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 An Unwritten Chapter in 
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 January, 1911 
 
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 An Unwritten Chapter in the History 
 
 of South Africa 
 
 Andrew Alexander Bruce 
 Dean of the College of Law, University of North Dakota 
 
 r | V HERE is an unwritten South African history which has ulti- 
 mately and intimately concerned the Boers, but which has in 
 the main been independent of them. It is the history not so much of 
 the Transvaal or of the Orange Free State, not so much of the Boer 
 or of the Briton, as of Matabeleland, Basutoland, Zululand, Bechuan- 
 aland, Mashonaland and Rhodesia, which are territories of a much 
 larger extent and future importance than are those which are now 
 occupied by the descendants of the Huguenots. It is the history of a 
 far reaching scheme of personal ambition and of territorial aggran¬ 
 dizement. It is the history, however, not so much of Great Britain 
 herself as of the leading spirits of the South African colonies which 
 fly her flag, and of a trading company which she herself has cre¬ 
 ated. It is the story of a scheme of imperialism, but of an imperial¬ 
 ism which has been utterly antagonistic to the imperialism and to the 
 interests of the mother country herself. There have for a long time 
 been two kinds of imperialists in South Africa, the national and the 
 local. Paradoxical tho it may seem, the national has of the two been 
 the more altruistic and the more humane. 
 
 For many years a gigantic game of commercial-political chess has 
 been played in South Africa. The prize contended for has been an 
 empire. The pawns have been the natives and the Kaffirs. The 
 players have been the leading spirits of the British South African 
 Chartered Company, and the Portuguese and German and Boer com- 
 mercialists. The seemingly helpless onlookers and protestants have 
 been the real intelligence and patriotism of the Orange Free State 
 and of the Transvaal and the enlightened conscience and patriotism 
 of Great Britain herself. It has been a struggle between the more 
 sordid interests of the older South African self-governing colonies 
 of Natal and the Cape and the conscience of the mother country, 
 between the interests of the South African capitalists, who control 
 the governments of Cape Colony and of Natal and the affairs of the 
 Chartered Company (for the Chartered Company itself has been only 
 a means to an end), and the sense of justice always to be found among 
 the rank and file of every self-governing people. Among those who 
 have possessed this conscience and this sense of justice have generally 
 been found the soldier and the military leader. His trade has been 
 
 fS724:S 
 
126 1 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 war, but it has been a manly one. He, it is true, has often been an 
 instrument in the wrong that has been done, but his duty and his 
 training has been to obey orders. To him has been given no business 
 management and no political control, and it is not on the field of 
 battle but in the private office that schemes of conquest and aggran¬ 
 dizement are usually directed and planned. When in South Africa 
 the army officer has been in a position to protest. He has usually 
 protested. 
 
 The aim of the British Imperialist and of the thoughtful army 
 officer, has been to give a measure of independence to the native states 
 and to secure their inhabitants in the tenure of their lands and prop¬ 
 erty. His plan has been a residential system of government, such as 
 that now generally adopted in India, and under which the native 
 rulers are left undisturbed so long as they govern justly and with a 
 due regard for life, property and morals. By this plan exploita¬ 
 tion by foreign capital is largely prevented, and the usages and cus¬ 
 toms of the original populations are respected. The desire of the 
 Colonial and of the South African Imperialist, on the other hand, 
 has been the absorption of the native states and the building up of a 
 white federation which shall be independent of the British govern¬ 
 ment and free from “the bothersome intermeddlings of its noncon¬ 
 formist conscience.” In this latter desire, in so far at least as the 
 native races were concerned, both the Boer and the British colonists at 
 first shared. The religion of the Boer is the religion of the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries and of the Old rather than of the New Tes¬ 
 tament. He believes that to him has been given the land of the Ca- 
 naanite to go into it and to possess it, and in his eyes the black man 
 finds but little favor. The schemes for the first South African Bunde, 
 indeed, included the Boer as well as the Briton. After the Boer War 
 of 1901, however, the ideas of the British colonist, or of the Cecil 
 Rhodes party, materially changed, and it is a noticeable fact that in the 
 reconstruction consequent upon the successful termination of that war, 
 the home government and the British people generally have been 
 inclined to be much more liberal and friendly to the conquered races 
 than have the governments or the people of the self governing South 
 African colonies. It was the colonial and not the home press which 
 insisted upon the suspension of the constitution of Cape Colony and 
 the disenfranchisement of the Boer sympathizers. In the controversy 
 as to whether or not the Transvaal should be annexed to the older 
 colonies and the voting strength of the Dutch inhabitants thus min¬ 
 imized, or be governed as a separate province with a large measure 
 of home rule, the colonial and especially what is termed “the Rhodes 
 
History of South Africa 
 
 127 
 
 
128 
 
 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 party,” was strongly in favor of the annexation idea. There can, 
 indeed, be no doubt that much of the power and popularity of Mr. 
 Cecil Rhodes in South Africa was due to the fact that his own 
 schemes of empire and the course of his own personal ambition were 
 generally in accord with the popular impulses and desires of the 
 British South African colonists. It is a deplorable fact, that, how¬ 
 ever firmly the love for fair play and sympathy for the weak 
 may generally be implanted among the British people, and however 
 determined as a nation England may have been to suppress slavery 
 and to do justice to the colored man, the Colonial—the Afrikander— 
 whether British or Boer born, has as a class had no real sympathy 
 with the Negro and no regard for his liberty or for his life. Miss 
 Olive Schreiner, in her “Tooper Peter Hackett” and her other stories, 
 has, indeed, only too truthfully portrayed the course of South African 
 events and the state of the South African mind. The remorseless 
 slaughter of the natives which so sullied the earlier histories of the 
 colonization of Australia and of New Zealand, and which has not 
 been found wanting even on the American plains, has found its 
 counterpart in the Dark Continent. 
 
 So far, indeed, the history of South Africa has well illustrated 
 the lesson long since taught by the story of the occupation of India. 
 It has once more been shown that a system of colonization or of em¬ 
 pire building which is carried on directly by a popular government, 
 such as that of England or of the United States, and which is too far 
 from the scene of action for the majority of its people to have any 
 personal pecuniary interest in the subject territory, is liable to be, and 
 has generally been, humane and approximately just, but that the 
 methods of trading companies or of independent colonies which have 
 been allowed to extend their territories and influence unchecked by the 
 veto of the popular conscience of the parent nation, and which have 
 been impelled by the desire for gain and for gain alone, have been, 
 and will probably always be, sordid, cruel and corrupt. Both the 
 East India Company and the British South African Company grew 
 and flourished in the dark. If the methods of either 
 had been generally known in the mother country, they 
 would probably never have been tolerated. It is fair to assume 
 that, like its predecessor in India, the Chartered Company of South 
 Africa will before long be stripped of its powers. The histories of 
 these two companies are not, however, anomalies, nor is governmental 
 tyranny by means of a trading company the product of English 
 history and of the English mind alone. The histories of the trading 
 companies of Portugal, of Spain and of Holland can no more bear 
 the light of scrutiny than can those of England. 
 
History of South Africa 
 
 129 
 
 The real history of the development of the South African Em¬ 
 pire began with the annexation of the Transvaal by the British in 
 1877. However inevitable this annexation may at the time have ap¬ 
 peared to many to have been, no one conversant with the facts will 
 contend for a moment that it was accomplished either with the author¬ 
 ity of the British government or with the consent of the majority of 
 the Boers themselves. At the most there was merely a ratification of 
 the act by the home government after the same had been accomplished 
 under the falsest of pretenses. There was no submission of the ques¬ 
 tion of annexation by the Boer government to the Boer electorate 
 and there was no subsequent ratification by the nation. It was, 
 indeed, nothing more nor less than the adoption towards the Boers 
 of the tactics which both before and since that time have so generally 
 been used by the British and the Portuguese, and even by the Boers 
 themselves, towards the native races. It was the policy and plan of se¬ 
 curing a basis of title by obtaining concessions of land from the chiefs 
 and an acknowledgement by such chiefs of British, Portuguese or 
 Boer sovereignty, as the case might be, and then of going in and 
 occupying. By these means hundreds and even thousands of square 
 miles of territory have been obtained at the cost of a few rifles and of 
 a few yards of cloth. In such negotiations the right of the native 
 ruler to part with the land in question, which, if he owned at all, he 
 owned merely as a trustee for his people, or his right to acknowledge 
 on behalf of his subjects a foreign sovereignty, was never inquired 
 into. 
 
 The annexation of the Transvaal brought with it the Zulu War 
 of 1878, which in turn resulted in making Zululand a subject British 
 state and in largely extending the influence of the British in South 
 Africa. There followed, in 1881, a war with the Basutos, a fine war¬ 
 like race of the Zulu stock who in the migration of the Zulu tribes 
 southwards had separated from the main body of the invading horde 
 and had settled in the mountainous districts which lie to the southeast 
 of the Orange Free State. The Basutos are the only South African peo¬ 
 ples who make use of the horse for military purposes, and on many oc¬ 
 casions their fine army of some thirty thousand mounted men proved 
 more than a match for the British. The result of the war was a com¬ 
 promise and the giving to Basuto-land almost complete home rule 
 under the residential system of government to which we have before 
 referred. To use the language of an officer of the Cape Mounted 
 Rifles, “They gave us as good as we gave them. Altho the war was 
 fought on account of our fear of their growing military power and 
 to enforce our demands for their disarmament, we were glad enough 
 
130 
 
 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 to compromise upon their merely agreeing to register their arms.” 
 It is to be remembered that it was this same tribe, which, in con¬ 
 junction with the Boers who had emigrated into the Orange Free 
 State and beyond the River Vaal, had some years before taken up 
 arms against the British and had been largely instrumental in com¬ 
 pelling the latter to retire from the newly settled territories and to 
 agree to what is now known as the Sand River Convention. 
 
 The Basuto War was followed in 1884 by “the Bechuanaland 
 Expedition,” which was nothing more nor less than an occupa¬ 
 tion by the military forces or mounted police of Cape Colony 
 of the territory of Bechuanaland. It was the result of the 
 desire of the British colonists to forestall the Boers who were already 
 beginning to encroach upon the disputed area. Its real objective, 
 however, was not so much the acquisition of Bechuanaland 
 itself, which was deemed to be of but little value, as the 
 prevention of the Dutch Republics from expanding towards, and ob¬ 
 taining an outlet on, the Indian Ocean, and especially from acquiring 
 a foothold in the territories of Matabeleland, Mashonaland and Man- 
 icaland, or in what is now known as Rhodesia. Altho, therefore, what¬ 
 ever Boers were found in the disputed territory were unceremoniously 
 banished therefrom, the energies of the invaders were chiefly directed 
 towards conciliating the natives, discovering watercourses, digging 
 wells, building a telegraph line and in otherwise laying the founda¬ 
 tions for a farther advance towards the El Dorado of Manica. For 
 it was in Manica that gold was supposed to abound and the historic 
 land of Ophir to have been located. There was, too, between Manica 
 and the seaport of Beira but a comparatively small strip of Portu¬ 
 guese territory. With Manica once occupied and a seaport within 
 easy grasp, the possibilities of an independent South African Empire 
 were great and inviting. 
 
 “The Bechuanaland Expedition,” indeed, tho ostensibly fath¬ 
 ered by the home government, was really colonial and commercial in 
 its purpose and in its origin. Behind it were Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Doc¬ 
 tor Jameson, Messrs. Johnson, Heany and Barrow, Governor Loch, 
 Mr. Alfred Beit, Mr. Barney Barnato and many of the other South 
 African politicians and capitalists w T ho were afterwards so influential 
 in the affairs of the British South African Company and in the ex¬ 
 ploitation of the mineral wealth of the country. It was predatory 
 rather than scientific, and commercial rather than humane. 
 
 Next, and in 1888, followed the obtaining of the notorious Rudd- 
 Rhodes concession and with it the open advent of private commercial¬ 
 ism into the field of politics, conquest and exploration. The grantor, 
 
History of South Africa 131 
 
 or the party of the first part, was Lo Bengula the king, or alleged 
 king, of what was then known as Matabeleland and Mashonaland and 
 of the territories contiguous thereto,” or what is now known as 
 Southern Rhodesia, a territory which is much larger in extent than that 
 of France and Germany combined. The grantees or parties of the 
 second part w^ere Mr. Cecil Rhodes and Mr. Rudd. Under and by 
 means of this agreement and in consideration of one thousand Mar¬ 
 tini-Henry rifles, one thousand rounds of cartridges, a pension of one 
 hundred pounds sterling a month and a stern-wheel steamboat on the 
 Zambesi River, there was granted to Mr. Rhodes and his intimates 
 “the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals sit¬ 
 uated and contained in his (Lo Bengula’s) kingdoms, pricipalities and 
 dominions, together with full power to do all things which they (Mr. 
 Rhodes et al.) may deem necessary to win and procure the same.” 
 The agreement ostensibly conferred mineral rights. It was in fact 
 the gift of an empire, for the right to “win” was all-embracing and 
 was liberally construed. The steamer was, fortunately for the mon¬ 
 arch, never delivered, nor were all of the rifles, nor was all of the 
 pension paid. It is, indeed, unnecessary to suggest that steam is a 
 dangerous plaything for a naked savage, and it was perhaps this 
 humane consideration, added to the mercenary one, which prevented 
 the delivery of the vessel. The land, however, was occupied. 
 
 It was at this point, and in 1889, that the history of the British 
 South African Company really begins, altho its principal stockholders 
 had for many years been directing the politics of the South African 
 colonies. Now, for financial and other reasons, the policy of the 
 home government began to be strongly opposed to any further terri¬ 
 torial extension in South Africa. Up to this time, indeed, all of its 
 activity had been instigated from Cape Colony itself, and now that 
 the Boers were deemed to have been sufficiently excluded from the 
 outside world and from the sea coast, there seemed to be no object in 
 acquiring further stretches of territory which must prove costly and 
 whose acquisition might possibly lead to further native wars and 
 complications. It was not, it is to be remembered, until some years later 
 that the existence of the vast mineral deposits which were so eagerly 
 sought after by the Chartered Company was known to the average 
 Englishman in the mother country, and it was from the purses of the 
 stay-at-home British tax-payers that the expenses of long campaigns 
 would ultimately have to be drawn. Added to this natural inertia 
 was the weight of a severe financial depression, and with it the desire 
 of both the British and the Cape governments to foist upon other 
 shoulders the expenses of developing and protecting the northern ter- 
 
132 
 
 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 ritories. The result was the incorporation in October, 1889, of the 
 British South African Company and the granting to it vast military, 
 commercial and territorial powers. But for the influence of this 
 short-sighted mania for economy, indeed, it is difficult to conceive how 
 any such charter as that granted to the British South African Com¬ 
 pany could ever have been given. The history of the East India 
 Company and of the reasons which led to the cancellation of its 
 franchise were matters of comparatively recent date, and should, it 
 would seem, have had a deterrent effect. No further proof would 
 seem to have been necessary to demonstrate the viciousness of a policy 
 which allowed government and commercialism to go hand in hand 
 and which endowed a trading company with the power of maintaining 
 an army of conquest. The charter, indeed, was almost criminal in its 
 liberality and reflected as much discredit upon the British Colonial 
 office as it did upon Mr. Rhodes and his associates. It 
 recognized and sanctioned the Rudd-Rhodes and other similar grants 
 (for the Rudd-Rhodes grant was but one of many). It granted to the 
 new company full power “to carry into effect divers concessions and 
 agreements which have been made by certain of the chiefs and tribes 
 inhabiting the said region, or elsewhere in Africa, with a view to pro¬ 
 moting trade, commerce, civilization, and good government in the 
 territories which are or may be comprised or referred to in such con¬ 
 cessions.” It conferred the power not merely to work mining claims, 
 but to establish a government. It granted the power even to maintain 
 an army of conquest and of occupation. Lo Bengula had conceded 
 to Mr. Rhodes and to his associates “the power to carry into effect” 
 and “the full power to do all things which they might deem necess¬ 
 ary.” The charter reaffirmed the grant, and placed no restrictions 
 on what might be “deemed necessary.” 
 
 Immediately north of Cape Colony and northwest of Natal and 
 of the Orange Free State, and northwest of the Transvaal lies the ter¬ 
 ritory of Bechuanaland. North and northeast of Bechuanaland lies the 
 territory of Matabeleland and northeast of Matabeleland that of 
 Mashonaland. East of Mashonaland is the territory of Manica or Ma 
 nicaland and east of Manicaland is Portuguese East Africa. It was 
 in Matabeleland, Mashonaland, Manicaland and the adjoining terri¬ 
 tory that the Rudd-Rhodes mineral grants lay, and to this territory 
 not merely the Chartered Company, but the Boers and the Portuguese 
 laid claim. 
 
 The first step of the newly organized corporation, therefore, was 
 the occupation of Mashonaland with a small but finely equipped and 
 disciplined army. The pretext was the extension of a protectorate 
 
History of South Africa 133 
 
 over the country to safeguard the natives from the invasions of the 
 Matabeles, whose territory adjoins Mashonaland on the southwest, 
 and who, tho nominally ruled by the same paramount chief, Lo Ben- 
 gula, were their hereditary and implacable foes. There can be no 
 question that the inhabitants of Mashonaland were in need of protec¬ 
 tion of some sort, as they were entirely disorganized, were constantly 
 at war among themselves, and for many years had proved an easy 
 prey to the slave-raiding Matabeles. What the army of occupation 
 really wanted, however, was to prospect for gold and to acquire 
 further concessions of territory from the native chiefs on which the 
 officers of the Chartered Company could base a title in future years. 
 A war with the Matabeles was the last thing they desired. Lo Ben- 
 gula, the king of Matableland and of Mashonaland, was therefore 
 informed that the company had some small grievance against 
 the Mashones and the few Boers who had attempted to anticipate 
 the British in the settlement of the country, and permission was 
 merely asked to march a small force thru Matabeleland and into 
 the territory in question. Lo Bengula granted the request, on con¬ 
 dition that the expedition should pass by his own kraal, and evidently 
 intended to prepare an ambuscade for its coming and to annihilate it. 
 The conditions offered were accepted, but the forces of the company 
 took an entirely different route and were well into the disputed ter¬ 
 ritory before the African monarch became aware of the deception 
 played upon him. It was then too late for action and hostilities were 
 for the time averted. This was no doubt well for the Chartered Com¬ 
 pany, as Lo Bengula was by no means a savage as far as military 
 affairs were concerned, and at that time commanded a well disciplined 
 army of many thousands which was thoroly drilled and organized 
 into regiments. 
 
 In Mashonaland, little, if any, resistance was met with. Its 
 people were perhaps the least organized of all the native tribes and, 
 as a protection both as against their own people and the Matabeles, 
 lived in strongly fortified kraals upon the kopjes or hill-tops which 
 abound everywhere in the country. In each of the kraals there was 
 generally to be found but one family or clan. This fact, added to the 
 one that in Mashonaland (as formerly in the Scottish highlands), a 
 personal feud is a clan feud, led to continual neighborhood quarrels 
 and petty wars, and in time of general danger there was no basis for 
 organization or for a united stand against the common enemy. It 
 was not long, therefore, before the country was completely subjugated 
 and not only was a valuable basis for further expeditions into the in¬ 
 terior of Africa and to the East obtained, but valuable concessions of 
 
134 
 
 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 territory and of mining rights also. The Portuguese advance into 
 the disputed territory from the East was also checked and thwarted, 
 for the Portuguese, as well as the British, had sighted the glint of gold 
 and for many years had been as active in attempting to spread their 
 influence into Mashonaland and to obtain concessions of land as had 
 been their Saxon neighbors. How this Portuguese advance was 
 checked may be well illustrated by one example. A certain native 
 chief of some little importance, had, for some time, been wavering 
 in his allegiance between the British and the Portuguese. Like the 
 majority of his people, who by this time had been taught the useless¬ 
 ness of attempting to resist the white man, his only anxiety had been 
 to discover which of the two contending factions was the stronger and 
 to side with it. When the British advanced into his territory, the chief 
 became convinced of the superiority of their arms, and accordingly, 
 and in exchange for some rifles and a few yards of cloth, hoisted the 
 British flag over his kraal and abjectly acknowledged the Queen of 
 England, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say Mr. Cecil 
 Rhodes, as his paramount chieftain and overlord. A short time after¬ 
 ward, however, the British column left the district, and much to the 
 embarrassment of the native monarch a Portuguese expedition ap¬ 
 peared upon the scenes. The result was that the British flag was 
 lowered and the Portuguese emblem was hoisted in its place. On 
 these facts being made known to the officials of the Chartered Com¬ 
 pany, an imperative order was given to a young officer to obtain a 
 restoration of affairs to their former condition and, if possible, a con¬ 
 cession of land from the chieftain. For diplomatic reasons an open rup¬ 
 ture was not desired with either the natives or the Portuguese, and this 
 an advance in force was sure to provoke. The lieutenant, therefore, 
 set out on his mission with an escort of but a handful of men, and 
 after traveling some hundred miles came in sight of the king’s kraal, 
 near which he concealed himself and his party until night set in. Then, 
 in the dead of night, while the savages were all asleep, he broke sud¬ 
 denly into the native’s hut and, revolver in hand, informed the king 
 of his mission. He stated that the British and not the Portuguese 
 were the monarch’s real friends and that the white chief was greatly 
 angered with him on account of his conduct, and demanded the instant 
 removal of the Portuguese flag and the substitution of the Union 
 Jack in its place. He at the same time, also demanded the signature 
 or mark of the monarch to a deed which ceded a supposedly valuable 
 tract of land to the Chartered Company, and for which he had been 
 authorized to promise the payment of some fifty pounds and some 
 clothing and other stores. The Savage was so taken aback by this 
 
History of South Africa 135 
 
 sudden visitation, so impressed with the seeming omnipresence and 
 omniscience of the Briton, so absolutely deceived by the effrontery 
 of the whole deed, (for he had no means of knowing whether there 
 were ten thousand British lying concealed in the forest outside his 
 hut or none at all) that, surrounded by hundreds of black warriors 
 as he was, he immediately granted all the requests of the British 
 officer and abjectly apologized for his past backslidings. While tell¬ 
 ing this story to the writer its hero said that his conscience rebelled at 
 the time and has often since, and that in his heart he pitied the chief. 
 He, however, excused himself by saying that he was under military 
 orders and had no option in the matter, and that the savage had 
 played falsely with the British and was merely paid back in his own 
 coin. He also spoke somewhat incoherently about “the manifest des¬ 
 tiny of the Anglo-Saxon race,” and contended that the British were 
 none other than the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel con¬ 
 cerning whom it had been prophesied that they should “go northwest 
 of Palestine” and become “the people of the Isles” and “a nation of 
 nations.” 
 
 It was not long, however, before even more hazardous business 
 was to be undertaken. Rumors came to the ears of the officials of 
 the British South African Company not only of further Portuguese 
 encroachments into the disputed area but of the discovery of gold to 
 the east and north within the Portuguese zone itself and in what was 
 commonly known as the District of Zimbabia. A plan was accord¬ 
 ingly hurriedly formed and as hurriedly put into operation to push 
 rapidly towards the northeast, to seize the Portuguese fortresses of 
 Umtalli and Massi Kessi which commanded the portion of Manica 
 in which the district of Zimbabia and the supposed gold fields lay, 
 to obtain the submission of the natives by overawing their paramount 
 chiefs among whom were Umtassi and the “She” of Ryder Haggard, 
 the queen mother, Germani, and to then push rapidly towards the sea 
 and obtain an outlet on the Indian Ocean by capturing the Portuguese 
 seaport of Beira. An unforeseen obstacle was at first, however, found 
 in the person of Captain Heyman, who commanded the forces in the 
 field, and w T ho, after a hurried consultation with his officers, peremp¬ 
 torily refused to advance unless he was given positive assurances that a 
 state of war with Portugal actually existed and that war had been de¬ 
 clared in London. These assurances were, however, soon given by 
 Dr. Jameson, altho they afterwards proved to have been false in 
 every particular. They were later on justified by the doughty doctor to 
 an officer of the expedition in the following words: “You know, my 
 dear sir, you are too cantakerous, too squeamish. There are, you 
 
136 
 
 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 know, such things as political exigencies. When such exist, there is 
 no such thing as a political lie.” Whatever may be said, indeed, in 
 general, concerning the conduct of affairs in South Africa, and its 
 many wars, but little just criticism can be directed against the sol¬ 
 diers who were actually in the field. The military man, be he officer 
 or private, knows as a rule, nothing of the diplomacy or of the 
 causes which lie behind any given campaign. To him is to obey and “not 
 to reason why.” To him is said “come and he cometh, go and he 
 goeth.” In this particular instance the officers in question had been 
 campaigning in the midst of the African jungle for more than two 
 years, they were over a thousand miles from the Cape of Good Hope 
 and several hundreds of miles from any railroad. Their only means 
 of communication with the outside world was by means of a postal 
 and telegraph system which was owned and controlled by the British 
 South African Company itself. It was the uniform practice of the 
 Chartered Company to exercise a system of censorship over the letters 
 and correspondence even of its own officers, while newspaper corre¬ 
 spondents were not allowed in the newly acquired districts nor to 
 travel with the troops. To use the language of an officer concerned, 
 “then indeed had come the time truly upon earth when might was 
 right, and there was no law but that of the strong in the African 
 forests.” 
 
 The positive assurance asked for being thus furnished, there 
 was nothing for the soldier to do but to advance, and a campaign 
 was accordingly entered upon which for reckless daring has had but 
 few equals in history. Separated by over a thousand miles from the 
 British colonies and from their base of supplies, in a fever-infected 
 district, thru trackless forests and over vast prairies of buffalo grass 
 which grew so high as to conceal the herds of wild elephants which 
 abounded everywhere, surrounded by lions and wild beasts of every 
 kind and by tens of thousands of even more savage natives, the column 
 of but a little more than fifty men marched to the attack of the Portu¬ 
 guese fortresses. The greater part of the country thru which they 
 marched had never been explored by a white man before. So far was 
 it from, and for so long had it been separated from, the countries of 
 civilization, that the use of wheels as mechanisms of locomotion were 
 utterly unknown to the natives, while a horse was an object that 
 created an excess of terror. The natives looked upon this, to us, 
 peaceful animal, as a new wild beast which had been tamed by the 
 white man for his purposes. They dreaded it because it was new to 
 them. They did not know how it fought and therefore did not know 
 how to cope with it. T he humor of the expedition was furnished by 
 
History of South Africa 137 
 
 a jackass of the pack train, whose brays terrified the natives even 
 more than the roars of the lions which abounded everywhere. 
 
 Fortunately for the British column the fortress of Umtalli was 
 found to be but poorly garrisoned and was easily taken. From 
 Umtalli a long march to the north w T as again made and the fortress 
 of Massi Kessi w T as as easily captured. The British had now not only 
 advanced into the Portuguese territory and driven the Portuguese 
 from what is now T known as Eastern Rhodesia, but were in command 
 of the upper portion of the Pungwe River down which an advance 
 could easily be made to the coast, while the projected railroad from 
 Cape Town, and which was to connect the fortresses of Umtalli and 
 Massi Kessi with the seaport of Beira, could now easily be pushed to 
 completion and be utilized. Hardly, however, had the victory been 
 won, and were the troops well on their march to the sea, than word 
 was received that the Portuguese had been unexpectedly and strongly 
 reinforced and had recaptured the fort of Massi Kessi from the hand¬ 
 ful of troops and the supposedly friendly natives who had been left to 
 guard it. This catastrophe made a return march absolutely necessary, 
 as the retreat of the British was cut off as well as any chance of suc¬ 
 cor from the British colonies. There was also imminent danger that 
 the native chiefs, who had been awed into submission by the successes 
 of the British, might now T come to consider the Portuguese the 
 stronger party and to side with them. It was, therefore, decided 
 that Massi Kessi must be retaken at any cost, and the return march 
 was begun. Words cannot describe the hardships and deprivations 
 of that journey. The troops had hardly any supplies. Their shoes 
 were worn out. Their clothing w T as in rags. Nearly all of their 
 horses had died. They had practically nothing but their arms to rely 
 on and the resources of a country which was fortunately swarming 
 with game of all kinds. Fever decimated their ranks and made long 
 halts frequently necessary. At times they had hardly strong men 
 enough left to bury their dead. But they had “that stubborn valor 
 which knows not defeat,” that peculiar and characteristic instinct of 
 the Scot and of the Briton which insists on looking upon war and 
 its privations as an exciting sport which becomes more and more 
 interesting and enjoyable as the hardships and dangers associated with 
 it increase. 
 
 The neighborhood of Massi Kessi was at last reached, but in 
 what condition for an assault or a siege was the advancing force? 
 Worn, fever-stricken, with no base of supplies, with no way of re¬ 
 treat, over a thousand miles from the British colonies, its condition 
 was pitiable indeed. The British were certainly in no condition to 
 
138 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 conduct a siege, much less to make an assault. A strange stroke of 
 fortune, however, favored them. For some unknown reason, the 
 Portuguese leader, Colonel Andrada, instead of waiting for the at¬ 
 tack upon his strongly intrenched position, which the starving condi¬ 
 tion of the British and their lack of water must have compelled them 
 sooner or later to make, marched in force out into the open to meet 
 them. In the contest that ensued the Portuguese troops, altho out¬ 
 numbering the British by ten to one, were no match for their an¬ 
 tagonists. They were poorly trained and disciplined and were but in¬ 
 different marksmen, while the splendid fellows before them had the 
 best blood of England in their veins, were the veterans of several cam¬ 
 paigns and had spent many years amidst the big game hunting of 
 Africa. In other words, what the Boers in after years were to the 
 city recruited regiments of England, so were the Chartered Company’s 
 forces to those of the Portuguese. The fire from the colonists as they 
 lay concealed in the long grass was certain and rapid, and the Port¬ 
 uguese, who had begun to advance in open order, soon commenced to 
 waver, then to break and then in their panic to mass together. Their 
 closely packed ranks then presented a fine target for the one cannon 
 of the British and the slaughter was terrible. A hopeless panic en¬ 
 sued which the Portuguese officers were utterly unable to control. 
 Then occurred one of those chivalric deeds of war which add so much 
 to the glamor of the battlefield and which often make even the drama 
 of war luminous and fascinating. Three Portuguese officers were 
 deserted by their soldiers and left alone upon the open plain exposed 
 to the whole fire of the British lines. They refused, however, to 
 run for shelter and with stately dignity and as one man, stepped stead¬ 
 ily but slowly backwards, with their faces to their foes and with no 
 more haste than if the field had been a parade ground. In a moment 
 the British from sheer admiration and amazement ceased firing and 
 to a man anticipated the order which was scon shouted by every 
 officer. The Portuguese officers halted and saluted splendidly, and 
 then continued their stately retreat while ringing cheers took the place 
 of the rattle of the musketry. 
 
 The fortress, however, was yet to be taken and it seemed very 
 doubtful if the British would even now be equal to the task. A 
 clever ruse, however, on the part of the besiegers and 
 an equally foolish mistake on the part of their antagonists 
 soon brought about the desired result. As nightfall set 
 in several small detachments of the British were sent out in differ¬ 
 ent directions and ordered to build fires which should be as con¬ 
 spicuous as possible, and to send up signal rockets. The fires and sig- 
 
History of South Africa 
 
 139 
 
 nals, as was desired, were seen by the garrison of the fort and were 
 mistaken for the campfires and the signals of reinforcements who 
 were supposed to have come to the support of the besiegers. So 
 completely deceived were the Portuguese that they evacuated their 
 position in the night time and retreated to the rear which the colonists 
 had been careful to leave open. “Signor,” said the Portuguese Gen¬ 
 eral, Andrada, a year or so afterwards while speaking of the siege 
 to a British officer, “I was too vide avake. You think you me had 
 surround vid reinforcements. You think you catch ze fox in ze 
 hole. But I was avake. I you disappoint.” It was fortunate indeed 
 for the victors that such a mistake had been made for in the captured 
 fortress they found eleven gatling guns. Their lack of supplies would 
 have compelled them to endeavor to take the position by storm. That 
 they could have withstood the fire of the guns is incredible. 
 
 There were in Massi Kessi large supplies of clothing and pro¬ 
 visions as well as the guns in question, and it was not long before 
 the troops were sufficiently recuperated to complete the task which 
 had been so fortunately begun. The wavering allegiance of the 
 native chiefs was once more strengthened and the prestige of the 
 British was soon firmly established. Chief among the converts was 
 the paramount chief, Umtassi and the queen mother, Germani, who, 
 no doubt, is the original of the “She” of South African fiction. This 
 remarkable woman seems to have been at this time the only woman 
 ruler among the African tribes. The Germani do not marry but per¬ 
 petuate their line by choosing their successors from among the un¬ 
 married women of their courts and it is accordingly said by the natives 
 that “the race of Germani never dies.” It is undoubtedly from this 
 fact that Mr. Haggard derived the idea of his immortal princess. 
 
 It was in this manner that the eastern portion of the territory 
 of Rhodesia was acquired, for altho the fortress of Massi Kessi was 
 afterwards restored to the Portuguese and the scheme for the occupa¬ 
 tion of the seaport of Beira and the intervening country was for the 
 time abandoned, the western and northern portions of Manicaland 
 have since remained in the possession of the British South African 
 Company, and in this portion is the fortress of Umtalli and the dis¬ 
 trict which bears its name. 
 
 The fate of one man, Joseph Gouveia by name, is perhaps here 
 worth relating, as it serves to illustrate the condition of the country 
 under Portuguese rule and the attitude of the natives towards the 
 European invaders. Gouveia was part African and part Portuguese 
 by descent. He was the owner of a large number of slaves. He was 
 a man of great wealth and, among the natives, was reputed to be the 
 
140 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 “husband of a thousand wives.” He had been granted by the Portu¬ 
 guese authorities what practically amounted to the right to tax-farm 
 Manicaland. That is, in return for a certain annual payment to the 
 Portuguese government, to make what profit he could out of the taxes 
 of the country. He in fact seems to have occupied in a large degree 
 in Manicaland the position which the South African Chartered Com¬ 
 pany occupied in the bordering districts and now occupies in Manica¬ 
 land itself. Any sort of supervision by the home government over his 
 atcions was entirely lacking. His policy was to side with and to bribe 
 the more prominent South African chiefs. They in return gave him 
 carte blanche with the natives, since they cared little how these un¬ 
 fortunates were treated so long as their own positions were secure. 
 The consequence was a system of tax farming which would have put 
 the most unscrupulous Roman provincial tax-gatherer to shame. 
 
 After the defeat of the Portuguese, however, the power oi 
 Gouveia began to wane, and thinking it necessary to make terms with 
 the British he asked for an interview with the officer who was then 
 in command of the forces of the Chartered Company. The request 
 was granted and with a large following the former despot started 
 from the north for the fortress of Massi Kessi. The condition of 
 affairs, however, had now changed. Gouveia was no longer considered 
 the master spirit. The natives, whose only policy was to side with 
 the strongest, had begun to recognize that the English power was 
 superior to that of the former tax-gatherer and of the Portuguese. The 
 march southward, therefore, had hardly been begun before the half- 
 breed despot was attacked, and being deserted by his followers, was 
 captured and killed. On hearing of this affair, the British officer 
 said that his greatest anxiety was for the widowed members of the 
 large harem of the deceased African potentate. To use his own words, 
 “To know what on earth to do with them, leaving to the future to 
 decide whose wives they should be at the Resurrection.” He, how¬ 
 ever, said that his anxiety was uncalled for, and that the harem melted 
 away in a day. Its members evidently took the first opportunity to 
 make their escape and to return to the families and tribes from which 
 they had been seduced, kidnapped or bought. 
 
 Of this petty Portuguese war little or nothing was known or 
 heard by the outside world, altho a vast stretch of territory was added 
 by it to the sphere of the British influence in Africa. It, indeed, 
 hardly created a ripple on the diplomatic sea. The chief reason for 
 this lay in the fact that the Chartered Company was in possession 
 of all the means of communication with Europe, the messengers, the 
 troops, the postal and telegraph services. It was in a position to 
 
 
History of South Africa 141 
 
 exercise, and did exercise, a rigid censorship over the correspondence 
 and telegrams even of its own officials, civil and military. The 
 mouths of the Portuguese were closed, on the other hand, by the re¬ 
 cession of a portion of the eastern section of the conquered territory 
 and by the pressure which was quietly brought to bear by the holders 
 of Portuguese securities in London. The recession of the territory 
 in question and the acknowledgement of the British, or rather by the 
 British South African Company, of the title of the Portuguese thereto, 
 was in itself no small consideration for silence, since the original title 
 of the Portuguese was no better than that of the Chartered Company 
 itself. The claims of both parties, indeed, were based upon might 
 and upon might alone. Both of the contestants had imposed their 
 sovereignty by force and fraud upon the subject native races, and 
 neither had any valid claim which it would have cared to submit to 
 the scrutiny or arbitration of the world’s family of nations. Another, 
 and perhaps the most important, element in the maintenance of 
 silence concerning what was little more or less than piracy upon the 
 dry land, was the fact that the son of no less a person than the Port¬ 
 uguese Minister of War was implicated with the Chartered Com¬ 
 pany in the high handed proceedings which led to the occupation of 
 Manica. The young man in question, had several years before fled 
 from Portugal to escape prosecution for having killed an opponent 
 in a duel, and had taken service with the Chartered Company. For 
 many years he had been left in total obscurity and had been but little 
 noticed or favored, but at the beginning of the difficulty with the 
 Portuguese, an entire change of front had taken place, rapid prefer¬ 
 ment had been offered to him and opportunities for sharing in the 
 growing wealth of the officers of the Company. There can be no 
 question that the desire of the father not to interfere with the rapid 
 progress of his son was an important factor in causing the Portuguese 
 Minister of War to so completely ignore the occurrences in South 
 Africa. 
 
 If the occupation of Matabeleland, Mashonaland, and Manica- 
 land was high-handed, the conduct of the country after its occupa¬ 
 tion was no less so. The main object of the occupation had been the 
 gold supposed to be concealed within the territory, and the officers 
 of the Chartered Company had no intention of allowing the treasure 
 to slip thru their fingers or to come into the possession of others. 
 Few, if any, settlers or prospectors were accordingly allowed in the 
 country, but the forces of the Chartered Company were disbanded 
 and induced to begin prospecting for the coveted metal. The analogy 
 of the old English law, which treats minerals as the property of the 
 
142 
 
 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 crown, was followed and a royalty of fifty per cent was imposed by 
 the Company upon all metals mined. This strange anomaly of a com¬ 
 pany annexing an empire and then representing the sovereign, could 
 hardly have existed if the British public had had any knowledge of 
 what was going on in South Africa. It is very questionable indeed, 
 if the Charter of the Company conferred any such power in territory 
 over which the corporation had unquestioned control, much less so 
 over a country which it had wrested by force from the natives and 
 from the Portuguese. Much, however, as this conduct was resented 
 by the miners, the hardships created by it were but trifling as com¬ 
 pared to those which were occasioned by the manipulation of the 
 commercial and business interests of the territory. Time was allowed 
 for the country to be quite thoroly prospected, at least that part of 
 it where minerals were supposed to be likely to be found, and during 
 this period outside capitalists, explorers and especially newspaper cor¬ 
 respondents were rigidly excluded from the territory, while the news 
 of its resources was carefully guarded from the outside world. To 
 do this, as we have before seen, was comparatively easy, since all of 
 the means of communication were in the hands of the Chartered 
 Company. When a sufficient length of time had elapsed and when 
 the resources of the prospectors were generally exhausted, 
 the banking firm of Johnson, Heany and Borrow, appeared 
 upon the scene, and, on behalf of some undisclosed principals, who 
 afterwards turned out to be none others than Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Mr. 
 Alfred Beit and his circle of associates, offered to buy the claims of 
 the prospectors. This the firm was readily able to do at trifling 
 figures, for even those miners who had found ore in paying quantities 
 had no money with which to develop their claims and were com¬ 
 pelled to sell out for what they could get. In most cases they had 
 no capital of their own and, as we have before seen, outside capitalists, 
 other than the banking firm in question, were rigidly excluded from 
 the country. These, however, were not the only means of acquiring 
 wealth offered to the manipulators of the Chartered Company by the 
 occupation of Rhodesia. After the best of the mineral deposits had 
 been secured in the manner that we have before indicated, a railroad 
 was prospected into the newly acquired territory from the South and 
 partially constructed. No sooner was this railroad begun than the 
 wonders of Manicaland, or Eastern Rhodesia as we may now term 
 the country, were published to the world. The rediscovery of the 
 “Mines of King Solomon,” the marvelous agricultural resources of 
 the country, and “its ivory, its apes and its gold” were everywhere 
 advertised and exploited. The result was a rapid rise in the value 
 
143 
 
 History of South Africa 
 
 of the stock of the British South African Company which was fol¬ 
 lowed by a heavy selling on the part of the initiated few. Then came 
 the time for depression in values. The railroad which, according to 
 the advertisements, was to tap the country and bring its resources to 
 Capetown was delayed in its construction. The difficulties of a suc¬ 
 cessful operation were exaggerated and the marvelous stories, here¬ 
 tofore spread abroad, concerning the wealth of Manicaland were 
 discounted. The stock of the Chartered Company then fell rapidly 
 in value, only to be snapped up bv Mr. Rhodes and his friends, who 
 had now turned from sellers to heavy buyers. Then followed another 
 period of activity and of promotion, and the extension of the railroad 
 and its successful operation. This later history is now known to all 
 and need not here be further dwelt upon. 
 
 Great as these commercial achievements may have been and cun¬ 
 ningly wrought the lace-work of intrigue which lay behind them, 
 there were political plans and ambitions even more audacious and far 
 reaching. There can be no question that the dream of Cecil Rhodes 
 was a federated South African Republic, or rather empire, with him¬ 
 self at its head. He was not an imperialist as the term is generally 
 accepted. He was rather a South African Imperialist, and the views 
 of what might be called the British Imperialist in South Africa were 
 totally opposed to and repugnant to his. When once he had suffi¬ 
 ciently used those who adhered to the idea of a British rather than of 
 a South African Empire, he got rid of them as soon as an opportunity 
 offered. It is a noticeable fact that as soon as Manica was thoroly 
 occupied, all of the officers and servants of the Chartered Company 
 and even the officers of the regular army who had had any controll¬ 
 ing part in the numerous military occupations and expeditions, which 
 resulted in the occupation and conquest of Bechuanaland, Matabeland, 
 Mashonaland and Manica, were either summarily removed or were 
 transferred to distant posts. The power of the Chartered Company 
 with the High Commissioners of Cape Colony, Sir Hercules Robin¬ 
 son and Mr. Locke, was very great, and it was on the recommendation 
 of these officials that the home government acted. It is a noticeable 
 fact, indeed that at the opening of and even during the Boer War, 
 when it would seem that the services of officers and men who were 
 thoroly conversant with the country, both as regards its geography 
 and its peoples, were imperatively demanded, Lord Methuen and 
 General Buffer seem to have been practically the only officers of long 
 African experience who were engaged by the government. 
 
 The officers whose removal was obtained, were imperialists in the 
 strict sense of the term. They did not believe in a South African, 
 
144 
 
 The Quarterly Journal 
 
 but in a British Empire. They believed that the former would be 
 detrimental to the interests of the natives, and they were also too ^ 
 
 loyal to the British crown to favor any scheme which would result 
 in the breaking away of South Africa from the mother country. 
 
 They, therefore, stood for and advocated a system of government / 
 
 which had already been adopted in Basutoland, and which should 
 make of Basutoland, Matabeleland, Mashonaland and Rhodesia crown 
 colonies or residential dependencies. Mr. Rhodes, on the other hand, 
 had for many years been planning for a South African Nation or 
 State and for the merging into it of all of the native dependencies, 
 caring nothing for, but rather advocating the absolute annihilation of 
 the native tribes and races which must be the result of such a course 
 and of exposing the Negro to the competition of the white man. In 
 other words, Mr. Rhodes was an Afrikander and an advocate of the 
 South African Bund. The steps already taken in the furtherance of 
 his plans were already many and important. With the exception of 
 Basutoland, the Transvaal Republic, the Orange Free State, the small 
 strips of Portuguese territory on the east and west coasts and the 
 German district on the west, the entire control of South Africa was 
 in the hands of the political leaders of Cape Colony and of Natal, 
 who were all closely identified with the British South African Com¬ 
 pany. For many years care had been taken to prevent the Imperial 
 Government from taking too much interest in or assuming too much 
 responsibility for the occurrences in South Africa and from acquiring 
 a too intimate knowledge concerning them. If, for instance, the 
 reader may desire to look into the “London Daily Graphic” or the 
 other London papers which were published at the beginning and dur¬ 
 ing the progress of the Matabele war, he will find numerous inspired 
 articles, usually written by “A Pioneer,” which urged the home gov¬ 
 ernment to keep its hands off South Africa and the Matabele trouble. 
 
 These articles vigorously asserted the ability of the local authorities 
 in South Africa (The Chartered Company) to deal with the ques¬ 
 tion without the aid of the mother country and insisted upon the 
 advisability of allowing them to do so. So far, therefore, the Im¬ 
 perial Government had had but little to do with South Africa and 
 the public of both England and Africa had been educated to look 
 upon Mr. Rhodes and his circle of associates as the real empire 
 builders of the dark continent. A serious obstacle, however, was now 
 found in the Transvaal Republic. Unlike Matabeleland, Basuto¬ 
 land, Mashonaland and Rhodesia, where there were but few white 
 settlers, there was in the Transvaal Republic a Uitlander population 
 of nearly a quarter of a million persons and these were mostly men. 
 
 ) 
 
History of South Africa 
 
 145 
 
 Many of these Uitlanders had vested interests in the 
 country and the majority were loyal to the British throne 
 and to the idea of a British Empire. In the Transvaal, there¬ 
 fore, there was, naturally enough, experienced some difficulty 
 in perfecting the Bund, or at any rate a bund which should look upon 
 Mr. Cecil Rhodes as its creator, its saviour and its head. The grow¬ 
 ing discontent among the Uitlanders which for many years preceded 
 the invasion of Doctor Jameson at last furnished the opportunity to 
 Mr. Rhodes. Perhaps it might be more accurate to say that the dis¬ 
 content grew so acute and took such a course in its manifestations 
 that Mr. Rhodes was compelled to take active measures or to re¬ 
 nounce once and for all his dreams of personal political power and of 
 a federated South African Empire. For nearly four years preceding 
 the Jameson raid the Uitlanders in the Transvaal had been planning 
 an uprising and at the time of the raid were fully armed. They had 
 even gone so far as to bribe a number of Boer officials and to procure 
 the promise of the surrender of large stores of ammunition and of 
 other supplies. Mr Rhodes knew this. If the insurrenction were 
 once allowed to assume form under other leadership than his own 
 or to become successful without his aid or assistance, his chances of 
 winning the loyalty and support of the Uitlanders would be forever 
 lost, and with it his ambition of becoming the head of the African 
 Federation. The Uitlanders would have some other leaders, some 
 other Washingtons, around whose standards they would rally and 
 who would be their candidates for the office of president or dictator 
 of the South African Federation. The Jameson raid was therefore 
 undertaken. It failed lamentably merely because the Uitlanders mis¬ 
 trusted Mr. Rhodes and the Chartered Company and were not willing 
 to trust to their leadership. 
 
3 01121 
 
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