South-West Africa

WILLIAM EVELEIGH
AUTHOR OF “A SHORT HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN METHODISM”
T. FISHER UNWIN, Ltd.
ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON
TO GENERAL BOTHA
First Published in 1915
“Of making many books there is no end,” said the Preacher, but strange to say, there is not a single book in the English language that deals with South-West Africa of modern days. Many references to the country are found in the older books of South African travel and exploration, and some good works have been written in later times by German authors; but, unfortunately, the German publications are not available for the average reader. In the present volume an attempt has been made to set before the reader a brief but comprehensive account of the country, its history, its people, its resources, and its possibilities. It is impossible in a small book to deal more than briefly with the subject, and very slight treatment has had to suffice for many matters of interest. I hope, however, that I have succeeded in conveying a clear impression of what South-West Africa is, and what it may become. Brief and unpretentious though the book is, it may serve to dispel the notion that the country is nothing more than a desert and of very little value to the Empire.
My thanks are due to Dr. Rudolf Marloth, of Cape Town; Prof. E. H. Schwatz, of the Rhodes University College, Grahamstown; Dr. Wm. Flint, Librarian of the Houses of Parliament, Cape Town; Mr. F. W. Fitzsimons, Director of the Museum, Port Elizabeth; and Mr. John Ross, of the Kimberley Public Library, for valuable suggestions. My debt to various writers I have endeavoured to acknowledge elsewhere.
W. E.
Kimberley, South Africa. 1915.
A glance at the map of Africa shows that the territory now known as British South-West Africa—formerly German South-West Africa—is a triangular mass with the abrupt apex resting on the Orange River. It comprises Ovamboland, in the north; Damaraland, the central portion of the country; Great Namaqualand, in the south, and a tongue of land running out from the north-east corner called the Caprivizipfel, and has a total area of 322,450 square miles. This vast territory, into which half a dozen Englands could be dropped with ease, is bounded on the north by the Kunene River, Portuguese West Africa, and Rhodesia; on the east by British Bechuanaland, and the Gordonia portion of the Cape Province; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; and on the south by the Orange River. Some idea of the length of the eastern boundary, for instance, may be obtained when it is stated that while the southern extremity touches the Orange, a distance of only 400 miles from Cape Town, the far corner of the Caprivi enclave is north-west of the Victoria Falls. No less than 900 miles of coast-line stretch from the mouth of the Orange to the Kunene estuary.