Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/538

Rh district, Middelburg. The Lydenburg deposits, discovered in 1873, lie at an elevation of 4500 to 5000 feet 40 miles south of the Lipalule river and 125 north-west of Lorenzo Marques on Delagoa Bay, the chief diggings being at Pilgrim's Rest and Mac Mac close to the Spitskop. In the Middelburg district the chief centres of mining operations are the recently founded towns of Barberton and Johannesburg. In some years the Lydenburg, Marabastad, and other diggings have jointly yielded over £300,000, obtained by washing and without any quartz-crushing. Iron ores are also widely distributed, and the Yzerberg ("Iron Mountain") near Marabastad (24° S., 30°  E.) consists of an enormous mass of rich iron ore, which the natives have worked for ages. Diamonds are chiefly confined to the Bloemhoff district on the Vaal above the great diamantiferous region of Kimberley in Griqualand West. Coal abounds in the south-eastern districts (Wakkerstroom, Utrecht), and also farther north in Middelburg (Nazareth) and Lydenburg. In some places seams 7 or 8 feet thick lie so near the surface that they are quarried and the coal carted away by the natives. The prevailing formations where this great mineral wealth is embedded are quartz, porphyry, granites, clay slates, greenstone, Lower Devonian strata, conglomerates, and limestones.

Flora.—In Transvaal, as in most of the continent, an herbaceous flora prevails largely over forest growths, which are here confined chiefly to the deep kloofs (gorges) of the mountain ranges, and to the courses of the larger streams. Bush, including mimosas, thorn thickets, and creepers, covers extensive tracts on the northern and southern plains, and the Wakkerstroom and Utrecht districts to wards Natal are well wooded. But elsewhere the characteristic features are grasslands, downs, hill slopes, flats, and even many parts of the higher uplands being covered with savannahs generally affording good pasturage and fodder for cattle. In the woodlands the prevailing species are three varieties of yellow wood (Podocarpus), often growing to an enormous size, the Cape beech (Myrsine), several varieties of the wild pear (Olinia) and of stinkwood (Oreodaphne), ironwood, and ebony. The Boers and other settlers have hitherto occupied themselves chiefly with stock-breeding (sheep, cattle, and horses), but there can be no doubt that much of the country is eminently suited for the cultivation of cereals, yielding two annual crops and producing some of the finest wheat in the world. Tobacco, the vine, and most European fruits and vegetables also thrive well, while semi-tropical products, such as cotton, sugar, and coffee, might be raised in the warmer northern districts.

Fauna.—By the early settlers Transvaal was described as the paradise of hunters," abounding in the characteristic large animals, such as the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, giraffe, zebra, quagga, several varieties of antelope, and the ostrich, which roam over the continent from Soudan to the Cape. All these animals still exist, but in greatly reduced numbers, being now largely replaced by the domestic animals—cattle, sheep, and horses—introduced by the white settlers. All the large rivers are in habited by the hippopotamus and crocodile, the latter giving an alternative name to the Limpopo; the buffalo, gnu, eland, spring bok, wildbeeste, baboon, and several other members of the ape family are also frequently met with. The country is occasionally swept by destructive flights of locusts; but the greatest enemy of the stock-breeder is the tsetse fly, which infests the coastlands and many of the riverine tracts, but shows a tendency to disappear with the large game, retreating with the advance of the plough. A tsetse belt 40 miles wide along the whole course of the Limpopo still bars the spread of European settlements beyond Transvaal in the direction of the Zambesi.

Inhabitants.—Of the population not more than 50,000 are whites, mostly Boers (descendants of the early Dutch, French, and German immigrants to the Cape), with a large and increasing percentage of British settlers, attracted in recent years especially to the Lydenburg and other mining districts. All the rest are natives, belonging mainly to the Basuto and Bechuana branches of the Bantu family, and consequently allied in speech and to a large extent in physique to their Zulu-Kaffre neighbours. A considerable number of these natives have abandoned the tribal state and taken service, either freely or by compulsion, with the whites as farm labourers in the rural districts, and as domestic servants in the towns, and are now also largely employed in mining operations. The great bulk of the rest, who retain their national usages and recognize the authority of more or less independent tribal chiefs, are concentrated in the northern and eastern provinces of Zoutpansberg (364,000), Waterberg (174,000), and Lydeuburg (123,000). There are also about 40,000 in Bloemhoff (extreme south-west), and the same number in the western provinces of Rustenburg and Marico, but only a few scattered groups in all the rest of the country. These western and south-western tribes (Barolongs, Batlapins, Bakwenas, Bakhatlas, &c.) are all Bechuanas; the others mainly Makatis, as the Basutos are here collectively called. It may be stated in a general way that the whole country south of the Lipalule is now free of native claims and open to European colonization, while the northern region between that river and the Limpopo is still to a large extent occupied by unreduced or unbroken Basuto communities.

Natural and Political Divisions.—Transvaal has been divided into three more or less distinct natural regions, determined chiefly by the relief of the land, and its climatic and economic conditions. These are—(1) the Hooge veld, or uplands, comprising the southern districts drained by the Vaal and the Drakenberg highlands as far north as the Lipalule, about 35,000 square miles altogether, with an altitude ranging from 4000 to 7000 feet; (2) the Banken veld, or terrace lands, comprising the low eastern zone between the Drakenberg and Libomba ranges, falling in many places down to a level of 2000 feet, with an area of 15,000 to 20,000 square miles; (3) the Bosch veld, or bush country, comprising all the rest of the land, with an altitude of 3000 to 4000 feet and an area of 60,000 square miles. For administrative purposes the country is again divided into thirteen provinces:—Zoutpansberg and Waterberg in the north; Lydenburg, Middelburg (formerly Nazareth), Pretoria, Rustenburg, and Marico in the centre; Utrecht, Londina, Wakkerstroom, Heidelberg, Potchefstroom, and Bloemhoff in the south. In the southern part of Lydenburg lies the somewhat detached district of New Scotland, comprising some 500,000 acres selected by the late Mr M'Corkindale as a Scotch pastoral and agricultural settlement. It is a healthy prosperous country, lying on the slopes of the Drakenberg, within 310 miles of Durban, Natal. But the most thickly settled province is Potchefstroom, a fertile tract, 3500 to 5000 feet high, abundantly watered by the Mooi, Schoen, and other streams flowing to the Vaal, and well suited for tillage and pasturage. Its capital of like name (derived from elements in those of Potgieter, Scherf, and Stockenstroom, three popular Boer leaders during the early migrations) is the most settled and one of the largest towns in Transvaal. The only other places deserving the name of town are Pretoria, capital of the province of like name and of the state, occupying a somewhat central position 100 miles north-east of Potchefstroom, 980 from Cape Town, 820 from Port Elizabeth, and 400 from Durban; Barberton, in the Lower Kaap mining district, 150 miles by road from Delagoa Bay, only three years old, but already by far the largest place in the state, with a population (1887) of 15,000; and Johannesburg, centre of the goldfields of the same name, 30 miles south-east of Pretoria, and 72 east of Potchefstroom, founded in 1886, but already larger than Pretoria, with a population of over 4000.

Administration and Statistics.—Transvaal enjoys representative institutions, with a volksraad or parliament of forty-four members elected for four years, one-half retiring every two years, the executive being entrusted to a president elected for five years by the whole body of electors, assisted by a council of four, the ex-officio vice-president and the state secretary, with two others appointed by the volksraad. The revenue, derived chiefly from laud sales, quit rents, stamps, hut-tax, and customs, balanced the expenditure in 1885, and exceeded it by £15,000 in 1886, the respective sums being £260,000 and £245,000. In 1884 the public debt was £396,000, the exports (gold, ivory, corn, wool, hides, cattle, ostrich feathers, &c.) about £600,000, and the imports probably over £1,000,000. The long-projected railway, intended to afford an outlet to the coast at Delagoa Bay, was completed in 1887 from Lorenzo Marques, the seaward terminus, to the Transvaal frontier, a distance of 50 miles. Transvaal is in telegraphic communication with the Cape and the rest of the world through the Orange Free State.

History.—The historic life of Transvaal begins with the "Great Trek," or general exodus of the Cape Colony Boers, who, being dis satisfied, especially with the liberal policy of the British Government towards the natives, removed northwards in large numbers between the years 1833 and 1837. By 1836 some thousands had already crossed the Vaal, that is, had reached the "Trans-Vaal" country, which at that time was mostly under the sway of the powerful refugee Zulu chief Moselekatze, whose principal kraal was at Mosega in the present Marico district on the west frontier. To avenge the massacre of some emigrant bands, the Boers under Maritz and Potgieter attacked and utterly defeated Moselekatze at this place in 1837. Next year the Zulu chief withdrew beyond the Limpopo, where he founded the present Matebele state between that river and the Zambesi, thus leaving the region between the Vaal and Limpopo virtually in the hands of the Trekkers. But their position was rendered insecure on the east side by the military despotism of the fierce Zulu chief Dingaan, who, after the murder of his brother Chaka, had asserted his authority over the whole of Zululand and most of the present Natal. The situation was rendered almost desperate by the complete rout and wholesale massacre (1838) of the right division of the emigrant Boers, who had ventured to cross the Buffalo under Pieter Retief, and who were defeated by Dingaan, first at Umkongloof ("Aceldama"), then at Weenen ("Weeping"), and again soon after under Uys, Maritz, and Potgieter, when as many as 800 fell before the irresistible onslaught of the disciplined Zulu warriors. At this critical juncture the Trekkers were saved from utter extermination by