vaal President and the Afrikander Bond to drive the British out of South Africa. SECTION II.-THE FIRST TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC (A. D. 1852-1877). 66 As has been remarked, the Orange Free State observed the terms of the treaty establishing its independence. The Transvaal Republic, however, evaded the provision for the prohibition of slavery by practically reëstablishing the system of slaveholding under the name арprentices" from the very first. first. These " These "apprentices" were negroes whom the Boers took prisoners in their constant wars with the various negro tribes around them. These "apprentices" were legally bound to work without pay and were prohibited from changing their masters without permission. This system became law by the Apprentices' Act of 1856. 66 Negro Slavery in the Transvaal. State ment. Twenty years later, 1876, in asking for British protection against Khama's the Boers, Khama, the native Christian chieftain of Bechuanaland, thus spoke concerning the workings of this Apprentices' Act: The Boers are coming into my country, and I do not like them. Their actions are cruel amongst us black people. We are like money. They sell us and our children. The custom of the Boers has always been to cause people to be sold, and to-day they are still selling people. Last year I saw them pass with two wagons full of people whom they had bought at the river at Tanane." 99 Dutch and German mony. There is other testimony concerning slavery among the Boers. A clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, in a book published at Utrecht, in Holland, in 1869, described the Transvaal "apprentice Testisystem as being "slavery in the fullest sense of the word." A German missionary who had been invited by President Burgers, of the Transvaal, to report in 1875, thus spoke of the "apprentice" system: “And if I am now asked to say conscientiously whether such slavery has existed since 1852 and been recognized and permitted by the government, I must answer in the affirmative." The testimony of Dr. David Livingstone, the celebrated Scotch missionary and African explorer, on this point is well known and often alluded to, and is as follows: "The Boers steal domestic servants from the more hostile tribes in the most cowardly, cold-blooded way imaginable. When the tribe to be attacked is reached, the natives or foot are forced in front of the horsemen to form, as they say, a 'shield.' The Boers then coolly fire over their heads till the devoted people flee, and leave cattle, wives and children to the captors. Dr. Living stone's Testi mony. Boer Boasts. Action of Pretorius. to aries. This was done in nine cases during my residence, and on no occasion was a drop of Boer's blood shed. * * * It is difficult for a person to conceive that any body of men possessing the common attributes of humanity should, with one accord, set out on such an expedition. *** It was long before I could give credit to the tales of bloodshed told by native witnesses; *** but when I found the Boers themselves *** glorying in the bloody scenes in which they had been themselves the actors I was compelled to admit the validity of the testimony and try to account for the cruel anomaly." The Boers themselves often boasted of their massacres of negroes during their slave raids, often claiming to have killed a thousand negroes while they themselves did not lose a man. Pretorius, the son of the Boer leader who had led his people into the Transvaal, issued a proclamation in 1859, seven years after the negotiation of the Sand River Convention, in which he called the attention of the local magistrates to the provision of the convention for the prohibition of slavery, and asked them to take measures to enforce its observance. Boer The Sand River Convention guaranteed the rights of missionaries Hostility and traders in the Transvaal. But the Boers attacked and plundered Mission- Dr. Livingstone's mission station, and he escaped with his life only by a fortunate accident. They broke up five other mission stations in the same way. They hated the missionaries for preaching the doctrine of human equality and denouncing the wrong of slavery. The missionaries were constant witnesses of the capture of negro children by Boer raiders, and they angered the Boers by their protests against these detestable outrages. Boer The Boers fined traders for publishing descriptions of trade routes. Hostility to For- They passed a law to prevent Englishmen and Germans from owneigners. ing land in the Transvaal. For twelve years after the signing of the Sand River Convention the Boer leaders declared it to be their policy to shut themselves out from all relations with the outside world and to isolate themselves from all intercourse with the civilized nations. For a long time they opposed the introduction of railways because railways are not mentioned in the Bible. Boer Characteristics. The Boers lived in very primitive, simple style, as their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers had lived before them, and opposed such amusements as balls and theaters as very sinful. They had great contempt for wealth as represented by gold, silver, diamonds, etc., but great fondness for wealth as represented by their immense farms of thousands of acres each and by their herds of horses, cattle, swine and sheep. Their sparse population and their extensive country often made a Boer's nearest neighbor ten miles distant from his home. They were very proud of their ancestry and of the history of their race in its European home. They were very religious and had great reverence for the warlike portions of the Old Testament, and in justification of their treatment of the heathen blacks around them they cited as precedents the treatment of the ancient heathen nations of Palestine by Jehovah's chosen race, the Hebrews. Having no schools, few Boers could read or write. Civil Wars and At the time of the conclusion of the Sand River Convention the Transvaal Boers were unable to agree upon a leader, and rival factions disputed with each other about political ascendancy. As a re- Anarchy. sult of these dissensions, in the very first year of Transvaal independence, 1852, the Republic was split up into four separate miniature republics-Potchefstroom, Zoutpansberg, Lydenburg and Utrechtwhich were independent of each other, but sought to establish common laws by the election of one Volksraad, as their legislative assembly is called. This result failed, and anarchy distracted the Transvaal for the first eight years of its independence, 1852-1860. During this period the Transvaal Boers carried on wars against the Orange Free State, as well as engaging in civil wars among themselves and in slave-raiding wars with the negro tribes around them; and Paul Krüger commanded a Transvaal force sent against the Orange Free State. In 1860 the four Boer republics of the Transvaal agreed to unite under one President; but civil war soon again broke out, which lasted until 1864, when the Transvaal was finally reunited under Marthinus Wessels Pretorius as President, Paul Krüger becoming the Commandant-General. Thus closed the first twelve years of Transvaal independence, 1852-1864-a period of anarchy, civil wars and wars with the Orange Free State. The Vierkleur, or four-colored Transvaal flag, is a reminiscence of the period during which the four petty republics of the dismembered Transvaal existed. When the Boers entered the Transvaal they drove the Matabele northward and seized their country, and the smaller negro tribes ventured from their hiding places in the hills and caves, apparently submitting to the emigrant Dutch farmers. But during the twelve years of anarchy, civil wars and wars with the Orange Free State, from 1852 to 1864, the black tribes, encouraged by these quarrels of the Boers among themselves and aroused to desperation by the cruel treatment which the Boers had inflicted upon them, gave the Boers very much trouble and took a bloody revenge for the enslavement and massacre of their people by the slave-raiding Boers. A powerful negro tribe inhabiting the mountains to the north of the Transvaal was the first to take the field against the Boers, and for The Trans vaal's Civil and Renewed Civil War and Anarchy. Wars with Negro Tribes. Wars with Negro Tribes. Renewed four years this tribe withstood all the Boer forces which CommandantGeneral Paul Krüger led against it. The Boers were obliged to abandon the district of Zoutpansberg, and an unsatisfactory peace was concluded in 1868. The Boers then became involved in hostilities with the Baralongs, on the western frontier of the Transvaal. Troubles of President The last years of the administration of President Marthinus Wessels Pretorius were full of trouble for the Transvaal Republic, which Pretorius. was then well-nigh destitute of funds. The continual wars with the native negro tribes, the wars with the Orange Free State and the civil wars among themselves prevented the Transvaal Boers from establishing any practical system of taxation. The Boer population was exhausted by chronic war. The Trans vaal's ties. Thus far in the history of the Transvaal there was no development of civilization in the Republic. Lack of revenue had prevented the Difficul- creation of the ordinary machinery of life. The salaries of officials were usually not paid. There were few roads, no bridges, no telegraphs, no public buildings, no schools in the country. Commerce was conducted by means of barter; and taxes were not collected, as the Boers would not pay taxes while their leaders quarreled among themselves, and the authorities were unable to enforce payment. British Arbitra tion. Enlightened Adminis President In 1871 President Pretorius, unable to overcome his troubles, agreed to submit the western Transvaal frontier question to British arbitration, and accepted the award made by Governor Keate, of Natal, giving the native negro tribes independence of Transvaal rule and also possession of the disputed territory, and deciding against the Transvaal's claim to an important district in the vicinity of the diamond fields. The Transvaalers were so dissatisfied with this award that President Pretorius resigned, and thus ended his troublous administration. President Burgers, the successor of President Pretorius, was a far more intellectual and cultured man. He sought to remedy the extration of isting misfortunes of his country by the introduction of a new order of things. He visited Europe and succeeded in raising part of a loan authorized by the Volksraad for the construction of a railway. He also engaged European instructors for the purpose of introducing a system of public education into the Transvaal. Burgers. Transvaal Demoralization. President Burgers appears to have entertained the conceptions of an enlightened and progressive statesman and to have desired to carry them into execution. But his unprogressive countrymen, rude and primitive in their origin, had become so demoralized that they were reduced to a condition verging on barbarism, in consequence of twenty years of savage isolation from all civilized and civilizing influences. Having associated freely with Kaffirs, the habits of the Transvaal Boers had approximated to those of the native negro tribes; and the projects of President Burgers were entirely foiled by the conditions then prevailing in the Transvaal. Straits of the Trans vaal. The Transvaal Republic now became involved in another war with Desperate the powerful Kaffirs, under the leadership of Sikukuni, a warlike chief. The local system of commandos-men commandeered to fight in the public interest-now proved to be ineffectual. President Burgers himself led an expedition against Sikukuni. As nothing could make the President's troops keep the field, it was resolved to substitute a system of paid military forces. To defray the expenses of this new military system, heavy war taxes were imposed upon the Transvaal population; but the people refused to pay these taxes, and the Republic broke down under the strain. The Transvaal government was unable to pay the interest on the public debt and could not defray the government expenses. The one-pound notes (almost equal in value to five dollars of United States money) depreciated to the value of one shilling of British money (about twenty-five cents of United States money). ened Extinc Trans vaal. With an empty treasury, with no army, with victorious neighboring Threatnegro tribes invading its territory and threatening to overwhelm and exterminate its people, the Transvaal Republic was now in its dying tion of the throes, on the verge of total extinction, its black foes preparing to crush it from all sides. Sikukuni and other negro chiefs had crossed the frontiers on the north-east, north and west. The Matabele, who had been driven from their former homes by the Boers, were ready to take revenge for being robbed of their lands. The Zulus, under Cetywayo, were ready to invade the Transvaal from the south. The only two alternatives before the Republic were total annihilation by the native negro tribes, whose people the Boers had wronged and carried into slavery, or annexation to British South Africa for the sake of obtaining British protection to save the Transvaal Boers from extirpation by the triumphant negroes. In this desperate extremity an influential portion of the Transvaal people, under the leadership of the principal officials, sought the powerful protection of Great Britain. The Boers Seek British Protection. British Annexa Trans vaal. On the invitation of the ruling factions in the Transvaal and on a petition of a third of the male population of the Republic, negotiations tion of the were opened with the British authorities for the annexation of the Transvaal to British South Africa, in return for British protection against the conquering arms of the black invaders of the Boer territory. In his speeches President Burgers himself favored annexation. In a speech to the Volksraad, a few days before annexation was accomplished, he said: |