African Company is dated October 29, 1889, in the fiftythird year of Queen Victoria's reign. The 'body politic and corporate' in whose names the charter has been drawn are the Duke of Abercorn, the Duke of Fife, Lord Giffard, Cecil John Rhodes, Albert Beit, Albert Henry George Grey, and George Cawston. The share capital of the company is set down at a million sterling. It has the power to make and maintain railways, telegraphs, and all other necessary works; to promote emigration and settlement; to grant lands on lease and in perpetuity; in fact, to open up and develop a vast range of territory in the most profitable way. The policy in inaugurating such a company is wise, as it places Great Britain in the forefront of South African progress, and the charter is in itself a strong guarantee that England will no longer treat South African affairs with indifference. Judging, therefore, from the last development in South African history, it would seem as if the whole country south of the Zambesi to Capetown was destined in course of time to become a number of federated states and communities, each with separate and distinct boundaries, but meeting together and agreeing to carry out certain broad lines of policy mutually advantageous to all. Commercial reciprocity must, in some form or other, be the destiny of these South African States. The maritime and inland communities must join hands in a common policy of trade development. The problems of government, especially those relating to native administration and native education, are amongst the greatest ever placed before European colonists. They will task the united skill and knowledge of all the states concerned, and the working out of the numerous class questions before them will elicit the sympathy and attention of all British statesmen and politicians. England has been, and still is, deeply pledged in South Africa. CHAPTER II. Area. Population. General Political Divisions. (1) IF a line be drawn from the mouth of the Cunene River on the west coast of South Africa, to that of the Zambesi on the east, a large triangular-shaped tract of country will be cut off, with an estimated area of 1,200,000 square miles, lying between lat. 18 S. and lat. 34° 49′ S. Roughly speaking, this tract lies across twenty-four degrees of longitude, viz., from long. 12° E. to long. 36° E. of Greenwich, where the line strikes the shore of the Indian Ocean close to the mouth of the Zambesi River. The apex of the triangle is southwards and towards the Land's End of South Africa, which is at Cape l'Agulhas, or 'the Needles.' The continent, instead of making a sharp turn, as in South America, broadens out after the southern extremity is reached, and trends very gradually to the east, so much so that early mariners were constantly out of their reckoning in allowing too little easting to the African shores. Contrasting this country with the area of the Dominion of Canada, which, including the surface of the great lakes, is 3,600,000 square miles', it will be seen to be exactly one-third its size. Compared again with the combined area of the Australasian colonies, estimated at 3,075,030 square miles 2, it is somewhat more than onethird. Of course it must be remembered that in Africa, south of the equator, the sphere of British influence is 1 See Official Handbook of Canada,' 1890. 2 See paragraph 131, 'Victorian Year Book,' 1884-85. The Shiré not bounded by the banks of the Zambesi. River, the northern affluent of the Zambesi, conducts the traveller to Nyassaland and the equatorial lake system; and even beyond the Victoria Falls, far to the northward, in the Barotse country, and around the first fountains of the Zambesi, British travellers and pioneers are making their way and concluding treaties with native chiefs. The limits of the Congo Free State would appear to be the limits in Central Africa to British Imperial control, and this vast region offers to the British trader, as to all Europeans, endless scope and development. For the present, however, Africa south of the Zambesi seems a sufficiently clear and distinct geographical expression, demanding our closest study and attention, giving us the best clue to the makings of all South African history. The social and political conditions of this tract of country are far more complex than those of Australia. The very position of the Cape on the face of the globe makes it a stepping-stone, as it were, between East and West. Recently, also, South Africa has seemed to be brought within the rivalries, if not within the political system, of Europe, and an African question has quickly become a European question. In its general features South Africa is exactly the reverse of Canada in almost every important particular, as a study of its geography will show. (2) Within this area the following are the most important colonies, districts, and territories :-(1) The Cape Colony, the mother-colony of South Africa; (2) Natal; (3) The Transvaal Republic; (4) The Orange Free State Republic; (5) Basutoland; (6) Zululand; (7) Amatongaland; (8) Swazieland; (9) British Bechuanaland, with Khama's country; (10) Zambesia, a loose geographical term for the countries contained in the Zambesi valley, both north and south of the river: within the limits of South Zambesia lie Mashonaland, the sphere of operation of the South African Company, Manicaland and Matabililand, the territory of the paramount Matabili chief, Lo Bengula; (11) The Portuguese Colonies at the eastern seaboard from Delagoa Bay to the Zambesi route, including Gazaland; (12) The German Protectorate of Ovampoland, Damaraland, Namaqualand, on the west coast. Of these colonies and territories some are maritime and some are inland. The Cape Colony has the longest sea-board, extending all round South Africa from the Orange River on the west coast to the Umtata River on the east. Natal also has a fairly long coast-line in proportion to her size, and Zululand, Amatongaland, as well as the German and Portuguese settlements, touch the ocean. The inland states and territories are the Transvaal Republic, the Orange Free State Republic, Basutoland, Swazicland, Bechuanaland, and, in Zambesia, Mashonaland and the country of the Matabilis. The possession of a coast-line involves great advantages to a South African state, the opportunity of raising revenue by Customs on imported goods being always one of its natural opportunities; and, for colonies in their first stages, the Customs are naturally the main source of income. In a certain sense the inland state is at the mercy of the maritime state, unless self-interest induces the latter to grant a drawback on imported goods to the former. (3) On the subject of the population, both European and native, of the above-mentioned colonies and territories, it has been always difficult to arrive at accuracy. Unlike the Canadian and Australasian Governments, the South African Governments have made few efforts to number and classify up to date the populations under their charge. Moreover, it is well known that it is notoriously difficult to number the natives, who imagine that a census summary in some form or another is a conspiracy against their persons and property by the white man. In some of the older and better organised communities it is possible, however, to arrive approximately at the truth. The Cape Colony, which, with the districts on the east, known as the Transkei, Tembuland, and Griqualand East, has an estimated area of 221,311 square miles, is now (1891) found to contain a population of 1,524, 127, of which a large portion-no less than 75 per cent. belong to the native and coloured classes—are natives. Hitherto it has been impossible to discover the relative proportions of English and Dutch colonists in the Cape Colony, as no census regulation has required a specific return of nationalities to be made. Some years ago it was supposed that the English numbered not more than one-third of the European population; but it is probable that, owing to immigration and natural increase, they now comprise nearly half of the whole white population. The following Table shows approximately the growth of population at different periods since 1875: (4) In Natal the European colonists number about 43,861, in the midst of a swarming native population within their borders of more than 450,000, and an imported Indian element of more than 35,000. The whole of the population lives on the comparatively small area of 20,000 square miles. The Transvaal or South African Republic, with an area of 120,000 square miles, is said to contain a European population of at least 119,128 souls, of whom 60,000 are said to be of Afrikander origin, and |