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A GREAT SUBJECT LAMBENTLY TREATED.

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are illimitable. Its mineral wealth almost defies description. Precious metals and gems are only waiting to be appropriated. The Diamond Fields of Kimberley are the richest in the world. The gold of the Transvaal stretches away far into the interior, some believe to Tanganyika, but let us say to the Zambesi. The primitive attempts of the natives to obtain the metal are discernible over miles and miles of country, in the shape of shallow holes and excavations, and it is even said that the spot is known where once the famous mines of Ophir, owned by the Queen of Sheba, were worked. Credible travellers speak of natives who use gold to make their bullets. The copper mines of Namaqualand are capable of indefinite development. So are the manganese mines of the Cape Colony. In these luxurious days, when enormous fortunes are so quickly made, the spirit of emulation has added fuel to the taste for display and ornamentation, which tastes are more than ever in the ascendant. Anything which can supply these wants will find a world-wide market awaiting it, so that even the mania for finery, vulgar as it is, is nevertheless a providential arrangement. It is beneficial in that it is directly and indirectly instrumental in sending thousands away from overpopulated centres, to develop savage lands, and thus in the end, money is extracted from the pockets of those who are rich, to the benefit of those who are poor; which result tends in the healthful direction of the equalisation of property.

Mr. Harry Brooks, who, some time ago, published a book on Natal, assured me when I was at Maritzburg, that the coal-fields of that colony were illimitable. Coal means steam, and steam means milling, engineering, manufactures. Then again, the interior is rich in rough produce, in beautiful skins, ivory, and so on. The continent is capable of growing the finest timber, and it grows such timber now. Its fibres and grasses would make carpets and brooms, baskets, and clothes for millions of people. Its wine, its ostrich feathers, its wool, tobacco, sugar, arrowroot, are all sources of wealth, still in their infancy. At present, the exports fall short of the imports, and the colonists still look to Europe in a large measure for their food supply. But who can doubt that when railways have opened up the country far and wide, and

kloofs have been cut through the mountains, so that the vast resources of the country in sheep and cattle may be made available for practical uses, we shall have to look to Africa for a portion of our meat and grain supply, as we are now looking to Australasia, South America, and Canada. The suitability of the country for pastoral and arable pursuits is pre-eminently satisfactory; and as the railways are extended, roads are made, passes are cut in the mountains, lands are irrigated, waters stored, trees planted, and the rest, great changes for the better will be effected. There is still much difficulty in getting cattle to market. Many poor miserable brutes are driven into Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, from distances exceeding 700 miles, and having to go through karoos or deserts, where there is neither grass nor water, it may be imagined that at the end of the journey of a month or six weeks' duration, the condition of the cattle is such as would make the Royal Agricultural Society shudder. Although, for reasons already elaborated, Africa has as yet no manufactories, ample facilities exist for the establishment of tanneries, distilleries, glass manufactories, shot and powder magazines, breweries; and cloth could be made here as it is made in Australia. As to the rivers and harbours, I need say no more about them.

Then again, South Africa ought to have a grand future before her, simply as a sanitarium for Englishmen. When Cannes, Nice, Mentone, Monte Carlo, Bordighera, Algeria, Corsica, Malta, Pau, Biarritz, Arcachon, Dinan, and countless places besides, are reaping golden harvests yearly from our invalided friends, why should not South Africa make a determined bid for this enormous percentage of our population? In England 130,000 persons fall victims to phthisis annually, who if they took the malady in time, might almost to a man be alive and hearty. There is no grander place for consumptives in the wide world than South Africa. True it is not so near England as the places whose names I have strung together. So much the better, the voyage and change go a long way in effecting a cure. The objection will be urged that the expense is greater. Well, to the poor man afflicted with a pulmonary disorder, I would say, scrape together the passage money and be off, rather than remain here to court destruction.

A LAND OF LOST OR NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES. 377

The most you can procure in this country is a change to Ventnor, Torquay, or Hastings, and your friends will send you there when the hand of death has already tight hold upon you. Nor are any of these English retreats of much use. As to those people who can afford to winter in any of the places I have enumerated, they are not, as a rule, much concerned about money matters, and could as easily go to South Africa as to the South of France; with far greater chances of being cured there. South Africa effects wonderful cures, and the more wonderful in that, as a rule, people have not come to Africa until their cases were almost hopeless, and moreover, no provision for invalids, on anything like a serious or extensive scale, has been attempted in the colonies. Some enterprising men in Cape Town should build and advertise Sanatoriums, similar to the Hydropathic Establishment at Tunbridge Wells, let me say, or the Mont Dore at Bournemouth; at Wynburg, Simon's Town, and in other suitable spots. This if properly done would attract hundreds to the colony, and would enrich it in every way, by the accession of money, culture, and intelligence. I believe, in this manner alone, that there would be a great future for the colonies.

I should only weary my readers were I to go over the ground again. I hope I have said enough to convince those who needed convincing, that Africa can make out a very fair case for itself. This grand continent is at our feet, are we to spurn it, are we to let the opportunity of creating a second America escape us? An America unhampered by the occupation of some of its best regions by a race of Latins, the ne'er-do-weel Spaniards. Here is a grand field where thousands of scientific experiments for the welfare of mankind might be worked out, where millions of our race could find room for the true expansion of their abilities, where instead of the prolonged life starvation which many of our poor fellow-countrymen endure, bread could be earned by work. A land, too, where our language, our laws, and our institutions might be perpetuated, full of faults as they are one and all, yet the finest the world has ever produced. Are we to be indifferent to all these considerations? Shall we allow some Teutonic race, more enterprising than ourselves, to usurp our historical voca

tion, and rob us of that which we should regard as our palpable destiny-which is, I take it, to colonise the waste places of the earth? I will not believe it. We have tarried long enough, too long, on the outskirts of the promised land. It is time we pushed on. What has America done, and what is Australia doing, in their respective portions of the world? They are straining every nerve to get immigrants to help them to fence in the country. Australia is carrying telegraphic communication all over the island continent, and she has taken the wires from north to south and east to west, while she is extending her influence to Borneo, New Guinea, and the New Hebrides.

CHAPTER LI.

SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA.

"THE FIRST REQUISITE TO SUCCESS IN LIFE IS TO BE A GOOD

ANIMAL."

"Capital sport; never better! all smack, smooth, and no mistake."—Jack Brag. -Theodore Hook.

To pass once more from serious things to trifles light as air, I propose to say what I can about the sport of South Africa. Everybody knows that this part of the continent affords the finest sport in the world. Whether one's aims be ambitious and venturesome, or of the most modest description, it would be hard indeed if more or less scope for their indulgence could not be found in South Africa. Given liberty of action and fair opportunities, any man may indulge in sport to his heart's content in the colonies. Large game, such as elephants, hippopotami, lions, rhinoceros, buffalos, ostriches, Cape leopards, and giraffes, have practically left the boundaries of the British colonies, and are rarely to be met even in the Dutch Republics, although they cannot be said to have entirely forsaken either the one or the other. A herd of elephants lately made their appearance in the vicinity of Uitenhage, near Port Elizabeth, causing considerable annoyance and loss to the government, for they rooted up the telegraphic posts;—maybe they had heard of the crutch and toothpick brigade, and suddenly aspired to joining its ranks. But whether they required toothpicks or not, they caused sad havoc. Wild beasts of a less formidable and of a smaller species are to be found in the colonial borders. Of these, the wilde-beest (gnu) is the most important. But the

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