bulawayo, november 10, 1897.
“rhodesia has a great agricultural future before it.”
the exploration and the development of rhodesia have always been regarded by me with sentimental interest. every new advance in this region has been hailed by me with infinite satisfaction, and no man regretted more than myself the lapses of the founder and administrator in december, 1895, which threatened to involve the whole of south africa in trouble, and to arrest the progress which had begun. it appeared for a moment as if rhodes and jameson had relinquished golden substance for a shadow. it is not in human capacity to realise from a far distance the truth of the rumours which came from here respecting the intrinsic value of the land, and so i came here at a great inconvenience to myself to verify by actual observation what had been repeatedly stated. i have been rewarded for so doing by clear convictions, which, though they may be of no great value to others, are very satisfactory to myself, and will for ever remain fixed in my mind, despite all contrary assertions. there was a little speech delivered by commandant van rensburg on monday night, which, perhaps, will be thought by london editors of no importance, but it was most gratifying to me, inasmuch as i had become possessed with the same ideas. he said that it was generally supposed that without gold rhodesia could not exist, but he differed from that view, as, he was certain in his own mind, it would remain an important country because of its many agricultural products, its native wood, coal, cement, etc., etc. he had come to the conclusion that rhodesia was as fit for agriculture as any part of south africa, though he had been rather doubtful of it before he had seen the land with his own eyes. that is precisely my view. it is natural that the large majority of visitors who have come here to satisfy themselves about the existence of gold in rhodesia should pay but little attention to what may be seen on the surface; but those who have done so now know that rhodesia has a great agricultural future before it.
the opening of the bulawayo railway.
“few events of the century surpass it in interest and importance.”
several hundreds of men, eminent in divers professions, have come from england, america, the cape, orange free state, natal, basuto and zulu lands, the transvaal, bechuanaland, and northern rhodesia, to celebrate the railway achievement by which this young colony has become connected with the oldest colony in south africa. in any other continent the opening of five hundred miles of new railway would be fittingly celebrated by the usual banquet and the after-dinner felicitations of those directly concerned with it; but in this instance there are six members of the imperial parliament, the high commissioner of the cape, the governor of natal, scores of members of the colonial legislatures, and scores of notabilities, leaders of thought and action, bankers, merchants, and clergy from every colony and state in the southern part of this continent. they all felt it to be a great event. few events of the century surpass it in interest and importance. it marks the conclusion of an audacious enterprise, which less than ten years ago would have been deemed impossible, and only two years ago as most unlikely. it furnishes a lesson to all colonising nations. it teaches methods of operation never practised before. it suggests large and grand possibilities, completely reforms and alters our judgment with regard to africa, effaces difficulties that impeded right views, and infuses a belief that, once the political and capitalist public realises what the occasion really signifies, this railway is but the precursor of many more in this continent. in fact, we have been publicly told that we are to expect others, and that the railway to the victoria falls of the zambesi is the next on the programme.
an embryo state “fairly started into existence.”
the rudd-rhodes concession was granted by lo bengula in 1888. the charter to the south africa company was given in 1889; possession of mashonaland was taken by jameson and his pioneers on september 12th, 1890; bulawayo was entered in 1893, and thus the lo bengula concession grew to be rhodesia. only four years ago! but during this brief interval the advance has been so rapid that, though at home people may vaguely believe in it, one has to see the town of bulawayo and to come in personal contact with its people to fully comprehend what has been done, and to rightly understand the situation. with the clearer view gained by a personal visit the huge map in the stock exchange, which shows the estates, farms, townships, and mines of rhodesia, becomes an encyclopaedia of information—the plans of bulawayo and salisbury, and other towns which have arisen in rhodesia, valuable directories. if fresh from an inspection and study of these you step out and look at the town of bulawayo, and glance at the country, you begin to share the local knowledge of the inhabitants, see with their eyes, understand on what they base their hopes, and grasp the real meaning of pushing a railway 500 miles to reach a town of 3000 people. so that, while at home men were arguing that the rudd-rhodes concession was valueless, and rhodesia a fraud, the land was being avidly bought, prospectors had discovered gold reefs, shafts had been sunk, tunnels had been made to get a fair idea of the value of the reefs, a nominal capital of many millions—some say twenty millions, some say double that sum—had been assured for operations, towns had been created with all the comforts suited to new colonists, and the embryo state was fairly started into existence.
“enormous possibilities in view.”
while being instructed in the hopes and ambitions of several of the local people, my knowledge of how other young countries, such as the states, canada, australia, had been affected by the extension of the railway into parts as thinly inhabited as rhodesia, induced me to cast my glance far beyond rhodesia, that i might see what was likely to be its destiny, whether it was to be a free state like orange, self-sufficient and complacent within its own limits, or broadly ambitious like illinois state, of which chicago is the heart. assuming that the energy which has already astonished us be continued, there are enormous possibilities in view. bulawayo is 1360 miles from cape town, but it is only 1300 miles of land travel from cairo, for the rest of the distance may be made over deep lakes and navigable rivers; it is but 1300 miles to mossamedes, in angola, which would bring the town within fifteen days from london; it is only 450 miles from beira, on the east coast, which would give it another port of entry open to commerce from the suez canal, india, australia, and new zealand; it is but 350 miles from n’gami; it must tap british central africa and the southern parts of the congo state.
that is the position acquired by bulawayo by the railway from cape town. chicago, less than 60 years ago, had far less pretensions than this town, and yet it has now a million and a half of people.
something of what chicago has become bulawayo may aspire to. the vast coal fields to which the new railway is to run, the stone, granite, sandstone, trachyte, the woods, minerals, gold, copper, lead, and iron, the enormous agricultural area, are valuable assets which must nourish it to an equal destiny. then the victoria falls, larger than niagara, what mighty electrical power lies stored there! i merely mention these things hap-hazard with the view of assisting my readers to understand the significance of these festivities. many men will think and meditate on them, and new confidence, courage, and energy will be begotten to stimulate them to greater designs and larger effort.
the founding of rhodesia will cause a re-shaping of policies.
but how does the scene at bulawayo affect the political world? it seems to me to have great importance for all south african and british politicians for the way it affects germany, portugal, the congo free state, and cape colony. it will cause people to revise their opinions, and to clear their minds of all previous policies. any influence that germany may have hoped to exercise on south african politics has received a check by the insuperable barrier that has been created by those slender lines of steel between its south-west african colony and the dutch republics. the bechuana crown colony and protectorate, through which they run, must receive a percentage of all immigrants to rhodesia. these last two are far in advance of the german colony, and each day must see them strengthened, so that they will become formidable obstacles in the way of german aspirations. these colonies lying along the length of the western frontier of the transvaal state are four times larger than the transvaal, and their grand stock-raising areas and agricultural plains having now become easily accessible, cannot remain long unoccupied. i fancy, therefore, that the ambition of germany to rival our claims to the paramountcy will become wholly extinguished now, and that her thinkers, like wise men, will prepare their minds for the new problems which must be met in a not remote future.
the lesson for portugal.
the populating of rhodesia by mixed races of whites of a superior order to any near it must exercise the portuguese, whose territory lies between rhodesia and the indian ocean. the iron road leading to it cannot be closed. the future of the country is no longer doubtful. we have tested its climate ourselves; we have heard the general conviction that these lofty plains, 4500 feet above the sea, suit the constitution of the white race; we have seen a hundred english children going from bulawayo to a picnic to celebrate the arrival of the railway, and assuredly that would have been impossible on a tropical day in any other tropical country i know of. we have seen scores of infants on the streets, in the suburbs, on the plains outside, in arms, and in perambulators, and they all looked thriving, pink, and happy. the market of bulawayo each day shows us english vegetables fresh from the garden. we have seen specimens of the cereals. well, then, it appears to me certain that there will be a masterful population in this country before long, which it would be the height of unwisdom to vex overmuch with obsolete ordinances and bye-laws such as obtain in portuguese africa, and burdensome taxes and rates on the traffic that must arise as this country grows in wealth and population. it may be hoped that intelligent portuguese will do all in their power to promote concord and good feeling with their neighbour, to check refractory chiefs from doing anything to disturb the peace, for nothing could make the people of rhodesia more restless than interruption to traffic, and a sense of insecurity. if they do that the portuguese territory must become enriched by the neighbourhood of rhodesia.
lessons to northern neighbours.
the congo state will doubtless recognise its profit by the advent of the railway to bulawayo and the extension of the line towards its southern borders, and the arrangements of the government will be such as to ensure respect for boundaries and to teach the native tribes that transgression of such will be dangerous.
the british government have a valuable object lesson for the development of african colonies. for over two hundred years the west african colonies have been stagnating for lack of such means of communication. they have been unable to utilise their resources. their natural pretensions to the hinterlands have been grievously curtailed, and what ought to have been british is now french. nyasaland has also too long suffered from imperial parsimony. the function of government should comprise something more than police duty or the collection of taxes. the removal of causes injurious to health and life, and the establishment of communication as required by circumstances of climate, and needful to augment commerce, are just as urgent as the prevention of lawlessness and the collection of imposts. the climate of nyasaland has slain more valuable men than the assegais of the angoni. against the latter the government sent their sikhs; against the former they have done nothing. many of the sick colonists might have been saved, if, when weakened by anaemia, a little railway past the shire rapids had taken them quickly through the malarious land. if it be worth while to retain and administer nyasaland, it is surely worth while to supply the population with certain means to send the fruits of their industry to the world’s markets, and to enable them to receive the necessaries of existence without endangering their lives in the effort or risking the loss of their goods. therefore, to a government that has shown such dread of constructing an insignificant railway a hundred miles in length, the enterprise of the chartered company in constructing one five hundred miles long—and starting immediately upon an extension two hundred and twenty miles—at the cost of one and three-quarter millions, must be exceedingly stimulative. the antique and barbarous method of porterage should be abolished in every british colony, more especially in tropical colonies, where exposure to sun and rain means death to white and black.
how an enlightened transvaal should view the spread of free institutions in the north.
to the south african republic it is vitally important to weigh well in what manner the bulawayo railway will affect her future. the republic will soon be surrounded by a rampart of steel on three sides and alien land and ocean on the other. from beira, north of the republic, a railway will run west to salisbury, and thence south to bulawayo and the cape. with two ways of ingress from the sea a country like rhodesia—with as good a climate as the transvaal state, with resources which tend to rapid prosperity, enjoying impartial and liberal laws, just and pure administration, opening its arms widely to the whole world without regard to race, blessed with ample domains and suited to the needs of all classes—must necessarily prove more attractive to all people in search of homes, than a country which only favours dutch burghers; and rhodesia therefore bids fair in a few years to overtake the republic in population, and even to surpass it. the boers do not avail themselves of the advantages of their position to that fulness which would make it doubtful whether rhodesia or the transvaal offered the most inducements to intending settlers. on the contrary, the common report is that the object of the boers is to restrict population and reserve the state for boer progeny. i shall see the country for myself, i hope, and either verify or disprove it. but if true, the attempt to suppress population and growth by restrictions, monopolies, and vexatious ordinances is simple imbecility, as compared to the chartered company’s policy of stimulating commerce by giving free rein to enterprise, and keeping the paths and gates to its territory freely open to all comers. if there is an intelligent man in the transvaal, it must be clear to him that the republic must soon lose the rank among south african states to which she was entitled by her wonderful resources and undoubted advantages; and the only thing that can save her from degradation, neglect, and financial difficulties, is the absorption of that alien population which crowds her cities and clamours for political rights.
the cape and german pushfulness.
cape colony, though much is due to it for its support of the bechuana railway, is not wholly free from the blame of inertness in the past. one cannot look at the map of africa and miss seeing that extraordinary territory labelled german close to cape colony, without being reminded of the obtuseness shown by the cape democracy. but the germans are a great nation, rich, commerce-loving, and enterprising, and the cape people need to be warned, considering that they are largely mixed up with dutch boers who are slow to move and sadly behind the times. if the germans chose to invest 4,000,000 pounds in railways from the mouth of the swakop to the banks of the orange, they would be formidable competitors for the trade of bechuanaland and the north of the colony, and swakop is three days nearer europe than table bay. the railways in america created cities and filled the wastes with settlers, and every new settler was supposed to be worth 200 pounds to the nation; and in that country they have a mile of railway to every twenty square miles of country.
the cape has but a mile of railway to every 112 square miles. the railways should spread out like a fan from cape town. the existing lines require straightening greatly. it is not good policy that the line to natal should run through alien states, nor is it conducive to the development of the colony. some railways may not show large dividends, but they are indispensable to development and communication: they give value to acres which otherwise would be worthless, and indirectly contribute to revenue in other ways than by dividends. hence cape colony may learn a good deal from this new railway.
bulawayo reminds mr stanley of winnipeg.
i think i have said enough to illustrate the position in which bulawayo has been placed by the arrival of the railway. at present its broad avenues and streets give one an idea that it has made too much of itself. when the avenues are about 90 feet wide and the streets 130 feet wide, naturally the corrugated-iron one-storeyed cottages and the one-storeyed brick buildings appear very diminutive; and the truth is that, were the streets of proportionate width to the height of the buildings, the town would appear very small. the plain upon which it stands gives an idea of infinity that renders poor one-storeyed bulawayo very finite-looking indeed. the town, however, has laid itself out for future greatness, and the designers of it have been wise. winnipeg, in manitoba, which bulawayo reminds me of by the surrounding plain, was laid out on just such a spacious plan; but ten years later six-storeyed buildings usurped the place of the isolated iron hut and cottage, and the streets were seen to be no whit too wide. ten years hence bulawayo will aspire higher towards the sky, and when the electric trams run in double lines between rows of shade trees, there will be no sense of disproportion between buildings and streets. on the walls of the stock exchange i found hanging plans and elevations of the brick and stone buildings already contracted for. they are not to be very lofty, none over two storeys, but architecturally they are most attractive. these new buildings will, perhaps, stand for about five years, for, according to my experience, it is not until the tenth year that the double storey becomes the fashion. at the twentieth year begins the triple storey; at thirty years the fourth storey begins to appear.
east of the town area devoted to commerce is a broad strip of park. it occupies a gentle hollow in the plain, watered by a crooked ditch, called spruit here, running through a rich, dark, and very thirsty earth. it contains a few puddles here and there along its course. only a portion of the park is laid out as yet, and that has been well and carefully done. its plots contain a few hundreds of grape vines, which look like currant bushes. there are also about a hundred very young orange trees, a few flowers, shrubs, etc. a stone column to the memory of captain lendy occupies an eminence in it. the whole park has a sombre appearance, owing to the dark soil and ironstone freely sprinkling it. but as the bushes, shrubs, and flowers have only been lately planted, and as around the forcing houses there is a large number of young plants in tins and pots, soon to be transplanted, a couple of years will make an immense difference in the appearance of the pleasaunce.
beyond and east of the park is the residential part of bulawayo, divided into two avenues and nine streets running east and west, and eight roads running north and south, named respectively townsend, lawley, livingstone, pauling, clark, duncan, and heyman, and park road, parallel with the park.
prices of property and stands in bulawayo.
messrs adcock and norton have furnished me with the prices of stands, or town lots, obtained by them during the last six months. the most noteworthy are lot 708, with large wood and iron house, 1900 pounds; lot 234, southern half only, bought by curtis and co., outfitters, johannesburg, 3500 pounds; lot 239, half only, bought by gowie and co., seedsmen, of grahamstown, 2000 pounds; lots 451-452 bought by a london firm, 3000 pounds; lot 333, bought by stuart campbell and co., merchants, johannesburg, 2000 pounds; eastern half of lot 133, 70 feet frontage, on 8th avenue, purchased by hepworths, manufacturers, leeds, england, and south africa, 5000 pounds; lot 346, corner portion, bought by knight and co., boot and shoe makers, grahamstown, 3600 pounds.
hotel life at bulawayo.
from various people i have learned that the average estimate of the population is 3000 whites, one-fifth of whom are women and children. there are several hotels, the best of which are the palace, maxim, and charter; but none of them are fit for ladies, and scarcely for gentlemen. the noise and clatter at these forbid sleep, except between midnight and 5 a.m. the food is somewhat coarse, but plentiful; the tea and coffee such as one may obtain on a cape liner—that is, too strong an infusion of one, and a watery decoction of the other. the cooks evidently are common ship-cooks, as one may gather by the way they boil potatoes and cabbages. the bread is good, the butter is tolerable, the meat is like leather. the waiters, though civil and willing enough, are awkward and new to their work. board and lodging may be obtained for from 14 to 18 pounds per month, two beds in a room 12 feet by 12 feet. at the cheaper boarding-houses it will cost between 4 and 10 pounds. the rent of lodgings in a small room amounts to 15 shillings per week.
prices of living and wages at bulawayo.
prices are likely to be much lower shortly. at present tea is 3 shillings per pound, coffee 2 shillings 6 pence, rice 10 pence per pound, fresh meat 1 shilling 6 pence, corned beef 3 shillings per tin of 2 pounds, flour 6 pence per pound, soap per bar 1 shilling 6 pence, fresh butter 7 shillings to 8 shillings per pound, sugar 1 shilling, matches 1 penny per box, eggs 15 shillings to 18 shillings per dozen, candles 3 pence each, fowls 5 shillings each, potatoes 160 pounds for 4 pounds; vegetables dear.
wages are high, as might be supposed. masons and bricklayers obtain 30 shillings per day, tailors 35 shillings per day, carpenters 25 shillings to 30 shillings per day, compositors 9 pounds per week, plumbers and painters 9 pounds per week, waiters, 12 to 15 pounds per month, clerks, first-class, 35 pounds per month, ordinary clerks, 15 to 25 pounds per month, white labourers, 5 shillings per day, black labourers from 1 shilling 3 pence to 2 shillings per day. the government lately gave eighty white labourers work on the park at 5 shillings per day to keep them from starvation.
bulawayo’s buildings and institutions.
the finest buildings of bulawayo are, first, the long, low building occupied by the stock exchange, telegraph, and post office, the bulawayo club building, which is extremely comfortable, sauer’s chambers, and the palace hotel, the latter being incomplete; when finished commercial travellers will, no doubt, find it comfortable, and it may be suitable for ladies.
there are two daily papers, the bulawayo chronicle and matabele times, sold at 3 pence per copy. i have also seen the rhodesia review, which is, i believe, a weekly issue. there are seven churches—the wesleyan, congregational, church of england, dutch reformed, presbyterian, and roman catholic, and one temperance hall. there is, of course, a gaol, a fire brigade, and police station. in the gaol are several prisoners, white and black. the crimes of the whites have been burglary, theft, and drunkenness. among the blacks are fourteen prisoners under sentence of death.
the railway station is fairly adapted for its purpose, though its construction was, necessarily, rapid. the settling reservoirs, fed by pipes from the dams, are not| far from it; but i fear that they will be of little use, as the soil is too porous. a coating of cement would make them effective, but the general opinion is that cement would be too costly.
bulawayo’s great defect.—better water supply imperative.
the great defect of bulawayo is the smallness of the water supply and the badness of it. at present the inhabitants depend on wells, and water is easily obtainable at 30 and 40 feet, but the water is of a hard and indifferent quality. up on the maatschesmuslopje stream, about two and a half miles from the town, there have been constructed three dams of different lengths and varying heights. number 1 dam is the nearest to bulawayo, and has a solid stone and cement core starting from the bedrock 10 feet wide, and decreasing by set-backs of 6 inches to a width of 2 feet at the top. number 2 dam has a puddled core of clay faced with stone, and number 3 is of similar construction. in april last these dams were full and overflowing, but unfortunately, through bad construction and want of care, there were several leaks, and it is now decided to demolish two of the dams and rebuild them. numbers 2 and 3 are quite fit to retain the water catchment, and number 1 will be finished by the end of the year. the estimated storage of water by the three dams is calculated to be between 40 and 45 million gallons. a fourth dam, about to be erected, will, it is thought, considerably increase the storage.
several critics are of the opinion that the dams will not retain any water, though they were full last april.
we have had four copious showers of rain since our arrival on the 4th inst, but a few hours later the spruits, gullies, and watercourses were almost waterless, the streets showing scarcely a trace of the rain, so porous and thirsty is the soil. daily it becomes apparent to me that the inhabitants of bulawayo should lose no time in studying the art of water conservation. in a country just within the tropics an abundant supply of water is essential, and thirty gallons per head per day would not be excessive. ten thousand inhabitants should be able to command 300,000 gallons daily, but bulawayo within twenty years will have probably 20,000, and there is no river between here and khama’s country that could supply 600,000 gallons daily. numbers of little watersheds may be drained into reservoirs, but if i were a citizen of bulawayo my anxiety would be mainly on the subject of water. the water question is not at all an insoluble one, because, for the matter of that, bulawayo will have always the zambesi tributaries to fall back upon, especially the guay river.
lo ben’s kraal.
at the north end of the town we come to a gate leading to an avenue which ran perfectly straight for two miles and a half. the carriage road, which it is intended to macadamise, is about 30 feet wide, and running parallel with it on either side is an enclosure 50 feet wide, to be planted with shade trees. thus the avenue embraces a width of about 130 feet. at the extremity of it is the government house, standing in grounds which four years ago were occupied by lo bengula’s kraal. we were all curious to see the place, and one of the first objects shown to us was the small tree under which the matabele king dispensed his bloody judgments.
here is a description of the place from “zambesia”: “the king’s capital stands upon a ridge on the northern side of the bulawayo river, in a most commanding position, overlooking as it does the entire country round. every yard of the ground was covered with dung, layer after layer; the whole place was filthily dirty. the king used to sit on a block of wood in the middle of a great pole stockade, surrounded by sheep and goats.”
the first sentence is most misleading, though not inaccurate. the kraal stood upon the same level as the plain of new bulawayo, but the “bulawayo river”—a dry watercourse most of the year—has scoured out a broad hollow to a depth of about 20 feet in the plain, and, as the kraal was seated on the brow above it, it enables one to have a view of a circle of about fifteen miles in diameter, within which are probably three or four of these long, broad swells of plain land.
government house is a long, low, white-washed house, in dutch colonial style, with a pillared verandah outside. it is the property of mr rhodes, as well as the avenue just mentioned. i am told he possesses about eighty square miles altogether hereabouts, and, by the way he is developing his estates, it will some day be a beautiful as well as valuable property.
from cape town to bulawayo mr rhodes spoken of “with unqualified admiration.”
this reminds me that i have not once mentioned rhodes, though when describing rhodesia one ought not to omit his name; but the fact is he has preferred to remain in the veld rather than undergo the fatigue of the banquets and ceremonies. from cape town here many men have spoken of him to me, and always with unqualified admiration. i know no man who occupies such a place in men’s thoughts. his absence has given rise to all kinds of conjectures as to the cause of it. some say it is due to the fact that the cape elections are approaching, and he did not wish to be forced to a pronouncement of policy; others that it is due to dr jameson’s zealous care of his health, as he suffers from heart complaint; others again say it is due to a wounded spirit, which too long grieving might easily end in a timonian moroseness. whatever the true cause may be, he has so planted himself in the affections of the people that no eccentricity of his can detract from his merits. when a man scatters 200,000 a year on the country out of which he made his wealth, it covers a multitude of sins in the minds of the recipients of his gratuitous favours.
“he does mad and fantastic execution
engaging and redeeming of himself,
with such a careless face and forceless care,
as if that luck, in very spite of cunning,
bade him win all.”
the festivities of the celebration end to-night, or rather to-morrow morning at 1 a.m., and then bulawayo will be left to itself to begin its own proper work of development. we have seen what bulawayo is as it terminated the employment of the ox-wagon, and had just emerged out of the sore troubles caused by war, famine, and rinderpest. the next train that arrives after our departure will be the beginning of a new era. the machinery that litters the road will be brought up, and the ox-wagons drawn by fourteen oxen, and the wagons drawn by twelve mules, and those drawn by twenty donkeys, will haul it to the mines, and hence we may hope at the end of a year or so that rhodesia will have proved by its gold output its intrinsic value as a gold held. in my next letter i mean to touch upon this subject.
