# Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 4/Chapter 4

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CHAPTER IV.
CAPE COLONY AND ITS DEPENDENCIES.
The Cape, Griqualand West, Bechuanaland, Basutoland, Kafirland.
APE COLONY extends officially over an area more than double as large as that which it comprised in 1870. But within its narrower limits, as defined before that period, it constitutes a well-marked physical region, with perfectly distinct geographical and historical outlines. Occupying the entire southern extremity of the con- tinent, the territory has for its natural limits the ocean and the course of the Orange River on three sides, while towards the east it is separated from the Kafir domain by the little river Tees, an affluent of the Orange, and by the valleys of the Indwe and Great Kei, which flow to the Indian Ocean. Its superficial area is about exactly the same as that of France, but notwithstanding the somewhat rapid annual increase of the population, it is still forty times less than that of the same region.
Over one hundred and fifty years ensued after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope before any Europeans succeeded in obtaining a permanent footing in the country. A few marines landed from time to time, but soon left again. In 1620 the English even took formal possession in the name of King James I., but never followed up this act by any practical steps. Robben Island, in Table Bay, which has since been nearly always a place of banishment or a convict station, was also occasionally occupied by British or Portuguese immigrants, either free settlers or exiles.
was gradually tninsforniod to a colonial Bfttloinoiit, and bo early a» 1654 somo orphans were sent out from Amsterdam in order to form the nucleus of a peasant population. Soldiers and sailors left the service in order to till the land as free " burghers," on the condition of selling their pro<luce directly to the Company, and abstaining from all trading relati<ms with the Hottentots, Their numbers gradually increased, and the rising city fjund itst>lf in due course encircled by numerous hamlets and farmsteads. In some places the land was purchased, because the squatters felt themselves still too weak to take it without allowing comiwnsation. liut once strong enough, they simply dispossessed the Hottentots, or even seized both land and people, com- pelling the latter to work as slaves. The natives, however, hitherto accustomed only to tend their herds, and unacquainted with husbandry, could afford little help to the Dutch farmers in cultivating their cornfields, vineyards, and orange-groves. Hence they began to be replaced so early as lOoH, when a first shipment of Negro slaves was consigned to the Cape, and the number of these imported slaves soon exceeded that of the freemen on the plantations. The consequence of this state of things was the same in Austral Africa as in the tropical regions. Large domains were constituted at the expense of the small freeholders, the whites learnt to look upon labour as dishonourable, the immigration of free Europeans took place very slowly, and the progress of the Colony was frequently arrested through the lack of private enterprise and industry. The importation of the blacks, however, gradually fell off during the course of the eightf enth contui v, and at the alwlition of slavery in 1831 there were not more than 30,000 altogether to be emancipated. These Negro freedmen have since then become entirely absorbed in the nia.'^s of the half-caste population. In 1680, that is to say twenty-eight years after the arrival of the first perma- nent settlers, the European colony comprised six hundred souls, with the officials and the soldiers recruited in F.anders, Denmark, and other parts of North Europe. But these pioneers were soon joined by a fresh ethnical element. Some of the French Protestants, in seeking new homes after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, together with a few Waldenses from the Piedmontese Alpine valleys, applied to the Dutch East India Company, which s; nt them to its new possessions at the Cape. Including women and children they numbered al)out three hundred, and in 1087 and 1C88 reached the colony, where lands were assigned to them in the upland valleys round about the rising city. Others followed, and being for the most part brave, energetic persons, who harl faced exile and all manner of hard- ships for conscience' sake, these French Huguenots took a large share in the development of the Colony, and to them especially is due the successful introduc- tion of vine-growing in South Africa. The local annuls record the names of ninety-five French families, some of which have di8ap|)eared, whilst others have assume.l Dutch forms. Thousands jind thousands of Boers are still proud to claim Pluguenot descent, and the map of South Africa, from the seaboard to the Limpopo vullev, is covend with topo- graphical names perpetuating their migrations northwards. The Boers of French ​120 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. origin have increased at a relatively more rapid rate than the others, because they arrived with their families, whereas most of the Dutch, being officials and soldiers, were unmarried, and formed alliances with the native women. From them are for the most part descended the half-castes still known as Bastaards. Nevertheless the French immigrants were not sufficiently numerous to preserve their mother-tongue in the family circle, when, after 1724, its public use in the churches and schools was forbidden by order of the Company. La Caille, who visited the colony in 1751, met only very few Frenchmen still speaking the language of their fathers, and in 1780 Levaillunt found one only who still remembered it. During the course of the eighteenth century the colony gradually spread east- wards beyond the mountains. This movement took place in spite of the Company itself, which desired the Cape settlement to remain nothing but a port of call and a provisioning station, and in opposition to the governors, who, jealous of their prerogatives, wished all the colonists to remain directly subject to their control, and enslaved to the irksoma rules of a severe administration and absurd routine. Edicts were frequently issued forbidding the squatters to quit the lands that had been assigned to them and penetrate farther inland, " under pain of capital punish- ment, and even death, with confiscation of their property." But such decrees could not be enforced in the absence of garrisons, forts, or clearly defined frontiers towards the Hottentot territory ; hence the Boers continued their trekken — that is iheir onward movement from station to station — with their families, slaves, and herds. This advance, which is even still continued away to the north beyond the Cunene river, had already become irresistible, and the Cape Government was soon compelled, in spite of itself, to proclaim the annexation of extensive territories. Ill 1745 the official frontier of the colony was the Gamtoos River, but in 1786 its limits were already extended to the Great Fish River. It had thus absorbed the Hottentot domain and rejched the Kafir country, where the Boers, themselves more numerous and better equipped for war, also came into collision with more compact and more formidable hostile bands. But the British Government was already planning the conquest of Cape Colony, that central station on the ocean highway which had become indispensable to secure for the East India Company the permanent possession of the Indian peninsula. In 1780 an English fleet sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, in order to surprise the fort and capture its garrison. But it was itself surprised by a French squadron commanded by Suifren, who, after defeating the English near the Cape Verd archipelago, landed two thousand French troops at Simon's Bay to reinforce their Dutch allies. But although foiled in this attempt, they took advantage of the next opportunity in 1795, when the French revolutionists having seized Holland the Boers settled in the interior of the colon}' proclaimed their independence. An English fleet thereupon again sailed for the Cape, in order to restore order in the name of the Prince of Orange and occupy the colony in the name of the King of England. This was the beginning of a new political adminis- tration in Austral Africa, which stiil persists. Apart from a brief interruption of three years, caused by the peace of Amiens, Cape Colony has since then never ​HI8T0BIC RETBOSPBCT. 121 oeaaed to form part of the British Empire, slowly but steadily increasing from year to year in populfttion and prt)8perity. When the country passed under the sway of England, it contained about tw'enty>five thousand Europeans, who held absolute control over nearly twenty thousand Hottentot serfs and thirty thousand Negro slaves. All the colonists, whether of Dutch or French descent, regarded themselves as collectively forming a single nationality, thanks to the universal adoption of the Dutch language as the common medium of intercourse. Immigrants of English speech were very few at first, and for some years almost the only British residents in the country were the officials and military. Nevertheless the English governors were already contem- plating the deniitionalisation of the Boers, and so early as 1809 an official procla- mation recommended ihe study of the English language although Dutch was still mainly used in the courts of justice. The descendants of the old colonists still continued to regard themselves as the real masters of the land, and consequently paid little or no attention to the decrees issued from time to time by the colonial governors. In 1815 they even broke into open revolt, which, however, was quelled with remorseless severity. No serious attempts were made to promote British immigration till the year 1820, when subventions began to be voted for this purpose by the Imperial Parliament. Nearly ninety thousand persons had already agreed to accept allotments of the lands successively annexed during the frontier wars with the Kafirs. Out of this large number of applicants the emigration agents made choice of over four thousand colonists, and these were transjwrted by the Government, at the public expense, to Port Elizabeth, in Algoa Buy, with the intention of settling them in the interior, round about Graham's Town. Notwithstanding the inexperience of most of the new arrivals in agricultural matters, and the blunders of all kinds inseparable from such a large undertaking, the project succeeded, thanks csjK^cially to the excellency of the climate and the fertility of the soil. The English settle- ment increased rapidly, and spread far beyond the limits to which it had been originally restricted. By the side of a Dutch Africa in the west there was thus developed an English in the east, which, thanks to the supjwrt of the Home Government, soon became almost as powerful as its rival, and which it was often proposed to constitute a special and privileged division. Henceforth the two languages divided the terri- tory between them, und the colonial adn]inistrutors naturally strove to secure the preponderance for their own kindred. The Dutch rulers had inteixlicted the official use of French ; the English in their turn prohibited, or at least discounte- nanced, the use of Dutch. In 1825 English became the official language of the administration, and in 1827 that of the courts of justice. But later, after the constitution of the ('olonial Parliament, the inhabitants of Dutch sj)eech recovered the legal rights and status of their tongue, and since that time their deputies make use of this idiom in the discussion of public affairs in the Assembly. Nor is this all. The military successes of the Transvaal Boers have given a certain political ascendency to those of Cape Colony itself. Hence the Afrikan​122 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. ders, that is to say, the European natives of Dutch origin, who in South Africa number probably about two-thirds of this element, are even calculating on the recovery of their former political ascendency, all the more that the Boer women appear on the whole to be more prolific than their English sisters.* Although at present constituting distinct and independent political systems, the Dutch Afri- kanders, nearly all related by ties of blood, from Table Bay to the Limpopo, form a large family group possessing a strong sense of national cohesion. It was the sympathy of their friends and kindred in Cape Colony, more, perhaps, than the valour of their soldiers or the pusillanimity of the Gladstonian Administra- tion, that secured for the Transvaal Boers the recovery of their political indepen- dence. This same solidarity of sentiment between the northern and southern Afrikan- ders will certainly secure full recognition of their just claims to consideration, when the time comes for giving effect to the scheme now being matured for the fusion of all the British and Dutch States in one South African Dominion, under the sovereignty of the Queen of England. But notwithstanding the increasing political influence of the Afrikander, the somewhat rude local Dutch dialect, although far more widely spread amongst the aborigines, is yearly losing much of its relative influence in the intellectual development of the inhabitants of Cape Colony. This point has been made more and more evident, since the middle of the century, by the constantly increasing disparity between the periodical publica- tions of the two rival languages. In the year 1875 the English publications were already six times more numerous than those addressed to the Dutch reading public. The inevitable result must be, that the Afrikanders will at first become bilingual, and then gradually cease to speak or cultivate the language of their forefathers, no longer of any use for the intellectual progress of the people. Effect will thus be given to the universal tendency of dominant races to absorb fragmentary or discordant ele- ments, which here, as elsewhere, must ultimately become merged in a single British nationality, one in speech, social usages, free institutions, and intellectual culture. The emigration of the Boers towards the northern republics, coinciding with the immigration of fresh colonists from Great Britain, already increased for a time the ascendency of the British element in the territory of the Cape. The great trek, or exodus, of the Boers towards the regions stretching north of the Orange River began about the year 1834, that is, when slavery was officially abolished in the English possessions. Deprived of the labour of their black slaves, compen- sation for whom was allowed at not more than two-fifths of their market value, the Dutch peasantry directed their steps towards the northern solitudes, where Ihey hoped to rule, without let or hindrance, over their " live stock" of men and beasts. Many thousands settled in the Gamtoos and Great Fish River basins, voluntarily forsook extensive tracts of pasture and arable lands, which after their departure were occupied by English settlers. But towards the eastern frontier these settlers had themselves to contend with
forces, and fell with irresistible fury on the invaders. A terrible retribution overtook them, and a new strip of territory was annexed to the colony. Nevertheless the natives had on many occasions been treated with such flagrant injustice that the British Minister, yielding to the pressure of public opinion, refused to sanction the repressive and other measures adopted by the Colonial Government. With a candour rare in the history of Cabinet administration, he even declared that the Kafirs had ample justification for their conduct during the war, that they were in their perfect right in endeavouring to resist the encroachments of their neighbours, and in procuring by force the reparation they were unable to obtain by other means, and that the conquered, not the conquerors, were in the right in the first instance. ​The territory taken from the Kafirs was accordingly restored to them, but only for a time. The policy of encroachment, incursions, cattle-lifting, seizure of pasturages and arable lands, was resumed in the debatable border country, and in 1846 the war broke out again owing to some sanguinary deeds connected with the theft of an axe. This "war of the axe," as it was called, began badly for the colonists; but after two years of campaigns, battles, and massacres, the native tribes were compelled to sue for mercy, which brought about a fresh rectification of the-frontier. The British territory was enlarged by the annexation of the district, some 120 miles broad, which lies between the Great Fish River and the Kei. Nevertheless, the eastern part of this new acquisition, to the west of the
Keiskamma, was provisionally left in the hands of the natives under the suzerainty of the British Government. But the truce lasted only two years. In 1850 the military stations established along the frontier were attacked by the Kafirs, in consequence of an outrage committed at a native burial by the English soldiers. These were at first compelled to evacuate the contested territory, and it took two years more of fierce warfare before the claims of England could be enforced. But henceforth all further resistance on the part of the natives became impossible.
Then occurred one of the most extraordinary events recorded in the annals of any nation. Feeling themselves powerless to prevail by natural means over the invaders of their country, the Kafirs, seized by a sort of collective folly, fancied ​CAPE TOWN. 125 they might succeed by the uid of the superimturul. The arms of the living bcin^ impotent, they thought they could rely on those of the dead. Mhlukuzu, a nutivo prophet, traversed the land, announcing to his Ama-Khosa fellow-tribeHmeu that the time waa drawing near when all their departed warriors, all the renowned heroes of their legendary history, would rise from the grave, and that they them- selves would on that grand occasion be transfigured, and again become young, iMjautiful, strong, and invincible. But in order to j>rej)are for victory they were re<juired to give a proof of their unshaken faith by sacrificing all they pfissecscil except their arms. They had to slaughter their cattle, burn their granaries, let their fields lie fallow, and strip themselves of everything, awaiting the hour of the signal to rise. Then the slaughtered herds would suddenly rcaj)pear, but finer and more numerous than ever, and the pluins would be covered by magnificent crops. Most of the Ama-Khosas had implicit faith in the words of the prophet. They slew their cattle and fired their stores of corn, while at the same time preparing vast pens and barns for their future treasures. Thousands of these delude<l victfms, twenty-five thousand according to some writers, fifty thousand, or one third of the Ama-Khosa nation, according to others, actually perished of inanition while awaiting the promised day of redemption. But that day never came, and then despair took possession of the survivors. Tlieir bravest warriors became erest-fjillen mendicants, and their love of freedom, their very manhood, was broken for ever. Soon the depopulated land invited fresh occupants, and the Cape Government introduced over two thousand German immigrants into the vacant territory, which was now definitely annexed to Cape Colony as far as the river Kei. From this time the progress of conquest has never been seriously arrested ; only the annexations, which no longer presented any difficulty, were henceforth peacefully effected by administrative measures. A simple Order in Council sufficed to effect vast political changes. Topography (^f Cape Colony. Cape Town, capital of the Colony and of all South Africa, is the oldest city foundtnl by Europeans south of Benguella. But without having yet become a very large place, it has long outstripped in size and imj)ortance the towns previously founded by the Portuguese on the West African seaboard. Seen from the water Cape Town presents an imposing apjiearance, thanks to the superb amphitheatre of hills encircling it, and esjjecially to the striking aspect of Table Mountain, which forms such a conspicuous feature in the surrounding landscape. West of the city the promontory of the Lion Mountain projects far seawards, sheltering the roadstead from tlie heavy swell rolling in from the Southern Ocean. Here are constructed the pier, the quays, and other harbour works, and here lies the spacious basin which affords ample accommodation for the shipping. The city, disposed in regular squares by broad thoroughfares, sIojk-s gently towards the roots of ​the mountain, while the first heights are dotted over with pleasant villas and detached residences. Eastwards, in the midst of an extensive plain which was formerly a morass on which the first settlers erected their little stronghold, now stand the low buildings of the "Castle," property of the English Government and symbol of British supremacy in Austral Africa. Still farther east the bay is skirted by a suburban district which stretches as far as the broad estuary of the tortuous Salt
River. The city is everywhere encircled by fine gardens and: parks, which penetrate into the glens of the mountain. In 1887 a beginning was made with a system of defensive works, which are intended to convert the stronghold of Cape Town into a second Gibraltar.
mentod by a canal lined with trees, like the avenues of AmRtordam. Nevertheleat the featurcH, spt'ot'h, and family names of about one-half of the European inha- bitants betray thi'ir Dutch origin. Interrainglt'd with the white population are peoples of every shade, blacks descended from old Negro slaves, Hottentots, Kafirs, Malays, presenting every transition from dark brown and black to brick red and yellow, besides greyish Bustmirds and bronze or swarthy half-caste immigrants fronx St. Helena. Amongst the Malays, descendants of the servile class formerly introduced by the Dutch from the Eastern Archipelago, some still wear the turban and long flowing garments. Thus are distinguisiied the Haji, or Mecca pilgrims, who look with scorn on the multitude of " infidels," regarding all alike of whatever race as mere " Kafirs." Constituting the chief centre for the diffusion of civilisation throughout Austral Africa, Cape Town is endowed with several literary and scientific institutions, including a museum, a valuable library with a complete collection of works relating to the colony, besides many rare books and manuscripts, and a botanic garden nearly fifteen acres in extent, where may be seen specimens of all the native flora und thousands of exotics. Owing to its position near the southern extremity of the African continent, Capo Town is one of the most important stations on the surface of the globe for geodetic studies. So early as 1085 the French astronomers erected on this spot a temporary post for the observation of the southern (constellations. In 1751 La Caille here carried out his memorable researches for the measurement of a degree of the meridian and for determining the lunar parallax. These studios were resumed by the English astronomers in 1772, at the time of Cook's second expedition. At the Cupe Observatory, Muclear and Herschell drew up the catalogue of the stars of the Antarctic heavens, and at present the preliminary steps are being taken for the triangulation of the coast- lands on the plateaux of the Karroos and beyond the Orange in Bechuanaland and thence to the Zumbese, It is the intention of the eminent astronomer, ^Ir. Gill, thus gradually to secure the measurement of the meridian of Africa from the shores of the Southern Ocean to the port of Alexandria on the Mediterranean. The ])resent Observatory, already so rich in scientific memories, is situated at Moirbray, three miles to the east of the capital. Although connected by a railway with the eastern districts of the colony and the Dutch republics, and enjoying the advantage over the other seaports of lying nearest to Europe, Cai)e Town is not the chief centre of the foreign trade of South Africa. In this respect it is fur surpassed by Port Elizahcih, the flourishing emporium on Algoa Bay, which at the middle of the present century was still a mere group of hovels, but which is conveniently situated in the neighbourhood of the most productive agricultural districts, and at the st^award terminus of the shortest routes leading to the diamond and gold fields of the interior, Neverthe- less, Cape Town, thanks to its comparatively large population, to its position as political capital, and to the advantages of its harbour, has maintained a high place amongst the African seaports. Here are shipped large quantities of wool, as well as the choicest South African wines, grown on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. ​128 SOUTH AND EA.ST AFEICA. Amid the surrounding valleys are scattered numerous suburban residences and rural hamlets chiefly occupied by the wealthy traders and officials, who seldom visit the capital except for btisiness purposes. In summer nearly the whole of ihe white population with their domestic servants betake themselves to the watering- places and the slopes of the hills, and at this season the traffic on the suburban Jail ways reminds the traveller of the movement in the neighbourhood of the great European cities. North of Cape Town lies the village of Sea-point with its villas fringing the surf-beaten beach. Eastwards the capital is continued by a succession of hamlets encircling the Devil's Peak and stretching away for nearly twenty miles in the direction of the Jut/k lidi/ staside resort. In the charming valley which connects the two bays, and which is flanked on the we>t by the superb rucky walls of Table Mountain, lies the picturesque little village of Wijnberg, a delightful group of residences nestling in the shade of oaks and pine groves. In the neighbourhood but more to the south is the estate of CouHtantia, which has given its name to the most esteemed vintage in South Africa. Towards the south are seen the irregular outlines of False Bay, one of whose western inlets, Simon's Bay, reflects in its clear waters the settlement of Simon's Town, a naval station with warehouses and fortified arsenal, which the British Government has maintained on the shores of the Southern Ocean. Simon's Town occupies one of the finest sites in Austral Africa on the sickle-shaped headland, at the southern extremity of which stands the lighthouse of the Cape of Good Hope. A few other groups of habitations belonging to the district of Cape Town are -scattered amid the glens on the Atlantic slope of the hills which bound the eastern horizon of Table Bay. Stelleuboach, which is connected by rail with the capital, is next to the capital itself the oldest settlement in the colony. In the vicinity, and especially in the amphitheatre of hills still known as the Fransche Iloek, or " French Quarter," most of the Huguenot refugees established themselves towards the close of the seventeenth century, and this " Athens " of South Africa has always been a centre of intellectual progress. Paarl, a village which straggles for a distance of seven miles along the highway at the foot of the Draken-steen hills, also dates from the early days of colonisation. The gardens, orange-groves, and woodlands encircling this " Pearl," as it is called, from a block of granite surmounting a rocky pedestal like a gem on a diadem, rendef it a charming retreat during the summer months. The surrounding country forms the most extensive wine-growing district in Cape Colony. Farther north lies the picturesque little town of Wellington, beyond which the railway penetrating inland describes a great bend round to the east, passing through a depression in the Atlantic coast range into the valley of the Breede River, which flows to the Southern Ocean. Paarl and Wellington lie in the upper basin of the Great Berg, which, after collecting numerous afiluents from the fertile districts of Tulbagh and the " Twenty-four Rivers," reaches the Atlantic at St. Helena Bay. South of the promontory which forms the southern limit of this storm-tossed gulf, lies the bay or landlocked inlet of Saldanha, so called from a Portuguese admiral whose name was formerly applied to Table Bay. It was in the neighbourhood of ​this basin that Vasco de Gama was wounded by the Hottentots in 1497, and Francisco d'Almeida massacred with all his followers in 1508. The bay, which is of easy access, is very deep, and is broken into several secondary basins, sheltered by intervening granite headlands, and presenting excellent anchorage to shipping.
Yet this admirable haven, which the Dutch had made their chief naval station and the centre of the postal communications between the United Provinces and their East Indian possessions, has now been almost abandoned. Little is seen on its deserted shores beyond a few isolated farmsteads and fishing stations. In the ​ISn SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. vicinity there is not a single village, and Mnlmeshunf, the nearest town, lies over 'iO miles to the south-cast, in a fertile wheat- growing inland district. The siipe- rior attractions of the capital have withdrawn all traffic from Saldanha Bay. North of the valley of the Great Berg, the mostly barren and arid plains stretch- ing northwards to Little Namaqualand are very thinly peopled. Even the capitals of districts, Piqudherg, C/(niin//iatn, the " furnace " of the Cape, and CaMnia, are more villages, where the stock-breeders of the surrounding pasturages come to renew their supply of provisions. Calvinia, standing over 3,000 feet above the sea, in an upland valley between the Hantam and Boggeveld ranges, is still connected by a good highway with the civilised regions of the Cape. But farther north stretch the vast solitudes of Bushmanlaud, whose only inhabitants are a few groups of Sans scattered round the lagoons. The district of Little Namaqua- land, which occupies the north-west corner of Cape Colony, between the Atlantic and the course of the Lower Orange, would also be left to the aboriginal popula- tions but for the great abundance of copper ores in the hilly districts. In the neighbourhood of the Vogel-Klip ("Bird-Cliff"), the culminating point of these highlan.ls (3,100 feet), an Engli^h company owning a territory 135,000 acres in extent has been work ng the " inexhaustible " mines of Ooh'ep since the year 1863. This source alone has yielded an annual supply of from ten to twenty thousand tons of ores containing about three tentl s of pure copper, more fusible than that of Chili. The great pit, already sunk to a depth of over 500 feet, has reached formations still more productive than those of the surface. The mines are worked by several hun- dred natives, Hottentots and Ilereros, under the direction of English engineers from Cornwall and Germans from Thuringia. Although lying 3,200 feet above the sea, Ookiep is connected with the coast by a horse or mule railway 90 miles long. The little haven of Fort NoUotli, where the ore is shipped, was formerly much frequented by American whalers. East of the Cape and of False Bay the territory stretching south of the coast range towards Cape Agulhas, southern extremity of the continent, is a region of pasture-lands containing only two unimportant little towns, Caledon and Bredm- ilorp. But the basin of the Breede River is more thickly peopled, thanks to the greater abundance of its rainfall. Worcester, capital of the Upper Valley, whose headstreams have their source to the north of the coast range, lies on the main line connecting Cape Town with Kimberley, and here the railway begins to ascend in order to reach the inland plateaux. Penetrating through a lateral valley traversed by the river Hex (" Witch River "), it rises by a series of curves to the crest of the terraces which skirt the plains of Worcester. Here it attains an elevation of 2,000 feet, and reaches its highest point (3,600 feet) 74 miles to the north-west of Worcester. A copious thermal spring rises in the vicinity of this place, and lower down the Breede flows successively by the towns of Hobertsoii and Sicellendam, the latter one of the oldest settlements in the colony, having been founded so early as the middle of the eighteenth century. Avenues of oaks radiate in various directions from the town towards the k/onfs or wild gorges which penetrate into the heart of the mountains, 'ihe village of Port Pcau/ort, ​situated on the left bunk of the Breede, above the bar, is visited by a few small coasting vessels. But of all the havens officially opened to the foreign trade of the colony, Port Beaufort is the least frequented.
The extensive basin of the Gaurits, which follows to the east of the Breede Valley, contains several of the secondary towns of Cape Colony. Beaufort West, the chief station on the railway between the Cape and the banks of the Orange River, stands at an altitude of 2,960 feet above sea-level, and its gardens are watered by the farthest headstreams of the Gaurits, flowing from the southern slopes of the Niouwe-veld. The village of Prince Albert, in the arid region of the Great Karroo, lies also on one of the upper affluents of the Gaurits. Farther
south, and on tributaries of the same river, lie the towns of Ladysmith and Oudtshoorn, both at the southern foot of the Zwarte-bergen, or "Black Mountains." Oudtshoorn is noted for its tobacco, which grows on some of the best soil in the colony, a soil still unexhausted after a hundred years of uninterrupted tillage. North of this place, in an upland lateral valley, are situated the caves of Cango, stalactite grottoes that have not yet been entirely explored, although surveyed for a distance of over 2,000 yards from the entrance.
There are neither towns nor even large villages on the lower Gaurits, which in this part of its course winds between narrow rocky gorges. Riversdale, lying in the midst of the rich grazing-grounds of the Grasveld, is situated some 30 ​132 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. miles to the west of the main stream, in u valley whose waters flow directly to the sea. A/imtl South, the maritime port of this pastoral region, stands on the wjst side of Mossol Bay, at the root of the rocky headland of Cap3 St. Blaise, by which it is sheltered from the fierce southern winds. Aliwal South does a con- siderable import and export trade, ranking fourlh in this respect amongst the colonial seaports. Farther east along the seaboard follow several little towns, all lying at the foot of the coast range, which Trollope compares to tlie Western Pyrenees, and which, according to this writer, presents the finest sites in the whole of Austral Africa. Here the pleasant little town of George is embowered in. verdure ; Mehille is mirron d in the auriferous waters of the Knysna, which flows from the forest-clad Uteniqua Hills, and reaches the sea through a deep estuary accessible to large vessels ; JIuman»dorp occupies a picturesque position in an amphitheatre of thickly wooded heights. Uniondale and Willowmore, the two chief places in the district, iire both situated in romantic valleys on the northern or inland side of the coast ranges. Farther north, in the arid zone of the Karroo, but still on the slope draining to the Southern Ocean, the two administrative centres are Aberdeen and MurrnijHburg. The basin of the Sunday River, although one of the least extensive, is one of the best cultivated and most productive in the colony. It owes its prosperity to its position in the relatively moist zone facing towards the Indian Ocean, and to the two trade routes traversing it, one in the direction of the Orange River and the Dutch republics, the other towards the territory of the Kafirs. Here Graqf- Reinet, a Dutch settlement, over a hundred years old, is laid out like a chessboard about the headwaters of the river, which here ramifies into several branches flowing through the surrounding fields and gardens. To the contrast presented by this smiling valley with the arid plateaux to the west, Graaf-Reinet is indebted for its title of " Gem of the Desert." As indicated by their names, Jansenville and Uifenha<je, which follow to the south along the road to Port Elizabeth, were founded by the Dutch. But Uiten- hage has completely acquired the aspect of an English settlement since the year 1820, when it received a large number of British colonists. Of late years it has become a favourite place of residence for traders and dealers who have retired from business, and on festive occasions it is visited by a large number of pleasure- seekers, who delight in the shady walks by its running waters. But Uitenhage is also an industrial centre. In the numerous little mills scattered amid the surrounding glens, busy hands, nearly all Kafirs, are employed in cleansing by machinery the enormous quantities of wool brought from the extensive sheep farms in the eastern parts of the colony. Port Elizabeth, which lies 20 miles to the south-east of Uitenhage, on the west side of Algoa Bay, although dating only from the year 1820, has already become the most animated seaport in the whole of South Africa. Within a single genera- tion it outstripped Cape Town in commercial importance, notwithstanding the disadvantages of its open roadstead compared with the more favourable position ​of Table Bay. Few sailing vessels, however, venture to visit its port, and nearly all its trade is carried on by steamers, many of which sail directly for England without even calling at Cape Town. It is still inferior in population to the capital, but boasts of possessing finer buildings, of being better administered and more abundantly provided with the resources of modern civilisation. In the colony it is pre-eminently the English city, and on the least occasion its inhabitants make
it a point of honour to display their loyalty for the mother country in the most enthusiastic manner.
Port Elizabeth covers a considerable space on a gently sloping hill, at the foot of which its main thoroughfare runs for nearly 3 miles parallel with the beach. Its growing suburbs stretch along the roads leading inland, while beyond the upper town a bare plateau is covered by the tents of the "location," or native ​184 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. (juarter, inhabited chiefly by Kafirs, temporary immigrants who seek employment amongst the shipping and on the harbour works. Till recently suffering from a dearth of water, Port Elizabeth was unable to maintain any garden plots about its villas. But an aqueduct about 30 miles long now brings a constant supply, thanks to which a rich carpet of verdure already clothes the plateau. The Iwtanic garden has assumed a magnificent aspect, and umbrageous parklands contrast by tlicir bright foliage with the patches of parched herbage visible wherever the irrigating waters are unavailable. The trade of Port Elizabeth, which in recent years has suffered much from reckless speculation, consists for the most part in wool and ostrich plumes, forwarded in exchange for I^nglish manufactured goods of all kinds. The road- stead of Algoa Bay is sheltered in the ncghboiirhood of the town b3'the extremity of the headland which still bears the Portuguese name of Cape Recife. But during the summer months, from October to April, when the southern and south- eastern winds normally prevail, the surf beats furiously on the beach, endangering the vessels riding at anchor in the roadstead. The breakwater, little over 300 yards long, affords shelter only to the smaller craft of light draught. A few islets and reefs are scattered over the bay ; Santa-Cruz, one of these islands, over which hover clouds of aquatic birds, was visited by Bartholomew Diaz during his memorable voyage of discovery round the southern extremity of the continent. On this spot, the first ever touched by a European foot on the shores of the Southern Ocean, he erected the pillar of Sam Gregorio, to indicate that he had occupied it on behalf of the King of Portugal. Santa-Cruz is also known by the name of Fountain Rock, from two springs welling up on the surface. Port Elizabeth communicates with the iutfjrior by means of two railways, one running to Graaf-Reinet, the other a far more important line, which branches off in one direction towards the regions beyond the Orange River, in another towards Grahani's Town and Kafirland. Although smaller and of less commercial import- ance than Port Elizabeth, Graham's Town takes precedence as the chief political centre eist of Cape Town. It is the capital and residence of the principal administrative, judicial, and religious authorities of the eastern districts, and Graham's Town was already indicated tis the future metropolis of the confederate states in the year 1878, when the question was first seriously mooted of consoli- dating the power of the mother country by uniting the British colonies and Dutch republics in a single dominion. But this ambitious town has the disadvan- tage of lying at some distance from the coast, and even from any large river. It stands 1740 feet above the sea in a cirque surrounded by bare escarpments; but the general lack of large vegetation has been relieved by planting trees along all the avenues of the city. It is a clean, well-built, cheerful place, and thanks to the moderate summer hnjits and generally equable climate of the district, is distin- guished for its sdubrity even amongst the colonial towns, most of which are so highly favoured in this respect. Hence many invalids settle here in the hope of recovering their health, or at least prolonging their days.
till the epoch of the ^rcat KngliHh immif^ition in 1H20, when it became the chief wntre of the operations in the KuHr wur«, often nerving an a place of refuge for the colonists settled on the eastern fnintior. Now it is no longer threatened by hostile natives, its barracks have been abandonetl by the military and adapted to the purposes of the civil administration, and the Kafirs of the neighbouHuxKl hnve be<'ome peaceful lulxmrers or industrious artisims. The white population of the town and surrounding district, of whom the great majority are of British descent, were formerly occupied chiefly with sheep-fanning IJut the region known as the Zuur-veld only produces a sour grass which is badly suited for sheep, and these have consequently in many districts been replaced bv ostriches. Here ostrich - farming and the preparation of the feathers for the European market have 8uccee<led better than in any other place where this industry has been establishe<l. Hitherto dependent on Port Elizabeth for its foreign trade, Graham's Town has recently endeavoured to secure an outlet for itiself. At the mouth of the little river Kowie, the nearest point on the coast, extensive works have been undertaken to get rid of the bar and establish convenient landing-stages and depots. Vessels drawing from 8 to 9 feet of water can already enter the estuary and discharge their cargoes at the quays of Purt Alfred, the new harbour, which is connected with Graham's Town by a railway running through the agricultural town of Jiat/mrxf. The neighbouring beach is much fretjuented in summer as a favourite watering-place. The promontory visible to the west, and bounding the east side of Algoa Bay, bears the name of Point Padrone, doubtless because here the Portuguese formerly raised a padrao, or memorial stone, as on so many other headlands along this seaboard. Near Cape Padrone lies the modem village of Altxandn'a. The basin of the Great Fish River, which winds to the east of the Graham's Town heights, has its farther sources on the southern slope of the main northern range, near the southernmost point reached by the Orange River, and is divided into several electoral districts. Middlehurg, on an upper affluent of the river, lies already on the incline by which the Port- Elizabeth railway creeps up the escarp- ment in order to cross the range into the Orange basin through the Bosworth Pass, which stands at a height of 5,200 feet, greater than that of many an Alpine railway. Cradock, on the main stream itself, and Tmha-stad, on one of it«  tributaries, are important centres of the colonial wool trade. In the neighbouring distiict still survive in the wild state a few groups of quiggas, which are now protected by the game laws. Somerxet and licdjord are also agricultural centres, while Fort lieanfort has preserved something of its original military aspect. As an advanced outpost towards the Kafir country, it bravely withstood the repeated assaults of the hostile natives in IHOl. The district which stretches northwards along th.' southern slope of the Elandsberg and now called Stotkenstrom, was formerly known as the Kat River Colony, which Ix'fore the war of IHol had been exclusively reserved for the Hottentots. But the land being fertile and well watered by the Kat River, the whites soon found the usual pretexts for occupying it, and the ​186 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. little town of Seymour has alreaJy been founded by the English settlers in the centre of the old Hottentot Reserve. Farther south Lovedule, centre of schools and missions, and Alice, east of Fort Beaufort, lie both in the valley of the Keis- kiimnia. Fui't Peddle, un old military station nearer to the coast, has become the chief centre of population in the " neutral zone," which was formerly limited on one side by the Great Fish River, on the other by the Keiskamma. Farther east the border lands still more recently contested by the Kafirs and the English squatters are now pacified, and have also their white settlements. The capital of this conquered territory is King Wiliiam's Town, more commonly designated by the simple name of King. Of late years it has become a great trading centre, and the chief depot for the traffic between the British colonists and the Kafirs, Nearly all the farmsteads dotted along the banks of the river in this district are inhabited by Germans, descendants of the Anglo Germanic Legion which was disbanded after the Crimean war. Hence such names as Berlin^ Potsdam, Braunschweig, Frankfurt, given to the recent settlements in this part of the country. Like Graham's Town, King has also sought for an independent outlet for its trade, and it is now connected by a railway with Fast London, one of the most dangerous seaports on this coast. Jetties, quays, and breakwaters have been constructed, and extensive works carried out to deepen and shelter the estuary ; but all in vain, and the harbour often remains inaccessible for days together. The Buffalo River, which reaches the sea at this point, has occasionally swept away the bar during some sudden freshet, and then vessels drawing 20 feet of water could enter the port, but now the bar is fixed, and has seldom a depth of more than 8 or 9 feet at the flow. In South Africa the remark has become proverbial that East London is one of those ports which are highly in favour with owners who want to lose their ships, crew and all, in order to recover the insurance on the freight from the underwriters. Yet in spite of everything, East London is the second port in the colony for the shipment of wool, of which nearly eighteen million pounds were forwarded in 188G. Like the large towns in the western district. King William's Town is connected with the Orange ba-in by a railway, which surmounts the Storm-berg at a pass nearly 5,700 feet high. The line passes through Stutterheim, Cat heart, and Queens- town, in the well-watered district which formerly belonged to the Tambuki Kafirs. It then turns the pyramidal mass of the Hang-Klip and crosses the main range at an altitude 800 feet higher than the Puy de Dome in the south of France. On the opposite slope this line traverses the coalfields of MoHeno, which supplies the whole railway system of the colony with fuel. Beyond the Molteno district the route passes through Burghers on the inland plateau, reaching the Orange River at the station of Aliical North, which carries on a considerable trade with the Orange Free State, whose territory begins on the opposite side of the river. A bridge 860 feet long connects Aliwal North with a suburb on the right bank of the river. There can be little doubt that this important line will soon be continued northwards through the Orange republic to Transvaal, as ear|^ in the ​C0LE8BUE0.— HOPETOWN. 187 vear 1888 the conference of the Capo Colony, Natul, and Orange Free State delegates at Cape Town uiianiniouHly agreed to a re])ort recommending the establishment of a South African Customs Union, and the extension of the colonial railway system through the Free State to the Vaal River, the extension to be undertaken by the Free State Government. East of Aliwal North the region comprised between the course of the Orange, the Tolle River, and the crest of the Drukenslwrg, is still included in the territory of Cape Colony. In this Alpine district the two chief centres of population are the villages of Herschel, on the left bank of the Orange, and liarkly, situated in an upland valley near the river Kraal, which falls into the Orange a short distance above Aliwal North. Towards the west, the zone of the colonial territory belonging to the basin of the Orange gradually broadens out with the northern trend of that river. But towns and even villages are rare on these arid upland plains formerly inhabited by myriads of large mammals, and now mostly converted into vast grazing- grounds. Cohnhurg, now connected by rail with Port Elizabeth, is the chief depot for goods intended for the Orange Free State. An "international " bridge crosses the Orange about 20 miles to the north-east of this place. Two other bridges follow towards the north-west, between the colonial territory and that of its late acquisition, Griqualand West. One of these belongs to the railway which runs from the Cape in the direction of the Diamond Fields ; the other, at I/opefown, lower down, is the most remarkable structure of this sort hitherto erected in Cape Colony; it has a total length of no less than 1,400 feet. Ilope- town, which is distant over GOO miles from the Atlantic, is the last riverain town on the Orange, which from this point to its mouth traverses an almost unin- habited region. Nothing occurs along its banks except a few isolated farmsteads, some Hottentot kraals and missionary stations, the German " colony " of Sto/zrr- feh, and some Bushman camping-grounds. At the base of the hills far inland are a few market villages, such as Hanover, Richmond, Victoria Went, Fraserhurg, and Carnarvon, whence the stock-breeders of the surrounding districts draw their supplies. Material Resources of Cape Colony. — Agrictlture. The population of Cupe Colony is rapidly increasing by the natural excess of births over the mortality. Families are very numerous, and cases are mentioned of patriarchs whose family circle comprises over two hundred living descendants.* Nevertheless the actual number of inhabitants is still very slight compared with the vast extent of still unoccupied lands suitable for colonisation. South Africa, iit least throughout all the coastlands below the Tugela basin, enjoys an excellent climate, presenting no obstacles to field operations, and every farmer makes it aoint of honour to make his holding yield simultaneously " ccm and wine, meat and wool." Land is not yet very dear, except in the neighbourhood of the towns • Von Hobner. op. eit. ​1S8 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. and in certain well-watered districts, where " fancy prices " prevail. On an average the market value of good lands ranges from ten to thirty shillings an acre, while for the same money over half a square mile may be had in poor and arid districts. Already the greater part of the colonial arable lands have found purchasers. Nevertheless there still e.xist vast unclaimed wooded tracts and other lands of which the Crown has taken possession, and which after being officially surveyed are put up for sale. The buyer is required to pay yearly the twentieth part of the purchase money, unless he prefers to redeem the charge by a single payment. In the eastern districts old grazing grounds of the Kafirs, and other extensive domains confiscated from the enemy, have been j)arcelled out into lots for the most part of small size, varying from 320 to about 000 acres. These lots are sold only to such purchasers as are not ulreudy owners of estates exceeding 500 acres. An attempt has in this way been niade to introduce a system of small holdings, and in this region the land is really divided into a relatively large number of estates. Here English, German, Hottentot, and Kafir squatters live side by side as peaceful tillers of the land, whereas farther west, and especially in the pastoral districts, the system of large landed properties prevails almost everywhere. The purchasers have secured on an average about four times as much as had been ceded to them by the Government, and even in the vicinity ot the Cape domains of 2,500 acres and upwards are by no means rare. Thus South Africa, like the mother ( ountry, has already developed a territorial aristocracy. Although cereals give a very fair return on the outlay in capital and labour, the colony is still obliged to import corn and flour to the yearly amount of from £280,000 to £600,000. Wheat is grown chiefly in the neighbourhood of the- eastern and western capitals, Cape Town and Graham's Town, and in the north- eastern districts near Kafirland and the Orange Free State. Maize and millet are the prevailing crops in the eastern parts bordering on the Kafir territory ; but here, as well as in the rest of the colony, all the alimentary plants of the Euro- pean temperate zone thrive well. Tobacco-growers appear to meet with most success in the valley of the Olifant River, an eastern affluent of the Gaurits, where the annual crop is about 3,500,000 pounds of leaf, entirely consumed in South Africa itself. The vine was one of the first European plants introduced by the early settlers into the Cape district. The Huguenot refugees, bringing the plant with them, from the first devoted themselves seriously to viticulture, and the districts where they settled are still the most noted in the colony for the quality of their vintages The climate of the extreme south-west corner of the continent is admirably suited for the cultivation of the vine, probably more so than any other region in the whole world. To the spring rains, which stimulate the vegetation generally, succeed the summer heats, which, thanks to the normal humidity of the atmo- spherfe, bring the grapes to maturity without at the same time drying them. Hence the annual production of the Cape vineyards is relatively higher than that of any other country in the world. The difference is in fact so great that it might ​VITICUT.TURE.— 8T0CK.BREEDIN0. 189 appear ultoji^ethor incredible to raont wine-gjowors. Thus while the yield varies ill other places from uImuI three hundred and ten to mine hundred gallons per hectare,* it reaches two thousand in the coast district of the Cape, and rises to the prodigious average of no less than three thousand eight hundred gallons in the inland districts of Worcester andudtt*hoorn.t Yet, despite this marvellous yield, only a very small part of the western district suitable for wine-growing has hitherto been devoted to viticulture. Although this industry is yearly increasing, the actual extent of land planted with the vine was still under 2o,000 acres in the year 1886. At the same time very little intelligence is displayed in saving the harvest and preparing the vintage, so that most of the wines, badly p^e^^8ed and " fortified" with brandies, have an unpleasant flavour in the opinion of connoisseurs. The reputation of the Cape wines, which stood very high during the first half of the present century, has since greatly fallen off, and efforts are now being made by some growers to bring them again into favour. The South African vineyards have also had to suffer from oidium, and in the year 1886 phylloxera made its appearance in some vineyards in the vicinity of the capital. Stock-breeding. — Ostrich-farming. The number of inhabitants of the colony occupied with stock-breeding and the associated industries is estimated at obout one-third of the whole population. The breed of horses, sprung from ancestors imported from the Argentine States, and afterwards improved by crossings with English and Arab blowl, possesses the rare combination of strength, mettle, and endurance. Breeders have already their " genealogical trees *' of famous racers, and the colony at present possesses about four hundred thousand more or less valuable horees. The horned cattle are at least thrice as numerous. They descend partly from the long-horned animals owned by the Dutch at the arrival of the first immigrants ; but this stock has long since bet^n modified by crossings with varieties introduced from England and Holland. Ilondreds of thousands of oxen are employed exclusively for the transport of goods and passengers in the colonial districts and conterminous regions which are not ytt traversed by lines of railway. Hence farmers devote tbems(>lves specially to the breeding of cattle as i)ack animals and mounts, an industry unknown in any other part of the world, liut on tlie other hand, milch cows are far from numerous, and such branches of dairy farming as the collection and distribution of milk, and butter-making, are carried on only in the neighbour- hof)d of the large towns. Whole herds have frequently been swept away by epidemics. At present the chief resource of the colony is its numerous flecks of sheep. On their first arrival in the country the Dutch here found the fat-tailed breed
avenge year, 1883, 400 gallonH; in the ban your, 1886, 310 gallona. t P. T). Uahu. Juhn Nuble*8 Cupe of Ouod Jiupe. ​140 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. with rough fleece or hair, which is spread over the greater part of the African continent. The animals* of this variety owned by the European and native farmers of the colony are still estimated at about a million, and their numbers have even recently increased. Their flesh is so highly esteemed that they continue to be largely bred, chiefly for the shambles. The first European sheep yielding a fine wool were not introduced till the ear 1790, and in 1830 the wool exported from the Cape amounted to no more than some thirty-three thousand pounds. The weaving of wool was still unknown in the country, and even now it would be difficult to find amongst the old Boer families a single woman able to handle a distaff or knit a pair of stockings. Wool-growing acquired no importance till about the middle of the century; but from that time forth it developed rapidly, and this industry reached its high- water level in the year 1872. After that time it again notably declined, owing to the prolonged droughts, and probably also because the wools of the Orange Free State, formerly exported by Cape Colony and reckoned amongst the produce of that region, are now forwarded through Natal. Excluding the fat-tailed species, there are altogether about nine millions of wool-yielding animals in the colony. Thanks to their fleece, the Cape sheep have been the chief agents in distributing the vegetable species. Wherever they penetrate they bring with them the seeds from the regions traversed by them. In many parts^of the country lying north of the Orange River the aspect of the vegetation has undergone a complete change since the introduction of sheep- farming. Since the middle of the century the Cape stock-breeders have also here acclimatised the Angora goat, and the mohair which is now exported from South Africa is said to surpass that of Asia Minor itself in fineness and softness of texture, without, however, equalling it in lustre. In the grassy enclosures of the colony there now also graze thousands of tamt^ antelopes of several species, but chiefly the variety known as boute-boks. Previous to the year 1864, the ostrich had been regarded by the Cape Colonists only as game, and this animal was so eagerly hunted that the time was foreseen when it would have completely disappeared from South Africa. But two farmers in different parts of the country were already turning their attention to tlie domestication of the ostrich, with the view of substituting systematic breeding for the chase. The result was that in 1875 the agricultural census of the colonj' included eighty of these tamed birds, which yielded for exportation one hundred and twenty-five pounds of feathers, less beautiful, however, than those of the Mauritanian tird living iti the wild state. Domestication appears to have gradually changed the character of this animal, which is naturally at once so timid and so irascible, and the young broods may now be tended without any great ri.sk. But the industry remained somewhat in abeyance until the introduction of artificial incubators. Since then the number of domestic birds has rapidly increased, numbering in 1882 about one hundred and fifty thousand, which yielded for the export trade two hundred and fifty-five thousand pounds of plumes, valued altogether at no less than £1,100,000. The smallest newlv-hatched chick reudilv i ​OSTRICH-FARMING.— IRBIOATION. HI fetched £10, and before the year 1883 the stock of healthy, full grovrn birds with tine pluinugo was valued ut hundredH of thout^ands of pounds. But since that time ostrieh-famiing has become a more precarious occupati<m. Disease has greatly diminished the prospects of breeders ; the expenditure bus gone on increasing in undue proportion to the profits; and worse still, fashion, ever fickle, bus reduced by one-half the market value of ostrich feathers. These beautiful personal ornuments are no longer so highly esteemed since industry bus rendered them more common. Nevertheless Cape Colony has hitherto preserved the virtual mono|)oly of the trade, the repeated attempts made to domesticate the ostrich in Algeria, Tnpolitana, Australia, the Argentine States, and California, having had but little success. In order to prevent the exportation of the Cape breed, the administration has imposed a prohibitive export tax of illOO on every adult bird and £5 on every egg. Irrigation Works. — Trade. Both for the purposes of stock-breeding and for agricultural operations generally', the Cape Colonists need an abundant supply of water. But perennial streams and copious springs are unfortunately ever^'where somewhat rare. Hence a chief care of the farmers must necessarily l)e how best to husband the rain water and prevent its running waste. The fertilising fluid is now drawn off from most of the rivers, and distributed by irrigation canals along the riverain tracts. Elsewhere, the natural reservoirs are directly tapped by hand and cliain-pumps, and suchlike modern hydraulic appliances. But in the districts destitute of springs or permanent streams, the underground supplies have to be reached by sinking deep wells in the mountain gorges, along the dried-up wadys, and where- ever subterranean streams may still be flowing. The grazers of the arid Karroo country have acquired great skill in detecting, by the character of the vegetation, the spots were such reservoirs have been formed below the surface. ^fost of the landowners whose estates present a certain incline and other facilities, have taken advantage of the natural lie of the land to cai)ture and store the rain water in large depressions formed by artificial dams and embankments. Some of these lacustrine basins are some miles in circumference, and after the wet season often contain as much as thirty-five million cubic feet, or about two hundred and twenty million gallons of the precious fluid. Thanks to these extensive works, many tracts in the Karroos have already undergone a great change. I^arge trees, orchards, and tall succulent herbage now flourish in districts where formerly nothing was to be seen but bare arid lands relieved here and there with patches of thorny scrub. But these oases in the wilderness are occasionally exposed to the ravages of the all-devouring locusts, clouds of which at intervals of fifteen or twenty years alight on the verdant slopes and bottom-lands, in a few hours con- suming every blade of grass. Till recently the English and Dutch settlers confined themselves to farm operations and the export of the raw materials to Europe, the few local industries ​being limited to the production of the most ordinary objects of daily use. But such is no longer the case. The colony is learning to dispense with the manufactured wares of Great Britain, and has even begun to impose prohibitory charges on these imports for the purpose of fostering the rising industries of South Africa. The Cape now boasts of its distilleries, its breweries, its flour-mills, tanneries, sawing and soup works, and even factories for manufacturing furniture, carriages, and machinery. Its artisans are already trying their hands at wool-spinning and cloth-weaving, and have begun to supply England with tinned meats and all
kinds of jams and preserves, the preparation of which had hitherto been the secret of the Dutch housewives.
The Cape is also developing a mining industry, and amongst the immigrants who come to seek their fortune in the colony are many Cornish miners, driven from the mother country by the gradual exhaustion of the English mineral ores. At present the chief colonial mining operations are centred about the rich copper deposits of Little Namaqualand and the coalfields of the Storm-berg highlands. Guano is also methodically worked in the islands along the west coast, and salt in the upheaved inlets of the seaboard and in the depressions of the Karroos and of the Orange basin. The Cape salt, excellent for pickling and curing, is used in some fishing-grounds which cure for the local consumption and even for the English market. ​TRADE OF CAl'E COIX)NY. 148 The colonial trade, which normally increaaes from decade to decade at a more rapid rat« than the population itsolf, has nevortheless temporarily decreased since the exjwrtation of wool and ostrich feathers hoa been chtn-ktHl by long droughts, reckless s}M>culation, changes of fashion, and competition. IJut notwithstanding this falling off, the movement of the foreign exchanges is still relatively equal to that of Fnince, that is, allowing for the immense difference between the popula- tions of the two countries. >' early the whole of the foreign trade of the Cape is carried on with England, and this is specially true of the exports, while more than one-third of the rest is taken by the other British colonies. Direct com- merce of Franco with South Africa can scarcely be said to exist. Nearly the whole of tlie carrying trade of the colony is in the hatids of the English, the seaborne traffic being almost exclusively carried on by vessels flying the British flag. Although somewhat thrust aside and removed from the great highway between AVestern Europe and the East Indies by the o|>ening of the Suez Canal, the Cape is now visited by a greater number of ships than at the time when the Metliterninean was still separated from the Red Sea. The improvement in mechanical appliances now enables the ocean steamers plying between England and Australia to replenish their coal bunkers at Cape Town without putting into the inner harbour. The annual amount of British trade carried on in this way by vessels doubling the CajKJ without landing at the capital, is estimated at not less than £oO,000,00. Cape Town is also now connected with the telegraphic systems of Europe and the New World by means of a cable which touches at nearly all the chief seajwrts along the west coast of Africa. Another cable, which was the first to be laid down, connects the colony with Zanzibar, xVdcn, India, China, and Australasia. HiGiiWAYs OF Communication. In the interior of the country the network of communications is being rapidly developed. A great change has been effected since the days when the Boers movtMl about from district to district and carried out their great northwaid migrations under almost incredible difficulties. In the total absence of properly constructed roads they had to drive their cumbrous waggons over rough and irregular tracks, across sandy or stony wastes, muddy depressions, and thorny scrub. These huge vehicles were constructed of a hard elastic wood, grinding and groaning at every jolt. They hud to be made disproportionately wide to keep them from toppling over as they suddenly plunged into the wayside ruts, and they were divided like movable houses into various compartments for the provisions, the household utensils, the merchandise, and sleeping arrangements. A stout awning covered the whole, sheltering the inmates of these ambulatory dwellings Irom rain, wind, and dust. Usually several families migrated in concert, to afford each other mutual aid during rough weather, or in case of attack from the aborigines or from wild beasts. As many as eight or ten thus followed in a long line, winding over the truck and each drawn by a team of several pairs of oxen ​144 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. with heads bent by the heavy yoke, but muzzle free of crub or reins. The driver urged them with his voice, aided by an occasional touch of his formidable whip, generally several yards long. A youth nearly always ran in front of the first pair, guiding them to the right or left, and at the passage of rivers even swimming before them, encouraging them in every way and preventing them from stoppiny; in mid-stream and thus exposing the whole span to being swept away by the swift current. To surmount the steep inclines the ordinary teams were often insufficient, although the waggon-load might not exceed one ton. On such occasions the number of draft animals had to be perhaps doubled under the leading waggon, ten or even twelve pairs being yoked to get it over the difficult pass, and then brought back to pick up the rest of the convoy awaiting their turn along the line of march. At times the vehicles had even to be unloaded, taken to pieces, and transported with the whole freight piecemeal over the rocky heights. Frequently the animals broke down altogether through sheer exhaustion, and then the caravan had to out- span in the wilderness while messengers were sent to bring up fresh teams. Yet in spite of all the dangers and hardships of such journeys, they were always remembered with a feeling akin to delight, and cheerfully resumed at the shortest notice. In the evenings the waggons were disposed in a circle round the camp, great fires were kindled to scare away the rapacious beasts, whose eyes were at times seen glaring in the bush, and music and the dance were kept up till late at night to indemnify the trekkers for the toil and perils of the day. At present such tedious journeys are no longer made in Cape Colony, where vehicles of the old waggon type are used chiefly for the transport of goods in the more remote districts. A network of great carriage roads intersects the territory in . all directions, surmounting the loftiest ranges by well-graded inclines. Sections of road-work, such as those of Montague Pass and Southey's Pass, in the south- western division, and of the Catberg, between the Orange River and Graham's Town, are the glory of Cape Colony, and are shown to strangers with a pardonable feeling of pride. The lines of railway starting from the coast at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, and East London, penetrate far into the interior, surmounting the successive mountain barriers at altitudes of several hundred, and even some thousand feet, in order to reach the Orange basin. With the exception of a few secondary lines, the whole colonial railway system belongs to the local Government, as do also the telegraph lines. The receipts derived from these works of public utility constitute no inconsiderable part of the public revenue. Administration. — Public Instruction. Throughout the first half of the present century Cape Colony was simply a dependency of the Crown. The governors exercised their functions in the name of the sovereign, at first alone, and later with the aid of an executive council and
The divisioned figures correspond to those inserted in the District Tables of each State. For lack of space the districts of the Division of the Cape are not indicated.
or black, owners of house property of the value of at least £50, or in receipt of a salary of £50, or wages of £25 with board and lodging. But by a recent decree of the Colonial Government, blacks who are joint proprietors with other natives have been disfranchised.
By all these provisions a very small number of whites, and the immense majority of the aborigines, are excluded from the exercise of the electoral right. But as a rule these electors show little eagerness to vote, seldom attending the polling booths except under the pressure of parties anxious to secure the return of their candidates, The Assembly elects its own president and officers, while the Legislative Council is presided over ex-officio by the Chief Justice, himself appointed by the central Government. The general administration is entrusted to the Governor, ​146 SOUTH AND EAST AFEICA. aided by a ministry of five members : the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, who is also Preinier, the Treasurer- General, the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Public Works, and the Secretary for Native Affairs. These ministers, who are chosen by the Governor, constitute the Cabinet, responsible to the Chambers. The administration of justice still depends on the British Government, by whom are appointed the field-cornets {veUl konwt), or district magistrates, and justices of the peace. The highest tribunal in the colony is the Supreme Court, which comprises a chief justice and eight puisne judges. The judges of this court hold sessions in Cape Town, and circuit courts in the western districts. The judges appointed to the eastern district courts hold sessions in Graham's Town, and circuit courts in the eastern districts, and the judges assigned to the High Courts hold sessions in Kimberley. Under certain conditions, apjieal may be made from the Supreme Court itself to the Queen in Council. The Roman-Dutch law constitutes the chief legal code, modified by colonial statute law. The British Government also to some extent controls the military forces, although maintaining only a very small number of men at Cape Town and Simon's Town. The colonial armj', paid out of the local revenues, comprises the Cape Mounted llifieraen, eight hundred officers and men, besides a body of about four thousand volunteers of all arms, liy a law passed in 1878, every able-bodied man in the colony between the ages of eighteen and fifty is subject to military service beyond as well as within the colonial frontiers. Thus is constituted a nominal reserve of over one hundred and twenty thousand men. Till recently the Church was still united, to the State, although all denomina- tions did not enjoy a sliare of the public revenues. Since 1875 the principle of separation has been adopted, and the several congregations have now to support their own ministers, salaries being allowed only to those members of the clergy who were appointed before the vote abolishing the State Churches had force of law. The ecclesiastical budget thus decreases from year to year by the process of natural extinction. In 1887 it had already been reduced to £8,600. The largest white communities are the Dutch Reformed and the Episcopalians, which before the late changes were the privileged State churches. But the Wesleyans are far more active and successful in evungelising the natives, and most of the Hottentots and Kafirs in the colony accordingly belong to that denomination. The Malays have remained Mohammedans, and have even made some proselytes. They have mosques both at Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. While the charges on the State revenue for religious worship are gradually diminishing, those for public instruction are on the increase, although the com- pulsory system has not yet been introduced. No doubt the scholastic establish- ments depend chiefly on the municipalities, and are, for the most part, supported by voluntary contributions. Nevertheless the Government promotes the spread of education by means of scholarships for poor but promising students, by supplying books, maps and instruments, and by granting salaries or stipends to the profes- sors. The primary schools are divided into three groups, accorJing to the nationality of the pupils. Thus the racial prejudices which prevail in the ​GRIQUALAND WEST. 147 religious world, distributing the faithful in separate congregations according to their complexions, have been extended also to the educational system, and legislation has taken care to keep the children of the dominant races entirely aloof from those of the Malays and Hottentots. The public schools in the towns and villages attended by European children are administered by local commissioners ; those intended for half-eaten in the urban and industrial districts are placed under the superintendence of the religious communities ; lastly, the schools opened for the use of the aborigines have remained in charge of the missionary societies, by whom they were originally founded. These are, for the most part, technical institutions, where are taught especially such crafts as carpentry, cartwright's work, joinery, bookbinding, and printing. For these establishments a large number of teachers are drawn from the native population itself. The colony also possesses high schools or colleges which prepare young men for the liberal professions. These are under the control of the University, which was incorporated in 1873, and which is an examining body empowered to grant degrees, without any machinery for imparting instruction. There are altogether five colleges aided by Government grants under the Higher Education Act, each with full staff of professors and lecturers in classics, muthamatics, and the physical sciences. But despite all the facilities offered for public instruction, the proportion of attendance is far below the average amongst the civilised peoples of Europe, the rate being scarcely more than one in thirty of the population. The Colonial Government has already its public debt, which about equals six years of revenue. The latter is derived for the most part from customs, excise, stamps, and legacy dues. The rest is made up from the profits on the railways post-office, telegraph service, tolls, and rent or side of public lands and mines. The colony is divided for administrative purposes into seven provinces with sixty-six fiscal divisions and sixty-nine judicial districts, which will be found tabulated in the Appendix. Griqualand West The province, which was definitely annexed to Cape Colony in 1877, and which became an integral part of the same political system in 1880, would pmbably have been still left to its aboriginal populations and to the squatters of Boer or mixed descent, had not the discovery of the diamond fields made it a valuable uccpiisition for the Colonial Government. In 1871, that is one year after the report of the won- derful finds had been spread abroad, the Cape authorities invited the chief of the Griquas, a Bushman named Waterboer, to accept the British suzerainty, and then hastened to comply with the wish which he was stated to have expressed on the subject. The conduct of the Colonial Government in connection with this affair was certainly somewhat high-handed, although it could scarcely be expected that much regard could be paid to the fact that the miners attracted to the district had already set up the independent republic of Adamanta. The Orange Free State also put in a claim for the possession of this territory ; but the right of the ​strongest competitor prevailed, and in 1877 the Boers of the Free State consented to surrender their claim to the contested district for a sum of £90,000.
A conventional line drawn across the plateau from the right bank of the Orange to the left bank of the Vaal, henceforth detaches from the Free State and assigns to Cape Colony the triangular space comprised between the two rivers above their confluence. With a view to rounding off its frontiers, to this diamantiferous region has also been added a portion of the hilly tableland which stretches north of the Orange in the direction of the Kalahari Desert and of the new British Protectorate of Bechuanaland. Within its present limits the province of Griqualand West thus covers a superficial area of nearly eighteen thousand square
miles, with a population of about sixty thousand, or in the proportion of three persons to the square mile.
Griqualand West enjoys an excellent climate, notwithstanding the fever prevalent amongst the mining classes, which must be attributed to the unhealthy nature of the operations in which they are engaged. As in the southern regions, the European population finds here a perfectly congenial home, and increases in the normal way by excess of births over the death rate. The country stands at a mean altitude of about 3,600 feet above sea-level, and while the general tilt of the land is from east to west, as shown by the course of the Orange, the highest ​THE ORIQUAS. 149 tions occur in the western parts of the province. ITere severul crests exceed 4,G00 feet, and the camping-ground of Duniol's Kuil liosut an altitude of o,370 feot ; even along the bunks of the Orange the country fulls nowhere below JJ.OOO feet. The chains of hills or ridges rising above the plateau are dispose<i for the most part in the direct ion from north-east to south-west, parallel with the course of the Vual. They are usually of gently rounded form, the ])revailing greyish tint«  giving them u somewhat monotonous aspect. In the depressions of the plateau between the two main streams are scattered nunierous aa/f-pana, nearly all of cir- cular forn), which, during the rainy season, are large and deep enough for the light craft U8e<l in wild-duck shooting, but which ut other times are either quite dry or even replaced by a sidine efflorescence. Another feature of the landscape are the clusters of mimosas scattered over the grazing-grounds. The Griquas (Gri-kwa), from whom the province takes its name, are genendly spoken of by the Dutch Boers under the designation of " Bastaurds." The great majority are, in fact, half-caste descendants of the wl)ite settlers and Hottentots of various tribes, who came from the regions south of the Orange about the begin- ning of the present century. In this extremely mixed population are met every variety of type, from the stuntc<l Bushman and yellow Hottentot to the tall Kafir and fair European. liut they are on the whole an active, vigorous race, daring and persevering, superior to the ordinary aborigines in strength and stature, and in all things distinguished " either by their virtues or their vices." * Amongst these African half-castes, as amongst the " Bois-Brules" of North America, are found the most enterprising traders, the most intelligent pioneers, tiie most daring hunters, but also the most dangerous and desperate criminals in the colony. In 1839 they valiantly defended their territory against the Mantati (Basutos), who were threatening to cross the Orange and overrun the whole country. The Man- tati were driven towards the north, where they in their turn became famous conquerors under the name of Mukololo. Even the pure white population of Griqualund West, consisting for the most part of miners of every nation — Englishmen from Cornwall and Lancashire, Germans from the Hartz, Piedmontese, Americans from California, Australians — are distinguished above all the other European inhabitants of South Africa for their energy, independence, and enterprising spirit. More than once they have been in conflict with the Government, compelling it to withdraw unpopular measures. The Diamond Fields. For a long time the squatters along the banks of the Orange were in the habit of picking up certain lustrous stones, the true value of which was, however, unknown till 18G7. In that year two dealers shared between them the price of the first " Cape diamond," which had been taken from a young Bushman. Two years later a Griqua found another magnificent stone of 83 carats, which received the name of the "Star of South Africa," and which was sold for £ll,200.t There • GuRtav FritHch, Drti Jakre in Sud-Afnka. t Thii) beautiful (fern, now known as the "Dudlc}'," was afterwardit purchased bj the Earl of Dudley, and reduced, by the prooeas of cutting, to a little over forty-six carats. ​was an immediate rush to the district of Hopetown, where the first finds had been made, but where, strange to say, no deposits have yet been discovered. Then the sands of the Orange were carefully examined as far as the confluence of the Vaal, the banks of which river were also explored. At last the great diamantiferous deposits were reached in a district 96 miles above the confluence, which was at one time probably studded with lacustrine basins. Now began the great rush, adventurers of all kinds flocking towards the new Eldorado, which was at that time almost uninhabited. Soldiers, sailors, deserters, farm-labourers, blacks, whites, mere striplings, arrived in crowds, every ship from Europe bringing a fresh contingent
of eager fortune-hunters. Miners, traders, and speculators hastened to cross the mountains and desert plains of the Karroo in the direction of the new diamond fields. The more fortunate possessors of waggons and carts of any description were able to get over the rough ground in a few days, while the pedestrians plodded along night and day, guiding their steps by the indications obtained from the local squatters and Hottentot grazers. But many failed to reach the goal. Hundreds of wayfarers, worn out by hunger, thirst, disease, and hardships of all sorts, or perhaps losing their way in the wilderness, perished in the attempt to traverse a route over 600 miles long, and their bodies were devoured by rapacious ​THE ORIQUALAND DIAMOND FIELDS. 151 beasts and birds. On tho camping grounds the mortulity was even greater. Ilere the bud diet, the hick of comfort, overwork, excessive drink, produced the epidemic of typhus known us the '* miner's fever," which rapidly filled the cemeteries of every rising settlement. Pm'ci, on the left bunk of the Vual, where the sands were first successfully wushed for diumonds, hus ceased to be one of the chief centres of attraction for speculutors. The dejxjsits huve been imjwverished, and reckless competition having ceased, the Government has been able to increase the size of the claims offered to purchasers. Here two or three hundred Pluropean and native miners still work on their isoluttHl plots, independent, however, of any great monopolising companies. The town of liarhli/, formerly Klip-ilrift, on the opposite side of the Vaal over against Pniel, is a busy market])lace for all the diggers engaged in the mining districts for the space of 60 miles along the course of the stream. The annual yield of these river-diggings in the Vual basin at present exceeds £40,000, and during the jxjriod from 1870 to 1880 the total product of the diamantiferous sands of this river exceeded £'2,000,000. The diamonds of this district are distinguished above all others for their purity and lustre. They are generally found in associa- tion with other stones, such as garnets, agates, quartz, and chalcedony. About the end of the year 1870 it was suddenly reported that diamond " placers " had been discovered on the plateau some 24 miles to the south-east of Pniel, fur from the fluvial alluvia. A new rush was at once made towards this " land of promise ; " the Dutch fanners were fain to sell their lands, and, as if by enchant- ment, there sprang up hundreds of tents and cabins, humble beginnings of the city which in South Africa now ranks in order of importance next to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Geological research has shown that in this region of the plateau the ground, uniformly covered with a layer of red sand overlying a be<l of calcareous tufa, conceals in its bosom extensive augite porphyry formations, which are pierced to a depth of over 1,000 feet by still unexplored *' pipes" or natural shafts. These pipes, which ore faced with a wall of basalt, are supposed to be nothing more than ancient craters. The earth now filling them is precisely the diamantiferous formation which bus been forced to the surface by the pressure of the subterranean gases, and shich towards the surface has become yellow and friable, while remaining blue and compact in the lower depths impenetrable to atmospheric influences. There also occurs a good deal of fire-damp, esj>eciully in the neighbourhood of the rocky walls, where the explosive gases are dangerous enough to require the construction of underground galleries to protect the miners. The basalts are overlain by carboniferous schists, and the question has been raised by geologists whether these schists may not have supplied the carbon required for the formation of the diamonds. Within a space of about 11 miles in circumference there exist four of these underground crater-like openings, all full of the earth in which the diamonds are distributed in a certain order known to experienced miners. These four diaman- tiferous pipes are liiilffonfein, lie Jloi r, l)ii ToH Pan, and Kimbfrhy, the last of which, lying close to the town of like name, is the richest diamond-bearing ​ground not only in South Africa but in the whole world. It has been suggested by the geologist Moulle, that the pans have the same origin as the four diamantiferous craters; but they have not yet been examined to a sufficient depth to determine the point whether they also contain eruptive matter yielding crystals.
Saul's Kuil, one of these saline meres, is described by Chapman as of perfectly regular form and filled with a conglomerate in which sparkle countless agates.
But the ground still continuing to subside and fall in, often without any warning, ​15i SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. it was at last resolved to clear out the whole of the interior, which was sinking day by day, in the form of a crater. In order to clear out the earth the plan was adopted of erecting a framework or wooden scaffolding round about the walls of the chasm, which had already reached a depth of over 2,000 feet. This contri- vance was disposed in several stages or landings, communicating with each claim by means of an endless baud nmde of leather, steel, or iron wire. Capstans, driven at first by hand labour and later by steam, raised the workmen and the buckets of earth from the bottom of the pit to the sorting platform. No other similar field of human industry presented a stronger spectacle than this vast cavity encircled by an intricate network of bright wires poising trucks of men and refuse in mid- air, and echoing with the constant din of human cries and grinding machinery. But the appearance of the works soon underwent a fresh change. The bottom of the pits has to a large extent been filled in by the continual landslips within the enclosure, sweeping with them the heaps of refuse and disintegrated rock. During the heavy rains the abyss has also been frequently flooded, so that the outlay on the works often nearly balanced the profits. It was also found neces- sary to modify the plan of operations by sinking shafts through the crumbling rock in order to reach the blue earth under the heaps of refuse covering it, and by driving underground galleries into the heart of the diamantiferous mass. Thus, from being an open quarry, Kimberley has been gradually converted into a mine in the strict sense of the term. The year 1881, the most successful of all, yielded to the commerce of the world crystals to the value of £4,160,000. But since then the industry has somewhat decreased in importance, chiefly in conse- quence of the reduced market price of the gems, due to their greater abundance. The declared value of the diamonds exported in 1886 was £3,504,000, and the total value down to the end of the year 1887 has been estimated at nearly £50,000,000, rtpresented by seven tons of diamonds, a far greater quantity than has been yielded by Brazil during the last hundred and fifty years. The propor- tion of diamonds to the actual amount of ground excavated and sorted is not more than one to eight millions. The most rigorous measures have been taken to prevent the theft of the precious stones, and in consequence of these regulations the prisons of Kimberley have often been filled to overflowing. Strikes also have occuried, and as in the mining districts of Europe have occasionally had to be sternly repressed. But here as elsewhere the system of large estates has at last prevailed. At first no one was allowed to hold more than two claims ; then anonymous societies bought up the allotments, and since 1887 a " syndicate," with its headquarters in London and Paris, and disposing of a capital of £15,000,000, has become the owner of the two most aluable mines at Kimberley and De Beer. The whole mining popula- tion thus consists exclusively of officials and labourers. When the mines were first opened the aborigines were excluded from the purchase of claims ; now these claims are accessible only to millionaires. The capital of the mining district, lying close to the mouth of the deepest diamantiferous pit, has already acquired the dimensions of a large town^ It is ​connected with Cape Town by a railway 620 miles long, and as the chief centre of trade between the colony and the Dutch republics of the Orange and Transvaal, it is steadily recovering from the losses caused by the depreciated value of its diamonds. Thanks to the water brought at great cost from the Vaal to the formerly arid plateau, the streets and squares of Kimberley have been planted with shady trees, and vast heaps of refuse have been transformed to pleasant gardens. Its original tin houses, brought piecemeal from England, have already been for the most part replaced by more substantial structures; its thoroughfares are illumined with electric light, and like its neighbour, Beaconsfield, which has sprung up near the Du Toit's Pan mine, Kimberley already surpasses many old
European towns in mechanical appliances, industrial resources, well-stocked warehouses, and handsome buildings. The population, mostly of a fluctuating character, rose from thirteen thousand in 1875 to nearly double that number in 1886.
Bechuanaland.
The region of broad plains diversified by wooded granite eminences, which stretches north and north-west of Griqualand West as far as the Kalahari wilderness, now also forms part of the British South African possessions. The Dutch settlers in the Transvaal republic had long been encroaching on the domain of their Bechuana neighbours, and had even here founded the two petty states of Stellaland and Goshen, with the ulterior purpose of incorporating them in the Transvaal. The suzerain power was accordingly compelled to interfere in defence
of the rights of the natives, who were glad to accept the British protectorate in order to obtain permanent relief from the incessant raids of the Boer filibusters on their eastern borders.
The region thus definitely annexed to the colonial dominion comprises that portion only of Bechuanaland which is bounded on the south by the Orange, on the west by the almost permanently dry bed of the Hygap, and northwards by ​BECHU AN ALAND. 167 the valley of the Molojx) affluent of the same river. A treaty concluded with Germony secures to Grout Rrituin the eventual possession of the whole region limited on the west by the twentieth di'gree of oist longitude, and on the north by the twenty-second degree of south latitude. This territory constitutes u " pro- tectorate," within which is officially included the narrow strip of land stretching eastwards betweun the course of the Linipojx) and the twenty-second degree parallel, as far as the frontier of the Portuguese possessions. IJut towards the north this conventional line has alrejdy been encroached upon, for by a special convention the Bechuana kingdom of Khama, lying still farther north, has also been placed under the protection of the British Government. Certain semi- official documents even already speak of the Zambese as the real or natural northern limit of the British domain in Austral Africa. Meanwhile the uncertainty of the conventional frontiers prevents the geograr phers from accurately estimating the actual extent of the protectorate. But the region comprised within the official limits traced along the meridian and parallel of latitude has a superficial area of probably about 180,000 square miles. The jwpulation of this territory, which is already well known from numerous exploring expeditions, can scarcely exceed half a million, and is placed by some writers as low as 47o,000 or 480,000. Of this number as many as 160,000 are concentrated in the section of Bechuanaland lying south of the Molopo tributar}' of the Ilygap. The Bechi anas. The Bechuana people are a branch of the great Bantu family, who according to the national traditions arrived in Austral Africa later than the other Kafir tribes. Till recently they were even still migrating, though not voluntarily. In order to escape from the Boers of the Orange and Transvaal, many tribal groups had been compelled to move westwards, and before the intervention of the English the native tribes were being harassed all along the line by the Boers of the conterminous districts. " At present the western Bechuunos are separated from the Basutos and other kindred peoples by the territory of the two Dutch republics. Like the Griquas, the Bechuanas have thus been broken into two great divisions, henceforth cut off from all direct intercourse with one another. But notwithstanding this dismem- berment, they have the full consciousness of their common origin, and throughout the vast region between the Orange and the Zambese they everywhere recognise their kinship, even grouping their various tribes in the order of national pre- eminence. According to unanimous agreement, the senior branch of the family are the Ba-Harutse (Barotsc), who dwell west of the liimpojx) headstreams, on the north-west frontier of the South African republic. M. Arbousset believes that the term Be-Chuana, now universally adopted as the collective ethnical name, is due to a misunderstanding on the part of some travellers, whoso inquiries about the various peoples of the country were met by the remark ba c/tuana, that is, " they resemble each other," meaning they are all alike, all of one stock. They have themselves no common national or racitd designation in any of their dialects. ​158 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. The Bechuanas are one of the finest members of the southern Bantu family. All are tall, robust, well-built, and distinguished by their graceful carriage, which may bo partly due to the fact that in certain tribes the feeble or sickly offspring are got rid of. Albinos and the deaf and dumb are thrown to the panthers ; those born blind are strangled, and when the mother dies her infant is, in some tribes, buried alive in the same grave, because he has been deprived of his natural nurse. Circumcision is imiversally practised, although there is no fixed age for performing the rite. Sometimes it is deferred till adolescence ; yet children born before the father has been circumcised would be ipso facto declared incapable of inheriting any of the paternal estate. Usually the operation is undergone between -the eighth and fourteenth year, and is accompanied by scourging, and occasionally even by tortures, in virtue of which the victims are regarded as equals of the men of the tribe, worthy to carry the shield and hurl the assegai. Girls also are initiated into womanhood and taught their duties as future wives by a long probationship passed in seclusion under the direction of elderly matrons. During this period they are subjected to several severe trials of endurance, the last of which is a hot iron bar to be held for a few seconds without uttering a cry. After this proof they are declared women ; they are smeared all over with grease, their hair is saturated with a mixture of butter and ochre ; they are clothed and decked like brides while awaiting to be purchased by their future lord. Circumcision is in no sense a religious ceremony, being merely the symbol of entrance into the state of manhood, with all its attendant privileges and responsi- bilities. Those missionaries who first penetrated into this region assure us that they sought in vain for the least indication of a belief in the supernatural world amongst the Bechuana peoples. The natives had neither gods nor idols; they never gathered together for prayer or any kind of public worship ; they neither appealed in supplication to good or evil spirits, nor even betrayed any fear of the souls of the dead. At the same time certain practices seem to be altogether inexplicable except on the supposition that they have been inspired by the desire to conjure the forces of the unknown world and render the unseen powers pro- pitious to their votaries. Thus when a tree is struck by lightning cattle are slaughtered, and similar sacrifices are made for the purpose of healing the sick or obtaining rain from above. The dead are borne to the grave through a breach made in the wall of the cabin, and care is taken to lay them in a crouched attitude with the face turned due north, that is, in the direction whence came their fore- fathers. Then the bystanders cast into the grave an acacia branch, portions of ant-hills, and tufts of herbage, emblems of the hunter's life in the woodlands. On the sepulchral mound are also placed the arms of the departed, together with the seeds of alimentary plants. But of late years the fear of unwittingly supplying the compounders of maleficent charms with the needful skulls has induced many of the tribes to bury their dead in the cabin itself, under the feet of the living. After each ceremony all those present wash their hands and feet in a large water-trough, all the time shouting Pula ! pula ! (Rain! rain!). The wizards also frequently make a show of attracting the clouds and causing them to discharge ​THE BEC11UANA8. 159 beneficial showers. If favoured by luck they at once acquire u great reputation, but should their predictions bo belied by unkindly fate they run the risk of their lives. These " rain -makers " even practise a real religious cult, for they pretend to conjure the sfK'Ils of Mo-Himo, a maleficent being who dwells in a cleft of the rock. With the view of keeping themselves in touch with the supposed religious traditions of ihe people, the missionaries have adopted this very term Mo-Uirao, meaning " the Dweller on High," to designate the God of the Christians. The fear or awe of the unknown is also betrayed amongst the Bechuanas in connection with certain objects which they are forbidden to touch, and certain food which is tabooed by custom. Like mo.st of the North American redskins, each Bechuana tribal group venerates a national token, such as a crocodile, a monkey, some wild beast or fi^h, and celebrates dances in its honour. The Ba-Kaluhuri people take good care never to hunt old lions, eK]K'eiully if these have acquired a taste for human flesh, llence it would be regarded us criminal to offer any resistance to the king of beasts even should he burst into a kraal, in which case he may at the most be scared away with shouts. Cattle also are held in a sort of reverence, as well as the thorny branches of the wait-a-bit {Acacii deteneiiH), which is used for making the village enclosures. Each tribe is governed by a king or chief, whose power passes to the eldest son. But the Bechuana tribal chief is far from enjoying absolute authority. Custom is powerful and scrupulously respectetl, while the secondary chiefs, and occasionally all the free men of the community, m.«y, on wei;»-lity occasions, con- stitute themselves a pic/io, or parliament, for the purpose of discussing public interests, advising the king, approving or censuring his conduct, according as it may be pronounced conformable with or opposed to established precedent. The picho, however, took no cognisance of crimes, and before the partial introduction of the British administrative system, such olfences as theft, murder, or adultery were not regarded as occurrences of tribal or general interest. They were rather the personal concern of the injured party, who balanced theft by theft, murder and adultery by murder, unless his wrath was appeased by a compensation in cattle. But since the missionaries have obtained a footing in all the principal Bechuana villages, the habits and customs of the natives have undergone great changes, at least outwardly. luiropean dress now prevails amongst all the border tribes, and the Ba-Tlapi have even learnt the tailor's art, cutting out coats and trousers from the skins of wild beasts. Almost every vilhige has its school, its cha]>el, and modem houses in the English style, encircled by the round huts with conic roofs still occupied by the poorer classes. In all the tribes some persons are met who are conversant with Dutch. Sun<lay has become a day cf rest even for those natives who do not pretend to have yet accepted the Christian teachings, while in the absence of the missionary the converted chief reads the service and intones the psalms in the public assemblies. lieing endowed with a quick intelligence, and especially prone to imitate his Ixtlers, the Mo-Chuana strives hard to assimilate himself to the European, and at times succeeds wonderfully. During this contact of the black and white elements, which h:i8 already lasted over two generations. ​IGO SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. and which bi^gan with pillage and murder, the weaker race has gradu.illy adapteJ itself to the forms of civilisation introduced by the invaders of their domain. The Bechuanas are a very courteous people, and invariably address each other in polite language. Although they are by nature on the whole of a peaceful temperament, wars were formerly very frequent, caused nearly always by cattle- lifting. " Our fathers lost their lives in capturing you, and we also shall perish in guarding you." So sang till lately the young Ba-Mangwato warriors to their herds ; but of late years most of the Bechuana tribes have discontinued their warlike expeditions. Formerly nomad pastors and hunters, they are now rapidly becoming peaceful tillers of the laud. Every man, every youth, even every girl, has his or her separate plot of ground, and the child thus learns from its tenderest years to cultivate the soil. * Down to the beginning of the present century the Bechuanas were still addicted to certain cannibal practices, apparently of a religious character. The braves who had slain an enemy brought back a portion of the body, and then gathered together to celebrate their victory under the presidency of a magician. Crouching round a blazing lire, they broiled the " flesh under the embers and devoured it in common, in order thus to superadd to their own the courage of the foe. Then, in order to show their contempt of pain, each in turn presented their bare leg to the priest, who with a stroke of the assegai made a long slit from the hip to the knee. Although the wound was deep enough to h-ave a permanent scar, the warriors had nevertheless to join in the tribal dance, which was kept up till the " small hours." Southernmost of all the Bechuana tribes are the Ba-Tlaro, settled on the north-west frontier of Griqualand West, where, however, they have to a large extent become merged with the better-known Ba-Tlapi,* or " Fish People." These Ba-Tlapi, whose national token is a fish, and who carefully abstain from touching this sacred animal, occupy a hilly district north of Griqualand West, bordering on the Vaal, and were also amongst the rival claimants for the coveted diamantiferous region now annexed to Cape Colony. They are one of the most numerous branches of the Bechuana race, numbeiing with the Ba-Tlaro about thirty thousand souls. Thanks to their frequent relations with the English and Dutch settlers, they are also the most civilised of all the tribes, and the light complexion of the children in many of their villages betrays an increasing inti- macy with the'r European neighbour-;. They are generally of a very cheerful disposition, and formerly posse>sed a large treasure of national songs, which has now mostly perished, being replaced by religious hymns. Topography of Beghuanaland. The Ba-Tlapi gardens, wherever sufficient water is available, yield in abun- dance all the European fiui's and vegetables, and the plough has already been introduced very generally. Some of the native towns and villages are will
known 08 stationH and market-places on the g^reat hij^hway leading from the Orange to the Zambese. ThoRc (xx-upied bv the chiefs are usuolly very jMipulouH. all the inhabitants being concentrated at such iwints with a view to defence. In 1801 Truter and Somerville estimated ut fifteen thousand the population of Latoku (Litaku), the town founde<l by the allied Ba-Tlupi and Ba-Uolong naticms on the margin of the Takun spring. After the sepanition of the two tribes, Kurunitm, the new capital of the lia-Tlupi, raj)idly became a real town witlv nearly six hundred houses and five thousiind inhabitants. The other royal residences which succeeded Kurumun were, or still are, places of considerable size. Such are Tnnttg, at the issue of a wady on the right bank of the Katong (Hart's River) ; MnniHH'i, lying some .sixty miles further up on the left bank of the same river; and Likatlong, whose cabins are also groupecl on the banks of the Katong. not far from its confluence with the Vaal, and in the present province of Griqualaud West. But in this region the centres of population are easily displaced, and every new king makes it u point of honour to found and give his name to one of these ephemeral residences. All that is needed for their construction is a good supply of acacia wood stakes, clay, and herbage or foliage for thatching. The diamond fields that were discovered in 1887 in the district near Vrijburg, former capital of Stellalund, cannot fuil to attra?t immigrants and cause new towns to spring up. The principal religious centie of the countrj' is Kuruwnu, whith lies in the midst of gardens and verdure at the east foot of a sandstone hill, whence an extensive view is commanded of the surrounding plateau. Here the missionaiies have acquired possession of many broad acres of arable lund, which they lease only to monogamous natives. The river Euruman, on which stands the town of like name, has its source among the hills a few miles to the south-east. From a cave at the foot of an isolated blulT the water flows in such a copious stream as to be navigable for small boats. Through stalactite galleries clo.«e to the chief opening the visitor may penetrate over slippery stones far into the interior of the rocky cavity, which is supposed to be inhabited by a sacred serpent, tutelar spirit of the stream. Were he to be slain, the perennial spring would at once dry u At the beginning of the century lions were still so numerous and daring in this region that many of the natives slept in narrow huts erected on piles amid the branches of the trees. Moffat speaks of a large tree in the neighbourhood of Lataku which contained no less than seventeen of such aerial dwtl'ings. The Ba-Rolong nation, formerly allies of the Ba-TIapi, but now divided into several independent tribes, occupy the northern section of the specially protected territory, that is to say, the district comprised between the mostly dry beds of the Molopo and the aflHuents of the Kuruman. But the chief villages. Mo/eking, resi- dence of the British Commissioner, i^lniba, Piefmni, and Morohcan^ are grouped about the head waters of the Molopo, where the gorges yield a sufficient supply for the irrigation of their fields. The Ba Bob ngs number altogether eighteen thousand full-blood Bechuanas, besides many half-castes reckoned apart. The tract lying between their domain and that of the Ba-Tlapi has afforded a refuge 108— A# ​162 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. to the remains of a tribe of Eorana Hottentots crossed with Bechuanas of dif- ferent clans, and numbering altogether about five thousand souls. Within this ]3echuana domain have also been established several petty republican com- munities of Bastaards driven north by the pressure of the English immigrants into Griquuland West. The Ba Harutse (Ba-IIurutse, Barotse), who still occupy the region of the Upper Linjpopo basin about the frontiers of Transvaal and the British Pro- tectorate, are also a decrepit people, much reduced since the time when they were regarded as the most powerful branch of the Bechuana race. Even recently the sons of the surrounding kinglets appeared as envoys in their midst in order to learn the national history or traditions, to study the ancestral usages, and conform themselves to the received standard of polite society. All the neighbouring com- munities were even expected to send the first-fruits of their crops in homage to the Ba-Harutse chief. The branch of the nation which has settled in the Marico district within the Transvaal frontier may also lay claim to pre-eminence for their progress in agriculture ; in 1882 they already possessed over two hundred European ploughs. One of the Ilarutse tribes has withdrawn to the region north of the Protec- torate, taking refuge in the marshy plains stretching east of Lake Ngami, where they occupy retreats safe from the encroachments of the most daring invaders of the land. The Ba-Katla, whose totem, or national emblem, is a monkey, and whose capital is the little town of Gamcohopa, situated on a wooded plateau, watered by an affluent of the Limpopo ; the Ba-Wanketsi, who are grouped to the number of six thousand or seven thousand round about the town of Khany^ ; lastly, the Ba Kwena or " Crocodile People," who dwell a little farther north, but still within the Upper Limpopo basin, have all alike been greatly reduced and com- pelled frequently to change their settlements by the incessant raids and encroach- ments of the neighbouring Transvaal Boers. The town of Kolobeng, where Livingstone had founded his mission before he turned to geographical exploration, is now in ruins. Liteyani was also abandoned in 1864 ; not, however, because of tlie attacks of any aggressive neighbours, but owing to the adjacent forest of gigantic aloes, whose pulpy leaves falling and rotting on the ground, rendered the whole district malarious during the rainy season. Liteyani was succeeded first by the town of Moricakhomo, and then by the present capital, L<ipeloIe {Molopok), which lies in the same region at the foot of a long ridge of rocky and wooded hills. This district, about which, so to say, gravitate the royal residences of the Ba-Kwena nation, is the mo 4 renowned in the legendary history of the Bechuana race. Near Lepelole stands a grotto into which Livingstone was the first who dared to venture, and not far from the same spot is the Giant's Kettle, hollowed out of the live rock. From this place, says the national myth, came all the animals of the world. The same chasm also gave birth to the Bechuana race, and carved in the rocks is still shown the trace of the first step taken by the first man as he emerged from the bowels of the earth.*
then they have themselves been split into two political groups, the Ba-Mangwatos proper and the Ba-Toanas, who dwell on the plains to the north of Lake Ngami. the common original home of both branches. A multitude of fugitives belonging to various tribes driven westwards by the terrible Ma-Tebele conquerors, came to seek a refuge amongst the Ba-Mangwatos, with whom they gradually became assimilated, all merging in a common nationality.
Shoshong, the Mangwato capital, is at present the largest town in South Africa beyond the British settlements. According to Holub and Mackenzie, it has had ​at times as many as thirty thousand inhabitants, exclusive of numerous villages usually grouped in a circle like the cattle enclosures, all really constituting part of the same urban population. But this gross aggregate has been considerably reduced by wars of succession, and had fallen in 1880 to little over six thousand. Since then, however, the population has again increased, thanks to the cessation of internecine strife. Lying 3,400 feet above sea-level in a vast plain, not, like most other Bechuana capitals, on a steep escarpment, Shoshong stretches along both sides of a mostly dry rivulet, which is dominated on the north by a granite ridge some 12 miles long. Southwards a basalt eminence is disposed parallel with
this granite mass, the intermediate space between the two heights being occupied by well-cultivated gardens and hamlets.
The Ba-Mangwatos have long been subject to the influence of the English missionaries, and have now for the most part adopted the Christian faith. Throughout their territory the sale of alcoholic drinks and the brewing of beer are forbidden under severe penalties — a fine of £100 for the foreign dealer, whether English or Boer, and banishment for the natives convicted of this offence.
At Shoshong converge the two main commercial highways which traverse Bechuanaland, one running north in the direction of the Zambese, the other northwest towards Lake Ngami. Southwards both merge in a common route which skirts the west frontier of the Dutch republics, but, except at one point, keeping well within the British Protectorate. At present the total annual foreign trade of Bechuanaland is estimated at £100,000. Yet at the beginning of the present ​THE BA-KAIJIUABL 1A5 century the inhabitunts of this region were still cut off from all intercournc with the outer world, and hud never even heunl of the 8urrounding marine wuterN. When they heard travellers speak of the great ocean they gave it the name of Metsebula, that is, " Water that goes a-grazing," because the tides penetrate far inland, and then after a few hours retire from the seaboard. The Ba-Chwupeng, one of the re<luced tribes occupying the highland region to the north-east of Shoshong, have become famous for their skill as iron-workers. They mine the ores themselves in the surrounding deposits, and fabricate all kinds of implements employed throughout all the surrounding districts. They are also acquainted with the trees that yield the best fuel for smelting the ores, and reserve the iron that adheres longest to the charcoal for the manufacture of their hardest and sharpest axes. Hence they had arrived at a knowledge of steel before the arrival of the Europeans in the country. East of Shoshong, and not far from the banks of the Limpojx), dwell the Ba- Silika people, who have hitherto resisted all attempts at subjugation. They owe their political independence partly to their central stronghold j)erclied on a bluff of difficult access, and partly also, if not mainly, to the impassable zone traced round this citadel by the tsetse fly. Their own herds are kept in upland valleys beyond the reach of this destructive pest ; but it is impossible for invaders to cross the intervening district with their cattle ; nor could they successfully carry off the Ba-8iliku herds, which would all perish while being driven across the infested zone. The Bechuanas are scattered in very thin groups throughout the western parts of the Protectorate, where springs are rare, and where for the greater part of the year the rivers are indicated only by stretches of dry sand. The few communities residing in this arid region take the collective name of Bu-Kaluhari, from the sur- rounding wilderness, but are also known by the designation of Ba-Lala, or " The Poor." In many districts they have intermingled with the Bushman aborigines ; but some of their tribes have kept aloof, preserving the racial purity as well as the pastoral and agricultural usages of their forefathers. Most of them, however, are unable to breed any animals except goats, which they water almost drop by drop at the dribbling springs. They obstinately cultivate their little garden plots, though the thirsty soil may yield them nothing but pumpkins and melons. The lions prowling about their kraals are often welcome guests, thanks to the half- gnawed carcases which they leave to the hunters. The full-bloo<l Ba- Kalahari trilies, although poor, are looked on as freemen. But, compared with the other Bechuanas, they occupy a subordinate position of vassalage, while those crossed with the Bushmen, and known as MaSarwa, or " Bad People," are considered as no better than slaves. The products of the chase and their very harvests belong by right to the Bechuana tribes adjoining their camping-grounds. They are required to present themselves two or three times a year at the villages of their masters, but are never allowed to enter the kraals during the day. They must remain at some distance from the settlement, pjitiently awaiting the order of the chief permitting them to approach. Nevertheless, these ​166 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. '* Bad People " are in general more devoted to their women than most of the Bochuanas ; they also show great kindness to their dogs, faithful companions in the chase, who in the other communities are for the most part treated with brutality. On the subject of slavery in Bechuanaland some questions were asked in the British House of Commons in 1888, in reply to which Baron de Worms remarked on the part of the Government that the Ba- Kalahari people had hitherto stood in an ill-defined relation of dependence and servitude towards the Bcchuanas proper. According to native custom, these persons can and do hold property of their own, while their servitude towards the Bechuanas takes the form partly of actual labour rendered, and partly of tribute paid in kind. They themselves stand in a some- what similar position of superiority as regards the still more degraded Bushman aborigines. For the guidance of the local authorities, the Secretary of State has now laid down the following principles : 1. Within the newly formed British Protectorate all these people are in the eye of the law already freemen. 2. The magisterial courts will henceforth, as a matter of course, refuse to recognise or enforce any claims arising out of the supposed relations of master and slave, and will punish as an infringement of personal rights any attempts to exercise forcibly tlie claims of a master over a supposed slave. 3. The local administrator will inform all chiefs and headmen as to the state of the law, and warn them against exercising or enforcing rights incompatible with it. Bechuanaland is thus assimi- lated in this respect to the rest of the British South African possessions ; and while the tribal rights and privileges of the chiefs are so far curtailed, all the inhabitants of the land are placed upon a footing of absolute equality before the law. Farini describes at considerable length certain remains of ancient structures, which he speaks of having discovered in the Kalahari desert. Such buildings, if they existed, would seem to attest the former presence in this region of a people at a far higher stage of civilisation than that of its present Bechuana inhabitants. But of such a peopJe there survives neither record nor tradition, while many state- ments made by this traveller have since been shown to be far from trustworthy, Basutoland — Hkad Waters of the Orange. Before the irruption of the Dutch Boers into the regions lying north of the Orange, the western and eastern Bechuana peoples dwelt side by side, occupying conterminous camping-grounds. But the narrow end of the wedge once inserted, the two main sections of this ethnical group became gradually riven asunder. The European squatters creeping up the banks of the Orange and Caledon, and then reaching the waterparting between the Orange and Vaal, encroached inch by inch on the pasture-lands, driving the original occupiers of the soil to the right and left. While the western Bechuanas crossed the Vaal, the eastern tribes of the sime race, grouped under the collective name of Basutos (Ba-Suto, or "Paunched"), were compelled slowly to retreat towards the upland Maluti and Drakenberg valleys. ​After founding the Orange Free State, which territory belonged originally to the Busutos, the Boers, if left to themselves, would certainly have sooner or later dispossessed the natives of their last highland retreat, for the frontier wars had never been interrupted except for brief intervals of time. But meanwhile the
English made their appearance, at first to secure the independence of the Basutos, and then to prevent the further encroachments of the Boers by extending the British protectorate to the whole region. But troubles arose between the natives and their new masters, and the edict calling upon the mountaineers to disarm was followed by a general rising, in which the British troops were more than once ​1G8 SOUTH AXD EAST AFRICA. repulsed Tho pacification of t!ie oiiutry was at last effected, at a cost to the Imperial exchequer of over £4,000,000. Basutoland, which is clearly marked off towards the south-east, east, and north- ei't by the main crest of the South African orographic system, and on the west by the course of the Caledon River, is now annexed to the colonial territory, but is separately administered by a Rijsident appointed by the Biiti^h Government. The whole region has an area of a little over 10,OiiO square miles, with a somewhat dense population, at least compared with most other South African lands. The census returns of 1881 gave a total population of over 128,000, which in 1887 had already risen to about 190,000, or nearly twenty to the square mile. Amongst the inhabitants are some thousand Barolong refugees from the Orange Free State, and about five hundred white settlers, missionaries and officials. Of all branches of the Bechuana family the Basutos have been the most carefully studied. Since the year 1833, Frtnch and other Protestant missionaries have been labouring in their midst, studying the national usages and contributing to modify them. Completely hemmed in as they are by the territories already occupied by European settlers — Cape Colony, Transvaal, Natal — the Basutos have been fain to adapt themselves to a new environment, and this they have doue with a remarkable degree of intelligence. In most other lands contact with the whites has been followed by the impoverishment, decay, and even extinction of the inferior races. But here the Basutos have successfully passed through the critical period of assimilation. While increasing their store of knowledge and acquiring habits of industry, they retain the full vitality of the race, and are rapidly increasing in numbers. Half a century ago their domain was almost uninhabited ; now it is one of the most flourishing countries in Africa. The civilisation of the Basutos is not merely an outward veneer, nor does it consist exclusively in the substitution of woollen and cotton garments imported from England for the native kaross of undressed skins, or in the building of little brick and stone houses instead of hovels made of mud and foliage. Thanks to the schools, to the support of which the nation devotes most of its income, the average standard of education is already higher than amongst many European populations, and at the public examinations the Basutos often take higher places than the competitors of European descent. Thousands speak English and Dutch ; they read Se-Chuana books and periodicals, and although nearly all Christians (about one-sixth of the whole nation have been educated under missionaries), they are not satisfied with slavishly accepting and repeating what they are told. Some amongst them have learnt to think for themselves, to discuss religious and social problems, and follow their own personal views. The various tribes have moreover discontinued their internecine strife, and war has ceased to be a permanent institution. The nomad pastors, plimdered of their herds, are no longer reduced to cannibalism, which formerly prevailed everywhere, and the natives now, regard with as much horror as do the whites the now abandoned " caves of the man-eaters." A sentiment of national coherence has replaced the petty village feuds, and thanks to this spirit of solidarity, com​BA8UT0LAND. 109 bincd with the vulour displayed on many a hard -fought battlefield, the Ba«utoH have succeeded to a large extent in safeguarding their political autonomy under the supreme British authority. Formerly they contracted marriages within cIoho degrees of kindreil, a practice which seemed an abomination to the Kafirs of the seaboard, who are not only exogamous, but even abstain from taking wi^^es in foreign families bearing the same name as their own. The Busutos possess at present far more numerous herds than they did fifty years ago, when rujmcious beasts still infested the neighbourhood of every camping- ground. They still regard the care of homed cattle and of their new acquisition, the horse, as the occupation most worthy of freemen. For some years of their youth the sons of the chiefs are obliged to lead the lives of simple herdsmen, and the chiefs themselves at times leave their royal residences to tend the herds and lead them to fresh pastures. In the villages the central space near the khotla, or chief's residence, is always reserved for the cattle. But to this national industry, chief source of their prosperity, the Basutos add an intelligent syst-em of agriculture. Already several thousands of ploughs have been introduced into their upland valleys ; nor do they now confine their attention, as formerly, to the cultivation of sorgho, their favourite cereal. They also raise crops of several other varieties, as well as of most European fruits, the superfluous produce of their farms now contributing towards the regular support of the inha- bitants of Cape Colony. Every village is surrounded by orchards, and such is the natural fertility of the well-watered soil that this region has become one of the granaries of South Africa. The land itself is still held in common by the whole community, so that its cultivation has not yet divided the nation into a privileged wealthy and indigent proletariate class. The actual tiller alone has any right to the results of his labour, and should he cease to cultivate his allotment and remove elsewhere, ho is compelled to restore it to the tribal chief, by whom it is assigned in the name of the commune to another holder. In favourable years the value of the agricultural produce exported to Cape Colony and the Diamond Fields has exceeded £200,000. Like the natives of Savoy and Auvergne, the Basutos also send every year to the surrounding regions a number of young emigrants who, sooner or later, return with a modest fortune to the paternal home. They have seldom any difficulty in finding employment, such is their long-standing reputation for honesty and perseverance. But when the wages agreed upon are withheld, they are apt to indemnify themselves by carrying off the cattle of their employers. Hence arise frequent difticulties with the Orange Free State, where most of the Basuto emigrants seek work. Some good roads already penetrate far into the upland valleys ; the slopes of the mountains are Ix^ing yearly brought more and more under cultivation, and thus is being gradually created a public fund for keeping the highways in repair and supporting the local schools. There are numerous deposits of platinum in the surrounding highlands ; but although the country abounds in mineral resources, scarcely any of the mines have yet been worked. Thuba BuHHigo {T/uiba Bomu), that is, the " Mountain of Night," the chief ​170 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. town in Basutoland, stands at an elevation of over 5,000 feet at the foot of a table-shaped bluff on the east side of a stream flowing to the Caledon. From the summit of this rock the famous King Moshesh, or the " Shaver," so called because he had succeeded in " shaving off " the heads of all his rivals, long defied the attacks of the Zulus by rolling down huge boulders on his assailants. Ultimately he managed to conciliate these fugitives from their own land by sending them cattle and offering them his friendship. Most of the other towns in Basutoland, such as Leribi, Berea, and Bethesda, have at different times been the residence of tribal chiefs or missionary stations. Maseru, which lies in the Thaba Bossigo district, not far from the left bank of the Caledon, is the residence of the British Commissioner. The Basuto chiefs have ceased to be anything more than the subordinates of the European magistrates. Against their sentences appeal may be made to the English tribunal, which decides definitely. Nevertheless a picho, or general assembly of all the tribes, still meets annually for the discussion of affairs of common interest. The marriage laws have been modified, and polygamists are permitted to register the stipulated payment of cattle only for the purchase of their first wife, all subsequent matrimonial contracts being null and void before the law. As amongst the Kafirs on the eastern slope of the mountains, the hut tax is fixed at ten shillings. The use of alcoholic drinks is officially interdicted, but a brjsk contraband trade is carried on between Basutoland and the Orange Free State. Even before the present administration the great chiefs were forbidden to drink beer. In their position as judges they are expected always to keep a per- fectly clear head, and the rule has now been usefully extended to all their subjects. Kafihlam). Since the ye:ir 1885 the eastern slope of the main coast range comprised between the rivers Kei and Um-Fumodna has, like Basutoland, been entirely annexed to Cape Colony. But British immigrants and dealers still penetrate very cautiously into the country, and in certain districts are for the present even forbidden to settle at all. The sureme colonial authority is represented by magistrates residing with the tribal chiefs, and these magistrates at the same time take care that the lands reserved to the Kafirs are not encroached on by Eujopean squatters. Nevertheless the ceaseless work of onward pressure, which began with the landing of the Dutch at the foot of Table Mountain, still continues in virtue of a sort of natural law, owing to which the two colonies of the Cape and Natal constantly tend to join hands across the intervening Kafir territory and thus form a continuous zone of European settlements from the Orange estuary to Delagoa Bay. This racial tendency is all the more active that Kafirland presents special attractions to immigrants, being at once the most salubrious, fertile, and pic- turesque region in the whole of Austral Africa. In 1877, twenty years after the failure of a first attempt at colonisation, the British settlers were in'ited to ​accept concessions of land in the Transkei district, between the Kei and Kogha rivers. Recently, also, a European society has acquired one of the finest tracts in this region, the territory traversed by the lower St. John River (Um-Zimvubu), which is sooner or later destined to become the chief outlet for the inland districts
between the Cape and Natal. Since 1887 this territory is directly administered by the British authorities.
The future possession of the whole land is thus being gradually prepared by these little isolated settlements, But although the Kafirs are no longer the political masters of a region wrested by their forefathers from savage tribes who still used stone arms and implements, they nevertheless still constitute nearly ​172 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. the whole population. Thanks to the Par Britanuica now prevailing among all the tribes, the annual rate of increase is considerable. Accurate statistics are still wanting, but most resident Europeans are unanimous in asserting that the steady growth of the population caused by the natural excess of births over the mortality is altogether phenomenal. Hence of all South African regions Kafirland is already the most densely peopled in proportion to its extent. In 1877 the various estimates ranged from four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand, and at present the number of inhabitants considerably exceeds half a million in an area of not more than sixteen thousand square miles, or about thirty-two to the square mile. Exclusive of Pondoland, the census of 1885 gave a population of 333,000. Should this rate of increase be maintained, it may be asked whether the natives may not again gradually acquire the upper hand, as they have already done in Central America and in part« of South America. In the widespread family of Bantu peoples the Kafirs take a foremost position for physical beauty, strengtn, courage, and intelligence. In many ethnological works representing the various types of mankind, the European whites are figured by the statues of gods and goddesses, borrowed from the classic period of the plastic arts. But while the noble " Caucasian," son of Prometheus, thus presents himself under the ideal form portrayed by the great artists of antiquity, the members of other races, black, yellow, or red, are shown in these collections handsome or ugly, young or old, healthy or infirm, just as they happen to pass before the object- glass of the photographer, and occasionally even as figured by the pencil of the caricaturist. But such a method of procedure is unfair to the so-called " inferior races." At any rate, it is certain that were the artist to reproduce at haphazard a given number of Europeans and of Kafirs, he would find, not amongst the foimer but amongst the latter, the largest number of individuals approaching the standard of perfect beauty, both as regards regularity of features and symmetrical proportions. The superiority claimed by the white race is true only when the comparison is restricted to picked specimens. In this case the cultured race is undoubtedly the finer of the two, and here the same difference, is observed between the fair and the dark human types as between the wild beast and the animal improved by the stock- breeder. The noblest specimens of the Kafir race would appear to be precisely those dwelling in the neighbourhood of the Europeans and under their influence ; far, as Gustav Fritsch well remarks, " Civilisation alone can complete the human ideal." The Kafir features have never the same delicacy as is found in those of the finest Europeans. They are decidedly coarse in comparison, and the lips espe- cially are nearly always too thick and tumid. But the Kafirs, as well as the Hot- tentots, are usually endowed with far greater keenness of vision, and Daltonism is an affection unknown among the natives of Africa. The valour of the Kafirs, and especially their power of dogged resistance, the English have had ample occasion to admire and respect during the long warfare carried on between the two races. A memorable instance was certainly the heroic endurance displayed by the Ama- Kosa people during the terrible year of voluntary famine, to which they fell
All Europeans who kuvc tukcn purt in the education of the children amongst the numurous KuHr tribon, [nvxr witnonn to the kron vivacity of their intelligence. Their mental vigour would almoNt seem to be too iutease, to judge at least from the great number of idiots found amongst them. The customs of the KaBrs, which api)ear to have originally re^mblod those of the allied Hechuuuu {leople, have already been profoundly modified by contact with their European neighbours. Formerly those Katirs who had acquired some religious notions through their intercourse withthe surrounding peoples, applied to the supremo being the name of Thiko, from the Hottentot Uti-ko, the " Evil-doer," or better, the " Mischief- maker." The Fixoos. The Fingos (Ama-Fingu, or "Wanderers," "Vagabonds"), who formerly dwelt much farther to the north in the Tugela River valley, whence they were expelled by the Zulu conqueror, Chaka, have retained little of their Kafir nation- ality beyond the name. After their expulsion they had fallen into the hands of the Ama-Eosas, who had gradually reduced them to the jwsition of slaves, at the sunie time distorting their name so as to give it the meaning of '* Dogs." Hence sprang a deadly hatred between the two nations, calling for the ultimate interven- tion of the English to put a stop to the intolerable oppression of the Ama-Kosas. Accepting the offer of lands made to them by the colonial Government, the Fingos emigrated in abody and settled on the banksof theGreat Fish River. Here they again l>eeanie freemen, and on puyment of the hut tax ol ten shillings, acquired the owner- ship of the land cultivated by themselves. They, moreover, became the steadfast allies of the English against their former masters, and it was largely through their cooperation that the Ama-Kosas were at last compelle<l to acknowledge themselves vanquished. East of the Kei River they surrendered vast tracts, which, by a sort of Nemesis, were assigned for the most part to the very " Dogs," whom they had long treated with such dire cruelty. At present the Fingo Kafirs have become largely intermingle<l with the settlers of European origin, and this mixed people number altogether about a hundred thousand souls, settled partly in the colony properly so called, and jjartly in the Transkei district. They now wear the same clothes as the whites, guide the ])lough after the fashion of the English and German peasants, send their children to sehools supported by their own voluntary contributions, edit newspapers, translate European poetry, and even compose musical tunes for their national songs. Nearly all call themselves Christians, and constitute the proletariate class in the eastern districts of the South African colony. The two chief centres of population in the Fingo territory within Kafirland properly so called, and east of the Kei, are Namaqua and Butit'itcorth, both of which places are situated on eastern affluents of that river. ​174 SOUTH AND EST AFRICA. The Am-Kosas and Galekas. The Ama-Kosas (Khosa, Xosa) were till recently the masters and oppressors of the Fingos, to whom they were at last compelled to surrender the western districts of the Transkei and the valleys stretching thence to the Great Fish River. Of all the Kafir nations the Ama-Kosas have suffered most from their protracted wars with the Europeans. Lying in the immediate vicinity of the English settlers, they were the first to attack and the first to feel the superiority of the white race. But still mindful of their past glories, they nevertheless continued to regard them- selves as the noblest branch of the Kafir family, and the surrounding tribes readily recognised their claim to the foremost position. In any case they differ little from their neighbours, except in their tribal groupings and political traditions. Even their national speech can scarcely be distinguished from the other dialects current in the whole region of the seaboard as far north as Delagoa Bay. Nor has their tribal name any special ethnical value, for the Ama-Kosas, like most other Kafir groups, are named after some chief famous in the national records. Of the Ama-Kosas the chief historical divisions are the Galekas and the Gaikas, who also take their hames from illustrious chiefs, reputed founders of these tribes. But the Gaikas have almost disappeared as a distinct group. Removed in the year 1851 to the west of the river Kei, to a territory which has long been settled by British colonists, they have been dispersed amongst the farm- steads and outskirts of the towns, as day labourers and domestic servants, and thus gradually become merged with the rest of the population. The Gaika tribe is in fact completely broken, and has lost all sense of its national unity. But the Galekas still dwell in a compact body on their own tribal domain. This district comprises nearly half of the whole territory comprised between the livers Kei and Bashee. Here they constituted in 1875 a united population of nearly seventy thousand souls. They are thus by far the most numerous branch of the Ama-Kosa Kafirs, who number altogether not much more than a hundred thousand. Most of the Galekas have preserved their ancient habits and customs. The young man still purchases his bride with so many head of cattle, and the number of his wives stands in direct proportion to his means. But it is not the women, as amongst the Bechuanas, but the men, who in Kafirland milk the cows. No woman would even be tolerated within the sacred enclosure reserved for the cattle, her mere presence being regarded as a profanation. Here the wife is held in contempt and treated as a slave. She is forbidden to pronounce the nanfe of any male member of the household ; nor dare she even utter sounds or syllables occurring in such names, and is thus compelled to invent a new vocabulary differing from that of the men. Ill-favoured children are killed, while the well-formed are pricked in vavious parts of the body, a little protecting amulet being inserted under the skin, after which both infant and mother are rubbed over with red ochre. The chiefs are great personages, placed above the laws by which other mortals are governed. They have the right to confiscate their subjects' property, and the privilege is even extended to their sons, who steal and plunder withojit let or ​TEMBULAND. 175 hindrance. In fact, the common folk are expected to feel honoured and flattered by the whims und fancies of their masters Till recently chiefs alone were honoured with sepulture, the Ixxlies of their subjects being thrown into the bush. Nor was it always thought necessary to await their death before they were dragged from their huts through a breach puri)08ily made in the enclosure. But in the case of great chiefs the funeral rites lasted for weeks together. Friends kept vigils about the grave to protect it from the aerial spirits and the inclemency of the weather. At times these vig^s lasted a whole year, and those keeping watch then became sacred in the eyes of their fellow-countrymen. Cows were driven within the pre- cincts of the tomb, and being thereby sanctified, were henceforth regarded an protecting genii, that could neither be eaten nor sold. These precincts were also regarded as places of refuge, like the medieval sanctuaries, at the threshold of which the avenging arm of justice was arrested. At first sight it might be supposed that little public spirit could exist amongKt a people who thus surrounded the person of their chief with such marks of super- stitious homage. Nevertheless, the Ama-Kosas are well able, when called upon, to defend their traditional civil rights against their very chiefs. They have on all occasions given signal proof of a highly developed national sentiment as well as a strong spirit of fellow-feeling in the family relations. Those called upon to pay a fine in cattle which they are unable to discharge may always rely on their kinsmen to come to their aid. Tembilaxd. Tembuland, that is, the territory occupied by the Tembu nation, aevelops a semicircle to the north and east of the districts held by the Fingos and Galekas. Beginning at the Kwathlamba Mountains, und comprising several upland valleys draining to the Kei River, it stretches south-eastwards through a portion of the fluvial zone which is bounded by the Bashee and Um-Tata rivers. The Tembus, or Aba-Tembus, who are more generally known by the name of Tambookies, are a powerful people numbering altogether a hundred thousand. Although frequently compelled by the vicissitudes of war to shift their cumjnug-grounds with their herds and families, they have suffered comparatively little from the changes brought about by the gradual encroachments of the whites, and now accept with resignation, if not with gratitude, the jurisdiction of the British magistrates. Tembuland is intersected by accessible roads and even by tel('graj)h lines, and mining operations have already been commenced in the coalfields discovered in these highlands. A town in the strict sense of the woid has even been foundtd in the district. Umfatti, as it is called, stands on the east bank of the river of like name, above the magnificent fulls, which are exceeded in romantic beauty by few others in this region. The neighbouring Bomvana p<>ople, who dwell, to the number of twenty thousand, in the maritime district comprised between the Bashee and the Umtata rivers, have hitherto hud but little contact with the British colonists, and
Pondoland.
Pondoland, or country of the Pondo people, comprises over half of the seaboard of Kafirland between the Umtata and the Umtafuna on the Natal frontier. Thanks to their remoteness from Cape Colony, this branch of the Kafir family has hitherto succeeded in keeping possession of its fertile riverain valleys. The Pondos, numbering altogether about two hundred thousand, are passing gradually
and without violent political or social disturbances from the position of absolute independence to that of a mild vassalage. They are divided into several tribal groups, such as the Ama-Kongwe, Ama-Kongwela, Ama-Kobala, Ama-Kwera, Ama-Nyati, Ama-Bala, Ama-Yali and others, each with its own chief and separate government, and connected together by no national or federal bond. All, however, recognise the suzerainty of Great Britain, which was lately for some time represented by the widow of a missionary, whom they commonly consulted on important affairs. ​OBIQUALAND EAOT. 177 The surface of the country is already dotted over with several little centres of population, which are destined gradually to become English towns. At the mouth of the St. John River, in Pouduland, has also been founded the seaport which cannot fail to become the chief emporium of the whole seaboard between East Ix)ndon and Durban. Palmerton is an important missionary station, which is gradually acquiring the aspect of a town, and promises one day to become a populous place. Oriqualand East. The north-west section of Kafirland, which is separated from Basutoland by the Drakenberg Range, and bounded on the north-east by the colony of Natal, on the south by Pondoland and Terabuland, is officially designated by the name of Oriqualand East. It is now, however, inhabited mainly by tribes of different origin from the Griquas ; amongst them are several Kafir groups, including the l*oudomisi, the Ama-Bakos, the Ama-Xesib^s, and even a few Fingos. The Griquas, who gave their name to the district, number at present not more than two or three thousand out of a total population of about seventy thousand. They formerly dwelt with the other Griquas, or Bastaards, on the plateaux watered by the Upper Orange ; but after long migrations in various directions, they separated from the rest of the nation, and under a chief bearing the Dutch name of Adam Kok, settled in the year 1862 on the eastern slope of the Drakenbcrg Mountains. Here they gradually acquired possession, under the British suzerainty, of the territory which was hitherto known as " No Man's Land," but which might with more propriety have been called " Everybody's Land," such was the multitude of immigrants from all the surrounding tribes that here found a refuge. Oriqualand East is crossed by the main highway between the Cape and Natal, which after skirting the frontier of Pondoland passes by the capital, the Dutch town of Kokstad, which is situated on a headstream of the St. John over 5,000 feet above sea-level. Matatiel, another large village, lies in the mountainous western district at the converging point of several tracks leading to the crest of the waterparting between the Orange basin and the coast streams. Several Basuto families, crowded out of their own territory, have crossed the divide vdih their herds and settled in the upland valleys on the eastern slope of the main range. 108— Af
* ↑ Properly Stille-land ("Still" or Peaceful Land) and Goosen.
* ↑ John Sanderson, "Stone Implements of Natal," Anthropological Journal.