It was then
passed through a fine sieve and the larger fragments were returned into
the mortar to be again pounded. A sufficient quantity of the greyish
dust having been obtained, the mortar was emptied into a broad iron pan.
The pan was dipped into a tub full of muddied water, a dexterous turn
or twist of the wrist, and the coarser material was emptied into the
tub. Frequent dippings and twists reduced the quantity of material in
the pan, until at last there was barely a tablespoonful of it left, and
still I saw no glitter. Again the dipping and twisting and rinsing were
repeated, until at last there was only a teaspoonful of the dirt left;
but all around the bottom of the pan was a thin thread of unmistakable
gold dust. It was beyond belief that such a barren-looking piece of
quartzose rock should contain gold; but then these experts are wonderful
fellows. I pay them my most respectful homage.
How the Ancient Miners Worked.
Returning to the Hall under the influence of this very needful lesson, I
resumed my examination of the exhibits. Beyond the Unit and Unicorn
exhibit stood some planks of a teaky quality, beautifully polished, and
showing numbers of small dark knots, and wavy patterns, which gave a
walnuty appearance to the wood. The next exhibit was from the Gwanda
district by the Geelong Gold Mining Company, taken from a 90-foot level.
In this district the ancient workings are found deepest. The
prehistoric miners were accustomed to build charcoal fires on the
quartz, and when the rock was sufficiently heated threw water on it,
which soon disintegrated it and enabled the picks and gads to be used.
This reminded me how often I had done the same to huge rocks which
blocked the way for my wagons on the Congo. The broken quartz, being
brought to the surface, was handed to natives who crushed it to dust on
blocks of granite with diorite hammers, or ground it as the modern
natives do mealies. The dust was then panned in much the same way as is
done by prospectors of to-day. In one of the old shafts, over 60-foot
deep, was found the dome of a human skull and some pieces of human bone.
These relics lay side by side with the quartz exhibits. One could
moralise here if one had time.
Fine Specimens of Coal.
The exhibit of the Ellen Reef of the United Matabele Claims Development
Company showed distinct gold. Just near it were blocks of fine-looking
coal from the Matabele Gold Reefs and Estates Company. The coal field
is situated 120 miles north of Bulawayo. The coal has been already
tested, and is found to be admirable for all uses.
120 Ounces to the Ton.
The Nicholson Olympus Block, Gwanda district, showed specimens which
panned 120 ounces to the ton. The Mary Reef specimens assayed 5 ounces
3 pennyweight 10 grains to the ton. Next to these was a clock frame
made out of trachyte in the form of a Greek temple. This trachyte is
greyish white in colour and easily workable, but hardens by exposure.
As there is plenty of this material it is probable Bulawayo will make
free use of it in future. Mansions and villas of this stone would look
extremely chaste and beautiful.
The Tebekwe Mine.
Then we came to the exhibits from the Tebekwe Mine, Selukwe district,
seventy miles from Bulawayo on the Salisbury Road. The large map above
was worth studying. It illustrated a reef about 1000 yards in length,
and eight oval-form excavations made by the ancients resembling the pits
Kimberley diamond diggers formerly made in the blue clay. The base
lines of these excavations were not much over 60 feet from the surface.
On the appearance of water in each shaft the ancients were unable to
make their fire on the exposed quartz reef, and consequently had to
abandon it, and they probably made another excavation along the reef
until the appearance of water compelled them to relinquish that also 900
yards of this reef have now been proved by means of twelve winzes, the
majority of which have been sunk to the first level 154 feet below the
surface. On this first level 887 feet of driving has been done up to
the present. The second level is 234 feet below the surface, and three
winzes have been sunk to it. The total footage to now made is 3,311
feet 10 inches. The average width of the reef is 41.5 inches, and the
narrowest width is 15 inches. Throughout the mine the average width is
31 inches. I am told that the richest average value of the reef is 84
pennyweight per ton of 2000 pounds, and the poorest 5 pennyweight to the
ton. Throughout the reef averages 1773 pennyweight of fine gold per
ton; 12 pennyweight is considered a payable quantity at Bulawayo. A
block of rock from the centre shaft showed 57 pennyweight to the ton.
A twenty-stamp battery is on the rails between Port Elizabeth and
Bulawayo, beside steam hauling gear and electric pumping machinery, and
it is anticipated that the mine will be in operation about October,
1898.
"THE BEST MINES IN RHODESIA."
I next came to the Gaikwa and Chicago Reef, whose old workings had a
shaft 70 feet deep. Its present owners sunk this to 100 feet when they
came to the abandoned reef. I think the assay showed 1 ounce 11
pennyweight to the ton.
Close to it were specimens from the Adventurers Reef in the Insiza
district which assay 1 ounce to the ton. Beyond was the Willoughby's
Consolidated Company, Limited, which had exhibits from the favourite
mines, called Bonsor, Dunraven, and Queen's. Shafts in the Bonsor have
been sunk to 365 feet, the lode is 30 inches wide, and the average assay
per ton is 18 pennyweight. The Dunraven has been sunk to a depth of 320
feet, lode and assay the same as the Bonsor. The Queen's has been
penetrated 100 feet, lode 30 inches, and assay 18 pennyweight. People
who have no pecuniary interest in mines have told me that the best mines
in Rhodesia, and of which there is not the least doubt, are the Globe
and Phoenix, Bonsor, Dunraven, Tebekwe, and Geelong, all of which are in
the Selukwe district, excepting the last, which is in Gwanda.
Next were exhibits from the Matabele Sheba Gold Mining Company: dark
quartz, of which there were fourteen specimens. This reef is twenty
miles from Bulawayo, and assays 2 ounces 10 pennyweight per ton. The
Marlborough Reef, four miles from Bulawayo; the Ullswater Reef, sixteen
miles from town; Piper's Reef, three miles from town, averaging
respectively 1 ounce to 5 ounces, 15 pennyweight to 5 ounces, and 25
pennyweight. Very little gold is visible in these specimens; but the
owners have panned repeatedly, and are satisfied that they contain the
precious metal in profitable quantities.
Bulawayo the Centre of Auriferous Fields.
Just above these specimens was a large map showing the Rhodesian Gold
Fields very clearly. From this I learned that the Gwanda district was
south of Bulawayo; the Tuli district, which contains the Monarch Mine,
is south-west from here, and constitutes a little republic of its own;
the Bembezi field is north; Insiza district is east; and so is the
Filabusi and Belingwe; the Selukwe district is east-north-east,
comprising Gwelo; the Sebakwe, north-east; and the Mafungabusi district,
north-north-east; so that the Bulawayan gold field seems to be the
centre of this cluster of auriferous fields.
The Fort Victoria exhibit showed a large lump of native copper and
excellent bits of gold quartz. The Masterton Reef, forty miles from
Bulawayo, had two specimens and certificate of assay of 18 pennyweight
and 22 pennyweight respectively. The Springs Reef, Belingwe district,
exhibits consisted of galena, copper and gold, and appeared very fine.
THE UNRELIABILITY OF ASSAYS.
From the Number 2 Kirkcubbin Reef, Bulawayo district, it appeared that
an assay of 62 ounces 16 pennyweight to the ton was obtained, while from
the Number 1 same reef there was an assay of 24 ounces 14 pennyweight to
the ton. It should be observed that these assays, no matter by whom
they are made, are misleading to the uninitiated, and though the panning
is better, neither are to be relied on as sure guides to what the reef
will prove throughout. When, say, 10,000 tons are crushed we shall
better know by the result the true status of Rhodesia among gold-bearing
countries. Nevertheless, every assay or panning has a value as
indicating the presence of gold.
The next exhibit was from the Sinnanombi gold belt, south of the
Matoppos. The Saint Helen's Development Syndicate exhibit consisted of
several pans full of grey powdered quartz ready for panning, each of
which has been assayed by the Standard Bank with the following results:
Thirkleby, Antelope, Rosebery, Constitution and Thela Reefs, in the
Sinnanombi district, respectively 2 ounce 4 pennyweight, 136
pennyweight, 27 pennyweight 18 grains, 58 pennyweight, and 46
pennyweight. The Syndicate have also properties in the Insiza district,
the Nellie Rey Reef, Eileen Reef in Mavin district, Ben Nevis and Guinea
Fowl Reefs in Selukwe district.
"In Every Stone the Gold Sparkled."
The West Glen May Mine exhibit contained sections, one of which was
remarkable as showing a 60-foot wide reef. Its rock specimens were rich
with visible gold. There was also a rich exhibit from the Christmas
Reef, sixteen miles from Bulawayo--in every stone the gold sparkled.
From Purdon's Reef, in the Makukuku district, alluvial gold was on show.
There was also an old iron gad from the ancient workings. Alluvial
gold is found in the Myema River, twenty miles from Bulawayo.
Among other things at the Chamber of Mines Exhibition was a thick log of
fine grained teak, several planks, furniture from native woods, samples
of lime, trachyte blocks, Bulawayo brick, coal blocks from Tuli coal
districts 200 miles south-east of Bulawayo and the Zambesi district 120
north of Bulawayo, and a champagne case full of plumbago lately
discovered at a spot fifty miles from the Zambesi.
For the patient courtesy shown to me while making my notes, and the
instructing and interesting conduct of me round the room, I am under the
warmest obligations to Mr Walter Broad, the Hon. Curator, who, as you
will be interested to know, is a Canadian, and whose first impulse to
seek Africa as a field for his labours was obtained through reading my
"Dark Continent."
A Visit to the Criterion Mine.
After this exhaustive inspection of the ores on exhibition, it remained
for us to see one of these Rhodesian mines in operation to dispel the
last remnant of doubt which eloquent sceptics had inspired me with. We
chose the Criterion Mine, which is by no means the nearest to the town.
It belongs to the Rhodesia Ltd. Company, and is situate eight miles
south from Bulawayo, and as Mr Hirschler, the Engineer of the mine, was
willing to take upon himself the trouble of being our guide, we flung
ourselves gladly upon his generosity. In one hour and a half we made
the distance in a spring cart drawn by four spirited little mules. We
halted at the Engineer's station on a commanding grassy ridge, which
neighbours that once occupied by Mosilikatse's old kraal of Gubulawayo
during the forties, fifties, and sixties of this century. A few spaces
from the spot where we outspanned we came to a series of "old workings"
which ran along the crest of the ridge for about 2000 feet. Where one
of these old workings was untouched by the Engineer, it reminded me of
just such a big hole as might have been made to unearth a boulder, or to
root out a large tree. One of these hollows was chosen by the Engineer
to sink his first shaft. After penetrating through fifty feet of
debris, he came upon the reef which the ancients had abandoned because
of flooding, and time, aided by rain, had filled up. He continued for
about 10 feet more, sampling every 3 feet as he went, to discover the
grade of the ore. Since then he has sunk eight other shafts. The mine
consists of 170 claims, but the development is concentrated on about
twenty-five claims, ten of which are in the centre of the property, and
fifteen towards the eastern boundary. In the centre two shafts are
being sunk to the 150 foot level, and are at present connected by a
drive 300 feet long. On this level the reef is throughout payable,
while a chute 100 feet long is of high grade ore. Trenches on the line
of the reef indicate its occurrence towards the eastern portion of the
mine, where five shafts varying from 100 feet to 150 feet deep have been
sunk. At the depth of 150 feet the various shafts will be connected by
a gallery, which will give 2000 feet of reef material. At the present
time work is being done for the purpose of developing sufficient ore to
keep a twenty-stamp mill going. The necessary machinery has been
ordered, and the engineers expect to begin producing some time about the
middle of 1898. On examining the material at the mouths of the shafts,
those among us who knew of what they were speaking declared that much of
it was of high grade. High pyritic quartz abounded, and this was rich
in fine gold. Sulphide galena was found in some of the quartz. At the
mouth of one shaft visible gold was very frequent, and about forty of
the visitors obtained specimens wherein miniature nuggets were plainly
visible. Where the reef was being worked at the deepest shaft it showed
a breadth of 24 inches; in some places it is only 18 inches wide; at
others it is 48 inches broad.
"We saw enough to prove that Rhodesia is an Auriferous Country."
My readers need scarcely be told that the exhibits of ores are only such
as a few companies of Rhodesia were induced to send after urgent appeals
from the public-spirited citizens of Bulawayo. I saw none from
Salisbury, Mazoe, or any part of Mashonaland, and only a few mines in
Matabeleland were represented. There was no time for a proper
exhibition. Many more were _en route_, but the distances are great and
the ox-wagon is slow. At any rate we have seen sufficient to prove that
Rhodesia is an auriferous country though as yet no one knows what rank
it will take among gold-producing lands. My own conviction--a
conviction that is, I suppose, made up from what I have seen and heard
from qualified men--is that Rhodesia will not be much inferior to the
Transvaal. True, it has no Witwatersrand--forty miles of reefs; but the
superficial area is twice the size of the Transvaal State, and the
prospectors have only succeeded in discovering a few plums.
Then, though the railway has been brought to Bulawayo, it is still far
from the Belingwe and Selukwe districts, and within a radius of 100
miles from the town there are many gold fields richer than those in the
immediate neighbourhood of the railway terminus. It is necessary to
state this in the clearest manner, for many will be carried away by the
idea that now the railway is at Bulawayo the output of gold should
follow immediately.
But even the most forward among the mining companies can only say: "We
have ordered all the needful machinery and shall set to work as soon as
it arrives." The machinery in a few cases is on the rail between Port
Elizabeth and Bulawayo; but the necessities of life must precede mining
machinery, and several weeks more may elapse before any portion of the
material may reach Bulawayo. Then we shall have to consider the
terrible calamity endured by Rhodesia, as well as South Africa in
general. The rinderpest is not over yet, and cattle, mules, and donkeys
are scarce, and the haulage of heavy machinery over the veld with feeble
and sickening cattle for forty, seventy, and a hundred miles will be a
tedious business.
Then will come the erection of buildings, the fitting of engines, etc.,
etc., with inexpert natives, and I think I need but suggest that all
these preliminaries will occupy much time. The more confident engineers
declare that they will be ready to produce about the middle of next
year. They may be as good as their word, knowing their business better
than we casual visitors; but it seems to me but common prudence to
withhold expectation of results until eighteen months from the present.
Rhodesia's Requirements.
There is no doubt in my mind that gold will be produced in payable
quantities from these Rhodesian mines; but the extent of profit depends
upon circumstances. It is also as certain that Rhodesia cannot hope to
compete with the Transvaal under present conditions. Bulawayo is 1360
miles from the sea, and at least 40 miles from the richest mines.
Johannesburg is 390 miles from the sea, and is in the centre of its
forty mile long gold field. That simple fact means a great deal, and
shows an enormous disadvantage to Rhodesia. The latter country will
have to pay four times more for freight than the Transvaal gold fields.
Against this must be set the small duties that will have to be paid.
After paying five per cent to Cape Colony, goods will be admitted free
to Rhodesia. Then the heavy taxes paid to the Boers will still further
diminish the disadvantages of Rhodesia; yet when we consider the time
wasted in the long railway journey, and the haulage by ox-wagon to the
mines, we shall find a much heavier bill of costs against the gold
output of Rhodesia, than on that of the Transvaal. A good substantial
railway from Beira or Sofala to Bulawayo, _via_ Victoria, would
completely reverse things. Bulawayo would then be about the same rail
distance from the sea as Johannesburg is; the poorer ores could then be
worked profitably, and the aggregate of gold product would in a few
years rival that of the Rand. If I were a Chartered Director, my first
object should be to get the shortest and most direct route to the sea
from Bulawayo, and a substantial railway along it, and having obtained
that, and a liberal mining law, I should feel that the prosperity of
Rhodesia was assured.
CHAPTER FOUR.
LETTER FROM JOHANNESBURG.
GO-AHEAD BULAWAYO.
Between Bulawayo and Johannesburg there is a great difference. In
common with some 400 guests of the Festivities Committee, I looked in
admiring wonderment at the exuberant vitality, the concentrated joyous
energy, and the abounding hopefulness of the young sons of British
fathers who, in the centre of Rhodesian life, were proud of showing us a
portion of their big country, and what they had done towards beginning
their new State. We shared with them their pride in their young city,
their magnificently broad avenues, the exhibits of their resources,
their park, their prize cabbages, and the fine, bold, go-ahead-iveness
which distinguished their fellow-citizens. We felt they had every
reason to be proud of their victories over the rebel Matabele, the
endurance they had shown under various calamities, and the courageous
confidence with which they intended to face the future. From our hearts
we wished them all prosperity.
JOHANNESBURG'S WRONGS.
At Johannesburg, however, different feelings possessed us. Without
knowing exactly why, we felt that this population, once so favoured by
fortune, so exultant and energetic, was in a subdued and despondent
mood, and wore a defeated and cowed air. When we timidly inquired as to
the cause, we found them labouring under a sense of wrong, and disposed
to be querulous and recriminatory. They blamed both Boers and British:
the whole civilised world and all but themselves seemed to have been
unwise and unjust. They recapitulated without an error of fact the many
failures and shames of British Colonial policy in the past, gave valid
instances of their distrust of the present policy, pointed to the
breaches of the Convention of 1884, and the manifest disregard of them
by the Colonial Secretary, described at large the conditions under which
they lived, and demanded to know if the manner in which the charter of
their liberties was treated was at all compatible with what they had a
right to expect under the express stipulations of the Convention.
"Why," said they, "between Boer arrogance and British indifference,
every condition of that Power of Attorney granted to Paul Kruger has
been disregarded by the Boer, and neglected by the British." They then
proceeded to dilate upon Boer oppression, Boer corruption, the cant and
hypocrisy of President Kruger, the bakshish-begging Raad, the
bribe-taking Ministry, the specious way in which promises were made,
and, when their trust was won, the heartless way in which these same
promises were broken. From these eloquent themes they proceeded to
detail their worries from taxation, high wages, extortionate freight
charges, the exactions levied upon every necessity of their industry,
the exorbitant price for coal, and imposts on food designed expressly to
pamper the burgher at the expense of the miner. Then in a more
melancholy tone they discussed the mistakes of their friends--Jameson's
tactless raid--the poverty of the country, the decline of business in
the city, the exodus of the Australians, and the prospects of a deficit
in the Treasury, etc., etc.
CONTACT BRINGS CONVICTION.
I wish that I could have taken down verbatim all that was said to me,
for the spokesmen were of undoubted ability, fluent in speech, and full
of facts, not a tithe of which I can remember. As I fear I cannot do
justice to what was urged with such vehemence and detail, you must be
content with the broad sense of their remarks only. These men have
stories to say which should be said to shorthand writers. I have read
many books and articles on South African politics, but I was never so
interested or convinced as when these men told their stories straight
from the heart.
JOHANNESBURG EARLY LAST MONTH.
I then turned an inquiring attention to the Johannesburg newspapers, and
from a heap of them obtained their opinions on the gloom prevailing in
the "Golden City." There were columns of allusions to the general
distress, of the unemployed becoming numerous, of tradespeople unable to
find custom. Clergymen had been interviewed, who said that "poverty was
rampant," that shopkeepers were almost distracted through fear of
insolvency, that the country's credit was going and almost gone, that
Australians were leaving in such numbers that sufficient berths on
steamers could not be found, and that the inaction of the Government was
driving skilled and willing workmen away.
EFFECTS OF BAD TIMES.
My hotel-keeper, a bright sociable man, was induced to give me his own
opinions on the depression. He acknowledged that his own hotel was
doing fairly well, but the other hotels were mostly empty. Tradesmen he
knew were bitterly lamenting the want of custom, buildings in course of
erection were stopped because the owners did not think themselves
justified in proceeding with the structures, rents were hard to collect
from tenants, the upper storeys were already empty, reductions had been
made on the lower floors, and still there were no permanent tenants;
goods stored in bonded warehouses had to be auctioned, as the
proprietors had not the means to take them away, etc., etc.
One Man's View--
Encountering a gentleman whom I knew in Sydney, Australia, and who is
now on the Stock Exchange here, I inquired of him what he thought of the
condition of things. He said: "Mostly everything is at a standstill, I
think. To-day stocks and real estate are a trifle firmer, but I cannot
conceive any reason for it. There is nothing within my knowledge to
justify confidence. Old Kruger is relentless and implacable. He will
never yield, whatever people may say. And unless the reforms are
granted, so that the mines can be worked at a profit, Johannesburg must
decline, and things will become as bad for the State as for ourselves.
The old man positively hates us, and would be glad to see the town
abandoned. On the strength of the Industrial Commission report, many of
us bought largely, but when we found that there was a majority against
us, we sold out in such a haste that for a while it looked like a panic.
The majority in the Raad had been bought out by the Dynamite Company,
and, of course, we were helpless. You people at home have no idea of
the corruption of our Government. Kruger appears not to know that when
he calls the Dynamite Company a corner-stone of the State, he is giving
himself away. We know that the Company and its twin brother, the
Netherlands Railway Company, support the twenty-four members of the
Raad, and as they, with Kruger, are the State, those companies may well
be called corner-stones."
AND ANOTHER'S.
At the club I met a gentleman whose moderate way of expressing himself
made me regard him as being inclined to be impartial, and when urged to
give his views, he said that "undoubtedly there were great grievances
which every well-wisher of the State would desire to see removed. The
administration was so corrupt that it was difficult to get a Boer
official to attend to any business, unless his palm was oiled
beforehand. The officials had got into the habit of excusing themselves
from doing their duties because they were overwhelmed with work, or that
they had no time. It is a way they have of hinting that unless it is
made worth their while, they will not put themselves out to do what they
are paid to do by Government. Many companies understand this so well
that they set apart a fund from the profits to meet this necessity. You
know, perhaps, that the Dynamite Concession is one of the most corrupt
things in the State. One member of the Raad gets five shillings a case,
and the Government pocket ten shillings for every case of dynamite sold
in the Republic. When we know that forty-seven shillings would be a
sufficient price for a case of dynamite, to invoice a case at forty
shillings higher shows that some people must have grand pickings. Were
the mines in full operation they would consume about 250,000 cases, and
this extortion of 2 pounds a case means 500,000 blackmail on the mining
industry. Then the railway administration is just as bad. The tariff
is abnormally heavy. The first-class fares are greatly in excess, and
as for freight charges, you can imagine how high they were when it was
proved during the drift closure that ox-wagons could make the transport
as cheaply as the railway."
"Then you appear to justify Rhodes in his attempt to rectify this?" I
said.
"No, I do not; but all that he stated before the Parliamentary Committee
about the abuses is perfectly true. I cannot, however, absolve him for
attempting to promote a revolution to effect a change. But about this
corruption at Pretoria. I do not blame the Boers so much as I blame the
Hollanders and our Jews here. They are the real causes of the disorders
in the State. The corruption was started by the Hollanders, and the
Jews have been only too willing to resort to bribery, until the share
market has become demoralised. These fellows unite together to
discredit a mine, until there is no option but to close it. Many of the
mines have been closed through their intrigues. Mine is one of them,
for instance."
PASSING CUSTOMS AT VEREENIGING.
This was my first day's introduction to the moral condition of
Johannesburg. But to begin at the beginning. On arriving at midnight
at the frontier of the Transvaal, near the Vaal River, the train was
stopped in the open veld until daylight, for Boer officials require
daylight to make their conscientious examination of passengers and their
luggage. Half-an-hour after dawn the train moved over the Vaal Bridge,
and we were soon within the grip of the Boer Custom House. I was told
later that the officials were insolent; but I saw nothing uncommon,
except a methodical procedure such as might belong to a people resolved
to make a more than usually thorough search. The officials came in at
the rear end of the carriage, locked the door behind them, and informed
us we were to go out before them. The male passengers were ushered into
one corrugated-iron house, the females with their respective searchers
behind them into another. One burly passenger had diamonds concealed on
his person, but his clothes were only slightly felt. A small pale
clergyman just behind him, however, received marked attention, and was
obliged to take off his boots, and every article of his baggage was
minutely scrutinised. Probably some of the women searchers performed
their duties just as thoroughly. My servant was asked to pay duty on
some of my shirts, but he refused to pay anything, on the ground that
the shirts had been repeatedly worn and washed.
GETTING NEWS FROM THE RAND.
The distance to Johannesburg from the frontier was but an hour and a
half of ordinary running, but from the time we neared the Vaal River it
occupied us eleven hours. A reporter from the _Star_ had come aboard at
the frontier station, and from him we learned a few facts regarding
Johannesburg, such as that the uitlander miners intended to starve the
burghers out by closing the mines, that the Australians were leaving in
crowds, and though there were three Presidential candidates in the
field, Kruger was sure to be returned for a fourth term, as General
Joubert was known to be weak, and Schalk Burger almost unknown.
A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE MINES.
The Transvaal veld was much greener, and more rolling, than that of the
Orange Free State. Johannesburg came into view about 9 a.m.; but
instead of making direct for it, the train sheered off and came to a
halt at Elandsfontein, six miles east. It was then we first obtained an
intelligent comprehension of the term "Main Reef," to whose production
of gold the existence of Johannesburg is due. Its total length, I am
told, is 38.5 miles, to be accurate, and along this a chain of mines,
well equipped and developed, exists, out of which, however, only ten
miles of the reef can be profitably worked under the present economic
circumstances. The working of the remaining twenty-eight miles depends
mainly upon the removal of the burdens, upon low wages, abundant labour,
cheap transport, etc. The richer and dividend-paying section of the
Reef contains such mines as the Langlaagte, Paarl Central, Crown Reef,
Pioneer, Bonanza, Robinson, Worcester, Ferreira, Wemmer, Jubilee, City
and Suburban, Meyer and Charlton, Wolhuter, George Goch, Henry Nourse,
New Heriot, Jumpers, Geldenhuis, Stanhope, and Simmer and Jack. To
either side of Elandsfontein runs a lengthy line of chimney stacks,
engine houses, tall wooden frames, supporting the headgear, stamp mills,
with clusters of sheds, huts and offices, hills of white tailings, and
ore. To the westward these become more numerous, and as the train moved
from Elandsfontein towards Johannesburg, it clung to the side of a
commanding ridge by which we obtained a panoramic view of mine after
mine, each surrounded by its reservoirs, hills of tailings, lofty stores
of ore, iron sheds, mills, offices, and headgear structures, until
finally they occupied an entire valley. Presently, while we still clung
to the ridge, we saw that the scattered cottages, with their respective
groves, were becoming more massed, and looking ahead of them we saw the
city of Johannesburg, filling the breadth of a valley, girdled by a thin
line of tall smoke-stacks, and dominated by two parallel lines of hills,
the crests of which rose perhaps 300 feet or so above the city. The
scent of eucalyptus groves filled the air, for now the ridge on our
right was given up to cottages, villas, mansions, each separated by
firs, eucalyptus, flower gardens, and varied shrubberies, the whole
making a charming sight, and a worthy approach to the capital of the
mining industry.
POPULATION AND AREA OF JOHANNESBURG.
Reduced to matter-of-fact figures, Johannesburg proper covers four
square miles; its roads and streets are 126 miles in length, twenty-one
miles of which are macadamised, and ten miles have tram lines. The
city's parks and open spaces occupy eighty-four acres. There have been
twenty miles of gas-piping laid, while the electric light is supplied by
forty-two miles of wire. The waterworks supply 600,000 gallons of water
daily for domestic use, exclusive of what is required for the mines and
street watering. The population of the town at the census of July,
1896, consisted of 79,315 males and 22,763 females, of whom 32,357 males
and 18,520 females were European, making a total European population of
50,877. It is believed that during the seventeen months which have
elapsed this population has been augmented to about 55,000.
THE STREETS OF JOHANNESBURG.
The streets of the city generally are about 50 feet wide, while the
principal business streets average 90 feet in width. Several of these
are flanked by buildings which would be no discredit to any provincial
city in England, while the array of shops have their windows as
artistically dressed with wares as those of Regent Street in London,
which gave me some idea of the character and good taste of the people.
JOHANNESBURG AS IT WAS AND IS.
A photograph of Johannesburg taken in 1888 revealed a thin collection of
galvanised iron structures, widely scattered over a roadless veld, while
that of 1897 shows a mature city, compact, with an aspect of age, well
furnished with churches, massive buildings, parks with trees over a
hundred feet in height, rich villas and artistic mansions, etc. It was
scarcely credible that in such a short period such a marvellous change
had been wrought. The wonder was increased when I was driven along the
length of Hospital Hill, and noted the streets of this suburb, bordered
by artistic and costly houses, luxuriant shrubberies, flower gardens,
and stately lines of shade trees. The marvel was greater still when my
conductor told me that as late as 1892--five years ago--this suburb, now
so flourishing, was a mere virgin grassy veld. "What, all these miles
of groves and gardens and villas sprung up since 1892?"
"Yes, so prodigiously rapid is the growth of vegetation, trees, climbing
plants and shrubs, when daily watered, that these shade trees which give
the suburb such an appearance of age have only been planted during the
last five years!"
KRUPP GUNS IN EDEN.
Now these picturesque and comfortable residences of such varying
architecture, whose furniture I could just see through open windows and
doors, and bespoke great wealth and taste, you must bear in mind would
adorn Birmingham or Manchester. Imagine miles of such houses crowded
with fair occupants and troops of daintily-clad children, their long
hair floating in the wind as they sported in snowy garments on the lawns
and amid the flowers, and then my surprise and something more as I
suddenly came in view of a fort, which the rude Boers have built to
terrorise this community. The superb ridge, which seemed to me with its
beautiful houses and gardens a veritable Paradise after four thousand
miles of travel over treeless plains, and which would certainly be an
ornament to any city on the globe, had in its centre a large and ugly
earthwork, behind which were monstrous Krupp guns to lay waste this
Eden, should the humanity of Johannesburg ever be driven by despair to
strive physically for the rights of freemen. The mere suggestion of it
is brutish, and a Government which can coolly contemplate such a
possibility and frighten timid women and young children with such horrid
prospects, are only fit to be classed with the Herods of the Dark Ages.
THEN AND NOW.
A short drive northward of the suburb placed me in a position to view
the far-reaching desolate wastes of the primitive veld, and to realise
more fully what human intellect, skill, energy, and capital have done on
Hospital Hill and in Johannesburg itself. Twelve years ago there was
not a vestige of life--human or vegetable, except the grass--to be seen
within the entire range of vision from the Hill, and yet the creators of
the remarkable transformation we had just seen were to be threatened
with slaughter and devastation if once they plucked up courage to exact
the rights which every civilised Government would long ago have granted
to them!
JOHANNESBURG AND ITS GREAT INDUSTRY "SUBJECT TO SENILE MADNESS AND
BOORISH INSENSIBILITY."
It were well now, after briefly showing what Johannesburg and its
population is, that the chief of the State and his rustic burghers, in
whose hands lie the future of this remarkable city and its industry,
should be presented to your readers, in order that they might realise
the striking incongruity of first-class mechanical ingenuity, spirited
enterprise, business sagacity, and tireless industry being subject to
senile madness and boorish insensibility. That such a thing should be
is most preposterous and contrary to all human precedent. For
elsewhere, and since the dawn of civilisation, Intellect has always
become Master, Captain and King over Ignorance, but at Johannesburg it
is Asinine Ignorance which rules Intellect. Another reversal of human
custom is seen in the submissiveness of Intellect to Ignorance, and
though, being naturally sensitive under the whip and restless under the
goad, it remonstrates sometimes, its remonstrance is in such a sweet
mild way that the spectator can only smile and wonder.
"OVERMASTERING SURPRISE" AT THE STATE OF THINGS ON THE RAND.
Fitting words are wanting to describe my overmastering surprise at the
state of things in the Transvaal; I am limited by space and time, so
that I must let my pen race over three pages and trust largely to the
intelligence of those who read the lines. I have a printed cutting
before me of a discussion in the First Raad of the Boer Republic, during
which the President, in the support of his views, stands up and says
that Isaiah had been told by the Lord that Israel had been punished
because the rulers of that people had not hearkened unto the voice of
the poor. Another speaker of similar intelligence rose up to contend
that the Lord had enjoined that the rich, not the rulers, should help
the poor, and Isaiah had not been told that the poor were to be helped
with other people's money. This construction of Scripture raised the
President of the State to his feet again, and he reiterated the fact
that the Lord had meant the rulers, whereupon another Senator
interpolated the remark that some people were in the habit of shielding
themselves behind the Bible with a view to saving their own pockets.
NAILING IT WITH SCRIPTURE.
Fancy a discussion of that kind taking place in the Legislative of a
British Colony! What vexation and shame we should feel that a Colonial
Government should be based on what Isaiah had conceived had been told to
him respecting Jewish elders and rulers! We should undoubtedly feel
that such a discussion was an outrage on common sense and good taste,
and that the Colony had mistaken a parliamentary hall for a synagogue.
But at Pretoria such discussions appear to be everyday incidents--the
most commonplace arguments are supported by quotations from Isaiah or
some other prophet.
KRUGER'S CANT.
At Standerton, the other day, the President was questioned as to the
prospects of assistance being given to poor burghers. His entire reply
is worth quoting, but I have only room for a small portion of it. Said
he: "The burghers' distress has been caused by the war (Jameson's raid),
and the subsequent unrest has not tended to improve matters. The
burghers have suffered from these circumstances. The country has been
compelled to spend a lot of money on the building of forts, nearly
2,000,000 pounds, by which our means have been exhausted. In the
Zoutpansberg district especially, the condition of things I know to be
most distressing. White families as well as black are dying rapidly.
Still I expect you to turn to the Bible in a time of adversity like
this. Follow the prophet Isaiah's advice, and look to the Lord God who
has so far befriended you. Why will men not follow in the path of the
Lord instead of losing money at races and by gambling?" etc., etc.
TWO MILLIONS ON FORTS WHILE PEOPLE STARVE.
One knows not which most to pity, the blundering muddle-headed
President, or the wretched feeble-minded people who listen to him. Even
little English school-boys would have had the courage and sense to tell
the President how unfit to govern anything but a small pastorate on the
veld he had proved himself after such a speech, and have pointed out to
him that the two million pounds spent on unnecessary forts, had been the
means of starving the Zoutpansberg frontier, and that it was blasphemy
to make the Lord responsible for his own foolish and stupid
extravagance, besides adding insult to injury to accuse people with love
of horse-racing and gambling when they were starving through his
criminal folly.
The burghers, however, lacking the intelligence of English school-boys,
adjourn after the speech to banquet their venerable chief and to glorify
him.
At Heidelberg the President was asked if the Secret Service Fund was
divided into two sections. "Yes," he replied, "for I have to keep my
eyes wide open, and I have private detectives all over the country to
prevent any surprise like that of the Jameson raid occurring again."
What an extraordinary man, to devote 80,000 pounds a year fighting an
enemy that does not exist, when, according to his own words, his
burghers are dying of starvation at Zoutpansberg!
THAT CORNER-STONE.
When questioned as to his objections to the Industrial Report, the
President said that "if it had been accepted the independence of the
Republic would have been lost." Provided certain obstacles were
removed, he was in favour of taking over the railway. The profits of
the railway were divided at the rate of five per cent, to the Company,
ten per cent, to the shareholders, and eighty-five per cent, to the
State. The shareholders, according to him, were not the Netherlands
Company. As regards dynamite, it was the corner-stone of the State's
independence.
WOLF!
Whenever President Kruger can get an opportunity to utter a word which
will reach the public ear, he harps upon the independence of the country
being in danger, and the dynamite concession being the corner-stone of
that independence. The cry of the wolf being at the door has enabled
him to enjoy fifteen years of office, with its princely emoluments, and
to the ossified brains of his burghers the same old story may be related
with endless repetitions.
THE DYNAMITE DISGRACE.
At one electioneering meeting the President said that he refused to have
electric trams at Johannesburg because he could not see his burghers
deprived of the means of selling their forage. He also assured his
audience that the Dynamite Company should be compelled to manufacture
dynamite from the products of the country--although it is well known
that almost every constituent of it must be imported from Europe. He
also stated that the Dynamite Company was essential to the independence
of the State since it made the manufacture of gunpowder possible,
whereas he knows well that the ingredients of the composition must be
purchased abroad.
At another place the President said: "I get so much money from the mines
that in a short time I shall be able to pay for the dynamite factory. I
will not break the factory. I will not allow any importation of the
ingredients to take place, but at the same time I will not throw up the
factory." The people were unable to perceive any nonsense in his words.
As the factory can only manufacture 80,000 cases a year, and as 250,000
cases are needed, it never struck them that 170,000 cases would have to
be bought elsewhere, nor that as dynamite cannot be made in the
Transvaal without obtaining its constituents elsewhere did it seem
necessary to ask how the President could keep his promise.
THE PRESIDENTIAL DOTARD WILL BE ELECTED A FOURTH TIME.
If one will read the above carefully over, he will be able to gauge the
intellect of this wonderful statesman fairly well, and measure the sense
of the people who gape at these absurdities. What with political
economy drawn from Isaiah and practical life being ordered by what the
prophet Isaiah said, with a future policy based upon the manufacture of
dynamite in the Transvaal, and the support of the tariffs of the
Netherlands Railway, and the ensuring of a produce market at
Johannesburg by not allowing the people of that city to have electric
trams, the payment of 225,000 pounds a year to keep the forts in order,
and 200,000 pounds interest on the capital expended on the wholly
useless structures, the constant denunciation of the murderer Rhodes,
the squandering of 80,000 pounds a year to spare the Transvaal from
another surprise like the Jameson raid, It appears to the simple
burghers that their President is the only fit man for the office he
holds, and that Kruger is only second to Washington.
And yet both President and people are within reach and close connection
with every possible civilised influence; but the truth is that their
dull, dense, and dark minds are impenetrable to good sense, impervious
to reason, and insensitive to the noble examples we see at Johannesburg.
Though there may be neither rhyme nor reason in anything the
Presidential dotard may say or do, the burgher farmer will cling to him
and make him victor over all rivals for a fourth time.
MY ADVICE TO "THE BRIGHT, CLEVER MEN AT JOHANNESBURG."
This is the wonderful incongruity I spoke of that such a President and
people as above described should be rulers over the enlightened
progressive community of Johannesburg. At a dinner at the Club I
quietly suggested a corrective of this incongruous and unprecedented
condition of things, and said that it lay in the saying: "It was
expedient that one man should die for many." I was conscious of being
stared at, and, indeed, if with all their intellectual capacity the idea
never entered their minds before, I can quite understand their surprise.
But it appears to me that if, according to their own admission, they
have tried everything--pleading, arguments, petitions, resolutions,
menaces, bribery--and all have failed, relief can only come through one
of two things, viz.: Active interference of England, or a determination
on their own part to endure no more. As to the first, every public man
in England knows that the active interference of England in a matter of
this kind is impossible. It may be her moral duty to interfere, but
those bright, clever men at Johannesburg should know as well as we do
that the present age and times will not admit of national action on
grounds purely moral. The story of their wrongs will always receive
sympathy, but to move a nation to action something more than sympathy is
required. We delivered the Transvaal territory over to the charge of
its own citizens, and they only are responsible for what happens in
their territory. If their laws are oppressive or unjust to the
strangers residing amongst them, the strangers may withdraw, or endure
the evils of which they complain as well as they can. It is not for us
to advise them what they should do; the choice must lie with themselves.
They may fly the country or leave their properties in the charge of
trustworthy Boer agents, if any such can be found, or they may continue
to suffer all that the Boers may choose to inflict, or they may all
unite in ceasing work and pay neither dues, taxes or bribes until
justice be done to them, but we cannot interfere until we know what
Johannesburg has resolved upon doing. What we may do in any event is
not worth discussing--no, not until the Johannesburg people act like
Englishmen.
CHAPTER FIVE.
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. NOVEMBER 23, 1897.
PAUL AND HIS OIL PAINTING.
I was fortunate enough to have an early morning (5:30 a.m.) interview
with President Kruger before he departed on what may probably be his
last electioneering tour. As he was fully dressed in the usual black
suit and little old-fashioned top hat, and smoking on the verandah of
his house, the old President must have risen from bed an hour earlier at
least, and though all the clocks in this region are fully thirty minutes
behind time, 5 a.m. is a remarkably early hour to begin business. Two
armed guards in the uniform of London police inspectors stood in the
street barring the way to the house; but a mere look from the President
sufficed to give us admission. His "Good-morning" in English slipped
from him unconsciously, and after a shake hands he led the way to a
spacious saloon, wherein the first thing that attracted my attention was
a large and coarse oil painting of him. It happened that the seat shown
to me placed Mr Kruger and his picture directly in a line, in front of
me, and I was thus forced to compare the original with the copy. The
history of the painting I do not know, but as it is permitted to be hung
so prominently in the reception room, it is to be presumed that the
President and his friends regard it as a faithful likeness, and are
consequently proud of it. This small fact proved to be the A B C of my
study of the man of destiny of South Africa. It was clear that neither
Kruger nor his friends knew anything of art, for the picture was an
exaggerated reproduction of every defect in the President's homely
features, the low, narrow, unintellectual brow, over-small eyes, and
heavy, massive expanse of face beneath. The man himself was almost
beautiful in comparison with the monster on the canvas, and I really
could not help pitying him for his innocent admiration of a thing that
ought to be cast into the fire. But presently the President spoke--a
mouthful of strange guttural words--in a voice that was like a loud
gurgle, and as the great jaws and checks and mouth heaved and opened, I
stole a glance at the picture, and it did not seem to me then as if the
painter had libelled the man. At any rate, the explosive dialect so
expanded the cheeks and widened the mouth that I perceived some
resemblance to the brutal picture.
THE TRANSVAAL "SIR ORACLE."
I was told by my introducer, after the interview was over, that the
President had already read a chapter in the Bible, and that it is his
custom to do so every morning before appearing in public. I then
understood the meaning and tone of his last words to me. Said he: "What
I have said, shall be done." He was alluding to the fact that the
Dynamite Monopoly and Railway Rates were the children of the State, but
they should be put into the hands of the Attorney-General, and if it
were discovered that the terms of the concessions were in any way
contravened, reparation should be made. The manner of his last words
reminded me of the Jovic way--"and what I will, is fate"--but when I
learned how he had been engaged, I knew he had been infected with the
style of the Pentateuch.
THE "HUMBUG POSE."
This humour of Mr Kruger's is becoming more pronounced as he ages. He
has fully arrived at that stage of life which made Mr Gladstone so
impossible in the Cabinet. There is abundance of life and vitality in
the President, but he is so choleric that he is unable to brook any
opposition. Any expression suggesting him to be mistaken in his views
or policy rouses his temper, the thunderous gurgle is emitted, and the
right arm swings powerfully about, while the eyes become considerably
buried under the upper eyelids. I suppose, from the photograph of him
now on sale at Pretoria, which represents his eyes looking upward, he
fancies this to be the impressive gaze. He receives a stranger with the
air of a pedagogue about to impress his new pupil, and methodically
starts to inculcate the principles of true statesmanship; but he soon
heats himself with the dissertation, and breaks out into the strong
masterful style which his friends say is such a picturesque feature in
his character, and which his critics call the "humbug pose." If by the
latter is meant the repetition of stale platitudes, and the reiteration
of promises which will never be carried out, I fear I must agree with
the critics.
LOOK ON THIS PICTURE AND--
Had I been asked to describe Mr Kruger's character as conceived by me
from what I had read of him, I should have summed him up after the style
of an old author, thus: "What can be more extraordinary than that a man
of no education, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, should have
had the courage to attempt, and the happiness to succeed, in wresting
back this splendid country from the tenacious grasp of one of the
greatest powers of the earth? That he should have the pluck and skill
to defeat a British general in the field, even while that general was
flattering himself for his successful manoeuvre, compel the British
Government to relinquish what it had gained, and to reinstate the
independence of his country by a Convention; and then upon second
thoughts to cancel that Convention and substitute another which almost
made his country a sovereign State; then, in flat opposition to the
terms of that Convention, dare to disclose his vindictive hatred of the
British race, among whom he was born and whom he often served, oppress
so many thousands of his former fellow-subjects, curtail their
guaranteed rights, trample upon them as he pleased, and spurn those who
did not please his tastes, make every diplomatist who ventured to plead
for them ridiculous for his failures; and while he dealt so hardly with
those whom he characterised as his enemies, could make his friends
understand that he was master, his burghers awe-stricken by his
successes, at the same time make both friends and enemies give ready
credence to his professions of justice and benevolence, to mock three of
the most powerful nations of Europe by turns, and compel each with equal
facility to maintain its distance; to make his illiterate and rude
burghers feared and courted by the Governors of the several Colonies
around him, to make their Governors and Legislatures humbly thank and
congratulate him, to make one sovereign State solicit a nearer
connection with his own, to be the dictator of the colony wherein he was
born, and its Government obsequious to his slightest wish, and lastly
(for there is no end to all the particulars of his glory), have talented
and educated men of the world visit him, and depart for home enchanted
with his condescension, enraptured with his humour and piety, and
overflowing with admiration for his greatness and many excellences of
character; to be able to have himself elected President for a fourth
time, compel his ministers, generals, and rivals to sing his praises in
their election addresses, and keep his burghers firm in the belief that
he alone is the saviour of his country, and the only true patriot whom
they can trust--to do all this is, at any rate, to be extraordinary."
ON THIS.
That was my ideal picture of Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger before the
interview; but since I have been permitted to see him face to face, I am
lost in amazement at the ridiculous picture my fancy, fed by cowardly
and designing men, had conjured up. That so many people should have
united in singing this man's praises can only be accounted for by the
fact that they must have had some interest, political or pecuniary, to
serve, otherwise how is it that his "greatness" solely consists in my
mind of what he has derived from the cowardice and weaknesses of others?
"Many a mickle makes a muckle," and hundreds of little advantages
obtained over petitioners of all kinds, and by the follies and mistakes
of others, constitute in the mind of the curious multitude what they
have been pleased to term "greatness." In appearance he is only a
sullen, brutal-looking concierge, dressed in old-fashioned, ill-made
black clothes. He appears to know absolutely nothing outside of
burgherdom; he has neither manners nor taste; his only literature seems
to be limited to the Bible, and a few treaties and documents about the
Republic; he has no intrinsic excellence of character that should appeal
to the admiration of the public; but what he does know, he knows well.
He knows the simplicity of his rude and bearded brethren of the veld; he
can play upon their fears, and their creed, with perfect effect, and it
is in the nature of his ill-conditioned personality to say "no." All
the rest has fallen to him because he is so stubborn, so unyielding, and
others so vacillating and so pitifully weak.
KRUGER'S "STRENGTH."
I do not suppose there are any people in the world so well represented
by a single prominent man as the Boers of South Africa are represented
by Mr Kruger. He is pre-eminently the Boer of Boers in character, in
intellect, and in disposition, and that is one reason why he has such
absolute control over his people. His obstinacy--and no man with a face
like his could be otherwise than obstinate--his people call strength.
Age and its infirmities have intensified it. His reserve--born of
self-pride, consciousness of force--limited ambitions, and
self-reliance, they call a diplomatic gift. His disposition, morose
from birth, breeding, isolation fostered by contact with his kind, is
unyielding and selfish, and has been hardened by contempt of the verbose
weaklings who have measured themselves against him.
"Dense, Ignorant, and Impenetrable."
This is the man whom the Johannesburgers hope to weary with their
prayers and petitions; but they never will do it. Nor will they
convince him by their arguments, for he is too dense, ignorant and
impenetrable. This is the man our new High Commissioner hopes to soften
with his cultured letters and amiable allusions to the possibilities of
restoring concord in South Africa. I feel a reluctance to say it, but
his labour will be in vain. This is the man to whom the accomplished
and lovable British Agent at Pretoria has been sent with a view to
obliterate the memory of Jameson's raid, and smooth the way to a kindly
and humane consideration of his countrymen's grievances; but he cannot
make any impression on an unimpressible nature like Kruger's.
THE EFFORTS TO EDUCATE KRUGER.
But the singular thing is that despite repeated, nay constant, rebuffs,
all who have any dealings with Mr Kruger persist in hoping that he will
relent in the end, and may genially try to exercise his authority for
the termination of the existing unpleasantness. I spoke with all sorts
and conditions of men at Johannesburg, and I only met one man who
expressed his convictions that it was utterly impossible to induce the
President to alter, or modify, his views. The rest, so often defeated
and humbled, still continue to entertain a lively hope that things will
improve. They are mostly clever and highly educated men, but whether it
is that they have no time to study the disposition of the man, in whose
hand lie their destinies, or their faith in themselves is so great, I
know not, but it is certain that no sooner are they baffled in one
attempt, than a new project has captivated their fancy, and enlisted
their enthusiasm. They have tried to shame Kruger by their
ill-considered demonstration in favour of Sir Henry Loch. The National
Union has published its solemn declarations of uitlander claims and
rights, they have had a Jameson raid, they have had the benefit of Lord
Rosmead's diplomacy, they have resorted to giving indiscriminate
backsheesh, they have made much of the Progressive party, they have had
an Industrial Commission, Chamber of Mines gatherings and speeches, but
they are not a whit further advanced, and if to-morrow it is suggested
that the mines should be closed, I suppose they would adopt that course
or any other with equal belief in its efficacy.
MR CHAMBERLAIN AND THE PRESIDENT.
Mr Chamberlain again, despite his better sense, and possibly his
inclinations to try different methods, has--judging from the blue books
which contain his letters--come round to the belief that the old methods
of diplomacy are best, and now conscientiously exchanges courtesies in
the blandest and most amiable fashion, as though there were no burning
questions unsettled. He professes to cherish a profound belief in the
integrity of Mr Kruger, and assumes an assurance that everything will
be done by him according to the spirit of the London Convention. Sir
Alfred Milner has been also heard to say that it is all "humbug and
nonsense" to express a doubt of good relations being restored, and
probably Mr Greene in the first flush of his coming has written in
equally strong terms of the approaching pacification of South Africa. I
wish I could share in this buoyant feeling, but the spirit of the Boer,
as it has impressed itself on my mind, since I crossed the Vaal, forbids
me to believe that while Kruger lives there can be any amelioration in
the condition of the Johannesburger. The Boers have endowed Kruger with
almost absolute power, and if up to seventy-two years of age Kruger has
been the incarnation of hostility to England, it would be a miracle
indeed if in his extreme old age he should be converted.
PAUL'S SPOOF.
It strikes me with wonder also that with all our astuteness, our
experience, and our knowledge of human nature, we should be so credulous
of these many professions of amity from the Transvaal. I am fresh from
my visit to Mr Kruger. It was but yesterday I heard the many dismal
complaints of Johannesburg; I have but now come in from a look at the
fortified heights of Pretoria. I open the last blue book and extract
the following from the Boer despatches:--
1. "No unfriendliness is intended by Volksraad. It would be unfair to
interpret it as such."
2. "This Government also can give the assurances that it has no other
than peaceable intentions."
3. "This Government again expresses its opinion that through friendly
co-operation, the confidence so rudely shaken, as well as peace and
prosperity, will be restored."
9. "The Government readily gives the assurances that there is no
intention on its part of infringing its obligations."
5. "This Government need hardly assure Her Majesty's Government that it
will comply with its obligations as soon as It is in a position to do
so."
6. "His Honour the President requests me to assure you that there is no
intention on his part to depart from the terms of the London Convention,
and that he is anxious to act throughout in conformity with those
assurances, etc."
"A BOER MACHIAVELLI."
One who knows anything of the conditions under which the Johannesburgers
live need not come to Pretoria to know how hollow and insincere these
and countless other professions are; but when read at Pretoria with
those four forts constructed at lavish expense commanding the approaches
to the capital from the Johannesburg direction, the mendacity of the
writer seems appalling. Take these in conjunction with the many
promises President Kruger has uttered to interviewers, to casual English
visitors, to deputations or in public speeches, in relation to his
intentions to adhere strictly to the terms of the Convention of 1884,
and one cannot but conclude that, though the President reads the Bible
daily, he must have overlooked the sentences that apply to liars. If,
despite the cordiality, conciliatoriness, and numerous expressions of
goodwill, that are visible in Mr Chamberlain's despatches, and the
entreaties, remonstrances, and the continual patient efforts of the
uitlanders to soften the asperities of Boer rule, President Kruger and
his burghers, while writing in the style of the above quotations, build
these great forts at Pretoria and Johannesburg, it is evident that
English people have wholly failed to understand this man, and that their
ideal of a "goodish sort of man, kindly and a little old-fashioned, a
little slow perhaps, and stubborn after the Dutch type," never existed
since Pretoria was founded. On the contrary, the real Kruger is a Boer
Machiavelli, astute and bigoted, obstinate as a mule, and remarkably
opinionated, vain and puffed up with the power conferred on him,
vindictive, covetous and always a Boer, which means a narrow-minded and
obtuse provincial of the illiterate type.
HOW THE CONVENTION WAS CONTRAVENED.
"Go and tell your people," said he once to a deputation from the
uitlanders, "that I will never change my policy."
For once he spoke the truth, and having seen him I feel convinced he
never will, but he has persuaded so well and spoken so fairly, that I
doubt if a Colonial Office official will abandon hope of him.
I recall to mind the last portion of Article 14 of the London
Convention, which refers to those persons other than natives who may
enter the South African Republic. "They shall not be subject, in their
persons or property, commerce or industry, to any taxes, local or
general, other than those which are or may be imposed on citizens of the
South African Republic."
How does that agree with a fourpenny tax on a four-pound loaf of bread?
Or a shilling tax for every four pounds of meat, or a shilling tax on
every four pounds of potatoes, or a sixpence for every half-pound of
butter eaten at breakfast by a miner and his family?
THE RACIAL WAR BOGEY.
People at home do not stoop to consider what such details mean. They
have probably more in their minds the general effect of a racial war in
South Africa, and see red ruin in place of the peace and content that
ought to prevail here. But what have we to do with racial war and its
horrors? Our business is to look at the immediate present, and not
anticipate events which need not take place. We have to abide by the
Convention; why should not the other party also abide by it? It was a
fair understanding. Kruger himself drew up the terms, and they were
mutually agreed to, and it is scarcely common sense to suggest that the
party which seeks to maintain the Convention instigates a racial war,
while the party that has broken the Convention repeatedly should be held
innocent and blameless.
THE LAWS OF "A CHOLERIC, OBSTINATE OLD MAN."
There is another point in this article which has attracted my attention
here. The first part of Article 14 says, "All persons other than
natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the South African
Republic, will have full liberty to enter, travel, or reside in any part
of the South African Republic." I am curious to know what laws were
meant here. Were they any laws which the sacred twenty-four members of
the First Raad might choose to impose, or were they such laws as might
be made conformable to civilised countries? If the laws were made by
the people of the Transvaal, we, of course, should not hear so much of
grievances, but the existing laws of the South African Republic have
mostly been proposed by President Kruger, and obsequiously enacted by
the twenty-four members of the First Raad without reference to the
people, and consequently they could not fail to be intolerable to the
larger number. The Grondwet throws a light upon the character of the
laws that were meant when the fourteenth Article of the Convention was
framed. Its first chapter declares that the Government shall be
Republican, that the territory of the Transvaal shall be free to all
foreigners, and that there shall be liberty of the Press. Then I think
that, as Her Majesty's Ministers admitted and sanctioned the terms of
the fourteenth Article, they understood the "Laws of the South African
Republic" to mean the Constitution, and such other laws as obtain in
civilised countries, for it is scarcely credible that they would have
signed the Convention had they understood that Englishmen could not be
admitted into the rights of burghership until after fifteen years'
residence, or if poverty was to be a barrier to that "full liberty"
sanctioned by the Grondwet and the fourteenth Article. We may also rest
assured that the British Commissioners would not have signed the
Convention if that "full liberty" did not include free speech and a free
Press, the full use of one's native language, the full exercise of every
faculty according to custom prevailing in all civilised countries, or if
certain British individuals who happened to misconduct themselves were
liable to receive excessive punishments, or if for writing a market note
in English a 5 pound fine was to be imposed, or if for grumbling an
Englishman was to be expelled from the country, or if for considering
himself as being a little better than a Kaffir he should be compelled to
wear a badge that marked him as inferior to a Boer. I think it may be
taken for granted also that no British Commissioner would have attached
his name to a Convention had he guessed that the Laws of the Republic
might mean any odd or fantastic whim that might enter into the head of a
choleric, obstinate old man like the present President for instance.
UITLANDERS' RIGHTS SECURED BY A SOLEMN CONVENTION.
Far from deserving the title of great which some English visitors have
bestowed upon Mr Kruger, it seems to be that the most fitting title
would be "little." The gifts the gods have given his State he
resolutely refuses. His sole purpose and object seems to be to make the
South African Republic the China of South Africa. He declines to admit
men who are in every way qualified to the burghership, though every
other new country is competing for such men. The Americans welcomed
every able-bodied incomer as a fresh ally, and valued each workman as
being worth 200 pounds to the State. Thirty years ago citizenship
depended upon nativity, and could never be abandoned. The idea was a
relic of the Middle Ages, and was traceable to tribal superstition of
prehistoric times, but as nearly every country in the civilised world
has consented to admit people of all races to citizenship after a
probationary period of from three to five years, the South African
Republic only marks its own retrogression to barbarism by extending the
term to fifteen years. Mr Kruger, instead of granting to foreigners
common rights which were sealed to them by a Solemn Convention, for
which let it be always remembered the independence of the State was
assured, prefers to keep 80,000 uitlanders outside the pale of
citizenship, to irritate them by onerous laws passed by an oligarchy of
twenty-four men, and to grind them with taxes. If he made them burghers
his country would be the premier State in South Africa, and he might
then do almost what he liked, except invade his neighbours' territories.
The worst that could befall a Boer is that some candidate might be
thwarted in his hopes of the Presidency, but the inviolability of the
Republic and its Independence would be placed beyond danger.
WHAT KRUGER'S POLICY WILL LEAD TO.
Mr Kruger professes to seek the prosperity and progress of the State,
but I will simply mention the dynamite and other monopolies, of which we
have heard so much lately, and point out that it is only a Boer audience
that could be persuaded to believe in him. The resources of the State
are forbidden to be exploited, the Minister of Mines refuses to proclaim
new gold fields; the taxation on those in operation is so heavy that
only a few of the richest mines on the main reef can be profitably
worked. The expenditure of the State is extravagant--quite 40 per cent,
could be saved, I am told. The reforms lately mentioned by the
Industrial Commission, if granted, would reduce the cost of working
expenses by 4 shillings per ton, and be the means of re-opening mines
which were closed as being unprofitable, as well as bringing several
miles of the reef into the payable degree. But Mr Kruger's idea of
increasing the prosperity of the State is by raising the taxes on the
mines that continue to pay dividends, in order to compensate the
Treasury for the loss of revenue incurred from the collapse of the
poorer mines. If, as one mine after another succumbs to the burden of
taxation, he increases the taxes on the richer mines, every mine must
become closed, because no gold mine was ever discovered that did not
cost much money and high-priced labour to extract the gold from it.
THOSE WHO PAY THE PIPER.
Mr Kruger's ideas of government are to divide the people into two
classes--those who get their living from the surface soil and those who
get it underground. He himself favours the former. According to him
they only are entitled to have any voice in the Government, and to be
considered as citizens of the Republic. As for the other class, they
have no rights, and the country would be relieved if they departed.
Yet, according to the last Budget, I find 3,799,913 pounds of the
State's revenue were derived from the class who labour underground,
while only 1,086,586 pounds were obtained from the other class.
KRUGER'S CANT.
But if we wish to know and realise Mr Kruger thoroughly, we should pay
attention to his last election address, issued about a week ago. He
says: "As I have before told you, I aim, as instructed by the
Scriptures, at justice and righteousness to all men--to by down on our
political territory the eternal principles of God as the foundation of
our State. The taking to heart of the lessons of that Word enables us
to be certain under all our difficulties. These lead us to a
recognition of our absolute dependence, not on the great ones and power
holders of the world, but upon Him who sent that Word to us."
"Burghers and fellow-countrymen, the times are such that a wise and
judicious development of our sources of aid requires the most earnest
consideration. Therefore these must be protected and advanced, and
while we lend a helping hand to the mining industry we must not lose
sight of the agriculture and cattle farming, so that prosperity and
progress may be brought to the doors, not of some only, but of all.
That will be my earnest endeavour. Many of you have sustained almost
irreparable losses through rinderpest, and you know what has been done
in order to help you to tide over these hard times. I desire to proceed
in this direction everywhere that such assistance may be required, to
the end that many of the very pith of the people, at present bowed under
the yoke of adversity and misery, may be helped and heartened by the
strengthening of the feeble knees."
I do not think I need quote any more. As will be seen by the first
paragraph, Mr Kruger takes the Scriptures as his guide in matters of
policy, and, as he considers the Boers to be the chosen people, we may
infer what the miserable Canaanites who dwell along the Raad may expect
from the course adopted by Joshua towards their ancient prototypes. The
second paragraph is more secular, but the policy of Mr Kruger is just
as distinctly indicated. The "very pith of the people," the Boers, must
be helped and heartened by the strengthening of the feeble knees, which
means money must be taken from those who did not suffer in their flocks
and herds, viz., the miners, and distributed amongst those that
sustained almost "irreparable loss through rinderpest."
MR CHAMBERLAIN'S LOST OPPORTUNITY.
Mr Chamberlain has led us to believe that he has a policy which will
set these matters right. He has great faith in Sir Alfred Milner and
Mr Greene; he has also faith in himself. In brief, his policy consists
of conciliatoriness and firmness combined. If I have succeeded in this
letter to properly express my convictions and the grounds for them, it
will not surprise anyone if, with all my belief in Mr Chamberlain's
genius, I utterly decline to share this faith. Time was, and that not
many months back, when he might by other methods, not war, nor
necessarily leading to war, have broken down Kruger's obduracy, and made
him more sensible; but that time has passed. It is now too late. Time
was, and that not long ago, when the Johannesburgers might have imposed
terms on Kruger and, unassisted by outsiders, have rectified matters
themselves; but the opportunity was lost through Jameson's interference.
FORCE NO REMEDY.
The Press has frequently suggested other means of bringing Mr Kruger to
reason, the author of "Boers and Little Englanders" has stated what he
thinks ought to be done, the Johannesburgers themselves are brimful of
suggestions, but I think that, though some are partially right, I have
not come across any which seems to meet the complex case entirely. We
have the sentiments of the Colonies to consider as well as the
sentiments of the people of Great Britain, and the whole of Europe in
fact. Therefore forcible measures in cold blood are out of the
question, because from what I heard I doubt that the people of
Johannesburg themselves would be grateful if we resorted to them.
SALVATION LIES IN A UNITED JOHANNESBURG, PASSIVELY RESISTING TYRANNY.
I quite agree that it is the duty of Her Majesty's Government to
strengthen our forces in South Africa to show the Boers that we are
serious, and that power is at hand in case of necessity, but as long as
our forces remain inactive their effect will wear away, and the Boers
will soon fall back again to their sullen and vindictive attitude.
What, then, is to be done? Nothing, absolutely nothing, until the
Johannesburgers themselves prove to us that they are serious, united,
and firm, and make the first move. It will be said, however, that they
have no arms. No arms are needed of any kind, but the will to suffer
and the courage to endure. Their lives will be safe in any case, for
even Boers do not shoot unarmed and unresisting men, but if they all say
that the taxes are ruinous, that their property is confiscated by these
legal exactions--why pay the taxes, why continue to pay bribes to those
in authority for trifling relaxations, why assist in any way to
perpetuate the "corrupt and rotten" Government of which they complain so
bitterly? It amounts to this. The Boers have a right to administer
their country as they think best, but if their administration is unjust
and oppressive, surely the oppressed have the right of passive
resistance, for it is in human nature to resist injustice. The
consequence of passive resistance will be imprisonment. But when a
sparsely populated State is obliged to imprison some score of thousands
of non-taxpayers, and to feed them, bankruptcy is not far off. If any
die in prison from starvation, or blood is shed, or general confiscation
of property takes place, we then shall have a legitimate cause for
action. I do not say that this policy of waiting upon Johannesburg is a
noble one, but as we have been so indifferent to the obligations of the
Convention, as we have closed every sense to our countrymen's
complaints, as we have been the slaves of every petty circumstance, as
South Africa is so contentious and fault-finding, as the English
uitlanders themselves have threatened to lift their rifles against us if
we move to exert pressure on the Boers, it seems to me that we must wait
upon Johannesburg and let the people of that city point the way. Every
civilised people in Europe can furnish instances of how to resent
injustice and defeat oppression. England, Ireland, Wales, France,
Spain, Italy, Germany, etc., all have their examples of what courage can
do when nerved by despair, and I think, if it is really serious, it is
the turn of Johannesburg to show what it can do; otherwise we must wait
until Mr Kruger's nature changes, which will be "Never, no, never."
CHAPTER SIX.
SUMMARY OF A FEW IMPRESSIONS.
On my return from South Africa I was interviewed by a representative of
_South Africa_. I had proposed to write on my voyage to England a
closing communication describing my visit to Natal and summarising my
views on the South African outlook generally. Unfortunately, I was
attacked with severe rheumatic pains shortly after the steamer left Cape
Town, and was not able to put pen to paper. I, however, gave the
representative of _South Africa_ the impressions I should have written
on the voyage, had circumstances permitted me to do so.
THE LABOUR QUESTION IN NATAL.
"How were you impressed with Natal?"
"I was very much struck by its beauty and its fitness for a white
population. There was one curious anomaly, however, in the fact that
the natives in Natal are very numerous, and yet the Colonists suffer
from a deficiency of labour. Ships often lie at the wharves for days,
waiting for coal, because labourers cannot be got to put it on board.
At the same time the labour party, or the white man's party, at Durban
are complaining that the coolies are being brought to Natal in too great
numbers."
"Those are points in economic development that want immediate tackling?"
"Something should be done to start the enlistment of Zulus of Natal in
its labour forces for the development of the State. It is a most
interesting little State, very quietly governed, and the people are an
exceptional class of Colonists, but they seem to have some problems
before them which will tax the ability of future Ministries."
"The coolie immigration question, I take it, is not one of the least of
these?"
"That is so. There are masses of white men in England and on the
Continent, it seems to me, who would jump at the opportunity of getting
allotments of land in Natal. The Government might do worse than afford
some greater facilities for the importation of white labour. In Natal
there are 45,000 white men against 400,000 Zulus. In addition to that
they have taken Zululand with about half a million of Zulus, so that
there are now 45,000 whites against 900,000 blacks."
"Then, in your opinion, that mass of blacks wants leavening by the
introduction of white men. The immigration would have to be worked from
this end, would it not?"
"Yes, they would have to be liberally treated for the first few years to
induce them to go. Natal, as I have said, is a very lovely country.
There are enormous estates railed off for sheep and cattle raising, and
it seemed to me that I saw more places there fit for small estates of
white men than in any other part of the country, excepting Rhodesia."
Mr Stanley was careful to further emphasise the exception to his rule
furnished by Rhodesia.
"That opens up a very interesting question," remarked the interviewer,
"for emigration from this country has been allowed to take its own
course without much assistance, save from the emigration agencies, who,
of course, have to be approached by intending emigrants instead of
approaching them."
NATAL SHOULD BE BETTER ADVERTISED.
"Yes," rejoined Mr Stanley; "the wants of a Colony like Natal must be
advertised, and its claims to the consideration of those desiring new
homes should be pressed upon the people of England."
"How do you think the white men in Natal now would regard the influx?"
"Well, they must be considered, but it is as much for their interests as
for those of anyone else. If they are as narrow-minded as the labour
party at Durban, there may probably be a serious calamity some day."
"Had you an opportunity of discussing such problems with Mr Escombe or
any of the leading politicians of the Colony?"
"I saw perhaps twenty, but I fancy they are rather afraid of saying what
is in their minds, because the ultimate solution depends upon the
democracy of Natal, and Ministers hesitate to be leaders in any such
agitation."
Although he has already treated the subject of Rhodesia and its future
prospects so exhaustively, Mr Stanley had nevertheless still many
points of importance to touch upon. He insisted very strongly upon the
necessity for offering inducements to other settlers besides those
engaged in mining.
MORE SETTLERS WANTED IN SOUTH AFRICA.
"I think," said he, "every Colony in South Africa has been very remiss
in the matter of attracting immigrants. You have only to look at the
statistics of population--black and white--to see how disproportionate
are the two races. The Cape of Good Hope, with 221,000 square miles,
has nearly a million and a quarter of coloured people to 377,000 whites,
and the former are multiplying with extraordinary rapidity. Natal,
again, as I have said, has 45,000 whites and nearly a million coloured
people. British Bechuanaland, with only a little over 5000 whites, has
65,000 coloured people. Matabeleland, or rather what is now Rhodesia,
had some years ago only 2500 whites and 250,000 natives. Of course, the
whites are more numerous now, but still the disparity is sufficiently
striking."
"It has been asserted very freely that until the production of gold
assumes large proportions the white population cannot increase, because
they have nothing to subsist upon."
"There is always a place for intending farmers. If the land is to be
parcelled out among such, the present is as good a time for them as it
is for the miners."
"Men, of course, can support themselves on farms, even although there is
no town in the vicinity to furnish a market for their surplus produce?"
"Exactly so. It is necessary in the end to have markets, of course; but
the first necessary thing is to make a home. Considering the conditions
of this country and the rapid growth of population, with the closure of
the United States, with only Canada and Australia open to the surplus
population, where is there a better country for Englishmen than
Rhodesia?"
IMMIGRATION WANTED TO COUNTERBALANCE BOER INFLUENCE.
"You think Mr Rhodes has perhaps overlooked the advantage of putting
forward these considerations?"
"Not only Mr Rhodes, but all the politicians of the Cape Colony and
Natal. The best work the British Government ever did was in sending
those five thousand English people to South-East Africa in the early
part of this century. The experiment unfortunately has never been
repeated. There is a different kind of population going out now. When
they go to the Cape, they begin to spread themselves over every part of
South Africa as far as Salisbury. It seems to me that there ought to be
three or four hundred families going out every week to settle in new
homes. There is a great political question in the background, and if
Englishmen are not awake to it they must be instructed. The Boers, not
alluding to any political party such as the Afrikander Bond, or the
Krugerites, or the Republicans of the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal, but judging by their general conduct and the tone of their
public utterances, seem to have determined to keep Englishmen out of
South Africa in order to maintain the balance of power in their own
favour. Their whole action tends to that. Supposing the Cape Colony
had a grievance against the British Empire, and chose to form a Republic
of its own, it would be a Boer Republic, because the Boers are more
numerous than the English. It would be an addition to the Orange Free
State and the Transvaal. Some great absorbing question might arise at
any time; yet no one seems to have done anything to prepare for such a
contingency, or to maintain the balance of power in favour of the
English. The Dutch would naturally take sides with one another, as they
did in the Jameson raid affair. Then all the Dutch population veered
round in favour of the Transvaal, whereas before that, as in the Drifts
question, the Cape Dutch rather thought that the Transvaal was wrong.
The unjustifiable attack upon the Transvaal, so unexpected, like a bolt
from the blue, gave the Dutch an impression that the British Government
were at the back of the raiders, or if not the British Government, at
least the British nation. They said to themselves, `the British people
are ever hostile to us, and are determined to have this country English,
and under the thumb of the British Government. We refuse to have the
British Government vex us now as it has done in the past. They drove
the Transvaal Dutch from the Cape Colony; and they may drive us away if
we are not united in opposing this constant British hostility or
meddlesomeness with our peculiar habits, principles, and ideas.'"
"It is perhaps more correct to say that the Dutch retired before the
advance of the English rather than that the English drove them away by
persecution."
A HINT TO DOWNING STREET.
"An over-sensitive English sentiment is at the root of many of the past
disturbances. When I was going to South Africa on the _Norman_ the
great question of the hour was the indenturing of the Bechuanaland
rebels. I talked a good deal with Colonial people on board, and they
were not disposed to be reticent about their feelings. They frankly
said the British people were just beginning the same old game of
meddlesomeness. `Here,' they said, `are rebels whom we have caught in
the act of fighting against us, raiding and murdering our
fellow-colonists. We pay for the forces to suppress that rebellion; we
have taken hold of the prisoners who have surrendered. We do not know
what to do with them better than to distribute them, with their own
consent, among the farmers for a term of five years, instead of
imprisoning them, and thereby making them non-productive and a burden to
the State. If we had sent them back to their own country, they would
simply have died, or made it very dangerous for anyone with property to
go near their country, and we should have had to begin again. You
English say it is a form of slavery. We deny it. It is no more than
Sir Charles Warren did in 1878. What the British Government did in 1878
we are doing now. Don't you suppose that, having given us an almost
independent Government, we have got plenty of pious, well-educated,
intelligent men as capable of looking after our morals as the civilised
people of England? Why do you all the time place English sentiment in
opposition to us, with a view of tyrannising over us? We make our laws,
and can correct them if they are wrong. We do not want you to interfere
all the time. Our lives and our property, the welfare of our wives and
children, depend upon good government. But immediately we do anything
you raise the cry that we are barbarous and wicked, and are reducing
rebels to the state of slaves, and thus you excite and disturb the
people.' `Supposing,' said one of the speakers, `that the majority of
the British nation were inclined to that opinion, and believed that we
were so wickedly disposed as to subject our coloured people to a
condition of slavery, Parliament would raise the question, and very
possibly, if the sentiment has taken deep hold of your people, would
pass a law to prevent it. Then a collision of interests would take
place--Boers against English. The English would probably follow the
British Government, except a few who have been resident in South Africa
and understand those questions as well as the born Colonists. Thus the
Colonists would become divided. The Boers and Afrikanders could not
trek again, as Bechuanaland and Rhodesia shut them off from the north.
They therefore would demand a republic, to cut themselves adrift from
the Imperial Government. The same question would be raised as was
raised in the United States when they separated from Great Britain.
Danger only can arise from the English habit of interfering in Colonial
matters which they do not understand, and from not giving the Colonists
credit for being able to manage their own affairs.'"
"Then, in your opinion, the remedy for that is to reinforce the English
population in South Africa, and for Exeter Hall here to exercise more
reserve?"
"Precisely," replied Mr Stanley. "If you have a manager of an estate
and you suppose he is a man of ability and you entrust him with the
management of your estate, and then cavil at everything he does, he will
resign. That is just the sort of feeling that is so apt to be raised in
South Africa--the incompatibility of temper between the people of South
Africa and the too sentimental people of Great Britain. There are two
parties in South Africa, Boer and British, and if the former are
inclined to be tyrannical to the natives and subject them to slavery,
you have the English party, which is as clever and intelligent as people
here, ready to preach to and convert the oppressors and to act in
opposition to them. Therefore, the English criticism at home is not
needed, and it should not interfere with the Colonists' domestic
concerns. England must give the Colonists credit for their
intelligence, and for a desire to act like civilised people. There
would be no need then for a Republican, or a Separatist party at the
Cape."
A Great Emigration Company Wanted.
"What do you propose as a means towards the end you speak of?"
"It is natural," replied Mr Stanley, "that the English of Cape Colony
should be anxious for the future of the country in case of a separation
from Great Britain, and that they should fear the establishment of a
Boer Republic. I see in this a very strong reason why someone with
power, wealth and influence should step forward and try to lead them to
do something to prepare for maintaining the balance of power. Rhodesia,
the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Natal draw away from the Cape
Colony a large number of enterprising Englishmen, and consequently the
Boers, not being so enterprising, nor so very fond of running from one
home to another unless a great political principal is at stake, prefer
to stay on their farms and multiply there, whereas the English are all
the time thinned down by those everlasting discoveries and developments
in the north and north-east, so that they remain numerically inferior to
the Dutch. If there was a Company with a man like Mr Rhodes at the
head of it, which would buy land and settle on it new colonists of
English birth, they would be all the time keeping up the equality that
is necessary to prevent the English from being Boer-ridden."
"Do you think Rhodesia would adapt itself to such a policy as well as
the Cape Colony."
"Quite as well. With the opening of all those mines reported to be so
promising, and with the vast advertisement of the opening of the
railway, Mr Rhodes ought to see that more miners have been coming into
the country than agriculturalists, and something ought to be done to
provide for the provisioning of so many people and keeping the prices of
food down by multiplying the producers of food. The country is just as
well adapted for them as any other in South Africa. If the Government
of Rhodesia neglect this, the Boers will go on filtering through the
Transvaal to Rhodesia, and the same mistakes will recur that have been
made in the Cape Colony and the Transvaal, where the settled population
is Dutch and the moving English."
AUSTRALIANS AVAILABLE.
"What are the principal countries outside South Africa from which such
settlers could be drawn?"
"There are plenty of people in Australia, for instance, who would be
very glad of the opportunity to settle in nice places in Rhodesia if
they were tempted to do so. You must show that Rhodesia is better than
Australia, where you have the fringes of the coast and the best parts of
the interior already taken up. You have only to go to Melbourne,
Sydney, and other large Australian towns, to find that they have a very
large population who do not know what to do with themselves or where to
go, who would be valuable to a new country like Rhodesia. Take, for
example, the people who went from Australia to Paraguay. These would be
far better in Rhodesia amongst Englishmen than in Paraguay surrounded by
Spanish Americans, whose ideas and modes of life are so entirely
different. When I was in Melbourne I had an offer from fifteen hundred
Australians to settle in East Africa. I advised them not to do so until
the railway was built. They wanted to start ranches and raise cattle
there, but I said their stock would die before they could reach the
pastures. In Rhodesia to-day, however, you have a country, to which
such people would be very advantageous. Cape Colony has an enormous
area that requires to be populated, and so has Natal. How are you to
reach the class of people required for this? What are you to offer
them? It must be something better than where they are now."
"In your opinion Rhodesia is well adapted for cattle raising?"
"Yes; the Matabele found it so, and there are still many cattle there
despite the rinderpest. New cattle will do well enough, I think, if you
take them rapidly by railway across the malarial belt."
"And seeing that the Cape is so much nearer to England than Australia,
there is no reason why an export trade should not be developed in time?"
CHARMING EAST LONDON.
"Certainly not," was Mr Stanley's emphatic rejoinder. Proceeding to
deal more particularly with the future possibilities of various parts of
the Cape Colony, he alluded to his visit to East London, which he
thought one of the healthiest places he had ever seen, characterising
the country around as a most charming one. "I was more taken with the
south-east coast," said he, "than with any other part of South Africa.
Probably it was due to the season, but everything was as green as in
England. People looked healthy, and little children as rosy as they
could be. I admired the magnificent groves of trees planted by
colonists and the flourishing estates that were visible all the way
until we got into the Karroo. The best part of the eastern province is
perhaps as large as Scotland. I should say it was just as well adapted
for white people as any part of England, and yet the population is so
scant as compared with the vast acreage. It was in that part that the
English families were settled, and made beautiful towns like Grahamstown
and King Williamstown."
"And at that time," interpolated the interviewer, "they had to contend
with natives, who are now subdued?"
"Yes," said Mr Stanley, "that is a disadvantage that settlers nowadays
would be exempted from."
"Is there not an obstacle to your scheme, in the circumstance that
people nowadays are not content to go abroad for a mere living? They
demand something more than they can get at home--not perhaps a fortune,
but at least the chances of amassing sufficient money to raise them to a
position of comparative independence?"
HOW FARMERS MAKE PROFITS.
"But there are different ways of making a fortune or of saving money,"
replied Mr Stanley. "It can be done by agriculture as well as by
mining. The farmer, however, must be content to look upon the farm as
his home, and the capital and labour devoted to it as constantly
increasing in value. The farm which he buys at 10 shillings an acre may
become worth in a few years from 5 to 10 pounds an acre. There is his
profit. He buys an estate say of 200 acres for 100 pounds, and in five
or ten years' time it may be worth 500 or 1,000 pounds. It depends upon
the progress made in the general development of a country by the working
of its mineral resources and by its commerce and trade. The greater the
development of the country the greater will be the value of the farmer's
land, because more people are constantly coming who don't care to be
pioneers, but will buy a farm already developed. The pioneer then goes
from farm to farm, and in this he makes his profit. People who went
from New England to Ohio or Kentucky, for instance, developed farms
which they sold at an enhanced price, afterwards removing to Kansas;
after getting, perhaps, twenty-five times as much for their farms in
Kansas as they had paid for them, they went next to Colorado, where
their farms ultimately fetched twenty-five or fifty times as much as
their original cost. Then they went on to Salt Lake, Mexico, Arizona,
or other parts of America, and repeated the same process. That is the
way a farmer makes his money in such countries."
Mr Stanley has already dealt at great length with the question of
irrigation, which is so important in countries where the water supply is
inconstant. In the course of his remarks with our representative he
further elaborated this point, showing how the backwardness of
agriculture in certain parts of South Africa, as well as in other
comparatively new countries, is the fault of the people rather than of
the countries.
"The other week," said he, "I suggested the formation of a united South
African waterworks company. There are hundreds of streams in Rhodesia
and other parts of South Africa, and yet every casual tourist says the
land is worth nothing for agriculture. That is what was said about
Mildura, in Australia, until irrigation was started. The same system is
necessary in South Africa, and a powerful irrigation company could
distribute the water when available, and also conserve it for the dry
seasons."
"I daresay it is your opinion that little can be done in this direction
by the isolated efforts of individuals?"
"Practically nothing," replied Mr Stanley. "If new settlers see land
near water they will buy it; but they come to the country with slender
capital, perhaps two or three hundred pounds, and cannot afford to sink
wells in the desert; but if someone will raise that water for them, and
sell the land, it will be taken at once. The people who settle,
supposing they are English, will constantly keep English influence equal
to the Boer."
RHODESIA IN THE HANDS OF LAND GRABBERS.
"Some existing African Companies hold farm lands," remarked the
interviewer. "Ought they turn their attention promptly to the
agricultural development of those lands, instead of confining their
attention so exclusively to mineral wealth?"
"Certainly," said Mr Stanley. "Take, for instance, the Willoughby
Consolidated. They have an enormous acreage of land. The people of
Bulawayo wanted water, so a certain number formed a company to make the
waterworks. They had to buy about 6000 acres from the Willoughby
Consolidated to protect their watershed. Supposing these people had not
bought the land for the sake of the waterworks, the Willoughby
Consolidated would have kept all this vast acreage to themselves, and
would have developed it only according to the necessities of the
neighbourhood, or sold it to some settlers who wanted to live there.
Most of Rhodesia has been divided in that way by the people who grabbed
at the territory, so that poor settlers, the bone, marrow, and sinew,
are frightened by the prices."
"Do you, then, think that the best farms are already allotted?"
"One who was only in the country such a short time as myself cannot go
into all these small details. He can only say that his impression is
that the people complained that most of the best lands had been taken up
by the great companies. Miners are disposed to hold very cheering ideas
in regard to the minerals, and more miners come in than agriculturists.
Therefore it strikes me, seeing those miners come in in such numbers,
that something has been left undone; the responsible authorities ought
to have seen that the proper settlers who could feed those people were
induced to come at the same time. Earl Grey or some other Director
should be asked if the Chartered Company had kept habitable land in
Rhodesia which might be sold for farms; if they had reserved sufficient
farming acreage for the wants of a farming population, or if they had
sold it all to the great companies. It would be people like Earl Grey
who could give you these details. We can only get impressions from the
mutterings of those in the country who say, `What is the use of coming
here? all the good land is gobbled up by the companies.' One would be
glad to have the matter explained. Farmers with 500 pounds capital, if
they could get land cheap in Rhodesia, might be tempted to settle there,
but if the land is in the hands of companies, those companies will want
to make big profits. The Chartered Company are under the necessity of
selling land to get money. The greater the run of farmers to Rhodesia
the higher would be the prices of land. The Chartered Company, we can
see, have been liberal enough to miners, but I doubt whether they have
been so liberal to the farmer class."
"From your experience of the conditions in England, do you think people
at home would respond readily to an effort by Mr Rhodes and the
Rhodesian Government to attract them to Rhodesia?"
"Yes, I do, because South Africa is as pleasant a place to live in as
any part of the world that I have visited. It is certainly more
pleasant than the cold north of Canada. America was very good, but it
is not superior to South Africa. The United States Government, however,
had a very large reserve of land which they could afford to give at 2.5
dollars an acre, and they gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would
promise to settle there for five years and build houses and improve the
land. That is what the Chartered Company should do. If you have an
estate, you must invest a portion of your capital in seed and in
machines for cultivating the land; if you regard a State as a farm, the
best seed you can put into it is a farming population. Settlers who
develop the soil contribute as much wealth to the State as those who dig
for minerals. Perfected communication also adds value to every acre. I
had at one time to explain why I did not consider the land of the Congo
State worth a two-shilling piece, because it was impossible to reach it,
but, I said, if you make it accessible to me it is worth so much an
acre. If you leave me isolated in the heart of the Congo, I throw away
my life and the two-shilling piece."
"Is there in Rhodesia plenty of land beyond what is required for the
Matabele and the Mashonas?"
WHAT THE CHARTERED COMPANY SHOULD DO.
"Well," replied Mr Stanley, "the natives have always got the slopes of
the country. It is, of course, a white man's land, because the white
man has taken it. At the same time there are reserves, and the question
is, how much of the reserves for the whites has been put aside for
agriculturists. Ought the Company to be satisfied with having only
miners in Rhodesia who will employ the natives, and after all the gold
is got will retire and leave Rhodesia the black man's country that it
was, or do the authorities intend to plant an English race permanently
there? What are their offers? The Chartered Company ought to give 160
acres of land to any settlers who will undertake to develop it and
remain on it for five years, after which the land would be their own. A
somewhat similar system is adopted with regard to the mines. If you peg
out claims you must work them. So it ought to be with the agricultural
land. Having done this, it would remain for the Chartered Company to do
their utmost to increase facilities for communication. If they gave
reserves free to the natives whom they had conquered, they certainly
ought to give at least the same advantages to the white settlers who are
to make the country prosperous and to yield revenue by the payment of
taxes."
RHODESIAN RAILWAYS.
"Did you observe the criticisms of the _Financial News_ on your proposal
regarding the railway from Bulawayo to the sea?" asked the interviewer.
"Yes," said Mr Stanley. "The _Financial News_ does not see the object
of making two railways between Bulawayo and the coast, but I was writing
from the Bulawayo standpoint. If Bulawayo is to be the capital of
Matabeleland, it has as much right to branch out in all directions as
Salisbury has in Mashonaland. Naturally, if I were a Bulawayan, I
should not care to see Salisbury getting all the plums, especially as
Bulawayo is better situated than Salisbury. A railway from Bulawayo to
Victoria would bring out the merits of the latter place. There are
already over a thousand whites between Bulawayo and Victoria, and a
great many gold claims. Then, again, it is only twelve miles from
Victoria to Zimbabwe. A great many people want to see the ruins.
Tourists go to Victoria first, and thence drive in carriages to
Zimbabwe. Thus, from all these sources, mines, settlers, merchants, and
tourists, the railway would have a good revenue, while the company would
have other indirect gains. From Victoria to Umtali you could make a
junction with the existing line to Beira. Bulawayo should shoot out its
right arm towards the Indian Ocean, for another reason. Supposing, in
the event of an outbreak, a scheme were formed by the Boers to cross
over the border and occupy the Bechuanaland Railway, where would
Rhodesia be? Rhodesia would be cut off, unless it was abandoned, which
is improbable. You thus see the necessity of two entrances, one from
the east and one from the south. Supposing Bulawayo, on account of its
two exits, begins to thrive, and the development of the land is
increasing at a great pace, the next thing necessary is to extend its
tentacles in other directions, and get more trade. It will not omit the
Zambesi Coal Fields and the Victoria Falls. There is another object you
have, not only for the tourist to see the Falls, but also the coal
fields lying close to them. You reach the Victoria Falls and you have
Loanda and the Trans-African Railway, which already reaches 160 miles to
the interior; you can either join with that or you can construct a
separate line to Mossamedes. You thus draw another line of country to
increase the trade of Bulawayo. I am speaking now from the point of
view of Bulawayo as a centre of trade. The competition between it and
Salisbury might be compared to that which existed for a quarter of a
century between Saint Louis and Chicago. The former was a very
conservative city; it had its enormous fleet of steamers and the whole
Mississippi tributary to it, and when it had 250,000 of a population,
Chicago had only 50,000. The people of Chicago, however, were
determined to tap every field of trade within reach. They struck off to
California, Denver, Utah, Saint Louis, to the north-west, and down to
New Orleans, so that to-day Chicago has a population of one and a half
millions, and Saint Louis only 500,000. Bulawayo is more favourably
situated for railway expansion than Salisbury, which is inclined too far
to the north-east, whilst Bulawayo is almost as near to Beira as
Salisbury is. It is, moreover, as near to Mossamedes as to the Cape,
and it has the whole Congo State to the direct north of it.
Consequently it would, become a kind of Chicago, drawing the trade of
all those countries, so that as the new white men scattered, some to the
Zambesi, raising a town near the coal fields, and hotels near, the Falls
and Zimbabwe ruins, Bulawayo would feed them all. At the same time,
Cape Town would become the New York of South Africa. If this were
accomplished, then, in any eventuality, Bulawayo and Rhodesia would be
secure in their independence, for they would have their two exits to the
Indian Ocean and to the Atlantic, and could still remain British."
"Probably Cape Town would look askance at any proposal to establish a
port at Mossamedes?" said the interviewer.
"Yes," replied Mr Stanley, "but Rhodesia does not belong to the Cape,
and what is good for its prosperity must be considered apart from Cape
Town, and, as Rhodesia thrives so long as it is connected with the Cape,
the latter will always profit by it. Tourists will prefer to go to Cape
Town because there they will be among Englishmen instead of Portuguese,
but goods would go to Mossamedes and thus cut off five days in transit."
BLACK AND WHITE.
"Do you think the black men in South Africa are likely to disappear as
the whites increase?"
"No," replied Mr Stanley, "I do not think they will. There are now so
many wedges of white population between the native territories that any
native movement can at once be checked. I see abundance of hope in that
direction for the prevention of any federation of the natives such as
used to be tried in the early days of the American Colonies. There the
cause was want of communication, with an enormous area covered by
Indians and only a few scattered settlements of whites, but in South
Africa you have nothing of that kind. The natives will all be wanted.
There are certain things that they alone can do, such as working in the
open air in the summer. The white men are the makers of money, and the
natives must naturally be the hewers of wood and drawers of water."
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