Appendix to Gold Fields Chapter.
The following resumé of the opinions of Dr. Schenk, a geologist who has paid several professional visits and has lately made researches at the gold fields, an account of which, I believe, he purposes shortly to publish in Germany, is taken from the letter of a correspondent in the Pretoria Volkstem under date February, 1887, and will be perused with considerable interest by geologists.
The Barberton formation, the doctor said, consisted of very old and in most instances highly metamorphosed rocks, composed of slate and sandstone, with interposed eruptive rocks of greenstone (diorite, serpentine, etc.). These rocks are highly erected, dipping invariably at great angles, often perpendicular, and run from east to west. In this formation the gold-bearing veins or reefs are situated, and these with few exceptions run in the same direction (this is, for instance, the case with the reefs at Moodie’s and with the Sheba, etc.), nearly always accompanying the eruptive rocks. The gold, in the doctor’s opinion, came from the interior of the earth with the eruptive rocks to the surface, and was therefore concentrated in these reefs, which consist of quartz, and often contain iron along with the gold. This formation probably corresponds in age with the Silurian formation of Europe, and is found also in Swaziland, Zoutpansberg, and the recently discovered gold fields of the Tugela. There is no young formation overlying these rocks at Barberton, but in the Drakensberg and at Witwatersrand a younger formation lies unconformably over the older rocks. This the doctor concluded to be of Devonian age. It consists of large beds of sandstone, with here and there slate and greenstone. This younger formation had subsequently been folded in the same way as the Barberton rocks, though not so highly erected. The Barberton formation, he is inclined to think, proceeds beneath this formation in a westerly direction to Witwatersrand and thence to Bechuanaland. Regarding the presence of the before-mentioned younger formation, he considered it was due to the overflowing of this part of the country by the sea, which by wearing away the higher portions of the mountains, and destroying their rock, including the gold-bearing reefs, formed a more level plain and covered it with the destroyed masses of the old formation. This new formation, therefore, was simply a re-deposit of the old one under a different appearance. The sandstone schists abounding at Witwatersrand were no doubt formed of the softer rocks, while the conglomerate resulted from the destruction of the hard reefs before alluded to; these probably having been reduced, by the action of the water, to sand and pebbles, which afterwards became cemented into a solid mass. The conglomerate of Witwatersrand, Dr. Schenk further observed, is imbedded in the sandstone, to form a series of large belts, the extremities of which are at the surface. His reasons for coming to this conclusion were that at Witwatersrand the conglomerate dipped to the south, while between Heidelberg and the Vaal (southward of the Rand) it dipped to the north, or in an exactly opposite direction, and between these places it lay more horizontally, thus affording grounds for supposing that the conglomerate at one place is connected with that at the other. The doctor, in conclusion, remarked that the Witwatersrand conglomerate was a most peculiar formation, and that he had never before seen anything of the kind. It did not, in his opinion, run into a reef, as many old diggers and others seem to suppose; but the reefs from which it originated, and which he judged to be the continuation of the Barberton reefs running through this place, he considers to be somewhere in the vicinity of the conglomerate, but at a considerable depth from the surface.
[1]. A brandy of great strength, never matured, and frequently adulterated with most noxious substances by unscrupulous canteen-keepers and illicit liquor dealers.
[2]. “South African Mission Fields.”—Carlyle, Nesbet & Co. 1878.
[3]. “Boers and Bantu.”—By George McCall Theal.
[4]. “Lives of R. and M. Moffat.” 1885.
[5]. Dr. Lindley told me that he was reduced to such straits during this tedious land journey that, on one occasion, all he had left to support life for a whole week was a few handsful of sugar eaten from time to time.
[6]. “John McCarter. Dertien Jaren Herder en Leeraar in die Kerk.” Amsterdam, Höveker & Zoon.
[7]. “Commentaries on Native Laws, Customs and Usages, with some Remarks on Interpretation and Annexation.”—By John Courtenay Chasman Chadwick, J. P., Attorney at Law, Maritzburg, Vanse, Slatter & Co.
[8]. Umtagati, one highly criminal, a murderer, poisoner.
[9]. Isiropo, unchaste, not a virgin.
[10]. Circuit Court D’Urban, before his Lordship, Justice Phillips, Feb. 12th, 1867. Trial of Nokahlela, Gumaudi, Matyobani, Umguquini, Pambili, Umgabuka and Kongota.
[11]. The chief native adviser.
[12]. According to the Statesman of India, no Chinese soldier in Tonquin during the late war lost an opportunity to eat the flesh of a fallen French foe—believing that human flesh, especially that of foreign warriors, is the best possible stimulant for a man’s courage.
[13]. Again, Hibbert, in his “Lectures on Religion in Mexico and Peru,” asserts that cannibalism was once universal in our race, arguing that all primitive sacrifices were originally suggested by the idea that the Divine Being had the same tastes and proclivities as we ourselves. The Rev. W. R. Blackett, M. A., in relation to this, says: “This is a remarkable bouleversement of reasoning. It might perhaps be safer to argue that, as human sacrifices have been universal and cannibalism has not, the aim of sacrifice could not be merely to gratify supposed human tastes in the deities to whom they were offered.”
[14]. According to Mr. Surveyor A. Moor, the top of the falls above the level of the administrator’s residence, which is seventeen miles (horizontal) distant, is 5,643 feet, and the height of the falls themselves 1,862.5 feet.
[15]. The cypress trees in the cathedral grounds in Maritzburg are grown from seed collected in this pass by Captain Allison, and presented by him to the dean and chapter.
[16]. The acting resident magistrate at D’Urban and coolie immigration agent.
[17]. Remittent fever of a virulent and exceptionally fatal type had been prevalent in Mauritius for a considerable period some year or two previously.
[18]. Many of my readers will be familiar with the unhappy dissensions which used to exist in the Church of England in South Africa. These partly arose out of Bishop Colenso’s (Bishop of Natal) orthodoxy being impugned, and partly from the ritualistic practices the opposite section indulged in. The particulars of the dispute, which for years occupied the attention of the gentlemen of the long robe, are too long and perplexing for me to enter into. Suffice it to say that, though beyond all doubt both parties were convinced they had right on their side, yet to lovers of the good old Church the dissensions were much to be regretted. Bishop Colenso, however, in the long run gained the day.
[19]. The Anglican Sisterhood of St. Michael and All Angels.
[20]. Since enlarged.
[21]. Kafir pox, a varicelloid disease, believed to attack only natives, also known as “Watcht en beitje” pock (Dutch, “wait a bit”), as it delayed them on their road.
[22]. An Act to legalize gambling by this means came before the legislative council this year (1887) but was rejected. The arguments “for and against” were very funny. One Dutch legislator, when the subject was under debate, brought forward as a clinching argument that “when Jonah was on board a vessel on his way to Nineveh it was decided by a totalisator that he should be thrown overboard,” while another (who had a large open Bible before him) referred to the Revelations, where, he said, it was pointed out that “roovers, woekeraars, and spelers,” could not enter the kingdom of heaven. He said God’s Holy Word did not justify gambling, and where could they get a better authority than the Bible? The name “totalisator” was in itself so big a word to pronounce that he often wondered that people’s tongues did not twist in pronouncing it (loud laughter).
[23]. It may be interesting to my readers to mention that “Vaal” means dun or mud color, the tint of the river, especially noticeable during flushes, when so much clay from the banks is held in suspension, though at no period has the stream the crystal clearness of the Isis or the Cam. The inhabitants of the banks are facetiously nicknamed Vaal penses, in meaning much the same as “yellow bellies,” the designation applied with rustic humor to the dwellers on the fens in Lincolnshire by the agricultural population of the surrounding districts.
[24]. August 1886. Since then many more amalgamations of companies have taken place.
[25]. The recent extension of the railway to Kimberley has of course much reduced the price of fuel, though it is even at this day so high that the home manufacturers or householders would shudder to contemplate paying half the price.
[26]. Vulgarly called carbon by the diggers.
[27]. Diamondiferous soil.
[28]. This was written before the discovery of the Cape diamond fields.
[29]. The French and Central companies of the Kimberley mine have sunk shafts comparatively recently about 620 feet deep (in 1886), and are still in this rock. It is of various textures and colors, and contains agates, jasper, calcite, iron pyrites and various other minerals.
[30]. Resembling charcoal in its mineral condition.
[31]. This waste ground accumulated in vast masses or heaps, one of these being known by the Scriptural name of Mount Ararat.
[32]. These boys were known by the oddest of names. One unfortunate native, arrested for some trivial offense, when asked his name in the Charge Office replied “Go to h——!” and gave the same when interrogated the second time, on which the sergeant in charge knocked him down, but regretted doing so when he found that that was really the name which had been bestowed on him by his master. Only a few months since another native arraigned gave his name as “B——y fool.” On being asked by the magistrate who gave him that name, he replied that he chose it himself.
[33]. Instead of “whims,” in which the horses trot round in a circle, some of the diggers used “whips” in which the horses trot backward and forward.
[34]. Much of the debris of the early days pays handsomely to rewash with the present improved machinery, and licenses authorizing such washing are issued by the chief of the detective department. It is believed that the privilege has been frequently abused and made a cloak for the illicit traffic in diamonds.
[35]. The De Beers’ Mining Co. of De Beers’ Mine, Limited.
[36]. Dutch for stones.
[37]. The public press repeatedly drew attention to the “poison” that was retailed to the natives, and I well remember the following sarcastic lines that were published about this time:
“The best of all methods, so others maintain,
To free them from ignorance’ yoke,
And enable them civilized freedom to gain,
Is simply to give them ‘Cape Smoke;’[[118]]
When mixed with tobacco, red pepper and lime,
With dagga and vitriol, too,
The draught is delicious, enchanting, sublime—
Why, it even would civilize you!”
[38]. Slang Jewish expression for an illicit or stolen diamond.
[39]. A noted detective officer.
[40]. A very much overrated mine, five miles from Kimberley, rushed on the last Sunday in April, 1876.
[41]. In the session of 1885 the diamond trade act was extended, with but trifling alterations, to the entire of Cape Colony, which in spite of all the efforts of unscrupulous men, who are themselves well known to be in the trade, still remains in force.
[42]. Some idea of the extent to which this organized system of robbery is carried on may be formed, when I tell my readers that since the passing of the diamond trade act in 1882 up to Dec. 31st, 1885, 19,272 carats of diamonds, valued at £37,829 have been recovered by the detective department.
[43].
“Over the Free State line,
Whatever is yours is mine.
If I’ve a stone
Its all my own,
No ‘John Fry’[[119]] shall make me groan
Over the Free State line.
I’ll never have cause to pine,
The I. D. B. is happy and free,
Over the Free State line.”
[44]. The Gold Law No. 6, passed July 30, 1885. Clause 78 reads as follows: “78. Any person purchasing, trading or receiving rough gold or uncut precious stones from colored persons, either on a proclaimed public field, or elsewhere within the limits of the South African Republic, shall be fined a sum not exceeding £1,000 and imprisonment for a period of not more than five years, with or without hard labor, beside the forfeiture of such rough precious metal or uncut precious stones to the State.”
[45]. See further particulars at end of chapter.
[46]. As an instance of what risks they will run I may mention that in November, 1886, on a post-mortem being made on a native who died under suspicious circumstances at Du Toit’s Pan a sixty carat rough diamond was found in his stomach.
[47]. I should not omit here to mention that this clique which arrogates to itself the name of the “Mercantile Community” is powerful enough to send their representatives not only to parliament, but to the town council.
[48]. Three of these cases have occurred in which conviction followed, and the offenders received sentences varying from five to ten years’ imprisonment.
[49]. I must here warn my readers against falling into the mistake of supposing that I attribute the depression of trade now existing to the absence of the enterprising and formerly ubiquitous illicit, many causes having conduced to bring about the present stagnation.
[50]. While I am given to understand that this female searcher acted with some brutality on this occasion, I have not the slightest doubt that such violence was quite unauthorized by the authorities.
[51]. Jail.
[52]. The celebrated street in Paris during the rage of Law’s Mississippi scheme.
[53]. The South African Exploration Company did this in the early part of this year, and recovered £696 and interest at the rate of 6 per cent, from the defendant.
[54]. A great change has again taken place. The Rose Innes has been incorporated with the Central, and the shares of the latter company in the spring of 1886 were selling at about £160, though nine or ten months previously they were down as low as £20, and no demand even at that.
[55]. The soundness of the investment of money in our Diamond Mining scrip under the diminished cost of working, owing to the extension of the railway, the increased care taken in the searching department, and consequently increased yield of diamonds, has been lately much taken advantage of by European capitalists, and at the present time I have never, for years, known the Fields in a more prosperous condition.
[56]. A favorite Boer expression when abandoning an expedition.
[57]. Lieut. Governor Southey in a long dispatch dated Kimberley, April 11th, 1874, in reply to a dispatch from Sir Henry Barkly of March 11th, the same year, and which was written after Langalibalele had attempted to escape from Natal, said in clause
“15. The alterations and changes made by the Cape government, and with which I am desired to co-operate, are made avowedly at the instance of the Natal government; and you have furnished me with an extract from one of that government’s communications upon the subject. I should have been glad to have been permitted to peruse the whole of the letter, as I have reason to believe that they attribute their late troubles, in a large degree, to the facility with which natives can obtain guns in this province, instead of, as in my opinion they should do, attributing them to their own mismanagement and mistaken policy.
“16. It is not true that (as the colonial secretary of Natal erroneously alleges) arms and ammunition at the diamond fields pass more readily from the diggers to the natives than specie; the natives receive their wages invariably in specie, they are paid weekly, and the usual rate of pay is ten shillings for the week. Those who obtain guns purchase them as a rule just before leaving for their homes, and only after producing the permits to purchase which the law requires. Comparatively speaking, but few Natal or Basuto natives come here; the great bulk of our native laborers come from the interior northward of the South African Republic, and considerably beyond the legitimate boundaries of that state, and their guns are not acquired for war purposes, but for purposes connected with legitimate and beneficial trade.
“17. I cannot concur in the opinion of the lieutenant governor of Natal that the acquisition of arms by the natives of the interior, who come here and work in the mines, is fraught with danger to the peace of South Africa, and I am unable to see why we should cherish a friendly feeling with the neighboring republics any more than with the various native tribes. I should consider it very undesirable to purchase the friendly feeling of those republics at the expense of injustice or oppression toward her Majesty’s own subjects or unfriendly acts toward the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. I may here state that the native tribes of the interior have ever evinced the greatest possible friendliness toward us, and English travelers, English traders and English missionaries have invariably been received and treated with all respect by them, while on the other hand the governments of the republics have on several occasions been charged with unfriendliness toward us, in official documents addressed to them by her Majesty’s representatives in South Africa. I believe we shall best exhibit our friendliness toward the republics by setting them an example of justice and toleration, and that we should act an unfriendly part if we pandered to their prejudices or supported them in oppressing the native population.”
[58]. I have even seen the rebels drilling in the market square with their rifles, at four in the afternoon, ordered to “Right about face,” “Present arms,” so that their rifles would point straight at the government offices.
[59]. I recollect at the time calling upon Mr. Froude, who was a guest at Government House.
[60]. Who at once ran away to escape the punishment he deserved.
[61]. As far as Major Lanyon was personally concerned, future events proved that it had not mattered to him whether the bill passed or not.
[62]. See chapter 25.
[63]. And, as my readers will have noticed, of the Griqualand West legislative council as well.
[64]. To Englishmen this act contained a curious clause. No person within the province could sell or barter to any native (except under certain provisos) any liquor of an intoxicating nature, and my readers can at once realize the difficulty of logically reconciling the anomaly of allowing a man a voice in the government of his country and precluding him from the right of purchasing a glass of beer.
[65]. An expression applied to Griqualand West by the Hon. I. X. Merriman, a Cape colonial politician.
[66]. Curiously enough the sixteen petitions, signed by 1,218 persons, presented to the Volksraad praying for this law were couched in precisely the same terms; they all complained of the same nuisance, and each alleged that on the same day the same decision had been arrived at in the different places from which the petitions came, although in many of these districts not a single coolie or Arab was living. This law, as the Volkstem (the principal newspaper in the Transvaal) says, is not only “ineffectual, but pernicious and condemnable.” See copy of law in appendix.
[67]. This is the motive generally attributed to the late Sir Pomeroy Colley in making the ascent of Majuba during the absence of Sir Evelyn Wood.
[68]. In Great Britain the coal measures have an extent only of 11,859 square miles, in France of 1,719, and in Spain of 3,408.
[69]. In July, 1886, the Kimberley papers gave publicity to a rumor that a ring had been formed by the proprietors of collieries in England, alarmed at the growth of the coal mining industry in Natal, to undersell for an indefinite period, and by these means strangle competition.
[70]. Majuba is 6,000 feet above the sea and 3,000 feet above Mount Prospect.
[71]. Our total losses at Majuba were 6 officers killed, 9 wounded and 6 prisoners; non-commissioned officers and men, 86 killed, 125 wounded, 53 prisoners.
[72]. The official reasons, or rather the official excuses, for the loss of the day, are a transparent gloss, intended to hide gross mismanagement on the one hand and a panic-stricken retreat on the other. They are the following, extracted from the Gazette: (1) The slopes below the brow of the plateau were too steep to be searched by our fire, and cover existed up to the brow; (2) the rocky ridge we occupied in second line, though the best we had time to hold, did not cover more than fifty yards to its front, as the plateau rolled continuously to the brow; (2a) the men were too exhausted to intrench, and hardly fit to fight; (3) when the Boers gained the last ridge ours had to descend almost impassable slopes, and many were shot in doing so.
[73]. Boer commandment at Bronker’s Spruit.
[74]. Sixty-six officers and men killed sixty seven wounded, and nine missing.
[75]. Mrs. Charles Garnett.—A Visit to the Leper Hospital of Bergen.—“Sunday Magazine,” May 1886.
[76]. In the last session of the Natal legislative council the vote for Langibalele’s support was reduced from £500 per annum to £50. He has now returned, but has only to thank the financial state of Natal for his “ticket of leave!”
[77]. See Appendix.
[78]. He showed that the “record” of the trial, which lasted four days, was simply an ex-parte statement of evidence taken from witnesses, called by the crown, examined by the crown prosecutor and cross-examined by nobody! Not a single witness was called for the defence, the prisoner having been kept in solitary confinement from the time of his arrival (Dec. 31st), and not allowed to speak to any one, white or black, who might try to find witnesses for him.
[79]. Native term for wiping out their enemies.
[80]. Warriors not being allowed to marry until they had drawn blood on the battlefield.
[81]. “John Dunn, Cetywayo and the Three Generals.” 1886. Natal Printing and Publishing Co. Pietermaritzburg, Natal.
[82]. Since writing the above England has decided to annex what remains of Zululand.
[83]. For petition see appendix.
[84]. At this time there was daily issued here and at Mafeting 3,930 full rations.
[85]. Since burnt by the rebels.
[86]. The petition, which was signed by Jonathan Molappo, Mokhethi Moshesh, Iladiyane Mosheshoe and 896 others, I brought away with me and presented to the Cape legislative assembly on March 21st, 1882. In the appendix will be found a copy of the petition itself.
[87]. The political resident at that period.
[88]. A few months previously the Sprigg ministry had been defeated, session of 1881.
[89]. Since the time I was in Basutoland Colonel Clark, who, during the Transvaal war, after Captain Falls’ death, surrendered the court-house at Potchefstroom, when it was set fire to by the Boers, has been appointed agent in Basutoland. This imperial appointment was made early in 1884 when the colonial government was relieved of its responsibility in that country by the home government.
Since Colonel Clark has been in Basutoland the amount paid in taxes has greatly increased, for whereas at first the receipts were at the rate of £450 a year only, they now, Masupha having agreed also to pay hut tax, exceed £5,000 per annum. But from the best authority I learn that Colonel Clark’s power, although he is personally liked by the Basutos, is merely nominal, and they would even now be too wide-awake to pay taxes, if they were not afraid of the confiscation, or in other words of the robbery, of their cattle by their chiefs, and if they did not fear the personal vengeance which would result on their resisting; they prefer, therefore, to buy the semblance of British authority at the rate of £1 a year per hut, rather than have their cattle stolen without any redress whatever.
[90]. The average Sunday attendance at St. Cyprian’s is now 500 at morning and 700 at evening service; the congregation having more than doubled within the last five years, though the population of Kimberley has certainly diminished. This fact must be subject of great gratification to the clergy of this church. The new church at Beaconsfield (Du Toit’s Pan), named All Saints, is a very handsome stone and brick structure, and the lately consecrated bishop laid the foundation stone of a new church (St. Alban’s) at De Beer’s, about the end of September 1883. There is also a small church (St. Augustine’s) situated at the west end of Kimberley, the present incumbent of which is the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Lyttleton.
[91]. A magnificent monument to the late Mr. Ornstein, subscribed to by members of all denominations on the Diamond Fields, was consecrated in October, 1886.
[92]. The South African native has no religion, worships no God, and his only idea of spiritual life is that his soul, when he dies, takes up its abode in a snake, and that the spirits of his ancestors have the power of working good or evil, or of causing sickness and death.
[93]. A fractured diamond.
[94]. This gentleman’s forte was Roman Dutch law. During his residence on the Diamond Fields he acquired the soubriquet of “Emphytensis” in consequence of his efforts to establish the practical identity of a certain Roman leasehold tenure of that name, and the quit-tenure of the Cape Colony, thus attempting to establish the rights of the Crown to all diamond and precious stones. His endeavors were, however, without avail, and he was laughed at for his pains.
[95]. A noted hostelry near the court-house.
[96]. This is exemplified in the names by which white people of any importance are known among them. For instance, a pompous friend of mine, now an important government official in Natal, was known by the natives as “Totovian” (Intotoviane) after a most offensively odoriferous grasshopper with which he waged incessant war. But the most biting example of native sarcasm, I think, consisted in the name applied by them to a florin (2s. piece) that of “Scotchman.” This conveyed, in one word, their appreciation of the Scotch cheese-paring tendency; as they were shrewd enough to observe, that in cases where an Englishman would give half a crown, his Highland neighbor would give only two shillings.
[97]. Shakespere.—Henry VI., Part ii., Act iv., Scene 2.
[98]. This class of scoundrel gave Christiana the fictitious appearance of a population, but this is more fully explained in the chapter on Diamond Legislation.
[99]. I.e., thirty-six miles, for so are distances reckoned in South Africa.
[100]. These I describe in the account of another journey to the Transvaal.
[101]. This beautiful building has since been completed.
[102]. Literally, a dram of liquor—meaning a trifle.
[103]. In pondering over the state of matters then existing it was impossible for me not to picture in my mind the change time had wrought! A few short years before, I had seen and listened to Thomas Francois Burgers, full of eager anticipation of the future before him, speak most hopefully of the Transvaal, at a banquet given in his honor at Kimberley, as he passed through to assume the “dictatorship” of that republic. And when, in touching upon some observation I had made in proposing the toast of “the press,” he had emphasized the fact that “the pen was mightier than the sword.” And now, his expectations unrealized, his fond hopes withered, his ambition blighted, broken-down in health and spirits, it was not to be wondered at that he made no strenuous opposition to the advent of British rule.
[104]. Sir Theophilus Shepstone arrived in Pretoria with his twenty-five policemen in January, 1877. He announced to President Burgers that unless he could make arrangements that would be satisfactory to the Imperial government with regard to the government of the Transvaal he was authorized to annex it as a portion of Her Majesty’s dominions. President Burgers called a special session of the Volksraad, and proposed a new constitution, but that did not meet with the approval of the British Commissioner, and on the 12th of April, 1877, as I have mentioned before, the country was proclaimed British territory, and Sir T. Shepstone assumed the administration of affairs. He continued to hold that position until the 18th of December, 1878, when he left for Zululand in consequence of the threatening aspect of native affairs there. The government was administered for a time by the senior military officer before the arrival of Colonel Lanyon. Sir T. Shepstone never returned.
[105]. Mr. Christian Maasdorp, now nominated to a seat on the Eastern District’s bench, but who then held the commission as Attorney General, resigned “when he found it impossible (vide Transvaal Advertiser, November 20th, 1885) to countenance the chicane and tyranny of the Lanyon administration.”
[106]. Sir Garnet Wolseley was assisted by an executive council consisting of Colonel Lanyon, administrator, Colonel Harrison, commanding H. M. troops, Mr. Melmoth Osborne, Colonial Secretary, Mr. C. G. Maasdorp, Attorney General, and Mr. H. C. Shepstone, Secretary for native affairs. There were also three non-official members, viz., Messrs. J. Marais, J. C. Holtshausen, and J. S. Joubert, who with the members of the government composed the Executive Council under the Constitution promulgated on November 8th, 1879. A legislative assembly was at the same time called into being by the Wolseley constitution, and the under-mentioned gentlemen were nominated: viz., Messrs. J. R. White, O. W. A. Forsman, J. A. Esterhuizen, A. H. Stander and J. H. Nel. The last session of the legislative assembly concluded very shortly before the war broke out, which put an end to the constitution and British authority at one fell swoop.
[107]. “To our homes.”
[108]. Convention of Pretoria, Article 23: If not released before the taking effect of this Convention, Sekukuni, and those of his followers who have been imprisoned with him, will be forthwith released, and the boundaries of his location will be defined by the Native Location Commission in the manner indicated in the last preceding article.
[109]. The first Sekukuni war broke out in October, 1876, the treaty of peace being signed February 5th, 1877. The second Sekukuni war, begun under the Shepstone administration in March, 1878, resulted in the complete destruction (under Sir G. Wolseley) of the tribe, and the capture of the chief, who was held a prisoner of war, as I have mentioned, until the convention of Pretoria was signed in August, 1881. The Mapoch (Niabel) and Mampoer war commenced near the end of 1882 and was about ten months in duration. Mapoch surrendered 12th of July, 1883, to General Joubert, who had conducted the operations against both chiefs.
[110]. The Government is wakening to this fact and is beginning to take active measures.
[111]. I regret to learn that this gentleman, who was much esteemed in Barberton, is recently dead.
[112]. One of the latest analyses gives Welsh coal 81.0 carbon, 6.40 ash; Transvaal 77.20 carbon, 7.20 ash.
[113]. The truth of my prognostications has, I am sorry to say, become to a certain extent verified even before my ink is dry.
[114]. In the appointment of a British Resident care will have to be exercised that no one interested in the gold speculations of the country be nominated.
[115]. The census returns of the entire population in 1864, twenty-three years ago, was 1098.
[116]. In the concession granted in 1873 to Moodie for a railway from Delagoa Bay to Pretoria, a grant also was made him of 850 farms of 6,000 acres each, in case he should be successful. Curiously enough these were the very farms on which the present Kaap gold fields are situated.
[117]. This was brought forward very prominently in the report of the select committee on Railway to Delagoa Bay, appointed by resolution of the House of Assembly, 5th of April, 1880, C. K. White, chairman.
[118]. Cape Brandy.
[119]. Chief detective officer at the South African Diamond Fields.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- P. [228], added missing footnote anchor.
- Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
- Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.