THE BOER STATES: LAND AND PEOPLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2412, 24 May 1900, Page 65

THE BOER STATES : LAND AND PEOPLE.

By A. H. Keane.

Methuen and Co., London (price 6s).

" (Reviewed by Dixobnis.)

In its preface, we are informed that — " This volume is not meant to be a fugitive piece, to catch the passing airs, like certain ' vers d'occasion.' Written in the interests neither of Boer nor Briton, it aims at presenting a permanent record, such as may be consulted with confidence, of the more salient aspects of the land and people. To do this effectively, it was necessary to begin at the beginning, and also to taka the ethical factor into account. It so happens that the Boers really have a racial beginning; they are made up of old elements moulded apart in a new environment, out of which tliey have been evolved by now -well-understood continuou& adaptive processes." Accoidingly, its author goes into the whole subject of South African troubles in a most thorough manner; his book being, in iact, a history in briei not only of colonisation' and warfare at the Cape, but also of the anthropology, etc., of Southern Africa. The author having long since won his spurs as an authority oi the first order upon Airicaii" affairs, iv is almost superfluous to say thrt no event ox importance in Cape Colony development will" be found amissing from the' pages of this terse and yet ■.exhaustive history in little. In regard to the polit.cal aspect^ot ihe present unhappy episode, .Mr Kcane's opinion is distinctly "against Boer pretensions ; yet he lays his ringer with decision upon that spot and this, to emphasise the ungetoverable fact that the Home Government has often been altogether weak and wrong-headed in regaid to the conduct of its affairs* in South A.rk-a.

It is not easy to get rid oi the idea that the Boers are practically Dutchmen slightly veneered ; but from tiu passage quoted above, h. will be seen that the present author hi of a quite different opinion. Practised anthropologist as he is he reminds us thaw they are " the outcome of a blend of clivers old elements of Caucasian stock transierred froja Europe to South Africa during the second hall of the seventeenth century, and then modified under the iuiluenee's of a changed environment. Li the study oi the physical and mental characters of such s people, the iirsl considerations iraist therefore bs ihs origin of the old elements, and especially the proportion in which thsv are fesed in one.

" All at present speak the Taal, a local variety of the Butch language ; and it might therefore be inferred that i>ll are of Dutch descent. But here, as in so many other cases, language fails somewhat as a racial test. The inierence is tiue enoughso far as regards the larger portion of the ingredients, who were beyond all question natives of Holland. But there were others, and those important, about whom the Taal now tells us nothing ; nor does it throw any light upon another not unimportant matter — the social classes from which the Dutch conur.gent itself was drawn.

" Fortunately, nearly all these points can be settled on historic evidence, and an appeal to authentic records shows plainly enough- — (1) That the great majority of die first arrivals were drawn from the lower grades of Dutch society, with whom were associated a large number of the riff-rail -rom every part of Western Europe, attracted to the colony by agents and others known as 'kidnappers' — soldiers, pea-faring folk, ne'er-do-wells, adventurers, and others greatly predominating ; (2) that these were joined la L er by Dutch immigrants of a better class, and, after the revocation of the Edict of Mantes (1685), leavened by a considerable body of Huguenots representing all classes of French society — hence, although numerically inferior, greatly superior to the Dutch in most respects ; (3) that the third ingredient was made up mainly of Germans,, chiefly adventurers, soldiers, * and peasants, from ' Hesse, Kwabia, and other rural distiicts, arriving in Email bodies at various times.'' It is interesting to note that Hes ond Swaab ind : ffarently, dolt, and blockhead are trsed as "terms of contempt by the "slim" burghers at the present day. Very sickening to read about are indubitobly veracious accounts quoted from Livingstone, Sir H. Ii John.-ton. and others^ of the manner in which the Boers used to proceed against their coloured neighbours. It seems almost incredible, yefc cannot be doubted, thai: those who proud ry called themselves "Christians"' sallied" out in hordes to shoot down the men and women of the native villages and capture their little ones as young as possible, &o thai they might forget their murdered parents, and their native language, and thus make more apt apprentices (slaves) lor the farmers.

Others we may doubt when they tell such awful tales, but not Livingstone, who himself was hard to convince of the truth of them until he had to suffer the misery of seeing for himself how such crimes were done by men who " by some wonderful mental process had convinced themselves that

they wei'e God's chosen people," and that the blacks were " the wicked and condemned Canaa,nites, over whose heads th« Divine anger lowers continually." and who were " shot down like vermin whenever occasion sei ved. In oae well authenticated instance " a number of native* children, who were too young to be resnoved, had been collected in a heap, covered with long giw=, and burned alive. Other atrocities hrd been committed, but these were too horrible to relate." Verily, if such doings are the outcome of too literal interpretation of Old Testament ethic, the higher critics are really engaged upon a great work.

.The tardily-arrived-at decision* (1652) of the Dutch East India Company to establish a victualling station for then- ships at the Cape was the remote cause of origin of the present-time burghers. Not that colonibts were encouraged — they were not even permitted — all except the company's servants, were " warned oil the premises ; and severe measures* were taken Jo prevent any outside intercourse with the

surrounding Hottentot tribss, who were to be treated with all kindness and a degree of consideration which would now be called , timidity."' Quite an opposite state of matj ters to what obtained in later days. The - soldiers and sailors who, with a few craftsi men, and gardeners to grow vegetables for ■ the passing vessels, peopled the station i were treated with excessive rigour, and the ' case is mentioned of " one poor wretch ! sentenced to 100 blows with the butt end

of a musket for presuming to ask for more or better rations than the penguin served ! out in&tead of pork ! *' A spirit of discontent and friciion had become chronic be- , two en the administration and the settlers ' by tho time th?t enlargement of the settlei nient had become an imperative necessity, j " The policy then adopted was, not to in; . trodnce strangers from Europe, but to rei lease a numbsi of the company's people \ from service, and transform them to free burgbers, on the condition of settling down ' and cultivating the tends plloLted to them in the vicinity. For thisjjiey were- to receive payment in proportion to the work done, and they would thus, in a sense, continue in the employment of the company ss their sole customers for the produce of Lhcir farms. These ' free burghers ' are therefore to be regarded as the first colonists in South A/rica. in the strict sense of the term ; they were the nucleus of the Boer race." These unlikely agriculturalists had nothing of their own "save grit, and of that they had plenty. The company supplied them with ff>rm implements, cattle, seed, and oven food and firearms. They were to pay in kind for all they got, and in thrse years were to receive the freehold of ail the ]:ir>il they had brought under cultivation. Such provisions were " well calculated

to ctimulate iudusLrv and to develop that spirit of personal independence which is one ol the most characteristic traits of the Bosr temperament." The company also hired out labour to the burghers in the foim of negro (slaves brought from Angola, on the west, and Mosambiqi!?. on the easL coast. Laier

on thejc slaves became the personal property of tlioir hirer.*, who soon learned to dispise manual labour as fit only Tor menial«!. Leit to itself Boer cocieiy promlf-cd then to develop into an Aforahaimc-like form of east evn p^rbroha'iHn. Fov tk\ however, the dzx was late, and (he burghers had only indulged in the doubtful limuy of black slavery lone; enough to be contaminated by it, when they were called uppii to give it up, for the Eriton was upon ihein, and the Act of Abolition proved to be the levei- which was to plnrt th-; movement kuown as .the "Great Trek." It is worthy of note that, whereas at fiist some efforts were made to in&tx-uct slaves in the doctrines, of Christianity, this practice was soon abandoned when it was found that, according to law. no bupti?sd person could be a -slave, or held permanently in bondage, i One result 1 of early slave-holding soon showed itself in the form of a crop of halfbreeds, the name Afrikander (now owning a totally different meaning) having been coined in these early clays to designate such as showed traces of the '" tar brush." or native blood. Mr Keane is of the opinion that wL-ile the strain of black blood has been well-nigh obliterated by repeated crossings of the European race constituents, it is a still recognisable element in the Boer of to-day. Passages descriptive of the native races, the animal life, etc.. of the Boer Siatss ara most interesting and informative, re?lly difficult and often misiindersloocl subjects being handled with ease born o c long; pcquainta'ieeship. To speak merely of its coloured population. South Africa is the home of many races and varieties, the highest of which are by no means despicable. Professor "Bryoe. a grait authcritv. is quoted as even applying tLe term " great " to such men as the Zulu king, Chaka , " a warrior comparable to jS T apoleon himself ; to the renowned B.i.suto, Mo&he&b. who Kuece?sfull.y defied the Boer,« in his mountain fastnesses ; oncl to the Beclruana king, Kh^ina, who administers an extensive territory with great wisdom, and controls his formerly lawless Bamcaigwato subjects with a visouj 1 , combined with kindness, which ! would do credit to any European ruler. Three such men are sufficient to pliow the j capacity of the race for occasionally reach- , ing a standard which white mcD must respect." There are great possibilities for a people like tliis Zulu race, but unhappily the evils which commonly crop up where the white man meets the black one are fully present in Africa, and getting well in hard with their ill work. : The history of the " Great Trek," and its i couseauences, so far as I know, has never I been bstter or mere concisely told than 'in "The Boer Slates: Land and People."' The recent developments ore, perhaps, scarcely to be discussed without bias at •I he piesent moment, but Mr Keanc's closing " Summary of Boer Rights and Wrongs" ought to prove a great, aid to outside readers. His statement of things is firstrate in kind, and ho shows overwhelming reasons for sympathy with the ideal of : British supremacy foi the sake of its con- \ sequences in South Africa. To those who. ! like myself, loo^ the time when that I part of the Dark Continent will have be- : come a great, united dominion, owning Brit ish institutions and under the sway of a I free and progressive people. I heartily re!~commend, not perusal merely, but possession, of this, fair-minded and s-oholarly bock.

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