CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



127 



which Natal also held aloof. The people and 

 imcntof Natal supported the claims of the 

 in Swa/iliiiul. with the exception of direct 

 railroad communication with the sea through 

 Portuguese territory, expecting that the Boer 

 Government would consent in return to extend 

 to tin- gold-fields and the capital the railroad 

 that Natal had constructed to the border of the 

 Transvaal. One of the chief objects of the 

 Transvaal Government in endeavoring to obtain 

 -sion of Swaziland, for which more valuable 

 int crests in the north had been sacrificed, was to 

 secure ultimately a seaboard and harbor. This 

 aim the imperial and colonial British authorities 

 si ill expected to defeat. In order to strengthen 

 its case the Transvaal Government, since 1890, 

 had managed to acquire nearly all the valid 

 property rights and concessions of value that 

 bad l>een held by English subjects. This was 

 easy, because the gold mines that had originally 

 attracted British immigration had not proved 

 productive. 



President Krtiger and Sir Henry Loch con- 

 ferred at Colesberg and agreed to the basis of an 

 agreement, which could not be concluded defi- 

 nitely until it was ratified by the Transvaal 

 Volksraad. The existing arrangements for the 

 government of Swaziland were continued tem- 

 porarily, and a period of three months from the 

 ratification of a new convention was allowed be- 

 fore the introduction of the new system. They 

 parted on April 21, and on June 5 met again in 

 Pretoria. The Volksraad rejected the conditions 

 imposed by the British plenipotentiary regard- 

 ing the autonomy of the Swazis. The conven- 

 tion was concluded and signed on June 8. The 

 convention provides for the cession of Swazi- 

 land and the transfer of the protectorate to the 

 South African Republic. The native Swazi Gov- 

 ernment and all the existing rights of the Swazis 

 are preserved. The sale of liquor to them is 

 prohibited. All Europeans resident in Swazi- 

 land on April 30, 1893, are admitted to full citi- 

 /eiiship in the South African Republic. No re- 

 strictions on the importation of products of the 

 British colonies into Swaziland will be permitted, 

 except in regard to brandy. The Transvaal Gov- 

 ernment agrees to forego its right to build any 

 railroad to the coast. In connection with the 

 convention an assurance was given by the repre- 

 sentative of the Transvaal Government regard- 

 ing the entry of the republic into the customs 

 union, and a promise was made of satisfactory 

 connections with the Natal Railroad now termi- 

 nating at Charlestown. 



(crnian Southwest Africa. The German 

 protectorate on the southwest coast of Africa 

 embraces the region west of the boundaries 

 agreed upon between Germany and Great Brit- 

 am in 1884 and 1890, extending from the Orange 

 o the Cunene river, with a coast line of 930 

 liles, along which no practicable harbors have 

 een found, except Walfisch Bay, which is Brit- 

 sh, Sandwich Harbor, and Angra Pequefia. The 

 otal area is estimated at 340,000 square miles, 

 nd the population at from 200,000 to 250,000. 

 he coast lands and various concessions and 

 privileges have been held by the German Colo- 

 nial Company for Southwest Africa, which has 

 not made much progress in developing the re- 

 sources of the country, and has hindered the 



enterprise of German and foreign mining com- 

 panies. In 1892 a concession for Damarulund, 

 in the north, which is adapted for cattle-ruining, 

 and through which passes the trade route to tin- 

 Zambesi that has been conceded to Germany by 

 Great Britain and Portugal, was grunted to a 

 company composed mostly of Englishmen. A 

 project for a railroad from Walfisch Bay to 

 Bechuanaland it was impossible to carry out on 

 account of the opposition of the Cape authori- 

 ties, who had bespoken a monopoly for the 

 Bechuanaland extension of the colonial system. 

 The depredations committed by a Hottentot 

 robber chief, Hendrik Witboii, upon the Hereros, 

 and his insolent behavior toward the German au- 

 thorities, at last impelled Capt. von Francois, the 

 German Imperial Commissioner, to undertake a 

 punitive expedition against his stronghold at 

 Hoornkrans, and thus inaugurate a vigorous 

 policy that would restore the respect of the na- 

 tives for German authority. The Hereros had 

 repeatedly broken their treaty engagements, and 

 in the beginning of 1893 one of their chiefs, 

 Kambasembi, had gone so far as to stop an ex- 

 pedition sent out by the Colonial Company to 

 prospect for minerals, and to compel the im- 



Esrial commissaries, Mine-Inspector Duft and 

 ieut. von Biilow, to return, allowing the others 

 to proceed only because they pretended to be 

 Englishmen. Capt. von Francois reached the 

 mountain fastness of Hoornkrans by a circuitous 

 route, and carried it by storm on April 12. The 

 Hottentots lost 80 killed and 100 wounded, in- 

 cluding many women and children, who fell vic- 

 tims to the sudden attack and indiscriminate 

 firing. On the German side 1 man was killed 

 and 3 were wounded. 



Orange Free State. The smaller of the two 

 Boer republics, which is separated from Cape 

 Colony by Orange river and from the Trans- 

 vaal by Vaal river, and has Basutoland and 

 Natal on the east, and Griqualand West on the 

 west, has maintained its independence by a policy 

 of subservience to Great Britain and by pre- 

 serving the good will of the Dutch of Cape Col- 

 ony, with whom its people have closer relations 

 than have the Boers of the Transvaal. It has 

 an area of 48,326 square miles, and in 1890 had 

 a population of 77,716 whites, divided into 40,571 

 males and 37,145 females, and 129,787 natives, 

 of whom 67,791 were males and 61,996 females, 

 making the total population 207,503. Of the 

 whites, 51,910 were natives of the Free State, and 

 21,116 of Cape Colony. Every adult white male 

 is a full burgher, having a vote for President, 

 who is elected for five years, and for a repre- 

 sentative in the Volksraad of 57 members, who 

 are elected for four years, one half being re- 

 placed every two years. There is an increasing 

 immigration movement, chiefly from Germany 

 and England. 



The revenue for the year ending with Feb- 

 ruary, 1892, was 386,589, and the expenditure 

 407,610. For 1892-'93 the estimated revenue 

 is 263,000 of ordinary receipts. Including un- 

 expended balances the total revenue is 447,671, 

 while the expenditures are estimated at 434,- 

 120. The chief sources of revenue are the fol- 

 lowing : Import duties, 100,000 ; stamps, 38,- 

 000; transfer dues, 23,000 ; quitrents, 15,500; 

 native poll tax, 13,000. The chief items of ex- 



