Boer History1855 in South Africa: Grey, Boshof, Smithfield, Port Nolloth, and Pretoria
Grey of the 15th of March, Wicht of the 26th, and the Report of the 9th of May — Colony 1855
Sir George Grey was in his first full year. He had taken the oaths on the 5th of December 1854 as governor of the Cape Colony and Natal and high commissioner for South Africa. He was the first civilian in that post after the earl of Caledon. The constitution of 1853 had given the colony a parliament, but the principal officials were still named in England and paid from a reserved civil list, so the chambers could not turn them out. That is why the first business of 1855 was whether a sitting parliament would take the further step to responsible government — ministers who held office only while they had a majority in the house. [3]
To meet the wants of the eastern province a lieutenant-governor had been appointed to live in Grahamstown and to command all the troops in South Africa, most of which were then in the annexed territory and at outposts on the border. Lieutenant-General Sir James Jackson assumed that office on the 30th of December 1854. All business connected with Albany, Fort Beaufort, Victoria East, Queenstown, Somerset East, Cradock, and Albert thereafter passed through his hands or his secretary’s. The eastern people did not regard this as of any advantage, because everything of importance still had to be referred to Capetown. He could act on his own only in trifling routine, in a sudden emergency, and in military affairs. The appointment mattered because the east wanted a government of its own, and because a lieutenant-governor who could not decide was not the answer they had asked for. [3]
On the 15th of March the second session of the Cape parliament — in which death and resignation had caused a few changes in the personnel — was opened. Grey laid before the chambers various proposals for advancing the prosperity of the colony, and met with a hearty response. Among those proposals was the enlargement of the supreme court to a chief justice and 3 puisne judges, which was resolved upon. The enlargement was needed to meet the demands upon the time of judges when on circuit. Sir John Wylde was still chief justice. Menzies had died at Colesberg on circuit on the 1st of November 1850. On the 1st of February 1851 William Musgrave had been appointed first, and Advocate Sydney Smith Bell second, puisne judge, gazetted in Capetown on the 23rd of July of that year. On Musgrave’s death Advocate John Watts Ebden had been appointed provisionally by the acting governor on the 7th of October 1854, and had been confirmed as second puisne judge, Bell becoming first. Recorder Henry Cloete was promoted from Natal to the Cape bench when an additional judge was required, and on the 8th of November took the oaths of office. [3]
The question of the form of government was brought on for discussion, more to ascertain the views of the colonists generally than with any desire for immediate change. On the 26th of March a motion of Johan Hendrik Wicht, seconded by Francis William Reitz, was carried in the legislative council: that a select committee should consider the expediency of introducing responsible or parliamentary government, and that Sir Andries Stockenstrom and Messrs Reitz, Godlonton, De Wet, and the mover should form the committee. This was followed on the 5th of April by a resolution of John Paterson in the house of assembly, that the experience of the first and present sessions fully justified an expression of opinion that the immediate introduction of responsible parliamentary government was both expedient and necessary, and that a select committee should enquire into the best means and report on the amendments to be made in the constitution ordinances. In favour of that resolution 23 members gave their votes: Abercrombie, Barry, Biccard, Bosman, H. Bowker, M. Bowker, Cawood, Fairbairn, Grisbrook, Hartman, Jarvis, Krog, Von Maltitz, Meintjes, Molteno, Painter, Paterson, Shepperson, Sieberhagen, Solomon, Stretch, Tancred, and Ziervogel. Against it were only 9: Arderne, Christie, Darnell, Gilfillan, Maynard, Stewart, De Villiers, Watson, and White. A committee of Fairbairn, Solomon, Molteno, Meintjes, and Paterson brought in a report on the 9th of May in favour of the introduction of responsible government, and pointing out that this could be effected by the alteration of a single clause in the constitution ordinance. The report mattered because the constitution of 1853 had stopped short of making ministers answerable to the house, and because a single clause was all that stood between a parliament and a cabinet. [3]
Here the question rested. On the 15th of May a petition of the British settlers in Albany, with 503 names attached to it, was presented in the legislative council, objecting to the proposed change, and in that chamber no further action was taken during the session. In the west opinion was divided as to whether the colony was ripe for responsible government. In the east the British settlers, almost to a man, were strongly opposed. Their argument was that the old Dutch inhabitants were in a very large majority, that English influence in parliament could only be temporary, and that once debates no longer had to be in English a British minority would lie at the mercy of a majority not of their nationality or speech. On the 7th of June parliament was prorogued. The petition mattered because the east would not accept a cabinet chosen by a Dutch-speaking majority, and because the report of the 9th of May was left on the table. [3]
Port Nolloth of March, 1,893 Tons, and the Bubble — Namaqualand 1855
Commander Nolloth had been instructed by the commodore on the station to make a careful examination of the Namaqualand coast in her Majesty’s brig of war Frolic, and particularly to ascertain if there was any safe harbour on it. Copper companies had multiplied in 1854 as far east as Grahamstown. Capetown took the lead: shares in the Alliance, the Colonial, the Cape of Good Hope, the Eagle, the Equitable, the Nabas, the New Burra Burra, the No. 6, the South African, the Victoria, the Tradesmen’s, the Union, the Western Province, and several more were eagerly taken up. Even the Paarl had its mining company. An association in Capetown sent prospectors north of the Orange, and under the name of the Walfish Bay mining company shipped several tons of ore from that district. Parties of labourers were sent by sea to Hondeklip Bay, many of them under incompetent overseers, some to localities with no ore at all. The government directed a geologist to survey the district, but his report was not waited for. Nolloth found no harbour better than Hondeklip Bay, which afforded shelter for boats while vessels larger than small cutters had to anchor off it in the open sea, and Robbe Bay, which was similar in character. To the last mentioned his name was given by the governor in March, and it has ever since been termed Port Nolloth. The naming mattered because the west coast had no closed harbour, and because the ore still had to be lightered off an open roadstead. [3]
In this year the copper bubble burst. A feverish anxiety to dispose of shares prevailed for a time, and ended in the dissolution of most of the companies. A good deal of capital had been thrown away, many grand expectations had been shattered, but the colony had added to its exports an article of standing value. Amidst the general failures 2 companies achieved a splendid success. The mine of Springbokfontein, owned by Messrs Philips and King, proved immensely rich and productive, as did also the mine of Spektakel, shortly afterwards acquired by the same firm. The only difficulty experienced was in the matter of transport, for the animal power of the country was insufficient to convey the ore to the coast as fast as it could be got ready. Mules were imported, but as their forage had to be brought from distant parts of the colony, the expense of keeping them was very great. Another firm — Messrs Prince, Collison & Co. of Capetown — was successful in working the Concordia mine, though on a smaller scale. The progress of the new industry is shown in the custom-house returns: in 1852 31 tons of ore were sent to England, in 1853 199 tons, in 1854 1,084 tons, and in this year 1,893 tons. [3]
The government when issuing licenses to mining companies did all that was possible to protect the rights of the Khoikhoi and San occupants of the district, but these certainly were not benefited by the influx of so many strangers of loose habits. As for the farmers who had been living there, many of them did not attempt to accommodate themselves to the new order of things, but moved away to the territory between the Vaal and the Orange, where they could hope to continue the quiet kind of life to which they were attached. The opening of the copper mines had no effect whatever upon the great majority of the people of the Cape Colony, who remained a purely agricultural and pastoral community. After the industry became settled, the white labour employed was obtained from Cornwall, and the district was as secluded, owing to its physical features and its barrenness, as if it had been an island. The mines provided a small market for Cape produce, but that was sent by sea from Capetown to Hondeklip Bay or Port Nolloth, and the farmers came no closer in contact with the consumers than did the Malay fishermen on the south-western coast with the labourers on the sugar plantations of Mauritius for whose use they dried snoek and geelbek. [3]
The Tariff of the 4th of May, Currie of December, and 100,000 Head — Colony 1855
Another improvement in providing increased means for administering justice was the creation of 9 new districts, and the appointment of resident magistrates to Oudtshoorn and Aliwal North in July, to Prince Albert, Calvinia, and Kamaggas — subsequently removed to Springbokfontein — in August, to Bredasdorp in September, and to Victoria West and Middelburg in November. Alexandria followed in January of the next calendar. The new seats mattered because the old districts were too large for a single magistrate to police, and because Namaqualand and the north-eastern border now had courts of their own. [3]
Of equal, if not greater, importance in the interests of justice and the preservation of order was the enlargement of the frontier armed and mounted police. At the conclusion of the war that body of light cavalry had been reduced to 15 officers and 260 men, and after the 1st of April 1853 its maintenance had been made a charge upon the colonial revenue. Parliament now resolved to enlarge it, and an act was passed for its better organisation and regulation, under which by the 1st of December it was brought up to a strength of 1 commandant, 4 inspectors, 12 sub-inspectors, 20 sergeants, 20 corporals, and 500 privates enlisted for 3 years. Walter Currie, one of the English settlers of 1820, was appointed commandant, and most of the officers were selected from the young farmers of Albany, who knew the country and the habits of the Xhosa thoroughly. The privates were young Englishmen, generally of a superior class. The enlargement mattered because the imperial garrison was being reduced, and because a colonial police that knew the border was cheaper than another regiment. [3]
By another act of this session divisional councils were created, and were entrusted with the duties previously performed by the divisional road boards, the district school commissions, and the courts for the better regulation of pounds and prevention of trespasses. Each division was thereafter represented by 6 councillors elected for 3 years by those persons who were qualified to vote for members of parliament. The civil commissioner of the division by virtue of his office was constituted chairman of the council. A great change was made in the customs tariff, partly for revenue purposes and partly to meet the views that now prevailed in the mother country. Great Britain, having attained unchallenged supremacy as a manufacturing and maritime power, had adopted free trade. The Cape parliament, guided by English opinion, passed a tariff act which placed goods imported from Great Britain and from foreign countries on the same level, and made no distinction whatever between the flags of the ships in which they were conveyed. On the 4th of May the new act came in force, under which a number of articles were specially rated, a number of others were admitted free, and 7½ per cent of the value of everything else was levied. As the great bulk of the trade was with England, this was practically equivalent to adding 50 per cent to the duties on goods from that country. An act for encouraging the introduction of European labourers was also passed, but very little resulted from it. [3]
A question that occupied much time was that connected with the Kat river Khoikhoi. There were then some 400 of these people and deserters from the Cape regiment in the Transkeian territories, where their presence tended to evil. In the confiscation of the properties of rebels there had undoubtedly been several instances in which individuals who had not been proved guilty had suffered hardships. The members of parliament were desirous that all cases of wrong should be redressed, and that the refugee Khoikhoi should be permitted to return to the colony, but not to the immediate frontier where they might cause mischief. This course was followed by the government. On close examination the real grievances dwindled away to a very small proportion of the alleged ones, and as these were rectified and most of the fugitives withdrew quietly from the country east of the Kei, this matter was set at rest. [3]
Much distress was caused to the farming community at this time by great losses of horned cattle from lungsickness, which had been brought into the colony in 1854 by a bull from Holland that was landed at Mossel Bay. Despite all precautions the disease, which was of a very virulent nature, spread rapidly over South Africa, and it was computed that before March of the next calendar in the Cape Colony alone fully 100,000 head of horned cattle had died of it. From the earliest days of the settlement different ailments of cattle had been prevalent — strangury from a glutinous shrub, tulp, loose hoof, sponsziekte among calves, lamziekte after droughts — but none so destructive as the lung sickness on its first appearance. It baffled all attempts to discover either a preventive or a cure. The price of oxen was doubled or trebled as soon as the first wave had passed over the country, and butchers’ meat that had previously been sold at 2¼ pence now rose to 4½ or 5 pence a pound. There were then no other means of conveying goods or produce from one place to another than by waggons drawn by bullocks, so the charges for transport were increased, and there was a corresponding rise in the cost of living everywhere in South Africa. During the summers of 1854–5 the horse distemper also raged with unusual severity, and no fewer than 65,000 animals perished from it in the colony. This was a heavy loss to individual owners, though it was not such a public calamity as the destruction of horned cattle by lungsickness. Horses kept in stables, and not allowed to run on the veld until the sun had dried up all the dew on the grass, were not attacked; those that were swept off were the inferior ones that had not been considered worth the expense of keeping in stalls. [3]
The public revenue amounted in 1854 to £261,724, and in this year to £257,711. Customs yielded £122,184 in the former year and £129,841 in this. There were also special receipts, which cannot be regarded as revenue proper, of £18,413 in 1854, of which £12,297 was derived from the sale of land, and £16,155 in this year, though in this year the land sales fell to £5,886. Expenditure ran to £286,841, against £287,704 in 1854. There were in 1854 about 140,000 Europeans and 210,000 coloured people within the colonial boundaries. Sheep’s wool was now not only the first article in importance, but exceeded in value all other products of the country put together. Through the ports of the Cape Colony passed the productions of the territory north of the Orange and most of those of Natal. Wool was valued at £501,135 in 1853, £446,940 in 1854, and £634,130 in this year. Total exports stood at £733,245, £666,397, and £970,839 in those three years. The imports for home consumption amounted in value in 1854 to £1,470,030, and in this year to £1,181,563, thus greatly exceeding the exports. The vessels that entered the ports of the Cape Colony in 1854 numbered 704 British and 122 foreign, with a total of 240,543 tons, and in this year 764 British and 130 foreign, with a total of 211,019 tons. A steam packet put into Table Bay regularly every month from England and from India under a contract with the General Screw Steam Navigation Company. There were now 13 banks in the colony, exclusive of the savings bank, which had its principal office in Capetown and 12 branches, one as far east as Grahamstown. [3]
A plan of harbour works for Table Bay, drawn up for the admiralty engineer Rendell by John Scott Tucker, was sent out and laid before parliament in this year. The estimated cost was £500,000. A report upon it by a committee of the house of assembly was adopted, to the effect that the lords of the admiralty should decide upon the plan and engage an engineer to carry it out. There was then a sum of £30,000 in hand, and a revenue of £16,000 a year from double wharfage fees would be available as interest on the remaining capital. Grey, in forwarding the report, expressed a desire that the imperial government should undertake the work. The plan mattered because winter gales had wrecked ships in Table Bay with little loss of life but much delay, and because in summer as well as in winter vessels were frequently detained for many days when strong winds made landing impossible. On the 25th of June, after the session had closed, Grey founded the South African Museum by appointing Rawson W. Rawson, colonial secretary, and Dr Ludovic Pappe as trustees, and Edgar Layard as curator. The old natural history museum founded by Dr Andrew Smith had been allowed to fall into decay. The collection was not opened to the public until January of the next calendar, in a house in St George’s street. [3]
The Fort of February, Platberg of the 9th of August, and Boshof of the 27th — Orange Free State 1855
During President Hoffman’s visit to Moshesh in August 1854 he had been received at all the principal stations with salutes of musketry fired in his honour. Ammunition had seemed plentiful, yet Moshesh had asked for a present of gunpowder. The president had promised him some, and upon returning to Bloemfontein had sent him a keg containing 50 pounds. In the report of his journey laid before the volksraad during its next meeting this circumstance was not mentioned, but soon after the close of the session it became known. At once there was a great outcry against Hoffman, raised by those who had all along accused him of lowering the dignity of the Europeans by his method of dealing with the Basuto chief. They now openly spoke of him as guilty of treason. The keg mattered because the Free State had no garrison behind it after the flag of the 11th of March 1854, and because a present of powder to Moshesh looked to many burghers like arming the man who stole their cattle. [3] [3]
In February the volksraad met again, when it was found that the report in the records contained information concerning the gunpowder. Upon this a party of disaffected burghers, headed by some members of the volksraad, took possession of the fort, and pointed the guns at the president’s house. The direction of public opinion was evident when this riotous proceeding met with hardly a remonstrance. The result was that Hoffman tendered his resignation, which was immediately accepted, and a committee of 4 members, with Jacobus Johannes Venter as chairman, was appointed to administer the government until another president could be chosen and sworn in. Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof was recommended to the people by the volksraad, and in course of time was duly elected. The seizure mattered because the infant republic had no other force with which to keep its own fort, and because Hoffman’s conciliation of Moshesh had lost the burghers. [3] [3]
The intercourse between the executive committee and Moshesh was carried on in a friendly manner, each expressing a desire for the continuation of peace. But as the depredations upon the border farmers increased greatly after Hoffman’s retirement, Venter wrote to the chief that the only means of preserving peace would be for him to compel his people to do no wrong to the burghers of the Free State. Robberies followed, however, on such an extensive scale that many farmers were compelled to remove from the neighbourhood of the Basuto, while Moshesh continued as usual to deprecate war. Venter then arranged for a meeting, which took place at Platberg on the 9th of August. It was there agreed that any one losing cattle by theft should be at liberty to search for them in Moshesh’s country, provided he went unarmed and carried a pass from the head of the state. Nothing could show more plainly than this agreement the helplessness of the infant republic, or the desire of its government to avoid a rupture with the Basuto. Venter was a man of common sense and knew that such an arrangement was worthless, yet he felt that under the circumstances nothing else could be done. The pass mattered because a burgher who went unarmed into the Lesuto to look for his own cattle was asking Moshesh’s leave, not enforcing a boundary. [3] [3]
On the 27th of August Boshof was installed as president of the Free State. He was a man of some education, and had received such a training in office work as enabled him to put the various departments of the public service into something like order. With regard to Moshesh, he was disposed to adopt a firmer course of dealing than Hoffman had done, not because he was less anxious to preserve peace, but because he believed conciliation had been carried so far as to destroy the respect due to a civilised government. On the 30th of August the volksraad resolved that Harrismith should be separated from Winburg again, but the resolution was not yet carried into effect. In August J. A. Smellekamp was confirmed as landdrost of Bloemfontein, having been selected by Hoffman to act after P. M. Bester had declined the appointment. The installation mattered because the Free State now had a president who meant to treat Moshesh as a neighbour, not as a patron, and because the departments at Bloemfontein had been running without order since February. [3] [3]
Burnet of April, Smithfield of October, and the Vetberg Line — Orange Free State 1855
Grey saw at once that matters were fast drifting towards war between the Free State and the Basuto tribe, and that such a war must endanger the prestige of the Europeans throughout South Africa. To prevent it, if possible, while at the same time taking care not to involve the British government in any responsibilities, he arranged for a meeting between Boshof and Moshesh at Aliwal North, at which he should be present as a friend of both and endeavour to bring about a good understanding between them, though without assuming the title of arbitrator. The president and the chief entered into the plan with apparent cordiality, but on the appointed day Moshesh failed to appear. After waiting some time, the governor and the president proceeded to Smithfield, and on the way met the chief with a party of his people, who rode on with them. On the 5th of October a formal meeting took place at Smithfield, but little good seemed likely to result from it, as Moshesh declared that he had not come on business but on a friendly visit. Next morning Grey sent for him with his sons Letsie, Masupha, and Nehemiah, and a few of his principal counsellors, when he pointed out the necessity of some definite understanding being arrived at between the president and the chief, if hostilities were to be avoided. Moshesh spoke of his wish to live in peace with all men, and as he was really desirous not to offend or lose favour with the governor, he consented to meet Boshof again and discuss matters with him. The meeting mattered because Britain had withdrawn from the Sovereignty in 1854 and would not fight Moshesh for the Free State, and because Grey’s presence was the only pressure the republic still had. [3] [3]
A conference followed, in which Grey confined himself to making suggestions, but these were received on both sides as authoritative, and were therefore assented to and committed to writing. Nehemiah, Moshesh’s son, who was present and took part in the discussion, understood and spoke the English language, so that the chief was thoroughly acquainted with every proposal that he agreed to. The whole of the conditions were then arranged in the form of a treaty of 10 articles. Every Mosuto entering the Free State should be furnished with a pass signed by a chief or missionary; hunting parties should obtain permission from the landdrost of a district before entering it; subjects of Moshesh disobeying these regulations should be liable to punishment by the Free State courts. In case of the spoor of stolen cattle being traced to any chief’s location, information thereof should be given to such chief, who should follow it up; any further measures should only take place between Moshesh, or the chief to whom the spoor was given over, and the landdrost of the district from which the cattle were stolen. If the stolen cattle were restored and the thief delivered to be punished according to the laws of the Free State, no further compensation should be demanded; but if the thief should not be given up, the stolen property should be restored, together with a fine of 4 times its value, and every such case should be settled within 2 months of demand being made. Subjects of Moshesh trespassing on the farms of Free State burghers, and refusing to move when desired to do so by a fieldcornet, should be driven away by force; in case of dispute about the ownership of land by any burgher of the Free State, the matter should be settled by the chief and the president jointly, or by officers appointed to act for them; burghers of the Free State trespassing on land in the territory of Moshesh, and refusing to remove when called upon to do so, should be driven away by force. No boundary line was referred to in the articles, but the clause respecting the ownership of ground met that difficulty, for the farms up to the Warden line were held under British titles, and the Free State claimed nothing farther. Moshesh signed the agreement, as he afterwards asserted, to avoid offending Grey; but he took no trouble to observe it. The silence on the Warden line mattered because Clerk had called that line a dead horse in 1854, and because the farms still held British titles up to it. [3] [3]
During this visit of Grey to the country north of the Orange, he proposed to the French missionaries to establish a training school in Basutoland, in which schoolmasters and evangelists could be educated, and young men be instructed in such handicrafts as those of the blacksmith, carpenter, and mason. The governor had at his disposal a considerable sum of money supplied by the British treasury for the purpose of attempting to raise the blacks of South Africa in civilisation, and on this fund he spoke of drawing to meet the preliminary expenses. He proposed that the institution should be under the direction of the French mission. The missionaries entered heartily into the plan, and they secured a suitable site by means of transfer from Moshesh, who was also favourable to the project; but by the time the arrangements were completed the governor found that the whole of the funds at his disposal would be required in the annexed territory east of the Keiskama, and the design therefore fell through. [3]
Clerk had stationed John Burnet, an old Sovereignty civil servant, at Bloemfontein, with the title of British Agent, and had been disposed to place an officer in a similar diplomatic capacity with Moshesh at Thaba Bosigo, had there been funds available from which his salary could be paid. Grey was of opinion that without such an agent at Thaba Bosigo the retention of Burnet at Bloemfontein would only cause jealousy between the Europeans and the Basuto, and in April he moved him to Aliwal North, where he gave him the appointment of civil commissioner and resident magistrate, while retaining his services as a medium for obtaining information upon all matters and events occurring north of the Orange. The move mattered because article 9 of the Bloemfontein convention had provided for a British agent near the colonial frontier, and because Grey would not keep an agent in the Free State capital without a counterpart at Thaba Bosigo. [3] [3]
The Free State government, acting upon the report of the commission appointed in April 1854, admitted the pretensions of the captains Nicholas Waterboer and Cornelis Kok to the ground between the Modder and Orange rivers up to the western boundary of Adam Kok’s reserve, that is the line from Ramah to David’s Graf. In August the volksraad resolved to employ a surveyor to place beacons along that line. The contending captains then requested Adam Kok to act as arbitrator, and he, in October, divided the district between them by a boundary thereafter termed the Vetberg line. By this division the right of Cornelis Kok to a tract of land along the southern bank of the Modder was acknowledged, but Waterboer obtained much the larger share of the territory in dispute. There were 2 farms and part of a third held by Europeans under British titles along Waterboer’s side of the Vetberg line, but the Free State, in confirming the settlement, excluded these from his territory, because it was a fundamental law of Waterboer’s clan not to dispose of land to Europeans. Within the territory enclosed by the Vaal, the Orange, and the Vetberg line thus rectified, Waterboer was thereafter recognised as possessing sovereign rights as well as ownership of the ground. With Cornelis Kok it was different. His right of property in unsold ground was admitted, but dominion over it and every one living upon it was kept by the Free State, as transferred by Clerk. The captain and nearly the whole of the clan lived at Campbell, beyond the Vaal, and there they were regarded as entirely independent. The line mattered because it later became the eastern edge of the tract called Albania, and because Waterboer was treated as a sovereign east of the Vaal, not merely as a landowner. [3] [3]
£40,000, Healdtown, and 424 Men — Annexed Territory 1855
To break the belief of the Xhosa in the power of witchcraft, Grey resolved to build a hospital where their sick could have the benefit of medical treatment free of charge. Already some cases which had been given up as hopeless by Bantu practitioners, and which had been pronounced by them to be due to powerful witchcraft, had been successfully treated at Dohne Post by Dr H. Veriker Bindon, of the 6th regiment, and this had excited much attention among the Gaikas. A large and constant demand was made upon Bindon’s benevolence by sick persons, who were brought to him by their friends for treatment. The high commissioner therefore caused the fine building in King William’s Town ever since termed the Grey Hospital to be put up, and attached spacious grounds to it on all sides. The work was carried out largely by military labourers, but Xhosa were employed to assist as much as possible. A physician Grey had known in New Zealand, Dr J. P. Fitzgerald, was secured to take charge, though he did not arrive until February of the next calendar. The hospital mattered because a cure that a Xhosa doctor had called witchcraft was, in Grey’s view, the shortest way to break the power of the war-doctors. [3]
The establishment of industrial schools in which Bantu children could be taught the trades of the carpenter, smith, waggonmaker, and other mechanics, was encouraged by Grey. 2 such institutions were grafted upon earlier mission schools at this time, and received subsidies from the government: that at Healdtown in the district of Fort Beaufort, established by the Wesleyan society, and that at Lovedale in the district of Victoria East, established by the Free Church of Scotland. These were, however, beyond the border of the annexed territory. All these items cost money, and the revenue of the province was trifling. The imperial authorities supported Grey’s views for the reclamation of the Xhosa, and in this year supplied him with £40,000 to carry them into effect — the first of 3 such annual grants. Two new mission stations were also founded in the province in this year: Wartburg, in Sandile’s location, by the Berlin missionary society, and St Matthew’s at Keiskama Hoek, by the episcopal church of England. [3]
For the security of the province, and to enable the garrison to be reduced, the high commissioner proposed to the secretary of state to introduce European settlers on a plan that he had tried with excellent results in New Zealand. On the 7th of March he wrote asking that 1,000 families of enrolled pensioners should be sent out at once, to be followed gradually by 4,000 families more. He intended to station these people at the different military posts, and to provide each family with a cottage and an acre of ground, to which title should be given after 7 years’ occupation. The settlers would have their pensions and their gardens to live upon, and their children, he believed, would find better openings as they grew up in the annexed territory than they could in England. So convinced was he that this plan would be successful that he at once set about preparing cottages in King William’s Town for the first families that should arrive. Adjoining the village then existing 2 long streets crossing each other at right angles were laid out, and on each side of them plots of ground were marked off, on which in the winter of this year military labourers began to put up cottages. They were built of brick, and covered with thatch, the roof projecting in front to form a verandah. Each contained 2 rooms, and as 2 cottages adjoined and were under one roof, the cost of erection was only between £30 and £40 for each. The officer who laid off Queen-street and Cambridge-road in King William’s Town, and who superintended the erection of the first cottages along them, was George Pomeroy Colley, then a lieutenant in the 2nd regiment. When the proposal was made to them, a sufficient number of married enrolled pensioners in England declined to remove to the annexed territory, and the cottages were then given to married soldiers — mostly non-commissioned officers — discharged in the province. The part of the town in which they stand is still known as the Pensioners’ village. The office of secretary of state changed under Grey while the request sat: Lord John Russell was followed on the 21st of July by Sir William Molesworth, who died on the 22nd of October, and on the 21st of November Henry Labouchere succeeded. Grey hoped that hostilities might be averted if the pensioners or a German legion should arrive at once. None of the former came out. [3]
Before those cottages were occupied there were only 949 Europeans other than military residing in the annexed territory. Of these, 626 were in King William’s Town, 267 at various military posts, and 56 at mission stations. There were 124 Europeans resident in East London, which was not then part of the province. Of the whole, 424 were men, 207 women, and 442 children. The imports into the province through East London, then a dependency of the Cape Colony, amounted in this year to £79,930; the exports through that port from the province amounted to £30,985. A very small proportion of the imports came direct from England, the great bulk of the trade being coastwise. Peace with the Xhosa and Thembu had hardly been concluded when the frontier colonists became apprehensive that it would not be maintained long, and indeed the conduct of the leading chiefs gave them abundant cause for suspicion. It soon became evident that a close union between Pato’s clan and the Gaikas was being formed, and that the Fingo were being tampered with. Professions of friendship towards those people were openly made by chiefs who had previously never spoken of them but as of dogs; matrimonial connections with them were encouraged, and offences against them were severely punished. The spread of lungsickness among cattle from the Cape Colony into the annexed territory in this year tended to increase the disposition of the people for war. It made its appearance first among the herds of Pato and Umhala, and was attributed by the people to witchcraft caused by the white man. [3] [4]
In the session of parliament in this year a committee of the legislative council, appointed to investigate this matter, on the 21st of May reported that early in October 1854 indications of restlessness and excitement among the Fingo residing on the locations in the divisions of Victoria East and Fort Beaufort were first observed and brought under the notice of government. This state of feeling did not appear to have been confined to any particular location, but to have existed generally among the Fingo on the immediate frontier. No overt act sufficient to excite general apprehension of danger on the part of the European inhabitants had been committed, however, either by any of the Xhosa chiefs or the headmen of the Fingo, with one exception. Jokweni, a Fingo chief residing near Fort Peddie, taking advantage of the excited feelings of his countrymen, had made overtures to some of the Xhosa chiefs, stating that the government was about to institute laws under which they could not live, that his sympathies were with those of his own race, and that he desired again to reside with his people among the Xhosa, for the purpose of being beyond reach of British authority. These overtures were favourably entertained. A large beer-drinking meeting was held, at which most of the border chiefs were present, as well as several Fingo of influence. At this meeting the expediency of forming an alliance with the Fingo was discussed, and the conclusion arrived at was that such an alliance was desirable and that it should be promoted by intermarriage, the chiefs and headmen first setting the example. The proposed confederacy of the tribes for hostile purposes was prospective, there being no evidence to show that any immediate outbreak was intended. Through the vigilance of the chief commissioner in the annexed territory, early intimation of the proceedings of this meeting was forwarded to the government, and prompt measures were taken by the lieutenant-general in command of the forces to provide against any emergency. These precautionary measures, and the arrival of a detachment of troops at the Buffalo mouth, checked any hostile intentions, if such existed, on the part of the adjacent clans. Shortly after the report it became known that Kreli was seeking to form alliances with the tribes behind him, and that there was a close though secret intercourse between him and Moshesh. In July the reserve battalion of the 91st left for England. There were left in the colony, the annexed territory, and Natal the first battalion of the 2nd, the 6th, the second battalion of the 12th, the united battalions of the 45th, the second battalion of the 60th, and the 73rd — in all 6 battalions, some of them defective in numerical strength — besides the Cape mounted rifle regiment and Currie’s police. [3] [4]
Pine of the 3rd of March, Pretoria of November, and the Siren of the 19th of August — Natal and the Vaal 1855
Benjamin Chilley Campbell Pine left Natal on leave of absence on the 3rd of March and did not return. Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Cooper acted from that day. The same want of labour that had caused the abandonment of cotton growing was experienced on the cane plantations, and even at this early stage the proprietors were beginning to turn their eyes towards India as a source from which field hands might be obtained. None, however, were actually introduced in this year. Arrowroot, ginger, coffee, indigo, tobacco, and flax were all experimented with, and all were found to thrive. The orange in all its varieties, the pineapple, the banana, and many other fruits were introduced, and in this year began to be exported, chiefly as preserves. In this year the lung sickness among horned cattle was introduced into Natal from the territory beyond the Drakensberg, and caused enormous loss to the settlers, particularly to the Dutch farmers, whose principal support was derived from their herds. This induced them to turn their attention to breeding woolled sheep, which were found to thrive very well on the highlands. The disease mattered in Natal because a Dutch farmer’s wealth was still counted in cattle, and because wool on the highlands was the substitute that remained. [3]
In November Cloete was promoted to be third puisne judge in the Cape Colony, and was succeeded by Walter Harding as acting recorder of Natal. The revenue of the district in this year was £28,436 10s. 1d. Most of the export trade was coastwise with the Cape Colony, but in this year shipment to England commenced. On the 19th of August the Siren sailed from the port. Grey, as governor of the Cape Colony and Natal and high commissioner for South Africa, saw at once that a scheme then under discussion for moving people from Natal to the eastern border of the old colony was fraught with danger, inasmuch as it would multiply the barbarians on that border and most likely not relieve Natal in the least, as the vacuum created would at once be filled by a stream of refugees from Zululand. On the 3rd of December he addressed a long despatch to the secretary of state, in which he explained his objections to the scheme so fully that the imperial authorities caused it to be abandoned. The despatch mattered because Natal’s black population was already being swelled by Zulu refugees, and because emptying locations on the Tugela would only refill them from Panda’s country. [3]
North of the Vaal river, for several years after the death of Commandant-General Andries Pretorius, confusion and discord were rife. The government was so weak that to many persons it must seem a misnomer to call it a government at all. Practically it had no revenue, except a trifling sum paid as land tax by some of the farmers when they felt so disposed. There was no police. Yet there was very little crime, and neither person nor property was in danger, except from tribes of Bantu. The white population was increasing, though not very rapidly, by fresh arrivals from the Cape Colony. In June the volksraad threw open the country to immigrants from any part of Europe, on condition that they should bring certificates of good character from the government under which they had previously lived. They were not to be entitled to hold landed property, to fill situations in the public service, or to exercise electoral privileges, before obtaining burgher rights; but these they could acquire by payment of £15 to the public treasury. Only a few individuals from the Netherlands availed themselves of the offer, however; for to the vast majority of the people of Europe even the existence of the republic was unknown. [3] [3]
In this year the volksraad met in session at Elands River, and a petition was presented asking for the appointment of a committee to draft a new constitution. The adherents of M. W. Pretorius being in a majority, this was agreed to, and a committee of 3 members was appointed for the purpose, one of whom was Paul Kruger. An educated Hollander named Jacobus Stuart, visiting the country in the interests of a trading association, assisted the committee. The party lines of difference in ecclesiastical matters coincided with those of difference in political matters. One side was in favour of a strong central government and a church independent of foreign control; the other favoured district legislative councils allied for defence and a church connected with the Cape synod. In November the volksraad concluded an arrangement with Pretorius for the transfer of 2 farms which he had purchased from the original owners, and established upon them a township named Pretoria. The town was made the centre of a new district bearing the same name, after the late commandant-general. The majority of the people of Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, and Pretoria practically accepted no more of the thirty-three articles than pleased them. In this year the Swazis ceded to the South African Republic a narrow strip of land along the northern bank of the Pongolo as far down as the Lebombo mountains, purposely to get a body of white men between them and the Zulus. On the 21st of July W. F. Joubert and others purchased further ground from Swazi, the son of Sapusa, a transaction later treated as part of the eastern title of Lydenburg. The township mattered because the four districts north of the Vaal had still no agreed capital, and because a town named for Andries Pretorius was a marker for the centralising party, not yet a seat of government. [3] [3]