Boer History1866 in South Africa: Wodehouse, Brand, Imparani, and Thaba Bosigo
Wodehouse, Alfred County of the 1st of January, and Ichaboe of the 16th of July — Colony 1866
Sir Philip Wodehouse still governed the Cape Colony and still held Her Majesty’s high commission in South Africa. He had arrived at Capetown on the 15th of January 1862, succeeding Sir George Grey. The Table Bay dock voted in the session of 1861 was still unfinished inside John Coode’s plan. The Port Elizabeth light still showed from the 1st of June 1861; the Roman rock light from the 16th of September 1861. The census of 1865 had counted 200000 in the Colony. The castle year mattered because the high commissioner who could stop a Natal column, offer mediation to Bloemfontein, or ask London to take the Basuto, was the same man who had pointed the Warden line at Aliwal North on the 28th of October 1864, and because the war that John Henry Brand had proclaimed from Leeuwkop on the 9th of June 1865 was still unfinished. Louw Wepener had fallen at Thaba Bosigo on the 15th of August. Brand’s terms of the 25th of August had not been kept after the siege was raised on the 25th of September. Paul Kruger had gone home from Cathcart’s Drift on the 30th of October with no peace signed. [3]
On the 1st of January the British flag was hoisted on the left bank of the Umtamvuna, and the present county of Alfred was added to Natal. The southern boundary of Natal was thereby extended to that river. Faku, the Pondo chief, had offered the land between the Umzimkulu and the Umtamvuna years before, because he could not control most of the people living on it and did not wish to be held accountable for their misdeeds. That offer was acted on only now. Ukane, head of the Amaxolo, became a British subject by the same extension. The flag on the Umtamvuna mattered because Natal’s south now touched a river that had been a Pondo treaty question, and because a high commissioner watching a Basuto war also watched a new Natal county on the same mountain wall. [3]
Ichaboe had been taken for the crown on the 21st of June 1861. On the 5th of May the islets named Holland’s Bird, Mercury, Long Island, Seal Island, Penguin Island, Halifax, Possession, Albatross Rock, Pomona, Plumpudding, and Roastbeef or Sinclair’s Island were declared part of the British dominions. On the 16th of July Wodehouse proclaimed them all, with Ichaboe, annexed to the Cape Colony. In Grahamstown the drostdy buildings, empty since the troops had moved to King William’s Town in 1864, were taken back into military occupation in this year. Charles Henry Darling, who had opened the Cape parliament at noon on the 30th of June 1854 and had been created K.C.B. in 1865, was recalled from Victoria in this year. The islets mattered because guano rock off the west coast, taken for the crown in 1861, now stood on the colonial roll, and because a governor who annexed bird islands in July was the same high commissioner writing to Brand and to the secretary of state about the Caledon. [3] [4] [4]
On the 8th of January Wodehouse signed a document authorising the Natal government to send an armed expedition into the Lesuto to compel payment of the full demand for Ramanela’s raid of the 27th of June 1865. Before the mail left Capetown he received a letter from the lieutenant-governor enclosing a report from Mr Ayliff, in which that officer stated that the cattle already received would suffice to compensate those from whom stock had been stolen to the extent of 50 per cent, and leave a few oxen over. Immediately on reading this, the high commissioner cancelled the permission he had given, on the ground that his demand must have been excessive. After this date there was some further correspondence, but nothing more was ever paid by the Basuto, nor was Ramanela ever punished for his raid into Natal. On the 13th of January Wodehouse proposed to the secretary of state for the colonies that the Basuto, in accordance with the repeated requests of the chiefs, should be accepted as British subjects, and that an attempt should be made to govern them for their own good and for the common good of South Africa. On the 20th of January he wrote to President Brand, tendering his services for the negotiation of an equitable peace. While the combatants had been opposing their full strength he had deemed it unadvisable to interfere; in reply to Moshesh on the 25th of September 1865 he had written that it was impracticable at that juncture to interpose with propriety. Now, to all outward appearances, the Republic was without an army, and the high commissioner feared that disorder would increase in the Cape Colony on account of it. The January letters mattered because a cancelled Natal column left Ramanela unpunished, and because Wodehouse offered mediation only after the midsummer camps had emptied. [3]
Winburg of the 8th of January, Bethlehem of the 22nd, and Two Thousand of February — Orange Free State 1866
At the beginning of the year the Free State forces in the field were too weak to act on the offensive, and during the heat of midsummer it was impossible to increase them. Moshesh’s people took advantage of this opportunity to renew their inroads into the border districts. The war of 1865 had not ended in a kept treaty. Brand still sat at Bloemfontein. He had taken the oaths on the 2nd of February 1864 after J. J. Venter had held the chair, and he had called the burghers out from Leeuwkop when Ramanela’s raids and the Warden line could no longer be borne. Midsummer mattered because a republic that had stormed Vechtkop and Berea in July 1865 now had too few men in camp to hold its own villages. [3]
On the 8th of January the people of Molitsane made a sudden swoop upon the village of Winburg. They burned 4 houses in the outskirts, killed 2 Europeans and 7 black herdsmen whom they surprised on the commonage, and swept off all the cattle belonging to the place. Only 33 burghers could be mustered to go in pursuit, but this little band overtook the Bataung, shot 3 of them, and recovered all the stock except about 100 horses. Winburg mattered because the same day Wodehouse cancelled a Natal expedition, a Free State village on the inner border was burned, and because 33 men were all that midsummer could put on the road. [3]
On the 22nd of January the village of Bethlehem was attacked by 3000 or 4000 of Molapo’s warriors. On the commonage they captured a burgher and a black servant, and murdered both. But there happened to be in Bethlehem at the time a patrol under Commandant Cornelis de Villiers, of whose presence the Basuto were quite ignorant. The commandant speedily mustered 125 burghers and 150 Batlokua, and with this puny force he drove back the assailants, followed them up for some miles, and shot down more than 200 of them. Bethlehem mattered because Molapo, who would sign at Imparani in March, still thought a Free State village could be taken in January, and because De Villiers was already in the town. [3]
The ink on Wodehouse’s despatches was hardly dry when the aspect of affairs was entirely changed. President Brand had been making most forcible appeals to his people, and largely owing to his exertions, in the beginning of February the burghers again took the field in force. On this occasion 2000 men mustered under arms, and were divided into 4 distinct columns, under General J. I. J. Fick and Commandants Cornelis de Villiers, Louis Wessels, and Pieter Wessels. If the same proportion of the population of the British Islands had been placed under arms in a foreign country, that army would have mustered 2000000 men. February mattered because Wodehouse had written on the 20th of January when the Republic looked army-less, and because 2000 burghers in 4 columns now stood between that letter and any peace he might negotiate. [3]
Brand of the 5th of February, the Missionaries of the 7th, and De Villiers of the 19th — Orange Free State 1866
On the 5th of February the volksraad met. The members unanimously placed on record their approval of the action of the president in declaring war, and carried by a large majority a resolution ratifying the annexation to the state of the territory within the lines proclaimed by Fick and Wepener, and subsequently by the president. Those lines were the fruit of the 1865 campaign: ground taken when the burghers had gone into the Lesuto after Verkeerde Vlei, Vechtkop, and Berea. On the 7th numerous petitions were read, praying that the French missionaries should be expelled from the territory recently annexed. There were 10 stations in that territory. The burghers believed that the missionaries acted as special pleaders for the Basuto, that they gave advice in military matters, and that some of them took part in fighting. The president spoke earnestly against any interference with men who had been trying to enlighten the heathen; but the majority of the volksraad held with the memorialists, and a resolution was carried that as the missionaries had not confined themselves to their calling, all those in the annexed territory must remove before the 1st of March, and those who should desire to remain in the Free State must take up their residence at such places as the executive council should point out. Whatever property they could not remove was to be respected. They were to bind themselves in writing to have no correspondence with anyone in the Lesuto during the war. The 7th of February mattered because a republic fighting Moshesh now treated the Paris stations on conquered ground as an enemy’s shelter, and because Brand could not hold his own raad on that point. [3]
At the beginning of the war the Paris Evangelical Society had 12 principal stations, 13 ordained clergymen, 2 medical missionaries, and 2 lay assistants. There were 1800 church members; several thousands had been baptized; the missionaries believed that about one-tenth of Moshesh’s tribe was directly or indirectly under their influence. The missionaries who were expelled from the scenes of their former labour were Mr Daumas of Mekuatling, Mr Coillard of Leribe, Mr Mabille of Morija, Mr Dyke and Dr Casalis of Hermon, Mr Germond of Thabana Morena, Mr Maeder of Siloe, Messrs S. and E. Rolland of Poortje, Mr Cochet of Hebron, and Messrs Ellenberger and Gossellin of Bethesda, with their families, 46 individuals in all. Mr Keck was permitted to remain at Mabolela, though within the annexed territory. On account of the destruction of the mission buildings, Dr Lautre and his family were at the same time compelled to abandon the station at Thaba Bosigo, so that the French mission was for a time nearly broken up. Most of its members retired to Aliwal North. A Roman Catholic mission had been established at Korokoro shortly before the outbreak of the war, but was not affected by the resolution of the volksraad; the Roman Catholic missionaries were never suspected by the burghers of interference in political matters, and were therefore left unmolested. The expulsions mattered because 46 people leaving for Aliwal North would tell Europe a story the volksraad could not answer, and because Mabolela and Korokoro showed that the order was not a sweep against every church. [3]
On the 21st of February the volksraad took into consideration the high commissioner’s offer to act as a mediator, and after a lengthy discussion, on the 22nd a resolution was adopted instructing the president to inform Wodehouse that the government had been compelled to wage the present war for the maintenance of violated rights recognised by the treaty of Aliwal North; that the volksraad heartily desired a peace which should offer the guarantees of permanency; that it had learnt with gratitude the benevolent offer of mediation, but entertained the conviction, grounded on an experience of many years, that the Basuto would not respect the stipulations of any treaty unless forced to the acceptance of such a treaty by the power of arms; that the people of the state were willing to undergo any amount of sacrifice until such an object should have been attained; and that the present juncture was not favourable for such a mediation. The next day was the twelfth anniversary of the state’s independence. The Bloemfontein convention of the 23rd of February 1854 had taken the British flag down from the Queen’s fort. The members of the volksraad met at ten in the morning, not to transact business, but to listen to addresses from the chairman, the president, Mr J. J. Venter, and Advocate Hamelberg, upon the blessings received from the Almighty, the difficulties overcome by the Republic during its existence, the duty of the burghers, and the patriotism displayed by those who — like Wepener — had lost their lives in the service of their country. The 22nd of February mattered because Wodehouse’s letter of the 20th of January was refused while 2000 burghers were already in the field, and because the twelfth anniversary was kept as a war anniversary. [3]
While the volksraad was deliberating, the burghers in the field were not idle. On the 19th of February Commandant De Villiers, with 200 men, defeated 2000 of Molapo’s and Ramanela’s warriors, killed 60 of them, and wounded a great number. On the 21st Mr F. Senekal, who had been commandant-general in the war of 1858, was killed while leading a patrol belonging to this force. On the 23rd of February the combined commandoes of Fick and De Villiers, consisting of the Winburg, Harrismith, and Kroonstad burghers, 546 in number, with 61 natives as scouts, left their camp near Leribe with the intention of scouring the Drakensberg. They spent that night on the bank of the Orange river where there was no fuel to be had, without other shelter than their blankets, though heavy rain was falling with occasional showers of hail. The 19th and the 23rd mattered because Molapo was being beaten in the field while Brand’s raad refused mediation, and because Senekal, who had led in 1858, fell before the mountain scour began. [3]
The Drakensberg of March, Imparani of the 26th, and Dreyer of the 29th — Orange Free State 1866
On the 24th they penetrated farther into the mountains, the rain still continuing with a cold north-west wind. On the 25th, 26th, and 27th they scoured the mountains, which rose in an endless succession of peaks and tables around them. They were over 9000 feet above the level of the sea, and though the summer was not yet past and the heat on the plains from which they had come up was unpleasantly great, they were suffering severely from cold. A heavy mist filled the ravines, and at night rain fell in drizzling showers. The 28th was a clear, warm day. That night they spent on the very crown of the Drakensberg, where on one side the rich grasslands of Natal lay at a vast depth beneath them, and on the other side they could look down on a sea of cloud and mist covering the rugged belt of desolation which they had just passed through. At four in the morning of the 1st of March the burghers left their elevated sleeping place, and before noon they were again in the belt of rain and hail. On the 2nd, while passing through a gorge under Thaba Patsoa, their advance guard was attacked by about 2000 Basuto, whose chief object was to recover the droves of cattle which were being driven on behind. The Basuto were speedily put to flight. In the afternoon the burghers reached the camp which they had left 8 days before, without having lost one of their number or having one wounded. They brought in 184 horses, 2722 head of horned cattle, and 3500 sheep; and they had counted 30 bodies of Basuto whom they had killed. The Drakensberg scour mattered because it reached Molapo’s mountain country from Leribe, and because the spoil and the 30 counted dead brought that chief to treat. [3]
This expedition brought Molapo to treat for peace. On the 4th of March two Basuto carrying a white flag came into General Fick’s camp with a letter from that chief, in which he asked on what terms peace could be granted to himself and to the whole tribe. General Fick replied, referring him to the president. The messenger returned speedily with another letter, in which Molapo stated that he wished to conclude peace for himself independently of the remainder of the tribe. General Fick then offered an armistice of 8 days, to give time to communicate with the president, on condition of 150 slaughter oxen being furnished as provision for the commando. When on the morning of the 6th the general with 25 burghers went to the appointed place he was told that Molapo’s captains were unwilling that he should venture away from the mountain. Adjutant A. van den Bosch with only a native interpreter then went up into Molapo’s retreat, which he found to be a natural stronghold so well fortified as to be impregnable if held by men of courage. The chief agreed to the terms of the armistice, and the adjutant went back to the camp, taking with him Joel, Molapo’s second son, as a hostage for the delivery of the cattle and for his father’s good conduct. The camp of Commandant Louis Wessels was at this time at Berea. Commandant Wessels conducted Molapo’s messengers to the foot of Thaba Bosigo, and a few hours afterwards they returned with Moshesh’s son Sophonia, who asked if his father could not be included in the armistice granted by General Fick to Molapo. Moshesh then wrote that he wished to make peace on equal terms, to which he received for answer that if he desired to communicate with the president the commandant would agree to an armistice on condition of being supplied with 100 slaughter cattle. The old chief tried to haggle, by sending down a drove of 66 cows and calves, but ultimately he complied with the terms proposed. Letsie, on being informed of what was taking place elsewhere, also made overtures for an armistice, which Commandant Pieter Wessels granted upon payment of 50 slaughter oxen. The white flags of March mattered because Molapo was offering to peel off from Moshesh, and because the old chief still talked of equal terms while his grain stood ripe. [3]
There was thus a general suspension of hostilities, which was only disturbed by a raid of the Bataung on Winburg commonage on the 5th of March, when they succeeded in driving off some stock; and a second raid by the same people in another direction 5 days later, when they were met by a party of burghers and driven back with a loss of 19 killed. The president was detained at Bloemfontein by business that could not be neglected, but the truce was prolonged until he could get away. On the 21st of March he and the unofficial members of the executive council arrived at Commandant Louis Wessels’ camp close to Thaba Bosigo. Moshesh was communicated with, but as he declined to make peace on any other than equal terms, the armistice with him was declared to be at an end. Letsie took up the same position as his father, in consequence of which hostilities were resumed on the 22nd, when a patrol was sent to scour Mohali’s Hoek, and the cattle of the two southern commandoes were turned into the cornfields of Letsie and Makwai to destroy them. Nehemiah, however, sought an interview with the president, stated his intention of abandoning the cause of his father and brother, and requested that he and his people should be received as Free State subjects. His request was acceded to, but his following was too small to make his pretended defection a matter of any importance. The 21st and 22nd of March mattered because Brand himself now sat under Thaba Bosigo, and because destroying ripe corn was the pressure that equal terms could not survive. [3]
The president and the three members of the executive council then proceeded to Imparani, where General Fick was encamped. By previous arrangement, on the morning of the 26th of March, Molapo with all his councillors and sub-chiefs arrived at the ford of the Caledon close to Imparani, where some tents had been pitched for their accommodation. There, immediately afterwards, a conference took place, which ended in a treaty between the Free State and Molapo. Molapo agreed to the annexation to the Free State of all the land up to the Putiatsana, and promised to remove his people from that portion of it on the north and west of the Caledon. He undertook to pay 2000 head of large cattle, to abstain from assisting the other Basuto, and to give one of his sons and one of his sub-chiefs as hostages for his good conduct. He agreed to become a vassal of the Free State, retaining the district between the Caledon, the Putiatsana, and the Drakensberg as a reserve in which to live; and he promised to obey any orders issued by the president through a Free State officer who should be stationed with him. A formal treaty to this effect was drawn up and signed by the president and by Molapo, his son Jonathan, and his councillors, and was witnessed by the members of the executive council and the four officers of highest rank in the Free State camp. It is known as the treaty of Imparani. As soon as it was concluded Molapo paid the greater number of the cattle, and gave the stipulated hostages for his good conduct. Imparani mattered because Moshesh’s son in the north was now a Free State subject, and because the Putiatsana became a new inner line before Thaba Bosigo itself had treated. [3]
On the 29th of March a patrol of 16 burghers and 150 Batlokua, under command of Mr Hendrik Oostewald Dreyer, having captured a large number of cattle in Witsi’s Hoek, was returning with the spoil, when it was attacked about 20 miles from Harrismith. Mr Dreyer and another burgher were killed, and some of the stock was retaken. Mr Dreyer, who held the office of chairman of the volksraad, was a man of considerable attainments. A South African by birth, he had travelled in foreign lands, and spent some years in Australia. His body was found pierced with 21 assagai stabs. About the same time an express carrying letters from the Cape Colony to Bloemfontein fell into the hands of a party of Basuto. It consisted of 3 burghers, 2 men of mixed descent, and 2 Barolong, all of whom were murdered in cold blood. Their bodies, shockingly mutilated, were found a few days afterwards. On the last day of March a meeting of the sub-chiefs of Basutoland, convened by Moshesh, took place at Thaba Bosigo. The defection of Molapo, whether genuine or feigned, weakened the Basuto power seriously for the time being. The crops, which were now ready for harvesting, were being destroyed by the burghers. The sub-chiefs were therefore all of opinion that if peace could be made in such a way that they could preserve their strength unimpaired until the crops were gathered, and then be able to resume hostilities at pleasure, it would be advisable for Moshesh to conclude it. The great chief thereupon wrote to the president making overtures for peace, and offering as a basis of negotiations to agree to the boundary line proclaimed by Fick and Wepener, and ratified by the volksraad. The last day of March mattered because Dreyer’s death showed that Imparani had not quieted the mountains, and because Moshesh’s own pitso now advised a peace that would last until the grain was in. [3]
Thaba Bosigo of the 3rd of April, the Hundredth Psalm of the 4th, and Notes of the 11th of June — Orange Free State 1866
On the 3rd of April a conference took place between Thaba Bosigo and the camp of Commandant Louis Wessels. Moshesh himself was ill and unable to descend the mountain, but he gave full power to his brother Moperi and his son Nehemiah to act for him. The terms agreed to were, that the future boundary between the Free State and the Lesuto should be a line running direct from Bamboesplaats near Pampoenspruit to a point — Thaba Telle — 3 miles east of Letsie’s new town — Matsieng; thence a straight line due north by compass to the Caledon, thence the Caledon to the junction of the Putiatsana, and thence the Putiatsana to its source; that Moshesh should cause all his subjects immediately to withdraw from the territory beyond the new boundary, failing which the Free State should be at liberty to expel them by force; that Molapo and his people should be Free State subjects; that Moshesh should pay 3000 head of large cattle to the Free State; that Moshesh should in future deliver up refugee criminals on warrants from Free State officials; and that Moroko should be included in the treaty as an ally of the Free State. The above conditions, and a few others of minor importance, having been embodied in a formal treaty, the document was signed in duplicate by the president and Moshesh’s delegates. It was then sent up the mountain, where it received the mark and seal of Moshesh, the signatures of Masupha, Sophonia, and several other sons of the chief, and the mark of Poshuli. Subsequently it was sent to Letsie, and received his mark. It was also signed by the unofficial members of the executive council of the Free State, by the principal officers in the Free State camp, and by Moroko’s adopted son Tsepinare. The 3rd of April mattered because the Fick–Wepener line, which the volksraad had ratified in February, now had Moshesh’s mark, and because 3000 cattle and Molapo’s vassalage were written into the same paper. [3]
The burghers manifested the greatest joy when peace was concluded. The night following was one of festivity in the camp. At nine o’clock in the morning of the 4th the president mounted a waggon, round which the whole commando was assembled. Baring his head, he requested the burghers to join in thanks to God; then he read the treaty, after which the whole assembly sang the hundredth psalm. The 4th of April mattered because the men who had buried Wepener under that mountain now believed the war was over, and because a psalm sung from a waggon was the public act that put Thaba Bosigo on the state’s record. [3]
It was determined to dispose of the larger part of the territory taken from Moshesh as farms to be held under condition of personal occupation, the same course as had been introduced in the colonial districts of Queenstown and Victoria East. A portion would be required as locations for such Basuto as could with safety be permitted to remain there as subjects of the Free State. On the 23rd of May an ordinance was promulgated for the management of Molapo’s clan. The district occupied by the clan, bounded by the Caledon, the Putiatsana, and the Drakensberg, was constituted a native reserve, in which no white man could settle without special permission from the president and the executive council. No licenses for the sale of spirituous liquors within the reserve could be granted. A European officer with the title of commandant, but with the power of a landdrost, was to be stationed in the reserve. Molapo and his councillors were to retain jurisdiction in civil cases, with a right of appeal to the commandant. A hut tax of 10 shillings a year was to be paid by all except the principal captains. The Dutch Reformed Church was to have the right of stationing a missionary with the people. In October the village of Brandfort was founded, on a farm in the country taken during the war. The ordinance of the 23rd of May mattered because Imparani was now to be administered as a reserve with a hut tax, and because personal occupation of the new farms was Brand’s answer to a peace that would otherwise leave the Basuto on the same ground. [3]
Owing to the war, the treasury of the Republic was in such a condition that extraordinary means were necessary to replenish it. A large proportion of the burghers were quite unable to pay the taxes, and there were outstanding debts for ammunition to be met in addition to the ordinary expenditure. In February the volksraad authorised the president to contract a loan of 30000 pounds for 3 years at 8 per cent interest per annum, but no one could be found willing to advance the money, as the prospects of the country seemed to strangers very dark indeed. On the 11th of June the volksraad, as the only resource, resolved to issue notes to the amount of 100000 pounds, and to declare them a legal tender. Of this sum, 57000 pounds was to be lent to burghers on mortgage of landed property, at a yearly interest of 6 per cent. Each district was to have an equal share of the loan, and no individual could borrow more than 500 pounds. No portion of this sum was to be redeemed for 5 years, but after that term it was to be paid off at the rate of 10000 pounds annually. The remainder of the issue, or 43000 pounds, was intended to meet the existing liabilities of the country. The public lands were pledged as security. Though a legal tender, the notes never were equal in value to metal coin, and as they were valueless in the British colonies, a large portion of the trade of the country was thereafter carried on by means of barter. The 11th of June mattered because a state that had just sung the hundredth psalm could not raise 30000 pounds in metal, and because notes that would not pass at the Cape forced the interior onto barter. [3]
The members of the volksraad appointed a commission to take evidence upon the conduct of the missionaries. When this commission reported that no charges of having taken part in hostilities could be proved against the expelled clergymen, they decided that no compensation should be made for their personal losses, on the ground of the enmity displayed in such of their letters as had been made public. The Paris Evangelical Society was recognised as owner of the buildings on the stations, and in order to give these buildings value, a tract of land 1500 morgen in extent, surrounding each of the stations, was assigned to the society, which it might use as a farm or dispose of at its option, the only charge made therefor being a sum of 100 pounds on each grant. The board of directors of the Paris society rejected the grants, assigning as reasons that its missionaries were not farmers, and that to dispose of the ground by sale would destroy their influence with the people they were desirous of teaching. The Wesleyan Society was treated in the same manner. The ground on which its stations were situated, except Thaba Ntshu, had now become part of the Free State. The society was informed that it would receive a title to 1500 morgen around Platberg, and the same extent of ground at any of the other places named upon which mission buildings were still standing. After this year the labours of the Wesleyans in this part of South Africa were confined to Thaba Ntshu. In Bloemfontein J. A. Smellekamp, who from 1856 had practised as an agent-at-law in that town and for several years prior to his decease had been one of the most respected members of the volksraad, closed an eventful life on the 25th of May. The sentence of banishment from the South African Republic, passed against him in 1854, had been rescinded in 1860 and the fine returned to him. The grants of 1500 morgen mattered because the raad would not pay the expelled clergy, and because a Paris board that refused to farm left the stations as empty buildings on Free State ground. [3] [3]
Cardwell of the 9th of March, Carnarvon of the 25th of July, and Lerothodi of December — 1866
The high commissioner, on learning the conditions of the treaties of Imparani and Thaba Bosigo, lost no time in writing to the president expressing his disapproval of them. In his view, the country left to the Basuto was too small. If it had been impossible to prevent them pressing on the farmers before, how would it be now that they were rolled back within the new boundaries? Further, Wodehouse did not approve of the separation of Molapo’s clan from the rest of the tribe. As this chief was now a Free State subject, His Excellency held that the Free State was responsible for his share of the cattle still due to Natal, and requested the president to require him to furnish 700 head. The correspondence on this subject had no other result than to deepen the impression of the Free State people that all Wodehouse’s sympathy was against them. Wodehouse’s protest mattered because the high commissioner who had cancelled a Natal expedition in January now treated Imparani as a Free State debt to Natal, and because 700 cattle tied Molapo’s new status to Ramanela’s unpaid raid. [3]
The treaties were hardly signed when Moshesh and Letsie renewed their efforts to obtain British protection, in the supposition that if Great Britain could be induced to take them over, the boundaries defined by Grey and Wodehouse would certainly be restored. To this effect Letsie wrote to the high commissioner on the 11th of May, and when this did not succeed, a deputation consisting of Moperi, Tsekelo, and some others of less note, was sent by Moshesh to the lieutenant-governor of Natal, with the same object. This mission led to a good deal of correspondence between the home and the colonial governments and the chiefs, but had no result. On the 9th of March Mr Cardwell, then secretary of state for the colonies, had written to Wodehouse that the extension of British rule in South Africa was a matter too serious in its bearings to be entertained by Her Majesty’s Government without some overruling necessity, and that he was not prepared to authorise compliance with the request of the Basuto chiefs that their country might be taken under the immediate authority of the Queen. On the 25th of July Lord Carnarvon, who succeeded Mr Cardwell, withdrew even the authority granted by his predecessor for the appointment of a resident diplomatic agent with the Basuto chief, and stated his view that connection with the tribe should be limited to a friendly mediation, such as could lead to no closer or entangling relationship. Cardwell and Carnarvon mattered because Moshesh’s old request to be taken over, which Wodehouse had repeated on the 13th of January, was refused in London while Brand’s new line still stood. [3]
Letsie, Moperi, and Molitsane then turned to the Free State government, and expressed a strong desire to become its subjects. The reply Letsie received was that he must first prove himself worthy of becoming a subject, and then his request would be taken into consideration; but that before anything could be done in that direction the cattle due to Natal must be paid, to prevent the high commissioner holding the Free State responsible. In the meantime, he had permission to remain where he was until his crops should be reaped. In December, Letsie for the second time sent his son Lerothodi to Bloemfontein to urge that he might be taken over, but to no purpose. Molitsane had permission to remain on the northern side of the Caledon until a suitable location could be found for him. He was informed that if the future owners of the farms chose to allow small parties of his people to continue their residence where they were, the government would not object as long as they behaved themselves. They therefore gathered their crops, and when the season for sowing came round again, put more ground under cultivation than they had ever done before. Moperi was treated in the same manner. This chief was recognised by everyone as the least untrustworthy of all the heads of the clans in the Lesuto. Though a brother of Moshesh, his position was not a fortunate one: hemmed in by Molapo, Masupha, and Molitsane, the tract of land occupied by his clan was very small. Knowing his circumstances, the Free State would have accepted him as a subject at once, if it had not been for the high commissioner’s view of responsibility for the cattle due to Natal. During the winter there were chiefs in the Lesuto with abundance of grain, while at no great distance from them common people were living on what they could find. What remained of the crop of this year was stored in a few mountain fastnesses. December mattered because Lerothodi’s second journey showed that Letsie still wanted a Free State umbrella once London had refused, and because grain stored in the mountains was the store on which a broken treaty could be fought again. [3]
Pretorius of the 19th of February, Waterberg of March, and the Blood River of the 16th of December — South African Republic 1866
Marthinus Wessel Pretorius still sat at Pretoria, with Paul Kruger as commandant-general. When Kruger’s commando had retired from the Lesuto in October 1865, no agreement of peace had been concluded. In the treaty of Thaba Bosigo no mention was made of the South African Republic, an omission which gave a good deal of offence to the government at Pretoria, as the president and the executive council maintained that their state ought to derive some benefit from the land taken from the Basuto. Zoutpansberg was still unrestored. The white inhabitants remained in laager; it was not possible to occupy the abandoned farms or to fit out hunting expeditions. In November 1865 Pretorius and Kruger had found 38 farm-houses and 8 houses in the outskirts of Schoemansdal burnt, and no police with which to punish either lawless Europeans or the Baramapulana. Every burgher throughout the Republic who was liable to military duty, except those who had been in the commando against Moshesh, had been warned to hold himself in readiness to proceed to Zoutpansberg whenever called upon; the feeling displayed was so strongly averse to war with the Baramapulana that it was at once evident the attempt to raise a strong force would be a failure. The omission of Pretoria from Thaba Bosigo mattered because a republic that had sent 970 men to Leribe now had no share in Brand’s new line, and because its own north was still a laager. [3]
On the 19th of February the volksraad met in session at Potchefstroom. It resolved to send a commission of inquiry to the seat of disturbances, to enforce order by means of a commando, and by the same means to support the courts of law in punishing wrong-doers there. But the financial condition of the country was such that these resolutions could not be carried into effect. In addition to the issue of paper money in the previous year — the blue foolscap notes of 10500 pounds of June 1865 — there were outstanding notes of hand, salaries of officials in arrear, and nothing in the treasury. To redeem the outstanding paper and defray current expenses, the volksraad resolved to issue notes of 2 shillings and 6 pence, 5 shillings, and 20 shillings, to the amount of 12000 pounds, the notes — though bearing no interest — to be a legal tender for 10 years; and as security for the redemption of the amount they set apart 245 farms. As the paper previously issued was not current at more than half its nominal value, the volksraad passed a resolution that any licensed dealer who should refuse to receive the new notes as equal to gold or silver should lose his license. The notes of 12000 pounds mattered because a volksraad that voted a commando for Zoutpansberg had to print the money first, and because a dealer who would not take the paper at gold would lose his license. [3]
In March a district named Waterberg was formed out of the northern part of Rustenburg and the western part of Zoutpansberg. It had the Limpopo river as its northern and north-western boundary. The landdrost was stationed at the hamlet of Nylstroom, situated on the head waters of the river of that name. At the same time the district of Heidelberg was formed out of the eastern part of Potchefstroom. The landdrost was stationed at the village of Heidelberg, which had been laid out as a churchplace in the preceding year. In April rumours began to spread that alluvial gold had been found in the district of Rustenburg and in some other parts of the Republic. These rumours, which were vague, led to nothing. Mr McCorkindale reached South Africa again in this year with a large quantity of gunpowder and a party of Scotch immigrants numbering in all about 50 souls. A large quantity of ammunition brought from Europe by him, and delivered at the port of Durban by arrangement with the government in part payment of the land sold to him, could not be brought from the sea-coast to Pretoria for want of money to meet the transport charges. March and April mattered because Waterberg and Heidelberg gave the republic two new magistracies while Zoutpansberg itself still sat in laager, and because McCorkindale’s powder lay at Durban for want of transport money. [3]
In June the government called out a commando of 1200 men, but did not succeed in obtaining even half that number. The commandant-general was ill and unable to lead the force, but the president went with it. It accomplished nothing whatever, and was disbanded within a month. But now the hostile clans began to quarrel among themselves, and the Europeans in the laagers were relieved from fear of attack. It was not possible, however, to occupy the abandoned farms. The burghers of the southern districts would not waste blood and means in helping one captain to resist another when the interests of Europeans were in no way involved, nor go to the assistance of lawless whites who had brought trouble upon themselves. June mattered because Pretorius himself rode with a commando that never reached half of 1200, and because clan quarrels, not a restored magistracy, were what lifted the fear of attack. [3]
In July President Pretorius sent a commission — of which Mr A. A. O’Reilly, landdrost of Wakkerstroom, was chairman — to confer with Panda concerning the alterations in the line which he desired to have made, to induce the chief to remove a few Zulus who were living on the ceded ground, and to inquire about some encroachments on the northern bank of the Pongolo. Mr O’Reilly and his fellow commissioners reached Nodwengo on the 27th of August. They obtained from Panda an explanation of the change which he desired in the boundary line, but were unable to settle either of the other matters, as the old chief, under various pretences, avoided their discussion. As soon as he could conveniently spare the time, Pretorius proceeded to have the line altered so as to meet Panda’s wishes, and it was now supposed that this matter was finally settled to the satisfaction of all parties. Cetewayo, however, still regarded the ceded territory as his by right. In December 43 farms had been inspected and allotted to applicants between the old and new boundaries. The O’Reilly commission mattered because the Utrecht strip piled in beacons in December 1864 was being bent to Panda’s wish, and because Cetewayo did not accept that bend. [3]
In November Moshesh, who was then preparing for another rupture with the Free State, caused a letter to be written to President Pretorius, asking that a formal agreement of peace might be made between them. He stated that he greatly regretted the murders that had been committed by his people in June 1865; but they were done in mistake, and he thought that the blood which had since been spilt and the losses inflicted on his people were sufficient to compensate for that crime. The government at Pretoria, involved in difficulties in other directions and willing to retort upon the Free State for the fancied injury sustained by their exclusion from the treaty of Thaba Bosigo, thereupon sent Messrs M. J. Viljoen and P. W. Pretorius as an embassy to treat with Moshesh. On the 4th of November the overture was dated. After the decision of the supreme court of the Cape Colony which excluded the clergymen of the Republics from the Cape synod, the reverend Mr Van Heiningen of Lydenburg and the elders of the church at Utrecht had united with the Dutch Reformed Church in Natal. Early in 1864 they had decided to have a general assembly of their own. This body met for the first time at Utrecht on the 3rd of December. Mr Van Heiningen had removed, and there was only one clergyman present on the occasion — the reverend F. L. Cachet, who had recently come to reside at Utrecht — but there were elders representing 8 congregations then established. The letter of the 4th of November mattered because Moshesh was asking Pretoria for a peace that Thaba Bosigo had not named, and because an embassy sent in offence at Brand’s omission would sit at Thaba Bosigo in the next year. [3]
In connection with the Zulus an event took place on the 16th of December. A great number of Europeans assembled on the farm of Jan de Jager, on the Blood river, where Dingaan’s army had been defeated by Commandant-General Andries Pretorius 28 years before. Religious services were held, after which a heap of stones was erected in the centre of the site occupied by the laager on the 16th of December 1838, as a memorial of the great victory. A good many Zulus were present on the occasion, and messages of friendship were interchanged with Cetewayo, who declared himself of the same house as the Boers. The 16th of December mattered because the memorial was piled on the same ground as the laager of 1838 while 43 farms were being allotted on a bent Utrecht line, and because Cetewayo’s friendship was spoken on a day when he still regarded that ceded ground as his. [3]