LECTURE.

Monday, May 3rd, 1878.

GENERAL SIR ARTHUR A. T. CUNYNGHAME, K.C.B., &c., &c., in the Chair.

THE POPULATION, PROSPECTS, AND FUTURE GOVERNMENT OF THE TRANSVAAL.

By G. PIGOT MOODIE, Esq., F.R.G.S., &c., &c.

DURING the past year South Africa has attracted more than its accustomed share of public attention, owing in part to the annexation to the British dominion of an extensive tract of territory in that quarter, but also to the less gratifying intelligence received from thence of the recurrence of one of those intermittent and dreary Kafir wars, which not alone afford no glory but have proved so serious a bar to the progress of the Cape Colony, and have occasioned so much loss of life and of treasure both to that and to the mother country. Successive mails have also of late brought further news of outbreaks threatening among the tribes within and adjacent to the new possession; and it is owing to the interest that has been thus excited, and to the fact of information on the subject not being generally accessible, that with much diffidence I now venture, in compliance with the request of the Council of the Royal United Service Institution, to lay before you a few of the facts concerning it, which a residence there of some years has enabled me to acquire. I have been the more reluctant to enter upon this task from the knowledge of my inability to treat the subject from those points of view which will be of special interest to the gallant members of this Society, and I can only hope that though this may be the case there may be found in its novelty what may, in some degree, compensate for other deficiencies; and that if I fail to do more I may succeed in provoking enquiry that may lead to the desired result.

In endeavouring to draw your attention to the subject of my lecture, I desire at the outset to say that I wish throughout to convey such information as may bear upon what I consider will be the prominent question in the future history of that country, viz., that of our rela

tions with the natives, and the responsibilities which are involved in the extension of British dominion that has now taken place.

It will be well known to many that prior to the annexation of the Transvaal and of Griqualand West, the native border abutting on the British possessions in South Africa was limited to that adjacent to the eastern province of the Cape Colony where the war is now occurring, and to the northern and southern boundaries of Natal. Of the first it may, I trust, be said, that the present compaign will finally end all serious difficulty in that quarter, and of the latter that it is from the northern boundary alone that future trouble need be apprehended, the Zulus being naturally a warlike and aggressive people, while those on the south, the Amapondas, live in an exposed country, are more peaceably inclined, and are too much hemmed in by the adjacent British colonies to render them a source of much danger.

The Zulu nation need also have afforded no occasion for much fear, for they, too, were in an enclosure which laid them open to attack from all sides-Natal on the south; the Transvaal and their hereditary enemies, the Amaswazi, on the west; the Portuguese settlement with their enforced tributaries under Nozingele, on the north, and the Indian Ocean on the east. Thus surrounded, and with rival claimants to the throne within the dominion, the Zulu King Cetewayo has known but too well hitherto what the result of offence on his part would be to venture upon disturbance. Recent events may, perhaps, have tended to change his position in some respects; but of this, as well as of the measures necessary to restore the previous status, an estimate may, perhaps, be formed as I proceed.

But by the annexation of the Transvaal, and of the Diamond Fields or Griqualand West, we have now, besides absorbing an enormous native population, acquired a territory with an exposed border of from 1,200 to 1,400 miles in length, the country adjacent to which is in the occupation of native tribes.

The importance of this point cannot, I think, be over-rated, for the questions which may in future arise from it admit of infinite radiation, and, if the past history of the Cape frontier be taken as a guide, may assume a character which will specially affect those to whom the protection of British interests are more immediately confided. It would, therefore, be well that in this early stage of the country's history, and in initiating measures for its future government and defence which are intended to be permanent, every consideration should be given to it.

I propose, after giving a short sketch of the past history of the Transvaal, to speak of the population, viz., Dutch Boers, the Europeans, and the natives, alluding, by the way, to the questions which may occur to me as incidental to each, and to conclude with remarks upon native policy, and the future government of the country.

The Transvaal, or what was formerly known as the South African Republic, is situated between the 22nd and 28th parallels of south latitude, to the north-west of and adjoining the colony of Natal, and is separated from the Indian Ocean on the east by the Portuguese settlement of Delagoa Bay, and the country of the Zulus. În size it is

approximately equal to the combined area of Great Britain and Ireland, or about 120,000 square miles, and contains a population which is widely estimated at from 300,000 to 1,000,000 souls. Of these about 30,000 to 35,000 are Boers, or South African farmers of Dutch extraction, 5,000 English or other Europeans, and the remaining large proportion native blacks.

It was originally colonized by the Boers, who, being dissatisfied with British rule at the Cape, had, from time to time, pushed on from thence towards the interior. It was in or about 1835 that a more organized movement took place, which in the end led to the occupation of what is now called the Orange Free State and of Natal; and it was while settling down in what was then an unoccupied tract near the northern border of the former country, that they aroused the fear or the jealousy of the neighbouring potentate Moselikatse, who, crossing the Vaal River from the north, attacked them unawares and murdered a considerable number of their party, carrying off at the same time large numbers of their cattle and some of their children. In resenting this unprovoked attack, the Boers in the following year gained a complete victory over this chief, who with his people then fled beyond the Limpopo, and established themselves in the country between that river and the Zambezi, where they have since then continued to reside. By right of this conquest the Boers claimed and exercised dominion over all the territory which had previously been under the rule of Moselikatse, and which may be generally taken to include the tract lying between the Limpopo and the Vaal Rivers. After securing the submission of the few tributary chieftains who remained behind, and who had long suffered from the inhumanity of the expelled tyrant, they then entered into occupation and set about establishing a Republican form of Government, in accordance with a patriarchial system of their own. For many years after this their position as an independent and self-governing people remained unrecognised by England, who looked upon them only as so many filibusters or renegade British subjects; but in 1852 Kafir wars at the Cape, and complications in home politics, seem to have produced a change in public feeling with regard to them. Owing to these causes philanthropic sentiment, which is somewhat liable to abnormal accumulation during long periods of repose, was for a time withdrawn, and a reaction having set in, the resolution was arrived at in England in that year to reverse the previous policy, and to acknowledge the independence of the Boers.

A Convention was accordingly entered into between the British Commissioners, Messrs. Hogge and Owen, and the Boer Representatives, by which that independence was formally guaranteed, and in which, as if with the object of more distinctly affirming the changed views in regard to native policy, a clause was introduced disclaiming. on the part of the British Government, all intention of interference thenceforward in native matters north of the Vaal. No definite boundaries were in this deed assigned to the Republican territory, except with regard to the southern border, which separated it from the Orange River Settlement, an omission which left the inference open that, to the north and in other directions, the Boers would be