Emil Holub

“ In Cape Colony, as I have already said, every man, woman, and child—white and black—takes from you ten pounds’ worth of goods, and gives all the employment to your people implied thereby. In the United States all that each man, woman, and child requires there of your goods is only one pound’s worth per head—a very different thing. The Colonies are your strength. ”

“ John Mackenzie has taught a large number of natives—I believe Khama was one of his pupils—and he has, through his care, elevated the minds of many of the higher class of natives, and induced them to copy the better virtues of the white people. I have no doubt whatever that when this war is over—this war epidemic which has spread like a contagious disease over the fair land of South Africa—that a new spirit will be invoked among the people. ”

“ Not merely does the colonist become the best of all consumers for the productions of the old country, and thereby add to the general wealth and well-being of the population he has left behind him when he has gone abroad, but he becomes to his own particular circle of relatives and friends the helping brother, the helping relative, the helping friend, and his whole connection feels itself rising with his success and his rise. ”

“ But when we talk of explorers going across Africa, it is thousands of miles we are contemplating. And as to any advance from these southern Colonies of ours up to the Zambesi river, there are spaces as large as European kingdoms to pass through that are covered with tribes of savages, not always safe to deal with, to be constantly borne in mind if we would judge rightly of the efforts required to extend commerce or civilisation among the native tribes. ”

“ I believe from what I saw and know at present from the Bechuanas and a native tribe on the Transvaal border, that this will increase from year to year; and what we have to do is to send men amongst those tribes who were peaceful; but some became warlike only because they got into the possession of guns. It needs only to send men among them to teach them the proper way of agriculture, and you would see that those countries which gave us in former times large quantities of ivory, and very little of it at present, would produce a great many articles, and our trade must increase. ”

“ I was astonished, when I met Portuguese traders who came down as far as 150 miles eastward of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, that they came from the lakes, traversing the continent from Loanda, Benguela, and Mosamedes, and appear in the vicinity of Shesheke. Those men know every tribe and river, and the peculiarities of the different tribes, in those tracts so well that they should be able to write a book on those parts. A very lively trade is going on in the interior towards the West coast. ”

“ We are glad to learn on such good authority that many tribes exist in South Africa inclined to settled pursuits of agriculture, and the possibility, with their consent and concurrence, of forming certain stations in their midst that would form points in which in any attempts to push commerce through to the Zambesi there would be means of assistance and information for all who might seek such aid. That is, in effect, what the King of the Belgians is now attempting to do with such munificent spirit in a line across Central Africa ”

“ It is far different with those who go to the United States. Home is not the endearing term in which they speak most frequently of England. What, then, is the conclusion of all this but that English politicians should learn to cherish our Colonial dominions, and to glory in their extension. When they have ceased to grow and extend, death and decay have begun to attack the Empire nearer the heart thereof than in the distant Colonial possessions. We could not long exist without that free and illimitable field for our enterprising population which our Colonial possessions offer. ”

“ My idea is that, as we have to deal with peaceful natives who were peaceful, only a few of them became high spirited since they got guns, but who are obliged now again to take to their old more peaceful habits and become in reality peaceful people, and as thus our way into the interior leads through peaceful people, this is one of the good reasons for opening up Central Africa from the south. If we consider the east coast, our way leads through tribes of whom we do not know how they will behave ”

“ No doubt such drudgery no longer exists in France or elsewhere in Europe in these enlightened days, and we may perhaps hope that the progress of civilisation and of agriculture and commerce may make more rapid strides than heretofore, and have the effect, with the aid of Christianity, of giving women their proper place; and I am sure that the men will never be either Christianised or civilised until this is so. ”

“ Undisputably the access from the south is yet the healthiest way into the heart of Africa. Mashona country, the most fertile part of South Africa, is unhealthy, but the neighbouring Matabele land is very healthy. We can trade and cultivate in the former there for months, and we can live in the latter during the unhealthy season. There are more reasons which make me believe that really the south is the proper way to come into the interior, and not by the other routes. ”

“ In the latest time some measures have been taken by the Governors of the different provinces of South Africa which will influence the trade with those parts to a great extent. It was made a law that no guns, and ammunition should be brought among the natives, and I believe that if this law had been passed ten years ago, or if it had been strictly obeyed during the last eighteen or twenty months, the trade would not have collapsed in such a way as it has. You will find the game very plentiful still in parts where the natives had not any or only a few guns. ”

“ We go also into the interior through our Colonies; the money spent for the great enterprise to open Central Africa benefits your brethren; gentlemen, not so in your trial from the East. Only the chiefs living on the East coast get the benefit (and also along the West coast) , and natives who never have been and never will be so friendly to you like the Bechuanas in Central South Africa. These chiefs on the East coast are at first willing when ivory is plentiful in their lands, and as long as they can buy lots of our goods ”

“ There are many parts of this interior which for twenty or forty miles are nothing but one fertile humus soil, the best soil to be wished for. We tried rice, &c., and we could observe that it would grow in those parts, with the best success; so it needs men to preach among natives how to rear these different articles, rice and cotton, and we should see in a few years the crops we should have, and a large export of those articles towards the South African Colonies and this country. But the law passed that no guns should be brought in, I believe had still more than these material advantages. ”

“ We lost all those among tribes with whom we do trade no more; we have kept Kuruman, Marokwene, Taung, Mamuse, Moshaneng, Kanje, Molopolole, Shoshong, Tati, and Gubuluwajo; we lost Shesheke, Pandama-Tenka—further, the one opposite to Wankes Town, on the Central Zambesi.
Before I say anything about the reasons for the decrease of our trade, it might be of some interest to hear of certain laws which are in force amongst the different tribes, under which the native is allowed to trade with the white man. ”

“ Holub has done in South Africa, and of the good will he has obtained at the hands of the people, both white and native. I know personally that, although a poor man, he has, through his constant perseverance and exertions, gained his valuable information and experience which is now laid before you. I know that frequently while he has been in South Africa he has been obliged to stay at various towns, and practice as a physician, in order to obtain sufficient money to proceed. ”

“ Not forty-five millions sterling only, as by last year’s statistics, but many times that amount, judging by the doings of Cape Colony as an importing country. (Hear, hear.) It is this that makes me and other colonists feel so keenly the deprecatory strain in which some would be leaders of public opinion here speak of our Colonial dominions as possessions the growth of which is rather to be checked than encouraged. They tell you that it is as good to have the United States as our own Colonies to which our superabundant population may swarm off. ”

“ A man marries two or three wives, only for the reason that they should work for him, and he should do nothing. Among the Matabele a woman is not considered as a human being, and she is not allowed to talk in the presence of the men. But among the Marutse a woman is esteemed, and we find that most of the rulers are queens, and not kings. (Hear, hear.) But, with regard to husbandry, which we should introduce to the Bechuanas, this would change the position of the women in this way. The men do not allow the women to touch the ploughs. ”

“ I am old enough to remember the time when, in passing through France, I have seen a woman and a donkey yoked to the plough together which the man was guiding. If this division of labour could exist in a Christian country in the nineteenth century, we must not be too impatient with the Africans. ”

“ Great things are yet to be done in South Africa. Its native populations, although spoken of here as only a race of Savages, have many estimable qualities in their nature. They are in many respects most trustworthy. Their very devotion. to their chiefs, which in past times has given us so much trouble, is but one of the many forms of faithfulness which it is customary to admire; and business men of South Africa will all join with me in testifying to the trustworthiness with which a very useful class of natives—I mean Kafir and Fingo waggoners—carry goods for merchants any distance. ”

“ The best road towards the great central lakes, and that which gives us the best hope of ultimate success in gaining access to the land and the people, for the purposes of commerce and civilisation together throughout the whole of Central Africa, is a problem of great interest and importance. ”

“ Holub has stated that during the last two years, owing to a law having been passed to prevent guns, arms, powder, and ammunition being imported into the interior of South Africa, great benefit has been done to the country and the people. Perhaps, not having resided long in the country, he may not know, too, that there were laws previous to that time prohibiting the natives receiving arms and ammunition. I do not know the laws of Cape Colony, but I give it the credit of having passed a law to prevent the introduction of arms and ammunition ”

“ In other times, as long as the native possessed a gun or the necessary shooting material, he went into the forest and killed elephants, sold one tusk to the trader, and with what he got for one tusk he lived for two or three months and did nothing, his wives planting a little corn, and that was all the work he did. At the present moment, when game is scarce and when he cannot acquire any shooting material, he is obliged to take to agriculture, of which he never thought before. He cannot leave his new customs to imitate the white men, as mentioned. ”

“ Now , if these natives, of whom thousands at the present moment only await the opportunity, were to take to agriculture, we could, I suppose, export in a few years grain, cotton, rice; instead of importing them, and I believe that in another way we would again benefit these Colonies. Besides these, I observe that agriculture exercises a beneficial and great influence upon all the tribes—if we mention only one, it improves the position of the women among those tribes. Among the Bechuanas we find the following. ”

“ Since the death of King Sepopo and since our trade collapsed, the Portuguese are there again very successful. It would be good to give them the advice to take more care of their elephants, that they should not go and extirpate them; that also there they might be tamed—they would prove so very important as carriers in the limits of the tsetse-fly. All this has to be taken in hand as soon as possible. A great deal can be done. I observed alike among the tributary tribes of the Marutse empire that they could cultivate cotton ”

“ In the country of the Matabele (in the third division) all ivory belongs to the king, and no man is allowed to sell or keep a single feather. But the natives are allowed to sell their cattle, rhinoceros horn, skins, carcases, and grain to tradesmen. In the Marutse empire the king buys all the things brought into the country, all the calico, beads, &c.; and, again, he gets all the ivory of his people, and distributes all the calico amongst his people, and lends them the guns which he buys. ”

“ In that way I believe the natives would reap great benefit from the white man, and vice versâ, and I am sure that there are many hundreds of families to be found who like to work—not emigrants or adventurers who only go in to enrich themselves within a few years, and such men are not the proper men to establish small Colonies in these kingdoms, and those colonists would form a kind of chain between our Colonies and the interior of Africa. ”

“ I believe that nothing tends so much to keep our people so contented with their situation as they are as the free field offered to all its adventurous spirits in our wide Colonial dominions. (Hear, hear.) ”

“ You cannot get more guns, but you are anxious to get possession of all the other things of the white man , for which your heart has taken fancy , therefore, you must produce a hundred times more corn and mealies than you do now. I know parts in your countries which are fertile, but which are not considered so. But I will send you ten or twenty white men who will teach you agriculture. ”