British Abolition of governments, and the Imperial Government only appointing the Viceroys and Governors of the various British colonies, while the Imperial Parliament does not tax them or make any laws for them. Only in British dependencies like India and other quarters of the globe where there are few Englishmen or where the mass of the natives are not educated in democracy is there no self-rule, but the natives have the same civil rights as Englishmen. The first serious trouble between the British and the Boers, or Dutch farmers, of Cape Colony, arose in consequence of the abolition of Slavery. slavery in the British colonies by act of the British Parliament in 1833-the act for which the immortal William Wilberforce had labored for a lifetime and which he saw accomplished but a few months before his death, the same year; and which made Great Britain the first nation in the world to abolish that detestable institution, which she did thirty years before Holland, Russia and the United States abolished slavery within their respective jurisdictions. Dutch The British colonial authorities in every portion of the British EmOpposition to pire at once proceeded to put the abolition act in force. The English Abolition. in Cape Colony said it was their duty as Christians to free every slave they had. The Cape Colony Dutch protested, and sullenly acquiesced after being paid for their slaves. The slaveholders in Cape Colony were these Boers, or Dutch farmers. They complained that the payment they received for the emancipation of their slaves was made in depreciated paper at a large discount, and that they were financially cheated in the transaction. Their dissatisfaction was heightened by the dislocation of industry caused by the compulsory sale of their slave property at a price below the market value, and also by the philanthropic principle of equality involved in the abolition of slavery. They looked upon the blacks as an inferior race, and some of them even argued that negroes are not human beings and have no souls. Great 1836-37. In consequence of their dissatisfaction with the abolition of slavery, Trek of about eight thousand Dutch farmers, or Boers, from Cape Colony, went on what is called the "Great Trek of 1836-37," migrating from the settled portions of Cape Colony northward into the back country of South Africa, then an interior wilderness but little known to the outside world. There the migrating Boers thought they would be free from British rule and that they could hold slaves and do as they pleased generally. But they were warned by the British authorities that, though they could settle where they pleased, if they settled anywhere south of twenty-five degrees south latitude and outside of the Portuguese possessions they would still be British subjects, as Great Britain claimed that, according to international law, her sphere of influence extended over all South Africa as far north as twenty-five degrees south latitude, ex cept the Portuguese territories. Great Britain claimed the interior of South Africa hers in consideration of the large money payment which she had made to Holland therefor at the time when she acquired Cape Colony by conquest, cession and purchase. "Day of Weeping" and Din gaan's Day." The emigrant Dutch farmers first proceeded north beyond the Orange river, and some of them explored the country as far as Delagoa Bay with incredible difficulty. The greater portion of them settled themselves in the uplands of the Orange and Vaal rivers, being involved in bloody conflicts with the Matabele. Others crossed the Drakensberg mountains into the present Natal, where the Zulus under Dingaan exercised a savage tyranny of force. After bloody massacres of Boers. by Zulus and of Zulus by Boers, among which were the famous "Day of Weeping" and the Dutch reprisal known as "Dingaan's Day," this portion of the emigrant Boers settled in Natal, where they founded the short-lived little Dutch Republic of Natalia, on the site of the Republic present city of Pietermaritzburg, now the capital of Natal. Britain refused to recognize the Republic of Natalia, and the Boer leaders there were informed that the would not be allowed to set up an independent government on what was British territory. of Great Natalia. 66 The There was already a British settlement upon the Natal coast. native blacks of Natal were under British protection, and the aggressions of the Boers upon the natives led to conflicts between the Boers and British troops. The Boers were at first successful over the British, but finally were defeated, and direct British sovereignty was extended over Natal in 1843, which then was declared a British colony for the peace, protection and salutary control of all classes of men settled at and surrounding this important portion of South Africa." The frontiers of Natal were established afterward, and in proclaiming them the British authorities stated that Her Majesty Queen Victoria maintained "her rightful and sovereign authority over any of her subjects residing or being beyond the limits of that district." The Boers relinquished the Republic of Natalia, and most of these Natal Boers retired across the mountains to join their fellow Boers on the plains of the recent Orange Free State. The few Boers who remained in Natal were the ancestors of the present Dutch inhabitants of that British colony. Treaties. In the same year, 1843, a series of treaties, known as the "Napier Napier Treaties," established a chain of negro states under British protection, extending from what is now Pondoland, on the frontiers of Natal, across the mountains and along the course of the Orange river to the region around the present city of Kimberley. The only one of these protected native states still existing in its original form is Basutoland. Thus the Boers, who all the time were within the sphere of British in Orange River Sover fluence, were isolated from the British colonies on the coast by a barrier in the form of a chain of negro states under British protection. In consequence of Kaffir wars upon the frontier of Cape Colony, Sir Harry Smith, the next Governor of that colony, adopted a policy of eignty. controlling the natives and extending direct British sovereignty over the new Boer settlements. The treaties between the British and the blacks were modified in 1847; and on February 3, 1848, a proclamation was issued annexing to Cape Colony the region between the Orange and Vaal rivers under the name of the Orange River Sovereignty. Harrismith and Ladysmith. Boer Revolt and Battle of Boomplatz. Boer Trek to the Transvaal. Orange River Settlement. Hostility and Isolation of the Transvaal Boers. The present town of Harrismith, in the Orange River Free State, was named in honor of Governor Sir Harry Smith; and Ladysmith, in Natal, which bore such a conspicuous part in the war of 1899, was named in honor of his wife. By the time just alluded to, 1848, the friction between the emigrant Dutch farmers and the British authorities had become well-nigh irreconcilable. A party of the emigrant Dutch farmers had elected Andries Pretorius to be their commandant, and took up arms to establish an independent republic for themselves. The British defeated the Boers in the battle of Boomplatz, August 29, 1848. That portion of the Boer population which was opposed to British rule then migrated northward across the Vaal river, under the leadership of Pretorius, after whom the present city of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, was named. These Boers, in their new homes beyond the Vaal, were warned that they still were within the sphere of British influence, and that, though they were free to settle there, if they did settle there they were still British subjects. Those emigrant Dutch farmers who remained in the region between the Orange and Vaal rivers, with the addition of other Dutch emigrants from Cape Colony, were the ancestors of the present Dutch population of the Orange River Free State. These Dutch inhabitants, like those of Natal, were disposed to live quietly under British rule, all the irreconcilable Boers having migrated to the region north of the Vaal river. The Boers beyond the Vaal were as bitterly hostile to their fellowcountrymen who remained in Cape Colony, in Natal and in the Orange river district as they were to the British authorities. As a result of that state of feeling, there was very little intercourse between the Boers north and those south of the Vaal. The Dutch north of the Vaal, or the Transvaal Boers, have been to a great degree differentiated from the remaining Dutch population of South Africa from the beginning; and the history of the Transvaal forms a separate chapter as it were. The turbulent and lawless nature of the Transvaal population characterized the new settlement for a long time, and the Transvaal Boers were continually at war with the native blacks, with their fellow-countrymen in the Orange river district or among themselves. Sand River Conven Transvaal The constant wars which the British were obliged to wage to subdue the native black tribes, such as the Hottentots, the Tembus, the Kosas, the Basutos, the Kaffirs, the Zulus, the Bechuanas, the Swazis, tion and the Matabele and others, had been very expensive and had made the whole policy of enlarging the British dominion unpopular in Great Republic. Britain, where the "Little Englanders" were making their power and influence felt at that time. This state of public feeling in Great Britain caused Sir Harry Smith, the Governor of Cape Colony, to grant the request of the Transvaal Boers, who asked for independence and for a treaty of friendship with Great Britain, so that their old differences and animosities might be forgotten. Accordingly, in January, 1852, the British and Transvaal commissioners met on the banks of the Sand River, within the northern limits of the Orange river district; and the negotiations ended with the signing of the famous Sand River Convention, January 17, 1852. The principal terms of this treaty were that Great Britain agreed to acknowledge the independence of the Boers north of the Vaal, although they were within the sphere of British influence, on condition that they would prohibit slavery within their borders, while traders and missionaries were to be allowed to prosecute their business on both sides of the Vaal river. This was the founding of the first Transvaal Republic, and was a free gift on the part of Great Britain, as she generously gave the Transvaal Boers their independence without charging them any money for the territory which she thus gave them and for which she had paid millions of dollars to Holland. The Filipinos lately offered to pay to the United States the twenty million dollars which the United States paid to Spain for the islands if the United States would grant their independence; but the Transvaal Boers offered and gave nothing, and were not asked to give anything, for territory to which Great Britain had the same right under international law by conquest and purchase as the United States now have to the Philippines. With the exception of the generous and unselfish action of France in aiding the United States to gain her independence without asking or receiving any money or other compensation therefor, the conduct of Great Britain in voluntarily and without compulsion granting the Transvaal its independence in 1852 was one of the most generous and kind acts ever done by a great nation to a small one. The same cause which led to the recognition of the Transvaal Republic-the opposition of public sentiment in Great Britain to any British Gener osity. Bloemfontein Conven tion and Orange Free State. Strange Spectacle. Condi tions of Independ ence. further extension of the British Empire-also led to the relinquishment of British sovereignty over the territory between the Vaal and Orange rivers, although within the sphere of British influence. This was done on the initiative of the British government, and in the face of strong opposition from the Dutch inhabitants of that region, as expressed through an assembly of delegates at Bloemfontein. The objections of the Dutch population to independence were finally overcome, but only after a widely-supported protest of a most vigorous character. Many of the Dutch inhabitants declared their intention of nailing the British flag half-mast and of appealing to arms against independence and in favor of the continuance of British rule until the British Parliament reconsidered the question. But in spite of this strong expression of Dutch sentiment in favor of remaining under British rule, a royal proclamation renounced British dominion and sovereignty over the Boers occupying the territory between the Orange and Vaal rivers, January 30, 1854. Thus was founded the Orange Free State, and thus was presented the strange spectacle of a people subject to a great power bitterly opposing and resisting the grant of independence, and the great power which had held sway over those resisting people compelling them to accept independence against their own will. This was a spectacle without a parallel in history. Thus, by the Sand River Convention of 1852 and by the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854, the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State were brought into existence by the free action of Great Britain, which voluntarily granted the independence of these two little Dutch republics within the recognized sphere of British influence in South Africa. These two little communities did not win their independence by force of arms, but as an act of grace by the free gift of Great Britain, and that was their only charter of existence. But their independence was granted to them upon the conditions that they should prohibit negro slavery and give equal rights to all white men throughout their respective territories. The Orange Free State faithfully observed the conditions upon which its independence was established, and has lived upon terms of peace and friendship with Great Britain up to the recent war, while many Englishmen held important offices in the republic, and many of the towns within the republic's limits were thoroughly English, such as Harrismith and others. The late President Sir John Brand exerted himself to his utmost to preserve this amicable feeling between Great Britain and the Orange Free State; but the recent President Steyn had been a mere cat's paw for President Krüger, of the Transvaal, and had labored to undo the proBritish policy of the late President Brand by uniting with the Trans |