had been told we might meet with scanty courtesy. However, we had no
disagreeable experiences, and then the train emerged on the endless
rolling green plains which extend right up to and beyond the mining
district of the Rand.

Now and then one perceived a trek waggon and oxen with a Boer and his
family, either preceded or followed by a herd of cattle, winding their
slow way along the dusty red track they call road. At the stations
wild-looking Kaffir women, half naked and anything but attractive in
appearance, came and stared at the train and its passengers. It is in
this desolate country that Johannesburg, the Golden City, sprang up, as
it were, like a fungus, almost in a night. Nine years previously the
Rand--since the theatre of so much excitement and disappointment--the
source of a great part of the wealth of London at the present day, was
as innocent of buildings and as peaceful in appearance as those lonely
plains over which we had travelled. As we approached Johannesburg,
little white landmarks like milestones made their appearance, and these,
we were told, were new claims pegged out. The thought suggested itself
that this part of South Africa is in some respects a wicked country,
with, it would almost seem, a blight resting on it: sickness, to both
man and beast, is always stalking round; drought is a constant scourge
to agriculture; the locust plagues ruin those crops and fruit that
hailstones and scarcity of water have spared; and all the while men vie
with and tread upon one another in their rush and eagerness after the
gold which the land keeps hidden. Small wonder this district has proved
such a whirlpool of evil influences, where everyone is always striving
for himself, and where disillusions and bitter experiences have caused
each man to distrust his neighbour.

FOOTNOTES: