The Great Boer War | Page 8

would not pay taxes and the treasury was empty. One fierce Kaffir tribe
threatened them from the north, and the Zulus on the east. It is an
exaggeration of English partisans to pretend that our intervention saved
the Boers, for no one can read their military history without seeing that
they were a match for Zulus and Sekukuni combined. But certainly a
formidable invasion was pending, and the scattered farmhouses were as
open to the Kaffirs as our farmers' homesteads were in the American
colonies when the Indians were on the warpath. Sir Theophilus
Shepstone, the British Commissioner, after an inquiry of three months,
solved all questions by the formal annexation of the country. The fact
that he took possession of it with a force of some twenty-five men
showed the honesty of his belief that no armed resistance was to be
feared. This, then, in 1877 was a complete reversal of the Sand River
Convention and the opening of a new chapter in the history of South
Africa.
There did not appear to be any strong feeling at the time against the
annexation. The people were depressed with their troubles and weary of
contention. Burgers, the President, put in a formal protest, and took up
his abode in Cape Colony, where he had a pension from the British

Government. A memorial against the measure received the signatures
of a majority of the Boer inhabitants, but there was a fair minority who
took the other view. Kruger himself accepted a paid office under
Government. There was every sign that the people, if judiciously
handled, would settle down under the British flag. It is even asserted
that they would themselves have petitioned for annexation had it been
longer withheld. With immediate constitutional government it is
possible that even the most recalcitrant of them might have been
induced to lodge their protests in the ballot boxes rather than in the
bodies of our soldiers.
But the empire has always had poor luck in South Africa, and never
worse than on that occasion. Through no bad faith, but simply through
preoccupation and delay, the promises made were not instantly fulfilled.
Simple primitive men do not understand the ways of our
circumlocution offices, and they ascribe to duplicity what is really red
tape and stupidity. If the Transvaalers had waited they would have had
their Volksraad and all that they wanted. But the British Government
had some other local matters to set right, the rooting out of Sekukuni
and the breaking of the Zulus, before they would fulfill their pledges.
The delay was keenly resented. And we were unfortunate in our choice
of Governor. The burghers are a homely folk, and they like an
occasional cup of coffee with the anxious man who tries to rule them.
The three hundred pounds a year of coffee money allowed by the
Transvaal to its President is by no means a mere form. A wise
administrator would fall into the sociable and democratic habits of the
people. Sir Theophilus Shepstone did so. Sir Owen Lanyon did not.
There was no Volksraad and no coffee, and the popular discontent grew
rapidly. In three years the British had broken up the two savage hordes
which had been threatening the land. The finances, too, had been
restored. The reasons which had made so many favour the annexation
were weakened by the very power which had every interest in
preserving them.
It cannot be too often pointed out that in this annexation, the
starting-point of our troubles, Great Britain, however mistaken she may
have been, had no obvious selfish interest in view. There were no Rand

mines in those days, nor was there anything in the country to tempt the
most covetous. An empty treasury and two native wars were the
reversion which we took over. It was honestly considered that the
country was in too distracted a state to govern itself, and had, by its
weakness, become a scandal and a danger to its neighbours. There was
nothing sordid in our action, though it may have been both injudicious
and high-handed.
In December 1880 the Boers rose. Every farmhouse sent out its
riflemen, and the trysting-place was the outside of the nearest British
fort. All through the country small detachments were surrounded and
besieged by the farmers. Standerton, Pretoria, Potchefstroom,
Lydenburg, Wakkerstroom, Rustenberg, and Marabastad were all
invested and all held out until the end of the war. In the open country
we were less fortunate. At Bronkhorst Spruit a small British force was
taken by surprise and shot down without harm to their antagonists. The
surgeon who treated them has left it on record that the average number
of wounds was five per man. At Laing's Nek an inferior force of British
endeavoured to rush a hill which was held by