The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1900-01-14
THE SOUTH AFRICAN CUES.
TON.

with the war in South Africa be
tween the Beers and the British, but
we venture the assertion that few are
acquainted with the history of, and
the causes that led up to, the pres
ent struggle that Id now going on.
In the December number of the
North American Review there APP
peared au able article Oh the histor.
ical causes Of the present war III
South Africa, by the Right Hon.
James Bryce, III. p, of England,
which we shall follow in attempting
to give short history cf the causes
that produced the final outburst oil
husiiliiies.
The portion OF South Africa TO,
which The British and Dutch are
struggling is described as great,
wild, dry, barren country, with an
exceedingly small population OF
white men, and population OF
blacks which is not large IN compar
ison with its area. This area Is said
TO contain, 100000 square miles,
and that Within its limits there are
much less than enc million white
men, Dutch, English, Portuguese,
with a handful of Germans or not
as great population as Philadelphia
contains. One half of this country
is unfit for either agriculture or ran
ching; the rest, though too dry for
agriculture, is fit for sheep aud cat
tie, resembling The ranching districts
of Nebraska and Wyoming. There
are no forests, nor any manufact-
ures, except few local industries
in the Towns. Until recently, the
entire occupation of the country,
wherein Its wealth lay, was the rear
ing of sheep and cattle. And beng
an occupation which gives employ
ment to few persons in proportion
to the area oyer which the fiocks aud
herds feed, the population has in
creased very slowly in the last two
and half centuries.
South Africa was discovered at
the end of the fifteenth century by
Bartholomew Diaz, six years before
the discovery of America. The first
European settlement was planted at
Sofals, on the southeast coast, by
he Portuguese, in 1905; the next by
the Dutch at Cape Town in 1862.
When England captured the Cape
onring the wars with Napoleon, in
1905, there were not much more than
81, 600 whites in the entire colony.
After the var, England paid the
Dntch the sum Of six millions, sier-
ling. for the country, and settlers
Immediately began to come in. But
the influx of these settlers w9s not
as great as the natural increase of
the Dutch population, and to day the
Dutch stock in Cape Colony out
the English, and the Dutch
language IS more generally spoken.
These two stocks, Dutch and Eng
lish, having so many interests IN
ii seems that they would
soon have amalgamated and formed
one harmonious whole, as did the
English any Dutch in New York,
but this was not the case. Mutual
disputes aud grievances grew up am
ong them. The Dutch appealed to
the British government for redress
of their grievances, but England did
not seem very willing to grant the
demanded. Things went
on from bad TO worse, until a large
body of farmers and ranehmen de-
lermined to quit the Colony and go
out into the wilderness winch stretch
ed far away to the north east, where
they could find pastura9e for their
herds and live according TO their
own tastes. About ten thousand set
of, and, after advancing beyond the
borders Of the Colony, spread out
over vast tract of country seven
hundred miles long by three hundred
broad.
This immigration of 1886 is
known as the Great Trek, and the
Dutch Who formed il are usually de-
scribed by their own name of Beers,
word meaning farmers or peasants.
This IS the name by whlchthey have
ever since been called, in contradis.
i'netion TO the Dutch who remained
IN Cape Colony. Some ofthe emf
grants afterwards advanced farther
inio the wilderness, beyond the Vaal
river, which country afterward took
the name of Transvaal, meaning
across the Vaal, or beyond the Wal.
Four different armed collisions
have taken place between the British
and Boers from time to time for The
possession of the unappropriated
parts OF Africa. But in 1862 trea.
~, known as the Sand River Con
was made between The Eng
lish and the Beers who dwelt beyond
the Vaal, which guaranteed to them
ssthe right to manage their own aft
alrs and TO govern themselves aceor-
hing TO their own laws, without auy
on the part of the Brit
sh government. Two years after