History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884/Chapter 2

by George McCall Theal

Chapter II.

Events in the Cape Colony in 1876 and 1877.

During 1876 and the early months of 1877 the progress of construction of the different railway and harbour works was rapid, and immigrants continued to arrive from Europe in considerable numbers, so that the prospects of the colony continued to be cheerful. At this time several parties of agricultural immigrants from Northern Germany were provided with land on the Cape flats, which they soon turned to good account. The rolling sand had previously been fixed by means of the mesembryanthemum, and screens of acacias and similar trees prevented the wind from disturbing large areas, which could then be placed under cultivation. The sand was found to be fertile, and was made still more so by stable litter and street sweepings carted to it from Capetown, so that it bore excellent crops of vegetables. The contrast is great between the Cape flats as a dreary waste of drifting sand and a succession of little farms with comfortable houses and hard roads, with screens of trees and green fields and gardens, with even a railway to convey produce to market as is seen to-day, and it depicts what can be effected in South Africa by the industry and; patience of such men and women as these immigrants.

In November 1876 the eminent marine engineer Sir John Coode arrived in Capetown from England, his object being to inspect the different ports of the Cape Colony and Natal and devise plans for their improvement. His reports upon East London and Durban were especially favourable, though his estimate of the cost of the necessary works was high. At Port Natal he found that Mr. Milne's designs, according to which construction had been carried out from 1850 to 1856, were good, but that Captain Vetch's plans, which were afterwards adopted, were faulty. Upon these £200,000 had been thrown away. Sir John Coode's plans have since been carried out, both at Port Natal and at East London, with excellent results, the bars at both places have been removed so as to allow the largest vessels to enter, and safe harbours have thus been formed where ships can lie beside piers and discharge or load as if in a dock.

On the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony in 1876 there was a deep feeling of unrest, owing to the pre- valence of cattle thefts on an alarming scale by the Xosas and the insecurity of the farmers. At one time there was almost a panic, for the robbers had become so daring that a general collision was apprehended. Since 1857 there had been nothing to check the amazing natural increase of the Xosas, and they were now pushing their way into localities previously occupied by Europeans. The law gave them a great advantage. A European could not purchase or hire land occupied by them on communal tenure, or even the grants made to individuals by Sir George Grey in the district of King-Williamstown,^[1] the title-deeds of which contained a clause that they could not be transferred except to other Bantu without the consent of the government. The object in making those grants was to create a body of individual landholders who would serve as an example of prosperity to the other Bantu, and therefore consent to transfer to a European was never given. But it was perfectly free to a Xosa to hire or purchase land from Europeans, and so white farmers were giving place to blacks in many localities.

When a farmer leased land to Bantu, his neighbours made a great cry against him, but they were soon obliged to follow his example and go and live elsewhere. On the right bank of the Keiskama at the junction with the Tyumie a block of three farms had been purchased by Oba, son of Tyali, who had left the Gaika location with many hundred followers and gone to live there. Some Imidange, the most expert thieves in the whole country, had taken up their residence on one of these farms also. Tini, a son of Makoma, had actually purchased ground in the Waterkloof, where his father had been able to hold out so long in the war of 1850–52, and had moved to it from the Gaika location with a large body of retainers. It was only natural that the Xosas should try to recover in this way the land they had lost, and it would be most unfair to describe their motives as criminal; but looking at the matter from the farmers' standpoint, the position had become dangerous, and the march of civilisation was threatened.

Mission work was effecting changes with a small section of the Xosas, and other agencies were operating in bringing them more into line with European habits, but the great majority still clung to the ideals and customs of their ancestors. If they had adopted the use of iron pots, of blankets, or even the clothing of the white people, and frequently of ploughs, that did not indicate a change of much value. They all desired to have guns, but every savage does that. The Xosas in fact were an intensely conservative people, and just because they were, when any of them did make a change it was likely to be lasting. In course of time they would probably take a place among the most advanced coloured people in the world, but in 1876 that time was not yet in sight. Still there were indications that it would come, for a community that could produce such men as the eloquent and zealous reverend Tiyo Soga, the devoted evangelist William Koyi, who died as a missionary in Central Africa, William Seti, one of the most painstaking and competent clerks the author of these volumes ever had, John Knox Bokwe (now the reverend), who for many years was secretary and bookkeeper of the Lovedale institution, and a score of others that might be mentioned, must have a lofty future before it. The Xosas, like all other Bantu, are of mixed blood, and among their ancestors must have been Asiatics of high intelligence. The men here named may have owed their qualities to atavism, but even if so, they serve as models for their people to work up to, and in course of time an elevation must take place. If by any mischance they were left to themselves they would not advance, but with civilisation facing them and the leaven of a higher life working in the minds of some of themselves, they must conform to the law of progress.

In 1876 while there was a small section professing Christianity and living to some extent in the manner of Europeans, the great bulk of the Xosa tribe had made little or no advance beyond the condition in which their ancestors were a hundred years before. They had become well acquainted with white people since the dispersion of 1857, and did not hate them as bitterly as before, still there was little love lost on either side. The death of Makoma on Robben Island on the 9th of September 1873 was an event that had caused much ill feeling, for he, the hero of the Xosas, had died in banishment, without a relative or a friend near him, with no one to give him the burial that became a chief of high rank and distinguished valour. The government had decided to send one of his wives and a servant to keep him company, but had postponed doing so until it was too late. Drunkard and half maniac as he was when among his own people, it is impossible not to feel sorrow for the unfortunate old man, passing his last days on a bare islet far from the pleasant woods and streams of Kaffraria, and with no one near him that cared whether he lived or died. And if one of another race sympathises with him, what must the Gaikas have felt when the tidings reached them that he had died as a dog dies? What must Tini, his son, have felt?

The fate of Makoma is an illustration of what must happen when civilisation and barbarism come in contact, and barbarism refuses to give way. It was not in his nature to refrain from causing disturbances when he was at liberty on the frontier, and so the government was obliged to place him in confinement at a distance, where he could not communicate with the people who were ready to obey his orders at any hazard to themselves. He can be pitied, but can hardly be blamed, for being what he was, and the government cannot be blamed for acting as it did, though it is to be regretted that the benevolent intention to provide him with some companions was not carried into effect more quickly.

In 1876 a frontier defence commission was appointed, with Mr. (later Sir) John Gordon Sprigg as its chairman, to take evidence as to the condition of affairs and to endeavour to devise a plan of restoring tranquillity. Mr. Sprigg was a farmer in the district of East London, and the other members were equally well acquainted with the state of the border, but they took a good deal of evidence on the subject. In January 1877 the commission sent in a report which was somewhat startling, for the farmers were living, it stated, as if on the brink of a volcano. It proposed an additional expenditure of £150,000 a year for defensive purposes, and recommended the increase of the frontier armed and mounted police from nine hundred, its strength at the time, to twelve hundred men, with three hundred footmen additional attached to it for the purpose of garrisoning fixed posts. A strong burgher force was proposed to be organised, and volunteers were recommended to be encouraged.

By persons at a distance the danger described in this report was regarded as greatly exaggerated, and parliament, when it met, was indisposed to incur the expense recommended, but before the year ended there was ample proof that the border was really in a condition of peril.

In 1873 the territory between the river Kei and the colony of Natal was occupied by a number of tribes independent of each other, among whom war was almost constant. The British government had disclaimed authority over them all, but some of them—particularly the Fingos and the different clans that had been located by Major Gawler at Idutywa—refused to be abandoned, and looked to the Cape colonial government for protection, without which they could not exist. These people, having no chiefs of rank over them, regarded the diplomatic agents in the country not as mere consuls, but as their rulers, and construed advice given to them as orders which they willingly obeyed. There were the Galekas, the Bomvanas, the Tembus proper, the emigrant Tembus, the Pondomsis in two sections, the Bacas, the Xesibes, the Pondos in two sections, the Griquas, the little communities located by Sir Philip Wodehouse along the base of the Drakensberg, and some others of minor importance, from any of whom a disturbance might arise that would end in a big war.

As the territory was no longer of the value that it had been when a large portion of it was unoccupied and might without injustice to any one have been used for settlement by Europeans, neither the colonists nor the government cast a covetous eye upon it. Its possession could not add to the public wealth, but on the contrary would cost more money to maintain than could be derived from it. But the colonial government felt itself under the necessity of taking the responsibility of enforcing order, and that implied the extension of its authority over the various tribes.

War between the Galekas under Kreli and the Tembus proper under Gangelizwe forced the ministry to act, in order to extend colonial influence to the rear of those tribes, and in July 1873 Mr. Joseph Millerd Orpen, previously a member of the house of assembly and an ardent advocate of the extension of authority over the border tribes, was appointed magistrate with a little party of colonial blacks who had settled at the Gatberg, in the present district of Maclear, and with the Hlubis under Zibi, the Batlokua under Lehana, and the Basuto under Lebenys, who had been located by Sir Philip Wodehouse on the high plateau under the Drakensberg. These people were then so entirely at the mercy of more powerful neighbours that they expressed satisfaction with the appointment of a magistrate to exercise jurisdiction over them, because it implied their protection. Mr. Orpen was also appointed British resident for the whole of the territory then termed Nomansland, now Griqualand East.

Upon his arrival in the territory, he found that war was being carried on by the Pondo chief Ndamasi against the Pondomsis under Umhlonhlo, and that the rival sections of the Pondomsis were as usual fighting with each other. The Pondos were gaining an ascendency over their divided opponents, and there seemed a likelihood that they would be able to crush them at no distant date. Mr. Orpen immediately organised the Hlubi, Batlokua, and Basuto clans under him into a military force, and called upon Adam Kok, the chief of the Griquas, for assistance. In September he visited Umhlonhlo and Umditshwa, both of whom again made overtures to be received under British protection, and promised to lay down their arms. Then, feeling confident that the Pondos, seeing the force that could be brought against them, would hesitate before coming into collision with the colonial government, he called upon them to cease hostilities. They did so, and within a few weeks there was peace throughout the territory.

In October the secretary for native affairs authorised Mr. Orpen to announce to Umhlonhlo and Umditshwa that they and their people were received as British subjects. Makaula, chief of the Bacas, and Makwai, chief of a clan of refugee Basuto, had repeated their applications, but the colonial government considered it advisable to let their cases stand over for a while, as they were not pressing. Formal notification of their acceptance was made to the two Pondomsi chiefs on the 22nd of October, and information thereof was sent to Umqikela and Ndamasi. These chiefs objected, first to the line from the Umtata to the Umzimvubu between Nomansland and Pondoland, secondly to the reception as British subjects of chiefs and people whom they claimed as being under their jurisdiction, and thirdly to the appointment of British officials in Pondo territory without their consent. But they declared that they had every desire to remain at peace with the colonial government, and would therefore respect the new arrangement.

The failure of the rebellion of the Hlubis under Langalibalele in Natal^[2] did much to strengthen the authority of the Cape government in Nomansland. The rebels had many relatives living in this territory under Ludidi, Langalibalele's brother, Zibi, Langalibalele's second cousin, and several other chiefs, and it was at first supposed that they would try to make their way to their kinsmen. To prevent this, Mr. Orpen enrolled a band of Batlokua and Basuto, and when it was ascertained that the rebels had gone to Basutoland, he actually went across the Drakensberg to assist the colonial forces against them with two hundred and thirty-five picked men under Lehana and Lebenya. But the country he had to traverse was the most rugged in South Africa, so that he did not reach Basutoland until after the surrender of Langalibalele. To all the tribes in Natal, and particularly to those in Nomansland where the conflicting elements were more numerous than elsewhere, the fate of the rebels was a lesson that the Europeans were strong enough to enforce order. The clans, though weary of their perpetual feuds, would certainly not have submitted to the white man's rule for any cause except that of respect for power. We flatter ourselves by speaking of our greater wisdom, clemency, sense of justice, &c., but there are few Bantu who respect us for any other quality than our superior strength.

After the reception of Umhlonhlo and Umditshwa as British subjects in 1873, Mr. Orpen took up his residence at Tsolo in the Pondomsi district, his object being to establish the authority of the Cape government there in something more than name. He found the chiefs Umhlonhlo and Umditshwa altogether opposed to any interference with their people. Though the system of government by means of magistrates had been explained to them and they had applied to be received as British subjects with full knowledge of what the effect upon themselves would be, they now remonstrated against any deprivation of their former power. Each of them was causing people to be put to death on charges of dealing in witchcraft, or merely from caprice. Umhlonhlo refused even to allow a census of his people to be taken.

In this case, as in so many others, the dissensions among the clans presented a lever to work with. Mr. Orpen explained how easily he could bring about a combination of opponents to crush any one who should resist him, and how slow friends would be in coming to assist against a power that had just punished Langalibalele so severely. The two chiefs realised the situation, and without much ado made a show of submission. They were both charged with murder, tried in open court, found guilty, and fined in accordance with Bantu law.

The next event of importance in the territory was the establishment of colonial authority in Adam Kok's district. The Griquas had moved there at the instance of her Majesty's high commissioner in South Africa, but they had never received protection, or been in any way interfered with. Adam Kok was getting old, and was without an heir. In 1874 he had nominally some thirty-six thousand subjects, but only four thousand one hundred were Griquas, the remainder being aliens, Fingos, Basuto, Bacas, and others who had settled on ground given to him by Sir Philip Wodehouse. The demands made upon him by Mr. Orpen for assistance, first against the Pondos, and next against Langalibalele, showed him the anomalous position in which he was placed. He asked that he should either be recognised as an independent chief, or be granted the rights and privileges of a British subject.

On the 16th of October 1874 Governor Sir Henry Barkly, who was making a tour through the territories, met the Griqua chief and the members of his council at Kokstad. Mr. Orpen, the British resident in Nomansland, was with the governor. The question of Adam Kok's position was discussed, and a provisional agreement was made for the assumption of direct authority over the country by the colonial government. The official books and documents were transferred to Mr. Orpen by the Griqua secretary, and the territory was added by the governor to that already under the resident's charge, with the understanding that all existing institutions were to remain undisturbed for the time being.

In February 1875 Messrs. Donald Strachan, who had been a magistrate under Adam Kok, and Mr. G. C. Brisley, secretary of the Griqua government, arrived in Capetown as representatives of the Griqua chief and people, and concluded the arrangements. Kok was to retain his title of chief, be paid a salary of £700 per annum, and have joint authority with a commissioner who should correspond directly with the secretary for native affairs. The members of the Griqua council were to receive small annuities, and all undisputed titles to land were to be confirmed. With these conditions all except a few lawless individuals were satisfied. Mr. Thomas A. Cumming, superintendent of Idutywa, was appointed acting commissioner, and assumed duty at Kokstad on the 25th of March 1875. Practically he carried on the government, as Kok left nearly everything in his hands. A petition against the change thus brought about was prepared by the disaffected party, but it only proved their weakness, for when forwarded to Capetown it contained no more than one hundred and thirty-one signatures. Adam Kok wrote to the colonial government, protesting against its being considered as of any importance, and stating that three-fourths of the signatures were those of persons who had neither position nor property of any kind in the country.

The territory thus added to the British dominions is that comprised in the three districts of Umzimkulu, Kokstad, and Matatiele. These districts were indeed formed under the Griqua government, and the same divisions continued to be recognised by the colonial authorities. Mr. Donald Strachan remained magistrate of Umzimkulu, and Mr. Cumming performed the same duties at Kokstad. Matatiele was left for a time without a magistrate. In these districts there were besides the Griquas, the Basuto under Makwai, the Hlubis under Ludidi, the Hlangwenis under Sidoyi, and a great many other Bantu clans, all of whom expressed pleasure on becoming British subjects.

On the 30th of December 1875 Adam Kok died. The nominal dual authority then ceased, as he had no successor. A few months later Captain Matthew Blyth was transferred from the Transkei to be chief magistrate of the three Griqua districts, and assumed duty in March 1876, Mr. Cumming returning to Idutywa. On his arrival at Kokstad Captain Blyth found a rebellious spirit still existing among some of the Griquas, but as he was accompanied by a strong police force he had no difficulty in suppressing it. He placed two of the disaffected men under arrest, and disarmed the others, after which there was no open display of sedition.

He soon found that more serious danger was to be apprehended from the designs of Nehemiah Moshesh. That individual in 1875 had the assurance to bring his pretensions to the ownership of Matatiele by petition before the colonial parliament, and one of the objects of a commission appointed in that year was to investigate his claim. The commission consisted of Messrs. C. D. Griffith, governor's agent in Basutoland, S. A. Probart, member of the house of assembly, and T. A. Cumming, acting commissioner with Adam Kok. After a long and patient examination, these gentlemen decided that Nehemiah had forfeited any right he might ever have had through promises of Sir George Grey and Sir Philip Wodehouse to allow him to remain in Matatiele on good behaviour. Even before this decision was known he had been holding political meetings in the country, Mr. Orpen having permitted him again to take up his residence in it, and now he was endeavouring to bring about union of the Bantu tribes in the territory, with the evident object of throwing off European control. There could be no such thing as contentment in the land while such an agitator was at liberty, and Captain Blyth therefore had him arrested. He was subsequently tried in King-Williamstown and acquitted, but his detention in the meantime enabled the authorities to carry out the law and maintain order.

To the territory under Captain Blyth's administration was added in March 1876 the block of land between Matatiele, the Pondomsi country, and the Pondo boundary line, since called the district of Mount Frere, by the acceptance of the Bacas under Makaula as British subjects. This chief and his counsellors had been favourably reported on by the commission of 1875. The terms under which they became subjects were the usual ones: that in all civil and in petty criminal complaints suitors might bring their cases before the magistrate or the chief at their option, that there should be an appeal from the chief to the magistrate, that important criminal cases were to be tried by the magistrate, that no charge of dealing in witchcraft was to be entertained, that on every hut a yearly tax of ten shillings was to be paid, and that the chief was to receive a salary of £100 a year and his counsellors certain smaller annuities. Captain Blyth placed Sub-Inspector John Maclean, of the frontier armed and mounted police, in charge of Makaula's people until the arrival in May 1876 of the magistrate selected by the secretary for native affairs, Mr. J. H. Garner, son of a missionary who had lived with them for many years.

No clan in the whole of the territories from the Kei to Natal afterwards gave greater satisfaction than the Bacas of Mount Frere. The reports from the magistrates were uniform as to their good conduct, and on several occasions they showed by their readiness to take the field with the colonial forces that they appreciated the advantages of British protection. Yet Makaula was a son of the ruthless freebooter Ncapayi, one of the most dreaded men of his time, so much has circumstance to do in moulding the character of a Bantu chief. He lived to a very advanced age, and died in September 1906.

Early in 1878, while the colony was involved in war with the Xosas, the disaffected Griquas took up arms under Smith Pommer, a Hottentot from the Kat river, and Adam Muis, who had at one time been an official under Adam Kok. They were confident of receiving assistance from the Pondos under Umqikela, and there can be little doubt that if they had been successful at first the whole Pondo army would have joined them.

Smith Pommer visited Umqikela, and returned with ninety-three armed Pondos under command of Josiah Jenkins, a young man who had received a very good education, and who certainly knew what he was doing. He was a nephew of Umqikela, and when an infant had been given by Faku to the wife of the reverend Thomas Jenkins, who had brought him up and had him educated as if he was her own son. He spoke, read, and wrote English with as great fluency as if he had been English born and educated in London. He had given promise of becoming a useful man, had received an excellent training in bookkeeping and correspondence at Lovedale, from his earliest childhood had been accustomed to live as a European of a good class, and was professedly a Christian. This young man, piqued because he could not at once occupy a position in society that a Caucasian would need many years of patient labour to attain, and puffed up with conceit on account of his birth as a grandson of Faku, had gone back from school to Pondoland with an imaginary grievance, and having failed to be recognised as eminent in an intellectual capacity, was now making himself known as a mischief maker.

On the 11th of April the combined band of Pondos and Griquas under Jenkins and Pommer reached the farm of Mr. J. H. Acutt, about twelve miles east of Kokstad. They plundered the place, the Pondos using greater violence than the Griquas, and made prisoners of Mr. Acutt and a boy named Burton, whom they took away as hostages, but who were released by Pommer the same evening. The rebels then sent to Kokstad to demand the release of some men who were confined in the prison there, and when this was refused by Captain Blyth, they formed a camp under Adam Muis about two miles and a half from the village.

Meantime Mr. Donald Strachan, magistrate of Umzimkulu, had collected three hundred Hlangwenis, with whom he proceeded to Kokstad as rapidly as possible, and arrived there just in time. Sir Henry Bulwer, lieutenant-governor of Natal, was urgently requested to send assistance, and on the 14th of April two hundred and nineteen men of the third Buffs and fifty of the Natal mounted police left Maritzburg, but only arrived at Kokstad on the 22nd, too late to be of service.

On Sunday the 14th of April Captain Blyth with the frontier armed and mounted policemen at his disposal, only twenty in number, a few European volunteers, and a strong force of Sidoyi's Hlangwenis and Makaula's Bacas, attacked the rebel camp under Adam Muis. The Pondos under Josiah Jenkins now thought it better not to resist, and only five minutes before the actual fighting commenced they came out and surrendered. An apology was made for Josiah Jenkins that he had been sent by Umqikela to deliver Adam Muis to the chief magistrate, but that owing to his youth and inexperience he had blundered in carrying out his instructions, and this absurd excuse was accepted, as the colonial government was desirous of avoiding war with the Pondos. In the action that followed the Griquas were defeated with heavy loss, and their leader, Adam Muis, was killed. They retreated to the border of Natal, where they formed another camp, under Smith Pommer.

During the night of the 15th the magazine at Kokstad exploded, no one ever knew from what cause, when five men and three women were killed and three men and one woman were more or less severely injured. This was a serious, but not an irreparable disaster, as fortunately a sufficient number of cartridges were still on hand to enable operations to be carried on until a fresh supply could be obtained.

On the 17th Captain Blyth attacked the rebel camp, which was in a very strong position on the border of f 40 History of the Cape Colony. [1878 Natal. The Griquas fought stubbornly until Smith Pommer and nineteen others were killed, when forty of them surrendered and the others dispersed. On Captain Blyth's side seven Hlangwenis and Bacas were killed, and twelve were wounded. Within the next four days fifty-three more insurgents were apprehended and com- mitted to prison, and the insurrection was entirely quelled. The districts of Umzimkulu, Kokstad, Matatiele, and Mount Frere remained under Captain Blyth's jurisdiction as chief magistrate until September 1878, when he returned to his former post in the Transkei, to which Galekaland was then added. Mr. Strachan continued to be magistrate at Umzimkulu, and Mr. Garner at Mount Frere. Mr. G. P. Stafford was stationed by Captain Blyth at Matatiele, and performed the duty of magistrate until August 1876, when Mr. M. W. Liefeldt was placed there. At Kokstad the chief magistrate resided. This arrangement was a continuation of the old order of things under Adam Kok, and was in accordance with the recommendation of the commission of 1875, which had been appointed to inquire into the affairs of the territory. When Captain Blyth left, Mr. C. P. Water- meyer was appointed acting chief magistrate, and held office until the 25th of the following December. The remainder of Nomansland, that is the territory between the Kenigha river and Tembuland, had at this time a population of about twenty-two thousand souls. In April 1875 Mr. Orpen resigned his appointment as British resident, and left the territory. His clerk, Mr. Frederick P. Gladwin, was then instructed to act until arrangements could be made for placing magistrates with the different clans that had been received as British subjects. Already one such magistrate had been appointed, to the Gatberg, thereafter known as the district of Maclear, but he had accidentally lost his hfe. Mr. J. R. Thomson 1879] Sir Bartle Frere. 41 was then selected, and assumed duty in November 1875, when the people of Lehana, Lebenya, and Zibi were first called upon to pay hut tax. These clans were then giving little or no trouble. In 1878 Lebenya and Zibi gave some assistance against the rebel Baputi under Morosi, and the Batlokua of Lehana were hardly less active, though on that occasion the chief himself was not as zealous as he might have been. The next appointment was that of Mr. Matthew B. Shaw to the magistracy of the country occupied by Umhlonhlo's people, thereafter termed the district of Qumbu. Mr. Shaw assumed duty there in June 1876, and remained until July 1878, when he was succeeded by Mr. Hamilton Hope. Mr. Gladwin had then only Umditshwa's people in the district of Tsolo to act with. In September 1877 Mr. A. E. Welsh was appointed magistrate with that chief, who had been giving considerable trouble. He was exceedingly jealous of any interference with his people, but was submissive enough in the presence of a force able to chastise him. This was shown in an almost ludicrous manner on one occasion, when a strong body of police happened to be near by in Tembuland. In 1878 he furnished a contingent of eight hundred men to assist against Stokwe, son of Tshali, but this was when Stokwe's cause was seen to be hopeless. These three districts, Maclear, Qumbu, and Tsolo, were not subject to the authority of the chief magistrate of Griqualand East until the close of 1878, when the consolidation of the different territories took place. Prior to that date each of the magistrates corresponded directly with the secretary for native affairs, and received in- structions from him. But upon the appointment of the honourable Charles Brownlee, who assumed duty as chief magistrate on the 25th of December 1878, the seven districts were united, and the title of Griqualand East was extended to the whole territory. 42 History of the Cape Colony. [1875 Thereafter the district of Kokstad was provided with a magistrate, so as to leave the head of the territory free to attend to more important matters than adjudicating in petty cases. Mr. George W. Hawthorn was appointed, and assumed duty on the 1st of January 1879. To this period the government had been acting in Griqualand East without any other authority from parhament than the allowance of the excess of expense incurred over revenue received. In 1873 the honourable Charles Brownlee, then secretary for native affairs, in a report upon his arrangement of terms of peace between Kreli and Gangelizwe, recommended the extension of colonial authority over the country ceded by Faku. This report was submitted to parliament, and a committee of the house of assembly was appointed to consider it, but did not conclude its labours before parliament was prorogued. In 1875 the subject was brought by the ministry before parUament, and a resolution was adopted by both houses declaring that it was " expedient that the country situated between the Umtata and the Umzimkulu, com- monly known as Nomansland, should be annexed to this colony, and that the government take such preliminary steps as may place it in a position to effect such annexa- tion." On the 30th of June in this year the governor in his prorogation speech announced that her Majesty's con- currence in the annexation of Nomansland had already been officially notified to him. In June 1876 letters patent were issued at Westminster, empowering the governor to proclaim the territory annexed to the Cape Colony, after the legislature had passed the requisite act. In 1877 an annexation act was passed by the Cape parliament, and on the 17th of September 1879 the measure was completed by the issue of the governor's proclamation, to have force from the first of the following month. The seven districts comprised in the chief magistracy of Griqualand East thus became part of the Cape 1875] Sir Henry Barkly. 43 Colony, but as their inhabitants were barbarians who could not be admitted to the full privileges or perform the whole duties of burghers, they were made subject to special legislation by the governor with the advice of the executive council. The proclamation of the 17th of September 1879 provided that all the laws then in force in the Cape Colony should become the laws of Griqua- land East, except in so far as they should be modified by certain regulations published at the same time. The territory was not represented in the Cape parliament, nor were acts of parliament passed after September 1879 in force there unless expressly extended to it in the acts themselves or by proclamation of the governor in council. The district of Idutywa and Fingoland, comprising the three districts of Tsomo, iSfqamakwe, and Butterworth, were annexed to the Cape Colony at the same time and by exactly the same routine of obtaining the sanction of the imperial authorities. Under Captain Blyth's able management the Fingos living in the territory between the Kei and Bashee rivers given to them by Sir Philip Wodehouse, having no hereditary chiefs of high rank over them, were making great strides in prosperity, and order was well maintained among them. They had already laid a tax upon themselves of i£l,500 towards the establishment of the industrial institution Blythswood in connection with the mission of the free church of Scotland, which amount they subsequently increased to i'4,500. In 1874 they and the people of the adjoining district of Idutywa of their own free v/ill began to pay a hut tax of ten shillings a year to cover the cost of the administration by Europeans, though it was not yet legally established. In 1875 the ministry brought before the Cape parliament the question of the annexation of these territories, and the same proceedings were followed with regard to them as have been related concerning Griqualand East. 44 History of the Cape Colony. [1875 In March 1876 Captain Blyth was removed to Kokstad, and Mr. James Ayliff was placed in charge of Fingo- land, with the title of chief magistrate. In September 1877 Mr. T. P. Pattle was stationed at Butterworth as assistant magistrate, and in October of the same year Mr. F. P. Gladwin was stationed at Tsomo in the same capacity. Nqamakvve was not provided with a magistrate at this time. In February 1878 Mr. T. K. Merriman was appointed magistrate of Idutywa. In 1875 the Tembu tribe was brought into a condition of great difficulty by the conduct of its chief. Among his concubines there was a Galeka woman, an illegitimate niece of Kreli, who had accompanied the great wife as an attendant when she went to Tembuland, and re- mained there ever since. Gangelizwe in a fit of passion inflicted very severe injuries upon this woman, and two days later ordered a young man named Ndevu to break her skull with a kerie. The murder was committed on the 25th of July 1875. On the 27th the chief's messenger reported at the residency that the woman had been four days ill with headache and pain in the side. On the 29th Mr. William Wright, who in May 1873 had succeeded Mr. Chalmers as resident with Gangelizwe, was informed that she had died. For some months previous to the murder it was known that the woman was undergoing brutal treatment, and once it was rumoured that she was dead. Kreli then sent messengers to request that she might be allowed to visit her relatives, but the resident could not induce Gangelizwe either to consent to this or to permit the messengers to see her. Gangelizwe's residence, where the murder was com- mitted, was in the neighbourhood of the ground occupied by the Fingo chief Menziwe, who was a Tembu vassal. That chief, apprehending that war with the Galekas would be the immediate consequence, declared publicly that he would remain neutral. This declaration so 1^875] Sir Henry Barkly. 45 irritated Gangelizwe that he prepared to attack Menziwe, who thereupon fled with his people to Idutywa and asked for protection from Mr. J. H. Garner, who during Mr. Cumming's absence was acting there as superinten- dent. On the 5th of August Menziwe's women and cattle crossed the Bashee into Idutywa, and were followed by the warriors of the clan, six hundred in number, who were pursued to the river's edge by a Tembu army. Kreli was induced on this occasion, as at the time of his daughter's ill treatment, to refer the matter to the Cape government, and the residents with the two chiefs, Messrs. J. Ayliff and W. Wright, were instructed to hold an investigation. The inquiry took place at Idutywa, in the presence of four representatives sent by each of the chiefs. Umbande, son of Menziwe, who had been one of Gangelizwe's most confidential advisers, was the principal witness. After taking evidence, Messrs. Ayliff and Wright found there was no doubt of Gangelizwe's guilt, whereupon the governor inflicted upon him a fine of two hundred head of cattle and £100 in money. If the murdered woman had been a Tembu probably nothing more would have been heard of the matter. But she was a Galeka, and the people of her tribe, who were not satisfied with Gangelizwe's punishment which they thought should have been much heavier, seemed resolved to avenge her death. Commandant Bowker was therefore instructed to enter Tembuland with a strong body of the frontier armed and mounted police, reinstate Menziwe, the Fingo chief whom Gange- lizwe had driven away, and prevent hostilities by the Galekas. On the 14th of September the police crossed the Bashee for this purpose with Menziwe's clan. Gangelizwe and his subordinate chiefs then did as they had done once before in a time of difficulty : they offered to place their country and their tribe under the control of the Cape government. On the 28th of 46 History of the Cape Colony. [1876 October 1875 the terms of the cession, as drawn up in writing by the reverend Peter Hargreaves on behalf of the Tembus, were discussed with Commandant Bowker and Mr. Wright at a meeting held at Clarkebury, at which all the chiefs of note in Tembuland Proper, except Dalasile, head of the Kwati clan, were present. The Tembus proposed that Gangelizwe and fourteen heads of clans, who were named, should be recognised by the colonial government as chiefs, and that salaries, the amoimts of which were mentioned, should be paid to them; that hut tax shoald not be payable until 1878; that the boundaries of the country should remain as previously fixed ; that the chiefs should retain judicial authority over their people, except in cases of certain specified crimes, and subject to appeal to magistrates; that the government of the mission stations should not be interfered with; that the Fingo chief Menziwe should be removed to a locality which was named; and that the sale of spirituous liquors to black people should be prohibited. These proposals were forwarded to the governor, and were agreed to, with the sole exception that Gangelizwe could not be recognised as a chief, though a salary of £200 would be paid to him yearly. On the 10th of December another meeting of the chiefs and people took place at Emjanyana, when Com- mandant Bowker announced officially that the country and people had been taken over on the above terms, and that Mr. S. A. Probart would shortly be sent as a special commissioner to conclude the arrangements. At this meeting proposals were made on behalf of Dalasile to come under the Cape government, and were agreed to by Commandant Bowker. The conditions were that his people should not be mixed with others, but should have a separate magis- trate ; that he should receive a salary of £100 a year ; and a few others similar to those under which Gange- lizwe's immediate adherents were taken over. 1S77] Sir Bartle Frere. • 47 A few days later Mr. Probart, who was then a member of the house of assembly, arrived in Tembuland. On the 24th of December he announced at a great meeting at Emjanyana that the government had ratified everything that Commandant Bowker had done. The conditions of the cession, as proposed by the Tembu chiefs, were agreed to, except that Gangelizwe must be deprived of all authority ; but the commissioner added that it would depend upon the manner in which he should conduct himself whether at some future time he might not be entrusted by the government with power in his own section of the tribe. Dalasile was not present at this meeting, but on the 31st Mr. Probart met him at All Saints mission, informed him that the agree- ment made between him and Commandant Bowker was ratified, and asked him if he and his people were still of the same mind as to coming under the Cape govern- ment. Dalasile requested to be allowed an hour for consideration. After consultation with his counsellors, he then explained that what he desired was that he should come under the government himself, but retain the sole control of his people. All complaints, he thought, should be made to him, and the magistrate should have only joint power of settlement. Mr. Probart explained that this was not the meaning of the conditions agreed to, and after some argument Dalasile promised to adhere to his original proposals. That from the very first, how- ever, this chief had no real intention of surrendering any authority over the people of his clan is shown by the circumstance that he never drew the salary to which he was entitled under the conditions of cession. In this manner Tembuland Proper became a portion of the British dominions. The special commissioner sub- mitted proposals to the government for the division of the territory into judicial districts, which were acted upon at once, and in 1876 the magistracies of Emjanyana, Engcobo, Umtata, and Mqanduli were created. 48 History of the Cape Colony. [1877 In the first of these, Emjanyana, was the residence of the former agent, Mr. Wright, and he was left there as magistrate with the additional title and authority of chief magistrate of Tembuland Proper. In the second, Engcobo, was the site selected for the office of the magistrate with Dalasile's people. In April 1876 Mr. Walter E. Stanford was stationed there as magistrate. In the third, Umtata, the seat of magistracy quickly became the most important town in the whole territory between the Kei and Natal. Major J. F. Boyes assumed duty there as magistrate in April 1876. The fourth district, Mqanduli, bordered on the coast. In August 1876 the reverend John H. Scott, previously a Wesleyan missionary, was stationed there as magistrate. The few European farmers in the territory remained on the same conditions as before, except that they were required to pay the annual rent to the Cape government instead of to Gangelizwe. It was soon discovered that the power of Gangelizwe could not easily be set aside. The European govern- ment, the magistrates, and some of the alien clans mi<^ht ignore him, but the clans of pure Tembu blood would not. All their national traditions, their ideas of patriotism, their feelings of pride, prompted them to be loyal to him. Stronger still than any of these motives was their religion. The belief of the Bantu is firm that the spirits of the dead chiefs hold the destinies of the tribes in their keeping. To renounce allegiance to the chief, the descendant and representative of those to whose spirits they offer sacrifices and whose wrath they dread as the greatest calamity that can overtake them, is in the Bantu way of thinking the most enormous of crimes. The magistrates encountered such difficulties in governing the people, owing to their sullen demeanour and continual complaints of the degradation to which their tS??] Sir Ba7'tle F^'ere. 49 chief was subjected, that at the close of 1876 it was considered necessary to restore Gangelizwe to his former rank and to treat him as the highest Bantu official in the country. Several years elapsed before the four districts of Tembuland Proper were formally annexed to the Cape Colony in the same way as the eleven previously men- tioned, but they were treated in exactly the same manner, and the same laws and regulations were applied to them all. In August 1877, when the outbreak of the war took place, an account of which will be given in the next chapter, the greater part of the territory between the river Kei and Natal had thus been brought under the government of the Cape Colony, only Emigrant Tembu- land, Galekaland, Bomvanaland, the Xesibe district, and Pondoland remaining independent. On the 31st of March 1877 Sir Henry Barkly was succeeded as governor of the Cape Colony and high commissioner for South Africa by the right honourable Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere. The new governor was a man of great talents, and in India had performed eminent service to the empire, so that the colonists felt flattered by his appointment. He had been selected by Lord Carnarvon on account of the suavity of his manners, as well as his universally acknowledged abilities, to carry out the project of confederation, which was a favourite idea of the English ministry. At Lord Carnar- von's instance an act had been passed by the imperial parliament to enable the colonies and states of South Africa to unite under one government and legislature, for he had not yet realised that the condition of things at the time made such union impossible. The task allotted to Sir Bartle Frere was one that no man who ever lived could accomplish, and it does not detract in the least from his reputation that he failed to carry it out. 5 50 History of the Cape Colony. 11^77 One of his first acts in the colony was the opening on the 5th of April of an international exhibition in Capetown, which was due to the enterprise of an Italian, Signor Cagli. The building was erected in the garden of the masonic lodge De Goede Hoop, and was constructed of wood, galvanised iron, and glass. It was one hundred and eighty-four feet long, seventy-eight feet wide, and fifty-six feet high. The show of South African products was decidedly poor, the best exhibit being some furniture made at Lovedale ; but European manufacturers sent farm machinery, steam engines, and many other articles in great variety, so that the exhibition served a very useful purpose. The building itself, which was afterwards used as an assembly hall and a theatre, was the cause of a big disaster. On Sunday the 21st of February 1892 it caught fire, and being like matchwood burnt with great rapidity. The nearest buildings, — the lodge De Goede Hoop and the office of the native affairs depa^rt- ment, — though their walls were unusually solid, were soon alight, and were utterly destroyed. On the 1st of January 1876 the Cape Copper Mining Company's line of railway from Port Nolloth was com- pleted to Ookiep, where the richest mine in Little Namaqualand was being worked. The ^district is so secluded, however, that this event had no effect on the remainder of the colony. It was very different with the lines being constructed by the government, which were already beginning to facilitate intercourse between the interior and the sea- ports. On the 1st of May 1877 the line from East London was opened to King-Williamstown, and on the 12th of November of the same year the branch of the western line was completed and opened to Malmesbury. By the close of 1877 the heavy work and tunnels in the Hex Biver kloof had been completed, and the main western line had reached Matjesfontein, deep in the karoo. The midland line was advancing rapidly from 1S76] Sir Henry Barkly. » 51 Port Elizabeth towards Graaff-Beinet, and the line from the Bushman's river to Grahamstown — provided for by parliament in July 1876 — was making good progress. In the session of 1877— 25th May to 8th August- provision was made by the Cape parliament for the con- struction of a massive bridge over the Kei river, on the main road leading from King-Williamstown to Umtata, and the work was commenced immediately. Provision was also made for the construction of a line of telegraph from Komgha by way of Umtata and Kokstad to Maritzburg in Natal, and this was also taken in hand without delay. An important act of this session was one to promote irrigation by farmers, and thus to increase the productive power of the country. Three new magisterial districts were created on the eastern border at this time. In February 1877 a magis- trate was stationed at Cathcart, in November of the same year one was stationed at Stutterheim, and in December one was stationed at Komgha. Owing to the war with the Xosas, it became necessary at the close of 1877 to send instructions to the emigra- tion agent in London not to give free passages to more people than those already engaged, until the restoration of tranquillity. Since November 1873 he had then sent out five thousand five hundred and fifty-three men, but only eight hundred and tv^enty women and nine hundred and sixty-six children. Owing to the disproportion of the sexes, many of the men returned to Europe as soon as the engagements expired that they had entered into before coming out, still the colony was a considerable gainer.

1. Sir George Grey gave between two and three hundred selected Bantu men titles under individual tenure to plots of land in the district of King-Williamstown, each from forty to eighty acres in extent. Most of these plots are still occupied by the descendants of the original grantees.
2. See page 227 et seq.