The Making of Rhodesia

Hugh Marshall Hole

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781136909498
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Initially published in 1926, this book seeks to clear some misconceptions of Southern and Northern Rhodesia at the time of the evolution of British colonies that bear the name of Rhodes, their founder. The author who lived there for twenty- three years, used official records and reports, original photographs and his friends and his own narrative to tell this story.

The Making of Rhodesia

Chapter I
The Genesis of the Movement

THE project upon which Cecil Rhodes embarked thirty-six years ago, of creating a British Colony in the heart of Africa, has long since passed beyond the experimental stage. Its justification is now in the hands of the small but enterprising body of settlers in Southern Rhodesia who have lately, on their own initiative, shouldered the management of the great estate provided for them by the genius of its founder and by the patient and only partially requited labours of that remarkable corporation the British South Africa Company, whose history is, in fact, the history of the country itself.

The genesis of the movement which ultimately received the sanction of a Royal Charter may be traced to two principal influences.

The first of these was the persistent tradition, handed down from remote antiquity, that vast deposits of gold lay ready for the miner in Central South Africa, and the second was the impulse which came upon Englishmen, almost suddenly, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, to acquire fresh tracts of Africa for future development, to link South with North, and to create a Tom Tiddler’s ground from which other European Powers should be excluded.

In the beginning these two influences operated independently and either of them might in time have become strong enough, unaided by the other, to have inspired a British enterprise. When they were ultimately merged they advanced with a rush which swept aside all opposition, and what had at first been the dream of a few adventurers rapidly assumed the form of a solid commercial movement.

It is proposed at the outset to trace briefly the history of each of these two ideas up to the point where they became united in the mind of one man, and as the gold was the earlier attraction in point of time, so it will be dealt with first in this narrative.

It is unnecessary to do more than recall the legend of wealth which, through ancient and mediaeval history, has clung about Mashonaland, long thought to be the Ophir of Biblical lore. It was this that prompted the Portuguese expeditions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: it was for gold that the miners of Zimbabwe, unidentified to this day, built the walls and towns, and sunk the shafts, which remain as enduring monuments to their industry, and it was the gold-glamour which made the mysterious Empire of Monomotapa a household word in Europe up to comparatively recent days.¹ The builders of Zimbabwe played their part and passed from the stage; the coast lands were occupied in turn by Arab traders and Portuguese adventurers. None of these were destined to establish themselves in the interior as a nation; the barbarous Kaffir tribes survived them all, and one is sometimes driven to speculate as to whether this virile race may not be destined to outlast even the present colonists of South Central Africa.

The history, mythical or actual, of these successive occupations belongs to another period, and has been well told by other pens. The following pages will deal with the latest phase only of Rhodesia’s long history, during which the vague and doubtful rumours of hidden riches have gradually taken concrete shape in blocks of veritable gold.

The story dates back fifty or sixty years, and begins at a time when Mashonaland and Matabeleland were unknown, save to a few intrepid hunters who toiled painfully into the interior from Durban or Capetown, and risked health and life in the pursuit of ivory. One of these, Henry Hartley, a well-known elephant hunter, whose wanderings led him more than once into the remote regions of Mashonaland, was struck by the shallow excavations and heaps of quartz which he saw in many parts of the country, and which were obviously the work of human hands. Hartley was one of the British settlers of 1820, and had his home at Bathurst in the Cape Colony, whence for many years he made expeditions into the interior for trade and hunting, but it was not until 1866 that he was able to put into practice the idea of obtaining scientific investigation of the mineral potentialities of the quartz reefs, which he knew to be so widely distributed in this part of Africa. In that year he fell in with a young German scientist named Carl Mauch, and engaged or invited him to accompany his next expedition.

On their return, in the latter part of 1867, Mauch wrote a letter to the Transvaal Argus, describing, in extravagant language, the result of his visit to the Northern goldfields. After narrating the discovery of two bodies of auriferous rock, one of which he traced for eighty and the other for twenty-two miles, he proceeds:—“The vast extent and beauty of these goldfields are such that at a particular spot I stood as it were transfixed, riveted to the place, struck with amazement and wonder at the sight, and for a few minutes was unable to use the hammer. Thousands of persons might here find ample room to work in this extensive field without interfering with one another.”¹

These fascinating phrases produced an immense impression in South Africa. Men began to talk about expeditions and stamp batteries; syndicates were formed, and Mauch was beset with inquiries as to the locality and accessibility of his discoveries. The reports reached Great Britain, and in the following year (1868) appeared a pamphlet by Mr. Richard Babbs, entitled The Goldfields of South Africa, a few sentences of which I will repeat, as they afford some explanation of the remarkable rush which followed the publication to the world of Mauch’s reports. The writer says that Mauch had no hesitation in asserting that the goldfields in the interior were richer than those of California or Australia. “When he saw the white reefs of auriferous quartz glistening in the sun as they cropped out here and there, he was startled by the conception of the wealth before him. Thousands of holes some ten feet deep give evidence of old native workings, and bear out Dr. Livingstone’s remark about the gold washing carried on in wooden bowls by the Kaffirs in time past.”

The Times also had several articles on the discoveries, couched ia hardly less glowing language, and in the same year published an assay of some specimens of quartz from the new fields, furnished by the Bank of England, and showing 1185 ozs. of gold and 60 ozs. of silver to the ton!¹ Was it to be wondered at that amateurs from England, and even professional diggers from Australia and California, began to flock towards Durban, which was then regarded as the nearest port to the new El Dorado?

Almost simultaneously with the reports of Hartley and Mauch from Mashonaland, a discovery of gold-bearing reefs was made at Tatin, or, as we now call it Tati, on the southwestern side of Matabeleland, and it was to that district, as being more accessible, that the first prospecting parties gave their attention. As it turned out, the Tati goldfields monopolised the rush, and the disappointments met with there, followed by the counter-attraction offered in 1870 by the diamond discoveries on the Vaal River, checked the impulse which might otherwise have led to a thorough exploration of the more remote regions to which Mauch had drawn notice.

Among the earliest arrivals at Tati was Sir John Swinburne, who, as the representative of a company styled “The London and Limpopo Company,” undertook in 1869 an expedition to secure digging rights from the Matabele chief; and about the same time another company, bearing the familiar-sounding name of the “South African Goldfields and Exploration Company,” despatched a party to Mashonaland, under the leadership of Thomas Baines, an experienced colonial traveller who had accompanied Dr. Livingstone on his then recent expedition to explore the lower courses of the Zambesi River.

Swinburne’s venture resulted in the well-known “Tati Concession,” which was specially excluded from the Rudd-Rhodes Concession, and exists to this day under independent management; but, of the various companies formed to develop the mines in the Tati area, only two or three survived the stress and trials of the early ’seventies, and even these led a chequered existence until, many years later, the arrival of the railway line enabled them to work on a payable basis.

Baines in his turn obtained a mineral concession from the chief, and as, later on, much will have to be said regarding the Matabele tribe and its politics, it will only be necessary here to indicate briefly the position at the time of which I am speaking.

Mziligazi, the original leader of this offshoot of the Zulus, who had conducted the tribe from Zululand to the country which they have since inhabited, died in 1868, but before his death he had by annual raids acquired sovereignty over a wide extent of country, reaching from the Gwaai River on the west to the Sabi on the east, and from the Zambesi to the Limpopo, and had reduced to subjection the various weaker tribes occupying it. During 1869 the Matabele were ruled by a regent, Um-nobata, a relative of the deceased chief, pending the removal of a doubt as to what had become of the legitimate heir, Kuruman, who had quarrelled with his father and disappeared. Some time was spent in investigating the claims of a pretender from Natal, who alleged that he was the true Kuruman, but upon these breaking down, the tribe proceeded to elect a permanent successor, and in December 1869 their choice fell upon Mziligazi’s younger son, Lobengula, so well known later in connection with the occupation of Mashonaland.

His formal investiture as Paramount Chief took place in February 1870, and Baines, who had been waiting for this event to take place, immediately visited him to prefer his demands for a concession. He had just returned from an extended journey made on behalf of his company through Mashonaland, during which he had reached a point 150 miles due south of the Portuguese settlement of Zumbo on the Zambesi (i.e. somewhere between the modern town of Salisbury and Sinoia), and had discovered old “Mashona” workings in many parts of the adjacent country, as well as some ruined buildings, which he assumed to be the former dwellings of missionaries from Zumbo. On learning that the question of the succession had been determined, he thought to secure the grant of a mining area from the new chief. But Lobengula was not to be drawn into any rash undertakings. He informed Baines that having been so recently appointed he could neither give land nor fix boundaries, and Baines had to content himself with a verbal promise of the right to dig for gold in a district limited by the Gwailo (Gwelo) River on the west, and the Ganyana (Hanyani) on the east. This was confirmed in August 1871 by a written document under Lobengula’s sign-manual—the famous “Baines Concession”—among the provisions of which were a clause stating that the chief alienated no portion of his kingdom, and an undertaking by the concessionaire to recognise his sovereignty.¹

The next year or two were occupied by Baines in a vain endeavour to raise capital in order to develop the rights which he had obtained. The moment was unpropitious. The Franco-German War had depressed the money markets of Europe, and, when a recovery took place, the rich discoveries of diamonds on the Vaal River and in Griqualand West diverted men’s thoughts from the gold so far away in the north. In spite of strenuous efforts on Baines’ part to revive interest in Mauch’s goldfields and his own enterprise, the necessary funds were not subscribed.

As a last resource, Baines sunk his own small means in the purchase of a quartz-crushing machine, and made arrangements to travel, almost alone, to the Mashonaland goldfields, but disappointments had told upon a constitution already impaired by many arduous journeys in unhealthy climates. His new plans were frustrated by an attack of dysentery, to which, after a long illness, he succumbed in May 1875.¹

After Baines’ death no further steps were taken to open up the Mashonaland goldfields for many years. Some of the mines in the Tati district were worked for a time in a spasmodic manner, but the more certain rewards of the diamond fields kept men away, and any attempts to prospect in other parts of the country were instantly repressed by the Matabele and their chief. Lobengula was always obsessed by a dread that his country would be overrun by gold-seekers if he once allowed them a foothold. He was ready to give encouragement to a limited number of hunters, who curried favour with him by presents of European goods, and he extended this indulgence to a few missionaries whom he found useful as business advisers in matters relating to the white men, but he was suspicious of all new-comers, and cherished a special hatred for the Boers, knowing their tendency to penetrate further and further into the interior, and the tenacity with which they clung to any ground on which they had once settled. Probably also he entertained a lively memory of the days when they had driven his father and people out of the Transvaal. His attitude towards the generality of travellers in his country was tolerant, but no more, and there was always present in the minds of the few resident Europeans an uneasy feeling as to what might happen if his young braves got beyond control, and a conviction that they were living with a sword suspended by a thread above their heads.

No mining enterprise could have been promoted under such conditions, and for years no serious attempt was made to explore the country’s resources. Had not other causes begun to operate—notably the revival of interest created by the successive discoveries of gold at de Kaap in 1883 and at Witwatersrand in 1886—the mineral wealth of Rhodesia might have remained unproved until this day.

The second influence which was an agent in the ultimate creation of the Chartered South Africa Company was the idea of British expansion.

It is a remarkable fact that the two nations which secured the earliest foothold in South Africa, and which therefore had the first and best opportunities of extending their dominion over the interior, should have allowed so many years to slip by without taking a single step towards securing the back country with its vast and unknown possibilities, and should have been stirred at length into activity by the colonising schemes of other and younger Powers.

In the case of the Portuguese this impetus came too late. They might have possessed Africa from Angola to Mozambique. It needed all the efforts of Serpa Pinto and Paiva d’Andrade to save their coast colonies from being cut up, in the general partition which followed the scramble for Africa by other European Powers. In the case of Great Britain the movement was too late to save Damara-land, and was only just in time to prevent the great inland territories between the Congo and the Cape from being appropriated by Germans, Boers and Portuguese.

Prior to Dr. Livingstone’s first journey to the Zambesi in 1850, nothing was known, and little was cared, about these regions. During the succeeding twenty-three years the great explorer had the field to himself. His prodigious geographical discoveries appealed to a comparatively small section only of the British public, but the revelations which he made as to the extent and horrors of the interior slave trade, the mystery of his long disappearance, Stanley’s sensational expedition for his rescue, and the pathetic circumstances of the missionary’s lonely death, stirred men’s feelings to their depths, and excited a wave of sentimental enthusiasm about those dark portions of the continent which had previously been merely the subject of scientific speculation.

The immediate and tangible result of Livingstone’s explorations north of the Zambesi was the establishment of a few missionary settlements on the shores of Lake Nyasa and in the Shiré highlands. Although intense eagerness had been excited, not only in England and Scotland, but also in France and Germany, for the further exploration of the great Central African Lakes, the idea of colonisation did not occur to any of these until long after Livingstone’s death in 1873, and while a number of minor expeditions were organised and the details of Livingstone’s rough outlines were gradually filled in, no overt step was taken by Britain, or by any other Power, to assert dominion over a single square mile of the immense area which now stood disclosed. It was Stanley’s travels in continuation of Livingstone’s great work which first kindled the spark, and converted the academical interest of Europe into a practical scheme of occupation.

The movement started in an unexpected quarter. In 1876, while Stanley was still investigating the sources of the Congo, Leopold, King of the Belgians, convened a Conference of the Powers at Brussels, to discuss the opening up of the interior of Africa to European commerce and industries, and to consider a united policy for the extinction of the slave trade. The result of this Conference was the formation of an international association for carrying out the above objects, and national committees to collect funds for the common ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• PREFACE
• CONTENTS
• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• CHAPTER I. THE GENESIS OF THE MOVEMENT
• CHAPTER II. BECHUANALAND: THE CORRIDOR TO THE INTERIOR
• CHAPTER III. EARLY STEPS TOWARDS THE NORTH
• CHAPTER IV. THE MATABELE
• CHAPTER V. THE MOFFAT TREATY
• CHAPTER VI. THE RUDD CONCESSION
• CHAPTER VII. THE MATABELE ENVOYS
• CHAPTER VIII. THE CHARTER
• CHAPTER IX. DIFFICULTIES WITH LOBENGULA
• CHAPTER X. THE PIONEERS
• CHAPTER XI. THE OCCUPATION OF MANICA
• CHAPTER XII. THE SETTLEMENT OF MASHONALAND
• CHAPTER XIII. THE GAZALAND CONCESSION
• CHAPTER XIV. BAROTSELAND
• CHAPTER XV. THE LAKE COUNTRY
• CHAPTER XVI. HOW KATANGA WAS LOST
• CHAPTER XVII. MORE TROUBLE WITH PORTUGUESE: THE LAST ACT
• CHAPTER XVIII. THE BANYAILAND TREK
• CHAPTER XIX. MASHONALAND BEFORE THE MATABELE WAR
• CHAPTER XX. THE MATABELE WAR
• CHAPTER XXI. THE SETTLEMENT OF MATABELELAND
• CHAPTER XXII. SUNSHINE AND SHADOW
• CHAPTER XXIII. THE REBELLION
• CHAPTER XXIV. EARLY SETTLEMENTS NORTH OF THE ZAMBESI:
• APPENDIX I
• APPENDIX II
• INDEX