Many treks made Rhodesia

Abstract

In the history of well-nigh every land and nation there are men and women whose good deeds, as Shakespeare said, are interred with them. When the silence of death has been reigning over them for a considerable period (and when written records are few) before an attempt is made to record something of the part played by these men and women in the service of their country, it invariably happens that either such a layer of dust and dirt and doubt - or a coat of shining varnish - has descended upon them; it is as difficult to do justice to their pioneer-work as it is to arrive at the real truth and motive. This is indeed the case of those pioneer trekkers from Natal, Transvaal, the Free State and the Cape Colony, who, on the inspiration of Rhodes and Jameson, moved into and helped to shape the destiny of Southern Rhodesia - and particularly of the Eastern part called Gazaland - during the first five years of its occupation (1890–1895).

This area, geographically, is bound by Portuguese East Africa on the east; on the north and north-west by Umtali or Manicaland, and on the west by the Great Sabi River. The area is about one million morgen or 3,133 sq. miles. The watershed on that most enthralling range of mountains, the Chimanimani, forms the boundary between Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa. The whole area consists of a series of plateaus, with Melsetter in the centre. In the Lowveld, the climate is a little unhealthy (the Lundi-Sabi area is only about 1,000 feet above sea-level), but otherwise it is exhilarating. Streams from the Umvumvumvu, Marari, Nyinganza, Chanzadzi, Myungu, Tanganda, Tchipanga, Dakati, Spongur, Myamvuvu, Musasi flow, practically the whole year round, into the Sabi, and eastwards the Haroni, Busi, Lusite and Umzebezwe flow into Portuguese territory. The rainfall varies from about 40 inches at Melsetter to about 70 in Helvetia and is perhaps the highest in Southern Rhodesia. From an agricultural point of view this territory is one of the best and prettiest in the whole of the Rhodesias, some maintain in the whole of Southern Africa. Dr. Carl Peters, famous traveller, wrote in his Eldorado of the Ancients that this part had "the finest climate in the world . . . I can only recall certain September days in North Germany, and nothing else ... But how much more intense is everything here, light, colour, even the air . . . One cannot well describe it".

The soil is fertile and almost any kind of grain and fruit will flourish on the plateaus. The grass is rich and suitable for cattle and sheep grazing. In short - a land literally flowing with milk and honey. It was to this hinterland that the sons and daughters of South Africa cast their northward gaze. Their aim was, in many instances, to obtain a piece of land, or to start all over again, and many had the fire of the pioneer spirit in them. When it was realised that the territory was to become British and that the "Land Settlement Scheme of the British South African Company" was encouraging farmers to settle in Mashonaland, the flow of settlers continued unabated from as far east as Utrecht and as far south as Cape Town and Paarl. The treks to Gazaland, however, differed radically from those to other parts of the country during these first few years. In essence they were civilising treks with nothing opportunistic about them. In all cases the whole family accompanied the trek with the aim of establishing a home and a community as soon as possible.