THE Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1900. SOUTH AFRICA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 3559, 13 March 1900, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1900. SOUTH AFRICA.

So much interest centres in South Africa at the present time, and so frequently have persons of more than average intelligence appealed to us for information on the subject, that it has appeared to us that a sketch of its history may be interesting. It must not be understood that we pretend to posses any knowledge beyond what is obtainable from books, neither shall we undertake to write a history of the country; our object is to give an idea of how the country came to be colonised by Europeans, and how those Europeans conquered and reduced to slavery the unfortunate native population, and then quarrelled amongst themselves. Africa has, of course, been known from the earliest times, but the southern portions of it, where war is raging at the present time, remained an unknown land until 1486, when it was discovered by a Portuguese navigator named Bartholomew Diaz, who called what is now known as the Cape of Good Hope the Cape of Storms. It was not, however, colonised until 1652, when the Dutch East Indian Company established a station there under the control of Jan Van Riebeeck. The] country was then inhabited by a people called Quseqme, to whom the Dutch gave the name of Hottentots, or as they used to call themselves Khoi-Khoin, which means “ the men of men.” Even in their barbarous and untutored state they were not free from egotism. They called themselves the “ men of men,” meaning of course thereby that they were the greatest men on earth. It is remarkable that, wherever one turns •

this peculiarity is observable. Men, whether learned or unlearned, civilised or uncivilised, are egotistical. The Chinese and other Orientals regard Europeans as poor, miserable creatures, and their ruling princes take such titles as Ruler of the Universe, and so on. This amiable weakness was apparently a characteristic of the Hottentots also when the Dutch first settled amongst them, but they had many other peculiarities. They were described as small, with a brownish yellow color, and ugly appearance, large mouths prominent cheek-bones, slenderly made, but well proportioned; very active, bold, and courageous. They were mild, peaceable, and very ingenious, and their hospitality was such that they would give food to the stranger and go without it themselves. Such was their weakness in this respect, that it was considered a disgi’ace to eat, drink, or smoke alone. They were also extremely fond of each other, and the young were most devoted to their parents; in fact, they appear to have been about the best savage race ever discovered. But the Dutch settlers were not long there before they commenced to rob them or enslave them. The first step in this direction was made by Van Riebeek purchasing an immense area of country for the sum of £lO. This was sold to him on condition that the Hottentots should bo allowed to reside on it so long as the Europeans did not want it. It was a considerable time afterwards before the Europeans wanted it, and all went well. The object the Dutch Government had in taking possession of the Cape was not to colonise it, but to establish there a sort of a half-way house between the Eastern and Western Worlds, where their ships could call in for water and food, but in the course of time the stream of colonisation commenced to flow in. Dutchmen, Frenchmen, and others flying from European persecution commenced to colonise the Cape ; the land became of use, and the poor Hottentots were pushed inland. The inland inhabitants resisted their encroachments, and most disastrous intertribal wars ensued. There were in the belt between the Europeans on the seaboard, and the others in the inland districts, unfortunate Hot tentots roaming homelessly about, and these were soon practically enslaved. They could not move from one place to another, and if a Hottentot child happened to be born on the estate of a European it could be kept at work there from the age of eight until he was eighteen years. The poor wandering Hottentots were hunted and shot down like wild beasts, and the greatest cruelties practised on them. The Encyclopaedia Brittanica summarises the matter as follows ;—“ Ist, the Dutch, partly by so-called contracts, partly by force, gradually deprived the Hottentots of their country ; 2nd, they reduced to slavery a large part of that unfortunate people whom they did not destroy ; 3rd, they introduced a number of Malays and Negroes as slaves ; 4th, they adopted that narrow and tyrannical system 1 of policy which they adopted in other colonies, prescribing to farmers the nature of the crops they were to grow, demanding from them a large portion of their produce, and harrassing them with other exactions tending to discourage industry and enterprise.” Now the men who had thus enslaved an innocent, harmless, people were Dutch settlers, who had in Europe rebelled against oppresion themselves It is true 1 they were not all Dutch. Every country in Europe had contributed some of its people to the settlement ; but it was a Dutch Crown Colony, governed by the Dutch Government, and slavery in its worst form was a recognised system there. Some restrictions having been placed on tiie rapacity of the European population as regards their treatment of the natives, they broke out in rebellion in 1795. At that time William Prince of Orange was King of England, and he sent an English fleet to seize the country and suppress the rebellion, and it was ruled by British governors until the year 1802. In 1806 England again took possession of it, and in 1815 it was finally ceded to her, and she has kept it ever since. From the beginning the Boer population were rebellions and discontented. They were chiefly made up of persons of low origin and indifferent character, who could brook no constituted authority. Gradually the British Government proceeded to abolish slavery, till in 1834 it was effectually abolished. This so incensed the Boers that many of them sold out their farms, and removed with their families beyond the boundaries of the cclony. Those who sympathise with the Boers ought to remember this. They wanted liberty for themselves, but, like the American poet, they believed that “ Liberty's a kind of thing That don’t agree with niggers.” It was because the British gave liberty to the niggers that the Boers left Cape Colony and settled in Natal, where they proceeded with their process of enslavement. With their subsequent movements we shall deal in a future issue.