Class. 
 Book.. 
 
 __ 
 
 7 
 
 Copyright^ . 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
A Little Journey to 
 South Africa 
 
 And Up the East Coast 
 
 By J. R. WHITE and 
 ADELAIDE SMITH 
 
 A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
[LIBRARY of CONGRESS! 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 NOV 2! wm 
 
 Copyrient Entry 
 
 rvun/.zi,tW 
 
 CLASS O^, XXc, No. 
 COPT B. 
 
 Copyright 1908 
 
 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- 
 
D SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 Funchal. 
 
 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 
 
O SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 over 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 almos% 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 naming 
 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- 
 
 RAPID TRANSIT IN MADEIRA 
 
10 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 
 Hi , i : i i g 
 
 
 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 11 
 
 eral ways of spelling the word, Kafir, Kaffir, Caffre, 
 Cafir, Kaffer, Cafnr, 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 came the dream and object of his life 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 Las Palmas is not unlike one 
 at Madeira, out 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. Las Palmas and Santa Cruz have about the 
 same population as Funchal, but the Canary group 
 has some 300,000 inhabitants. The industries are 
 
OUTWARD 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; 
 
 LAS PAI.MAS 
 
 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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," foi» 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 MALAY: 
 
 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 
 
16 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 streets 
 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 da 
 Gama had touch- 
 ed here on his 
 way to 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 
 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 PARLIAMENT 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 climes 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 tram 
 
 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, and others. 
 We have time for onlv one, so we leave our train at 
 
24 SOUTH AFEICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 heavjr 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 OLD DUTCH FARMHOUSE 
 
 freedom from the too rigorous decrees of the Dutch, 
 who wished to stamp out their language. Many of 
 the best families of the country boast a French line- 
 age, and the hundreds of Malans and de Villiers are 
 the Smiths and the Joneses of South Africa. The 
 Dutch so effe'ctually 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 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 AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 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 
 
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 scarchy 
 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 
 
 PROTEA MACROPHYLLUM 
 White tipped with black, 5 or 6 in. long 
 
32 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 
 PROTEA CYNAROIDES 
 Velvety pink, 7 in. Diameter 
 
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 
 
 DISA UNIFLORA 
 
 'Pride of Table Mountain, "fire red, 3 in. 
 
 tip to tip 
 
34 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 fifty feet. 
 The fruit is in the form of large cones, and it belongs 
 to a family of ancient lineage, the proteacese, 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- 
 
 DROSERA CYSTIFLORA 
 Brilliant colors, 2 in. Diameter 
 
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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 j^ear'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 dairy 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. 
 
 Man}'' of the children on the lonely, scattered 
 
38 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 farms may be too young to go away to school, or they 
 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 calls 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 Falls 
 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 
 
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 
 his 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 Hamelin, leads us enchanted into the 
 
 CANGO CAVES 
 ENTRANCE TO CAVES 
 
42 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 hall 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, 
 wandering through 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 OI,D 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 delicate 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 X3ressure, has carbon dioxide in 
 solution. This is capable of dissolving the limestone 
 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 little 
 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 turn back. 
 
 The guide hurries on and w T e lose sight of him. 
 "Let us blow out our lights 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 erarments are daubed 
 
46 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 along 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. 
 
"UP-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 line 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? But 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 unlike the Alpine glow which 
 all too soon fades from our view. The railway takes 
 a spiral path up one high mountain, passing now 
 
"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 1,800 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 peculiar 
 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 saffron 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 little 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 will 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 delight 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 
 paraffin (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 
 rolled 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 tell 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 skillful 
 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 English 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 "PufFadder 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 
 
56 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 which 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 
 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 was 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. Here the children were brought up with 
 
58 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 offered 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 
 
KIMBERLEY 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 Avould 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'll 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 Orange rivers. 
 
KIMBERLEY 61 
 
 "In March, 1869, a superb white diamond, weigh- 
 ing 1 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 Lilienf eld 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 AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 coffee 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. 
 
 KIMBERLEY DIAMOND MINE 
 
64 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 off 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 bine 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 million 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 AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 be 
 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 all 
 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 off 
 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 
 found 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 Where the mining is conducted on a little larger scale, 
 the gravel mixed with water flows over a mercury bed ; 
 the quicksilver seizes the fine gold and holds it. The 
 
 
 ■V" i* ^v v^i 
 
 
 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- 
 
KIMBERLEY 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 fondness 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, 
 and when it falls on the greasy plate it goes rattling on 
 down the incline, 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 AFKICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 
 
 ^p^^^§SSS^^II^BtKIM 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - ■ ,. . ~;. ■ 
 
 
 A day's diamond wash op 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- 
 tallizes 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 dispensary. 
 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 
 
KIMBERLEY 73 
 
 cars 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 dairy 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 offer 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 time 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 bjr 
 the Boers. A little beyond Mafeking we enter Be- 
 
78 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 
 A KAFIR TOWN 
 
 mains a heathen in spite of his regular attendance at 
 church. One of his failings 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 AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 will tell tales of folk- 
 lore far into the night. Since Sebele 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 riot 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 will 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 great 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 Sebele's not accepting Chris- 
 tianity is because it would necessitate his giving up 
 many of his favorite pastimes. Both his neighbors, 
 Bathwen and Ivhama, are Christians and in their coun- 
 tries most of the heathen customs have been abolished. 
 
84 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 We will speak of some of the customs still existing 
 in Sebele's country. 
 
 The Boy ale 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 rings 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 
 
 
 
 
 iffSI' ' 
 
 
 
 Si^Ste 
 
 
 :;:,-' . [m 
 
 GROUP OF NATIVES 
 
86 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 savage tribes. There are witchdoctors for various of- 
 fices, such as healing the sick, making rain, finding 
 lost articles and so on. It is useless to try to convince 
 the natives that these diviners are impostors. 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 hand, 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. 
 
SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 town could be im- 
 proved upon in a 
 new town. Accord- 
 ingly Palapye was 
 carefully laid out, 
 ample space being 
 given to each family. 
 In less than three 
 months 20,000 na- 
 
 GROUP OF PICCANINNIES 
 
 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 KIMBERLEY 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 KIMBERLEY 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 
 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 
 
 UNVEILING OF RHODES STATUE — IQ05 
 
94 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 towns are fewer and fewer as we go north, but 
 
96 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 workmen and 
 their tools, and before the bridge was finished a thou- 
 sand tons of steel. A great derrick swinging far 
 across the river helped with 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 attempted 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 Within this the waters eddy and foam — the spot 
 where the struggle is fiercest has been named the 
 "Boiling Pot." We are in the midst of sun-illum- 
 ined spray — below us the most glorious rainbows 
 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 
 
FROM KIMBERLEY TO VICTORIA FALLS 103 
 
 start 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 palms 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 life and work of the noble 
 French missionary, M. Colliard, 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. 
 
 KING LEWANIKA'S CURIO STORE 
 
106 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 north- 
 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. 
 
108 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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. 
 
 TREK 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 
 
VICTORIA 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 
 
110 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 strange fact, that is, the absence in general of women 
 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 returned with 
 them to their native homes. On the other hand, a 
 large number of people have remained in the chy, 
 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 TRANSVAAL 
 
 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 city 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 AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 Premier Diamond Mine is one of the wonders of 
 
 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 six 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. Cullinan 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 "Cullinan" 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. 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 
 
 The chief interest that centers around Johannes- 
 burg and Pretoria, apart from the mining industry, 
 is connected with the recent Anglo-Boer War. The 
 conflict originated in the Transvaal, formerly called 
 the South African Republic, of which Paul Kruger 
 was president. This war has been the subject of 
 many volumes of history, but the main facts con- 
 cerning it may be briefly summarized: 
 
 Previous to the year 1900 there were many types 
 of government south of the Zambesi. At that time 
 there were two republics, the South African Republic 
 and the Orange Free State, and two British colonies, 
 Natal and Cape Colony, besides a chartered company 
 possession, Rhodesia, the native protectorates, and a 
 German province. 
 
 Cape Colony, the most southern province in 
 Africa, had become British territory in 1806, after 
 having ha'd an unprogressive career under the Dutch 
 East India Company for about a hundred and fifty 
 years. The dissatisfied element departed from the 
 colony in 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 
 natural center for the landing and dispersing of 
 British troops during the war. When in the course of 
 the fighting the Boers invaded the northern part of 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 117 
 
 Cape Colony, it can not be said that they received 
 enthusiastic support. 
 
 In 1842 Natal, at least the English section of 
 it, having suffered continually from native incur- 
 sions, was not loth to avail itself of the protection 
 of the British troops. The short-lived Dutch repub- 
 lic established here by one contingent of the 
 Trekkers 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 evident from 
 the uprising among the Zulus which occurred about 
 two years ago. A small poll tax was imposed 
 upon the natives. They resented being asked to 
 contribute to government support and united against 
 the whites, and in April 1906, it became necessary 
 to call out the troops for the protection of the white 
 population. Since south of the Zambesi the blacks 
 outnumber the whites 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 Government 
 and Natal. The circumstances were these: Some 
 
118 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 officers in the service of the government were killed 
 by the rebellious Zulus; the guilty ones were caught 
 and condemned to death. 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 
 of the case that the Natal authorities had acted justly. 
 The execution of the natives which followed seemed 
 to have a wholesome effect upon the chiefs still in 
 rebellion. All of which proves that beyond 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 the native question far 
 better than those who have built up theories from 
 pure speculation without any practical knowledge of 
 native affairs. 
 
 The Orange River Colony also was 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 
 little republic, was urged to remain neutral, the Brit- 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 119 
 
 ish promising that if it complied with this request 
 its independence should be secure. The Orange Free 
 State, however, preferred to cast its lot with that of 
 its sister republic. 
 
 This sister, the South African Republic, also was 
 a trek settlement. It had been proclaimed British 
 territory in 1877, but the Boers had protested in word 
 and action. They took up arms, and after the battle 
 of Majuba Hill the South African Republic was 
 recognized, the ministry of Gladstone upholding in 
 England the cause of the Boers. The republic did 
 not live to come of age. Born 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 boun- 
 daries of the country. From all over the world came 
 fortune-hunters. After the first excitement had died 
 out, they found that political conditions existed here 
 which seemed unjust. All Uitlanders, as those who 
 were not Dutch were called, were heavily taxed, had 
 no schools, and practically were denied the franchise. 
 From past experience the Boers had cause to be 
 apprehensive lest the government 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 peaceable settlement impossible. 
 
120 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 With five hundred mounted men he crossed the bor- 
 der land from Rhodesia to take government affairs 
 out of the hands of the Dutch by force. Kruger, 
 who for many years had held the title of President 
 of 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 Jameson himself, suf- 
 fered imprisonment and fine. 
 
 The republic now put itself in a position to resist 
 all further interference. Ammunition was imported, 
 every burgher possessed himself of 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 Eng- 
 land were not to be landed in Africa. Failure to 
 accede to these demands within forty-eight hours 
 would be considered equivalent to a declaration of 
 war. The British government said it regretted that 
 such demands had been made, but that it had no 
 further communication to offer, and the war began. 
 
 The Boers were in readiness. Within three days 
 fifty thousand 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 secured by capturing 
 Maf eking, the strategic point. An invasion of Natal 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 121 
 
 was planned, and Kimberley was besieged. The 
 siege of Kimberley lasted one hundred and twenty- 
 four days, and was relieved by General French. Gen- 
 eral 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, February 28, 1900, and the siege col- 
 lapsed. Shortly afterward General Joubert, one of 
 the bravest and most respected of the Boer com- 
 manders, died. Mafeking 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 general, Cronje, surrendered at the 
 Modder River. This victory for the British was fol- 
 lowed by the entrance into Bloemfontein (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; during the first 
 months of the war nearly all the engagements had 
 resulted in favor of the Dutch. To relieve the sieges 
 of Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith, contingents 
 were poured in from New Zealand, Canada, and 
 Australia. The most able and experienced of Brit- 
 ish generals, Lord Roberts and General Kitchener, 
 took charge of the forces in South Africa. 
 
 After the relief of the besieged cities the war was 
 
122 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 practically decided, but guerilla Avarfare 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 the fight was a useless one. The 
 terms of peace that closed the war are interesting. 
 
 For one thing, the farms were to be restocked, 
 this provision — the conqueror indemnifying the con- 
 quered — being unusual in the history of warfare. 
 Another clause 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 concession 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 spirt of racial divi- 
 sion 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 devas- 
 tated farms and some attempt was made to continue 
 the schooling of the children. Teachers came from 
 Canada and from all parts of the British Empire to 
 teach in these concentration schools. 
 
 The Boer prisoners who were captured by the 
 British during the war were sent to the island of 
 
THE ANGLO-BOER WAR 123 
 
 St. Helena or to Ceylon. The year of exile on these 
 islands was one full of experience for the young 
 Boers. During this period of captivity 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." 
 
 So strong is the prejudice among some of the 
 Dutch in South Africa against British rule that there 
 was a new trek at the close of the war. One company 
 migrated to German East Africa; another sought 
 homes in the Argentine Republic; and a third went 
 to the northwestern corner of the United States. 
 
 As has been said, in 1900 there were many types 
 of government south of the Zambesi River ; now the 
 country is all British territory, save German West 
 Africa. The Orange Free State has become the 
 Orange River Colony, 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. Controversy concerning it finally 
 resolves itself into the question as to whether freedom 
 has any value if not conducive to the best in civiliza- 
 tion and in progress. 
 
AT THE SEASHORE 
 
 For the first years in South Africa newcomers 
 try to keep up the Christmas traditions of the 
 mother country by preparing the steamed plum 
 pudding and eating it bravely in spite of the heat, 
 
 KALK BAY 
 
 for you will remember that in the southern hemi- 
 sphere the seasons are reversed, and that summer 
 here is in December and winter in July. Although 
 the candles have a way of melting before the day is 
 done, there is an attempt to decorate the Christmas 
 
AT THE SEASHORE 1 25 
 
 tree. In time the people learn to accommodate their 
 celebration to the weather, and a picnic at the beach 
 is not a bad substitute for the Yule log festivities. 
 
 The seaside resorts are crowded on the principal 
 holidays — Christmas, Boxing Day (the day after 
 Christmas, when the servants expect freedom and a 
 present or Christmas box), New Year's, and the sev- 
 eral 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 well-to-do, you go to the hotels or 
 have your own summer cottage, but there is no reason 
 for staying at home if you can not have these lux- 
 uries. The Africander knows how to have a happy 
 out-of-door summer with a trek wagon and a tent. 
 
 After Christmas all the talk is about the vacation 
 jaunt. Our friends in Johannesburg are going to 
 take a somewhat extended trip to a seashore resort 
 near Cape Town. This means a long railroad jour- 
 ney of about three days and three nights, but when 
 money has not to be considered, such a journey for a 
 few weeks of pleasure is only a means to an end. 
 
 Arriving, then, at Cape Town, we take a suburban 
 train carrying us out through the pretty little towns 
 lying on the Atlantic side of the Cape of Good Hope. 
 From the train we see beautiful green lanes, shaded 
 by oak, fir, poplar, and eucalyptus trees, and now 
 and then we catch glimpses of shaggy wood and 
 mountain precipices high above the towns of Ronde- 
 
126 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 bosch and Newlands, a view which at once charms 
 and delights us. Now the road bends to the south- 
 east and in a very few moments we are at the station 
 in Kalk Bay, one of the most popular seashore resorts 
 of the Cape. 
 
 The mountain or hill upon the side of which Kalk 
 Bay is built, rises abruptly up from the beautiful 
 blue waters of False Bay, an arm of the Indian 
 Ocean. Here the water in the sea is ten degrees 
 warmer than that at Cape Town, only fifteen miles 
 away. This fact naturally makes Kalk Bay and the 
 neighboring towns on the Indian Ocean much more 
 popular than any of the resorts, only a few miles 
 distant, on the Atlantic seashore. Wealthy people 
 living as far away as Johannesburg and Pretoria 
 have built for themselves beautiful little cottages in 
 Kalk Bay. One particularly interesting house is 
 built upon the plan of a steamer; its windows are 
 portholes and its bedrooms are regular little state- 
 rooms witlj bunks for beds and all the other necessary 
 steamer furnishings. The streets facing the sea lie 
 one above the other: they rise so abruptly that the 
 roofs of houses on a lower street are on a level with 
 the foundations of houses on the next street above. 
 Nearly all the houses here are but one story high; 
 nevertheless many of them are very large and con- 
 veniently arranged. All have broad verandas, well 
 protected with glass windows at the ends and with 
 Indian screens or curtains in front. From the veran- 
 
AT THE SEASHORE 127 
 
 das one has a fine view of False Bay — stretching out 
 in an almost perfect semicircle, and enclosed by 
 rugged, rocky mountains. 
 
 Fishing is a great industry along the coast, and 
 every morning a hundred or more boats come ashore, 
 laden with many kinds of fish. What is not sold to 
 the inhabitants on the coast, is taken to the great cold 
 storage plant in Kalk Bay, and later is shipped way 
 "up country," even as far as Victoria Falls. 
 
 Kalk Bay proper has no beach; some of the people 
 have put up bath-houses on the rocks, but the ma- 
 jority of them go to neighboring towns for sea-bath- 
 ing. One of the most beautiful beaches in the world 
 is at Fish Hoek, about a mile beyond Kalk Bay. This 
 entire beach, with the adjoining land extending back 
 up the mountains, is owned by a farmer, who has 
 built himself a very pretty home near the water. 
 Besides this house, Fish Hoek boasts of but one other 
 and a few huts for fishermen. This farmer will not 
 sell a foot of his land; nor will he allow any one to 
 put up bath-houses there. Nevertheless Fish Hoek 
 beach is a favorite bathing-place, and the bathers find 
 natural bath-houses among the rocks and boulders. 
 Those who are fortunate enough to be friends of the 
 family living next door to this farmer, are allowed 
 the privilege of using his private bath-houses, of 
 which there is a large number in his back yard. And 
 curious enough are these six or eight little bath- 
 houses, for they are all made out of piano packing- 
 
128 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 boxes. A few nails inside and a calico curtain for a 
 door constitute the furnishings of these simple houses. 
 American children often use old piano boxes for play- 
 houses, but probably no American seashore resort can 
 boast of a bath-house made of a piano box. 
 
 Our first dip in the delightfully warm water at 
 Fish Hoek makes us wish there were time to spend 
 a whole summer in this locality. This beach is fre- 
 quented especially by women and children, because it 
 is remarkable for its safety in bathing, there being 
 no strong undertow as at some other places on the 
 same bay. If we think the piano boxes unique, then 
 the costumes that are seen in the surf are even more 
 so. American women and girls who have wisely 
 brought their suits from their native land, are quite 
 conspicuous on a South African beach, in their gar- 
 ments cut after an American pattern, usually of dark 
 blue or black alpaca and prettily trimmed with braid. 
 The Africander's costume, imported chiefly from 
 England, 4s of every conceivable shade and hue, red 
 and pink being favorite colors, while the material 
 varies in weight from sateen to the heaviest serge. 
 Outing flannel in gay stripes also is much used for 
 bathing-suits. 
 
 If there were time we would go across False Bay 
 to another popular resort, Gordon's Bay. Over there 
 is found the octopus, that queer sort of sea-creature 
 which looks like a huge piece of jelly. He is really 
 dangerous, for with his long tendril-like arms he can 
 
AT THE SEASHORE 129 
 
 pull a child or even a man under the rocks. Sharks, 
 tpo, sport about in the waters of Gordon's Bay, and 
 now and then a bather loses an arm or a leg and 
 sometimes even his life. It is perhaps just as well, 
 then, that we depart from safe little Fish Hoek beach 
 with all our members still attached to our bodies, and 
 leave Gordon's Bay to be visited by others who enjoy 
 sea-bathing which has an element of danger in it. 
 
MISSIONS 
 
 Turning now from these scenes of gaiety, we will 
 make a very different excursion to a place not over 
 fifty miles from Cape Town, where we shall see a 
 more serious, yet not less interesting side of life. 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 
 English, Scotch and American missionaries in nearly 
 every native settlement. At Gnadendal we shall see 
 the oldest mission station in Africa. Here four gen- 
 erations have felt the benefit of Christian teaching, 
 and one may see the result of missionary work among 
 the African natives. j 
 
 In 1737 a Moravian, George Schmidt, wished to go 
 to Africa to work among the blacks. He was crippled 
 by the chains he had worn during 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. 
 
MISSIONS 131 
 
 He sought refuge near what is now the town of 
 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 Stellenbosch, 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 a colored woman treasured the 
 Bible Schmidt had given her. Some years after he 
 left Africa she was in Cape Town when a company 
 of Moravians came on shore. She recognized them 
 by their manner of dress and 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 
 recommenced. 
 
 When w r e enter the village we drive past neat little 
 homes made of sun-baked bricks. Trellised grape 
 vines shade the doorways. The valley below is filled 
 with prosperous farms. In the church on Sunday a 
 thousand voices are lifted in praise ; a native organist 
 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 
 
132 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 people look clean, self-respecting and intelligent. 
 The missionaries live on a very small salary, but their 
 homes show great refinement, and they are extremely 
 interesting men and women. There is a printing- 
 office here, and 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 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 
 beginning 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 
 today it is a flourishing tree, bearing fruit. The 
 results 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. 
 
 The rapid transition from this peaceful vale of 
 
MISSIONS 133 
 
 grace to the noise and traffic of busy Cape Town 
 makes us realize anew the vastness of the world's 
 enterprises. Here in one spot we see men giving 
 their lives that the lives of others may be made bet- 
 ter; not far distant we see men spending their lives 
 for purely selfish purposes. These contrasts are not 
 so evident in America, for there we usually associate 
 the idea of missions with distant lands, and think 
 very little about them because they are so far 
 removed. 
 
UP THE EAST COAST 
 
 And now our thoughts turn toward our distant 
 home. It is time for us to start on our way back to 
 America, and a roundabout way it is. We have a 
 variety of routes from which to choose, starting from 
 Cape Town. It is said by travelers that the most 
 interesting tour in the world is from Cape Town to 
 Europe, up the East Coast of Africa. Let us, then, 
 follow this course and begin at once our homeward 
 journey. 
 
 Our entrance into Table Bay was with a greeting 
 from the "Cape Doctor," the great "Southeaster," 
 which draped its table cloth over Table Mountain, 
 partially obscuring our view. In the excitement of 
 landing, after a sea voyage, one does not often fully 
 enjoy the scenery. On the other hand, when depart- 
 ing, one watches the receding land until it is entirely 
 lost to sight. The day set for our sailing proves a 
 perfect one, and not the tiniest speck of a table cloth 
 is clinging to the old mountain's level top. As the 
 gong sounds for our departure, we wave a last good- 
 by to our friends on the wharf ; our ship slips quietly 
 out of her dock, and moves off to the cheerful strains 
 of her orchestra. We take seats in the stern of 
 the ship, in order to see Cape Town as it fades 
 away in the distance. On our left is Robben Island, 
 which curiosity leads some people to visit; here is a 
 leper colony, for that terrible disease, leprosy, is all 
 too prevalent at the Cape. Turning our eyes to the 
 
UP THE EAST COAST 
 
 135 
 
 land once more, we watch the city grow dimmer and 
 fainter, until only the mountains are discernible. 
 Table Mountain, with its neighbors, Lion's Head and 
 Devil's Peak, stands out gray and grim. 
 
 Our last glimpse of land is caught in the evening 
 when we pass Cape Point, where a large lighthouse 
 sends forth its rays of light. The lighthouse tower 
 
 LIGHTHOUSE— CAPE POINT 
 
 stands on a high cliff on the very southernmost point 
 of the Cape of Good Hope. Some of us were fortu- 
 nate enough to go to this point on a midnight picnic, 
 and had the pleasure of a visit of several days at the 
 lighthouse. Daylight fades into twilight; the deck 
 is silent; all have gone below to prepare for dinner, 
 the first meal to be enjoyed on board — also the last 
 one for some days for a few of the passengers, since 
 
136 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 A SOUTH AFRICAN TIGER 
 
 there are always people who fail to appear at table 
 the first few days of an ocean voyage. At bedtime 
 we are ready to retire, for the day has been crowded 
 with excitement. Wearied with the events of the 
 day, and sfad over parting from friends, we lay tired 
 heads down upon our pillows, and soon we are asleep. 
 There is nothing to see all the next day, so we read 
 some of our steamer letters from numerous friends 
 in South Africa. In one of them is the photograph 
 of a South African tiger, captured near Wellington. 
 In the kloofs near the town the baboons come down 
 and bark at passers-by, and once in a while a tiger 
 strolls out by night. This one was not sufficiently 
 wary, and was caught in a trap set by a Boer farmer. 
 
PORT ELIZABETH 
 
 Two nights and a day pass, and the second morn- 
 ing dawns upon us in Algoa Bay. Here the ship 
 casts anchor for the day, and all who wish may go 
 ashore in a tug-boat, and spend the day in the city 
 of Port Elizabeth. The harbor is the scene of ex- 
 traordinary activity, for much shipping is done in 
 Algoa Bay. Large quantities of wool are shipped to 
 Australia, Europe, and America. Ostrich feathers, 
 too, form an important export, the largest farms 
 being in the central and eastern part of the Colony* 
 Port Elizabeth, aptly named "The Liverpool of the 
 Cape," lies on a high bluff overlooking the sea. As 
 to population, it ranks second in the colony, but holds 
 first place as a shipping-port on the South East 
 Coast. It was founded in 1820, and derived its name 
 from Lady Elizabeth, wife of the then acting gov- 
 ernor, Sir Rufane Donkin. Port Elizabeth is less* 
 than a century old, but in its short life the city has 
 been made to look very beautiful, especially by the 
 trees that have been planted in it. 
 
 In the main business center of the city, the build- 
 ings are as fine as those in Cape Town. One build- 
 ing especially worthy of notice is the Town Hall in 
 Market Square, a stately structure Romanesque in 
 style, but with a portico of Corinthian pillars. This 
 is one of the finest buildings in the colony, and one 
 
138 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 of which every colonial may be justly proud. In 
 Port Elizabeth the shop windows are just as. attrac- 
 tive as those in Cape Town. There are several large 
 shops that make especially beautiful displays of 
 ostrich plumes and the skins of wild animals, also 
 
 PUBLIC LIBRARY— PORT ELIZABETH 
 
 many kinds of bead and basket work done by the 
 natives. The fashionable residence portion of the 
 city is on the "Hill," a flat tableland on the terraced 
 ground above Main Street. The cottages and villas 
 are generally similar to those of Cape Town, being 
 usually but one story high. The grounds surround- 
 ing these residences are remarkably beautiful, and 
 
PORT ELIZABETH 139 
 
 one finds here larger green lawns than elsewhere in 
 the colony. 
 
 Port Elizabeth is justly proud of its three beauti- 
 ful parks. The largest and finest of these is St. 
 George's Park, in the center of the choice residence 
 section on "The Hill." This park combines natural 
 and artificial beauties, and its conservatory is the 
 largest structure of the kind in South Africa. There 
 are delightful walks laid out through the park, sur- 
 rounded everywhere with ample verdure and plants 
 and flowers of many varieties. In the North End, 
 at the terminus of the tram line, is Prince Alfred's 
 Park, while in the South End is Victoria Park, which 
 covers a large area, and bids fair to become one of 
 the finest parks in town. 
 
 There are many pleasant drives around Port Eliza- 
 beth, among them being that .through the residence 
 part of "The Hill" and around the mile circle of 
 St. George's Park, and longer drives outside the city 
 to Emerald Hill, Humewood, and Zwartkops. 
 
UITENHAGE 
 
 In a day, one can get a very fair idea of Port 
 Elizabeth, but at least a week should be taken, if one 
 wishes to see something of the country in the East- 
 ern Province. Time being no object with us, we will 
 say good-by to the steamer and depart by rail for a 
 trip to Uitenhage. From the car windows very lit- 
 tle is to be seen. The vegetation consists mainly of 
 cactus and aloe, and the land is bare and uninterest- 
 ing. Still, the towns through which we pass are 
 very pretty and attractive. Almost any section of 
 South Africa can be made productive if man is will- 
 ing to supply the water and the necessary energy. 
 
 In less than an hour's time, our train arrives at 
 Uitenhage, one of the oldest towns in the Eastern 
 Province. It occupies a beautiful site near the 
 Zwartkops River, in a little valley at the foot of the 
 Winterhoek Mountain, and it has the reputation of 
 being one of the most delightful places in the Colony. 
 It possesses a wonderful spring, which yields nearly 
 two million gallons of water a day. With this abun- 
 dant supply of water, the town has won for itself the 
 name of "Garden of the Eastern Province." The 
 streets are remarkably broad and are well shaded by 
 century-old oaks and other trees. Between the roads 
 and sidewalks are "sluits" or gutters filled with clear 
 running water. The villas have hedges of roses and 
 pomegranates which fill the air with sweet perfume. 
 
U1TENHAGE 
 
 141 
 
 The town has two large boarding schools, one for 
 boys, the other for girls, both well equipped, and 
 having fine buildings and grounds. The chief attrac- 
 tion of the town is Magennis Park, one of three 
 
 From stereograph copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 
 
 A CONSPICUOUS INHABITANT OF CAPE COLONY 
 
 parks which are especially interesting because of the 
 remarkable variety of trees planted in them. Uiten- 
 hage district is a happy hunting-ground for sports- 
 men, since the fauna includes elephants, Cape buf- 
 falo, zebra, antelopes of many kinds, and hundreds 
 of varieties of birds, ranging from the stately ostrich 
 to the tiny humming bird. 
 
142 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 A four or five hour cart- journey from Uitenhage 
 brings us to some of the largest and best farms in 
 the Colony. Ostrich and fruit farms are numerous 
 in this district, and there are also some very good 
 dairy farms here. The country roads often are 
 rough, broken up by deep ruts caused by the heavy 
 rains, thus making a long cart- journey not the great- 
 est pleasure in the world. When the midsummer sun 
 beats down on the hood of a Cape cart, jogging along 
 over a hard, rough road, the visitor almost wishes he 
 had not taken this ride. 
 
 The driver stops to rest his horses, and we climb 
 out ourselves, and find refreshment in a prickly pear, 
 for scarcely anything but cactus plants are to be 
 seen along these country roads. We do not attempt 
 to pick these pears, but instead take a club and knock 
 the fruit off the bush. Even then we dare not 
 touch the pear with the fingers, but placing the foot 
 on it, we roll it on the sandy road until the prickles 
 are all worn off ; then only may we pick it up. Next 
 we cut off the top with a pocket knife and suck out 
 the sweet juice. A prickly pear picked on a hot 
 sunny day is not at all cooling; nevertheless it is a bit 
 refreshing, and certainly the eating of it is an inter- 
 esting experience to one who has never before par- 
 taken of the fruit. 
 
GRAHAMSTOWN 
 
 Leaving Uitenhage district, we still have time for 
 a few days' trip to Grahamstown, about a hundred 
 miles by rail to the northeast of Port Elizabeth. Gra- 
 hamstown, called the Cathedral Town because of its 
 numerous churches and two bishops ( Church of Eng- 
 land and Roman Catholic), has also several large 
 church schools and a new university founded with 
 funds left by Cecil Rhodes for the purpose, also a 
 public hospital and a provincial lunatic asylum. Mark 
 Twain lectured here several years ago, on his tour 
 around the world. He christened the place "A town 
 of churches and paraffin lamps." 
 
 The churches, school buildings, and many of the 
 residences of Grahamstown are really beautiful. 
 The town itself is well laid out, having broad shaded 
 streets; its botanical gardens form one of the most 
 beautiful parks in the Colony, where children love to 
 play, and where people go for recreation and rest. 
 The walks in the park are lined on both sides with all 
 kinds of tropical plants. One of the features here 
 is a mighty oak, the oldest tree in Grahamstown, 
 planted in 1820. From the train one has an excellent 
 view of the town; it rises up from a little valley and 
 spreads out all around on the surrounding hills, like 
 an old Greek amphitheater. 
 
 Life in this beautiful little town is made most 
 pleasant and agreeable, so it seems to the visitor. For 
 
 143 
 
144 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 one staying at a friend's house, the daily programme 
 begins with the entrance of a maid into the bedroom 
 at seven in the morning, bringing either coffee and 
 rolls or fruit, as the guest prefers. If it is fruit, one 
 is supplied with a whole pineapple, or an immense 
 bunch of grapes, or a quantity of some other fruit, 
 each in its season. A favorite fruit in this part of 
 the Colony is the grenadillo, the fruit of the passion- 
 flower plant. In the height of the season pineapples 
 can be bought for as low as a cent apiece. It is said 
 that an enterprising farmer near Grahamstown once 
 brought back some pineapples from Natal, and 
 planted three of them. From these first three have 
 sprung all the plants that are now growing in the 
 Eastern Province of Cape Colony. For a farmer to 
 clear $3,000 a year from pineapples is not unusual; 
 the plants yield all the year round, sometimes one sin- 
 gle plant producing fifteen pineapples, with but one 
 fruit developing at a time. The plants are not over 
 two or three feet high, and many large fields of them 
 are seen as one rides along on the train. 
 
 The servant question here is an interesting one. 
 In one of Grahamstown's best families, the cook, 
 who has been in the family fifteen years, receives six 
 dollars a month, the nurse girl receives four, and a 
 boy for all kinds of outdoor and indoor work is paid 
 five dollars. So for fifteen dollars a month a family 
 can keep three excellent servants and often have the 
 same ones year after year. In this particular in- 
 
GRAHAMSTOWN 145 
 
 stance, the money earned by the nurse girl, who is 
 but fifteen years old, goes to her father, while the 
 other two, being older, receive their own wages. It is 
 the Kafir custom for young girls not to have their 
 own earnings. The native parents are very kind to 
 their children, and they are always going round to 
 see how the latter are being treated by their employ- 
 ers. The nurse girl just mentioned is called Topsy, 
 a name evidently taken from "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 
 for everybody in Cape Colony reads that book. 
 
 As a resort for invalids, particularly those with 
 delicate lungs, no place in all South Africa is to be 
 more highly recommended than Grahamstown. Won- 
 derful cures are on record of health-seekers who 
 have spent some years in this neighborhood; people 
 who were thought to be incurable have returned later 
 to Europe in perfect health. To the sportsman this 
 same locality offers much pleasure and excitement. 
 Antelopes of various kinds abound, the agile spring- 
 bok being very common and the favorite of the 
 hunters. 
 
 In the summer time Grahamstown is quite de- 
 serted, for all who can, go down to Port Alfred, 
 or the Kowie, as it is commonly called, about forty- 
 three miles to the southeast, on the coast. 
 
PORT ALFRED 
 
 Port Alfred lies at the mouth of the Kowie, one 
 of the prettiest rivers in Cape Colony. Surf -bath- 
 ing and rowing on the river are the chief means of 
 pleasure for the visitor at this seashore resort. The 
 village itself lies high up on a hill overlooking the 
 sea. It is fully a mile from the main street to the 
 beach, and there is no hotel near the water, nor a 
 single bath-house on the beach. The beach stretches 
 out for a mile or more, its beautiful white sand look- 
 ing most attractive to the visitor. Boulders and great 
 sand dunes are scattered here and there, and these 
 many bathers use for bath-houses. 
 
 Since the people live so far away from the beach, 
 bathing here is very different from bathing at Fish 
 Hoek and other South African resorts. Many fami- 
 lies have carriages of one kind or another, and before 
 breakfast every summer morning one sees a proces- 
 sion of conveyances all headed for the beach. Ar- 
 riving at the water's edge, the drivers line up their 
 carts and carriages as is done in front of a large city 
 theater. For the time being each carriage is turned 
 into an impromptu bath-house; the best houses are 
 those made by the big ox-wagons with canvas- 
 covered tops, like our "prairie-schooners." 
 
 Those who have no horses or oxen at the Kowie 
 find bathing here almost impossible, because a walk 
 of a mile on a hot summer's day along unshaded 
 
POUT ALFRED 147 
 
 roads is exhausting. Some people rent houses here 
 that are not equipped with any means of conveyance, 
 but these must depend upon friends for occasional 
 trips to the beach. If they have a neighbor who 
 owns an ox-wagon capable of holding ten or a dozen 
 persons, and eight or ten good strong oxen to pull 
 the wagon, and if an invitation is extended to join 
 the family party every morning for a dip in the surf, 
 life at this pretty little resort is one round of fun 
 and pleasure. 
 
 It is amusing enough to see the morning bathers 
 starting off down the hill toward the beach; the 
 clumsy ox-wagons bump along over the ruts in the 
 roads, while the occupants inside tumble back and 
 forth upon one another. Their costumes are wonder- 
 ful to behold, for each one has on a bathing-suit over 
 which is a kimono, dressing-gown, or some such cov- 
 ering, while bath-towels are very much in evidence. 
 Every one is off for a good time and every one finds 
 it at Port Alfred. 
 
 A unique feature in Port Alfred is the Lagoon, 
 much frequented by women and children. It is a 
 large salt-water pond, covering an acre or two, and 
 not over ten feet deep in the deepest part. It is 
 just inside the breakwater, and is affected by the 
 tides, since it is connected with the sea by a passage 
 under the breakwater. The water here is always 
 warmer than the surf outside, and, moreover, the 
 place is an excellent one in which to learn to swim. 
 
148 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 There are numbers of bath-houses near the Lagoon, 
 which fact makes it convenient as a bathing-place. 
 
 If success had crowned the efforts of the govern- 
 ment to make Port Alfred a harbor, we should have 
 been able to embark here for the further continuance 
 of our journey. But since this port is at present 
 the grave of the £800,000 expended upon it, we must 
 return by train to Port Elizabeth. A night on a 
 sleeping-car brings us back to Algoa Bay, where 
 our ship is already anchored, a week having elapsed 
 since we came ashore for this little excursion. 
 
EAST LONDON 
 
 Now we embark on one of the fine steamers of the 
 Deutsche Ost Afrika Linie (German East Africa 
 Line). Their vessels make the complete circuit of 
 the African continent, going alternately down the 
 West Coast and up the East, thence to Hamburg, and 
 vice versa. This is the only steamship line that sends 
 ships on this circular voyage. 
 
 We sail by lovely Port Alfred in the night (were 
 it daytime, we could distinctly see the village, for the 
 ships pass very close) and at five o'clock the next 
 morning we are awakened by much noise and confu- 
 sion, for we are anchoring in the harbor at East Lon- 
 don. As at Port Elizabeth, our ship remains here 
 all day, and nearly every one on board goes ashore 
 to see the town. From the vessel one can see very 
 little of East London, which is built up near the 
 mouth of the Buffalo River. Large sums of money 
 have been spent here in the attempt to make it pos- 
 sible for ships to enter the river's mouth, but as yet 
 all loading and unloading of passengers and freight 
 must be carried on out in the harbor. There is a large 
 sand-bar here, and it is usual at this most exposed 
 point of the South African coast for vessels to ex- 
 perience a heavy roll. Leaving the ship in a small 
 tug, we approach East London, watching the huge 
 rollers as they break on the rocks and send their 
 white spray high into the air. 
 
 Of late years, East London has held the belliger- 
 
150 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 ent title of the "Fighting Port" because of her keen- 
 ness for up-country trade. The town, one of the 
 chief ports of Cape Colony, is also one of the loveli- 
 est residence places. No matter how high the tem- 
 perature rises on the hottest summer day, the nights 
 
 are always cool and 
 refreshing. The town 
 lies on grassy slopes, 
 a hundred and fifty 
 feet above the sea. 
 Within the past fif- 
 teen years its popu- 
 lation has increased 
 from 7,000 to 24,000, 
 and there is every 
 chance of East Lon- 
 don becoming one of 
 the largest cities in 
 the Colony. Much 
 money has been spent 
 in harbor works, but 
 animals of the east coast as yet only the 
 
 smaller boats can 
 cross the bar and enter the river. A great break- 
 water, sixteen hundred feet long, protects the river's 
 mouth, and training walls have been constructed on 
 both sides of the stream, narrowing its entrance to 
 two hundred and fifty feet. Dredgers are constantly 
 at work, keeping the channel open. The wharves, 
 
EAST LONDON 
 
 151 
 
 already nearly a mile in length, are being constantly 
 extended, as increase in commerce demands more 
 
 room. 
 
 As regards modern improvements, East London 
 is as up-to-date as any other city in the Colony; it 
 has electric lights and electric tramways. Pleasure- 
 
 ZEBRAS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 seekers here can have every wish gratified; picnic 
 parties know where to find inviting spots up the Buf- 
 falo River, and for those who like it there is boating 
 on the river. 
 
 For a steamer passenger stopping for a day's visit 
 to this delightful town, a drive would probably be 
 more restful than a river trip. There is considerable 
 choice as to drives; one of the best known and most 
 widely patronized by visitors is that out to Southern- 
 
152 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 wood, a residence quarter of the city. Beyond this is 
 Cambridge, with its beautiful natural scenery around 
 the "Horseshoe." On the return drive a different 
 route may be taken which offers other scenic attrac- 
 tions. Another delightful drive is out to the Nahoon 
 River, about three miles away, giving to the visitor 
 various charming glimpses of river and mountain, in- 
 terspersed with wild crags and precipices, and pictur- 
 esque views. A drive about the city itself is pleasant, 
 and a visit to Queen's Park should not be omitted, 
 for this pleasure-ground is one of the most attract- 
 ive spots of the town. It covers an area of eighty 
 acres, and is ©specially noted for its natural beauties, 
 which have not been destroyed by its many artificial 
 walks, grassy plots, and flower beds. 
 
 One could easily spend a week in this quiet, restful 
 atmosphere, but the setting sun warns the visitor that 
 ships, like time and tide, wait for no man. The sea 
 has saved up its biggest rollers for the exit from 
 East London, just to show the visitor what such a 
 display of wave and billow means; all who went 
 ashore for the day are returning — not as they de- 
 parted, by a ladder from steamer to tug, but in the 
 basket from tug to steamer. The experience is de- 
 cidedly new for many. The huge basket of human 
 freight swings out over the sea, and the three or four 
 inmates look up at the blue sky overhead, feeling a 
 bit shaky, knowing that nothing is between them and 
 the briny deep. For a moment the basket hovers 
 
p:ast LONDON 153 
 
 over the steamer's deck, then it sweeps down, almost 
 falling to the deck, and giving to the passengers 
 within a sensation similar to that experienced in an 
 elevator which is allowed to strike bottom suddenly. 
 
DURBAN 
 
 Leaving East London at sundown, we approach 
 Durban the following afternoon. For several hours 
 before reaching port, we sail along very close to the 
 shore, which pleases us with its remarkably green 
 landscape. What we see first is the shore of Kaf- 
 fraria, the land of the Fingoes and Pondos, border- 
 ing on Natal — the "Garden of South Africa," as it 
 has been fitly called. The hills in the distance are all 
 so green that we are forcibly reminded of Ireland 
 as one sees it on the voyage from New York to 
 Liverpool. 
 
 At last the bluff at Durban comes into view, with 
 its tall white lighthouse rising out of the midst of 
 the verdure. Rounding this point, we see the great 
 breakwater and a harbor full of ships, and beyond it 
 all the beautiful city, rising up from the sea on quite 
 a high hill. Were there mountains instead of hills 
 here, the approach to Durban would almost equal 
 that to Cape Town for beauty and picturesqueness. 
 We enter the docks to a joyful German air, played 
 by the orchestra, and as soon as the gangplank is let 
 down, our decks swarm with hotel porters and laun- 
 drymen. Since six days are to be spent in the docks, 
 many of the passengers leave the ship to go to the 
 houses of friends or to hotels, while others, who do 
 not mind noise, remain on board. 
 
 We do not wait long before going off the ship, 
 
DURBAN 
 
 155 
 
 and the first thing to do is to take a little walk along 
 the Bay Esplanade, a lovely boulevard laid out with 
 grassplots and palms, and having rustic benches here 
 and there. An hour's walk in Durban's delightful 
 
 ENTRANCE TO DURBAN 
 
 atmosphere gives one an appetite, and we return to 
 our vessel just in time to sit down to our usual excel- 
 lent menu. Whether on the high seas or in port, it is 
 all the same to us, for the efforts of the chef never 
 fall below the high standard with which he started 
 out on his long voyage several months ago. 
 
 At bedtime everything seems auspicious for a 
 pleasant night's rest, but in the early morn — at day- 
 
156 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 break, in fact — a deafening noise strikes our ears. 
 We arise earlier than usual, and investigate the cause 
 of all this commotion. There are cars loaded with 
 coal standing on tracks close beside the ship, and 
 hundreds of Zulus, almost naked, are carrying coal 
 in baskets on their heads, and dumping it into the 
 hold. A constant procession of these natives is mov- 
 ing round one of the lower decks. Because of the 
 dirt and dust, the upper deck is closely covered with 
 an awning and all windows and portholes are closed. 
 Inside, electric fans are buzzing everywhere, but in 
 spite of them all it is uncomfortably warm on ship- 
 board. We decide to spend each day on shore, since 
 Durban seems to offer many inducements for sight- 
 seeing. 
 
 The province of Natal and its two chief cities of 
 Durban and Pietermaritzburg seem very different 
 from anything we have thus far seen. Here there 
 is the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, 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 
 beautiful. Rickshaws meet us at the wharf and we 
 find that in Natal they take the place of cabs almost 
 entirely. The fare is less here than in other cities; 
 for about five cents we have a delightful ride, skim- 
 ming along over the broad, clean, well-paved streets. 
 Competition is keen among the rickshaw boys, and 
 
DURBAN 
 
 157 
 
 they seem to enjoy earning their fees. But 
 we learn the great exertion tells on their health in 
 time, and they die early of consumption, although 
 they are for the most part of the finest native race 
 in Africa — the Zulus. They add a picturesque ele- 
 
 THE ESPLANADE AT DURBAN 
 A rickshaw boy shown in the foreground 
 
 ment to the street life, in their bright-colored tuinics, 
 with horns on their heads and bells on their heels. 
 
 We lunch at the hotel. When we enter the dining- 
 room and see what seem to us fifty Moorish princes 
 all in white linen, with snowy turbans, ready to wait 
 upon us, we feel like the barber in the Arabian 
 Nights, who was moved into the king's palace while 
 
158 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 he slept and awoke to find a royal retinue ready to 
 do his bidding. The many villages and the great 
 Indian temple speak of the number of Malays here. 
 Many of these find employment in the mines pro- 
 ducing coal and minerals. 
 
 The residence portion of Durban is charming. 
 From a distance it is like a vast jungle. Villas and 
 
 RICKSHAWS OF DURBAN 
 
 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 
 natural "hanging garden of Babylon." The finest 
 homes are on the high terraces called the Berea. Here 
 
DURBAN 159 
 
 there is a view of the land-locked harbor below, 
 which was until lately the "incurable disease" of the 
 country. 
 
 A sand-bar had formed across the entrance to the 
 harbor, 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 prob- 
 lem. Now a system of dredging makes it possible for 
 the huge weekly mail ships to pass through the nar- 
 row entrance between the long breakwater and the 
 projecting land, into the quiet harbor of Port Natal. 
 Here the mail boat terminates its voyage from Eng- 
 land after a run of seven thousand 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 that of the 
 Dutch "g," is difficult to. acquire unless one is taught 
 in childhood. One can never be sure of pronuncia- 
 tion where there is such a mixture of French, 
 Dutch, Zulu and English names. Pietermaritzburg, 
 the capital of Natal, was named from the two lead- 
 ers of the Boers who trekked 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 service in Durban is under municipal 
 ownership and is unusually good. There are stations 
 
160 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 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 
 
 WEST STREET, DURBAN 
 
 Africa the city seems much larger than it is. Here 
 as elsewhere there is time to enjoy life, and at eleven 
 o'clock and at four o'clock all business seems sus- 
 pended, and the tea-rooms are thronged. The docks 
 are always a scene of activity, for this rich district 
 yields many products for exportation. The chief 
 wealth of Natal is in sugar, tea, cereals, livestock, 
 and coal. 
 
DURBAN 161 
 
 The American has the reputation of being the 
 chief of "globe-trotters," but the Africander is a 
 greater traveler. Families of moderate means plan 
 to go "home," as they call England or Scotland, every 
 five years, and one frequently meets students from 
 some European school who have come home to Africa 
 to see their parents during the two months' summer 
 vacation — a distance equal to that between San Fran- 
 cisco and London. To us this cruise half-way round 
 the world is a remarkable achievement; to the trav- 
 eled, cosmopolitan Africander it is an everyday 
 affair. But not every Africander makes a circuit 
 of his continent, because the East Coast trip is much 
 longer and more expensive than the regular mail 
 route up and down the West Coast. 
 
 We sail from Durban at daybreak. Silently our 
 good vessel slips away from her moorings while we 
 are yet asleep, and when we go to breakfast we can 
 see nothing of the town, which in six days we have 
 learned to love so well. 
 
 All day long, for fully three hundred miles, we 
 are in sight of a long straight line of sand hills, beau- 
 tifully green on top; such is the coast between Dur- 
 ban and our next stopping-place, Lorenzo Marques. 
 
LORENZO MARQUES 
 
 Lorenzo Marques is the capital of Portuguese 
 East Africa, and is said to be one of the most flour- 
 ishing ports along the East Coast. It certainly has 
 one of the best harbors, with the added advantage 
 of having ships anchor right at the docks near the 
 principal streets. Since this is the port nearest to 
 Johannesburg and Pretoria, it follows that a vast 
 amount of shipping goes through here, which neces- 
 sitates extensive wharves and warehouses. Conse- 
 quently, our ship has to remain here four whole days. 
 The business of unloading freight goes on all 
 day long, often up to midnight, and begins again 
 as early as four o'clock in the morning. 
 
 This part of Africa is excessively hot for about 
 three months ; but almost daily showers, consisting of 
 a heavy downpour for an hour or more, make life 
 here quite possible. In the forenoon the streets may 
 be running rivers, but when the sun comes out later, 
 everything is soon dry, and after luncheon every one 
 goes out to "do" the town. But before returning to 
 the ship, we decide that the town has "done" us. 
 
 We go for a tram ride, which takes us all around 
 the place in about an hour's time. This ride costs 
 each one four hundred reis in Portuguese money, in 
 English money about a shilling and eightpence, and 
 in United States money about forty cents — an ex- 
 orbitant price. The residences of Lorenzo Marques 
 
LORENZO MARQUES 163 
 
 are mostly modest little cottages, with now and then 
 a more pretentious dwelling set far back in beautiful 
 grounds, evidently the property of some high official. 
 The shops are less attractive than those of any other 
 place we have yet seen in Africa. The population 
 of the town, about 6,000, is equally divided between 
 natives and Europeans, the majority of the latter 
 being Portuguese. The natives have so intermarried 
 with the Portuguese, themselves a dark-skinned peo- 
 ple, that we find it difficult to distinguish between the 
 two races. 
 
 Besides an electric tram line, Lorenzo Marques 
 has also many rickshaw boys; but having found the 
 first means of transit so very expensive, everybody 
 explores the town on foot in the remaining three days. 
 The market attracts us one morning, but there is such 
 confusion of dark people and strange smells here 
 that a hasty glance inside is enough for us. The 
 hasty glance has shown us, however, many curious 
 and unknown kinds of fruit. We should like to 
 taste some of these tropical fruits, but trading with 
 these people and haggling over the change, where 
 hundreds of reis are at stake, is quite too much 
 mental work for a hot day. However, the ship's 
 stewards are more energetic; at dinner one evening 
 we find a goodly assortment of strange fruits on our 
 table. We taste the mangoes, which look something 
 like large pears and have an odor of turpentine. 
 
 Lady Anne Brassey, in her little book "A Voyage 
 
164 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 in the Sunbeam," says that the mango is certainly 
 the king of fruit; that its flavor is a combination of 
 apricot and pineapple. However, each to his own 
 taste! The majority of uninitiated tourists never 
 reach the stage where they can eat mangoes at all. 
 But if you persist, so say those who know, you will 
 find the mango the most delicious fruit for break- 
 fast. Cutting off the top, you think you have a gill 
 of vaseline before you. But the first dip of the spoon 
 proves that your prize is half seed, and after the first 
 taste, you are glad it is. Your friends, desirous of 
 seeing you enjoy the good things in life, insist upon 
 your eating every bit of it, assuring you that then 
 you will love the mango for evermore. You steel 
 yourself to the task, and the next morning, when 
 the steward serves you one, cold and dewy from 
 the ice-chest, you accept it and the habit is fixed upon 
 you. Some insist at the end of the journey that man- 
 goes are delicious, and any one who persists to what 
 is literally the bitter end will agree that they are not 
 "half bad." The other fruits we leave untasted and 
 unnamed — a pleasure in store for those who come 
 after us. 
 
 Our shopping in Lorenzo Marques is confined to 
 the purchase of picture post-cards, the price of which 
 is threepence each. The second night at the docks 
 is unpleasantly warm, and all of us suffer because of 
 the swarms of mosquitoes that also spend the night 
 on board. All arise early and unrefreshed, but a 
 
LORENZO MARQUES 
 
 165 
 
 morning shower of rain soon changes every one's feel- 
 ings. In our walk about town this day, we climb up 
 to the top of a hill not many blocks from the 
 wharves, to get a nearer view of an old fort, which is 
 the one attractive feature of the town, especially when 
 
 dS#>j 
 
 THE FORT AT LORENZO MARQUES 
 
 seen from the harbor. It is evidently very old; yet 
 every stone is intact. 
 
 On the fourth and last day, we go on a picnic, 
 planned and carried out by an acquaintance who is 
 in business in Lorenzo Marques. Our friend takes 
 a party of nine from the steamer out in his little 
 steam launch. Sailing farther up the inlet, we come 
 to a place where three rivers branch off. Choosing 
 one of these, the Umvilosi, we sail along it for an 
 
166 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 hour or more. There is little of interest to be seen; 
 the river banks are low and thickly covered with small 
 trees and underbrush, all of which are nearly under 
 water when the tide raises the river's level twelve 
 feet. It is strange that trees will grow in this salt 
 water; yet they do, and it is said that the wood from 
 these trees is so solid and heavy that it will sink in 
 water. ; I 
 
 Several miles from town, and near the river, is an 
 old abandoned flouring mill and elevator, represent- 
 ing several thousand pounds sterling lost in a vain 
 enterprise. This is the only sign of civilization that 
 we see on this excursion, except a few native tents 
 grouped together in one spot, the land all about the 
 river being one vast swamp. On Our homeward sail, 
 our host serves afternoon tea to his guests; we have 
 tea, lemonade, biscuit (crackers) of various kinds, 
 and some very nice English sweets (candy) , imported 
 from London. 
 
 Our last evening at Lorenzo Marques is passed on 
 shore, only a few blocks away from the ship. The 
 town's military band is giving an open-air concert 
 in the square; and a very pretty square it is, too, 
 surrounded on all four sides by shops and hotels. 
 There are flower beds, tropical plants and trees, rus- 
 tic benches, and stone walks in mosaic patterns. We 
 take chairs at a cafe table, where we order lemonade 
 and cake. We enjoy the music; also, it is interesting 
 to see the citizens of the town as they sit grouped 
 
LOREXZO MARQUES 167 
 
 about us. We have come prepared to remain in the 
 square all the evening, but there are too many strange 
 flying creatures here for comfort. Some belong to 
 the beetle family, but they are as large as bats. One 
 can easily brush off a fly or even a beetle, but close 
 contact with anything larger is very unpleasant. 
 Consequently we hurry back to the ship, where we 
 are sure of finding no winged insects larger than a 
 mosquito. 
 
 Before sailing time the next morning, the num- 
 ber of passengers on board our vessel is greatly 
 increased by the arrival of the Johannesburg train. 
 From now on very little change will take place in 
 the passenger list, for comparatively few people will 
 embark or depart. On the eve of our departure from 
 Lorenzo Marques, we are reminded that it was from 
 this port President Kruger sailed for Europe, after 
 his flight from the Transvaal, the border of which 
 colony is but fifty-six miles away. A Portuguese 
 railway line runs to this border, where it connects 
 with the line to Johannesburg and Pretoria. 
 
BEIRA 
 
 The morning of the third day out from Lorenzo 
 Marques gives us a new experience; our ship sticks 
 fast on a sand-bar, and here we have to remain until 
 the tide helps us to move over it and so on into the 
 harbor at Beira. We are scarcely anchored a short 
 distance from the town, when natives in rowboats 
 swarm around our ship, seeking passengers who wish 
 to go ashore. Beira is a comparatively small town, 
 having a population of 1,000 whites and 3,000 natives. 
 It is a Portuguese port, and very unattractive. Its 
 streets and roads are like the seashore, so sandy that 
 one sinks ankle-deep in attempting to walk about. 
 We think Beira, meaning "The Sand," a most appro- 
 priate name for the place. The inhabitants, realizing 
 the inconvenience of the sand, have paved the prin- 
 cipal streets with concrete. 
 
 Running all over the town is a tiny railway; each 
 man owns his private car, which is large enough 
 to hold but two persons. The motive power is fur- 
 nished by a native boy, who pushes the car from 
 behind. Rickshaws are impossible on these sandy 
 roads; hence the street railway. 
 
 The night in Beira is a noisy one, for the natives 
 keep up a weird chant all the while they are helping 
 with the unloading of the freight, which, begun in 
 the morning, continues long after midnight. At ten 
 o'clock the next morning our ship lifts anchor, and 
 we are off once again. 
 
CHINDE 
 
 Earlier on our voyage, while on a railway journey 
 up into the interior, we looked anxiously forward to 
 our first glimpse of the great Zambesi River, so 
 famous in the history of the Dark Continent; now 
 we are soon to see the delta of this mighty stream, 
 at which the town of Chinde is situated. But because 
 of the big sand-bars made by the river, we can not 
 go very close to the town, and there is no oppor- 
 tunity to go ashore for sight-seeing. It takes the 
 Chinde-Bar steamer two and a half hours from the 
 time we anchor to sail out to us; she brings a few 
 passengers and takes back several from our ship. 
 
 Chinde is the point from which people start out 
 for the interior of Africa ; they may be going as mis- 
 sionaries, government officials, or traders. Of the 
 little company bidding us good-by, some may be say- 
 ing a last farewell to civilization, for there are always 
 those who never return. The transfer of passengers 
 here in the harbor is effected by means of the basket. 
 Those who have never been swung over in the basket 
 look on in silent wonder, but probably no one of them 
 would care to ride in it himself. At last the passen- 
 gers and luggage are all safely exchanged, and the 
 little boat moves off, her passengers waving us fare- 
 well, while our ship's orchestra strikes up its music, 
 to add cheerfulness to the parting. 
 
 Some of us are more interested in the new arrivals 
 
170 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 than in any other passengers taken on since we left 
 Cape Town. We feel sure they are from distant 
 regions, and what tales of adventure they must have 
 stored away in their memories! These new people 
 all look too tired to be plied with immediate ques- 
 tions, so we wait a day before making their acquaint- 
 ance. True to our guess, they have indeed interesting 
 tales to relate. One man, a trader from Central 
 Africa, tells how he once accidentally shot and killed 
 one of his native boys; he gave the bereaved family 
 a pound note (equal to about five dollars), which 
 satisfied them so completely that nothing further was 
 ever heard of the affair. 
 
 A British tax collector who with his wife and nine- 
 months-old baby embarked at Chinde, traveled five 
 hundred miles overland to reach that place. The 
 journey, consuming several months, was made partly 
 by boat on rivers, but mostly by machila, a sort of 
 hammock carried on the shoulders of natives. A 
 small family like this one would need seventy car- 
 riers on a journey of five hundred miles, for luggage 
 and food are necessarily very heavy. In rapid trav- 
 eling such a party can make thirty miles a day. 
 
MOZAMBIQUE 
 
 There seems to be some excitement on the lower 
 deck ; every one is running to see what it can be. Our 
 ship carries three classes of regular passengers, and 
 a fourth class called "deck passengers." This last 
 class lives entirely out-of-doors on one of the lower 
 decks; their luggage is piled up there, and at night 
 they sleep on it. One of these black passengers has 
 an upholstered couch-bed ; inside it are all his worldly 
 possessions, as we have seen, for he has opened it 
 upon several occasions. He is the only one down 
 there who has the luxury of a real bed, but probably 
 he does not appreciate it. Many of the natives are 
 used to sleeping out-of-doors, and they must feel that 
 the awning overhead is luxury enough. 
 
 There is a remarkable mixture of peoples in the 
 fourth class, a study in itself for the ethnologist. 
 There could not have been more confusion at the 
 Tower of Babel than there is on this lower deck. 
 Here there are almost as many different races as 
 there are individuals, and as we look down over the 
 railing of the upper deck, it seems to us to be one 
 grand mix-up of languages and people. 
 
 The cause of the present commotion is a stalwart 
 black, who might be a Zulu chief, clad in his national 
 garb, the loin cloth. He has been working in the 
 Johannesburg mines, and is now going home to spend 
 the rest of his days in ease and luxury, for he con- 
 
172 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 siders himself a wealthy gentleman. Some of his 
 earnings were freely spent in the great city, where 
 civilization offers many temptations to the simple 
 black man; bright and gaudy things fascinate him, 
 and he loves to imitate the white man in manner of 
 dress as well as in other ways. 
 
 This Zulu now pulls forth from the chaotic pile 
 of luggage a good-sized square-topped trunk. Tak- 
 
 ZULUS AT DINNER 
 
 ing out a key from some secret place, he kneels down 
 with pride before his trunk; less fortunate compan- 
 ions stand by him as he surveys its wonderful con- 
 tents. Slowly and carefully he lifts out a white 
 laundered shirt; holding this in all possible posi- 
 tions, he eyes it critically. But looking at a shirt 
 and trying to put it on are two very different things ; 
 he does not know one end from the other, and as 
 
MOZAMBIQUE 
 
 173 
 
 #i I * 
 
 GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS AT MOZAMBIQUE 
 
 bad luck has it, he puts his head in through the neck 
 first. Not succeeding by this method, he next puts 
 his feet in through the neck, and pulls the shirt up 
 where it belongs, whereupon his friends applaud 
 him. Thus arrayed, he kneels down again and peers 
 cautiously into his trunk. Standing up, he shakes 
 out a pair of "hand-me-down" trousers, which causes 
 him about as much anxiety as the shirt, but in the 
 end he is once more successful. A third haul from 
 the trunk finds him with a pair of tan socks in each 
 hand, both pairs exactly alike. One pair of socks 
 is then put upon each foot. Next follow light tan 
 shoes, a stiff standing collar, and a blue coat with 
 brass buttons, evidently once owned by some official. 
 
174 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 By this time everybody is excited, for the ship has 
 weighed anchor, and some are ready to disembark. 
 Hurriedly the Zulu dons a soft gray felt hat, and 
 putting a silver-handled umbrella under his arm, he 
 locks his trunk, which two of his companions lift up 
 and carry for him. Already the ship is surrounded 
 by natives in little boats, clamoring for passengers. 
 Landing at a long pier, we see ahead of us the Zulu 
 passenger being met by friends, who take his trunk 
 and assist in carrying the umbrella, which latter soon 
 becomes the center of attraction. 
 
 The returning black man is no more an object of 
 curiosity than the ship's first-class passengers, and we 
 are soon surrounded by a good-sized crowd of dark 
 people — boys and small children — who follow us, not 
 necessarily begging, but just trotting along, jabber- 
 ing in their strange tongue. This is the island of 
 Mozambique, entirely covered by the town, which 
 one can easily traverse in two hours' time. The tow T n 
 is truly picturesque, with its very irregular streets, 
 some broad, others narrowing down into mere pas- 
 sageways, and all remarkably clean. The houses are 
 generally very low, with flat-tiled roofs ; the windows 
 are deep-set, and have shutters which protect the 
 occupants from the fierce rays of the sun. Along 
 the streets are many cocoanut palms, which afford 
 little shade, but serve rather as ornamentation. 
 
 The hospital, a very fine building, is set in beau- 
 tiful grounds, filled with cocoanut palms and bloom- 
 
MOZAMBIQUE 175 
 
 ing oleanders. This is a modern structure, as is the 
 pretty Catholic church. About two hundred and 
 fifty years ago, before the slave trade was abolished, 
 Mozambique was a flourishing place; but today not 
 even a hotel exists there, and many of the larger 
 houses are standing vacant. 
 
 Prisoners are everywhere to be seen, and half the 
 workmen walk with ball and chain. A stranger, un- 
 acquainted with Portuguese methods, little suspects 
 that the haughty officials who hold high positions on 
 the island may be political offenders from the mother 
 country; yet such is the case, for Portugal does not 
 exercise capital punishment, she exiles her convicts 
 instead. Whether the sentence is for life or for a 
 term of years, an exile's fate may seem more desir- 
 able and less dishonorable than a prison cell in Lis- 
 bon. Mozambique guards her prisoners by impass- 
 able waters and weighs them down with oppressive 
 and intolerable heat. 
 
 An old fort stands guard at one end of the island; 
 its ancient walls and battlements attract visitors. Its 
 large gate stands invitingly open, and through it one 
 enters a great open court, whence a staircase leads up- 
 ward. Ascending to the top of these stairs, we 
 find a guide waiting to show visitors about, and 
 proudly he does his duty. There are queer old rusty 
 cannon placed at intervals around the walls of the 
 fort ; they are only seven or eight feet long, mounted 
 on wooden carriages, and most primitive looking 
 
176 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 affairs. But the Portuguese guide explains earnestly 
 how a match applied to the little pinch of powder 
 would do terrible execution were the cannon loaded 
 up with the iron croquet balls which stand in a little 
 pyramid just behind each one. 
 
 One modern gunboat could blow the old walls of 
 the fort and the toy cannon out of existence in a 
 moment, but our guide knows nothing about things 
 modern, least of all gunboats. We can not bear to 
 destroy his happy confidence and pride in his array 
 of rusty cannon, each with its pinch of powder ready 
 for ignition; nor do we wish to rob him of his feel- 
 ing of perfect security within the old yellow walls, 
 crumbling with age. There are many prisoners 
 within these walls; probably some are descendants 
 of those early fortune-seekers who seized the island 
 and pressed into servitude the native princes of Mo- 
 zambique. On top of the fort, in the midst of the 
 old relics of ancient warfare, is a beautiful tropical 
 garden, picking a great bunch of various kinds of 
 flowers, the guide gives a bouquet to each visitor, re- 
 ceiving in return a small fee, which pleases him very 
 much. 
 
 Leaving the fort behind us, we walk back into the 
 town. Rustic seats and benches are everywhere to 
 be found, and gladly we choose one for a resting- 
 place, for even at seven o'clock in the morning the 
 heat from the sun is intense. A number of little 
 black children line up in front of us, and bowing 
 
MOZAMBIQUE 177 
 
 very low and gracefully, they hold out tiny begging 
 hands; they are bright and intelligent looking and 
 ought to be doing something better than begging. 
 Grown boys and men walk by slowly, looking very 
 stately in their long, loose white garments, not unlike 
 a man's nightshirt in cut. 
 
 Now a boy approaches, offering to sell his pet 
 Madagascar cat. The cat is a funny little animal, 
 a cross between a monkey and a squirrel; he has the 
 cunning features of both, a furry tail of some length, 
 and a pathetic little face, almost human because of 
 the big brown eyes. His tiny baby hands are clasp- 
 ing his beloved mango, while he takes the daintiest 
 bites with his sharp white teeth around the great hard 
 kernel. He seems to be the only creature that can 
 eat a mango daintily. 
 
 We next visit a shop, where we try to buy photo- 
 graphs. The shopkeeper has a few post-cards, but 
 no photographs; he says it is impossible to make 
 pictures in Mozambique, because there is no ice there, 
 and the water is too warm to develop the negatives. 
 Thus we are forced to go out and take our own 
 photographs. Looking about, we see a good sub- 
 ject for a picture; three fine-looking women of splen- 
 did poise are coming along with great jars of water 
 on their heads. They are most picturesque as we 
 see them in the avenue of cocoanut palms. We 
 quickly focus a camera, but before we can press the 
 bulb, the three women are fleeing with screams of 
 
178 
 
 SOUTH AFliICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 THE MADAGASCAR OX AND HIS DRIVER 
 
 terror. From behind distant trees they look at us, 
 laughing at our discomfiture. Their jars, meanwhile, 
 remain in perfect equilibrium, much to our surprise. 
 Disappointed in this undertaking, we fold up our 
 camera and continue our walk. We meet a boy with 
 another strange little animal for sale — a mongoose, 
 it is called. This pet the boy parts with for a shilling, 
 and the buyer carries it away in his pocket. The 
 mongoose is about as large as a rat, and not unlike 
 a rat in appearance ; in his native haunts he is a snake 
 killer, but when tamed is as nice a pet as a squirrel. 
 The natives keep these animals as pets, to drive away 
 reptiles and other vermin from their dwellings. The 
 
MOZAMBIQUE 179 
 
 mongoose is such a fierce looking little animal that 
 only a very brave cat would dare to attack him. 
 
 Returning to the pier, we see a curious cart drawn 
 by a strange looking animal. The driver of this 
 Madagascar ox — for such he is called — is transfer- 
 ring his load to a small boat. Obtaining the driver's 
 permission by means of pantomime, we take a snap- 
 shot of him and his beast. The ox, a large brother 
 of the mysterious gnu, with a useless great camel 
 hump on his back, looks as though he ought to be 
 traveling with a circus, instead of plodding along 
 a highway, attached to a big awkward cart on two 
 equally awkward wheels. 
 
 On the pier one may buy souvenirs, to be chosen 
 from a collection of sea-curios — lovely sprays of red 
 and white coral, just as it is brought up from the 
 sea, red starfish, and tortoise shells large enough for 
 a baby's cradle. Then there are smaller shells of 
 every sort and color, and beautifully polished conches, 
 which, put to one's ear, moan softly and sadly a har- 
 mony suggestive of the desolation and deathly 
 grandeur of Mozambique. 
 
 If one remains on the island until daylight fades 
 into twilight, the big steamer out in the harbor, bril- 
 liantly lighted, seems a welcome haven of refuge 
 from the shore, where dim lanterns light up the 
 streets, making everything in them shadowy and 
 mysterious. Of course nobody is afraid, but the 
 empty palaces and 1 warehouses, and the closed hotels 
 
180 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 make the bare thought of being left behind on the 
 island anything but pleasant. Where would one go 
 in case of such an emergency? Not wishing to 
 answer this question from actual experience, we take 
 the first little boat that offers to carry us back to 
 the steamer. 
 
 To one who enjoys bartering and quarreling a 
 journey up the East Coast of Africa offers every 
 opportunity for just such pleasure and recreation. 
 You are on land and wish to return to your ship — 
 a simple enough proceeding, for a score of native 
 boats is at hand, ready to convey you there. But the 
 moment you signify your intention to take a boat, a 
 dozen native boatmen swoop down on you like a 
 dozen hawks after one poor little chicken. So, be- 
 wildered and confused, you climb into the nearest 
 boat, and immediately the haggling begins. The 
 native pushes off, several assistants manage the sail, 
 and all the while the collector is demanding a fee, 
 which you insist shall not be paid until the journey's 
 end. Before this argument has reached a conclusion, 
 you have come up to the ship. The great lighted 
 vessel seems to hold out its arms to you. Jumping 
 from the dhow, you land fairly and squarely on the 
 swinging staircase, and turn round to give to the 
 native boatman the usual fee of a sixpence. "No," 
 must be sharply said three times, at each demand for 
 more pay — and now that you are home again — that 
 is, among friends — you do not care if the boatman 
 
MOZAMBIQUE 181 
 
 does make remarks in an unknown language, though 
 he pays you anything but compliments on your 
 generosity. 
 
 From the steamer's protecting railing, you take a 
 last look at the Arab dhows, dotted about the harbor. 
 These curious little sailboats skim like swift swal- 
 lows over the calm sea. No wonder that the slave 
 traders could steal their slaves and be off with them 
 before the rest of the tribe could prepare for pur- 
 suit! The only life of the Arab dhows now, and of 
 the small canoes, is the far less exciting occupation 
 of bringing out to the big ship their thefts from 
 the sea caves. The master of the dhow is a com- 
 manding figure with a white drapery around his black 
 loins, and a white turban protecting his head. 
 
 Mozambique has a history; she was not always a 
 picturesque line of adobe houses of white, pink, and 
 brown, set against a clear sky and cocoanut palms 
 merely to gladden the tourist's eye. She was once a 
 welcome port to merchant vessels on their way to 
 India, and a port well worth fortifying. In 1497, 
 when Vasco da Gama passed around Africa, he 
 sailed up the East Coast as far as Mozambique, where 
 he found pilots from Arabia, and thence he crossed 
 to India. He then and there set the Portuguese seal 
 upon the island, so its history, as far as European 
 interest is concerned, is almost as old as that of San 
 Salvador. 
 
ZANZIBAR 
 
 A day under an equatorial sun which seems to fill 
 the whole sky, a night under the cool white tropical 
 moon, and we wake up anchored in the wide harbor 
 of Zanzibar. 
 
 Voices of children, shouting incoherent words, 
 greet us before we can get on deck. It is the same 
 call that has welcomed us all along the way: "Throw 
 something! Throw something !" The porthole frames 
 a picture for a post-card — a miniature canoe and in 
 it two of the liveliest of little black water sprites. A 
 coin is thrown from the upper deck and the water 
 babies spring into the sea. They come up fighting 
 the waves and splashing in glee, one showing between 
 his white teeth the recovered sixpence. The capsized 
 canoe is righted, the divers climb into it, and after 
 spluttering a few minutes to get the water out of 
 ears and nose, they begin again the insistent call: 
 "Throw something! Throw something!" 
 
 The Zanzibar merchants spread out on the ship's 
 deck the most alluring display — woven mats, carved 
 ivory, sandalwood, beaten silver, post-cards, and pho- 
 tographs. Below, in the canoes that surround the 
 steamer, gleaming shells and trays of fruit are dis- 
 played. The owners of the old slave dhows are 
 clamoring to take passengers ashore. It is only 
 within the last ten years that they have been obliged 
 to give up their traffic in humanity. One almost 
 pities the adventurous pirate captains who have been 
 
ZANZIBAR 
 
 183 
 
 THE SULTAN ALI AND HIS MINISTERS 
 
 forced to descend to the commonplace occupation of 
 taking arrogant Europeans a few hundred feet, in 
 a boat that has gone scudding like the wind before 
 rescuers, or other pirates, who pursued. 
 
 Besides the dhow there is another reminder of Zan- 
 zibar's slavery days. In the heart of the city is a 
 large plaza — the slave market. The iron hitching- 
 posts and the chains that held human victims captive 
 until the time of sale, have not yet rusted, for the 
 English have held possession of Zanzibar, and slav- 
 ery has been banished, hardly a dozen years. 
 
 Although the British actually rule this island, in 
 
184 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 theory it is the domain of an oriental potentate, the 
 Sultan Ali. In 1890 Great Britain declared a pro- 
 tectorate over Zanzibar. A certain Khalid attempted 
 a usurpation in 1896, and the city was bombarded 
 by the British fleet. The result was what one might 
 naturally expect; in a few moments the palace was 
 blown to pieces, and the little kingdom surrendered. 
 Khalid fled to German East Africa. The youthful 
 Ali, the present sultan, was put upon the throne; 
 after a few weeks he was taken off again and sent to 
 England to be educated, to be brought back later and 
 reseated among British ministers, who assist him in 
 governing. His English advisers relieve him of all 
 labor and all financial worry, paying him some sev- 
 enty thousand dollars a year for the rent of certain 
 of his lands. In the harbor of Zanzibar his whole 
 fleet has been safely anchored by the British at the 
 bottom of the sea. The mast of his largest vessel 
 may still be seen projecting some thirty feet above 
 the surface of the water like a threatening rod, as a 
 warning that what has once happened to a sultan in 
 way of punishment may happen again. 
 
 The palace of the former sultan was wrecked dur- 
 ing the bombardment, and the new building is as 
 ugly a modern edifice as human skill could devise — 
 a gingerbread house with many galleries, at the right 
 of which stands a tall steel electric tower. When 
 night comes on, hiding the ugly decorations and harsh 
 outlines of the palace, when the many rows of elec- 
 
ZANZIBAR 
 
 185 
 
 trie lights that line the balconies are lit, and soft 
 strains of music float from the palace seaward, 
 it would seem that Aladdin's enchantment had 
 set this brilliant palace by the sea. Within 
 its magic casements is fairyland indeed. The 
 oriental court, with the great stairways leading 
 
 THE SULTAN'S PALACE AT ZANZIBAR 
 
 to the upper balconies where the three wives of the 
 sultan have their apartments, the beautiful Turkish 
 rugs, the Arabian arabesques and inscriptions, the 
 glittering chandeliers, the servants in rich livery — 
 all this splendor offers the sultan some compensation 
 for what he has lost, if luxury can ever compensate 
 for lost power. 
 
186 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 T h e landing 
 at Zanzibar is 
 more exciting 
 than dignified. 
 The small boats 
 strike bottom on 
 the shelving 
 beach some dis- 
 tance from the 
 shore, and the 
 remaining few 
 feet are accom- 
 plished pick-a- 
 b a ck. These 
 obliging swarthy 
 cavaliers do not 
 scorn the pen- 
 nies with which 
 one rewards 
 their gallantry. 
 The next ordeal 
 is to choose a 
 guide from the 
 many who wave 
 in the face of the tourists their much crumpled 
 credentials. A guide is not necessary, but who 
 could resist the boy who implores: " Read! [Read! " 
 beaming with delight at the pleasure every one 
 seems to take in scanning his recommendation: 
 
 
 • ^BNtiEJI 
 
 ONE OF THE NARROW STREETS 
 
ZANZIBAK 187 
 
 "This is Snowball; he is not much worse than 
 the others." 
 
 The narrow streets of Zanzibar are as interesting 
 as the corridors of the Pitti Palace or the halls of the 
 Vatican. Zanzibar has not deliberately collected any- 
 thing to interest anybody; it simply is, and that is 
 enough. The art treasures of Europe are out of 
 their proper setting; if the madonnas were looking 
 down from the high altar of some old church instead 
 of from a gilded frame in a gallery, or if the Elgin 
 marbles were under the light of southern skies in- 
 stead of in the gray haze of London, one would have 
 the sense of enjoyment that is felt only when the works 
 of man blend with their surroundings as in Zanzibar. 
 
 The island is in itself one continuous picture — a 
 mass o*f vivid coloring in the country, with its clove 
 orchards, flamboyant trees, and groves of cocoanut 
 palms; while the city reminds one of a pastel in 
 black and white. 
 
 Everywhere are darkly shadowed, narrow streets, 
 and in the small open squares at the end of these are 
 patches of white where the sand reflects the almost 
 painful brilliance of the merciless African sun. The 
 swarthy native, the Swahili, who boasts of his Arab 
 descent, but who appears to be very closely related 
 to his kinsmen on the mainland of Africa, looks as 
 black as night in contrast with his snowy linen robe 
 and white embroidered cap. The white walls of the 
 old Moorish buildings that line the thoroughfares 
 
.188 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 of the city 
 serve as an ef- 
 fective fram- 
 ing for the 
 wonderfully 
 carved teak 
 and ebony 
 doors that are 
 the chief 
 beauty of 
 Zanzibar. 
 
 These pieces 
 of heavy carv- 
 ing sh o u 1 d 
 not be called 
 "doors," but 
 pictures, rath- 
 er, so rich are 
 they in orien- 
 tal fantasy. 
 Sometimesthe 
 design takes 
 the form of ar- 
 tistically in- 
 terwoven Ara- 
 bic letters, that give to the visitor who can read the 
 sacred book some sentence from the Koran for his 
 soul's good. Sometimes the door is of heavy teak 
 panels, metal-studded and framed in carved ebony. 
 
 A CARVED DOOR AND A PAIR OF TUSKS 
 
ZANZIBAR 
 
 189 
 
 *•.-"" 
 
 UNDER ZANZIBAR'S SERENELY CLOUDLESS SKY 
 
 In Zanzibar the door is the finishing touch of all 
 that is strange and mysterious. It swings open and 
 women whose faces are not more darkly veiled from 
 us than their lives, follow silent, stern-looking serv- 
 ants into the narrow streets, to disappear again be- 
 hind a door equally mysterious. Everywhere are 
 overhanging, closely latticed balconies, where, we are 
 told, the women of the household come to seek a 
 breath of air during the days of a summer and a 
 winter almost equally hot and sultry. Here they may 
 sit year in and year out, waiting for time to pass, 
 watching the street life below, through the tiny 
 
190 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 openings in the latticework. Perhaps they are not so 
 unhappy as we imagine, and it may be that among 
 friends who have come to an afternoon coffee party 
 some of them are at this moment pitying us in our 
 stiff European clothes, fighting against their climate 
 with fan and parasol. They may be laughing at our 
 hurried scampering, when without a minute's warn- 
 ing, a cloud bursts over our heads, letting down not 
 rain but a veritable deluge. 
 
 For an hour we gaze into the deserted street from 
 what seems a submarine window in the hotel. When 
 we issue into the street again the sky is serenely 
 cloudless, and were it not for the few pools of water 
 under foot we should believe the sudden downpour 
 a dream. Because of the frequent rainfall and the 
 subsequent intense heat, the whole land steams, and 
 fever is the usual accompaniment of the continual 
 vapor bath. 
 
 Alternating sun and shower may not agree with 
 transplanted humanity, but the fruits and flowers 
 of the island are of wonderful luxuriance and per- 
 fection. The fruit market is an immense shed filled 
 with a tempting display of trays and baskets in which 
 are heaped oranges, pineapples, bananas, lemons, 
 jack- fruit, mangoes, cocoanuts, betel nuts and many 
 varieties of strange tropical fruits, the names of 
 which are unknown to us. Near each mound the 
 seller is stationed; very often the companion by his 
 side is a very diminutive white donkey which has car- 
 
ZANZIBAR 191 
 
 ried the panniers of fruit that morning across the 
 island. 
 
 A journey the length or breadth of the island of 
 Zanzibar is not a very long one, for it is only about 
 fifty miles from north to south and fifteen miles 
 across. Yet this little crescent of land supports a 
 
 THE ENGLISH CONSULATE AT ZANZIBAR 
 In the background the American Consulate 
 
 population of nearly a quarter of a million, 100,000 
 living in the city of Zanzibar. 
 
 Three steamship lines of equal length, each 2,400 
 miles long, radiate from Zanzibar to Suez, Cape 
 Town, and Southern India. The exports of the island 
 amount to many millions in value, and are chiefly 
 copra, rubber, ivory, and cloves. Cloves are the prin- 
 cipal source of wealth; no plant is more limited with 
 regard to its geographical distribution, the Moluccas 
 and Zanzibar producing the world's supply of this 
 spice. 
 
192 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 The clove grows to the height of an ordinary cherry 
 tree and resembles a laurel in shape. The tree rises 
 four or five feet before it throws out its branches. 
 The flowers grow in small bunches upon branched 
 peduncles at the extremity of the boughs, and are at 
 first a peach-blossom pink. The long calyx of the 
 flower holds the seed vessel. The corolla fades in 
 iime; the calyx changes its color first to yellow, and 
 then to a darker red. The calyx and the undeveloped 
 seed form the clove of commerce. 
 
 The clove must be picked as soon as it is ripe, or 
 else the seed will enlarge and the pungent properties 
 be lost. Cloths are spread on the ground, and the 
 clusters which can not be picked by hand are pulled 
 off very carefully with crooked sticks. The cloves 
 are then placed in bundles and smoked for days; 
 afterward they are dried in the sun, which darkens 
 them further. 
 
 The cloves that drop off between picking seasons 
 are left to dry in the sun and can be recognized by 
 their shriveled appearance. A tree may yield as 
 many as one thousand pounds, but the average yield 
 is not more than five pounds to a tree. The trees 
 begin to bear after the eighth year and live from 
 eighty to one hundred and fifty years. 
 
 In between the clove trees the cocoanut palms are 
 planted about twenty-five feet apart. These trees 
 also bear in their eighth year, but four times annually, 
 and from two hundred to three hundred nuts a year. 
 
ZANZIBAR 
 
 193 
 
 The handsome betel nut palm is cultivated in small 
 clumps around the house, perhaps so the whole family 
 can get their supply of gum without undue effort. 
 Betel chewing is certainly not pleasing to behold, 
 but it is no less attractive to the observer than is the 
 
 THE OLD QUARTER OF THE CITY 
 
 gum or the tobacco habit common in countries sup- 
 posed to be civilized. 
 
 The banana, jack- fruit, and mango trees are seen 
 along the driveway, and occasionally a cinnamon tree 
 or a nutmeg twenty feet high. 
 
 It is a day's drive to the town of Chuaka on the 
 opposite side of the island. Clove orchards, cocoanut 
 
194 SOUTH AFRICA AND. THE EAST COAST 
 
 groves and mango trees canopy the road. The scene 
 is all life and color : the women in gay drapery come 
 swinging along with baskets of fruit on their heads; 
 children are playing before the brown huts in the 
 openings; the thick foliage of the tree almost hides 
 the clove gatherer and his ladder; piles of shining 
 cocoanuts mark the places where the native boys are 
 at work in mid-air. The breeze from the sea wafts 
 from the clove orchards a fragrance like that of a 
 garden of pinks, for even the leaves and bark partake 
 of the pungent odor of the bud. 
 
 The crushed brown particles of the cloves, that 
 cover the floors of the big warehouse where hundreds 
 of sacks are stored, give forth the same delightful 
 fragrance. Near by is the warehouse for the copra, 
 a name given to the green, partially dried cocoanut, 
 which is sent to Marseilles, where its oil serves to man- 
 ufacture many things, from soap to "pure olive oil." 
 The heaps of precious elephant tusks are kept under 
 lock and key, for a small roomful represents a great 
 fortune. 
 
 The souvenir hunter becomes hopelessly impover- 
 ished in the ivory shops of Zanzibar. Those who can 
 "resist everything but temptation" should not look 
 at the fascinating displays in these bazaars. One 
 excuses oneself on the ground that such tempting 
 bargains are to be found nowhere else in the world. 
 There are hand-carved sandalwood and silver; hand- 
 woven mats and divan covers; oriental slippers and 
 
ZANZIBAR 195 
 
 fans; and, above all, ivory in every shape and form, 
 from a plain cigarette holder to the most elaborate 
 jewel box. 
 
 That it is possible to carve articles of considerable 
 size from a single piece of ivory is evident from the 
 two tusks photographed between two stalwart men 
 to show the comparative size of the tusks. They are 
 frequently ten feet in length and several times 
 greater in circumference than the neck of an ordinary 
 man. Such a pair is worth four or five hundred dol- 
 lars, for the demand for billiard balls is a constant 
 one and always greater than the supply, and so the 
 price of ivory continually advances. The elephant, 
 monarch of the forests beyond on the mainland, in- 
 creases in stature year after year, only that he may 
 finally be able to present a fitting offering to the bil- 
 liard table. No wonder that he rebelliously beats a 
 retreat deeper and deeper into the forests, rather than 
 come to so unworthy an end! 
 
 All of Africa imports the necessities of life and 
 supplies the world with luxuries. South Africa would 
 be poor indeed were it not for gold, diamonds, and 
 ostrich feathers; and East Africa derives its wealth 
 from such unnecessary supplies as cloves, nuts, and 
 spices. 
 
 The East Coast natives seem to need very few of 
 either the necessities or luxuries of life. A white 
 gown suffices for the men, a gaudy drapery for the 
 women, and as little work as possible satisfies both. 
 
196 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 For gala attire the men and women expend their 
 energy in decorating the enlarged lobe of the ear 
 with metal disks or rolls of bright paper, and stud- 
 ding with gold 
 or jewels the 
 pierced upper 
 lip and nos- 
 trils. The 
 Swahili wom- 
 en wear a 
 ruffle around 
 their ankles, 
 which, com- 
 bined with 
 their queer 
 costume, pro- 
 duces the ef- 
 f e c t of a 
 clumsy buff 
 cochin - china 
 hen. The hair 
 is sometimes 
 done in fanci- 
 ful designs, 
 the favorite 
 device being a hundred rows of tiny braids woven 
 close to the head, that have the appearance of the 
 even furrows of a garden. 
 
 The children who carry the tiny cups of coffee 
 
 A SWAHILI WOMAN 
 
ZANZIBAR 197 
 
 around the fruit market for a penny a cup, or who 
 play in the shaded alleys, seem the most care-free 
 of little animals. A fairly large number are gath- 
 ered into the interesting Church of England Mission 
 School, where a number of devoted men and women 
 sacrifice health and strength, in order to show this 
 people a better way of living. 
 
 Besides the mission school, another witness to the 
 labors of the English Church is the fine cathedral. 
 There are several other really splendid types of archi- 
 tecture in the heart of the city, one of the finest being 
 the castle of the regent, the attractiveness of which 
 is enhanced by the beautiful gardens surrounding it. 
 
 There is a world of interest connected with this 
 "city of doors," and the mail boat's stay of three 
 days, the passengers agree, is all too short. "The 
 fever will get you if you don't look out," the boat's 
 crew assure us, but we are not convinced. Whether 
 we are convinced or not, in two hours the ship sails, 
 so there is time for just one more dinner under the 
 "punka." The silent Arab boy sits against the wall 
 and waves this big fan attached to the ceiling, to and 
 fro, while we dine on the favorite dish of the island 
 — a delicious mixture of shrimp and shredded cocoa- 
 nut, so hot with curry that it is an appropriate viand 
 to have set before us on leaving Zanzibar, for we 
 eat it with tears in our eyes. 
 
DAR-ES-SALAAM 
 
 The Arabs who founded the settlements along the 
 eastern coast of Africa, gave their towns names so 
 musical and so appropriate that one feels no others 
 would have been possible. What else could Zanzibar 
 mean but "Paradise" ? Never do we realize the fitness 
 of its name so fully as when we see this Garden of 
 Eden in the distance and its gates closing behind 
 us. Before we realize all we have lost, a still lovelier 
 haven comes in view — "The Abode of Peace," 
 Dar-es- Salaam. 
 
 No flaming sword could be more dazzling than this 
 red sunset toward which we move. Later when it 
 turns to glowing bronze, the sky becomes a splendid 
 background for the tall cocoanut palms, the cream 
 adobe buildings and the dark wildness of the tropical 
 foliage. From the first glimpse to the last, Dar-es- 
 Salaam is the finest gem of the many rich settlements 
 that, linked together by the network of commerce, 
 encircle Africa. 
 
 Although Zanzibar is farther north than Dar-es- 
 Salaam, the mail steamer makes straight for the more 
 northern point, and afterward takes the side trip 
 forty miles south to Dar-es- Salaam. It is necessary 
 to reach Zanzibar as soon as possible, not only be- 
 cause it is the most populous and the most important 
 city on the East Coast, but also because ships bound 
 for the Far East touch at Zanzibar and await there 
 
 198 
 
DAR-ES-SALAAM 
 
 199 
 
 A TYPICAL RESIDENCE OF DAR-ES-SALAAM 
 
 the transference of mail, cargo and passengers en 
 route from Africa to India. Moreover, a ship may 
 come to anchor in the broad harbor of Zanzibar at 
 any time, but it must thread the narrow passage lead- 
 ing to Dar-es- Salaam in broad daylight. By spend- 
 ing the night at Zanzibar, the large mail steamers 
 make sure of entering the winding channel in the 
 daytime. 
 
 The journey from the domain of the sultan to the 
 territory of the Kaiser is a short one. At two in the 
 afternoon our vessel steams out of the broad harbor 
 of Zanzibar; before dark she is carefully threading 
 
200 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 her way along the crooked channel that opens into 
 the expanse of sea before Dar-es- Salaam. The colo- 
 nies of so many nations lie along the "Cape to Cairo" 
 route that at a moment's notice we change like a 
 garment allegiance, flag, laws, and language. In 
 South Africa one is impressed with the fact that no 
 country has the monopoly of good government, enter- 
 prise, and hospitality. 
 
 German East Africa is bounded on the south by 
 the Portuguese territory of Mozambique. British 
 East Africa, the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the 
 Italian desert of Somaliland lie toward the north. 
 While Germany may not have had it in mind to 
 excel all the other nations in making her capital the 
 most attractive spot along the East Coast, neverthe- 
 less Dar-es-Salaam is unquestionably this. 
 
 Each colony passed has its own interesting history; 
 every seaport has some particular claim to distinc- 
 tion. Many of the towns are larger and more im- 
 portant commercially than Dar-es-Salaam, but if this 
 center of trade can not furnish a boatload of cloves, 
 which are the chief source of wealth at Zanzibar, nor 
 the millions of peanuts which are heaped in the hold 
 at Mombasa, it at least gives the traveler a permanent 
 possession in the picture of surpassing loveliness the 
 very name recalls. 
 
 Here no ugly sultan's palace mars the line of the 
 water front. The very old and the very new in archi- 
 tecture jostle each other, but there is no discord. 
 
DAR-ES-SALAAM 
 
 201 
 
 The modern building* in Dar-es- Salaam has been 
 complete, substantial, perfect. 
 
 The greater part of this interesting town has been 
 built since 1900; the old quarter dates back to nobody 
 knows when. As a result Dar-es- Salaam presents a 
 
 THE NATIVE QUARTER 
 
 scene of striking contrasts. At one end of a long 
 street is the most modern of modern villages; at the 
 other end the most primitive of native settlements. 
 
 The picturesque element is lost sight of the next 
 morning in the stir and activity that follow our closer 
 approach to the shore. It is evident that we are a 
 
202 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 German boat nearing a German colony, and that the 
 arrival of the mail and contact with the outer world 
 are events in the colonist's life as infrequent as they 
 are desirable. All at once boats dart upon us from 
 every direction; Germans are on the ship's ladder 
 greeting German officers; the natives in their canoes 
 quarrel with one another for the first place and dra- 
 matically entreat us to land; there is a veritable con- 
 fusion of tongues. 
 
 Every one responds to the first call to breakfast, 
 eager to go ashore. For sixpence we are rowed to 
 the landing, for a shilling we have a rickshaw at our 
 disposal for an hour and a half. We exclaim at 
 every turning, for Dar-es- Salaam is a city of sur- 
 prises. Who would expect to find hidden away in 
 this comparatively unknown corner of the world such 
 beautiful homes, a model hospital, fine churches, the 
 most ideal of hotels, and every official, from the high- 
 est to the lowest, a genial host for the whole town? 
 
 Dar-es- Salaam shows what may be accomplished 
 when there is plenty of room, plenty of labor, and 
 the leisure deliberately to plan a city. Every public 
 building seems devised for its utility. The architect 
 has had to keep two things in mind: houses must 
 be artistic, and it must be cool, if Europeans are to 
 keep alive in this torrid region. So the thick walls 
 of cream adobe are built to defy the sun — and, it 
 would seem, to defy time as well. The lower floors 
 are invitingly cool, with their deep Moorish arcades 
 
DAR-ES-SALAAM 
 
 203 
 
 ONE OF THE COOL, ARTISTIC HOMES 
 
 and wide verandas. Above, the balconies are shaded 
 by the far-overhanging roof. Through the covered 
 towers the four Avinds of heaven may blow, and here, 
 fanned by the fitful breezes of the Indian Ocean, the 
 sleeper can finish his restless night. 
 
 Never were there more inviting hotels. Instead of 
 the customary heavy ugliness, here are coolness, sim- 
 plicity, and elegance. The immense square hall is in 
 white mosaic, furnished with the lightest white and 
 green wicker furniture. The glass doors show the 
 courtyard beyond, shadowed by fern trees and tall 
 palms. In the second story, around the central court, 
 
204 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 are commodious rooms and wide verandas. Here the 
 tourists congregate; one hears the clinking of ice in 
 glasses, the sound of music and laughter, and daylight 
 passes into dusk. Then the moon silvers the water, 
 a cool breeze sweeps across the point, and we begin 
 to discuss remaining over a boat, or perhaps two. We 
 have reached the land of the Lotus eaters; surely a 
 month or a year is not too long to linger! 
 
 Very often things look different in the morning. 
 The next day as we explore the town under the direct 
 rays of the African sun, we cast our eyes occasionally 
 toward the sea, uneasy lest our boat sail without us. 
 
 The size of the hospital is the best witness that 
 these very attractive towns in the tropics are not the 
 most healthful spots in the world. This is the most 
 imposing building in Dar-es- Salaam, and might be 
 mistaken for the governor's palace. The colony is 
 under a governor sent out from the mother country; 
 the well-ordered city and the conduct of the natives 
 indicate his firm rule. 
 
 It would seem that a vast park had been laid out 
 near the sea and then the governor of Dar-es-Salaam 
 had located his mansion and the houses of many of 
 his officials in this inviting retreat. The palace is 
 set in the midst of giant ferns, palms, and fragrant 
 f rangipani ; its terraces lead down to the sea. Liveried 
 servants move noiselessly through halls furnished in 
 ivory and ebony. Until recently a German count and 
 his American wife dispensed hospitality in this lovely 
 
DAR-ES-SALAAM 
 
 205 
 
 palace overlooking the Indian Ocean, but governors 
 come and go, for the climate is too unlike that of the 
 home land to make it desirable or healthful for offi- 
 cials to make a long stay in the colonies of Africa. 
 These faraway posts are not the most coveted, be- 
 cause of the divided sentiment in Germany with re- 
 
 PALACE OF THE GOVERNOR 
 
 gard to the colonies; there is a large party that 
 considers that the outlay is not warranted by the 
 present, or possible, returns, and so the expenditure 
 and administration are continually questioned by the 
 home government. 
 
206 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 From the new quarter of the town, with its mod- 
 ern hospital, residences, shops, and offices, the road 
 leads to the native village. The business street be- 
 comes an avenue shaded by flamboyant trees. The 
 tree is like an immense long-handled umbrella, the 
 lacy canopy being thickly covered with flaming flow- 
 ers. These trees make a brilliant line of color, and a 
 very grateful shade from the dazzling sunlight. 
 
 Behind our rickshaw boy we skim along the paths 
 of the park, which are shadowed by huge tropical 
 palms and fragrant with many delicate oriental odors. 
 Finally we come into the grove of giant cocoanut 
 trees. Near the top of the tall trees one counts fifty 
 or more of the nuts in their shining brown outer cases. 
 Our boy has a wholesome fear of German discipline, 
 and he absolutely refuses to listen to our suggestion 
 that he climb the tree and bring us down a cocoanut. 
 
 The way in which the boys can scale the smooth 
 trunk of the cocoanut tree is a feat worthy of the 
 circus tent. A very loose band encircles the tree and 
 the climber's waist, then with feet firmly planted 
 against the trunk and back braced, the climber ascends 
 with a twitching movement of the strap. 
 
 We look in vain for chattering monkeys in the tree- 
 tops waiting to throw cocoanuts upon our unprotected 
 heads; the only ones we see are the pet monkeys in 
 the village. Thousands of nuts are heaped along the 
 roadside, ready to have their outer coating removed. 
 When they are broken open and partially dried they 
 
DAR-ES-SALAA3I 207 
 
 are put in sacks and exported to the oil and soap fac- 
 tories of Europe, under the name of copra. 
 
 Those who have lived for some length of time 
 among the blacks of this coast region speak of the 
 desire of these people for cleanliness. They are nat- 
 urally as clean as the natives from Hindostan and 
 Malacca are dirty, and in this little settlement they 
 must be not only clean but orderly. 
 
 Many of the huts are built of stakes driven into 
 the ground; pliable brown limbs are interwoven be- 
 tween these, and the open spaces are filled in with 
 clay or smaller twigs. The little village resembles 
 a great array of huge brown cocoanuts halved and 
 arranged in rows. Here and there is a white plas- 
 tered hut which looks like the white of a broken 
 nut. The driveways often are outlined with pine- 
 apple plants, each with its heavy golden head. Since 
 the cocoanuts are so hopelessly out of our reach, we 
 are glad to find this friendly plant no taller than 
 ourselves holding up its great luscious yellow fruit 
 ready to be cut and eaten. In Africa, where pine- 
 apples are no more than a penny each, a whole pine- 
 apple is served as with us an orange is served, for 
 breakfast. 
 
 When we reach the ship's landing at dusk the boat- 
 men meet us, clamoring for our sixpences, but the 
 friendly little tug from our ship also is here, and we 
 steam away to the big vessel. At sunset we leave 
 "The Abode of Peace" with more regret than we 
 
208 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 have felt since the lovely blue of Table Mountain 
 faded from sight. 
 
 From Dar-es-Salaam past Zanzibar to Tanga is 
 a day's sail. German hotels, German officers, and in 
 the center of the park a statue of Bismarck, leave no 
 doubt as to whose territory this is. The long row of 
 negro huts, the jungle of palms, the silent, scantily 
 clothed natives make the country beyond the railroad 
 seem the heart of a dark continent. Nearer the boat 
 landing there are an inviting hotel and a store where 
 a Japanese sells post-cards in Parisian-French — a lit- 
 tle cheaper to the Englishman because "y ou are of 
 my country the ally," he explains. 
 
 A shrewd little African who insists in conferring 
 upon us his services as guide, explains that his Ger- 
 man, which is several degrees better than our own, has 
 been acquired at the mission school. When he sings 
 "Above all, Germany," in a genuinely patriotic key, 
 we marvel again at the transformation of the chil- 
 dren of the forest into the citizens of all countries. 
 "Africa fcr the Africans" may be right in theory, 
 but in fact the continent does not exist except where 
 Europeans have laid upon it a compelling hand. 
 
 Tanga, though an interesting German settlement, 
 is far less important than the neighboring capital of 
 Dar-es-Salaam, and the boat lingers here [a few 
 hours only, just long enough to take on board the 
 tons of copra awaiting transportation. 
 
MOMBASA 
 
 Leaving Tanga at sunset, the mail steamer sights 
 the island of Mombasa early in the afternoon of the 
 following day. Skirting the mainland of Africa, 
 we have a view of the splendid Usambara Mountains, 
 which outline the coast for some distance; then the 
 hour before the town of Mombasa comes into view the 
 ship passes many small islands — wonderfully lovely 
 because of their tall palms and the intense greenness 
 of their tropical foliage. 
 
 The island is somewhat over a mile wide and four 
 miles in length. On the seaward side of this coral 
 reef toward the south lies the town of Mombasa. The 
 harbor here is less protected and more difficult to 
 enter than that of Kilindini, so the large boats usually 
 round the northern corner of the island, and threading 
 a somewhat narrow channel, come to anchor between 
 the long reef of Mombasa and the mainland of 
 Africa, not far from the village of Kilindini. 
 
 Small boats come to transport passengers and lug- 
 gage to the shore. The black rowers give a satisfied 
 grunt when they receive the usual sixpenny fee, and 
 hasten back to the big ship in the hope of securing 
 a second load. Steamers touch at Mombasa oftener 
 than at many of the other East Coast ports, but the 
 rowers do not reap much of a harvest, for their cargo 
 of passengers and freight is only weekly or bi- 
 monthly. French ships stop sometimes on their way 
 
210 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 LANDING PLACE OF KILINDINI 
 
 from Marseilles to Madagascar, there are occasional 
 boats from Suez or Aden, but the German lines 
 make regular journeys around the continent of 
 Africa, ancl the coming of the German East African 
 mail boat, with its regular date of arrival and de- 
 parture, and its company of gay tourists, is the most 
 important event to the rowers who are waiting to pick 
 up pennies. 
 
 When trunks are landed they are carefully 
 searched for guns and ammunition, for there is a 
 serious effort on the part of officials to enforce the 
 laws which have been made to save the big game of 
 
MOMBASA 
 
 211 
 
 this region, especially the elephants, from being en- 
 tirely destroyed English hunters must procure a 
 $250.00 license, and even when armed with this docu- 
 ment they may not shoot more than two elephants. 
 The tusks of one large elephant, however, will more 
 
 IN MOMBASA 
 
 than pay for the license, leaving the second pair of 
 tusks and the pleasure of the hunt as clear gain. 
 
 A well-beaten path marks the ascent from the 
 landing to the street-car station. Tickets are bought 
 from the English official, and as on the Paris 'bus 
 lines, it is important to hold fast your ticket, for the 
 patrons of the Mombasa train system are served in 
 
212 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 the order of the numbers on the slips of pasteboard. 
 It is important, also, to hold a number immediately 
 following or preceding your friend's, or you may 
 go flying down the avenue in the exclusive company 
 of a strange black man, who pushes the car, and a 
 strange white man, who occupies the seat beside you. 
 In East Africa the only power that is cheap and 
 plentiful is human muscle, so the propelling force is 
 a native runner, who pushes the little car from behind. 
 Two is company in Mombasa, as elsewhere, and one 
 does not have to worry about the intruding third when 
 taking a street-car ride, for each car accommodates 
 only two persons. 
 
 The street-car service in Mombasa is one of the 
 most interesting features of the island. The tracks 
 are small and near together, and ramify the entire 
 residence section. The more important homes have 
 a line laid to the front door, and a private car awaits 
 the owner at his threshold. When the master of the 
 house is ready for business he mounts his car, and a 
 servant pushes him down the avenue of mango trees 
 along the curve that connects his switch with the 
 main line, and there they join the procession. The 
 tiny cars fly along the two tracks in opposite direc- 
 tions, so there is no danger of collision. 
 
 The car itself looks like a small buggy seat with 
 a corresponding buggy top, the strange contrivance 
 being set on a platform about as large as a kitchen 
 table. Grooved wheels are affixed below, and then 
 
MOMBASA 
 
 213 
 
 the toy car is placed on the very narrow gauge steel 
 track. There are not many public cars, and one is 
 fortunate if he has a friend on the island who will 
 lend his servant and private car for the day's outing. 
 It is useless to tell the power behind the car to 
 push slowly; either he does not understand you or 
 
 he does not wish to 
 delay. The scene 
 along the way is so 
 full of interest that 
 this fleeting glimpse 
 as one skims down 
 the avenue is not 
 enough. Moorish 
 houses line it on 
 either side, strange 
 tropical trees throw 
 distinct dark patterns 
 on the glaring road, 
 camels and queer 
 humped oxen, and 
 the most diminutive 
 donkeys with rude 
 little boxes of 
 wagons, keep time with their sleepy nodding heads 
 to their slow, discouraged gait. 
 
 Most interesting of all the sights along the ave- 
 nue is the stream of human life coming and going. 
 It is impossible to talk about the "native" of Mom- 
 
 PRIVATE STREET CAR 
 
214 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 basa, for this island has for its population the most 
 cosmopolitan of people. Here are gathered all the 
 types of all the nations of Asia and Africa, with a 
 thin sprinkling of Europeans for contrast. The "na- 
 tive" village numbers about 40,000, the European 
 colony not more than 200. 
 
 Having studied the steerage passengers on our 
 ship and asked many questions of guides at the other 
 East Coast ports, we are now able to determine the 
 country, or at least the religion, of these different 
 dark-skinned pedestrians. 
 
 Those men in long robes with thick belts, and 
 thicker turbans whose compact folds will always be 
 a mystery even to the milliner's art, are Mo- 
 hammedans — the brown ones from Arabia, the black 
 ones converts from the African shores. If you are 
 a believer in the simple life, study the costume of 
 this procession of Hindus. What could be more 
 effective than the snowy white of their long robes? 
 A slip of white cotton reaches from shoulder to ankle, 
 and a tight-fitting white embroidered skull cap com- 
 pletes a costume in which the height of elegant sim- 
 plicity and of fine contrast is attained. The East 
 Indians would look altogether commercial and Euro- 
 pean were it not for the peculiar cap they always 
 wear — a round affair of black felt heavily embroid- 
 ered in gold thread. The Par sees also are known 
 by their headgear, a very tall hat. Here, as in Zan- 
 zibar, the Swahilis outnumber the others, wearing 
 
MOMBASA 
 
 215 
 
 any kind of a gay tunic or drapery their purse allows. 
 
 The women one passes along the highways of 
 
 Mombasa cer- 
 tainly are not 
 beautiful ac- 
 cording to Eu- 
 ropean stand- 
 ards, but no 
 one can deny 
 that their 
 costumes are 
 "exclusive" 
 and unusual. 
 The Moham- 
 medan women 
 of the better 
 sort are veiled, 
 but the veils 
 are of every 
 kind and de- 
 scription. The 
 poorer women 
 are encased in 
 black from 
 head to foot 
 and in the 
 
 midst of the gay foliage and flowers look like 
 
 specters at a feast. 
 
 Some of the Mohammedan women seem to have 
 
 A WOMAN OF MOMBASA 
 
216 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 arrived at the conclusion that brunettes should wear 
 yellow, and a glaring bit of color are two of those 
 whom we see. Their yellow dresses are fitted over 
 padded caps, the entire costume from the crown of 
 the head to the sole of the foot seemingly in one 
 piece with no opening. Closer inspection reveals 
 two cuts for their eyes. 
 
 These closely veiled women are of the strictest sect 
 of the Mohammedans. We are glad to encounter 
 others with just an embroidered silk oblong picture 
 frame set across the face for a veil, an ugly enough 
 disguise, but one that gives the poor victim of fashion 
 a little breathing-space. The Swahili women, instead 
 of concealing their charms, draw attention to them 
 by their gay draperies, their bracelets, their turbans, 
 and by their atrocious nose and ear and lip orna- 
 mentation. The pierced upper lip set with jewels 
 and the jewel-studded nostrils are more tolerable 
 than the disfigured ears. 
 
 Only at Mombasa and Zanzibar has the elasticity 
 of the lobe of the ear been thoroughly tested. The 
 ear of the child is pierced and every week or so 
 a larger wooden peg or roll of paper is inserted in 
 the hole, until the ornament it holds is as large as 
 a dollar. Occasionally, the ultra fashionable insert 
 the tops of cocoa tins in the distended lobes. Often 
 the entire circuit of the ear is pierced with holes of 
 varying sizes. When these are filled with gilded 
 ornaments or rolls of gay paper the effect is very 
 
MOMBASA 
 
 217 
 
 beautiful, or very grotesque, according to one's point 
 of view. Even the men are not exempt from this 
 form of vanity, and add to their ugliness with this 
 
 gaudy ear or- 
 nametation. 
 When they 
 forget to put 
 in their ear- 
 rings, their 
 ears appear 
 like leather 
 sieves affixed 
 to their heads. 
 When we 
 reach the end 
 of the line 
 that stretches 
 across the 
 island from 
 Kilindini to 
 Mombasa, and 
 our interest in 
 our unique 
 street-car and 
 in the pass- 
 ing show of humanity, camels, oxen and asses, has 
 somewhat abated, we are ready to inspect the his- 
 torical fort that tradition connects with the name of 
 Vasco da Gama. 
 
 A STREET VENDER 
 
218 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 The gray vine-covered ruins of the old fort stand 
 on a projecting promontory that commands a won- 
 derful view of a blue sea and a green world; and 
 
 behind it all 
 are spread out 
 the low brown 
 thatched roofs 
 of the native 
 village. More 
 than four hun- 
 dred years 
 ago when 
 Va sco da 
 Gama touched 
 here, a very 
 considerable 
 Arab village 
 was in exist- 
 ence, and this 
 indefatigable 
 sailor de- 
 scribes it in 
 his journal. 
 Not many 
 years after 
 this event of 1498 the Portuguese were convinced 
 through the accounts of da Gama that the island was 
 worth seizing, and they thereupon seized it. 
 
 We should like to believe that this navigator be- 
 
 SWAHILI WOMEN PREPARING RICE 
 
MOMBASA 219 
 
 gan the fort, but it is more probable that in about 
 1600 the Portuguese constructed it to protect their 
 possessions. The strongest corner of this piece of 
 masonry the British now use as a prison. In later 
 times the Arabs regained their own and held this 
 
 THE FORT AT MOMBASA 
 
 valuable island under the Sultan of Zanzibar until 
 the British leased it. "Lease" is a polite term for 
 the absolute rule of the British, although due forms 
 are observed here as in Zanzibar, and the Union Jack 
 and the flag of the sultan always adorn the same 
 flagpole. 
 
 Mombasa is the capital of British East Africa; 
 
220 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 here the treasury and government buildings are lo- 
 cated, and a neat little street-car line leads up to 
 the rather pretentious front door of the governor- 
 general's home. Here, also, is the terminus of the 
 wonderful Uganda Railway. 
 
 The Uganda Railway is a road 600 miles long 
 connecting the Indian Ocean with Lake Victoria, 
 which it joins not far from the source of the Nile. 
 The construction of this line is considered to have 
 been a remarkable feat of engineering, climbing as 
 the road does to a height of over 8,000 feet and then 
 dropping into deep valleys. About $25,000,000 were 
 expended by the British Government in building the 
 Uganda Railway, and although the investment has 
 proved a profitable one as far as mere earnings are 
 concerned, the road is of course of the greatest value 
 in opening up the interior of the country. 
 
 American engineers constructed the bridges, the 
 steel framework of which was sent directly from 
 America, all the pieces numbered and ready to be 
 fitted together. More than one hundred thousand 
 pieces were shipped to Mombasa, each averaging in 
 weight one hundred pounds. These numbers make 
 it evident what a tremendous responsibility it must 
 have been to take charge of this vast mound of seem- 
 ingly meaningless steel rods and fit them together 
 into arches so strong and beautiful as those that span 
 the valleys through which the Uganda Railway 
 passes. Added to the other difficulties of five years 
 
MOMBASA 221 
 
 ago when the bridge was being completed, the native 
 workmen were unskilled, and such children that they 
 stole the steel wires for jewelry. Sometimes as many 
 as a dozen Hindus were carried off in one night by 
 lions, and rhinoceroses have been known to butt the 
 freight cars off the track. 
 
 If one is able to wait over a boat on his East Coast 
 journey, and if he has sixty dollars to spare for his 
 round-trip ticket there can be no more interesting 
 journey than that of the 300 miles from Mombasa 
 to Nairobi. Secure in a parlor car, you may watch 
 the zebras, antelopes, gnus, and other strange ani- 
 mals, singly or in herds of a thousand, come very near 
 the train, as unafraid as though they knew of the 
 law that forbids killing them within a mile of the 
 railroad track. The law does not protect lions or 
 tigers, so these animals are wary. 
 
 The mountain Kilimanjaro is to be seen after a 
 hundred miles of climbing from Mombasa, lifting 
 its snow-covered head 19,000 feet above the level 
 of the sea. 
 
 Once in Nairobi, the principal town in the interior 
 on the Uganda Railway, one may lodge at a fairly 
 good hotel and be supplied with all the comforts of 
 life. 
 
 The study of the great problems of opening up 
 this country is interesting. There are the industries 
 derived from the native products of the country, as 
 the making of sanswera fiber into rope, the stock- 
 
MOMBASA 223 
 
 raising which is possible because of the excellent 
 grazing-land, the shipping of the lumber of the 
 great forests. Attempts are being made to grow 
 coffee and hemp, and other plants which thrive in 
 tropical countries. Land may be had almost for the 
 asking and any one who feels crowded in his own 
 country can find plenty of room to expand here. 
 
 The usual traveler is, however, satisfied when all 
 his questions about the Uganda Railway are an- 
 swered. The native village of Mombasa looks 
 strange enough to him and he has no wish to seek 
 farther for adventures. 
 
 There are so many stories of dirt and disease that 
 one does not feel inclined to wander into the dark 
 depths of narrow streets among mysterious veiled 
 women, and men looking far more villainous, pro- 
 bably, than they really are. 
 
 "You must see the fish market," one enthusiastic 
 traveler calls to us. When within sight of it we con- 
 clude its unusual bargains and unusual smells are 
 not for those of fastidious taste. 
 
 The main street of Mombasa seems fairly Euro- 
 pean after Zanzibar and Mozambique. Many of the 
 stores are conducted on the "one price" method and 
 we are able to dispense with the haggling about 
 values that is necessary elsewhere. 
 
 Our good ship seems very like home when dark- 
 ness begins to creep over the world, and Ave are glad 
 to hail a rickshaw boy and leave Mombasa behind 
 
224 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 us. Speeding down the avenue, we pass the tiny 
 cars going in the opposite direction; white dresses 
 and gay laughter speak of dinner parties and other 
 festivities for those who are in the social whirl of 
 Mombasa, where rivalries doubtless are just as keen 
 as they are in London or New York. 
 
 The little boats and the dusky boatmen are waiting 
 for us and convey us safely to the ship's ladder. The 
 jovial second mate helps us on deck, saying: 
 "Welcome home." 
 
 The dining-room is alight, the orchestra is play- 
 ing, the passengers are promenading the deck. This 
 great modern house party contrasts strangely with 
 the scene from which we have just come. One is 
 tempted to believe the mysterious streets, the veiled 
 women, and the tropical woods a dream. All this 
 wonderful East Coast is so unlike anything in the 
 ordinary world that mingled with the sense of pleas- 
 ure there is always the feeling of unreality. 
 
 The next morning a chased silver umbrella handle, 
 a carved ivory box, and a flat purse confirm the fact 
 that our visit was no dream, and that he have actually 
 walked along the aisles of an oriental bazaar in 
 Mombasa. 
 
FROM MOMBASA TO ADEN 
 
 It is a five days' run from British East Africa 
 to Aden — the longest section of the voyage. In 
 fact, it seems that the ocean journey does not begin 
 until Mombasa is left behind. The first month of 
 the voyage is a coast cruise rather than a long sea 
 trip. The many ports at which our ship has touched 
 have proved so diverting that the memory of one has 
 merged into the picture of the next, and there has 
 been little time to think of either the terrors or the 
 beauty of the sea. 
 
 Now that the voyage is well begun, the ship's com- 
 pany begin to meet as friends. The usual shipboard 
 recreations are indulged in, which includes the weigh- 
 ing of every one on board on crossing the equator. 
 The stoutest of the passengers are happy for the rest 
 of the day, for one weighs less in German pounds 
 than English pounds, and of course less at the equator 
 than anywhere else on the surface of the earth. No 
 wonder gravity does not pull so hard here; in heat 
 such as this everything relaxes its hold! 
 
 There is time now to become acquainted with the 
 interesting steerage passengers going to Mecca on 
 a pilgrimage. If cleanliness is next to godliness, 
 they can start on the road to holiness at once with 
 the aid of the ship's hose. 
 
 A menagerie has been picked up along the way and 
 a pleasant nightmare which some of the passengers 
 
226 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 indulge in is that the prisoners loosen the bars of 
 their steel cages and come visiting the staterooms 
 during the night to select the most appetizing mor- 
 sels of humanity. A monkey actually succeeds in 
 making his escape and gives the sailors a merry 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 <lw ■ ■ "• - s 
 
 
 r- ; ' , ■■■-■ . % * 
 
 *V -"-^ V. *" v 
 
 
 
 --^"^^it- ■■ 
 
 '•"' '.. ■* Jr - - '— - ' * " - 
 
 --' ^S^s^p" 
 
 *5s£^ 
 
 
 j^# 
 
 __..jgP ■■L^.,.'* 
 
 
 l ,l ■ m^ ~'"bib^y*' : 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF ADEN 
 
 chase. With tantalizing wickedness he goes to the 
 very edge of the ship's railing as though to throw 
 himself overboard, and then when a hand almost 
 touches him, makes a flying leap and in a second is 
 at the very top of the rigging. A dozen sailors are 
 tired out before he is caught, and put in his cage, 
 where he goes back demurely to his nut-cracking, 
 
FROM MOMBASA TO ADEN 227 
 
 with a twinkle in his eye that seems to say: "Good 
 sport; wasn't it?" 
 
 The sea is like glass, its smooth surface broken 
 only by the schools of flying-fish that follow the 
 ship's path. At night gleaming phosphorescence 
 shows the wake of the vessel — a line of fiery opal on 
 the still expanse of sea. 
 
 The jungle and the vast thickets of intense green 
 are left behind. The coast line when it appears is 
 a bare expanse of yellow sand. As far as the eye 
 can reach there are only a desert sea and a waste of 
 land. 
 
 Italian Somaliland and English Somaliland take 
 in the *' great horn of Africa." These strips of bar- 
 ren territory are inhabited by a nomadic people who 
 drive their flocks from place to place to find pasture. 
 Eritrea on the Red Sea is the other colony of Italy 
 in Africa. These possessions are in appearance so 
 utterly barren and desolate that Italy can have noth- 
 ing to fear with regard to her colonies from the greed 
 and envy of other nations. 
 
 A bold cliff terminates the "great horn," from the 
 rugged rock of which the hand of Nature has carved 
 a lion's head in gigantic proportions. It requires no 
 stretch of imagination to see the tawny animal, 
 crouching with its paws extended toward the sea. 
 On nearer approach the head takes on a human like- 
 ness, and then it becomes the bare stony cliff of Cape 
 Guardafui, the most eastern point of Africa. 
 
228 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 CAMEL MARKET AT ADEN 
 
 After passing Cape Guardafui, the ship changes 
 her course. A voyage of a hundred miles due west 
 brings us to the entrance to the Red Sea — the Straits 
 of Bab-el-Mandeb, the "Gate of Tears." 
 
 Just before we enter the furnace of the Red Sea 
 a stop for coaling is made at the Asiatic port of 
 Aden. Low rocky mountains give the town its back- 
 ground, and the place seems all that is barren and 
 desolate. As in the case of the other oriental ports, 
 however, interest grows with acquaintance. 
 
 The little pony carriages are lined up beside the 
 wharf, the owners ready to bargain with the ship's 
 
FROM MOMBASA TO ADEN 229 
 
 company for the ride to the water tanks. In a land 
 where it rains once in two or three years the store- 
 houses for water are of great importance. The tanks, 
 which hold more than thirty million gallons of water, 
 and the humps on the millions of camels make pos- 
 sible here the life of man and of his beast of burden. 
 
 Along the ascending road that leads to the moun- 
 tain crevasse in which the reservoirs are built, pass 
 oxen and camels drawing metal cylinders filled with 
 water, and tiny pannier-laden donkeys driven by 
 Arabs. Some high officials drive by, the outriders of 
 their coaches being gaily caparisoned camels, the 
 gold-embroidered, crimson velvet blankets of which 
 glisten in the sun. 
 
 At the foot of the water tanks is the town of Aden 
 proper, a town built in the crater of a volcano. 
 Ordinarily the lack of verdure and the low glaring 
 white houses might make it a desolate picture, but 
 today is a holiday, and the white town is given up 
 to feasting and merrymaking. 
 
 The women and little girls are gorgeous in pink 
 and purple and green silk veils, and silk robes, gay 
 with tinsel ornaments and jewelry. The men in tur- 
 bans and belted gowns are scarcely less festive. But, 
 alas! this is a holiday for the beggars, also, and our 
 carriage is surrounded by cripples as pitiable as they 
 are repulsive. 
 
 At the foot of the tanks our coachman leaves us, 
 to join in the celebration for an hour, and we begin 
 
230 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF TANKS AND CISTERNS 
 
 to climb the cement steps that lead from one tank 
 to the next. The size of the reservoir is limited by 
 the breadtlj of a deep gorge in a stone cliff. The 
 jagged sides are cemented into irrgular tanks, one 
 above the other, that the overflow from the upper 
 basins may be caught by those below. The air is 
 so wonderfully clear and dry here that there is prac- 
 tically no corrosion, and the cement lining is as per- 
 fect as in the days of Mohammed himself. Occa- 
 sionally in the cliff's side there is a living spring, 
 shaded by an olive tree that has seen many centuries 
 come and go. 
 
FROM MOMBASA TO ADEN 231 
 
 The Romans built a Chrisian church at Aden, 
 in 342, A. D. Abyssinians, Persians, Portuguese, 
 and Egyptians have since that time fought for this 
 prize. In 1839, by a forced sale, it passed into the 
 hands of the English. Then its prosperity began, 
 and in fifty years its population increased almost 
 fifty fold. 
 
 The British have made Aden the Gibraltar of the 
 Red Sea. It is incidentally a coaling-station and a 
 commercial center, but it is a fortress most emphatic- 
 ally. The drive from the crater in which the town 
 is located down to Steamer Point reveals the forti- 
 fication of this isthmus. The rocky summits fairly 
 bristle with batteries, towers and magazines, and 
 every modern contrivance in engineering machinery 
 and artillery. 
 
 The horses of Aden are miserable little creatures, 
 and in spite of our protests, our driver insists upon 
 making up to his animals in whippings what he has 
 failed to pay them in food. We are glad for their 
 sakes when the landing-pier comes into view. 
 
 The masts and rigging of many ships are outlined 
 against the brilliant sky and at the side of each 
 the coalers are at work. Hundreds of workmen 
 chanting and singing in the midst of the cloud of 
 black dust they raise make us almost long to return 
 to the clean air of the "town in the crater." 
 
 As our little boat leaves the shore many Arabs 
 appear to be making their adieux accompanied with 
 
232 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 profound salutations. They are, however, quite un- 
 conscious of the intruding foreigners, we learn. This 
 is the hour of prayer, and one Mussulman after an- 
 other unrolls his prayer rug, and with arms extended 
 and face toward the East, prostrates himself in pro- 
 found devotion, giving thanks that "Allah is Allah 
 and Mohammed is his prophet." 
 
FAREWELL TO AFRICA 
 
 The Red Sea, like most of the ills of life, is not 
 so unendurable as has been anticipated. The patient 
 captain responds to the same question that he has 
 answered a thousand times before — "Why is it called 
 Red?" — "No one knows; there is some red seaweed; 
 some of the cliffs along the shore take on a reddish 
 
 PORT SAID 
 
 hue; it may be because reeds formerly grew along 
 the banks. Whatever the reason is, there is nothing 
 perceptibly red in sight, and when and how it re- 
 ceived its name no one knows." 
 
 The name seems appropriate enough to those who 
 rise at dawn to see the sun streak the yellow sands 
 and gray water with flame. One can not imagine 
 a greater wonder than the crimson splendor of a 
 sunrise on the Red Sea. 
 
 233 
 
234 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 -fGTEL con rn< 
 
 A STREET SCENE NEAR THE HARBOR— PORT SAID 
 
 A hundred and thirty miles beyond Aden the 
 domes of Mocha's mosques come into view, gleaming- 
 like white pearls in the morning sunshine. Ten 
 thousand tons of the finest coffee, they tell us, are 
 exported annually from this Arabian town. 
 
 This is a sea of Biblical associations. We pass twelve 
 isolated rocky islands — the twelve apostles. Mt. 
 Sinai lifts its head above the surrounding hills, and 
 there near the gateway to the Gulf of Suez is the 
 very spot where the children of Israel, fleeing from 
 Pharoah's hosts, saw the high ridge of sand which 
 almost closes its entrance, bared by the wind and 
 low tide for their passage out of Egypt into the 
 promised land. 
 
FAREWELL TO AFRICA 235 
 
 The Red Sea is like a long arm terminated at the 
 north by two fingers; the one pointing to the east is 
 the Gulf of Akabah, the one extended toward Africa 
 is the long narrow Gulf of Suez, 170 miles long and 
 25 miles wide. The Suez Canal connects this gulf 
 with the Mediterranean. 
 
 At one end of the canal is the town of Suez; at 
 the other end, 99 miles away, Port Said. A narrow 
 blue ribbon of water 137 feet wide marks the path 
 between the two ports. 
 
 The fact that the yearly tonnage that passes 
 through the canal is over 20,000,000 tons and of a 
 value exceeding $125,000,000 does not bring home so 
 strongly the importance of this waterway as does 
 a picture of conditions when the channel was closed 
 for only eleven days. 
 
 The Chatham, a common English tramp, sank not 
 far from Port Said. Her cargo was largely dyna- 
 mite, and therefore contractors hesitated to undertake 
 the work of raising the boat. At last engineers let 
 down explosives, and by making an electrical con- 
 nection, succeeded in blowing up this cargo from a 
 safe distance. Splinters of the wrecked vessel cov- 
 ered the country for miles around, and half a mile 
 of the canal bank accompanied the wreck into the 
 air, but the channel was cleared and commerce was 
 resumed. The accumulated procession of ships that 
 made a line far out into the Red Sea, and into the 
 Mediterranean, began to move in opposite directions. 
 
236 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 Then the whole commercial world breathed freely 
 once more, and it was demonstrated once and for all 
 that the Suez Canal is the main artery between the 
 Far East and Europe, and that trade is paralyzed 
 when this waterway is obstructed. 
 
 The wonder is that men were so long in cutting 
 this canal, when the ancients from the time of 
 
 NORTHERN ENTRANCE OF SUEZ CANAL 
 
 Herodotus down to the ninth century had maintained 
 a passage here, and had realized its value. For four 
 hundred years men continued to sail around the Cape 
 of Good Hope to India and waste six months in a 
 voyage that should have required not more than six 
 weeks, even in the days before the coming of the 
 steamboat. 
 
 When in 1854 De Lesseps suggested not something 
 new, but that the work of Darius should be done 
 
FAREWELL TO AFRICA 237 
 
 over again, all the world except the hopeful French 
 people declared the promoter of the scheme insane. 
 The chief difficulty was the question of labor, which 
 Egypt finally agreed to furnish. France supplied 
 the $100,000,000 necessary, and in a little more than 
 twenty years the work was done. 
 
 It is England that has profited mostly by the Suez 
 Canal. In 1877 the Khedive of Egypt sold to Eng- 
 land his stock in the canal for $20,000,000. At the 
 time the British people protested against this use of 
 public funds by the prime minister, Disraeli, but it 
 has proved to the stockholders an excellent invest- 
 ment from a merely financial point of view. More- 
 over, it gives England the key to the world's com- 
 merce, although she has promised never to use her 
 power, agreeing at the time of purchase that this 
 door between the East and the West should be held 
 wide open forever to all nations. 
 
 At Ismailia is the bright blue palace built for the 
 reception of the Empress Eugenie when she came 
 here in 1867 to open formally the Suez Canal to the 
 commerce of the world. Here the nations of the 
 world paid her homage, while her own country ex- 
 ulted in her power and beauty. In a few years the 
 empress of Napoleon III was an exile from France, 
 and as a crowning misfortune, Africa demanded 
 on one of its battlefields the life of her only son, the 
 prince imperial. The deserted palace of Ismailia 
 is a mournful witness of the vicissitudes of fortune. 
 
238 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 
 3 
 
 *\ ;* 
 
 
 THE PATIENT CAMEL 
 
 Caravans of camels, heavily laden, come across the 
 desert from Cairo to Ismailia. All along the way, 
 where the dredgers are at work, they bring supplies 
 to the workmen, or help in hauling the loads of sand 
 away from the water's edge. Egypt would not be 
 what our fancy had painted without the vast stretches 
 of sandy desert, the mirage, the line of palms along 
 the horizon, and the patient camel. 
 
 Mohammed himself was a camel driver and he 
 knew what he was writing when he inscribed in the 
 Koran: "And do ye not look then at the camel how 
 she is created." The arch in the animal's back is 
 
FAREWELL TO AFRICA 
 
 239 
 
 the curve of greatest strength and can support half 
 a ton's weight. The hump contains a water supply 
 for five days. The mouth lined with hard cartilage 
 does not recognize the thorny cactus as a meal of 
 pins and needles. The nostrils and eyelids are able 
 to contract in the presence of the merciless pelting 
 of the dry hot dust of the simoon. Man and animal 
 must adapt themselves to their environment, and the 
 
 ;iti 
 
 - 
 
 PLOWING IN UPPER EGYPT 
 
 camel has worked out this law of adaptation to per- 
 fection. The Arabs have a saying which expresses 
 their gratitude for this friend that serves them when 
 everything else deserts: "The camel is the greatest 
 of blessings given by Allah to mankind." 
 
 The camel may be able to resist the dust-laden 
 winds of the desert; the canal can not, and so the 
 
240 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 work of dredging 1 the bottom, to maintain the present 
 depth of thirty-one feet, goes on continually. To 
 prevent the wasting away of the banks, steamers 
 must slacken their speed to six miles an hour from 
 the moment they enter the canal, for the washing 
 of the waves hastens erosion. Large vessels can pass 
 each other only at the passing-stations, but the small 
 boats may pass whenever a steamer is willing to stop 
 its engines and squeeze up next to the bank. 
 
 Every five miles there is a little passing-station, 
 with a house and a cluster of palms. The trees 
 almost brush the windows of the cabins and as they 
 recede we have the impression of gliding along in 
 a slowly moving train. 
 
 Between stations Arabs are at work, for the never- 
 ending warfare with the shifting sand may not cease 
 even for a few hours. All that breaks the monotony 
 of the long day of the brown, scantily clad toiler is 
 the passing of a steamer, and his useless appeal, as 
 he follows, the vessel, of "Backsheesh! Backsheesh!" 
 
 For seventeen hours the mighty hulk of our 
 steamer struggles forward like a sorely wounded 
 animal. There is little to be seen but the straight 
 blue ribbon before us and behind us. In the moon- 
 light, the ribbon becomes a silver band, widening here 
 and there at the smaller lagoons, and again at the 
 Bitter Lakes. The colorless sands stretch away until 
 they meet a faintly colored sky, but the scene is not 
 monotonous, for the desert lays upon all its indefin- 
 
FAREWELL TO AFRICA 
 
 241 
 
 able spell. The noonday haze, the sunset splendor, 
 the unreal moonlight, hold us enthralled. We would 
 gladly lengthen the minutes into hours, for at Port 
 Said we leave Africa behind us, and who knows when 
 we shall pass this way again? There is no time to 
 mourn, however, for here are the white offices of 
 
 MOONLIGHT ON THE SUEZ CANAL 
 
 the Canal Company before us and there is the statue 
 of De Lesseps looking down this little line of water 
 — a blue path through the sand. 
 
 No one would voluntarily choose Port Said as an 
 abiding-place, hot and dirty as it is, and the dump- 
 ing ground of all the nations of the earth. The street 
 signs are in all languages, the costumes are of every 
 sort and kind. Every one wishes to drive you or 
 
242 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 guide you or cheat you in some way. The coaling, 
 the flare of music, the chorus of many voices, the 
 roulette tables add to the confusion. But ill-condi- 
 tioned as Port Said is, it is a town which is important 
 not only because of what it stands for today, but 
 because it is the site of what must necessarily be a 
 great city in the future. 
 
 The greatness of the Suez Canal pales before the 
 enterprise with which the United States has charged 
 itself. In Egypt the cut is through the smooth 
 sands ; in Panama, immense rocky walls bar the way. 
 Egypt has a healthful climate; malaria and pesti- 
 lence lurk in the swamps near Panama. Egypt since 
 the days of Pharoah has sacrificed mercilessly human 
 life in the accomplishment of great works. Human- 
 ity is a more precious thing in the Western Hemi- 
 sphere, and the American overseer dare not if he 
 would repeat the history of the Suez, "drenching with 
 blood each shovelful of earth." Yet no one doubts 
 that Panarna, like Suez, will be worth its terrible cost. 
 
 At the end of the pier at Port Said stands the 
 statue of De Lesseps. It has been suggested that 
 at its base should be placed the statue of a fellah 
 bent with toil, that the world might be reminded of 
 the fact it is prone to forget — that all the capital and 
 organization in the world are as nothing without the 
 labor of man's hands. 
 
 After Port Said, atmosphere, scenery, interest 
 and even the constellations change. The Southern 
 
FAREWELL TO AFRICA 243 
 
 Cross has faded, and we turn our faces toward the 
 Great Bear. 
 
 So this is Europe. How pale and faded its colors 
 seem! We watch recede in the distance the snow- 
 covered hills of Crete, the villas and towns that 
 stretch down the slopes on either side of the Straits 
 of Messina (the Scylla and Charybdis of ancient 
 times). Then the white cone of Mt. Aetna, sending 
 its curl of gray smoke against the flushed morning 
 sky, comes into view, and in a few hours the broken, 
 wornout crater of Vesuvius. After the young and 
 vigorous new continent of Africa, the old world 
 seems as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto 
 wine. 
 
 One can understand the enthusiasm of the pioneers 
 of Africa who believe that she is the land of the 
 future, that on this continent south of the equator 
 the great events of history during the twentieth cen- 
 tury are to be enacted. 
 
 Again and again she has meted out calamities to 
 those who have toiled for her, but it has always been 
 the same story, and although 
 
 They took ship and they took sail 
 Raging from her borders, 
 In a little while, none the less, 
 They forgot their sore duresse, 
 They forgave her waywardness, 
 And returned for orders. 
 
 Why one hungers for a return to her shores would 
 be difficult to say, but who cares to explain the sail- 
 
244 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EAST COAST 
 
 or's longing for the waste sea, or the Africander's 
 homesickness for the wide veldt. That there is such 
 a thing as this longing we ourselves know full well. 
 When we disembark at Naples and watch regretfully 
 our good ship continue on her way, we half envy the 
 captain whose lot it is to encircle again and again the 
 African continent. 
 
 The journey around Africa is not unlike the circuit 
 in a Ferris wheel. There is the dread of embarking, 
 the wonder when farthest from the starting point 
 why such an adventurous undertaking was ever 
 begun, a sense of increasing pleasure as the circle is 
 slowly completed, and then the desire — when solid 
 ground is once more reached — to do the whole thing 
 over again. It has all been so simple, so delightful, 
 and there is so much left unseen! 
 
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