King Edward's realm: Story of the making of the Empire

by C. S. Dawe

5. The history of South Africa, for more than thirty years after the first British settlement, is marked by two special features, both arising from the fact that three races—British, Boer, and Kaffir—were contending for the mastery. One feature was the repeated migrations of the Boers to get away from British rule and taxation, and from British justice, which was dealt out even-handed to black men and white men alike. The Boers succeeded in forming two republics—the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. They also attempted to settle in Natal, but that colony was annexed by the British government (1843).

6. The other feature of those early days was the frequent necessity of going to war with the Kaffirs. Several serious wars had to be fought with the natives, who were very numerous, before they were convinced that the white man had come to stay, and that his arm was stronger than theirs. Each war with the Kaffirs ended in an extension of British territory, and by the middle of the century nearly the whole country south of the Orange river was taken under British rule.

7. The governor that did most for the peace of the colony was Sir George Grey, who had already done a good work for the empire in South Australia and New Zealand. He secured the good offices of the Kaffir chiefs by taking them into his pay, and he opened schools where their young men might be trained in some useful occupation, as farming, gardening, and carpentry. But he met with only moderate success. Like the negroes of the West Indies, most Kaffirs hate work and have no desire to better their condition. Given a noisy musical instrument, a bright sun, and a gaudy dress, and their mirth and gaiety seem boundless.

8. Sir George Grey also tried to cure the natives of their belief in witchcraft, but in this he miserably failed. He did much, however, to put down the practice of "smelling out" witches. The Kaffirs believe that diseases and disasters of all kinds are caused by wizards and witches, and in every tribe there was a professional witch-finder whose duty it was to go through certain forms, calling "smelling-out," and then point out the individual, who was supposed to have caused the mischief. This practice did not commend itself to the governor's sense of justice, and he did all he possibly could to put it down.

9. The superstitious belief of the Kaffirs was the cause of a terrible tragedy during Grey's term of office. Thousands of their cattle had been carried off by a pestilence, when a Kaffir prophet consoled the poor natives by assuring them that the Kaffir chiefs, long dead and gone, were about to return to earth with a new breed of cattle, which disease could not touch, and that their coming would result in the triumph of the black men over the white. But all this, he said, would only happen if all the present cattle and corn were destroyed. Thousands took the madman at his word and made away with their corn and cattle. The great day of deliverance was fixed for February 18th, 1857, and to their amazement the sun rose and set as usual, leaving the poor dupes face to face with starvation. The Kaffirs suffered so dreadfully from the scourge of famine, and their numbers were in consequence so much reduced, that we hear of no more wars during the next twenty years.

10. During this peaceful time Cape Colony made steady but slow progress, but, in 1870, an event occurred which awoke the colony to new life. This was the discovery of a rich diamond-field around Kimberley. Men and capital began to flow into the country and the wheels of industry began to turn more rapidly. Farmers obtained a good market, trade became brisk, railways were speedily laid down. The diamonds are found in a kind of "blue ground," which is nothing but a stream of volcanic mud cast up in ages past. So rich is it in diamonds that the mines have yielded, since 1870, a yearly revenue of between two and three million pounds.

11. The blacks in 1878 made one more hopeless attempt to oust the white men. The struggle ended in the British government taking possession of all the Kaffir lands, except Basutoland, and adding them to Cape Colony. Basutoland is a native state under the direct rule of the British Crown. This arrangement was made in response to the prayer of a Basuto chief: "Let me and my people rest and live under the large folds of the flag of England."

(13) A GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH TERRITORY

(South Africa).

1. No sooner had we put down the Kaffirs and annexed their territory to Cape Colony than we had to advance into Zululand and finally add that country to the Empire. The Zulus were then under the rule of their king Cetewayo, who kept a large army, well drilled and armed with musket and assegai. This force was a standing peril to Natal, and to save this colony from the horrors it feared, a British force crossed the Tugela—which separates Natal from Zululand—to destroy, if possible, the Zulu king's "man-slaying machine."