The World and Its People Part 29

They are scattered through the country, and occupy themselves mostly as shopkeepers in the English towns, where the English language is generally spoken.

Mr. Trollope does not advise the ordinary traveler to visit the Orange Free State in search of scenery; still, there are other attractions to the tourist, one being the promise of renewed health. At Bloemfontein, the capital, situated on a branch of the Vaal River, the dryness of the air renders it a safe resort for invalids. It is, in fact, an inland Madeira for persons suffering from weak or diseased lungs. The only objection is the tedious five or six days' journey by coach,--even though the railway has now reached Kimberley and promises to cross the border,--which renders the journey not only expensive, but very trying to nerves and patience.

The town itself lies very solitary, but is perhaps the most attractive spot in the country. Kimberley, which is its nearest neighbor of any special importance, is more than one hundred miles away. Cape Town is nearly seven hundred miles distant to the southeast, while Port Elizabeth, from which it obtains most of its supplies, lies about four hundred miles to the south of it.

Bloemfontein is situated upon a plain. Its boundaries are well defined, but it has no suburb, if we except the native village of Wray Hook.

To the traveler, who has been wearily jolted over gra.s.sless plains, the sight of even this isolated Dutch town is as welcome as an oasis in the desert.

The inhabitants number about four thousand people. There is nothing about the town to indicate its importance; yet, here the Orange Free State has established a capital, and here it is in this quiet, respectable, and scrupulously clean town that the government a.s.sembles to transact its business without display or ostentation, but with dignity, common sense, and judgment.

The town seems like a Dutch metropolis with a veneering of English and African customs and ways. Very few of the houses are more than one story high. While water is plenty, fuel is very scarce, and, in consequence, very expensive. In fact, everything commands a high price. When Mr.

Trollope visited the place, b.u.t.ter was more than a dollar a pound, which indicated that dairy farming was not a very general occupation.

The town--in fact, the whole country--is well supplied with schools.

Dutch is the special language supposed to be taught, but English is the far more important, and, as a rule, most of the school books are printed in that tongue.

To quote from the author, Mr. Trollope, who has so charmingly described it: "I will not say that Bloemfontein is itself peculiarly beautiful. It has no rapid rivers flowing through it, as had the capital of Tyrol; no picturesqueness of hills to make it lovely, as had Edinburgh; no glory of buildings, such as belongs to Florence. It is not quaint, as Nuremberg, romantic as Prague, or even embowered in foliage, as are some of the Dutch villages in the western provinces of Cape Colony. But it has a completeness and neatness which make it very pleasing to the eye.

No one is kept hungry there, or is overworked. The work, indeed, is very light. Friday is a half holiday for every one. Three o'clock ends the day for all important business. I doubt whether any shop is open after six. At eight, all the servants--who, of course, are colored people--are at home at their own huts in Wray Hook. No colored person is allowed to walk about Bloemfontein after eight. This, it may be said, is oppressive to them; but, if they are expelled from the streets, so also are they relieved from their work. At Wray Hook they can walk about as much as they please, or go to bed."

Orange Free State, like most of the South African countries, is now provided with railway lines. The Grand Trunk line extends throughout the state and connects with the chief ports of Cape Colony.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.

To the north of the Orange Free State lies a country known as the South African Republic, or, more familiarly, the Transvaal.

The Transvaal remained undisturbed as a Dutch republic until the year 1877. In that year, however, it was formally annexed to the British possessions as a crown colony.

The Transvaal was established as early as the year 1841 by Boers, who had become discontented with English rule. It is doubtful whether England would have made any effort to annex so undesirable a colony, with its unsettled, turbulent government, had not an impending war with the natives threatened to involve her also in the quarrel.

Certain it is that the fate of so unimportant a country as the Transvaal was a matter of small concern until it became a recognized fact that the natives on the border of the Transvaal meditated a descent on this thinly populated country. The ultimate result of such an attack was only too apparent, and the outlook most unpromising for England.

Self-preservation is one of the recognized laws of nature. Hence, in self-protection the Transvaal was annexed to England.

In 1880 the Boers took up arms against England. After many little events, which we need not dwell upon, had taken place, a convention was concluded in August, 1880, and the South African Republic was again const.i.tuted under the protection of the British crown. Under this new condition the country became exceedingly prosperous.

The area of the South African Republic, or Transvaal, is not much less in extent than Great Britain or Ireland.

The white population does not exceed fifty-five or sixty thousand. It must be remembered, however, that this population is but a small proportion of the people who inhabit the country; for there are two hundred and seventy thousand Zulus and other Kaffir tribes, in addition to the white men.

The white settlers are scattered all over the country. They live in isolated family groups, each family living in the center of a huge farm of from six to ten thousand acres. In fact, the family life of the South African farmer of Dutch descent follows the universal custom which resembles the patriarchal system as described in the Scriptures.

Recently, gold, both in alluvial deposits and in the reefs of quartz, has been discovered. These deposits have been worked with profit in several districts. Silver, lead, copper, cobalt, iron, and coal are all plentiful.

Generally speaking, the average Boer cares very little for any other occupation than farming. He has little or no apt.i.tude for commerce, and, in consequence, in the various commercial settlements with which the country is dotted there is little that is Dutch except the names of the towns; for the inhabitants are mostly English merchants, and the shopkeepers are invariably English.

There are a few Germans in the Transvaal; but, as in the Orange Free State, the population is essentially Dutch. In the rural districts it is almost without exception of that nationality.

Compared with the Orange Free State, this country is more favorable for a large population than one might suppose, for its general features and climate are to its advantage.

Like the Orange Free State, the Transvaal is an elevated pastoral plateau, or series of plateaux, broken by low ranges of hills. On the west it has for its boundary the country which gradually merges into the Kalahari Desert. Towards the north, along the Limpopo River, the country has a partially tropical character.

A range of hills, which forms the southern edge of the plateau, is known as the High Veldt, or Field. It comprises an area of about thirty-five thousand square miles, composed chiefly of pastoral land, having an elevation of from three thousand to eight thousand feet above the sea.

This section, necessarily, must possess a bracing climate, and is, for the most part, well watered in the summer, but dry during the winter months. We must remember how the seasons are reversed in Africa, hence winter would extend from March or April to October.

Several detached ranges of hills join with the Drachenberg Mountains on the northeast to form the region known as the Middle Veldt. This occupies about twenty-five thousand miles of broken country, intersected with kloofs, or gullies, and many valleys. It is well suited in some portions for the cultivation of grain and other crops of the temperate climates. As a rule, it has not the extent of open country which would fit it for grazing purposes on a large scale.

The Low Veldt, or Bush country, is the region on the north in the direction of the Limpopo River. It rarely has an elevation of more than from two to four thousand feet above the sea.

It is in this section that the usual characteristics of the Transvaal disappear and the features of the hot lands of the north become noticeable.

Mimosa groves and thorn thickets become so numerous as to be disagreeable features in the landscape. The climate, too, changes its character; hitherto it has been healthy; it now becomes malarial, particularly during the rainy season, which takes place in the summer months.

It seems quite probable that, were it not for the nature of the country, the Transvaal would possess a semi-tropical climate throughout, since its extension northward places it among countries which, farther to the east or to the west, are hot and pestilential.

The Vaal and the Limpopo are the chief rivers. Neither of them is navigable. During the dry season both rivers are interrupted to such an extent by shallows, rapids, and sand bars as to be useless for purposes of transport even in small boats.

To a certain extent agriculture is pursued in the Middle Veldt. The pasturing of vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and the caring for droves of pigs and the rearing of horses, const.i.tute the great occupations of the Transvaal Dutchmen.

The horse disease, a kind of low fever, is a sad pest. In the summer time it is especially prevalent in localities near standing water.

Hence, during the summer months the horses are removed to the high hills for safety. Animals which have had the disease and have recovered bring high prices. The country phrase in speaking of such a horse is that it has been "salted."

Dogs which are English-bred rarely survive long in the climate of the Transvaal. In the low-lying regions to the north the bite of the tsetse fly is fatal to horses and to other domestic animals. Throughout a large portion of Africa this fly is a terrible scourge to the farmer.

Livingstone thus describes it: "It is not much larger than the common house fly, and is nearly of the same brown color as the common honeybee; the after part of the body has three or four yellow bars across it; the wings project beyond this part considerably, and it is remarkably alert, avoiding most dexterously all attempts to capture it with the hand at common temperatures; in the cool of the mornings and evenings it is less agile.

"Its peculiar buzz when once heard can never be forgotten by the traveler whose means of locomotion are domestic animals; for it is well known that the bite of this poisonous insect is certain death to the ox, horse, and dog.

"A most remarkable feature in the bite of the tsetse is its perfect harmlessness in man and wild animals."

At one time in the history of the country, lions, elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, and ostriches were common in every part of it.

In the process of settlement the haunts of these animals have been disturbed, and the raids of the hunters have driven them northward or into the more inaccessible parts of the Veldt mountains.

Herds of antelopes, zebras, quaggas, springboks, and other wild beasts are, however, still to be found, and furnish a large portion of the farmers' supplies of animal food.

The Bush Veldt is the least settled portion of the country. Still, even here a few planters find it profitable to grow coffee and the sugar cane.

A greater number of these planters are settled in the Middle Veldt. They are engaged in mixed farming, wheat growing, and other pursuits. Stock keeping is the princ.i.p.al occupation, however.

Various metals are known to exist. Four years after the republic was established, extensive and rich gold fields were discovered in the district of Leydenburg, and a little later in the highland that forms the watershed between the Vaal and the Limpopo rivers. Long before this, gold mines had been worked in different parts of the country; but the amount of metal procured was not of sufficient quant.i.ty to attract attention.

People soon began to migrate from all parts of South Africa and from Europe in search of the hidden treasure. A settlement named Barbertown was built in the center of the eastern mining district, and for some months was one of the busiest places in the country. Not long after, most of the inhabitants removed to the more important fields of the Wit.w.a.tersrand. Here the city of Johannesburg arose, as if by magic, and streets lined with handsome, substantial buildings, with all modern appliances, added character and beauty to the town.