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Page 15
During my present journey I had a most interesting conversation one
morning with a transport driver, who was travelling by the northern
part of the Transvaal, with three hundred lean cattle from the Cape
Colony into Bechuanaland. He gave me some very valuable and important
information with regard to Colonial feeling in the country districts of
the Cape Colony. He was Colonial born, and a fine, handsome man of about
forty--a descendant of the Scotch farmers, who emigrated to the Cape in
1820. His conversation impressed me much. He told me that the Colonists
generally are loyal to the Queen to the backbone; but not to the British
Government, which they consider has not represented their feelings and
opinions, and has sacrificed their interests. They dislike the Colonial
Government, and are not favourable to responsible Government, as they
see it.
They would prefer being under the British Government direct, in spite of
all its terrible mistakes and mishaps, from which they have so cruelly
suffered. My informant's opinion was, that the present policy of the
administration in Bechuanaland is not conducive to encourage emigration,
as it puts artificial impediments in the way of farmers with small means
settling there, which, he thought, they would do in crowds from the
Colony, if they were allowed to do so on paying a quit rent, say of �10
or �15 per annum, instead of the high terms of �40 demanded at present.
He had a very high opinion of Bechuanaland as a cattle-grazing country.
The Waterburg warm sulphur baths--to which I paid a visit, taking a hot
bath myself, which was certainly much too hot for me, but which was
otherwise refreshing, after nearly a fortnight's residence on the veldt,
where there is a decided scarcity of water, both for drinking and
washing purposes--are situated about seventy miles north of Pretoria.
They are extensively patronised by the Boers, and are said to be most
efficacious in every variety of rheumatic and gouty complaints. They are
strongly impregnated with sulphur, and might be made very attractive in
the hands of anyone of enterprise, who would construct a suitable
establishment of baths, fit for patients who would be quite ready to pay
handsomely for them, instead of the miserably primitive and wretched
receptacles, called baths, into which the highly excellent natural
sulphur water is conveyed, and used by the motley crowd of invalids I
saw there.
From the Waterburg warm baths our route lay to the southward, across the
Springbok Flats, to the Nylstroom road, along which, in two days more,
we accomplished the intervening distance of about seventy miles back to
Pretoria, thus concluding a most interesting and instructive journey
into the northern part of the Transvaal. During all this time, with the
exception of the first night, I lived entirely in our wagon, sleeping in
it every night, and having every meal (which consisted principally of
the game we shot on the way), cooked at the various camp fires kindled
on the veldt, and drinking nothing but tea. I saw much, of course, of
the Kafirs in their kraals, as well as of the Boers in their tents and
wagons, in my trek through this wilderness.
[Illustration: Decorative]
[Illustration: Decorative]
PRETORIA TO NATAL.
After reaching Pretoria, I stayed only two days there, engaged in
bidding farewell to my numerous friends, and making preparations for my
next long journey into Natal. I left Pretoria for Johannesburg by coach,
on the 1st of August, and started from the latter town at five o'clock
in the morning of the 3rd, in very cold weather and pitch dark, by the
post cart. This most uncomfortable vehicle is a kind of wagonette, with
somewhat dilapidated canvas curtains, through which the wind whistled
most unpleasantly, being utterly insufficient to keep out the cold. It
is drawn by eight horses, and has cramped seats for eight or ten
passengers. On this occasion there were seven others besides myself. In
addition the mail bags were crammed inconveniently under the seats. In
this post cart I travelled for three days and two nights by way of
Richmond, Heidelburg, Standerton,--where cattle rearing and horse
breeding is successfully carried on,--and Newcastle, which will be
remembered as having been the base of operations during the Boer war,
and also as the place where the final treaty of Peace was drawn up and
signed by the joint Commission, to Eland's Laagte, the present terminus
of the Natal railway, thirteen miles beyond Ladysmith. At Eland's Laagte
a very promising coal field is being worked, from which great and
important results are expected in the future. Soon after crossing the
Transvaal border we passed the battle fields of Laing's Nek, Majuba
Hill, and Ingogo, names indelibly associated with one of the saddest, as
well as most humiliating, episodes of English modern military history,
in connection with the Transvaal War of 1881. I gazed mournfully on
Majuba Hill, that black spot of bitter memories to every Briton, and of
natural exultation and pride to the Boers; and on Colley's grave, the
unfortunate commander, whose unhappy and most unaccountable military
blunder led to the lamentable and fatal defeat, which cost him his life,
and resulted in the miserable fiasco--the retrocession of the Transvaal
to the Boers. It is impossible to estimate the damage done to British
influence, prestige, and power by the political consequences resulting
from that disastrous day.
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