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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 20061 22 
 
South Africa Today 
 
 — BY — 
 
 JENNIE R. WHITE, A. B., 
 
 — AND — 
 
 ADELAIDE SMITH, S. B. 
 
 Hugiienot College, Wellington, Cape Colony 
 
 CHICAGO 
 A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1907 BY 
 A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 
 
OUTWARD BOUND 
 
 About the time that Rip Van Winkle began his 
 long nap in Sleepy Hollow, one of his countrymen 
 was busy making a legend for South Africa. It was 
 then the Flying Dutchman started out on the longest 
 voyage in history. This was the period of Dutch en- 
 terprise and venture. The sea was dotted with the 
 vessels of the merchants of Amsterdam. Not only 
 were they building a city at the mouth of the Hud- 
 son, but they were the most prosperous colonists of 
 India and its islands. At the Cape of Good Hope the 
 Dutch East India Company ruled supreme. 
 
 It took brave hearts to venture on the seas in those 
 clumsy Dutch ships and the sailors told fearful stories 
 of the "Cape of Storms," but Captain van der 
 Decken laughed at their fears, and vowed he would 
 double the Cape in spite of wave and wind. His ves- 
 sel never came to port ; for one whole day he tried to 
 bring his ship to anchor in Table Bay, then at night- 
 fall he swore in his wrath that he would have his will 
 if it took him until the day of judgment. The sea 
 he defied is mocking him still, and if you have the 
 right kind of eyes you may see in the midst of storm 
 and darkness the light of a vessel far out at sea and 
 a shadowy form before the mast. There are those 
 who believe that the Flying Dutchman has been for- 
 
6 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 given and has found his rest, but many of the old 
 Africanders have seen this phantom ship and are will- 
 ing to point it out to you. When a country is as new 
 as South Africa and has not many legends it must 
 keep alive the few it has. 
 
 South Africa belongs to the most modern period of 
 modern history, just as North Africa belongs to the 
 most ancient period of ancient history. Historically 
 the Cape is as old as America, but economically it is 
 the youngest of countries. 
 
 Before Columbus sailed west to find the East, Por- 
 tuguese ships were creeping along the coast of Afri- 
 ca to find the Indies by a southern route. Under the 
 influence of Prince Henry, the Navigator, the court 
 of Portugal had become the center of maritime inter- 
 est and knowledge. The fleets of the Prince brought 
 back tidings of new lands and lovely islands. In 
 1420 Madeira was discovered and a little later the 
 Canaries and the Azores. We wondered as our boat 
 drew near Madeira if those early mariners hailed it 
 with the same transport of joy as our storm tossed 
 crew; it seemed a vision of eternal spring after the 
 long night the Londoners call winter. 
 
 For a voyage of fine contrasts one should leave 
 England in December. The memory of foggy cities 
 and the misty Thames is added to the depressing in- 
 fluence of the restless Bay of Biscay. After three 
 days on a rolling sea we come to harbor on the quiet- 
 est of bays under the most serene of blue skies — 
 
OUTWARD BOUND 7 
 
 there in the distance are the green hills of Madeira 
 and below the red-tiled roofs of Funehal. 
 
 As soon as our vessel is sighted the birds of prey 
 begin to swoop down upon us ; first come the divers in 
 their gay little boats. All the English they know or 
 need is "silver;" for a small coin the brown, scantily- 
 clad Portuguese boys dive straight from the edge of 
 their boats and come up in a moment dripping and tri- 
 
 umphant with the rescued money. For a shilling the 
 more experienced swimmers give a fine show of their 
 skill, diving under our great steamer and coming up 
 on the other side. Then come the basket-makers with 
 steamer chairs, tables and baskets of wicker and 
 straw. The merchants follow them on board with 
 Madeira embroideries and drawn thread work. 
 
 It is hard to leave this tempting display, but the 
 boatman engaged to take us ashore is clamoring for 
 
8 
 
 SOUTH ATRICA TODAY 
 
 our company. The car that climbs the scenic rail- 
 way awaits us — there is a splendid view from the hill- 
 top; but we are anxious to make the descent, for 
 here is a real toboggan slide and an exciting ride on a 
 
 SCENIC RAILWAY 
 
 sled over the smooth stones brings us back into the 
 valley. Then we are ready to see the shops and the 
 gardens— we can not help seeing the people. Beg- 
 gars swarm around us, guides offer their services, 
 children besiege us with flowers. In spite of them we 
 enjoy our walk through the narrow, neatly paved 
 streets, the glimpses into the tenements of the happy 
 poor, the view of lovely courtyards oyer the high 
 walls that surround the gardens of the rich, and the 
 bargaining in the fine fruit and flower market. 
 
 We reward the patient charioteer who follows us 
 from the street, by engaging his services. Our char- 
 iot is a gorgeous barge on runners; a man pulls the 
 two oxen in front, a small boy prods them from be- 
 
OUTWARD BOUND 
 
 9 
 
 hind, and when after much urging the speed increases 
 to a run we join in the owner's laugh of joy and 
 pride. Horses are ahnost unknown on the island, 
 and they would be useless on the winding, slippery 
 streets. 
 
 On one of the hillsides is the English cemetery, 
 kept like a beautiful garden, and near it the Portu- 
 guese burying ground with the strange little photo- 
 graphs of the dead set in the stones. 
 
 At dusk in the public gardens the band plays for 
 the diversion of pale English tourists in search of 
 health, and for dusky 
 maidens in search of 
 pleasure. A proces- 
 sion of young priests 
 reminds us that we 
 are in a Catholic land. 
 A bower of flaming 
 Bouganvillea and Or- 
 ange Creeper offers a 
 resting place by the 
 
 sparkling fountain. Madeira wines and fruits are 
 offered us — ^then the boat's whistle brings us back to 
 reality, and we leave with regret "the garden spot of 
 the world." 
 
 As this is to be one of the longest ocean voyages we 
 have yet taken- -sixteen days from England if we 
 are on the mail steamer — we have an opportunity to 
 become well acquainted with some of our fellow- 
 
 
 i 
 
 KAPID TRANSIT IN MADEIRA 
 
10 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 passengers who are on their way home to Africa, and 
 to learn from them many interesting things of the 
 people and the places we are to visit. We are particu- 
 larly interested in hearing of the many different peo- 
 ples we shall meet. First in interest, of course, are 
 
 FORTE DE PICO — MADEIRA 
 
 the natives— the negroes. There are many tribes of 
 these natives, who formerly occupied the entire coun- 
 try, being gradually driven further into the interior 
 by the march of civilization, as our American Indians 
 were driven westward and finally almost extermi- 
 nated. These several tribes speak different lan- 
 guages and have more or less common customs, which 
 we will study later at close range. The general name 
 given to the native is Kafir (meaning an infidel) , and 
 in this sense we will use it in our book. Of the sev- 
 
OUTWARD BOUND II 
 
 eral ways of spelling the word, Kafir, Kaffir, Caffre, 
 Cafir, KafFer, Caffir, the first is that generally 
 adopted. 
 
 Among the first European settlements in South 
 Africa were those of the Dutch. In the year 1835 
 a large number of these Dutch colonists — called 
 Boers (meaning farmers) — decided to seek a home 
 farther north, where they might live undisturbed by 
 outside influence. This migration is the "Trek," fa- 
 mous in their history. Vanquishing the native tribes 
 who disputed their progress, they settled in the Trans- 
 vaal ("across the Vaal River"), and established a re- 
 public, with a President elected by the people. With 
 the discovery of diamonds in the seventies came an in- 
 flux of other nationalities, principally the English. 
 In the adapting of the laws and customs of this 
 purely agrarian people to the new conditions, con- 
 tinual dissensions arose, culminating finally in the 
 "Three Years' War," which was ended in 1902 by the 
 surrender of the Boers to the English, and the chang- 
 ing of the "Orange Free State" into the "Orange 
 River Colony," now governed by England in the same 
 way as is Canada. 
 
 We are also much interested in learning something 
 of the life and work of Cecil Rhodes, a young Eng- 
 lishman who went to Africa in 1871 to benefit his 
 health, and whose influence we shall continually see 
 in our travels. He was a quiet, meditative youth, but 
 with a remarkable genius for organization, and it be- 
 
12 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 came the dream and object of his Hfe to bring all the 
 colonies of Africa, from the Cape north to the Zam- 
 besi River, under the British flag. At about this time 
 came the discovery of diamonds, and a little later that 
 of gold. He grasped the opportunities which he 
 saw, and having been successful in diamond mining 
 in a small way, soon organized the diamond industry 
 into one company, the DeBeers Consolidated. Later 
 the gold mining industry was similarly consolidated. 
 He lived a singularly lonely life; the enormous 
 wealth which he accumulated was not used for the 
 pleasures that money can buy, but for the further- 
 ance of his one plan of developing and improving the 
 country. One large territory which he opened up to 
 civilization was named Rhodesia in his honor. When 
 he died a few years ago he was mourned as the one 
 man who had done the most toward opening to the 
 world this wonderfully rich country. 
 
 Sometimes the African steamers coal at an island 
 of the Canary group; a day on the island of Tene- 
 riffe or in the City of Los Palmas is not unlike one 
 at Madeira, but the language spoken is that of Spain, 
 for the Portuguese transferred this group to the 
 Spanish not long after its discovery. 
 
 The population of Funchal is about 20,000, and 
 that of the whole province is seven times this num- 
 ber. Los Palmas and Santa Cruz have about the 
 same population as Funchal, but the Canary group 
 has some 300,000 inhabitants. The industries are 
 
OUTWARW BOUND 
 
 13 
 
 similar — the production of wines and tropical fruits, 
 of sugar and cochineal. 
 
 Occasionally the steamer touches at the bare vol- 
 canic islands of Ascension or St. Helena; a small 
 English garrison guards Ascension's unfriendly rock, 
 and St. Helena reminds us of Napoleon's last days; 
 
 LOS PALMAS 
 
 it was the home of many of the Boer leaders who were 
 exiled during the war. 
 
 The sixteenth day from England, on the mail 
 steamer, we sight the outlines of Table Mountain. 
 Often a soft white cloud spreads over its top and 
 comes creeping down the sides — this is the "Table 
 Cloth," full of beauty and full of wrath — for out of 
 that fleecy mist creeps the "Southeaster." This 
 fierce wind makes our landing difficult and hides our 
 first view of Cape Town in a whirl of dust. Usually 
 Africa gives the traveler a gentle greeting of clear 
 
14 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 skies and so we learn to forgive in time an occasional 
 outbreak of the blustering "Southeaster." It is 
 
 CAPE TOWN AND TABLE MOUNTAIN FROM TABLE BAY 
 
 really a friend and is given the name of the "Cape 
 Doctor," for it sweeps every germ of disease in its 
 path into the sea. 
 
CAPE TOWN AND ENVIRONS 
 
 South Africa seems stranger to the European 
 than to the American traveler, for there is nothing of 
 the old world atmosphere about it. Indeed, we are 
 inclined to believe that during our five weeks of sail- 
 ing away from New York we have almost circumnavi- 
 gated the globe, and we are now stepping ashore for 
 a few sunny days in San Francisco. 
 
 CAPE MALAYS 
 
 As we walk toward the heart of the city there seems 
 little that is strange or foreign in our surroundings. 
 The same cosmopolitan company passes us by — here 
 
 15 
 
16 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 India supplies the element of the picturesque. We 
 stop to admire a veiled woman, gay in spangles and 
 shining satin. The husband in his plain fez is less in- 
 teresting than a Mohammedan priest who sails by us 
 in floating robe and gay turban. 
 
 Everywhere, a part of the busy life of the streetis 
 and docks, are the Cape Colored — a very different 
 
 TEA FACTORY GIRLS 
 
 type from the Kafir and warlike Zulu whom we meet 
 later. Mixture of races and contact with civilization 
 have given him the appearance of his American 
 brother. 
 
CAPE TOWN AND ENVIRONS 
 
 17 
 
 Now we come to the city's principal thoroughfare. 
 At the foot of the street a statue of Jan van Riebeek 
 keeps guard — a reminder of the long rule of the 
 Dutch East In- 
 dia Company. 
 The need of a re- 
 freshment sta- 
 tion on the route 
 to India prompt- 
 ed them in 1652 
 to send Riebeek 
 and his little 
 squadron to the 
 Cape. By right 
 of discovery the 
 land belonged to 
 the Portuguese. • 
 Bartholomew 
 Diaz had first 
 seen its shores in 
 1486, and a little 
 later Vasco de 
 Gama had touch- 
 ed here on his 
 wayto India. Af- 
 ter this, Dutch and Portuguese navigators landed 
 occasionally at Table Bay, but disastrous encounters 
 with the natives made them wary. It was nearly 
 one hundred and seventy years after the discovery 
 
 STATUE OF VAN RIEBEEK 
 
18 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 of the Cape of Good Hope that Riebeek began, in 
 his rude fortification against lions and Bush Rangers, 
 the city of Cape Town. 
 
 Wars at home persuaded the Dutch a few years 
 later to strengthen the defenses of their colonies, and 
 the historic Castle was built. The courtyard is large 
 enough to contain a small village, and the high walls • 
 
 and inner bar- 
 racks garrison 
 today part of 
 the British 
 army. 
 
 In the fine 
 new Post Of- 
 fice we exam- 
 ine with inter- 
 est another bit 
 of the early 
 history of the 
 Colony. It is a 
 great flat 
 stone that for 
 years served as 
 the Cape Post Office. Under this the outbound vessel 
 placed its letters to be unearthed by the next ship 
 returning home. 
 
 Outside the Post Office it appears that Africa is 
 giving us a floral fete of welcome. It is the wild 
 flower sale. At early morn the colored women go on 
 
 
 
 H'" I::.: " - "" '"^- 
 
 
 ■ ■;v;^:-jj|i)ifl<tf^***^^ 
 
 
 
 "■ "■''^' 
 
 CAPE CART 
 
CAPE TOWN AND ENVIRONS 19 
 
 the mountain sides or far into the kloofs, and come 
 back, their baskets laden with sprays of heath, with 
 great proteas and all the wonderful flowers of the 
 veld. 
 
 We are in the midst of the life and stir of a busy- 
 city. We wonder at its activity when we remember 
 that its population is only about 100,000. 
 
 In fact, the total number of whites in the various 
 English colonies south of the Zambesi does not ex- 
 ceed 1,250,000, while the colored races number over 
 5,000,000, a proportion of nearly five natives to every 
 white person. The white population of all South 
 Africa is therefore about that of the city of Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 The town clock strikes eleven — the time for our 
 morning tea. It is a pleasant feature of colonial life 
 that even the men take time for this morning rest, and 
 for an afternoon cup at four. It is a relaxation from 
 the day's work, and the scene in the cafes at these 
 hours is a pleasant contrast to the hurry of our Amer- 
 ican life. 
 
 We pass out of the main business street into The 
 Avenue — a wide shady footpath leading into the 
 Gardens, the principal residence portion of the city. 
 On the left of The Avenue are the government build- 
 ings. The House of Parliament is in the midst of a 
 well-kept garden — its white pillars stand out in fine 
 relief against the splendid background of the hills. 
 
 A session is in progress and we secure permission 
 
20 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 paruambnt house and table mountain, cape town 
 
 to enter the visitors' gallery. We are anxious to see 
 the premier, Dr. Jameson. Surely the man in the 
 gold lace and gray coat must be he. No, this 
 man's sole duty is to carry about the gilded mace to 
 indicate the stage of a discussion. Then he must be 
 one of the grave men in white wigs with long black 
 gowns. No, they are the advocates. The man we 
 are seeking is the one who is moving about talking 
 to the different members informally. Men come and 
 go while the discussion is on and we begin to see 
 that here there is the same freedom of life and free- 
 dom of speech as in our own country. Later when 
 we have an opportunity to meet the King's sister, 
 
CAPE TOWN AND ENVIRONS 21 
 
 the Princess Christian, and his brother, the Duke of 
 Connaught, the cordial handshake and genial greet- 
 ing make us believe that the "pomp that hedges 
 'round a throne" is forgotten in the Colonies, and that 
 the British possessions are not far behind us in democ- 
 racy. 
 
 Cape Colony enjoys self-government — ^that is, she 
 is ruled by officials elected by an almost universal 
 suffrage. The exception is the Chief Executive— - 
 the Governor, who is appointed by the King of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Leaving the House of Parliament and continu- 
 ing our walk through The Avenue, we turn aside to 
 spend an hour in the fine Botanical Gardens. Here 
 is a varied collection of the plants of many lands — 
 the huge woody tubers of the African "Elephant's 
 Foot" [Testudinaria elephantipes) , with its delicate 
 climbing stem. The native Stangeria, one of Afri- 
 ca's few cone-bearing plants, with its single leaf 
 which the gardener tells us it has had these five and 
 twenty years, — maybe next century it will produce 
 another one, — an interesting collection of succulent 
 plants which store up food in stem, leaf or roots 
 against the long droughts with which plants must strug- 
 gle in this country, roses rear their heads toward the 
 Euphorbias with their angular candelabrum branches, 
 leafless and thorny, trees from northern chmes beckon 
 us to rest in their shade. At the entrance to the park 
 is a statue of Sir George Grey, one of the best of 
 
22 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 the early English governors of the Cape. Beyond 
 the statue is the great library of Cape Town which 
 was established by this patron of learning. At the 
 other end of the park stands the fine museum and 
 art gallery. 
 
 Only an out-of-door people can really enjoy South 
 Africa — for those who are up with the sun there are 
 
 CACTI IN PUBLIC GARDENS 
 
 many interesting sights. There is the early morning 
 market when the great square is crowded with Boers 
 and English farmers, and bargainers looking for 
 fresh fruit and other country produce. If you 
 
CAPE TOWN AND ENVIRONS 
 
 23 
 
 choose to scale the "Lion's Head" or Table Moun- 
 tain you will meet other mountain climbers who have 
 been before you to see the sun rise over the harbor 
 before their day of business begins. An out-of-door 
 people take time to live. 
 
 The fine driveway named for Queen Victoria and 
 the circuit of the city made by the Camps Bay train 
 
 
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 ig 
 
 1 .-^aeOltM 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^5r^ ^^^1 
 
 jH 
 
 ^^^^^^P^^ 
 
 ^^s 
 
 JI^^L^M*-/' - : , N*j,3? 
 
 
 l^^i^^ 
 
 w^^\ "■--■<j-r*^^ 
 
 SATURDAY MARKET ON THE PARADE 
 
 line afford as magnificent a panorama as it is possible 
 to find. 
 
 Cape Town is extended by beautiful residence sub- 
 urbs — Kenilworth, Rosebank, Claremont, Wynburg. 
 We have time for only one, so we leave our train at 
 
24 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 Rondebosch for a day at Groote Schuur. This 
 "Great Barn" was on the old farm of Jan van Rie- 
 beek, and Cecil Rhodes transformed it into his coun- 
 try estate — or rather a great playground for the 
 people. 
 
 DUTCH FARMHOUSE 
 
 A long avenue with a vista of cloud-capped moun- 
 tains in the distance brings us to the house, — ^which 
 many tourists have declared the most beautiful and 
 harmonious of dwellings. It is built after the old 
 Dutch style with a wide back "stoep" where every 
 carved teak chair and heavy Dutch chest has its his- 
 tory. There is a dignity and refinement in the in- 
 
CAPE TOWN AND ENVIRONS 
 
 25 
 
 terior furnishings that reflects the character of the 
 collector. Everywhere are the gifts of royalty, from 
 the fine tapestry given by Queen Victoria to the sil- 
 ver elephant snufF box of the black king Lobengula. 
 We walk up the terraced garden through a sea of 
 blue Hydrangeas. Beyond are the animal enclos- 
 
 BACK STOEP — ^RHODES HOME 
 
 ures. All the wild creatures of Africa have found 
 a home here, — ^the agile spring-bok, the graceful 
 eland, the queer misshapen haartebeest with its heart- 
 shaped markings on cheek and shoulder. On the 
 lawn the blue heron and peacock walk in dignity — 
 the awkward ostrich may not come so near, for he is 
 
26 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 liable to be rude and quarrelsome. The monkeys 
 chatter at us as we climb the hill to the lion's den. 
 From the hilltop we see where the seas divide — on 
 one side are the waters of the Atlantic, and away to 
 the east stretches the Indian Ocean. 
 
 We wait until the great lion and lioness come 
 grumbling out of their caves, and then descend 
 through the pasture, where the zebras submit to our 
 caresses without taking the least interest in us. 
 
 In the garden below we encounter another lion, 
 strangely like the frontispiece in some book at home. 
 So we have found out where Rudyard Kipling 
 studies how the leopard gets his spots. After this 
 we shall enjoy his stories all the more, for we shall 
 remember that he is as interesting as his best tale. 
 He comes to. his home in this corner of Groote Schuur 
 for the African summer. The house is one of the 
 many gifts of Cecil Rhodes. The whole estate is 
 always open to the public. Another of his great 
 benefactions is the Rhodes scholarships, whereby 
 some boy from every state in our Union, together 
 with others from all nations, may profit by an Ox- 
 ford training. 
 
 The early Dutch governors knew how to select the 
 garden spots of Africa. Simon van der Stell chose 
 Groote Constantia for his wine farm. His old Dutch 
 house still stands in this beautiful valley and around 
 it are the immense vineyards of the government wine 
 farms. 
 
CAPE TOWN AND ENVIRONS 
 
 27 
 
 When we begin our northern journey from Cape 
 Town we linger at the Dutch village of Stellenbosch, 
 where the same old governor located his country home 
 and laid out the miles of oak bordered avenues which 
 stand as lasting monuments to his foresight. 
 
 The fruit seasons hurrying along overtake each 
 
 GROOTE CONSTANTIA 
 
 other, and in the summer month of January the small 
 colored boys at the station besiege us with strawber- 
 ries, peaches and grapes. 
 
 We leave the main line for a glimpse of the valley 
 of French Hoek. Here the band of Huguenots who 
 fled from France in the time of Louis XIV sought 
 
28 
 
 SOUTH AFEICA TODAY 
 
 OLD DUTCH FARMHOUSE 
 
 freedom from the too rigorous decrees of the Dutch, 
 who wished to stamp out their language. Many of 
 the best famihes of the country boast a French Unc- 
 age, and the hundreds of Malans and de ViUiers are 
 the Smiths and the Joneses of South Africa. The 
 Dutch so effectually effaced the French language 
 that we find traces of their history only in their names 
 and in an occasional touch of vivacity among the 
 phlegmatic Dutch. 
 
 On the trains now, we hear a language altogether 
 unfamiliar. If you know the language of Holland you 
 may be able to understand Cape Dutch. During the 
 early years of isolation African Dutch became cor- 
 
CAPE TOA¥N AND ENVIRONS 29 
 
 rupted until it became as different from the mother 
 tongue as the Africander is from the Hollander. 
 It is the language of the farms and the working peo- 
 ple. An effort is being made to preserve the Dutch 
 of Holland by teaching it in all the schools. 
 
 An hour beyond Stellenbosch we stop at the village 
 of Wellington. Here is the only woman's college 
 on this continent, Huguenot College, the out- 
 growth of a school founded by two American wOmen 
 more than thirty years ago. Let us stop here long 
 enough to find out something about the African 
 school girl and her work and play. She is usually an 
 athlete and knows all the fine points of basket ball, 
 tennis and golf and is keen about hockey and cricket. 
 She knows the score of her brother's football team 
 that is playing for the country cup. Base ball is an 
 unknown game, although the English rounders is 
 somewhat similar. 
 
 The students here are mostly Boers, with a few 
 daughters of European and English families. The 
 teachers are nearly all graduates of American col- 
 leges and universities. We had not expected to find 
 such excellent opportunities for higher education in 
 this far-away land. 
 
 The universal recreation is picnicking, which Afri- 
 canders understand far better than we — a subject im- 
 portant enough for a chapter in itself. Shall we lin- 
 ger a day at this girls' college and join them in a 
 picnic? 
 
A PICNIC 
 
 Let us join a party going out on a botanizing expe- 
 dition — it is Friday afternoon, lessons are over by two 
 o'clock, and half an hour later the party is at the rail- 
 way station, looking for the special carriage (car) 
 which the railway company has kindly put at their 
 disposal for two days. One of the teachers buys a 
 party ticket, which brings the average cost of the 
 journey of one hundred and thirty miles to about a 
 dollar each. In South Africa all teachers and stu- 
 dents are allowed to travel for half- fare on the rail- 
 ways. Our destination is Houw Hoek (How Hook) , 
 about sixty miles southeast of Cape Town, which can 
 not be reached before nine or ten o'clock at night. 
 
 Our special carriage is very much like the Ameri- 
 can sleeping cars that have a corridor along one side 
 and compartments on the other. The ordinary rail- 
 way carriages of South Africa are like those of all 
 European countries, made up of compartments run- 
 ning crosswise, the entrance being from doors on 
 either side. Within each compartment are two long 
 seats accommodating four or five passengers each, 
 who sit facing each other. In a way, traveling thus 
 is very interesting to a foreigner who likes to study 
 the faces of the people through whose country he is 
 passing. Again, such close quarters tend to make 
 
 30 
 
A PICNIC 
 
 31 
 
 the company sociable, and one is often invited to 
 share lunches with fellow passengers. The luxury 
 of traveling as known in America is an experience 
 for the Africander yet 
 to enjoy when he visits 
 our country. 
 
 As evening comes 
 on we all sit looking 
 out of the windows, 
 or stand on the plat- 
 forms, for we are going 
 through Sir Lowry's 
 Pass in the Hottentot 
 Holland Mountains. 
 The railway ,winds 
 back and forth up the 
 side of one mountain 
 for an hour or more 
 and finally goes through the pass, then down on the 
 other side, just as we went up. The scenery is very 
 beautiful, especially at sunset, when the mountains 
 are all aglow with the reflected colors of the ever- 
 changing sunset sky. The mountains, like all South 
 African mountains, are bold, rugged, and rocky, 
 almost devoid of vegetation. 
 
 One remarkable feature of this land is the scarcity 
 of water; there are practically no lakes and very few 
 rivers. In the dry season the smaller streams are 
 absolutely dry, while the larger ones shrink to mere 
 
 5 OR 6 IN. LONG — WHITE 
 TIPPED WITH BLACK 
 
32 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 brooks. As a consequence, there are no natural for- 
 ests, and the traveler finds the country most monoto- 
 nous. But the children born here love their country 
 just as American children love theirs. 
 
 Soon it grows dark,- — then the stars come forth. 
 What brilliant points of light they seem in these 
 clear skies ! Surely the African moon, by whose light 
 we can read, is brighter and larger than ours! It 
 
 bathes the veld with 
 its white light until 
 it seems an endless 
 field of snow. The 
 students look up into 
 the heavens to find 
 the constellations. Of 
 course you know that 
 in the southern hemi- 
 sphere certain stars 
 are visible which you 
 can never see without 
 crossing the equator. 
 The most beautiful 
 southern constellation is the Southern Cross, one star 
 of which points to the south pole star. Orion, with 
 the three bright stars in his belt, would not be recog- 
 nized in South Africa, for here he is seen upside down. 
 By bedtime the train arrives at Houw Hoek and 
 our carriage is shunted (switched) to a side track, 
 where we are to pass the night. In this country there 
 
 7 IN. DIAMETER — VELVETY PINK 
 
A PICNIC 
 
 33 
 
 are no regular sleeping cars such as you are accus- 
 tomed to see. The passengers pull down the berths, 
 and the process of going to bed consists of climbing 
 into the berths, rolling oneself up in a traveling-rug 
 with a small pillow under the head, and this the boys 
 and girls of South Africa call solid comfort. 
 
 Early in the morning the picnic party is up; the 
 boys have been busy gathering sticks for a fire, and by 
 the time the others are up breakfast is all ready and 
 soon a merry party is seated around the fire. 
 
 A South African picnic means a coffee-pot and a 
 fire. No one can make 
 better coffee than an 
 African boy; the fine 
 flavor he claims is due 
 to the stirring given it 
 at the last minute 
 with a glowing stick. 
 The sandwiches are 
 toasted on long forked 
 branches. All must 
 be served before the 
 feast can begin. It is 
 pleasant to remember 
 how willing the young 
 Africanders are to 
 wait on others, and also their natural courtesy. 
 
 Later the cups are washed and put back in the car- 
 riage, and all start off in various directions to gather 
 
 "pride of table mountain" — 3 IN. 
 TIP TO TIP — FIRE RED 
 
34 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 flowers, many of which they will use in their lessons. 
 Such wonderful and beautiful flowers they are, 
 though very unlike the wild flowers of America — we 
 
 wish we might show 
 you a picture of each 
 strange flower and 
 plant, but since there 
 are hundreds of va- 
 rieties this is impos- 
 sible. The children 
 of this country are 
 taught botany from 
 the lowest grades, as 
 American children 
 are taught physiolo- 
 gy, so they soon learn 
 to know all the native 
 plants. 
 Just a word in passing, about a few of the botanical 
 wonders of South Africa. The Silver Trees shimmer 
 in the brilliant sunshine. These unique trees, one of 
 the few varieties of trees found in Cape Colony, are 
 native to one spot, namely, Table Mountain, growing 
 majestically upright to a height of forty or flfty feet. 
 The fruit is in the form of large cones, and it belongs 
 to a family of ancient lineage, the proteaceas, abund- 
 antly represented in the western part of Cape Colony 
 by beautiful flowering shrubs. The elliptical leaves 
 of the silver tree are beautifully coated on both sur- 
 
 TWO IN. DIAMETER — BRILLIANT COLORS 
 
A PICNIC 
 
 35 
 
 faces with a thick pile of silvery satin hairs. 
 Large fields of Arums (our lovely calla lily) grow 
 as weeds and mark the paths of the streams with their 
 stately white and gold flowers. Pig lilies they are 
 called, as they are. eagerly eaten by the long razor- 
 back pigs. 
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN WEEDS — ^ARUM LILIES 
 
 Pelargoniums (the household geranium) grow in 
 great variety, and beautiful orchids may be gathered 
 by the hundreds. 
 
 When our picnic party return to the carriage at 
 dinner time, they bring with them a beautiful collec- 
 tion of flowers and ferns. While some are prepar- 
 
36 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 ing dinner, others are decorating the doors and win- 
 dows of our carriage, and even the two end platforms 
 are soon transformed into bowers of green vines and 
 flowers. 
 
 As we journey homeward in our gayly decorated 
 carriage, the young people of our party tell us some- 
 thing of their work and we learn how the life of an 
 African student differs from that of an American 
 student. 
 
EDUCATION 
 
 The examination system of England and Scot- 
 land exists here. The year's work is tested by a 
 week's examination at the end. The papers are set 
 by inspectors for the lower grades, and the Univer- 
 sity of the Cape of Good Hope, an examining body, 
 sets the questions for the candidates for a college de- 
 gree. On the same day and at the same hour, young 
 people a thousand or more miles apart are answering 
 identical questions, and your friend in Central Africa 
 may ask you at the Cape how you answered the fifth 
 question in arithmetic. The all-important subject in 
 South Africa is arithmetic, and perhaps the reason 
 that much more time is given to it than in our coun- 
 try is because it is more difficult to work with pounds, 
 shillings, and pence than with our decimal dollars 
 and cents. 
 
 The lists of successful candidates are published in 
 all the daily papers, and if you pass first in your class 
 all of South Africa knows it. The government is 
 most generous in giving prizes and scholarships. A 
 girl of seventeen from Huguenot College earned in 
 her first year of college work about four thousand 
 dollars in scholarships, so here study may be made 
 profitable in more senses than one. 
 
 Many .of the children on the lonely ,. scattered 
 
 37 
 
38 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 farms may be too young to go away to school, or Xhej 
 may be too poor. For these there is the farm-school. 
 The teacher boards in the farmer's family and the lit- 
 tle flock is taught in the home. The families on the 
 farms usually number from ten to twenty children, 
 but for as few as six the government shares in the 
 expenses of the school. 
 
 Our patriotism goes no farther than the United 
 States — our country is the land in which we live; not 
 so with the British colonist. His ambition is to be 
 rich enough to send his son or daughter to study in 
 the land which he ca,lls home, even after an absence 
 of perhaps a score of years. This may give a wider 
 experience, but it does not increase affection for the 
 land of one's birth, and the schools are thereby im- 
 poverished. 
 
 The young people of South Africa have unusually 
 good memories, and their out-of-door life makes 
 them keenly observant. 
 
 In the rough farmhouse with its mud floors, the 
 piano is a necessary piece of furniture. The young, 
 people are as keen about their music examinations as 
 about their record in other studies. Much time is 
 spent on technique and the teaching is very thorough. 
 Questions are set on musical theory, and examiners 
 from England travel through South Africa once a 
 year, and each pupil performs in turn before these in- 
 spectors. The one passing highest in the most ad- 
 vanced division (there are four divisions) is awarded 
 
EDUCATION 39 
 
 an exhibition (scholarship) of seven hundred and 
 fifty dollars a year for three successive years. With 
 this money the successful candidate must go to Lon- 
 don to study at the Royal Academy or the Royal Col- 
 lege of Music. Besides this prize there are ten or 
 more fifty dollar bursaries (scholarships) given 
 yearly to those pupils who show great musical ability 
 and promise. A really talented pupil can not com- 
 plain of lack of encouragement in his musical am- 
 bitions. 
 
THE CANGO CAVES 
 
 The two great natural wonders of South Africa 
 are the Victoria Falls and the Cango Caves. They 
 are visited by tourists not only for their marvelous 
 beauty but also for their geological interest. Amer- 
 icans are accused of boasting that they have the larg- 
 est of everything in their country, but Victoria FaUs 
 surpass Niagara in size and the Cango Caves are 
 probably the largest limestone caves in the world. 
 
 The most interesting things in Africa are not for 
 the hurried tourist. Any route from Cape Town to 
 the Cango Caves involves a post-cart journey, and at 
 least one night on the train. The usual journey is 
 from Cape Town to Prince Albert Road, thence over 
 the mountain a day's journey by post-cart. The drive 
 does not seem long because of the surpassing beauty 
 of the scenery. We go through the rocky pass of the 
 Zwartberg Mountains and along the famous Cango 
 Valley. No artist's picture can rival in color the 
 lovely sunset tints which change from gorgeous red 
 and gold to softest purple and gray. 
 
 We spend the night at the little Cango Inn, and 
 after a late breakfast are ready for our hard day of 
 exploring. We have been warned at the inn that two 
 things are necessary — an experienced guide and a 
 plentiful supply of candles. We question the ex- 
 perience of the youthful guide whom the innkeeper 
 
 40 
 
THE CANGO CAVES 
 
 41 
 
 brings to us, but the boy explains that the position of 
 guide to the caves is hereditary in his family, and we 
 find before our exploring is finished that he has the 
 wisdom . of his ancestors 
 and the daring of youth. 
 A short climb up a hill- 
 side brings us to an im- 
 posing portico- of over- 
 hanging rock, not unlike 
 the entrance to a great 
 theatre. 
 
 We are rather disap- 
 pointed because our guide 
 has no thrilling stories to 
 tell about those who have 
 been lost in the caves; 
 not even a dog has been 
 entombed here, for a mas- 
 sive iron gate bars our 
 
 entrance, which only the official guide can open. 
 These caves were discovered more than a hundred 
 years ago by a shepherd who followed the track of 
 liis strayed sheep to the cave's entrance. This great 
 cavern in the heart of the mountains has never been 
 fully explored — the best estimate of its extent is 
 furnished by our guide : " You can walk until you are 
 tired, and then there is a lot that you haven't seen." 
 
 The iron gate clangs shut and our guide, like the 
 Pied .Piper of Hamlin, leads us- enchanted into the 
 
 CANGO CAVES 
 ENTRANCE TO CAVES 
 
42 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 depths of the mountain. We walk gropingly until 
 our eyes forget the glare of the sun and we become 
 accustomed to the light of our flickering candles. A 
 long haU leads into an immense chamber the size 
 of which we realize more fully when the guide illumi- 
 nates it with a magnesium ribbon. This is Van Zyl's 
 chamber, named for the discoverer. We can imagine 
 how the simple herdsman marveled to find himself 
 in such a strange apartment. Giant stalactites like 
 glistening icicles hang from the vaulted ceiling; we 
 
 can almost imagine our- 
 selves in one of the famed 
 art galleries of Europe, 
 wanderingthrough a room 
 where many of the great 
 masters' works are in 
 broken fragments, for the 
 sharply pointed stalag- 
 mites have often been 
 broken off, forming ped- 
 estals surmounted by 
 strange figures. From 
 room to room we pass un- 
 til we arrive at the bride's 
 chamber, a bower of lacy 
 filigree. A white dressing 
 table with a graceful canopy awaits the bride. The 
 bride is evidently not far away, for her open parasol, 
 daintily flounced, stands near the table. 
 
 CANGO CAVES 
 NEW COLUMN CHAMBER 
 
THE CANGO CAVES 
 
 43 
 
 Minerals have stained the crystals various colors. 
 One chamber is lined with shining gray, and there are 
 other rooms where the limestone shades into pinks and 
 yellows. The chambers lead into one another, some- 
 times by wide arches, sometimes by openings so small 
 
 CANGO CAVES. THE OLD THRONE ROOM 
 
 that we force our way through with difficulty. Now 
 we come to a staircase leading to an upper story of 
 splendid apartments, which we explore. 
 
 The hazardous part of our journey is before us; 
 with candle in hand we begin to descend a perpendicu- 
 lar rope ladder, thirty feet long. The perilous descent 
 is well rewarded. The new series of chambers is even 
 
44 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 finer than those we have left behind us. Here the 
 rooms are draped with long soft curtains of translu- 
 cent white. A light placed behind the drapery shows 
 the beauty of these luminous folds. 
 
 In some of the little grottoes we pass, the stalac- 
 tites, a few inches in length, take on queer twisted 
 shapes, and sometimes the walls of the rooms are a 
 mass of curly tendrils in many dehcate colors. The 
 continual drip, drip, in the farther caverns, tells us 
 that the water stored up in the mountain is still slowly 
 percolating through the cave walls with its burden of 
 limestone. No one can estimate how long these caves 
 have been forming, but we know that it is a long, long 
 story. 
 
 The warm water flowing beneath the surface of the 
 earth, usually under pressure, has carbon dioxide in 
 solution. This is capable of dissolving the hmestone 
 strata through which it works its way, and so the cave 
 is formed. As the water comes to the surface and in 
 contact with the air, the carbon dioxide evaporates. 
 The drop can no longer hold its tiny particle in solu- 
 tion but leaves it as a small contribution to the form- 
 ing stalactite. If, however, the water drop succeeds 
 in carrying its dissolved limestone with it in its fall to 
 the ground, the separation is only delayed a httle 
 longer. The water finally evaporates after having 
 done its share toward building up a growing stalag- 
 mite. This almost imperceptible growth goes on until 
 the stalactites and stalagmites meet and form the 
 
THE CANGO CAVES 45 
 
 stately pillars that give the semblance of strength to 
 the cave. 
 
 A two hours' walk from the entrance of the cave 
 brings us to a great rough cavern, very different in 
 appearance from the delicate white chambers through 
 which we have passed. The hard gray rock is over 
 us, and everywhere is a chaos of broken fragments of 
 stone. It is as though a great cave had been formed, 
 and the pressure of the mountain had crushed its 
 walls and covered the floor with the broken pieces. 
 So complete is the ruin and chaos that "The Devil's 
 Workshop" seems a fitting name. 
 
 "Have we seen it all?" we ask the guide. "You 
 have seen as much as most people," he replies, and we 
 take this as a hint that it is time to tiirn back. 
 
 The guide hurries on and we lose sight of him. 
 "Let us blow out our hghts and scare him," some one 
 suggests. We sit crouched in utter blackness, rest^ 
 ing and enjoying our supply of oranges. Many min- 
 utes pass and we grow tired of our joke. Our faint 
 halloo is answered by some one very near us. It is our 
 boyish guide who has been playing the same trick on 
 us only a few feet away. How good the first streaks 
 of daylight seem! We realize how wonderful it is to 
 be a creature of the sunlight and open air. 
 
 The four hours in the cave have not improved our 
 appearance — the narrow passages through which we 
 have crawled with so much difficulty have left their 
 traces, and our hands, faces and garments are daubed 
 
46 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 with wet clay and mud. However, none of our party 
 had the unfortunate experience of the fat man about 
 whom the guide tells us. The smallest of the holes 
 held him fast until the guide came to his rescue, and 
 persuaded him that he must give up the caverns be- 
 yond. 
 
 We hasten down the hillside to the clear river. Af- 
 ter an hour's hard work and a complete change of cos- 
 tume we are ready for the drive aloiig the road to 
 Oudtshoorn. An early dinner, and we are on our 
 
 ON AN OSTRICH FARM 
 
 way. All the ruggedness of scenery is behind us — 
 now we look across peaceful valleys and quiet streams. 
 Flocks of sheep, and hundreds of ostriches in the 
 same enclosures, are nibbling and pecking the green 
 lucerne (alfalfa). As we drive along over the 
 
THE CANGO CAVES 47 
 
 smoothest of walled roads the ostriches come near 
 the fence and seem to look at us with curiosity. The 
 plain gray mother-bird, the black and white father- 
 bird, and the scrawny little baby ostriches make an 
 interesting family. These children improve as they 
 grow older, but in their infant stages they are as 
 bristling as porcupines. Everywhere are the orange 
 groves for which this part of the country is famous. 
 The Kafir children swarming about the doorways of 
 their gray huts seem to feel the contagion of our 
 happiness' in being alive and in the sunlight, and 
 wave and call to us until we are out of sight. 
 
"UE-COUNTRY" JOURNEY 
 
 In planning a long journey through South Africa 
 one has no such choice of routes as is to be had in the 
 United States. The only long railway Hne in South 
 Africa starts from Cape Town and runs north to 
 De Aar, 500 miles, at which place it branches south- 
 eastward to Port Elizabeth and other cities on the 
 seacoast, and northeast to Johannesburg and Kim- 
 berley. On this trip we shall go first to Kimberley, 
 on the Zambesi Express, a thirty hours' ride from 
 Cape Town, and a distance of about six hundred and 
 fifty miles. From which we see that the average speed 
 of this express train is about twenty-one miles an hour 
 — we in America would call it a slow freight, would 
 we not? Eut the South African express has some 
 advantages over the American trains that tear 
 through the country at fifty miles or more an hour — 
 the almost absolute safety in making a journey and 
 the fine opportunity of seeing the country through 
 which one is leisurely passing. 
 
 For about fifty miles beyond Wellington the rail- 
 way winds in and out among the mountains, and 
 from the scenery one might easily imagine himself 
 in Switzerland. The beautiful sunset tints on the 
 Hex Mountains are not unhke the Alpine glow which 
 all too soon fades from our view. The railway takes 
 a spiral path up one high mountain, passing now 
 
 48 
 
up-country" journey 49 
 
 and then through small tunnels, and from our win- 
 dow we can look far down below us and see our track 
 in several places. The Hex River valley is renowned 
 throughout South Africa for its beautiful fruit — at 
 all the stations colored boys besiege us with their bas- 
 ■ kets of tempting wares. We lean far out our window 
 and buy luscious grapes in large clusters of a pound 
 or more, also peaches and plums, which resemble our 
 beautiful California fruit — in fact, these very grapes 
 that we have just bought are probably from vines 
 transplanted from far-distant California, to which 
 state so many Africanders go to learn the best meth- 
 ods of fruit raising. 
 
 We soon leave the grand and rocky mountains be- 
 hind us, and then begins the most tiresome part of 
 our journey, traveling through the Karroo. 
 
 THE KARROO 
 
 The Karroo is a vast shallow basin and is supposed 
 to be the bed of a prehistoric lake, the waters of 
 which later broke through the surrounding mountain 
 ranges and flowed into the sea. Its altitude varies 
 from i,800 to 2,500 feet above the sea level. Some 
 of the mountains on the rim are from 4,000 to 8,000 
 feet high, while others dwindle down to mere hills. 
 There are numerous beds of rivers and small streams, 
 dry, or nearly so, the greater part of the year; how- 
 ever, after a heavy thunderstorm in the summer these 
 streams are raging torrents for a short time only, 
 
50 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 for they soon again become dry. Generally speak- 
 ing, the Karroo is a desert, still the soil is very fer- 
 tile, and where irrigation has been tried the results 
 are most gratifying. 
 
 In the dry season the wind sweeps across the Kar- 
 roo, blowing great clouds of dust, which obscure the 
 view in every direction; the passengers on the train 
 can not see the towns which they are approaching un- 
 til they arrive at the stations. Sometimes the view- is 
 hidden not by dust clouds, but by great swarms of 
 locusts, there being millions of the insects. This 
 pest will often sweep down on a district and in a few 
 hours the crops and fruit for miles around will be 
 totally destroyed. Just here it might be interesting 
 to note that roasted locusts (the wings having first 
 been removed) are served as a delicate dish by some 
 of the best families of South Africa. 
 
 In the rainy season the Karroo is an excellent graz- 
 ing ground for sheep and the flocks rapidly increase. 
 The general aspect of the vegetation when at its best 
 is not a green color, such as is characteristic of Amer- 
 ican plains, but rather a bluish gray. This pecuhar 
 hue is caused by the lime-incrusted, wax-covered, or 
 hairy leaves. The Karroo is the home of the Mes- 
 em-bry-an-the-mum, to which family our cultivated 
 ice-plant belongs. Karroo flowers belonging to this 
 order are sometimes three inches across and gorgeous 
 in their coloring, ranging from pale saff'ron to 
 brilliant orange, and from white and pink to deepest 
 
"up-country" journey 51 
 
 crimson and magenta. In some places in the Karroo, 
 wells have been successfully bored, but the water is 
 often of an alkaline or salty nature, in which event it 
 parches the soil. Much of the vegetation shows in 
 the leaves this salty nature of the soil. 
 
 In a journey through the Karroo, the passenger on 
 the train sees very httle of interest from his window 
 and he welcomes the darkness of night which shuts 
 out the monotony of the scene and the heat of the 
 day. At Matjesfontein (Matches-fontain) we are 
 reminded of the battle fought there in the recent 
 Boer War. This was also the home before her mar- 
 riage of the writer, Olive Schreiner (Ralph Iron), 
 who at the age of nineteen became famous through 
 her book, "The Story of an African Farm." This 
 town is a resort for consumptives, because of the dry 
 air of the Karroo winter. 
 
 Beaufort West is the largest Karroo town. The 
 large dam (reservoir) just outside the town supplies 
 water to the village through the long periods of 
 drought which the region often suffers. This dis- 
 trict is a fine example of what irrigation wiU do for 
 a desert. 
 
 Gardens of flowers and fruit beautify the town, 
 and the avenues of pear trees that scatter their petals 
 in September are the pride of the residents. 
 
 Young ladies in white daintily frilled gowns meet 
 us at the station with cakes and hot coffee, as is the 
 hospitable custom of the country when people know 
 
52 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 that friends are passing through their town. In spite 
 of the blinding dust storm in which we have arrived 
 at Beaufort West, our friends express their dehght in 
 a recent six inches of rainfall, which is more than the 
 total annual rainfall in several previous years. 
 
 The towns and villages along the line look much 
 alike, and the farther up country we go the more in 
 evidence are tin and corrugated iron as building ma- 
 terial. We have actually seen small rude dwellings 
 and even shops made entirely of the tin from old 
 parafl&n (kerosene) tins. All the oil in this coun- 
 try is imported, usually from America, in four-gallon 
 tins, and no one who has not traveled in South Africa 
 can imagine the various uses to which the empty 
 cans are put. These tins often have their upper edges 
 j-oUed over artistically and after having been painted 
 red or green are transformed into flower pots. Where 
 large cans are needed for jams and preserves one 
 finds the fruit put up in these same paraffin tins. 
 The farmer, too, uses them for carrying his butter 
 to market, and the housewives are sometimes troubled 
 with the butter thus savoring of oil. 
 
 What can that woman be carrying who is just 
 about to board our train at Letjes-Bosch {Lettys- 
 Bush) ? It is the inevitable paraffin tin, but with a 
 good padlock and a firm handle the transformation 
 into a hat box is most unique. By the way, the ma- 
 jority of the people in this country travel with tin 
 hat boxes and tin . trunks. If you go up country 
 
"up-country" journey 53 
 
 with a smart new leather box (trunk) just from Eng- 
 land, you may find next morning a few scattered 
 shreds of leather; but that is the story of the white 
 ants which we shall teU later. 
 
 The parting sight is a Kafir boy carrying a four- 
 cornered pail on his head, the paraffin tin in another 
 guise. We admire his poise as he bows to his friends, 
 seemingly unconscious of his burden. The children 
 are trained in this art from early youth. The mother 
 weaves a small straw circlet to support the weight on 
 the head of her child, who carries at the same time her 
 youngest brother or sister on her back. Gradually 
 the burden is increased until it is no uncommon sight 
 to see a woman coming home at night with the mor- 
 row's wood on her head, a baby on her back, and a 
 pail in either hand. The women become very skillf':il 
 in balancing. We have seen a graceful Kafir, girl 
 carrying a tall vinegar bottle on her head. Not a 
 drop was spilled as she stooped beneath the fence and 
 continued her walk without having raised her hands 
 to her head to steady the burden. 
 
 On this journey we have a good opportunity of see- 
 ing the kopjes (copies) that caused the British army 
 so much trouble in the late war. The monotony of 
 the Karroo is broken by what appear to be earth 
 mounds made by a giant mole. On closer view we 
 are inclined to think that a New England farmer has 
 piled all the stones from his land in great heaps. The 
 kopjes vary in size from a mound no greater than a 
 
54 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 large haystack to a hill that could screen a small 
 army in time of war, and, indeed, the British and Boer 
 
 soldiers played 
 many a game 
 of hide and seek 
 around these 
 hills. 
 
 Besides these 
 natural defen- 
 ses the line of 
 war is marked 
 by block houses 
 and lonely cem- 
 eteries. Where 
 the block hous- 
 es are still stand- 
 ing we see they 
 are like little 
 round or square 
 towers built of 
 stone or corru- 
 gated iron, 
 large enough to accommodate from four to ten 
 soldiers. Their perfect condition speaks of a very 
 recent war. The heaped up rings of earth, mark- 
 ing the places where these defenses have been de- 
 stroyed, are not unlike the tenting-ground of a 
 great circus the day after its departure, when the gray 
 light of morning dispels the glamor of action and 
 
 BLOCK HOUSE 
 
"UP-COUNTRY JOURNEY 55 
 
 peril. Boer and Briton rest side by side on the field 
 for which they fought, their graves marked by count- 
 less little white crosses. The desolation of the Kar- 
 roo tells the old story of man's striving to gain what 
 is not worth the holding. 
 
 Our time table indicates the struggle of the Dutch 
 and Enghsh for supremacy, but in the uninviting 
 tracts of country such as this certainly is, the Dutch 
 names predominate. Our guide book gives us eight 
 towns ending in "fontein" (fountain or spring) ; this 
 does not mean that there is plenty of water, for we 
 are still in the Karroo. These towns, originally the 
 sites of farms, were called "Mynfontein" (my foun- 
 tain), and other fonteins by the farmer, who having 
 found on his farm a tiny spring, perhaps, published 
 the fact in the name. There is the "City of the Foun- 
 tain of Flowers," "Bloemfontein," and the less poet- 
 ical though no less actually existing "Puff adder fon- 
 tein." Every abiding place has its name — the small- 
 est village and even the most modest little cottage. 
 The variety in names shows the cosmopolitan nature 
 of South African home-makers. In Cape Town, for 
 instance, on the gatepost of the handsome house of 
 a Malay doctor we read "Noorbach;" there is "Bon- 
 nie Brae," for the Scotchman; and the German ex- 
 presses his contentment by "Friedenheim." 
 
 About three hours from Kimberley we cross the 
 Orange River, the boundary between Cape Colony 
 and the Orange River Colony; before the war this 
 
5b SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 was the Orange Free State, a name to which the 
 Dutch still cling. 
 
 As our train draws near to Kimberley we seem to 
 be passing through tin villages, for the little huts of 
 the locations are built of old paraffin tins or well 
 patched with them. A location is a settlement of na- 
 tives just beyond the limits of a town, without any of 
 the picturesqueness of a Kafir kraal (a collection of 
 huts surrounded by a fence), where reeds and thatch 
 lend a charm to wliich the contributions from the 
 Standard Oil Company could not add. 
 
 Sometimes a Kafir builds his location hut very sim- 
 ply, with four upright poles and a piece of sail cloth. 
 Speaking of sail cloth, there are many uses of this 
 material in South Africa. Instead of freight being 
 stored in buildings well protected from the wind and 
 weather, at station after station it lies on the ground 
 covered over with very heavy sail cloth painted dark 
 gray. Great piles of goods awaiting shipment often 
 rise to the height of a two-story building, resembling, 
 in the twilight, with their gray draperies, a caravan 
 of huge elephants. 
 
KIMBERLEY 
 
 The underground cavern lined with precious stones 
 where Aladdin found his wonderful lamp is sup- 
 posed to be in Arabia within the domains of Haroun- 
 al-Raschid, but there is one very like it in South 
 I Africa within the kingdom of Edward VII. In the 
 blue caves of Kimberley the diamonds do not sparkle 
 from the walls, but just because they are more diffi- 
 cult to find, the search is more exciting than it could 
 possibly have been in Aladdin's cave. Some forty 
 years ago a shining pebble was found by chance on 
 the sands of the Vaal River; then began the. search 
 for diamonds which has continued ever since by day 
 and by night. 
 
 The following interesting account of the finding 
 of the first diamond wsls given recently by Mr. Gard- 
 ner F. Williams, a former manager of the De Beers 
 diamond mines: 
 
 "The first diamond in South Africa was found by 
 the children of a trekking Boer named Daniel Jacobs. 
 He was a poor farmer, who made his home in a 
 squalid hovel on the banks of the Orange River near 
 the little settlement of Hopetown. It was roughly 
 partitioned to form a bedroom and kitchen, and its 
 earthen floor was smeared weekly with a polishing 
 paste of filth and water. Father, mother and children 
 slept together on a rude frame overlaced with raw- 
 hide strips. Plere the children were brought up with 
 
 57 
 
58 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 little more care than the goats and sheep that browsed 
 on the kopjes. When the herds were turned out of 
 the kraal the children ran after them and roamed 
 over the pasture land all day long like the flocks, but 
 the instinct of childhood will find playthings on 
 the face of the most barren karroo, and the Jacobs 
 children were close to the edge of a river which was 
 strewn with uncommonly beautiful pebbles mixed 
 with coarser gravel. 
 
 "A heap of these parti-colored stones was so com- 
 mon a sight in the yard or on the floor of a farm- 
 house on the banks of the Orange or the Vaal that 
 none of the plodding Boers gave it a second glance. 
 But when the children tossed the stones about, a little 
 white pebble was so sparkling in the sunlight that it 
 caught the eye of the farmer's wife. She did not 
 care enough for it to pick it up, but spoke of it as a 
 curious stone to a neighbor, Schalk van Niekerk. 
 Van Niekerk asked to see it, but it was not in the 
 heap. One of the children had rolled it away in the 
 yard. After some little search it was found in the 
 dust, for nobody on the farm would stoop for such a 
 trifle. When Van Niekerk wiped the dust off, the. 
 little stone glittered so prettily that he off^ered to buy 
 it. The good vrouw laughed at the idea of selling 
 a pebble. 'You can keep the stone if you want it,' 
 she said. So Van Niekerk put it in his pocket and 
 carried it home. He had only a vague notion that 
 it might have some value, and put it in the hands of a 
 
KIMBEELEY 59 
 
 traveling trader, John O'Reilly, who undertook to 
 find out what kind of a stone the little crystal was 
 and whether it could be sold. 
 
 "He showed the stone to several Jews in Hopetown 
 and in Colesburg, a settlement farther up the Orange 
 River valley. No one of these would give a penny 
 for it. 'It is a pretty stone enough,' they said, 'prob- 
 ably a topaz,' but nobody would pay anything for it. 
 
 "Perhaps O'Reilly would have thrown the stone 
 away if it had not come under the eye of the acting 
 civil commissioner at Colesburg, Lorenzo Boyes. 
 Mr. Boyes found on trial that the stone would 
 scratch glass. 
 
 " 'I believe it to be a diamond,' he observed gravely. 
 
 "O'Reilly was greatly cheered up. 'You are the 
 only man I have seen,' he said, 'who says it is worth 
 anything. Whatever it is worth, you shall have a 
 share in it.' 
 
 " 'Nonsense,' broke in Dr. Kirsch, a private 
 apothecary of the town, who was present, 'I'U bet 
 Boyes a new hat it is only a topaz.' 
 
 " 'I'll take the bet,' replied Mr. Boyes, and at his 
 suggestion the stone was sent for determination to 
 the foremost mineralogist of the colony, Dr. W- 
 Guybon Atherstone, residing at Grahamstown. It 
 was so lightly valued that it was put in an unsealed 
 envelope and carried to Grahamstown in the regular 
 postcart. 
 
 "When the postboy handed the letter to Mr. Ath- 
 
60 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 erstone the little river stone fell out and rolled away. 
 The doctor picked it up and read the letter of trans- 
 mission. Then he examined the pebble expertly and 
 wrote to Mr. Boyes: 'I congratulate you on the 
 stone you have sent me. It is a veritable diamond, 
 weighs twenty-one and a quarter carats, and is worth 
 £500.' Sir Philip Wodehouse, the governor at the 
 Cape, bought the rough diamond at once, at the value 
 fixed by Dr. Atherstone. The stone was sent im- 
 mediately to the Paris Exposition, where it was 
 viewed with much interest, but its discovery at first 
 did not cause any great sensation. 
 
 "Meanwhile Mr. Boyes hastened to Hopetown and 
 to Van Niekerk's farm to search along the river shore 
 where the first diamond was found. He prodded the 
 phlegmatic farmers and their black servants, raked 
 over many bushels of pebbles for two weeks, but 
 no second diamond repaid his labor. Still the news 
 of the finding of the first stone made the farmers 
 near the river look sharply at every heap of pebbles 
 in the hope of finding one of the precious 'blink 
 klippe' (bright stones), as the Boers named the dia- 
 mond, and many bits of shining rock crystal were 
 carefully pocketed, in the persuasion that the glitter- 
 ing stones were diamonds. But it was ten months 
 from the time of the discovery at Hopetown before 
 a second diamond was found, and this was in a spot 
 more than thirty miles away, on the river bank below 
 the junction of the Vaal and Orang'e rivers. 
 
KIMBERLEY 61 
 
 "In March, 1869, a superb white diamond, weigh- 
 ing 83.5 carats, was picked up by a Griqua shepherd 
 boy on the farm Zendf ontein, near the Orange River. 
 Schalk van Niekerk bought this stone for a mon- 
 strous price in the eyes of the poor shepherd — 
 500 sheep, ten oxen and a horse — ^but the lucky pur- 
 chaser sold it easily for £11,200 to Lilienfeld Brothers 
 of Hopetown, and it was subsequently purchased by 
 Earl Dudley for £25,000. This extraordinary gem, 
 which soon became famous as the 'Star of South 
 Africa,' drew all eyes to a field which could yield 
 such products, and the existence and position of dia- 
 mond beds was soon further assured and defined by 
 the finding of many smaller stones in the alluvial 
 gravel on the banks of the Vaal. 
 
 "From the time of Solomon and the Queen of 
 Sheba, however, adventurers have been searching in 
 Africa for the source of the gold and jewels, the 
 marvels of Ophir, which they displayed, and, al- 
 though it is mostly conjecture, a large part of the 
 wealth of the scriptural kings and millionaires no 
 doubt came from the interior of Africa. The tradi- 
 tions of King Solomon's mines lured thousands of 
 enterprising explorers into the wilderness, and it is 
 perhaps true that they have been discovered. An in- 
 trepid German explorer named Carl Mauch in 1871 
 discovered an extraordinary lot of ruins at Zimbabwe, 
 and gold fields closely adjacent to them. These 
 have been called the ruined cities of Mashonaland. 
 
62 SOUTH ATEICA TODAY 
 
 Unfortunately for his credit as an archaeologist, 
 Mauch insisted that an old building on a hill was a 
 copy of King Solomon's temple on Mount Moriah, 
 and that the lower ruins reproduced the palace inhab- 
 ited by the Queen of Sheba during her stay of sev- 
 eral years in Jerusalem. This does not impair, how- 
 ever, the probable accuracy of his main contention, 
 that he had revealed part of the ancient workings of 
 the people who furnished the gold to Arabia and 
 Judea in the days of Solomon. 
 
 "Without entering into the varied researches, it 
 may be observed that Ophir was not the source of 
 the gold, but a port on the south coast of Arabia 
 through which the flow of gold came by sea. Havi- 
 lah was the land whence came the gold of Ophir, 
 a great tract in southeastern Africa, largely identi- 
 fied with modern Rhodesia. The ancient gold work- 
 ings of this region were first opened by South Ara- 
 bian Himyarites, who were followed (but not before 
 the time of Solomon) by the Phenicians, and these 
 very much later by Moslem Arabs. Tharshish was 
 the outlet for the precious metals and stones of Havi- 
 lah, and stood probably on the present site of Sofala. 
 The Queen of Sheba came by land and not over the 
 seas to the court of Solomon. Her kingdom was 
 Yemen, Arabia, where our mocha coflTee comes 
 from." 
 
 The diamond industry has transformed this spot in 
 the desert into a busy world. For Kimberley is a stir- 
 
KIMBERLEY 
 
 63 
 
 ring city, if not an imposing one. Broad dusty ave- 
 nues lined on either side with low brick cottages make 
 up the residence portion of the town. The shops are 
 interesting enough, but the purchases we planned to 
 make we are 
 obliged to 
 postpone. Dia- 
 monds are not 
 given away in 
 Kimberley — 
 New York or 
 Amsterdam 
 offers better 
 bargains. The 
 reason for this 
 is found in the 
 fact that the 
 diamonds in 
 the rough are 
 sent to Holland 
 chiefly, for 
 cutting; when 
 the stone is 
 returned to Af- 
 rica it must pay 
 a fairly heavy 
 
 duty, then add to this the increased price due to high 
 rents, and we find that the home of the diamond is not 
 the best place to buy it. 
 
 KIMBEKLEY DIAMOND MINE 
 
64 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 At the end of the principal street is a great ex- 
 cavation, which is pointed to with pride as the biggest 
 hole in the world dug out by hand. A number of 
 our tallest sky-scrapers could be inverted in this hole 
 and completely buried. 
 
 This excavation was begun in the days when every 
 man staked oiF his own claim and the mining was 
 done with pick and shovel. The thousands of small 
 holdings have all been merged into one great com- 
 pany — the De Beers Consolidated. 
 
 The earth is no longer removed by the patient la- 
 borer with his shovel. Let us begin with one of the 
 largest of the Kimberley open mines and trace the 
 process of diamond mining as it is scientifically car- 
 ried on today. We look over the edge of the Wessel- 
 ton hole — so deep is it that the toilers down below 
 look like little brownies with their barrows. At a sig- 
 nal we see them scampering in all directions and dis- 
 appearing within mysterious caves in the hillsides. 
 We accept the suggestion to retreat within the little 
 summer house protected by an iron screen. There is 
 a dull rumble and a small volcano breaks forth below 
 us — then a greater shock, and rocks and soil in an- 
 other part of the mine are thrown in all directions. 
 It seems as if the enraged Cyclops have at last been 
 able to lift the awful mass of earth which has been 
 pressing upon them during the long ages and are 
 breaking forth everywhere full of violence and 
 wrath. A dozen more explosions and the brownies 
 
KIMBERLEY 
 
 65 
 
 come forth from their hiding places and begin load- 
 ing the broken masses of hard blue ground. Each 
 car with its bur- 
 den of invisible 
 diamonds be- 
 gins the ascent. 
 There seems an 
 endless proces- 
 sion of cars as 
 they follow each 
 other on their 
 way to the de- 
 positing floors. 
 Five miillion car 
 loads are taken 
 from the mines 
 in a year and 
 "laboriously 
 washed and 
 sorted for the 
 sake of a few 
 bucketfuls of 
 diamonds. The 
 
 earth removed would form a cube of more than 430 feet, 
 or a block larger than any cathedral in the world, and 
 overtopping the spire of St. Paul's, while a box with 
 sides measuring 2 feet 9 inches would hold the gems." 
 The diamond-bearing soil is spread out on the 
 ground to be broken up by the action of air and water. 
 
66 SOUTH APRICA TODAY 
 
 The blue stone, which seems almost as hard as marble 
 when first unearthed, after being exposed from three 
 to nine months, becomes pulverized. Formerly the 
 depositing floors were harrowed by the aid of mules, 
 but now a modern steam harrow does the work of 
 spreading and turning over the soil. You may he 
 sure this precious soil is all safely enclosed and care- 
 fully guarded. 
 
 With miles of precious ground exposed it would 
 seem that thieving might be a simple matter, and that 
 a sparkling gem might tempt the passerby to brave 
 the dangers of a barbed wire fence. But after ail 
 this coaxing of the soil there is still no evidence of dia- 
 monds, and the manager of the mines says that dur- 
 ing the fifteen years that he has overlooked these 
 floors he has never seen a diamond there. But sup- 
 pose a thief did see one and succeeded in making ofi" 
 with his prize, it would prove a heavy weight and he 
 would be only too glad to return his unsalable booty. 
 For every diamond mined is registered and to attempt 
 to leave the country with an unregistered diamond in 
 one's possession or to sell it is a crime. Furthermore 
 if you should find a diamond in your own garden, it 
 is not yours — so closely do the laws of the country 
 protect the De Beers monopoly. 
 
 Sometimes a Kafir discovers imbedded in the wall 
 of some dark passage a shining stone, which if it 
 does not prove to be as big as Aladdin's roc's egg, is 
 valuable enough to make him as rich as a Kafir wants 
 
KIMBERLEY 67 
 
 to be. He could not hope to escape from the closely- 
 encircling compound, — even' if he did, an attempt to 
 sell his prize would probably mean years of work on 
 the breakwater, or he might be returned to the mines 
 as a convict laborer. If the laborer brings his find 
 at once to the overseer he is rewarded according to the 
 value of the diamond. A convict receives a small 
 sum for every carat, whereas a free Kafir is paid 
 more. In the company's office we see one recently 
 fotind as large as a pigeon's egg. The reward of 
 about $150 enables the finder to return to his native 
 haunts to live a Kafir's ideal life — a life of idleness. 
 We admire the beauty stored up in this great stone, 
 but we are told that it is less valuable than many 
 smaller ones because of its delicate hue. 
 
 At the end of the necessary number of months, the 
 immense carpet of "blue" is again taken up. A fur- 
 ther treatment had to be devised to persuade the stub- 
 born earth to yield up its prize. After leaving the 
 depositing floors the blue ground is mixed with water 
 and washed, to separate diamonds and equally heavy 
 minerals from lighter material. 
 
 Until recently the separation of the diamonds from 
 the other stones was not an easy matter, as it was 
 done chiefly by hand-sorting. A discovery, a matter 
 of chance, revolutionized diamond mining. You 
 know how prospectors in the gold fields "pan out" by 
 mixing the soil with water, and shaking it, that the 
 heavy particles may fall to the bottom of the pan. 
 
68 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 Where the mining is conducted on a httle larger scale, 
 the gravel mixed with water flows over a mercury bed ; 
 the quicksilver seizes the fine gold and holds it. The 
 
 HEADGEAR DE BEERS MINE 
 
 amalgam formed may be broken up by heating — ^the 
 liquid mercury evaporates and the gold is set free. 
 Diamond mining is very similar. The diamond is a 
 comparatively heavy stone. By washing and shaking, 
 the lighter materials can be separated from the dia- 
 
KIMBERI-EY 69 
 
 monds and other heavy stones, but the question was 
 how to separate the diamonds from pebbles of an al- 
 most equal weight. A workman one day noticed that 
 when he shook some of the earth prepared for wash- 
 ing in a greasy pail, that had held his dinner, a dia- 
 mond clung to the bottom. A further investigation 
 showed the affinity of grease and diamonds. Rubies 
 and emeralds show a similar f ondnesis for an oily sur- 
 face, but grease is particular, and when cheaper stones 
 try to cling to the shaking grease-covered pans, called 
 the pulsator, they are at once discarded and go tum- 
 bling along with the water, while every diamond is 
 seized and tightly held. It is a fascinating sight to 
 see the white crystals separate themselves from the 
 other pebbles — quartz looks very like the diamond, 
 arid when it falls on the greasy plate it goes rattling on 
 down the inchne, while every diamond remains firmly 
 lodged where it first touches its greasy bed. The 
 stupid grease never makes a mistake, and we wonder 
 that it can discriminate better than our eyes or even 
 more experienced ones. 
 
 Every two or three hours the grease is scraped from 
 the pans — it becomes useless when mixed with water 
 from constant washing. This yellow pudding, with 
 diamonds for plums, is heated; the grease disappears 
 and the diamonds, mixed with a small amount of 
 worthless material of an equal specific ' gravity, are 
 sent to the sorting table. The sorter knows the qual- 
 ity and the comparative size at a glance and the dia- 
 
70 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 monds are divided accordingly. In the room where 
 the parcels are being prepared for shipment there are 
 heaps of crystals of varying sizes and qualities, grad- 
 ing down from the stones of many carats to tiny bril- 
 liants. The dull gray ones are used for cutting, 
 though sometimes it is found worth while to take a 
 small white morsel out of the imperfect gray crystals. 
 You may bathe your hands in diamonds and let quarts 
 of the beautiful smooth white stones slip through your 
 fingers. They are beautiful even in an uncut state, and 
 
 A day's diamond wash of de beers CO. 
 
 have the delightful waxy feeling of satin-spar. Near- 
 ly all of them are perfect crystals of the octahedron 
 type, being made up of two four-faced pyramids, 
 base to base. 
 
 Now and then they appear in fantastic shapes or 
 assume strange colors — in the strong room they show 
 
KIMBERLEY 71 
 
 US diamonds as yellow as amber and others that take 
 on various shades of pink and green. By some freak 
 of nature one diamond has imprinted upon it the face 
 of a clock, another a church steeple, and on a third 
 there is deeply engraven the letter "Y." Sometimes 
 one crystal forms within another, or a diamond crys- 
 taUizes around a garnet. Small garnets are found in 
 abundance mixed with the blue ground, and are given 
 the name of Cape rubies. 
 
 If you chance to visit the sorting room on Thurs- 
 day an attendant will say to you: "What a pity you 
 did not come on Monday, the day for giving away 
 small diamonds!" Had you gone there on Monday, 
 then Thursday would have been the lucky day — it is 
 any day except the day you come. After this joke 
 you are recompensed for your disappointment by a 
 gift of a handful of Cape rubies. 
 
 The few quarts of diamonds that we see represent 
 the labor of an army of about 18,000 natives and 
 3,000 white men. Let us go next to a compound — the 
 very interesting enclosure where the natives are 
 housed. The name suggests a herding together of 
 humanity, but here the Kafir learns more of the com- 
 forts of life than he ever knew before. All along the 
 railway line hungry natives beg for food — the only 
 reason they do not seek a home in the compounds 
 where there is the certainty of work and good pay is 
 because of their natural aversion to anything in the 
 line of exertion. The laborer who enters the com- 
 
72 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 pound is expected to stay at least three months, at 
 the end of which time if he wishes to depart he is 
 thoroughly searched. 
 
 The great quadrangle of the compound is bordered 
 by the low houses of the natives, their only openings 
 being on this square. You might not care to live in 
 their humble rooms, but the most fastidious could not 
 object to the very modern hospital with its dispensaiy. 
 The large swimming tank gives many of them their 
 
 BATHING POOL 
 
 first lesson in cleanliness. There seems to be time for 
 sports between the hours of work — a Kafir band assem- 
 bled in one corner makes a weird noise which to some 
 
KIMBKRLEY 73 
 
 ears may be music. We see a barber shaving a woolly 
 head, according to the fantastic devices that the natives 
 admire. In another corner a reclining group of Zulus, 
 as shining and as perfect as though carved from black 
 marble, are all absorbed in what appears to be a game 
 of marbles. A little later camp fires are lit and the 
 evening meal prepared under the open sky as if they 
 were in their wilds. Visitors are such an everyday oc- 
 currence that the native does not look up from his oc- 
 cupation unless he has for sale some trifle made dur- 
 ing his spare moments. The workmen rarely escape 
 or try to escape, so secure are the fences of the en- 
 circling compound. 
 
 Why all this army of labor — all this accumulation 
 of machinery? Merely that in some far away country 
 the sunshine may flash forth from the jewel on my 
 lady's finger. 
 
 The life at Kimberley is not all work, for where 
 there is great wealth there are always many oppor- 
 tunities for pleasure. The fine driveways lead to the 
 model workmen's village of Kenilworth, to the beauti- 
 ful resort Alexandersf ontein, and to the classic monu- 
 ment built after the model of a Greek tomb, which 
 commemorates the heroism of those who fell at the 
 siege of Kimberley during the recent war. 
 
 The famous siege of Paris numbered only a few 
 more days than the one of Kimberley, where for one 
 hundred and twenty-four days the English held out 
 against the besieging Boer army. Had it not been 
 
74 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 for the diamond mines, Kimberley, with her defend- 
 ing force of 4,500 men, could not have withstood so 
 long the opposing army of more than 10,000 Boers. 
 The unique defenses of the city were the tailing heaps 
 at the mines, great piles of debris, which rise up like 
 small hills and quite encircle the town and its sub- 
 urbs. Besides these, earthworks were constructed and 
 guns mounted upon them; one of these weapons, 
 
 SIEGE MEMORIAL AND LONG CECIL 
 
 "Long Cecil," made such a name for itself that it will 
 long live in the memory of both Boer and Briton. 
 
 The story of "Long Cecil" is worth remembering, 
 so we will tell it to you. The defenders of Kimberley 
 were not very well prepared for a siege, and it became 
 necessary for them to manufacture a large gun. Mr. 
 George Labram, a citizen of the United States, at 
 
KIMBERLEY 75 
 
 that time Chief Engineer of the De Beers mining 
 company, designed this great gun and superintended 
 its construction at the mines. The whole thing was 
 completed in twenty- four days, some of the time hav- 
 ing first been used in making necessary tools which 
 the town could not supply. When finished and 
 mounted, "Long Cecil" was capable of throwing a 
 shell of twenty-eight pounds a distance of five miles. 
 When this gun first opened fire it caused a great stam- 
 pede among the Boers, for they little suspected the 
 existence of a gun of such long range. Some of the 
 besiegers had brought their wives and children and 
 had them comfortably encamped near their army, 
 but the appearance of the new Kimberley gun sud- 
 denly put an end to this happy family picnic. 
 
 When the siege first began the people of the town 
 continued in their daily duties as if nothing out of the 
 ordinary were taking place; business was carried on 
 and the mines were operated, for the shot and shells 
 from the Boer guns did very little damage inside the 
 fortifications. Finally from one cause or another, it 
 became necessary to close the mines, and then arose 
 the question about the thousands of unemployed. Mr. 
 Cecil Rhodes, who was living in Kimberley at the 
 time and who was the amalgamator of all the diamond 
 mining companies of South Africa, came to the res- 
 cue and provided work for the twenty thousand idle 
 workmen, in the construction of the wonderful "Siege 
 Avenue," a broad street several miles long. 
 
76 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 Towards the end of the siege provisions were be- 
 coming scarcer every day and no place seemed safe 
 from the shells sent in by the Boers, who had received 
 reinforcements and fresh ammunition. One after- 
 noon Mr. Labram, of "Long Cecil" fame, was killed 
 by the bursting of a shell fired into his room. Other 
 similar fatalities induced Mr. Rhodes to oifer the 
 women and children shelter in the mines. Accord- 
 ingly 3,000 women and children were lowered into 
 the mines, where they were carefully attended for 
 five days, when the siege was raised. Relief came 
 none too soon ; horse flesh had been the only meat for 
 more than a month, and the population of 45,000, 
 white and colored," were in a state of semi-starvation. 
 Many people died, especially babies and small chil- 
 dren, the total number being about 1,700. There 
 had at no tirrie been any thought of surrender on 
 the part of the besieged, but a glad welcome was 
 given to General French's cavalry when it arrived 
 on the scene of action and ended the siege, February 
 15, 1900. 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 
 
 Did you ever plan to sail through the Northwest 
 Passage; or to visit the sacred city of Thibet, or to 
 row on the Zambesi? Such names look very well in 
 a geography, but until recently they seemed places 
 to read about — not to visit. 
 
 It is fifty years since the great explorer, Living- 
 stone, first saw the falls to which he gave the name of 
 his queen — Victoria. The account of his journey 
 through the jungles of Africa seems as wonderful, 
 and as impossible for us, as a voyage of Sinbad the 
 Sailor. That was the road for a hero — the Zambesi 
 Express is better for us. Three days from the time 
 we leave Kimberley the guard promises us we shall 
 hear the roar of falling waters, though we must travel 
 five hours more before we actually see the "water that 
 smokes" — the native name for Victoria Falls. 
 
 Although the guide book says that between Kim- 
 berley and Victoria Falls, a distance of about a thous- 
 and miles, there is very little to see, the little we do see 
 is of great interest. The farther we go from civiliza- 
 tion the better acquainted do we become with the na- 
 tive and his way of living. We do not regret that our 
 train hurries us past the scene of war — ^Mafeking, 
 and it would not hold our attention were it not for 
 the remembrance of its famous seven months' siege by 
 the Boers. A little beyond Mafeking we enter Be- 
 
 77 
 
78 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 chuanaland (Betch-u-an-a-land) Protectorate. A 
 protectorate is a province ruled over by native chiefs 
 
 NATIVE HUT 
 
 under the supervision and protection of the British. 
 The southern part of Bechuanaland lies in the Kala- 
 hari desert and our way lies along the eastern border 
 
FEOM KIMBEllLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 79 
 
 of this desert. Names like Tigerkloof and Crocodile 
 Pools tell us what we might have seen had we come 
 before the railroad. 
 
 Bechuanaland is divided among several great Kafir 
 chiefs, the most important being Bathwen (Bat- 
 wing) , Sebele and Khama. The first part of our jour- 
 ney lies through Bathwen's territory. Bathwen has 
 seven tribes subject to him. He has accepted Chris- 
 tianity and was properly married to his wife, who is a 
 woman of strong character. He lives in a good Euro- 
 pean house, suitably furnished. In one room are 
 seven or eight clocks, gifts of Europeans. Bathwen 
 once visited Cape Town and on his return he gave a 
 lecture to his young people. He told the native chil- 
 dren of the wonders of the big town of the white 
 people, the sea and the great ships. To his mission- 
 aries he said: 
 
 "Formerly, when you, the missionaries, used to ex- 
 plain the white man's wonders to us, we did not un- 
 derstand what you told us very well. Now that we 
 have seen these marvels with our own eyes, during 
 our visit last moon to the Cape, we can understand a 
 good deal of what you used to tell us. We thought 
 that we failed to comprehend because you did not 
 know our language well enough. But now we, mas- 
 ters of the language, find that we can not make our 
 fellows and friends who have not seen them under- 
 stand these wonderful sights, although we explain 
 them as clearly as possible. So we know that it was 
 
80 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 not your fault that we did not understand your ex- 
 planations long ago. These things must be seen to 
 be understood." 
 
 The membership of the native Christian Church 
 under Bathwen is a thousand, with a large number of 
 
 TYPICAL NATIVE HUTS 
 
 native preachers whose labors are earnest and suc- 
 cessful. Such heathen customs as polygamy, paying 
 for wives with cattle, rain-making, and witchcraft, 
 have all been swept away by Christian influence. 
 
 The province adjoining Bathwen's is ruled over by 
 a chief who is anything but a Christian — Sebele re- 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 
 
 81 
 
 ( 
 
 
 ■ " 1 
 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
 
 
 ^.;f^^^^[ 
 
 i»r^ 
 
 
 
 ^m 
 
 -/--*Si;-. ^> 
 
 a» ■ , -^ 
 
 --•*;; ■^iai^Kj*^'-"^'""'' 
 
 wajhatiltt^ 
 
 : Ji':.^-- . _ ^ -^- . i_ 
 
 A KAFIR TOWN 
 
 mains a heathen in spite of his regular attendance at 
 church. One of his faihngs is his fondness for beer. 
 The beer made by these natives is of two kinds — 
 the corn beer, which is somewhat thick, and the beer 
 made of honey, a more intoxicating drink. The beer 
 is usually served in a large earthenware pot or cala- 
 bash, the drinkers sitting around it, each one helping 
 himself with a small ladle made also of calabash. A 
 calabash is a large gourd often used as a food utensil 
 by both whites and natives. Those who have formed 
 the habit of intemperance are not satisfied with na- 
 tive beer, and they barter away their oxen, sheep. 
 
82 SOUTH AFSICA TODAY 
 
 goats, horses, wagons, in fact all that they have, in 
 order to get the white man's brandy, which Europeans 
 sell to them, in spite of prohibitive laws. 
 
 The native African knows many fairy tales which 
 he loves to relate. He enjoys nothing better than to 
 have a number of hearers sitting around a fire on a 
 pitch-dark night, to whom he wiU tell tales of folk- 
 lore far into the night. Since Scheie is noted as a 
 story-teller, we will join his audience for an evening's 
 entertainment. An interpreter is necessary, for the 
 chief does not speak English. After we have listened 
 attentively to dozens of tales, we are struck with their 
 great resemblance to our B'rer Rabbit stories, which 
 are indeed an echo from the wilds of Central Africa. 
 Here is one as it was told to us. 
 
 THE HARE AND THE LION 
 
 Once upon a time a hare was compelled to live with 
 a lion for some time. The lion made the poor little 
 hare supply him with food, not an easy task. The 
 lion would not leave the hare, for he thought her very 
 wise and clever. Every day the lion said to his little 
 companion: "Set food before me, for I am hungry, 
 or else I shall eat you up!" The hare answered as 
 meekly as possible: "All right; I wiU soon get you 
 plenty of food. Come with me!" So away the pair 
 went. The hare told the lion to keep out of sight 
 while she went on ahead. Then she assembled all the 
 wild creatures, saying she wished to make them a 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 83 
 
 speech. She called them together in a large enclos- 
 ure formed of thorn-bushes. While they were won- 
 dering what the hare was going to say, the lion sprang 
 into their midst and had a gi-eat feast on antelopes 
 and other game, as the hare had planned he should do. 
 Day after day the hare carried out this same plan, but 
 in the end became tired of her work, for the lion was 
 a most ungrateful beast. Then the hare decided to 
 make an end of the lion, but it took all her wisdom to 
 find a way, for her companion was always at her side. 
 However, one day the hare invited the lion to see her 
 little house which she had built. When they got there 
 the hare sprang upon the roof. The lion wished to do 
 the same but he could not, so the great strong fellow 
 had to ask his little weak companion to help him up. 
 "All right," said the wise little animal; "put up your 
 tail, that I may get hold of it to assist you." The lion 
 gladly did as he was told, for he had great faith in 
 whatever the hare said or did. But this time the hare 
 did not help the lion — instead of pulling him up she 
 tied his tail fast to the roof of the house, then ran 
 away, leaving the lion hanging there till he died. So 
 the hare was never more troubled by the lion. 
 
 The chief reason for Scheie's not accepting Chris- 
 tianity is because it would necessitate his giving up 
 many of his favorite pastimes. Both his neighbors, 
 Bathwen and Khama, are Christians and in their coun- 
 tries most of the heathen customs have been abolished. 
 
84 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 We will speak of some of the customs still existing 
 in Scheie's country. 
 
 The Boyale is a regiment of girls who must work 
 together for their chief at his command. About five 
 hundred girls, from fourteen to seventeen years of 
 age, enter the Boyale and are divided into bands of 
 twenty to fifty each, under the charge of a head 
 woman, carrying a terrible rod, whose thorny branches 
 are curled round at the end, making it a dreadful in- 
 strument of torture. The girls wear on their heads 
 fox-skin caps ; around their bodies are rmgs of reed 
 beads, — that is, reeds a few inches long, threaded like 
 an immense necklace. A large number of these are 
 loaded upon their bodies until the poor girls can 
 scarcely get their arms over them to do anything. Be- 
 sides these, a reed skirt is worn, the reeds hanging 
 down to their knees. Then the girls make themselves 
 more hideous by covering their faces with ocher. The 
 girls are taught heathen chants and dances. If they 
 do not sing and dance properly the women in charge 
 strike their bare shoulders, often causing them to 
 bleed. After having thus been instructed all day, the 
 girls must carry firewood, and then sing and dance all 
 night. Those who can afford it pay others to dance 
 for them. This instruction lasts a fortnight or so, 
 at the end of which time each girl has an incision 
 made in her side, serving as a Boyale certificate. 
 While the girls are taking this training, boys of the 
 same age are undergoing an equally odious training, 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 
 
 85 
 
 and after a fortnight or so they all join forces for one 
 night, making together one hideous carnival of hea- 
 thenism with their wild dances and chants. 
 
 When a native wishes to marry, he must buy his 
 wife, giving to her father in payment a certain num- 
 ber of oxen, say five, seven, nine, or, if a chief, even 
 fifty-one. Bogadi is the name for this sort of money. 
 An odd number of oxen is always given, for even 
 numbers are consid- 
 ered unlucky. In 
 case the wife is not 
 a good one, the hus- 
 band may claim the 
 return of the cattle. 
 On the other hand, if 
 the husband is un- 
 kind to his wife, she 
 may feel free to re- 
 turn to her home be- 
 cause of the Bogadi in her father's possession. 
 
 Love-charms are used among these people even to- 
 day. If a girl's parents wish her to marry a certain 
 young man, the father goes to the witchdoctor for a 
 potion for this purpose. Having obtained it, he gives 
 it to his daughter, who in turn gives it to her lover 
 upon the first opportunity. When the young man 
 has drunk the draught, the whole town knows it, and 
 the wedding is talked of at once. 
 
 The witchdoctor is a most important character in 
 
 GROUP OF NATIVES 
 
86 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 savage tribes. There are witchdoctors for various of- 
 fices, such as heahng the sick, making rain, finding 
 lost articles and so on. It is useless to try to convince 
 the natives that these diviners are imposters. In cases 
 of illness the doctor often says that the pain is caused 
 by a lizard, frog, beetle or other creature, and. by a 
 sleight-of-hand trick he produces the creature which 
 has caused the trouble. If the patient does not rap- 
 idly recover, he is considered by his friends to be 
 showing great ingratitude to his doctor. Oftentimes 
 English and Dutch farmers consult witchdoctors 
 when they have lost any of their cattle, and usually 
 the animal is found, for the Kafir has a well devel- 
 oped sense of sight, and once having seen an animal 
 he can recognize it again long afterwards. The doc- 
 tors often divine by means of the "Praying Mantis," 
 as our children call the little insect which the Afri- 
 cander children call the "Hottentot god." All who 
 have ever watched a mantis have noticed how he stops 
 and seems to point with his head, some imagining the 
 attitude to be that of prayer, whence its American 
 name. The witchdoctor makes good use of this in- 
 sect when he wishes to find out in which direction the 
 stolen or strayed ox has gone. 
 
 When a person is eaten up by some wild animal, the 
 witchdoctor is called in to "smell out" the sorcerer. 
 Death by such means is believed to be caused by sor- 
 cery — the natives believe that a sorcerer can change 
 himself at will into a crocodile, lion, or other animal, 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 87 
 
 and after devouring a victim can return to his orig- 
 inal form. The "smelling out" process begins with 
 a wild dance performed by the diviner, at intervals 
 during which he smells of various members in his 
 audience. When the guilty one is found, the doctor 
 springs over his head and pronounces him guilty, 
 whereupon all the others immediately flee from the 
 culprit as if he were the evil one. However, before 
 the punishment is settled upon, the guilty one has a 
 trial by ordeal, in which he may or may not be found 
 guilty. There are many kinds of such trials, but we 
 will speak of only one, the ordeal by boiling water. 
 This ordeal is similar to that used in Europe not very 
 long ago. A large beer-pot, made of native pottery, 
 is filled with water and set over a fire. Some charms 
 and herbs are put in, and when the water boils furi- 
 ously the diviner drops in a pebble. The suspected 
 one is then made to pick out the pebble with his hand. 
 If he should do this without scalding his handj he is 
 innocent. It is needless to say, he never escapes. 
 
 The cow is all important to the Kafir, for with it 
 he can buy anything from a wife to a bag of corn in 
 time of drought. The wealth of a tribe is reckoned 
 in cattle — they have been the means of exchange 
 among the South African natives for centuries. The 
 cow has come to be regarded as almost sacred. As 
 soon as a child is born, a necklace with a few hairs 
 from a cow's tail woven into it is put around its neck 
 as a good luck charm. 
 
88 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 The women, who are regarded as inferior to the 
 men, have few privileges. One of their many prohi- 
 bitions is that they may not enter the cattle kraal, nor 
 are they allowed to touch the milk sacs or gourds. 
 Life is more endurable for the women in Khama's 
 country, in fact in all countries touched by the influ- 
 ence of Christianity. 
 
 Originally the tribe ruled over by Khama had its 
 capital at Shoshong. But in 1889 Khama decided to 
 abandon the old site, and move northward one hun- 
 dred miles to a spot which he called Palapye {Pa-lop - 
 she). The chief reason for moving was the scarcity 
 of water ; then, too, Khama realized that the sanitary 
 
 conditions of the old 
 could be 
 
 town 
 proved 
 new town. Accord- 
 ingly Palapye was 
 carefully laid out, 
 ample space being 
 given to each family. 
 
 im- 
 upon in a 
 
 GROUP OF PICCANINNIES 
 
 In less ;than three 
 months 20,000 na- 
 tives and one family 
 of missionaries had moved all their worldly posses- 
 sions and were living in their new homes. 
 
 In less than ten years' time the railway was pushed 
 up through Bechuanaland, too near the new capital to 
 suit Khama. The rapid march of civilization is not 
 
FROM KIMBEULEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 89 
 
 always beneficial to the natives. Khama realized this, 
 for he knew that strong drinks would be imported, 
 and this evil he hoped to avoid. Consequently he felt 
 obliged to move his capital once again, this time to 
 Mahalapye {Mak-a-lop-she) . 
 
 Khama is perhaps the most beloved of all the chiefs, 
 and he certainly has the best ruled country. His peo- 
 ple are sober, well-disposed and contented. The men, 
 although trained as warriors, in case fighting should 
 ever be necessary, do not consider themselves mere 
 fighting men and let the women do all the work, as is 
 the savage custom. 
 
 In 1895 the three great Bechuana chiefs visited 
 Great Britain. They went over the sea to present a 
 petition to Parliament. Since the requests were fairly 
 reasonable they were nearly all granted. Their one 
 supreme wish while in England was to see the "great 
 white queen," as the natives called Queen Victoria. 
 In expressing their fears lest they should not be al- 
 lowed to see Her Majesty, they said: "Many of our 
 ignorant people tell us that they do not believe that 
 such a person as the great Queen exists. If we, their 
 own Chiefs, return home saying we have not seen Her 
 Majesty, what will they say? They will say that they 
 spoke the truth when they said that there was no 
 Queen in England. So we fear to return to our own 
 land unless we can first see the Queen." 
 
 While in Great Britain the three Chiefs traveled 
 about and saw all the wonderful sights of the coun- 
 
90 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 try. Their one great wish was realized — ^they saw 
 Queen Victoria and had an audience with her. At 
 this meeting the Queen spoke these kind and gener- 
 ous words to the Chiefs : "I am glad to see the Chiefs 
 and to know that they love my rule. I confirm the 
 settlement of their case which my Minister has made. 
 I approve of the provisions excluding intoxicating 
 liquors from their country, for I have strong feelings 
 on the subject. The Chiefs must help my Minister 
 and my High Commissioner in securing this object. 
 I thank them for the presents which they have made 
 to me, and I wish for their happiness, and that of 
 their people." 
 
 The presents referred to were beautiful karosses, 
 that is, sleeveless jackets (worn by South African 
 natives), made of beautiful skins of leopards and 
 silver jackals. As parting gifts, Queen Victoria 
 gave each Chief a beautifully bound New Testament 
 in his native Sechwana language, her own portrait, 
 and an Indian shawl, the last being for their wives. 
 
 In Bechuanaland the chief is no longer an absolute 
 prince ; he must submit to the restraints imposed upon 
 him by the government, or by the dictates of a con- 
 science awakened by the teachings of Christianity. 
 
 When we cross the border line into Rhodesia we 
 find the scattered remnants of a tribe too fierce to 
 recognize restraint. The Matabele, ruled over by the 
 cruel Lobengula, refused to keep faith with the 
 whites, and were guilty of every kind of barbarity 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 91 
 
 toward the allies of the British, the Mashonas. The 
 whites were forced to realize that no life was safe in 
 the territory of the Matabele, and the war was waged 
 which terminated in 1894 in the death of Lobengula, 
 the submission of his tribe, and the annexation of 
 750,000 square miles to British territory — an area sur- 
 passing that of France, Germany, Austria and Italy. 
 At this time Rhodesia took a new name and a new 
 lease of life. Rhodesia is ruled by a chartered com- 
 pany who have an undertaking similar to that of the 
 old East India Company, with all its responsibilities 
 but without its great profits. 
 
 Bulawayo, formerly the point from which the Mat- 
 abele started on their raids, is now the capital of 
 Rhodesia. It is one of the newest of South Africa's 
 many new towns. The fine streets and driveways, 
 the handsome office buildings, together with the small 
 and scattered population, remind one of a "boom" 
 town in the western states. One who believes in the 
 country will probably tell you that it is built with 
 room to grow, and that its founder planned for the 
 great future which its gold mines insure. 
 
 Rickshaws met us at the station, less picturesque 
 than we find them elsewhere. The boys do not seem 
 to take as much pride in their costumes and do not 
 wear the gay tunic and the head-dress of horns which 
 we will see later in Johannesburg. A blinding dust 
 storm greets us and the only shade is from the lonely 
 blue gums which throw uncertain shadows as they 
 
92 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 shudder before the hot breath of the winds. We pass 
 through the Malay and Kafir districts to the center 
 of the town, where the handsome hotels and govern- 
 ment buildings would do credit to a town of ten times 
 the population of Bulawayo, which claims only 7,000 
 people. Where the four great crossroads meet is a statue 
 of Rhodes — the maker of Rhodesia in so far as one 
 man can develop a country and establish faith in it. 
 
 A drive of a few miles brings us to the old indaba 
 tree under which Lobengula formerly dispensed his 
 so-called justice. Near the tree is the picturesque 
 Government House. Everywhere we see the old giv- 
 ing place to the new. In the street we pass the trap 
 of the smart English tourist, then walking with 
 swinging gait the half -clad native. When we go far- 
 ther to the north or when we get into territory where 
 the Dutch have ruled, the native does not seem to ques- 
 tion taking a subordinate place and does not expect 
 to walk on the sidewalk. 
 
 We find we must linger two days at Bulawayo in 
 order to see two famous monuments — one modern, 
 the other dating from Old Testament times. 
 
 A short train journey takes us to the Matopo hills. 
 A marble slab on a solitary grave reads, "Here lies 
 the body of John Cecil Rhodes." This was where he 
 wished to be buried — and the pilgrim to his grave sees 
 from the hills what he called "The World's View." 
 It is a view that reminds one of his life in its loneliness 
 and might, and its simplicity and greatness. 
 
FROM KIMBiEREEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 
 
 93 
 
 Not far from the grave is the Shangani monument 
 erected to the memory of Major Wilson and his 
 party. An American scout, Mr, Burnham, survived 
 to tell the story 
 which Rider 
 Haggard has 
 thrillingly re- 
 told. The scout 
 left the little 
 party to get re- 
 inforcements, 
 which arrived 
 too late. Every 
 school boy in 
 Africa learns in 
 his reader about 
 "Major Wil- 
 son's last 
 stand." The 
 Matabele sur- 
 rounded the 
 small band of 
 
 twenty to unveiling of RHODES' statue — IQOS 
 
 take flight 
 
 would mean to leave their wounded comrades. They 
 held out as long as the ammunition lasted and died 
 in a hand to hand conflict in an unequal fight against 
 thousands. On the four great bronze tablets that com- 
 memorate the deed, the likenesses of the heroes have 
 
94 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 been strikingly portrayed. These monuments have 
 been made as strong and enduring as man can devise, 
 but our next day at the Khami ruins reminds us that 
 nothing is proof against time. 
 
 A drive of twelve miles from Bulawayo takes us to 
 Khami. Eleven great ruins and many smaller ones 
 give evidence of a buried city. Farther into the heart 
 
 GUARD OF HONOR AT RHODES GRAVE 
 
 of Rhodesia are the Zimbabwe ruins — larger and 
 more imposing than Khami but very similar in design, 
 and made intricate with herring bone and lattice 
 stones. Both ruins are supposed to belong to the 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 95 
 
 same period — ^a period long before Stonehenge or the 
 Coliseum, It is supposed that the Phenicians built 
 their temples and smelted their gold here, and that 
 the mines of Rhodesia were a source of wealth to the 
 Queen of Sheba. Very little excavating has been 
 done about the ruins, but gold ornaments and glass 
 trinkets have been found. The surrounding country 
 shows the presence of gold bearing reefs, and the 
 wealth from these mines is thought to be the gold of 
 Ophir, which the ships of Solomon and Hiram, King 
 of Tyre, and others brought to Jerusalem about 1000 
 B. C. 
 
 The Baobab tree testifies to the age of the Rho- 
 desian ruins. This tree, called by the natives the sour 
 gourd or Cream of Tartar tree, is like an immense 
 champagne bottle. The trunk is from twenty to 
 thirty feet in diameter and it is often known to attain 
 the age of a thousand years. The fruit is a brown 
 gourd, suspended from a long cord-like stem some- 
 times two feet in length. Inside is a white powder, 
 with the taste and properties of cream of tartar. 
 The Baobab trees flourishing among the Rhodesian 
 ruins mean that a city has been deserted, the fine 
 ground has sifted in deep enough to make a soil and 
 after that the Baobab has grown unmolested for a 
 thousand years. At the Bulawayo museum we are 
 interested in a collection of relics from this old, old 
 civilization. 
 
 The tpwns are fewer and fewer as we go north, but 
 
96 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 
 "; 
 
 
 . - %#- 
 
 
 ^-#-^! 
 
 M 
 
 ^^I^^l 
 
 1 
 
 IHHMiHH 
 
 1 
 
 i^„..:..." = -^>v. ... . .^M 
 
 BAOBAB TREE 
 
 each little station has its own features of interest if 
 we are willing to be interested. During a stop for 
 dinner a friendly tame ostrich parades the station, 
 
 thrusting his head in 
 at the open windows 
 and eating the food 
 we offer him. Up 
 and down he saunt- 
 ers, as though he, too. 
 were a tourist. 
 
 At every stopping 
 place the natives 
 swarm around the 
 car, eagerly offering 
 for sale little wooden animals, crude in their carving 
 but sometimes very lifelike. The bottles of milk they 
 recommend are no temptation, for we fear the wares 
 may be no cleaner than the seller. When we lean 
 out of the window we are greeted by a swarm of beg- 
 gars, hungry and half-clothed, but so numerous that 
 it seems hopeless to try to feed them. Sometimes a 
 mother with a baby on her back, or a roguish begging 
 little boy gets the last biscuit from our tea box. 
 
 At Wankie there is a new town that has grown up 
 around the recently discovered coal mines. Back from 
 the village of the white men we see the kraals of the 
 natives, though usually the larger settlements are far 
 from the stations. 
 
 The journey of a day and a night from Bulawayo 
 
FROM KIMBEKLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 97 
 
 brings us to what was in 1905 the terminus of the 
 Cape to Cairo railroad — ^the bridge across the narrow 
 chasm of the Zambesi. It was Cecil Rhodes who pro- 
 jected the railroad which is to connect the Mediter- 
 ranean with the Cape, Of the 5,700 miles, 1,631 have 
 been finished from the southern end and 1,400 follow 
 the Nile to Khartum, so more than half the distance 
 has been bridged. 
 
 We know that we are nearing the Falls, and every 
 one is, at the windows or on the car platforms to listen 
 for the sound of falling waters which we are told can 
 be heard in the stillness at a distance of twenty miles. 
 Finally the guard calls, "Victoria Falls Station," and 
 we rejoice that we have arrived in time to have our 
 first glimpse of the river before dusk. 
 
 A short walk brings us to the rambling hotel which 
 is soon to give place to a more pretentious one. On 
 the broad veranda tea is served. The Falls are not in 
 view from the hotel, but we see a great promontory 
 with the river twisting like a serpent around its base 
 and high across the canyon the suspended bridge is 
 like a fairy arch. 
 
 The two most wonderful feats of engineering in 
 the world were completed on the same day in April, 
 1905, — the Simplon tunnel, and the highest bridge in 
 the world, spanning the Zambesi. It took the great- 
 est skill in engineering to fling this steel network 
 across the deep gorge of the river. At first a cord was 
 shot across by means of a rocket — this drew a thicker 
 
98 SOUTH AFUICA TODAY 
 
 cord, then a rope, then a steel cable. On this was sus- 
 pended a swinging cage we sometimes call the "Fly- 
 ing Dutchman," which bore across the worlonen and 
 their tools, and before the bridge was finished a thou- 
 sand tons of steel, A great derrick swinging far 
 across the river helped Avith the work. An electric 
 plant was erected near the Falls to help in the con- 
 struction. The bridge is 420 feet high and 650 feet 
 long. The building continued from either side until 
 the last bolt was riveted in April ; the bridge was not 
 formally opened for traffic until September 12, 1905, 
 when the British Association for the Advancement of 
 Science visited Victoria Falls during their tour of 
 South Africa. President Darwin announced that the 
 bridge was opened for the commerce of the world and 
 the car passed over bearing the Union Jack. 
 
 After tea on the hotel veranda we wander down to 
 the bridge to get the first view of the falling water. 
 The bridge is no longer a cobweb arch at nearer view, 
 but a network of strong steel bars. The bridge does 
 not afford the best view of the Falls, but two great 
 cascades can be seen — feathery clouds of spray 
 against a gray wall of stone, half covered with soft 
 green velvety moss. 
 
 The Zambesi above the Falls is two miles wide, and 
 the precipice over which it falls over a mile in width, 
 yet the narrow stream that flows beneath the bridge is 
 only a few hundred feet in width. We look down 
 upon its surface, quiet and peaceful, and it seems like 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 99 
 
 a little meadow brook, yet man has not been able to 
 fathom its depth. Geologists have said that the water 
 must find an exit through an underground passage, 
 but it is not impossible that the very deep narrow 
 channel has confined the waters of this great river. 
 The old theory of earthquakes and the resulting fis- 
 sures causing the formation at the Falls is no longer 
 accepted. 
 
 The Victoria Falls have had the same history as 
 Niagara and are the result of erosion. Speaking in 
 round numbers, Victoria Falls are twice the width and 
 twice the height of Niagara Falls, and four times the 
 volume of water passes over them as over Niagara. 
 
 We leave the bridge and follow the river bank, and 
 come upon another great sheet of falling water. 
 Every step presents a new view, and in our eagerness 
 to see it all we find we are in the midst of a rain storm. 
 Water is dripping everywhere in the palm grove into 
 which we have made our way. This, then, is the "Rain 
 Forest," where showers are never ceasing. We go 
 back to the hotel to prepare ourselves to penetrate its 
 watery depths. 
 
 Fortune favors us, for we have timed our journey 
 for the full moon, and we shall see the lunar rainbow. 
 We venture into the Rain Forest from the other side 
 and come upon a foaming mass of water, "The 
 Devil's Cataract." Naming the greater falls from 
 west to east, beyond the Devil's Cataract is the Main 
 Fall, then the Rainbow Fall, and the Eastern Cat- 
 
100 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 aract. The mile of falling water includes several 
 distinct larger cataracts owing to the islands which 
 break the Falls at the .verge . We take the path, 
 through the Rain Forest with the soft shower. Every 
 opening in the trees causes us to exclaim in wonder. 
 Before us are the great sheets of the Main Falls — a 
 
 VICTORIA FALLS — ZAMBESI — ONE MILE WIDE, FOUR HUNDRED FEET OF FALL 
 
 gleaming mass of foam, white and billowy in the 
 moonlight. We force our way through the jungle, 
 cling to the monkey ropes, and see over the edge an 
 arch of opal — the lunar rainbow. 
 
 It would be a perilous feat to attempt to row down 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 
 
 101 
 
 the Niagara River and try to look over the precipice 
 at the falling water, but this is possible on the Zam- 
 besi. Our second day at the Falls we cross the bridge, 
 and the road brings us to a point on the river above 
 the cataract where the boats of the natives are 
 moored. The canoes glide noiselessly to the island, 
 the black oarsmen standing like glistening statues 
 in the prow. The large 
 island on the edge of 
 the Falls has been 
 given the discoverer's 
 name. Livingstone 
 discovered the Falls 
 from above. The na 
 tive boatmen rowed 
 him down the river to- 
 ward the "water that 
 smokes" to an island on 
 the very verge — a ven- 
 ture that the swift current of Niagara makes impos- 
 sible. In the center of Livingstone Island is a tree 
 which the authorities have attempteH to preserve, 
 because on it the initials of the great explorer are 
 still faintly discernible. 
 
 At the very verge of the Island we lie on the jut- 
 ting rocks and watch the river make its mad leap 
 into the frenzied whirlpools below — a narrow gash, 
 a hundred yards across and the length of the Falls, 
 separates Livingstone Island from the Rain Forest. 
 
 NATIVES ON THE ZAMBESI 
 
102 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 Within this the waters eddy and foam — ^the spot 
 where the struggle is fiercest has been named the 
 "Boihng Pot." We are in the midst of sun-illum- 
 ined spray — below us the most glorious rainbow^ 
 oscillate alone or in dancing pairs. 
 
 Washed by the spray a new Gladiolus has been 
 found which was appropriately named "Maid of the 
 Mist." As an adaptation to its environment, its up- 
 per petal forms a pent-house to protect the stamens 
 and pistil from the ceaseless downpour. To culti- 
 
 BAROTSE CANOE BOYS DRILLING 
 
 vate it successfully in conservatories, constant spray- 
 ing is necessary. 
 
 We plan a quiet row on the Zambesi for our last 
 day at the Falls. With our lunch we make an early 
 
PROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 103 
 
 Gtart and drive to the landing place, where a little 
 gasoline launch awaits us. All morning we make our 
 way up stream on the broad still waters of the river. 
 Tall cocoanut trees, interlaced "Monkey Ropes" (Li- 
 anes) and pahns of every description border the river. 
 Occasionally we see through the trees the thatched 
 roofs of Kafir huts, some high on poles like the nests 
 of great birds. We watch for hippopotami or croco- 
 diles in vain — traffic on the river has made the ani- 
 mals wary. The river is dotted with islands, and our 
 boatman points out two of the larger ones as Princess 
 Christian and Princess Victoria, named for the first 
 two members of the royal family who visited the 
 river. 
 
 At the village of Livingstone our boat makes a 
 stop and we go ashore. Under the scattered trees 
 on the sun-baked plain, the half -clad natives are 
 dreaming away the hot morning, while a musically 
 inclined companion plays a monotonous chant on an 
 instrument made from a tortoise shell with stretched 
 strings; an old tin imbedded in the earth is the sound- 
 ing board. Some boys bent on profit follow us with 
 "lucky beans" and "mahogany" beans for sale. The 
 lucky bean is a small red seed tipped with black — hard 
 enough to be set in gold and serve for years as a 
 jewel. The "mahogany" bean is larger — ^black en- 
 livened by a scarlet arillus. 
 
 Everywhere Livingstone has left a name and a 
 memory. The Barotsi, who, with their chief, Le- 
 
104 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 wanika, have for years held sway in this region, were 
 prepared to welcome the next missionaries, for they 
 argued since they were white they must be good like 
 Livingstone; and, indeed, they found confirma- 
 
 ZAMBESI PETS 
 
 tion for their trust in the hfe and work of the noble 
 French missionary, M. CoUiard, who for so many 
 years labored in their midst. 
 
 Though a great explorer, Livingstone was above 
 all a missionary. The tablet over his grave in the 
 floor of Westminster Abbey quotes his life prayer 
 that all men should unite to do away with the curse 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 
 
 105 
 
 of slavery. His wife, who shared his toil, rests in a 
 lonely grave not far from the Zambesi. 
 
 At Livingstone is King Lewanika's store. He is a 
 fairly enlightened chief who prides himself on his 
 visit to England and his European clothes. Fine 
 karosses and handsome baskets tempt us. The bas-. 
 kets are not unlike those of the North American In- 
 dians and are water tight. They are used for por- 
 ridge bowls and for drinking cups. An attempt by 
 a buyer to reduce the quoted price met with the dig- 
 nified response, "This is, the King's store." The na- 
 tive does not appear anxious to make a sale, and he 
 would not defraud his chief, though two hundred 
 miles away at his capital in the interior. 
 
 All about us are the hills of a Lilliputian village 
 — the work of the white ant. Scientists have sug- 
 gested that this insect 
 takes the place of the 
 earthworm in pulver- 
 izing the soil. It is 
 certain that it pulver- 
 izes many things that 
 it should not. In the 
 morning your boots 
 may be without soles, 
 or your wooden trunk 
 
 may be scattered about your room in the form 
 of powder. A fallen log becomes in a few days a 
 shell of bark. 
 
 ICING LEWANIKA S CURIO STORE 
 
106 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 We find a glimpse of the larger animals of the 
 river is not altogether to be desired. While we are 
 picnicking on the bank we hear cries from the river 
 and see in the distance an overturned canoe- being 
 borne down the stream, and a native clinging to it for 
 
 SCHOOL OF HIPPOS 
 
 support and shouting for help. Our launch goes to 
 the rescue, and we are not sorry that the hippo has 
 chosen another boat than ours for a plaything. 
 
 The red sunset behind the cocoanut palms as we 
 drift down the stream is one of the most beautiful 
 pictures of our African pilgrimage. 
 
VICTORIA FALLS TO THE TRANSVAAL 
 
 The year 1835 saw the Great Trek (migration) of 
 the Boers from Cape Colony. They pushed norths- 
 ward for several reasons, chiefly because of discon- 
 tent under British rule. It was at this time that slav- 
 ery was abolished in all British possessions; although 
 a fairly good price was paid to the slave-owners, still 
 many of the Dutch farmers resented the interference 
 with what seemed to them their legal rights. The 
 British bought the slaves for about $250,000, and 
 thirty years later the United States settled the ques- 
 tion of slavery under far harder conditions. About 
 fifty Boer families under a leader packed their 
 worldly possessions into great ox- wagons, and started 
 out for unexplored regions. The late President Kru- 
 ger was one of the children who went on this expedi- 
 tion with his parents. These pioneers suffered un- 
 told hardships and many were murdered by the fierce 
 natives into whose country they went. Some finally 
 reached the present site of Johannesburg, while others 
 pushed on to the east, settling in what is now the 
 province of Natal. Those early settlers near Johan- 
 nesburg founded the beginning of the South African 
 Republic, which later had its capital at Pretoria, 
 named after its president, Mr. Pretorius. In the re- 
 cent war, this Transvaal Republic lost its power and 
 fell into the hands of the British. 
 
 107 
 
108 
 
 SOUTH AFEICA TODAY 
 
 Leaving now the beautiful Victoria Falls behind 
 us, we shall retrace our steps to Maf eking, about 800 
 miles south of the Zambesi. From here we will "trek" 
 across country to Johannesburg, nearly 200 miles. 
 
 TEEK WAGON 
 
 In "trekking" one travels mostly at night, so little is 
 seen of the country if one cares to sleep. Our wagon 
 is a typical trek-wagon, like that seen in the picture. 
 We have fourteen oxen, a driver and a voor-louper 
 (leader). Two kegs of water hang beneath the 
 wagon, a sail top (tent) protects us from the sun, and 
 a mattress on the bottom serves as a bed. Our food 
 
VICTOKIA FALLS TO THE TRANSVAAL 109 
 
 and cooking utensils are stored away in boxes. We 
 start off at sundown, and travel leisurely till mid- 
 night, when we stop for an hour's rest. Then on we 
 go till six in the morning. We outspan the oxen near 
 a small stream, where there are a few trees offering us 
 welcome shade, and breakfast preparations are begun. 
 The Kafir boy builds the fire, and boils the water, and 
 very soon we have a good breakfast. The whole day 
 is spent at this place, for it is not comfortable to 
 travel for hours along a sunny road. By sundown, 
 oxen and travelers are both sufficiently rested to con- 
 tinue the trekking — thus we go on for four or five 
 days. Our trekking recalls the five and seven miles 
 long processions of refugees during the war. We 
 sleep very comfortably at night, for the road is good, 
 having been much used in the past twenty-five years. 
 On our journey from Maf eking we pass several small 
 .villages, otherwise there is little to see. 
 
 JOHANNESBURG 
 
 In the distance we see Johannesburg ; we marvel at 
 this wondrous city which has sprung into existence as 
 by magic, for in less than twenty years the popula- 
 tion has increased to 84,000. What caused this rapid 
 and sudden growth, in a town which began with only 
 3,000 people in 1887? Gold was discovered on the 
 site of the present city, and the news of it caused peo- 
 ple to flock there from all corners of the world. As 
 we walk along the streets, we are struck with a 
 
no 
 
 SOUTH AJ^RICA TODAY 
 
 strange fact, that is, the absence in general of M'^omen 
 and elderly men. This is readily accounted for when 
 we consider the difficulties in the way of traveling, for 
 the railway reached Johannesburg only a few years 
 ago. The young men of the world, fired with the 
 gold fever, left their homes and rushed to the Trans- 
 
 ELOFF STREET, JOHANNESBURG 
 
 vaal. Many made their fortunes and reiurned with 
 them to their native homes. On the other hand, a 
 large number of people have remained in the city, 
 where they have built beautiful residences. 
 
 Johannesburg is pre-eminently a city of wealth, 
 which we realize more and more as we walk leisurely 
 
VICTORIA FALLS TO THE TEANSVAAL 
 
 111 
 
 along the streets. The shop windows are as attractive 
 as those of Paris. We stop to admire the jewelers' 
 displays of beautiful and expensive wares. Every- 
 where are signs of great wealth, in the handsome 
 shops, in the well-dressed people on the street — indeed 
 it is said that more money is made and lost in one day 
 in Johannesburg than in any other city in the world. 
 There is much gambling on the Stock Exchange, to 
 say nothing of the money won and lost in social 
 games. Johannesburg boasts of several theatres and 
 many club houses, and 
 society life in that city, 
 is the most fashion- 
 able in all South Af- 
 rica. Ladies dressed 
 in the latest Parisian 
 gowns drive by in ele- 
 gant carriages drawn 
 by most beautiful 
 horses, and motor cars 
 
 without number race past with great speed. To 
 us the rickshaws (short for "jinrickshas") are the 
 oddest kind of conveyance. A light two-wheeled cart 
 drawn by a colored boy, clad in unique attire, a 
 pair of horns on his head making him look like a 
 satyr. The small horse-car line looks out of place in 
 this flourishing modern city, and we are glad to know 
 that an electric tram system is already nearing com- 
 pletion. The massive stone buildings eight and ten 
 
 RICKSHAW BOYS 
 
112 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 stories high are strikingly American in architecture. 
 This is not strange, for there is a large colony of 
 Americans in the city; many of the highest positions 
 in the mines, not only in Johannesburg, but 
 throughout South Africa, are held by Americans. 
 Four daily papers and several weeklies supply local 
 and foreign news to the people. Wages are high, a 
 baker can earn $25 a week, while plumbers and stone- 
 masons receive $35. Everything is correspondingly 
 expensive, the least fare on the tram being a sixpence 
 (twelve cents) . House rents are higher in proportion 
 than in New York, for modern conveniences are not 
 found in every house. Fresh eggs (by the way many 
 eggs are imported from Ireland) sell usually from 75 
 cents to $1.00 a dozen. 
 
 Johannesburg has an elevation of 5,655 feet, that 
 is more than a mile above sea-level; this gives a very 
 bracing atmosphere and a delightful climate. In one 
 year recently the total fall of rain was thirty inches, 
 all of which fell in 187 hours; the rain usually comes 
 down in heavy thunder-showers which last but a short 
 time. In the warmest weather the wealthiest people 
 of this dtj take their families to the seashore, travel- 
 ing from 300 to 400 miles to the nearest seaport. 
 
 We spend several days driving about the many 
 pretty suburbs, where the better class of people have 
 built very nice residences. Trees have been planted 
 along many streets, but as yet they afford little shade. 
 An American friend offers to take us for a day's out- 
 
VICTORIA FALLS TO THE TRANSVAAL 
 
 113 
 
 ing to Pretoria, the Transvaal capital, twenty-five 
 miles away. 
 
 PRETORIA 
 
 The distance is soon covered, for we are spinning 
 along in a fine motor-car, going as fast as we please. 
 If there are any laws against scorching no one heeds 
 them, and everybody drives a motor-car or rides a 
 
 PREMIER DIAMOND MINE HAULAGE 
 
 bicycle at high speed. Pretoria is a restful city of 
 rose-embowered homes, for 35,000 people. The first 
 railway train entered this city in 1895, although the 
 place was then about fifty years old. The chief indus- 
 try here is diamond mining, but having seen the work- 
 
114 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 ings of such mines in Kimberley, we shall not take 
 time to visit these. The diamond interest in the 
 Transvaal stands next in importance to the gold, and 
 the Preinier Diamond Mine is one of the wonders of 
 
 mssEN-pRETOHiA THE CULLINAN DIAMOND — TWO-THIRDS SIZE 
 
 modern discovery. The gold mines are centered at 
 Johannesburg, while diamonds are mined in Pretoria. 
 The site of the famous Premier Mine, twenty miles 
 from Pretoria, was in 1902 an untilled .field, but now 
 after four years it is a thriving center of industry. 
 The present manager of this mine obtained possession 
 of the land in an interesting manner. A farm, lying 
 near land which was believed to be diamondiferous, 
 was offered for sale for the preposterous price of 
 $280,000. Different people asked the farmer if they 
 
VICTORIA FALLS TO THE TRANSVAAL 115 
 
 might inspect the land before buying to see what were 
 the prospects of diamond soil being found there. But 
 to all entreaties the farmer replied: "No; take it or 
 leave it, and the price must be paid in hard cash." 
 Finally Mr. CuUinan determined to buy that farm on 
 speculation; he interested a number of friends in the 
 scheme and among them they raised $400,000, more 
 than enough to buy the farm. Within three years 
 after this investment the original $400,000 had been 
 more than doubled and even trebled. The value of 
 the average diamond is about $14.00 per carat. As 
 at the Kimberley mines, the finder of a diamond in 
 the rough receives a good reward. The world famous 
 diamond called the "CuUinan" diamond was found 
 by a workman, who dug the stone out of the rock 
 with a penknife. He received as his reward $10,000, 
 the value of the diamond being about $2,500,000. 
 
DURBAN 
 
 During the first years in South Africa the new- 
 comers try to keep up the Christmas traditions of the 
 mother country by preparing the steamed plum pud- 
 ding and eating it bravely in spite of the heat, for 
 you will remenlber that in the southern hemisphere 
 the seasons are reversed, and that their summer is in 
 December and their winter in July. Although the 
 candles have a way of melting before the day is done 
 there is an attempt to decorate the Christmas tree. 
 In time the people learn to accommodate their cele- 
 bration to the weather and a picnic at the beach is not 
 a bad substitute for the Yule log. The seaside re- 
 sorts are crowded on the great holidays — Christmas, 
 Boxing Day (the day after Christmas, when the ser- 
 vants expect freedom and a present or Christmas 
 box), New Year's, and the several bank holidays. 
 The cheap excursions planned by the Government 
 railways make it possible for the poorer people to 
 have an occasional glimpse of the sea. If you are 
 rich you go to the hotels or have your own summer 
 house — but there is no reason for staying at home if 
 you can not have these luxuries. The Africander 
 knows how to have a happy out-of-door summer with 
 a trek wagon and a tent. 
 
 After Chistmas all the talk is about the vacation 
 trip. Our friends in Johannesburg are going to take 
 
 116 
 
DURBAN 
 
 117 
 
 the shortest route to the sea, and we make the twenty- 
 four hours' trip with them to Durban. From our 
 great elevation of six thousand feet we go zigzagging 
 down to the coast — a switch-back railway makes the 
 descent possible. 
 
 The Province of Natal and its two chief cities of 
 Durban and Pietermaritzburg seem very different 
 from anything we have thus far seen. There is the 
 
 JINRICKSHAWS 
 
 luxuriant vegetation of the ti'opics, and the social 
 
 atmosphere is more decidedly English than elsewhere. 
 
 Durban is, in fact, one of the most English places 
 
 in South Africa, and it is certainly one of the most 
 
118 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 beautiful. Rickshaws meet us at the station and we 
 find in Natal they take the place of cabs almost en- 
 tirely. The fares are cheaper than in other places; 
 for about five cents we have a delightful ride from 
 
 
 L 1 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 WEST STREET, DURBAN 
 
 the station to the hotel, skimming along over the 
 broad, clean, well-paved streets. Competition is keen 
 among the rickshaw boys, and they seem to enjoy 
 earning their fees. But we learn the great exertion 
 tells on their health in time, and they die early of con- 
 sumption, although they are chiefly Zulus — the finest 
 native race in Africa. They add a most picturesque 
 element to the street life with their gay costumes — 
 
DURBAN 
 
 119 
 
 bright colored tunics, horns on their heads, and bells 
 on their heels. 
 
 When we enter the hotel dining room and see 
 what seem to us fifty Moorish princes .all in white 
 linen, with snowy turbans, ready to wait upon us, we 
 
 ZULUS AT DINNER 
 
 feel like the barber in the Arabian Nights, who was 
 ikioved into the king's palace while he slept and awoke 
 with a royal retinue ready to do his bidding. The 
 many villages and the great Indian temple speak of 
 the number of Malays, who find employment, also, 
 in the mines producing coal and minerals. 
 
 The residence portion of Durban is charming. 
 From a distance it is like a great jungle. Villas and 
 bungalows are set in the midst of gardens of rich 
 foliage. The land rises from the sea in wooded ter- 
 races and the people find refuge from the heat in this 
 
120 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 natural "hanging garden of Babylon." The finest 
 homes are oii the high terraces fronting the sea called 
 the Berea. Here there is a view of the land-locked 
 harbor below, which was until lately the "incurable 
 disease" of the country. 
 
 ENTRANCE TO DURBAN 
 
 A sand bar formed across the entrance to the har- 
 bor, over which flowed only two feet of water at low 
 tide. The genius of engineers and the wealth of the 
 Colony have been expended upon this problem. By 
 a system of dredging it is possible now for the great 
 weekly mail ships to pass through the narrow en- 
 trance between the long breakwater and the project- 
 
DURBAN 121 
 
 ing land, into the quiet harbor of Port Natal. Here 
 the mail boat terminates its voyage from England 
 after a run of 7,000 miles. 
 
 The resorts that surround the city are as pleasing 
 as their musical Zulu names — Umkomas, Amanzim- 
 toti, Umbogintwini. The native languages have for 
 many letters a clicking sound, which, like the Dutch 
 "g," is difficult to acquire unless one is taught in child- 
 hood. One can never be sure of pronunciation where 
 there is such a curious mixture of French, Dutch, 
 Zulu and English names. Pietermaritzburg, the 
 capital of Natal, was named from the two leaders 
 of the Boers who treked there in 1837. D'Urban was 
 an early English governor, and the name Natal was 
 given to the country by Vasco da Gama, because he 
 first saw the land on the day of Christ's nativity, in 
 the year 1497. 
 
 The tram (street car) service in Durban under 
 municipal ownership is unusually good. There are 
 stations between which one can ride for the small fare 
 of a penny. Instead of each shopkeeper having his 
 own carriers, deliveries from the stores are made by 
 tram. 
 
 There are some seventy thousand people in Dur- 
 ban, but like most of the commercial centers in South 
 Africa the city seems much larger. Here as else- 
 where there is time to enjoy life, and at eleven o'clock 
 and at four o'clock all business seems suspended, 
 and the tea-rooms are thronged. The docks 
 
122 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 are always a scene of activity, for this rich district 
 raises many products for exportation. The chief 
 wealth of Natal is in sugar, tea, cereals, live stock and 
 coal. 
 
 A voyage of 800 miles around the coast past the 
 Cape of Storms (which often does credit to the 
 name) and we are in Cape Town once more. Here 
 the steamer delays three days — four weeks more of 
 ocean travel await us before we see the shores of 
 America. 
 
 The American has the reputation of being the 
 "globe-trotter," but the Africander is a greater trav- 
 eler. Families of moderate means plan to go "home," 
 as they call England or Scotland, every five years, 
 and one frequently meets students from some Euro- 
 pean school who have come home to Africa to see 
 their parents during the two months' summer vaca- 
 tion — a distance as far as the journey from San 
 Francisco to London. To us this cruise half-way 
 round the world is a great achievement, to the trav- 
 eled, cosmopolitan Africander it is an everyday af- 
 fair. 
 
MISSIONS 
 
 A VISIT to South Africa is incomplete without some 
 acquaintance with missions and mission work. Far 
 to the north in Nyassa Land are the stations of the 
 Dutch Reformed Church. On the Zambesi the 
 French are at work among the Barotsi. There are 
 Enghsh, Scotch and American missionaries in nearly 
 every native settlement. 
 
 While our steamer delays several days in Table 
 Bay we shall have time to visit the oldest mission sta- 
 tion in Africa. At Gnadendal four generations have 
 felt the benefit of Christian teaching, and one may see 
 the result of missionary work among the African 
 natives. 
 
 In 1737 a Moravian, George Schmidt, wished to go 
 to Africa to work with the blacks. He was crippled 
 by the chains he had worn during his five years' im- 
 prisonment, at a time when a severe religious perse- 
 cution was directed against the Moravians in Ger- 
 many. He reformed the life of the rough sailors on 
 his ship by preaching and teaching among them on 
 his outward voyage. At Cape Town he went to work 
 at once among the slaves. It was a new idea that 
 blacks could have souls, and the authorities of the 
 Dutch East India Company, alarmed at the success 
 of his labors, banished him from the city. 
 
 He sought refuge near what is now the town of 
 
 123 
 
124 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 Caledon, in a lonely valley called Bavian's Kloof (the 
 vale of baboons). Here the Hottentots, the most 
 hopeless and degraded of the natives, came to him. 
 The fame of his work spread abroad, and the people 
 at Stellenbosh, two hundred miles away, complained 
 that the tinkling of his little church bell disturbed the 
 quiet of their Sabbath morning, and they insisted on 
 his recall. 
 
 For fifty years an old colored woman treasured the 
 bible he had given her. Some years after Schmidt 
 had left Africa she was in Cape Town when a com- 
 pany of Moravians came on shore. She recognized 
 them by their manner of dress, showed them her bible 
 wrapped in sheepskin, and they took her story home 
 to Germany. A new band of Moravian missionaries 
 was sent out, and the work in Bavian's Kloof, which 
 now became Gnadendal (the vale of grace), was re- 
 commenced. 
 
 When we enter the village we drive past neat little 
 homes made of sun-baked bricks. Trellised grape 
 vines shade the doorways. The vaUey below is filled 
 with prosperous farms. In the church on Sunday a 
 thousand voices are lifted in praise — a native organ- 
 ist plays with fine expression the large pipe organ. 
 On one side of the church sit the women in their neat 
 white kerchiefs and aprons — on the other side are the 
 men. Facing each other in front are the benches filled 
 with most attractive little boys and girls. The people 
 look clean, self-respecting and intelligent. The mis- 
 
MISSIONS 125 
 
 sionaries live on a very small salary, but their homes 
 show great refinement, and they are extremely inter- 
 esting men and women. There is a, printing office, 
 a training school for native teachers, and everything 
 -possible is done to ennoble the lives of the natives. 
 
 At the home of a descendant of Count Zinzendorf 
 we see the portrait of this great leader of the Mora- 
 vians. The treasure for which book collectors have 
 offered a small fortune is shown us at the home of 
 another missionary. It is the first bible ever placed 
 in the hands of a black — the one given by Schmidt to 
 the old Hottentot woman and so carefully preserved 
 by her for fifty years. At other stations in Africa, 
 because the work is newer, it has many more discour- 
 aging features ; here the hundred years of toil are be- 
 ginning to produce results. 
 
 In the old garden of George Schmidt is a pear tree 
 which he planted. Every one thought it dead for a 
 number of years, then fresh shoots came out, and to- 
 day it is a flourishing tree, bearing fruit. The re- 
 sults of great sacrifice and hard work are often for 
 the generations that are to come. So many heroic 
 lives from the time of Schmidt and Livingstone down 
 to the present have been sacrificed to Africa that the 
 story of the pear tree should be symbolical of her 
 future. 
 
HISTORICAL 
 
 THE ANGLO-BOER WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 Previous to the year 1900 there were many types 
 of government south of the Zambesi. There were 
 two republics, the South African Republic and the 
 Orange Free State, two British colonies, Natal and 
 Cape Colony, besides a chartered company posses- 
 sion, Rhodesia, the native protectorates, and a Ger- 
 man province. 
 
 Cape Colony, the most southern province in 
 Africa, had become British territory in 1806, after 
 having had an unprogressive career under the Dutch 
 East India Company for about a hundred and fifty 
 years. The dissatisfied element left the colony in 
 the year 1836, the year of the Great Trek, leaving a 
 population largely British, or at least in sympathy 
 with British rule. Thus Cape Town became the nat- 
 ural center for the landing and dispersing of Brit- 
 ish troops during the war. When in the course of 
 the fighting the Boers invaded the northern part of 
 Cape Colony, it can not be said that they received en- 
 thusiastic support. 
 
 In 1842 the province of Natal, at least the Eng- 
 lish section, having suffered continually from native 
 incursions, was not loth to avail itself of the protec- 
 tion of the British troops. The short-lived Dutch 
 Republic established here by one contingent of the 
 
 126 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 127 
 
 Trekers in 1836, did not surrender without a strug- 
 gle. Natalia, the name the Dutch Republic had 
 borne for its short career, became the English prov- 
 ince of Natal. A small band of those who refused 
 to acknowledge British sway migrated northward 
 again to join their Dutch friends in the Transvaal. 
 That Natal needs the backing of a government 
 strong enough to make the natives respect it is evi- 
 dent from the recent uprising among the Zulus. A 
 small tax called the "hut tax" was imposed upon the 
 natives. They resented being asked to contribute to 
 government support, united against the whites, and 
 in April, 1906, it became necessary to call out the 
 troops for the protection of the white population. 
 Since the blacks outnumber the whites south of the 
 Zambesi in the ratio of about twenty to one, it is. 
 well that they do not realize their numbers nor their 
 power. 
 
 This Kafir war was less serious in its results than 
 many which preceded it. But it caused for a time 
 strained relations between the Imperial Governrnent 
 and Natal. The circumstances were these: Some 
 officers in the service of the government were killed 
 by the rebellious Zulus ; the guilty ones were caught 
 and ordered to execution. The Parliament of Eng- 
 land interfered and the colonial ministry of Natal 
 showed its displeasure by resigning, whereupon the 
 Imperial Government withdrew its protest, satisfied 
 on becoming thoroughly acquainted with the facts 
 
128 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 of the case that the Natal authorities had acted 
 justly. The execution of the natives which fol- 
 lowed seemed to have a wholesome eif ect upon the 
 chiefs still in rebellion. All of which proves that be- 
 yond a certain point the central authorities may not 
 interfere with the colonies, and that the people who 
 have lived a long time in the country understand far 
 better the native question than those who have built 
 up theories from pure speculation without any prac- 
 tical knowledge of native affairs. 
 
 The Orange River Colony was also settled by a 
 party who had helped to make up the numbers that 
 formed the Great Trek. Continual native disturb- 
 ances gave the British an excuse for taking posses- 
 sion of that territory. In 1854 an expert on African 
 affairs, Sir George Cathcart, suggested that the 
 province be given up — it being in his opinion a land 
 fit for springboks only. The Boers established here a 
 thriving republic. When war became imminent be- 
 tween the South African Republic and the British, 
 the Orange Free State, as the Boers named their Ht- 
 tle republic, was urged to remain neutral, the British 
 promising if it complied with this request that its in- 
 dependence should be secm-e. The Orange Free 
 State, however, preferred to cast its lot with that of 
 its sister republic. 
 
 This sister, the South African Republic, was also 
 a trek settlement. It had been proclaimed British 
 territory in 1877, but the ]3oers had protested in word 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER "^VAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 129 
 
 and action. They took up arms, and after the battle 
 of Majuba Hill the South African Republic was 
 recognized, the ministry of Gladstone upholding the 
 cause of the Boers in England. The South African 
 Republic did not live to come of age. Boi-n in 1881, 
 it ceased to exist in 1900. Had it not been for the 
 discovery of gold in the South African Republic its 
 history might have been very different. In 1890 the 
 whole aspect of affairs was changed by the finding of 
 gold within the boundaries of this republic. From 
 all over the world came fortune hunters. After the 
 first excitement had died out, they found that there 
 were political conditions which seemed unjust. All 
 Uitlanders, as those who were not Dutch were called, 
 were heavily taxed, had no schools, and were denied 
 the franchise practically. From past experience the 
 Boers had cause to be apprehensive lest the govern- 
 ment should pass out of their control. A union was 
 formed among those who had no vote to protest 
 against political conditions and to try to better them. 
 The action of Dr. Jameson at this time made peace- 
 able settlement impossible. With 500 mounted men 
 he crossed the border land from Rhodesia to take gov- 
 ernment affairs out of the hands of the Dutch by 
 force. President Kruger, who for many years had 
 held this title in the South African Republic, was 
 ready for him. Jameson and his company were 
 obliged to surrender to Kruger and his burghers. 
 Several of the ring leaders in Johannesburg, and 
 
130 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 Jameson himself suifered imprisonment and fine. 
 
 The Repubhc now put itself in a position to resist 
 all further interference — ammunition was imported, 
 every burgher had a rifle, and forts were erected. On 
 October 9 ,1899, the Dutch sent this ultimatum to the 
 British. . 
 
 The British troops stationed on the border land 
 of the Republic were to be instantly withdrawn, 
 and the reinforcements then coming by sea from 
 England were not to be landed in Africa. If an an- 
 swer was not given within forty-eight hours it would 
 be considered equivalent to a declaration of war. The 
 British government said it regretted that such a de- 
 mand had been made but it had no further communi- 
 cation to make, and the war began. 
 
 The Boers were in readiness. Within three days 
 50,000 men were in the field, mounted and armed. It 
 soon became evident that the ambition of the Dutch 
 extended to all the land south of the Zambesi. 
 Rhodesia was to be held by capturing Maf eking, the 
 strategic point. An invasion was planned into Natal, 
 and Kimberley was besieged. The siege of Kimber- 
 ley lasted one hundred and twenty- four days, and was 
 relieved by General French. General Joubert of the 
 Dutch forces invaded Natal, and for one hundred and 
 sixteen days Sir George White was hemmed in at 
 Ladysmith. General Buller came to his rescue, Feb- 
 ruary 28, 1900, and the siege collapsed. Shortly 
 afterward General Joubert, one of the bravest and 
 
THE ANGLO-BOEE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 131 
 
 most respected of the Boer commanders, died. Maf e- 
 king held out under Colonel Baden-Powell for two 
 hundred and fifteen days, one of the longest sieges in 
 history. After its relief the army of the Boer gen- 
 eral, Cronje, surrendered at the Modder River. This 
 was followed by the entrance into Bloomfontein (the 
 capital of the Orange Free State) , of Lord Roberts, 
 which event marks the loss of this republic to the 
 Dutch. This state had had a short but interesting 
 history of less than fifty years. 
 
 It was seen that the British had greatly underesti- 
 mated the strength of the Boers, and during the first 
 months of the war nearly all the engagements had re- 
 sulted in favor of the Dutch. To relieve the sieges 
 of Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith, contin- 
 gents were poured in from New Zealand, Canada, and 
 Australia. The most able and experienced of British 
 generals. Lord Roberts and General Kitchener, took 
 charge of the forces in South Africa. 
 
 After the relief of the besieged cities the war was 
 practically decided, but guerrilla warfare continued 
 until May, 1902. General De Wet became com- 
 mander-in-chief of the Boer forces and was unwilling 
 to give up the struggle. At last it became evident 
 even to him that it was a useless fight. The terms of 
 peace that closed the war are interesting. 
 
 The farms were to be restocked, this provision — 
 the conqueror indemnifying the conquered — being 
 unusual in the history of warfare. A further clause 
 
132 SOUTH AFRICA TODAY 
 
 in the peace articles which somewhat reconciled the 
 Boers to new conditions was that the Dutch language 
 should be preserved by being taught in the schools. 
 This last has not proved a source of harmony, and 
 South Africa is perhaps the only country in the world 
 where a knowledge of two languages, and one of 
 them a dialect, is necessary if a man is to conduct 
 successfully any business. That nothing tends to 
 foster the spirit of racial division more than a dual 
 language South Africa has proved. 
 
 A feature of the war about which much has been 
 written was the concentration camp. Here the women 
 and children were collected from the devastated 
 farms and some attempt was made to continue the 
 schooling of the children. Teachers came from Can- 
 ada and from all parts of the British empire to teach 
 in these concentration schools. 
 
 The Boer prisoners who were captured by the Brit- 
 ish during the war were sent to the island of St. Hel- 
 ena or Ceylon. The year of exile on these islands 
 was a school of experience to the young Boers, who 
 are not prone to travel far from home. It was dur- 
 ing this period of captivity that many of the young 
 men decided to give their lives to mission work among 
 the natives, as some reparation for the wrongs the 
 blacks had suffered at their hands. "We took the 
 land from the natives," they said, "and now ours is 
 taken from us that we may realize the evil thing we 
 did in the past." 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA 133 
 
 So strong is the prejudice among some of the 
 Dutch in South Africa against British rule that 
 rather than submit to the British government there 
 was a new trek at the close of the war. A party mi- 
 grated to German East Africa, another company 
 sought homes in South America in the Argentine Re- 
 pubhc, and a third division went to the northwestern 
 corner Of the XJnited States. 
 
 It was said that in 1900 there were many types of 
 government south of the Zambesi River, now it is all 
 British territory save German West Africa.. The 
 Orange Free State has become the Orange River Col- 
 ony, the South African Republic has become the 
 Transvaal. In 1906 all disabilities were removed and 
 these two new colonies were granted self government: 
 
 Even after long residence in South Africa it is 
 hard for an American to decide the right and the 
 wrong of this war. It resolves itself into the ques- 
 tion as to whether freedom has any value if not 
 conducive to the best in civilization and in progress. 
 
Kium stereograph copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y . 
 
 F,X-PRESIDENT KRUGEr's home at PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA 
 
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