The Boers Protest
This Hollander party refused to enter into any negotiation with the High Commissioner concerning the Basutoland annexation, indulged in much talk about French and Russian intervention, and finally despatched two Commissioners to London armed with a long and emphatic protest. Fortunately for all concerned, the British Government approved of the policy pursued by Sir Philip Wodehouse and authorized him to take such further action as, to his knowledge of local conditions, might seem desirable. This wisdom of this course was so unusual and striking in connection with South African affairs that a tribute of respect seems due to the Colonial Secretary of that period—the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The annexation was, in fact, in the immediate interest of the Free State as well as in the future interests of Great Britain. It gave the exhausted republic a rest from protracted and injurious conflict. It afforded an opportunity for the statesmanship of the new President to assert and express itself. It facilitated the development of a friendliness between Cape Colony and the Free State which, so long as President Brand lived and ruled (1865-88), did much for the general good of South Africa and something for the improvement of individual character amongst the less implacable farmers of the little republic. There was indeed much for a statesman to do. Ideals of Government amongst the best of the Boers were still so crude as to be almost laughable. Masses of useless paper money were in existence. Farms or ranches had been neglected, many cattle destroyed and heavy debts incurred.
Discovery of Diamonds
Just at this moment the discovery of diamonds effected a revolution in South African affairs. As this incident is variously described by many writers, and as its importance is so great from an historical point of view, I propose to pin my faith upon the record given by Dr. George M. Theal. His position as a civil servant and Historiographer to the Cape Government would, perhaps, lay the most impartial of historians open to occasional allegations of favoritism in dealing with annals so permeated with Dutch and English rivalry as are those of South Africa. But there can be no question as to his accuracy in treating of such questions of fact as this.[[1]] He states that: "One day, in 1867, a child on a farm in the north of Cape Colony was observed to be playing with a remarkably brilliant pebble, which a trader, to whom it was shown as a curiosity, suspected to be a gem of value. It was sent for examination to a qualified person in Grahamstown, who reported that it was a diamond of twenty-one carats weight and that its value was £500. Search was immediately commenced in the neighborhood by several persons in odd hours, and soon another, though much smaller, was found. Then a third was picked up on the bank of the Vaal River, and attention was directed to that locality. During 1868 several were found, though as yet no one was applying himself solely to looking for them. In March, 1869, the 'Star of South Africa' was obtained from a Korana Hottentot, who had been in possession of it for a long time without the least idea of its value except as a powerful charm. It was a magnificent brilliant of eighty-three carats weight when uncut, and was readily sold for £11,000."
[[1]] The Story of the Nations Series. South Africa, p. 322.
Ownership and Territorial Rule
The lower Vaal then became the scene of a bustling, restless and struggling population of miners and speculators. Wealth and diamonds go together, and with them naturally came questions of ownership and territorial rule. The latter was and had been in dispute for many years. The southern bank of the river was probably Free State territory, but the ownership of the northern bank was in grave doubt. No actual government had been established there, although the Transvaal, the Free State, the Batlapin tribe of natives, and the Griqua captain—Waterboer—all claimed portions of the ground. There was naturally much disorder at the mines, both north and south of the River, under such conditions, and, finally, as the bulk of the miners were British subjects, the High Commissioner at Cape Town decided to interfere, and proposed a general arbitration. President Brand declined the suggestion, but President Pretorius of the Transvaal acceded, and a Court was established at Bloemhof, on the northern bank of the Vaal, with Mr. Keate, Governor of Natal, as final Umpire. From the information then available there seems no doubt that the Award issued by Mr. Keate in October, 1871, was just. He acted, and could only act, upon the evidence presented to the Court, and, as the Free State refused to work up or present its case, and as Waterboer was enabled by the use of a clever advocate to prepare a fairly strong one, the region in dispute was finally awarded to him. He had already offered his claim to the territory to the British authorities, and, as soon as the legal decision was announced, Sir Henry Barkly, as High Commissioner, proclaimed the Diamond Mines and what had long been familiarly known as Griqualand West, to be a British dependency. Afterwards, during the holding of a special Court for the settlement of individual ground-claims, a minute search into the history of the region south of the Vaal revealed an unsuspected flimsiness in Waterboer's title, and the judgment of the Court thereupon threw out all titles based upon Griqua grants. This very impartial verdict—under all the circumstances of the case—at once gave President Brand a position in the matter which he did not hesitate to use. He went to London and laid his case before the British Government, which replied that the possession of the country in question was a necessity to the paramount Power in South Africa, but that he would be given $450,000 as a settlement of the Free State claims. This he accepted.
A Momentous Decision
The decision was as momentous in its results as the annexation of Basutoland. Without the possession of Griqualand West, the British Government and settlers, and Cape Colony itself, would have been shut off from expansion to the north. The unclaimed country from the Limpopo to the Zambesi would have been open to the raids and eventual occupation of the Boers of the two Republics. The diamond mines of South Africa—with their hundreds of millions' worth of precious stones—would have been in the hands of England's enemies as well as the gold mines. Matabeland and Mashonaland and the empire created by Cecil Rhodes to the north and west of the republics would have been alien ground. The development of British South Africa would, in a word, have been effectually confined to the limited region south of the Orange River and the Drakensberg Mountains. The Keate Award, therefore, and the dispute between the two Dutch Governments and that of Great Britain, turned upon more important issues than the discovery of diamonds. The Boers did not really want the latter, but it is fairly evident now that they fully appreciated the importance of holding the only route to the north which still remained open to British acquisition. Had President Brand shared in the hostile sentiments of many of his own people and of his compatriots over the Vaal toward Great Britain, he would never have sold his claim even for the sum which did so much to place the finances of the Free State upon a sound footing. From this time forward to the end of the century, however, the Orange Free State enjoyed a condition of progressive prosperity. Roads, public buildings and bridges were constructed. A fairly good system of Dutch public schools was established in the villages, though it did not greatly affect the farmers on their wide ranches. Railway from Cape Town A railway was run through the country from Cape Town to Pretoria, largely at the expense of the Cape Government, while branch lines in time connected the Free State system with Durban, in Natal, and with Port Elizabeth and East London, on the southeast coast of Cape Colony. President Brand was re-elected to his position until he died in 1888, leaving the highest of reputations as a wise administrator, a warm friend of Great Britain, and a sincere admirer of British institutions. After his time other influences predominated, and the first evidence of this was in the election of Mr. F. W. Reitz—previously Chief Justice of the State—as his successor.
Condition of the Transvaal