CO en o—— ;Lr) Presented to the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY by the ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY 1980 1 i PAUL KRUGER AND HIS TIMES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/paulkrugerhistimOOstat ^.^v/^^^^ .s.^J^t« -i' A^^ f PAUL KRUGER AND 4 HIS TIMES. BY F. «t«i«*a. REGINALD STATHAM^ |/1,^ AUTHOR OF "BLACKS, BOERS, \ AND BRITISH," "MR. MAGNUS," "SOUTH AFRICA AS IT IS," &c. WITH PORTRAIT AND MAP .., JUN -'^'-D. 1990 i r./.-;--..... j LONDON: T. FISHER UNWI^f^^^^y BOSTON : L. C. PAGE & COMPAf^lfttt^ ^ ^J MDCCCXCVIII ^* ^iiSJ.T't!^ fit ;f«^^. i PREFACE One of the chief difficulties in writing a biography of President Kruger arises from his own reluctance to talk either about himself or his career. The reluctance cannot but be respected, though it may well be wished that it could be overcome. Beyond this, the earlier records of Transvaal history are both slender and scattered. The author most gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Dr. G. M. Theal, the distinguished author of the " History of South Africa," who has kindly supplied the key to the true history of various matters connected with the South African Republic, especially in the earlier stages of its existence. Dr. Jorissen's book, too, '* Trans- vaalsche Herinneringen," has proved of the utmost service in respect of later events. F. R. S. March, 1898. CONTENTS CHAP, PAGE I. THE KRUGERS AND THE CAPE I n. THE KRUGERS AND THE TREK 15 HI. PAUL KRUGER AND THE REPUBLIC 43 IV. KRUGER AND THE ANNEXATION . 70 V. KRUGER AS THE PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE 98 VL KRUGER AND THE WAR 122 VIL KRUGER AND THE CONVENTIONS . 150 VIII. KRUGER AND THE GOLDFIELDS 181 IX. KRUGER AND RHODES 198 " " X. KRUGER AND THE REFORMERS . 214 XL KRUGER AND THE RAID 260 XIL KRUGER RE-ELECTED 297 vu South African Republic AND THE Orange Free State CHAPTER I THE KRUGERS AND THE CAPE That Paul Kruger, the President of the South African Republic, occupies a prominent and uuiqne place among men of the time, no one will venture to deny. The fact would be admitted perhaps even more readily by those who assail him than by those who appreciate him. Among those who assail him there prevails, it may be, something of the feeling that animated the ranks of the Tuscan army in their estimate of the gallantry of Horatius. Her- minius and Spurius Lartius were, comparatively speaking, negligible quantities. The real spirit of the defence of Rome against the Tuscan advance was present in Horatius. It was he who had organised the defence of the city ; it was he who had borne the chief burden of that defence ; and on him descended equally the praise of his compatriots and the bitterness of his country's enemies. " But for this stay," said the latter, '' ere close of day We should have sacked the town." Much the same 2 PAUL KRUGER feeling animates those who, having dreamed of and planned the destruction of the South African Re- public, have met with the steady and unwearying resistance of the patriotic forces which Paul Kruger has personified and expressed. And it is, in a con- siderable measure, by reason of his personifying and expressing this resistance that Paul Kruger is to- day included among the small number of men whose names and whose careers are familiar to the mind of every dweller in the civilised areas of the earth's surface. For it is certain that if at this moment there are five persons in the world whose names everywhere awaken the sense of a strong and dis- tinct individuality, among those five will be, and must be, included the name of the President of the South African Republic. Notoriety of this kind—but why not call it fame ? —depends partly on surrounding circumstances and partly on individual character. There is fame, as may often be seen, that depends far less upon individual character than on circumstances. There is, on the other hand, fame that depends far less on circumstances than on individual character. There is one well-known European instance in which the hereditary succession to a great name and to the accomplishcr of great deeds has given world- wide currency to acts and sayings which in them- selves would perhaps hardly be worthy of notice. — THE KRUGERS AND THE CAPE 3 These hereditary associations are Hke hereditary- estates. They start their possessor at a level which, even if he does nothing but steadily gravi- tate downhill, still keeps him well before the obser- vation of the world. When there are neither heredi- tary associations nor hereditary estates, notoriety or let us again call it fame—may be acquired by striking personal success or striking personal devotion. The last twenty years of South African history have supplied us with instances of both kinds ; for while the worldwide fame of Cecil Rhodes rests upon personal success, the world- wide fame of Paul Kruger rests upon personal devotion. It is impossible to avoid this comparison. The trend of circumstances has been such that each of these two names suggests the other. It must be admitted, too, as a remarkable fact that South Africa, a country so little heard of till within the last twenty years, should, during those twenty years, have produced two out of the five most noted personalities of the later decades of this century. Both, as it may be said, have emerged from obscurity ; both have brought marked personal characteristics to bear upon the circumstances by which they were surrounded ; both have suc- ceeded in respect of the main object of their endeavours; and both, in respect of minor matters, 4 PAUL KRUGER have to a certain extent failed. Both have their unsparing enthusiastic disciples ; both have their critics; each presents a problem which will possess a deep philosophical Interest for the historian yet to be. But in the meantime, seeing how large a part may be played in South African affairs by public opinion In Great Britain and In Europe, and seeing how scantily that public opinion Is informed as to the real nature and dimensions of the forces which Paul Kruger represents, it may be permis- sible to make at least some effort to define them, and to throw upon them such light as may be derived from the character and career of the most remarkable personality with which they have ever been associated. It is not until the year 17 13 that the name of Kruger appears In the records of the Dutch East India Company at Capetown. The year was a critical one in the history of the Company's settlement, and marked a critical period in the history of South African colonisation. It was a critical year in the history of Capetown as the year In which occurred the first, and most fatal, outbreak of small-pox—an outbreak which reduced the European population of the settlement by at least 20 per cent., and which all but exterminated the Hottentot popula- tion in its vicinity. It was a critical year in the THE KRUGERS AND THE CAPE 5 history of South African colonisation, because it signaHsed the centre of a period of immigration which has left most abiding marks upon the country. It is impossible to glance over the lists of arrivals between the years 1705 and 1720 without becoming alive to the fact that during those years South Africa was enriched by many of the families that are most distinguished at the present day. Unlike the Huguenot immigrants of some forty years previously, these immigrants represented no special European nationality and had not been urged abroad by any special hardships or acts of tyranny. They represented various nationalities — Dutch, French, and German, and their movement was doubtless the result of the generally disturbed con- dition of Western Europe. One of the natural channels for emigration lay through Holland, then the colonising Power of Europe, just as to-day the natural channel for emigration from Eastern Europe lies through England. The name of Jacob Kruger, the original founder, or "stemvader," of the Kruger family, finds a place in a list that reads almost like a South African directory. There are in this list to be found Badenhorst (the name to-day of wealthy residents in the southern portion of the Orange Free State) ; de Beer (now represented by a member of the First Volksraad at Pretoria) ; Bester (a name well known in Natal) ; Blignaut ; 6 PAUL KRUGER (State-Secretary at Bloemfontein) ; Bosman (a re- spected pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church In the Transvaal) ; Brand (ancestor of the most famous President of the Free State) ; van Breda (one of the leaders In the original Dutch Republic In Natal) ; Combrink (a name well known to-day in Capetown) ; Faure (represented by Influential wine- farmers In the Western Province) ; FIck (whose name Is preserved In the Free State town of Flcks- burg) ; van der Heever (to be found In the Cape Parliament) ; de (Transvaal Volksraad) Jager ; Klopper (Chairman of the First Volksraad at Pretoria) ; Maasdorp (a name honoured at the Cape Bar) ; Maritz (ancestor of the founders of the capital of Natal) ; Melntjes (Second Volksraad at Pretoria) ; van Reenen (one of the owners of the famous Constantia vineyards near Capetown, the name being also preserved In the title of the pass through the Drakensberg mountains between the Free State and Natal) ; van Rooyen (a frequent name In Natal and on the Transvaal border of Zululand) ; Smit (late Vice-President of the Trans- vaal); Steenkamp (Pretoria Volksraad); Uys (origi- nator of the well-known family on the Transvaal- Zululand border) ; Vorster (Pretoria Volksraad) de Waal (well known in the Cape Legislative Assembly as well as In the Transvaal Civil Service).