136 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 



area of 16,000 square miles and a population 

 of about 400,000, is by nature the richest land 

 in South Africa. Owing to internal disorders 

 and the fear of German interference, the nomi- 

 nal protectorate claimed by Cape Colony was 

 transferred to the Imperial Government in 



1884. The native Caffres confine themselves 

 to cattle-raising, and have not suffered the fine 

 soil of the country to be utilized for agricult- 

 ural purposes. Cotton grows wild in the ex- 

 tensive wooded districts. The products of both 

 the tropical and the temperate zones can be 

 cultivated. There are two excellent harbors, 

 St. John's Mouth and Port Grosvenor, through 

 which a considerable trade has been carried 

 on by Natal merchants, but it has suffered of 

 late from the lawlessness of the people and the 

 exactions of the paramount chief, Umquikela, 

 who levies a toll of 5s. on every wagon and 

 50 on every cargo. This chief has become 

 brutalized by alcohol and insolent to an in- 

 sufferable degree toward the white people. 

 His under-chief s have taken advantage of his 

 slack and vicious rule to assert their independ- 

 ence and to vie with him in rapacity and bar- 

 barity. A mining company that worked with 

 profit the copper-ore that is abundant in the 

 mountains was obliged by the violence of the 

 natives to abandon its plant. The Amaxebes, 

 who were taken under the protection of the 

 Cape Government in 1876, have been hard 

 pressed by the Pondos. The magistrate, Capt. 

 O'Connor, and Mr. Stamford were sent by 

 the Cape Government to treat with the Pondo 

 King concerning the abatement of disorders, 

 such as the plundering of merchants. Mes- 

 sengers of Umquikela greeted these envoys 

 with a war-dance, and cast grass and dirt at 

 them, to show that their master despised the 

 white people and challenged them to fight. 

 After that, robberies and outrages grew more 

 frequent. Drink, crime, and disease have 

 greatly increased among the Pondo and Fingo 

 tribes of this region. In 1885 their condition 

 was made worse by famine. There is some 

 German trade with the independent tribes, 

 and agents have approached Umquikela with 

 reference to obtaining the port of St. John's 

 river for a German settlement. On June 6, 



1885, that "paramount and independent chief 

 of Pondoland " issued a proclamation in which 

 he denied the right of Great Britain to assume 

 the protectorate that had been proclaimed over 

 the coast by the High Commissioner, and de- 

 clared his willingness to negotiate with any 

 nation with reference to opening up the ports 

 and developing the commerce of his country. 



Zulnhnd. Under the despotic rule of Cete- 

 wayo, Zululand was a well-organized and well- 

 administered state. The existence in South 

 Africa of a native government so powerful was 

 considered a danger to white civilization in that 

 part of the world, and when the Zulus threat- 

 ened to conquer the Transvaal Boers, the Brit- 

 ish Government intervened and with a great 

 sacrifice of lives and money crushed this Caffre 



state. Humanitarian motives for the war on 

 behalf of the Zulus themselves were found in 

 the barbarous code of laws practiced by the 

 capable tyrant. The English carried off the 

 King a captive, and, after setting up thirteen 

 kinglets, retired from the country. The inter- 

 tribal quarrels, tumults, crime, murder, and an- 

 archy that followed constituted an annoyance 

 and danger to Natal. Consequently the Im- 

 perial Government determined to restore the 

 system of Cetewayo, which it was thought 

 could be accomplished by simply setting the 

 imprisoned monarch free in Zululand. Cete- 

 wayo was welcomed by a part of his former 

 subjects, but others clung to their new chiefs, 

 the most powerful of whom, Usibepu or Zibe- 

 bu, had a following as strong as Cetewayo's, 

 and was aided by Transvaal Boers, who found 

 in anarchic Zululand an opportunity for acquir- 

 ing land and loot by taking sides in native 

 quarrels according to their old practice. The 

 English, in restoring Cetawayo, assigned to 

 Usibepu the lands he occupied in the north, 

 and, in order to prevent an influx into Natal 

 of natives ousted from their lands in the course 

 of inter-tribal wars, and provide for the Zulus 

 who preferred English administration, annexed 

 a broad tract called the Zulu reserve along the 

 Natal frontier. The reserve is the most fertile 

 district in Cetewayo's old kingdom. The re- 

 stored King, in attempting to subdue Usibepu 

 and re-establish his rule over the rest of his old 

 dominions, was himself " eaten up " by Usibe- 

 pu and died in the early part of 1884, a fugitive 

 in the reserve. The rightful heir to the king- 

 dom, according to Zulu law, was Cetewayo's 

 youthful son Dinizulu. On May 21, 1884, Lu- 

 cas Meyer, who had collected a party of fifty 

 other Boers, convened a number of Zulu chiefs 

 and crowned Dinizulu King of Zululand. The 

 Zulus with the Boer contingent, numbering 

 about one hundred men, attacked and defeated 

 Usibepu, who fled for his life to the reserve. 

 In accordance with a previous agreement, Dini- 

 zulu signed a deed of gift granting the white 

 volunteers for their services a tract of land in 

 the west, bordering on the Transvaal, embrac- 

 ing nearly one third of what was left of Zulu- 

 land, or 3,000,000 out of the total 10,000,000 

 acres. Dinizulu afterward denied that he ceded 

 to them so large a tract, saying that, while he 

 spoke one thing with his mouth, the Boers 

 wrote another thing on the paper. As in 

 Bechuanaland, since treaties with Great Brit- 

 ain forbade the direct annexation of the newly 

 settled districts to the South African Republic, 

 the white farmers set up an independent state 

 called the Eepublic of Western Zululand. The 

 British Government complained that the Trans- 

 vaal authorities in allowing these proceedings 

 infringed the stipulation in the convention of 

 February, 1884, which provides that they shall 

 do their utmost to prevent encroachments by 

 the burghers on land outside of the boundaries 

 of the South African Republic. The republic 

 agreed to appoint commissioners on its east- 



