Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/539

Andries Pretorius of Graaff Reinet, by whom Dingaan met with a first check before the close of 1838, followed in January 1840 by a still more crushing defeat. Dingaan having been soon after murdered, the friendly Panda was set up in his place, and Natal proclaimed a Boer republic. But the British occupation of that territory in 1843 induced the Boers to retire in two bands across the Drakenberg, the southern division settling in the present Orange Free State, the northern again passing into Transvaal. But, owing to internal dissensions, and the perpetual bickerings of the two most prominent personalities, Pretorius and Potgieter, all attempts at establishing an organized system of government through out Transvaal ended in failure, till Pretorius induced the British Government to sign the Sand River convention (January 17, 1852), which virtually established the political independence of that region. The death both of Pretorius and Potgieter in 1853 pre pared the way for a period of internal peace under Pretorius's eldest son Marthinus Wessels Pretorius, first president of the "Dutch African Republic," whose title was afterwards altered (1858) to that of the "South African Republic." But a fatal element of weakness lay in the persistent refusal of the Boers to treat the natives on a footing of equality, or even with common justice. The murder of Hermann Potgieter and family (1854), avenged by Pretorius at Makapan's Cave, was followed (1856) by the "Apprentice Law," establishing a system of disguised slavery, which was further strengthened by the sanction (1858) of the Grand wet, or "Fundamental Law," declaring that the "people will admit of no equality of persons of colour with the white inhabitants either in state or church." Owing to this policy opposition was constantly shown both to the English traders, disposed to deal fairly with all, and to the missionaries, preachers of universal equality, as illustrated by the plunder of Livingstone's house by the commando sent against the native chief Secheli in 1852. A brief chronicle must here suffice of subsequent events down to the present time:—

1857. Invasion of the Orange Free State by Pretorius; dispute settled without bloodshed by the treaty of June 1.

1859. Pretorius elected president of the Free State; fails to effect the union of the two states.

1863. Return of Pretorius, during whose absence affairs had fallen into confusion; continued troubles with the natives; quarrels with the Batlapins, Barolongs, and Griquas in the west; in the east with Ketchywayo, king of Zululand, about the Boers right to the Wakkerstroom and Utrecht districts.

1867. Discovery of diamonds, and Mauch's announcement of goldfields in the interior.

1868. Pretorius's proclamation extending the boundaries of the state west to Lake Ngami, east to Delagoa Bay, whence disputes and negotiations with England and Portugal, Delagoa Bay being ultimately awarded (July 1875) to Portugal by the French president, Marshal MacMahon, to whose decision the matter had been referred.

1871. Boundary disputes towards the south-west settled by the award of Lieutenant-Governor Keate of Natal, leading to the resignation of Pretorius and appointment of President Burgers.

1875. The Fundamental Law forces Burgers to measures leading to the war with Sikokuni, chief of the Bapedi, south of the Olifaut river, who claimed large part of Lydenburg and even of Pretoria; Burgers's visit to Europe in connexion with the Delagoa Railway scheme; on his return he finds everything in the greatest confusion; Boers dispirited by repeated reverses in the Sikokuni war; an empty treasury; broken credit; the state practically bankrupt and exposed to imminent danger of invasion by Bapedis and Zulus. Hence

1876-77. Intervention of England, and Sir Theophilus Shepstone's proclamation (April 12, 1877) annexing Transvaal, followed by the appointment of Sir "W. Owen Lanyon as British administrator.

1880-81. Revolt of the discontented Boers, who, being successful in a few contests with British troops, induced the British Government to restore the republic under the " suzerainty " of the queen, by the treaty of peace of March 21, 1881, a British resident being appointed, with the functions of a consul-general.

1883. S. J. Paul Kriiger elected president.

1884. Convention of London (February 27, ratified by the volksraad, August 8) recognizing the state as the South African Republic, and considerably restricting the British suzerainty.

1885. Proclamation (March 23) of the British protectorate over Bechuanaland, thereby arresting the westward advance of the Boers into the Bamangwato, Bakwena, Baugwaketsi, and Barolong territories, and keeping open the great trade route from Cape Colony through Hopetown and Shoshong to the Zambesi.

1886. Fresh discoveries of rich auriferous deposits especially in the Middelburg province, followed by a great influx of English-speaking populations, threatening to swamp the Boer element.

1886. Projected South African confederation, opposed by Krüger, but supported by the Orange State, Cape Colony, and a majority of the Transvaal Boers. Connected with this scheme is the proposal of a uniform tariff and the immediate construction of a through railway from Cape Town to Delagoa Bay. (A. H. K.)

TRANSVERSE FLUTE, THE, or German Flute, as it was formerly designated in Great Britain, may be described as a musical instrument in which, a column of air is set in vibration by regular pulsations derived from a current of air directed by the lips of the executant against the side of an orifice serving as an embouchure, pierced laterally in the substance of the pipe and towards its upper extremity. This mode of blowing appears to be of very ancient origin: the Hindus, Chinese, and Japanese claim to have used it from time immemorial; in Europe the high antiquity of a lateral embouchure is generally admitted, although it does not really rest, so far as our present knowledge goes, on any conclusive evidence.^[1]

The oblique flute of the Greeks was of Egyptian origin, and it is therefore safest to suppose it to have been like the instrument frequently figured on the monuments of ancient Egypt, which, held obliquely, was blown through the orifice itself of the pipe at its upper extremity. The same instrument (called " nay ") is still used in Mohammedan countries. The flute is often mentioned in mediaeval poetry, but no details of its construction are given. It was the custom, moreover, to designate various instruments by this name. The oldest representation we know of the transverse flute is found in the 11th-century frescos of the cathedral of St Sophia at Kieff. Eustache Deschamps, a French poet of the 14th century, in one of his ballads, makes mention of the "flute traversaine," and we are justified in supposing that he refers to the transverse flute. It had certainly acquired some vogue in the 15th century, being figured in an engraving in Sebastian Virdung's celebrated work,^[2] where it is called "Zwerchpfeiff," and, with the drums, it already constituted the principal ele ment of the military music. Agricola^[3] alludes to it as the "Querchpfeiff" or "Schweizerpfeiff," the latter designation dating, it is said, from the battle of Marignan (1515), when the Swiss troops used it for the first time in war.

From Agricola onwards transverse flutes formed a complete family, said to comprise the discant, the alto and tenor, and the bass,—respectively.There is evidently an error in the indications of pitch here given, for the instruments must in fact have produced sounds an octave higher than those noted. Prætorius,^[4] who in a special note warns his readers against inaccuracies of this kind which were then frequent, designates the transverse flute as "traversa Querpfeiff" and "Querflöt," and notifies the bass in the tenor and alto inand the discant in as varieties then in use. A flute concert at that time included two discants, four altos or tenors, and two basses. The same author distinguishes between the "Traversa" and the "Schweizerpfeiff" (which he also calls "Feldpfeiff," i.e., military flute), although the construction was the same. There were two kinds of "Feldpfeiff," in inrespectively; they were employed exclusively with the military drum.^[5]

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1. The Louvre has two ancient statues (from the Villa Borghese) representing satyrs playing upon transverse flutes. Unfortunately these marbles have been restored, especially in the details affecting our present subject, and are therefore examples of no value to us. Another statue representing a flute-player occurs in the British Museum. The instrument has been supposed to be a transverse flute, but erroneously, for the insufflation of the lateral tube against which the instrumentalist presses his lips, could not, without the intervention of a reed, excite the vibratory movement of the column of air.
2. Musica getutscht und auszgezogen, Basel, 1511.
3. Musica Instrumentalis, Wittenberg, 1529
4. Organographia, Wolfenbüttel, 1618.
5. It is from the word Pfeiff the French Fifre and the English Fife, still applied to the military flutes in present use, are evidently derived.