THE TRANSVAAL.

ITS INHABITANTS, LAWS, AND CUSTOMS.

Invasion by Mosilikatze ­Arrival of the emigrant Boers ­Establishment of the South African republic ­The Sand River convention ­Growth of the territory of the republic ­The native tribes surrounding it ­Capabilities of the country ­Its climate ­Its inhabitants ­The Boers ­Their peculiarities and mode of life ­Their abhorrence of settled government and payment of taxes ­The Dutch patriotic party ­Form of government previous to the annexation ­Courts of law ­The commando system ­Revenue arrangements ­Native races in the Transvaal.

The Transvaal is a country without a history.  Its very existence was hardly known of until about fifty years ago.  Of its past we know nothing.  The generations who peopled its great plains have passed utterly out of the memory and even the traditions of man, leaving no monument to mark that they have existed, not even a tomb.

During the reign of Chaka, 1813-1828, whose history has been sketched in a previous chapter, one of his most famous generals, Mosilikatze, surnamed the Lion, seceded from him with a large number of his soldiers, and striking up in a north-westerly direction, settled in or about what is now the Morico district of the Transvaal.  The country through which Mosilikatze passed was at that time thickly populated with natives of the Basutu or Macatee race, whom the Zulus look upon with great contempt.  Mosilikatze expressed the feelings of his tribe in a practical manner, by massacring every living soul of them that came within his reach.  That the numbers slaughtered were very great, the numerous ruins of Basutu kraals all over the country testify.

It was Chaka’s intention to follow up Mosilikatze and destroy him, but he was himself assassinated before he could do so.  Dingaan, his successor, however, carried out his brother’s design, and despatched a large force to punish him.  This army, after marching over 300 miles, burst upon Mosilikatze, drove him back with slaughter, and returned home triumphant.  The invasion is important, because the Zulus claim the greater part of the Transvaal territory by virtue of it.

About the time that Mosilikatze was conquered, 1835-1840, the discontented Boers were leaving the Cape Colony exasperated at the emancipation of the slaves by the Imperial authorities.  First they made their way to Natal, but being followed thither by the English flag they travelled further inland over the Vaal River and founded the town of Mooi River Dorp or Potchefstroom.  Here they were joined by other malcontents from the Orange Sovereignty, which, although afterwards abandoned, was at that time a British possession.  Acting upon

     The good old rule, the simple plan
     Of let him take who has the power,
     And let him keep who can,

the Boers now proceeded to possess themselves of as much territory as they wanted.  Nor was this a difficult task.  The country was, as I have said, peopled by Macatees, who are a poor-spirited race as compared to the Zulus, and had had what little courage they possessed crushed out of them by the rough handling they had received at the hands of Mosilikatze and Dingaan.  The Boers, they argued, could not treat them worse than the Zulus had done.  Occasionally a Chief, bolder than the rest, would hold out, and then such an example was made of him and his people that few cared to follow in his footsteps.

As soon as the Boers were fairly settled in their new home, they began to think about setting up a Government.  First they tried a system of Commandants, with a Commandant-general, but this does not seem to have answered.  Next, those of their number who lived in Lydenburg district (where the gold fields now are) set up a Republic, with a President and Volksraad, or popular assembly.  This example was followed by the other white inhabitants of the country, who formed another Republic and elected another President, with Pretoria for their capital.  The two republics were subsequently incorporated.

In 1852 the Imperial authorities, having regard to the expense of maintaining an effective government over an unwilling people in an undeveloped and half-conquered country, concluded a convention with the emigrant Boers “beyond the Vaal River.”  The following were the principal stipulations of this convention, drawn up between Major Hogg and Mr. Owen, Her Majesty’s Assistant-Commissioners for the settling and adjusting of the affairs of the eastern and north-eastern boundaries of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope on the one part, and a deputation representative of the emigrant farmers north of the Vaal River on the other.  It was guaranteed “in the fullest manner on the part of the British Government to the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal River the right to manage their own affairs, and to govern themselves according to their own laws, without any interference on the part of the British Government, and that no encroachment shall be made by the said Government on the territory beyond to the north of the Vaal River, with the further assurance that the warmest wish of the British Government is to promote peace, free trade, and friendly intercourse with the emigrant farmers now inhabiting, or who hereafter may inhabit that country, it being understood that this system of non-interference is binding on both parties.”

Next were disclaimed, on behalf of the British Government, “all alliances whatever and with whomsoever of the coloured nations to the north of the Vaal River.”

It was also agreed “that no slavery is or shall be permitted or practised in the country to the north of the Vaal River by the emigrant farmers.”

It was further agreed “that no objection shall be made by any British authority against the emigrant Boers purchasing their supplies of ammunition in any of the British colonies and possessions of South Africa; it being mutually understood that all trade in ammunition with the native tribes is prohibited both by the British Government and the emigrant farmers on both sides of the Vaal River.”

These were the terms of this famous convention, which is as slipshod in its diction as it is vague in its meaning.  What, for instance, is meant by the territory to the north of the Vaal River?  According to the letter of the agreement, Messrs. Hogg and Owen ceded all the territory between the Vaal and Egypt.  This historical document was the Charta of the new-born South African Republic.  Under its provisions, the Boers, now safe from interference on the part of the British, established their own Government and promulgated their “Grond Wet,” or Constitution.

The history of the Republic between 1852 and 1876 is not very interesting, and is besides too wearisome to enter into here.  It consists of an oft-told tale of civil broils, attacks on native tribes, and encroachment on native territories.  Until shortly before the Annexation, every burgher was, on coming of age, entitled to receive from the Government 6000 acres of land.  As these rights were in the early days of the Republic frequently sold to speculators for such trifles as a bottle of brandy or half a dozen of beer, and as the seller still required his 6000 acres:  for a Boer considers it beneath his dignity to settle on less, it is obvious that it required a very large country to satisfy all demands.  To meet these demands, the territories of the Republic had to be stretched like an elastic band, and they were stretched accordingly, ­at the expense of the natives.  The stretching process was an ingenious one, and is very well described in a minute written by Mr. Osborn, the late Magistrate at Newcastle, dated 22d September, 1876, in these words: ­

“The Boers, as they have done in other cases and are still doing, encroached by degrees on native territory, commencing by obtaining permission to graze stock upon portions of it at certain seasons of the year, followed by individual graziers obtaining from native headmen a sort of right or license to squat upon certain defined portions, ostensibly in order to keep other Boer squatters away from the same land.  These licenses, temporarily intended as friendly or neighbourly acts by unauthorised headmen, after a few seasons of occupation by the Boer, are construed by him as title, and his permanent occupation ensues.  Damage for trespass is levied by him from the very man from whom he obtained the right to squat, to which the natives submit out of fear of the matter reaching the ears of the paramount chief, who would in all probability severely punish them for opening the door to encroachment by the Boer.  After a while, however, the matter comes to a crisis in consequence of the incessant disputes between the Boers and the natives; one or other of the disputants lays the case before the paramount chief, who, when hearing both parties, is literally frightened with violence and threats by the Boer into granting him the land.  Upon this the usual plan followed by the Boer is at once to collect a few neighbouring Boers, including a field cornet, or even an acting provisional field cornet, appointed by the field cornet or provisional cornet, the latter to represent the Government, although without instructions authorising him to act in the matter.  A few cattle are collected among themselves, which the party takes to the chief, and his signature is obtained to a written document alienating to the Republican Boers a large slice of all his territory.  The contents of this document are, as far as I can make out, never clearly or intelligibly explained to the chief who signs and accepts of the cattle under the impression that it is all in settlement of hire for the grazing licenses granted by his headmen.  This, I have no hesitation in saying, is the usual method by which the Boers obtain what they call cessions to them of territories by native chiefs.  In Secocoeni’s case they allege that his father Sequati cedes to them the whole of his territory (hundreds of square miles) for a hundred head of cattle.”

So rapidly did this progress go on that the little Republic to the “North of the Vaal River,” had at the time of the Annexation grown into a country of the size of France.  Its boundaries had only been clearly defined where they abutted on neighbouring White Communities, or on the territories of great native powers, on which the Government had not dared to infringe to any marked degree, such as those of Lo Bengula’s people in the north.  But wheresoever on the State’s borders there had been no white Power to limit its advances, or where the native tribes had found themselves too isolated or too weak to resist aggressions, there the Republic had by degrees encroached and extended the shadow, if not the substance, of its authority.

The Transvaal has a boundary line of over 1,600 miles in circumference, and of this a large portion is disputed by different native tribes.  Speaking generally, the territory lies between the 22 and 28 degrees of South Latitude and the 25 and 32 degrees of East Longitude, or between the Orange Free State, Natal and Griqualand West on the south, and the Limpopo River on the north; and between the Lebombo mountains on the east, and the Kalihari desert on the west.  On the north of its territory live three great tribes, the Makalaka, the Matabele (descendants of the Zulus who deserted Chaka under Mosilikatze) and the Matyana.  These tribes are all warlike.  On the west, following the line down to the Diamond Field territory, are the Sicheli, the Bangoaketsi, the Baralong and the Koranna tribes.  Passing round by Griqualand West, the Free State, and Natal, we reach Zululand on the south-east corner; then come the Lebombo mountains on the east, separating the Transvaal from Amatonga land, and from the so-called Portuguese possessions, which are entirely in the hands of native tribes, most of them subject to the great Zulu chief, Umzeila, who has his stronghold in the north-east.

It will be observed that the country is almost surrounded by native tribes.  Besides these there are about one million native inhabitants living within its borders.  In one district alone, Zoutpansberg, it is computed that there are 364,250 natives, as compared to about 750 whites.

If a beautiful and fertile country were alone necessary to make a state and its inhabitants happy and prosperous, happiness and prosperity would rain upon the Transvaal and the Dutch Boers.  The capabilities of this favoured land are vast and various.  Within its borders are to be found highlands and lowlands, vast stretches of rolling veldt like gigantic sheep downs, hundreds of miles of swelling bushland, huge tracts of mountainous country, and even little glades spotted with timber that remind one of an English park.  There is every possible variety of soil and scenery.  Some districts will grow all tropical produce, whilst others are well suited for breeding sheep, cattle and horses.  Most of the districts will produce wheat and all other cereals in greater perfection and abundance than any of the other South African colonies.  Two crops of cereals may be obtained from the soil every year, and both the vine and tobacco are cultivated with great success.  Coffee, sugar-cane and cotton have been grown with profit in the northern parts of the State.  Also the undeveloped mineral wealth of the country is very great.  Its known minerals are gold, copper, lead, cobalt, iron, coal, tin and plumbago:  copper and iron having long been worked by the natives.  Altogether there is little doubt that the Transvaal is the richest of all the South African states, and had it remained under English rule it would, with the aid of English enterprise and capital, have become a very wealthy and prosperous country.  However there is little chance of that now.

Perhaps the greatest charm of the Transvaal lies in its climate, which is among the best in the world, and in all the southern districts very healthy.  During the winter months, that is from April to October, little or no rain falls, and the climate is cold and bracing.  In summer it is rather warm, but not overpoweringly hot, the thermometer at Pretoria averaging from 65 to 73 degrees, and in the winter from 59 to 56 degrees.  The population of the Transvaal is estimated at about 40,000 whites, mostly of Dutch origin, consisting of about thirty vast families:  and one million natives.  There are several towns, the largest of which are Pretoria and Potchefstroom.

Such is the country that we annexed in 1877, and were drummed out of in 1881.  Now let us turn to its inhabitants.  It has been the fashion to talk of the Transvaal as though nobody but Boers lived in it.  In reality the inhabitants were divided into three classes:  1.  Natives; 2.  Boers; 3.  English.  I say were divided, because the English class can now hardly be said to exist, the country having been made too hot to hold it, since the war.  The natives stand in the proportion of nearly twenty to one to the whites.  The Boers were in their turn much more numerous than the English, but the latter owned nearly all the trading establishments in the country, and also a very large amount of property.

The Transvaal Boers have been very much praised up by members of the Government in England, and others who are anxious to advance their interests, as against English interests.  Mr. Gladstone, indeed, can hardly find words strong enough to express his admiration of their leaders, those “able men,” since they inflicted a national humiliation on us; and doubtless they are a people with many good points.  That they are not devoid of sagacity can be seen by the way they have dealt with the English Government.

The Boers are certainly a peculiar people, though they can hardly be said to be “zealous of good works.”  They are very religious, but their religion takes it colour from the darkest portions of the Old Testament; lessons of mercy and gentleness are not at all to their liking, and they seldom care to read the Gospels.  What they delight in are the stories of wholesale butchery by the Israelites of old; and in their own position they find a reproduction of that of the first settlers in the Holy Land.  Like them they think they are entrusted by the Almighty with the task of exterminating the heathen native tribes around them, and are always ready with a scriptural precedent for slaughter and robbery.  The name of the Divinity is continually on their lips, sometimes in connection with very doubtful statements.  They are divided into three sects, none of which care much for the other two.  These are the Doppers, who number about half the population, the Orthodox Reform, and the Liberal Reform, which is the least numerous.  Of these three sects, the Doppers are by far the most uncompromising and difficult to deal with.  They much resemble the puritans of Charles the First’s time, of the extreme Hew-Agag-in-pieces stamp.

It is difficult to agree with those who call the Boers cowards, an accusation which the whole of their history belies.  A Boer does not like fighting if he can avoid it, because he sets a high value on his own life; but if he is cornered, he will fight as well as anybody else.  The Boers fought well enough, in the late war, though that, it is true, is no great criterion of courage, since they were throughout flushed with victory, and, owing to the poor shooting of the British troop, in but little personal danger.  One very unpleasant characteristic they have, and that is an absence of regard for the truth, especially where land is concerned.  Indeed the national characteristic is crystallised into a proverb, “I am no slave to my word.”  It has several times happened to me, to see one set of highly respectable witnesses in a land case, go into the box and swear distinctly that they saw a beacon placed on a certain spot, whilst an equal number on the other side will swear that they saw it placed a mile away.  Filled as they are with a land hunger, to which that of the Irish peasant is a weak and colourless sentiment, there is little that they will not do to gratify their taste.  It is the subject of constant litigation amongst them, and it is by no means uncommon for a Boer to spend several thousand pounds in lawsuits over a piece of land not worth as many hundreds.

Personally Boers are fine men, but as a rule ugly.  Their women-folk are good-looking in early life, but get very stout as they grow older.  They, in common with most of their sex, understand how to use their tongues; indeed, it is said, that it was the women who caused the rising against the English Government.  None of the refinements of civilisation enter into the life of an ordinary Boer.  He lives in a way that would shock an English labourer at twenty-five shillings the week, although he is very probably worthy fifteen or twenty thousand pounds.  His home is but too frequently squalid and filthy to an extraordinary degree.  He himself has no education, and does not care that his children should receive any.  He lives by himself in the middle of a great plot of land, his nearest neighbour being perhaps ten or twelve miles away, caring but little for the news of the outside world, and nothing for its opinions, doing very little work, but growing daily richer through the increase of his flocks and herds.  His expenses are almost nothing, and as he gets older, wealth increases upon him.  The events in his life consist of an occasional trip on “commando,” against some native tribe, attending a few political meetings, and the journeys he makes with his family to the nearest town, some four times a year, in order to be present at “Nachtmaal” or communion.  Foreigners, especially Englishmen, he detests, but he is kindly and hospitable to his own people.  Living isolated as he does, the lord of a little kingdom, he naturally comes to have a great idea of himself, and a corresponding contempt for all the rest of mankind.  Laws and taxes are things distasteful to him, and he looks upon it as an impertinence that any court should venture to call him to account for his doings.  He is rich and prosperous, and the cares of poverty, and all the other troubles that fall to the lot of civilised men, do not affect him.  He has no romance in him, nor any of the higher feelings and aspirations that are found in almost every other race; in short, unlike the Zulu he despises, there is little of the gentleman in his composition, though he is at times capable of acts of kindness and even generosity.  His happiness is to live alone in the great wilderness, with his children, his men-servants and his maid-servants, his flocks and his herds, the monarch of all he surveys.  If civilisation presses him too closely, his remedy is a simple one.  He sells his farm, packs up his goods and cash in his waggon, and starts for regions more congenially wild.  Such are some of the leading characteristics of that remarkable product of South Africa, the Transvaal Boer, who resembles no other white man in the world.

Perhaps, however, the most striking of all his oddities is his abhorrence of all government, more especially if that government be carried out according to English principles.  The Boers have always been more or less in rebellion; they rebelled against the rule of the Company when the Cape belonged to Holland, they rebelled against the English Government in the Cape, they were always in a state of semi-rebellion against their own government in the Transvaal, and now they have for the second time, with the most complete success, rebelled against the English Government.  The fact of the matter is that the bulk of their number hate all Governments, because Governments enforce law and order, and they hate the English Government worst of all, because it enforces law and order most of all.  It is not liberty they long for, but license.  The “sturdy independence” of the Boer resolves itself into a determination not to have his affairs interfered with by any superior power whatsoever, and not to pay taxes if he can possibly avoid it.  But he has also a specific cause of complaint against the English Government, which would alone cause him to do his utmost to get rid of it, and that is its mode of dealing with natives, which is radically opposite to his own.  This is the secret of Boer patriotism.  To understand it, it must be remembered that the Englishman and the Boer look at natives from a different point of view.  The Englishman, though he may not be very fond of him, at any rate regards the Kafir as a fellow human being with feelings like his own.  The average Boer does not.  He looks upon the “black creature” as having been delivered into his hand by the “Lord” for his own purposes, that is, to shoot and enslave.  He must not be blamed too harshly for this, for, besides being naturally of a somewhat hard disposition, hatred of the native is hereditary, and is partly induced by the history of many a bloody struggle.  Also the native hates the Boer fully as much as the Boer hates the native, though with better reason.  Now native labour is a necessity to the Boer, because he will not as a rule do hard manual labour himself, and there must be some one to plant and garner the crops, and herd the cattle.  On the other hand, the natives are not anxious to serve the Boers, which means little or no pay and plenty of thick stick, and sometimes worse.  The result of this state of affairs is that the Boer often has to rely on forced labour to a very great extent.  But this is a thing that an English Government will not tolerate, and the consequence is that under its rule he cannot get the labour that is necessary to him.

Then there is the tax question.  If he lives under the English flag the money has to be paid regularly, but under his own Government he pays or not as he likes.  It was this habit of his of refusing payment of taxes that brought the Republic into difficulties in 1877, and that will ere long bring it into trouble again.  He cannot understand that cash is necessary to carry on a Government, and looks upon a tax as though it were so much money stolen from him.  These things are the real springs of the “sturdy independence” and the patriotism of the ordinary Transvaal farmer.  Doubtless, there are some who are really patriotic; for instance, one of their leaders, Paul Kruger.  But with the majority, patriotism is only another word for unbounded license and forced labour.

These remarks must not be taken to apply to the Cape Boers, who are a superior class of men, since they, living under a settled and civilised Government, have been steadily improving, whilst their cousins, living every man for his own hand, have been deteriorating.  The old Voortrekkers, the fathers and grandfathers of the Transvaal Boer of to-day, were, without doubt, a very fine set of men, and occasionally you may in the Transvaal meet individuals of the same stamp whom it is a pleasure to know.  But these are generally men of a certain age with some experience of the world; the younger men are very objectionable in their manners.

The real Dutch Patriotic party is not to be found in the Transvaal, but in the Cape Colony.  Their object, which, as affairs now are, is well within the bounds of possibility, is by fair means or foul to swamp the English element in South Africa, and to establish a great Dutch Republic.  It was this party, which consists of clever and well educated men, who raised the outcry against the Transvaal Annexation, because it meant an enormous extension of English influence, and who had the wit, by means of their emissaries and newspapers, to work upon the feeling of the ignorant Transvaal farmers until they persuaded them to rebel; and finally, to avail themselves of the yearnings of English radicalism for the disruption of the Empire and the minimisation of British authority, to get the Annexation cancelled.  All through this business the Boers have more or less danced in obedience to strings pulled at Cape Town, and it is now said that one of the chief wire-pullers, Mr. Hofmeyer, is to be asked to become President of the Republic.  These men are the real patriots of South Africa, and very clever ones too, not the Transvaal Boers, who vapour about their blood and their country and the accursed Englishman to order, and are in reality influenced by very small motives, such as the desire to avoid payment of taxes, or to hunt away a neighbouring Englishman, whose civilisation and refinement are as offensive as his farm is desirable.  Such are the Dutch inhabitants of the Transvaal.  I will now give a short sketch of their institutions as they were before the Annexation, and to which the community has reverted since its recision, with, I believe, but few alterations.

The form of government is republican, and to all intents and purposes, manhood suffrage prevails, supreme power resting in the people.  The executive power of the State centres in a President elected by the people to hold office for a term of five years, every voter having a voice in his election.  He is assisted in the execution of his duties by an Executive Council, consisting of the State Secretary and such other three members as are selected for that purpose by the legislative body, the Volksraad.  The State Secretary holds office for four years, and is elected by the Volksraad.  The members of the Executive all have seats in the Volksraad, but have no votes.  The Volksraad is the legislative body of the State, and consists of forty-two members.  The country is divided into twelve electoral districts, each of which has the right to return three members; the Gold Fields have also the right of electing two members, and the four principal towns, one member each.  There is no power in the State competent to either prorogue or dissolve the Volksraad except that body itself, so that an appeal to the country on a given subject or policy is impossible without its concurrence.  Members are elected for four years, but half retire by rotation every two years, the vacancies being filled by re-elections.  Members must have been voters for three years, and be not less than thirty years of age, must belong to a Protestant Church, be resident in the country, and owners of immovable property therein.  A father and son cannot sit in the same Raad, neither can seats be occupied by coloured persons, bastards, or officials.

For each electoral district there is a magistrate or Landdrost whose duties are similar to those of a Civil Commissioner.  These districts are again subdivided into wards presided over by field cornets, who exercise judicial powers in minor matters, and in times of war have considerable authority.  The Roman Dutch law is the common law of the country, as it is of the colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal, and of the Orange Free State.

Prior to the Annexation justice was administered in a very primitive fashion.  First, there was the Landdrosts’ Court, from which an appeal lay to a court consisting of the Landdrost and six councillors elected by the public.  This was a court of first instance as well as a court of appeal.  Then there was a Supreme Court, consisting of three Landdrosts from three different districts, and a jury of twelve selected from the burghers of the State.  There was no appeal from this court, but cases have sometimes been brought under the consideration of the Volksraad as the supreme power.  It is easy to imagine what the administration of justice was like when the presidents of all the law courts in the country were elected by the mob, not on account of their knowledge of the law, but because they were popular.  Suitors before the old Transvaal courts found the law surprisingly uncertain.  A High Court of Justice was, however, established after the Annexation, and has been continued by the Volksraad, but an agitation is being got up against it, and it will possibly be abolished in favour of the old system.

In such a community as that of the Transvaal Boers, the question of public defence was evidently of the first importance.  This is provided for under what is known as the Commando system.  The President, with the concurrence of the Executive Council, has the right of declaring war, and of calling up a Commando, in which the burghers are placed under the field cornets and commandants.  These last are chosen by the field cornets for each district, and a Commandant-general is chosen by the whole laager or force, but the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the army.  All the inhabitants of the state between sixteen and sixty, with a few exceptions, are liable for service.  Young men under eighteen, and men over fifty, are only called out under circumstances of emergency.  Members of the Volksraad, officials, clergymen, and school-teachers are exempt from personal service, unless martial law is proclaimed, but must contribute an amount not exceeding 15 pounds towards the expense of the war.  All legal proceedings in civil cases are suspended against persons on commando, no summonses can be made out, and as soon as martial law is proclaimed no legal execution can be prosecuted, the pounds are closed, and transfer dues payments are suspended, until after thirty days from the recall of the proclamation of martial law.  Owners of land residing beyond the borders of the Republic are also liable, in addition to the ordinary war tax, to place a fit and proper substitute at the disposal of the Government, or otherwise to pay a fine of 15 pounds.  The first levy of the burghers is, of men from eighteen to thirty-four years of age; the second, thirty-four to fifty; and the third, from sixteen to eighteen, and from fifty to sixty years.  Every man is bound to provide himself with clothing, a gun, and ammunition, and there must be enough waggons and oxen found between them to suffice for their joint use.  Of the booty taken, one quarter goes to Government and the rest to the burghers.  The most disagreeable part of the commandeering system is, however, yet to come; personal service is not all that the resident in the Transvaal Republic has to endure.  The right is vested in field cornets to commandeer articles as well as individuals, and to call upon inhabitants to furnish requisites for the commando.  As may be imagined, it goes very hard on these occasions with the property of any individual whom the field cornet may not happen to like.

Each ward is expected to turn out its contingent ready and equipped for war, and this can only be done by seizing goods right and left.  One unfortunate will have to find a waggon, another to deliver his favourite span of trek oxen, another his riding-horse, or some slaughter cattle, and so on.  Even when the officer making the levy is desirous of doing his duty as fairly as he can, it is obvious that very great hardships must be inflicted under such a system.  Requisitions are made more with regard to what is wanted, than with a view to an equitable distribution of demands; and like the Jews in the time of the Crusades, he who has got most must pay most, or take the consequences, which may be unpleasant.  Articles which are not perishable, such as waggons, are supposed to be returned, but if they come back at all they are generally worthless.

In case of war, the native tribes living within the borders of the State are also expected to furnish contingents, and it is on them that most of the hard work of the campaign generally falls.  They are put in the front of the battle, and have to do the hand-to-hand fighting, which, however, if of the Zulu race, they do not object to.

The revenue of the State is so arranged that the burden of it should fall as much as possible on the trading community and as little as possible on the farmer.  It is chiefly derived from licenses on trades, professions, and callings, 30s. per annum quit-rent on farms, transfer dues and stamps, auction dues, court fees, and contributions from such native tribes as can be made to pay them.  Since we have given up the country, the Volksraad has put a very heavy tax on all imported goods, hoping thereby to beguile the Boers into paying taxes without knowing it, and at the same time strike a blow at the trading community, which is English in its proclivities.  The result has been to paralyse what little trade there was left in the country, and to cause great dissatisfaction amongst the farmers, who cannot understand why, now that the English are gone, they should have to pay twice as much for their sugar and coffee as they have been accustomed to do.

I will conclude this chapter with a few words about the natives, who swarm in and around the Transvaal.  They can be roughly divided into two great races, the Amazulu and their offshoots, and the Macatee or Basutu tribes.  All those of Zulu blood, including the Swazies, Mapock’s Kafirs, the Matabele, the Knobnodes, and others are very warlike in disposition, and men of fine physique.  The Basutus (who must not be confounded with the Cape Basutus), however, differ from these tribes in every respect, including their language, which is called Sisutu, the only mutual feeling between the two races being their common detestation of the Boers.  They do not love war; in fact, they are timid and cowardly by nature, and only fight when they are obliged to.  Unlike the Zulus, they are much addicted to the arts of peace, show considerable capacities for civilisation, and are even willing to become Christians.  There would have been a far better field for the Missionary in the Transvaal than in Zululand and Natal.  Indeed, the most successful mission station I have seen in Africa is near Middelburg, under the control of Mr. Merensky.  In person the Basutus are thin and weakly when compared to the stalwart Zulu, and it is their consciousness of inferiority both to the white men, and their black brethren, that, together with their natural timidity, makes them submit as easily as they do to the yoke of the Boer.