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The Life and Times of Sir George Grey, K.C.B.

Chapter XXXVII. — Review of Sir George Grey's Administration in South Africa

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Chapter XXXVII.
Review of Sir George Grey's Administration in South Africa.

"Be useful where thou livest, that they may
Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still:
Kindness, good parts, great plans, are the way
To compass this; find out men's want and will,
And meet them there. All worldly joys go less
To the one joy of doing kindnesses."

Withhin twelve mouths of Prince Alfred's visit to South Africa, Sir George Grey received an intimation from the Imperial Government that his presence was urgently needed once more in New Zealand. For the third time he was called away from the government of one colony which he had brought triumphantly out of great danger, to undertake fresh responsibilities in another. For more than twenty years he had occupied the position of Governor without intermission, and yet, during that, time, his administration of the affairs of any colony had never once been terminated by the expiry of his term of office.

On the present occasion his prompt obedience to the call of duty was in direct opposition to his own interests. The Governor Generalship of Canada had been promised him at the expiration of his government in South Africa. This would in all probability have led to the administration of India. Both these positions offered great possibilities of public usefulness, far more attractive to men like Sir George Grey than the social distinction they confer are to page 289the majority. Yet, in going to New Zealand in 1861, he unhesitatingly renounced these hopes.

For eight years he had governed Cape Colony. With his coming representative institutions had been inaugurated. The history of the colony in its present form dates from 1854. On his arrival he had found diversity of interests, discontent, confusion everywhere —in government, in commerce, in Imperial directions, and local management. The Governor had steadily reduced this anarchy to order. He had fought ignorance, injustice, apathy, want of sympathy and indifference. He had established schools, libraries, hospitals, and other institutions of a similar nature in many parts of the country. Cape Town, Zonnebloem, Lovedale, King Williamstown, Port Elizabeth, Lesseytown, Smithfield and Bloemfontein are amongst the towns in which such monuments recall the memory of a "good, great man."

Forms "of government had been firmly established, great public works, like that of the breakwater in Table Bay, begun. Roads had been made, and communication with the interior of the country rendered easier. Just before his recall, Sir George Grey had commenced a work which he had long planned. On the 31st March, 1859, he turned the first sod of the Cape Town and Wellington railway. This was the first line constructed in South Africa. Twenty-five years later the colony had 1,599 miles of rail open for traffic, and had spent nearly 13½ millions of money on their completion. In 1855 the value of exports from Cape Colony amounted to £970,839. When Sir George Grey left, this sum was nearly doubled.

One of the most important sources of South African wealth is ostrich-farming. Previous to Sir George Grey's governorship no attempt had been made to domesticate these birds, and it was feared that they would be exterminated for the sake of their feathers. The Governor, however, believed it possible to tame them. His experiment succeeded so well that others followed his example. The average sales of ostrich feathers from Port Elizabeth alone now amount to over £50,000 a month.

But none of these undertakings seemed to Sir George Grey more important than the reforms he instituted among the natives. Their peace and well-being were his constant care. In dealing with them page 290he obtained the counsel and assistance of experienced and competent advisers.

Several letters from Florence Nightingale on the subject of his native schools and hospital show the liveliest interest in his work, and a great desire to help with suggestions as to management and in any other way possible. The tone of the letters throughout is expressed by the concluding sentence of one of them dated 16th April, 1860:—" God bless you for all you are doing for these fine races."

Sir George frequently applied to her for information as to the best means of treating these aborigines so as to lessen the perils from new and strange diseases so generally fatal to native races. Accordingly Miss Nightingale prepared a Form of Ketum for the native schools, which the Duke of Newcastle had printed. "If these could be filled up," wrote Miss Nightingale, "they would give us the information we want, in order to enable us to judge of the influences which deteriorate the children's health"

In Sir George Grey's farewell address to the Parliament at the Cape of Good Hope in August, 1861, he thus spoke of his aims, and of his feelings in leaving South Africa:

Every effort has, therefore, been made to build up a system under which the various races in South Africa might with mutual advantage be brought into constant and open intercourse with each other, as the civilised portions of the population spread further and further from the parent colony in which themselves and their ancestors had been originally settled.

The necessary operation of such a system was that here, on the spot, would, at least in part, be trained the statesmen, the lawyers, the divines, and the leaders who would direct, lead, and control the tide of emigration which must year by year with ever-accumulating force pour forth from this colony and its offshoots.

Now that my own part on this scene of action has been played out, I look back with regret on some things done, at much that has been left undone, but with pleasure at some things which have been planted, some growing into life. But amidst these mingled feelings of sorrow and of hope, which must long live in my mind, there will ever survive a grateful remembrance of the sympathies and the assistance which have on so many occasions been given by this Parliament and the inhabitants of South Africa to the efforts I have made to conduct successfully the Queen's service, and to give effect to Her Majesty's ceaseless desire to promote the happiness and welfare of her subjects and of all the races to whom the influence of her very extended sway reaches.

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The plan Sir G. Grey proposed was "to gain an influence over all the tribes inhabiting the borders of the colony, through British Kaffraria eastward to Natal, by employing them on public works, opening up the country, by establishing institutions for the education of their children and the relief of their sick, by introducing amongst them laws and regulations suited to their condition, and by these and other means gradually winning them to Christianity and civilisation, thus changing by degrees your apparently irreconcilable foes into friends, having common interests with yourselves."

With such an earnest desire to benefit and civilise the coloured population of South Africa, it was only natural that Sir George should be in frequent correspondence with the various missionaries there. He sympathised with and helped all missionary effort, untrammelled by any narrow sectarian prejudices. While forwarding their work, he was much assisted in his own plans by the information these heralds of Christianity were able to give him. By their labours he was able to make a splendid collection of vocabularies and other books in the different South African languages, as well as to learn thoroughly the condition, the wants, the character, and the best method of dealing with the various races. A few quotations from the letters he received from missionaries in South Africa will illustrate this, and show the mutual benefits conferred and received by the Governor and themselves.

A letter from Bishop Colenso, then at an industrial school in Maritzburg, Natal, dated 1859, relates the progress made by native pupils. It also tells of the difficulties the Bishop was experiencing in getting his Zulu grammar with appendix and abridgment printed. Sir George is thanked for his aid both in this work and towards the enlargement of the college buildings.

In June, 1859, the Bishop wrote to ask Sir G. Grey's advice on the subject of his resigning the Bishopric of Natal, and offering his services as Missionary Bishop of Zululand. There had not previously been such an officer, but it had been decided to send one, and no suitable person could be thought of.

Several very interesting letters from Mr. Win. Govan to Sir George, written from Lovedale early in 1857, give detailed accounts of the progress of the native school at that place. At that time about twenty Kafir youths were received and taught trades as page 292waggon makers, tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters, and masons. Frequent allusion is made to the deep interest taken by the Governor in the early Kafir literature, and his untiring efforts to make a complete collection of the earliest printed works.

Mr. Govan sent him a number of old and interesting copies. The following extract from one of his letters gives some idea of the hopes which filled the hearts of missionaries and others who wished for the welfare of the native people, and their rejoicing at the course of conduct adopted by Sir George Grey, so different to the cold judicial policy of most of the Governors:

"Allow me to say that it is to me and my brethren a cause of much satisfaction that Your Excellency has been led to take so deep an interest in Kafir literature and Kafir history. We anticipate under the Divine blessing most important results from Your Excellency's researches and measures."

Letters from the Bishop of Grahamstown go quite as fully into all details connected with mission work in the interior. The readiness of the Governor to provide funds for this object is shown by the frequency and expectancy with which demands for still further assistance are made.

A number of letters in 1858 from Robert Moffatt Matabele Mission) relate to specimens of the Bechuana language which he was indefatigable in procuring for Sir G. Grey, who on the other hand interested himself in sending lesson-books in Zulu to the missionary.

Exploration and discovery owed much to the Governor. It was he who started Speke on the expedition which ended in such an ovation on his discovery of the sources of the One of Speke's letters to Sir George Grey, after the return of the latter to New Zealand, tells its own story. Tt was written front that ill-fated town in Upper Egypt, where Gordon, deserted and friendless, met a hero's death:—

Khartoum, March 30th, 1863.

My dear Sir George,—As I have now joined the two hemispheres, traced the Nile down from the Victoria Nyanza, and Know its length is equal to 1/12 the circumference of the globe, I cannot refrain to express to you what I have ever felt at heart, the warm gratitude that pervades me for the many kindnesses you evinced in my behalf on the Fort and at the Cape. I have now accomplished my work, and I believe done it well, for I have mapped page 293my route on foot the whole way, and am carrying home upwards of out thousand observations.

Sir George Grey's prudence and foresight in providing Captain Speke with a native guard were highly applauded by Livingstone, whose letters are perhaps the most interesting of any in this portion of Sir George's correspondence.

When Dr. Livingstone and his wife went to the Cape in 1858, they took letters of introduction to the Governor from Mr. Labouchere (Lord Taunton). From that time a deep and strong friendship subsisted between them.

Livingstone's letters date from May, 1858, to February, 1863. They are all in his own handwriting, cover sixty pages of foolscap, and are full of interest and information.

Writing in June, 1859, of the statement made by an Knglish minister in 1857 that two black men with Portuguese names had been the first to traverse the African continent, Dr. Livingstone said that the ignorance of the Portuguese of the existence of Lake Shirwa, and other evidence, conclusively proved that they had only gone to Tette, not to Mozambique, about 400 miles further. The Portuguese, however, afterwards attempted to claim this honour and reap its advantages.

Another letter announces the discovery of the source of the River Shire in "the hitherto undiscovered Nyassa, one of those lakes with which South Africa is studded." Dr. Livingstone was much amused at the information conveyed by English papers about the region of his explorations. A great deal of it was new to him, and most interesting. "I wish our good friends would only tell us all about it beforehand. It would save us a good deal of trouble, and deliver us from the perplexity of guessing and grumbling… Now, anything positive, if given beforehand, will be thankfully received, though it comes from the archives of Prester John." There is something delightfully calm and business-like in the following paragraph from the account of a visit to an island in Lake Nyassa: "Elephants and hippopotami very tame. Alligators seldom kill men, so we could bathe in the delicious cool waters when we liked."

The steamer they had on the Zambesi did not particularly arouse the explorer's enthusiasm, to judge by his description. The engines page 294were so weak "as to be unable to help us in the difficulty. She was only one-sixteenth of an inch thick in the beginning, and is now like an old copper kettle, full of holes in one part." Alluding to future navigation he prudently adds: "if she will only stick together so long." In another place he says: "We have left Macgregor Laird's precious punt in a sinking state—funnel, furnace, deck and bottom all done simultaneously, after only twelve months' wear."

These letters deal with the navigation of South African rivers the discovery and exploration of wild country: the derivation and grammatical structure of the various dialects; the diagnosis and remedial measures for the treatment of the fatal African fever, which the explorer had had himself in severe forms twenty-seven times, and for which his cure was almost infallible; the capabilities of different districts; and the use of newly-discovered plants, and directions for their cultivation. Accompanying these letters were maps, vocabularies, reports, seeds, plants, and innumerable interesting specimens in many different branches of science and research.

In Dr. Livingstone's letters there are also continual references to the pernicious influence of the slave trade, and plans for establishing English stations which would encourage commerce. About twenty thousand slaves annually passed through Quiloa on their way to the Coast from the Lakes. Portuguese trading had evil effects, and Dr. Livingstone writes:—" We must have English colonisation. I have no doubt as to its success had we a man like you to set it agoing."

When Sir George was recalled from the Cape, Livingstone begged his assistance in getting free navigation on the Zambesi. He said it was admitted by the Governor of Tette that he and his party were the first to reach that district by the Zambesi from the sea. The devoted explorer wrote that he would not mind owning the supremacy of the Portuguese over any part known or traded to by them; but his explorations and those of Speke and Burton had opened up widely-extended territories. Could these lands he utilized for English settlement and commerce it was but reasonable to suppose that a great trade in cotton would spring up, and a stop be put to the slave trade. If the Government did not help in these plans, Livingstone wrote, he would build a boat at his own expense to protect settlers and develop lawful trade. The Portuguese he page 295
The Grey Hospital, Victoria Park, King Williamstown.

The Grey Hospital, Victoria Park, King Williamstown.

page 296knew would object to this, and had the power of placing great obstacles in the way, but he was firm in his opinion. "We ought to have free passage to our discoveries, and our success, without diminishing their territory an inch, would promote the prosperity of their establishments."

The censure of the Home Government when they recalled Sir George found no echo in Livingstone's mind. He seems scarcely to have been aware of it when he wrote, "I need scarcely say that I am as sorry as anyone on account of your departure from the Cape. But I hope it may be only to afford yon wider scope for your energies." When the news of the Governor's return reached him he wrote, "Right good tidings they are, and I am extremely glad and thankful in consequence."

The missionaries had great cause for thankfulness at this event, as they realised still more fully after Sir George Grey left the Cape finally. Livingstone's letters illustrate this. One of February, 1863, begins, "We have been very much baffled in our work since you left, and our prospects now are far from bright." The concluding paragraph runs thus: "If you still wish to do us a good turn write a line, for a word from you is ever valuable and exhilarating."