Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 17, 2025
The Transvaal State, as it was now to be called, was re-established, having had its trade restored, its enemies crushed for Secocoeni and Cetewayo were both defeated and broken and its debts paid or consolidated in the form of a debt to England, repayable when possible. For some time not even the interest on this debt was paid. Numbers of British subjects left the country in disgust and despair.
In 1881 the wheel has gone round, and great events have come about whilst he lies dying. The enemies of the Boers have been destroyed, the powers of the Zulus and Secocoeni are no more; the country has prospered under a healthy rule, and its finances have been restored.
It was very curious to see this wily old savage shoving a handful of leaves into his mouth, and giving his head a shake, and then making some shrewd remark which went straight to the bottom of whatever question was in hand. At length we bade Secocoeni good-bye, having promised to deliver all his respectful messages to our chief, and, thoroughly wearied, arrived at our own hut.
Forty square miles of country had been overrun by natives, and every house burned, just before the annexation. And he wrote again, July 6: 'Every day convinces me that unless this country had been annexed it would have been a prey to plunder and rapine from the natives on its border, joined by Secocoeni, Mapok, and other tribes in the Transvaal.
Not one single public outrage, not one unpunished crime, marked this period of suspense, which is described by partizan writers as a time of chaos and anarchy. Peace was granted to Secocoeni, and the quietness and gloom of the country became even more profound.
Merensky commenced his labours in Secocoeni's country, but was forced to fly from thence by night, with his wife and new-born baby, to escape being murdered by that Chief's orders, who, like most Kafir potentates, has an intense aversion to missionaries. Twelve years ago he established this station, and, gathering his scattered converts around him, defied Secocoeni to drive him thence.
Secocoeni, the powerful chief of the Bapedi, one of the tribes whose territories border on the Transvaal, came to a difference with the Boers over another border question.
It afterwards appeared, from Secocoeni's own statement, that he was instigated to this step by a Boer, Abel Erasmus by name the same man who was concerned in the atrocities in the first Secocoeni war who constantly encouraged him to continue the struggle.
Secocoeni took no active part in the proceedings that followed; he sat in his enclosure and occasionally shouted out some instructions to Makurupiji, who was literally his "mouth," speaking for him and making use of the pronoun "I." During the four hours or so that we were there Secocoeni never stopped chewing an intoxicating green leaf, very much resembling that of the pomegranate, of which he occasionally sent us some.
The woman is the head of the Secocoeni tribe, whose successful resistance to the Transvaal Government was one of the alleged causes of the annexation. A good deal could be said about the ways of Native Commissioners in such matters.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking