Boer History1870 in South Africa: Wodehouse, Barkly, Brand, and the Diamond Fields
Wodehouse, Hay of May, and Barkly of the 31st of December — Colony 1870
Sir Philip Wodehouse still governed the Cape Colony and still held Her Majesty’s high commission in South Africa when the year opened. He had arrived at Capetown on the 15th of January 1862. London had kept him beyond the usual term expressly to settle the Basuto difficulty. 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. Ichaboe, with Holland’s Bird and the other west-coast islets, still stood on the colonial roll from the 16th of July 1866. The census of 1865 had counted 200000 in the Colony. A drought of several years still depressed agriculture and trade. After the Basuto wars and the ruin at Zoutpansberg, almost anything that could brighten prospects would have been felt as a relief. The castle year mattered because the second convention of Aliwal North, signed in 1869, still needed a Free State signature once the thirteenth article had been struck out; because the same high commissioner who had proclaimed the Basuto British subjects on the 12th of March 1868 would leave as soon as that paper was accepted by all parties; and because diamond camps were already forming on the Vaal. [3]
Port Nolloth, so termed since March 1855, still shipped the copper of Springbokfontein and Spektakel. The Cape Copper Mining Company, which had taken over Philips and King’s Namaqualand property, had begun in 1869 a narrow-gauge railway from Port Nolloth to Ookiep. Animal power had not been enough to convey the ore to the coast as fast as it could be got ready: mules had been imported, but their forage had to be brought from distant parts of the colony, and the expense of keeping them was very great. Before 1871 all the ore that reached the sea was still brought down by mules or oxen. The gauge mattered because Namaqualand copper was already a colonial export, and because a line begun in a drought year was meant to move ore faster than oxen could do it. [3]
At Grahamstown the Drostdy buildings, in military occupation again from 1866, were provisionally abandoned by the War Office in July of this year. They had stood empty from 1864 to 1866 after the troops moved to King William’s Town, then been reoccupied. The abandonment mattered because a frontier town that had housed imperial troops since the 1830s now waited on a War Office that no longer needed the drostdy, while the same colony still had to police the Lesuto and watch the Vaal. [4]
In the session of this year the Cape Parliament showed itself as little inclined as in 1869 to take upon itself the enforcement of order in the Lesuto. On the 3rd of May a resolution was carried in the House of Assembly that it was expedient that the frontier armed and mounted police in Basutoland should be withdrawn and stationed within the colonial boundary as early as would be safe and prudent. The resolution was communicated to the governor by respectful address, but he took no action upon it. The vote mattered because a colony of 200000 would still not take the mountain as a colonial charge, and because Wodehouse, detained to settle that mountain, was about to leave once Aliwal was complete. [3]
In May, just before his departure, Wodehouse drew up a series of regulations for the government of the Basuto, not to be put in force until Bowker thought it expedient. At the same time he appointed Bowker magistrate of the central and northern districts, and John Austen magistrate of the southern district. Instructions were issued to proceed with the collection of the hut-tax. Until it was known whether the Basuto would keep their engagement to pay that tax, all further arrangements for the government of the tribe were left in abeyance. May mattered because the high commissioner who had taken the Basuto as British subjects now left written rules and two magistrates, and because the hut-tax was the test of whether those rules could be paid for. [3]
After Wodehouse left, Lieutenant-General Hay took the administration. For several months there were hardly any occurrences worth noting in connection with the Basuto: attention throughout South Africa turned to the diamond-fields and to the disputes over the ground along the lower Vaal. Hay left everything in the Lesuto to be arranged by the coming high commissioner. Bowker, having succeeded Sir Walter Currie as commandant of the frontier armed and mounted police, appointed Inspector Surmon to act as his deputy in the Lesuto, and was never afterwards able to be at Maseru except for a brief visit. On the 17th of October, before Sir Henry Barkly left England, he was instructed by the secretary of state to discuss the question with Wodehouse, and received directions in writing that “Basutoland should be annexed as soon as possible either to Natal or to the Cape Colony.” An alternative was mentioned: that a revenue be raised from the territory sufficient to enable the high commissioner to conduct its government without external assistance; but the views of the Imperial Government were decidedly against that course if annexation could be brought about. On the 31st of December Barkly assumed duty as high commissioner and governor of the Cape Colony. He found President Brand and C. W. Hutton waiting in Capetown to explain the diamond-fields from the Free State side. December mattered because the castle was no longer Wodehouse’s: it was Barkly in the oaths, Hay’s acting months behind him, and a written order from London that the Lesuto should not remain a direct charge of the Crown. [3]
Aliwal of the 10th of March, Moshesh of the 11th, and Morosi of June — Lesuto 1870
On the 10th of March the Aliwal North convention as amended was signed in Capetown by P. G. van der Byl, as agent for the Orange Free State. The thirteenth article had been expunged. There still remained the formality that the volksraad should concur in the president’s approval of that change, which they did on the 3rd of May. Because a treaty of September 1858 had been drawn up at the same place, this document, as now finally confirmed by all parties, is officially termed the Second Treaty or Convention of Aliwal North. After more than 2 years’ delay, during which anarchy fitly describes the condition of the Lesuto, the British authorities were at last in a position to take measures for a settled government. The Bataung stragglers on the Free State side of the Caledon had been driven across by a patrol. Towards the close of 1869 a good many farms in the territory from which they had been expelled, as well as the villages of Ladybrand and Ficksburg, had been occupied, so that the clan gave up further resistance and settled in its new location. The 10th of March mattered because Aliwal was no longer a draft waiting on a Free State hand, and because a high commissioner detained to settle the mountain could now leave. [3]
The next step was the transfer of Molapo from the Free State, so as to secure a uniform system of government in the country. Bowker ascertained that he was still secretly hankering after the incorporation of his district with Natal, but he expressed himself desirous of becoming a British subject, and addressed a letter to the volksraad requesting to be released from his allegiance. The transfer mattered because Molapo’s country between the Putiatsana and the Caledon had been the hole in Aliwal, and because a chief who still looked to Natal now asked Bloemfontein to let him go. [3]
While those arrangements were being made, the chief to whom the Basuto owe their existence as a tribe was dying on Thaba Bosigo. Almost forgotten and utterly neglected in his last days, the old man pined away, suffering at times even from want of food. The weight of 77 years, many of them years of unwonted care and anxiety, had exhausted his physical strength; but his mental faculties were not wholly decayed. Four months before his death he selected a beautiful kaross made of panther skins, and asked Bowker to send it in his name to the Queen as a mark of his gratitude and desire that British protection should not be withdrawn from his country. His power over his people was all gone. No one any longer went to him for orders, or asked his opinion on public matters. His sons, Letsie, Molapo, and Masupha, exercised control over his followers without any reference to him. On the 11th of March Moshesh died. So entirely sunk in oblivion was the man who had once been the most prominent chief in South Africa that only a few colonial newspapers contained an account of his death. From that moment he became to the Basuto the highest object of their worship: Thaba Bosigo, the mountain on which he had lived and where his remains were buried, was thenceforth regarded by them with superstitious reverence. The 11th of March mattered because the man who had asked to be received as a British subject in 1868 was no longer there to hold the mountain, and because Letsie, Molapo, and Masupha now sat in his place without asking him. [3]
It had not yet been decided whether the Baphuti were to be considered British subjects, and whether the district which they occupied south of the Orange was to be regarded as part of the Lesuto or not. Wodehouse had been requested by Morosi to take him over, but had declined to do so without further consideration. To ascertain if he was still of the same mind, in June he was requested to meet Bowker and Austen at the police camp at Pathlala Drift. There Morosi declared that he had been for years a subject of the late chief Moshesh, and that he desired to follow his example. He had acted, he said, the part of a dog lingering behind at a kraal and gnawing bones after his master had left, and now he wished to follow up the trail of his lord. He and his people were then formally received as British subjects. Political agitators, instigated by Buchanan, who had returned to Natal, were keeping the people in such a disturbed state that Bowker was obliged to ask for authority to deal summarily with them. In reply, he was informed that he could order such persons to leave the country; and if they did not go, he could expel them or imprison them, pending the high commissioner’s decision in each case. When it became known that he possessed such power, these mischief-makers desisted from acting as openly as before; but Bowker was aware that their intrigues were still continued. June mattered because the Baphuti south of the Orange now followed Moshesh into British protection, and because Bowker could at last order Buchanan’s men out of the Lesuto. [3]
The Basuto at this time were in possession of a large number of firearms, but since the cessation of hostilities they had not been able to obtain as much ammunition as they desired. The government wished to divert their attention to peaceful pursuits, and with this object endeavoured to prevent munitions of war from reaching them. Contraband traders could not be kept out of the field. One of these men came up from Natal with a number of rifles, which were evidently intended for sale, though no proof could be obtained to that effect. Bowker took temporary possession of the weapons, and then wrote asking for instructions; in reply he was authorised to confiscate such importations. Still, the profit on illicit transactions in munitions of war was so great that unscrupulous men could not be deterred from engaging in them. In August, Austen and Surmon set about the collection of the hut-tax. The chiefs were promised 10 percent of the amounts paid in, as an inducement to exert their authority and influence with the people. The result was the receipt of rather over 3700 pounds. A small portion was paid in money, but most of it was paid in grain, horned cattle, and goats, which were sent to the Cape Colony and sold. August mattered because the hut-tax of 10 shillings a hut, promised when Wodehouse took the tribe, now yielded more than 3700 pounds, and because that yield was the test on which further government had been left to hang. [3]
This being considered satisfactory, the chiefs and leading men in the country were called together at Thaba Bosigo on the 22nd of December, when the regulations drawn up by Wodehouse were laid before them, and discussion was invited. Every one present expressed satisfaction at having been saved from ruin by their adoption as British subjects, but with regard to their prospective government they were less pleased. Molapo and some of the minor chiefs were still clamouring in disappointment that Great Britain had not forcibly restored to them the whole of the land ceded to the Free State by the treaty of Thaba Bosigo. Tsekelo, recently returned from Europe, had stirred up their disaffection anew: he had informed them that the settlement effected by Wodehouse was condemned in England, and that the coming governor would undo all that the late one had done. Buchanan’s emissaries also were busy fomenting seditious feelings, though he himself remained in Natal, by whose government he was earnestly advised to abstain from further interference in Basuto affairs. The dissatisfaction on the question of territory was, however, rebuked by Letsie, who expressed himself contented with the country left to the tribe. Much greater concern was expressed when the regulations were read over, and it was discovered that the chiefs were ignored in them except as tax collectors and census framers. Molapo, Masupha, and the minor chiefs spoke openly against the acceptance of the regulations. Finally Letsie stopped further discussion by declaring himself satisfied, and adding that the people must accept the regulations and pay the hut-tax. A little later in the day an address to Bowker was drawn up in writing and signed by the chiefs: they expressed their thanks for having been received as British subjects, and declared that the laws read over were reasonable, but they were sorry not to see mentioned the rights and the authority left to the chiefs, who were the captains of the Queen. At this meeting cattle were collected to be sent, according to traditional custom, with messengers announcing the death of Moshesh to the chiefs of tribes with whom he had intercourse in his lifetime. By some oversight no messengers were sent to Cetewayo on this occasion. As soon as Barkly’s arrival in South Africa was known, the Basuto chiefs sent him a letter of welcome: they had been persuaded by Tsekelo and Buchanan that Wodehouse had been recalled owing to their representations in England, and that the new governor would most likely favour them much more than the late one had done. The 22nd of December mattered because Wodehouse’s regulations now had Letsie’s word in front of the tribe, and because the captains of the Queen still asked, in writing, for the authority the paper had not named. [3]
Keate of the 19th of February, Potgieter’s Rust of May, and Lobengula of January — South African Republic 1870
On the 24th of January Lobengula was invested with the chieftainship of the Matabele tribe, with the usual ceremonies. These included a war-dance by 9000 or 10000 soldiers, plumed and attired with capes of ostrich feathers on their shoulders, bands of otter skin round their foreheads, brushes of the tails of oxen encircling their arms and legs, and kilts of wild-cat skin. A song or chant in praise of the chief and defying his rival was described by several Europeans who were present as most impressive, the chorus being accompanied by the striking of the spear-shafts upon the shields and the stamping of the warriors’ feet in perfect time. To this succeeded the sacrifice of a large number of oxen to the spirits of the dead chiefs, especially the spirit of Moselekatse. A section of the Matabele, however, declared in favour of the stranger from Natal who claimed to be Kuruman. This party included the Sokindaba regiment, the most famous of all the veteran warrior bands, so that civil war was unavoidable. The issue was decided in one well-contested battle, in which Lobengula’s forces won a complete victory, and secured for their leader undisputed authority over the Matabele tribe. Umbate, the most influential induna, had been of the opinion that the stranger was not Kuruman, but a son of Moselekatse of much lower rank, and it was Umbate and those of the same view who had selected Lobengula. The 24th of January mattered because Moselekatse’s death, known at Pretoria in November 1868, now had a successor in the north, and because a Natal claimant who took the Sokindaba with him was beaten in one battle. [3]
The commission under Kruger as chairman arrived at Nodwengo on the 11th of February, and found Panda so ill that he could not rise from his mat. He admitted that the Utrecht line had been made with his concurrence, but the commission found the Zulu sub-chiefs and people everywhere so opposed to the occupation of the ceded ground by Europeans, that they advised the government to postpone giving it out in farms. On the 8th of June 1869 the volksraad had directed the president to cause the remainder of the ground there to be disposed of; when this had come to Panda’s knowledge, he had sent Gebula to Utrecht with 240 head of horned cattle to buy it back again, and the government had declined to sell it. Cetewayo still regarded the ceded territory as his by right. Nothing farther was done in the Natal arbitration which Pretorius had accepted on the 30th of October 1869: various obstacles intervened, and the matter stood. The 11th of February mattered because Utrecht’s strip still hung on a sick chief’s word, and because Cetewayo, who had not been sent Moshesh’s death-cattle in December, still named that ground as his. [3]
On the 14th of January commissions from both Republics met Lieutenant-Governor Keate at Harrismith. With Keate were Theophilus Shepstone, secretary for native affairs in Natal; Dr. Sutherland, surveyor-general of that colony; Melmoth Osborne, resident magistrate of Newcastle; and R. H. Erskine, private secretary. The commission of the South African Republic consisted of President Pretorius, Commandant-General Kruger, B. C. E. Proes, LL.D., state secretary; J. R. Lys and P. J. Joubert, members of the volksraad; and A. A. O’Reilly, landdrost of Wakkerstroom. The Free State commission consisted of President Brand, J. J. Venter, C. J. de Villiers, and T. F. Dryer, members of the volksraad, and F. McCabe, landdrost of Bloemfontein. The Free State claimed as the boundary the Likwa spruit, the most northerly source of the Vaal; the South African Republic claimed the Klip river. To Pretoria the question was of greater importance than to Bloemfontein, as not only was the district of Wakkerstroom — enclosed by the Likwa and the Klip — at stake, but if the Likwa was decided to be the boundary, the district of Utrecht would be cut off from the remainder of the country, and there would be no direct access to Natal. Documentary evidence on both sides was submitted, after which the country between the sources of the two streams was examined by Dr. Sutherland and some members of the commissions. On the 19th of February Keate gave his decision at Maritzburg. He pronounced in favour of the South African Republic, and laid down the line between the two states from a point on the boundary of the colony of Natal immediately over that source of the streamlet called Gans Vlei which takes its rise at the shortest distance from the northern beacon of the colony, thence down this streamlet to its confluence with the Klip river, and thence down the course of the Klip river to its junction with the Vaal. The 19th of February mattered because Wakkerstroom stayed with Pretoria, because Utrecht was not cut off from Natal, and because the same Keate who sat Harrismith in January would later be named for a larger award on the Vaal. [3]
Early in this year fever made its appearance at Potgieter’s Rust. The hamlet had been 10 years in existence, and had previously enjoyed the reputation of being a remarkably healthy place. By April, 81 out of the 93 European inhabitants were either dead or ill, and in May the hamlet was abandoned by all the survivors. In the entire district of Zoutpansberg the only village left was Marabastad, where the landdrost was stationed. Potgieter’s Rust was scarcely abandoned when Makapan and Kalikali fell upon some little kraals close by, and rooted them out. The Europeans took no part in these quarrels, but let the clans fight their own battles. The financial condition of the country was about as bad as it could be. In this year the government notes were in general not worth more than 25 percent of their nominal value. Yet salaries were paid in them reckoned at par, so that the civil servants were in the greatest distress. No taxes could be collected in metal coin. The only favourable circumstance was that the income of the state slightly exceeded the outlay: in 1869 the revenue had been 31511 pounds, and the expenditure 30836. In June the volksraad resolved to call in the whole of the paper in circulation, and to issue new notes uniform in appearance. Some of those that should have been cancelled according to former enactments were found to be still in circulation; the amount of the new issue needed to cover the whole debt was 73826 pounds. The volksraad passed a resolution to redeem at least 5000 pounds yearly out of ordinary revenue, or, failing that, by the sale of public lands. May mattered because Zoutpansberg now had one village left, and because paper at a quarter of its face still paid the civil list at par. [3]
The Portuguese diplomatic commission under the baron Carlos Pedro Barahona e Costa, governor of Quilimane, which had arrived at Potchefstroom in December 1869, remained there for several months. On the 1st of June a resolution was adopted permitting perfect freedom of worship to burghers and residents, and annulling the restrictive clauses of the constitution in that respect: the governor of Quilimane had forwarded to the volksraad two memorials signed respectively by 58 and 81 individuals, in favour of religious liberty for Roman Catholics. Unlike the constitution of the Orange Free State, that of the South African Republic could be altered or amended at any time by a simple resolution of the volksraad. On the 8th of July, as a mark of the friendship existing between the two countries, the governor of Quilimane was made an honorary citizen of the South African Republic. The commission proposed several supplementary articles, which were ultimately rejected by the Portuguese Government; the final ratification of the treaty of the 20th of July 1869 still stood. June mattered because Catholic worship was no longer barred by a clause the volksraad could strike with a vote, and because a Portuguese governor at Potchefstroom was the east coast’s mark on a republic whose paper still sat at 25 percent. [3]
Backhouse of the 31st of March, Nooitgedacht of August, and the Campbell of the 29th — Orange Free State 1870
In this year some 500 individuals of both sexes and all ages, most of whom were steeped in poverty, constituted the Griqua clan under Nicholas Waterboer. Any influence that they once had with the Koranas and Batlapin in that part of the country had long since been lost. The clan occupied the territory called the district of Griquatown, north of the Orange and west of the Vaal. Waterboer’s sovereignty was also undisputed in the district east of the Vaal, and enclosed by the Vetberg line, the line from Ramah towards David’s Graf, and the Orange river — the tract recently termed Albania. David Arnot still laid claim, on the captain’s behalf, to the Campbell district west of the Vaal, and also to a large strip of territory east of the Vaal that had formed part of the European section of the Orange River Sovereignty and had been transferred by Clerk to the assembly that established the Orange Free State. The 500 mattered because a small impoverished clan now named, through Arnot, both the Campbell west of the Vaal and a strip of Free State farms east of it, just as diamonds were being picked along that river. [3]
On the 31st of March President Brand had a conference with Waterboer at Backhouse, and the captain then consented to submit the question of the ownership of the Campbell district alone to the arbitration of Wodehouse. The president forwarded a deed of submission duly signed by both parties, but on the 5th of May the high commissioner replied that he was unable to act in the matter, as he was about to leave South Africa. The volksraad then sent Steyn and Hohne to Waterboer to endeavour to induce him to come to some friendly arrangement. They succeeded in obtaining his promise to appoint a commission to meet one from the Free State, with power to settle the dispute. It was agreed that the commissions should meet on the 15th of August at Nooitgedacht, near the ford on the Vaal river known as Klipdrift. Backhouse mattered because Waterboer would arbitrate the Campbell alone, and because Wodehouse, leaving in May, could not sit that arbitration. [3]
The commissioners of the Free State were Brand and the members of the executive council: F. K. Hohne, government secretary; F. McCabe, landdrost of Bloemfontein; and M. Steyn, J. W. Louw, and Jeremias Venter. Attorney C. J. Vels accompanied the commission to conduct the case, and the secretary of the volksraad was employed to keep a record of the proceedings. On arriving at a farm named Nooitgedacht at the appointed time, the commission found no representatives of the Griqua clan; but next day they learned that the kraal of the Korana captain Barend Bloem, north of the Vaal, bore the same name, and that Waterboer was there in waiting. Accordingly they proceeded to Bloem’s kraal, and on the 18th the conference commenced. Waterboer was accompanied by 7 of the Griqua councillors, and by Arnot and Attorney D. C. Grant to conduct his case. The meetings took place in a tent pitched for the occasion. A large number of people, either interested in the case or drawn together by curiosity, had assembled to watch the proceedings. A commission from the South African Republic, consisting of President Pretorius, John Robert Lys, member of the volksraad, and the state secretary Proes, was there also, and desired to be admitted as a party to the dispute, for the government at Pretoria claimed territory that was supposed to overlap a portion of the Campbell district. Neither the Free State nor the Griqua commission would consent to admit a third party. The 18th of August mattered because the Campbell case now sat in a tent at Bloem’s kraal, beside the diamond camps, and because Pretoria was refused a chair in that tent. [3]
Waterboer’s case rested on the treaty between D’Urban and his father in 1834, which proved nothing relevant; a treaty between his father and Adam Kok dated the 9th of November 1838, in which all the land west of a line from Ramah on the Orange to Platberg on the Vaal was assigned to Andries Waterboer, and Cornelis Kok was completely ignored; a treaty between his father and the Batlapin captain Mahura dated the 22nd of April 1842; and an assertion that Cornelis Kok had no right to dispose of land, he having been subordinate to Waterboer. The Free State commission disproved the last by overwhelming testimony, including correspondence of Waterboer himself. On the fifth day of the conference, when everyone else considered the Griqua case completely broken down, Arnot proposed that the evidence of the Griqua councillors who were present should be taken as to the status of Cornelis Kok. The Free State commission objected to their appearance as witnesses, because they were sitting in the capacity of judges. The proposal was pressed, so the president and his associates asked for time to consider it, and the meeting was adjourned. Before it was opened again Arnot addressed the president in writing, asking if the government of the Free State would promise and undertake, upon the conclusion of this question, to submit the claim of Waterboer to land east of the Vaal to the arbitration of Wodehouse’s successor as high commissioner. The president replied, declining to do so. Upon this, the Griqua commission withdrew from the conference, and on the following day the members abruptly left Nooitgedacht, without notifying their intention to do so or taking leave of the other party. The fifth day mattered because Arnot would not finish the Campbell without a promise on the east of the Vaal, and because Brand would not give that promise. [3]
A meeting then took place between the commissions of the Free State and the South African Republic. The latter claimed the territory north of the Vaal and east of the Hart, down to the junction of those rivers. After some discussion and production of documents, the Free State commission formally announced that it made no pretension to authority or ownership there. Pretorius, Lys, and Proes expressed themselves satisfied, and the conference ended. Having thus failed in obtaining an amicable settlement of the dispute with Waterboer, and being convinced that the pretensions made by Arnot on behalf of that captain were untenable, on the 29th of August Brand, with the advice and consent of the executive council, issued from the Berlin Mission station of Pniel a proclamation declaring the Campbell district, west of the Vaal river, the property of the Orange Free State. Its boundaries, as defined in the proclamation, were the Vaal river from the junction with the Hart down to the ford known as Koukonop Drift, thence a well-known and long-recognised line separating the districts of Griquatown and Campbell, and thence various points in the desert round to the starting-place. The 29th of August mattered because Bloemfontein now named the Campbell in a proclamation, because the Hart was left to Pretoria, and because that paper would be read in Capetown as soon as Hay opened a newspaper. [3]
Pniel of June, Truter of the 29th of August, and Hay of the 15th of September — Diamond Fields 1870
By the close of 1869 it had been proved that diamonds in large numbers were to be found along the northern bank of the Vaal, above the junction of the Hart, where some hundreds had been picked up by Koranas. In all parts of South Africa companies of diggers began to be fitted out. First to commence work was a party from Natal, who selected Hebron, close to the kraal of the Korana captain Barend Bloem, as a likely spot. Through the influence of Theodore Parker, an old trader in that part of the country, Bloem permitted the search to be carried on without molesting the strangers. Next to arrive was a party from King William’s Town. The whole of the colonies and independent states were in such a wretchedly depressed condition that a large proportion of the population was ready to embark in any enterprise that would provide a subsistence. Mechanics and clerks, professional men and labourers, farmers and merchants, all who had nothing particular to do at the time, imagined that fortunes were to be made on the bank of the Vaal. That barren region, hitherto so lonely, began to resound with the bustle and din of an activity such as South Africa never before had witnessed. Along the river, camps of canvas tents rose as by magic. If a diamond was discovered in a new locality, the next day saw a camp there, the ground marked out, and diggers at work. For 50 or 60 miles above the confluence of the Hart and the Vaal a crowd of men swayed backwards and forwards. The largest camp was at Klipdrift, where a great many diamonds were found. It was extremely hard work: an ancient mine must have been eaten into and worn away by the river; the diamonds were deposited amid debris of all kinds, of which enormous boulders formed the principal ingredient; the masses of rock had to be removed before the ground could be taken out and conveyed to the stream, there to be washed in a cradle and the pebbles remaining to be sorted. Under the burning sun this labour was performed, willingly and cheerfully. The camps mattered because a drought colony and two republics now had a crowd on a river whose ownership was not settled, and because Klipdrift was already larger than Hebron. [3]
Early in this year diamonds were found by prospectors on the Free State side of the river, and in June a party of men set to work on the mission station of Pniel, although the reverend Mr. Kallenberg, who was then the resident clergyman, ordered them away. The ground turned out to be particularly rich, and the missionary was then obliged to come to terms with the diggers and consent to their remaining on condition of 1/4 of the value of the gems found being paid to him for the directors of the Berlin Society. The camp at this place rapidly increased in size. After the conference at Nooitgedacht it was visited by Brand and the executive council of the Free State, who recognised at once that a court of justice on the spot was necessary, as the village of Jacobsdal, where the landdrost of the district resided, was more than 40 miles distant. On the 29th of August Olof Johannes Truter, a gentleman of well-known ability, was appointed commissioner of the diamond-fields on the Free State side of the river, with the same power as a landdrost. He was to reside at Pniel, and hold a court there. A little later in the year rumours spread that richer deposits were to be found far away from the river. Some children of a farmer named Van Wyk, residing at Dorstfontein, on the rim of a saucer-like depression of the ground known as Dutoitspan, had picked several small diamonds from the mud with which their dwelling was plastered. Forthwith search was made in the place from which the mud had been taken, and diamonds were found. A party of diggers hastened to Dutoitspan, and found several farmers, friends of the proprietor, already at work. They asked permission to dig, and offered to pay a reasonable fee to the owner of the ground, but were ordered away. The farmer did not want them there. But as they would not leave, he was obliged to come to terms, and the dry diggings — as they were called — were opened at Dorstfontein. June mattered because Pniel, a Berlin station on Free State ground, now paid a fourth to the directors, and because Truter’s court of the 29th of August sat 40 miles nearer the tents than Jacobsdal. [3]
The Free State was not permitted to establish the machinery of government on the diamond-fields without opposition. On the 15th of September Hay wrote to Brand that he had noticed in a newspaper the proclamation concerning the Campbell district, adding that he was in communication with Waterboer, who claimed territory on both sides of the Vaal, and that he was desirous of obtaining information concerning the Free State title. He concluded by intimating that the planting of beacons to mark the Campbell district would be premature. Four days later Hay wrote further that he had seen a notice of the appointment of Truter as commissioner at Pniel, in a portion of the country claimed by Waterboer, and that he did not acknowledge the sovereignty of the Free State over any subjects of Her Majesty living within the limits of the territory in dispute. The concourse of people at the diamond-fields, however, had received his close consideration, and with a view to prevent the commission of crime or outrage by any of Her Majesty’s subjects therein, he had taken measures for the issuing of magistrates’ commissions giving jurisdiction over such subjects, under the provisions of an Act of the Imperial Parliament, 26 and 27 Victoria, cap. 35 — the Cape of Good Hope Punishment Bill in an amended form. This was the commencement of a series of letters, some of very great length. Brand’s arguments reduced to this: the Campbell district and the district in which the diamond-fields east of the Vaal were situated were distinct from each other; the latter was part of the Free State, on account of having been in the undisturbed possession and occupation of its burghers for 20 years by virtue of British land certificates issued before the abandonment of the Sovereignty in 1854; persons coming to push their fortunes by diamond-digging were certainly subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Free State; he therefore protested against the appointment by the high commissioner of special magistrates to exercise authority therein, as a violation of the convention of 1854. Hay, on the other hand, could see no distinction between the Campbell district and the land east of the Vaal. The 15th of September mattered because an acting governor who could not annex an inch now treated Brand’s proclamation as premature, and because the Punishment Bill was the instrument with which Capetown proposed to reach British subjects on Free State ground. [3]
As a statement of their case, made and repeated in every possible form in writing, had no impression upon the high commissioner, the volksraad instructed Brand and Hutton to proceed to Capetown and endeavour to explain matters by word of mouth. The delegates reached Capetown on the 29th of December; but Hay declined to grant them an official interview, on the ground that Barkly, who was hourly expected, would have to settle the matter finally, and it was therefore better to wait for him. The correspondence between Hay and Brand was conducted in temperate language; but some of the despatches sent by the former to England occasioned great irritation in South Africa when they were published in blue-books. On the 17th of November Earl Kimberley expressed his views: Her Majesty’s Government would see with great dissatisfaction any encroachment on the Griqua territory by those Republics, which would open to the Boers an extended field for their slave-dealing operations; he should wish the high commissioner to discourage, by all practicable means, short of the application of force, any combination of the Dutch Boers and English immigrants for the purpose of expelling or overpowering the native occupants of the lands, whether Griquas or other tribes. While using language such as this, Kimberley professed that he entertained the most friendly feelings towards the Republics. The 29th of December mattered because Brand and Hutton were in Capetown without an official chair, and because Kimberley’s despatch of the 17th of November had already named slave-dealing against the Republics in a dispute about diamonds. [3]
The Concession of the 22nd of June, Parker at Klipdrift, and Campbell of December — Vaal 1870
The territory in which these diamond-fields were situated was claimed by the South African Republic, and was included in the district of Bloemhof. But it was claimed also by the Barolong as part of their country, by the Batlapin as part of theirs, and by a Korana clan as its lawful inheritance. Last of all, Arnot claimed it on behalf of Waterboer. The diggers did not trouble themselves about settling the question of ownership of the ground. At Hebron, the highest camp on the river, the authority of the South African Republic was acknowledged, and probably no resistance to this state would have been shown elsewhere if it had not been for an egregious blunder committed by the government. Just before the volksraad ended its session in June, and when only 12 members were present, the executive was authorised to grant a concession of mining privileges to one of two companies that had made application. Upon this authority Pretorius and the executive council granted to the firm of A. J. Munnich, J. M. Posno, and H. B. Webb the exclusive right to search for diamonds in the territory along the Vaal above the junction of the Hart, for 21 years, from the 22nd of June. The firm bound itself to pay a royalty of 6 percent upon the diamonds found, reckoned at 3 pounds a carat, irrespective of the size of the gems. This concession utterly destroyed the authority of the South African Republic in all the lower camps. The diggers would not acknowledge the monopoly, and announced that they would resist with arms any attempt to enforce it. In the villages of the Republic also objections to it were raised, as being most impolitic. The constitution required the executive council to give 3 months’ notice in the Staats Courant of all important laws to be brought before the volksraad, and as this course had not been observed, there was a general expression of opinion that the proceedings were illegal. The government was obliged to cancel the concession; but it was then too late. By that time the diggers at each camp had elected a committee to frame regulations for its government, and to carry them out. At Klipdrift a free Republic was established, and Theodore Parker was elected president. The 22nd of June mattered because 12 members had given away the river, and because Parker’s republic at Klipdrift was the diggers’ answer to a monopoly they would not wear. [3]
Upon discovering the effects of the error, Pretorius visited the camps along the Vaal, and endeavoured to allay the irritation that was prevalent. He succeeded in making himself personally popular, but he was unable to restore confidence in a government at Pretoria, though he made offers of very large powers of local rule. On the 1st of September he wrote to the chairman of the committees that the territory east of the Hart was part of the South African Republic, but that circumstances being peculiar there, he considered an entirely different system of government, according to the wishes of the diggers, must be adopted. He proposed to give them the right to elect their own officials, who were to be invested with extraordinary powers, and he desired that delegates should be elected by the people to meet him and discuss the best way in which the interests of the diggers could be promoted. This overture was followed by a proclamation, dated at Klipdrift on the 10th of September, in which the right of the South African Republic to the territory east of the Hart river was asserted, and a basis of government was laid down: the territory from the junction of the Hart and the Vaal upwards to Berris-drift, also called Hartebeest-hoorn, thence to the banks of the Hart in the direction of Enkele Kameelboom, should never be given out in farms, but be kept exclusively for digging purposes, and be a separate district named Diamond District; no special concession or preferent right should be given to anyone; English currency and the English language should be lawful; a local executive of 3 members should be appointed provisionally; a resident magistrate independent of the executive; 9 heemraden, 4 of whom with the magistrate should form a court of appeal; capital crimes to 2 magistrates and 12 jurymen; a licence of 5 shillings for 3 months; no resident compelled to commando or burgher duty except for the protection of the diggers’ territory. At the same time the ground was being claimed by Theodor Doms, who styled himself political agent of the Barolong and Batlapin tribes, and who was in correspondence with the high commissioner concerning what he termed the rights of his clients. Parties were formed: one in favour of a free Republic without acknowledgment of any of the claimants, another in favour of requesting the high commissioner to establish British authority, a third in favour of submission to the South African Republic, a fourth in favour of self-rule under pretence of an agreement with Doms. The 10th of September mattered because Pretoria now named a Diamond District without farms and without a monopoly, and because four parties among the tents still would not agree whose flag that district wore. [3]
From the eastern districts of the Cape Colony it was computed that fully 1/5 of the young and able men had by that time gone to seek their fortunes as diggers. In a region which so shortly before was little better than a desert, machinery for the enforcement of law and order was wanting; and those who remained at home but invested money in fitting out parties of miners became apprehensive that property might be unsafe. Under the peculiar circumstances which had so suddenly and unexpectedly arisen, they maintained that it was a necessity for the Cape Colony, as the strongest power in South Africa, to take possession of the diamond-fields. Several memorials to that effect were sent to Hay. The first of these in date as well as importance was signed by R. Godlonton and D. H. Kennelly, members of the legislative council of the Cape Colony, and by about 500 others. Following closely on these memorials came a petition from Waterboer to Her Majesty the Queen, dated the 25th of August, requesting that he and his people might be received as British subjects, and the territory which he claimed be incorporated with the British dominions. He had been induced to make this proposal by a prospect of an annuity for life that would put him in a position infinitely better than that of captain of a little horde of some 500 people. Hay had no power to annex an inch of ground, but he practically substituted the British authorities in South Africa for Arnot and his client Waterboer in the dispute concerning the ownership of the diamond-fields. On the 30th of November he issued to an old colonial civil servant — John Campbell — a commission under the Cape of Good Hope Punishment Bill, empowering that officer to act as special magistrate in accordance with its provisions in all the territory claimed by Arnot for Waterboer. On the 13th of December Campbell arrived at Klipdrift, when Parker immediately resigned, and the new diamond-field Republic came to an end. Along the northern bank of the Vaal a large number of diggers — probably a majority of them — welcomed the special magistrate, and without hesitation submitted to his authority. But the power of a special magistrate under the Cape of Good Hope Punishment Bill is very limited: Campbell could cause a British subject to be arrested and sent to the Cape Colony for trial, but he could not try him where the crime was committed. The 13th of December mattered because Parker’s republic ended when a Punishment Bill magistrate reached the tents, and because Waterboer’s petition of the 25th of August now had a British officer on the ground it named, even though that officer could not try a man where the crime was done. [3]
Molema of March, the Molopo of November, and Hay of the 19th of September — 1870
In March Molema, who was living on the Molopo, was called upon to pay taxes to the government. This he refused to do, and Montsiwa supported him in his refusal, on the ground of the independence of the Barolong by virtue of the alleged treaty with Commandant-General Potgieter. In July a protest was published in the name of Montsiwa against any encroachment beyond the line of the Hart river. Nothing further had occurred in connection with Mahura’s people until the 25th of August, when the commission of the South African Republic — Pretorius, Proes, and Lys — had a conference at Nooitgedacht with the Barolong chief Moroko and the Batlapin chiefs Jantje and Mankoroane. Mahura was then dead, and Mankoroane, though not of high birth, had succeeded as head of his clan. Doms was with them as adviser and agent. At this conference Moroko laid claim to the land east of the Hart as his by inheritance, and the others agreed with him. The Batlapin captains claimed the land west of the Hart down to Griquatown. All repudiated Waterboer’s pretensions. In September an interview between Pretorius and Montsiwa took place by chance on the road as the president was returning home from the meeting at Nooitgedacht. He had there learned to his great surprise that Montsiwa claimed the Hart river as a boundary by a treaty made in December 1851. He had never before heard of such a treaty, none being, in point of fact, in existence; but he would have been overjoyed to meet the Barolong on this condition. He believed it would give a clear title to the diamond-fields north of the Vaal, and for that he was willing to renounce the claim of the Republic to the barren territory farther westward. He therefore eagerly asked if Montsiwa would adhere to the treaty of 1851. Montsiwa replied that as far as he was concerned he would, but that the ground east of the Hart belonged to Moroko. It was then arranged to have a conference at the Molopo river between a commission from the South African Republic and as many chiefs as could be got together. March mattered because Molema’s refusal of taxes restated Barolong independence on the Molopo, and because the Hart line that Pretorius had proclaimed on the 12th of November 1869 was now named by Montsiwa as a treaty Pretoria had never seen. [3]
The conference was held at the place appointed on the 15th of November. There were present, on behalf of the Republic, Pretorius, Commandant-General S. J. Paul Kruger, and T. F. Steyn, H. Greef, H. Beukes, J. Botha, M. Joubert, J. Snyman, and H. Coetsee. The chiefs who attended were Phoi, Montsiwa, Moroko, Molema, Matlabe, Bakhobi, and Izaak Motlabane, of the Barolong tribe, Mohilo of the Bahurutsi at Marikwa, Gasiitsiwe of the Bangwaketsi at Kanye, Andries Rei representing the Korana chief Massou, and others of less note. The reverend Joseph Ludorf was present also, and took a prominent part in the proceedings. Montsiwa claimed the country of Tao for the whole of the Barolong clans, by virtue of a treaty with Potgieter, bounded by a line from the source of the Molopo to the source of the Hart, thence to the source of Schoonspruit, and thence along Schoonspruit to the Vaal. He alleged that a document acknowledging the right of the Barolong to the land west of that line had been drawn up by Potgieter, but was accidentally destroyed by fire at Thaba Ntshu. Kruger, as the member of the commission best acquainted with early transactions of the Emigrant Farmers, replied that he doubted the correctness of such an arrangement having been made. There was no document to that effect, and events that were known to have happened could not be reconciled with it. He would not take it upon himself, however, absolutely to deny it, as he had not sufficient information to do so. During the remainder of the conference — which was closed on the 16th — the Barolong chiefs maintained an attitude of independence. They wanted the whole country of Tao acknowledged to be theirs, and to be free of all control in it. As no settlement could be made in a friendly manner, it was agreed on both sides to refer to a court of arbitration the questions of disputed territory and the claim of Montsiwa to independence. Accordingly, on the 18th of November a letter was addressed to Hay, requesting him to appoint 2 members of a court of arbitration. The letter bore the signatures of the Barolong captains Montsiwa, Bakhobi, Moroko, Matlabe, and Izaak Motlabane, of Gasiitsiwe, chief of the Bangwaketsi, and of Massou, chief of the Koranas. The 18th of November mattered because the Molopo could not settle Tao in two days, and because Hay, already writing to Pretorius as if the tribes north of the Vaal were in alliance with the Queen, was now asked to name arbitrators. [3]
Hay opened a correspondence with Pretorius on the subject of the conflicting claims to the territory along the northern bank of the Vaal, and showed himself not altogether impartial. On the 19th of September he wrote to the president desiring to urge upon him in very strong terms the necessity for abstaining from encroachment, without lawful and sufficient cause, upon the possessions of native tribes in friendly alliance with Her Majesty’s Government. When or how the tribes came to be in alliance with the British Government he did not explain. On the 5th of December the volksraad resolved that the correspondence with the high commissioner should be continued, and that if necessary the Republic should submit its claims to arbitration, and defend them on the grounds of the convention of January 1852, rights of conquest, negotiations with natives, and occupation during years. The members particularly desired that an impartial court should decide whether the high commissioner had a right to interfere in questions north of the Vaal not injuriously affecting British subjects. A standing committee of 3 members of the volksraad was appointed to assist the president, the state attorney, and the executive council in conducting matters connected with the territorial disputes. The 5th of December mattered because Pretoria would now argue Sand River and occupation before an arbitrator if it had to, and because the same Hay who had sent Campbell to Klipdrift on the 30th of November had already told Pretorius, on the 19th of September, not to encroach on tribes whose alliance he did not explain. [3]