[Afbeelding: Wapen van de Britse Zuid-Afrika-Compagnie.]
[in vlag:]
JUSTICE COMMERCE FREEDOM
The
BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY
HISTORICAL CATALOGUE & SOUVENIR of RHODESIA
EMPIRE EXHIBITION, JOHANNESBURG, 1936-37.
AFRICA SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR AT THE TIME WHEN CECIL RHODES ENTERED POLITICS - 1882
COVER LITHOGRAPHED BY
HECTORS LIMITED, JOHANNESBURG,
FROM THE DESIGN AND PLATES
SUPPLIED BY
THE GOVERNMENT LITHOGRAPHER,
SALISBURY.
[Afbeelding: Sir P. Herkomer. Cecil John Rhodes. Olieverf op doek (?). Kimberley (Zuid-Afrika), Kimberley Club.]
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CECIL JOHN RHODES, Founder of the British South Africa Company and of Rhodesia.
(From the Portrait by Sir H. Herkomer in the Kimberley Club)
THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY
(Incorporated by Royal Charter, 1889)
THE STORY OF RHODESIA
TOLD IN A SERIES OF HISTORICAL PICTURES
Exhibited at
THE EMPIRE EXHIBITION
JOHANNESBURG - 1936-1937
Descriptive Souvenir and Catalogue
PRICE: SIXPENCE
THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY
(Incorporated by Royal Charter, 29th October, 1889, and Supplemental Charter dated respectively 8th June, 1900, and 13th March, 1915).
Board of Directors
1936
Sir Henry Birchenough, Bart., G.C.M.G. (President).
Baron Emile Beaumont d'Erlanger.
Dougal O. Malcolm, Esq.
His Grace the Duke of Abercorn, K.G., K.P.
Sir Edmund Davis, J.P.
C. Hely-Hutchinson, Esq.
A.E. Hadley, Esq., C.B.E.
The Right Hon. Lord Lloyd of Dolobran, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., D.S.O.,
Lieut.-Colonel T. Ellis Robins, D.S.O.
Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, M.P.
2, London Wall Buildings, London, E.C.2.
Secretary
P.J. Bairds, Esq., O.B.E.
Consulting Mining Engineer.
E.H. Clifford, Esq.
Offices in Rhodesia.
Salisbury, Lusaka, Ndola.
Resident Director in Africa.
Lieutenant-Colonel T. Ellis Robins, D.S.O.
Resident Mining Engineer in Rhodesia.
Malcolm Fergusson, Esq.
[Afbeelding: Philip Alexius de Laszlo. Sir Henry Birchenough. Sine anno. Olieverf op doek (?).]
SIR HENRY BIRCHENOUGH, Bart., G.C.M.G., Director of the British South Africa Company since 1905, and President since 1925.
(From the Portrait by P. de Laszlo, M.V.O.)
FOREWORD
by
SIR HENRY BIRCHENOUGH, BART., G.C.M.G.,
President of the British South Africa Company.
A HISTORY of the Rhodesias must be for the greater part
the story of the British South Africa Company, known all over the world for
upwards of forty-five years as the "Chartered Company." The story, contained
in the following pages, of the great countries which, nursed from their infancy
by the Company, have grown into flourishing colonies, in the work of an
independent and impartial author of long residence in Rhodesia, who has no
connection with the British South Africa Company.
It will bring to the mind of the reader an appreciation
of the miracle which occurred between the years 1888 and 1893, and of the
genius and ideals of the men who brought it about.
What was this miracle? Briefly it was this - the addition
to the British Empire of a vast new province without the loss of a single
soldier of the British Regular Army or the expenditure of a shilling of the
British taxpayers' money.
What were the ideals of the man whose name lives for ever
in the name of Rhodesia? The object which Cecil Rhodes had set before himself
was threefold: To establish British ascendancy in South Central Africa, to
develop the potential wealth of that part of the world, and to raise the
lot of its native inhabitants. Subsequent history has shown the extent to
which this purpose has been achieved. To-day the figures of population, Black
and White, of mineral production, of road and railway mileage and of trade
speak for themselves.
It has been my privilege for thirty-one years to play a
part, and I hope a not ineffectual part, in this stirring history of the
birth and adolescence of the Rhodesias. In bearing a share of the labours
involved and in maintaining the ideals of our Founders and of his early
associates, Alfred Beit and Doctor Jameson, I have come to feel a personal
interest in and warm affection for Rhodesia and its people. I am proud to
have been associated for so great a part of my life with the noble work which
Cecil Rhodes initiated; and most proud if I have earned the right to be
considered a friend by the people of Southern and Northern Rhodesia, whose
lives and interests it has ever been my ambition to share.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA
by
MRS. TAWSE-JOLIE, O.B.E.
PART I. - PREPARATION
IN the 'eighties of the last century the Great Powers
of Europe suddenly woke up to the fact that, while every other part of the
habitable globe had been pre-empted by one or another, there still remained
a vast region in the centre and south of Africa which could only be vaguely
described by map-makers as "under native chiefs." Apart from Cape Colony,
Natal and the two Boer Republics at the south and south-east of the continent
and some languishing Portuguese garrisons on the coast and the Lower Zambesi,
Africa, from the Congo southwards, was "under native chiefs." An astute monarch,
Leopold, King of the Belgians, first drew attention to the possibility of
tropical colonies as a source of profit, and called an International Congress
which led to the foundation of the Congo Free State in 1878. From that time
on attention was more and more directed to the continent, although it was
still generally regarded as "Darkest Africa," and quite unfit for European
settlement.
Explorers, like Livingstone and Stanley, it is true, had
lifted the veil over some parts of the mysterious interior, and missionaries,
undeterred by months of arduous travel and the hardship of life among savages,
had penetrated from the Cape northwards to the countries of the Matabele
and Barotse, and from the East Coast to Lake Nyasa, where they founded a
civilized community. Baines, an indefatigable traveller and artist in the
'sixties, had brought back pictures of the Zambesi and of the plateau that
lies between it and the Limpopo which were not at all like the jungle of
popular imagination. Moreover, in 1866, the hunter, Hartley, took to Matabeleland
and Mashonaland a young geologist, Carl Mauch, who declared that there were
miles of goldfields only waiting to be exploited to realize wealth for thousands
of miners. Attempts made to reach the Eldorado, where, however, foiled by
lack of transport and by the opposition of the Matabele King, Lobengula,
to any "digging" in his domains. Hunting he had no objection to. Incoming
hunters paid tribute to him and were told where to go - "given the road"
- and his spies kept an eye on them to see they did not "dig," or collect
ore.
One part of men he allowed to "dig" in the Tati region,
possibly because it suited him to have white men settled on his boundary
with the Bamangwato. Sir John Swinburne's company was the first to obtain
a mineral and trading concession, which remains intact to this day though
it passed to different hands.
It must be imagined that the expression "under native chiefs"
implied a peaceful idyllic condition unspoilt by the complicated questions
of civilized life. The native chiefs themselves were perpetually at war with
each other; the subjugated people (such as survived) were reduced to domestic
slavery, and over the region north of the Zambesi lay an even more terrible
menace in the shape of Arab slave raiders. The law of the jungle ran from
one end to another, and in this welter there had emerged a few strong rulers,
whose fate it was to find themselves pitted against a superior civilization.
Their names were Khama, of the Bamangwato, Paramount Chief in Bechuanaland,
Lobengula, Chief of the Matabele, whose country (by right of conquest) lay
between the Limpopo and the Zambesi, and Lewanika, of the Barotse, Paramount
Chief of some
6 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA |
thirty tribes living within the great semi-circle of the northern Zambesi.
One cannot include Gungunyanha, of Gazaland, in this category, for although
he became an important pawn in diplomatic negotiations, he was merely the
degenerate descendant of a fighting race and wielded no real power.
Although South Central Africa looked to the diplomatists
of Europe like a blank space with a few explorers' tracks across it, and
even the best maps could only be regarded as approximately correct where
those tracks had gone, there was a considerable number of people in Africa
- hunters, traders and missionaries - who had personal knowledge of the interior,
having trekked with wagons in the leisurely South African way over many parts
of it.
It was in these circumstances that a young Englishman,
Cecil John Rhodes, who at twenty-nine years of age had already laid the
foundation of an immense fortune and had sent himself to Oxford in the midst
of his business life, took his seat in the Cape Parliament in 1881. He had
conceived the idea of spreading British domination northward to the Zambesi,
and beyond, north again, till it joined up with Egypt. The vastness and the
apparent impossibility of this can only be realized by a look at the map.
It meant filling in a space between the Orange River and the Nile, from Cape
Colony to Egypt, and this at a time when the British Government of the day,
which had just ceded the Transvaal, was particularly averse to any extension
of its responsibility, more especially in Africa. A few years before it had
refused the support which would have enabled Mackinnon to take up a concession
of the whole of the Zanzibar Coast, offered to him by the Sultan. German
traders were more fortunate in obtaining the support of their government,
and Tanganyka became part of the German "sphere" while the Imperial East
Africa Company only got its charter in time to secure Kenya.
In Southern Bechuanaland disorders which cost the lives
of British subjects led to a small expedition in 1878, but despite the success
which attended this and the appointment of a Resident in the person of the
well-known missionary, Dr. John Mackenzie, the British Government would not,
and the Cape Government could not, follow this up with any real protectorate.
The country lapsed into a disorder of which freebooters in the Boer Republics
took advantage, and a fresh expedition under Sir Charles Warren had to be
sent in 1884 to restore order, reinstate the natives and establish boundaries.
This cost the Imperial Government one and a half million pounds and helped
to increase its dislike for African adventure, but it led to the establishment
of a British Protectorate over Southern Bechuanaland, which was first annexed
to the Crown and was later transformed to the Cape Government. Germany's
appearance at Angra Pequena, on the west coast (where she used a concession
gained by Luderitz as a base for her claim to a wide sphere of influence
in the hinterland) stimulated this action of the Imperial Government, which,
in 1877, pre-empted on behalf of Cape Colony the one good harbour on the
west coast of Walfish Bay, but had not thought it necessary to trouble about
the hinterland, although representation on the subject were made by the Cape
Government. Now it seemed that Germany on the west and the Boer Republic
on the east of Bechuanaland might join hands and encircle Cape Colony. The
Protectorate over Southern Bechuanaland prevented this and was followed by
a treaty with Khama, made at his own request, which placed the whole of
Bechuanaland up to the Matabele borders under British protection in 1885.
The "Road North" was saved, but the "North" itself was still a Tom Tiddler's
ground.
The Transvaal Republic, with the characteristic urge for
expansion of the Boer peoples, was in the field both with diplomatic attempts
to secure Lobengula's friendship and with schemes for incursions into and
settlement in his country. The Portuguese, incited by the promoters of the
Mozambique Company, which was largely financed in
THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA | 7 |
England, were asserting historic claims through diplomatic channels, which
the British Government could not altogether swallow but was prepared to discuss.
In these circumstances Lobengula accepted the advice of Mr. J. S. Moffat,
Assistant Commissioner in Bechuanaland, who was sent on Rhodes's initiative
to interview him, that he should execute an agreement not to alienate any
part of his country without the knowledge and consent of the High Commissioner
in South Africa, in exchange for protection from Boer or Portuguese aggression
(July, 1887).
These bare facts as to the extension of the British sphere
give no idea of the cross-currents which at times threatened to wreck the
policy of northward expansion, nor of the part played in it by Rhodes. From
now onwards he dominated the whole position. He had been convinced by many
rebuffs that no decisive action could be expected from the British Government,
and the Cape Government was too poor and too divided in its sympathies to
be of much help. The alternative of a chartered company was the only one,
and in the 'eighties three other companies obtained charters - a form of
expansion which had been in abeyance for a considerable period. The British
North Borneo Company not only got a charter but took over a derelict Crown
Colony in Labuan, and Mackinnon, as already stated, got his belated charter
for the Imperial East African Company, in 1888, while the Royal Niger Company,
another of those trading ventures which pioneered the way for British Government,
obtained its charter in 1886.
For a chartered company, however, some more definite
jumping-off place was needed than a vague mandate to a still undefined territory,
for though diplomatic agreements were now proceeding in the Chancelleries
of Europe which, by 1890, would complete the partition of Africa, there was
still considerable latitude about boundaries in Central Africa. Rhodes set
out to get as much as he could for the British Flag in the teeth not only
of commercial opposition and strong disapproval in a circle which distrusted
either colonial or commercial control of native territory, but of a supine
attitude in the Foreign Office which not even the High Commissioner in South
Africa, as the man on the spot, could sufficiently disturb. Sir Hercules
Robinson, in the sincere conviction that he was acting in the best interests
both of his country and the natives, did what he could to help Rhodes, but
the difficulties were so numerous and the action of the Imperial Government
so incalculable that the task would have proved impossible but for two factors
- Rhodes's own driving force and the wealth he could command through friends
like Alfred Beit, who shared his ambitions. It was only in January 1890,
that he was able to put the coping stone on his first great enterprise, the
amalgamation of interests in the Diamond Fields. Until that was accomplished,
and regulation of output was ensured, there was no financial security in
that industry. In the trust deeds for the formation of the De Beers Company
Rhodes insisted that territorial expansion and development of any kind should
come within its legitimate operations. He had previously, in conjunction
with his partner, Rudd, in 1886, secured another source of wealth by the
founding of the Consolidated Gold Fields. He could now, for the first time,
rely on substantial financial backing for his political schemes.
Matabeleland was, for several reasons, the key to the position.
In the first place it was the only country which, by the reputation of the
goldfields, was likely to attract sufficient private capital for the sort
of enterprise Rhodes had in mind, and since Government finance was not possible,
private finance was indispensable. The country, as Rhodes used to say, was
"mineralized from end to end," according to Carl Mauch and others, and the
lure of gold was to be the ostensible reason for an enterprise which (in
truth) did not stop at Matabeleland. Also, in Lobengula, there was a monarch
who really could carry his country with him and Lobengula was therefore the
first, if by no means the only, preoccupation of Rhodes in the years 1887
to 1889.
8 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA |
On 30th September, 1888, Rhodes obtained, through the agency
of Charles D. Rudd, his business partner in early Kimberley days and in the
goldfields, Rochford Maguire, an Oxford friend, and F. R. Thompson ("Matabele
Thompson") as interpreter, a concession from Lobengula of the charge over
all the minerals in his territory and the right to do whatsoever was necessary
to win and procure them. In return Lobengula obtained a payment of £100
per month, 3,000 Martini-Henri rifles and ammunition, and a gunboat on the
Zambesi. The guns were delivered and the money accepted, but the boat, which
was an idea of Rhodes taken from the African Lakes Corporation's boat on
Lake Nyasa, never materialized. The concession was witnessed by the missionary,
C. D. Helm, who certified that he had explained it to the King and that the
constitutional procedure of the Matabele nation had been followed. The
circumstances in which this concession was obtained and the hardships and
dangers undergone by the three agents have been frequently told and need
no repetition here. They were considerably helped by a visit to Lobengula
from Sir Sidney Shippard, Commissioner in Bechuanaland, who reassured Lobengula
as to their standing. No sooner had they left, however, than rival concession
hunters, of whom there were legions in Matabeleland, persuaded the King to
hedge, and Mr. E. A. Maund, representing the Exploring Company, whose chairman
was Mr. George Cawston, induced Lobengula to send a mission of two indunas
under his (Maund's) care to Queen Victoria. Their ostensible purpose was
to "see if there really was a Queen," as rumours to the contrary effect had
reached them, but the real purpose was to discredit the Rudd concession,
and so well did this succeed that the Foreign Office sent back a despatch
advising Lobengula not to part with his whole country. As the Imperial
Government's High Commissioner had previously sponsored Rhodes and the proposed
charter, the confusion of tongues among his British advisers did not allay
Lobengula's suspicions and nearly wrecked the whole enterprise.
Jameson, one of Rhodes's most intimate Kimberley friends,
spent four months, October, 1889-January, 1890, at Lobengula's kraals (he
was always moving about) placating the obese and capricious monarch. Life
was not pleasant among the Matabele, who, accustomed to see their chief wooed
by white men, had become almost unbearably insolent to them. An armed incursion
of Portuguese from the Zambesi, organized by Colonel Paiva d'Andrada of the
Mozambique Company, who was bent on establishing Portuguese claims by some
form of occupation, annoyed Lobengula and led him to ratify his previous
undertaking that a British party might safely come up to his country to dig
for gold under the concession given, which covered all his territory except
the Tati district. He even promised to help to make a road. He was favourably
influenced by a second despatch from the Colonial Secretary in England, approving
of the Rudd-Rhodes concession, and brought up by a most imposing delegation
of two officers and one non-commissioned officer of the Royal Horse Guards,
whose appearance in full uniform was much admired by the Matabele. This was
in January, 1890.
Before Jameson went up to keep Lobengula in a good temper
Rhodes was assured of his charter, but between June, when the first application
went in, and 29th October, 1889, when the charter was gazetted, he had a
herculean task in merging the interests of the more important concessionaires
and buying out the smaller ones. Cawston's company had been merged before
Maund and his mischief-making delegation got back to Bulawayo and Lord Gifford,
the chairman of the Exploring Company, signed the first petition for the
charter. Other companies which merged their interests were the Austral Company,
the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, a syndicate under Baron d'Erlanger,
and another which included Lord Rothschild and Mr. Alfred Beit. The private
owners or alleged concessions were legion. Rhodes compared
No. 17. Rudd-Rhodes Concession.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA | 9 |
them to locusts. He bought them out rather than incur delay or obstructions,
and in one case, the long-dormant Baines concession of 1871, he bought, but
did not prevent obstruction and a certain amount of trouble later on.
For the purpose of obtaining the charter, the Central Search
Association was formed, in which several companies pooled their interests
and thus presented a united front in approaching the Foreign Office. At the
same time Rhodes acquired the interests of the African Lakes Corporation,
the pioneer Trading and Transport Company started by the Moir brothers on
Lake Nyasa, which had got into financial difficulties because the slave-raiding
in that region interrupted all normal trade. This company and other trades
and missionaries had established so flourishing a community on the west of
Lake Nyasa that a British Consul had been appointed there in 1883, but the
slave raids were becoming a serious menace, and in addition Portuguese claims
on the whole of the Zambesi region were reaching a climax in preventing the
Nyasa settlement from importing arms for their protection, and in exorbitant,
and in exorbitant customs charges.
The situation came to a head in September, 1889. The
recently-appointed British Consul at Mozambique, H. H. Johnston, heard that
a Portuguese force was on its way towards Nyasa from the Zambesi, and taking
advantage of a newly-discovered route along the Chindé River, he succeeded
in forestalling them in the gunboat Stork, and warned the leader,
the Portuguese explorer, Major Serpa Pinto, of the fact that Great Britain
had taken this bit of country under her wing, a statement which he proceeded
to substantiate on his own responsibility by causing a British Protectorate
to be proclaimed. Serpa Pinto went back for instructions, but his
second-in-command apparently thought he could call Johnston's bluff and marched
on, coming into conflict with the natives and declaring his intention to
proclaim the whole country Portuguese.
Unfortunately for his patriotic design, this Nyasa settlement
had a strong sentimental claim on the British public because of its original
connection with Livingstone and its missionary enterprise, and great public
indignation was caused by the attack on natives under British protection
and the threat to the mission community. The foreign Office despatched quite
a stern ultimatum and the Portuguese Government withdrew their forces and
apologized for the too great zeal of their forces. Negotiations for the
delimitation of Portuguese and British spheres were then recommenced, but
as the Imperial Government were not at all inclined to commit themselves
to colony-building in the Lake Country - that little-known and slave-raided
region between Tanganyika on the north, Nyasa on the east and Lakes Bangweolo
and Mweru on the west - they were quite ready to agree that this should be
part of the Chartered Company's responsibilities, provided that an Imperial
Officer was to be at the head of things, on the principle "you pay and we
call the tune" which they adopted more than once in their dealings with the
Chartered Company. Johnston went to Blantyre as Commissioner, and the Company
put up £10,000 a year towards expenses. Nothing could be done in the
way of development until the slave trade was suppressed, and it is estimated
that this alone cost the Company £75,000 in the next few years, a fact
which might have been put to their credit by some of their critics. It was
not till 1894 that the Imperial Government took sole responsibility for the
regions adjoining the Shiré and Lake Nyasa, which were transferred
from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office as the Central African
Protectorate and later became Nyasaland.
Lewanika and the Barotse lay north-west of the Lake Country.
The gap to the north had to be filled in by Rhodes, who sent Lochner and
others as agents to secure concessions from the numerous local chiefs. The
inaccessibility and unhealthiness of this region, in which Livingstone spent
two of the last years of his life cut off from all communication with the
outer world, until Stanley relieved him, and where he ultimately died, made
the work of these pioneer agents extremely difficult. Alfred Sharpe, who
was in the country merely on a hunting expedition when Johnston secured his
services, and Lochner, nearly lost their lives, while Wilston, another of
the Chartered Company's agents, died at Blantyre as the result of his efforts.
That Northern Rhodesia is cut in two by Belgian territory is due to the fact
that after two unsuccessful attempts by Alfred Sharpe and Joseph Thomson
to secure a concession on behalf of the Chartered Company, the Katanga Company,
internationally financed, was unsuccessful, in an expedition led by a British
officer, Lieut. Cameron, in which the chief was killed and the country annexed
for the Congo. On the directorate of the Katanga Company were several strong
upholds of British prestige, including Sir W. Mackinnon - a fact which
illustrates another side of Rhodes's many-sided problems in securing Central
Africa for the British Flag in the teeth of commercial opposition.
Lewanika, Paramount Chief of the Barotse, had asked in
September, 1889, to be taken under the British wing, largely because he
understood that Lobengula's next raid would be in his direction but also
influenced by the heroic French missionary, Coillard, who, with his Scottish
wife, had carried on a single-handed fight against barbarism since 1880,
and who advised Lewanika to follow Khama's example. The British Government
had no enthusiasm for a protectorate over Lewanika's country and gladly passed
him on to Rhodes, who had the greatest difficulty in persuading Lewanika
that, despite anything he might hear to the contrary, the Chartered Company
and the British Government were one and the same thing.
Lewanika had already granted a mineral and trading concession
to Mr. H. Ware, and this Rhodes had acquired, but it was necessary when the
Chartered Company was in a position to begin work in Barotseland (which was
not till 1897) to enter into a fresh agreement with the Paramount Chief of
the Barotse, and under this the people have obtained the benefit of settled
government and financial stability while retaining their national rights.
One final touch to the picture of the African stage as
set out for the Chartered Company. From the north of Lake Nyasa to the south
of Lake Tanganyika ran a road made by the firms interested in Blantyre and
the missions, and called the Stevenson Road. A question as to the boundary
between the British and German spheres was pending in 1890, and it looked
as if the Stevenson Road would go to the latter. Rhodes had a couple of "Forts"
run up on the road and christened them "Fife" and "Abercorn," saying "They'll
never cede places called after relatives of the royal family." And, apparently,
he was right.
AT the time that the fate of the Charter was in the balance,
the scale was tipped in its favour by a despatch from Lord Knutsford, at
the Colonial Office, which, as an illustration of the Colonial policy of
the period, and as a measure of the services which the Company was to render,
must be reproduced in full.
"In consenting to consider this scheme in more detail,
Lord Knutsford has been influenced by the consideration that if such a Company
is incorporated by Royal Charter, its constitution, objects and operations
will become more directly subject to control by Her Majesty's Government
than if it were left to these gentlemen to incorporate themselves under the
Joint Stock Companies Act as they are entitled to do. The example of the
Imperial East Africa Company shows that such a body may, to some considerable
extent, relieve Her Majesty's Government from diplomatic difficulties and
heavy expenditure."
[Afbeelding: Onbekend. De Directie van de Britse Zuid-Afrika-Compagnie. [1889].]
THE FIRST BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY, 1889.
Top Row: Horace Farquhar, Esq.; Albert Grey, Esq.; Alfred Beit, Esq.
Middle Row: His Grace the Duke of Fife, K.T., P.C.; Hon. C. J. Rhodes (Founder and Managing Director in South Africa); His Grace the Duke of Abercorn, K.G., P.C.
Bottom Row: Lord Grifford, V.C.; Herbert Canning, Esq. (Secretary); George Cawston, Esq.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA | 11 |
"The advantage of expanding the Empire at private expense,"
remarks Sir Lewis Michell in his Life of Rhodes, "was perhaps never
formulated as a policy with franker cynicism."
The British South Africa Company was incorporated by Royal
Chapter on 29th October, 1889. The names of the Duke of Abercorn and Fife
and of Mr. Albert (afterwards Lord) Grey had been added to those of the original
promoters at the instance of the Colonial Office and these became Life Directors.
Other Directors were Lord Gifford and Mr. George Cawston, formerly of rival
Companies. The authorized capital was £1,000,000, of which £300,000
was called up at first, and when one remembers the projects on foot, and
that the Warren Expedition, which only covered a small part of Bechuanaland,
cost £1,500,000, one cannot but be surprised at the modesty of the figures.
Briefly summarized, the charter recapitulated the objects of the promoters,
defined the principal sphere of their operations, leaving it open for this
to be extended by future concessions, confirmed them in the rights conferred
by the existing concessions, and conferred on them other rights of administration
which had not been expressly granted by any existing concession. The charter
was to run for twenty-five years as a first period, and after that for ten-years
terms, always subject to the right of the Crown to revoke it at any time
should the Company fail to carry out the provisions or to satisfy the Secretary
of State that they were promoting the objects for which the Company was formed.
Special provisions for safeguarding native interests were included, and the
High Commissioner for South Africa and Secretary of State were to be arbiters
of native policy.
An interesting constitutional point was raised by the powers
of administration given to the Company, which included not merely the making
of laws and their enforcement by police but the levying of taxes, customs
dues and other revenue. As Lobengula, a few months before, had been formerly
acknowledged as an independent sovereign, in the despatch sent to him with
the two indunas, it is clear that there was no authority for these powers.
For the time being, however, the terms of the Rudd Concession, which gave
the right to "do all things that are necessary to win and procure" the minerals
and to prevent the incursion of other parties either with regard to minerals
or land, seemed to be enough to cover the steps which had to be taken to
secure order in the new settlement.
That this was accomplished without difficulty was fortunate,
for the Code of Law which had been drawn up by Sir Sidney Shippard and forwarded
to London for approval was held up by the discovery of the Government that
a fresh agreement must be made with Lobengula as to laws. A magistrate, appointed
with Her Majesty's Commission and duly attested police, found themselves
for some time without and laws to enforce except the mining laws, which had
been drawn up independently. These points are now of academic interest only,
but they are of some importance in the history of the Company as illustrating
one of the reasons given by Lord Knutsford in recommending the Charter to
the Foreign Office. The situation created could not fail to lead, before
long, to a clash of authority but the Imperial Government was not to be
responsible.
From March to September, first at Kimberley, which was
Rhodes's headquarters, and then at the base camp at Macloutsie, preparations
went on for the great adventure on which so much was staked, and while every
young man in South Africa (and many others) longed to take part, there were
grim forebodings among older people. It was not expected that the expedition
would arrive without a clash with the Matabele, whose armies were reckoned
by thousands where the column counted in hundreds. Rhodes had hoped to send
up a purely civilian force of "diggers" with some help from the Bechuanaland
Police, but as the chance of Boer or Portuguese opposition was added to the
Matabele menace the plans grew, till a military force of 500 mounted police
was added to the original 200 pioneers, whose job it was to construct the
road, and who were free to start prospecting as soon as they arrived at the
end of the journey, with the gift of free claims and rights to a pioneer
farm of 3,000 acres.
The cost of such an expedition at first seemed prohibitive
- estimates ran into hundreds of thousands - but eventually a young contractor,
Frank Johnson, undertook the work for £89,285 10s., including £500
for a naval searchlight which proved of the greatest value on the march up,
striking terror into the hearts of the savages who saw the beams of the great
white eye stabbing through the darkness.
The route also had to be changed. Selous, the famous hunter,
came across tracks of Portuguese incursions just south of the Zambesi in
January, 1890, and hurried down to the Cape to tell Rhodes that no time should
be lost and to suggest that in order to avoid collision with the Matabele,
the column could be guided by him to the high plateau of Mashonaland on a
route well to the east of Lobengula's own country. It was to this plan and
his own skill as guide that success was chiefly due. He took the column over
400 miles of unexplored country close to the spot he had already marked for
a settlement and named after a great Englishman - Mount Hampden.
More than one message from Lobengula and more than one
alarm of hostile Matabele were received on the march, but despite the straggling
line of convoy the column moved rapidly, and to this Selous attributed the
fact that they never came in touch with the Matabele. Lobengula had difficulty
in holding his regiments back, but did so effectually enough, and as soon
as prospecting began he asked that claims should be staked out for him. Leaving
the base camp at Tuli on July 11th, the column arrived at Fort Salisbury
on September 12th, 1890, without a single casualty, and on September 13th,
1890, the British Flag was hoisted in approximately the same spot where it
now flies to-day in the heart of a modern city.
The British South Africa Company's Police, 500 strong,
were commanded by Lieut.-Col. Pennefather, of the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoon
Guards, Major P. W. Forbes, of the same regiment, being second-in-command,
and the Pioneers by Major Frank Johnson. Colonel Pennefather was in supreme
command of the column, and as Acting Administrator sent the welcome news
of arrival to Rhodes and the Board. Archibald Colquhoun, who was second from
the Indian Civil Service to act as first Administrator in Mashonaland, left
the column with Selous on reaching the plateau, and set off to the east to
obtain a concession from Umtasa, the chief of Manicaland.
Owing to the uncertainty as to the delimination of the
boundary between Portuguese and British spheres, this native country, Manica,
was of importance. It lay outside Lobengula's jurisdiction and was believed
to be independent, but the Portuguese claimed that it was a vassal of
Gungunyanha, who was stated to have ceded all his possessions to them. At
the time the greatest importance was attached to the securing of "concessions,"
and the officers of the B.S.A. Company's Police were provided with blank
forms on which it was their job to get as many concessions as possible from
local chiefs in case Lobengula's overlordship was questioned. Rhodes had
already sent agents to Gungunyanha, who had expressed a desire to come under
British protection, which, in view of Portuguese claims, the British Government
did not feel able to grant.
Colquhoun and Selous reached Umtasa's and obtained his
undeserved adherence to the Company's régime in a treaty dated September
14th, 1890, and as he appeared to be in considerable awe of one of the Portuguese
agents, a Goanese known as Gou- veia, who was in the habit of paying "visits
of persuasion" for the collection of taxes or tribute, accompanied by large
bands of armed followers, it was arranged to leave a small police post with
Umtasa. The chief declared he had executed no previous treaty, but the Mozambique
Company had a trading post twelve miles away, at Macequece, and their manager,
Baron de Rezende, received the news of the Company's agreement with protest.
It was only in the early 'eighties that a small military post had been
established at the mouth of the Pungwe and christened Beira, but here the
Portuguese Government had transferred from Sofala the civil government of
the province which, they claimed, included Manica. There were already some
British and American prospectors at work with licences from the Mozambique
Company in the valley below Umtasa's kraal, and a French engineer was said
to be surveying for a railway.
In the events that followed the Chartered Company and the
Mozambique Company were, in reality parties in dispute over boundaries which
they conducted on the spot, which was finally settled in diplomatic circles
in Europe. Manica was the focus of the struggle to establish, either by
concession or occupation, or both, a prior right, and the Chartered Company
was much gratified to think it had got in first, the more so that, in August,
while the Pioneer Column was on the march, Lord Salisbury and Portuguese
Minister had signed an agreement as to boundaries which presented Manica
to the Portuguese. This, however, did not go far enough for Portuguese
chauvinists, and the Convention was not ratified by the Cortés, which
dissolved in October, forcing the Ministry to resign. It appeared reasonable
to Rhodes and the Board that, as the Portuguese had refused this offer, the
whole question could be considered as open and they were free to go as far
as they could - certainly as far as Umtasa's concession would carry them.
On November 13th the British and Portuguese Governments
executed an agreement to maintain a modus vivendi, whereby neither
should seek any advantage or commit any act of sovereignty in the disputed
region until a boundary had been settled. This was certainly a blow aimed
at the Chartered Company which, alone was in a position to attempt such action,
having just taken an armed force to Mashonaland. The day after the signature
of the modus vivendi a force of seventeen B.S.A. Police under Major
Forbes intercepted Gouveia in a visit to Umtasa, in which he was accompanied
by Baron de Rezende, Colonel Paiva d'Andrada and 200 armed followers. The
object of the visit was most certainly to force Umtasa to repudiate his treaty
with the Chartered Company. Forbes arrested the Portuguese, disarmed the
native troops and, having released Baron de Rezende, sent d'Andrada and Gouveia
to Colquhoun, who despatched them to Tuli en route for Rhodes. D'Andrada
had powerful connections in Portugal and the strongest protests were addressed
to Britain. The Company took up the position that their officers had not
violated the modus vivendi (although they had not yet heard of it
on November 14th) since their arrangement with Umtasa constituted Britain
the "man in possession" as from September 14th, and it was therefore the
Portuguese who had committed "an act of sovereignty or aggression" by coming
with armed forces into the British sphere. The Company presumed that the
coast had been clear on 14th September, but this the Foreign Office refused
to allow, holding that even though the Portuguese refused to ratify the
convention of August, it held good until the Cortés finally broke
up, without ratifying it on October 30th. This generous interpretation, of
course, cut the ground from under the Company's feet in Manica, but the British
South Africa Company's Police had vindicated British prestige in Umtasa's
eyes and those of the other local chiefs. They stayed in Mafambo-Basukos
(Umtasa's village) and in Macequece to await developments, having been
peremptorily warned from home not to venture any nearer the coast.
14 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA |
The subsequent development of a rather Gilbertian situation
must be rapidly summarized. In the indignation roused in Beira and Portugal
by d'Andrada's account of the Umtasa incident the Portuguese went too far
even for the British Foreign Office. They closed the Pungwe and Zambesi,
which by the modus vivendi were to be open for international traffic,
and they even fired on and then confiscated lighters bearing goods for the
Chartered Company, which they had the legitimate right to take up the river
toFontesvilla, whence they could be transported to Mashonaland. Three warships
were despatched from Simonstown to Beira and a British consul appointed there,
but while this was happening a Portuguese volunteer force, recruited to avenge
the "insult" at Umtasa's, was on its way up country. Decimated by malaria,
it was reinforced with native troops and advanced towards Umtali, having
occupied Macequece, whose small police post had fallen back to Umtali. With
a force chiefly made up of about forty civilian citizens Captain Heymann,
of the B.S.A.P., was able to disperse the Portuguese, whose native levies
fled, and Macequece was hastily evacuated, a wounded Portuguese officer who
had tried in vain to rally his troops being left behind.
This engagement caused consternation in Beira and Portugal,
not only because they feared the Company might follow up its victory, but
because the British Foreign Office could hardly overlook so flagrant a violation
of the modus vivendi and the fact that native troops had been used
against the small handful of Europeans in a native territory. The British
Government, however, did not press the advantage, and a small body of police
which had actually penetrated some distance towards Beira was turned back
by order of the High Commissioner. Lord Salisbury now made an offer of a
boundary which, though less favourable than that of the previous convention,
the Portuguese Cortés immediately accepted. This line cuts Manica
in two, but gives Umtali and a region south of it and east of the Sabi valley
to Britain, while compensating Portugal with an area of the Zambesi. While
it is not to be supposed that either party in the dispute was satisfied,
this boundary ceased to be a matter of contention, and the two Companies
and the two European races have since then lived in amity and have tried
to co-operate in the development of their adjoining territories.
The story of the Anglo-Portuguese frontier is of academic
interest only to-day, but it needs to be understood by those who wish to
appraise what the Chartered Company did to gain a colony for the Empire in
this part of Africa.
THE unusually heavy wet season 1890-1891, combined with
the difficulties raised by the Portuguese as to transport into the country
through Beira, increased the estimated expenses of the early occupation,
and the possibility of an incursion of Boers with the determination to settle
and form their own government also involved an increase of the police force.
The Boer invasion was turned back, with the help of the High Commissioner
and the concurrence of President Kruger, but these events, and more particularly
the severe sufferings of the settlers, who were practically marooned in the
country between December and March without any supplies from the south, which
(added to the difficulties of mining) caused an exodus of disappointed men,
led to the disparagement of the country in the British Press. Rhodes said
of this period: "The condemnation of the Home papers could only be equalled
by their previous undue sanguineness. Subsequently we were removed from their
criticism as they thought the country too bad to say anything about it."
Shares fell heavily, though after a speech from Rhodes they generally took
an upward turn and the number of shareholders rose from 5,000 to 8,000. To
read Rhodes's speeches at the meetings held at the Cannon Street Hotel at
intervals during these years is to re-live those days of hope, too often
deferred but never dimmed, of anxiety, of triumph, of disappointment and
of great achievement, in which, time after time, he carried his audience
along on a tide of marvellous figures, of shrewd and homely comment and of
inspired forecast, to the point where they cheered his great ides to the
echo.
In his first speech and in several subsequent ones, he
explained one of the most criticized policies of the Company which was his
own pet scheme, whereby the Company became a 50 per cent. participator in
the flotation of any mining venture by the retention of that amount of vendor's
scrip. It was his conviction that this involved no hardship to the prospector
or developing company and no deterrent to the investor, but prospectors and
investors did not agree with him and the result did not justify his views.
The subject was for years a serious bone of contention between the Company
and the mining community. In his first annual speech, December, 1891, Rhodes
also adumbrated his great scheme for a transcontinental telegraph, of which
the first link to the Zambesi was already well on its way and earning a
dividend.
A year later (1893) the Chairman had to announce that the
clash with the Matabele, which was inevitable as soon as a civilized government
had been set up in the midst of barbarism, had actually occurred. The Company's
forces, chiefly composed of volunteers from the ranks of the settlers, defeated
Lobengula in two pitched battles and many skirmishes, and with the assistance
of the Bechuanaland Police, detailed by the High Commissioner, occupied Bulawayo
and sent out a patrol to pursue the fugitive king. Lobengula evaded this
body, of which part got separated from the main column and was killed to
a man. The heroism of Allan Wilson and his comrades of the Sangani patrol
(who included Borrow, a most popular member of the firm of Johnson, Heany
& Borrow (made a deep impression on the Matabele, since the little band
fought to the end and made no attempt to escape, which would have meant
abandoning their wounded. With the exception of this casualty the campaign
had been short, inexpensive and successful. Lobengula died near the Shangani
River; his indunas made peace, and Matabeleland was added to the Company's
territory.
The destruction of this native kingdom was made the occasion
for attacks on the Company's native policy from many quarters, which practically
never ceased during the whole period of its administrative career. But while
opinions might differ as to the actual steps taken to bring the Matabele
menace to a head, there can be no question that the Matabele themselves gave
great provocation, and that nothing short of conquest would have induced
them to permit the civilization of their country. Lobengula, around whom
a kind of glamour has been spread by the reports of some who knew him in
his prime, certainly had some of the attractive attributes of the unspoilt
savage, but in his career as a ruler, while jealous of his own authority,
there is not a sign that he ever tried to benefit his people or protect them,
as did Khama and Lewanika, from the impact with European civilization of
which he was quite clever enough to appreciate the dangers. It may be said
that he could not do so because of the nature of his Matabele followers,
whose whole life was centred in military organization and warlike raids upon
their weaker neighbours. This is probably true but it is no reason for the
perpetuation or condonation of a bloodstained tyranny which had for years
locked up this beautiful territory. Bishop Knight-Bruce, who traversed the
whole country on foot in the years 1888 and 1889, records that it was possible
to go for a whole week without seeing a living human being or a kraal which
had not been burnt. Other travellers like Selous speak of a country once
thickly cultivated now laid waste.
In the administration of its native policy the Chartered
Company adopted as a guiding principle that the native population should
have an adequate share of the land as their unalienable possession, and if
any exception is taken to the word "adequate," its answer is that both the
Company and its successors in Government did not constitute themselves the
judges, but accepted the findings of Commissions with independent members.
From the beginning every encouragement was given to missionary effort and
both financial help, large tracts of land and valuable trading rights were
granted to every missionary society which applied. In 1926, the area of land
occupied by missions amounted to 300,000 acres. As to other native policy,
it has always been subject to veto and control of the Imperial Government,
nor has there been any occasion of serious disagreement by the High Commissioner
with any action taken. Except for the events of 1896, which will be dealt
with later, the record of native relations in Rhodesia compares very favourable
with that of any other part of Africa.
It has been expected that administrative revenue and
expenditure would balance at the end of 1893, especially as Dr. Jameson,
who succeeded A. R. Colquhoun as Administrator in September, 1891, had introduced
many economies, including the disbandment of most of the Police, who were
replaced by a volunteer force; but the financing of the Matabele War upset
these calculations, and the third general meeting (December, 1891) saw an
increase of capital met by the issue of debentures, which were taken up by
those already financially interested. At this meeting one gets the first
mention of a subject which was to play such a great part in the Company's
history, the ownership of the land and minerals. Rhodes had several times
asserted that the minerals would be the dividend-earning asset of the Company,
and Mr. Hawksley, the Company's solicitor, repeated this, but in answer to
a question added: "Of course, the Chartered Company owns the whole of
Matabeleland and Mashonaland under concessions from Lobengula, just as it
owns the minerals." It did not seem to occur to anyone at that date that
the death of Lobengula created a fresh and undefined situation, but it was
not long before this idea began to grow in the country itself.
Even if Rhodes had not been the great protagonist of improved
communications the situation in the newly-acquired territories would have
made railways the first concern of the Company, for until the transport of
machinery was possible the development of the thousands of mining propositions
which had now been pegged, and which, from the date of the occupation of
Bulawayo, began to be even more thickly pegged in Matabeleland, was an
impossibility. One of the undertakings given by the Company was for the extension
of the railway and telegraph line from the Cape towards the Zambesi, and
on the day the charter was gazetted, Rhodes, who left England as soon as
the grant of the charter was assured, entered into an agreement on behalf
of the Company with the Cape Government for the extension of the colonial
line from Kimberly, then the terminus, to Vryburg, whence the Company engaged
to carry it on to Mafeking. The Imperial Government gave a grant of 6,000
square miles in British Bechuanaland with all mineral rights, in aid of this
construction, which was the Cape Colony's quid pro quo to the extent
of 4,000 square miles. The balance, with a further Government grant, went
towards the section of Mafeking, the Chartered Company retaining a 25 per
cent. interest in the land in the Mafeking section. By March, 1894, the railway
from the south had reached Vryburg, and seventy-five miles had been built
towards Umtali from Fontesvilla, on the Pungwe. Mafeking was reached in October,
1894, Palapye (263 miles) in May, 1897, and Bulawayo in October, 1897.
Fontesvilla to Beira, a line terribly handicapped by climatic conditions,
was through in 1896, and Umtali was connected with Beira by February, 1898,
the narrow gauge line at first laid being replaced by 3 ft. 6 in. gauge in
August, 1900. The connection between Umtali-Salisbury was made in 1899, and
Salisbury was connected with Bulawayo during the South African War years
of 1900-1902. The Victoria Falls Bridge and a portion of Rhodes's "Cape to
Cairo" line as far as Kalomo were completed in April, 1904. The line to Broken
Hill
[Afbeelding: Onbekend. Alfred Beit.]
ALFRED BEIT, ESQ., a Director of the British South Africa Company until his death in 1906. Under his Will the Beit Railway Trust was founded.
SIR LEANDER STARR JAMESON, C.B. ("Doctor Jim"), President of the British Africa Company, 1913-1917.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA | 17 |
was finished in 1906. Branch lines to Shamva, West Nicholson, Selukwe and
the connection between Gwelo and Fort Victoria were all constructed before
1912, with finance for which Rhodes was largely responsible. After his death,
assistance was given by the trustees of Mr. Beit's will, by which a sum of
about £2,000,000 was left for communications and education in the two
Rhodesias. In his speech of 1899, Rhodes described how, failing to obtain
a guarantee from the Imperial Government which would have enabled him to
raise the money at a low rate of interest, he was still successful in seven
weeks in providing something like eight millions for railway development,
and that under the shadow of the imminent war in South Africa. On another
occasion he told how Lord Rothschild, to whom he had gone for help with money
for the Beira line, have him £25,000, with the remark that he might
as well throw it into the sea!
This railway construction was undertaken by the Chartered
Company through subsidiary companies in which it had a controlling share,
and with money principally raised by debentures which the Company guaranteed
at a time when the country was still undeveloped. Eventually the financing
of these companies was simplified by the creation of the Railways Trust,
its capital represented by the shares of the subsidiary companies and the
debt owed by them to the Chartered Company. Through this Trust the Company
is the virtual owner of the railways from Vryburg to Sakania, and from Bulawayo
to Umtali, Gwelo to Fort Victoria, and the Shamva, West Nicholson and Shabani
lines, and of extensions, Roan Antelope-Ndola, in Lomagundi and in the Umvukwes.
The Umtali-Beira section will eventually revert to the Portuguese. The total
mileage of the Rhodesian Railways (including the Beira line) is 2,708, of
which 1,356 are in Southern Rhodesia.
No feature of the Chartered Company's policy has been more
criticized on the financial side than that connected with railways, and it
is argued that the method by which they were financed has proved an expensive
one for the users. But given the exceptional conditions under which they
were built, through an undeveloped country, it must be owned that they were
a highly speculative undertaking, and the rapidity with which they were pushed
on was a real tour de force. Without this rapid growth of communications
Rhodesia, a remote inland country, would never have attracted population
or capital. Finally, as employers of white labour and also in providing for
the comfort of the travelling public, the railways have set a high
standard.
Telegraphic communication was imperative even before railways
could be begun, and through the Transcontinental Telegraph Company Rhodes
started the line which he intended to be the first link between north and
south at so early a date that by August, 1891, it had reached Fort Victoria,
and was in Salisbury the following February. It was pushed on to the south
of Lake Tanganyika by 1899, and here international complications called a
halt. After the Great War the Transcontinental Telegraph Company was wound
up with a debt of £40,000 to the Chartered Company, which had to be
written off, but, as the pioneer of communication in the heart of Africa,
it had served a great purpose.
The elimination of the sovereignty of Lobengula at the
end of the Matabele War necessitated fresh arrangements for the administration,
but in making these the Imperial Government seems to have thought only of
details and not at all of the obvious change in the constitutional position
which afterwards rendered the controversy as to the ownership of the land
and minerals so acute. A Council of nominated members was to assist the
administration, and a Land Commission was appointed to consider the delimination
of land for native occupation, the reserve thus created being vested in the
High Commissioner.
The year 1895 opened with bright prospects. Considerable
sums were invested (though not always on sufficient information) by mining
and other companies, in pro
B
18 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA
|
perties which were brought into Bulawayo with samples of ore by the dozens
of prospectors and agents then at work. The sale of town stands in Bulawayo
realized £153,000 that year, and Salisbury, which had been rather relegated
to the background, £32,000. Receipts for licenses and other forms of
public revenue went up by leaps and bounds, and after one of Rhodes's most
characteristic speeches, to an audience so large that it could not get into
the Cannon Street Hotel, the shares of the Company also took bound upwards.
Even at a premium of £2 10s. 0d. the fresh issue was not the highwater
mark. In a short time the shares were worth more than £9 and investors
clamoured on them. The shareholders numbered 35,000, and it was suggested
that the only suitable place for an annual meeting would be the Albert
Hall.
Up to this point the luck which had hitherto attended Rhodes
had held good in the face of every risk. But now the tide was to turn. In
December, 1895, Jameson, the Company's Administrator in Rhodesia, crossed
into Transvaal territory with a body of the B.S.A. Police in an attempt to
reach Johannesburg and to join up with a party there (known as the "Reform
Party") which was dissatisfied with the Kruger régime. The invaders
were ambushed, captured and imprisoned. The leaders of the Reform Party were
sentenced to death, but were reprieved on payment of enormous ransoms. Jameson
was sent to England, where he served a short sentence of imprisonment. Rhodes,
who had tried to stop the raid, but was implicated in the intrigues which
led up to it, lost his position in the Cape and many valued friendships.
He was called home to face a Committee of Enquiry, and resigned his Directorship
of the Chartered Company, as did the Duke of Fife, Lord Farquhar, Mr. Beit
and Rhodes's alternate on the Board, Rochfort Maguire, then M.P. for
Athlone.
In fear of any further action by the desperadoes of Rhodesia
an Imperial officer was sent to take charge of all arms and ammunition, and
this officer became, later on, Field-Marshal Lord Plumer.
The results of the Jameson Raid both on the fortunes of
the Company and of the country were unfortunate as to their credit and prestige,
and for years afterwards Rhodesians were regarded as dangerous animals or
as black sheep in Colonial or Foreign Office circles. But all other troubles
were put into the shade of March, 1896, when the Matabele, taking advantage
of the lack of any adequate police force and also disturbed by some incidents
in connection with the outbreak of rinderpest which was devastating the cattle
of the country, broke into open rebellion, and murdered all settlers who
could not reach one of the hastily improvised laagers. Their military
organization had never been broken up and they possessed arms, while they
were also joined by some of the armed native police by whom Jameson had
supplemented the white troopers of the B.S.A.P. For some reason, possibly
because they thought the white people would leave the country by that route,
the Matabele left the road to the south open, and had they not done so the
small force of settlers must have been annihilated, but as it was they could
get supplies and even reinforcements. Rhodes, who had just reached Salisbury
via the East Coast, urged the Bulawayo force by telephone, to carry
the war into the enemy's camp, and this they were actually doing when Imperial
troops under Colonel Plumer arrived. Sir Frederick Carrington was appointed
to command all forces and had with him as his Chief of Staff the future Chief
Scout, then Colonel R.S.S. Baden-Powell. These Imperial reinforcements reached
Bulawayo two months after the outbreak of rebellion.
In June the Mashona rebelled and even more murders were
committed on defenceless groups of settlers and miners, whole families being
wiped out. An Imperial force, hastily collected, of various units under Colonel
Alderson, came up from the Cape and reached Salisbury via Beira in
August. For some months the Imperial forces were engaged in subduing tribes
which still remained hostile, and the process might have continued over the
next rainy season had not Rhodes, getting into touch with the Matabele indunas,
arranged peace with them in his famous series of "indabas" in the Matopos.
The situation was critical, for the feeding of a large number of troops during
the rainy season would have been an impossibility as well as a financial
catastrophe for the Company. The natives were also faced with starvation
and the Company provided £40,000 worth of mealies for food and seed.
While the service of the Imperial troops were essential
for the final pacification of the country, it should not be forgotten that
both in Salisbury and Bulawayo the burnt of the rebellion was borne by the
settler volunteer forces, and that in both places they had to hold out for
two months before help could reach them. The cost of the Imperial troops
had, of course, to be borne by the Company, and in December, 1896, they were
withdrawn, the police force being augmented to continue the warfare in
Mashonaland.
The loss of life during this period was estimated at over
600 among the civil population, and among the settlers were many who had
lost everything they possessed. Moreover, the country could not be considered
safe for isolated occupation for some time, and the result was that many
had to leave. The Company had to meet expenses of something like 2½
millions for military operations and also paid compensation to the extent
of £360,000. Rhodes, out of his private purse, is said to have distributed
£40,000 to help the survivors among the settlers to get a fresh start,
but the setback to the country was not to be discounted, especially in the
mining community. Moreover, Rhodesia now passed under a cloud in public
estimation which was intensified by a campaign of abuse directed towards
the native policy by the Aborigines Protection Society, and by Labouchere
in his paper, Truth. A Commissioner, Sir Richard Martin, was sent
out to investigate, and in his report could find nothing more serious than
errors of judgment in dealing with the cattle question and the fact that
native commissioners were in the habit of calling upon native chiefs to find
labour for such work as roads or mining, which was paid for at the current
rate of wages. This system was in accordance with native custom, but after
this date (1896) it was no longer restored to in Southern Rhodesia. Forced
labour of a much more onerous kind has been levied in other parts of Africa
up to a recent period.
As a result of the events of 1896, the Southern Rhodesia
Order in Council, 1898, established a closer control of Administration. The
new form of government was like that of a Crown Colony, with its nominated
Council and two elected members for each province, the Company keeping control
of finances through its nominated majority. The Administrator, Judges, and
Native Commissioners, though paid by the Company, had to be confirmed in
office by the High Commissioner and could be removed at his recommendation,
but not without it. With some modifications this system remained until the
termination of the Company's administration, and the fact that no serious
friction ever occurred between them and the Imperial Government during this
period of dual control speaks well for both sides, but more particularly
for the tact and sympathy of the High Commissioners through whom the Imperial
control was exercised. Finally, two officers, appointed and paid by the Crown,
were stationed in Rhodesia, one as Commandant of the armed forces, and the
other as Resident Commissioner, to keep the High Commissioner fully in touch
with events. The Commandant was paid by the Company but his appointment was
subject to Imperial sanction.
While these constitutional changes were taking place south
of the Zambesi nothing had been done to implement the agreement with Lewanika,
who was getting impatient that no signs of British protection were visible.
In 1897, Robert Coryndon, one of the band of young men especially selected
by Rhodes and known as the "Apostles," was sent to Barotseland as Commissioner,
and with a small staff set about framing an administrative service. Lewanika
executed another and a more comprehensive treaty with the Company in 1900,
and from that time till post-War days, the history of North-Western Rhodesia
is devoid of any outstanding incident. Development was slow as compared with
the south.
North-Eastern Rhodesia, which was administered from Blantyre
by an Imperial officer until 1894, began its independent administration under
the Company in 1895 with Major Patrick Forbes as Deputy Administrator, but
before civil government could function, the slave trade had finally to be
suppressed, and this was not accomplished until September, 1897. A small
white settlement was formed in an area held by a Company known as the North
Chartered Exploration Company, in which the Chartered Company held shares,
and in January, 1898, the headquarters of this settlement was threatened
by a rebellion of the Angoni tribe. A military expedition from the Nyasaland
Protectorate, where there was a regiment of the British Central African Rifles
and a Sikh detachment, was sent by Colonel Manning, the Acting Commissioner,
and in a series of engagements defeated the Angoni and restored order throughout
the territory, which has enjoyed a peaceful existence since that time. Robert
Codrington came up as Administrator, the telegraph line reached Lake Tanganyika
- or rather a point south of it - and courts of justice and administrative
machinery were set up, but this region remained very much cut off from the
rest of the world. In 1911, the two provinces were united for administrative
purposes, and until the development of road communication made motoring possible
the Administrator and officials going from North-Western to North-Eastern
Rhodesia travelled via Southern Rhodesia and Beira to Blantyre, and
thence to Fort Jameson. In these circumstances white settlement was not to
be expected.
From the date of its inception in 1889 to 1898, when a
fresh régime began, the Chartered Company had been almost too much
in the public eye. The Pioneer expedition, the clash with the Portuguese,
the Matabele War, the Jameson Raid and the Rebellions - all had contributed
to make it front-page news, and the attacks of Labouchere and the Aborigines
Protection Society on native policy had given it notoriety, if years the
Company passed, so far as public interest was concerned, into an obscurity
which was only lifted for a moment in 1902 by the death of Cecil Rhodes,
and his burial in the Matopos. It is impossible to find in history any other
private citizen whose loss was felt so personally and acutely as that of
Rhodes in the country which bears his name, nor one whose memory is more
vividly preserved by a whole community of whom only a small proportion to-day
knew him personally.
There was, however, a section of the British public, the
Chartered shareholders, whose interest was of a practical kind and who assembled
every year to listen, apparently with very mixed feelings, to the glowing
report of their assets, existing and potential, and a familiar formula to
the effect that the enterprise was "just entering" the stage when they might
expect some return on their investment. Some of these meetings were by no
means peaceful, and one, at all events, broke up in disorder after it had
refused to ratify arrangements which the Board desired to make for underwriting
a fresh capital issue of one million. As a result, since the funds could
not be obtained from the ordinary investor, they had to be raised by a second
debenture issue. Without Rhodes's magic touch, it was becoming more and more
difficult to finance the country, whose taxable capacity was not increasing
in proportion to its needs. The South Africa War ended with a period of severe
depression, which affected Rhodesia, and grants-in- aid, such as those which
went to help the new colonies of the Transvaal and Orange River, were not
available for chartered territory. It was at this lowest ebb of its fortunes
that the writer first saw Southern Rhodesia, and, as was said by visiting
Director of this period, when one talks about "depression" it does not mean
that the Rhodesians themselves showed any sign of it. It was at this very
date that they boldly demanded full self-government for the first time.
Three questions of the greatest importance to the Company
and the country were agitating public opinions. First was the question of
responsibility for those administrative deficits which were an annual feature
of the Budget. There was a provision in the Charter for a distinction between
administrative and commercial revenue and expenditure, as the former was
to be submitted annually to the Secretary of State, but the difficulty of
dividing them at this stage was really insuperable. The whole of the expenditure
for the first period might be regarded as administrative, since the Company
had no direct commercial interest at the time, or, on the contrary, it might
be held to be commercial expenditure on the acquisition and development of
the Company's interest in land and minerals. It was not clear what view the
Imperial Government would take. A scheme put forward on behalf of the Company
by its Commissioner, Sir George Goldie, in 1904, brought matters to a head
with the settlers by the proposal that this administrative deficit, then
estimated at 7½ millions, should become a public debt secured on future
revenue. This was hotly contested and the proposal was dropped. A fresh Order
in Council, at the instance of the Company (1903), had increased the settlers'
representation in the Legislative Council to seven, with an equal number
of nominated members, this giving them a real voice in their government,
though financial legislation was reserved. The Council thus formed remained
the same principle until the date of Responsible Government, though the number
of elected members was gradually increased until they formed a majority.
It was a valuable training ground for Parliament Government, and from 1907
onwards the Administration had the useful experience of learning to balance
revenue and expenditure, but the moot point of the nature of and responsibility
for the deficits prior to 1907 remained to be settled finally in 1922. In
point of fact it was never really decided, except by implication.
The second bone of contention was that of the ownership
of the land, which the Company held under a concession granted originally
in 1891 to Renny-Tailyeur on behalf of E. H. Lippert, a German financier,
and sold to Rhodes. This concession was contrary to the provisions of the
Rudd concession and might have been contested, but Rhodes did not oppose
it, as it was understood that he would be able to secure it, and the Company
had been confirmed in this, as in all other concessions acquired under the
Charter. The settlers, now substantially represented in the Council, with
Charles Coghan as the leader of the elected members, questioned the
interpretation put by the Company on this concession. The matter was finally,
and by consent of the Company, referred for decision to the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council, but for various reasons judgment was deferred over
a period of four years, and it was only in 1918 that the Court decided that
the land had been acquired by conquest, and as a subject cannot hold land
by conquest, it belonged to the Imperial Government, for whom the Company
had acted as agent. Titles given by them were valid, but moneys received
for sales or quit rent were to be regarded as administrative, and not (as
hitherto) as commercial revenue. The subsequent history of this question
does not affect the Chartered Company, but it may be said here that by the
final agreement between the Imperial Government and the self-governing
Administration which took over in 1923, Crown lands were transferred to the
Southern Rhodesian Government as part of a general settlement and on payment
by it to the Imperial exchequer of £2,000,000.
22 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA |
The ownership of the minerals was also a disputed point
in the opinion of many settlers, who thought that all concessions were on
the same footing, but this question was never an issue with the Imperial
Government, and the recognition of the Company's mineral rights in Northern
and Southern Rhodesia was part of the final agreement of 1923. In 1932, the
Southern Rhodesian Government brought the mineral rights in its own territory
for £2,000,000, a transaction which has proved satisfactory to both
parties
It has been necessary to anticipate events in dealing with
these important political questions, which, it must be realized, were absorbing,
during the early years, time, money and energy which might have been employed
in development. The advantages of Company government, which many settlers
appreciated, were an absence of Colonial Office red tape, and (especially
in the initial period) a capacity to "get a move on" which does not always
distinguish Colonial Office methods. But there were disadvantages too, as
the Directors themselves realized, in the fog of uncertainty in which these
questions of financial responsibility and ownership were wrapped, and an
immediate difficulty was that the Imperial Government would not sanction
the raising of loans for public works, which restricted road making and other
necessary equipment of a modern State to what could be done out of revenue
- a really desperate handicap to a progressive Government. Even a loan for
purposes of land settlement was disallowed by the Secretary of State. It
is, in fact, remarkable what was achieved under this handicap. Lord Shelborne
left no record after a visit in 1909 that the country had the atmosphere
of civilization of far older communities such as were found in the Cape or
Natal.
The tide of prosperity actually began to turn in 1906,
and from then onwards there was a steady improvement in the financial position
which enabled the Company to embark on commercial expansion. The necessity
for immigration, particularly of the farming type, became an increasing
pre-occupation of the Board. An office was opened in the Strand for publicity
and the display of Rhodesian produce, and another in Glasgow, and a Land
Settlement Department was started in Salisbury which, as the land was still
regarded as a commercial asset, was not under the Administration. A Land
Bank was also founded, to give advances for farming purposes on the security
of first mortgages on land, and this institution, run on business lines,
and having been relieved of a good many of its agricultural investments by
the Southern Rhodesian Government Land Bank, continues to operate successfully
to this day, probably because it has confined its operations since 1923 to
urban property.
As the result of these endeavours, and also of the impressions
of the country gained by troops passing through it during the South African
War, there began a steady, if not very large, stream of immigrants of a good
type, many being experienced farmers. Could the next few years have been
undisturbed and had the land question been settled this immigration would
undoubtedly have reached far greater proportions.
The Company itself now took up farming and ranching seriously,
and the policy to be adopted was laid down after a visit of Mr. Birchenough
(later Sir Henry) in 1907. Each farm was to be a business proposition, the
land carefully selected for its suitability for some special purpose, and
the undertaking on a scale large enough to justify the heavy overhead expenses
inseparable from Company management and the provision of up-to-date and
scientific equipment. On these lines, during the next ten years, ranches
with pure-bred dairy of beef stock, citrus estates with large irrigation
schemes, experimental tobacco estates with warehouses, and farms where mealies
were the main crop, were acquired, stocked and equipped. The standard set
was undoubtedly useful to the settlers community, as were the experiments
made, and the fact that the Company itself was showing its faith in farming
by this large investment would have been more useful still but for unforeseen
events.
Among the commercial enterprises started by the Company,
at a somewhat later date, may be mentioned the first Creamery at Gwelo, the
Bacon and Oil Factories, and the Milling Company, all of which were eventually
passed on, either in part or altogether, to private or co-operative owners.
The Leather Factory was the only one which can be written down as a failure,
for causes over which the promoters had no control. In Northern Rhodesia
an effort was made with Cotton and Rubber, and export began.
It was due to this policy of putting back into the country
the surpluses now accruing in Southern Rhodesia from "commercial revenue"
(chiefly mining revenue) that no dividend was declared, greatly to the
disappointment of some shareholders, and it must be owned that investment
in agriculture and ranching has not proved as sound as it seemed in 1907,
but looked at from the wider point of view, that of the development of the
country and the attraction of fresh population to the land, even the less
successful of these efforts cannot be considered as wasted. The one drawback
was that the reiterated statement that the Chartered shareholders never got
a dividend created an unfavourable idea of Southern Rhodesia in the minds
of many people. It was, from 1907 onwards, a thriving if small community.
The mining industry then, as now, was responsible for the
increase of prosperity. Modifications of the 50 per cent. vendor's scrip
provision of the mining law took place in 1904, and in 1907 this method was
abandoned altogether in Southern Rhodesia in favour of a royal system on
a sliding scale. Other reforms helped to put the industry on a sounder basis,
and to stimulate the growth of the small worker, and as a result the figure
of gold production began to rise steadily and by 1916 reached the figure
of 930,336 oz., value £3,895,000, which is a record for quantity, though
not, of course, for value. Copper, coal and chrome also came into the picture.
The shareholders first heard Wankie in 1902. By 1914, the output of coal
was worth £115,000 and that of chrome £107,000, and these figures
were doubled in the next ten years.
Other companies in which the Chartered Company had a
considerable interest and which were now paying concerns, were the Victoria
Falls Power Company, originally a concession to utilize the water to produce
electricity for Rhodesia and the Rand. Eventually this Company decided to
establish its power plant on the Rand itself. The Railways as a whole were
also playing, and the greatest anxiety at this time was the shortage of native
labour in Southern Rhodesia, which was so pressing that the Board seriously
contemplated the importation of indentured Indian labour. The Native Labour
Bureau, which began as a voluntary body, and passed through various phases
until it became a business organization (although with a Government subsidy)
arose out of the difficulty experienced by miners and farmers alike in getting
workers. The indigenous native had not yet acquired either the habit or the
need for regular labour, and down to the present day, although the number
of labourers had greatly increased, the local natives are not by any means
sufficient to meet the demand.
In 1914 the first term of the Charter came to an end, and
despite all the political agitation against the Company which had gone on
during the whole period of its existence, the general election for seven
members of the Legislative Council returned no fewer than six who approved
the retention of that form of government for a second term of ten years.
The Secretary of State added to the Supplemental Charter the provision that
at any time during that period the Council had the right, by resolution of
an absolute majority of the whole House, to raise the question again, and
to pray the Crown for the establishment of Responsible Government.
It was thus in an atmosphere of political respite and
commercial development that the country and the Company faced the future
at the time that the Great War burst upon the world, destroying so many well-laid
plans and wrecking so many hopes.
The Company's part in the war began almost at once, for
in Northern Rhodesia they had a common frontier with the enemy. Attacks on
frontier posts by German troops were beaten off by Northern Rhodesian forces
of Rifles and Police, and afterwards with the help of Belgian troops and
reinforcements from Southern Rhodesia. Owing to the activities of Von Lettow
Vorbeck this frontier remained in the war zone during the whole period 1914-18,
and it was the Abercorn that the German commander surrendered after the
Armistice. A force of B.S.A. Police was also sent to the Caprivi strip to
defend the line to the north and the Victoria Falls Bridge. A contingent
of 500 picked men was offered to the Imperial Government, but was not at
first accepted, and was sent to help the Union Government in West Africa.
Later, a second contingent was raised and went to Europe, while a native
regiment was recruited for service in East Africa, where a Rhodesian regiment
also went. In addition, a large number of men left the country to join up
on their own initiative, and more would have gone but that their services
in the country could not be dispensed with. In all, it is estimated that
11 per cent. of the population, or 30 per cent. of the adult males, were
on military duty during the war period. The loss of the pick of the country's
manhood could never be made up, for although some returned, many did not,
or even if they did, both they and the country had lost precious years of
development which mean so much to a young community.
A scheme of farms for ex-soldiers from overseas was set
on foot by the Company as soon as peace was declared, and a small number
of these were settled on the land, but unfortunately the period when this
type of settlement was likely to be a success was drawing to a close.
Agricultural development in Southern Rhodesia had overtaken the local demand,
and in the next few years the problem of disposing of surplus products at
a remunerative price became as acute in Rhodesia as in other parts of the
world.
In 1916, after a visit of Jameson to Rhodesia, the Company
put forward a proposal for the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia
under their administration. The population of Northern Rhodesia at this time
did not include more than 2,000 whites, of whom a considerable proportion
were civil servants, and there was not even an Advisory Council, thought
this was granted in 1920. The settler community in Southern Rhodesia felt
that to join their comparatively developed political system with that of
the Northern State would mean an indefinite delay in gaining the responsible
form of government for which they had so long been asking. The Northern Rhodesian
Government had a deficit each year, and its native population would add to
the difficulty already expected in persuading the Imperial Government to
hand over a large native population to a small number of settlers. The proposal
was passed in the Legislative Council, but in deference to public opinion
in Southern Rhodesia, was never put into operation.
With the termination of the War began the last phase of
the Company's administrative régime, for it was evident that the settler
community was determined to get its political freedom. The judgment of the
Privy Council on the Land case had clearly the ground to some extent, but
in deciding that the land did not belong to the Company, it added that, on
relinquishing the administration, the Company would have the right to look
to the Crown to see that, either from the proceeds of the land or from other
sources, due reimbursement was made of "any outstanding balance of aggregate
advances made for necessary and proper administration." The definition of
"necessary Lord Cave was deputed to take evidence on this subject. The Company
claimed £7,800,000. The Cave Commission cut it down to £4,400,000,
with a proviso that the value of land alienated by the Company for considerations
other than cash had to be deducted - a figure which would have required yet
another commission to arrive at, since part of the inducement for capital
investment in railways and mining had been given in the form of grants of
land. There was also outstanding a contra claim for public buildings and
movable assets which the new Government would have to pay, but of which the
figure was disputed.
In 1920, as the result of three years' campaign by an organized
party for Responsible Government, a general election brought into Parliament
twelve elected members out of thirteen pledged to support a Petition praying
for Responsible Government, and this Petition was sent forward in June, but
beyond an acknowledgment no definite answer came until January, 1921, and
then it was a cold douche and a suggestion for delay and another election
on the same issue. The Company was no more anxious for this than the Responsible
Government Party and eventually the Imperial Government appointed a Commission
under Lord Buxton (which met in March and reported in April, 1921) on the
possibility of granting self-government at this stage. The Buxton Committee
recommended that it should be done, laid down the lines and recommended the
procedure to be followed, and a delegation under Sir Charles Coghlan, the
leader of the Responsible Government Party, went to England to discuss the
Constitution. A feature of the latter as agreed was a provision as to the
land, to the sale of which (it had been assumed by the Privy Council) the
Company must look for reimbursement of its accumulated deficits. By a provision
of the Constitution, the land was to be under the supervision of an Imperial
officer, with an Advisory Board composed of representatives of the High
Commissioner, the Company and the Government. This proposal was agreeable
neither to the Company nor to the Rhodesians, and in the circumstances, it
being proposed to start the country off without control of either land or
minerals, the way was open for an alternative which had never been quite
absent - that of union with the South. The Company threw its weight into
the scales in favour of Union, and a petition was signed in Southern Rhodesia
asking that before Responsible Government was granted the terms of union
should also be considered. In May, 1922, a delegation went to Cape Town to
discuss the subject with General Smuts, both on behalf of the Company and
of the people of Southern Rhodesia.
In the statement issued to the Press by General Smuts on
behalf of the Union Government at the conclusion of the Conference, he made
it clear that the acquisition of the Railway and Crown Lands was absolutely
necessary, and the acquisition of the mineral rights desirable, in the event
of union. The terms at which he subsequently arrived with the Chartered Company
were that, in return for the surrender of its rights and claims under the
Privy Council judgment and the Cave award relating to the unalienated land,
and for the surrender of the assets other than cash of the Rhodesia Railway
Trust, the Company would receive in cash or its equivalent the sum of
£6,836,000, and would further be indemnified against claims in respect
of the Railway debenture interest which it had guaranteed. It was stipulated
that the Crown should waive a claim for over two millions extraordinary war
expenditure for the period 1914-18, which (amazingly) was being brought into
account as part of a final settlement between Crown and Company. No terms
had been arrived at by General Smuts as regards the minerals.
26 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA |
The terms offered to Southern Rhodesia herself, through
the Elected Members, need not be specified here. They proved unacceptable
and after a very keen contest were rejected in a Referendum (October, 1922)
by a vote of 8,774 against 5,989. In announcing this result to the shareholders,
Mr. Rochford Maguire, who, nearly a quarter of a century after his fateful
visit to Lobengula's kraal, had been elected President of the Company, made
the following comments: "Deeply interested as we are in the result, I do
not think it rests with us to appraise that vote by eulogy or by criticism.
The voters were indeed voting on the disposition of their own lives, and
we must give them credit for recognizing the responsibility of their decision
... The Referendum having taken place, the position of the Company towards
the community seems very clear. We have the largest industrial and commercial
interests in the country and we have our historic connection with it. There
are none who are mote interested than we are in the growth and prosperity
of the country, and it is our duty to do all we can to make the new order
of things a success."
This spirit has actuated the Company ever since, and, with
the removal of contentious point between them and the settler population,
relations which, so far as persons were concerned, were always friendly,
have developed into close-operation in any matter which affects welfare of
the country. Two ex-officials of the Company, Sir Francis Newton and Mr.
(afterwards Sir) P. D. L. Fynn, became prominent members of the first Southern
Rhodesian Government.
There still remained the question of the amount of compensation
due to the Company on relinquishing administration, and the method of
reimbursement. The Company had filed a Petition of Right in protest against
these provisions in the Constitution. Negotiations dragged on while the
Legislative Council of Southern Rhodesia was in Session (May-July, 1923)
waiting for the result before dissolution; the elected members contesting
various items in the proposed financial settlement. At last, a few days only
before the conclusion had to be embodied in the supplementary estimates of
the Imperial Government, an offer was made by them that, on relinquishing
the administration of both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the Company should
receive a cash payment of £3,750,000, in liquidation of all past deficits
or other claims, and retain its mineral rights in Northern and Southern Rhodesia
and a half-interest for forty years in the net proceeds of the sale or lease
of land in North-Western Rhodesia. A considerable measure of protection for
its Railway interest was provided for and the claim for the War Expenditure
during 1914-18 was waived, while it was agreed that no future question would
be raised as to land appropriated for commercial undertakings or granted
to other parties.
Northern Rhodesia became a territory of the Crown on April
1st, 1894 (it has not yet achieved any more definite constitutional position);
Southern Rhodesia a Self-Governing Colony under the Constitution accepted
by the people in October, 1923. The Southern Rhodesian Government (which
was not yet in existence when the bargain was made) was to pay £2,000,000
to the Imperial Government, for which it would receive the Crown lands and
public works, so that the actual cost of the whole of Northern and Southern
Rhodesia to the Imperial exchequer was £1,750,000, plus the military
expenditure of defending it during the Great War. No comparable portion of
the British Empire can have acquired at so small a cost to the Imperial
Government - a cost more than covered by the taxation paid to the Imperial
exchequer by Rhodesian companies registered in London, so that it can be
legitimately claimed that the Colony of Southern Rhodesia cost the British
taxpayer nothing. Rhodes, who was some twenty years ahead of public or official
opinion in this matter, succeeded, in spite of Govern-
CHARTER HOUSE, SALISBURY. The British South Africa Company's Principal Office in Southern Rhodesia, as it is in 1936.
27 |
ment opposition, in enshrining the principle of Empire preference in the earliest customs tariffs, and the "Rhodes clause," although it has certainly involved loss of revenue, has been maintained by successive Governments.
AT the time of relinquishing the administration, the
commercial assets of the Company were: Firstly, mineral rights, of which
it was recognized as the owner throughout Northern and Southern Rhodesia
and over a considerable area in Nyasaland, as well as the holder of concessions
in Bechuanaland; secondly, the ownership of 3,700,000 acres of land in Southern
Rhodesia, which it had appropriated for its own purposes during the period
of its administration, and which had a market value; thirdly, land or surface
rights over land in Nyasa (2,800,000 acres), the Tanganyika Estate in
North-Eastern Rhodesia (2,661,000 acres), and Bechuanaland (600,000 acres);
fourthly, a half-interest for forty years in land sold or leased in North-Western
Rhodesia; fifty (through its share in the Railway Trust) the Railway system
between Vryburg and Sakania, Bulawayo and Umtali, with an interest in the
Beira line and the Beira Port Works.
Of these assets, undoubtedly, the most important was the
mineral rights, and their development was the immediate care of the Board.
Southern Rhodesia had already secured an energetic mining community and the
development of basic minerals, particularly chrome, coal and asbestos, more
than made up for the stationary output of gold during the years 1921-31.
For a time, the demand for asbestos exceeded the supply, and the Rhodesian
and General Asbestos Corporation was the most important supplier of high
grade asbestos in the world.
In Southern Rhodesia the Company had not only its "mineral
rights," which implied the right to royalties collected on all minerals under
legislation passed by the Government, but also interests in various companies
engaged in mining and other work, for it had been the policy from the start
to retain an interest in all companies operating in the territory.
In Northern Rhodesia the "vendor's scrip" system had not
been altogether abandoned, and mining there was the subject of agreement
between the parties, but mining development had been slow. With the desire
to stimulate prospecting, large blocks of land were granted with exclusive
prospecting rights to companies undertaking to spend specified sums in systematic
and scientific examination of reserved areas, and to this new policy were
mainly due the discoveries of copper which even the sober reports of mining
engineers characterize as "spectacular." Among those who contributed to this
special mention must be made of Dr. Bancroft, a distinguished geologist,
whose services as director of these operations the Company were able to
obtain.
About 40 per cent. of the world's copper supply in the
first half of the nineteenth century came from the British Empire, but in
the second half this had sunk to a negligible account, until discoveries
in Canada and Northern Rhodesia redressed the balance and placed British
copper once more in a dominant position. The growth of Northern Rhodesia
in these circumstances was phenomenal, and in a few years the mining centres
which sprang up became modern towns, with well-built houses, good streets,
electricity, schools, hospitals and model quarters for native employees.
The copper boom was reflected in railway returns, and the
spending power of the Railway reacted on trade. Wankie, the only working
coal mine in the territory, found it desirable to increase its plant and
duplicated its power plant, and a fresh line was laid from Wankie to Livingstone
to carry the heavy traffic of minerals to the North.
28 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA |
Mineral development in Southern Rhodesia except in coal,
chrome and asbestos, showed no great advance for some years, and two-thirds
of the gold production came from seven mines, of which the majority already
had a long life behind them. The Company would have liked to extend to Southern
Rhodesia the policy of exclusive and intensive prospecting which had been
productive in Northern Rhodesia, but political opposition prevented this,
particularly on the gold belt, where the small workers felt their interests
in open prospecting would be jeopardized. When a concession for exclusive
prospecting was granted it covered a region which was not expected to give
much result, and a proposal for another concession in a possibly rich area
was abandoned in face of the opposition. The Company had undertaken not to
exercise its rights in granting concessions without the consent of the
Government, and this, in view of public feeling, was withheld.
It was partly as a result of the agitation over prospecting
concessions that the ownership of the mineral rights again became a political
question in Southern Rhodesia, although not with the Government of the day.
Proposals were made to test the validity of the Company's ownership in some
court of law. Legal advice was taken as to how this could be done; the Company
was asked if it would sell its rights (and refused), and the whole question,
which one might have imagined had been laid to rest at the time of the 1923
settlement, was disturbing the political peace of the country. In addition,
as the first decade of commercial development drew to an end, the world was
entering that trough of trade depression from which it has not yet emerged,
and Southern Rhodesia had in addition some serious trials of its own.
The Company's landed estates in Southern Rhodesia consisted
of ranches, citrus estates, experimental tobacco and general farms, and of
these the first to cause anxiety were the ranches. Cattle fell in price after
1922, and the Union's embargo on beasts weighing less than 800lbs. was one
of the first of many blows, which culminated in an outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease and the temporary locking-up of the entire country. The chilling
and freezing works which the Imperial Cold Storage Company, by agreement
with the Government for exclusive rights, opened at Bulawayo, provided some
relief by absorbing a considerable amount of second-grade stock, but freezing
for export did not come into operation for some years, and is still only
possible with a Government bounty. The Company first decided to concentrate
all its cattle at the Nuanetsi and Sangani Ranches. Having done this, it
was able to sell the Rhodesdale Ranch, and in 1926 Nuanetsi and Sangani were
also passed over to the Rhodesian Land, Cattle and Ranching Corporation,
in which the Company retained something more than a one-third share
interest.
The closing down of its direct interest in cattle was,
as events have proved, a prudent measure for the Chartered Company, but through
its shares in other companies, it is still indirectly, but considerably,
interested. The Citrus Estates remain as its principal share in the farming
life of the Colony, but despite scientific management, the replacement of
the Washington navel orange with more suitable varieties (Valencia Late and
Premier-Jaffa) and every possible effort, the citrus industry has not yet
proved remunerative. Foreign competition, heavily subsidized, has reduced
the price of fruit below an economic standard, and although the Company still
perseveres in its endeavour to establish a citrus industry this is one of
the assets which has yet to prove its value as a source of revenue.
Apart from a maize and cotton farm at Simoona and a mixed
farm in the Sinoia district, the agricultural operations of the Company are
now directed to citrus, and to the Imbeza Forestry Estate on the Eastern
Border, which should prove of great value to
CHARTER HOUSE, NDOLA
THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA | 29 |
the country in time. Between 1922 and 1927 was the peak for Rhodesian
agriculture; maize, cotton and tobacco each in turn attracted the speculative
grower, boomed, then slumped, but in Southern Rhodesia where one door shuts
another opens. As the farmer, in common with his kind all over the world,
fell deeper into the slough of low prices and sagging markets, the soaring
price of gold increased the prosperity of the mining community.
The Chartered Company did not, as the owner of the mineral
rights, partake of this fresh draught of prosperity in Southern Rhodesia,
because, as has already been stated, from April 1st, 1933, they ceased to
be the owner of the mineral rights, which the Southern Rhodesian Government
acquired for the sum of two millions. The conditions under which the Company
exercised its rights in the southern colony were subject to limitation and
restrictions, and apart from that, as the Chairman at the 1934 Annual Meeting
said, against an uncertain income it acquired a lump sum which at the moment
would be exceedingly useful. In the previous year there had been a fall of
£1,000,000 in value of the minerals produced. Copper had dropped from
£75 to £29 per ton between 1929 and 1933; despite severe economies
the Railways could not meet their debenture interest. The heavy losses over
cattle involved a loan to the Ranching Corporation to protect the Company's
interest in it, and in this general tale of woe only two of the Company's
direct undertakings showed signs of health. One was the Rhodesian Milling
and Manufacturing Company, Limited in which the Company first became interested
in July, 1920, which was reorganized in 1926, and was now showing a profit
and reducing its debts. The other was the Land Bank, which in the worst times
continued to pay a 3 per cent. dividend.
For the first time since the date of settlement, the Charter
shareholders got no dividend in 1932. They had received a return of capital
of 5s. per share after the settlement in 1923, and substantial dividends
every year since then, with an occasional bonus, but in 1932, the Chairman
had again to recur to the formula of a previous period. The receipt of a
lump sum of £2,000,000 enabled a dividend to be declared in 1933, and
also a fresh extension of activity in Northern Rhodesia, where the agreement
arrived at for a copper production limited to one-fifth of the charter of
the three largest mines came to an end, and under a new agreement one of
the most promising mines, Mufulira, which had been temporarily closed, was
re-opened.
Economy of working was a principal factor in the revival
of the industry in Northern Rhodesia, and with the gradual resumption of
activity throughout the world, this northern copperfield should bring a new
era of prosperity in which agriculture will share.
The railway situation also began to improve, and it was
felt necessary that certain amendments to the existing legislation should
be brought into effect in order to provide for the replenishment and maintenance
of the Reserves which had been so heavily drawn upon during the years of
depression. In 1926 an Agreement had been concluded between the Railway Companies
operating in Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and the Bechuanaland
Protectorate with the Government of those territories for the regulation
of railway rates and fares by means of a special Railway Commission. That
Agreement, however, contained no legislative authority for the replenishment
and maintenance of the Statutory Reserve at a figure affording proper security
for the debenture holders.
A Conference of all the interested parties was held in
May, 1934, at Cape Town, when an Agreement was arrived at covering this point,
also providing for the establishment of a Rates Stabilization Account to
avoid violent fluctuations of rates and fares, and calling upon the Railway
Companies to effect within a period of five years a conversion of their existing
debentures to new debentures carrying a lower rate of interest.
30 | THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA |
The mineral development of Southern Rhodesia, coupled with
the increasing activities of the copper mines in Northern Rhodesia and the
revival of industry generally after the depression, are all strikingly reflected
in the railway returns.
Before leaving the subject of communications a few words
must be said about the work done, owing to the initiative and support of
the Chartered Company, at Beira. From the first endless difficulties had
to be encountered on this part of the railway line, and interruptions lasting
for days were a common feature of every wet season. Beira was originally
nothing but a few corrugated iron huts run up on a sand spit at the mouth
of the Pungwe as a military post, and dates from the 'eighties, when Mashonaland
was just beginning to attract attention. It is now one of the busiest port
on the East Coast, and in the last decade has been improved by harbour works,
which, in the teeth of great engineering difficulties, have converted it
into a modern port. Under the new conditions Beira itself has developed into
a pleasant town, and the place which, in the last half of the nineteenth
century was considered a sort of death-trap, has become a health resort for
Rhodesians, who are proud of their flourishing port, will, I am sure, acknowledge
that the British South Africa Company must be given credit for much of this
happy transformation.
Although not directly a part of the Company's activity,
it would be impossible not to include in this sketch a mention of the work
done by the Trustees of Alfred Beit's will. Mr. Beit, who was a Director,
with a short interval, from its inception to his death in 1906, left his
large fortune for education and communications in the two Rhodesias, and
this enabled the construction of several branch railway lines in both colonies
to be made at a time when railway construction was not an attractive investment.
The Beit Bridge over the Limpopo, the Birchenough Bridge over the Sabi, and
the Luanga River Bridge in Northern Rhodesia are notable engineering feats,
and a series of bridges along the main road arteries of the two Rhodesias
has helped to open up the country for motoring. Advantage was taken of this
by the Railway Companies to institute feeder road motor service to the more
remote districts, to the great benefit of the country inhabitants. There
is hardly any part of Southern Rhodesia with white settlement which is now
linked up to the railways by a weekly or bi-weekly service. Of the contributions
made to education through scholarships and the erection of school halls,
and to the health services of the country through assistance to hospitals
and maternity homes, it is impossible to give details. No other colony has
had such a fairy godmother as Alfred Beit has proved to be to the country
which bears his friend's name.
Finally, in this rapid historical survey much has been
said of policies but little of the men who carried them through, and space
will only permit of the mention of some of those at the head of affairs,
who would be the first to recognize that the hardest work has often fallen
on less distinguished shoulders. The Presidents of the Company have only
been five in forty-seven years; the Duke of Abercorn from 1890-1913, when
he died (his son is a member of the president Board); Sir Starr Jameson,
1913-1917, during which time he revisited Rhodesia twice; Mr. Rochfort Maguire,
1917-1926, being the last of the original Board; Mr. Lyttleton Gell, whose
term was brief, and Mr. (now Sir Henry) Birchenough, who has been on the
Board for a quarter of a century, and has paid many visits to the country.
Space only permits mention of three others: Mr. Dougal Orme Malcolm, who
was one of the first "all-time" Directors elected in 1914 to keep the Board
in closer touch with the country, and who spent some time in Rhodesia as
visiting Director; Sir Edmund Davis, whose inclusion on the Board was a
recognition of his work in developing the base mineral resources of the two
Rhodesias; and Sir
[Afbeelding: Sir Francis Drummond Percy Chaplin (1866-1933). Olieverf op doek (?).]
SIR FRANCIS DRUMMOND PERCY CHAPLIN, G.B.E., K.C.M.G., Administrator of Southern Rhodesia, 1914-1923; and of Northern Rhodesia, 1921-1923. Resident Director of the British South Africa Company from 1923 until his death in 1933.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA | 31 |
Ernest Oppenheimer, who, as Chairman of De Beers, carries on the traditional
close association with the Chartered Company, and to whose courage and foresight
it is due that the mineral interests of Northern Rhodesia, as to which many
financial houses were at one time doubtful, remain so largely in British
hands.
Of the Company's administrative officers, Mr. A. R. Colquhound
and Dr. L. S. Jameson were Administrators of Mashonaland, the latter being
succeeded for two years (1896-1897) by Earl Grey, and then by Mr. (afterwards
Sir William) Milton, who organized the Civil Service and remained in office
doing invaluable work till 1913. Sir William Milton became Administrator
of Southern Rhodesia when the Hon. A. Lawley, who was Administrator of
Matabeleland, left for a governorship in Australia in 1902, and the two provinces
were merged. The name "Rhodesia," it may be mentioned here, was first used
tentatively by the Press of the Cape in 1891, and Rhodes writing to Stead
in August of that year, mentions that "they are calling the country after
me." The first newspaper printed in Mashonaland in October, 1892, used the
title Rhodesia Herald, but it was not till 1895 that the name "Rhodesia"
was "proclaimed" by the Company, and not till 1898 that it was officially
recognized in the "Southern Rhodesia Order in Council of 1898."
On Sir William Milton's retirement in 1913, he was succeeded
by Sir Drummond Chaplin, a very able administrator, who remained in office
till Responsible Government was established in 1923, and then acted as Resident
Director in Africa for the Chartered Company until his death in 1933. With
the separation of commercial and administrative affairs in 1907, a commercial
manager was needed, and this post was filled till 1928 by Major Percy Inskipp
(who was absent on active service during the Great War). Major Inskipp was
a member of the Pioneer Column in 1890, and the only one of the rank and
file who rose to be a Director on the Board, a post which he resigned for
health reasons. He was succeeded as General Manager in 1928 by Lt.-Colonel
T. Ellis Robins, who, on the death of Sir Drummond Chaplin in 1933, followed
the latter as Resident Director in Africa.
In the north three names are associated with the
administration: Robert Coryndon, one of Rhodes's "Apostles," who went to
North-Western Rhodesia (Barotseland) in 1897, and ended his too short career
in Kenya, as Governor of that Colony; R. E. Codrington, who served first
in North-Eastern and then in North-Western Rhodesia, until 1907; and L. A.
Wallace (afterwards Sir Laurence Wallace), who served first in North-Eastern,
then in North-Western, and subsequently (1911) became Administrator of the
whole of Northern Rhodesia. He retired in 1921, for the remaining two years
of the Company's administration Sir Drummond Chaplin acted in both North
and South.
In 1923, Lt.-Colonel Sir John Chancellor, G.C.M.G., D.S.O.,
first Governor of Southern Rhodesia, and a quite impartial judge of this
question paid a tribute to the Chartered Company which brings this sketch
to a close:-
"I venture to say that no territory annexed to the British
Empire in the last 100 years has come with more perfect title deeds or a
more honourable record than Rhodesia."
May-June, 1936.
THE British South Africa Company desires to record its
grateful thanks to many friends who have assisted in providing material for
the Exhibit, the Catalogue of which appears in the following pages.
Among these, special thanks are due to the Minister of
Internal Affairs, Southern Rhodesia; the Witwatersrand University; Gubbins
Museum of Africana; the Librarian of Parliament, Cape Town; Messrs. Strachan
and Company of Salisbury; Mr. Percy M. Clark, Victoria Falls; Mr. J. S. Loosley,
of Port Alfred; Mr. George Lamb, of Salisbury; and to Mr. V. W. Hiller, the
Government Archivist, Southern Rhodesia, who organized and arranged the Exhibit
and without whose help and advice this collection of Pictures could never
have been made.
Descriptive Catalogue of Exhibit of Historical Pictures
SECTION I. - THE MATABELE
MZILIKAZI was an induna of Tjaka, the Zulu King, and
left Zululand a fugitive in 1817, with his impis and their women. He fled
into the Central Transvaal and, in 1825, settled temporarily at Modega, from
where he was driven by the immigrant Boers in 1837 and, wasting and ravaging
the country as he went, he fled across the Limpopo into what is now known
as Southern Rhodesia, where he forced a wedge through the Makalanga, the
southern branch of the Shona-speaking peoples. Although the infusion of new
blood by the absorption of young boys and girls brought added strength to
the tribe, the original Zulu section preserved its identity and remained
the aristocracy of the Matabele nation. He first settled at Mhlahlandlela,
close to the spot where the Rhodes Matopo Dam now is. Thence he travelled
to Inyati, where he built his royal kraal. It was there that Moffat visited
him in 1854 and again in 1859. Mzilikazi died in 1868.
Lobengula, after some tribal dissensions, succeeded his
father, Mzilikazi, as King of the Matabele, in 1870. In the same year he
moved his capital to a site on the north-east border of Sauerdale, two miles
from the former capital, Mhlahlandlela. This town was named Bulawayo. It
was subsequently moved to the site occupied by the present town. It is sufficient
here to note that he died in January, 1894, on the banks of the Shangani
River. Lobengula, though corpulent, was tall and kingly in his appearance,
and dignified in his demeanour. He ruled his own people on the despotic
traditional lines of his father, and never ceased to harass the surrounding
tribes, but he was usually courteous to the white people who visited him
and protected them from undue molestation. The termination of his régime
was rendered inevitable by the approach of a civilization with which it was
incompatible.
1. Mzilikazi. - From Wild Sports of Southern Africa, by Captain Sir William Cornwallis Harris, who visited Mzilikazi at Kaplan in 1837.
2. War Dance. - As witnessed by Sir Andrew Smith in Marico, 1835, when he was on a scientific expedition. A feature is the rhythmical stamping of thousands of warriors. From a drawing by C. D. Bell, Surveyor-General at the Cape, 1847-72, who accompanied Sir Andrew Smith on his scientific expedition, 1835.
- Witwatersrand University.
3. Departure from Mosega. - Cornwallis Harris leaving Mosega. From his Wild Sports in Southern Africa, 1837.
4. Matabele Warrior. - From Wild Sports in Southern Africa, Cornwallis Harris, 1837.
5. Moffat with Mzilikazi. - Sir Andrew Smith, leader of the scientific expedition (1835) to the interior, being introduced by Reverend Robert Moffat. From an original drawing by C. D. Bell.
- Witwatersrand University.
c
6. Tribute Bearers. - A train of tribute bearers being conducted with supplies to Mzilikazi (1835). From an original drawing by C. D. Bell.
- Witwatersrand University.
7. Presentation to Mzilikazi. - Head, paws and tail of lioness and two Zulu boys reputed to have killed her in defence of their cattle, being presented to Mzilikazi (1835). From an original drawing by C. D. Bell.
- Witwatersrand University.
8. Chief Wanki and Baines. - From a water-colour sketch by Thomas Baines of his interview with Wanki, Chief of the Sapatane tribe on the Zambesi, 1863.
- Gubbins Museum of Africana, Johannesburg.
9. First Fruits Dance, 1880. - From a painting by Fr. Croonenbergh, an early Jesuit missionary in Matabeleland. Lobengula is seen in the centre surrounded by a small group of missionaries. The dance was an important religious ceremony with the Matabele.
- Gubbins Museum of Africana, Johannesburg.
10. Matabele in War-Dress. - From an engraving in To the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, by E. Mohr, an explorer who visited the Victoria Falls in the 'seventies.
11. Mzilikazi's Grave. - The Matabele King died on 5th September, 1868, and his remains, together with his personal effects, were placed on two wagons and taken for some miles from his kraal in the Matopos to Entumbane. The remains and personal effects were placed in a large cave, the wagons after being taken to pieces were then placed in another cave, and both burial places were closed with stones.
12. Lobengula, King of the Matabele, 1870-93. - From a sketch by E. A. Maund (1889), worked up by Ralph Peacock, the portrait painter.
13. Certificate. - Signed by E. A. Maund, supporting the above sketch of Lobengula.
14. Lobengula's Kraal. - This was his first royal kraal at old Bulawayo, a couple of miles south of the Criterion Mine and on a commanding position now known as Sauerdale. Only a few traces remain of it. In 1887, it was moved to the site occupied by the present town. From a sketch by A. A. Anderson, author of Twenty-five Years in a Wagon in the Gold Regions of Africa, 1887.
- Bulawayo Public Library.
15. Visitors to Lobengula. - Sir Sidney Shippard (in white topee) with Major Goold-Adams (seen on his left) visited Lobengula in 1888 at the time Rhodes's agents were endeavouring to get to Lobengula to sign the Rudd-Rhodes Concession. They were met by the Revs. D. Carnegie and C. D. Helm and J. S. Moffat (British representative with Lobengula), and, as a result of this mission, the Chief's consent to the Concession was obtained.
16. Draft Agreement. - Draft form of a concession in favour of Lord Grifford, representing the Bechuanaland Exploration Company. It covenants to give Lobengula £100 for a concession over all the minerals in his territories.
- Witwatersrand University.
35
17. Rudd-Rhodes Concession. - The foundation-stone of the Chartered Company and of the British occupation of Mashonaland. Signed on 30th October, 1888, Lobengula making his mark, the signatories being C. D. Rudd, J. Rochfort Maguire, and F. R. Thompson. The Rev. C. D. Helm and H. J. Dreyer witnessed it, the former furnishing a certificate to the effect that he had explained its contents to the King. Rudd left at once with the document, and on his return through Bechuanaland missed his way and lost touch with his companion Dreyer, and might have perished of thirst but for the timely help of some passing natives. Later, Lobengula showed signs of repudiating the Concession. Dr. Jameson then visited him and permission was secured by him for the occupation of Mashonaland. The quid pro quo for the Concession was the payment of £100 per month, delivered to Lobengula of 1,000 Martini-Henri rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition and a steamboat on the Zambesi. The rifles and ammunition were accepted and the monthly payments made to Lobengula until within three or four months of his departure from Bulawayo.
18. C. D. Rudd. - Rhodes's colleague in his early activities on the Diamond Fields, and also on a later date on the Gold Fields of the Witwatersrand.
18a. J. Rochfort Maguire. - An Oxford friend of Rhodes. Later he became a Director of the Chartered Company, and its President from 1923 until his death in 1925.
18b. F. R. Thompson. - He accompanied the Concession party as interpreter Known as "Matabele Thompson."
- Lent by Mrs. Thos. Stewart.
18c. Rev. C. D. Helm. - One of the London Missionary Society missionaries stationed at Hope Fountains, Matabeleland, since 1875. He was much trusted and respected by Lobengula for his integrity.
19. Lobengula's Seal. - Entrusted by the King, for safe custody, to the trader Fairbairn, in whose possession the Seal remained on Lobengula's retreat from Bulawayo. It eventually fell into the hands of Dr. Jameson, and is now to be seen at Groote Schuur.
- Photograph by Arthur Elliott, Cape Town.
20. Delegation to England. - When Rudd and Maguire left Bulawayo, efforts were made by rival concessionaires to oppose the Concession granted to them. Lobengula, on representation by E. A. Maud, of the Exploring Company, sent two indunas, Babyaan and M'shete, accompanied by Johan Colenbrander, as interpreter, to England bearing an astutely-worded letter to the Queen, doubtless with a view to opposing the Rudd-Rhodes Concession. The Queen received the mission at Windsor, and informed them that an answer to their message would be given through her Ministers.
- Gubbins Museum of Africana, Johannesburg.
21. Envelope addressing to Lobengula. - King Lobengula's postal address in 1893.
22. Lobengula's Chain. - Given by Queen Victoria to the indunas, on the occasion of their visit, for presentation to Lobengula. The ornamental chain has a £5 Jubilee piece attached as a pendant, bearing the inscription "From Queen Victoria to Lobengula, March, 1889." This article Lobengula gave to one of his queens, and it subsequently found its way to the South African Museum, Cape Town, and is at present on loan to the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia.
23. M'shete and Babyaan. - Babyaan, a counsellor of the Matabele nation, and M'shete, Lobengula's old general, seen at Rhode's camp in the Matopos in 1896. They were destitute as a result of the Rebellion, and were supplicants at the camp of Rhodes, who gave Babyaan a pension for life.
24. Indaba Tree. - In the grounds of Government House, Bulawayo, where Lobengula held his administrative court and under which the Moffat Treaty was signed in 1888, which subsequently led to the approval of the Imperial Government being given to the Rudd-Rhodes Concession.
25. M'jaan. - One of Lobengula's generals who survived the Matabele War.
- Photograph by Percy M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
26. Gambo. - Onbe of the most loyal and able of Lobengula's adherents and his Commander-in-Chief. When he realized that Rhodes had supplanted Lobengula, he supported Rhodes, and was as loyal to him as he had been to his former Chief. On being asked by Rhodes in what way he could help him, he replied, that he would like to have a few good bulls, which he would pay for, and also some engineering assistance in connection with water-conservation.
27. Matabele Warriors. - Two young representatives of the fine race of Matabele warriors.
28. Matabele Maidens. - Three Matabele maidens taken at the time of the Rebellion.
- Photograph by Percy M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
SEVERAL motives inspired those, who, in the teeth of vast distances, hostility of the natives, and difficulties of transport, penetrated the interior of South Central Africa before it came under British influence. Among these were love of adventure, religious zeal and geographical investigation. Missionaries were the first Europeans to settle within the borders of what is now known as Southern Rhodesia. It is accepted that the Portuguese had transient missionary influence in Mashonaland in the sixteenth century. A considerable period elapsed before Europeans again entered the country, and then came the hunters, who blazed the trail for the trader and prospector. It is entirely due to the efforts of Robert Moffat that missionaries were first permitted to settle in Matabeleland. Portraits of only a few of these intrepid men can be included in the exhibit as the effluxion of time has accounted for the loss or destruction of a great many that must have existed.
29. Baptism of Monomatapa. - This picture purports to represent the visit in the sixteenth century of Father Gonzalez Silveira to the Monomatapa, the name by which the native Chief was known. Silveira was a Portuguese missionary, who was sent out by the Society of Jesus, first to Goa, and later, when a request was made for missionaries to be sent to Mozambique, he was chosen to go there. He reached Mozambique in 1560, and the following year penetrated into the country of the Monomatapa, now identified with the northern part of Southern Rhodesia. He baptized the Monomatapa in January, 1561.
- Photograph, Arthur Elliot, Cape Town.
37
30. Martyrdom of Father Silveira. - The Monomatapa was friendly at first, but later was thought to have been influenced by Arab traders, who objected to the spread of Portuguese influence. Silveira, after having been accused of witchcraft, was strangled on 15th March, 1561, and his body was thrown into the Msengesi River, in the Mazoe district, flowing northward into the Zambesi.
- Photograph, Arthur Elliot, Cape Town.
31. Title Page of Life of Silveira. - Compiled by Father Nicoloa Codigno from references to Silveira, which are to be found from the Fathers in the Royal Library, Lisbon, and in documents in the Archives and Library of the Vatican. Published, 1616.
- From Campion House Library, Salisbury.
32. David Livingstone. - The well-known explorer-missionary was born at Blantyre, Scotland, 1813. He supported himself from the age of eight by working in a cotton mill. He joined the London Missionary Society, took orders and went to Africa, joining Dr. Moffat at Kuruman in 1844. In 1849, he started his travels, and between that date and 1853, shared with Oswell, Murray and Wilson the discovery of Lake Ngami, penetrated north of the Zambesi to Angola, and discovered the Victoria Falls. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and other honours, and was asked by the British Government to lead an expedition up the Zambesi for scientific and geographical research. At the same time he was offered, and accepted, a consular post in Central Africa, in consequence leaving the mission field because of the opportunity offered to combat the slave trade in that region. The Zambesi expedition of 1859 led to exploration in the Lakes country, and he discovered Lakes Shirwa and Nyasa. For a certain period he searched for the head-waters of the Nile, and not being heard of for two years, was found by Stanley at Ujiji in October, 1871. Stanley reluctantly left him. Livingstone died on 4th May, 1873, of dysentery and exhaustion, south of Lake Bangweolo. His body was taken to England and buried in Westminster Abbey. Livingstone, in 1844, married Robert Moffat's daughter, Mary, who died in 1860 at Shupanga, on the Shiré River. For a fuller description of Livingstone and his activities, reference should be made to the many biographies available on the subject.
33. Livingstone Statue. - This statue, at the Victoria Falls, by Sir W. Reid Dick, R.A., was unveiled in August, 1934, by the hon. H. U. Moffat, C.M.G., ex-Premier of Southern Rhodesia, and a nephew of Livingstone's wife. The unveiling was the occasion of the first overseas broadcast from Southern Rhodesia.
34. Robert Moffat. - Was born in 1795, and began life as a gardener, afterwards joining the London Missionary Society, in which service he came to Africa in 1817. In 1824, he founded at Kuruman an important and successful missionary establishment. Moffat visited Mzilikazi in 1829 at his kraal in what is now known as Central Transvaal, and he was accompanied there by David Hume. His next visit to Mzilikazi was in 1835, with Sir Andrew Smith, and he made subsequent visits to the King, then in Matabeleland, in 1854 (in company with Sam Edwards), 1857, and lastly in 1859, when, after Moffat had gained considerable influence with the King, he established at Inyati the first white missionary settlement. He left Kuruman in March, 1870, for England, where he died on 9th August, 1883, at the advanced age of eighty-eight. From an early Baxter print.
- Gibbins Museum of Africana, Johannesburg.
35. Robert Moffat (circa 1875).
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
38
36. Kuruman. - The London Missionary Society Station founded by Robert Moffat in 1824, where J. S. Moffat was born. From a Baxter print in Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa, by Robert Moffat, 1842.
37. Rev. and Mrs. Sykes. - Went to Inyati in 1859 with Robert Moffat and remained there until 1887, in which year the Rev. Sykes died. Mrs. Sykes, who died in 1920 at the age of ninety-two, lived to see the fourth generation of her descendants in Southern Rhodesia.
- Daguerreotype lent by W. A. Carnegie, Esq.
38. Inyati (circa 1862). - The first Mission founded by Robert Moffat in Matabeleland, as it appeared in the 'sixties.
39. John Smith Moffat. - Born at Kuruman, 1835, educated in England and joined the London Missionary Society in 1858. Was settled by his father at Inyati in 1859, where he remained for six years. Some years later, finding himself out of sympathy with missionary policy, he resigned from the Society and joined the Imperial Government Service, being stationed successively at Zeerust, during the British occupation of the Transvaal, and in Basutoland. After the Warren Expedition in 1884, he was appointed Assistant Commissioner for Bechuanaland. In 1887 he paid his first official visit to Matabeleland, and was instrumental in persuading Lobengula to sign, in February, 1888, what is known as the Moffat Treaty. This Treaty resulted in Lobengula's territory coming within the British sphere of influence. Moffat was constantly at Bulawayo between 1887 and 1892, and acted as representative of the Chartered Company. In 1890 he was decorated with the C.M.G. for services in Matabeleland. On the transfer of British Bechuanaland to the Cape Government in 1895, he was retired on a small pension and devoted the rest of his life to religious work. He died in 1918 at his home at Moqbray, Cape Province, aged eighty-three, but he lived long enough to preach in 1914 at the service in commemoration of his father's landing in Africa one hundred years before.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
40. Mrs. J. S. Moffat. - David Livingstone, before he and his wife (J. S. Moffat's sister) set sail for the Zambesi in 1858, officiated at the wedding in Brighton of Emily Unwin to John Smith Moffat. Mrs. Moffat accompanied her husband to Inyati in 1859, where her son, Livingstone, and her daughter, now Mrs. J. S. Loosley, were born. They were the first white children to be born in Southern Rhodesia.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
41. Thomas Morgan Thomas. - One of the original party of missionaries who settled at Inyati in 1859. Attended Mzilikazi during his last illness and was also present at the coronation of Lobengula. Author of Eleven Years in South Central Africa, 1870, one of the earliest works on Matabeleland, giving up to that time the best description of the country a quarter of a century before its occupation. He moved to Shiloh in 1875 and died in 1884.
42. Grave of Mrs. Thomas at Inyati. - Mrs. Thomas accompanied her husband, the Rev. T. M. Thomas, to Matabeleland in 1859, and died at the age of twenty-two at Inyati on 10th June, 1862. The earliest known grave of a white woman in Southern Rhodesia.
43. John Mackenzie. - Joined Robert Moffat at Kuruman in 1860 and visited Inyati in 1863, where he frequently interviewed Mzilikazi, who at this period was then an old man, suffering from an incurable disease. He became prominent as an authority on the Bechuana, opposing the annexation of their country by the Cape Colony. He wished to see Bechuanaland directly under the British Government. In 1884, he was appointed Commissioner of the Territory by the Imperial Government, but in the disorders which followed he was recalled and succeeded by Rhodes. Accompanied Sir Charles Warren's expedition as adviser, afterwards returning to England. Accepted in 1892 charge of the London Missionary Society's station at Hankey, near Port Elizabeth. Was the author of a number of books, including Austral Africa, Ten Years North of the Orange River and Day Dawn in Dark Places. He died in Kimberley, 1899.
44. Hope Fountain, 1880. - Station of the London Missionary Society founded in 1870 by the Rev. J. B. Thomson. After Mzilikazi's death, the Royal Kraal was moved from Inyati to the fringe of the Matopo Hills, as it was felt desirable that the Mission should be represented near the seat of government. In 1875, the Rev. C. D. Helm arrived at Hope Fountain, where he remained in charge for the long period of thirty-nine years. During the Matabele Rebellion, Hope Fountain was burnt to the ground, but rebuilt afterwards. From a contemporary sketch by Father Croonenbergh.
- Mrs. H. Lovemore.
45. Francois Coillard. - Member of the Society of Evangelical Missions in Paris, which being excluded from Mission work in French Colonies, responded to an appeal from the London Missionary Society in 1868 for African missionaries, and founded stations in Basutoland and elsewhere. Coillard married a Scottish lady, Christina Mackintosh, and she, together with her niece, accompanied him on a two-years' journey north of the Zambesi to reconnoitre a suitable place for a mission. Eventually, this was established at Lealui, the capital of the Paramount Chief of the Barotse, Lewanika, over whom Coillard exercised considerable influence, which he used to persuade the Chief to place himself under British protection. Mme. Coillard, who, in company with her niece, Miss Mackintosh, and Mrs. Westbeeck, was one of the first women to see the Victoria Falls, died in Barotseland in 1890. Coillard, who lived to see the establishment of civilised government north of the Zambesi, died in 1904.
46. Coillard in Camp, 1878. - An illustration from How I Crossed Africa by Major A. A. de Serpa Pinto, 1881, the second white man to cross the African Continent from coast to coast, who was nursed back to health by Mme. Coillard at this camp, Luchuma, 1878.
47. Coillard's Mission Party, 1884. - Europeans, left to right: Mr. Middleton, M. Coillard, Miss Mackintosh, Mme. Coillard, M. Jeanmairet and Mr. Waddell.
48. Father Depelchin. - Superior of the Zambesi Mission and pioneer Jesuit missionary who, in 1879, obtained permission from Lobengula to found a mission nation in Matabeleland.
49. Ruins of Jesuit Station. - Founded by Father Depelchin, originally the house of a trader, F. Greite. This was at Sauerdale, near the site of Lobengula's kraal. The station is in ruins, Fathers Depelchin and Croonenbergh having been recalled in 1885.
50. Pandamatenka (circa 1880). - The station established by Father Depelchin at a trading and hunting centre situated on the "Northern Hunters' road," about fifty miles from Victoria Falls.
51. Father Augustus Law. - On arrival in Matabeleland in 1879, he was sent to Gazaland to Chief Umzila, whose daughter (now living in the Municipal Location, Salisbury) had just reached Bulawayo as a bride of Lobengula. Relying on the protection of Lobengula, Law with Father Wehl and two lay-brothers set out on the long journey across Mashonaland and were robbed by natives. Wehl was lost for some time, but fortunately met a hunter who took care of him. Law reached Umzila's Kraal (near the present Chipinga, in South Melsetter), and was at first well received. One lay-brother went back to retrieve their wagon, and, to his surprise, met Wehl, and together they returned to Umzila's, meeting on the way the other brother, who told them that Law had died (25th November, 1880). The survivors proceeded to Sofala, where the Portuguese had a post, and Wehl died there. The two brothers returned to Bulawayo to report to their Superiors. Thus ended the first effort to introduce Christianity in Matabeleland since the martyrdom of Silveira in 1561. In 1904, Father Prestage visited Law's grave and removed the remains to consecrated ground at Chishawasha Mission, near Salisbury.
52. Bishop Knight-Bruce. - As Bishop of Bloemfontein, he made his first journey through Matabeleland and Mashonaland in 1888, actually covering, in four months, some 565 miles, of which much was done on foot. In 1891, he was appointed Bishop of Mashonaland and entered the territory on foot via Beira. Shortly afterwards he went to England to raise funds for his Diocese. He was with the troops in the Matabele War of 1893. In 1894, he was forced by ill-health to resign. Died in 1898 at Bovey Tracey, where he held a living.
- Lent by Bishop of Southern Rhodesia.
53. Father Prestage. - Obtained leave to found a mission station at Empandeni (Plumtree), 1885. The mission was temporarily abandoned in 1889. On abandonment, Prestage went south and was appointed Military Chaplain to the British South Africa Company's forces. He accompanied the Dominican Sisters, first to Tuli, subsequently to Fort Salisbury, and in August, 1891, selected the site for Chishawasha Mission. Empandeni was re-opened by him in 1895 on a new site. He died at Gwelo, 1907.
54. Jan Viljoen, 1826-1904. - Became one of the best-known hunters of Ngamiland and Southern Matabeleland. His friendship with Mzilikazi led to his obtaining permission to hunt in Mashonaland in 1865, and he was the first European hunter in that part of the country. He conducted Selous on his first visit to what is now Southern Rhodesia. He also conducted James Chapman at an earlier date on his first hunting trip into the interior. He fought at Boomplaats in 1848 against the British forces under Colonel Harry Smith, and being one of the wanted men after the fight, he immediately trekked north to where the town of Zeerust now stands and settled on a farm which he called Ver Genoeg (Far Enough), where he died in 1904. Viljoen was renowned for his kindliness of disposition.
- J. J. Viljoen, Esq., Zeerust.
55. William Charles Baldwin. - Hunted in Zululand, 1851, and later in Northern Bechuanaland. It was on one of his trips to the latter region in 1860 that he visited the Victoria Falls, where he met Livingstone and Kirk, the former being there on his second visit. Baldwin was the second white man to reach the Falls independently. It must be placed to Baldwin's credit that he made, in the light of later investigations, an extraordinarily correct estimate of the proportions of the Falls; the Falls was greatly underestimated by Livingstone on his first visit, probably due to his stay there of only
GRAVE OF THE FOUNDER OF RHODESIA, WORLD'S VIEW, MATOPO HILLS.
"The immense and brooding Spirit still
Shall quicken and control,
Living he was the land, and dead,
His soul shall be her soul!"
-Rudyard Kipling
41
one day. Baldwin was a man of small stature, only five feet two inches high, but evidently endowed with great powers of endurance. Author of African Hunting and Adventures from Natal to the Zambesi, 1863.
56. Alfred Cross. - Matabeleland hunter. Left Kimberley in 1871 for the interior in company with W. A. Browne and W. Tainton. Remained in the country from 1871 to 1880, and was a hunting companion of Selous during this period.
57. Emil Holub. - An Australian medical man, who, between 1872 and 1887, made, on behalf of Vienna University, collections of scientific interest in Bechuanaland, Matabeleland and Barotseland. Author of Seven Years In Africa, and numerous pamphlets.
58. Edward Mohr. - A German traveller and hunters who visited the Victoria Falls and Lobengula in 1870. Author of To the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, 1875.
59. Frank Oates. - The first scientific traveller in Matabeleland who penetrated as far as the Victoria Falls. Made collections of botanical, entomological and other specimens. Died near Tati, 1875, on his return journey. His letters and journals were subsequently edited and published.
60. Baines and Chapman on the Zambesi, 1862. - Baines was one of the earliest travellers and the first artist of the Zambesi basin. This picture, which he painted in 1862, depicts him in company with Chapman in a canoe on the Zambesi River, after their remarkable journey from Walfish Bay to the Victoria Falls. From the folio album by Thos. Baimes entitled The Victoria Falls, Zambesi River, 1865.
61. Camp at Daka, 1863. - From a sketch by Baikes reproduced in The Illustrated London News of that period.
62. Description of Victoria Falls. - From the MS. diary of Richard Frewen, 1877.
- Witwatersrand University
RHODES in his early manhood was handicapped by health so uncertain that it was considered he had not long to live. In spite of his short span of life - for he died at the age of forty-nine - he achieved greatness in many directions, but chiefly by adding to the British Empire a vast new territory, to which his name was given. He was a great Imperialist and firm believer in the destiny of the British race and Empire as one of the greatest civilizing influences. With this in mind, he provided in his Will for a generous and unprecedented system of scholarship, at Oxford, for the benefit of students from the British Dominions and, to give expression to his breadth of view, he also made provision for students from the United States and Germany. The salient points in the career of the Founder of Rhodesia have been briefly stated, and it is unnecessary here to do more than direct the reader's attention to the standard biographies, of which there are many, dealing with the life of this great man.
63. Birthplace. - Cecil John Rhodes was born in this house, called "Thornley Bourne," at Bishop Stortford, on 5th July, 1853. He went to the local Grammar School.
- Lent by C. J. Siebert, Esq.
42
64. Diamond Fields, 1872. - This gives a good idea of the confusion and lack of method prevailing at Kimberley in the early days. The foundation of Rhodes's fortune was laid in Kimberley, where beginning with a partnership with Rudd and Alderson in the De Beers Mining Company, he finally brought about 1888 the amalgamation of the mines under control of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. Rhodes did not seek money for money's sake, but for the powers that it gave him to carry out his projects.
- Photograph, Arthur Elliot, Cape Town.
65. At Oxford. - Rhodes, in a College group, is shown standing on the extreme left, with his hand in his pocket, wearing a bowler's hat.
- Lent by C. J. Siebert, Esq.
66. At Kimberley. - A group taken in June, 1890. Names from left (seated): J. Rochfort Maguire, who, with Rudd, obtained the Concession from Lobengula in October, 1888; H. H. Johnston, appointed H.B.M.'s Consul at Mozambique, where he was to play a great part in securing North-Eastern Rhodesia; C. J. Rhodes; and A. R. Colquhoun, who accompanied the Pioneer Column as the first Administrator of Mashonaland; (standing): J. Grant, Joseph Thomson, and J. W. Moir.
67. Twelve Apostles. - This name was applied to a band of twelve young men drawn from various occupations and all known to Rhodes, who joined the Pioneer Column. Names from left (bottom row): Worrall, Mac Robert, Nesbitt; (middle row): Hill, Adcock, Campbell, Christison, Featherstonehaugh; (back row): Durrell, O'Meara, Grimmer and Coryndon. Corydon went to Barotseland in 1897 and ended his career as Governor of Kenya, where he died.
68. Letter from Rhodes. - A letter, dated 7th September, 1889, to E. A. Maund, stating that Rhodes's part is done and that the Charter supporting the Rudd Concession is granted.
Gubbind Museum of Africana, Johannesburg.
69. Groote Schuur before Fire. - This was Rhodes's home at Rondebosch. It was originally built as a granary for the Dutch East India Company and eventually acquired by Rhodes. In 1896, it was burnt down, while he was in Rhodesia, and was rebuilt to the design of Herbert Baker.
- Lent by J. Norris, Esq.
70. Cecil John Rhodes, 1890.
- Lent by J. Norris, Esq.
71. Party, Groote Schuur, 1891. - Names, left to right: Dr. F. R. Harris, Dr. Schultz, Sir Sidney Shippard, C. J. Rhodes and Dr. Jameson.
- Lent by J. Norris, Esq.
72. Groote Schuur after Fire.
- Lent by J. Norris, Esq.
73. Rhodes and Others. - After a meeting of the De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, 1894, with which most of those present were connected. Names from left (standing): Dr. F. R. Harris, W. H. Craven, G. W. Compton, Lt.-Col. Goold-Adams (B.B.P.), Gardner Williams J. H. Lange, D. Harris; (seated): R. Solomon, D. J. Haarhof, L. S. Jameson, C. J. Rhodes, F. L. Newton (Colonial Secretary, British Bechuanaland), H. Robinson, C. E. Nind.
- Lent by De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.
74. Rhodes Cabinet, 1895. - Names from left (standing): Sir H. Juta, Sir John Frost; (seated): J. H. Lange, C. J. Rhodes, Sir Gordon Sprigg, and P. Faure.
- Photograph, Arthur Elliott, Esq., Cape Town.
75. In Camp. - Rhodes in camp at Old Umtali, 1897, seated with J. Grimmer, then acting as his Private Secretary, and Tony, his valet, in the background.
- Photograph, Arthur Elliott, Esq., Cape Town.
76. On the Site of his Grave. - Rhodes chose this site in the Matopo Hills, near Bulawayo, during the Rebellion of 1896, when he was camped in the vicinity. He in his will called it "A View of the World."
- Photograph, Percy M. Clarke, Esq., Victoria Falls.
77. Huts at the Matopos. - The primitive accommodation provided for himself and guests at Rhodes's farm in the Matopos, where he constructed the first dam built in Southern Rhodesia. This estate by his will was left to the country, and it is now an agricultural training centre.
- Photograph, Percy M. Clarke, Esq., Victoria Falls.
78. Cottage at Muizenberg. - Rhodes died here on 26th March, 1902. He chose the position because it faced the sea. Holes were knocked in the wall and roof to provide air during his last illness, the season being exceptionally hot.
- Lent by C. J. Siebert, Esq.
79. Death Mask.
80. Making the Grave.
- Photograph, Percy M. Clarke, Esq., Victoria Falls.
81. Funeral Procession. - The procession is leaving Bulawayo on the journey to the Matopo Hills.
- Photograph, Percy M. Clarke, Esq., Victoria Falls.
82. Burial. - Lowering the coffin into the grave.
83. Wreaths on the Grave.
- Photograph, Percy M. Clarke, Esq., Victoria Falls.
84. Dedication Tablet. - Rhodes decreed that the hill, now known as "World's View," should be set aside as a burial place for "those who have deserved well of their country." The Shangani Memorial was erected here at Rhodes's special wish.
TO make effective the Rudd-Rhodes Concession, which the Imperial Government had approved by granting a Royal Charter to the British South Africa Company, it was necessary to send a body of men into Mashonaland to examine the mineral possibilities of the country. In view of the known hostility of a section of the Matabele and of the apprehended rivalry of the Transvaal and Portugal, it was imperative that this prospecting force should be able to protect itself adequately. In these circumstances, Rhodes evolved the idea of the Pioneer Column of 1890. The comprised, firstly, a force of 200 men recruited from many traders and professions, who were to cut the road and prepare fortified posts on their lines of communications and were to be known as the Pioneer Force, and who, when their undertaking was completed, were free to scatter and prospect for minerals or find some other means of livelihood. These men were to be guaranteed certain land and mineral rights. In addition, a military force of 500 men, attested for a certain period. Lieut.-Colonel Pennefather was placed in command of the whole Column. The contract for transport, equipment and food supplies was undertaken by Major Frank Johnson, who was placed in command of the Pioneer Force, which he organized. Both forces were drilled on military lines, and were inspected by General Methuen at Macloutsie, in Bechuanaland, whence they marched to Tuli, which they left on 11th July, 1890, covering 400 miles through roadless and comparatively unexplored country under the guidance of Selous, the well-known hunter of these regions. The Column reached its objective, the vicinity of Mount Hampden, on 12th September, 1890. The site selected for settlement was called Fort Salisbury, a fort being erected for protective purpose.
85. F. C. Selous, 1851-1917. - Selous, the well-known hunter and collector of natural history specimens, was the only man, and probably the best qualified, for the task of leading the Pioneer Column to Mashonaland. He suggested to Rhodes the line of approach and was therefore engaged to guide the Pioneer Column to its objective, Mount Hampden, a point on the plateau of Mashonaland, named by him at an earlier date. Selous was instrumental in obtaining for the Chartered Company several concessions from native chiefs in the northern and eastern parts of Mashonaland, and was thereafter employed by the Company in laying out and making roads until May, 1892. He served in the Rebellion of 1896, and after that made his home in England, but continued his expedition to various countries in search of natural history specimens. At the age of sixty-four, he joined the Legion of Frontiersmen and served in East Africa, falling in action on 4th January, 1917. For a quarter of a century before Selous' advent as a writer, there had been no literature worthy of mention dealing with wild life and travel in South Central Africa, and his works therefore were appreciated by the public as filling a great want, and in consequence he became more widely known than any hunter of his time. He was the author of the following books: A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa, 1881; Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa, 1893; Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia, 1896; African Nature Notes, 1908, and numerous other writings.
86. Police Officers. - Officers of the British South Africa Company's Police. Names from left (back): Lieut. Slade, Dr. Rand (O.M.); (middle row): Lieut. Mundell, Captain P. Forbes, Colonel Pennefather (in command of the Column), Captain Heyman, Canon Balfour (Chaplain); (on ground): Lieut. the Hon. Eustace Fiennes, Captain Graham. The uniform consists of brown cord tunic, lavender cord breeches and "smasher" hat.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
87. Pioneer Corps Officers. - Nems from left (front row): Lieuts. Ellerton Fry, Tyndale-Biscoe, Nicholson, Beale and Brett; (seated): Capts. Burnett and Heany; Major F. Johnson (O.C., Pioneer Corps); Capt. Selous (Intelligence Officer). (standing): Lieuts. Farrell, Mundy, Surgeon-Capt. Tabuteau, Surgeon-Lieut. Lichfield, Capts. Roach and Hoste, Lieuts. Borrow, Campbell, Burnett and the Rev. Surridge (Chaplain).
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
88. Officials. - Dr. Jameson (Rhodes's confidential Agent), and A. R. Colquhoun, who was to start the civil administration of Mashonaland. In background: Harrison (Administrator's Secretary) and F. C. Selous.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
89. Interviewing Matabele Spies. - Colonel Pennefather interviewing Matabele Scouts.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
90. Incident on the Road. - This took place between Macloutsie and the Tuli.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
91. Searchlight. - Shows the engine and the naval searchlight which was of the greatest service in augmenting the security of the Column while laagered at night.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
92. Fort Tuli. - Where a protective post was built.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
93. Fort Tuli, Inside.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
94. Hoisting Flag, Fort Salisbury. - A full-dress parade was called at 10 a.m., 13th September, 1890, the seven-pounder gun fired a Royal Salute, Canon Balfour said a prayer, and the British Flag, the Union Jack, was hoisted by Lieut. Tyndale-Biscoe of the Pioneer Column.
- From an illustration lent by Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
95. Camp Fort Salisbury. - The final camp of the Pioneer Column on the site of the future Salisbury. Water carts in foreground.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
96. Mother Patrick (Mary Patrick Cosgrave), R.R.C., O.S.D. - The head of the Dominican Nursing Sisters. Arrived Macloutsie Camp, May, 1890, and formed a temporary hospital there. Afterwards moved to Tuli, March, 1890, and then going on to Fort Salisbury with Sister Amica and Ignatius, and Father Prestage, where they arrived July, 1891. She organized hospital and school work there. She died on 31st July, 1900, to the unbounded sorrow and regret of the Colonists throughout the length and breadth of Southern Rhodesia.
- Lent by the Dominican Convent, Salisbury.
97. Arrival at Macloutsie. - A page from Mother Patrick's diary describing the arrival at Macloutsie, 10th May, 1890.
- Lent by the Dominican Convent, Salisbury.
98. At Macloutsie. - Party of Dominican Sisters at Macloutsie.
- Lent by the Dominican Convent, Salisbury.
99. Umtasa's Kraal. - At this Kraal the Treaty with Umtasa was signed on 14th September, 1890, two days after the occupation of Mashonaland.
46
SECTION V. - EARLY DAYS
THE Pioneer arrived at Fort Salisbury in September, 1890, not long before the advent of the rainy season, which proved to be an excessively heavy one. The men were still largely under canvas or living in hastily constructed huts, and the inconvenience suffered was considerable. Any building with more substantial materials was out of the question until the following dry season, and even at the end of 1891 the cost of corrugated iron was prohibitive. While many men camped on the foot of the Kopje and traders halted their wagons there, the Administration started their quarters about a mile away on the "Causeway," and between them ran a donga. An attempt on the part of the authorities to move the Kopje section of the township to the "Causeway" was successfully resisted by those who had already put up "buildings" at the Kopje, and eventually both sides were retained, the donga being covered over at a very much later date to form what is now Kingsway. Pioneer Street and the western end of Manica Road on the Kopje side are shown in these pictures as the beginning of the commercial quarter. Umtali was first begun in 1890 on a site at the junction of the Sambi and Umtali Rivers, the moved to what is now Old Umtali, and subsequently to the present site in 1897, when it was realized that it was impossible to bring the approaching railway from the East Coast over the intervening mountain range. After the Matabele War, the European settlement of Bulawayo, originally near the site of Government House, was moved to where the township stands to-day, and a glance at the pictures taken in 1897-8 will show how rapid was its growth. The majority of pictures in this section are of pre-railway days.
100. Proclamation No 1, 1891. - Establishes compulsory military service when called on, and the right to requisition cattle, implements or goods.
- Queen Victoria Memorial, Salisbury.
101. Umtali Volunteers. - Queen's Birthday Parade, 1892.
102. Salisbury, 1891. - The beginning of the City of Salisbury.
103. At the Dentist's. - Dental surgery was practiced to the extent of extraction of teeth only. The dentist was reported to have the strongest arm of any man in the Camp! From Man, Mines and Animals in South Africa, by Lord Randolph Churchill, 1892.
104. Early Dwellings. - A typical example of an early dwelling.
105. First Auction Sale. - This depicts the disposal of Lord Randolph Churchill's surplus stores by Hopley and Papenfus in 1891 at Fort Salisbury. The prices fetched by some of the articles are perhaps noteworthy of mention, e.g., boermeal, £8 to £9 a bag; butter, 11s. a pound; 10 gallons of paraffin £20; common brown sugar (very common), sold at upwards of 3s. a pound; tinned hams, £2 apiece. This enumeration of prices will show that living at Fort Salisbury was somewhat costly.
106. Spending Cable to London. - The Transcontinental Telegraph Line, which was part of Rhodes's scheme of northern expansion, reached Fort Victoria in August, 1891. This picture depicts the sending of the first message to London. From Men, Mines and Animals in South Africa, 1892, by Lord Randolph Churchill.
107. Outskirts of Salisbury. - Lord Randolph Churchill's camp, which can be seen in the background, just outside Fort Salisbury. From Men, Mines and Animals in South Africa, 1892, by Lord Randolph Churchill.
47
108. Pioneer Street, Salisbury. - As it was in 1892.
109. Salisbury Goal. - The gaoler, Law, on left, was murdered in the Rebellion. This was the first goal, 1892.
110. First Anglican Church. - Built by Canon Balfour immediately after arrival, and the only church for the first six months.
- Lent by the Bishop of Southern Rhodesia.
111. Second Anglican Church. - The Church of All Saints, Salisbury, 1893. Built largely by Archdeacon Upcher himself, and opened in January, 1893. Major Patrick Forbes, who was magistrate at the time, gave every possible assistance, and made a cross for the altar out of a cigar-box lid. The brick portion was demolished to make place for the first part of the Cathedral of St. Mary and All Saints designed by Sir Herbert Barker.
- Lent by the Bishop of Southern Rhodesia.
112. Roman Catholic Church. - First Roman Catholic Church, and originally used as quarters for the nursing sisters.
113. Salisbury Hospital, 1894. - The first hospital was merely a group of huts, as founded by Dominican Sisters in July, 1891, under Mother Patrick.
- Lent by Mrs. A. M. Flemming.
114. Salisbury Hospital, 1896.
- Lent by Mrs. A. M. Flemming.
115. Mission Hospital, Umtali, 1892. - This is graphically described in the book, Adventures in Mashonaland, by the Misses Blennerhassett and Sleeman, the first white women to settle in Manicaland. They were brought to the country by Bishop Knight-Bruce in 1891, and began their ministrations at Fort Umtali and subsequently moved to Old Umtali when the settlement on the original site was abandoned.
116. Pioneer Nurses. - Sister Emily Hewitt (Mrs. Blatch) and Sister Mary Saunders (Mrs. R. Nesbitt), who succeeded Sisters Blennerhassett and Sleeman at Old Umtali in May, 1893, also brought to the country by Bishop Knight-Bruce.
117. Mission Hospital, Umtali, 1894. - This was originally built as a "Palace" for Bishop Knight-Bruce, and on his departure from the country, in 1894, it was converted into a hospital.
118. Old Umtali, 1896. - The site after the evacuation of the township in 1897 was given by Rhodes to Bishop Hartzell for missionary purposes.
119. Rhodes's Interest in Missions. - A letter, written in September, 1891, to the Administrator, asking that assistance be given Father Hartmann in the selection of a suitable site for a mission station.
120. Old Chishawasha. - On 31st July, 1892, a party of Jesuit missionaries, consisting of two fathers and five brothers, arrived at Chishawasha after a wagon journey from Vryburg, which lasted just over three months, and founded what is to-day an important Mission Station.
121. Chishawasha (circa 1900). This gives a good idea of the development that had taken pace in a very short period.
122. First European School. - The Dominican Sisters started this school at Salisbury on 13th October, 1892, with ten children, the first teacher being Sister Yolanda. The school was originally situated in the grounds of the present Dominican Convent.
- From a Sketch prepared by the Dominican Convent, Salisbury.
123. Church of England School, Salisbury. - A group of school children with Mr. Rankilor, teacher (on the left), with Archdeacon Upcher (centre), who established the school in Sinoia Street, in 1894.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
124. Dwellings, Old and New. Salisbury in 1896. New bungalow being built by "Skipper" Hoste and Tyndale-Biscoe.
125. Salisbury Club. - From a sketch by the late F. Inskipp, 1895.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
126. Commercial Art, Bulawayo, 1895. - The premises of an early sign-writer.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
127. Maxim Hotel, 1895. - An early Bulawayo hostelry.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
128. Bulawayo, 1894. - This was the first Bulawayo on the site of the present Government House before the township was moved to its present site in 1894.
129. First Post Office, Bulawayo.
- Lent by Major W. Howard, D.S.O.
130. Standard Bank, Bulawayo. - The original building now used by the Bank as an Assay Office
131. Old Timers. - On the left, a well known figure, "General" Digby Willoughby, who was at one time "Minister" to the Queen of Madagascar, and was made Chief of Staff to the settler forces at Bulawayo on the outbreak of the Rebellion; (centre) Harry Ware, who obtained the concession of trading and mineral rights from Lewanika which was acquired by Rhodes.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
132. Palace Hotel, Bulawayo. - Where visitors were entertained on the occasion of the opening of the railway on 4th November, 1897.
133. Father Barthelemy. - Founder of St. George's School, Bulawayo, 1894, the first boys' school in Southern Rhodesia.
134. First Boys' School, Bulawayo. - St. George's first building, 1894.
135. St. George's School, 1898.
136. Market Day, Bulawayo.
- Photograph, Percy M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
137. Foundation Bulawayo Library. - The foundation stone was laid by Lord Milner in London, 1897, on the occasion of his visit for the opening of the Railway.
138. Bulawayo, First Municipal Council. - Names (back row), left to right: Sauer, Hutchinson, Ross-Frames, P. D. Crewe, Slater, Laidman, Mainwaring, and Robertson (Town Clerk); (front): S. Lewis, C. T. Holland, I. Hirschner (Mayor), S. Redrup, and J. Spreckley. Photograph taken in 1897.
- Bulawayo Municipality.
139. Main Street, Bulawayo (circa 1897).
- Photograph, Percy M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
140. Salisbury, 1897. - From a water-colour sketch in the City Club, Salisbury.
141. Playbill of First Opera. - Umtali led the way in music and drama. It is recorded that as ladies for the chorus were lacking, members of the British South Africa Company's Police took the part of "bridesmaids" in the opera "Trial by Jury," and their number nine boots which protruded from under their petticoats caused much mirth.
142. Theatrical Party, 1898. - The departure of the Nelstone theatrical party from the Cecil Hotel, Umtali, April, 1898, where they had given several performances to appreciative audiences at a charge of 20s. per head.
143. Umtali, 1897. - Showing the present town, shortly after it was settled.
144. First Stote, Umtali. - The business premises of Messrs. Findlay and Company, as they were in 1897.
145. First Huts, Umtali, 1897. - This was the first residence and office of the Magistrate and Civil Commissioner, Captain Scott-Turner.
FOR nearly three years after the occupation of Mashonaland the Matabele kept quiet, but in the dry season of 1893 began to make incursions into the Territory, and carried this so far as to attack and kill natives who had taken employment with the Europeans in the Victoria District. It appeared that Lobengula was not anxious to precipitate a conflict with the Europeans at this juncture, but it was evident that his impis, by the truculence and hostility they had shown on various occasions, were spoiling for a fight, and that they were sanguine of overcoming the whites or, at least, of driving them out of the Territory. Dr. Jameson, who had succeeded Colquhoun as Administrator, acquainted Rhodes with the situation, and in reply received from him the now famous telegram: "Read Luke, xiv. 31," meaning that he had a free hand, if he thought he could, with the forces at his command, to overcome the Matabele power. The High Commissioner, Sir Henry Loch, had to be consulted, and negotiations dragged on from July to September, 1893, when further incidents, both in Victoria District and on the Bechuanaland Border, brought matters to a head. In the circumstances it was considered that the best procedure would be to attack the Matabele without delay, and military organization was entered into without further loss of time.
D
Three columns were soon converging on Bulawayo, the Salisbury Column, under Major Patrick Forbes, the Victoria Column, under Major Allan Wilson, and the Southern Column under Major Goold-Adams, and a contingent of Khama's subjects. In two engagements, on the Shangani and Imbembesi Rivers, the Salisbury and Victoria Columns inflicted severe losses on the Matabele, who had never before faced machine guns and artillery. They, however, fought with the utmost bravery. On 4th November, Bulawayo was reached and found to be in flames and deserted. The Southern Column was attacked near the Mangwe Pass, and after routing the Matabele, reached Bulawayo on 12th November. The flight and death of Lobengula and the subsequent surrender of the Matabele brought the war to an end in January, 1894.
146. Major P. W. Forbes. - Commanded the British South Africa Company's Forces in Matabeleland throughout the campaign. Born 1861 at Whitchurch, Oxon, educated at Rugby. Obtained a commission in the Sixth Inniskilling Dragoons. Went to South Africa, 1880, and was seconded to the British South Africa Company's service in 1889. Second-in-command of the British South Africa Company's Police when they entered Mashonaland. Became Major in the Police, May, 1890. Raised to command of the Salisbury Column and at their junction with the Victoria Column, took command. Before the disbandment of the Police, Forbes secured Manica for the Company by his actions at Umtasa's kraal in November, 1890. Before the commencement of hostilities in Matabeleland, he was in command of the Volunteers at Salisbury and Resident Magistrate there. Later, went as Commissioner to the Company's Territory in North-Eastern Rhodesia. Died 1918.
147. Major Allan Wilson. - One of the heroic and long-to-be-remembered figures of the campaign. Born in Scotland, 1856, he came out to South Africa and joined the Cape Mounted Rifles, from which he received a commission in the Basuto Police. This he afterwards relinquished for the service of the Bechuanaland Exploration Company and was sent as their representative to Fort Victoria. Prior to the campaign he was senior officer in the Victoria Volunteers, and on the outbreak of the Matabele War was appointed major in command of the Victoria Column. Killed at Shangani, 4th December, 1893.
148. Victoria Roll. - The so-called "Victoria Agreement," which embodies the conditions under which men enrolled for the War.
149. Victoria Column. - Members of the Victoria Column on the outset of their march into Matabeleland from Fort Victoria.
150. Laager. - The two columns from Victoria and Salisbury met at Iron Mine Hill and here seen laagered. This picture is substantially correct, except that the artist placed tents on the wagons.
151. Hoisting the Flag. - The British South Africa Company's flag was hoisted immediately after the Columns reached Bulawayo on 4th November, 1893. This marks the occasion of the formal occupation of Matabeleland.
152. Colenbrander's Store. - Where the Victoria and Salisbury Columns camped at the end of their victorious march into Matabeleland on 4th November, 1893.
153. Fetching in Grain. - From a sketch by Frank Dadd.
- Reproduced by kind permission of the Librarian of Parliament, Cape Town, and the Illustrated London News.
51
154. Wilson's Last Stand. - This heroic but tragic episode occurred on the Shangani River. Major Forbes and his patrol reached the Shangani in pursuit of Lobengula to find that he had crossed the river some hours before. Major Allan Wilson, with twelve mounted men, went on to reconnoitre, with the idea of returning to report that night. They found the King had abandoned his wagons and fled. The King's retreat was covered by his warriors. Wilson sent a message to Forbes, but apparently the latter did not fully grasp that Wilson's position was serious. Darkness had set in and it was now found impossible to move the column across the river, but a reinforcement of twenty mounted men under Captain Borrow, was sent to support Wilson, who was found in a desperate situation. The day broke and the Matabele closed in on every side of the small party, who had no alternative but to stand and sell their lives dearly. Thirty-three men so perished on 4th December, 1893. Their remains were recovered, and after a previous interment at Zimbabwe, were finally laid to rest in the Shangani Memorial in the Matopo Hills.
- From a painting by Allan Stewart in the Bulawayo Municipal Council Chamber.
155. Khama's Levies. - Levy raised by King Khama to assist in the Matabele War, but took no active part.
156. Night March. - An incident in the retreat of the Shangani Patrol.
157. Prisoners of War.
158. Starting from Shiloh.
159. Gun Park.
160. 13th December, 1893. - The fifth engagement with the Matabele. The maxim gun (on tripod) in action. Mr. (now Major) Walter Howard, is seen attending to Sergt. (now Capt.) Pyke, whose arm was later amputated by Dr. Jameson at Inyati. Sergt. Wagstaff operated the gun.
161. Guns in Action. - An engagement with the Matabele on 15th December, 1893, in the retreat following the loss of Major Allan Wilson and his men.
- Nos. 155-161 reproduced by kind permission of the Librarian of Parliament, Cape Torn, and the Illustrated London News.
THE Matabele, still smarting under the loss of their
independence as a result of the war three years before, decided to make another
bid to drive the Europeans out of the country. They were, no doubt, encouraged
by the knowledge that the Administrator, Dr. Jameson, with five hundred men,
had been taken prisoner by the Transvaal Forces, that the country had to
a great extent been denuded of arms and men, that the white Police were depleted
to a skeleton of their former strength, and that owing to the destruction
of cattle the means of transport were reduced to a minimum. In addition,
there were unusual portents which powerfully influenced the native mind,
such as serious drought, a severe visitation of locusts after a prolonged
absence, and a pest, never known before, from which their cattle died in
unprecedented numbers. They must also have been certain of the disaffection
of the Native Police Force in the event of a rising. All these circumstances
and events were interpreted by their wise men and priests as clearly indicating
that the time for revolt and freedom had come. They kept their counsel well
until March, 1896, when they suddenly rose in rebellion. The Europeans, not
aware of the impending rising, were off their guard, and in consequence were
taken at a disadvantage. The result of that a considerable number living
on their homesteads or mines were massacred before any protection could be
afforded them. A large proportion of the Native Police joined in the revolt
and carried their arms with them. The serious nature of the situation at
this time could hardly be over-estimated. Fortunately, the wires were still
intact and the Acting Administrator telegraphed to the authorities at Kimberley
for assistance. A relief force was speedily despatched under Colonel Plumer,
but owing to the distance and difficulties of transport, it was not till
the first week in June, 1896, that it reached Bulawayo.
Meanwhile, the settlers had shown great determination and
bravery and repulsed every attack by the natives. Following hard on the rising
in Matabeleland - at the instigation of the Matabele, it was said, and under
threats of extermination after they had disposed of the whites - the Mashona
throughout the country suddenly rose in rebellion and murdered a large number
of Europeans who had settled in different parts of the country. The surprise
here was even greater than it had been in Matabeleland, as it was not believed
that the Mashona would rise against their protectors.
It is not expedient to give more than a brief outline of
the catastrophe which nearly "put a period" to the European occupation of
the Territory, nor is it possible to describe the courage, heroism and
determination and also the hardships and privations endured by the settlers.
162. Rushing into Laager. - By June, when the relieving forces arrived, most of the townsfolk had ventured to return to their homes, but occasional alarms brought them hastily back to laager. From a sketch by Melton Prior, in The Illustrated London News.
163. Interior, Bulawayo Laager. - View of the interior defences, Bulawayo Laager, with observation post and electric wires connecting with dynamite mines. From The Bulawayo Sketch, vol. iv, No. 93, 25th April, 1896.
164. Market Square, Bulawayo. - Showing the laager at Market Hall.
165. Bulawayo Laager. - Early morning parade.
166. William's Buildings. - Observation post at William's Buildings, Bulawayo. Scouts going out to reinforce the picket being attacked by the enemy. From a sketch by Melton Prior in The Illustrated London News.
167. Mangwe Pass. Captain Nicholson's Patrol. A scrap with the Matabele in the Mangwe Pass. From The Bulawayo Sketch, vol. v, No. 107, 1st August, 1896.
168. Taylor's Fort. - Fort and observation post just outside Bulawayo. From a sketch by Melton Prior in The Illustrated London News.
169. Malema Camp, Matopos. - General Sir F. Carrington's Base Camp.
170. Rev. D. Carnegie. - A missionary at Hope Fountain, who persuaded Chief Holi to interview Rhodes, thus helping to bring hostilities to an end.
- Lent by W. A. Carnergie, Esq.
171. Rhodes at the Matopos. - The party (reading from left): John Colenbrander, J. G. McDonald, Philip Jourdan (Rhodes's secretary), A. Boggle, Rhodes and Mrs. Colenbrander.
172. Peace Indaba. - Rhodes and a party, who accompanied him from Bulawayo, camped at the Matopo Hills, and with the assistance of J. P. Richardson, a Native Commissioner, endeavours were made to persuade the Matabele chiefs to surrender. Through an intermediary, John Grootboom, and with the help of an old Matabele woman, Nyambezana, Mzilikazi's widow, the recalcitrant chiefs were persuaded to come to Rhodes's camp, when terms were discussed which eventually led to peace. Rhodes is here seen seated on an anthill, with Colenbrander on his right, Dr. Sauer on his left, and Stent, of the Cape Times, behind him.
173. John Grootboom. - A Tembu native who had fought with the white men in the Rebellion and who volunteered to go into the Matabele stronghold with a message from Rhodes. Accompanied by two other volunteers, one a Xosa, he penetrated into the enemy's country and made contact with them through an old woman, Nyambezana, which led to an indaba and the acceptance of peace terms. Rhodes offered him a substantial reward for his services, which he refused, accepting only a horse and bridle. He disappeared and was never seen again.
174. Mzilikazi's Widow. - Nyambezana, the only living widow of Mzilikazi at this time, who was the father of Lobengula and founder of the Matabele nation. She was not Lobengula's mother, who was a Swazi princess. She acted as intermediary between Rhodes and the rebel chiefs in the Matopo Hills at the end of the 1896 rebellion. The significance of this old woman's action was never overlooked by Rhodes, and her portrait still hangs beside his bed at Groote Schuur.
- Government of the Union of South Africa.
175. Rebel Chiefs. - Chiefs who came in and surrendered after the Matabele Rebellion; Mjaan, the commander-in-chief, is seen seated in the centre.
176. Trial of Chiefs. - Government officials at the trial of the Matabele Chiefs after the rebellion. (Standing) W. E. Thomas; (seated at table) (with folded arms) H. M. G. (afterwards Sir Herbert) Taylor; Capt. the Hon. Sir Arthur Lawley, and (in white shirt) Johan Colenbrander, and next to him R. Townsend.
- National Museum of Southern Rhodesia.
177. Nyanda and Kagubi. - Kagubi was a man of about forty years of age. About three months before the rebellion, he and other paramount chiefs gave orders that the white settlers were to be murdered. Kagubi was the chief instigator, and to him all loot was handed. He gave orders to Nyanda to spread the rebellion, Nyanda being an old mondoro or goddess of twelve years' standing, and she in turn gave orders to the people around her in Mazoe to murder the settlers in that district, starting that her instructions had come from another god named Mlenga, who promised that as soon as the whites had been massacred in the outlying districts, he, by a miracle, would kill all those in town. Kagubi and Nyanda surrendered in October, 1897, and the rebellion in Mashonaland may be considered to have been finally crushed from that date.
- Lent by Godfrey J. King, Esq.
178. Officers, Mounted Infantry. - Lieut.-Colonel Alderson received orders on 17th June (three days after the first murders in Mashonaland), in the camp at Wynberg, to take a relief force of mounted infantry via Beira, which reached Salisbury on 27th July, 1896. The town had gone out of laager, but the natives held out in their rocky fortresses. Alderson and the Mashonaland Mounted Infantry left Rhodesia in December, 1896, but the campaign was continued until September, 1897, by volunteer and Police forces. (Standing) (left to right): Capt. Roach, Lieut. Godley, Capt. Turner. (Sitting): Major Godley, Lieut.-Col. Alderson and Lieut. Nicholls.
179. Officers, Salisbury Field Force, 1896. - Names (back row): T. Fitt, Strachan, Graham, Drummond, Eustace, Turner, Hoffman, A. Nesbitt, F. Nesbitt, -, Ogilvie, -, McLaurin, -, -, R. Nesbitt, V.C., Robinson; (middle row): Stramford Brown, MacGlashan, Judge Vincent, Smith (commander), Harrison; (front row): G. Fitt, Marshall Hole, Fleming, Judson, Lingard, Snodgrass.
180. Mashonaland Volunteers. - Judge Vincent, Acting Administrator, proclaimed martial law on the outbreak of the rebellion, and a citizen force was formed in which every man enrolled.
181. Salisbury Laager. - Salisbury went into laager at the goal, where a large number of women and children were assembled for a period of approximately six weeks. They slept in cells, and outside the goal are seen the sleeping quarters for the men.
182. Salisbury Laager. - Another view of Salisbury laager.
183. Salisbury Laager. - General view, from a water-colour sketch by the late F. Inskipp.
Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
184. J. L. Blakiston. - Clerk to the Postmaster in Salisbury, who volunteered to go out with H. D. Rawson with a wagonette to the relief of a party besieged at the Alice Mine. It was necessary to get word through by wire to Salisbury from the telegraph office a mile away, and Blakiston conducted Routledge to the telegraph office for the despatch of the message. Murdered with Routledge on their return to the Mine.
- Lent by T. G. Standing, Esq.
185. Major R. Nesbitt, V.C. - Born Cape Colony. Joined the British South Africa Company's Police in 1890; left in 1891, rejoined in 1893 and was in Salisbury when the rebellion broke out, with rank of inspector. Nesbitt went to the relief of the Alice Mine and effected the rescue of the party there and brought them to Salisbury, for which performance he was awarded the V.C.
186. T. G. Routledge. - Seated at the instrument in the Transcontinental Telegraph Office, Mazoe, from where he sent the message to Salisbury for relief of the Alice Mine party. Routledge, who could not ride, was conducted to the telegraph office by Blakiston, holding on to the stirrup of the latter's horse. On the return journey, surrounded by hostile natives, both lost their lives.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
187. Cemetery, Fort Alice. - On the left: Grave of Blakiston and Routledge. On the right: The graves of other members of the party who perished at the Alice Mine.
- Photograph of sketch lent by Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
188. Wagonette. - In which the women and wounded were brought from the Alice Mine.
- Lent by the Sister Superior, Anglesey Convent, Borrowdale.
189. Mazoe Patrol. - Survivors of the party of fourteen who took refuge at the Alice Mine and of the two relief forces sent to bring them to Salisbury. The women showed great fortitude. Names, reading from the left (bottom row): Edmonds, McGregor, Mrs. Cass, Mrs. Salthouse, Mrs. Dickenson, Judson, Pollett. (Standing): R. Nesbitt, Arnott, A. Nesbitt, Harbord, O. C. Rawson, Ogilvie, Salthouse, Fairbairn, Spreckley Niebuhr, Darling, Coward, Henricks (wounded), Hendrik (native driver), and Honey; (top) Berry, H. D. Rawson, Pascoe (on roof), and George (native driver).
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
190. Troops returning from Matabeleland. - The Column which had gone to the relief of Bulawayo returns to Salisbury, July, 1896.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
191. Mess Party, Salisbury Laager. - The beleaguered citizens formed "messes" for rations and cooking. This party consists of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and Mr. and Mrs. G. Lamb and their families.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
192. Lamb's Party. - The story of this party is included in John Buchan's Escapes and Hurried Journeys. Miss Carter and her uncle, Mr. Haig, with three other white men, were on their way by passenger wagon to Umtali, when they met the Vicomte de la Panouse returning to his farm near Salisbury with a donkey wagon laden with goods. Being warned of trouble, these two parties joined forces, and had to fight their way back to Salisbury, spending two nights en route. Mr. Geo. Lamb (with beard) is seen standing behind Miss Carter, and Vicomte de la Penouse seated with revolver in hand.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
193. Hospital Staff, Salisbury. - The Hospital Staff in 1896. Names from left: Miss Wild (later Mrs. Turnbull), Sister Constancia, Mrs. Fleming, Dr. Fleming, Sister Agatha, Miss Cramer, Sister Borgia; (sitting) Sisters Yolanda, Ignatius, Humberta, and Miss Bertram (Mrs. Hodges); (in front) Mr. Scott.
- Lent by Mrs. A. M. Fleming.
194. Hertley Fort. - Showing fortified post used during rebellion.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
195. Chishawasha Laager. - May, 1896. Besieged by natives in the Rebellion of 1896, and was defended until relieved by a patrol from Salisbury.
196. Old Umtali Laager. - Defences at the Courthouse.
- Lent by the Hon. L. Cripps, C.M.G.
197. Salisbury Fox Hounds. - "Piping times of Peace." Fox Hunt after the Rebellion, 1896.
- Lent by Mrs. Fleming.
UP to the end of the 'nineties, of all matters affecting
the occupation of distant and virgin territories, means of transport was
by far the most important.
The ubiquitous and century-old ox wagon was the only means
available for heavy transport in country unoccupied by Europeans, and this
was generally employed. Horses and mules had to be fed, were also expensive
and subject to horsesickness, but oxen could be relied upon, under usual
conditions, to find sustenance off the veld.
After the occupation was effected, the postal and passenger needs of the community were supplied by mule transport, which increased the speed of locomotion considerably, and this was later superseded by the coming of the railways in November, 1897.
198. Ox Wagon. - On the road from Fontesvilla to Umtali, 1892.
199. Transport Wagon and Driver. - The only system of transport prevailing until the end of 1898.
200. Northern Express Royal Mail. - The mail service was established by Wirsing Bros., Mafeking, to Macloutsie Camp, in 1892, and was known as the Northern Express Royal Mail, drawn by teams of trotting oxen. In 1893, with the occupation of Matabeleland, the route was diverted, running from Mafeking through Palapye on to Bulawayo. In 1894, horses and mules were first introduced on this route, and in that year the first mail cart arrived in Bulawayo.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
201. Crossing the Limpopo. - The first mail coach service to Mashonaland was established by C. H. Zeederberg in 1891, the route being from Pietersburg via Victoria, Charter to Fort Salisbury.
202. Incident of Travel. - The old Bulawayo-Falls coach.
- Lent by F. P. Mennell, Esq.
203. Coach in Matopos. - A party in Zeederberg's coach visits the Matopo Hills.
204. Mafeking-Bulawayo Coach. - After Zeederberg became Mail Agent. Coach seated about twelve passengers.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
205. Umtali-Salisbury Coach. - A typical coach plying between Umtali and Salisbury up to 1899. The conductor, C. Vloek, with whip in hand.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
206. Coach Office, Bulawayo. - Zeederberg's mail coach office, Bulawayo. Note the old-fashioned but smart carriages in the foreground.
207. Umtali Coach, 1897. - Symington's coach leaving the Post Office, Umtali.
208. Last Coach from Salisbury. - Last coach to Bulawayo seen leaving the Commercial Hotel, Salisbury (circa 1902).
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
209. Umtali Tramways. - The first and only tramway system in the country, constructed in 1898 and discontinued in 1920.
210. Crossing the Zambesi. - Before the coming of the railway, the old drift over the Zambesi River above the Victoria Falls.
211. George Pauling. - Widely known as the greatest railway builder in Southern Africa. Built practically all the railways of Rhodesia.
212. Railway Festivities. - Programme of the Railway Celebration Committee for the festivities connected with the coming of the railway to Bulawayo, November, 1897.
213. Celebration Committee. - The President, Capt. the Hon. A. Lawley, the Vice-President, C. T. Holland, and the two secretaries, E. C. Baxter and C. W. Bloomfield, with members of the Committee.
214. Fort Train to enter Rhodesia. - Arrived at Bulawayo from the South, on 4th November, 1897. The line was rushed through with the greatest expedition and world's records were made in platelaying, the necessity for this being due to the difficulties of transport experienced by reason of the loss of cattle through rinderpest.
215. First Train after Arrival.
216. Awaiting Governor's Train. - Sir Alfred Milner's arrival at Bulawayo in connection with the opening of the railway.
217. Distinguished Guests. - Distinguished guests of the Railway Celebrations Committee at Government House, Bulawayo. Lord Milner in centre, Sir A. Lawley on right.
218. Turning First Sod, Bulawayo-Gwelo Railway. - 30th May, 1899.
219. Fontesvilla, 1892. - The starting point of the Mashonaland Railways. Travellers reached this point by boat up the Pungwe.
220. Beira Railway Construction. - The construction of this line through the low-lying parts of Portuguese Territory was attended by heavy loss of life. Sometimes half the staff were down with malaria at once. In the face of all difficulties, Beira and Fontesvilla were linked by October, 1896; Fontesvilla and Umtali by February, 1898, and the narrow gauge railway was replaced by 3 ft. 6 in. gauge by 1st August, 1900.
221. Beira Railway Construction.
222. Engine "Rhodes." - The narrow gauge engine that ran between Fontesvilla and Umtali.
223. Macequece Station, 1898.
224. Advertisement, Beira Railway Company, 1895. - Beira to Fontesvilla by boat, "usually" six hours, fare £1. Fontesvilla to Chimolo, 116 miles for £3, no schedule time, trains once a week. Chimolo-Umtali by coach, no fare quoted and no schedule time.
225. First Train Arrives, Umtali. - In February, 1898, Umtali was linked with the coast. The inscription on the front of the engine is "Now we shan't be long," meaning "Now, we shan't be long to Cairo."
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
226. Punch Discovers Umtali, 1898. - Depicted by Harrison on the arrival of the railway at Umtali.
- By permission Messrs. Taylor & Nesbitt, Umtali.
227. First Train to Salisbury, 1899. - On eve of departure from Umtali.
228. Opening Odzi Bridge, 1899. - On line from Umtali to Salisbury. The inspiring motto over the bridge recalls the fact that at this time it was expected to run the trans-continental line north from Gwelo.
229. Opening Railway, Salisbury, 1899.
230. Arrival of First Train, Salisbury, 1899. - The train arrives from Umtali at Salisbury in the afternoon of 22nd May, 1899.
231. Coming-up from Beira, 1897. - A settler, Mr. J. W. Dunlop, and family, coming up from Macequece to Umtali in pre-railways days.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
232. Camels in Rhodesia. - In 1903, Colonel Flint of the Transport Department of the British South Africa Police, conceived the idea that camels might solve the difficulty of transport due to horse-sickness and other causes, and two baggage and ten riding camels were brought, with Indian attendants. By 1904, however, only one survived. A camel race was held in Salisbury, much to the delight of the public and the disgust of the horses.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
233. Early Motor Car in Rhodesia. - One of the earliest motor cars in Southern Rhodesia.
- Lent by Messrs. Cairns, Ltd., Salisbury.
234. The First Aeroplane to Land in Rhodesia. - The "Silver Queen" on the racecourse, Bulawayo, February, 1920.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
235. Blondin over the Zambesi. - Sir Douglas Fox, partner in the firm of designers of the Bridge, crossing the Zambesi.
- Photograph, P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
236. Victoria Falls Bridge in Construction.
- Photograph, P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
237. The Spans Meet. - An anxious moment for the engineers in April, 1904.
- Photograph, P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
238. Opening Victoria Falls Bridge, 1905. - The visit of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to South Africa in 1905 led to the invitation to Professor Darwin to open the bridge.
- Photograph, P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
239. Aerial View of Victoria Falls and Bridge.
- Aircraft Operation Co.
ACCORDING to Portuguese records of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, gold was recovered in the districts now known as Manica and Lomagundi, and it is considered by those most competent to judge that it was probably during this period and perhaps for a century later that the bulk of the reef mining, as exemplified by the "ancient" workings remaining to our time, was carried out. It is not believed to-day that any of the workings antedate this period, although there can be little doubt that the Arabs traded on the East Coast for gold, which was probably produced from alluvial sources, before the advent of the Portuguese. Wild estimates of the quantity of gold recovered from these regions have often been put forward. These must be taken with great reserve, as such estimates appear generally to be based on the belief that the early miners succeeded in extracting gold in the same proportion or percentage of the rock treated as is being accomplished by modern methods. This can by no means be the case. Apart from the Tati goldfields located at an earlier date, the first location of mining ground took place in 1888, two years before the arrival of the Pioneer Column, in the Penhalonga Valley in Manicaland (then considered to be within the Portuguese sphere of influence) by a party from Barberton. During the first decade after the Occupation, owing to cost of transport, mining proved to be very expensive, so much so as to stultify the efforts of the people engaged in the industry; bust as the country opened up and railways were built and mining material could be brought in at a lower cost, mining began to make progress.
240. Henry Hartley. - Hartley was instrumental in the rediscovery of the goldfields of Southern Rhodesia. Born in England in 1815, he came with his parents to the Albany district with the 1820 Settlers. He started hunting in North and North-Eastern Transvaal in 1845, at the same time as Gordon-Cumming, and gradually going farther north was the second European hunter permitted by Mzilikazi to enter Mashonaland (1865). He observed the large number of ancient workings and on a subsequent visit brought the German geologist, Carl Mauch, in order to get an expert report on them. He had a farm in the Marico district at this time, but later moved to "Thorndale" in the Magaliesberg, where he kept open house for all travellers. He died in 1876.
- Lent by W. J. Hartley, Esq.
241. Hartley is shown Gold. - The hunter, Hartley, after whom a district in Southern Rhodesia is named, shown gold-bearing quartz by a native while elephant hunting. From a painting by Thomas Baines.
- Photograph, Artur Elliott, Cape Town.
242. "To Ophir Direct." - The first pamphlet on the discovery of gold in Southern Rhodesia believed to have been written by Carl Mauch. It records the journey of Hartley and Mauch to the Northern Goldfields in Mashonaland in 1866-67.
243. Route Map of Hartley and Mauch, 1867. - Showing the journey taken by Hartley and Mauch to the Northern Goldfields in 1866-67.
244. Tati Goldfields. - Sir John Swinbourne secured a concession from Lobengula in 1872 in his territory known as Tati. Swinburne opened a store and brought up some machinery, thus starting work on the Tati Concession. His original company was the "London and Limpopo Mining Company." Later, Messrs. Francis, Dobbie, Dodds and Sam Edwards formed the Northern Light Exploration Company. The Concession was renewed and enlarged in 1887. Finally, in October, 1888, it was extended to cover proprietary and territorial rights. When the Rudd-Rhodes Concession was granted, the Tati area was expressly excluded and remains a separate administrative unit to-day.
245. Sam Edwards. - Son of a missionary, was born at Calitzdorp, Cape Colony, in 1826, and was one of the earliest traders and hunters in Matabeleland. Conducted Moffat to Mzilikazi in 1854 and acquired great influence with Lobengula. In 1885 he was an officer in the Bechuanaland Border Police, and was sent on a mission to Lobengula, being accompanied by Lieut. E. A. Maund. In 1887, Lobengula appointed Edwards as his "magistrate" at Tati. Edwards, who was highly respected, was appointed manager of the Tati Company, being one of the original concessionaries. He died in 1922 at the age of ninety-six.
246. Diggers and Hunters, Tati, 1894. - Names from (top row): Vermaak (jun.), Vermaak (sen.), -, Giles, Kirkby, Longden and Lee; (front row): A. Giese (discoverer of the Wankle Coalfields), Kirkby, Capt. Lindsell, Norris-Newman, C. van Rooyen and Dr. Milne.
- Lent by A. Giese, Esq.
247. Tati Settlement in 1870. - The only white settlement north of Shoshong, 169 miles from the Matabele King's kraal. From A. A. Anderson's Twenty-five Years in a Wagon, 1877.
248. Goldfields Expedition, 1869. - The South Africa Goldfields Company's expedition to Matabeleland in 1868-69, leaving Pietermaritzburg. Baines, the artist, is seen shaking hands with Carl Mauch; Baines painted this at "Lee's Castle" in Matabeleland (Plumtree district), where he was compelled to stay during March, 1870, because of the wet season.
- Photograph, A. Elliott, Cape Town.
249. Mauch's Geological Map. - Early geographical map by Carl Mauch of the Transvaal and Rhodesia. His travels into the interior took him from Port Natal (Durban) to Sena on the Zambesi, and his wanderings continued from 1865-72. Accompanied on his first trip to the north by the well-known hunter, Hartley.
250. Thomas Baines. - Born at King's Lynn, Norfolk, 1822, and worked as a heraldic painter for a coachbuilder; went to Cape Colony, 1842, where he taught drawing and acquired a reputation as a painter; fought and sketched in Kaffir Wars, 1848-51. Artist accompanying exploring expedition Northern Australia, 1855-56, and Livingstone's Zambesi expedition, 1858. Left the latter at Tete owing to disagreement with Charles Livingstone. In 1861 made an expedition with Chapman to the Zambesi from Walfish Bay, and in 1868 went to Matabeleland on behalf of the South African Goldfields Exploration Company, later acquiring the first mining concession from Lobengula. He was unable to obtain sufficient funds to exploit the concession. Baines was, without doubt, one of the greatest men who travelled in these regions, and as a result of his paintings of the Victoria Falls, did most to acquaint the outside world with this region. He died at Durban, 1875. Wrote Explorations in South-West Africa, 1864, and The Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa, 1877. Left many paintings and drawings.
251. Baines Concession. - The first written concession granted by Lobengula, and composed by Baines in the lines of his conversation with Lobengula. After Baine's death, it was mislead for years, and then acquired for a small sum by parties who sold it to Rhodes for the equivalent of £5,000 in Chartered Company shares.
251a. Lobengula's Seal. - Baines made this of boxwood for use on the concession. It was the first seal used by Lobengula.
252. Ancient Mining Relics.
(a) Steel Gad and Striker. - From the Grand
Slam and Jumbo Mines.
(b) Soapstone Moulds. - Single mould for
bar-shaped ingots found in Elliptical Temple, Zimbabwe. Double mould, possibly
for bangles, from Mtoko District.
(c) Copper Ingot. - From Mpafu River, Lomagundi
District.
(d) Gold Washer. - Clay vessel with hole,
actually used for washing alluvial gold by natives on the Mazoe River in
1935.
- From the Queen Victoria Memorial, Salisbury.
253. Ancient Working. - "C" Mine, Belingwe, showing the reef, which is from 30 to 40 feet wide, followed by the ancients.
- Director of Geological Survey, Salisbury.
254. J. H. Jeffreys. - Came to Manica with Baron de Rezende, the manager of the Mozambique Company, in 1888, discovered two ancient workings in the valley, which he named the Rezende and the Penhalonga (after count Penhalonga). Jeffreys was among the miners at work with licences from the Mozambique Company in the Umtali Valley when Colquhoun and Selous, on behalf of the Chartered Company, visited Umtasa and got a concession from him in September, 1890. After the settlement which gave this part of Manica to the British, Jeffreys took a prominent part in the development of mining. He was Mayor of Umtali and a much respected figure in the community until his death in 1926.
- Lent by Mrs. J. H. Jeffreys.
255. Baron de Rezende. - Manager of the Mozambique Company, associated with Jeffreys in locating the goldfields of Manicaland.
- Lent by Mrs. J. H. Jeffreys.
256. Penhalonga and Rezende Miners. - An early view of the miners in the Penhalonga Valley.
257. Opening Penhalonga Mine, 1897. - The ceremony was performed by Mrs. Jeffrey.
- Lent by Mrs. J. H. Jeffreys.
258. Early Mining Prospectus. - If not the first, one of the earliest mining prospectuses issued in connection with Rhodesia. The Secretary, J. M. Stuart, was the author of The Ancient Gold Fields in Africa, 1891.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
259. First Peg. - Pioneer, 10 claims, Umfuli, Hartley District, pegged 1st October, 1890 (the day after the Pioneer Corps was disbanded). Transferred to Rhodesia Goldfields, Limited, 21st October, 1898, and abandoned by them 28th December, 1898. The inscription reads: Pioneer. United Rhodesia Gold Fields, Regd. 1.10.90. No. 3, Insp. 6.1.91. End centre E.
260. Panning Gold, 1891. - From Lord Randolph Churchill's Men, Mines and Animals in South Africa, 1891.
261. Experts at Work, 1891. - "About September, 1891, two mining experts (Messrs. Perkins and Rolker) came up to report on the country. They seemed determined to criticize adversely everything they saw." From Lord Randolph Churchill's Men, Mines and Animals in South Africa, 1892.
262. Lobengula's Battery. - Lobengula sent Dawson to secure some claims as soon as the Pioneer Column had settled at Fort Salisbury. Ground was secured at Hartley Hill and an old five-stamp battery was erected. Dawson was placed in charge, and had considerable difficulty with the old machinery. As wealth did not materialize, Lobengula shut down. He was given a button of gold which represented the total output of his mine.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury
263. Early Mining Camp, Hartley. - Immediately after the disbandment of the Column, the Pioneer scattered to look for gold. Few had any previous experience, and their equipment was of the slightest. Hartley was one of the earliest settlements because of the reputation given it by Baines and Mauch.
264. Prospector at Native Kraal.
265. Small Worker's Mine. - Five-stamp battery, with "Sentinel" probable steam engine.
266. Globe and Phoenix. - An early view of one of the headgear of the Globe and Phoenix Gold Mining Company.
267. First Export of Gold. - First regular production. From the Geelong Mine, twenty-stamp battery. September, 1898.
268. Ancient Ruins Syndicate. - Under a grant from the British South Africa Company, a company was formed to examine the ancient ruins south of the Zambesi, and these are some of the relics taken from the Zambesi ruins.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
269. Camp at Wankie. - The area now covered by one of the great coal mines of Africa.
270. Chief Wankie. - In whose territory coal was found.
271. Group at Wankie. - A. Giese (in chair), discoverer of the Wankie Coal Fields, and two coloured hunters who used to work for the trader Westbeech at Pandamatenka.
- Lent by A. Giese, Esq.
272. Alluvial Gold Diggings, 1922. - Angwa alluvial gold diggings.
WITHIN two months of the occupation of Mashonaland, the
first newspaper was published at Fort Victoria. It was in manuscript, and
seven months later, the first cyclostyle newspaper made its appearance in
Salisbury, and on 29th October, 1892, the first printed newspaper was produced.
Journalism, it would appear, was considered by many a popular form of occupation,
judging by the numerous different papers running concurrently. This was no
doubt actuated by a virile and highspirited community.
273. First Newspaper, Mashonaland. - The Nugget, with the motto Root hog or bust, produced in manuscript at Fort Victoria, 11th November, 1890 (two months after the occupation of Mashonaland). The Editor says frankly that his principal object was to be the first in the field of journalism in the country. Printed and published by H. R. Vennell at the Nugget Publishing Company's works, Fort Victoria, Mashonaland. No price is mentioned.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
274. First Newspaper, Salisbury. - No. 1 of The Mashonaland Herald, which, with the alteration of the first word to "Rhodesia," carries on to this day. It first appeared on Saturday, 27th June, 1891; weekly price, 1s. The editor and proprietor, W. E. Fairbridge, constructed the inking roller for his cyclostyle machine from imported treacle and locally produced glue cast in a German sausage tin. Early issues of the paper looked as if they had been blacked out by a severe censor. Owing to the scarcity of paper, the editor was often compelled to use what he could find, and some of the issues appeared on double-money column foolscap. The editor was his own sales agent, riding round the camp to deliver the paper. As there was no silver or change to be had, he frequently took payment in kind, a packet of candles, a pot of marmalade, or even, in one instance, an old spade. Nevertheless, he says, it was a paying concern.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
275. Editor's Office. - W. E. Fairbridge standing in front of his editorial office at Fort Salisbury, 1891.
- Lent by the Cape Argus.
276. W. E. Fairbridge. - A pioneer of the Press in Southern Rhodesia. Went to Mashonaland, 1891, as special correspondent for the Cape Argus and Star. Was editor of the first Salisbury paper and later also of the first Rhodesia Herald. First Mayor of Salisbury, 1897.
- Lent by the Cape Argus.
277. First Printed Sheet. - The Rhodesia Herald was first issued as a printed paper on 29th October, 1892. In its transitory stage between cyclostyle and print, this sheet was issued, pending completion of the arrangements for the printing of the forthcoming paper. It is therefore the first specimen of printing in Southern Rhodesia.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
278. Rhodesia Chronicle. - The first paper, called The Rhodesia Chronicle and Mashonaland Advertiser, to use the world "Rhodesia" in its title. Rhodesia was not officially known as such until 1895. The first issue was published at Tuli, 7th May, 1892, weekly, price 6d.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
279. Mashonaland Times. - The second Fort Victoria newspaper, called the Mashonaland Times and Mining Chronicle. First printed and published in 1892 by the proprietors of the Mashonaland Times Printing and Publishing Syndicate at their office, Fort Victoria, South Africa. Weekly, price 6d.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
280. Umtali Advertiser. - Started in the last month of 1893, as a weekly, price 6d. Second surviving and fourth oldest of early Rhodesian newspapers. Printed and published by M. Henry & Co., Old Umtali. Editor, Charles Hanock. Weekly, price 6d.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
281. Advertising, 1895. - The Umtali Advertiser publishes an advertisement of the Beira Railway Company announcing that a passenger train will leave the seventy-mile station every Wednesday at 6.50 a.m., connecting with the mail steamer at Fontesvilla for Beira. By this means early settlers travelled to the coast.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
282. W. F. Wallenstein. - Editor and proprietor of the first Bulawayo newspaper.
- Lent by Mrs. Desia Delrai.
283. First Bulawayo Paper. - The Matabele Times and Mining Journal, weekly price 6d. First appeared as a cyclostyle paper on 23rd March, 1894, three months after the occupation of Bulawayo. On 28th September of the same year it was brought out as the first printed paper in Matabeleland.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
284. Newspaper Office. - The office of The Matabele Times Printing and Publishing Syndicate, Limited, 1894, where Mr. Wallenstein produced the first newspaper in Matabeleland.
- Lent by Mrs. Desia Delari.
285. First Illustrated Paper. - The Bulawayo Sketch. Price 6d. First published July, 1894, being the third Bulawayo newspaper. Contains caricatures which are not without merit.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
286. Typical Illustration. - The Rhodesia Light Horse starting out on 15th October, for "Matabele" Wilson's on a manoeuvre which is described by the reporter as "charging, recharging and surcharging, being victorious and annihilated in turns, but ending satisfactorily in a feast of sandwiches and 'shandies'." They are depicted marching abreast round Kerr's corner into Eighth Avenue, Bulawayo. From The Bulawayo Sketch, vol. iii, No. 66, 19th October, 1895.
287. Bulawayo Types. - From The Bulawayo Sketch, Vol. iii, No. 62, 21st September, 1895.
288. Skating Rink. - Opening of the first Skating Rink in Rhodesia, Market Hall, Bulawayo. From The Bulawayo Sketch, 1895.
289. R. B. Nash. - Editor and proprietor of the first Gwelo newspaper.
290. First Paper, Gwelo. - The Northern Optimist, 26th December, 1894, edited by R. B. Nash. It ran for four months, and later became known as the Gwelo Times in 1895.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
291. First Illustrated Paper, Salisbury. - The Nugget, founded 27th July, 1895, by Alfred Lyons and A. W. Phillips at 11, Agency Chambers, Pioneer Street, Salisbury. Was a serio-comic paper with sketches.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
292. Editorial Office. - Alfred Lyons in the doorway of the office of The Nugget and Rhodesian Critic, in Jameson Avenue, Salisbury, on the site of the present Government buildings.
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
293. First Northern Rhodesian Paper. - The Livingstone Pioneer and Advertiser, Vol. i, No. 1, 13th January, 1906. Typewritten.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
294. Northern Rhodesian Press. - Mr. L. F. Moore, after a brief experience of journalism in Bulawayo, took a mimeograph, stencil and paper to Livingstone on 31th March, 1906, and started the Livingstone Mail, which continues to this day. At first a Roneo was used, but in 1908, Mr. Moore imported a "cropper" and continued to use that machine, which involved hand-setting and re-distributing type after printing, until 1911, when he set up the Typograph illustrated here.
- Lent by the Hon. L. F. Moore.
295. Livingstone Mail. - Vol. i, No. 1, Saturday, 31st March, 1906.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
296. First Book Printed in Rhodesia. - Printed by the "Times" Printing Works, Bulawayo, in 1897, in connection with the celebration of the opening of the Railway. The type was hand-set by G. C. Chivers, the present owner of The Gwelo Times. This book by A. Boggle, one of the early hunters and traders, is a scarce item of Rhodesiana.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
297. Serio-Comic Paper. - The Comet, Vol. i, No. 1, Gubuluwayo Railway Camp, 19th June, 1901. Published for private circulation. Price "two tickeys," weekly. Proceeds of sales were devoted to the Library Fund for the Bulawayo Railway Institute.
- Government Archives, Salisbury.
SECTION XI. - ADMINISTRATIVE AND POLITICAL.
THE effective occupation of Mashonaland was established in 1890 by the British South Africa Company under Royal Charter granted them in 1889. Among the privileges granted to the Company in the Charter were the following: Subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, to acquire by any concession, agreement, grant of treaty, all or any rights, interests, authorities, jurisdictions, and powers, including powers necessary for the purpose of government. After the conquest of the Matabele in 1893, the Company was permitting by the Imperial Government to administer Matabeleland as well as Mashonaland. Order-in-Council, 1894, enlarged the constitution and allowed the Company to carry out its undertakings on a broader basis. Provision was made under this Order for the appointment of an Administrator and a Council to assist him in the legislation of the country and all other matters of importance. The Government consisted of the Administrator and a Council of four, composed of the Judge, ex-officio, and three other members chosen by the Company with the consent of the Secretary of State. The Administrator, who received his orders from the Company and his Council, which consisted of Company officials, was constructed accordingly. He was permitted to veto the conclusions of the Council, but in every such case he was obliged to make a full report to the Company, giving the reasons for such steps, and if the Company thought fit, it could reverse his decisions. Regulations were passed and had force of law only after the approval and promulgation by the High Commissioner of South Africa. The Council marks a step - though a short one - from pure aristocracy to the present form of Government. It was not long, however, before the settlers expressed their indignation and resentment at the form of government, which imposed upon them the burdens of taxation and gave them no voice in the affairs of the country. Numerous agitations took place, and the first result thereof was seen in 1898. In that year, under the Southern Rhodesian Order-in-Council, the Company revised its Constitution and appointed a Legislative Council. This Council, apart from its original Council, which now became the Executive Council, was composed of the Administrator, the Resident Commissioner, and nine other members, of whom five were appointed by the Company and four were elected by the registered voters of Southern Rhodesia. The action of the Company in granting the people a voice in the Legislative Council pacified hostile demonstrations until it became evident that the elected members were outvoted on measures not in agreement with the Company. The effects of this inadequate representation further incurred the wrath of the people and finally several of the Directors of the London Board paid a visit to Rhodesia for the purpose of investigating the situation. In 1903, the terms of the Council were amended to include seven nominated members and seven elected members, thereby giving equal representation. In 1907, the nominated members were in the minority for the first time. No election was held during the War, but a strong party in favour of securing Responsible Government was formed in the country and, in 1920, an election was held on this issue, which resulted in the support of the movement. A delegation was sent to London to present a petition to the Imperial Government, and after much negotiations, Responsible Government was granted to Southern Rhodesia in 1923.
E
298. John Smith Moffat. - The Chartered Company's first representative in Matabeleland. From the time of the signing of the Moffat Treaty, February, 1888, till 1892, he was constantly with Lobengula, and although in Government service, was requested to act as representative of the Company in 1889-90.
- Lent by J. S. Loosley, Esq.
299. Charter House, Bulawayo, 1889. - Major Mawell was the Chartered Company's agent at Bulawayo in 1889-90, one of his duties being to present the monthly payment of £100 to Lobengula under the Rudd-Rhodes Concession.
- National Museum of Southern Rhodesia.
300. First Board of Directors, B.S.A. Company. - Names from top left: H. Farquhar, Esq., Albert Grey, Esq. (afterwards Earl Grey), Alfred Beit, Esq.; Middle: The Duke of Fife, K.T., P.C., The Hon. C. J. Rhodes, The Duke of Abercorn, K.G., P.C.; Bottom: Lord Gifford, H. Canning, Esq. (Secretary), George Cawston, Esq.
301. First Administrator, Mashonaland. - A. R. Colquhoun, seconded from the Indian Civil Service at the request of Rhodes to accompany the Pioneer Column in 1890 and start civil government in Mashonaland. Died, 1914.
- Lent by Mrs. Tawse Jollie, O.B.E.
302. First Government Gazette. - No. 1, 18th October, 1890.
303. First Administrative Buildings, 1890. From a sketch by the late F. Inskipp.
- Lent by Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
304. Sir Starr Jameson. - Second Administrator, Mashonaland, left medical practice in Kimberley to assist Rhodes by visiting Lobengula, which he did in 1888 and 1890. He went to Mashonaland with the 1890 Column as Rhodes's confidential representative, succeeded Colquhoun as Administrator in September, 1891, and held that post until December, 1895. Later, 1902, he became M.L.A. for Grahamstown, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, 1904, Director of the Chartered Company (1900), and from 1913 until his death in 1917, President of that Company.
305. Earl Grey. - The Rt. Hon. Earl Grey, G.C.M.G., was M.P. for Tyneside division, 1880-5, and Vice-President of the British South Africa Company from 1897-1903, when he went to Canada as Governor-General. As Mr. Albert Grey, one of the original Board of Directors of the Chartered Company, came to Rhodesia as Administrator in 1896 to find the Matabele rebellion and Bulawayo in laager. He remained till the end of 1897. Died 1920.
306. Sir William Miltoin. - Fourth Administrator of Mashonaland. 1878-1896 in Government Service, Cape Colony; came to Mashonaland as Chief Secretary to organize Government Service in 1896, and was Acting Administrator, 1897; succeeded Earl Grey as Administrator of Mashonaland in 1898, and in 1902, on the departure of the Hon. A. Lawley from Bulawayo, became the first Administrator of Southern Rhodesia. Resigned in 1914. Died in 1930.
307. First Legislative Council, 1899. - By Order-in-Council, 1898, the administration of Southern Rhodesia was to include a Council with four elected members (two from each province) representing the settler community, six nominated members and the Administrators of Mashonaland and Matabeleland. The elected members are the four at the bottom.
308. Native Department Officials, 1896. - Front row: H. M. G. Jackson, W. E. Thomas, H. J. Taylor, Capt. the Hon. A. Lawyer, Johan Colenbrander, -. Driver. Middle row: E. Armstrong, B. Armstrong, C. B. Cooke, V. Gielgud, T. Fynn. Top row: -. Taylor, D. H. Moodie, C. G. Fynn.
309. Legislative Assembly. - Originally built about 1897 as an hotel by Messrs. Snodgrass and Mitchell, the building was subsequently acquired for the Legislative Council in 1899, and with certain alterations it is still in use by Parliament.
310. Legislative Council, 1901. - Back row: J. M. Orpen (Surveyor-General); J. G. Kotze (Attorney-General); J. H. Kennedy; Dr. H. Sauer; C. H. Tredgold (Solicitor-General); Col. Raleigh Grey; H. H. Castens (Chief Secretary). Front row: Sir Marshall J. Clarke, K.C.M.G. (Resident Commissioner); W. H. Milton (Administrator); W. P. Grimmer.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
311. Legislative Council, 1907. - By Order-in-Council of 1903, the Legislative Council was to consist of the Administrator, Resident Commissioner (without vote), and fourteen members, of whom seven were to be elected and seven nominated. Back row: E. W. S. Montagu (Secretary for Mines); A. W. B. Prew; H. T. Longden; J. H. Kennedy; F. J. Newton (Treasury); H. H. Castens (Chief Secretary); Sir Thomas Scanlen, K.C.M.G.; C. H. Tredgold (Attorney-General); Sir William Milton, K.C.M.G. (Administrator); E. Ross Townsend (Secretary, Agriculture); W. H. Haddon; Col. R. Chester-Master (Resident Commissioner). Front row: E. E. Homan; P. S. Warden (Press); G. S. D. Forbes; F. R. Myburgh; Col. W. Napier; J. Robertson (Clerk).
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
312. Legislative Council, 1911. - Back row: E. W. S. Montagu (Secretary for Mines); G. Mitchell; J. H. Kennedy; Col. Raleigh Grey; J. Robertson (Clerk); F. R. Myburgh; C. H. Tredgold (Attorney-General); F. Eyles; Dr. E. A. Nobbs (Director of Agriculture); E., Edwards (Press); Col. H. M. Heyman. Front row: G. S. D. Forbes; Col. R. Burns-Begg (Resident Commissioner); Sir William Milton (Administrator); Sir Charles Coghlan; F. J. Newton (Treasurer).
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
313. Legislative Council, 1914. - Back row: C. Duff (Asst. Clerk); J. Robertson (Clerk); Capt. W. Bucknall; Col. W. Napier; E. Edwards (Press). Second row: J. H. Kennedy; E. A. Begbie; B. I. Collings; J. A. Edmonds; L. Cripps; G. Mitchell; Dr. E. A. Nobbs; G. Duthie; M. E. Cleveland; Colonel M. Heyman. Front row: E. W. Montagu; Major G. D. S. Forbes; F. Newton; Col. R. Burns-Begg; Sir W. Milton; Sir C. Coghlan; Sir R. Grey; C. Tredgold.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
314. Sir Drummond Chaplin. - Second Administrator of Southern Rhodesia. Succeeded Sir W. Milton as Administrator in 1914, and remained until the grant of Responsible Government in 1923. Died 1933.
315. Legislative Council, 1919. - Back row: R. Garvin; J. Robertson (Clerk); E. Edwards (Press); J. B. Grenfell-Hicks (Clerk); M. E. Cleveland. Third row: G. H. Eyre; J. D. MacKenzie. Second row: E. W. Montagu; G. Mitchell; E. A. Begbie; Dr. E. A. Nobbs; L. Cripps; B. I. Collings; J. McChlery. Front row: Sir R. Grey; C. Tredgold; C. Douglas-Jones; Sir Drummond Chaplin; Sir Charles Coghlan; Colonel M. Heyman; E. C. Baxter.
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
316. Legislative Council, 1920. - Back row: J. Jearey (Clerk); A. R. Hone (Secretary); J. B. Grenfell-Hicks (Clerk). Second row: L. Cripps; H. U. Moffat; R. A. Fletcher; W. M. Leggate. Third row: J. B. MacDonald; W. J. Boggie; W. D. Douglas-Jones; R. D. Gilchrist; Dr. E. A. Nobbs; J. D. MacKenzie; J. Stewart; F. L. Hadfield. Front row: R. McIlwaine (Solicitor-General); P. D. L. Fynn (Treasurer); Mrs. Tawse Jollie; C. Douglas-Jones; Sir Drummond Chaplin; Sir Charles Coghlan; Sir Ernest Montagu (Minister of Mines); J. McChlery; G. H. Eyre (P.M.G.).
- Photograph, Strachan & Co., Salisbury.
317. Mrs. Tawse Jolie. - Honorary Secretary and Organizer of Responsible Government Party, 1917-1923. First woman elected to Parliament in Overseas Dominions, 1920.
- Photograph, Mrs. E. M. Kennedy, Salisbury.
318. Delegation to England, 1921. - Four elected members of the Legislative Council went to England to discuss the new Constitution. Names, seated from left: R. A. Fletcher; Sir Charles Coghlan; W. McChlery; (standing): W. M. Leggate and Sir Francis Newton (who acted as adviser).
319. Delegation to Cape Town, 1922. - A delegation went to Cape Town in May, 1922, to discuss terms on which Rhodesia could enter the Union. Names, front row (sitting): J. G. McDonald, R. D. Gilchrist, A. Longden, Sir D. Chaplin, General Smuts, Sir C. Coghlan, Mrs. Tawse Jollie, Sir Bourchier Wrey. (Stabnding): E. C. Baxter, P. D. L. Fynn, Sir R. Grey, Sir T. Smartt, R. Garvin, J. Stewart, Capt. E. F. C. Lane. (Back row): A. R. Hone, W. M. Leggate, -. Hawksley, P. Duncan, -. Malan, G. Johnson, L. F. Moore, and W. J. Keller.
320. First Government of Southern Rhodesia. - Lt.-Col. Sir John Chancellor, K.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., R.E.
- Photograph, Mrs. E. M. Kennedy, Salisbury.
321. Sir Charles Coghlan. - Entered Legislative Council as member for Bula in 1908. Became leader of Elected Members in struggle for self-government and negotiated terms of constitution. Was first Premier from 1923 till his death in 1926.
- Photograph, Mrs. E. M. Kennedy, Salisbury.
322. First Legislative Assembly, 1924. - Names, from left (sitting): Sir E. Montagu; W. M. Leggate; H. U. Moffat; P. D. L. Fynn; Sir C. Coghlan; L. Cripps (Speaker); Sir F. Newton; R. J. Hudson; Mrs. Tawse Jollie; C. Eickhoff. (Standing): C. C. D. Ferris (Assistant Clerk); Col. D. C. Munro; Col. C. F. Birney; Col. O. C. du Port; A. R. Thomson; G. F. Elcombe; J. Jearey (Clerk); W. J.
[Afbeelding: Lewanika, stamhoofd van de Barotse. Foto.]
No. 324. LEWANIKA, Paramount Chief of the Barotse People.
69
Boggie; H. Bertin; F. L. Hadfield; M. Danziger; R. A. Fletcher. (Back row): R. D. Gilchrist; J. Martin; C. E. Gilfillan; G. M. Huggins; J. Murdoch Eaton; J. Cowden; L. K. Robinson; H. R. Barbour; E. Edwards (Press). Inset: J. P. Richardson and F. P. Mennell.
323. Lewanika Concession. - Concession given by king Lewanika to R. Coryndon, acting for the British South Africa Company.
324. Lewanika. - Paramount Chief of the Barotse, who, in 1890, executed a treaty with Lochner, as representative of the Chartered Company, giving them mineral and commercial rights in his territory. Later, he executed a more comprehensive agreement, which secured the Company administrative rights while safeguarding the interests of his people. In 1902 he visited England and saw the coronation of King Edward VII. He died in 1916.
325. Chief Yeta. - Eldest son and heir of Lewanika, also known as Letia; succeeded him as Paramount Chief in 1916. Taken in a Court uniform designed for Lewanika on his visit to England. He is shown in the photograph with Chiefs of the Barotse tribes.
- Photograph by P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
326. Earl Buxton in Northern Rhodesia. - On the occasion of a visit by the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa in 1916. Sir Cecil Rodwell, Imperial Secretary (later second Governor of Southern Rhodesia), is standing behind Earl Buxton, and the two figures in mufti are Sir Laurence Wallace, Administrator of Northern Rhodesia and Sir Herbert Stanley, Resident Commissioner, and later third Governor of Southern Rhodesia.
- Photograph by P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
327. First Legislative Council, Northern Rhodesia, 1924. - The Governor, His Excellency, Sir Herbert Stanley and members of the Legislative Assembly. Seated from left: C. H. Dobree (Treasurer); Sir R. Goode (Chief Secretary); Sir H. J. Stanley (Governor); E. S. B. Taggart (Secretary, Native Affairs); Dr. A. W. May (P.M.O.); and members of the Legislative Council. This is the first session of the first Council after the handing over of the Administration by the Chartered Company to the Imperial Government.
- B. L. Hunt, Esq.
328. Barges on the Zambesi.
- Photograph by P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
329. Barotse Police.
- Photograph by P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
330. Barotse Police.
- Photograph by P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
331. Barotse Band.
- Photograph by P. M. Clark, Esq., Victoria Falls.
SECTION XIII. - SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
331. Leaving for Tuli. - Capt. J. Spreckley's contingent leaving Bulawayo. He was killed at Kimberley.
332. Leaving Salisbury. - First detachment, Mashonaland Regiment, leaving Salisbury.
333. Cycle Corps. - "E" Troop, Southern Rhodesia Volunteers at Bulawayo.
334. Armoured Train. - At Bulawayo.
335. Birchenough Bridge. - This is the third largest single-span bridge in the world, and is considered an engineering feat of some importance, several innovations having been made in the material and construction to suit the peculiar conditions. It is eighty-four miles from the nearest rail-head at Umtali, and connects the Eastern Districts with other parts of Southern Rhodesia.
- Department of Publicity, Salisbury.
336. Alfred Beit. - Born in Hamburg of a wealthy and honorable family. Alfred Beit, who was the same age as Rhodes, came to Kimberley in 1875 as a diamond buyer, and the two young men struck up a friendship which was undoubtedly one of the great influences in Rhodes's life. He relied on Beit's business instinct, and in the years when politics absorbed most of his time, Beit looked after his interests. Beit was one of the four principal founders of the De Beers Consolidated Mines, Limited, the others being Rhodes, Barnato and Stow, and he helped materially in financing the Chartered Company, of which he was an original Director. He died in 1906, and by his will left a large fortune to be administrated by trustees on education and the development of communications in the two Rhodesias. This fund has provided a large number of scholarships, has built school assembly halls, given grants-in-aid to public and charitable institutions, constructed numerous low-level bridges over rivers, and three great engineering works in the Beit Bridge over the Limpopo, the Luangwa River Bridge in Northern Rhodesia, and the Birchenough Bridge over the Sabi River. He also founded a Chair of Colonial History at Oxford. While the name of Alfred Beit is only second in honour to that of Rhodes in the countries of which he has been so great a benefactor, there are now few who knew him personally, but all who were privileged to do so agree as to the goodness of his heart and the unassuming charm of his character.
337. Beit Hall. - A typical example of the school assembly halls which have been given to schools in various centres throughout Southern Rhodesia.
- Lent by the Rector, St. George's College, Salisbury.
SECTION XV. - MISCELLANEOUS
338. Kingsley Fairbridge. - Born at Grahamstown, 1885, and came to Rhodesia at the age of eleven. Owing to lack of facilities for education, he had no regular schooling. In 1907 he obtained a Rhodes Scholarship, but had to work ten months in England to pass Responsions. At Exeter College, Oxford, he proved to be a useful sportsman. His principal interest at Oxford was, however, the foundation of a society for the emigration of homeless children. In 1909 this took shape at a meeting of the Colonial Club at Oxford, and the Child Emigration Society was started at a meeting of donation from each one present. With £2,000, Fairbridge, who had married, sailed with his wife on an emigrant ship from Perth, Western Australia, where the first farm school was started with thirteen boys, at Pinjarra. The Great War made it difficult to carry on, and all the school staff volunteered, Fairbridge being rejected on account of ill-health. A local committee and the Western Australian Government helped to keep things going until peace was declared, and Fairbridge and his family went to England, where, as the result of his efforts, a strong committee was formed and £27,000 collected. With this the school was re-started, and from that time has continued to expand. In 1935, there were 370 children at Pinjarra and over 1,000 employers applied for the 100 boys ready to go out. Another farm school was started on Vancouver Island, B.C., and in a campaign for more funds, the present King, then Prince of Wales, made a special appeal. Child emigration on the lines initiated by Kingsley Fairbridge is now an established feature of social work. Fairbridge died in 1924 after a severe illness.
339. Kingsley Fairbridge with his Parents. - Taken at the Fairbridge home "Utopia," Umtali, in 1897. On the left, seated, Kingsley Fairbridge beside his father and mother (standing).
- Lent by G. Lamb, Esq.
340. Early Bank Note. - £1 note of the Standard Bank of South Africa, Ltd., Bulawayo, dated 1st October, 1896. The first Salisbury notes which were issued in 1896, were designated "Durban," and had the word "Salisbury" printed above the domicile.
- Standard Bank of South Africa, Limited.
341. Paper Currency. - Used in Rhodesia during the Boer War, 1899-1900, when there was a shortage of silver.
- Arthur Elliott, Cape Town.
342. Khama and Ma-Bessie, 1890. - Born about 1830, Khama came early under the influence of missionaries and embraced Christianity, although this involved a breach with his father and the probable loss of his inheritance. He was disgraced for a time, but having helped to put down a rebellion and led his people successfully in battle against the Matabele, he was recognized by them and was made Chief in place of his father in 1872. After a long struggle, he succeeded in establishing himself as a Christian ruler who would not conform to any heathen practices. Lobengula used to say "Khama is the only man among the Bamangwato." In 1888 he asked for a British protectorate over his country and entered into an agreement which safeguarded his people as to their land and prohibited the sale of liquor to them. Khama may be considered the greatest of native rulers Africa has produced. He died in 1923 and his successor was his son, Sekome, who was succeeded by Tschekedi, who is Acting Paramount Chief for his younger brother Seretse. Khama's wife, Ma-Bessie, is wearing a dress and gold watch and chain presented to her by Queen Victoria.
- Photograph by W. Ellerton Fry.
343. A. Boggle and Native Companion. - Alexander Boggle, one of the early traders and prospectors, is seen with a Matabele friend. It is alleged that this native companion is Lobengula himself, but so far it has not been possible to obtain confirmation on this point. It is well known that Lobengula was much averse to being photographed.
- Lent by Mrs. Desia Delrai.
Leader JOHANNESBURG