CAPE COLONY. 



127 



tween Mokhuchwane, the headman who had 

 stopped Grobelaar, and t\vo traders named 

 Francis and Chapman who attempted to 

 by the same ferry. At the request of President 

 Paul Kruger, of the South African Republic, 

 the British Imperial authorities, in the summer 

 of 1887, modified the original proclamation of 

 the protectorate up to 22d parallel of latitude, 

 by fixing an eastern limit at the longitude of 

 the mouth of the Macloutsie. The Boers 

 claimed not only the right to the route through 

 the disputed territory and grants of land within 

 it, but also a protectorate over Matabeleland, 

 by virtue of a treaty that they made with Mo- 

 selekatze, the grandfather of Lobengula. 



German Colonization and British Expansion. The 

 British port of Walfisch Bay is the only good 

 harbor on the entire seaboard of German South- 

 west Africa, extending through twelve degrees 

 of latitude, and it gives access to the two prin- 

 cipal rivers running through Damaraland and 

 Kamaqualand. The bay of Angra Pequefia in 

 the south has disappointed the expectations of 

 the Germans, while Porto do Ilheo or Sandwich 

 Haven is small and threatened with obstruction 

 by sand. The Germans are indignant that 

 Great Britain should desire to retain this en- 

 clave, only twenty-five square miles in extent, 

 which is absolutely useless since the German 

 annexation of the country. The English Gov- 

 ernment might be willing to exchange it for 

 Togoland, which is a similar source of annoy- 

 ance in the midst of British possessions on the 

 Gold Coast, but fears the dissatisfaction of the 

 Cape Colonists. In April, 1888, Xama rob- 

 bers made an attack on the little English set- 

 tlement, which was only saved from massacre 

 by the timely dispatch of troops from Cape 

 Colony. The Cape Government complained to 

 the German Governor that the protectorate 

 had not been made effective. After the with- 

 drawal of British protection, which was like- 

 wise only nominal, and was formally renounced 

 in 1880 by the English Government, Germany 

 proclaimed a protectorate over Damaraland, or 

 as the Germans sometimes call it Hereroland, 

 comprising the region between the Orange and 

 the Cunene rivers, by virtue of a treaty made 

 with the head-chief Maherero by the Luderitz 

 Company, which had undertaken to work 

 the abandoned copper mines. The enterprise 



E roved unprofitable, as it had before in the 

 ands of the English, on account of the cost of 

 carrying the ore to the coast, and the company 

 failed in its duty to maintain order, and afford- 

 ed no protection to the disappointed Hereros, 

 whose herds of cattle suffered, as before, from 

 the black-mailing incursions of the vengeful 

 Kama Hottentots, once the masters of the 

 whole country, but now confined to their rob- 

 ber-nests in the mountains of southwestern 

 Hereroland. Anarchy and disorder reached 

 such a degree that in 1887 German officials 

 were repeatedly attacked and the horses and 

 cattle of the imperial commissary were stolen. 

 The new Boer republic of Upingtonia in the 



northeastern part of the German possessions, 

 toward Ovamboland. was brought to the verge 

 of dissolution by attacks of the Zwartboy Hot- 

 tentots and fights with Bushmen. Discoveries 

 of paying gold-quartz in Ilereroland are likely 

 to revive the fortunes of the earliest, but most 

 neglected, of the German colonial possessions, 

 and may induce the German Colonizatiu; 

 ciety for Southwest Africa, which h, 

 ed the Luderitz corporation, to give the prom- 

 ised police protection. An Englishman named 

 Stevens, when leaving. the Coppermine back of 

 Walfisch Bay in 1857, took with him a fragment 

 of rock of curious appearance. Many years 

 afterward he went to live with his sons, who 

 were gold-miners in Australia. On seeing au- 

 riferous quartz he was struck by its resem- 

 blance to his specimen, which was produced, 

 and was found on analysis to be a rich piece 

 of gold ore. After his death two of his sons, 

 with two companions, went to Walfisch Bay to 

 prospect, arriving in October, 1887. They ob- 

 tained permission from the German authori- 

 ties, who placed little faith in their story or in 

 their prospects of success, since several expe- 

 ditions of scientific geologists had failed to 

 make any promising discovery. These practi- 

 cal miners, nevertheless, found paying rock 

 within a few weeks. The richest vein is on 

 an island in Swakop river near Walfisch Bay. 

 The natives as soon as they saw what was want- 

 ed brought sacks of gold quartz to Stevens 

 from various quarters, showing that there are 

 extensive gold fields. In quality the ores are 

 said to compare favorably with those of the 

 best Californian or Australian workings. The 

 Australians were employed at first by the Co- 

 lonial Society, but since March, 1888.theiropera- 

 tions have been conducted for the account of a 

 branch syndicate that has the monopoly of the 

 gold mines. The German Colonial Society for 

 Southwest Africa has recently designated only 

 the northern part of its possessions, extending 

 from Swakop river to the Portuguese boundary 

 at the Cunene, as German Damnraland, while 

 the region between Swakop and Orange rivers 

 is officially known as German Namaland. The 

 German protectorate includes some fertile land 

 in the north, resembling the neighboring Por- 

 tuguese possessions. The greater part of the 

 country, however, is only fit for grazing, and 

 is so poorly watered that the herds of its 200,- 

 000 inhabitants, scattered over 290.000 square 

 miles of territory, find only a scanty herbage. 

 There is a small export trade in cattle, but the 

 commerce is much smaller than formerly. The 

 German West African Company is an enter- 

 prise distinct from the colonization society 

 that succeeded Luderitz, and has for its ob- 

 ject the development of trade with the interior. 

 The English Government, by the occupation 

 of Bechuanaland, had driven a wedge between 

 the German possessions and the Transvaal, and 

 by the annexation of San Lucia Bay and the 

 extension of its suzerainty over Amatongaland, 

 had shut out German influence from the east 



