Chapter XX: Part 20

The university of the Cape of Good Hope, modelled on that of London, stands at the head of the educational system of the colony. It arose out of and superseded the board of public examiners (which had been constituted in 1858), was established in 1874 and was granted a royal charter in 1877. It is governed by a chancellor, a vice-chancellor (who is chairman of the university council) and a council consisting (1909) of 38 members, including representatives of Natal. The university is empowered to grant degrees ranking equally with those of any university in Great Britain. Originally only B.A., M.A., LL.B., LL.D., M.B., and M.D. degrees were conferred, but degrees in literature, science and music and (in 1908) in divinity were added. The number of students who matriculated rose from 34 in 1875 to 118 in 1885, 242 in 1895 and 539 in 1905. The examinations are open to candidates irrespective of where they have studied, but under the Higher Education Act grants are paid to seven colleges that specially devote themselves to preparing students for the graduation courses. These are the South African College at Cape Town (founded in 1829), the Victoria College at Stellenbosch, the Diocesan College at Rondebosch, Rhodes University College, Graham's Town, Gill College at Somerset East, the School of Mines at Kimberley and the Huguenot Ladies' College at Wellington. Several denominational colleges, receiving no government aid, do the same work in a greater or less degree, the best known being St Aidan's (Roman Catholic) College and Kingswood (Wesleyan) College, both at Graham's Town. Graaff Reinet College, Dale College, King William's Town, and the Grey Institute, Port Elizabeth, occupy the place of high schools under the education department. The Theological Seminary at Stellenbosch prepares theological students for the ministry of the Dutch Church. At Cape Town is a Royal Observatory, founded in 1829, one of the most important institutions of its kind in the world. It is under the control of a royal astronomer and its expenses are defrayed by the British admiralty.

_Defence_.--The Cape peninsula is fortified with a view to repelling attacks from the sea. Simon's Town, which is on the east side of the peninsula, is the headquarters of the Cape and West Coast naval squadron. It is strongly fortified, as is also Table Bay. Port Elizabeth is likewise fortified against naval attack. A strong garrison of the British army is stationed in the colony, with headquarters at Cape Town. The cost of this garrison is borne by the imperial government. For purposes of local defence a force named the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police was organized in 1853, and a permanent colonial force has been maintained since that date. It is now known as the Cape Mounted Riflemen and is about 700 strong. Its ordinary duty is to preserve order in the Transkeian territories. The Cape Mounted Police, over 1600 strong, are also available for the defence of the colony and are fully armed. There are numerous volunteer corps, which receive a capitation grant from the government. By a law passed in 1878 every able-bodied man between eighteen and fifty is liable to military service without as well as within the limits of the state. There is also a volunteer naval force.

_Revenue, Debt, &c._--The following table shows the total receipts (including loans) and payments (including that under Loan Acts) of the colony in various financial years, from 1880 to 1905:--

+-------------+----------------+--------------------+------------+
| | Receipts. | |
| Year ending +----------------+--------------------+ Payments. |
| 30th June. | Total. | Loans | |
| | |(included in total).| |
+-------------+----------------+--------------------+------------+
| 1880 | L3,556,601 | L3,742,665 |
| 1885 | L3,814,947 | L496,795 | 4,211,832 |
| 1890 | 5,571,907 | 1,141,857 | 5,327,496 |
| 1895 | 5,416,611 | 26,441 | 5,388,157 |
| 1900 | 6,565,752 | 128,376 | 7,773,230 |
| 1905 | 13,856,247 | 5,214,290 | 10,914,784 |
+-------------+----------------+--------------------+------------+

The colony had a public debt of L42,109,561 on the 31st of December 1905, including sums raised for corporate bodies, harbour boards, &c., but guaranteed in the general revenue. The greater part of the loans were issued at 3-1/2 or 4% interest. Nearly the whole of the loans raised have been spent on railways, harbours, irrigation and other public works. The value of assessed property for divisional council purposes was returned in 1905 at L87,078,268. The total revenue of the divisional councils increased from L160,558 in 1901 to L273,543 in 1905, and the expenditure from L170,892 in 1901 to L243,241 in 1905. The receipts from municipal rates and taxes rose from L520,587 in 1901 to L700,103 in 1905; the total municipal receipts in the same period from L978,867 to L1,752,105. At the end of 1905 the total indebtedness of the municipalities was L5,775,420, and the value of assessed property within the municipal bounds L53,948,224.

_Banks._--The following table gives statistics of the banks under trust laws:--

+----------+------------------------------------+--------------+------------+
| | Including Head Offices. | | Assets and |
| 31st +------------+-----------+-----------+ Circulation, |Liabilities |
| December.| Capital | Capital | Reserve | Colony only. |Colony only.|
| | Subscribed.| Paid up. | | | |
+----------+------------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------------+
| 1890 | L5,780,610 |L1,558,612 | L850,489 | L740,210 | L9,221,661 |
| 1895 | 7,189,090 | 2,382,003 | 1,008,837 | 612,266 | 11,864,152 |
| 1900 | 12,166,800 | 6,508,308 | 1,810,621 | 1,361,637 | 20,537,343 |
| 1905 | 11,510,900 | 4,456,925 | 2,948,428 | 1,065,251 | 20,749,988 |
+----------+------------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------------+

_Standard Time, Money, Weights and Measures_.--Since 1903 a standard time has been adopted throughout South Africa, being that of 30 deg. or two hours east of Greenwich. In other words noon in South Africa corresponds to 10.0 A.M. in London. The actual difference between the meridians of Greenwich and Cape Town is one hour fourteen minutes. The monetary system is that of Great Britain and the coins in circulation are exclusively British. Though all the standard weights and measures are British, the following old Dutch measures are still used:--_Liquid Measure_: Leaguer = about 128 imperial gallons; half aum = 15-1/2 imperial gallons; anker = 7-1/2 imperial gallons. _Capacity_: Muid = 3 bushels. The general surface measure is the old Amsterdam _Morgen_, reckoned equal to 2.11654 acres; 1000 Cape lineal feet are equal to 1033 British imperial feet. The Cape ton is 2000 lb.

_The Press_.--The first newspaper of the colony, written in Dutch and English, was published in 1824, and its appearance marked an era not only in the literary but in the political history of the colony, since it drew to a crisis the disputes which had arisen between the colonists and the governor, Lord Charles Somerset, who had issued a decree prohibiting all persons from convening or attending public meetings. Its criticisms on public affairs soon led to its suppression by the governor, and a memorial from the colonists to the king petitioning for a free press was the result. This boon was secured to the colony in 1828, and the press soon became a powerful agent, characterized by public spirit and literary ability. In politics the newspapers are divided, principally on racial lines, appealing either to the British or the Dutch section of the community, rarely to both sides. There are about one hundred newspapers in English or Dutch published in the colony.

The chief papers are the _Cape Times, Cape Argus, South African News_ (Bond), both daily and weekly; the _Diamond Fields Advertiser_ (Kimberley) and the _Eastern Province Herald_ (Port Elizabeth). _Ons Land_ and _Het Dagblad_ are Dutch papers published at Cape Town. (F. R. C.)

HISTORY

_Discovery and Settlement_.--Bartholomew Diaz, the Portuguese navigator, discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, and Vasco da Gama in 1497 sailed along the whole coast of South Africa on his way to India. The Portuguese, attracted by the riches of the East, made no permanent settlement at the Cape. But the Dutch, who, on the decline of the Portuguese power, established themselves in the East, early saw the importance of the place as a station where their vessels might take in water and provisions. They did not, however, establish any post at the Cape until 1652, when a small garrison under Jan van Riebeek were sent there by the Dutch East India Company. Riebeek landed at Table Bay and founded Cape Town. In 1671 the first purchase of land from the Hottentots beyond the limits of the fort built by Riebeek marked the beginning of the Colony proper. The earliest colonists were for the most part people of low station or indifferent character, but as the result of the investigations of a commissioner sent out in 1685 a better class of immigrants was introduced. About 1686 the European population was increased by a number of the French refugees who left their country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The influence of this small body of immigrants on the character of the Dutch settlers was marked. The Huguenots, however, owing to the policy of the Company, which in 1701 directed that Dutch only should be taught in the schools, ceased by the middle of the 18th century to be a distinct body, and the knowledge of French disappeared. Advancing north and east from their base at Cape Town the colonists gradually acquired--partly by so-called contracts, partly by force--all the land of the Hottentots, large numbers of whom they slew. Besides those who died in warfare, whole tribes of Hottentots were destroyed by epidemics of smallpox in 1713 and in 1755. Straggling remnants still maintained their independence, but the mass of the Hottentots took service with the colonists as herdsmen, while others became hangers-on about the company's posts and grazing-farms or roamed about the country. In 1787 the Dutch government passed a law subjecting these wanderers to certain restrictions. The effect of this law was to place the Hottentots in more immediate dependence upon the farmers, or to compel them to migrate northward beyond the colonial border. Those who chose the latter alternative had to encounter the hostility of their old foes, the Bushmen, who were widely spread over the plains from the Nieuwveld and Sneeuwberg mountains to the Orange river. The colonists also, pressing forward to those territories, came in contact with these Ishmaelites--the farmers' cattle and sheep, guarded only by a Hottentot herdsman, offering the strongest temptation to the Bushman. Reprisals followed; and the position became so desperate that the extermination of the Bushmen appeared to the government the only safe alternative. "Commandoes" or war-bands were sent out against them, and they were hunted down like wild beasts. Within a period of six years, it is said, upwards of 3000 were either killed or captured. Out of the organization of these commandoes, with their field-commandants and field-cornets, has grown the common system of local government in the Dutch-settled districts of South Africa.

It was not to the hostility of the natives, nor to the hard struggle with nature necessary to make agriculture profitable on Karroo or veld, that the slow progress made by the colonists was due, so much as to the narrow and tyrannical policy adopted by the East India Company, which closed the colony against free immigration, kept the whole of the trade in its own hands, combined the administrative, legislative and judicial powers in one body, prescribed to the farmers the nature of the crops they were to grow, demanded from them a large part of their produce, and harassed them with other exactions tending to discourage industry and enterprise. (See further SOUTH AFRICA, where the methods and results of Dutch colonial government are considered in their broader aspects.) To this mischievous policy is ascribed that dislike to orderly government, and that desire to escape from its control, which characterized for many generations the "boer" or farmer class of Dutch settlers--qualities utterly at variance with the character of the Dutch in their native country. It was largely to escape oppression that the farmers trekked farther and farther from the seat of government. The company, to control the emigrants, established a magistracy at Swellendam in 1745 and another at Graaff Reinet in 1786. The Gamtoos river had been declared, c. 1740, the eastern frontier of the colony, but it was soon passed. In 1780, however, the Dutch, to avoid collision with the warlike Kaffir tribes advancing south and west from east central Africa, agreed with them to make the Great Fish river the common boundary. In 1795 the heavily taxed burghers of the frontier districts, who were afforded no protection against the Kaffirs, expelled the officials of the East India Company, and set up independent governments at Swellendam and Graaff Reinet. In the same year, Holland having fallen under the revolutionary government of France, a British force under General Sir James Craig was sent to Cape Town to secure the colony for the prince of Orange--a refugee in England--against the French. The governor of Cape Town at first refused to obey the instructions from the prince, but on the British proceeding to take forcible possession he capitulated.[3] His action was hastened by the fact that the Hottentots, deserting their former masters, flocked to the British standard. The burghers of Graaff Reinet did not surrender until a force had been sent against them, while in 1799 and again in 1801 they rose in revolt. In February 1803, as a result of the peace of Amiens, the colony was handed over to the Batavian Republic, which introduced many needful reforms, as had the British during their eight years' rule. (One of the first acts of General Craig had been to abolish torture in the administration of justice.) War having again broken out, a British force was once more sent to the Cape. After an engagement (Jan. 1806) on the shores of Table Bay the Dutch garrison of Cape Castle surrendered to the British under Sir David Baird, and in 1814 the colony was ceded outright by Holland to the British crown. At that time the colony extended to the line of mountains guarding the vast central plateau, then called Bushmansland, and had an area of about 120,000 sq. m. and a population of some 60,000, of whom 27,000 were whites, 17,000 free Hottentots and the rest slaves. These slaves were mostly imported negroes and Malays. Their introduction was the chief cause leading the white settlers to despise manual labour.

_The First and Second Kaffir Wars_.--At the time of the cession to Great Britain the first of several wars with the Kaffirs had been fought. (The numerous minor conflicts which since 1789 had taken place between the colonists and the Kaffirs--the latter sometimes aided by Hottentot allies--are not reckoned in the usual enumeration of the Kaffir wars.) The Kaffirs, who had crossed the colonial frontier, had been expelled from the district between the Sunday and Great Fish rivers known as the Zuurveld, which became a sort of neutral ground. For some time previous to 1811 the Kaffirs, however, had taken possession of the neutral ground and committed depredations on the colonists. In order to expel them from the Zuurveld, Colonel John Graham took the field with a mixed force in December 1811, and in the end the Kaffirs were driven beyond the Fish river. On the site of Colonel Graham's headquarters arose the town which bears his name. In 1817 further trouble arose with the Kaffirs, the immediate cause of quarrel being an attempt by the colonial authorities to enforce the restitution of some stolen cattle. Routed in 1818 the Kaffirs rallied, and in the early part of 1819 poured into the colony in vast hordes. Led by a prophet-chief named Makana, they attacked Graham's Town on the 22nd of April, then held by a handful of white troops. Help arrived in time and the enemy were beaten back. It was then arranged that the land between the Fish and Keiskamma rivers should be neutral territory.

_The British Settlers of 1820_.--The war of 1817-19 led to the first introduction of English settlers on a considerable scale, an event fraught with far-reaching consequences. The then governor, Lord Charles Somerset, whose treaty arrangements with the Kaffir chiefs had proved unfortunate, desired to erect a barrier against the Kaffirs by settling white colonists in the border district. In 1820, on the advice of Lord Charles, parliament voted L50,000 to promote emigration to the Cape, and 4000 British were sent out. These people formed what was known as the Albany settlement, founding Port Elizabeth and making Graham's Town their headquarters. Intended primarily as a measure to secure the safety of the frontier, and regarded by the British government chiefly as a better means of affording a livelihood to a few thousands of the surplus population, this emigration scheme accomplished a far greater work than its authors contemplated. The new settlers, drawn from every part of the British Isles and from almost every grade of society, retained, and their descendants retain, strong sympathy with their native land. In course of time they formed a valuable counterpoise to the Dutch colonists, and they now constitute the most progressive element in the colony. The advent of these immigrants was also the means of introducing the English language at the Cape. In 1825, for the first time, ordinances were issued in English, and in 1827 its use was extended to the conduct of judicial proceedings. Dutch was not, however, ousted, the colonists becoming to a large extent bilingual.

_Dislike of British Rule_.--Although the colony was fairly prosperous, many of the Dutch farmers were as dissatisfied with British rule as they had been with that of the Dutch East India Company, though their ground of complaint was not the same. In 1792 Moravian missions had been established for the benefit of the Hottentots,[4] and in 1799 the London Missionary Society began work among both Hottentots and Kaffirs. The championship of Hottentot grievances by the missionaries caused much dissatisfaction among the majority of the colonists, whose views, it may be noted, temporarily prevailed, for in 1812 an ordinance was issued which empowered magistrates to bind Hottentot children as apprentices under conditions differing little from that of slavery. Meantime, however, the movement for the abolition of slavery was gaining strength in England, and the missionaries at length appealed from the colonists to the mother country. An incident which occurred in 1815-1816 did much to make permanent the hostility of the frontiersmen to the British. A farmer named Bezuidenhout refused to obey a summons issued on the complaint of a Hottentot, and firing on the party sent to arrest him, was himself killed by the return fire. This caused a miniature rebellion, and on its suppression five ringleaders were publicly hanged at the spot--Slachters Nek--where they had sworn to expel "the English tyrants." The feeling caused by the hanging of these men was deepened by the circumstances of the execution--for the scaffold on which the rebels were simultaneously swung, broke down from their united weight and the men were afterwards hanged one by one. An ordinance passed in 1827, abolishing the old Dutch courts of _landroost_ and _heemraden_ (resident magistrates being substituted) and decreeing that henceforth all legal proceedings should be conducted in English; the granting in 1828, as a result of the representations of the missionaries, of equal rights with whites to the Hottentots and other free coloured people; the imposition (1830) of heavy penalties for harsh treatment of slaves, and finally the emancipation of the slaves in 1834,[5]--all these things increased the dislike of the farmers to the government. Moreover, the inadequate compensation awarded to slave-owners, and the suspicions engendered by the method of payment, caused much resentment, and in 1835 the trekking of farmers into unknown country in order to escape from an unloved government, which had characterized the 18th century, recommenced. Emigration beyond the colonial border had in fact been continuous for 150 years, but it now took on larger proportions.

_The Third Kaffir War_.--On the eastern border further trouble arose with the Kaffirs, towards whom the policy of the Cape government was marked by much vacillation. On the 11th of December 1834 a chief of high rank was killed while resisting a commando party. This set the whole of the Kaffir tribes in a blaze. A force of 10,000 fighting men, led by Macomo, a brother of the chief who was killed, swept across the frontier, pillaged and burned the homesteads and murdered all who dared to resist. Among the worst sufferers were a colony of freed Hottentots who, in 1829, had been settled in the Kat river valley by the British authorities. The fighting power of the colony was scanty, but the governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban (q.v.), acted with promptitude, and all available forces were mustered under Colonel (afterwards Sir Harry) Smith, who reached Graham's Town on the 6th of January 1835, six days after news of the rising reached Cape Town. The enemy's territory was invaded, and after nine months' fighting the Kaffirs were completely subdued, and a new treaty of peace concluded (on the 17th of September). By this treaty all the country as far as the river Kei was acknowledged to be British, and its inhabitants declared British subjects. A site for the seat of government was selected and named King Wiliam's Town.

_The Great Trek_.--The action of Sir Benjamin D'Urban was not approved by the home government, and on the instruction of Lord Glenelg, secretary for the colonies, who declared that "the great evil of the Cape Colony consists in its magnitude," the colonial boundary was moved back to the Great Fish river, and eventually (in 1837) Sir Benjamin was dismissed from office. "The Kaffirs," in the opinion of Lord Glenelg, "had an ample justification for war; they had to resent, and endeavoured justly, though impotently, to avenge a series of encroachments" (despatch of the 26th of December 1835). This attitude towards the Kaffirs was one of the many reasons given by the Trek Boers for leaving Cape Colony. The Great Trek, as it is called, lasted from 1836 to 1840, the trekkers, who numbered about 7000, founding communities with a republican form of government beyond the Orange and Vaal rivers, and in Natal, where they had been preceded, however, by British emigrants. From this time Cape Colony ceased to be the only civilized community in South Africa, though for long it maintained its predominance. Up to 1856 Natal was, in fact, a dependency of the Cape (see SOUTH AFRICA). Considerable trouble was caused by the emigrant Boers on either side of the Orange river, where the new comers, the Basutos and other Kaffir tribes, Bushmen and Griquas contended for mastery. The Cape government endeavoured to protect the rights of the natives. On the advice of the missionaries, who exercised great influence with all the non-Dutch races, a number of native states were recognized and subsidized by the Cape government, with the object--not realized--of obtaining peace on this northern frontier. The first of these "Treaty States" recognized was that of the Griquas of Griqualand West. Others were recognized in 1843 and 1844--in the last-named year a treaty was made with the Pondoes on the eastern border. During this period the condition of affairs on the eastern frontier was deplorable, the government being unable or unwilling to afford protection to the farmers from the depredations of the Kaffirs. Elsewhere, however, the colony was making progress. The change from slave to free labour proved to be advantageous to the farmers in the western provinces; an efficient educational system, which owed its initiation to Sir John Herschel, the astronomer (who lived in Cape Colony from 1834 to 1838), was adopted; Road Boards were established and did much good work; to the staple industries--the growing of wheat, the rearing of cattle and the making of wine--was added sheep-raising; and by 1846 wool became the most valuable export from the country. The creation, in 1835, of a legislative council, on which unofficial members had seats, was the first step in giving the colonists a share in the government.

_The War of the Axe_.--Another war with the Kaffirs broke out in 1846 and was known as the War of the Axe, from the murder of a Hottentot, to whom an old Kaffir thief was manacled, while being conveyed to Graham's Town for trial for stealing an axe. The escort was attacked by a party of Kaffirs and the Hottentot killed. The surrender of the murderer was refused, and war was declared in March 1846. The Gaikas were the chief tribe engaged in the war, assisted during the course of it by the Tambukies. After some reverses the Kaffirs were signally defeated on the 7th of June by General Somerset on the Gwangu, a few miles from Fort Peddie. Still the war went on, till at length Sandili, the chief of the Gaikas, surrendered, followed gradually by the other chiefs; and by the beginning of 1848 the Kaffirs were again subdued, after twenty-one months' fighting.

_Extension of British Sovereignty_.--In the last month of the war (December 1847) Sir Harry Smith reached Cape Town as governor of the colony, and with his arrival the Glenelg policy was reversed. By proclamation, on the 17th of December, he extended the frontier of the colony northward to the Orange river and eastward to the Keiskamma river, and on the 23rd, at a meeting of the Kaffir chiefs, announced the annexation of the country between the Keiskamma and the Kei rivers to the British crown, thus reabsorbing the territory abandoned by order of Lord Glenelg. It was not, however, incorporated with the Cape, but made a crown dependency under the name of British Kaffraria. For a time the Kaffirs accepted quietly the new order of things. The governor had other serious matters to contend with, including the assertion of British authority over the Boers beyond the Orange river, and the establishment of amicable relations with the Transvaal Boers. In the colony itself a crisis arose out of the proposal to make it a convict station.

_The Convict Agitation and Granting of a Constitution_.--In 1848 a circular was sent by the 3rd Earl Grey, then colonial secretary, to the governor of the Cape (and to other colonial governors), asking him to ascertain the feelings of the colonists regarding the reception of a certain class of convicts, the intention being to send to South Africa Irish peasants who had been driven into crime by the famine of 1845. Owing to some misunderstanding, a vessel, the "Neptune," was despatched to the Cape before the opinion of the colonists had been received, having on board 289 convicts, among whom were John Mitchell, the Irish rebel, and his colleagues. When the news reached the Cape that this vessel was on her way, the people of the colony became violently excited; and they established an anti-convict association, by which they bound themselves to cease from all intercourse of every kind with persons in any way connected "with the landing, supplying or employing convicts." On the 19th of September 1849 the "Neptune" arrived in Simon's Bay. Sir Harry Smith, confronted by a violent public agitation, agreed not to land the convicts, but to keep them on board ship in Simon's Bay till he received orders to send them elsewhere. When the home government became aware of the state of affairs orders were sent directing the "Neptune" to proceed to Tasmania, and it did so after having been in Simon's Bay for five months. The agitation did not, however, pass away without other important results, since it led to another movement, the object of which was to obtain a free representative government for the colony. This concession, which had been previously promised by Lord Grey, was granted by the British government, and, in 1854, a constitution was established of almost unprecedented liberality.

_The Kaffir War of 1850-1853_.--The anti-convict agitation had scarcely ceased when the colony was once again involved in war. The Kaffirs bitterly resented their loss of independence, and ever since the last war had been secretly preparing to renew the struggle. Sir Harry Smith, informed of the threatening attitude of the natives, proceeded to the frontier, and summoned Sandili and the other chiefs to an interview. Sandili refused obedience; upon which, at an assembly of other chiefs (October 1850), the governor declared him deposed from his chiefship, and appointed an Englishman, Mr Brownlee, a magistrate, to be temporary chief of the Gaika tribe. The governor appears to have believed that the measures he took would prevent a war and that Sandili could be arrested without armed resistance. On the 24th of December Col. Geo. Mackinnon, being sent with a small force with the object of securing the chief, was attacked in a narrow defile by a large body of Kaffirs, and compelled to retreat with some loss. This was the signal for a general rising of the Gaika tribe. The settlers in the military villages, which had been established along the frontier, assembled in fancied security to celebrate Christmas Day, were surprised, many of them murdered, and their houses given to the flames. Other disasters followed in quick succession. A small patrol of military was cut off to a man. The greater part of the Kaffir police deserted, many of them carrying off their arms and accoutrements. Emboldened by success, the enemy in immense force surrounded and attacked Fort Cox, where the governor was stationed with an inconsiderable force. More than one unsuccessful attempt was made to relieve Sir Harry; but his dauntless spirit was equal to the occasion. At the head of 150 mounted riflemen, accompanied by Colonel Mackinnon, he dashed out of the fort, and, through a heavy fire of the enemy, rode to King William's Town--a distance of 12 m. Meantime, a new enemy appeared. Some 900 of the Kat river Hottentots, who had in former wars been firm allies of the British, threw in their lot with their hereditary enemies--the Kaffirs. They were not without excuses. They complained that while doing burgher duty in former wars--the Cape Mounted Rifles consisted largely of Hottentot levies--they had not received the same treatment as others serving in defence of the colony, that they got no compensation for the losses they had sustained, and that they were in various ways made to feel they were a wronged and injured race. A secret combination was formed with the Kaffirs to take up arms to sweep the Europeans away and establish a Hottentot republic. Within a fortnight of the attack on Colonel Mackinnon the Kat river Hottentots were also in arms. Their revolt was followed by that of the Hottentots at other missionary stations; and part of the Hottentots of the Cape Mounted Rifles followed their example, including the very men who had escorted the governor from Fort Cox. But numbers of Hottentots remained loyal and the Fingo Kaffirs likewise sided with the British.

After the confusion caused by the sudden outbreak had subsided, and preparations had been made, Sir Harry Smith and his gallant force turned the tide of war against the Kaffirs. The Amatola mountains were stormed; and the paramount chief Kreli, who all along covertly assisted the Gaikas, was severely punished. In April 1852 Sir Harry Smith was recalled by Earl Grey, who accused him--unjustly, in the opinion of the duke of Wellington--of a want of energy and judgment in conducting the war, and he was succeeded by Lieutenant-General Cathcart. Kreli was again attacked and reduced to submission. The Amatolas were finally cleared of the Kaffirs, and small forts erected among them to prevent their reoccupation. The British commanders were hampered throughout by the insufficiency of their forces, and it was not till March 1853 that this most sanguinary of Kaffir wars was brought to a conclusion, after a loss of many hundred British soldiers. Shortly afterwards, British Kaffraria was made a crown colony. The Hottentot settlement at Kat river remained, but the Hottentot power within the colony was now finally crushed.

_The Great Amaxosa Delusion._--From 1853 the Kaffir tribes on the east gave little trouble to the colony. This was due, in large measure, to an extraordinary delusion which arose among the Amaxosa in 1856, and led in 1857 to the death of some 50,000 persons. This incident is one of the most remarkable instances of misplaced faith recorded in history. The Amaxosa had not accepted their defeat in 1853 as decisive and were preparing to renew the struggle with the white men. At this juncture, May 1856, a girl named Nongkwase told her father that on going to draw water from a stream she had met strangers of commanding aspect. The father, Mhlakza, went to see the men, who told him that they were spirits of the dead, who had come, if their behests were obeyed, to aid the Kaffirs with their invincible power to drive the white man from the land. Mhlakza repeated the message to his chief, Sarili, one of the most powerful Kaffir rulers. Sarili ordered the commands of the spirits to be obeyed. These orders were, at first, that the Amaxosa were to destroy their fat cattle. The girl Nongkwase, standing in the river where the spirits had first appeared, heard unearthly noises, interpreted by her father as orders to kill more and more cattle. At length the spirits commanded that not an animal of all their herds was to be left alive, and every grain of corn was to be destroyed. If that were done, on a given date myriads of cattle more beautiful than those destroyed would issue from the earth, while great fields of corn, ripe and ready for harvest, would instantly appear. The dead would rise, trouble and sickness vanish, and youth and beauty come to all alike. Unbelievers and the hated white man would on that day utterly perish. The people heard and obeyed. Sarili is believed by many persons to have been the instigator of the prophecies. Certainly some of the principal chiefs regarded all that was done simply as the preparation for a last struggle with the whites, their plan being to throw the whole Amaxosa nation fully armed and in a famishing condition upon the colony. There were those who neither believed the predictions nor looked for success in war, but destroyed their last particle of food in unquestioning obedience to their chief's command. Either in faith that reached the sublime, or in obedience equally great, vast numbers of the people acted. Great kraals were also prepared for the promised cattle, and huge skin sacks to hold the milk that was soon to be more plentiful than water. At length the day dawned which, according to the prophecies, was to usher in the terrestrial paradise. The sun rose and sank, bat the expected miracle did not come to pass. The chiefs who had planned to hurl the famished warrior host upon the colony had committed an incredible blunder in neglecting to call the nation together under pretext of witnessing the resurrection. This error they realized too late, and endeavoured by fixing the resurrection for another day to gather the clans, but blank despair had taken the place of hope and faith, and it was only as starving suppliants that the Amaxosa sought the British. The colonists did what they could to save life, but thousands perished miserably. In their extremity many of the Kaffirs turned cannibals, and one instance of parents eating their own child is authenticated. Among the survivors was the girl Nongkwase; her father perished. A vivid narrative of the whole incident will be found in G.M. Theal's _History and Geography of South Africa_ (3rd ed., London, 1878), from which this account is condensed. The country depopulated as the result of this delusion was afterwards peopled by European settlers, among whom were members of the German legion which had served with the British army in the Crimea, and some 2000 industrious North German emigrants, who proved a valuable acquisition to the colony.

_Sir George Grey's Governorship._--In 1854 Sir George Grey became governor of the Cape, and the colony owed much to his wise administration. The policy, imposed by the home government, of abandoning responsibility beyond the Orange river, was, he perceived, a mistaken one, and the scheme he prepared in 1858 for a confederation of all South Africa (q.v.) was rejected by Great Britain. By his energetic action, however, in support of the missionaries Moffat and Livingstone, Sir George kept open for the British the road through Bechuanaland to the far interior. To Sir George was also due the first attempt, missionary effort apart, to educate the Kaffirs and to establish British authority firmly among them, a result which the self-destruction of the Amaxosa rendered easy. Beyond the Kei the natives were left to their own devices. Sir George Grey left the Cape in 1861. During his governorship the resources of the colony had been increased by the opening up of the copper mines in Little Namaqualand, the mohair wool industry had been established and Natal made a separate colony. The opening, in November 1863, of the railway from Cape Town to Wellington, begun in 1859, and the construction in 1860 of the great breakwater in Table Bay, long needed on that perilous coast, marked the beginning in the colony of public works on a large scale. They were the more or less direct result of the granting to the colony of a large share in its own government. In 1865 the province of British Kaffraria was incorporated with the colony, under the title of the Electoral Divisions of King William's Town and East London. The transfer was marked by the removal of the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquors to the natives, and the free trade in intoxicants which followed had most deplorable results among the Kaffir tribes. A severe drought, affecting almost the entire colony for several years, caused great depression of trade, and many farmers suffered severely. It was at this period (1869) that ostrich-farming was successfully established as a separate industry.

Whether by or against the wish of the home government, the limits of British authority continued to extend. The Basutos, who dwelt in the upper valleys of the Orange river, had subsisted under a semi-protectorate of the British government from 1843 to 1854; but having been left to their own resources on the abandonment of the Orange sovereignty, they fell into a long exhaustive warfare with the Boers of the Free State. On the urgent petition of their chief Moshesh, they were proclaimed British subjects in 1868, and their territory became part of the colony in 1871 (see BASUTOLAND). In the same year the south-eastern part of Bechuanaland was annexed to Great Britain under the title of Griqualand West. This annexation was a consequence of the discovery there of rich diamond mines, an event which was destined to have far-reaching results. (F. R. C.)

_Development of Modern Conditions._--The year 1870 marks the dawn of a new era in South Africa. From that date the development of modern South Africa may be said to have fairly started, and in spite of political complications, arising from time to time, the progress of Cape Colony down to the outbreak of the Transvaal War of 1899 was steadily forward. The discovery of diamonds on the Orange river in 1867, followed immediately afterwards by the discovery of diamonds on the Vaal river, led to the rapid occupation and development of a tract of country which had hitherto been but sparsely inhabited. In 1870 Dutoitspan and Bultfontein diamond mines were discovered, and in 1871 the still richer mines of Kimberley and De Beers. These four great deposits of mineral wealth are still richly productive, and constitute the greatest industrial asset which the colony possesses. At the time of the beginning of the diamond industry, not only the territory of Cape Colony and the Boer Republics, but all South Africa, was in a very depressed condition. Ostrich-farming was in its infancy, and agriculture but little developed. The Boers, except in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, were a primitive people. Their wants were few, they lacked enterprise, and the trade of the colony was restricted. Even the British colonists at that time were far from rich. The diamond industry therefore offered considerable attractions, especially to colonists of British origin. It was also the means at length of demonstrating the fact that South Africa, barren and poor on the surface, was rich below the surface. It takes ten acres of Karroo to feed a sheep, but it was now seen that a few square yards of diamondiferous blue ground would feed a dozen families. By the end of 1871 a large population had already gathered at the diamond fields, and immigration continued steadily, bringing new-comers to the rich fields. Among the first to seek a fortune at the diamond fields was Cecil Rhodes.

In 1858 the scheme of Sir George Grey for the federation of the various colonies and states of South Africa had been rejected, as has been stated, by the home authorities. In 1874 the 4th earl of Carnarvon, secretary of state for the colonies, who had been successful in aiding to bring about the federation of Canada, turned his attention to a similar scheme for the confederation of South Africa. The representative government in Cape Colony had been replaced in 1872 by responsible, i.e. self-government, and the new parliament at Cape Town resented the manner in which Lord Carnarvon propounded his suggestions. A resolution was passed (June 11, 1875) stating that any scheme in favour of confederation must in its opinion originate within South Africa itself. James Anthony Froude, the distinguished historian, was sent out by Lord Carnarvon to further his policy in South Africa. As a diplomatist and a representative of the British government, the general opinion in South Africa was that Froude was not a success, and he entirely failed to induce the colonists to adopt Lord Carnarvon's views. In 1876, Fingoland, the Idutywa reserve, and Noman's-land, tracts of country on the Kaffir frontier, were annexed by Great Britain, on the understanding that the Cape government should provide for their government. Lord Carnarvon, still bent on confederation, now appointed Sir Bartle Frere governor of Cape Colony and high commissioner of South Africa.

Frere had no sooner taken office as high commissioner than he found himself confronted with serious native troubles in Zululand and on the Kaffir frontier of Cape Colony. In 1877 there occurred an outbreak on the part of the Galekas and the Gaikas. A considerable force of imperial and colonial troops was employed to put down this rising, and the war was subsequently known as the Ninth Kaffir war. It was in this war that the famous Kaffir chief, Sandili, lost his life. At its conclusion the Transkei, the territory of the Galeka tribe, under Kreli, was annexed by the British. In the meantime Lord Carnarvon had resigned his position in the British cabinet, and the scheme for confederation which he had been pushing forward was abandoned. As a matter of fact, at that time Cape Colony was too fully occupied with native troubles to take into consideration very seriously so great a question as confederation. A wave of feeling spread amongst the different Kaffir tribes on the colonial frontier, and after the Gaika-Galeka War there followed in 1879 a rising in Basutoland under Moirosi, whose cattle-raiding had for some time past caused considerable trouble. His stronghold was taken after very severe fighting by a colonial force, but, their defeat notwithstanding, the Basutos remained in a restless and aggressive condition for several years. In 1880 the colonial authorities endeavoured to extend to Basutoland the Peace Preservation Act of 1878, under which a general disarmament of the Basutos was attempted. Further fighting followed on this proclamation, which was by no means successful, and although peace was declared in the country in December 1882, the colonial authorities were very glad in 1884 to be relieved of the administration of a country which had already cost them L3,000,000. The imperial government then took over Basutoland as a crown colony, on the understanding that Cape Colony should contribute for administrative purposes L18,000 annually. In 1880, Sir Bartle Frere, who by his energetic and statesmanlike attitude on the relations with the native states, as well as on all other questions, had won the esteem and regard of loyal South African colonists, was recalled by the 1st earl of Kimberley, the liberal secretary of state for the colonies, and was succeeded by Sir Hercules Robinson. Griqualand West, which included the diamond fields, was now incorporated as a portion of Cape Colony.

_Origin of the Afrikander Bond._--The Boer War of 1881, with its disastrous termination, naturally reacted throughout South Africa; and as one of the most important results, in the year 1882 the first Afrikander Bond congress was held at Graaff Reinet. The organization of the Bond developed into one embracing the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Cape Colony. Each country had a provincial committee with district committees, and branches were distributed throughout the whole of South Africa. At a later date the Bond in the Cape Colony dissociated itself from its Republican branches. The general lines of policy which this organization endeavoured to promote may best be gathered from _De Patriot_, a paper published in the colony, and an avowed supporter of the organization. The following extracts from articles published in 1882 will illustrate, better than anything else, the ambition entertained by some of the promoters of this remarkable organization.

"The Afrikander Bond has for its object the establishment of a South
African nationality by spreading a true love for what is really our
fatherland. No better time could be found for establishing the Bond
than the present, when the consciousness of nationality has been
thoroughly aroused by the Transvaal war." ... "The British government
keep on talking about a confederation under the British flag, but that
will never be brought about. They can be quite certain of that. There
is just one obstacle in the way of confederation, and that is the
British flag. Let them remove that, and in less than a year the
confederation would be established under the Free Afrikander flag."
"After a time the English will realize that the advice given them by
Froude was the best--they must just have Simon's Bay as a naval and
military station on the way to India, and give over all the rest of
South Africa to the Afrikanders." ... "Our principal weapon in the
social war must be the destruction of English trade by our
establishing trading companies for ourselves." ... "It is the duty of
each true Afrikander not to spend anything with the English that he
can avoid."

_De Patriot_ afterwards became imperialist, but _Ons Land_, another Bond organ, continued in much the same strain.

In addition to having its press organs, the Bond from time to time published official utterances less frank in their tone than the statements of its press. Some of the Articles of the Bond's original manifesto are entirely praiseworthy, e.g. those referring to the administration of justice, the honour of the people, &c.; such clauses as these, however, were meaningless in view of the enlightened government which obtained in Cape Colony, and for the true "inwardness" of this document it is necessary to note Article 3, which distinctly speaks of the promotion of South Africa's independence (_Zelfstandigheid_). If the Bond aroused disloyalty and mistaken aspirations in one section of the Cape inhabitants, it is equally certain that it caused a great wave of loyal and patriotic enthusiasm to pass through another and more enlightened section. A pamphlet written in 1885 for an association called the Empire League by Mr Charles Leonard, who afterwards consistently championed the cause of civil equality and impartial justice in South Africa, maintained as follows:--

"(1) That the establishment of the English government here was
beneficial to all classes; and (2) that the withdrawal of that
government would be disastrous to every one having vested interests in
the colony.... England never can, never will, give up this colony, and
we colonists will never give up England.... Let us, the inhabitants of
the Cape Colony, be swift to recognize that we are one people, cast
together under a glorious flag of liberty, with heads clear enough to
appreciate the freedom we enjoy, and hearts resolute to maintain our
true privileges; let us desist from reproaching and insulting one
another, and, rejoicing that we have this goodly land as a common
heritage, remember that by united action only can we realize its grand
possibilities. We belong both of us to a home-loving stock, and the
peace and prosperity of every home in the land is at stake. On our
action now depends the question whether our children shall curse or
bless us; whether we shall live in their memory as promoters of civil
strife, with all its miserable consequences, or as joint architects of
a happy, prosperous and united state. Each of us looks back to a noble
past. United, we may ensure to our descendants a not unworthy future.
Disunited, we can hope for nothing but stagnation, misery and ruin. Is
this a light thing?"

It is probable that many Englishmen reading Mr Leonard's manifesto at the time regarded it as unduly alarming, but subsequent events proved the soundness of the views it expressed. The fact is that, from 1881 onwards, two great rival ideas came into being, each strongly opposed to the other. One was that of Imperialism--full civil rights for every civilized man, whatever his race might be, under the supremacy and protection of Great Britain. The other was nominally republican, but in fact exclusively oligarchical and Dutch. The policy of the extremists of this last party was summed up in the appeal which President Kruger made to the Free State in February 1881, when he bade them "Come and help us. God is with us. It is his will to unite us as a people"--"to make a united South Africa free from British authority." The two actual founders of the Bond party were Mr Borckenhagen, a German who was residing in Bloemfontein, and Mr Reitz, afterwards state secretary of the Transvaal. Two interviews have been recorded which show the true aims of these two promoters of the Bond at the outset. One occurred between Mr Borckenhagen and Cecil Rhodes, the other between Mr Reitz and Mr T. Schreiner, whose brother became, at a later date, prime minister of Cape Colony. In the first interview Mr Borckenhagen remarked to Rhodes: "We want a united Africa," and Rhodes replied: "So do I." Mr Borckenhagen then continued: "There is nothing in the way; we will take you as our leader. There is only one small thing: we must, of caurse, be independent of the rest of the world." Rhodes replied: "You take me either for a rogue or a fool. I should be a rogue to forfeit all my history and my traditions; and I should be a fool, because I should be hated by my own countrymen and mistrusted by yours." But as Rhodes truly said at Cape Town in 1898, "The only chance of a true union is the overshadowing protection of a supreme power, and any German, Frenchman, or Russian would tell you that the best and most liberal power is that over which Her Majesty reigns." The other interview took place at the beginning of the Bond's existence. Being approached by Mr Reitz, Mr T. Schreiner objected that the Bond aimed ultimately at the overthrow of British rule and the expulsion of the British flag from South Africa. To this Mr Reitz replied: "Well, what if it is so?" Mr Schreiner expostulated in the following terms: "You do not suppose that that flag is going to disappear without a tremendous struggle and hard fighting?" "Well, I suppose not, but even so, what of that?" rejoined Mr Reitz. In the face of this testimony with reference to two of the most prominent of the Bond's promoters, it is impossible to deny that from its beginning the great underlying idea of the Bond was an independent South Africa.