The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-08
WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA
GREAT BRITAIN's LUST OF GOLD Is
ITS IMMEDIATE CAUSE.
The Beers. Determined to he Inde-
heleland and Set Up n Republic.
". H. r.. in Washington Post.


fected in America, and continued in Africa.
where Great Britain has had the first pick
OF the country, and maintains a line of
colonies from the mouth Of the Nile to the
Cape Of Good Hope. AL Of these were OBJ
tanned by the same methods. In India a
great trading company was organized. Its
business soon became immense. 1t wanted
grant Of land at Bombay and Madras.
upon which its own houses might be erect
ed. This was not much. and the request
was granted. Then guards were needed.
Permission was obtained TO enlist natives
for this service. Soon there was compact,
well-drilled force under the control of the
East India company. Give. at Plassay.
taught Rumjeet Singh that these Sepoys. as
they were called. would fight pretty nearly
as stanchly as Britons. And having con-
quered the descendants of the Great Mogul
warriors. 100000 Englishmen are ruling ESQ.,
100000 of Asiatics, and own all India worth
having.
About the time that the East India COM
rany was forming England had a very seri-
Gus rival on the high seas in the Neither
lands. Something ever two centuries and
a half ago the Dutch government had i'm
portant dependencies in the four quarters of
the globe. Manhattan island was one, De-
marara and Dutch Guiana was the second
Java the third. and the fourth was the Cape
or Good Hope. Three of these colonies be-
came British But in Africa the Dutch
Beers, or farmers, did not take so kindly to
British rule as did the Stuyvesants, Schuy-
lers, Van Dams, Van Rensselaers and other
old Dutch PATRONS of Manhattan island
Iney swore they would not stand it, and
many OF them did not. The matter be-
tween the two races eliminated in trouble
tSuenlng the slavery question and kindied
tnd emDers OF dislike. long smoldering into
a devouring flame. English philanthropists
determined TO emancipate the Dutch farm
s Ts saves, ana equally not to pay for them:
thousands or sturdy Dutchmen shouldered
their long vory-sighted roers, or five-foot-
Darre! elephant guns Ghe replica Of the
A Ann , hunting rifle. with which Holland
men OF the American wilderness), and
Struck out to the. northward. There was a
vast yas., wem,watered region in that direction.
They would take 1t and get forever away
from the hated British rule. Those fierce.
warlike tribes. Zulus. Griquas and Matabele
that? -
FOUNDING OF THE FREE STATE.
When the country was we'll settled and
subdued along Orange river. and had de-
clared that it was "a free and independ-
ent republic" there came again the hated
British Uitarder. or outsider" The north
ern line Of England's Cape domain had not
been fully established, Britain coolly de-
clared that the fiourishing colonies of the
State Of Orange and Natal were within her
own territorial domain. and annexed" them
both, but allowed their local affairs to be
regulated by the Dutch colonists. This time.
however. owing to the fact that the warlike
chiefs ct the Zulus, and their cousins, the
Matabele, demanded to know where the
whites meant TO stop, 1t was agreed that
the River Vaal.a very fine and considerable
from the Zulu and Matabele country-should
be the aortherl boundary of Englands Colo
mics. Bu. many of the Dutch farmers were
FESTIVE, particularly the younger ones. They
swore they would not remain under British
rule. So many OF them sold out their great
ten thousand and fifteen-thousand-ac
Ito British Investors: placed most of the
money Ct interest with banks in Holland,
and, hitchng w their great teams OF fifteen
into -ae wilderness. They hated beyond
the ,iiyer kaal. set up new government,
and created oiScially the South African Re-
vaal. CT course. they had a hard time
The fierce fighting tribes of Griquas, Zulus
and Matabele lid not relish this uncermoni-
Gus overrunning of their country any more
America. Take your peop.e away from
our country" said old Waterboer and
Afrfkaner, the mead cnlefS or the great war
like combine of tribes, to the English gov
eminent across the Vaal. I'VE can't do It.
They are not our people anyway" was the
s fhen we wi aTe exterminate t them asid
the chiefs. The British commissioners
shrugged their shoulders and were silent
WAR ON INVADERS.
For years the natives tried to drive out
the invaders. 1T was the history of the
early settlements along the Ohio. Cumber-
land and Tennessee rivers repeated. There
were no Drawer fighters than the Dutch
Beers AS shots they were incomparab Bile
hardy, used to the climate. excellent track
ers and trailers. The natives finally had to
give ground. But the continuous wars had
left the colony poor: and when Cetewayo,
the great hereditary war chief of all the
Zulus, made a combination with Lobengula,
the equivalent potentate of the Matabele, in
latter was obliged to have allies from some
where. So the Volksraad, or Legislature of
able arrangement. under which England's
general authority was to be recognized
by the new republic and English troops were
to come in and whip out the Zulu-Matabele
combination.
The English began their campaign in 1878.
and after an awful defeat, al Isandhlana,
where an entire British regiment was mas
sacred. and with extensively "close Calls at
Rorkes Drift and Chards, the warriors were
downed. Then came grave trouble, The
majority Of Beers had never acknowledge
the right or authority of their legislature to
turn them over TO their ancient enemy
England. The very first attempt that was
made by the latter 10 enforce any authority
preciptatej bloody little war. Three COM
panies of British soldiers were ordered 70
Pretoria, the capital, 10 assist In collecting
the taxes. They were ambuscaded route.
two-tEGrds of the force was either killed or
mortally wounded. and the worst Of il was
that some women, with the British column,
were among those killed on the field. Sir
George Galley. VINO was sent with a SUI
perior force ito stamp ol7t the rebellion, .
was badly whipped at Laing's Neck and al
Majuba hill, his little army or about five
thousand was nearly destroyed six hundred
being killed in action. and among them was
Sir George Galley himself. The Dutch sharp
shooters repeated the performance of the
mette. near New Orleans, Sth of January.
1915. All England was afiame. Holland was
equally so. Just as force twenty thousand
strong was about TO sail to avenge Galley s
one Of his political flip flaps He declared
that the Dutch were patriots and deserved
the independence they had won, and their
subjugation'' would be national immortality
and ''b.ood-guiltness." SO. upon the condi-
ton that the state should acknowledge Brit
ish suZerainty lin respect 10 its foreign POL
icy," which meant that no treaty turning
over the state to Holland should be negoii-
ated, England withdrew and left the young
republic 10 go IL alone.
Had diamonds and gold never been discoy-
cred the South African republic would not
to-day be in its present precarous situa-
ton.
GOLD CAUSED THE TROUBLE
The consolidation of the gold and diamond
mining interest into gigantic concern called
the South African Company with the right
to maintain a private army, which was in