Thirty-six years had elapsed since the eventful ride of Dick King from D'Urban to Graham's Town. The British colony of Natal had grown slowly. Immigrants arrived; a representative Constitution was granted. During this period numbers of people of Dutch extraction formed settlements in the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic. The British Government in the first instance established sovereignty over the former country, but abandoned it on the 23rd of February, 1854. The Republic commenced from that date. So far as the Transvaal is concerned, Potgieter established the town of Potchefstroom in 1839, and soon after enormous territory, extending from the Vaal to the Limpopo, came under the dominion of the South African Republic. The first session of Volksraad was held in 1848, and it was in 1852 that Pretorius succeeded in obtaining the treaty at Sand river, by means of which the independence of the Republic was recognized by the British Crown. One of the first Acts of the Volksraad was to repeal a former resolution fixing their southern boundary at the twentyfifth degree of south latitude, because the Volksraad has no means of determining where the said degree of south latitude is. Amongst the people civilization made slow progress. "Not many years ago," wrote Mr. Thomas Baines in his valuable work on the Gold Regions of South Africa, "their own Surveyor-General was mobbed for using a theodolite in the streets of Potchefstroom instead of stepping off the distance like the Veldt Valkt miester of the good old times." Sir Arthur Cunynghame, in his recent narrative, gives us yet more amusing and striking illustrations of the utter simplicity and ignorance of the Boers. As was to be expected under the circumstances, the Government was extremely narrow and objectionable; in proof of which it is only necessary to state that no Englishman or German was allowed to possess landed property, it was forbidden to discover or work minerals, while slavery really existed, and was practised under what was styled the Apprentice Law, passed in 1856.[15] In spite of the discovery of gold-fields at Pilgrim's Rest, the country became insolvent, wars with the natives took place, and at last such a state of insolvency and danger was attained that the British Government found it imperatively necessary to intervene. The Zulus, under Cetywayo, intended to overrun the country, and this would have threatened all British South Africa. The northern territory of the State had already been abandoned to the natives; the Government was powerless, and all confidence in it had fled; commerce was destroyed, and the country was bankrupt. Under these circumstances, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, on the 12th of April, 1877, found himself imperatively obliged to place the Transvaal territory under the protection of the British flag.
In Natal, under the administration of Sir Benjamin Pine, during the year 1873, a rebellion broke out on the part of a chief named Langalibalele, which was only prevented from becoming a general war by the admirably prompt action of the local Government. The philanthropic societies in England, with Bishop Colenso, championed the cause of this rebel, and Sir B. Pine was, in consequence of their exertions, recalled. Sir Garnet Wolseley, who succeeded that officer, says, "Langalibalele, as I am informed by all classes here, official and non-official (a small knot of men of extreme views excepted), is regarded by the native population at large as a chief who, having defied the authorities, and in doing so occasioned the murder of two white men, is now suffering for that conduct. In their opinion his attempts to brave the Government have been checkmated, and his banishment from the colony, regarded as a lenient punishment by the natives at large, cannot fail to be a serious warning to all other Kafir chiefs, not only in Natal but in the whole of South Africa, to avoid imitating his example."[16]
Sir Garnet Wolseley effected an important change in the colonial legislature, by adding eight nominee members to the Council, which previously consisted of five ex-officio and fifteen elected members. The annexation of the Transvaal followed; and, speaking of this, Sir Benjamin Pine says that "the strong ground taken in defence of the measure is that its hostilities with the native tribes seriously imperilled the peace of our colonies—that it was, in fact, a next-door neighbour's house in flames, which might any moment set ours on fire. In this respect, the ground for annexing the Transvaal Republic was very much stronger than that which justified our taking possession of Natal. The latter country did not at that time touch our boundary at any point. It was a house several streets off."
Diamonds and guns.
The discovery of diamonds in South Africa, in 1867, exercised by degrees an enormous influence upon the attitude of the natives throughout Southern Africa. When the success of the dry diggings at the New Rush caused the formation of Kimberley, that town became the centre of an enormous gun trade. From north and east, thousands of Kafirs of various tribes flocked to a place where they could obtain, for the reward of their labour, the means of exterminating the hated white man in South Africa. The Gealekas under Kreli, the Gaikas of Sandilli, as well as the Zulus beyond Natal, were not slow to seize such an opportunity. For years the trade continued, and the weapons purchased were soon used against the Government which permitted their sale. Wars were waged upon the eastern and northern borders of the Cape Colony during 1877, 1878, and 1879. Sir Benjamin Pine, with some fancy and a great deal of truth, styles the diamond of the Kimberley mines the bloodstone of South Africa. As the Zulu system makes war a necessity constantly thirsted for by the army, advantage was taken of the easy opportunity of getting firearms afforded by the inconceivable blindness and fatuity of the British Government. In the year 1877, Cetywayo had quite made up his mind for a deadly conflict with the white man. Guns were purchased, preparations were made, and the army crouched like a tiger in its lair, ready to spring.
Since the first establishment of the colony of Natal, and of the Transvaal Republic, the Governments of these countries had the Zulu military power suspended, like the sword of Damocles, as a perpetual threat over their heads. Of course, by the annexation of the latter State in 1877, all its responsibilities devolved upon her Majesty's Government. Cetywayo, the son of Panda, succeeded his father in the year 1872, and it formed part of Sir T. Shepstone's policy to conciliate and please him in every possible manner. That officer went so far as to attend his coronation, which was celebrated with the grandest forms of savage ceremonial.[17] At the same time a number of promises and engagements were received from the king. All this was, of course, merely a solemn farce. The descendant of Dingaan, who first signed a deed giving Natal to the Dutch, and then murdered in cold blood the men who had trusted to his honour, was not likely to depart from the traditions and policy of his race. Dissimulation, fraud, and cunning are characteristic qualities of every Zulu ruler, and Cetywayo excelled in them all. The Government of Natal was lulled into security, while Bishop Colenso and the well-meaning but profoundly ignorant men who form the self-styled philanthropical societies in England have, even up to the present moment, been completely hoodwinked and deceived. Sir Bartle Frere, writing of Cetywayo's solemn promises, says, "None of these promises have been since fulfilled; the cruelties and barbarisms which deformed the internal administration of Zululand in Panda's reign have been aggravated during the reign of Cetywayo, and his relations with his neighbours have been conducted in a spirit fatal to peace and security beyond the Zulu border."[18]
Natal in danger.
The well-organized and peculiarly formidable military power of the Zulus was still further consolidated and strengthened by Cetywayo, so that a standing menace and threat of a very serious nature existed against both Natal and the Transvaal. Nothing can better prove the danger than the fact that the Zulu monarch formally and repeatedly requested the consent of the British Government to wars of aggression, which he proposed for the ostensible purpose of initiating his young soldiers in bloodshed, and reviving the system of unprovoked territorial aggression which had been so successfully carried out by the model and demi-god of the nation—Chaka.
A large tract of land on the western boundary of Zululand, between the Buffalo and Pongolo rivers, which had long formed part of the Transvaal, was claimed by the Zulus, and they had requested the Natal Government to arbitrate in this matter. Eventually a Commission was appointed, which decided that Cetywayo's cession of a tract of land relied on by the Transvaal claim was promised when he was only heir apparent, and that the cession had not been subsequently formally ratified by his father Panda, nor by the great council of the Zulu nation; therefore the country in question had never ceased to belong to them. Private rights of bonâ fide settlers, which could not in justice be abrogated, were confirmed, but otherwise the sovereignty of the territory was ceded to the Zulus. Since his installation the tone of Cetywayo had become entirely altered. When a remonstrance was sent against a barbarous murder of young women by the king, replies of extreme insolence were sent to the Natal Government, and the opportunity was taken to state that no responsibility was admitted; at the same time, the solemn installation promises were distinctly denied, and Cetywayo affirmed his intention of shedding blood in future on a much greater scale. In the latter part of July, 1878, the Zulu chief Sirayo entered British territory, carried off two women—British subjects—and forcibly put them to death. Redress was demanded, but not given.
On the 11th of December, 1878, a final message was sent to Cetywayo, in which the reasonable and just demands of the Government were summarized. He was called upon to give up the offenders who had violated British territory, and to effect various reforms in the administration of his government, in accordance with the solemn promises made at his installation. A few informal messages made and retracted only served to show the cunning and deceit of Cetywayo, and it was clear to demonstration that the Zulu potentate and the Zulu army had determined upon war.