The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-01-13

belong the tribes ut one time combined
in the Zulu confederscy. The second
group compI ehends the Basutos. who
inhabit the inland and upland country
on the western slope of the Drakensberg
range. In the third group are included
besides the Gaikas and Galekas, the
names of whose chiefs, Sandili and
Kreli, were two years ago familiar to
British ears--the Pondos, who dwell on
the St. Johns River, that is to say,
Immediately adjacent to the southern
frontier of Natal. In 1873 the British
authorities, after conqueting the Gaikas
and Galekas, deposed the Pondo chief.
who made no resistance, and annexed
his country. Basutoland, however,
had not, up to the present time,
been taken into British posses
sion, since its natives had been
invariably found on the side of the
white colonists in the recent contests
with the Katfirs. The Pondos also, be
it observed, rendered good service to
the British in the successful campaigns
against Cetywayo and Sekukuni. We
can appreciate, therefore, the indigna-
ton with which these well-affected ma
tives saw the new colonial administra-
ton preparing to apply to them the
sane harsh measure Of disarmament
visited upon hostile or rebellious tribes.
It is true enough. as the authorities at
the Cape contended, that the weak
white communicated the white in
habitants of the Transvaal do not ex-
coed 40, 900, while those Of Natal scarce
" reach half that number-are in con-
tinual peril. surrounded as they are by
dense Kaffir populations. It il true,
too, that the Kaffirs are almost univer-
sally provided with guns, and that the
Basutos in particular have actually
learned TO make their own gunpowder.
On the other hand, wholesale disarma-
ment meant to the friendly natives pill
age, confiagration and murder at the
hands of unannexed and predatory
kaffirs. It is the instinct of self-preser-
walton which makes half civilized tribes,
like the Pondos and Basutos, cling to
their weapons, and the requital of their
services by . cool disregard of their
vital interests has naturally goaded
them TO desperation. The demand of
the Cape Government was. to say the
least, illtimed, and its enforcement, -
the event has proved, was impossible
without further aid from England. The
combined forces of the recalcitrant Pom
do and Basuto chiefs are far superior to
those controlled two years ago by tho
Gaika chief, Sandilli. yet it required an
army of $500 Europeans and 800 ma
tivss, with 1900 horses and nineteen
guns, to overcome the latter. We can
see. then, that the call addressed to the
British Ministry for help against the
Kafir rebels, could not be satisfied with
less than several regiments.
HUT it 10 not only to put down the
troubles in Rasutoland that re-enfore-
meats from England will be needed.
Thu telegraphed statement that five
thousand Beers have met at Lyden.
berg, and elected Paul Kruger Presi-
dent of the Transvaal, means nothing
less than . resolute reconstruction OF
the former Republic by large majori-
tv Of its Hollander inhabitants. Up to
the act Of violent annexation by Brit
ish Commissioner, in the spring Of 1877,
the Transvaal Dutch commonwealth
hal Constitution. and Government Of
it's own, Is regular and legitimate as
that Of Swiss canton. It had . Presi-
dent,. elected for q term of i've years;
an Executive Council, consisting of the
State Secretary and three other coun-
cillors; and . Volksraad or Legislature,
to which forty-two members were re-
turned by the thirteen electoral dis
tricts. It had . State revenue Of three