George McCall Theal

“ To all the tribes in Natal, and particularly to those in Nomansland where the conflicting elements were more numerous than elsewhere, the fate of the rebels was a lesson that the Europeans were strong enough to enforce order. The clans, though weary of their perpetual feuds, would certainly not have submitted to the white man's rule for any cause except that of respect for power. ”

“ We flatter ourselves by speaking of our greater wisdom, clemency, sense of justice, &c., but there are few Bantu who respect us for any other quality than our superior strength.
After the reception of Umhlonhlo and Umditshwa as British subjects in 1873, Mr. Orpen took up his residence at Tsolo in the Pondomsi district, his object being to establish the authority of the Cape government there in something more than name. He found the chiefs Umhlonhlo and Umditshwa altogether opposed to any interference with their people. ”

“ On the 30th of June in this year the governor in his prorogation speech announced that her Majesty's con- currence in the annexation of Nomansland had already been officially notified to him. In June 1876 letters patent were issued at Westminster, empowering the governor to proclaim the territory annexed to the Cape Colony, after the legislature had passed the requisite act. In 1877 an annexation act was passed by the Cape parliament, and on the 17th of September 1879 the measure was completed by the issue of the governor's proclamation, to have force from the first of the following month. ”

“ The Tembus proposed that Gangelizwe and fourteen heads of clans, who were named, should be recognised by the colonial government as chiefs, and that salaries, the amoimts of which were mentioned, should be paid to them; that hut tax shoald not be payable until 1878; that the boundaries of the country should remain as previously fixed ; that the chiefs should retain judicial authority over their people, except in cases of certain specified crimes, and subject to appeal to magistrates; that the government of the mission stations should not be interfered with ”

“ Donald Strachan, who had been a magistrate under Adam Kok, and Mr. G. C. Brisley, secretary of the Griqua government, arrived in Capetown as representatives of the Griqua chief and people, and concluded the arrangements. Kok was to retain his title of chief, be paid a salary of £700 per annum, and have joint authority with a commissioner who should correspond directly with the secretary for native affairs. ”

“ Upon his arrival in the territory, he found that war was being carried on by the Pondo chief Ndamasi against the Pondomsis under Umhlonhlo, and that the rival sections of the Pondomsis were as usual fighting with each other. The Pondos were gaining an ascendency over their divided opponents, and there seemed a likelihood that they would be able to crush them at no distant date. Mr. Orpen immediately organised the Hlubi, Batlokua, and Basuto clans under him into a military force, and called upon Adam Kok, the chief of the Griquas, for assistance. ”

“ They had become well acquainted with white people since the dispersion of 1857, and did not hate them as bitterly as before, still there was little love lost on either side. The death of Makoma on Robben Island on the 9th of September 1873 was an event that had caused much ill feeling, for he, the hero of the Xosas, had died in banishment, without a relative or a friend near him, with no one to give him the burial that became a chief of high rank and distinguished valour. ”

“ On the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony in 1876 there was a deep feeling of unrest, owing to the pre- valence of cattle thefts on an alarming scale by the Xosas and the insecurity of the farmers. At one time there was almost a panic, for the robbers had become so daring that a general collision was apprehended. ”

“ Mission work was effecting changes with a small section of the Xosas, and other agencies were operating in bringing them more into line with European habits, but the great majority still clung to the ideals and customs of their ancestors. If they had adopted the use of iron pots, of blankets, or even the clothing of the white people, and frequently of ploughs, that did not indicate a change of much value. They all desired to have guns, but every savage does that. ”

“ Since 1857 there had been nothing to check the amazing natural increase of the Xosas, and they were now pushing their way into localities previously occupied by Europeans. The law gave them a great advantage. A European could not purchase or hire land occupied by them on communal tenure, or even the grants made to individuals by Sir George Grey in the district of King-Williamstown, [1] the title-deeds of which contained a clause that they could not be transferred except to other Bantu without the consent of the government. ”

“ These people were then so entirely at the mercy of more powerful neighbours that they expressed satisfaction with the appointment of a magistrate to exercise jurisdiction over them, because it implied their protection. Mr. Orpen was also appointed British resident for the whole of the territory then termed Nomansland, now Griqualand East. ”

“ It was soon discovered that the power of Gangelizwe could not easily be set aside. The European govern- ment, the magistrates, and some of the alien clans mi<^ht ignore him, but the clans of pure Tembu blood would not. All their national traditions, their ideas of patriotism, their feelings of pride, prompted them to be loyal to him. Stronger still than any of these motives was their religion. The belief of the Bantu is firm that the spirits of the dead chiefs hold the destinies of the tribes in their keeping. ”

“ In the third, Umtata, the seat of magistracy quickly became the most important town in the whole territory between the Kei and Natal. Major J. F. Boyes assumed duty there as magistrate in April 1876. The fourth district, Mqanduli, bordered on the coast. In August 1876 the reverend John H. Scott, previously a Wesleyan missionary, was stationed there as magistrate. The few European farmers in the territory remained on the same conditions as before, except that they were required to pay the annual rent to the Cape government instead of to Gangelizwe. ”

“ The Xosas in fact were an intensely conservative people, and just because they were, when any of them did make a change it was likely to be lasting. In course of time they would probably take a place among the most advanced coloured people in the world, but in 1876 that time was not yet in sight. ”

“ Nqamakvve was not provided with a magistrate at this time. In February 1878 Mr. T. K. Merriman was appointed magistrate of Idutywa. In 1875 the Tembu tribe was brought into a condition of great difficulty by the conduct of its chief. Among his concubines there was a Galeka woman, an illegitimate niece of Kreli, who had accompanied the great wife as an attendant when she went to Tembuland, and re- mained there ever since. Gangelizwe in a fit of passion inflicted very severe injuries upon this woman, and two days later ordered a young man named Ndevu to break her skull with a kerie. ”

“ To renounce allegiance to the chief, the descendant and representative of those to whose spirits they offer sacrifices and whose wrath they dread as the greatest calamity that can overtake them, is in the Bantu way of thinking the most enormous of crimes. The magistrates encountered such difficulties in governing the people, owing to their sullen demeanour and continual complaints of the degradation to which their tS?? ”

“ He soon found that more serious danger was to be apprehended from the designs of Nehemiah Moshesh. That individual in 1875 had the assurance to bring his pretensions to the ownership of Matatiele by petition before the colonial parliament, and one of the objects of a commission appointed in that year was to investigate his claim. The commission consisted of Messrs. C. D. Griffith, governor's agent in Basutoland, S. A. Probart, member of the house of assembly, and T. A. Cumming, acting commissioner with Adam Kok. ”

“ Orpen enrolled a band of Batlokua and Basuto, and when it was ascertained that the rebels had gone to Basutoland, he actually went across the Drakensberg to assist the colonial forces against them with two hundred and thirty-five picked men under Lehana and Lebenya. ”

“ Within the next four days fifty-three more insurgents were apprehended and com- mitted to prison, and the insurrection was entirely quelled. The districts of Umzimkulu, Kokstad, Matatiele, and Mount Frere remained under Captain Blyth's jurisdiction as chief magistrate until September 1878, when he returned to his former post in the Transkei, to which Galekaland was then added. Mr. Strachan continued to be magistrate at Umzimkulu, and Mr. Garner at Mount Frere. Mr. G. P. Stafford was stationed by Captain Blyth at Matatiele, and performed the duty of magistrate until August 1876, when Mr. ”