106 



CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



Forbes to cross the river in the night and join 

 him before daybreak with the Maxim guns, and 

 sent word back thai the king was near and could 

 be captured. Bui Major Forbes and Commander 



Kaaf. knowing lliat the impis were in the bush, 

 \vrre afraid to ford the river with the guns, and 

 therefore MMit ('apt. Henry Borrow with 20 men 

 with orders either to capture the king, or, if a 

 determined resistance was feared, to retire upon 

 tin- main column, At daylight on Dec. 4 the 

 :;.-> Him dastied up to the king's inclosure and 

 called on him to surrender. About 100 men 

 came <>ut and worked round to their right in 

 skirmishing order, while another body appeared 

 un the Other Hank. Hastily remounting, they 

 ivtreatrd at a gallop, made a stand, but retreated 

 in.. re oii finding themselves again out- 

 flanked, and then, with 4 horses killed, halted a 

 ml time. An officer was sent for re-enforce- 

 ments with 2 American scouts named Burnham 

 and Insrnun. They passed 2 Matabele regiments 

 closing in on the Wilson party, the last of whom 

 were finally assegaied while fighting still with 

 revolvers and clubbed rifles. Major Forbes at- 

 tempted to cross the river with the machine 

 guns, but was attacked, and retreated down the 

 south bank. On Dec. 9 they were Attacked, and 

 the Matabele harassed their rear and flanks until 

 they were met on Dec. 15 by a relief column a 

 few miles from Inyati, the American scouts hav- 

 ing brought intelligence of the disaster to Bulu- 

 wayo. They were attacked four times, but with 

 the machine guns they drove off the enemy with 

 heavy losses. Their supply of food ran out, and 

 they 'had to kill horses to keep from starving. 



The barbarities of the Matabele war exceeded 

 those of previous similar campaigns for the rea- 

 son that the company was bent on destroying 

 the Matabele nation in order to seize its country, 

 and the filibusters composing its army could 

 make their shares of land and loot greater by 

 killing as many as possible. There was a gen- 

 eral understanding that no prisoners were to be 

 taken, and consequently no quarter was given, 

 and the wounded who were left on the battle- 

 field after the terrible execution of the Maxim 

 shells were dispatched if they moved, and left to 

 die if they were helpless. The pluck with which 

 the. Matabele regiments moved in regular order 

 upon the British camp at Shangani and Imbem- 

 bi-si elicited the admiration of soldiers. But the 

 machine guns prevented their ever once making 

 one of their famous charges and using their as- 

 <:s. Their losses in the battles that preceded 

 the occupation of 1 in lu way o were estimated by 

 Mr. Rhodes at 1,000 killed and 2,000 wounded, 

 but of these wounded only 30 were saved and 

 brought into Buluwayo. When prisoners were 

 t :iken in order to obtain from them information 

 regarding the enemy, it was the practice to kill 

 them after what was wanted was got out of them. 



Lobeiiguia, and his principal induna, Mak- 

 wa/kwi. mounted and rode away northward in 

 the night when Wilson first retired from his 

 camp, leaving word that his people should fol- 

 low with the women and children and cattle 

 after stopping the advance of the whites. The 

 bulk of the nation followed the monarch up to 

 the fly belt, on the Zambesi. There great num- 

 bers of men. women, and children died of small- 

 pox, fever, or starvation. The young warriors 



held for some time the country beyond Inyati, 

 which was finally wrested from them by flying 

 columns. Lobengula was afraid to surrender 

 after the destruction of the Wilson party, though 

 the induna who persuaded him to retreat and 

 who led the Matabele against Wilson and Forbes 

 was executed by his order. He was prevented 

 from taking his fugitive tribe to a new home 

 beyond the Zambesi by the Barotse king, Le- 

 wanika, who seized all the canoes, and stationed 

 a strong armed force of Lesikili along the 

 Zambesi below the falls to dispute the passage 

 of the river. All the military kraals in Mata- 

 beleland were destroyed by the British. Grad- 

 ually members of the tribe came in to make 

 their submission, and were employed by the 

 whites or allowed to till land. The volunteer 

 forces were disbanded in the beginning of Jan- 

 uary, 1894, and those members who did not sell 

 their rights so as to enjoy a carouse scattered 

 over the country to stake out the richest farms 

 for themselves 'and locate mining claims. The 

 Bechuanaland police acted as the civil and mili- 

 tary administrators of the country. King Lo- 

 bengula died of fever on the bank of the Umzola 

 river, about 40 miles south of the Zambesi, on 

 Jan. 23. After that, all the Matabele hurried in 

 to surrender, and the authorities assigned them 

 to places where they might live. Buluwayo was 

 taken possession of, and soon took on the aspects 

 of a flourishing mining town, in which lots were 

 sold at good prices and hotels and business 

 buildings erected. 



The British Government rejected the plan of 

 creating a Crown colony or placing these regions 

 under the administration of the High Commis- 

 sioner. 



The allotments of land and mining claims 

 were all subject to the approval of the Imperial 

 Government. Sir Henry Loch and Mr. Rhodes 

 came to an agreement on a new settlement super- 

 seding the loose experimental system of govern- 

 ment in Mashonaland and uniting it to Mata- 

 beleland under a more regular administration 

 approximating that of a Crown colony, and 

 therefore forming a fourth type of British colo- 

 nial government. The chief officer is an ad- 

 ministrator appointed for three years by the 

 company with the approval of the Secretary of 

 State and irremovable without the consent of 

 the latter. The administrator, or, in case of his 

 absence, the acting administrator, whose appoint- 

 ment is subject also to the approval of the Co- 

 lonial Secretary, is assisted by a council of 4 

 members, one a judge having jurisdiction in all 

 civil and criminal cases, who shall act as chief 

 executive in case there is no administrator or 

 acting administrator present. The judge is ap- 

 pointed by the company with the approval of 

 the Secretary of State, and can only be removed 

 by the Secretary of State, while the other mem- 

 bers are appointed, and may be removed,, by the 

 company. The rights and laws of the natives 

 are to be preserved and to be dealt with by a 

 land commission composed of the judge and two 

 other members, one appointed by the Secretary 

 of State and one by the company. The deci- 

 sions of the commission are subject to revision 

 by the Colonial Office. Its first task was to al- 

 lot to the natives suitable land sufficient for 

 their grazing and agricultural necessities. In 



