Boer History1856 in South Africa: Grey, Nongqause, Natal’s Charter, Potchefstroom, and Cetewayo
Stockenstrom of the 3rd of April, Fairbridge of the 10th, and the Prorogation of the 4th of June — Colony 1856
Sir George Grey was in his second 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. 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. In 1855 a select committee had reported that responsible government — ministers who held office only while they had a majority in the house — could be introduced by altering a single clause. That report had been left on the table. That is why the first business of 1856 was whether a sitting parliament would take the clause. [3]
Before March of this year, in the Cape Colony alone, fully 100,000 head of horned cattle had died of lungsickness, brought in 1854 by a bull from Holland landed at Mossel Bay. The price of oxen had doubled or trebled. Butchers’ meat that had sold at 2 pence farthing had risen to 4 pence halfpenny or 5 pence a pound. Transport by bullock-waggon had risen with it, and the cost of living everywhere in South Africa. During the summers of 1854–5 and 1855–6 the horse distemper had raged with unusual severity, and no fewer than 65,000 animals had perished from it in the colony. Horses kept in stables, and not allowed to run on the veld until the sun had dried the dew, were not attacked; those swept off were the inferior ones not thought worth stalls. The losses mattered because a Cape farmer’s wealth was still counted in cattle and horses, and because political questions, keenly debated of late years, were not banished even so. [3]
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. Representation under those conditions, they said, would be a bitter mockery. The Roman Catholic bishop of Grahamstown put the eastern fear in a sentence: responsible government meant the plunder of the colony. To many people not otherwise opposed it was doubtful whether a sudden leap from the absolutism that had so recently ceased would be prudent. The constitution of 1853 had been received as a boon; they wanted it given a fair trial. The result of the agitation was that when parliament met again on the 13th of March the opinions of many members of the house of assembly were found to have undergone a change. [3]
On the 3rd of April Sir Andries Stockenstrom moved in the legislative council that there should be a responsible ministry to advise the governor in the execution of the powers committed to him by her Majesty’s commission. This was seconded by Johan Hendrik Wicht and carried by a majority of 5, Messrs Rutherfoord, Reitz, Barry, Ebden, Van Breda, Metelerkamp, and Fleming voting with the mover and seconder, and Messrs Vigne, Godlonton, Wood, and Cock voting against. In the house of assembly on the 10th of April Charles Aken Fairbridge moved, and Charles Pote seconded, that the introduction of responsible government was against the feeling of the country, a premature measure, and not suited to the present state of the colony. Saul Solomon, seeing that the full change would not be adopted, moved as an amendment that members of the executive council should be qualified to be returned to either house, and in case of non-election should sit ex officio without the power of voting. The debate occupied the chamber the whole of the 10th and the 11th of April, and at its close responsible government was lost by a majority of 8. Those voting for it were Abercrombie, Arderne, Barry, Biccard, Bosman, Fairbairn, Grisbrook, Jarvis, Laws, Meintjes, Molteno, Paterson, Solomon, Stretch, Wehmeyer, and Ziervogel; those against it Armstrong, H. Bowker, M. Bowker, Christie, Cawood, Darnell, Duckitt, Fairbridge, Loedolff, Von Maltitz, Maynard, Munnik, Niewoudt, Painter, Pote, Scanlen, Shepperson, Stewart, Steytler, Tancred, Turner, De Villiers, Wiggins, and Wright. Of the 24 opponents 13 were eastern province and 11 western province members. The votes mattered because the council had said yes and the assembly no, and because a cabinet answerable to the house would not be formed this year. [3]
The British settlers desired the separation of the two provinces and a complete administration in each. Removal of the seat of government to Grahamstown had almost ceased to be discussed, as outside Albany the people everywhere were opposed to it. The principal argument for separation was the necessity of a strong and vigilant administration in the neighbourhood of the Xhosa. Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the eastern province used against separation the same argument the British settlers used against responsible government: they would have none of it, because it might leave them a hopeless minority. On the 27th of May an animated discussion in the house of assembly ended in 7 members voting for separation and 19 voting against it. Next to responsible government and separation, the subject that occupied most attention was state support of the clergy. There was no established church; some of the smaller religious bodies maintained their own ministers; among the large bodies that received aid there was jealousy as to shares. Solomon objected on principle to state aid, and his advocacy of the voluntary principle raised a storm of petitions praying that the old system should not be disturbed. Petitions for the voluntary principle were few, but one attracted considerable attention: it was from the Malays of Capetown, praying for relief on the ground that they were taxpayers compelled to support Christianity while they were Mohamedans. It was generally believed that this petition did not originate with them, but with European political agitators. The new division of Queenstown, occupied by Europeans after the constitution was granted and consequently without representation, was in this session annexed to Victoria East for electoral purposes, without increasing the number of members. On the 4th of June parliament was prorogued. The session mattered because the east would not accept a cabinet chosen by a Dutch-speaking majority, because separation was lost, and because the clergy stipends were left as they stood. [3]
Dundas of the 6th of August, the Museum of January, and Beelaerts of the 16th of November — Colony 1856
For some time past regular steam communication with England had ceased, as the arrangement with the company that had contracted to carry it on had fallen through. It was now resumed under a contract between the imperial government and Adam Duncan Dundas, entered into on the 6th of August, under which Dundas undertook to convey the mails between Dartmouth, the Cape, Mauritius, Point de Galle, Madras, and Calcutta monthly, in steamships of not less than 949 tons burden, and to make the passage from Dartmouth to Table Bay in 36 days. In consideration of this service he was to receive a subsidy of £41,000 a year, of which one-fourth was to be paid by the Cape Colony and one-fourth by Mauritius. The first steamer under this contract left Dartmouth on the 6th of September. The contract mattered because the Cape’s despatches, passengers, and commercial letters had been waiting on sailing ships, and because a monthly steamer was the colony’s tie to the admiralty and to India. [3]
On the 25th of June 1855 the South African Museum had been founded by the governor’s appointment of Rawson W. Rawson, colonial secretary, and Dr Ludovic Pappe as trustees, and Edgar Layard as curator. The collection was opened to the public in a house in St George’s street in January of this year, still small beside what it would become, for the old natural-history museum founded by Andrew Smith had been allowed to fall into such decay that very few of the specimens were of any value. Presents of animals of many kinds were liberally made by gentlemen in all parts of South Africa, and in a very short time the rooms were attractive to visitors. Specimens of minerals, weapons, native manufactures, and curiosities came in more slowly. In this year periodical courts were established at many places distant from the ordinary seats of magistracy, and were found of much service. The greater number of the districts were also made divisions, which facilitated the collection of the revenue. The museum mattered because Capetown had lost Smith’s collection to neglect, and because a public room in St George’s street was the first step toward a permanent institution. [3]
The public revenue of this year amounted to £318,477. Customs yielded £173,080; transfer dues £43,076; auction dues £23,783; stamps and licenses £21,365; land revenue £21,197; postage £13,227; fines and fees £9,878; sales of land £9,765. Wool, first among the exports, was valued at £831,143; hides and skins at £136,364; wine at £86,356; corn, grain, and meal at £19,383. Total exports stood at £1,240,616. Three more lighthouses were in course of erection on the colonial coast — one on the Cape of Good Hope, one on the hill at Port Elizabeth, and one on the Roman rock in Simon’s Bay to replace the old lightship — but none of them yet showed a light in this year. Seats of magistracy were being provided with courthouses and prisons; several rivers were being bridged; much was being done to improve the roads. The figures mattered because wool now dwarfed wine among the exports, and because the coast still had no new light to show for the works in hand. [3]
A project of sending out indigent children from Holland to be apprenticed to farmers in the Cape Colony was set on foot in this year by Beelaerts van Blokland, a native of Capetown though resident since childhood in the Netherlands. Arrangements were made with great care for the safety and welfare of the children, and on the 16th of November a party of 73 boys and 20 girls arrived at Capetown from Rotterdam, under the care of several families who were assisted to migrate by the same agency. These children immediately found suitable employers, who undertook to repay the greater portion of the expense of sending them out. The landing mattered because the colony was short of farm labour, and because a Capetown-born agent in the Netherlands had found a way to send Dutch children without waiting on an imperial scheme. [3]
Fitzgerald of February, Forty Thousand Pounds of the 30th of May, and the 85th of June — Annexed Territory 1856
Grey’s plan for the annexed territory — the land taken from the Xhosa after the war of 1850–53 and administered from King William’s Town — was to break the belief in witchcraft, to put the clans to paid work on roads, and to plant European settlers among them so that the garrison could one day be reduced. In February Dr J. P. Fitzgerald, with whom Grey had been acquainted in New Zealand, arrived to take charge of the hospital the high commissioner had caused to be put up at King William’s Town, with spacious grounds on all sides, that Xhosa sick might have medical treatment free of charge. Cases given up as hopeless by African practitioners, and pronounced due to witchcraft, had already been treated with success at Dohne Post by Dr H. Veriker Bindon of the 6th regiment, and that had excited much attention among the Gaika. Two other physicians skilled in special branches, Charles James Egan and James Peters, and a qualified dispenser were then added to the staff. Sick blacks were received wherever they came from, and were maintained and tended without payment as long as they needed such assistance. The hospital mattered because a chief who could no longer blame a neighbour’s witchcraft for a death lost one of the old reasons for a feud, and because Grey meant the building to do that work more slowly than a campaign. [3]
At the mouth of the Buffalo in October the construction of training walls was commenced under Woodford Pilkington, to narrow the outlet and turn the stream in the same direction as the current along the coast, in the hope that a strong flow at failing tide would wash away the sand bar that kept vessels out of the deep basin higher up. The work was not carried very far in this year. The revenue of the province was trifling, but the imperial authorities supported Grey’s views for the reclamation of the Xhosa, and in this year as in 1855 supplied him with £40,000 to carry them into effect. After enrolled pensioners in England declined to remove to the annexed territory, the imperial authorities resolved to send out volunteers from the British German legion, a corps raised for service in the Crimea and not needed after April, when peace was concluded with Russia. An offer was made to the men if they would proceed as military settlers: they were to remain 7 years after being located, and were to receive free rations or an equivalent in money for themselves and their families for one year, 6 pence a day for 3 years, an acre of ground and a building lot in a village, right of grazing over a commonage, £18 toward a cottage, their arms and camp equipments, and the temporary use of tents. As it was believed that the settlement would tend toward the protection of the Cape Colony, the secretary of state thought that part of the expense should be defrayed by the colonists, in which view the Cape parliament concurred, on the understanding that the men would be accompanied by their wives and families, and on the 30th of May voted £40,000 for the purpose, with a promise of a further amount of £6,000 or £7,000 yearly. It was supposed that the whole of the legion would volunteer, but the majority declined. Those who accepted embarked in 7 steam transports, together with the wives and children of a few of them who had in the meantime been brought over to England from Germany; permission was then given to the single men to take English wives, and 203 marriages were entered into on board the ships just before they sailed. The first of the steamers arrived in Table Bay on the 30th of December; the rest of the convoy ran into the next calendar. The vote mattered because Grey had asked for a thousand pensioner families and got none, and because a German military village on the Buffalo was the substitute London would send. [3]
Early in this year matters looked so threatening that Grey forwarded every available soldier from Capetown to the frontier, and sent a steam ship of war to Mauritius to ask for assistance. The government of Mauritius complied, and in June the 85th regiment, supplied by that island, landed at Port Elizabeth and marched at once to the border. In September the first battalion of the 13th and the 80th regiment arrived from England and were immediately added to the force on the frontier; the 89th came out at the same time, but one wing was kept in Capetown. Recruits for the other regiments were also supplied, so that the South African garrison was made up to 10 strong battalions. The spread of lungsickness among cattle from the Cape Colony into the annexed territory in 1855 had tended to increase the disposition of the people for war. It had made its appearance first among the herds of Pato and Umhala, and was attributed by the people to witchcraft caused by the white man. It was of no use telling them that the colonists’ own herds had suffered greatly, so that Europeans were not likely to have been the originators of it. Sir James Jackson had, at the beginning of this year, urged upon the military authorities in England the necessity of immediately reinforcing the garrison with 4 or 5 regiments, the proofs that hostile intentions were entertained by the chiefs being then so strong. The apparent cordial reception of the governor’s plans by the leading chiefs had been intended by them merely to deceive him, as they subsequently admitted, for they regarded the existing condition of things not as peace but as a truce. Grey hoped that hostilities might be averted if the British pensioners or the German legion should arrive at once, and was disappointed when none of the former came out, and such a small proportion of the latter. The reinforcements mattered because the frontier was being treated as a truce, not a settlement, and because 10 battalions were what Grey thought he needed until the settlers came. [3]
Nongqause of May, Umhlakaza of the Fourth Day, and Kreli’s Word — Annexed Territory 1856
Matters were in this condition when one morning in May a girl about 13 or 14 years of age, named Nongqause, daughter of a counsellor of Kreli, went to draw water from a little stream that flowed past her home. On her return she informed her father’s brother — a man who long before this had professed to have wonderful visions — that she had seen by the river some men who differed greatly in appearance from those she was accustomed to meet. Umhlakaza went to see the strangers, and found them at the place indicated. They told him to return to his hut and purify himself with the usual ceremonies, after which he was to offer an ox in sacrifice to the spirits of the dead, and to come back to them on the fourth day. There was that in their appearance which commanded obedience, and so the man did as they bade him. The vision mattered because Kreli was the most powerful chief east of the Kei, and because a message that came through his counsellor’s child would not stay on one bank of the river. [3]
On the fourth day, purified and clean, Umhlakaza went to the river again. The strange people were there as before, and, to his astonishment, he recognised among them his brother who had been many years dead. Then, for the first time, he learned who and what they were. The inveterate enemies of the white man, they announced themselves as having come from battlefields beyond the sea, to aid the Xhosa with their invincible power in driving the English from the land. Between them and the chiefs Umhlakaza was to be the medium of communication. Strange things were to be done, stranger than any that had ever been done before, if the proffered assistance was welcomed. And first, he must tell the people to abandon dealing in witchcraft, to kill fat cattle and eat. Such is the tale which the Xhosa told each other of the manner in which Umhlakaza and Nongqause became acquainted with the secrets of the spirit world. [3]
Kreli heard the message with joy. It may be that he really believed the assertions of Umhlakaza, or perhaps, as many of the colonists suspected, he was the instigator of the whole scheme. At any rate his word went forth that the command of the spirits was to be obeyed, that the best of all the cattle were to be slaughtered and eaten. Messengers from him hastened to the chiefs on the western side of the Kei, to inform them of what had taken place and to solicit their cooperation. Instantly the Xhosa country was in a state of commotion. Maqoma, Umhala, Pato, Stokwe, and many other men of note commenced to kill. The high commissioner sent word to the Gcaleka chief that though in his own territory he could do as he pleased, he must cease from instigating those who were British subjects to destroy their property, or it would become necessary to punish him. But he cared little for such a threat, as he believed the time was at hand when the tables would be turned and the punished become the punisher. Kreli’s word mattered because a Gcaleka order to kill, carried west of the Kei, would empty British-subject kraals as well as his own, and because Grey’s warning assumed a peace that Kreli no longer meant to keep. [3]
Sandile, hesitating and timid, acting too under the eye of the Gaika commissioner, declined at first to obey Umhlakaza’s bidding, as did also Anta and Oba. Kama not only refused to join Pato and the others, but did all in his power to counteract the mischief they were causing. Many of his heathen followers, however, finding that either their loyalty to him or to the supreme head of their tribe must be abandoned, preferred to renounce the first. Siwani and his people escaped the general infection. Umkayi was dead. The revelations communicated through Umhlakaza and Nongqause grew apace. The girl, standing in the river in presence of a multitude of deluded people, heard strange unearthly sounds beneath her feet, which her uncle pronounced to be the voices of spirits holding high council over the affairs of men. The first order was to slay cattle, but the greedy ghosts seemed insatiable in their demands. More and more were killed, but still never enough. Thus the delusion continued month after month, every day spreading wider and embracing fresh victims in its grasp. It extended even to that section of the Thembu which had always been more or less closely allied with the Xhosa, and none carried out the order to kill more thoroughly than the clans under Vadana and the old chief Kwesha. Missionaries and agents of the government tried in vain to stay the mad proceedings. White men were scowled upon and warned to take care of themselves; blacks were silenced in a summary manner. Yet these fanatics, with their imaginations fixed on boundless wealth, were eagerly purchasing trifles from English traders, bartering away the hides of 200,000 slaughtered cattle. [3]
After a time Sandile gave way to the urgent applications of his brother Maqoma, who asserted that he had himself seen and conversed with the spirits of two of his father’s dead counsellors, and that these commanded Sandile to kill his cattle if he would not perish with the white man. Buku, Kreli’s uncle, neither believed the predictions nor looked for success in war, and yet destroyed the last particle of his food: “It is the chief’s command,” he said. Kreli’s principal counsellor opposed the scheme till he saw that words were useless; then, observing that all he had was his chief’s, he gave the order to kill and waste, and fled from the place a raving lunatic. Thus it was with thousands. The chief commanded, and they obeyed. Before this time the last order of Umhlakaza had been given: not a goat, ox, or cow out of all their herds must be left living, every grain of corn in their granaries must be destroyed, no garden must be planted, nothing but horses and weapons of war must be preserved. On a certain day countless herds, not subject to disease, were to issue from the earth; great fields of millet, ripe for eating, were to spring into existence; the ancient heroes of the race were to return. Those who opposed the spirits would be swept into the sea with the white people. Some of the leaders viewed the entire proceeding as calculated solely for purposes of war: to throw the whole Xhosa tribe with its Thembu allies, fully armed and in a famishing state, upon the colony. The killing was not finished in this year. What hung on it was the food of the clans east and west of the Kei, and whether Grey’s 10 battalions would meet a famine or an invasion. [3]
Botha of May, the Line of March, and Boshof of the 6th of April — Orange Free State 1856
Jacobus Nicholas Boshof had been installed on the 27th of August 1855. The Smithfield agreement of October 1855, made in Grey’s presence, had bound Moshesh to restrain his people and to restore stolen stock. Witsi’s people were still plundering their neighbours, and a large part of the Harrismith district, abandoned by the farmers, was overrun by them, when early in this year the volksraad determined to send an expedition against the marauders. Moshesh informed the president that having used all his influence in vain to induce Witsi to restore the stolen cattle, he would give that chief no assistance against the Free State forces. Witsi was acting in entire independence, and thus it suited Moshesh’s purpose to see him chastised. A commando was with difficulty got together, for there was hardly a district in the state that the burghers could leave without danger of their families being attacked in their absence. In May this force, under Commandant Botha, marched against Witsi. It was accompanied by a son of Moshesh and by one of his attendants, sent by the great chief to act as mediators in case Witsi should submit. A demand of 1,700 head of horned cattle and 300 horses was made upon the robber captain, as compensation for his people’s thefts, with the alternative of active hostilities within 24 hours. This demand not being complied with, the burghers entered his country, defeated small parties of his people in a couple of skirmishes, and seized about as much stock as he had been called upon to surrender. Thereupon the commando broke up, every man returning to his home. The march mattered because Harrismith had been emptied of farmers, and because a commando that went home after seizing stock had not finished the work. [3] [3]
The dispersion of the Free State forces, before adequate punishment had been inflicted, left Harrismith at Witsi’s mercy. The president then entrusted the settlement of matters there to J. M. Orpen, landdrost of Winburg and Harrismith — the volksraad having on the 30th of August 1855 resolved that Harrismith should be separated from Winburg again, though the resolution was not yet carried into effect — who managed to get together a small commando, with which he entered Witsi’s country, drove out that chief’s retainers, and burned their huts. The warriors of the clan as well as the women and children fled into Basutoland, where they were received by Moshesh, who now became their protector and requested the Free State government not to punish them further. Thereafter they were regarded as members of the Basuto tribe. For a few weeks after the agreement made by Moshesh in presence of Grey, the number of thefts along the border greatly diminished, but cattle-lifting was soon resumed on as extensive a scale as before. In March the Basuto chief in writing to the president laid claim to the country as far as a line running from Commissie Drift by the southern side of the Koesberg to the Orange river. This would have taken from the Free State a large extent of the most valuable ground in the country. Between the Warden line, which the republic wished to maintain, and the new line which Moshesh claimed, the district thereafter became a scene of unchecked lawlessness. Jan Letele, Lebenya, Poshuli, Seperi, and other petty captains, though quarrelling with each other, were one in plundering and insulting the farmers. Most of these in despair abandoned their homes, went into laager, and became clamorous for open war as an evil less than that they were enduring. The claim mattered because the Warden line was the Free State’s title, and because a new line from the Koesberg would have given Moshesh the farms the burghers still held. [3] [3]
While matters were in this condition, Boshof sent a deputation to Thaba Bosigo to demand the stock stolen prior to the agreement and 4 times the quantity stolen after that date, or the surrender of the robbers. If this demand should not be complied with, he threatened to attack the offending clans, in which case he desired the great chief not to protect them. In reply Moshesh promised to hold an assembly of his leading men, when if they would not agree to punish the thieves and make compensation as demanded, he would leave the marauding clans to their fate. But he did not keep his word, and Boshof thought it prudent not to carry out his threat, lest a general war might be the result. The Basuto chief was really making preparations for war, in case the farmers would not give up the disputed district. He did not fear the Free State in the least, but he was too astute to draw upon himself the enmity of the colonial government at the same time, and was secretly intriguing with the coast tribes. So great was his assurance that he actually applied to the landdrost of Smithfield for a supply of guns and ammunition to enable him, as he said, to chastise the robbers. Grey was not deceived. He informed Moshesh that he was aware of the communications passing between him and the most powerful chief on the eastern frontier. Moshesh in reply asserted his loyalty and fidelity to the British government, flatly denied having had any intercourse with Kreli for more than 3 years, and appealed to Boshof to testify in his favour. Grey’s letter mattered because a Basuto–Gcaleka understanding would have joined the Free State border to the cattle-killing, and because Moshesh’s denial did not close the correspondence. [3] [3]
The demand which the president had made was for 768 horses and 535 head of horned cattle, of which the chief had restored only 6 horses and 141 head of cattle when in October the volksraad met in extraordinary session. As nothing better could be done, it was resolved to send another deputation to Thaba Bosigo. Messrs Gerrit Visser and Jacobus Hoffman accordingly visited Moshesh and induced him to sign a document in which he undertook to deliver within one month the horses and cattle still due, and further promised to do his best to prevent robberies in future. It was necessary to do something now, so to meet the first part of his engagement Moshesh called for contributions in stock from each of his vassal chieftains. He did not attempt to punish the robber clans, or even to compel them alone to make restitution. The result was that the thieving continued as before. In October also C. van Dyk van Soelen superseded Smellekamp at Bloemfontein; John Sauer superseded Ford at Smithfield; James Michael Howell succeeded Orpen at Winburg; J. S. Marais replaced G. P. Visser at Fauresmith; and M. Cauvin was appointed landdrost of Harrismith. Harrismith, united to Winburg in September 1854, became a separate district again in this year. [3] [3]
The village of Boshof occupied the site previously known as Van Wyk’s Vlei. It had been founded as a church centre, the first building lots having been sold on the 6th of April. Waterboer, by the Vetberg line of October 1855 as confirmed in this year, obtained much the larger share of the territory in dispute with Cornelis Kok; 2 farms and part of a third held by Europeans under British titles along Waterboer’s side of that line were excluded from his territory, because it was a fundamental law of his 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: their right of property in unsold ground was admitted, but dominion over it and every one living upon it was kept by the Free State, the captain and nearly the whole of the clan living at Campbell beyond the Vaal, where they were regarded as entirely independent. The village mattered because a church centre at Van Wyk’s Vlei gave the western Free State a named town, and because the rectified Vetberg line settled who was sovereign between the rivers. [3] [3]
The Storm of April, the Charter of the 15th of July, and Scott of the 5th of November — Natal 1856
Natal was still a district under a lieutenant-governor, not a colony with a legislature of its own. In the most severe storm ever known there, from the 14th to the 16th of April, no less than 27 inches of rain fell at Durban. The Umgeni river rose in its lower course 28 feet above its ordinary level, and overflowed a large portion of the flat on which the town is built. Such storms, however, have never been known to extend over large areas at the same time, though all parts of the south-eastern coast are subject to them. At the close of this year it was believed that there were from 7,000 to 8,000 white people in the district. To encourage European immigrants, on the 7th of July it was notified by the government that land would be given to suitable applicants on military tenure, similar to the system then recently adopted on the eastern border of the Cape Colony. Farms so given out were not to be less than 50 nor more than 3,000 acres in extent, and in addition to personal occupation and the maintenance of a fully equipped European horseman for every 1,000 acres beyond the first, an annual quitrent of not less than £6 was to be paid, redeemable by 15 years’ purchase. But the condition of the district was such that this system could not be carried out: there was nowhere a large tract of suitable land unoccupied upon which a number of men could be placed together, as in Queenstown, and no one cared to occupy ground on military tenure without a strong party of neighbours. An ordinance empowering natural-born subjects of her Majesty to dispose of their property by will in any manner that pleased them, but leaving intestate estates subject to the South African mode of distribution, was confirmed by the imperial authorities, notification of which was sent to the lieutenant-governor on the 6th of June. The storm mattered because Durban’s flat was still undefended against the Umgeni, and because 7,000 to 8,000 whites were few for the self-government they were about to be granted. [3]
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Cooper acted from the 3rd of March 1855 until the 5th of November of this year, when John Scott assumed duty as lieutenant-governor. The revenue of the district, even in this year, was very small for the support of an efficient administration. The principal item was derived from customs duties on imports, which were the same as in the Cape Colony, namely 5 per cent of the value of British and 12 per cent of the value of foreign goods, except on a few articles specially classified. The total revenue received in this year was £29,451 11s. 1d. Customs yielded £10,318 19s. 11d.; hut tax £10,403 8s.; stamps and licenses £1,841 2s. 9d.; transfer duties £1,805 2s. 11d.; land revenue £1,489 7s. 2d.; postage £1,273 1s. 1d. Exports of Natal during the 3 years from the 1st of January 1854 to the 31st of December of this year amounted to £125,652 18s. 7d., or at the rate of £41,884 6s. 2d. a year: ivory £35,853 12s.; butter £22,012 2s. 1d.; wool £19,107 3s. 4d.; hides and horns £17,485 5s. 9d.; salted meat, tallow, and lard £15,329 1s. 10d.; and, among smaller items, sugar £503, rum £275 7s. 6d., coffee in this year £15. During the period from the 1st of January 1845 to the 31st of December of this year the total value of goods imported was £939,751, and of articles exported £257,370, so that there was a balance of trade against the district of £682,381, made good by property introduced by immigrants and the expenditure of the garrison. Scott’s arrival mattered because Cooper had only been acting, and because a lieutenant-governor named for a new colony would have to work with a revenue of £29,451. [3]
Preparation had been made for representative government, for which the energetic Europeans resident in Natal were generally desirous. A petition to this effect, with 175 signatures, had been sent to the queen in November 1848; another, with 231 signatures, to the queen and both houses of parliament, had followed in August 1852. Pine had been strongly in favour of this desire being gratified, and though the white inhabitants were so few the imperial authorities resolved to grant them a considerable measure of self-government. On the 15th of July a charter was issued at Westminster raising Natal to the rank of a separate colony, with a governor appointed by the crown. There was to be a legislative council of 16 members, of whom 4 were to be officials, 2 elected by each of the counties of Pietermaritzburg and Klip River, 2 elected by each of the boroughs of Pietermaritzburg and Durban, and 1 elected by each of the counties of Weenen, Umvoti, Durban, and Victoria. The members were to hold their seats for 4 years, and the council was to meet at least once yearly, the governor having power to summon, prorogue, or adjourn it. 6 members were to form a quorum, and the speaker was to have only a casting vote. Acts passed by the council could be vetoed at any time within 2 years after their receipt in England. The electors were to be over 21 years of age, and to possess fixed property to the value of £50 or be tenants of property with a yearly rental of £10; foreigners not naturalised and persons convicted of crime were not to be entitled to the franchise. The voting was to be by ballot. There was a reserved civil list, placing certain amounts beyond the control of the council, but it was very small: the governor £1,200 a year, the colonial secretary £700, the treasurer, attorney-general, and surveyor-general each £450, the secretary for native affairs £500, and for the benefit of the Bantu £5,000. The first step to be taken under the charter was to define the boundaries of the electoral districts, and these were fixed by proclamation on the 14th of November. The elections then took place; the council itself would sit in the next calendar. The charter mattered because Natal ceased on paper to be a Cape dependency, and because 8,000 whites were being given a council that could not touch the native fund or the governor’s salary. [3]
Pretorius of September, Potchefstroom of the 16th of December, and Cetewayo of the 2nd — 1856
North of the Vaal the four districts — Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, Pretoria, and Lydenburg — still had no agreed constitution. One party wanted a strong central government and a church independent of the Cape synod; the other wanted district councils allied for defence and a church connected with that synod. During the months of September and October M. W. Pretorius made a tour through the districts of Rustenburg, Pretoria, and Potchefstroom, and called public meetings at all the centres of population. At these meetings there was an expression of opinion by a large majority in favour of the immediate adoption of a constitution, which should provide for an efficient government and an independent church. A visit of the reverend Messrs Neethling and Louw — two clergymen deputed by the Cape synod to hold services through the country after the arrival of van der Hoff — was generally condemned as uncalled-for interference. A great deal of indignation was expressed against the people of Lydenburg, who had separated from van der Hoff’s communion and declared their adherence to the synod. The community of Lydenburg was accused of attempting to domineer over the whole country, without any other right to pre-eminence than that of being composed of the earliest inhabitants. Shortly after these meetings were held, a representative assembly, consisting of 24 members, one for each fieldcornetcy, was elected for the special purpose of adopting a constitution and installing the officials whom it should decide to appoint. It had no other powers. The tour mattered because Pretorius was gathering the three western districts against Lydenburg, and because a constitution adopted without Lydenburg would split the country north of the Vaal. [3] [3]
The representatives met at Potchefstroom on the 16th of December and during a session of nearly 3 weeks made several changes in the original draft, which had been prepared by a committee of 3 appointed by the volksraad in 1855, assisted by an educated man named Jacobus Stuart. As finally adopted, the constitution provided that the country should be termed the South African Republic, dropping the words “north of the Vaal river,” which had been added to that title by a resolution of the volksraad on the 21st of November 1853. The legislative authority was vested in a volksraad which should meet at least once a year; members were to be elected by the people and hold their seats for 2 years, to be over 30, electors of 3 years’ standing, members of the Dutch Reformed church, owners of landed property, never convicted of crime, and of European blood. Father and son, brothers and half-brothers, could not be members at the same time. 12 members were to form a quorum. Ordinary sessions were to commence on the first Friday of every September. The administrative authority was to be entrusted to a president advised by an executive council consisting of the president, the government secretary, and 2 burghers appointed by the volksraad. There was to be only one commandant-general for the whole republic, a purely military officer, elected by those burghers capable of bearing arms. The revenue was to be derived from profits on the sale of ammunition — a monopoly of the government — from licenses, transfer dues, fines and fees of court, a tax of 1s. yearly on every 50 head of horned cattle, and land tax at the rate of 7s. 6d. to 30s. on each farm according to quality. Absentee landholders were to pay double taxes. The boundaries of the republic were not defined. Potchefstroom was to be the seat of government. The press was declared free. Slavery was prohibited. No equality of coloured people with the white inhabitants would be tolerated, either in church or state. The president was to be paid £300 a year, to be increased to £400 when the revenue would permit it; the clergyman £225; the commandant-general £200; the state secretary and the landdrost of Potchefstroom each £150. The officers themselves would be chosen in the next calendar. The sitting mattered because three districts had written themselves a republic, and because Lydenburg was not in the room. [3] [3]
The volksraad under the old system of government was to have met at Lydenburg on the 17th of December. At the appointed time, however, no members for the other districts appeared. What was transpiring at Potchefstroom was well known, and a resolution was therefore adopted declaring the district a sovereign and independent state, under the name of the Republic of Lydenburg. The volksraad was pronounced to be the highest authority. The boundaries of the new republic were declared to be: on the north the Olifants river and a straight line from the great curve in that stream to the southern end of Waterberg; on the west a line from the southern end of Waterberg to the Elands river, that river to its source, thence the high lands to the source of the Olifants, and thence a straight line due south to the Vaal; on the south the Vaal and the northern boundary of Natal to Panda’s country. On the east the boundary was not defined otherwise than that the republic was declared to include the district of Utrecht and the land purchased on the 25th of July 1846 and 21st of July 1855 by W. F. Joubert and others from Swazi the son of Sapusa. The declaration mattered because the country north of the Vaal now had two republics, and because Utrecht and the Swazi purchase were being claimed from Lydenburg, not from Potchefstroom. [3] [3]
The family of Panda was a large one, and as his sons reached manhood they began to quarrel for precedence. The two ablest of them were named Umbulazi and Cetewayo. On the 2nd of December a battle attended with frightful carnage took place on the northern bank of the Tugela between the adherents of these young chiefs, when Umbulazi and 5 other sons of Panda, with 4,000 or 5,000 warriors, lost their lives. All the partisans of Umbulazi and their women and children who could not escape into Natal were slaughtered by the Usutu, as Cetewayo’s army was called. The conqueror respected English territory, and did not pursue the fugitives across the Tugela. After this date Cetewayo was the real ruler of the Zulu tribe, though his father, Panda, remained its nominal head. The battle mattered because Natal’s new colony now had, across one river, a young chief who had killed his rivals, and because Panda’s name no longer decided who commanded the impis. [3]
In the same month Trichard and his party reached Delagoa Bay. They had come east through the Spelonken and down the Letaba, had lost oxen to tsetse, and had abandoned waggons on the plains. The few Portuguese officials then stationed there — for it was a very small settlement in those days — were struck with amazement at the feat which the travellers had accomplished, as well as moved with pity for the women and children of the party. Food and clothing were provided for those who were hungry and ill-clad; medicines for all who were ill. No payment was asked or accepted. 5 days after their arrival the wife of Commandant Carel Trichard died of malignant malarial fever; then followed, from the same cause, the deaths of young Carel Trichard’s wife and her 2 children, both breathing their last within a few hours after their mother. Another son of the old voortrekker died a few days later. Carel Trichard the younger, then 22 years of age, sailed for Mozambique in the Portuguese vessel Stralle da Maw to seek help from the governor of the northern Portuguese colony. Nearly all the other emigrants, including the leader, were down with fever, and, as almost all their trek oxen had died, they could not move away from the unhealthy district near the bay. [7]