Ladysmith,
and the Surrender of Cronje 266

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR {p.001}

CHAPTER I

THE THEATRE OF THE WAR

The war in South Africa has been no exception to the general rule that
the origin of current events is to be sought in the history of the
past, and their present course to be understood by an appreciation of
existing conditions, which decisively control it. This is especially
true of the matter here before us; because the southern extreme of
Africa, like to that of the American continent, has heretofore lain
far outside of the common interest, and therefore of the accurate
knowledge, of mankind at large. The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn,
in themselves remote, tempestuous, and comparatively unproductive
regions, for centuries derived importance merely {p.002} from the
fact that by those ways alone the European world found access to the
shores of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The application of steam to
ocean navigation, and the opening of the Suez Canal, have greatly
modified conditions, by diverting travel from the two Capes to the
Canal and to the Straits of Magellan. It is only within a very few
years that South Africa, thus diminished in consequence as a station
upon a leading commercial highway, has received compensation by the
discovery of great mineral wealth.

Thus separated from the rest of the world, by lack of intrinsic value
as a region producing materials necessary to the common good, the
isolation of South Africa was further increased by physical
conditions, which not only retarded colonisation and development, but
powerfully affected the character and the mutual relations of the
European settlers. Portuguese mariners, after more than half a century
of painful groping downward along the West African coast in search of
a sea route to India that vague tradition asserted could there be
found, in 1486 rounded the Cape of Good Hope, which then received the
despondent name of {p.003} the Cape of Storms from its first
discoverer, Bartholomew Diaz.

Vasco da Gama, following him in 1497, gave to it its present
auspicious title, which was to him of sound augury; for he then passed
on to explore the East coast and to find the long-desired Indies. It
was, however, the latter which constituted the Portuguese goal. Africa
was to them primarily the half-way house, where to refresh their ships
on the long voyage to Hindustan, which then took near a year to