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A HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN AFRICA
BRITAIN ACROSS THE SEAS
AFRICA
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
OF THE
BRITISH EMPIRE IN AFRICA
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., D.Sc.
LONDON
National Society's Depository
19 GREAT PETER STREET. WESTMINSTER. S \V. [All rights reset vcd\
y ".'•■;.
PREFACE
AND
ACKNOWLEDGME N T S
IN view of the great developments of the British Empire in Africa since the commencement of the Twentieth Century, it was thought desirable by the National Society that a concise history of this racial enterprise should be published, which would not be too abstruse for young students (whose previous knowledge of Africa might be assumed to be elementary), nor yet too lacking in technical information to be of service to those who had left student- hood behind, but desired to learn rapidly ' how all these things came to pass ' in this Continent of black, white, and yellow peoples. The book was to be written as far as possible without national or party bias.
How far I have accomplished these aims I must leave it to the fair-minded reader to decide. I have been left quite unfettered by the National Society, and the opinions herein expressed are my own. though I trust that they are coincident with the actual truth. so far as that truth can be realized whilst the nearer events of African history are not yet properly focussed by time.
It has seemed to me in my own revision of the
b
VI
PREFACE
proof?, that here and there I may have given the impression that I reprobated the imperial enterprise of other European Powers in Africa; that while approving of the attempts of the British to keep open for their future advancement the road from Cape Colony to the Zambezi, I thought it reprehensible on the part of the Dutch States of South Africa to attempt to baulk such a scheme or to contemplate an alliance with the German Empire; that I cordially approved of a British Nigeria or Sudan, but not of a French Empire in these regions. Such were not my intentions ; but as this book is mainly intended for students, for the use of the young men and women who will assist in framing the policy of the British Empire when the present generation of workers and politicians has passed into inactivity, I should like to make it quite clear that I have followed Thomas Carlyle's advice to 'clear myself of cant.' (But he and Huxley and Charles Kingsley so purged their minds of the nal tendency to be hypocritical that they approved of, or did not condemn, the atrocities committed in Jamaica during the early 'sixties. > It is my personal opinion thai on the whole the British have been more righteous in their dealings with the native races of Africa than some other of their European rivals; but they do not bold tin' monopoly of virtue and disinterestedness. Who that has studied at first hand the present condition of Mgeria, Tunis, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Dahome, French Nigeria, and Sudan, can refuse a meed of praise of the heartiesl to the results of France's sacrifices and achievements in the cause of true civilization ? Who. on the other hand, could fail to condemn the French
PREFACE vii
treatment of Western Congoland, based on the Leopoldian regime in the defunct Congo Independent State? And in this last, though the diatribes and criticisms of Mr. E. D. Morel are confirmed and justified by what has taken place, can any fair-minded witness deny that the Belgians have wrought much good elsewhere in the Congo basin, outside the area affected by the direct management of King Leopold II, or of several of his concessionnaire companies? The British record in Uganda in the early days, or in Zanzibar for a brief period, or in the far-back formation of the West African Colonies was not devoid of blame. Chicanery, combined with pitiful indecision, marred our South African Policy at intervals between 1806 and 1900, but these faults were accompanied by the noblest achieve- ments in true Christianity, Science, Valour in warfare with men and beasts and with the Devil of unregenerate nature, and victories over these enemies which must make us proud of our national records. An impartial outsider cannot always defend the details or the whole of the ' native ' policy of the Natal government, but is bound to bear in mind the main fact that the negro population of Natal and Zululand in 1843 was only about 220.000. and has since risen to not far short of 1,000,000; also to give the comparative handful of whites in that garden colony full credit for their amazing success in the development of their country's inherent resources, to the great profit and welfare of blacks, as well as yellows and whites.
Nor can one fail to agree that the Germans deserve well of the world's opinion for the way in which they have conducted scientific research, have maintained free trade,
and have (ultimately) benefited the indigenous peoples of
b 2
vm PREFACE
i land, Cameroon?. East Africa, and South-West Africa. Both in making and in writing history it is my humble opinion that we gain rather than lose by attempting to be just, and that whilst the parable of the Ten Talents is always to be borne in mind, we should equally take to heart the metaphor which bids us have scrupulous care for the tlawless condition of our own vision before we concern ourselves too closely with our neighbour's eyesight.
The Society which publishes this book desired that it might be illustrated copiously by photographs of the scenes, the peoples and personalities referred to. I have been able to supply some of these illustrations from my own drawings and photographs, but for the remainder (as well as for verbal information) I am very much indebted to a number of friends and fellow-travellers in Africa, as well as to institutions like the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute. Among those to whom my thanks are specially due are the Bishop of ow and Galloway, Capt. T. C. Hincks (Roval Berkshire Regiment), Mr. Leo Weinthal, F.R.G.S. (Editor of the African World), Capt. C. II. Foulkes, R.E.. Mr. J. F. Cunningham tary to the Uganda Administration),
Col. H.G.C. Swayne, R.E. (formerly of Somaliland), the Rev. J. T. F. Halligey, F.R.G.S., Mr. Francis Harrison. F.R.G.S. (ol the Natal Government Agency- General in London), Mr. (". E. Temple of the North Nigerian Administration, Capt. W. Stanley, a travelling commissioner in the Gambia Protectorate, the proprietors of South Africa. Major J. J. Lang, C.M.G., R.E., and Mrs. Arthur ffoulkes (whose late husband was an official of the Gold Coast Colony).
II. H. JOHNSTON.
CONTEXTS
CHAPTER I.
II. III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
INTRODUCTORY l
Notes— (A) the classification of mankind . . 38
(B) THE DIVISIONS OF THE NEGRO RACE . 3§
(C) THE BUSHMEN AND HOTTENTOTS . . -JO
(D) THE BANTU . .... 4-
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD 45
Note— the pepper trade . .... 59
CAPE COLONY (>I
Note — the tse-tse fly and parasitic diseases . 93
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS IX THE EARLY NINE-
TEENTH CEXTL'RY 95
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL HO
THE CREATION OF THE ORANGE RIVER SOVE- REIGNTY AND THE TRANSVAAL . . .120
Till-: HISTORY OF Till-: TRANSVAAL . . . I44
CAPE COLONY FROM 1835 To L885 . . . l66
RHODES AND RHODESIA: 'BRITISH CENTRAL
AFRICA' 178
NATAL: AND THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA . 213 Note — the area and products of British soi 111
AFRICA . . . . . . . . 236
THE NATIVES OF BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA . . 239
THE MASCARENE ARCHIPELAGOES . . . 259
THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA .... 265
CONTENTS
c II \l'l 1 l( PAGE
XIV. NIGERIA 304
Notes (A) the principal tribes and peoples of
BRITISH NIGERIA .... 33O
. (B) THE HAUSA PEOPLE .... 334
(C) OTHER TRIBES OF BRITISH NIGERIA . 334
XV. EGYPT AND THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN . . . 338
Note — the natives of the Egyptian sudan . 369
XVI. EAST AFRICA 372
Note the native tribes of the British east
african dominion .... 403
INDEX 411
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE GREAT LIBYAN DESERT ON THE WESTERN FRONTIERS OF EGYPT .........
A TYPICAL SCENE IN ARID SOUTH AFRICA, NEAR THE ORANGE RIVER : THE DRY BED OF A ONCE POWERFUL RIVER IN NAMAKWAI.AND .......
THE ' THORN ' COUNTRY ......
THE PARKLAXDS OF AFRICA
CENTRAL AFRICAN SCENERY : A .MOUNTAIN STREAM
THE FOREST OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA ....
MOUNTAIN SCENERY IN SOUTH-CENTRAL AFRICA
THE HIGHEST PEAKS OF RUWENZORI RANGE .
THE OKAPI (OKAITA JOHNSTONl) ....
A BERG-DAMARA, OR HAUKWOIN WOMAN
A BUSHMAN OF CAPE COLONY .....
A MUHIMA OF THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE
A HOTTENTOT MAN .......
THE FULA TYPE .......
AN ARAB SHEIKH .......
THE ANCIENT RUINS OF RHODESIA ....
EGYPTIAN FELLAHIN ......
IIAMITES ........
A LIBYAN TYPE .......
THE CAPE ORYX OR GEMSBOK .....
TIIF KA\ [RONDO OF EASTERN EQUATORIAL AFRICA : A COM I.I V TYPE OF ' BANTU ' NEGRO .....
BUSHMAN PAINTINGS ON THE ROCK SURFACES OF A CAVERN IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS, NATAL
A STREAM IN THE DENSE FOREST OF WEST AFRICA
VASCO DA GAMA .......
A ' CARAVEL ' OF THE GENOESE STYLE
CAPE COAST CASTLE : GOLD COAST COLONY
t3
>5 16
17
10
JO
1 1
-.}
2 5 27
2<) 31
35
39
4> 43 46
17 49
XI 1
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ELMINA CASTLE : GOLD COAST COLONY
ki.mina castle: LOOKING TOWARDS ST. JAGO
A III \ : GAMBIA HINTERLAND ....
CHRISTIANSBORG CASTLE, NEAR ACCRA
CHILDREN BATHING IN THE SURF : GOLD COAST COLONY
IN TANGIER, MOROCCO ......
TANGIER FROM THE HARBOUR .....
JAMESTOWN : ST. HELENA ......
THE LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EXTREMITY OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE ........
III! SPRINGBOK (A GENUS OF GAZELLES)
THE GRACEFUL STANLEY CRANE (TETRAPTERYX PARADISEA) A TYPICAL BOER FARMER IN SOUTH AFRICA \ OVER SIX FEET TALI. A PORTION OF CAPE TOWN .....
A KAFIR CHIEFTAIN .......
IN THE HEX MOUNTAIN'S, WESTERN CAPE COLONY
SIR BENJAMIN D'URBAN ......
Till-: OLD METHOD OF SOUTH AFRICAN TRAVEL AND EXPLORA- TION—WAGGONS AND TEAMS OF OXEN . IIII-; BOER COSTUME OF THE 'FORTIES OF THE NINETEENTH I I NTURY (AS WORN BY THE FRENCH EXPLORER, M. DELEGORG1 ......
\ GR] \l /ill" WAP. dance: ZULULAND THE KUDU PASS IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS, ON THE BORDERS OF BASUTOLAND .....
VASCO DA GAMA'S MONUMENT, Dl RBAN, NATAL Mil. rOWN AND HARBOUR OF DURBAN, NATAL \ BAVENDA VILLAGE IN Mil: NORTHERN TRANSVAAL A TYPICA1 ZULU CHIEI SNOW IN sin III \m;k \ : l ill-; VICINITY OF GIANT'S CASTLE IN I III I IK \Kl NSBI RG MOUNTAINS ....
I\ r.l.i HUANALAND
A ' KRAAL' OR VILLAGE IN BASUTOLAND
\ ZULA WARRIOR .......
A ZULU PRINCE (DEBUKA) ; SON OF PANDA .
Mil rEMPORARY BRITISH CAMP AT CONGELLA, NEAR THE SIT OF DURBAN, [842 DICK ' KING, THE HERO OF Till: 600 MILE RIDE IN TEN DAY FROM DURBAN TO GRAHAMSTOWN IN [843 R-MARITZBURG IN 1853 .....
PAGE 5°
51
53
54 55 57 58 63
65 67 69
7° 71 73 76 79
88
90
91 92 96 99
102 103 107 112 "5
116
IT7 118
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
PACE
FORMERLY PRIME
LIEUT. -GENERAL SIR GEORGE WAKELYN HARRY SMITH, K.C.B. . 121 HARRISMITH, A TOWN IN THE EASTERN ORANGE FREE STATE,
NAMED AFTER SIR HARRY SMITH . . . . . 124
THE ORANGE RIVER : NAMAKWALAND . . . ■ I25 THE MAJESTY OF SOUTH AFRICA . . . • .129 SIR GEORGE GREY, GOVERNOR OF CAPE COLONY, AND HIGH
COMMISSIONER OF SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-60 . . I31 A STREET IN HARRISMITH, AN IMPORTANT TOWN IN THE
EASTERN PART OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE . 133
ADAM KOK . . . . • • • • • x34
THE ' CULLINAN ' DIAMOND, CUT INTO TWO HALVES . . 1 37 THE HON. SIR JOHN BRAND, PRESIDENT OF THE ORANGE
FREE STATE ....•■•• X4X
AN INCIDENT IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR . . . I42
IN THE TRANSVAAL ....•••• x45 THE DUTCH (REFORMED) CHURCH AND THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE :
PRETORIA .....••• :4^ A BOHR FARMER OF THE TRANSVAAL AND HIS TEN SONS READY
FOR WAR . . . . . • • • • I49
A LOCUST SWARM IX SOUTH AFRICA ..... 1 5 2 SIR THEOPHILUS SHEPSTONE, WHO ANNEXED THE TRANSVAAL
in i.s-7 . . . . . • ■ • 15 3
A GROUP WITH SIR THEOPHILUS SHEPSTOXE AT THE ANNEXATION
OF THE TRANSVAAL IN 1877 ..... I55
STEPHANUS JOHANNES PAULUS KRUGER : PRESIDENT OF THE TRANSVAAL (SOUTH AFRICAX REPUBLIC) FROM I SS I TO I 9OO . . . . ■ • ■ • .158
SIR HENRY BARTLE EDWARD FRERE . . . . • ' 5(>
MAJUBA HILL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY . . . [6l
AN ALLUVIAL GOLD NUGGET OF 30 OZ. FROM LYDENBURG, EASTERN TRANSVAAL
\\ AVENUE OF PINES NEAR CAPETOWN
ADDERLEY STREET, CAPETOWN- ANGORA GOATS OF CAPE COLONY
THE LATE JAN HENDRIK HOFMEYR
CHIEF SANDILE OF THE GAIKA KAFIRS
KRELI, CHIEF OF THE GALEKA KAFIRS
THE LATE RIGHT HON. CECIL JOHN RHODES, MINISTER OF CAPE COLONY
THOMAS BAINES ....
K.3
169
'7' x73 '74 r75
179 180
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
A BAOBAB TREE IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA .... 183 CECIL RHODES' HOME AT GROOTSCHUUR, RONDEBOSCH, NEAR
CAPETOWN . . . . . . . .185
IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA . . . . . . 1 87
RIGHT HON. DR. LEANDER STARR JAMESON, PRIME MINISTER
OF CAPE COLONY, I904-7 . . . . . 1 88
POST OFFICE : JOHANNESBURG ...... 189
JOHANNESBURG TO-DAY ....... I90
A HOUSE IN MODERN BULAWAYO ..... I92
I III: GRIM REALITIES OF WAR : THE BRITISH DEAD IN THE
TRENCHES OF SPION KOP ...... I94
A HOUSE IN PRETORIA, THE CAPITAL OF THE TRANSVAAL . I95
I HI. REALITIES OF WAR: A BURNT HOUSE AND DESTROYED
HOMESTEAD IN THE TRANSVAAL .... I96
IIII. TUGELA RIVER AT COLENSO, SHOWING THE NATAL
GOVERNMENT RAILWAY BRIDGE DESTROYED IN 1899 AT
COMMENCEMENT OF SOUTH AFRICAN WAR LADYSMITH .......
RHODES' GRAVE IN THE MATOPPO HILLS
DAVID LIVINGSTONE ..... ARAP. AND YAO SLAVE TRADERS OF NYASALAND MASEAAND MWITU, THE LAST TWO SURVIVORS OF LIVINGSTONE'S
MAKOLOLO ox Till. RIVER SHIRE, 1 893 . . . 204
MIL SOUTH END OF LAKE TANGANYIKA AND THE LITTLE
SI I ,.)0|) NEWS,' ITT ON THE LAKE IN [886 . 205
MLOZI, IIII. ARM'. CHIEF OF NORTH NYASA . . . 206
TAWAKAL1 SUDI : Ji'ML.i. OF KOTA-KOTA .... mj
■ I 1: 01 MLOZl'S GREAT STOCKADE ON I Hi: RUKURU RIVER,
NORTH NYASALAND '. TAKEN BY THE BRITISH FORCES,
'" c. 5, [895 208
I HI. HOISTING "i mi BRITISH FLAG AT MAKANJIRA's, SOUTH I NYASA, 1893, AT THF- PLACE WHERE CAPTAIN MAGUIRE WAS KILLED, AND DR. BOYCE AND MR. McEWAN WEI RED ....... 209
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON IN A CAMP ON THE UPPER SHIRE, WHICH WAS P.ESIEGED AT THE TIME ( [893) BY ARAB AND YAO SLAVE TRADERS ........ 2IO
RIVER SCENERY IN NORTHERN RHODESIA . . . .211
KING CECHWAYO IN 1875 . . . . .214
ISANDHLWANA : OR THE HILL OF THE LITTLE HAND . .215
*97
I98 I99 200 202
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xv
CHIEF JOHN DUNN OF ZULULAND . . . . .
AX EARLY PHOTOGRAPH OF DINIZULU, THE SON OF CECHWAYO IN LOVELY NATAL .....
A NATAL TEA GARDEN WORKED BY INDIAN KULIS
THE ENTRANCE TO DURBAN HARBOUR
HAY MAKING IN NATAL ....
THE TOWN HALL, DURBAN, NATAL NATAL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND POLICE ZULU WOMEN DOING EACH OTHER'S HAIR H.M.S. 'GOOD HOPE' ENTERING DURBAN HARBOUR THE PRINCIPALS WHO NEGOTIATED THE ARMISTICE AND PEACE OF VEREENIGIXG .....
NEGRO MINERS IN THE TRANSVAAL
A CHINAMAN ON THE RAND AND HIS TWO CHILDREN
MINERS, WHITE AND BLACK ) IOOO FEET UNDERGROUND IN
THE TRANSVAAL GOLD MINES A CHINESE MINER, TRANSVAAL, I905 . THE RIGHT HON. LOUIS BOTHA, PRIME MINISTER OF THE TRANSVAAL .......
CAPETOWN WITH THE ' TABLE CLOTH ' ON TABLE MOUNTAIN A TOBACCO PLANTATION IN NATAL ....
COTTON PLANTING IN NATAL .....
' BRAYING ' A SKIN TO MAKE A KAROSS
CATCHING A COCK OSTRICH FOR PLUCKING, CAPE COLONY
RT. HON. JOHN XAVIEK MERRIMAN, PRIME MINISTER, CAPE COLONY ......
A MANANJA OF THE SHIRE HIGHLANDS
A NATIVE OF THE CENTRAL ZAMBEZI WITH FRONT TEETH REMOVED ........
CHIEF A.DABUKA OF ZULULAND .....
A NATIVE KRAAL IN ZULULAND .....
FINGO KAFIRS . . . .
CLERGYMEN OP THE NATIVE ETHIOPIAN CHURCH, NOW AFFILI ATED TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
A NATAL POLICEMAN ......
ZANZIBARI ARABS, LAKE NVASA .....
THE SURRENDER OF THE ISLAND OF MAURITIUS TO THE BRITISH AT PORT LOUIS, l8lO ....
THE SEYCHELLES FROM THE SEA
VIEW IN THE SEYCHELLES
PAGE 2l6
217
218
219
220
221 222 223 224 225
2 26
227 228
229
230
231
232
233 234 235 236
-'37 240
242 246
247 252
25 1
256
257
261 262
263
XVI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN A PANDANUS SWAMP: WEST AFRICA
A MARKET-PLACE AT BATHURST, RIVER GAMBIA
MID-DAY IN A Ml'HAMMADAN TOWN, RIVER GAMBIA
A LANDSCAPE IN THE GAMBIA COLONY ....
A MAXDINGO ........
THE RINGLET-HAIRED FULA .....
THE FORMER ALAKE OF ABEOKUTA '. A GREAT CHIEF OF TH
EGBA PEOPLE (LAGOS HINTERLAND) IN FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE ..... A TYPICAL KRUBOY SEAMAN, SIERRA LEONE (AIM COAST CASTLE, GOLD COAST ....
IN THE NATIVE TOWN, ACCRA ..... ON THE RIVER ANKOBRA, GOLD COAST HINTERLAND IN THE FOREST OF THE GOLD COAST HINTERLAND ON THE VOLTA RIVER NEAR ITS MOUTH SURF-BOATS LEAVING THE SHORE, ACCRA SURF-BOATS COMING OFF FROM CAPE COAST CASTLE (GOLD
COAST) ........
TALL FORI SI IN ASIIAN'I I . ( USTOMS STATION AT CHEASE, ON THE RIVER VOLTA, OPPOSITE MAX TOGOLAND ......
ACCRA BOATMEN 01 III! GA TRIBE: GOLD COAST ASIIAN I I CI 0P1 I.
FAN I ! AR I ISANS : OAST .....
A I AN I I WOMAN : GOLD COAST .....
P 01 I HIEFS AXIi PEOPLE, NKORANZA, BEYOND ASHANTI
GOLD COAS1 HINT] KM. AND ..... P OF PRINCIPAL CHIEFS: NWoRo: NORTHERN TERRI
TOR] ES : GOLD I OAST .....
Illl. OMANHIN OF INSUAIN, A CHIEF FROM nil EASTERN
MINI ERLAND 01 I III GOLD I >\ ONY .
BUILDING Mil RAILWAY FROM SEKOND] TO THE GOLD MINING
illl WESTERN GOLD COAS1 THE RAILWAY TO Illl GOLD FIELDS: GOLD COAST \ GOLD MINING SETTLEMENT I WESTERN GOLD COAS1 . * STEAM DREDGER A I WORK IN A GOLD COAST RUHR,
EXTRACTING THE GOLD FROM THE SAND AND MUD OF
THE STREAM ........
A GOLD COAST STOOL CARVED IN THE FORM OF AN ELEPHANT .
PAGE
266 267
268
269
271
272
273
2 75 277 280 281 282 283 284 285
289
290 291
292 293
-"I
295 296
297
298 299 300
301 302
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xvi 1
IX THE NEGRO QUARTER OF THE TOWN OF LAGOS
NATIVE IDOLS OF THE NIMBI OR ' BRASS ' RIVER PEOPLE I NIG
DELTA ........
A VILLAGE IN Till: LAGOS HINTERLAND
THE BUSA RAPIDS, LOWER NIGER ....
ON THE SHORES OF LAKE CHAD ....
COMMANDER HUGH CLAPPERTOX, R.X., THE FIRST BRITISH
EXPLORER TO REACH SOKOTO AND NUPE IN BORXU (XORTHERX NIGERIA) ....
OX THE LOWER NIGER, IN THE DELTA RIGHT HON. SIR GEORGE TAUBMAX GOLDIE, THE FOUNDER O
XORTHERX NIGERIA ......
A CHIEF IX HIS STATE CAXOE, BONNY RIVER, NIGER DELT A CHIEF OF THE LAGOS HINTERLAND ....
SIR FREDERICK DEALTRV LUGARD ....
A FCLA WARRIOR : XORTHERX NIGERIA
IX SOKOTO ........
THE RAILWAY FROM LAGOS TO THE XIGER .
A FULA HERDSMAN" AXD HIS CATTLE : NORTHERN" NIGERIA
A FULA WOMAN' .......
HAUSA PEOPLE BATHING IX THE XIGER AT LOKOJA A KANURI HORSEMAN : BORXU, XORTHERX NIGERIA THE PEOPLE OF LAGOS ......
THE SPHINX AND Till-: PYRAMIDS ....
A CIRCASSIAN OFFICER OF THE OLD STYLE IN THE EGYPTIA:
SERVICE ........
\1I\I \D A.RABI PASHA ......
ALEXANDRIA \ PLACE DES CONSULS ....
THE CITY OF CAIRO SEEX FROM AI. A.ZHAR UNIVERSITY
SIR SAMUEL BAKER, DISCOVERER OF LAKE ALBERT NYANZA
AND A E ONE TIME THE GOVERNOR OF THE EQUATORIA1
PROVINCE OF THE: EGYPTIAN SUDAN GENERAL GORDON' .......
DR. EMIN PASHA (EDUARD SCHNITZER), GOVERNOR 01
EQUATORIA GEXERAL CHARLES EDWARD GORDOX, R.E., GOVERNOR-GENERA
OF THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN GEXERAL VISCOUNT WOLSELEV . A VILLAGE IX UPPER EGYPT, NEAR MEMPHIS
PAGE 305
30b
307 308
309
3IQ 3ii 313
31.5 3 x 6 321
3*5 326 328
329
333 335 3.V 339
341 M* 344 345
346
347
349
35° Mi 353
XVI 11
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
X THE
EGYPT
D SEA
THE EARL OF CROMER, G.C.B.. BRITISH AGENT AND CONSUL- GENERAL IN EGYPT FROM I 883 TO I906
' pharaoh's bed ' : the half-submerged temples i
dammed-up nile waters ....
the nile at luxor ......
the ' fuzzie wuzzies ' : hamite tribes of eastern
hadendowas, bisharis, etc. sir francis reginald wingate i iii sh i. of omdurman ..... the mahdl's tomb : omdurman the gordon' statue : khartum the white nile! near khartum the train crossing the desert from port sudan (re
to khartum ......
the train at khartum station
a libyan village on the confines of egypt (oasis of siwah
ix the nubian desert .....
the sea front and clock tower at zanzibar kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in africa: iq.j20 feet sir john kirk. g.c.m.g. .....
sir henry morton stanley, g.c.b. .
a street in mombasa .....
a negro porter of east africa : mnyamwezi the masai of east africa ....
iii! ripon falls and the birth of the victoria nile the victoria nyanza .....
in the banana groves of buganda
the uganda railway descending into the rut v
british east africa . sleeping-sickness patients, entebbe, uganda, [903
\DI.N
TYPICAL SOMALILAND I VNDSl \l'l. I STONES, RUBBLE AND THORN
V SOMALI HUT
IN SOMALI] WD ......
\ I HRISTIAN NATIVE OF BUGANDA
TYPES OF BRITISH MEN WHO HAVE OPENED UP AFRICA SIONARY SCHOLAR ....
TYPES OF BRITISH MEN WHO HAVE OPENED UP AFRICA MILITARY OFFICER ....
ALLEY
THE
TH
354
355 356
357 359 360 361 362 363
364 365 367 368
373 375 377 380 382
385 388
389 39i 393
394 39<3 397 398 400 402 4°5
406 407
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xix
LIST OF MAPS
TAGE
AFRICA AND SOUTH AMERICA FROM THE EARLY PART OF THE
tertiary epoch ..... Facing page i
SKETCH MAP OF KAFFRARIA
BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
EGYPT AND THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
POLITICAL MAP OF AFRICA
|
, |
80 |
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, |
„ 258 |
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. |
„ 318 |
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, |
„ 342 |
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1 |
„ 378 |
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, |
„ 410 |
AFRICA and SOUTH AMERICA from the early pari of the Tertiary Epoch / downtorecenttimes : a hypothetical sketch ' to show variability of land surface and water. The White spaces show Ocean depth" below\ 4-0
6,600 feet; the Dark Blue indicates the existing African lakes* and the deep portions of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; the Mauve represents areas of the Ocean bed which were probably once dry land ;\ the Pale Blue spaces are the former extensions of fresh water lakes or the' shallow incursions of the ilea; and the Red colour implies land mainly of ■ Primary formation which has not been under water (within the black outline)' since the Secondary Epoch, with the exception of a few small patches in Morocco, Eastern and Southernmost Africa ; or which, as ahng the African Coast and, in Soutb-East South America, has only recently been submerged.
O IO 2U '.-.(• *0 50 «0 TO S
\I *
XO O lO 20 30 4sO SO 60 70
APRlCAand SOUTH AMERICA
' from the early part of the Tertiary Epoch f/ down to recent times : a hypothetical sketch j' to show variability of land surface and water.
..---;-—-" ' '": the White spaces show Ocean depths' below\ *0
6,600 feet ; the Dark Blue indicates the existing African lakes, and the deep portions of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; the Mauve represents arca3 of the Ocean bed which were probably once dry land; the Pale Blue spaces are the former extensions of fresh water lakes or the shallow incursions of the Sea; and the Red colour implies land mainly of Primary formation which has not been under water (within the black outline} since the Secondary Epoch, with the exception of a few small patches in Morocco, Eastern and Southernmost Africa; or which, as along the African Coast and, in Soutb-East South A merica, has only recently been submerged.
O IO SO *30 tO 50 60 70 80
CawHBEfiffifaSHBoSSSaHSSHHHBBnsSSmK
A HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
OF
THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN AFRICA
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
AFRICA is the second largest of the earth's five great divisions of land and has an area of about 11,280,000 or, including the great island of Madagascar, of 11,508,000 square miles. It comprises a larger amount of land-surface between the tropics than any other continent, and is con- sequently the hottest region of the globe. Only about one-fourth part of its area lies within the temperate zones.
The extreme north of Africa — Mauretania,1 Cyrene or Barka, and Lower Egypt — really belongs more to Europe and the Mediterranean Basin than to true Africa. The human races and history, the animals and plants of the districts north of the Sahara Desert are closely allied to those of Southern Europe and Nearer Asia. Between Mediterranean Africa and the vast tropical regions farther south stretches the largest continuous area of sandy or stony desert in the world, called the Sahara in the west, and the Libyan and Nubian Deserts in the centre and east. This arid region is continued across Arabia to South -
1 A convenient general term for the great Atlantean projection of North Africa, which includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Western Tripoli.
B
INTRODUCTORY
eastern Persia and Western India
In Africa there is but one easy natural route across it — the valley of the Nile, which con- nects the Mediterranean coast with the well- watered equatorial belt. South of the 18th degree of N. latitude, the desert gives way to a region of scrubby vege- tation, and this about the 10th parallel — more or less — mellows into a beautiful park-like country. In the equa- torial regions of Africa (except in the extreme east) there is dense, magnificent forest, nourished by an average rainfall of 80 inches per annum. This forest again merges into the typical park-lands far- ther south, covered wit 1 i tree euphorbias, tall grass and herbage, and occasional clumps of palms and large trees. In South-east Africa these park-lands (with bamboos and forests on the mountains) change to a scrubby country on the chilly plateaus, and finally pass into the abundant vegetation of
INTRODUCTORY 3
temperate South Africa. In South-western Africa, however, there is a small area of sandy, stony desert (usually called ' Kala-hari ') which corresponds very markedly to the Sahara in the north, even in flora.
Of course, these districts of waterless desert, sparse vegetation, grassy plains and tall trees, splendid forests, are not arranged in parallel zones with uniform regularity. The direction of their limits trends rather from north-
■■■*■ ! *£*
v. »«
Photo by the late W. C. Palgrave A TYPICAL SCENE IN ARID SOUTH AFRICA, NEAR THE ORANGE RIVER! THE DRY BED OE A ONCE POWERFUL RIVER IN NAM AKWAI.AND
west to south-east. Thus, on the Atlantic coast of North Africa the Sahara Desert practically ceases at about 20° N. Lit., yet comes as far south as 15° in Central and Eastern Africa. The scrub country covers much of Somaliland, east of Lake Rudolph, and descends on the eastern coast of Africa as far south as the Equator. The dense forests of the equatorial belt extend northwards up the West African coast to 13° X. lat.. but on the Victoria Nyanza, scarcely reach as far north as the Equator, and barely attain to the coasts of the Indian Ocean, except on the islands of Zan- zibar and Pemba. The arid country of the South-west
j, INTRODUCTORY
African desert creeps in an ever narrowing band up the Angola coast as far north as the 14th degree of S. lat., but on the opposite coast of Africa, along the Indian Ocean, there is no arid region at all.
The dense forest area of Africa begins as a narrow coast belt south of the Gambia River, and follows the coast line of West Africa (Guinea) at a varying distance east-
I'h )to by Col. II. (',. C. Swayne THE ' [HORN ' COUNTRY
UTiri i I O] IHARA DESERT ; SOMALILAND AND EAS1
AFRII \ SOUTH AFRU
till it reaches the south bank ol the Benue River, near its confluence with the Niger. Thence it extends south-eastwards to the 3rd degree of X. lat.. and following this line (more or less) is arrested by the edge of the Nile watershed near Lake Albert. The Great Forest crosses the Semliki River and clothes the slopes of Ruwenzori. It occupies much of Buganda and Unyoro and the eastern : lands of the Victoria Nyanza. It reaches to the west coast ot Tanganyika, the vicinity of Lake Mweru, the confluence of the Lualaba and the Luapula, and the line of the 7th degree of S. lat. in Western Congoland. There
INTRODUCTORY 5
aif also isolated patches of ' West African * forest round Mount Kenya in East Africa, and in the islands of Pemba
/. /■'. C unningham
THE TAKKLANDS OF AFRICA
and Zanzibar, perhaps also in other parts of Mast Africa, such as the north-west shores of Lake Xyasa. Elsewhere in Africa there are thick woods with lofty trees, on the
6 INTRODUCTORY
Atlas and Aures mountains of Mauretania (the trees of which are quite different from those of tropical Africa, and are akin to the forest trees of Europe and Syria) ; on the slopes of most of the high mountains in Eastern, Western, and South-central Africa : at the sources and along the lower course of the Zambezi River; and, lastly, in the southern part of Cape Colony. Here (in Cape Colony) the forest differs from the tropical African flora, and is more akin in its relationships to that of Australia and sub- tropical South America. The Comoro Islands and the Seychelles and the western and northern parts of Mada- gascar are densely forested, and the trees are divided in relationship between those of tropical Africa, South America, and the Malay region.
The Sahara, the Libyan, and the Nubian deserts are by no means hopeless for human traffic, habitation, or the cultivation of food crops. In the west, north, and north- east there are vast tracks of shifting sand (made from rock crumbling under the alternations of heat and cold and rubbed into sand and dust by the wind) which, to some extent, represent the dry beds of ancient shallow seas ; but there are also high tablelands and lofty mountains which attract and dissolve rain-clouds. There are many depressions (oases) where water is very near the surface or actually lies in shallow pools. The desert is traversed in some parts by broad, dry river valleys (called in Arabic, 'wed or ' wadi ') ; and in these, water can often be obtained by digging. The climate, though very cold at night and fiercely hot by day, is not unhealthy. The same may be said about the Kalahari desert1 in South-west Africa.
The African climate is. in fact, only naturally unhealthy to Europeans in the hot and moist regions of the dense West African forests: elsewhere, though sometimes very
1 The name ' Kalahari ' is said to be a corruption of Kari Kari, a Sechuana word meaning a pool of salt or brackish water ; because this and r' ' Africa (which is most devoid of vegetation
nearest the Atlantic coast) often contains pools of brackish water during the rainy season.
INTRODUCTORY 7
hot, it is not the climate which disagrees with the stranger, but the fact that he is liable to be poisoned by disease
Photo by Mr Harry )■ CENTRAL AFRICAN SCENERY: A MOUNTAIN STREAM
germs introduced into his body (by blood-sucking insects or ticks acting as the agency) from the blood of the indige- nous people. Yet the great average heat of Africa has no
tNTRODUCTORY
doubt aft- ■< ted human energy in times past and caused it to be tin- most backward of the continents. But as in South America (with its long spine of the Andes and the highlands <>f Brazil, Guiana, and Venezuela), so also in Africa, there are mountainous districts and elevated table- ii i in« Hi- above sea level, with a temperate and delicious climate, even in the regions under the equator ml between the tropics. Here, so far as climate is con- I. Europeans may live in perfect health and fully maintain their vigour. Such are the Nubian Alps, between . t and the Red Sea (where the mountains rise to alti- tudes <>f five to seven thousand feet): the mountains of esti and Darfur (altitudes of eight and four thousand : the snow-crowned heights of Abyssinia (highest point, Mt. Simien, about 15,200 feet) and its considerable area of elevated tablelands, with many points above 10,000 feet in altitude; the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, nearly 20,000 eet (19,430), highest of African mountains, and of Kenya 1 feet) m equatorial East Africa: the plateaus of . Nandi, Aberdare, and Kikuyu (6000 to 13,000 feet) : Ruwenzori (16,815 feet), and the Lukonjo-Burega-Burundi highlands (5000 to 9000 feet) between' the north-east of Tanganyika and the west coast of Lake Albert (the snow-flecked active volcanoes of Mfumbiro, of between '0 and 14,000 feet, are in the same region); the moun- 3 and tablelands round about Lake Nyasa (10,000 to 1 feet); ol Southern Rhodesia (5000 to 10,000 feet); Damaraland (5000 to 8000 feet) ; of the Benguela province to "'»(... feet) : the northern Cameroons mo ^et); of the upper Benue (Adamawa)
1 mer is volcanoes (13,360 to 6000
the mountains of inner Liberia and French Guinea 0 [" 0; of Fernando IV, (10,000 feet); Sao
Hl",: ""': -"1 Of the Cape Verde Islands (3000
;l"- also mighty mountains in North Africa—
' :,,,,i An' striking alt, fades of which
!'"' to 6000 feet in the east, the higher
INTRODUCTORY
<>
peaks of the Atlas in Morocco being snow-crowned with small glaciers. In the not far distant Canary Islands the volcanic snow-crowned cone of Tenerife rises to 12,000 feet above sea level, and in Grand Canary there are altitudes of over 6000 feet. And in South Africa there are the Cape Colony ranges (5000 to 8000 feet); the Kwathlamba- Drakensberg Mts. (8000 to 11,000 feet), and the Eastern
Pliolo by Sir Harry Johnston THE FOR] l O] EQUATORIAL AFRK V
Transvaal Mts. (8000 feet), together with the 'high veld' tan average 5000 feet above sea level) ; all of which intro- duce into the sub-tropical regions of the torrid continent the invigorating influence of ice and snow.
Africa is still remarkable for its great lakes, though the largest of these. Victoria X van/a 27,000 square miles in area—is not so large as Lake Superior in North America. There i^ a remarkable string of narrow lakes through the east centre of the continent Nyasa, Tanganyika, Alberl Edward, Albert Nyanza which till up, no doubt, the deepest holes in a great crack or rent in the rocks ol
io INTRODUCTORY
Africa's backbone. There is also Lake Chad — a mere couple of ponds to-day compared with its former extent — a sheet of water which was probably once part of the Niger Basin. And there are Lakes Mweru and Bangweulu at the Congo's sources, and Lake Leopold in the lowest part of the great inner Congo Basin. But these are small, indeed, compared with the vast, shallow, inland seas of the past, salt and fresh. There was once probably a con- tinuous sea stretching from the basin of Lake Chad, across the valley of the upper Niger to the Atlantic. The north- central basin of the mighty Congo was formerly a large interior, fresh-water sea which eventually forced for itself an outlet through the Crystal Mountains into the South Atlantic. There was a similar but smaller sheet of water in the Bahr-al-ghazal1 region of the western Nile basin; and the Victoria Nyanza joined its waters to those of Lakes Albert Edward and Albert Nyanza, on either side of the Ruwenzori range. There were also large lakes in South Africa and on the East African steppes ; and, finally, the Mediterranean Sea once penetrated far into the northern Sahara, and into the Libyan Desert.
Very anciently — say at the beginning of the Tertiary epoch, three or four million years ago — Africa must have been connected with South America by temporary land bridges across the Atlantic (the principal one uniting S.W. Africa with Patagonia, and the other — or a chain of islands — connecting X.W. Africa with Brazil). And for a longer period and down to a later time (the early Miocene) the African continent was linked with Madagascar. It is necessary to presume this approximation or union of the continents in order to explain the strange affinities between the beasts, birds, reptiles, and other animals of Madagascar and those of South America, and between the birds, fish, insects, spiders, and plants of West Africa and Tropical America. The reason why the fauna of Madagascar resembles that of South America more closely than is the
1 Bahr-al-ghazal means in Arabic ' River of Antelopes.' It is the junction of a number of great western affluents of the Nile.
INTRODUCTORY
ii
case with the existing animal forms in the intervening continent of Africa, is probably that Africa was severed
Fhoio by Sir harry Johnston MOUNTAIN SCENERY IN SOUTH-CENTRAL AFRICA THE PEAKS AND ' CEDARS ' ON JIT. MI- AN J E
from Madagascar in the early Miocene period before the main continent became the • home of the many modern
12 INTRODUCTORY
types of beast and bird which entered it from the Medi- terranean basin of Arabia. Madagascar being then cut off from Africa by a strait of water, retained the old-fashioned Eocene mammalian types of lemurs and archseolemurs,1 civets, tenrecs,2 boa snakes, &c, which once spread right across Africa to the South American continent. These creatures — most of them — died out in Africa itself (or changed into more perfected forms) under the rivalry of the new types coming in from the north.
At the time when Africa and South America were joined by some vanished isthmus in the southern sea, or by chains of islands, large and small, South America was also connected with the now frozen continent of Antarctica, and that again with Australia and to some extent with New Zealand. This theory — based on the shallowness of the intervening seas — is put forward to explain the relationships between the flora, insects, spiders, &c, of southernmost temperate South Africa (Cape Colony) and those of Australia.
Africa, in fact, is like a wonderful museum to illustrate the past conditions of life which have existed in our own country, and in Southern ami Western Europe. In Mada- gascar we have still living lemurs or ' half apes,' which in very similar forms are found fossil in France and Britain dating from early Tertiary (Eocene) times; in West Africa we find beasts and birds characteristic of France and Southern Germany in the Miocene; in the rest of Tropical Africa is now the marvellous vanished fauna of Europe and Western Asia in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. In Mauretania linger lions, leopards, hyenas, gazelles, porcupines, genets, and ichneumons, once found in Greece and tlie Balkan Peninsula, in Italy and Spain at the beginning of the Historical period.
1 The archaeolemurs have recently been discovered fossil in Madagascar. They were forms to some extent intermediate between lemurs, American monkeys or old-world monkeys.
- Tenrecs are insectivorous mammals, like hedgehogs in outward appear- ance but with a much more generalized type of dentition. Their nearest living allies (seemingly) are found in Cuba and' Haiti.
INTRODUCTORY 13
And with mankind in Africa it is the same thing. In Morocco and Tunisia we have the life and customs of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages; in Egypt (away from European civilization) the continuation of Biblical times; in many parts of the Sudan, East, West, and South Africa we rind a Neolithic type of culture, of dwellings, arms, ornaments characteristic of Europe five to ten thousand
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Photo by the expedition of H.R.H. the Duke of the Ab L
THE HIGHEST PEAKS OF RUWENZORI RANGE
years ago; and, lastly, in the life of the Bushmen and of the Congo pygmies we find almost exactly reproduced the existence of our Palaeolithic cave - dwelling ancestors in France and Britain at that remote period when only rude implements of wood, stone, and bone had been invented.
During the Pliocene and Pleistocene periods of that wonderful Tertiary epoch in the earth's history the Age of Mammals— Mediterranean Africa had developed or had received from Europe and Asia the magnificent fauna which makes the tropical regions of this continent the world's great wonderland in Natural History at the present day. Various causes — the cold breath of the Ice Ages, the attacks of Neolithic Man, the increased drought, and lack of water
i4 INTRODUCTORY
and vegetation — drove this medley of beasts out of Maure- tania, Egypt, and Libya into the recesses of Tropical Africa, where they now remain : giraffes and okapis ; buffaloes, elands, and bushbucks ; antelopes innumerable : wart-hogs, forest-pigs, and bush-pigs ; hippopotami ; rhinoceroses, zebras, and asses ; elephants and hyraxes ; the manis and ant-bear edentates ; lions, leopards, cheetahs, and lynxes ; hyenas, jackals, and hunting-dogs ; monkeys, baboons, and great apes.
Man followed hard on the retreating beasts. He came perhaps first to Mauretania — at a most remote period — and came in a form so primitive as scarcely to belong definitely to any of the specialized human races of the present day. The first human settlers in North Africa may have been of that brutal type known as Neanderthaloid,1 of which examples have been discovered fossil in France and Germany — a type of which the black Australian is the nearest living representative at the present day. Then there came the dark-haired white man of the Mediterranean (Iberian, Berber, Libyan). Whether any negroid race ever originally inhabited Mauretania (before modern times) is as yet unknown. Remains have been found in Southern France and in Italy of a very remote human period which strongly suggest Negro affinities ; otherwise all the evidence available associates the ancient distribution of the Negro in the Western world entirely with Tropical xAirica and Egypt.
The Negro sub-species of humanity may have originated in Western Asia or India, and thence have spread eastwards to the Malay Peninsula, the Andaman Islands, the Malay Archipelago and Philippines, Eastern Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania, Fiji, and the New Hebrides ; while westwards the range extended across Arabia into Tropical Africa and Egypt.
The Comoro Islands and Western Madagascar were also, to some degree, colonised by Negroes, who in the
1 Named after the Neanderthal in Rhenish Germany, where the first remains of this type were discovered. See Note A at end of chapter.
INTRODUCTORY
15
last-named island mingled with the Polynesian invaders from Sumatra, and adopted their Malay-like language.
N>, •*
ape
•r
%'
From a drawing published by the C THE OK API OK A PI A JOHSSTOXI
The African Negroes of modern times are divided into two very distinct groups : l the True Negro and the Bush- man. With the last named is associated the Hottentot, who
1 See Note B at encLof chapter.
[6
INTRODUCTORY
seems to be the result of an old hybrid between the tall, dark-skinned Negro and the short, pale-skinned Bushman.
Photo by the late II'. C. Palgrave
I M VRA, OK HAUKWOIN WOMAN IMI \ iill.l IV III! MOUNTAINS Of DAMARALAND IS SpMEWHAT LIKE
rill I'ORESl Mi. I .illl. IT REPRESENTS A PRIMITIVE FORM OI NEGRO
Al l ll D ro nil CONGO I VGMY I "v PI
The i or ■ ■ Pygmies of the Equatorial Forest Belt are True
but "I a very primitive type which has probably
ed into dwarfishness by living in the dense forests.
ica, vvhi ii first invaded by the Negro from
INTRODUCTORY
17
the north-east, was still (it may be assumed) a good deal cut off from the Mediterranean regions by deserts and shallow seas. West of Somaliland and south of the 10th degree of north latitude the way into inner Africa was
From a photograph lent by the Royal Anthropological Institute A BUSHMAN OF CAPE COLONY
barred by tremendous forests, of which that of Stanley's ' Darkest Africa ' is a vestige and an example. Conse- quently the two main streams of early Negro migration seem to have been due west across the continent from Ethiopia and the Nile to Senegambia ; and southwards through the less - heavily - forested East Africa to the southern extremity beyond the Zambezi.
The first route seems to have been followed by the True
^ INTRODUCTORY
Negro (who afterwards occupied the Atlantic coasts and permeated the Congo basin) ; and the second by the Bush- man type, who was followed up by the Nilotic and Bantu oes. These — perhaps the Nilotic tribes — produced with the Bushman in South-eastern Africa a hybrid race, to be afterwards known as the ' Hottentots ' ; l but ap- parently for some unknown reason the greater part of South Africa remained very sparsely populated down to two or three thousand years ago, before it was invaded by Bantu tribes who were the ancestors of the modern Bechuana (Basuto), Bakaranga, Mashangane, Vatua, Baronga, and Zulu-Kaffir.
About ten thousand years ago (at a guess) a Caucasian race allied to the modern Libyans and Syrians took posses- sion of the lower Nile valley, supplanting and absorbing the indigenes, a dwarfish folk like the Congo pygmies or the Bushmen. These ancestors of the great Egyptian people, together with allied tribes coming from North Africa and Arabia, pressed down on Negro Africa, mingling freely by intermarriage with the black and brown folk, to whom they imparted their Neolithic civilization. The pressure of the intrusive Caucasians gradually drove the pure-blooded Negro peoples into the more equatorial regions of Africa, and even impelled them away from the eastern prolongation of Africa ili- and Gala-land) towards the Congo Basin, Lake Chad, Nigeria, and Guinea.
But, for some reason not very clear to us as yet, the south-eastern extremity of the continent beyond the Zambezi remained, down to fifteen hundred or two thousand years ago, less thickly populated by true Negroes than the great bell between the tropics. Below the latitude of the Zam- bezi mouth the indigenous tribes seem to have belonged mainly to the Bushman or Hottentot type. But about two thousand years ago the great Bantu migrations began. We do not yet know the position of the original home of the
This name — perhaps a cant Dutch term for ' stammerer ' — was first >y the Dutch pioneer settlers at the Cape in the seventeenth
INTRODUCTORY 19
people who had developed the mother tongue of this re-
Photo by J. F. Cunningham
A M! Ill MA OF THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE
markable group of languages, but there are many indications that it lay somewhere in the south-western basin of the
C 2
20 INTRODUCTORY
Nile, possibly in the southern part of the Bahr-al-Ghazal
Photo by the late II'. C. Palgrave
A HOTTENTOT MAN
JAN JONKHF.ER
Province. ( >nce started off on their great career of con- thi Bantu peoples — consisting possibly of an
I ' The conquest was no doubt facilitated by the possession ■1 iron weapons, with which the}- attacked the aborigines still in tone Age.
INTRODUCTORY
21
aristocracy like the modern Hima or Fula type of Equa- torial and Western Africa and of great servile hordes of
riwlo by Capt. II". Stanley
THE FULA TYPE
WEST AFRICA
forest and Nilotic Negroes — rushed across the northern basin of the Congo to the Atlantic coast, to the Cameroons and Fernando Po, and, perhaps simultaneously, conquered
22 INTRODUCTORY
and occupied the region of the Great Lakes — Victoria and Albert Nyanzas, Tanganyika, Nyasa, Bangweulu, and Mweru. They penetrated to the coast of the Indian Ocean some- w here opposite Zanzibar, and after occupying that island, spread northwards up the east coast till they were checked by the Galas or Somalis on the Tana River. South of Zanzibar all the coast regions became theirs down to Natal and the eastern part of Cape Colony, though there remained a few non-Bantu tribes which still exist in German East Africa between Tanganyika and the coast. Bantu Negroes seem to have crossed over about twelve hundred years ago to the Comoro Islands and Madagascar, and were possibly transferred there later as slaves. By about the seventeenth century A..D. they had occupied nearly all the Congo Basin, Angola, and Damaraland. When Europeans first visited and explored Southern (trans-Zambezian) Africa, the big, dark-skinned Negroes, in the form of Bechuana, Bakaranga (Makalaka, Mashona),Zulu, and allied tribes, dominated this region, except in the south-west. The Hottentots and Bushmen still remained the only people inhabiting the greater part of Cape Colony and the coast regions of what is now German South-west Africa. Bushmen and a mysterious outcast race now known as ' Vaalpens ' 1 must also have been amongst the inhabitants of Natal and the Transvaal.
Though we have not as yet absolute, definite proof in all particulars, there is a great mass of recently collected evidence which goes to show that onwards from about a thousand years before Christ the intelligent Arabs of Southern and South-west Arabia had begun to interest themselves greatly in East Africa, more especially seeking for gold. Although Arabia was then, as now (away from the coast mountains), a stony, sandy, unpromising country, it had produced a great development of civilized man— the Semitic group of peoples, of which the Arab, Hebrew, Phceni< ian, Ethiopian (Abyssinian), and Assyrian were members. The great Semitic family of languages, which
1 See p. 41.
INTRODUCTORY
possibly received its special development somewhere be- tween Asia Minor and Arabia, is distantly but distinctly related in origin to the Libyan, Egyptian, and Hamitic groups. The Semites, we believe, some two thousand years before Christ (if not earlier) began to exercise a po- tent influence on the people and country of Egypt. Somewhere about a thousand years B.C. they had con- quered the high- lands of Abyssinia, and had obtained a foothold in North- ern Somaliland, and this was the period, no doubt, at which they com- menced their jour- neys of exploration from the great trading cities oi Yaman, Aden, and the Hadhramaut along the east coast AN ARAb sheikh
of Africa. They (L0WER ECVPT>
must have made an emporium of Zanzibar, and possibly they occupied the little island of Mocambique. They certainly obtained a foothold on the northern delta of the Zambezi, and at Sofa la on the South-east African coast. Their explorations into the interior of equatorial East Africa seem to have been early arrested, either by the hostility of the Negroes or because of the density of the forests then existing. Perhaps, also, they were not tempted in that direction because there were no
24 INTRODUCTORY
indications of gold. But some strange instinct led them to explore the regions in the basin of the Zambezi, and between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. Here they found gold in the alluvium of rivers and embedded in the rock, and here they must have built those strange stone cities and fortifications, first revealed to our knowledge by the Portu- guese in the sixteenth century, but only seriously studied from about twenty years ago.
In these directions of East Africa probably lay the ' land of Ophir." ] which is mentioned in the Bible in connection with the enterprise of Solomon. Solomon, the great Hebrew king, probably ruled down to the Gulf of Akabah and the Red Sea, and tradition has it that he intermarried with the Queen of Sheba (Saba), who was, no doubt, a princess of one of those Arab commercial centres of activity on the coast of South-western Arabia. From the Arab depots here, and eastwards of Aden, Solomon's ships possibly procured not only the gold from South-east Africa and
the bal ns or monkeys (the 'apes' of the Bible), but
the incense and ivory of Somaliland and the peacocks of India: for the Arabs of that period had not only opened up to the knowledge of the white man the utterly savage ns of East Africa, but the already highly civilized -t.it. - of \Wstern India.
It is a i minus fa< i that coins of the Maccabees, dating from more than a hundred years B.C., have recently been found in Natal and Zululand, an evidence possibly that Jewish indirect trade with East Africa was kept up almost down to the tin)'- of Christ.
mething we may infer — occurred to slacken pre- [slamic Arabian intercourse with East Africa between \.i'. 100 and 600 approximately. It was most likely the m. it Bantu invasion rn and Southern Africa. The
Arab- of those an< ienl days had. no doubt, found it easy enough to cope with the East African nomad and pastoral
' Though the a. tual name Op] r v as probably applied by the Hebrew writers to a i Arabia, which was a great centre of the
African trade.
INTRODUCTORY
25
tribes and the feeble Hottentots and Bushmen ; but they met with a very different problem when they battled with the hordes of Bantu Negroes, akin in type to the modern Zulu.1 So they seem to have abandoned their great stone cities of modern Rhodesia and Zambezia, and to have retreated to a few footholds on the coast. Even these last
Photo by R. Hall
THE ANCIENT RUIN'S OF RHODESIA
SOUTH-EAST WALL OF ELLIPTICAL TEMPLE AT ZIMBABWE SHOWING ' CHEVRON ' OR HERRING-BONE PATTERN ALONG THE TOP. MR. R. HALL AND EARLIER EX- PLORERS HAVE ASSOCIATED THE OLDER AND MORE ELABORATE STONE BUILDINGS TOVND ALL OVER SOUTHERN RHODESIA WITH PREHISTORIC ARAB SETTLERS
may have been surrendered for a time when the up-rising of the Muhammadan religion turned all the thoughts and ambitions of Arabia to the conquest of the Greek and Roman world. But from about 900 a. P. onwards the Arabs — whose marvellous impulse, fusing with that of the very similar Libyan tribes of North Africa and the Sahara Desert, had already carried them from Morocco southwards along the Atlantic coast to the mouth of the Senegal —
1 In fact, the Arabs and Arabized Moors only recovered their superiority over the African indigenes when they took to the use of horses in the Northern Sudan (say '.'00 A.D.) and firearms in Eastern Africa (from the eighteenth century).
26 INTRODUCTORY
reappeared in force on the East African coast. They pied various posts on the littoral of Southern Somali- land; Lamu (where there was also a Persian colony), Malindi, Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Kilwa became their principal dep6ts in the equatorial regions. South of the Ruvuma River they occupied Ibo, Mocambique, Angoshe, Quelimane, and Sofala. They may have penetrated inland once more to the deserted cities of pre-Islamic days, but it seems more probable that the working of ..1,1 was left to the Bantu-speaking barbarians, who, on tin- ruins of the ancient Arab dominions, had built up a negro empire, subsequently to be known as that of Monomotapa.1
Tin- ancient Egyptians, as we style them in contra- distinction to the present peoples of Egypt (who since the eighth century speak mainly the Arabic language and pro- the Muhammadan religion), possibly began to settle in tin- lower Nile valley about ten thousand years ago. According to their own traditions they came from a land oi ' Punt,' the traditional description of which suggests very strongly Somaliland, though it is to a certain extent also applicable to South-western Arabia. In some respects they were more allied in language to the Libyan peoples of the but this arises partly from the subsequent repeated. invasions of Egypt by Libyan tribes; and the Semitic affinities o\ the ancient Egyptian language suggest that the speech may have been a very early offshoot of the parent stuck, which eventually split up into the more modern types of distinct Semitic. Libyan, and Hamitic It is of course possible that as far back as ten thou ago more or less — the land and water
conditions ol modern Egypt may have been very different. There was probably no habitable region in the delta of the Nile, then no doubt covered by the Mediterranean; and
i Portuguese corruption of words in one of the Nyanja
imbezi Mwene mutapa = 'LoTd (or master) of the
be derived from the < ^hiswina I Mashona) words Munu
n/.if'ii the man (who is) a destn i er, conqueror. This, perhaps,
p tin- most probable derivation.
INTRODUCTORY
27
the Mediterranean may have still filled up a good deal of the Libyan Desert, reducing Cyrenaica and the north- westernmost portion of Egypt to large islands. It
is
EGYPTIAN FELLAHIN
possible also at the same time that the Red Sea com- municated with the Mediterranean across the Isthmus of Sue/, while on the other hand there was still a narrow isthmus of dry land in what are now the Straits of Bab- al-Mandeb. So it is conceivable that the vague legends of ancient Egypt are correct, and that the ancestors of
28 INTRODUCTORY
the ancient Egyptians — Caucasian people allied in stock to the dark-haired, white-skinned peoples of Arabia and the Mediterranean really did enter North-east Africa from Southern Arabia, and worked their way. at any rate in their main branch, north-westwards into the valley and down the valley of the Nile, which then entered the Mediterranean omewhere about the site of Cairo, As the sea retreated (there had been many past fluctuations of sea and land in the Libyan Desert and the Eastern Mediterranean) the
ptians occupied the growing delta and got into close touch with their Libyan kinsmen of common ' Mediter- ranean " race on the west. Once established in Egypt this pi ople developed the Neolithic1 civilization they had brought with them from their original home to a wonderful extent, < |ual perhaps to the independent and parallel evolutions of the human mind which were occurring in Crete and Mesop< >tamia.
Other branches of the Egyptian or allied Hamitic tribes colonized the highlands of Abyssinia, Somaliland, and Galaland, and penetrated far into equatorial Africa and the Nile valley, creating by intermixture the stock of the Nilotic Negro, and later on supplying those remarkable aristocracies of equatorial Africa which are typified by the Ilima caste of Western Uganda. Egyptian civilization pi netrated far and wide through Negro Africa. It may indeed have been almost instrumental in saving the Negro and the Bushman From relapsing into such a beast-like con- dition of life that, if much longer pursued, it might have i ut off this great division of the human race from complete community with us in all the attributes of humanity. From am ienl Egypt the Negro and the negroid derived all the domestic animals and cultivated plants which he knew and made use of (exi ept perhaps the dog), down to the coming
' Neolithic ' means "f the new or improved stone age. ' Palaeolithic ' is
11 applied to the old stone age, through which most races of man
e oi human life in which the stones used as
rudely sha] means of chipping, grinding, and
■ring, the more intelligent races of Europe and Asia manufactured greatly
tools, ai I ornaments out of flint and other stones, and
iperiority over the more backward tribes.
INTRODUCTORY 29
>f the"modern Arabs and Portuguese. From Egypt there
Photo by Col. H. G. C. St Ctynt HAMITES
SOMAL1S OK CAUCASIAN AND NEGROID TYPES :_ INTERIOROF BRITISH SOMA! [LAND
gradually spread through Negro Africa religious beliefs, the use first of stone and then of metal weapons, musical
3o INTRODUCTORY
instruments, the art of weaving, and possibly of canoe making or boat building.
The Libyans of North Africa were a Mediterranean people, related not only to the ancestors of the Canaanites, Semites, and Egyptians, and of most of the dark-haired, white-skinned peoples of Nearer Asia, Southern, Central, and Western Europe; but even to the pre- Keltic inhabitants of Greal Britain and Ireland. The Libyans still subsist, but little mixed with Arab blood, as the tribes of Southern and North-western Tunis, of Algeria, Morocco, and the Atlantic coast as far southwards as the Senegal River. Perhaps their most noteworthy modern section is found in the so-called ' Touaregs ' of the Sahara Desert. They also extend in detached colonies as far east as the Siwa oasis of Northern Egypt.
These Libyan peoples by degrees found their way across the Sahara Desert to the valley of the LTpper Niger and the basin of Lake Chad. One of the earliest results (no doubt) of their mingling with the savage Negroes and dwarfs whom they found in those regions was the remark- able Fula race, which is dotted all over Nigeria, from the wesl to the extreme east. Another evidence of their inter- vention is the Ilausa language, spoken by about fifteen millions of people in Central Nigeria. But it is doubtful otherwise whether the Libyan element of North Africa had anything like the same effect on the Negro as was wrought !■-. Egyptian culture. A good deal of Libyan or Moorish influent e has been exercised on the Negroes of West Africa only since the conversion of the North African peoples to Muhammadanism, and through its association with Arab impuls* s of i onquesl a< ross the great desert into the Sudan.
The Libyans or Berbers, as they were called by the early Greeks of North Africa were themselves much affei ted by early Mediterranean civilization, and mostly by the settlement on the North African coast of Phoenician < olonists, between about (?) ] 200 B.C. and the fall of Carthage The Phoenicians were a Semitic tribe, closely d to the Hebrew stock, which originated in the vicinity
INTRODUCTORY
3i
of the Persian Gulf, and spread across Arabia to the Syrian coast, halting traditionally for some time on the Dead Sea
Photo by Capt. C. H. Foulkes, R.E
A LIBYAN TYPE ASBENAW \ TUAREG OF THE SAHARA DESERT : WEARING FACI
and the Gulf of Akabah. Their head quarters were at Tyre and Sidon. The Greeks called them Phoenikoi : the Romans. Poeni or Punici. The Greek word means the ' red ' people. Their own name seems to have been Khna or
INTRODUCTORY
Kina'an (Canaan). They had close commercial and
political relations with the early civilized Arabs of South-
,„ and Southern Arabia, and with the rulers of
pt. It would seem now. from recently discovered
ptian records, that the circumnavigation of Africa by
Phoenician captains was no mere myth, but that it probably
occurred at the instance of the Egyptian king, Pharaoh-
V ho, somewhere about 611-605 B.C. Long prior to this,
however, the Phoenicians had traversed the Mediterranean
with their ships, passed out through the Straits of Gibraltar,
and coasted Portugal and Spain. In the sixth century B.C.
they visited the Scilly Islands, Cornwall, the Isle of Wight,
and the Channel Islands for purposes of trade. It is
conceivable that they may still have found the dominant
in Southern Britain to be — at any rate in Cornwall—
of that Iberian stock which was practically identical with
the Berbers of North Africa and the Aborigines of Spain
and Sardinia, and that their acquaintance with the Medi-
terranean peoples enabled them thus to enter more easily
into trade relations with these dark-haired Britons, soon to
[uei I and modified by the yellow- or red-haired
Aryan Kelts.
The Phoenicians had founded the town of Lixus on
the Atlantic coast of Morocco about 1200 B.C., and Utica,
in the north of Tunis, in B.C. 1101. The great Carthage
(Karthada) first came into existence somewhere about B.C.
According to the stories collected and perpetuated
by Greek and Roman geographers, the Carthaginians had
established trading posts or small colonies all along the
coast of Morocco to the verge of the Sahara Desert by
the sixth century B.C., but many of these were destroyed
in that period by an invasion of Libyan nomads and
•ids. After these colonies had been re-established, a
trading depot was created on the little island of Kerne (the
em Heme), off the coast of the desert inlet known as
1 d( Oro. Kerne became for some years their principal
and from here if we may believe the remark-
I Hanno's voyages about the year 520 B.C. —
INTRODUCTORY 33
they started out to explore West Africa, penetrating as far south as the western frontier of modern Liberia. From this region they brought back man-like apes, to which they gave the name of ' gorilla.' (These were probably the large chimpanzees still existing in that region — the border-land between Sierra Leone and Liberia.)
The influence of that wonderful civilized race in Crete (the Mykenaean) which preceded the earlier Greeks, the Greek civilization itself, and the trading enterprise of the Carthaginians, no doubt caused, through the kindred Libyan peoples, some faint impulse of Mediterranean civili- zation to reach the utterly savage regions of Negro Africa, in addition to the work already accomplished by the Egyptians and the early Arabs.
The Romans next took up the tale, when they had made themselves masters of Carthage, Tripoli, the Cyrenaica, and Egypt. Roman generals, aided by Libyan allies, seem to have almost crossed the Sahara Desert from Tripoli to the vicinity of Lake Chad. The Romans also explored the Nile up-stream as far south as the great marshes of the Bahr-al-Ghazal. The Greek and Byzantine Empires of Egypt and Constantinople had carried European civilization into Abyssinia, and possibly in friendly conjunction with the Arabs along the east coast of Africa ; and Greek travel- lers had heard of the lake sources of the Nile, and the snowy mountains of Kilimanjaro and Ruwenzori— the ' Mountains of the Moon.'
Then came the crash of Islam, that terrible Arab up- rising against Greek Christianity which devastated so much of the polished Roman world, and together with the descent oLthe Germans from the north, arrested and almost ruined the intellectual progress'of the Mediterranean countries. But the Arabs and their subject races of Syrians, Egyptians, Libyans, Persians, and Turks had absorbed a great deal of Greek and Latin culture. One feature about them of cardinal importance was, that before the bigoted fanaticism and ignor- ance resulting from Muhammad's teaching had warped the Arab mind, they already possessed a literature, a highly
D
INTRODUCTORY
developed language, and a writing of their own. The dogged \ alour of Eur< ipe, and the dead weight of hundreds of millions of Hindus and Buddhists, threw them back on Africa as a field for easy conquest?, where they might obtain thousands of slaves, and enormous supplies of raw materials for their commerce and manufactures. The Islamized Arabs overran and conquered (more or less) the northern half of Africa from Somaliland westwards across the valley of the White Nile, the basin of Lake Chad, the Upper Niger, to the Atlantic coasl at the mouth of the Senegal. Practically all Africa north of this line (say 12° N. lat.) became subject to their influence and control between the eighth and fourteenth centuries. When through their own advance in civilization in Spain. Sicily and Syria they were once more brought into touch with the civilized world of Christ- endom, they imparted to inquiring Christians the secrets of inner Africa : they gave them news of the wonderful Niger River and the gold-bearing regions near its sources, of the Senega] with its crocodiles and hippopotami, Lake Chad, and the well-watered regions lying to the south of the Sahara Desert. They told of the Congo Pygmies (which then, no doubt, were found as far north as the Bahr-al- Ghazal), and the Nile lakes and marshes, of the snow Mm- nt tin Moon, of people with immense pendulous tn their tars (still existing in East Africa), of dog- laced monkeys, giraffes, zebras, and oryxes.1 even of the irds ol Madagascar (now extinct). For the Muham- madan Arabs had also discovered and partially colonized orthern coasts of Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. This revelation of the wonders of Africa, of its gold, its in the way ol docile slaves, its spices, gums, and i\ i >rv. ex< ited the imaginations of the Normans of Dieppe, "I the enterprising Provencal people of Majorca, of the the Venetians, and lastly of the Portuguese; so
Jit-horned types of < >ry\ antelope from Arabia the principal origin of the unicorn myth. Seen ' horns ol telopes (which have a very
i a tasselled tail) appear very like a single horn
INTRODUCTORY
35
much so that from the thirteenth century onwards the mariners of Western and Mediterranean Europe were attempting to sail south-west of Portugal to reach this marvellous land of the* Black Moors." Thus by 1400 A..D. Italian and Majorcan adventurers had discovered the Azores,
Pko i enl by the Right Rev. ike Bishop of Glasgow and Gallo ty THE CAPE ORYX OR GEMSBOK \! KKLY AU.I1 I) in I III: BEISA ORYX WHICH SUGGESTED TIIF UNICORN
Madeira, and the Canary Islands (these last known to Greek geographers from the Phoenician voyages), the Dieppois had possibly anticipated the Portuguese in reaching the Senegal River, and even the Gold ("oast of West Africa : while in the fifteenth century the Portuguese, under the impulsion of a half-English prince Henry the Navigator — had distanced all competitors, had definitely mapped the coast of Africa from Morocco to the Cameroons. Cameroons
D 2
36 INTRODUCTORY
to the Congo, Congo to the Cape of Good Hope, and then lastly, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, had cir- cumnavigated Africa to Cape Guardafui and the coast lands of Abyssinia.
The Portuguese were specially attracted to Africa by the idea of discovering the gold mines of Guinea, and of obtaining a supply of ' Black Moors ' (as Negroes were then called), who would be more docile servants than the Moorish people of their own complexion.
The change which the Portuguese wrought in the history of Africa was most momentous. For the first hundred years of their discoveries — from the middle of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century — the Negroes of Africa were fascinated by them. They rapidly learned a hundred arts and industries from these energetic, highly- civilized, long-bearded people of the Peninsula, living then in the forefront of Christian civilization. The Portuguese checked many an African famine by the introduction from Europe, Asia, or Brazil of food products and domestic animals manioc, maize, sweet potatoes, onions, rice, sugar- cane, pine-apples, tomatoes, capsicums, oranges, limes, and tobacco; rattle pigs, fowls, and Muscovy ducks — which might feed the hungry Negro, whet his appetite, or soothe his nerves. Readers of this book must bear in mind that until the Caucasian, in one shape or another, touched the . the latter — so far as we can adduce — was leading a life of utter savagery, little superior to that of a beast, m<l must have been relatively ill supplied with food. The possibly possessed one domestic animal — the dog. Even tint came to him from Asia or Europe, and was not indigenous. The dog may have assisted him in hunting; yet it is qnit«- probable that the most primitive Africans did not p 'ii dogs, but had to do their hunting unaided.
I hey lived on such creatures as they could catch in snares or pitfalls, or kill with sharpened reeds (dipped, it may be, in vegetable poisons), by the hurling of clubs, boomerangs, jsibly by setting fire to the bush. They lutely no cultivated plants of their own. They
INTRODUCTORY 37
relied simply on the wild tubers, gourds, roots, fruits, and fungi, on tender leaves, the grain of a few wild grasses, and a good deal also on caterpillars, beetle-grubs, and ' white ants ' (termites). They caught fish with their hands, or in weirs and dams which they made across the streams.
To them the white man, in the shape of Egyptian, Gala, Arab, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, and Portuguese, Hollander, Frenchman, and Englishman, brought all the domestic animals and cultivated plants, without which the African would now find it impossible to exist, even in the still savage regions of his continent. The whole of these food products (with the exception, perhaps, of the Colocasia yam) were indigenous to Europe, Asia, or America.
Yet the Negro possessed in his own land the guinea-fowl quite as easily domesticated as that South Asiatic pheasant, the domestic fowl — various types of geese and ducks, buffa- loes and splendid antelopes like the eland, smaller types of antelope that may well have taken the place of the sheep or goat, hunting-dogs (Lycaon), and wild swine ; various grains that might have been developed into some- thing like rice or millet, innumerable fruit trees, tuberous plants, melons, berries, and nuts. But he seems — left to himself — to have been incapable of rising above an almost brutish condition. Like the kindred Australoid and the other black, brown, and yellow backward races of Tropical Asia, he escaped the discipline of the glacial periods which opened the Quaternary epoch, the Age of Man. It was no doubt the struggle for life against the advancing or retreating cold which in some part of Asia or Europe, or even America, sharpened the wits of the Caucasian and the Mongolian in their early stages. The Negro and the black Australian escaped this struggle with the ice, with the result, however, that for the last ten thousand years (let us say) they have been worried, persecuted, disciplined, taught, and saved by the invading races from the northern hemisphere.
INTRODUCTORY
NOTES TO CHAPTER I A. The Classification' of Mankind
I i may be useful to the student to summarize the ideas in vogue as to the classification of mankind, and the names given to the principal types.
Roughly speaking, the existing human species — Homo sapiens— is divided into four main sub-species: — (1) The Australoid (including the dark-skinned and aboriginal natives of Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, Fiji, Malaya. Ceylon, &c). ; (2) the Caucasian (which is generally divided into two sub-groups, the black-haired, brown-eyed nr Mediterranean, and the fair-haired, grey-eyed or 'North Euro- also 'Aryan'); (3) the Yellow or Mongolian (including all the races of Asia which do not belong to the Caucasian, the Australoid or the Negro groups; the Eskimo; and the aborigines of tin Americas) ; and (4) the Negro. This last is again divided into the following sub-groups : — True Negro. Bushmen-Hottentots, and Asiatic es and Negritos (certain tribes of the Philippines. Andaman islands, India, Malay Peninsula, Malay Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, &c). There is sometimes a fifth group cited, the Polynesians — the aborigines of New Zealand, Hawaii, Tahiti. I : a, Samoa, &c. But this would seem to be a hybrid race, arising from a mixture of Caucasian. Mongolian, Australoid, and Negrito, with the Caucasian predominating.
Of all these groups, that which comes the nearest to the primi- tive type of the human species is the Australoid. which bears an obvious resemblance in its skull formation to the earliest human types 1 fossil in France, Central Europe, Belgium, Great
Bi itain, and Ireland.
B. The Divisions of the Negro Race
The Negro sub-species of Humanity is divided into two groups,
istern or Asiatic and the Western or African. The African
group i a ain sub-divided into two very distinct branches: (1) the
Bushman; and (2) the typical or True Negro. With the Bushman
I ■ Hottentot.
• m to offer at the present day three main
(1) the I the Congo Forests and Cameroons
(from 4 ft. to 1 ft. 8 in. in height, with prominent eyes, very flat feet,
-trilled nose, long upper lip, reddish-brown skin, and a
icy to hairiness on the body); (2) the Forest Negro of West
lui,!; pygmy ' characteristics but an ordinary stature
skin, a powerful torso, long arms, short legs, and
nd (3) the Nilotic Negro (with more refined
.' h . S I. any Johnston THE KAVIRONDO OF EASTERN EQUATORIAL AFRICA : A COMELY TYPE OF ' BANTU ' NEGRO
4o INTRODUCTORY
facial features, black skin, very tall, and with disproportionately long legs). These main types have of course much intermingled, not only amongst themselves but with the Bushman and the advance guard of the white races coming from the north. So that there are many indeterminate types of Negro or Negroid, like the Fula, Man- Hausa, Masai, Zulu, Yao, the natives of the northern Congo, whom it is difficult to class definitely as belonging to one or other of the three well-marked forms of Negro. Curiously enough, the 'average' or mixed negro type, south of 3° N. Lat., is much asso- ciated with the speaking of Bantu languages, and is therefore often called the ' Bantu ' Negro. But this better-looking, modified negro type is also found a good deal in West Africa, where he is not associated with Bantu languages.
C. The Bushmen and Hottentots
There is as much difference between the pure Bushman and the
True Negro as there is between the last named and the Asiatic
members of the sub-species. The Bushman is not only short of
stature (that is also the case with the Pygmy Negroes) but has a
broader, shorter, differently shaped skull, a pale yellow skin (through
which in some individuals the glow of a blush may be perceived),
very small hands and feet, and other physical peculiarities such as
' steatopygy,' which are recounted in works on comparative anatomy.
Some of these, especially ' Bushman ' features, are said to occur in
of Egypt, and it is thought by some that the first
inhabitants of Egypt were of the Bushman race. The Bushmen of
pure breed range from 4 ft. 2 in. to 4 ft. 10 in. in height. But in the
more northern parts of South-west Africa, on the verge of the Ku-
and Zambezi basins, where the Bushmen ('Masarwa') have
mingled their blood with Bantu Negroes, they are much taller. Their
mosl peculiar. It has no words for numerals above four,
it- plurals mainly by reduplication of the first syllable of the
singular noun, but is most particularly noteworthy for its extensive
id of, or joined with, consonants. These clicks
air loud sounds made with the tongue against the teeth, cheeks,
palate, ami hack of the throat. They certainly sound much like the
mouth-nois( made by an angry baboon, and may be the relics of an
mely primitive type of language.
1 In- Bushmen had no domestic animals and practised no agri-
culture when first discovered by white men. They led the same
bunting existence as our own rude forefathers of the Palaeolithic
used much the same weapons of bone, wood, and stone.
how to poison their arrows, however, and dug pitfalls for
•■ ild beasts. They also had a wonderful gift for drawing
£ rocks), and painting in several colours
INTRODUCTORY
4i
on rock surfaces. The pictures they thus made of lions, elands, elephants, ostriches, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, and men are remark- ably true to life. They slept and made their homes — like primeval man — in caves, or, when away on hunting expeditions, under rude shelters of sticks and reeds.
The earliest type of Bushman in South Africa seems to have been the ' Strandloopers ' C Shore-runners *) of the Dutch, the remains of whom are found in caves along the Natal coast. There is also alleged to be another dwarfish race still existing in central South Africa at
l' Unto Oy J . b. M i.ialeorook BUSHMAN PAINTINGS ON THE ROCK SURFACES OF A CAVERN IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS, NATAL
the present day — the 'Yaalpens' of the Boers, but called ' Katea,' ' Ikoei,' ' Kosobala,' by the Bechuanas and Zulus. They were first described by the French traveller, M. Delegorgue, in 1847. ' They are said to have a much darker skin than the Bushmen, and to live in an even lower state of culture, to be cannibals (which the Bush- men are not), and to have more abundant head-hair. The men also have thick beards (the beard is usually absent in the Bushmen). According to Delegorgue they scarcely reached to 4 ft. in height, and they generally lived in holes and hollows carved out of huge anthills. Truly about the lowest recorded type of Homo sapiens .'
The Hottentots differ from the Bushmen in being taller, and intermediate in bodily structure between the Bushmen and the True
1 \'<>y,igc dans I'Afrique Australe, 2nd vol. pp. 548-9.
42 INTRODUCTORY
They are the result of an ancient intermingling between the Bushmen and some tribe of Nilotic Negroes; but the hybrid must have occurred a very long time ago, for the Hottentot type is aow well established. The language they speak has a distant relationship with the Sandawi of German East Africa, and also with the Bushman dialects in word-roots, phonology, the use of dicks and i .mres; but it has a much more developed
mmar and distinguishes three classes of nouns— masculine, feminine, and neuter. The Hottentots had reached a pastoral re the arrival of Europeans in South Africa, and kepi of cattle of the long-horned, straight-backed breed
cha- of east Equatorial and North-east Africa (whereas the
Zulu of South-east Africa possessed only the smaller humped, shorthorned Indian catll '.
When South Africa was first explored and settled by white people in the early part of the eighteenth century the Hottentots inhabited only the coast region of south-western Cape Colony, the banks of the ( 'ran ;e River along the lower half of its course, and the desolate untry between the Orange River and Walfish Bay. They accompanied the Boers inland when the latter took possession of the Bushman's domain. Between the Hottentots and the white people arose half-breed tribes that have played a famous part in South African history the Grikwa and Korana.
D. The Bantu
No tu lent of Afric in hisl iry should fail to obtain at any rate an
elementary insight into the subject of the Bantu languages, as the
Lking these harmonious and closely related tongues will
pla a ;i it part in the future development of British
itli of the ird de ee of north latitude (more or less)
line dips down on the eastern side of Africa to the Equator —
almost all the Negro peoples, with the exception of a few unimportant
tiil ■ t Africa, in the Congo basin, and in South-west Africa,
but one type of language, the Bantu. All the forms of speech
which come under this head are as closely related as — almost more
than are the Aryan languages of modern Europe and South-
■ v rapidly human speech varies amongst
iple without a fixed literature and a high civilization, it is remark-
iom close this relationship should he amongst all the types of
Bantu speech between the Cameroons on the north-west and Natal
M. b ttween Cape Colony, the Albert Nyanza, and the
of the Tana River in East Africa. This would seem (to the
writer, who s'ives other reasons for his opinion in works
^ written on this subject) to show that the original date of
uages over the whole of the southern
INTRODUCTORY
43
third of Africa must bel relatively recent perhaps hot much more than two thousand years ago.
The Bantu languages are especially remarkable for the large .use
Photo b) S»V Harry Johnston A STREAM IN THE DENSE FOREST OF WEST AFRICA THE SURFACE OK Till. WATER IS COVERED WITH FLOATING CRINUM L1LIIS
which is made of prefixes in their syntax. These changeable particles are prefixed to the unchanging root of the word. In this feature the Bantu offers a great resemblance to other groups of African speech in the extreme west of Tropical Africa ; and of course the idea of
44 INTRODUCTORY
prefixes is by no means foreign to the Semitic and Hamitic language- families of North Africa and Western Asia, or even to the Aryan tongues themselves. But it is carried to an extreme degree by the Bantu. I will illustrate this by a few examples: -ntii possibly meant originally an object, a 'head' (and in this sense a human being). Mu-ntu would mean one (head), a human being (man or woman). Ba-ntu stands for the plural = 'people,' many human beings. Ki-ntu is 'a thing'; bi-ntu = 'things.' Bu-ntu = 'humanity' (in general), or in some groups it is lu-ntu ; kaze-ntu (in the mother language) meant a woman, a female person ; ka-ntu, pi. tu-ntu, meant a child, or a little object; gu-ntu, pi. ga-ntu, meant a giant, or a huge object, and so forth. A good thing might be ki-ntu kiema ; good things in the plural bi-ntu bicina. These classificatory particles would further be prefixed to every adjectival form, and also figure as the corresponding pronoun of the word, either subjective or objective. This correspondence in prefix or particle between noun, pronoun, and adjective has been styled the 'concord.' This system is not so foreign to other forms of African speech as might be thought, if we admit the possibility of prefixes being turned into suffixes. Before the student decides that this is too abrupt a revolution to have occurred, let him reflect whether something of the same rapid change of plan is not going on in his own English tongue. In Anglo-Saxon (as in modern German) and in Early English, people made much mure use of prefixed prepositions, adverbs, and particles than of [fixes. They said 'up-bringing' instead of ' bringing-up,' 'out-turn' instead of 'turn-out,' and so forth. Several great African language- families have much the same principle of 'concord' as the Bantu, "iily it is applied to suffixes instead of prefixes, and this was also th. case to a certain extent with our earlier Aryan forms of speech; though in the case of our own language-family, instead of dividing our conceptions of objects into seventeen or eighteen groups, as is the case with the Bantu, we were content to think of them as either iiiah-, female, <>r neuter. We therefore went in for two classes or thi' 1 of such a large number as may be found in the Fula
language family (for example) or in the Bantu. In Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and all the earlier Aryan languages (together with many of their modern descendants) the genders are still carefully distinguished by tin- terminations of the nouns and of corresponding adjectives, and by the pronouns, a system answering in suffixes (almost exactly) to what the Bantu attains by means of prefixes.
CHAPTER II
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
The British people, or more strictly the English — for Ireland, and Scotland most of all, took but little part in Imperial ventures till the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — had been early linked with the fortunes of Portugal. Portugal — the western third of the Iberian Peninsula — was, of course, at one time part of the Roman Empire, and its northern portion (including Galicia) had been much settled by Goths, while two-thirds of the south, from Algarve to the River Douro, had been conquered by the Moors. After the break-up of the Roman Empire, and under the succeeding Gothic kingdoms, all this western region of Hispania had developed a different dialect of the Latin from that which prevailed in Central Spain (the eastern parts of Spain to this day maintain a third Romance language — the Catalan, nearly allied to the Provencal of France). This westermost Romance dialect — Portuguese — is spoken even at the present day from the north-western part of Spain in Galicia to the frontiers of Andalusia. In the twelfth century a Burgundian noble in the service of the King of Leon and Castile had expelled the Moors from North-western Spain, and had followed up this exploit by the reconquest of the Douro Valley and the port at its mouth. This bore the name in Latin of Portus Calis,1 from which grew up the name of ' Portugal,' applied first of all to a county, and later on to a kingdom. By the middle of the
1 'Porto Cale ' was situated at the mouth of the Douro. Oporto (' Porto ' in Portuguese — o is merely the definite article), its successor, is situated on the north bank of the river several miles from the sea. ' Porto ' (poto, puto) has spread far and wide over Africa as the name for a white man.
46
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
thirteenth century the Portuguese had driven the Moors entirely out of the territories west of the River Guadiana, and in so doing had received a great deal of assistance from
the English and Ger- mans, who latterly, instead of proceeding into the Mediterranean on a crusade against the Saracens, devoted their attention to the Capture of Lisbon or some other city from the Moors of Spain or North Morocco. The first commercial treaty between Portugal and England was con- cluded in 1294; and a supplementary treaty (with London) in 1353. Between 1385 and 1438 political relations between England and Portugal were very close.
Consequently, when the Portuguese had obtained a good hold ir who first svii id round over the West Coast
HIE CA HI IP] I" I \~ I \- Rll \ \M> INH1 \
of Africa, the English
v.i re not long in wishing to follow suit, as they were already
made aware, by their trade with Portugal, of the spices,
gold, slaves, and ivory which could be obtained from those
>ns.
Bui the Portuguese were \ ery jealous of their discoveries, p in their own hands the monopoly of African Indian trade. They therefore treated the early ': lifers in those regions as pirates.
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
47
As early as 1482 the King of Portugal scut an embassy to Edward IV asking him to restrain his subjects from going to Guinea. The English, however, with their
A CARAVEL OF THE GENOESE STYLE
Mil Til-: 01 SAILING VESSEL <)1 THE 1 5TII AND 1 '"> I II < 1 N I VKIES IN WHICH III! IAKI\ P0RTUGUES1 \M> ENGLISH VOYAGES WER1 MADE 10 rHE < < • \ - I OF WEST All II \
customary doggedness would not be kept out of the business. First ot all, adventurers would ship as seamen or soldiers in the service of the Portuguese (who were accustomed to employ a good main- men not ot Portuguese nationality). About 1550. however, in the reign of Edward VI, a Portu- guese sea-captain of < >porto Antonio Anes Pinteado- — came to Southampton and offered to show English mariners the
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
way to the Guinea coast and the principal resorts from which the Portuguese obtained pepper and gold. Pinteado had held high rank in the Portuguese naval service, and had won several victories over the French off the African coast, driving them away from the regions monopolized by the Portuguese. But he fell out of favour at Court, and, furious at his treatment, resolved to bring the English on the scene to avenge his wrongs.
Terms were soon made with him, and he went out in command of two ships, the Primrose and the Lion, with a lieutenant or mate who was an Englishman — Captain Windham. Pinteado piloted the English ships to what is now the coast of Liberia. They made their first halt at the is River, where it was proposed they should fill up part of their cargo space with large quantities of 'grains of dise' ' the red seeds of the Aframomum plant. But Captain Windham wanted gold as well as pepper, perhaps gold most of all. so he insisted on the pepper cargoes being left until the return voyage. The ships, however, could not toui li ;:t tin true Gold Coast, on account of the hostility of the Portuguese, so they continued their course without interruption till they entered the Benin River, on the verge <>l" the Niger delta. The English officers and men were
1 So- Note en the Pepper Trade, p. 59.
1 ' grainsof Paradise ' gave their name afterwards to a long
strip of W( i oast between the Sherbro River on the north-west and
mth-east. The name ' Grain Coast ' persisted down to
the in teenth century, when it was changed for that of Liberia.
The coast >>\ West Africa, until the nineteenth century, was divided by
British Kuropean traders into the following sections : —
1 - rbro it was the 'Guinea Coast' — the word guine,
in Portuguese, being probabl) an alternative version of the nameof the great
Muhammadan town of Jenne, in the interior of Senegambia ; Jenne on
1 mines and its civilization being the great objective in the
Middli Africa. From the Sherbro to Cape Palmas
was tl th( inie River the ' Ivory Coast ' (on
(Mint ol the abundance of elephants). From Assinie to the Volta the
' < leld Coast,' because <>f I old; then from the Volta to the
the 'Slave ('nasi,' as this region, owing to the raids and wars of
Dahomey and Benin, atesl number of slaves; and the
i the littoral of Equatorial West Africa from the Niger to
the 'Calabar ('east.' 'Calabar,' which is
now the official capital ol British Southern Nigeria, is possibly derived from
ords Cain barra the bar is silent. At the entrance to the
I River, unlike all the other river mouths in the vicinity, there is
and consequently no noise from the breakers.
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
49
taken up to see the King of Benin by Pinteado, a monarch who was found to be thoroughly conversant with the Portu-
Pholo by Capt. T. C. Htncks CAPE COAST CASTLE I GOLD COAST COLONY THE ' CABO CORSO ' OF THE PORTUGUESE
guese language. He promised the mariners a great cargo of pepper, but Pinteado and the traders seem to have haggled too long over the price, and during the delay the men on the ships began to die rapidly from malarial fever
50 PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
and sunstroke. Captain Windham completely lost his head in a panic at the death-rate. He treated the effects Pinteado had left on board with great violence, and ordered the ship- • but died before they started. In their
panic tin- English crews, after Pinteado had rejoined them, abandone 1 the traders on shore and scuttled one of the two ships, sailing home in the other, reduced as they were in numbers from 140 to fewer than 40. Their cargo, neverthe- . consisted of 4(H) lbs. of gold, 36 casks of 'grains of Paradise,' and 250 tusks of ivory. On the return journey
Photo by T. W. Rowland ELMINA CASTLE : GOLD COAST COLONV Ilir. FIRS1 KNOWN SETTLEMENT OF EUROPEANS OX THE WEST AFRICAN COAST
the unfortunate Portuguese commander died of a broken heart, having been subjected to gross ill-treatment by the Engli li seamen.
I 'Ut hi- had effectually shown the way to West Africa.
and in the following year ^ 1 554 ) three English ships left
the porl ol London for the Guinea Coast. The captain of
!"■ lition was Mr. John Lok, and he was accompanied
by Sir George Lain and Sir John York, besides 'other
gentlemen.' They traded mosl ;idvantageously on the
an and Cold Coasts for pepper, ivory, gold, and even
returning to England with live Negroes. In the
(1555) two ships under the command of 'Master'
Towerson started from Newport in the Isle of
also traded with the Grain and Gold Coasts.
PEPPER, SLAVES. AND GOLD
5i
One of the two ships on the return journey was lost in a tornado off the Guinea Coast, but "Master* William Towerson made so profitable a voyage that he started off
Photo by Cap!. T. C. 11 I I.MIXA CASTLE, LOOKING TOWARDS ST. J AGO
again tor Wes1 Africa in 1556. On this voyage he had considerable trouble with the Portuguese, but was assisted by -hips from France, with which he struck up an alliance. Twenty years afterwards he made another voyage to the
E 2
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
coast of Liberia. The country we now call Liberia was, in fact, the main objective of English trading ships during
-cdikI half of the sixteenth century, mainly on account of the pepper and ivory which it supplied, but also for such
3 as could be obtained from its western portion. The English, however, soon discovered that the Kru races of Eastern Liberia and the Ivory Coast could not be made slaves of. If they were unable to escape from captivity, they would starve themselves to death, or commit suicide in -ome other way. On the other hand, if fairly treated, they proved then — and have continued to prove down to the
nt day some of the hardest-working and most faithful allies of the white man in the opening up of the West African coast regions.
But the hostility of the Portuguese (who after 1580 were dominated by Spain), together with the growing ji alousyand rivalry of the Dutch, diverted English attention from the Gold and Grain Coasts, and concentrated it more on the shipping of slaves from Guinea (namely, the coast from the mouth of the Senegal to the Sierra Leone River) to the American plantations of Spain. In 1562 Captain John Hawkins had obtained a concession for the supply ot Negroes from Guinea to the West Indies. His first made in that year, and he obtained slaves at various places between the Gambia and the confines of Liberia. His was the first of all recorded English visits to the peninsula and river of Sierra Leone.1 On one or othei ot In- time voyages he pushed on to Elmina, on the Gold ( oast, whence he obi line 1 two hundred slaves. But owing, as before said, to die hostility of the Portuguese, ot tlie early British slave-trading operations were
1 Either on account oi tie rumbling roar of the thunderstorms
the bold mountains of this striking promontory, or because the
outline oi one oi the ridges is li lion, the Portuguese named
leoa,' or the Leonine mountain range. The Spanish
a I. con,-,.' The native name for the district was ' Bulom
the ' Bulom ' shore Milton in Paradise Lost mentions the ' black
clouds of Serraliona" a most apt comparison. Milton's
mtains many allusions to features in African geography, rare in
literature of that period.
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
53
confined to the Guinea Toast, and generally concentrated about the month of the Gambia. In 1588, when Portugal was involved in the English war against Spain, Queen Elizabeth gave a charter to Devonshire merchants to trade with the " Gambra ' Coast, and in 1592 gave another charter for the coast region between the Gambia River and Sierra Leone. At first English operations were confined to dis- patching trading ships to these re- gions, which bore away cargoes of s 1 a v e s . but in 1618 a Company (the Company of Adventurers of London Trading to Africa) was formed to work the trade of the interior, and give a more permanent character to the British settlements at the mouth of the Gambia or ' Gambra,' as it was then called. In 1618 this Company dispatched an expedi- tion in a ship called the Catherine, with George Thompson, a Barbary merchant, in command. Thompson, however, was murdered at Tenda. In 1620-21 his men were rescued, and his explorations were continued by gallant Captain Richard Jobson, who ascended the Gambia as far as it was navigable from the sea, came into contact with the Fula and Mandingo peoples, and on his return wrote a vivid account of his experiences in a book called 'The Golden Trade.' Under
Pho'o by Lapt. II'. Stanley GAMBIA HINTERLAND
54
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
the Commonwealth, this first of the West African Chartered
npanies built a fort at Sierra Leone.
After the Restoration, the Government of Charles II gave a distinct impetus to British trade with West Africa, and in 1664 an English fort was built on the island of Saint Mary, off the south bank of the Gambia estuary.
Photo by Capt. T. C. Hincks CHRISTIANSBORG CASTLE, NEAR ACCRA
BY Till SWEDES IN 1645 FOR THE PROTECTION OF THEIR SLAVE TRADE ON Mil. <.<iLt> COAST, BUT CAPTURED AND HELD BY THE DANES IN 1657 AND BV THEM SOLD TO THE BRITISH IN 185O
Betwi i5 and 1672 the same Company — which was
afterwards, in 1672, to receive a fresh charter, and be
named the Royal African Company — took advantage of the
between England and Holland to seize and retain
il Dutch forts on the Gold Coast.
The first British attempts at settlement on the Gold
■ had taken place under the ' Company of Adventurers
of London Trading to Africa' in 1618 at Kormantine, and
L662 settlements at Cape Corso, Anamabu,
PEPPER., SLAVES, AND (.OLD 55
One result of this enterprise of the Royal African Company during the reigns of Charles II and James II was the bringing of sufficient gold from West Africa to enable the Government of the day (1673) to mint 50,000 gold coins (the first to be made from gold produced within the area of the British Empire). These were named from
Photo by Capt. T. C. Hincks
CHILDREN BATHING IN THE SURF: GOLD COAST C< LONY
THE ABSENCE OF ANY SHELTERED PORTS ON 1111 WES1 Mil IN COAST BETWEEN LEONE AM) OLD CALABAR WAS LONG A SERIOUS DI IlRKlNr TO WEST AFRICAN Tl AND n MANY DEATHS AMONG EUROPEAN S\1L'>K- OR ! I TTERED
SLAVES. IN -PHI en [111 SHARKS. HOWEVER, MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN- ARE CONSTANTLY BATHING IS nil SURF
their origin 'guinea.' Though ostensibly equal to twenty- shillings, they were really worth eightpence more, and gradually became equivalent to £\ is.
It is probable that the gold-bearing regions in the middle of the West African Coast, which are now a British Colony of some 80,000 square miles, had been in touch with the civilization of the Mediterranean long before the arrival of the Norman-French or the Portuguese. Beads, which seem to be of Roman or Roman- Egyptian origin, have been
56 PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
found in old graves, or are still treasured as magical heir- looms bv aristocratic families in the interior of the Gold Coast. Quite possibly the obvious presence of the glittering metal in the stream valleys and rocks of this region had forced itself on the attention of the indigenous Negroes several thousand years ago, and after first of all decorating their own persons with gold, they had begun to barter it with the races of the interior beyond the Great Forest, races leading a pastoral life, and in touch not only with the Niger River, but possibly with such Libyan or Ethiopian peoples as had ventured round or across the Sahara Desert, and who in their turn were not strangers to the commerce of the Mediterranean and of Egypt. The Moslem Arabs seem to have reached the Upper Niger regions both from the Senegal Coast and from Darfur in the eleventh century (if iK, I earlier), and they, through the Hausa and Mandingo Muhammadanized Negroes, were brought in contact with the hinterland of the modern Gold Coast, and with the similar g >ld-bearing regions in the interior of Senegambia. Their vainglorious talcs of this wealth (some of which may have found its way through Barbary into Moorish Spain) drew down on diem the competition of the Western Europeans, which was eventually to prove fatal to any independent Moslem State in West Africa.
Queen Elizabeth, when no longer afraid to defy Spain,
had encouraged her adventurers to trade with Morocco and
the Barbary States. She gave a charter in 1585 to a body
of London adventurers for this purpose. The Western
Moors were early acquainted with Great Britain and Ireland,
firstly through raids made on their own coasts by the
Northmen, who probably made use of Southern Ireland and
thi ( hannel Islands as a base of operations; afterwards by
sending out their own bold rovers to lay waste the coasts
ot the Christians in the North Atlantic, and to carry off
from Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall for sale in the
Moorish markets ; and, later still, by the assistance which the
:t rulers of England gave to the growing kingdom
al, in its attempts to drive the Moors out of that
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
57
kingdom back into their own lands on the African shore. In the early fifteenth century Henry IV of England received a Moorish embassy from either Granada or Morocco, with a view to the opening up of friendly relations with England as a counterpoise to the growing power of Spain. In the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign commercial inter- course with Morocco became very active, but it seems to have faded away again Rowing to Spanish hostility) until the
tliuu by Messrs. trundle
IN TANGIER, MOROCCO
days ol Cromwell, and when Admiral Blake, partly by force, partly by diplomacy, once again opened up a friendly connection with the land of the Moors.
The British during the 17th century became very eager to trade with the Mediterranean and Levant, on account of their -rowing interest in India, and partly because Muhammadan nations were evincing a preference for British merchants, in the belief that their religion was less alien to Muhammadan ideas than that of the Greek and Roman Churches. It is obvious that, after Blake's exploits in the Straits of Gibraltar in 1657, the English Government had its eye on the port of Tangier as a possible foothold from which
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
England might dominate the Straits of Gibraltar and the entrance into the Mediterranean. Tangier in those days belonged to Portugal, which had recently freed itself from Spanish thraldom. Tangier, in fact, and other Portuguese mow Spanish) possessions on the coast of Morocco, had been partially captured by British valour, through the tance of British ships and soldiers. Therefore, when tiations wire opened for the betrothal of Charles II to
ii i mi .
TANGIER FROM THE HARBOUR
the Princess Catherine of Braganca, it was stipulated that
Tangier, together with Bombay, should be the Princess's
dowry. In 1662 the English flag was hoisted over this
position. The place was held for twenty-two years, but
during thai time it was in an almost constant state of siege.
After the death of King Sebastian of Portugal in 1578, a
\ arose in Morocco, that of the Sharif's of Vanbu.
"" the W i lsI of Arabia. These Sharif's ['Sharif
loble' and is applied to the descendants of Ali, the
law of Muhammad] , in their wanderings had founded
of Tafilat, in South Morocco, and a
family, Hassan-bin Kassim, after the
PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD 59
defeat of the Portuguese king, had established a dynasty of Sharitian Emperors which still rules — more or less — oyer this last independent Moorish State. At the close of the sixteenth century the Emperor of Morocco had extended his dominions across the Sahara Desert to the Upper Niger and Timbuktu. From these countries he obtained a splendid fighting force of Negroes. The Sharitian dynasty had succeeded in ejecting the Portuguese and Spanish from every foothold on the Morocco coasts, and were not going to tolerate any more the presence of the English at Tangier. The English, of course, had sea power, but were apparently only able to arm their battlements with the worst relics of Cromwell's standing army, or with the off-scourings of London and Dublin. They grew weary of the struggle, and by arrangement with the Moorish leader gave up Tangier to the Empire of Morocco in 1684. x
Curiously enough, however, this twenty-two years' attempt to maintain a British hold over Morocco led to the foundation of the standing army of Great Britain and Ireland. The two British regiments of cavalry and infantry, enlisted for service at Tangier under the notoriously wicked Colonel Kirke, were known as ' Kirke's Lambs,' but officially as the 1st Royal Dragoons, and Queen Catherine's Regiment (now the Royal West Surrey). After the evacuation of Tangier they were brought to England and became the nucleus of our regular army.
NOTE TO CHAPTER II The Pepper Trade
Students of African history should strive to realize the principal inducements which Led the British ami other European nations to meddle with Africa. Some of these such as the lust lor gold, and the need for slave labour to work the plantations of America and. later on. the undeveloped wealth of Africa itself arc treated separated elsewhere; but a few words may here be said about the attraction
1 The English Government, or at any rate the English sea-captains —
almost at the time of withdrawing from Tangier- seem to have had their eye on Gibraltar as an alternative. This, as we know, was obtained 1>\ a sudden raid of English ships and German troops in 1709.
60 PEPPER, SLAVES, AND GOLD
which ' pepper ' offered to the first English adventurers in West Africa.
Pepper from Indian shrubs of the genus Piper (P. nigrum, P. ojficinarum, and P. longum) had been introduced into the dietary of the Greeks after Alexander's invasion of India. The pepper derived chiefly from this source, and other spices familiar to us now in Eastern curries, came into almost universal use throughout the Roman Empire, and the Goths derived a liking for these spices from the Romans. India and Malaysia supplied these condiments almost exclusively from before the Christian era down to the fifteenth century. For several hundred years previous to the fifteenth century the purveying of pepper to civilized Europe and the Mediterranean basin had been the monopoly of the Venetians, who. in spite of the Crusades and the uprise of the Turks, managed to keep on such terms with the Muhammadan peoples of the Levant, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, as to make it possible to obtain through them a certain supply of pepper and spices from India. But the Venetians kept up the price to a very high rate; so much so, that, spices having become absolutely essential to the cuisine of the English people during the Middle Ages, a ' pepper-corn rent ' was no joke, as it would seem to us nowadays. It meant that the lessee had to provide his landlord with a pound of pepper, which cost between £5 and £\0 in money, equal to between £20 and £40 at the present day. The Moors of North-western Africa began to obtain in the tenth and eleventh centuries the seeds of an Aframomum plant (in appearance something like the Indian Cannas), which were slightly hoi to the taste,and very aromatic. These' grains of Paradise ' were sometimes known as ' Cardamoms ' in European trade, but later they were known as Malagueta, possibly because in the days of Moorish Spain Malaga was the chief emporium for the sale of West African products.
I mii the eleventh century onwards, European cookery could not have enough of these ' grains of Paradise.' Much later in history Queen Elizabeth, for example, was passionately fond of their taste. A- the Moors brought only a limited supply for sale in Spain, the Norman-French strove to find out from what part of the world they were obtained, and possibly for this reason first made their way to thi West African coast in the fourteenth century, a hundred years before the Portuguese. Besides which, there existed in West Africa real pepper shrubs of the genus Piper, akin to the Indian species. So that the ability of West Africa to keep the world supplied with pungent spices was the first and chief inducement to the English to find their way there.
CHAPTER III
CAPE COLONY
The rapid deYelopment of British commerce with India under the Honourable East India Company, and the occa- sional conflicts with the jealous Dutch, made it increasingly necessary to England that there should be some calling station on the long ocean route bet-ween Southern England and India round the Cape of Good Hope, at which British ships should be able to repair and refresh. British mariners had visited the Cape of Good Hope as early as 1591, and in 1620 two commanders of the East India Company's ships (Captains Shillinge and Fitzherbert) had formally annexed Table Mountain and Table Bay in the name of King James I, and had hoisted the flag of St. George (the Red Cross) ; but no attempt at settlement was made, and the Dutch possessed themselves definitely of the Cape promontory and founded Capetown in 1652-71 (on behalf of the Dutch East India Company). It is extraordinary how little either the Portu- guese or the English cared about the possession of South Africa, though it ought to have been evident that some point at the southern extremity of that continent would be an absolutely necessary place of call for the storm-tried ships on their way to and from India round the Cape. There were only the feeble Hottentots to resist a European occupa- tion, yet Portugal overlooked the cardinal point of Southern Africa till it was too late : and England only awoke to the importance of the Cape of Good Hope in her scheme of empire when it had been for about a hundred and thirty years in the possession of the Dutch East India Company.
62 CAPE COLONY
But in 1588 Captain Cavendish, returning from a great voyage round the world, rediscovered the little, lonely — then densely wooded — island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. This island had been found and named by the Portuguese as early as 1502, but, recognizing the importance of its strategical position, they had endeavoured to keep it secret from other navigators. The Dutch seized it in 1645 and abandoned it five years later. It was then occupied on behalf of the British East India Company in 1651. and ten years afterwards Charles II recognized its acquisition by a charter. After two attempts on the part of the Dutch to regain possession of it, St. Helena became definitely a British possession (administered by the East India Company) in 1673, and may almost be regarded as the germ of our huge South African dominion.
Little St. Helena is rather larger than the island of Jersey. It is quite possible that, in common with Ascen- sion,] seven hundred miles to the north-west, and Tristan d'Acunha and Gough islets, to the far south.- it is a frag- ment of a sunken sub-continent, which may have connected. or partially connected, Western Africa with South America as late as the Eocene period. Geologically it is one of the oldest fragments of dry land on the face of the globe and has not been submerged for countless ages. When first discovered by the Portuguese and rediscovered by the British, it was densely clothed with forest, and the trees and shrubs
1 Also discovered and named by the Portuguese in 1501. Ascension was upied i grmanently by any Power till it was seized and garrisoned by the British in 1815, to prevent its being made a base of operations for persons who might have striven to effect the rescue and flight of the Emperor Napo- leon from St. Helena. Ascension is about the size of the island of Guernsey. .s are of purely volcanic origin. - Tristan d'Acunha is the longest (about forty square miles) of a little group of three small volcanic islands in the middle of the South Atlantic, red and named by the Portuguese in 1506. Tristan d'Acunha has belonged to Great Britain since 1815, and now has a population of about eighty people of English descent mainly, but with a slight African intermix- ture. Its ( entral vol< anic cone rises to a height of nearly 8000 feet. Tristan though so remote from any continent, possesses three indigenous land birds (a finch, a thrush, and a water-hen), several species of spiders and a butterfly, and some land mollusca. It is, besides, the nesting-place of millions i ,, and numerous petrels, albatrosses, and gulls. Put
3 introduced from ships many years ago have destroyed much of this "us fauna.
CAPE COLOXY
63
had affinities with both the South African and the South American Boras. It possessed a single indigenous land bird (a species of plover', and a number of beetles, bugs, and land mollusca, oi which a very large percentage were quite peculiar to the island, the remainder having relationship mainly with those of Africa. All these creatures \\ ere < »f a (lass that might have reached the island on driftwood. But the fact that the early navigators found the Manati on the coast of St.
JAMESTOWN : ST. HELENA
Helena is additional evidence to show that the little island once formed 'part of a huge tract of land connected either with Tropical Africa or Tropical America : for the Manati belongs to an order of mammals (Sirenia) living in the shallow water ol rivers, estuaries, and coast-lines, and fee ling entirely on vegetable substances. It would be prac- tically impossible for the Manati to reach St. Helena in existing circumstances by travelling over a thousand miles or more of sea water, without suitable food, and exposed to the attacks of innumerable sharks. The Manati or ' sea- cow did not become extinct on the St. Helena coasts until 1S10. Unfortunately no specimen was preserved
64 CAPE COLONY
to determine whether the species was American, West African, or peculiar to St. Helena.
St. Helena at the present day is nothing but the worn- down remains of an immense ancient volcano, though its volcanic debris and crusted rocks probably hide a former vestige of South Atlantis. The goats introduced by the British and Dutch, together with the wasteful clearing and forest fires of the settlers, soon nearly exterminated the native flora (especially destroying the valuable indigenous ebony1), and a good deal of the outer aspect of the island is now bare rock. But the interior is ' like an emerald set in granite ' or grey lava. The island contains more than 200 springs of fresh water.
St. Helena between 1815 and 1821 was the prison of the Emperor Napoleon, and became very prosperous as the calling-place for ships journeying to and from India round the Cape. But the opening of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea route to India, followed long afterwards by the withdrawal of the British garrison and the resolve not to make a fortified coaling-station out of Jamestown, have brought St. Helena into a very poverty-stricken condition.
During the eighteenth century the rivalry of the Dutch in West Africa was succeeded or supplemented by the still more dangerous ambition of the French to found empires and to maintain monopolies of commerce.- France was attempting to drive away British traders and settlers from the Senega] River, from Madagascar. Mauritius, and Bourbon (afterwards Reunion), and most of all, from Eastern India. Already in the eighteenth century France had formed conceptions of rule over Egypt and Abyssinia, a replacement of the Portuguese on the Lower Congo, the transfer of Cape Colony from the Dutch Company, and the creation of a new- France in Madagascar. A temporary alliance with Holland
1 Melhania melanoxylon. The loss of this reallv valuable and beautiful timber tree was entirely due to the stupid ignorance of the earlier military governors d St. Helena, who preferred to let the settlers' goats wander unchecked.
Vs n gards monopolies of commerce, it must be remembered that down to 1823, and finally to L829, Great Britain was as bad as France, Spain, and Holland.
('AIM-: COLONY
65
was made use of during the time of the great American War (1778—83) to use Table Bay and other ports in Dutch South Africa as a base from which to attack British
|
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Wfn"-'' £■' ■ ^ ^^^^B |
|
WZ^kL ?^.^^*\ , |
|
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Pfto/o A'/'/ ftv /.[O Weinthal THE LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EXTREMITY OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE
shipping passing round the Cape to India. A revenge for these actions was attempted by the British Government when they dispatched Commodore Johnstone in 1781 to make a descent on Capetown and take possession of it. But the French naval forces under Admiral Suffren severely
66 CAPE COLONY
defeated the British off the Cape Verde Islands, and assisted the Dutch to make the project an impossibility.
Even before this three-cornered struggle for the possession of Cape Colony in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, between Britain, Holland, and France, both the British and French, much earlier in that century, had taken a great interest in South Africa, partly no doubt owing to Capetown having become an enforced place of call for the great sailing-ships that passed to and fro between Western Europe and India. A further strong French hold over South Africa was the settlement there of Huguenot families who had left France after the pro- mulgation of the Edict of Nantes, and had settled in the United Provinces of Holland, or in some cases had, at a later date, migrated direct from France to South Africa. To this day many Boer families bear old French names,1 which, however, are so mispronounced in the Dutch fashion as to be unrecognizable as French to the ear alone. The Huguenot settlers in South Africa have been a very potent strain of quite the best quality, as indeed they have proved themselves to be elsewhere, in England, America, and Germany.
In 1780—85 the French naturalist Levaillant had revealed some of the leading features in the remarkable fauna of West Africa, and the Swedish botanists, Sparrman and Thunberg (1 772-76), had studied the flora. During the eighteenth century, indeed, our European horticulture was greatly enriched by the importation of plants from South Africa. The cultivation of the scarlet geranium (really a pi largonium) dates back to this period, also the great white arum (Richardia). Many heaths, 'everlasting* flowers [Helichrysum), the blue plumbago, the blue Agapanthus lily, tin Kniphofia or 'red-hot poker.* and an infinitude of other beautiful flowers or foliage plants have been introduced from the ("apt' peninsula to our gardens and ihouses. At this period also Europe first began to
1 Villiers, Dutoit, Cilliers, Joubert, Triechard. Ddarey, and many others.
CAPE COLONY
67
hear about the strange South African beasts and birds. Giraffes were sent to Europe by the Dutch Governor Tulbagh.
In 1777 Captain Robert Jacob Cordon, a Scotsman in the service of the Dutch East India Company, discovered the Orange River at its junction with the Vaal. Two or three
68 CAPE COLONY
years later Captain Gordon, accompanied by an English- man— Lieutenant William Patterson — travelled overland from the Namakwa country to the mouth of the Orange River, which they ascended for thirty or forty miles, after- wards giving it its present name as a compliment to the Prince of Orange, the Stadhouder or perpetual President of the Dutch Republic.
France as early as 1682 had occupied the island of Bourbon (now called Reunion) and through her East Indian Company had taken Mauritius (the Isle of France) in 1721. She had established claims over Madagascar {Gallia oriental is) from 1644. The Austrian-German Empire under Maria Theresa had some idea of acquiring a foothold in Madagascar through an eccentric Pole named Benyovski, and had made a more serious attempt in 1776 (through an Englishman named Bolts) to found a colony at Delagoa Bay ; all these attempts being undertaken in the name of the short-lived Imperial German East India Company which had its head quarters at Ostend. in the then Austrian province of the Netherlands.
Undoubtedly, if South Africa had not been seized by the British, it would have become French. It was only left alone by Great Britain after the peace of 1 783 because France took the hint, withdrew her garrison from Table Bay, and ceased for a time to attempt any settlement on the South African coast. But in 1795. when the troops of the French Republic had occupied Holland and the Prince of Orange had fled to England, the British Govern- ment sent a strong expedition under the authority of the Prince of Orange, and took possession of Capetown after a short struggle with the local authorities, who were then merely officials of a chartered Dutch East India Company.
The British were to a great extent popular with the Dutch settlers in Cape Colony in these early days, because the nil' o\ the Dutch East India Company had been incredibly silly and tyrannous. It had established a grind- ing monopoly in commerce, and apparently did everything it could to discourage local agriculture. It was only because the
CAPE COLONY
6g
Dutch and the Huguenot settlers showed the same contempt for tlir Company's bureaucratic rule as was afterwards evinced by their descendants towards the regulations oi
Photo by the Right Rev. the Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway
in. GRACEFUL STANLEY CRANE TETRAPTERYX PARADISE I A Klkli PECULIAR I" SOUTH AFRICA, SOMETIMES TAMED BY THF. BRITISH AND BOl K SETT1
the British Colonial authority, and because they migrated to the interior and the east, away from all control, that Cape Colony was a region so extensively populated by white people at the time of the British landing in 1795. In fact, before the British arrived in 17l|5. the Dutch
7o
CAPE COLONY
burghers out of reach of the Company's forces at Capetown had established two independent Dutch Republics, one in the district of Graaf-Reinet, and the other in Swellendam.
The European population (Dutch and Huguenot) in 1795 amounted to about twenty thousand souls. The area at that date more or less claimed or settled by the Dutch was about a hundred thousand square miles, increased by another twenty- five thousand square miles under the brief, but very able, direct Dutch government be- tween 1803 and 1 806.
The British in 1 7l)5 introduced the principle of free trade, limited by slight preferen- tial duties in favour of British goods; and many other liberal measures were enacted. But when at the conclusion <>l the peace of Amiens in ISO.'., the British governor was withdrawn and his place taken by two Dutch Commissioners, Mr. De Misl and General Janssens, Cape Colony became an integral portion of the Dutch dominions (then known as Batavian Republic). Moreover, a great impetus was
by tin- Right Rev. the Bishop Of Glasgow' ami Galloway
A TYPICAL BOER FARMER IN SOUTH AFRICA; OVER 6 FT. TALL
CAPE COLONY
7i
given to agriculture and stock-rearing (the two Dutch Com- missioners introduced the merino sheep, for example, and improved breeds of cattle). Consequently the Boer1 settlers, for the first time really well governed by Holland, prepared to receive the British forces in a very hostile fashion when they once more anchored in Table Bay at the beginning of
Ph"lo lent by Leo Weinthal A PORTION OF CAPE TOWN
IN THi; BACKGROUND IS THE FAMOUS TABLE MOUNTAIN
L806. General J anssens, commanding in South Africa on behalf of the Batavian Republic, had, besides Boer volunteers
and a battalion of German soldiers from Waldeck, a regiment
1 Boer (i.e. farmer, peasant) was the name applied to the Dutch agricultural Cape Colony in the eighteenth century, in contra-
distinction from the officials and trading agents of the East India Company of the Netherlands The same word is found in Anglo-Saxon, l>fir, and in English, /><><>'- ami ' neigh-ftowr.' 'Burgher' (properly spelt, 'Burger'), meaning 'citizen,' is another term applied to the men oi tins race. Later on, to distinguish the South African Dutch from Hollanders land also to uish the British who were native to the South African colonies from those bom in the United Kingdom) the term 'Afrikander' came into 1
-~£«2K/eS53tt=rr
CAPE COLONY
burghers out of reach of the Company's forces at Capetown had established two independent Dutch Republics, one in the district of Graaf-Reinet, and the other in Swellendam.
The European population (Dutch and Huguenot) in 1795 amounted to about twenty thousand souls. The area at that date more or less claimed or settled by the Dutch was about a hundred thousand square miles, increased by another twenty- five thousand square miles under the brief, but very able, direct Dutch government be- tween ISO J and 1806.
The British in 1 795 introduced the principle of free trade, limited by slight preferen- tial duties in favour of British goods; and many other libera] measures were enacted. But when at the conclusion "I the peace of Amiens in 1803, the British governor was \\ ithdrawn and his place taken by two Dutch Commissioners, Mr. I rid General Janssens, Cape Colony became an
•' Dutch dominions (then known as Republic). Moreover, a great impetus was
Bishop of Glasgow and Galhuay
A TYPU U l.MKK IN SOUTH AFRICA;
i'VI l: '.II. TALL
CAPE COLONY
7i
given to agriculture and stock-rearing (the two Dutch Com- missioners introduced the merino sheep, for example, and improved breeds ol cattle). Consequently the Boer1 settlers. for the first time really well governed by Holland, prepared to receive the Rritish forces in a very hostile fashion when they once more anchored in Table Bav at the beginning of
rh-lo leal by Leo W tin thai A PORTION "I 1 \PH TOWN IN III! BACKGROUND 1~ llil FAMOUS i\l:ii MOUNTAIN
1806. General Janssens, commanding in South Africa on In 'halt ol the Batavian Republic, had, besides Boer volunteers and a battalion ol German soldiers from Waldeck, a regiment
1 Boer (i.e. farmer, peasant) was the name applied to tin- Dutch agricultural settlers 1 Colony in tin- eighteenth century, in contra-
distinction from the officials and trading agents of the East India Company hi tin- Netherlands. The same word is found in Anglo-Saxon, 6ur, and in English, boor and ' neigh-feowr. ' 'Burgher' (properly spelt, 'Burger'), meaning ' citizen,' is another term applied in the men <>i this ran- Later mi, to distinguish tin- South African Dutcb from Hollanders (and also to distinguish the British who were native t<> the Smith African colonies from those horn in the United Kingdom) the term 'Afrikander' came into use.
;2 CAPE COLONY
of disciplined Hottentots: in all he was able to dispose of a little more than two thousand soldiers, and a battle took place at the foot of the Blauwberg, near Capetown. But • i German mercenaries, having no interest in the quarrel, fled during the action, and in spite of the brave fighting of the Dutch burghers, the British gained an easy victory. General [anssens retired into the mountains, and there made terms with the British, being sent back with his officers and soldiers to Holland at the expense of the British Government and under a flag of truce.
The first acts of the new British administration, which started in 1806, were reactionary, and much of the good work done by the two Dutch Commissioners was abrogated ; moreover, a fresh impulse was given to the slave trade.1 The British had not long been in possession of Cape Colony when they found themselves involved in the difficult problem of the 'Native' question. In 1809 the Hottentots of the western part of (ape Colony were brought into legal sub- ii to the Government. Prior to this date they had been regarded as a relatively free people, outside the white man's law. They were now made subject to that law on tin same terms as white men. The wilder or more inde- pendent among them disliked this obligation to a settled life, and lied northwards into the arid regions of Xamakwaland. 111. Hottentot Regiment also gave a great deal of trouble. a- the men had picked up very bad habits from the loose- lived European soldiers with whom they had associated during tin days of struggle between the British and Dutch. They were employed, moreover, in the interior to overawe the more rebellious Boers, and this added to a growing tioii hit by the Dutch settlers against the tactless
' Tl" I j the Parliament of Great Britain in 1807
n was appointed a place at which
captured slaveships mighl 1><- condemned, and the slaves on board released,
and as this prcn r( lure flooded the Cape district with large numbers of master-
prenticeship were virtually inducted again into
I the British Governors oi I ape Colony in the first
■ of tin- nineteenth centui lly increased the difficulties which
entual emancipation of the slaves. The Dutch had com-
iii m the Cape of Good Hope district by the
Malavs during i entury.
CAPE COLONY
73
(though often well-meaning) rule of obstinate British military governors. Unfortunately, during the earlier years of the nineteenth century. British missionaries (of the London Missionary Society), instead of pouring oil on the troubled waters (as their Moravian brethren had done), caused a bitter feeling to arise between the Boers and the British Government. They accused the Dutch settlers of innumer- able murders and acts of crueltv against the Hotten- tots, Bushmen, and Kafirs, without having sufficient evidence to establish these charges in the courts of law which were framed to try them. There is no doubt that the Boers and Huguenots sometimes treated the Hottentots in an arbitrary and even cruel manner, but these tendencies would have g in 1 u a 1 1 y d i s a p p e a r ed under a settled Govern- ment. As it was. the action of the well-meaning missionaries from Greal Britain, in their ill-regu- lated enthusiasm for the native race (an enthusiasm, however, which was a most precious asset in the building up ol the British Empire in Africa, and prevented as usually from committing the same faults and mistakes as had sullied Spanish rule in America), was a principal cause of the long enduring race feud which grev* up between the British and Dutch people in South Africa, a feud only extinguished by the granting oi full rights of self-government to the two Boer colonies of the Orange River and the Transvaal in 1906-7, and the prospects of a confederated South Alrica.
Photo lent by R. Anthro. Inst. \ KAFIR CHIEFTAIN
74 CAPE COLONY
In 1811 the first war, undertaken by the British against the Kafir tribes, took place.1
The Bantu tribes who had crossed the Zambezi in pre- historic days were divided into at least three main stocks (according to language), the Bechuana in the centre, the Nyanja group in the north-east, and the Kafir (Zulu) in the south-east and south. The Kafir-Zulu group had a very distinct branch— the Thonga or Ronga — which occupied under main- different names the easternmost portion of the Transvaal, the Lower Limpopo River, and the region about Delagoa Bay : but the Kafirs of 'Zulu' type became divided into three main sections (according to dialect) : the Kafirs of Cape Colony (Xosa and kindred clans, see p. 247); the Zulu of Zululand and Natal; and the Swazi of South-east Transvaal. Nearly all Zulu-Kafirs are tall, well-made, dark-skinned Negroes, typified by the Zulu of Natal.2
These Zulu- Kafirs, who probably arrived in South Africa by following the south-east coast-belt, found themselves checked in their further expansion westwards by the Hottentots, and perhaps also by their Bechuana kindred, who, under the tribal name of Basuto,3 were an equally warlike people. However, the Hottentots, weakened by the terrible Incursions of smallpox, which had killed them by tens oi thousands at different times during the eighteenth century, wire no longer able to prevent the Kafirs from entering the settled districts of Cape Colony to the west of
■ I word ' Kafir ' see p. ! 16. Kafirs had fought with the Dutch settlers three times during the last hall oi the eighteenth century.
ted a a term to comprise the language and
dialects of the' Kafirs' dwelling to the west of theUmzimkulu River, while the
' Zulu 'is now commonly applied to the language and people of the Kafir
tween theUmzimkulu River and the Portuguese frontier. The people
iziland, although a hundred years ago it was only the name of a small
clan oi the Abatetwa ' Kafirs' oi Zululand, are closely allied to the Zulu,
ightly diffi i 1 he ' Zulu ' dialect differs very little
and Swazi, but very much from the Tonga of northernmost
uland X" a is spelt ' Xosa ' in South Africa, but as the X really stands
lick it is better to spell it with a special letter— X. [The
nilarly rendered 1>\ C and Q.]
N\ meaning the ' Brown people.'
CAPE COLONY 75
the Great Fish River. It was now as the Americans would say 'up to' the British to stem the tide oi Kafir invasion, and prevent the land of the European colonists and the Hottentot tribes from becoming a black man's country. The Hottentots, through disease, and perhaps injustice on the part of the settlers, had almost ceased to count as a factor, and the little Bushmen were fast disappearing, either at the merciless hands of the Europeans, or because they preferred to migrate northwards into desert regions, where they would be left alone. As the result of the short military operations in 1811—12 the Kafirs were expelled from the Zuurveld (the modern district of Albany), and were told to remain on the east side of the Great Fish River. At the same time Grahamstown was founded (named after the officer com- manding the Hottentot Regiment) as a place of arms to keep the Kafirs in check. They made, however, so many incursions into the districts where the white settlers had begun to establish themselves, that in 1817 Lieutenant- General Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of Cape Colony from 1814, decided that the best obstacle in the way of repeated Kafir invasions would be to settle the Albany district with military colonists able to defend themselves. He, therefore, obtained a grant from the British Govern- ment of £5000 to promote emigration to the Cape, and between 1820 and 1821 about four thousand emigrants from Great Britain were settled in the eastern districts of the colony, principally in the county of Albany. At the same time a number of Irish were established in the western part of Cape Colony.
At first the Albany settlements were failures. But few of the colonists had any practical knowledge <>i agriculture. The cost of land transport pressed heavily on them, and the grants of land made to each family were too meagre for the somewhat wasteful requirements ol African agri- culture in an early stage. Moreover, it would seem that lure, as elsewhere, there is some active spiritual agency in nature, which fights hard against new experiments. Between 1821 and 1830 the British colonists of the eastern part
76
CAPE COLONY
of C;q»c- Colony saw their fields of corn and vegetables oyed by blights and insect plagues, or washed away
into the stream valleys by excessive floods. Various diseases
attacked the sheep and cattle. However, after ten years
began to right themselves, and the settlers who held
Zuurveld gradually attained prosperity, more
CAPE COLONY 77
especially by the breeding of merino sheep for wool and the rearing ol cattle.
Lord Charles Somerset's actions in other directions were bad and even disastrous in their effect : he had a violent temper and was obstinately despotic; but his settlement of this ' no man's land ' in the eastern part of the then limited Cape Colony must be accounted excellent in its intentions and results.1 It is due to his work that the central portion (as it now is) of Cape Colony is so very English in race and language, as compared to the western and northern parts, which remained completely Dutch. By 1828 the Albany settlements had become so important that Cape Colonv was divided into two Provinces, the Western and the Eastern. Already, in the year 1824, its boundaries northwards had been extended to the Orange River.
Lord Charles Somerset found that the Hottentot Regiment stationed at Grahamstown was causing violent dissatisfaction amongst the Dutch settlers in the northern part of the Albany district. It was the now familiar story of the white man refusing to recognize the coloured man as in any sense an equal. The Hottentot soldiers were employed as police to arrest Dutch farmers on various charges. One such instance led to the death of a Boer name 1 Frederik Bezuidenhout, who resisted the Hottentot policemen and was shot. His brother. Jan Bezuidenhout, took up t!ic grievance as a bitter vendetta ; in tact, he e>>t up an insurrection of a rather futile character. But the local authorities were for the most part themselves of Dutch origin, and resisted stoutly any attempt to rebel against the constitute! authority, however much they themselves might disapprove ot the use that was made
' He tuck a very great interest also m tin- agricultural developn* South Africa, founded a model farm (now called Somerset East), (lid much to improve agriculture, and introduced breeding horses at his own expense, from which cavalry remounts for the British Army in India were bred by the farmers to their great profit; but, when allusions are made to the generosity of the early Governors oi Cape Colony, it must be remembered that they received enormous salaries and perquisites, amounting in some instances to a total of £15,000 a year.
78
CAPE COLONY
of the Hottentot Regiment. Jan Bezuidenhout was killed in an attempt to arrest him, and a few insurgents were captured and tried on a charge of high treason. Although these people (one of them was the widow of Jan Bezuiden- hout) had caused no loss of life (except in the case of the aforesaid widow), they were nevertheless punished with
greatest severity, six of them being sentenced to death. the others to long terms of imprisonment or banishment and heavy lines. In spite of strenuous pleading from British and Dutch officers alike, the obstinate Lord Charles
lerset insisted on five of the insurgent Boers being hanged at the place which was thenceforth to be known
Slagters Nek.* This stupid blunder of a British official completed the alienation of Dutch feeling from British rule in South Africa, which the tactless behaviour of the early missionaries had begun. Thenceforth there were definitely two camps — the Boer on the one hand, and the English-speaking British and German colonists on the
other.
Friction between the two was further increased by the refusal in 1827 to acknowledge the use of the Dutch language any longer in Courts of Law, or to appoint any officer of the Crown who was not conversant with the I li h language. Not even the admirable arrangements made in that year (1827) for the administration of justice by the creation of a Supreme Court with judges appointed directly by the Crown, of lower courts and police courts, sufficed to reconcile the thirty or forty thousand Dutch- speaking people in the colony to the disfranchisement of their beloved dialect, a form of speech already departing widely in pronunciation and vocabulary from the literary language of Holland. To a certain extent, in religious matters, a slight reconciliation took place. The South- African Dutch (mixed as they were with the descendants of French Huguenots) were bigotedly anti- Romanist. The settlers introduced by the British Government from England, ii'l Ireland were practically all Protestants; so Moravian missionaries (whose work in the colonv
CAPE COLONY
79
was begun in the eighteenth century), and the agents of
the London Missionary Society. The Scottish settlers found their Presbyterianism agreeing exactly with the tenets of the Dutch Reforme 1 Church. The Colonial Govern- ment had built nu- merous churches for theDutch Reformed Colonists, and the early settlers from Scotland to some extent fused with the Dutch commu- nity. But trouble again arose, separ- ating British and Dutch i n sym- pathies, over the slavery question.
About 1S30 there was a slave popula- tion in Cape Colony of about thirty thousand Negroes, mainly derived from Mozambique : another twenty- five thousand were Hot- tentots (agricultural serfs rather than slaves), and there were perhaps nine thousand Malays and natives of Mada- gascar. In 1833 the status of slavery was abolished. It was enacted that on the 1st of December, 1834, freedom should be given to all slaves over a certain age, or subject to specified conditions. Complete freedom the complete abolition of the slave status was to take place cm the 1st ot December, 183.X. Meanwhile the I mperial ( irovernment would compensate the slave owners to the extent of £1,250,000.
SIR BENJAMIN D URBAN
GOVERNOR OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, 1834-37
So CAPE COLONY
But this compensation — relatively small compared to the ratio adopted in other British Colonies — was so carried out as to give the Boers the greatest cause for dissatisfaction. It was saddled by various deductions and drawbacks, and it is to be feared that a good deal of the money found its way into the pockets of officials in England and in Cape Colony. At the beginning of 1830 the Boer farmers were seething with indignation at the cessation of their slave labour, and the inadequate- amount they had received for the renunciation ( it their slaves.
Then, just as the slave emancipation was being put in force, there came a further addition to the Boer grievances. In 1834, shortly after one of the really great Governors of South Africa -Sir Benjamin d' Urban — had taken up ? his appointment, twelve thousand Kafir warriors of the Xosa group crossed the eastern frontier of Cape Colony with the deliberate intention of massacring or driving away the European colonists in the newly settled districts. For nearly a fortnight they had it all their own way from Somerset East to Algoa Bay. killing many white men, burn- ing their houses, destroying or carrying off their property, and turning a beautiful province into a desert. This raid was absolutely unprovoked by any local action, but the Kafir chiefs afterwards gave as their excuse the fact that people had been turned out of the country on the west bank of the Keiskamma River, which they, the Kafirs, had recently seized from the 1 tottentots.
The ( rovernment dispatched Colonel (Sir Harry) Smith to repel this Kafir invasion. The Xosa warriors were driven east- wards o\ the Keiskamma.1 and their own territory beyond the ( rreat I\< i River was next invaded. When the Kafirs sued for ,Sir Benjamin issued a proclamation declaring the coun- try between the Keiskamma and the Chumi (Tyumi) a British possession under the name ot the Province of Queen Adelaide. As the people ol the Kafir chiefs Gaika and Xdlambe recom- rilla warfare, Sir Benjamin d' Urban established
kamma is a little river which rises near Lovedale Mission entei the sea about sixty miles east of the Great Fish River.
Harrismitli ^5
1 %^
<*■*
V^"
t/f
..••v";:^%
0,; / > y., NATAL
iPoi-t Eliza bftii
SKETCH MAP
OP
KAFFRARIA
To show locations of tribes and shifting
of tribal frontiers during first half of
19th Century.
i^^^H^^Hi
CAPE COLONY 81
a number of military posts along the eastern frontier of the new Adelaide Province, and garrisoned these with soldier- colonists. Very few of the conquered Kafirs were dis- possessed of their homes, and such natives as the outcast ■ Fingo ' tribe were dealt with generously in regard to grants of land. The missionaries, with one exception, were encouraged to return to their work amongst the Kafirs on what remained Negro territory. The exception was an important one — the Reverend Dr. Philip, a representative of the London Missionary Society, who had been in Cape Colonv since about 1820, and had identified himself enthusi- astically, but not always judiciously, with the native cause. With Dr. Philip it seems to have been ' the native, right or wrong ' : but he and some of his adherents overlooked the fact that the Kafirs, whose cause they championed with intense zeal, were no more native to these districts of Cape Colony than were the British : the real natives were the Bushmen and Hottentots. These two peoples had never been very numerous, but had in many districts ceased 'to exist by the beginning of the nineteenth century, either by the spread of disease, or by the persecutions of the Dutch. French, or early British settlers. The question really at issue between Sir Benjamin d' Urban and the great Kafir chiefs beyond the Keiskamma was as to the predominance in power of white or black rule, the question whether the whole of Cape Colony eventually should be occupied by Bantu Negroes, or whether the districts west of the Keiskamma should be reserved for European settlers, Hottentots, Malays, and such few Negro tribes as had already settled down there by permission of the British Government.
Dr. Philip.1 however, made his way to England with a Kafir and a Hottentot, both trained in the mission schools. He greatly influenced the mind of Sir Charles Grant (afterwards Lord Glenelg), then Secretary of State for the Colonies, and this statesman decided to
1 A rather interesting side-light on Dr. Philip and on missionary society in Cape Colony in istl is to be found in a letter of David Livingstone given on pp, 64 to 69 in the present author's Livingstone <///</ the Exploration of Central Africa.
82 CAPE COLONY
annul the recent acts of Sir Benjamin d' Urban, although Ins proceedings had met with the approval not only 0f British and Boer settlers and of such Hottentot chiefs as could make their views known, but also of practi- cally all the missionaries then in South Africa, with the sole u of Dr. Philip. The Governor of the Cape was obliged to give back to the Kafirs of the Xosa tribes lands which had long been occupied by white settlers (chiefly Boers) within the Province of Adelaide. Moreover, this Province was placed under the separate Governorship of a B r, Mr. Andries Stockenstrom, who had visited England to protesl against certain actions of Sir Benjamin d'Urban. The last named (whose memory is perpetuated in the sea- capital of Natal) is described by Mr. McCall Theal, the
brated historian of South Africa, as ' the best loved and most widely esteemed Governor Cape Colony had known since the days of General Janssens.' He attempted to dissuade the Secretary of State from carrying out his purpose, and was thereupon dismissed from office in the harshest manner. Almost broken-hearted at this treatment, he would not return to England, but retired to private life in Cape Colony until his countrymen should have the opportunity of considering his work, and perhaps of reversing the judgment passed by the Secretary of State for the lonies. It was not, however, until 1S46 that the British Government realized what a blunder had been committed, and with what cruel unfairness Sir Benjamin d'Urban had been treated. He was subsequently appointed Commander- in-Chief of the Forces in Canada. 'To the great wail of
my from South Africa.* writes Mr. McCall Theal. ' Lord Glenelg had but one reply: that he took the responsibility of the policy upon himself, a responsibility so terrible, as subsequently seen, that it is charitable to suppose he was more thoughtless than cold-blooded.'
At this distant e of time, most students of South African
history of otherwise divergent opinion will probable concur
in tl words of the impartial historian of South Africa
man who at different times has been accused
• AIM- COLONY 83
<.A too much sympathy for the Boers and for the natives). But they should realize that Lord Glenelg erred mainly through a desire to be absolutely fair to the Negro inhabitants of South Africa. He did not wish the extension of Cape Colony to be founded on injustice. I le was also ill-informed as to the geography, anthropology, and history of South Africa. His blunder was in some respects less bad than many subsequent mistakes made by British statesmen in control of the Empire's destinies: men who. through the plan of education then and now prevailing, were often ignorant of the same great subjects.
The effects of Lord Glenelg's reversal ni Sir Benjamin d'Urban's action were far-reaching. The white man and his changes of policy had become the laughing-stock of Kafirland, and such persecuted Kafir tribes as had been taken under our protection were incessantly harassed and killed nf\ by the insolent Xosa people.
But worst of all. the unsettling of everything Sir Benjamin d'Urban had done decided the bulk of the Loers in the eastern part of Cape Colony to migrate out of reach of British authority to regions where, with their guns, they could carve for themselves new republics out of Negro terri- tory: so that in the long run the Negro did not benefit from Lord Glenelg's interference'. The Great Trek began in 1835, and the first pioneer party of Boers under Louis Triechard
Hottentot descent) and fan van Rensburg, of under a hundred people (only eighteen ot whom were full-grown men). started with thirty waggons, and a considerable number of Negro and Hottentot servants or slaves. They crossed what is now the Orange River Colony, and without any difficulty reached the Zoutpansberg Mountains, on the eastern frontier ol the Transvaal, aiming vaguely at getting into touch with a seaport like Delagoa Bay. In this region the party divided into two, and that under van Rensberg continued to travel eastwards, but soon disappeared from all knowledge. Apparently all the members "i tins expedi- tion, except two. were killed by the natives or died ot fever.
Triechard's following, in their attempt to reach Delagoa
■<l
CAPE COLONY
Bay, descended from the high plateau of the Transvaal into the fever belt of the Limpopo Valley. Here many of the
children and a few of the adults died from the effects of
malaria ; but the worst blow which befell them was the loss
their cattle from the tse-tse fly. This was probably the
CAPE COLONY
85
first occasion in /wen/ South African history when this
THE BOER COSTUME OF Mil: FORTIES OF THE MM ir.KNill CENTURY (AS WORN BY nil. FRENCH EXPLORER, M. DELEGORGUE)
potent insect impressed itself on the mind ol the white man. as one of the gravest obstacles to his settlement in and
86 CAPE COLONY
exploration of Tropical Africa. The Boers were for the most part quite ignorant, and read scarcely any book but the Bible: otherwise they might have learned, even at that day. of the Portuguese accounts, published and re-published at different times, between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries, alluding to the effect of the tse-tse fly on the early Portuguese expeditions into the interior of Zambezia. Here this same insect had absolutely put a stop to the attempts of the Portuguese to found a great African Empire in the gold-bearing regions of the Zambezi Basin. No other obstacle could have prevailed at that time against their guns and gunpowder, their armour and energy.1
Only twenty-six survivors of Triechard's party reached the Portuguese fort of Lourenco Marquez at Delagoa Bay. The Portuguese treated them with the utmost kindness, and maintained them most hospitably for a whole year, during which time they were able to get into communication with other section- of the Boer people who were also emigrating eastwards from ("ape Colony. Eventually these twenty-six people (including young Triechard, who had walked over- land all the way from Delagoa Bay) arrived in Natal, and joined the Boers who were founding a republic in that
M. In 1836 a large part}- of Boers (and again one must record that some of the best of their men were of Huguenot
nt) left the eastern part of Cape Colony under the leadership of Andries Hendrik Potgieter, also with the desire to found a republic in the far north-east, which might be in touch with Delagoa Bay. This party included amongst the children a boy named Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, afterwards to be one of the great names of South African history. There were in all about fifty families, perhaps two hundred and fifty nun. women, and children. I'he Potgieter expedition made its way across the Orange River and past the northern flanks of the Basuto Mountains I rhaba N< hu) to the vicinity of the present town of Winburg.
they met a headman of the Bataung tribe of Bechuana -
Note on the rse-tsi Fly (p. 93).
J (3.
CAPE COLONY 87
Bantu. The Bataung, together with other Bechuana tribes, had once occupied all the territory between the Orange and the Vaal Rivers, together with the western and northern parts oi the Transvaal, but during the early part of the nineteenth century they bad been frightfully harassed, and nearly exterminated by incursions of the great Zulu-Kafir races, who from the eighteenth century seem to have surged northwards and westwards from their confined territories along the south-east littoral, in attempts first to devastate, and. secondly, to occupy all the habitable lands between the Indian Ocean and the Zambezi. These movements, of the Zulus especially, were partly caused by inter-tribal quarrels,1 and one such quarrel bad sent a leader named Umsilika/i on is <>i terrible raids into the countries of the Bechuana people. Umsilikazi is better known by the Bechuana version of his name Moselekatse.
Potgieter's expedition found the land, which is now the Orange River Colony, almost depopulated (except in the high mountains* by the raids of Moselekatse. Without properly appreciating the tremendous risk of intervention. Potgieter purchased from Makwana, the presumed chief of the Bataung tribe, a large extent of territory between the Orange River and the Vaal. The purchase price was a small herd of cattle, but a condition of the purchase was an engagement on the part of the Boers to protect Makwana and his people against the Matebele- warriors of M - lekatse.
Alter concluding this bargain, Potgieter's party of Boer
tanners, with their wives and children, settled down and
ite the beginnings of the Orange Free State.
But Commandant Potgieter himself, with eleven other
3, determined to explore the country eastwards till they
reached Delagoa Bay. The western part of the Transvaal
Was found to be depopulated by the Matebele. and as the party could not find an easy route from the edge of the great Transvaal Plateau to the unknown eastern coast-lands,
1 See the next chapter on the devastations of tin- Zulu-Kafir chiefs. - Atnandebele is the Zulu form ; Matebele is the Sechuana version.
88
CAPE COLONY
they turned back again to the Vaal River, to learn that during their absence several of their friends and relations had been killed by the Matabele.
They were just in time to assist the remainder of the colonists to defend themselves against complete extermina- tion. In the principal stands they made against these hordes of victorious Zulus, they were sometimes at most
rholo by S. S. Watkinst n A C.\<\ l! mi WAR DANCE I ZULULAND
1 1 J I — I- \VII\i i SI HAVE LOOKED LIKE, ADVANCING ON THE BOER PION1 I RS
forty fighting men against five thousand, but they had early learned to adopt the plan of speedy fortification by fastening their heavy waggons together in what is called a laager.1
Miei the repulse of an army of five thousand Matebele, i ommuni< ations were opened up with a Barolong (Bechuana) settlement which had just been founded by the efforts of a very notable Wesleyan missionary, the Rev. Mr. Archbell, and also with anot hci- large party of Boers migrating
oi waggons. The >paces between each waggon !■ '1 up with tin. ni-, and brushwood, or the branches of trees.
CAPE COLONY 89
towards Graaf Reinet under Gerrit Maritz. With the assistance of Mr. Archbell, the Boer women and children were placed in relative safety in the district of Thaba Nchu, and the Boer men. with the assistance of sixty Barolong Bechnana (under Matlabe) and forty Grikwa (Hottentot) half-castes — perhaps a hundred whites and a hundred coloured fighters, nearly all mounted on horses — started northwards on a hold attempt to inflict a punishment on the Matebele. They took a section of the Matebele by surprise at Mosega (in the South-western Transvaal). Moselekatse himself was away : the Matebele warriors, of course, had only their assegais to fight with, and their leathern shields as a defence. Four hundred were shot down almost immediately, without a single white man being killed or wounded. All through the morning of that day. till the horses were weary and could move no more, the Matebele were hunted hither and thither, and killed without mercy. Most of the waggons which the Matebele had snatched from the earlier Boer pioneers were recovered, together with six or seven thousand head of cattle. The habitations of the Matebele warriors destroyed by tire, and the expedition returned, bringing with it three American missionaries and their wives (Wilson. Lindley, and Venable). It is worthy of note that at a time when the raids and devastations of Moselekatse were attracting most attention, these devoted missionaries had, at great risk to themselves, made their way to Moselekatse's head quarters, and had so far impressed him with their disinterestedness as to haw been allowed to settle at Mosega. But for the unhappy quarrel which had arisen between the 1.- and the Boers, it is possible that these men, with further assistance, might have been able in time to bend the Matebele into the way ol peace.
After tlie Boer victory at Mosega, the settlement of Winburg was definitely founded, and was named in reference to the victory. In lane. 1837, a mass meeting at Winburg may '!>•• said to have founded the Orange River State by promulgating a Constitution, and electing a Boer from
90
CAPE COLONY
(ape Colony, Pieter Retief, as Governor and Commandant - General.
Pko'o by S. S. Waikinson "ll KUD1 PASS IN 1HI. DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS, ON THE BORDERS OI BASU rOLAND
Larger parties of Boers began to arrive in this region
"n ( ;ll" Colony, and it was decided to dispatch another
ition against Moselekatse. By November, 1837, the
CAPE COLONY
9i
little Boer army — all of course mounted, and armed with guns, and thus in a position of great superiority to the unmounted Zulus, fighting merely with assegais and clubs- had driven Moselekatse and the whole of his army out of the territories now known as the Transvaal, across the Limpopo, and into those regions of Southern Zambezia which for main" years afterwards were known as Matebele-
Watkinson
VASCO DA GAMA S MONUMENT, DURBAN, NATAL
laud. However much the Boers may subsequently have afflicted the native tribes which came under their sway, is no doubt that their intervention in the "thirties of the nineteenth century absolutely saved the Bechuana Bantu from extinction. A few years more, and the whole of this race between the Drakensberg Mountains on the south, the Kalahari Desert and the Zambezi watershed on the north. must have perished either from starvation and cold, or by direct assassination at the hands of the bloodthirsty Matebele Zulu. Probably no European power throughout
92 CAPE COLONY
the whole of Africa has better title deeds to the lands it has occupied than the Boers of South Africa.
Whilst Commandants Potgieter and Jacobus Uys were accomplishing this noteworthy feat — perhaps the most note- worthy episode in the conflict between white and black in South Africa Governor Pieter Retief was attempting to connect the new Boer settlements in the district of Winburg with some sea-coast not under the dominion of Great Britain— in other words, he was feeling his way towards what we now know as Natal.
Pholo lent by Francis Harrison THE TOWN AND HARBOUR OF DURBAN, NATAL
The wonl Natal is simply the Portuguese for ' Christmas,' because the discoverer, Vasco da Gama, had sighted the present harbour of Durban (or forested coast in its vicinity) on Christmas Day. 14(J7. Later on the name Natal was applied loosely to the Zulu country between the Umzimvubu (or ' Hippopotamus' River) and the Tugela. A settlement had been formed in 1823 at ' Fort Natal ' by a small party <>l British i donists under the leadership of Lieutenants Farewell and King, officers of the Royal Navy. They had visited the Zulu King Chaka, and had obtained from him in 1824 a grant of the port ^( Natal, afterwards christened Durban1 (with a hundred square miles of territory inland
1 Durban wa a< tuall in L835 by Captain Allen Gardiner, R.N.,
neer.
CAPE COLONY 93
and a coast-line of thirty-five miles). Chaka, though ho was a bloody-minded warrior, was an ambitious man, probably all unconsciously inspired by old Bantu traditions, and aiming at some Empire of Monomotapa such as had once, no doubt, destroyed the settlements of pre-Islamic Arabs, and inspired even the Portuguese with awe. Chaka was well inclined towards the great European power whose ships dominated the sea. ami whose subjects might bring him all the supplies he required in return for the ivory and cattle, of which the countries under his rule seemed to possess a boundless store. Farewell and King proclaimed the little territory of Natal to be a part of the British dominions, but when, in 1834, Sir Benjamin d'Urban asked the Colonial Office for permission to establish a definite government in Natal, Sir Charles Grant (Lord Glenelg), with his dislike to assuming new responsibilities in South Africa, felt unable to grant the petition.
NOTE TO CHAPTER III
The Tse-tse Fly and Parasitic Diseases
Tin. Tse-tse tlv is an insect belonging to the same order as that which includes the domestic fly (as this pest is still most improperly called, for so far from being a * domestic' insect, our civilization should destroy it altogether). It belongs to the genus Glossina, ami this genus has probably proved one of the most deadly foes of the whole mammalian class which the history of this earth has known : it has been more devastating in effecting the destruction of large beasts than even the British and Boer sportsmen. The Tse-tse is. however, only an agent, and does not itself fabricate the poison which it inserts into the blood. Tse-tse flies of different species nourish in their bodies ami convey through their probosces the infinitely minute organisms which are known as Trypanosomes. These, according to their species, by a multiplication in the blood of vertebrate animals, create the Nagana disc. isc, which destroys domestic cattle, horses, sheep, goats, dogs, ami almost all the beasts not Dative in their origin to Tropical Africa ; and the sleeping sickness which at different times has devastated the Negro populations of the Forest region of Tropical Africa. A nearly allied animalcule, the Treponema, is the cause of a number oi other terrible diseases afflicting humanity, horses, cattle. &c. The Treponema diseases an- transferred from one mammal to another by ticks (the tick is really a degenerate member of the spider class, and
94 CAPE COLONY
not an insect), and possibly by other agencies not yet discovered. But so far as our knowledge goes, the Trypanosome diseases, of which Nagana (for non-humans) and sleeping sickness are the principal, are only conveyed by tse-tse flies of the genus Glossiua. Malarial fever, which has been and is still one of the chief obstacles to human well- bring throughout Africa, is caused by a Sporozoon ' of the genus Hcematnoeba, and this micro-organism is (so far as we know) only conveyed into the blood of human beings by mosquitos of the Anopheline group. The common or domestic fly is believed to carry about the germs of diphtheria, typhoid, dysentery, and other diseases. Various kinds of flea convey the plague bacillus from the blood of one human being to another or from one mammal to another. So that if humanity could only find some means of destroying all these members of the insect and spider classes, whose fell purpose it is to convey poisonous organisms into the blood of mammalia, birds, and reptiles, we should have gone far in the direction of eliminating all disease, especially in tropical climates. Two species of Glossina, like the tse-tse, have been found fossil in North America (Colorado). These may probably have been the cause of the mysterious destruction of the vast herds of horses, rhinoceroses, camels, elephants, mastodons, and other beasts which swarmed over America down to the human period and then vanished too rapidly for their destruction to be attributed to the feeble efforts of Palaeolithic Man. Fortunately for Africa, the tse-tse fly generally disappears before civilization after the cutting down or burning of the rank herbage, the tilling of the ground, and the establishment of human settlements. But its disappearance does not seem to be brought about by the destruction of big game.
' Of the Protozoa class, the lowliest of animal organisms.
CHAPTER IV
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS IX THE EARLY NINETEENTH
I ENTURY
It is still an unsolved problem for students of the Bantu races to decide from what portion of the southern half of Africa came the original stock of the Zulu-Kafir peoples. Though their group of Bantu dialects is divided into two very separate types — the Ronga or Thonga of Delagoa Bay and the Lower Limpopo ' and the Zulu-Kafir — these 'Kafir" languages are. with the exception of kinship to Sechuana-Sesuto, singularly without near relations amongst the other groups of Bantu speech. So far there is no striking evidence in speech relationships which would enable us to determine with accuracy the region of Africa in which the ancestors of the Zulu- Kafir people originated. A few indications in language point to East Africa : the myths, customs, weapons, utensils, style of house building, domestic animals, and other ethnographical features of the Zulu- Kafirs are peculiarly East African. But there is a large element in the Kafir language which offers no known affinities, either to other Bantu groups, or to non-Bantu language. Possibly the Zulu-Kafirs were so long isolated in South-east Africa. between the high mountains and cold plateaus on the north, and the sea coast on the south, that they developed this peculiar element themselves.
The western tribes of this great people occasionally recall in physical type the Herero or Berg-Damara of South- west Africa, who arc tall, black-skinned Negroes, quite different from the Hottentots partially surrounding them.
1 Thi lialects are to some extent a link between the
Zulu and Sechuana groups.
o6
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
§!
. ' i
*J *.•
PP?
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
The Kafirs are a rather hairy people, with big and prominent noses and full beards, and tall of stature. The more eastern Zulu tribes are handsomer perhaps than the western Kafirs. 'l"he aristocratic families and the chieftains recall in their appearance the good-looking Negro or negroid races of North Tanganyika. Western Uganda, and the southern shores of the Victoria Nyanza. But in many of the tribes there is undoubted Bushman blood, showing itself in shortened stature and small, bridgeless, thin-nostrilled noses and yellow skin-colour.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the distribution of native races in Trans-Zambezian Africa probably stood thus: The coast regions of Cape Colony, between the Orange River on the north and the Great Kei River on the east, were inhabited sparsely by Hottentots. The interior of Cape Colony, portions of the Orange River Colony. Basutoland, the Western Transvaal, the Kalahari Desert, and the region between Lake Ngami and the western- most affluents of the Zambezi were inhabited by nomad Bushmen. There were also Hottentots in Great Xama- kwaland, along the Lower Orange River, and on the coast between the Cape of Good Hope and Walfish Hay.
In the central regions of South Africa, between the Kalahari Desert, the Zambezi watershed, the Zoutpansberg Mountains, the Drakensberg and Kwathlamba Mountains. and the Upper Orange River, dwelt scattered clans of the wide-spread Bechuana race. (See p. 244.) In the basin of the central Limpopo River was the kindred people known as the- Bavenda. In the somewhat limited region of South- east Africa between the Great Kei River on the south-west, the Lebombo Mountains and Santa Lucia Lake were the Zulu-Kafir tribes. In the south-eastern portion of Trans- Zambezian Africa between the Zambezi on the north and the vicinity of the Limpopo River on the south, were Bantu tribes such as the Ba-tonga (Batoka) ; the Ba-nyai, Ba-kalafta or Ma-karanga,1 Ba-swina (Ma-shona ; Ba-shangane and
1 The ' Ma-shona' and Ma-karanga are practically the same ; overlaid are both with exotic nicknames that it is very difficult to ascertain
98 ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
Ba-rue ; Va-tua ; and the many differently named clans grouped under the general term of Thonga or Ronga — the ' Knob-noses ' of the Boer and British pioneers.
None of these races in physical development could approach the Zulu- Kafirs. These last dwelt in a very healthy country, entirely free from the ravages of the tse-tse fly, and consequently well adapted for the unlimited breeding of cattle, sheep, and goats, permeated by ever- flowing rivers, and full of wild game, a land well typified by the modern State of Natal, the ' Garden Colony' of South Africa. Consequently, they increased and multiplied at a far greater rate than the tribes of the unhealthy malarial regions of the north-east, of the cold plateaus of the north, or the arid deserts to the north-west. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the westernmost sections of the Kafir-Zulu race endeavoured, as has been related, to dispute the possession of Hottentot South Africa with the incoming Europeans. They were driven back beyond the Great Kei River.
The Umvolosi runs through the middle of Zululand, and in the region watered by this stream grew up a small tribe ol Kafirs of fine physical development who called them- selves the Amazulu. The name means 'People from Above, from the Skies,' and the designation occurs else- where in the eastern basin of the Zambezi. The Kafir peoples ot that period— the end of the eighteenth century were divided into an infinitude of petty tribes, each tribe being probably the descendants of the children of some one powerful chief, warrior, or hunter, who by his own prowess had acquired a large number of wives, and after the manner of the old Patriarchs, had left behind him such a family of children as to constitute in the first generation the nucleus of a elan. Sometimes the original ancestor of the tribe was elected iii their legends into a demi- god, <>r he was associated in their traditions with some
indigenous tribal names. The Ba-kalafia, or Ma-karanga, are
known bj the Becbuana as the ' Makalaka, ' a name perpetuated by Living-
!' the I". M, ,n seems to be Ba-kalafia and its etymology is
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
<)<)
^
A IYIICAL ZULU 1.11 1 LI-
ioo ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
animal or object which he had adopted as his Totem or Fetish.
The chief of the Amazulu had a younger son named Chaka.1 This youth surpassed his brethren and all the other young men of the clan as an athlete and a warrior. Not being in the direct line of succession to his father, his success inspired jealousy amongst his brothers. He received a hint that trouble was brewing, and fled to Dingiswayo, a more powerful chief of a bigger tribe of Zulus known as the Abatetwa. Chaka so distinguished himself in episodes of tribal warfare that, when Dingiswayo was killed by enemies, the soldiers elected Chaka to be his successor. As soon as he was proclaimed chief, he brought about an amalgamation between the Abatetwa and the Amazulu, and soon became the master of the region we still know as Zululand. He carried further the great ideas regarding the control and armament of the tribal forces which Dingiswayo had initiated after a political exile in Cape Colony.- Chaka, in fact, was to this small portion of Bantu Africa what Frederick the Great had been to Prussia, or Julius Caesar to Rome. He improved the style of shield and assegai used by his warriors, subjected them to an iron discipline, forced all the young men to enter the army and to serve therein for a certain number of years till he gave them permission to marry, and then started out to enlarge his dominions.
He first attacked the peoples in Swaziland and the
Kafir tribes of Northern Natal. Orders were given in the
ilts of his army that no one was to be spared, except
the children. Of these, the young girls were handed over
' \ name rendered by some authorities as Shaka.
" Din the ' Wanderer') indeed may be said to have begun the
der of things which made the Zulu a nation of conquerors. When a
very young man hi ble and fled to the Xosa country in the west,
and from there visited Cape Colony, where he worked for'some years;
ing ashed disciplined troops of the British. About 1798 he
came riding back to Zululand on a horse (in those days an animal unknown
Zulu) and was speedily recognized and elected' chief of the Batetwa
1 te then put his new ideas into force and created the first Zulu army.
also opened up friendly relations with the Portuguese traders at
. I lay.
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS 101
to Chaka for distribution, according to his pleasure, as future wives for favourite warriors; and the boys entered his army, first of all as porters, and later to be trained as soldiers. All the others, men. women, and babies, were put to death. The villages, and all property and utensils therein were burnt, but the cattle and other live stock were handed over to Chaka. A few tribes sought to avert these disasters by adopting Zulu nationality and customs, and submitting themselves entirely to Chaka's orders. Others, who did not feel inclined to do this, or who dared not trust the treacherous Chaka. fled from his forces to the north and west. These fugitives, in their turn, through impinging on the territories of weaker tribes, became conquerors and devastators. Between 1819 (approximately) and the defeat of the Matabele by Dr. Jameson in 1N93, much of Southern and South-eastern Africa was bathed in human blood by the war of ne.^ro against negro which followed the original conquests of Chaka.
One of the northern Zulu tribes, probably from Swazi- land, under the chief Sochangana, fled to the Sabi River in Portuguese South-east Africa. Sochangana, as the distance grew between him and Chaka, soon became, with his horde of warriors, a conqueror instead of a fugitive. He ravaged what are now the Portuguese territories between i1 oa Bay and the Zambezi River. He captured and destroyed every single Portuguese fortress or settlement on the south-east coast, and on the Lower Zambezi River. I Ik people became known to the Portuguese under the dreaded name' of the 'Landins.'1 Even when the Portu
se to<>k advantage of tribal dissensions t«> re-establish their positions during the middle ,,t" the nineteenth century, they were for long compelled to pay tribute to the descendant of Sochangana, who established the head quarters oJ his power in Gazaland. The last chief of this dynasty — Gungunyana was captured by the Portuguese in 1896.
The march oi Sochangana's army was followed by the Angoni-Zulu tribe, also fleeing from before Chaka. The I ossibly from the name of a chief or captain called ' Umlandine. '
102
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
Angoni took a more westerly course, scarcely stopped till they reached the Zambezi, crossed that river about Tete. and conquered all the country between the Luangwa River and the west coast of Lake Nyasa. Here they founded chieftainships, which lasted down to the close of the nineteenth century, and the full establishment of the British protectorate over Nyasaland. Branches of the Angoni even
Ph >to lent by the Right Rev. the Bislup oj Glasgow and Galloway SNOW IN SOUTH AFRICA: THE VICINITY OF GIANT'S CASTLE IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS
pushed north between Tanganyika and Nyasa, curved round to the south-east, and founded a Zulu power on the plateaus to the easl ol Lake Nyasa, where their descendants remain to this day, still speaking a Zulu dialect. The main body travelled northward to the vicinity of Lake Victoria Nyan/a, and their descendants were still committing ravages and raids as recently as 1875 (near Tanganyika) and 1895 in Nyasaland.
Another tribe, on the Buffalo (Um/inyati) River of the Amangwane — fled before the raids of Chaka,
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
103
and in their panic ascended the lofty heights of the Drakens- berg often covered with ice and snow — and then in their turn attacked the tribes of Northern Basutoland. These Basuto fled before the invading Amangwane Zulus and reorganized themselves in their northward flight under
Photo by the Right Rev. the Bishop of Glasgow and GaUonav IN BECHUANALAND
, \M CACTUS.' WIS TREK (imnvs IN AIL DRY
SOI 1:1 ki in \ vw H 1 ROM A' 1 UAL Dl
a prophetess, or woman-chief, called Ma-ntatisi.1 The ■ Ma-ntatisi' Basuto, as they were afterwards called, crossed the Vaal River and flung themselves on the Bechuana tribes of central Smith Africa, who were too bewildered to unite against this unexpected foe. The Ma-ntatisi (often accused of being cannibals) are said to have destroyed twenty-eight tribes on their path of conquest. But their
1 The name meant Mother <>f Ntatisi.
io4 ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
career was arrested by a defeat in the Banwaketsi country at Kanya. They then turned south, and received another re defeat (organized by missionaries) at the hands of the Grikwa half-breeds in the Kuruman district. After this half the horde, still under the leadership of the woman Ma-ntatisi, returned to their original location on the Caledon River in the southern part of the Orange State, while the other half wheeled about and marched northwards along the verge of the Kalahari Desert till they reached the Zambezi. This section of the Basuto fugitives, which had split off from the ' Ma-ntatisi,* called itself Makololo, and adopted as leader a chief named Sebituane.
The Makololo reached the Upper Zambezi and made a conquest of the country inhabited by the distinct tribes of Ba-subia. Ba-tonga. and Ba-lui. Apparently the Bahuratse clan of the Bechuana had preceded the Makololo horde some years earlier in conquering the Ba-lui country on the Upper Zambezi, and had given their name to it. now shortened into ' Barotse.' When, in 1851. Dr. Living- stone reached the Upper Zambezi at Sesheke. he found the Makololo had created an empire there. They still spoke as the Court language a dialect of the Sesuto tongue. They received Livingstone with the utmost friendliness, 1 by furnishing him with stout-hearted guards and porters, enabled him first of all to reach the Atlantic coast of Angola, and then, more or less, to trace the Zambezi from its source to the Indian Ocean.
The Amangwane had set the ball rolling with a
vengeance when tiny started off these Basuto people on
;i flight terminating in ;i conquest which carried knowledge
up into the very heart of Africa; but thev themselves gol
no further northwards than the Caledon River, and.
pursued by Chaka's Ion,., were obliged to save them-
selves by invading Cape Colony or the territories of the
Xosa chiefs, more or less in alliance with the Cape Colonial
vernment. Here tiny wire broken up by an allied force
British, Boers, and Kafirs, and eventually absorbed into
ttlemei
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS 105
Chaka, having turned his lovers also to the south-west, is said to have exterminated or driven away about a million black people from the hearl of the modern Colony <>l Natal. A number of fugitives forced themselves into the settled
countries of the Xosa and Tembu Kafirs, and the survivors of them, after much slaughter had been effected, were contemptuously termed the Amamfengu, or 'out-of-works.' ddiis term, corrupted into * Fingo,' has ever since been applied to the fugitive Kafirs from Natal, settled in large numbers in the territories once belonging wholly to the Xosa and Tembu. The British Government frequently intervened on behalf of the persecuted Fingos, until at last they are now dwelling in security and prosperity.
Between the routes taken by the ravaedn^ hordes of Basuto under Sebituane on the west, and Sochangana (the leader <^\ tlie Gazaland Zulus) on the east, lay a tract of country still inhabited by sections of the Bechuana race in the south, an:! by old-established Nyanja1 tribes in the north, between the Zambezi and the Limpopo. Across this belt of central South Africa streamed the arme 1 bands of l'msilika/i.
This Zulu chieftain, who is best known in history by the Basuto rendering ol his name. Moselekatse, was the son ^\ .in independent Kafir cdiief. who. to save himsell ami his tribe from extermination at the hands ol Chaka's Zulus, hid prayed to be admitted with his people as a portion ot tin- Zulu nation. Moselekatse entered the Zulu army as a b »y, attracted the favourable notice ot Chaka, and eventually was made an ' induna,' or leader ol a division (impi). But having, after one successful raid on a Kafir tribe, yielded to the temptation of keeping a portion ni the cattle lor himself, and not sending all to the despot Chaka, he learnt that he had been denounced by Chaka
and condemned to death. The soldiers, who were with him and who ware implicated in the keeping back of the cattle, were also outlawed. This was a very foolish misl ike on the part of Chaka, because it enabled Moselekatse to 1 Karanga, Mashona
106 ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
withdraw from the Zulu despotism with some fourteen thousand picked warriors. He fled to the north, through tin- Western Transvaal, and, as soon as he was well out of Chaka's reach, commenced to ravage and slay on his own account : and, following Chaka's plan, incorporated the boys and girls of the slaughtered Bechuana into his own people and army. At first he settled in — and ravaged — the district now celebrated as the gold-bearing region between Pretoria and Johannesburg, but being pursued by Chaka and beating off his attack with difficultv, he marched north to Mosega, not far from the modern Mafeking. Here, as already related, he was severely punished by the Boers, and the later history of his horde, which took the name of the Amandebele (in Se-chuana, the 'Matebele')* has already been related.
Another curious result of Chaka's volcanic energy was the practical foundation of the Basuto nation in the present area of Basutoland. Both French Protestant and British Wesleyan missionaries had founded stations early in the nineteenth century in the magnificent mountain country of Basutoland, where peaks and ridges rise here and there to over eleven thousand feet. It is, in fact, an African Switzerland, perhaps the most beautiful and the choicest district of all temperate South Africa. Before the terrible Zulu raids and the Great Trek of the discontented Boers, the Bechuana peoples, north of the Orange and Caledon Rivers, were living mostly on the elevated plains and in the stream valleys, and had left the great mountains of Basuto- land to be inhabited by a few nomad Bushmen, by baboons in large numbers, zebras, antelopes, lions, leopards, and elephants. But when Chaka started his raids, followed by the convulsive movements of the Bechuana themselves, and the right-and-left slaughtering of Moselekatse's army, many 'Bechuana' refugees of the Bataufj, Bakwena, Batlokoa, Baphuti, Basia, Bafukifi, Batlapift, and Bapedi tribes, •gether with some Hottentot half-breeds and a number relict Kafirs, took refuge in the extremely difficult
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
107
mountain country now known as Basutoland. I hi se clans, mainly of the Bechuana stock, came in time — early
in the nineteenth century — to be known as the ' Basuto. - p. 244.)
By degrees the ' Basuto1 gathered round the kraal of a
108 ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS
young man named Moshesh,1 a pupil of the missionaries and the petty chieftain of a Suto clan. Moshesh fixed his residence on Thaba Bosigo, a natural mountain fortress of extraordinary strength, and one which has never yet been captured by Boers, British, or Zulu. Here, and in the mountains round about, he offered a refuge to all derelict peoples of coloured race. He was ready to pay tribute, in reason, to any powerful chief or authority whom he could not afford to defy. But later on he was to show both Boers and British that if driven into a corner he could fight and. with the advantageous conditions of his country, prevail in battle. So he and his successors, aided by the direct interposition of the British Government, have built up in Basutoland (which is an area of 10,293 square miles) ;i Negro confederacy which in the long run will prove a far more important factor in the Black- rcr.sv/.s-White problem of South Africa than the volcanic eruption of Zulu or Kafir tribes.
As to Chaka. who was the prime cause of these far- reaching movements of the South African Bantu, he ' petered out ' (to use a slang phrase) without founding an undivided Zulu Km] )irc of great extent such as he might easily have accomplished if he had been less of a savage. A large army, which he sent in 1828 to follow up and. if possible, exterminate Sochangana in Gazaland, met with a great reverse. This blow to his prestige gave his enemies their opportunity, and he was assassinated in September. 1828, by his half-brother Dingane at or near the junction between the Buffalo River and the Tugela.
Dingam ded him as head chief of the Zulu tribe,
and was in every way as wicked and as maniacal in his lust for blood. His collision with the Boers and with the British in the present colony of Natal and his ultimate fate are related in the next chapter. It has been pointed out by Mr. McCall
•grandfather of Moshesh was Sokake, a chief of the Bakwena
or 'Crocodile' tribe in the north. His grandfather is said to have been a
Zulu-Kafir of the Amahlabi tribe, and some think a refugee, or the son of a
. from Usutu, a district of North-eastern Zululand, from which
coup.- ime the ancestors of Cechwayo.
ZULU-KAFIR MOVEMENTS ioq
Theal that the extraordinary ravages1 committed by Chaka had a profound effect on the later history of South Africa, in that they depopulated so much of what is now known as Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange Free State, as to place at the disposal of two or three thousand Boers and a few hundred British vast territories in South Africa, hitherto peopled sufficiently by Bantu negroes, who might not only have legitimately claimed to be the owners of the soil, but who were sufficiently numerous and powerful to enforce their claims. This has been only one instance, out of many, in the blood-stained history of Africa, pointing the moral that no one has been more cruel to the Negro than the Negro himself.
1 This historian has computed that Chaka was directly or indirectly the 1 the death of a million Negri >es in Natal, Zululand, and the Transvaal.
On one occasion he had seven thousand women killed to celebrate his own mother's funeral, he having caused his mother to be put to death !
CHAPTER V
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL
WHEN the Boers under Pieter Retief had consolidated their position on the Caledon River in what is now the Orange State, they decided to find some way to the sea coast, and a port independent of Britain, which should not be so long nor so disastrously unhealthy as the route to Uelagoa Bay. Consequently Pieter Retief in October, 1837, made his way with a few companions through the country of Natal, and eventually reached the settlement of Port Natal, which had just been re-named Durban. Here they found the British well established on the strength of the old concession given by Chaka, and reinforced by a number of missionaries — Ameri- can Congregationalists and representatives of the Church of England. Amongst these was Captain Allen Gardiner, R.N., who. after leaving the service of the Royal Navy, had devoted himself to mission work, and had led the first missionaries to Natal. The English who were settled at Durban displayed no hostility whatever to the idea of the Boers establishing themselves in the hinterland, and fur- nished them \\ itli an English guide and an English interpreter to lead them to the head quarters of Dingane, so that they, too. mighl obtain a grant o] land from the; Zulu King.
Dingane, in his heart of hearts, hated the Boers, and dreaded tin in because of the severe defeats they had inflicted on the Zulus under Moselekatse. But he received them with outward friendliness, and through Mr. Owen, an English missionary, invested them by a document in writing with the land south of the Tugela River, conditionally on their first recovering for him a large number of cattle which bad been stolen by a son oi that extraordinary woman chief,
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL in
Ma-ntatisi, of the Batlokua tribe of Bechuana people in Northern Basutoland.
Pieter Retief engaged to do this, and did it. He then led a number of Boer colonists to establish themselves in the district of Weenen (as it was afterwards named). All this region was at that time entirely empty of inhabitants owing to the merciless raids of Chaka. After establishing his people on the highlands of Natal south of the Tugela River, Retief started for Ginginhlovu in Zululand with the eattle he had recovered for Dingane from the Basnto. He was accompanied by Mr. Owen, the English missionary, by sixty-four Boers, an English interpreter from Durban, and thirty Hottentots. Early in February, 1838, his party reached Dingane's kraal, and were received with apparent friendship. Mr. Owen was requested by Dingane to draw up another deed in writing, by which all the lands between the Tugela and the Umximvnbu (namely all South-western Natal and the modern Pondoland) were bestowed on the Boer immigrants by the King of the Zulus. He affixed his mark to this document, and handed it to Pieter Retief.
( omplctely misled by such apparent cordiality, the sixty-four Boers, two Englishmen, and thirty Hottentots went unarmed into Dingane's kraal on the 6th of February, L838, t'i bid farewell to the Zulu King, who was there in state, surrounded by a great circle of warriors. Suddenly Dingane gave an order in a low voice, an order for which, no doubt, previous preparations had been made. Immediately tin- Zulu warriors finng themselves on the little band of ninety-six nun and boys (for some of the Boers wer.- mere children) and carried them off to a hillock in the vicinity. line every single European and Hottentot was massacred. Simultaneously on the same day the 6th of February, 1838 an army of ten thousand Zulus crossed the Tugela. At dawn on the 17th of February, without any warning, they attacked the Boer encampments at Weenen, and massacred forty-one nun. fifty-six women, and a hundred and eighty-five children of the Boers, and two hundred and fifty Hottentot and Basuto followers of the
112
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL
immigrants. Only three young Boer men escaped this slaughter (which caused the place to be afterwards
/' shl Rev. the Bishop o' Glasgow and Gal'o;?ay WARRIOR THIS TYPE OF BANTU NEGRO, SO CHARACTERISTIC OF ZULULAXD, IS ALSO FOUND ALL rHROUGH I-A*r AFRICA, SPORADICALLY, AND OVER MUCH OF THE CONGO BASIN
christened Weenen, or the Place of Weeping), and they galloped away on horses to warn the other settlements further to the west. The people of these had just sufficient
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL n.;
lime to form their waggons into laagers, when the Zulu army dashed on them, only, however, to meet with the same fate as that of the Matabele attack on the Boer pioneers at Vechtkop. They lost so heavily from the fire of the Boer guns that they retreated (carrying off all the cattle they could find) and returned to their master at Girtginhlovu.
The Boers of the Orange State and the Englishmen of Durban united with the remaining Boer settlers in Xatal to avenge the treachery of Dingane. Three hundred and forty- seven Boers, under the leadership of Hendrik Potgietcr and Pieter Uys, marched in April. 1838, towards Ginginhlovu, but they were drawn into an ambuscade, and only cut their way through the Zulu army by bard riding and rapid tiring, losing ten Boers, all their spare horses, baggage, and ammunition. The British detachment consisted of twenty Englishmen, twenty Hottentots, and about twelve hundred Zulus who were adherents of the British. They met with a temporarv success, but eventually were routed in a terrible battle in which thirteen English and a thousand of their Negro soldiers were killed. The Zulus followed up their success by capturing and destroying Durban, but afterwards retreated again, and a few Englishmen resumed their settle- ment at this port.
The detachment of the Boers under Potgieter left Xatal. returned to the Orange State, and afterwards crossed the Vaal River, and settled at a place which was subsequent ly railed Potchefstroom. Here, in 1838, they laid the founda- tions of a future South African Republic. The other Boers drifted into Western Xatal. and repulsed sturdy Zulu attacks -in their settlements with heavy loss. Towards the close of 1838 they were joined by Andries Pretorius.1
Pretorius realized that the only chance of founding a Boer Mat.- in Xatal was the destruction of Dingane's power. He, therefore, got together in the beginning ol December,
1 Andries Pretorius died in L853. The town of Pretoria, founded in
1855, was probably named not after liim hut in honour of Marthinus Wessel
l retorius, subsequently President of the South African Republic. Potchef-
■ni i^ said to have been named eter and S( beppers, two Boer
leaders, and also the stream that flows through it.
i
1 14 THE FOUNDING OF NATAL
1838, a force of four hundred and sixty-four mounted men, all of them Boers, except one, Alexander Biggar,1 who was an Englishman. His little army included amongst other notable people Carel Cilliers (of Huguenot descent) and young Paul Kruger, afterwards to be President of the South African Republic.
This force rode, accompanied by many native followers on foot, towards Zululand, and with it went the all-important waggons, which provided the Boers with an easily-arranged system of movable fortifications, the ' laager,' afterwards to be so celebrated in the last South African War. Why the Zulus never attacked them when on the march is difficult to understand. They seem unconsciously to have played into the white men's hands by following the tactics they found so successful with black enemies — the attack in force at early dawn. Of course, this was just what the Boers desired. They were safely ensconced within their laager, and from this fortress could keep up an incessant fire with their muskets and rifles, and shoot down the Zulus by the hundred and the thousand. Thus on the 16th of December, 1838, at the little river in Zululand afterwards called the Blood River, from the streams of human blood which coloured its waters, the Boers avenged their murdered brethren by a slaughter of three or four thousand Zulus. They followed up their victory by a march on the Zulu capital at Gin- ginhlovu. Dingane tied to the Umvolosi River. The Boers destroyed his kraal and buried the remains of Pieter Retief's band of ninety- five followers (extracting from a bag hanging to one skeleton — probably that of Pieter Retief — the actual deed drawn up by Mr. Owen and signed by Dingane, con- ferring on the Boers the country of Natal).
Sonic months later on there was a disruption of the Zulu power. Panda,- a half-brother of Dingane, decided thai it was better to come to terms with the white people. He left Zululand. therefore, with a large number of people and warriors, and joined hands with the Boers on the
1 From whom Biggarsberg was afterwards named. ally Umpande.
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL
"5
Tugela River. Together the white men and their Zulu allies marched to meel Dingane, hut in the battle that followed, all the fighting was done between Zulu and Zulu, the Boers only watching what must have lxvn one oi the most terrible scenes "I human slaughter that white men have w itnessed in Afri- can history. A number of Dingane's warriors deserted to Panda's side, and Dinganebeing
Utterly defeated, and the rest of his army almost annihilated, lie I northwards, but was murdered by i >ne ol his followers. Panda the lather ot Cech- wayo was recognized bythe I >< » rs (andafter- wards by the British)
a<\ chief or Kin- el' the Zulus, but the country under his rule was defined as the
. .n between the Umvolosi and Tugela
Rivers, and he was
to regard his sover- as being held under the overlordship <>l the Boer Republic at Natal.
Whilst the Boers were staking their existence on the crushing oi the Zulu power, the British had resolved to re- occupy the only port ol Natal Durban. The occupation -•tv temporary, and had the somewhat unfriendly character of preventing the Boers Irian using Durban as a base of supplies in their attack on the Zulu power.
While, "M the one hand, the British Government disliked any idea of i xtending the responsibilities ol British rul<
I 2
A Z1 l.(" PRINCE (DEB1 KA) : SON OB PANDA
n6
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL
black people in South Africa, and was punctilious regarding the claims on their consideration of independent Kafir chiefs, yet, on the other, it persisted in regarding all the Boer inhabitants of South Africa as British subjects, and calling them to account for all their actions, whether they dwelt within the carefully circumscribed limits of British rule or not. Moreover, though the British Government wished to restrict its administration to a small portion of what is now
THE II MI'ORARY BRITISH CAMP AT COXCELLA, NEAR THE SITE OF DURBAN, 1842 FROM AN OLD DRAWING REPRODUCED IN ' TWENTIETH CENTURY NATAL '
Cape Colony, it did not like the idea of any rival port coming into existence in South Africa which might compete with Capetown. Yet the Home Government had repeatedly compelled its Governor of Cape Colony to declare that Port Natal should not be included in the British dominions, in ^]>it«- of concessions made or offered by Zulu kings. The attempts of the Portuguese to revive and strengthen their occupation at Delagoa Bay were regarded with jealous dis- like. Vet no effect was given to the treaties which had made by Captain Owen's expedition with native chiefs of the Delagoa Bay district in 1822-24 (the time when the Portugii' r had disappeared).
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL
"7
Aiter their crushing of Dingane and taking Panda into vassalage, the Boers (following a vow which they had made before engaging in this struggle) had founded the capital of their Republic of Natal, and had named it Pieter- Maritzburg in memory of Pieter Retief and Gerrit Maritz (two of the princi- pal Boer leaders). A town was also founded at Wee- nen, and a settle- ment at Durban was included within their purview. But the hitherto deso- lateand empty coun- try of Natal was now being invaded from the north- and south-west by Kafirs desiring to withdraw from the rule o t blood- thirsty chiefs, and settle down inquasi- independence under the shadow of the white man. The action of th.- Boer - in tin- or- ganization ot these Kafir settlements conflicted with the policy of the Governor of Cape Colony, and was not liked by the Home Govern- ment. Consequently Durban, or Port Natal, was re-occupied by the British, and tin- Boers were again reminded th.it they were British subji
They had previously applied for a recognition of their independence, and had opened negotiations with the King of the Netherlands, asking t< en under Dutch protection.
Photo lent bv Francis Harrison DICK' KIN<., ["HE HERO OF I'llF. 6oO MILE RIDE IN TEN DWs FROM DURBAN K) GRAB \M-X>\VN. IN 18 | J
n8 THE FOUNDING OF NATAL
At length it seemed as though the issue between Boers and British must come to the arbitrament of war. A Captain Smith, who had been sent with two hundred and sixty-three men and some artillery to march overland and occupy the coast country of Natal, sustained a severe defeat by the Boers in the vicinity of Durban, a place which a Boer army of between six and seven hundred men then proceeded to invest. Durban would probably have fallen to the Boers had it not been that one of its English inhabitants — Richard
riKTF.R-MARITZBURG IN 1853
King, a marvellously good horseman — performed the truly
r< markable feat ol riding six hundred miles overland to
Grahamstown in Cape Colony in ten days, with news
of the precarious condition of the English garrison at
the Port of Natal. Troops were immediately sent from
Porl Elizabeth and Capetown, the Boers raised the
. and after negotiations, undertaken by a wise and
capable Commissioner — Henry Cloete — the Boer Republic
ol Natal came to an end. Mr. Cloete conferred with the
settlements at Pieter-Maritzburg, and in November,
18 13, between one and two thousand Boer men, women, and
hildren decided to remain within the limits of the new
of Natal as subjects of the British Crown; the
THE FOUNDING OF NATAL 119
others (and the majority), with bitter rage and disappoint- ment at their frustrated hopes (hopes justly nourished on their marvellous achievements), withdrew behind the mighty range of the Drakensberg Mountains, a barrier which Mr. Cloete promised should mark the limit of British rule in that direction.
By agreement with King Panda, the boundary between independent Zuluhmd and Natal was declared to be the Buffalo River and the Tugela. On the south-west the limit of the new colony was the Umzimkulu River and its affluent. the Ingwangane. The colony of Natal has since grown to more than double the size of the region which was declared to be a British colony in 1S45.
CHAPTER VI
THE CREATION OF THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY
AND THE TRANSVAAL
THE Boers who preferred to leave their projected
Republic of 'Natalia' when it became a British colony,
and who sought independence in the territories to the north
of the Drakensberg Mountains, founded their desired
Republic at