FALLS BETWEEN BARBERTON AND THE KING’S KRAAL, SWAZILAND.
“So also are the Boers. They call it the land of Goshen, and covet it as eagerly as Ahab coveted the vineyard of Naboth. The Transvaal Government make pressing overtures to Umbandini to place himself under their protection, which would mean, of course, the practical surrender of his kingdom, while individual Boers are flocking uninvited into the country and gradually hemming it in on every side. But the King has a wholesome dread of the tender mercies of the Boers, and, fortunately for him, the London Convention of 1884 laid down the boundary line on the Transvaal side with such precision that little room is left for misunderstanding or dispute. Here, at least, the Boer Republic can allege no ostensibly fair or valid excuse for removing their neighbors’ landmarks. But the Boer trekkers, in dealings with the natives, are not much concerned to observe the law of meum and tuum; and in April, 1885, Sir Henry Bulwer wrote to Sir Hercules Robinson that he had received information to the effect ‘that the Boers are making great encroachments in Swaziland; that they appear to look upon the country as a winter grazing farm, and that they have gone so far as to beacon off some farms notwithstanding the protest of the Swazi king.’ On this, to put matters as briefly as possible, Sir Hercules Robinson requested the Transvaal government ‘to use every effort to prevent encroachments on the border,’ a move to which Mr. Joubert responded by denying the fact on the one hand, and on the other proposing to Umbandini to place himself and his country under Transvaal protection with Mr. Kiogh, Landdrost of Wakkerstroom, as nominal head and medium. This proposal the King and his indunas rejected. They preferred to place themselves under British protection, and to this effect a formal demand was forthwith made, accompanied by a request for the appointment of a British Resident, whose duty it would be to act as Umbandini’s adviser in all outside matters and give timely notice of Boer encroachments at headquarters.
“To this request no answer has yet been returned. It is understood, however, that Lords Granville and Rosebery had the subject under consideration at the time of their retirement from office, and it will be for Lord Salisbury’s government to give it their most serious attention, and decide whether the Boers shall or shall not be required to observe the terms of a convention which they deliberately accepted. The question is not of conquering or annexing Swaziland, or even of preventing the extinction of an interesting nationality, but of safeguarding British interests by compelling the Transvaal Republic to respect the integrity of a state whose independence we have virtually guaranteed. To effect this object nothing more is needed than the appointment of a Resident; for much as the Boers covet the land of Goshen, they have not the least idea of going to war with England and Umbandini to obtain it. Their policy is to cajole and coerce the king into accepting a formal protocol; and then gradually swallowing his kingdom as the anaconda swallows its prey. This consummation, besides being a severe diplomatic and moral defeat, would be fatal to the prosperity of Natal, and most detrimental to our commercial interests in that part of the world. It could hardly fail, moreover, to lead to serious complications. Gold seekers are already flocking in crowds to the ‘placers’ of the Transvaal; the time is not far distant when there will be a rush to the still richer fields of Swaziland. Most of the adventurers are English and American, and men of English blood have never yet submitted to the domination of an alien power. If their government should refuse to protect them they will protect themselves, possibly set up a government of their own, when difficulties might arise which it is not pleasant to contemplate. Prevention is better than cure, and it is significant of what is likely to befall, unless prompt action be taken, that in September, 1885, Sir Henry Bulwer transmitted a report ‘that the Boers had so overrun the Swazi country that they had only left the district immediately occupied by the king.’ A little later Colonel Cardew forwarded a communication to the effect that 200 Boers were occupying the Bomba range of mountains ‘on the strength of rights reputed to be acquired from the Portuguese,’ and according to recent advices, another body are trekking in the Lebombo range, close to the Swazi border.”
But to return to my own story: The kraal was in a state of complete confusion; the dance which was to take place on the next day seemed to have upset every thing and every body. The men and women were in a state of nervous excitement from beer and expectation; the young girls, lighthearted and merry, were laughing, darting hither and thither, coquetting with the young men, while the boys, sedately looking on with calm content, were enjoying the scene. Alas! this innocent pleasure was not all I saw. A few yards distant on the outside of the kraal, a crowd attracted my attention; there I found a tent which served as a canteen, and was surrounded with Swazis of both sexes, all of whom were buying spirits, chiefly gin, from the barman, or begging it from the few white men present. I particularly noticed one woman, not exactly besotted, but with an air of debauched voluptuousness in the sensual roll of her glaring eyes, suing importunately for drink, crying out again and again the only English word she knew “Canteen, Canteen,” being the one which from experience she had learned would be understood, and bring her the all-devouring firewater.
Close by, evidently a general favorite, and to whom considerable deference was shown by the natives, could be seen, edging his way into the tent, a bright little boy, who, I was told, was the king’s son. Although but a child not more than six years old, he too had learned to crave for this fluid perdition, and there he stood clamoring and entreating to be served, until a white man gave him fully half a pint of pure spirits, when immediately, without any ado, he swallowed it at one draught, slowly strutting away as if he had performed some feat of which he might well be proud. I did not remain long, soon seeing enough of this melancholy exhibition of growing depravity and demoralization to convince me that drink was eating into the vitals of the people and destroying the manhood of a fine race, and that nothing stood between them and utter ruin but the appointment of a British Resident,[[114]] of similar tact and determination to Colonel Clark, who has saved the Basuto nation from extermination by the same curse. I was very tired, and the sun sinking fast, suffusing the whole sky with lines of a ruddy, golden tint, made me tell my boys to prepare for the night’s rest. Before lying down to sleep, however, I strolled again round this immense kraal in order to form a more correct idea of its size, the number of its huts and the strength of its population. In the centre there was an immense cattle kraal, which I conjectured was not less than ten acres in extent, the huts, at least 600 in number, being placed in a circle around, according to Kafir custom.
Here preparations for the approaching yearly celebration and dance were being made, this festival being a “thanksgiving to the ground for once again giving its return.” Every one seemed happy and gay, and all I met were wound up to a high pitch of good-natured excitement, singing as they danced along, evidently looking forward to the morrow, to the all-important day when the fête would commence.
My “boys” had in the meantime made me some coffee, prepared my evening meal and laid out my karosses on the grass in readiness for the night’s slumbers. Sleep needed no wooing. When I awoke in the morning the sun was shining brightly overhead. “Umhlatuse,” my induna (head man), had got my coffee ready, troops of Swazi girls, lithe and handsome, could be seen racing back from the river where they had been to bathe, the whole kraal was astir, even the canteen was open, and some devout worshippers of Bacchus were already paying homage at his shrine. Presently, afar in the distance, could faintly be traced the dark outline of a moving mass of sable warriors, coming to make obeisance to their king and add to the day’s festivities. As the hours passed by, the large cattle kraal I have mentioned became the rendezvous of thousands of men of superb physique, dressed in gorgeous array, their shoulders resplendent with black and snow-white ostrich feathers, their waists girded with leopard skins, their necks encircled with cow tails, sakabula feathers (a species of finch) in circular bands around their heads, while handsome shields and assegais completed their festive attire. The married women, too, and girls vied with each other in the richness of their costumes, which according to their custom did not require to be so exact as to hide entirely the profusion of charms with which nature had endowed them. About mid-day, when the king, an intelligent but sensual middle-sized, and to appearance, middle-aged man, his light-copper-colored body, however, enveloped in rolls of fat, appeared with his retinue (having first bathed himself in sea water specially brought up for the occasion from the mouth of the “Usutii”), the commemoration began in earnest, for then with measured step and dignified air the thousands of men and women commenced dancing, advancing and retreating in perfect rythm, keeping time to a rich, deep, warlike song they were chanting in beautiful cadence. There were three regiments present that morning numbering at least 9,000 men, and with 3,000 women, as I have described, the scene was both sensual and sensuous.
On one side of the kraal, and built of green branches cut from neighboring trees, was a long enclosure, the interior of which was kept hidden from vulgar gaze, no one being allowed to enter. A trader, who was well known as being a confidant of the king, passing by at the time, gained me admittance for a moment, when a sight most unique presented itself. Kneeling and squatting on the grass were at least 150 boys eagerly tearing and devouring the flesh of an ox which had been pummeled to death the previous day. This operation is an old custom, and on this occasion, I was told, it took about forty young men, unarmed (not even with clubs), but merely striking the ox with their bare fists, fully an hour to accomplish. We had only a second of time allowed us by the guard at the entrance to peep in, as he was afraid some condign punishment for his temerity, in permitting such a contravention of all precedent as allowing us to enter, would befall him if he were discovered. Much to my regret I could not find any one who could explain the meaning of this rite. Retiring at once we spent several hours in walking around and mixing with the natives, my impromptu guide drawing my attention to the strong dialectic difference in the language as spoken by the Swazis and the pure Zulu, they being a branch of the Zulu nation, who settled in this region when Zenzamgakona was king, and he also kindly pointed out to me many men of importance. Among these I may mention Umbovane, the Swazi general who commanded the native levies which joined the forces under Sir Garnet Wolseley in the attack on Sekukuni, and Zuhlane, a man of commanding presence, who had been prime minister during two reigns and whose word is law. Although an old man, gray, wrinkled, blear-eyed and with an appearance of dissipation, yet he has well sustained a reputation among the Swazis for diplomatic tact and foresight. Umbovane has not even yet forgotten the greatness he had had “thrust upon him” seven years before, when Sir Garnet Wolseley invited him to dinner, after the successful attack in which he had assisted the 94th and 80th Regiments in the Transvaal.
The most engrossing subject of conversation even at this time, although two months had elapsed, was the visit of Dr. Clark, the Consul General in London for the Transvaal, and the interview he had had with the king on November 7th, 1886. This gentleman, as a member of the House of Commons and an Englishman, seems to have acted in the most extraordinary way—if Mr. Kannemeyer, an influential miner whom I knew well, and who was present at this interview, can have understood correctly. Dr. Clark, according to this gentleman’s description, seems all through to have acted as a paid agent of the Boers would have acted, and his disparaging remarks to the king about the English in the Transvaal war grated upon my informant’s ears. His evident object was to impress the king with the idea that the Dutch was the dominant power, and to imply that the king’s request for an English resident was not the wish of the nation, but was like the petition originally sent to the English government praying for the annexation of the Transvaal. This, he said, a few only had sent, a war resulted, and the Dutch got back their country; and then he further went on to say that he had been sent out to inquire from the king, personally, whether he was willing or not to hand over his country to the English government. The king then postponed the interview until next day, revolving in his mind whether Dr. Clark was or was not an ambassador from England, or as General Smith of Majuba history, in introducing Dr. Clark to the king, said, an induna (councillor) sent specially by the Queen. Next morning the king, in presence of his principal indunas, told him (Dr. Clark) that he had no wish to ask either the English or the Boers to take him over, but as he could neither read or write, he was treating for an honest white man to look after his interests. The conversation, as repeated to me, was a lengthy one, but to make a long story short, Dr. Clark expressed his pleasure at hearing this, and among other things cautioned the king against granting concessions of gold-bearing districts to white men, telling him he was giving away the independence of his country. “But,” said the king, “what am I to do? I am only keeping my promises.” Dr. Clark said: “You can easily get out of that difficulty; the Transvaal joins; you ask them to exchange an equal extent of grazing land for a similar extent of gold-bearing land already conceded.” The king and his councillors on hearing this burst out into a most sarcastic laugh, the king observing, “Why should I give stones with gold in them for grass? Have you anything more to say?” and then rising bid the deputation “good-bye.” After Dr. Clark, General Smith and their interpreter had gone, the king, turning to the other white men at his kraal remarked, “He says he comes from the Queen; but he pleads for the Transvaal, that is clear!”
Listening to these interesting statements of eye-witnesses, time flew rapidly by. On inquiry I learned that this dance would be kept up for two or three days, and as I had yet more than 100 miles to walk before reaching Delagoa Bay, and was anxious to catch the mail steamer to England, I collected my servants, and taking a last look at the crowd, who were all engaged as eagerly as ever, started off again late in the afternoon.