From 1486 to 1899
THE Cape of Good Hope was discovered in 1486 by Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, when searching along the West African coast for a sea route to the East Indies. Eleven years later, Vasco da Gama, a compatriot of Diaz, sailed from Portugal and successfully completed a voyage to the East Indies by this route. In rounding the Cape, he touched at the place where Durban now stands, and as it was Christmas Day when he dropped anchor there, named the country Natal. The Portuguese, however, did not settle at the Cape, but subsequently established themselves on the island of Mozambique on the eastern coast. They gradually extended their sovereignty to the mainland opposite, taking possession of the coast territory from Delagoa Bay northwards to Cape Delgado, about 900 miles in length—the whole possessions now designated as Portuguese East Africa. Lorenzo Marques, the mainland capital, is situated on the shores of Delagoa Bay, and is a port of considerable political and commercial value. A railway running from here connects its system with the Transvaal lines at Koomatipoort, 60 miles distant on the frontier, thus giving the insulated Transvaal Republic a strategic opening to the sea other than by British routes. The importance of Delagoa Bay and its railway became more manifest during the war, as supplies were easily despatched from thence to the enemy, and moreover the line afforded safe conduct for them when closely pressed. It was by this route that President Kruger escaped to the coast when his capture was becoming immiment, afterwards proceeding to Europe in a Dutch war-vessel. Situated 500 miles north of Delagoa Bay is the port of Beira, which place is also connected by rail with the British province of Rhodesia, about 180 miles distant. As we possess ancient treaty rights of passage through this portion of Portuguese territory, a British force was despatched from here to help in the relief of Mafeking from the north—an equivalent to some extent for the use the Delagoa route was put to by the Boers.
Following the Portuguese in South Africa came the Dutch, in 1652, who then took possession of Table Bay, and established a fortified base for their shipping. The Cape from this time became an important place of call for vessels trading to the East Indies, until the Suez Canal changed the eastern route. The salubrious climate of the Cape is admirably adapted to Europeans, so that the colonizing Dutch quickly attached themselves to the country. Townlets and hamlets were gradually formed, and prosperity rewarded their agricultural and pastoral pursuits, their produce finding ready market with the passing shipping. Such was the beginning of Cape Colony.
Towards the end of the century a blend of population took place by the introduction of several hundred French religious refugees (Huguenots) into their midst, who had been compelled to leave France upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This combination of European pioneers— with a sprinkling of Anglo-Saxon blood—was the source from which the present Boer race have sprung; probably the hardiest people among civilized nations. The government of the colony was vested in the Dutch East India Company, who retained their power until 1796, when, Holland becoming allied with France in war against England, the Cape was seized by a British force. By the terms of the Peace of Amiens, in 1802, it was restored to its former possessors, but was captured a second time by the British during the next war, in 1806, being formally ceded to the British Crown by the Netherlands Government in 1814. British history in South Africa practically dates from this period.
Cape Colony was now brought under British laws, after having been subject, with little interruption, to Dutch rule for over 150 years. The Dutch colonists soon showed discontent against British rule and customs, and, in 1816, the most rebellious spirits among them attempted resistance to certain laws, but the rising was quickly suppressed. Not so, however, its evil effects, for the Boer seed of racial hatred towards everything British had apparently germinated by this episode; the infliction of capital punishment on some half-dozen ringleaders of the revolt nurturing a bitter reminiscence, the sequel of which is to be found in the Slaagters Nek anniversary, and, perhaps, the present struggle. These sturdy Afrikanders had descended from a stock, who for generations had enjoyed certain forms of home-made laws, tolerated by the old governing authorities owing to the scattered condition of the communities, which prevented due enforcement of authority. Rebellion had attempted to fight the law, the law had subdued the rebels, but an impressive penalty produced other results besides submission. A series of trekkings into the interior were the means whereby many disaffected sought to obtain their freedom from a progressive flag, and a place in which to indulge their mediaeval inclinations with impunity. But these dispersions were met by the British Government proclaiming their sovereignty over the whole of South Africa south of latitude 200 (the Zambesi), so that, unless the Boer trekkers crossed into Portuguese territory, they still remained British subjects.
The landing of some 5000 British immigrants in 1820, and the steady flow that followed this influx, somewhat equalized the balance of numbers between the two races in the Colony. Four years later, a British settlement was established in Natal, hitherto only occupied by natives, although two previous but abortive attempts had been made to colonize it in 1688 and 1721 by the Afrikander Dutch.
The first. Kafir War, in 1834, was the beginning of the prolonged struggle for supremacy betwixt the white and black races of South Africa. In the same year the Slave Emancipation Act was passed by the British Government, a measure that revolutionized the labour question throughout the Empire wherever the Sons of Ham were bought and sold. As one distinguished writer (Dr. Conan Doyle) aptly observes—
" It was a noble national action, and one the morality of which was in advance of its time, that the British Parliament should vote the enormous sum of twenty million pounds to pay compensation to the slave holders, and so remove an evil with which the mother country had no immediate connection."
Except to the philosophical moralist, who has never seen his black brethren under ordinary conditions of life, this special measure might seem to be in advance of all time. It is a debatable question whether absolute freedom has not been responsible for greater demoralization of the negro race than was ever brought about in the old slavery days. Prose-lytism, or contact with civilization, may temporarily elevate him ; but, left to himself, his decline is rapid. Restriction of liberty appears essential to his well-being, though not the repugnant slavery of a bygone age. Not only did the Emancipation Act produce rapid impoverishment in our West Indian possessions, but its application to the Cape Colonies produced a movement that actually altered South African history. The utter futility of offering armed resistance to the law had already been made manifest to the Boers —nearly all of whom were slave owners—who saw in the Act ominous signs of a ruinous future. Notwithstanding that a liberal compensation was being paid them, the enforced loss of their slave labour was regarded as the last straw of British iniquities. Sweeping reforms are always viewed by those whom they adversely affect as an injustice, and the Boers were no exception to the rule. The crude ideas of government that had prevailed with them for generations, when each farmstead was a miniature republic and its owner a petty president, were sufficient extenuation for their obstinate belief that, when equitable and fundamental laws superseded their individual liberties, they were being oppressed. Migration, then, was the only remedy for the real or supposed evils that cession to England had brought upon them.
The Great Trek was resolved upon and carried into execution, the result of which was the founding, about 1840, of the Transvaal and Orange Free State Republics. The departure from the colony of the majority of the Dutch colonists, estimated at some 8000 families, was a stupendous movement. President Kruger has, when addressing his burghers, frequently likened this exodus of Boers to the Israelitish flight from Egypt—the children of Boerdom fleeing from the British Pharaoh. And a reasonable comparison it is, so far as the immense difficulties that beset their journey, from start to finish, are concerned. Fierce opposition from savage tribes, and attacks from wild beasts, greatly reduced their numbers, about a quarter of them perishing before they could peaceably settle in the conquered territories. The new States they created will for all time remain a standing tribute to the indomitable bravery, stamina, and resourcefulness of the Boer race. With the creation of these alien States began the interminable series of troubles which successive British statesmen and Cape Governors have had to face, until at last the solution was sought for in war.
Following the succession of main events which concern South Africa generally, we find a state of war in the newly fledged colony of Natal. The Boers had descended from the north, and had attempted to establish a republican government at Pietermaritzburg, but the Cape Governor sent a military expedition against them, drove them north again, and in 1843 annexed Natal to Cape Colony.
A second Kafir War, in 1847, proved how difficult it was to secure expansion of territory and enforce the recognition of civilized laws by uncivilized natives.
In 1848, owing to the turbulent condition into which the newly born Orange Free State had fallen, Sir Harry Smith, the Cape Governor, proclaimed the republic British territory. The Free Staters offered a brief resistance at Boomplaats, were defeated, and a British Garrison was established at Bloemfontein, the capital. The Boer leaders had been unable to enforce their laws among the burghers, thus producing a chaotic condition of affairs within their own State. Their unsuccessful warfare with the native tribes had also greatly-endangered the peace of South Africa, and gave ample excuse for British intervention.
In the Transvaal, whither the majority of the Boers had migrated, a certain stable form of Government prevailed, though even there civil war was only narrowly averted. Settling their internal differences themselves, and desiring a recognition of their independence as a State by the British Government, they accepted an agreement in 1852, known as the Sand River Convention, which provided, under certain conditions, for their self-government.
In 1853 representative government was granted by the Crown to the Cape Colony, which, notwithstanding the loss of a number of seceding Dutch colonists, was progressing rapidly in wealth and population.
The withdrawal of British troops from the occupancy of the Orange Free State in 1854, and restoration of its own government, restored this country to the rank of an independent State, with whom the British remained on the most amicable terms up to the present crisis.
Natal was proclaimed a Crown Colony in 1856, after having been associated with the mother colony for thirteen years. Except for the memorable Zulu War of 1879, when Cetewayo's power was destroyed and Zululand also became a Crown Colony, Natal has enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous career. So rapid became its progress, that responsible government was conceded to the colony in 1893, and the Zulu-land territory made over to it in 1897.
These, then, were the four principal Colonies and States (Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, and Orange Free State Republics) involved in the contest in South Africa, whose territories became one vast theatre of war in the coming race struggle.
Responsible government was granted to Cape Colony in 1880, a concession which marked an important phase in this colony's history. The Dutch electors were still preponderant, and this fact had the effect of changing the constitution as it had existed under Crown Colony Government. The colony practically reverted to Dutch methods of legislation, the Dutch language obtaining equal official recognition with English. The discoveries of gold and diamonds, coal and other minerals, had added new and valuable industries which enabled the colony to hold continuously the paramount position in South Africa, commercially and politically. Cape Town, its capital, and seat of Government of the High Commissioner of the Cape, is the metropolis of South Africa. As a commercial port it ranks first, and the town itself is a model among modern cities.
Native troubles were again prevalent in the colony almost continuously from 1877 to 1881, viz. the Gaika and Gealeka rebellions, and the Basuto War. The Basutos, being a proud and warlike race, had occasioned considerable trouble during the thirteen years of their annexation to Cape Colony, which ended with their complete severance from it. Basuto-land from that time became an inland Crown Colony, with special laws restricting European settlement therein. During this period an important change was taking place, shading all other pages of South African history, since this is the particular time from which can be dated the growth of that Dutch ambition which involved the British Empire, eighteen years afterwards, in a vital struggle for supremacy in South Africa.
Owing to internal dissensions, financial embarrassment, and ill-luck with several native wars, a condition of affairs had been produced within the Transvaal Republic akin to chaos. The British intervened, saved them from a revengeful war which the powerful Zulu nation were planning to wage against them, and Sir Theophilus Shepstone, with the tacit approval of the burghers, annexed their country in 1877. British assistance, no doubt, was opportunely rendered and appreciated at the time ; but progressive British rule was no more palatable to the unprogressive Boers than before. The Zulus did not forgive us our action in frustrating their design upon the Boers, and two years later we had the fateful Zulu War on our own hands as the first result of our intervention.
In December, 1880, the Transvaalers proclaimed the Second Transvaal Republic, and took the field against British occupation. The towns held by our troops were invested, and a state of war was ended, after the disastrous reverse to Sir George Colley's relieving force at Majuba Hill, by a second surrender of independence to the republic in March, 1881. This ultra-magnanimous policy of the British Government of the period was so little in accordance with our Imperial traditions, that it stands almost alone in the ranks of historical events which will puzzle posterity. Another convention was entered into between the British and Transvaal Governments, Paul Kruger becoming the first President of the rehabilitated republic. Fate decreed that he should also be the last.
The establishment of a German Protectorate, in 1884, over the western region north of the Orange River was the intro-duction of another European sovereignty into South Africa, with possibilities of future trouble.
Rhodesia, or Central South Africa, is an immense territory under British protectorate, but governed principally by a corporate body known as the Chartered Company, founded by Mr. Cecil Rhodes. Two powerful tribes—Mashonas and Matabeles—inhabit a large portion of the territory, with whom severe fighting took place before the order which now prevails there could be established. Salisbury and Buluwayo are the two principal centres of government and commerce, and the country, rich in mineral deposits and pastoral districts, is being highly developed. A railway from the Cape connects these towns with the outer world, and it is this route which the proposed Cape Town to Cairo line will take.
The Bechuanaland Protectorate, as a separate adminis-tration, 'is the last of the group of states, colonies, etc., national and political, which, prior to the war, accounted for the divisions of territory in the map of South Africa. This tract of country was added to Cape Colony in 1895, but is separately administered by the High Commissioner, who is represented by resident commissioners.
Incorporation, annexation, and sovereign protectorates have practically extinguished or absorbed all the other petty native kingdoms and territories which have not been touched upon in this compressed history.
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The Anglo-Boer conflict was, logically, the natural result of the great historical error of judgment of 1881, and of racial antagonism of many years' growth. The unmilitary, inglorious, and abrupt termination of war following the British disaster at Majuba Hill, together with the generous terms of peace which were then granted by us to the Boers, indicated a policy too magnanimous for their comprehension. The restoration of independence under such circumstances was suggestive to the Boers that they had gained by war a position of equality with us in South Africa—even if not of supremacy. This idea conceived by them at that time, and never subsequently eradicated, was at the bottom of all the trouble that followed.
The Transvaalers remained quiet for a brief period, but their later aggressions compelled the British, in 1884, to employ force to keep them within their defined territory. In seeking expansion, which could not possibly be necessary, they invaded British territory both east and west. Their objective in Zululand was clearly perceptible, viz. an outlet to the sea. Becoming dissatisfied with the provisions contained in the Pretorian Convention of 1881, a deputation of Boer delegates, among whom was President Kruger, visited London to get it altered. The London Convention of 1884 was the result of their visit, and likewise the harbinger of much future trouble, especially in regard to the suzerainty question. Suzerainty signifies paramount authority, or power of veto over specified actions of vassal states or communities. The British claimed this authority of suzerainty over the Transvaal Republic; the Boers repudiated it. The dispute arose from the fact that, while this term was distinctly specified in the preamble and articles of the Pretorian Convention, it was omitted from the corresponding documents concluded in London. The British aver there was never any intention to abrogate the suzerainty, notwithstanding its omission from the London Convention ; also that it was not, nor could have been, a question for controversial discussion. They say further, that the preamble of the Pretorian Convention, which constitutes the basis of relationship between the two Governments, was not repealed, and that the preamble of the London Convention explicitly affirms that the articles of that Convention be substituted for the articles embodied in the Pretorian Convention, thereby specifically indicating what changes were being made. The Boers, however, inconsistently asserted that the preamble as well as the articles of the London Convention displaces the document drafted in 1881. Nevertheless, the Boer delegates actually signed the 1884 Convention, fully cognizant that their direct request for abolition of suzerainty was refused. This may afford some explanation of the most supreme and vital of the many controversial questions at issue which brought about the war.
The discovery of rich goldfields on the Rand, about 1886, attracted a cosmopolitan congregation of wealth-seekers from most of the civilized nations. These people were designated by the Boers as Uitlanders—or outlanders. Although gold was there in abundance, yet gold was required to obtain it. The Rand was no place for the adventurous nugget-seeker. Many companies were formed, principally British, and the capital thus raised was utilized in buying expensive mining machinery and plant with which only it was possible to secure the precious metal. This gold fever created an undreamed of situation in this hitherto pastoral country. An impoverished State suddenly became an opulent and important country; an Eldorado had been unexpectedly discovered, and future prosperity appeared assured to the Transvaal. States, however, like individuals, are apt to succumb to the vanities that sudden acquisition of wealth places within their reach, and become intoxicated with the power associated with it. Unfortunately, such a result overtook this State. The Pretorian Government imposed extraordinary and inconsistent taxation on the mines, and obtained an abnormal revenue from the various monopolies which they created. Within four years the taxation levied on the Rand industries had increased the revenue of the republic to twenty-five times its former amount.
The old instinctive fear of losing their nationality quickly supervened, and President Kruger, with his executive, assumed an arrogant attitude towards the Uitlander population totally at variance with modern ideas of civilized government. The Boers, who had themselves revolted against British laws that were impartially applied to all alike, were now refusing the ordinary rights of citizenship which are usually conceded to aliens in any well-ordered foreign country—the aliens, in this instance, providing about three-fourths of the State revenue. The common Boer populace were insulting, both in behaviour and speech, to the Uitlanders generally, but to British subjects in particular, and the Boer police were equally intolerant and rancorous whenever possible. Redress could not be sought with any prospect of success in the law courts, where the magistrate (or landdrost), although known to be thoroughly conversant with English, would refuse to have it spoken in his presence, even making its use a punishable offence if persisted in. In many respects the land of the Inquisition would have seemed a paradise to British subjects on the Rand.
In Johannesburg itself, although a city of considerable external grandeur, the sanitary conditions were those of China, where the main street is also the main sewer. Water was a commodity obtainable only from water-carts, and, except to the well-to-do, was too expensive to use except for strictly necessary purposes. No vote or voice in, and no authority or control over, the municipal conduct of a town built by themselves was practically permitted them. Inequitable political privileges, a rigid press censorship, stringent regulations concerning public meetings, and numerous disabilities affecting their domestic and commercial life, were imposed upon all aliens, such as are not endured anywhere except under the most despotic of governments. Such was the condition of the Uitlanders, enforced upon them in direct contravention of the solemn assurance contained in the pro-clamation issued by the Boer leaders when they reassumed the government of the republic in 1881, wherein it was stated :—
"To "all inhabitants, without exception, we promise the pro-tection of the law, and all the privileges attendant thereon. We repeat solemnly that our motto is, ' Unity and Reconciliation.'"
The gold that might have been a blessing to the State rapidly became its curse instead. It tainted the fingers of many high officials, whose ideas of the morality that usually governs public life were somewhat analogous to those of a Chinese mandarin—very elastic. Bribery and corruption appear to have permeated every government department where gold could influence or obtain a concession. Greed of gold had taken the place of those tenets of Christianity hitherto sacredly handed down through each generation from the deeply religious pioneers of the Boer race.
With the development of the gold-mines came a rapid influx of foreigners to the Rand, which somewhat perturbed the timorous officialism of the republic, and tended to increase the severity of their infatuated policy. The State franchise, or privileges of citizenship, was raised, in 1890, from five to fourteen years of continuous residence within the republic, and so hedged round with distasteful conditions that even then its acceptance was a question of very doubtful advantage. This and other equally intolerable laws, political and economic, which were subsequently enacted, pressed heavily on those Uitlanders who had enjoyed the privileges accorded by British or American institutions. Petitions were presented-appealing against these laws, some of which directly contravened the articles of the London Convention, both in spirit and in fact, but without avail. The arbitrary conduct of the Boer Executive provoked a feeling of repugnance to submitting to such a tyrannical oligarchy. The resulting effects were the Johannesburg revolt, and the Jameson Raid of 1895-96, which ended disastrously at Doornkop, near Pretoria. The Raid episode is of too recent a date to need recapitulation here; suffice it to say that the grit, if not the design, of those plucky five hundred men who rode from Mafeking to the relief of the Uitlanders was generally admired at the time. Their act being contrary to the law of nations, the principal leaders of the Raid were sent to England under arrest, tried in London, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The most prominent members of the Johannesburg Reform Committee were also arrested by the Boers, and tried at Pretoria for high treason against the republic. Four of the principals were condemned to death, the others receiving imprisonment according to their degree of prominence and guilt, accompanied by the imposition of heavy fines. Owing to the outburst of adverse public sentiment the death penalties were commuted to a fine of £25,000 for each of the condemned leaders, and of £2000 as the price of freedom for each of the minor prisoners. At the request of the Imperial Government, the republic sent in an account for damages caused by the Raid, the Boers demanding indemnification under two heads: material damages, £677,938 3s. 3d. ; moral or intellectual injury, £1,000,000, which unique claim was not entertained.
After the Raid, affairs went from bad to worse for the Uitlanders, but especially for British subjects, who were now held in great detestation by the Boers. As a last resource, a monster petition, signed by over 21,000 Uitlanders, was for-warded to the suzerain, Queen Victoria, early in 1899, praying for intervention and protection for British subjects. The serious attention of the Imperial Government was now arrested by this direct appeal, and the negotiations that ultimately ended with war were commenced.
Anticipating this procedure, the astute Boers had taken every advantage which the Raid had afforded them of strongly arming themselves. For so small a State, enormous sums were being spent annually for military purposes, and vast quantities of warlike material—guns, rifles, and ammunition—were imported direct from European arsenals into the republic. Ostensibly, these preparations were for internal protection and defence against future armed incursions of a buccaneering nature. In reality they were for quite a different object—the realization of the fervent dream of the Afrikander Bond.
This Bond is composed of a political union of men belonging to each and all of the South African states and colonies, though the term is usually applied only to a certain political party of Dutch Cape colonists. The end and aim which they have in view is the expulsion of the British flag from South Africa, and the establishment of a united South Africa under Dutch supremacy.
In May, 1899, a conference between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner, was held at Bloemfontein to discuss the main questions at issue. Impossible propositions were put forward as a solution of the Uitlander grievances by the Machiavelian president, who also introduced into the conference difficult questions quite extraneous to the subjects intended for discussion. The historic meeting ended with futile results, the published despatches bearing on the conference showing that the situa-tion had become sufficiently acute to demand decisive action from the Imperial Government. The High Commissioner stated therein : "The case for intervention is overwhelming;" and he emphasized the necessity for " some striking proof of the intention of her Majesty's Government not to be ousted from its position in South Africa."
The tone of the despatches which subsequently passed between the Imperial and Transvaal Governments became less and less conciliatory, although the British made a few ineffectual attempts to arrive at an amicable understanding with the republic.
Early in September an uncompromising despatch was received from the Transvaal Government, in which they with-drew what few concessions they had previously offered, and repudiated the existence of British suzerainty in emphatic terms.
A concise but very temperate reply was thereupon de-spatched to the bellicose republic, offering final conditions for a peaceful settlement. The concluding paragraph of this extremely important despatch was full of significance. It ran as follows :—
" If, however, as they most anxiously hope not to be the case, the reply of the South African Republic should be negative or inconclusive, I am to state that her Majesty's Government must reserve to themselves the right to reconsider the situation de novo, and to formulate their own proposals for a final settlement."
Such were the words used by Mr. Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, who was conducting these delicate negotiations, and which admitted of only one interpretation. The reply " Yes" or " No," in substance, was only now required as the decision for either peace or war.
The Transvaal answer to this despatch was a substantive rejection of the collective proposals put forward.
On September 22nd the Imperial Government drafted another despatch, and sent it to the Transvaal, its purport being an expression of regret that the proposals submitted for the consideration of the Pretorian Government had met with disfavour, and that, in accordance with the declaration previously made, they would shortly put the same into execution.
The political position in South Africa was now in statu quo prior to the conference. Statesmanship and diplomacy had nearly got beyond the stage of argument and despatch writing, and the worst arbiter of all international disputes— War—was even now appearing above the horizon.
The situation was considerably aggravated owing to the very unfriendly attitude of the Orange Free State, with whom the British had no political differences, dormant or existent, but who pledged themselves to fulfil their treaty obligations to the sister republic. President Steyn had openly declared this hostile policy by a resolution which had received the approval of the Free State Raad; shortly afterwards emphasizing his avowed intentions by making military preparations. In the Transvaal also, ominous signs of the coming storm were everywhere conspicuous, such as the massing of armed burghers and of military stores near the Natal border which had followed the last British despatch.
The climax of the negotiations was reached on October 9th, when the Transvaal Government forwarded the memorable despatch—or ultimatum—containing demands of such a nature, and worded in such a bellicose tone, that instant rejection was the only treatment it could receive from the British Government. Besides submitting wholly impossible propositions for acceptance, President Kruger demanded—
" That the British troops on the frontiers be withdrawn; that all reinforcements which had arrived in South Africa since June should be removed from the country; and that all British troops then on the high seas, outward bound, should not land in any South African port."
The British Government were to offer compliance within forty-eight hours, viz. by 5 P.M., October 11th, failing which, the despatch affirmed, the Transvaal Government—
" to their deep regret, would be constrained to consider such action as a formal declaration of war, and that any further movements of troops towards the frontiers within the specified period would also be considered a formal declaration of war."
On October 10th, the British Government telegraphed to the High Commissioner the reply message as follows :—
" Her Majesty's Government acknowledges with deep regret the receipt of the peremptory demands of the South African Republic. In reply thereto, will you be pleased to inform the Government of the South African Republic that the conditions put forward by them are such as Her Majesty's Government is unable to discuss."
The British representative in Pretoria was also instructed to demand his passports coincidently with the handing in of the British reply. Thus ended diplomacy.
On October 11th, 1899, the Boers commenced hostilities, the forces of the Transvaal and Orange Free State republics invading the British colony of Natal the following day. And thus the bayonet supplanted the pen.
