CAPE COLONY AND BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA. 



87 



connection with the British Empire would be 

 endurable to the Boer people, conditions which 

 it required the deplorable war to make clear to 

 the British Parliament and people, and which 

 were at last freely accorded before a British 

 force had set foot across the Transvaal bound- 

 ary, though defeat following defeat had brought 

 the blush of shame into many Englishmen's 

 faces and stirred thoughts of revenge in their 

 hearts, and although enough British troops 

 had just landed in Natal to speedily extermi- 

 nate the valiant descendants of Huguenot refu- 

 gees and stalwart Dutch pioneers. 



One of the strongest reasons for the annexa- 

 tion had been the frequent difficulties of the 

 Boers with the native tribes. The principal 

 danger had been averted by the extinction of 

 the Zooloo power, accompanied by the reversal 

 of the British commissioners' decision on the 

 chief matter in dispute, their award to Cete- 

 wayo of the land which he had formally ceded 

 to the Transvaal, and which had already been 

 settled by Transvaal farmers. The cession of 

 Keate's award, in which diamonds had been 

 discovered, to natives by a British arbitrator, 

 probably preparatory to engrossing it in the 

 British dominion, as had been done with West 

 Griqualand, was another instance of the ob- 

 liquity of British arbitrations. Nevertheless the 

 Boers were content from the beginning to re- 

 fer boundary questions and disputes with the 

 aborigines to English adjudication, and much 

 more so after the punishment of their old ene- 

 mies the Zooloos. If it had not been for the 

 wars with Cetewayo and Secocoeni, the Boers 

 would have struck earlier for independence. 



In the middle of December, 1880, the repub- 

 lican flag was raised in Heidelberg, a Volks- 

 raad was convened, and the South African Re- 

 public proclaimed. The Boer Government 

 was originally composed of Kruger as Presi- 

 dent ; Joubert, Commandant-General ; Joris- 

 sen, Attorney- General ; and Bok, acting State 

 Secretary. Pretorius was afterward associated 

 with Kruger and Joubert in the supreme di- 

 rection. A proclamation of the Boer Govern- 

 ment set forth their desire to form a confeder- 

 acy with the other colonies and states ; their 

 willingness to receive a British resident diplo- 

 matic agent to represent the interests of Brit- 

 ish subjects ; and also to submit to arbitration 

 their disputes over boundaries with native 

 tribes. Besides the quarrel concerning a small 

 tract in the southeast, which had led to the 

 Zooloo war, there was the standing difficulty 

 about the large and fertile region in the south- 

 west corner of the Transvaal, called the Keate 

 award, which the British referee had awarded 

 unconditionally to native claimants, and the 

 vast region of the northeast from which the 

 Boer settlers had been expelled by native tribes 

 who had been for a long time in possession of 

 the entire country. The titles to lands in this 

 reconquered territory had been bought up by 

 speculators. 



The first engagement of the war was the 



surprise and surrender of a detachment under 

 Lieutenant - Colonel Anstruther, at Bronker's 

 Spruit, while marching from Middleburg to 

 Pretoria, December 20, 1880. The rebellion of 

 the Boers, with the triumvirate, Paul Kruger, 

 Pretorius, and Joubert, at the head, was in full 

 operation at the beginning of January, 1881. 

 British garrisons were beleaguered in Pretoria 

 and Potchefstroom. The Boers secured Natal 

 as far as Newanka, and took possession of 

 the Barkly district of Griqualand West. Sir 

 George Colley was mustering his forces at New- 

 castle, with about fifteen hundred within call ; 

 while re-enforcements from India and Gibraltar 

 were on the sea. General Colley advanced his 

 column slowly toward Pretoria. The means 

 of transport were nearly all in the possession of 

 the Boers and their sympathizers. On the 28th 

 of January he attempted to force the pass of 

 the Drakensberg at Laing's Neck, which the 

 Boers were massed to defend. The republi- 

 cans displayed steadiness and courage of the 

 highest order, and repulsed the rash British 

 commander with severe losses. The Fifty- 

 eighth Regiment, which stormed the strong in- 

 trenched position of the Boers, was driven back 

 with terrible slaughter. Many of the officers 

 were picked off by sharp-shooters. Sir George 

 Colley was now himself hemmed in on all sides. 

 In an attempt to restore communications with 

 Newcastle he was attacked by the Boers near 

 the crossing of the Ingogo, February 8th, and 

 lost one hundred and fifty men and six officers. 

 Re-enforcements landed at Durban at this 

 juncture, when every British force in Africa 

 was surrounded by the Boers, of whom 10,000 

 to 12,000 were under arms. They withdrew 

 beyond the Drakensberg and perfected the 

 fortifications at Laing's Neck as Sir Evelyn 

 Wood brought up re-enforcements to Newcas- 

 tle. Proposals for a treaty had already come 

 from Kruger, and had been forwarded to Eng- 

 land, when General Colley proceeded to oc- 

 cupy with about 700 men the height of the 

 Spitzkop on Majuba Mountain, which com- 

 manded the Boers' position. On the following 

 day, February 27th, the Boers carried the em- 

 inence by storm, with the most heroic exer- 

 tions. The British commander, Sir George 

 Pomeroy Colley, who was also the High Com- 

 missioner for Southeast Africa, was slain with 

 82 others, and 184 were disabled or captured. 

 The repeated successes which the Dutch farm- 

 ers gained over the British regulars were won 

 in nearly every instance with astonishingly 

 small numbers, although the morale of the 

 British troops was not particularly defective. 

 They were due to their desperate and religions 

 devotion to the cause in which they were en- 

 gaged, not less than to their splendid marks- 

 manship with the rifle, and their alert and 

 intelligent tactics. Sir Frederick Roberts was 

 now appointed commander-in-chief, and about 

 15,000 troops were sent to the field of action 

 from all parts of the empire. Before his ar- 

 rival Sir Evelyn Wood, acting under instruc- 



