more quietly disposed passengers, however, were grateful enough to me, especially Mr. Ritchie and his family. This gentleman was chaplain of the forces at Maritzburg.

The head of the family of Scotch Cloetes, Peter Cloete, is a curious man, a wild fellow. He had a store at Newcastle, which he left to Kaffir "boys" and women to manage for him. Travellers and townsmen used to make a point of going into his store, and, without waiting to be attended to, they took just whatever they wanted, wine or what not, and paid for it at whatsoever price they themselves chose to put upon it. A droll way of doing business, all will admit, but Africa is a land of oddities and surprises.

"The green hills of the Devonshire coast stretched away ahead and astern of us, as far as the eye could reach."-Barry St. Leger.

THE Voyage to the Cape, was what the schoolboy would call "not half bad" taking it altogether. For the first few days we were somewhat indisposed, the weather being boisterous and the sea rough. About the third day after our departure, a tremendous gale sprang up, which caught us amidships, after knocking us about at bow. The officers' quarters on deck were swamped, and great consternation prevailed among the ladies. After clearing the Azores we had a change for the better. Our vessel passed these islands on the right, giving them a wide berth, she called at Madeira, and then made for the Canaries, through which needle-like group of

islets she passed, coming sufficiently near to one of the islands, to make it possible to see the hands of a church clock, the spire of which rose above the other buildings, which formed a little town, built on the side of shelving ravines, that cleft the cliffs asunder. Very picturesque and grand all this. These islands appear to be beachless, they rise, gaunt and sentinel-like, abruptly out of the bed of the ocean, and their grey dark outlines are not devoid of a grandeur and majesty of their own, despite their forbidding and cruel aspect. At first sight they strike the soul with a strange terror, they seem to suggest to the mental imagery, all powerful and foreboding spirits of evil in corporal shape, brooding upon the waters. As the eye accustoms itself to them, they wear a more amiable aspect, and in time one discerns water courses streaming down the precipitous cliffs, and here and there a patch of herbage, ferns and long grass in a tangled mesh. From the Canaries to Cape Town we had little from without to amuse us, a stray sail occasionally perhaps, a shoal of flying fish, while a colony of porpoises deigned to greet us now and again. The Nautilus was there in his thousands and tens of thousands, and a wandering gull, or other sea bird from time to time condescended to approach our vessel, sometimes a whole colony followed us asking for biscuits. Internal pleasures were in store for us however, and these were made possible, in that we had a highly representative and notable set of passengers on board. There was the genial Captain Grenfell, (now Colonel Grenfell) A.D.C. to the Commander-inchief of all the South African forces, and then again, the son of Mr. Anthony Froude the historian, and so-called colonial agitator, who was going to Port Elizabeth or its vicinity to farm ostriches. There were many typical colonial men on board, and although they were one and all in favour of a Federal union, they were pretty unanimous in their opinion that the question had been precipitately and unwisely raised, and somehow or other all the passengers endorsed this view. We had Dutch, German, French, and English colonists among us. There was Captain Van Tromp, a Dutchman, sent out by the Raad, to see how far President Burgers' statements with reference to the Transvaal were true. Captain Van Tromp belongs to one of the oldest of the aristocratic

HIS BIRTH WAS NOBLE, UNSTAINED HIS CREST. 313

families of Holland, he is a descendant of that mighty and audacious Admiral, who placed a broom at the bow of the flag ship of his fleet, "to sweep the English from the seas," and who moreover found us so hopelessly napping, as to make it possible for him, to sail up the Medway as far as Rochester. Captain Van Tromp had passed the last twelve years of his life in travelling about from clime to clime, and in the course of his wanderings he had visited most of the English and Dutch colonies, and the United States, while as to Europe, he appeared to be as familiar with that continent, as a man well could be. He was then on his way to visit the Transvaal and Free State Republics, and badly enough he was treated by the Boers when he arrived there. The Transvaaler dislikes a Britisher, but he hates a Hollander still more. This is a strange state of things, but it obtains nevertheless. The worthy captain was allowed to want for food and drink often and often during his journeys; the Boer farmers regarded him with a jealous and suspicious eye and turned him away from their doors, so that he was unable to satisfy the cravings of the inner man, although he offered heavy sums of money for the most ordinary accommodation. Churlish treatment to such a man, especially considering that he had come to befriend them. But I am anticipating.

Like most Dutchmen, Van Tromp was a radical at heart, despite his aristocratic name and lineage. "In England," he said, “you have an actual territorial oligarchy, hereditary titles can therefore be defended on logical grounds. But in Holland the law of primogeniture is unknown, and, moreover, a father cannot, according to the law of the land, will all his real or personal property to his eldest son, but must divide both, equally, between them, his children, at his decease. To fit in with this arrangement all titles have been abolished, with the exception of that which belongs to the kingly office." This being so, Van Tromp was of the opinion, that a republican form of government would be far more consistent, with the genius of the constitution than the monarchical system, and this conviction seemed to have gained considerable strength in his mind, on account of the personal characters of the present royal family of Holland. The King

takes but little interest in public affairs, and his sons seem to share very much in his indifference.

He gave me a very favourable account of the prosperity of his country. The Zuyder Zee is to be drained and embanked with dykes. The people are prosperous, and socially and materially they can put to shame many of the citizens of more important countries. Foreign relationships wear, unfortunately, a more serious aspect. Mr. Van Tromp deliberately stated to me, that he thought Germany was only awaiting her opportunity, to endeavour to annex the whole of the country between her and the seaboard of the German ocean, thus making that great northern sea literally Germanic, as well as in name.

Despite the Hollander's national disposition which is notoriously phlegmatic and wanting in enthusiasm, he would not, my informant felt sure, allow the little kingdom which possesses such a magnificent heritage of past glory, to be wiped out and monopolised by Germany, without making a desperate struggle for his national life, and for the integrity of the national territory. Like William the Silent "we will pull down the dykes and swamp the country rather than submit to this degradation". This intelligent diplomatist thought that if Prince Bismark and General Moltke had not the fear of England and Russia before their eyes, they would make the attempt upon Holland to-morrow and few can doubt the correctness of his surmise. Witness Schleswig-Holstein and Alsace-Lorraine.

Dr. Ross, whose work upon the suitability of South Africa to consumptives, is a most valuable contribution to hygienic literature, was another passenger, and he spoke very highly of the Cape Colonies in relation to their curative effects in pulmonary and rheumatic cases. Then we had the usual number of invalids, of returning colonists, some agreeable ladies, and one or two literary men, including the editor of a slating paper in Cape Town which paper is since defunct. This editor was a strange weird fellow, full of wit and humour, and capable of spinning a yarn or two. Α select committee of passengers formed a club, to which we gave the euphonic title of the "Rum Tum Par Club". The editor just mentioned was elected to the presidency, and the ship's doctor was