Pietersburg. The section connecting Delagoa Bay as far as the Transvaal
border had previously been completed by McMurdo, and is the subject of
the present Berne arbitration.[2]

The contract conferred to the Dutch Company a monopoly, and most
advantageous financial terms as well. By that time great strides had
been made in the development of the Transvaal gold-fields, especially at
the Wit-waters Rand (Johannesburg); and immigration on a large scale
from all parts of the world had set in, and was constantly increasing
with vast amounts of investments in mercantile and other enterprises, as
well as in mining industries. At first, equitable laws governed burghers
and Uitlanders alike, administered by an independent judiciary. All
desirable security was afforded for person and property, with confidence
in the safety of investments, and great general prosperity kept pace
with ever-increasing activities and enterprise.

It was a great satisfaction to Uitlanders that the peace of 1881, and
the reinstatement of Transvaal independence, had restored harmony
between Boer and English, and that a policy was being followed to
preclude friction between the respective Governments. Those facts
largely stimulated investments and enhanced confidence. By 1887 the
alien population had already exceeded 100,000, and the capital
investments £200,000,000 sterling, and the desire so ardently
entertained by the people of the land, for twenty years back, was
gratified at last. The burghers shared in the prosperity to a very large
degree, and in lieu of former poverty, competence and wealth became the
rule, and many of them became exceedingly rich. It was not unusual to
hear Boers expressing undisguised gratitude, not merely for the natural
gold deposits, but specially also that people had come to prospect and
to invest capital, without which the wealth of the land would have