Chapter XXXVIII: Appendix: To Gold Fields Chapter

The following _resumé_ of the opinions of Dr. Schenk, a geologist who has paid several professional visits and has lately made researches at the gold fields, an account of which, I believe, he purposes shortly to publish in Germany, is taken from the letter of a correspondent in the Pretoria _Volkstem_ under date February, 1887, and will be perused with considerable interest by geologists.

The Barberton formation, the doctor said, consisted of very old and in most instances highly metamorphosed rocks, composed of slate and sandstone, with interposed eruptive rocks of greenstone (diorite, serpentine, etc.). These rocks are highly erected, dipping invariably at great angles, often perpendicular, and run from east to west. In this formation the gold-bearing veins or reefs are situated, and these with few exceptions run in the same direction (this is, for instance, the case with the reefs at Moodie’s and with the Sheba, etc.), nearly always accompanying the eruptive rocks. The gold, in the doctor’s opinion, came from the interior of the earth with the eruptive rocks to the surface, and was therefore concentrated in these reefs, which consist of quartz, and often contain iron along with the gold. This formation probably corresponds in age with the Silurian formation of Europe, and is found also in Swaziland, Zoutpansberg, and the recently discovered gold fields of the Tugela. There is no young formation overlying these rocks at Barberton, but in the Drakensberg and at Witwatersrand a younger formation lies unconformably over the older rocks. This the doctor concluded to be of Devonian age. It consists of large beds of sandstone, with here and there slate and greenstone. This younger formation had subsequently been folded in the same way as the Barberton rocks, though not so highly erected. The Barberton formation, he is inclined to think, proceeds beneath this formation in a westerly direction to Witwatersrand and thence to Bechuanaland. Regarding the presence of the before-mentioned younger formation, he considered it was due to the overflowing of this part of the country by the sea, which by wearing away the higher portions of the mountains, and destroying their rock, including the gold-bearing reefs, formed a more level plain and covered it with the destroyed masses of the old formation. This new formation, therefore, was simply a re-deposit of the old one under a different appearance. The sandstone schists abounding at Witwatersrand were no doubt formed of the softer rocks, while the conglomerate resulted from the destruction of the hard reefs before alluded to; these probably having been reduced, by the action of the water, to sand and pebbles, which afterwards became cemented into a solid mass. The conglomerate of Witwatersrand, Dr. Schenk further observed, is imbedded in the sandstone, to form a series of large belts, the extremities of which are at the surface. His reasons for coming to this conclusion were that at Witwatersrand the conglomerate dipped to the south, while between Heidelberg and the Vaal (southward of the Rand) it dipped to the north, or in an exactly opposite direction, and between these places it lay more horizontally, thus affording grounds for supposing that the conglomerate at one place is connected with that at the other. The doctor, in conclusion, remarked that the Witwatersrand conglomerate was a most peculiar formation, and that he had never before seen anything of the kind. It did not, in his opinion, run into a reef, as many old diggers and others seem to suppose; but the reefs from which it originated, and which he judged to be the continuation of the Barberton reefs running through this place, he considers to be somewhere in the vicinity of the conglomerate, but at a considerable depth from the surface.

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Footnote 1:

A brandy of great strength, never matured, and frequently adulterated
with most noxious substances by unscrupulous canteen-keepers and
illicit liquor dealers.

Footnote 2:

“South African Mission Fields.”—Carlyle, Nesbet & Co. 1878.

Footnote 3:

“Boers and Bantu.”—By George McCall Theal.

Footnote 4:

“Lives of R. and M. Moffat.” 1885.

Footnote 5:

Dr. Lindley told me that he was reduced to such straits during this
tedious land journey that, on one occasion, all he had left to support
life for a whole week was a few handsful of sugar eaten from time to
time.

Footnote 6:

“John McCarter. Dertien Jaren Herder en Leeraar in die Kerk.”
Amsterdam, Höveker & Zoon.

Footnote 7:

“Commentaries on Native Laws, Customs and Usages, with some Remarks on
Interpretation and Annexation.”—By John Courtenay Chasman Chadwick, J.
P., Attorney at Law, Maritzburg, Vanse, Slatter & Co.

Footnote 8:

Umtagati, one highly criminal, a murderer, poisoner.

Footnote 9:

Isiropo, unchaste, not a virgin.

Footnote 10:

Circuit Court D’Urban, before his Lordship, Justice Phillips, Feb.
12th, 1867. Trial of Nokahlela, Gumaudi, Matyobani, Umguquini,
Pambili, Umgabuka and Kongota.

Footnote 11:

The chief native adviser.

Footnote 12:

According to the _Statesman_ of India, no Chinese soldier in Tonquin
during the late war lost an opportunity to eat the flesh of a fallen
French foe—believing that human flesh, especially that of foreign
warriors, is the best possible stimulant for a man’s courage.

Footnote 13:

Again, Hibbert, in his “Lectures on Religion in Mexico and Peru,”
asserts that cannibalism was once universal in our race, arguing that
all primitive sacrifices were originally suggested by the idea that
the Divine Being had the same tastes and proclivities as we ourselves.
The Rev. W. R. Blackett, M. A., in relation to this, says: “This is a
remarkable _bouleversement_ of reasoning. It might perhaps be safer to
argue that, as human sacrifices have been universal and cannibalism
has not, the aim of sacrifice could not be merely to gratify supposed
human tastes in the deities to whom they were offered.”

Footnote 14:

According to Mr. Surveyor A. Moor, the top of the falls above the
level of the administrator’s residence, which is seventeen miles
(horizontal) distant, is 5,643 feet, and the height of the falls
themselves 1,862.5 feet.

Footnote 15:

The cypress trees in the cathedral grounds in Maritzburg are grown
from seed collected in this pass by Captain Allison, and presented by
him to the dean and chapter.

Footnote 16:

The acting resident magistrate at D’Urban and coolie immigration
agent.

Footnote 17:

Remittent fever of a virulent and exceptionally fatal type had been
prevalent in Mauritius for a considerable period some year or two
previously.

Footnote 18:

Many of my readers will be familiar with the unhappy dissensions which
used to exist in the Church of England in South Africa. These partly
arose out of Bishop Colenso’s (Bishop of Natal) orthodoxy being
impugned, and partly from the ritualistic practices the opposite
section indulged in. The particulars of the dispute, which for years
occupied the attention of the gentlemen of the long robe, are too long
and perplexing for me to enter into. Suffice it to say that, though
beyond all doubt both parties were convinced they had right on their
side, yet to lovers of the good old Church the dissensions were much
to be regretted. Bishop Colenso, however, in the long run gained the
day.

Footnote 19:

The Anglican Sisterhood of St. Michael and All Angels.

Footnote 20:

Since enlarged.

Footnote 21:

Kafir pox, a varicelloid disease, believed to attack only natives,
also known as “Watcht en beitje” pock (Dutch, “wait a bit”), as it
delayed them on their road.

Footnote 22:

An Act to legalize gambling by this means came before the legislative
council this year (1887) but was rejected. The arguments “for and
against” were very funny. One Dutch legislator, when the subject was
under debate, brought forward as a clinching argument that “when Jonah
was on board a vessel on his way to Nineveh it was decided by a
totalisator that he should be thrown overboard,” while another (who
had a large open Bible before him) referred to the Revelations, where,
he said, it was pointed out that “roovers, woekeraars, and spelers,”
could not enter the kingdom of heaven. He said God’s Holy Word did not
justify gambling, and where could they get a better authority than the
Bible? The name “totalisator” was in itself so big a word to pronounce
that he often wondered that people’s tongues did not twist in
pronouncing it (loud laughter).

Footnote 23:

It may be interesting to my readers to mention that “Vaal” means dun
or mud color, the tint of the river, especially noticeable during
flushes, when so much clay from the banks is held in suspension,
though at no period has the stream the crystal clearness of the Isis
or the Cam. The inhabitants of the banks are facetiously nicknamed
_Vaal penses_, in meaning much the same as “yellow bellies,” the
designation applied with rustic humor to the dwellers on the fens in
Lincolnshire by the agricultural population of the surrounding
districts.

Footnote 24:

August 1886. Since then many more amalgamations of companies have
taken place.

Footnote 25:

The recent extension of the railway to Kimberley has of course much
reduced the price of fuel, though it is even at this day so high that
the home manufacturers or householders would shudder to contemplate
paying half the price.

Footnote 26:

Vulgarly called carbon by the diggers.

Footnote 27:

Diamondiferous soil.

Footnote 28:

This was written before the discovery of the Cape diamond fields.

Footnote 29:

The French and Central companies of the Kimberley mine have sunk
shafts comparatively recently about 620 feet deep (in 1886), and are
still in this rock. It is of various textures and colors, and contains
agates, jasper, calcite, iron pyrites and various other minerals.

Footnote 30:

Resembling charcoal in its mineral condition.

Footnote 31:

This waste ground accumulated in vast masses or heaps, one of these
being known by the Scriptural name of Mount Ararat.

Footnote 32:

These boys were known by the oddest of names. One unfortunate native,
arrested for some trivial offense, when asked his name in the Charge
Office replied “Go to h——!” and gave the same when interrogated the
second time, on which the sergeant in charge knocked him down, but
regretted doing so when he found that that was really the name which
had been bestowed on him by his master. Only a few months since
another native arraigned gave his name as “B——y fool.” On being asked
by the magistrate who gave him that name, he replied that he chose it
himself.

Footnote 33:

Instead of “whims,” in which the horses trot round in a circle, some
of the diggers used “whips” in which the horses trot backward and
forward.

Footnote 34:

Much of the debris of the early days pays handsomely to rewash with
the present improved machinery, and licenses authorizing such washing
are issued by the chief of the detective department. It is believed
that the privilege has been frequently abused and made a cloak for the
illicit traffic in diamonds.

Footnote 35:

The De Beers’ Mining Co. of De Beers’ Mine, Limited.

Footnote 36:

Dutch for stones.

Footnote 37:

The public press repeatedly drew attention to the “poison” that was
retailed to the natives, and I well remember the following sarcastic
lines that were published about this time:

“The best of all methods, so others maintain,
To free them from ignorance’ yoke,
And enable them civilized freedom to gain,
Is simply to give them ‘Cape Smoke;’[118]
When mixed with tobacco, red pepper and lime,
With dagga and vitriol, too,
The draught is delicious, enchanting, sublime—
Why, it even would civilize _you_!”

Footnote 38:

Slang Jewish expression for an illicit or stolen diamond.

Footnote 39:

A noted detective officer.

Footnote 40:

A very much overrated mine, five miles from Kimberley, rushed on the
last Sunday in April, 1876.

Footnote 41:

In the session of 1885 the diamond trade act was extended, with but
trifling alterations, to the entire of Cape Colony, which in spite of
all the efforts of unscrupulous men, who are themselves well known to
be in the trade, still remains in force.

Footnote 42:

Some idea of the extent to which this organized system of robbery is
carried on may be formed, when I tell my readers that since the
passing of the diamond trade act in 1882 up to Dec. 31st, 1885, 19,272
carats of diamonds, valued at £37,829 have been recovered by the
detective department.

Footnote 43:

“Over the Free State line,
Whatever is yours is mine.
If I’ve a stone
Its all my own,
No ‘John Fry’[119] shall make me groan
Over the Free State line.
I’ll never have cause to pine,
The I. D. B. is happy and free,
Over the Free State line.”

Footnote 44:

The Gold Law No. 6, passed July 30, 1885. Clause 78 reads as follows:
“78. Any person purchasing, trading or receiving rough gold or uncut
precious stones from colored persons, either on a proclaimed public
field, or elsewhere within the limits of the South African Republic,
shall be fined a sum not exceeding £1,000 and imprisonment for a
period of not more than five years, with or without hard labor, beside
the forfeiture of such rough precious metal or uncut precious stones
to the State.”

Footnote 45:

See further particulars at end of chapter.

Footnote 46:

As an instance of what risks they will run I may mention that in
November, 1886, on a post-mortem being made on a native who died under
suspicious circumstances at Du Toit’s Pan a sixty carat rough diamond
was found in his stomach.

Footnote 47:

I should not omit here to mention that this clique which arrogates to
itself the name of the “Mercantile Community” is powerful enough to
send their representatives not only to parliament, but to the town
council.

Footnote 48:

Three of these cases have occurred in which conviction followed, and
the offenders received sentences varying from five to ten years’
imprisonment.

Footnote 49:

I must here warn my readers against falling into the mistake of
supposing that I attribute the depression of trade now existing to the
absence of the enterprising and formerly ubiquitous illicit, many
causes having conduced to bring about the present stagnation.

Footnote 50:

While I am given to understand that this female searcher acted with
some brutality on this occasion, I have not the slightest doubt that
such violence was quite unauthorized by the authorities.

Footnote 51:

Jail.

Footnote 52:

The celebrated street in Paris during the rage of Law’s Mississippi
scheme.

Footnote 53:

The South African Exploration Company did this in the early part of
this year, and recovered £696 and interest at the rate of 6 per cent,
from the defendant.

Footnote 54:

A great change has again taken place. The Rose Innes has been
incorporated with the Central, and the shares of the latter company in
the spring of 1886 were selling at about £160, though nine or ten
months previously they were down as low as £20, and no demand even at
that.

Footnote 55:

The soundness of the investment of money in our Diamond Mining scrip
under the diminished cost of working, owing to the extension of the
railway, the increased care taken in the searching department, and
consequently increased yield of diamonds, has been lately much taken
advantage of by European capitalists, and at the present time I have
never, for years, known the Fields in a more prosperous condition.

Footnote 56:

A favorite Boer expression when abandoning an expedition.

Footnote 57:

Lieut. Governor Southey in a long dispatch dated Kimberley, April
11th, 1874, in reply to a dispatch from Sir Henry Barkly of March
11th, the same year, and which was written after Langalibalele had
attempted to escape from Natal, said in clause

“15. The alterations and changes made by the Cape government, and with
which I am desired to co-operate, are made avowedly at the instance of
the Natal government; and you have furnished me with an extract from
one of that government’s communications upon the subject. I should
have been glad to have been permitted to peruse the whole of the
letter, as I have reason to believe that they attribute their late
troubles, in a large degree, to the facility with which natives can
obtain guns in this province, instead of, as in my opinion they should
do, attributing them to their own mismanagement and mistaken policy.

“16. It is not true that (as the colonial secretary of Natal
erroneously alleges) arms and ammunition at the diamond fields pass
more readily from the diggers to the natives than specie; the natives
receive their wages invariably in specie, they are paid weekly, and
the usual rate of pay is ten shillings for the week. Those who obtain
guns purchase them as a rule just before leaving for their homes, and
only after producing the permits to purchase which the law requires.
Comparatively speaking, but few Natal or Basuto natives come here; the
great bulk of our native laborers come from the interior northward of
the South African Republic, and considerably beyond the legitimate
boundaries of that state, and their guns are not acquired for war
purposes, but for purposes connected with legitimate and beneficial
trade.

“17. I cannot concur in the opinion of the lieutenant governor of
Natal that the acquisition of arms by the natives of the interior, who
come here and work in the mines, is fraught with danger to the peace
of South Africa, and I am unable to see why we should cherish a
friendly feeling with the neighboring republics any more than with the
various native tribes. I should consider it very undesirable to
purchase the friendly feeling of those republics at the expense of
injustice or oppression toward her Majesty’s own subjects or
unfriendly acts toward the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. I
may here state that the native tribes of the interior have ever
evinced the greatest possible friendliness toward us, and English
travelers, English traders and English missionaries have invariably
been received and treated with all respect by them, while on the other
hand the governments of the republics have on several occasions been
charged with unfriendliness toward us, in official documents addressed
to them by her Majesty’s representatives in South Africa. I believe we
shall best exhibit our friendliness toward the republics by setting
them an example of justice and toleration, and that we should act an
unfriendly part if we pandered to their prejudices or supported them
in oppressing the native population.”

Footnote 58:

I have even seen the rebels drilling in the market square with their
rifles, at four in the afternoon, ordered to “Right about face,”
“Present arms,” so that their rifles would point straight at the
government offices.

Footnote 59:

I recollect at the time calling upon Mr. Froude, who was a _guest_ at
Government House.

Footnote 60:

Who at once ran away to escape the punishment he deserved.

Footnote 61:

As far as Major Lanyon was personally concerned, future events proved
that it had not mattered to him whether the bill passed or not.

Footnote 62:

See chapter 25.

Footnote 63:

And, as my readers will have noticed, of the Griqualand West
legislative council as well.

Footnote 64:

To Englishmen this act contained a curious clause. No person within
the province could sell or barter to any native (except under certain
provisos) any liquor of an intoxicating nature, and my readers can at
once realize the difficulty of logically reconciling the anomaly of
allowing a man a voice in the government of his country and precluding
him from the right of purchasing a glass of beer.

Footnote 65:

An expression applied to Griqualand West by the Hon. I. X. Merriman, a
Cape colonial politician.

Footnote 66:

Curiously enough the sixteen petitions, signed by 1,218 persons,
presented to the Volksraad praying for this law were couched in
precisely the _same_ terms; they all complained of the _same_
nuisance, and each alleged that on the _same_ day the _same_ decision
had been arrived at in the different places from which the petitions
came, although in many of these districts not a single coolie or Arab
was living. This law, as the _Volkstem_ (the principal newspaper in
the Transvaal) says, is not only “ineffectual, but pernicious and
condemnable.” See copy of law in appendix.

Footnote 67:

This is the motive generally attributed to the late Sir Pomeroy Colley
in making the ascent of Majuba during the absence of Sir Evelyn Wood.

Footnote 68:

In Great Britain the coal measures have an extent only of 11,859
square miles, in France of 1,719, and in Spain of 3,408.

Footnote 69:

In July, 1886, the Kimberley papers gave publicity to a rumor that a
ring had been formed by the proprietors of collieries in England,
alarmed at the growth of the coal mining industry in Natal, to
undersell for an indefinite period, and by these means strangle
competition.

Footnote 70:

Majuba is 6,000 feet above the sea and 3,000 feet above Mount
Prospect.

Footnote 71:

Our total losses at Majuba were 6 officers killed, 9 wounded and 6
prisoners; non-commissioned officers and men, 86 killed, 125 wounded,
53 prisoners.

Footnote 72:

The official reasons, or rather the official excuses, for the loss of
the day, are a transparent gloss, intended to hide gross mismanagement
on the one hand and a panic-stricken retreat on the other. They are
the following, extracted from the _Gazette_: (1) The slopes below the
brow of the plateau were too steep to be searched by our fire, and
cover existed up to the brow; (2) the rocky ridge we occupied in
second line, though the best we had time to hold, did not cover more
than fifty yards to its front, as the plateau rolled continuously to
the brow; (2a) the men were too exhausted to intrench, and hardly fit
to fight; (3) when the Boers gained the last ridge ours had to descend
almost impassable slopes, and many were shot in doing so.

Footnote 73:

Boer commandment at Bronker’s Spruit.

Footnote 74:

Sixty-six officers and men killed sixty seven wounded, and nine
missing.

Footnote 75:

Mrs. Charles Garnett.—A Visit to the Leper Hospital of Bergen.—“Sunday
Magazine,” May 1886.

Footnote 76:

In the last session of the Natal legislative council the vote for
Langibalele’s support was reduced from £500 per annum to £50. He has
now returned, but has only to thank the financial state of Natal for
his “ticket of leave!”

Footnote 77:

See Appendix.

Footnote 78:

He showed that the “record” of the trial, which lasted four days, was
simply an ex-parte statement of evidence taken from witnesses, called
by the crown, examined by the crown prosecutor and cross-examined by
nobody! Not a single witness was called for the defence, the prisoner
having been kept in solitary confinement from the time of his arrival
(Dec. 31st), and not allowed to speak to any one, white or black, who
might try to find witnesses for him.

Footnote 79:

Native term for wiping out their enemies.

Footnote 80:

Warriors not being allowed to marry until they had drawn blood on the
battlefield.

Footnote 81:

“John Dunn, Cetywayo and the Three Generals.” 1886. Natal Printing and
Publishing Co. Pietermaritzburg, Natal.

Footnote 82:

Since writing the above England has decided to annex what remains of
Zululand.

Footnote 83:

For petition see appendix.

Footnote 84:

At this time there was daily issued here and at Mafeting 3,930 full
rations.

Footnote 85:

Since burnt by the rebels.

Footnote 86:

The petition, which was signed by Jonathan Molappo, Mokhethi Moshesh,
Iladiyane Mosheshoe and 896 others, I brought away with me and
presented to the Cape legislative assembly on March 21st, 1882. In the
appendix will be found a copy of the petition itself.

Footnote 87:

The political resident at that period.

Footnote 88:

A few months previously the Sprigg ministry had been defeated, session
of 1881.

Footnote 89:

Since the time I was in Basutoland Colonel Clark, who, during the
Transvaal war, after Captain Falls’ death, surrendered the court-house
at Potchefstroom, when it was set fire to by the Boers, has been
appointed agent in Basutoland. This imperial appointment was made
early in 1884 when the colonial government was relieved of its
responsibility in that country by the home government.

Since Colonel Clark has been in Basutoland the amount paid in taxes
has greatly increased, for whereas at first the receipts were at the
rate of £450 a year only, they now, Masupha having agreed also to pay
hut tax, exceed £5,000 per annum. But from the best authority I learn
that Colonel Clark’s power, although he is personally liked by the
Basutos, is merely nominal, and they would even now be too wide-awake
to pay taxes, if they were not afraid of the confiscation, or in other
words of the robbery, of their cattle by their chiefs, and if they did
not fear the personal vengeance which would result on their resisting;
they prefer, therefore, to buy the semblance of British authority at
the rate of £1 a year per hut, rather than have their cattle stolen
without any redress whatever.

Footnote 90:

The average Sunday attendance at St. Cyprian’s is now 500 at morning
and 700 at evening service; the congregation having more than doubled
within the last five years, though the population of Kimberley has
certainly diminished. This fact must be subject of great gratification
to the clergy of this church. The new church at Beaconsfield (Du
Toit’s Pan), named All Saints, is a very handsome stone and brick
structure, and the lately consecrated bishop laid the foundation stone
of a new church (St. Alban’s) at De Beer’s, about the end of September
1883. There is also a small church (St. Augustine’s) situated at the
west end of Kimberley, the present incumbent of which is the Hon. and
Rev. Mr. Lyttleton.

Footnote 91:

A magnificent monument to the late Mr. Ornstein, subscribed to by
members of all denominations on the Diamond Fields, was consecrated in
October, 1886.

Footnote 92:

The South African native has no religion, worships no God, and his
only idea of spiritual life is that his soul, when he dies, takes up
its abode in a snake, and that the spirits of his ancestors have the
power of working good or evil, or of causing sickness and death.

Footnote 93:

A fractured diamond.

Footnote 94:

This gentleman’s forte was Roman Dutch law. During his residence on
the Diamond Fields he acquired the soubriquet of “Emphytensis” in
consequence of his efforts to establish the practical identity of a
certain Roman leasehold tenure of that name, and the quit-tenure of
the Cape Colony, thus attempting to establish the rights of the Crown
to all diamond and precious stones. His endeavors were, however,
without avail, and he was laughed at for his pains.

Footnote 95:

A noted hostelry near the court-house.

Footnote 96:

This is exemplified in the names by which white people of any
importance are known among them. For instance, a pompous friend of
mine, now an important government official in Natal, was known by the
natives as “Totovian” (Intotoviane) after a most offensively
odoriferous grasshopper with which he waged incessant war. But the
most biting example of native sarcasm, I think, consisted in the name
applied by them to a florin (2s. piece) that of “Scotchman.” This
conveyed, in one word, their appreciation of the Scotch cheese-paring
tendency; as they were shrewd enough to observe, that in cases where
an Englishman would give half a crown, his Highland neighbor would
give only two shillings.

Footnote 97:

Shakespere.—Henry VI., Part ii., Act iv., Scene 2.

Footnote 98:

This class of scoundrel gave Christiana the fictitious appearance of a
population, but this is more fully explained in the chapter on Diamond
Legislation.

Footnote 99:

_I.e._, thirty-six miles, for so are distances reckoned in South
Africa.

Footnote 100:

These I describe in the account of another journey to the Transvaal.

Footnote 101:

This beautiful building has since been completed.

Footnote 102:

Literally, a dram of liquor—meaning a trifle.

Footnote 103:

In pondering over the state of matters then existing it was impossible
for me not to picture in my mind the change time had wrought! A few
short years before, I had seen and listened to Thomas Francois
Burgers, full of eager anticipation of the future before him, speak
most hopefully of the Transvaal, at a banquet given in his honor at
Kimberley, as he passed through to assume the “dictatorship” of that
republic. And when, in touching upon some observation I had made in
proposing the toast of “the press,” he had emphasized the fact that
“the pen was mightier than the sword.” And now, his expectations
unrealized, his fond hopes withered, his ambition blighted,
broken-down in health and spirits, it was not to be wondered at that
he made no strenuous opposition to the advent of British rule.

Footnote 104:

Sir Theophilus Shepstone arrived in Pretoria with his twenty-five
policemen in January, 1877. He announced to President Burgers that
unless he could make arrangements that would be satisfactory to the
Imperial government with regard to the government of the Transvaal he
was authorized to annex it as a portion of Her Majesty’s dominions.
President Burgers called a special session of the Volksraad, and
proposed a new constitution, but that did not meet with the approval
of the British Commissioner, and on the 12th of April, 1877, as I have
mentioned before, the country was proclaimed British territory, and
Sir T. Shepstone assumed the administration of affairs. He continued
to hold that position until the 18th of December, 1878, when he left
for Zululand in consequence of the threatening aspect of native
affairs there. The government was administered for a time by the
senior military officer before the arrival of Colonel Lanyon. Sir T.
Shepstone never returned.

Footnote 105:

Mr. Christian Maasdorp, now nominated to a seat on the Eastern
District’s bench, but who then held the commission as Attorney
General, resigned “when he found it impossible (vide Transvaal
_Advertiser_, November 20th, 1885) to countenance the chicane and
tyranny of the Lanyon administration.”

Footnote 106:

Sir Garnet Wolseley was assisted by an executive council consisting of
Colonel Lanyon, administrator, Colonel Harrison, commanding H. M.
troops, Mr. Melmoth Osborne, Colonial Secretary, Mr. C. G. Maasdorp,
Attorney General, and Mr. H. C. Shepstone, Secretary for native
affairs. There were also three non-official members, viz., Messrs. J.
Marais, J. C. Holtshausen, and J. S. Joubert, who with the members of
the government composed the Executive Council under the Constitution
promulgated on November 8th, 1879. A legislative assembly was at the
same time called into being by the Wolseley constitution, and the
under-mentioned gentlemen were nominated: viz., Messrs. J. R. White,
O. W. A. Forsman, J. A. Esterhuizen, A. H. Stander and J. H. Nel. The
last session of the legislative assembly concluded very shortly before
the war broke out, which put an end to the constitution and British
authority at one fell swoop.

Footnote 107:

“To our homes.”

Footnote 108:

_Convention of Pretoria_, Article 23: If not released before the
taking effect of this Convention, Sekukuni, and those of his followers
who have been imprisoned with him, will be forthwith released, and the
boundaries of his location will be defined by the Native Location
Commission in the manner indicated in the last preceding article.

Footnote 109:

The first Sekukuni war broke out in October, 1876, the treaty of peace
being signed February 5th, 1877. The second Sekukuni war, begun under
the Shepstone administration in March, 1878, resulted in the complete
destruction (under Sir G. Wolseley) of the tribe, and the capture of
the chief, who was held a prisoner of war, as I have mentioned, until
the convention of Pretoria was signed in August, 1881. The Mapoch
(Niabel) and Mampoer war commenced near the end of 1882 and was about
ten months in duration. Mapoch surrendered 12th of July, 1883, to
General Joubert, who had conducted the operations against both chiefs.

Footnote 110:

The Government is wakening to this fact and is beginning to take
active measures.

Footnote 111:

I regret to learn that this gentleman, who was much esteemed in
Barberton, is recently dead.

Footnote 112:

One of the latest analyses gives Welsh coal 81.0 carbon, 6.40 ash;
Transvaal 77.20 carbon, 7.20 ash.

Footnote 113:

The truth of my prognostications has, I am sorry to say, become to a
certain extent verified even before my ink is dry.

Footnote 114:

In the appointment of a British Resident care will have to be
exercised that no one interested in the gold speculations of the
country be nominated.

Footnote 115:

The census returns of the entire population in 1864, twenty-three
years ago, was 1098.

Footnote 116:

In the concession granted in 1873 to Moodie for a railway from Delagoa
Bay to Pretoria, a grant also was made him of 850 farms of 6,000 acres
each, in case he should be successful. Curiously enough these were the
very farms on which the present Kaap gold fields are situated.

Footnote 117:

This was brought forward very prominently in the report of the select
committee on Railway to Delagoa Bay, appointed by resolution of the
House of Assembly, 5th of April, 1880, C. K. White, chairman.

Footnote 118:

Cape Brandy.

Footnote 119:

Chief detective officer at the South African Diamond Fields.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. P. 228, added missing footnote anchor. 2. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 3. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 4. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 6. Denoted superscripts by a caret before a single superscript character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.