The Africanders

by Le Roy Hooker

Strangely enough, at the last moment divisions arose among the local conspirators at Johannesburg; they hesitated, and were lost. To some, the project which had been much talked of—that of re-establishing British rule—became suddenly distasteful, the principal reason being that the desired control of capital over legislation could not be as complete under British colonial administration as it might be made under some other regime. They had appealed to the sentiment of British loyalty in persuading English recruits to enter their ranks, but they began to see that this sentiment, carried to its legitimate fruition, [[216]]would defeat the chief end of the capitalists in seeking the overthrow of the Kruger government. Christmas day of 1895 found the Johannesburg reformers so divided in feeling that most of them were in favor of postponing all action until some definite assurance could be obtained as to what, and for whom, they were to fight. To this end the President of the National Union, Mr. Charles Leonard, was sent off to Cape Town to confer with Mr. Cecil Rhodes.

In enlisting Doctor Jameson and his police force in this movement an uncertain and dangerous factor had been included. The situation became critical. Jameson, who had been warned that he must on no account make any move until he received further orders, grew restive and eager for the fray. In Johannesburg the conspirators were in a state of indecision and alarm. Mr. Cecil Rhodes himself was halting between the two opinions, whether to abandon the enterprise altogether or to precipitate the struggle regardless of the divided counsels at Johannesburg.

Then the factor of danger declared itself. On the night of the 29th of December, 1895, Doctor Jameson broke his tether and, presumably without orders, invaded the territory of the South African Republic from the British territory of [[217]]Bechuanaland, at the head of about six hundred men.

Just why Jameson moved at that time probably never will be known. He has himself assumed the entire responsibility; Mr. Rhodes and Sir Hercules Robinson, the High Commissioner, have disavowed it utterly. There are few who believe that his invasion was intended to initiate the revolution. A probable solution of the mystery is that the revolutionary programme included (1) a collision between the conspirators in Johannesburg and the burgher police, (2) the calling in of the High Commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson, as mediator, (3) the ordering up of Jameson and his force to support the High Commissioner in any course he might decide upon, and that Jameson thought he could time his arrival aright without waiting for further orders.

But the skillfully arranged programme was spoiled by the shrewdness of President Kruger. There was no initial conflict in the streets of Johannesburg. Penetrating the design, the president withdrew all the Transvaal police from the streets of the city; there was no one to exchange shots with, and therefore no reason to justify a call for outside interference. [[218]]

By cutting the telegraph wires Jameson made it impossible for friend or foe to know his whereabouts, but the report got abroad that he was coming. In Johannesburg some desired, some feared, his coming. A member of the committee of the National Union assembled a hundred of the malcontents and attempted to lead them out to co-operate with the invaders, but they tamely surrendered to a burgher force without firing a shot. As for Jameson, on Wednesday, the 1st of January, 1896, he was checked near Krugersdorp by a few hundred burghers hastily collected, and on the next day was surrounded near Doornkop and forced to surrender. Thus ended the attempt at revolution.

During the few days which closed 1895 and opened 1896, there was a state of social, political and financial chaos in Johannesburg. All that was left visible of the reform association was confined within the walls of a single clubhouse—a resort of the leading spirits in the conspiracy. The European population at large seemed to be unaware of anything connected with the affair but the, to them, unaccountable situation—full of peril to life and property—which had been created they knew not how. The state of panic was sustained and intensified by the wildest rumors of [[219]]what Jameson was to do, of thousands of burghers assembling to lay siege to the town, of a purpose to bombard the city from the forts, of a new government about to be proclaimed—indeed, anything and everything might happen.

When it leaked out that the principal actors in the revolutionary movement had secretly removed their families from the city—which was to be the storm-center of the expected disturbance—there was a general stampede. Men and women fought for place on the outgoing trains. In one tragical instance an overladen train left the track, and forty persons, mostly women and children, perished. To exaggerate the misery and disaster to innocent and peaceable people, caused by this unfortunate and abortive uprising, would be impossible.

The immediate effect of the raid was most unfavorable to the return of anything like good feeling between the British and the Africanders. The historic cablegram of the German Emperor to President Kruger, congratulating him on the prompt and easy suppression of the rebellion, was construed as evidence that the South African Republic was secretly conniving at a German rivalry to Great Britain as the paramount power in South Africa. On the other hand, every [[220]]burgher in the Transvaal saw in the conspiracy a new indication of the inexorable hostility of the British to their independence, and of a relentless purpose to subvert it again by any means necessary to accomplish their end, however unjust or violent. The effect on the burghers of the raid was much the same as that of the blowing up of the Maine on the citizens of the United States—a feeling that relations had been created which nothing could finally adjust but war.

Notwithstanding the intensified bitterness between the two peoples, no one was put to death, nor was any one very seriously punished for taking up arms against the Transvaal government. This is to be credited not to any doubt or extenuation of their guilt, but to urgent intercession on the part of the British authorities, and to the wisdom of those who administered the government whose territory had been invaded from the soil of a professedly friendly nation, whose very existence had been conspired against by resident aliens, and which had in its power both the invaders and the resident conspirators. [[221]]