Alice Mine laager 17°30´44"S 30°57´33"E
Fort Mazoe 17°31´27"S 30°58´03"E
Blakiston-Routledge Memorial 17°30´38"S 30°58´30"E
Fort Alderson 17°30´10"S 30°58´55"E
Telegraph Office 17°30´14"S 30°59´02"E
There are numerous accounts of this event which Hugh Marshall Hole in Old Rhodesian Days considers one of the most brilliant rescue exploits of the Mashona Rebellion, or First Chimurenga. It certainly ranks for courage alongside the siege of the Abercorn store at Shamva and the siege of Fort Hill at Hartley Hill [both sieges are described on www.zimfieldguide.com] I have combined the reports from a number of the individuals (James Darling, Hugh Pollett, Hugo Zimmerman who changed his surname to Rawson, John Salthouse) who played key roles to provide differing descriptions of how they managed to extricate themselves from a very dangerous situation when faced by determined attackers estimated by Nesbitt to number fifteen hundred with many armed with modern rifles.
The most comprehensive and definitive source on the subject which was used extensively in some of the articles referenced below is False Dawnby Hylda Richards which is based on the diaries of Dan Judson and his wife Maynie. In 1896 Dan Judson was Inspector of Telegraphs in Mashonaland; on many occasions the telegraph lines were cut and it was dangerous work going out to repair and restore them. Hylda Richards, the authoress, and her husband Tom owned Tavydale farm in the Mazoe valley [the modern spelling is Mazowe] and the route covered by the Mazoe Patrol along the Tatagura was very familiar to her. It was her idea to publish the diaries and she collaborated with Dan and Maynie’s daughter, Mazoe, after their deaths. The life of the Judson’s son Pat, one of the earliest pilots, is covered in another article referenced below.
Randolph Nesbitt was awarded the Victoria Cross, as he was the only professional soldier, being an Inspector in the Mashonaland Mounted Police (before the Mashonaland and Matabeleland forces united to form the British South Africa Police) with the equivalent rank of Captain; civilians were only eligible for the George Cross from 1940.
The Mashona version of events is covered in the oral history as told by Sgt Sanhokwe of Mhasvi in E.E. Burke’s article in Rhodesiana.
Background
J.W. Salthouse the manager of the Alice Mine wrote this brief introduction in his report to Judge Vintcent: “The Alice Mine is situated in the Mazoe district, about 27 miles from the township of Salisbury [now Harare] It lies to the west and beyond the end of a long valley, eight miles in length and 500 yards wide at the base, formed by rocky hills heavily timbered on the west and the Iron Mask Mountains on the east. The road to Salisbury runs along the west side of the valley, and on both sides is completely closed in by long, coarse grass and reeds about nine feet high. At intervals it is intercepted by dongas or deep gullies. The Tatagora River [spelt Tatagura by Hylda Richards and in this article] runs parallel to the road, along the middle of the valley. In the neighbourhood of the Alice Mine are the following offices: Mining Commissioner's Office, Telegraph Office, Native Commissioner's Office and two stores. The Telegraph Office is situated at the foot of a small kopje on the Mazoe River, about two miles north-east of the Mine, and is hidden from view.”
The road to Mazoe went through Avondale and east of Mount Hampden and then down the valley of the Tatagura River to its junction with the Mazoe River. The Salvation Army farm was at the head of the valley, now the Pearson Settlement and Mazowe High School. The Tatagura River runs alongside the original road and joins the Mazoe River as it leaves the steep narrow pass, or Poort, of the Iron Mask Range. Below the dam wall of the Mazoe dam and quite close to the confluence of the two rivers was the telegraph hut.
The modern tar road to Mazoe via the Golden Stairs was in 1896 just a track and too steep for ox-wagons.
The first gold Mine to be pegged in the Mazoe valley was the Jumbo Mine, named after a famous elephant of that name at London Zoo. The Alice Mine was pegged two weeks later and is named after a song of the music-halls that was popular at the time. A mate was found for Jumbo called Alice, but Jumbo was bought by Barnum’s Circus and taken to America and so the song went:
Jumbo said to Alice,
‘I love you!’
Alice said to Jumbo
‘I don’t believe you do
For if you only loved me
As you say you do,
You wouldn’t go to America
And leave me at the Zoo!’
Rothschild’s Syndicate had pegged the Alice; the Johannesburg Mashonaland Exploration Syndicate owned the Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli, but the Vesuvius had just been sold to Goldfields of Mazoe and several of the men Fairbairn, Faull, Stoddard and Pascoe, who were resident at the time were erecting a ten-stamp mill at the Mine. The chronological order of events is as follows:
Monday 30 March 1896
James Dickenson, the Mining Commissioner and JP at Mazoe wrote to Judge Vintcent, the Acting Administrator of Mashonaland saying: “The latest news here [re the uprising] seems rather serious. Would it be too much to ask that we here in Mazoe be notified by wire when anything startling occurs? It would appease our anxiety.”
Tuesday 14 April 1896
In the Government Gazette of the above date, Judge Vintcent issued a warning ‘Note to Prospectors and Others’ in which he said he had: “no reason to believe that there is any probability of a similar rising of natives in Mashonaland” and continued with the advice that there should be vigilance in case advantage was taken of the crisis to attack and loot isolated stores, mining camps and farms. Those who lived in such places were told that because the area was very extensive there might be difficulties of: “speedily affording relief” if certain emergencies arose. Therefore, they were asked to report any suspicious circumstances to the nearest BSA Company official, and all possible steps should be taken by them personally: “to place themselves in a position of defence and security.”
However, it is extremely likely that the persons to whom this note was issued never read or had their notice drawn to this Government Gazette.
Friday 24 April 1896
A petition, signed by fourteen Mazoe residents, was sent to the British South Africa Company (BSA Co) requesting ammunition. All had rifles, but limited ammunition, and one thousand rounds was sent with instructions that they were for “judicious use” only. An anonymous article in the Rhodesia Herald mentioned theft and looting in the Mazoe district; since the Police had withdrawn, their camp had been vandalised and other camps had been robbed.
Sunday 31 May 1896
News comes into Salisbury that a miner named Dougherty has been killed on his Lomagundi claims and his body thrown down a shaft.
Tuesday 16 June 1896
Dan Judson sent Salthouse a telegram stating that men had been killed the previous day at the Beatrice Mine [Tate the Mine engineer, Koefoed a prospector and four mine workers] with other killings suspected in the vicinity of Salisbury.
Wednesday 17 June 1896
As news of the Norton family and other victims including a prospector named Stunt at Chief Mashayamombe’s kraal trickled into Salisbury (now Harare) the residents at Mazoe were warned by again by telegraph of the danger. Prospectors, miners, farmers and storekeepers were particularly vulnerable and many stores and houses were looted and burned. Salthouse replied that he would gather in the nine men and three women in the area and requested a wagonette be sent out to take the women. While waiting for a reply Salthouse advised all the residents to come to the Alice Mine.
James ffolliot Darling was camped at the Etna Mine and wrote to his father: “On June 17 I went over to put up boards on my mining claims and got back rather tired just about 3 o’clock. I had just taken a bite of food when a note arrived from a man named Fairbairn to say that the natives were committing outrages against the whites under the instigation of the Matabele. He stated further that the whites in our neighbourhood were going to the Alice Mine for defence. I was undecided whether to go or not, as I thought it probably a false alarm, but on learning from two men near me that Dickenson and Cass had gone to fetch their wives, I concluded that the affair must be serious and made up my mind to go.
Accordingly, I went around to the Alice Mine and found Mr Salthouse making a rough laager on a small kopje behind the camp. The position, though the best in the immediate neighbourhood of the camp, was quite unsuitable for the purpose, being commanded by hills on three sides from which shot could be fire at a distance of from 400 yards to 700 yards.”
As they waited for people to come in, Fairbairn and his workers from the Alice Mine strengthened the laager and closed in the top with timber and rocks, the idea being that once the three women were safe in Salisbury, the men could stay here if necessary.
That night, as there were no signs of unrest in the Mazoe valley, the men did not go into the laager, but took turns to keep a guard around the house and the Alice Mine. Nothing happened and Darling wrote the men thought it would be better to go into Salisbury than stay at the Mine, but they would wait until they had news from Salisbury.
Those now assembled at the Alice Mine are listed below in the schedule as resident at Mazoe. The Native Commissioner, Henry Hawken Pollard, was on patrol north of Mazoe at Tamaringa’s Kraal where he was killed by his own policemen. Pollard had thrashed Chief Chiweshe for failing to report cases of rinderpest amongst the cattle and this created much resentment amongst the Mashona. Eye witnesses say that it was the spirit medium Nehanda who pronounced the death sentence on Pollard.
Acting Administrator Judge Vincent arranged for his own American spider (a four-wheeled wagonette with open sides and roof drawn by six mules – called at times a wagonette, wagon, coach, van and ambulance) and driver, Hendrick, and two volunteers, Blakiston and Zimmerman (who later changed his surname to Rawson) to leave for Mazoe at midnight. Dan Judson had intended to take the wagonette, but Blakiston, one of his telegraph staff, begged to go, as he said he had no excitement since coming into the country earlier in the year and Judson gave way.
One hundred and forty men of the Rhodesia Horse Volunteers had left Salisbury on 12 April 1896 under Captain (later Col.) Beal to help their fellow citizens nearly five hundred kilometres away in Bulawayo, so Judge Vintcent could only muster the remaining two hundred and fifty men, with eighty Martini-Henry rifles and one Maxim gun between them to protect about three hundred women and children in Salisbury. Reinforcements were available from Mafeking in the form of Imperial Forces, but transport difficulties complicated the problem; one hundred and fifty of the two hundred oxen were lost enroute to rinderpest.
Rawson writes: “As I was closing the store that evening Blakiston, of the Salisbury telegraph staff, came and told me that the Acting Administrator, Judge Vincent, had asked him if he would go out to Mazoe with an ambulance to fetch the women from the Alice Mine. He asked me to go with him, and I said I would. At the Judge's house at 9 p.m., I was given a Martini rifle and fifty rounds of ammunition. I had previously borrowed a revolver...in pitch darkness we drove along the Mazoe road.
We had not gone more than fifteen miles when we thought we saw a white farmhouse to the right of the road; we stopped the ambulance and both got out to investigate, only to find it was a big white rock. On getting back into the ambulance, I got in first and held out my hand to help Blakiston. He lifted up his rifle, and in putting it in my hand he slipped my finger through the trigger-guard, and as it was at full cock the weight of the rifle let off the bullet, which went unpleasantly near his head.”
The three men travelled by night on Wednesday 17 June 1896 and reached the Alice Mine at sunrise. They found a small group of twelve men, three wives, twelve loyal Mashona employees and George gathered at the Mine where a rough laager had been built of rocks and timber. There was much discussion concerning over whether they should move to a local trading store, or stay at their laager, return to Salisbury, or stick it out at Mazoe, if they should collect the women and leave the men, or return as one party. Rawson again: “We journeyed on, finally arriving at the Alice Mine at sunrise. What a glorious breakfast Mrs. Salthouse gave us on arrival. I can remember now how we did justice to it - ham and eggs and a tin of sardines each to finish up with. We little thought that it was the last meal we were to get till we got back to Salisbury three days later. After breakfast Blakiston walked over to the telegraph office which was about one and a half miles away, to report to Salisbury, and I was able to take stock of the situation. Mr. Salthouse, the Manager of the Mine, had heard on the previous day from Salisbury about the murders, and had collected all the neighbours that he possibly could at the Mine; they had been on sentry duty all night but had not been molested. It was agreed that we should water and feed the mules and all leave for Salisbury at noon.”
Thursday 18 June 1896
On this day a mass meeting was held at the Market Hall to meet representatives of the BSA Co. to provide for the safety of the town’s inhabitants with a Defence Committee being set up and a requirement for every man to do picket duty on roster. A second patrol of five men was sent to the Mtoko district to warn Native Commissioner Ruping but was unable to make it and took refuge with the Jesuit Father’s at C
hishawasha; Henry Ruping was killed by his native police about 24 June 1896 at Mrewa.
Blakiston reported his safe arrival by telegraph to Judson: “18 June 1896. Arrived safely, starting back at 11 with three ladies, Salthouse riding…the whites at Mazoe are unanimous in risking coming in to camp…intend leaving this morning unless authorities can assist.” Leaving Routledge at the telegraph, Blakiston, Zimmerman (later Rawson) and Darling walked back to the Alice.
Soon after Routledge sent a telegraph messenger to say that Judson wished to communicate with Salthouse at once. Salthouse went down to the telegraph office on his black pony, the only horse available, and on the line from Salisbury, Judson told him the rising was now general and advised him to laager at the Alice Mine, rather than attempt the journey back to Salisbury. Salthouse replied that six men had already set off and there was insufficient left to guard the women. Judson suggested the waggonette leave immediately and catch up with the donkey cart as they would have a better chance of getting through together.
Six of the European men (the four putting up the mill including Fairbairn, Faull, Pascoe and Stoddart, together with Cass and Dickenson) and their Mashona carriers had set off in the late morning with a donkey cart, to clear the road for the much faster wagonette and six mules following behind.
Salthouse galloped back and despite a certain amount of dissension and argument managed to persuade them all to proceed to Salisbury. The women (Mesdames Cass, Dickenson and Salthouse) and Burton, who was suffering from fever, went into the wagonette with Hendricks driving and Zimmerman (later Rawson) beside him, with Blakiston, Darling and Spreckley following on foot. Salthouse rode down to the Telegraph Office and wired Judson through Blakiston, saying: “June 18. (Mazoe?) people intend to (come to?) Salisbury (in the wagonette?) they are (leaving?) as soon as possible.”
The six men with fourteen carriers and the donkey cart continued on their way. Darling wrote: “It appears that Pascoe got on safely until he passed my camp [at the Etna Mine about
five kilometres from the Alice] Just there, as Dickenson and Cass were going along quite unsuspiciously, they were killed by natives lying in ambush alongside the road. Pascoe’s attention having been attracted, he looked back and saw some natives hacking at something on the road, so he sent back one of his carriers to see what was going on. The latter quickly returned saying that the two white men had been killed, so Pascoe dodged off to one side and walked back through the timber.”
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