90 



CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



acter and ability. When the war had lasted 

 six years, and both sides suffered severely 

 from the losses of property, a peace was con- 

 cluded between Moses and the Free State in 

 1858. The cause of the war remained, and 

 in 1865 the Basutos felt strong enough to 

 attempt another incursion. The Boers mus- 

 tered in force and, driving Moses and his peo- 

 Cinto the mountain stronghold of Thaba 

 igo, laid waste the whole country. Thou- 

 sands of the Basutos perished of hunger. In 

 April, 1866, Moses signed a new treaty of 

 peace which transferred to the Boers a large 

 section of Basutoland. The Basutos, however, 

 remained on the ceded tract, on the pretext of 

 gathering the harvest, until the Boers, perceiv- 

 ing that they intended to break their engage- 

 ment, again took up arms in August, 1867, 

 and would have totally annihilated the Basuto 

 tribe if the Governor of Cape Colony had not 

 interfered. The Boers were informed that the 

 Basutos had been at their request received as 

 British subjects, March 12, 1868. Baffled and 

 indignant, they were obliged to accept the 

 treaty of Aliwal, in February, 1869. This de- 

 prived them of the compensation for their 

 losses and the fruit of their victories, but on 

 the other hand took from the Basutos a strip 

 of land of which they had been in undisputed 

 possession prior to 1865. 



As long as the Governor's agent was the 

 only British authority in the newly annexed 

 Basutoland, all went smoothly. When six 

 magistrates were sent to supplement and re- 

 strain the authority of the six sub-chiefs, signs 

 of dissatisfaction appeared. The discovery of 

 diamonds in the northwest part of the Orange 

 Free State in 1869, and the annexation of this 

 district by Great Britain in November, 1871, 

 gave another turn to the fortunes of the Basu- 

 tos. High prices were paid in Kimberley for 

 all the maize, oats, and barley they could raise, 

 and the young men who went to work by 

 thousands in the diamond-fields returned in 

 a few months with breech-loading rifles and 

 with money in their pockets. Reduced to a 

 mere remnant, impoverished and degraded, the 

 Basutos increased in numbers to nearly 130,- 

 000 in 1875, and in wealth in an astonishing 

 progression, possessing in that year 35,000 

 horses, 217,000 head of cattle, 300,000 sheep, 

 215,000 goats, and paying as much as 16,500 

 in direct and indirect taxes. 



By the action of the Cape Parliament in 

 1871, the annexation of Basutoland was ap- 

 proved ; but upon the adoption of responsible 

 government in the following year the question 

 whether the colony should accept the incor- 

 poration or repudiate the act of the Governor 

 and cut loose from Basntoland was reopened. 

 The colonists were not inclined at first to re- 

 fuse the responsibility, as the Basutos were not 

 only increasing rapidly in wealth, but through 

 the efforts of the French, and now of English 

 missionaries, advanced rapidly in knowledge 

 and refinement. In 1877 the war with the 



Gaikas and Gulaekas of British Kaffraria 

 broke out. The circumstance that a large 

 portion of the hostile Kaffirs were armed with 

 rifles, opened the eyes of the British to the 

 mistake of allowing the sale of fire-arms in 

 Kimberley to colored persons. The Cape colo- 

 nists, remembering that they were surrounded 

 by unfriendly natives, and that the blacks out- 

 numbered them two to one within their own 

 borders, were carried away with the mingled 

 feelings of panic and arrogance which any col- 

 lision with the natives awakens in English 

 settlers. The Cape Parliament passed a law 

 which not only restricted the sale of arms to 

 natives, but required a large portion of them 

 to deliver up the rifles which they already 

 possessed. Soon after the close of the Gaika 

 war the Basutos were commanded to comply 

 with the disarmament. To require these peace- 

 able and faithful subjects to give up for a nom- 

 inal compensation the arms which were their 

 proudest possession, which they had earned 

 with months of toil in the scorching sands of 

 the diamond - diggings, and which they had 

 official permits to purchase and keep, was to 

 them both an injustice and an indignity. Some 

 of them delivered up their fire-arms to the 

 half-dozen officials, for which they were re- 

 warded with the epithet of " loyal," but the 

 great majority paid no attention to the procla- 

 mation, and were dubbed " rebels." Negotia- 

 tions with the recalcitrant Basutos, in part 

 carried on in person by the Prime Minister 

 without result, made their refusal appear in a 

 more serious light, so that the Cape Govern- 

 ment felt driven to compel obedience by mili- 

 tary force. The British Government had taken 

 a stand against lending English troops to fight 

 any more ''little wars" for the colonists in 

 South Africa. The Cape Colonists had an 

 opportunity, therefore, of putting to the trial 

 their new conscription laws. Every citizen 

 between 20 and 45 years of age owes military 

 service, those between 20 and 30 being subject 

 to the first, and the rest to a second levy. The 

 magistrates were directed to select the quotas 

 by lot. The law was very loosely adminis- 

 tered. Many of the substantial citizens were 

 exempted on a specious excuse of corporal dis- 

 ability, and most of those who were drawn 

 sent purchased substitutes. An army of from 

 8,000 to 10,000, lacking training and military 

 experience, and without the first notion of 

 discipline and obedience, was thus collected 

 and sent into Basutoland. The rain fell in- 

 cessantly in the summer season of 1880-'8/l, 

 fuel was not obtainable, and, except raw meat, 

 all food was very scarce. The Basutos har- 

 ried them, but avoided a close engagement. 

 Under the privations and the wearying guard 

 duty the army began to melt away, whole 

 companies deserting and returning to their 

 homes without penalty or disgrace. Despair- 

 ing of chastising the Basutos with such troops, 

 the government, sustained by a growing senti- 

 ment in the country against the disarmament 



