who left the town had to be fumigated. The few Kaffir
houses in which the disease first appeared were burnt down,
and fumigation was applied to all the Kaffirs in the town—
a very trying ordeal, founded upon an exploded and ignorant
idea. In the Transvaal, from what I have heard, the operation
of fumigating is unusually severe through its being
carelessly conducted; so badly, indeed, that there have been
a number of cases of fainting, suffocation, and hemorrhage of
the lungs induced by the aggravating and strong fumes of
the sulphur. The person operated upon is kept in the
room for thirty minutes. I have even heard of some cases
of death resulting through weak-lunged persons being compelled
to inhale the sulphureous gas.
In the Transvaal, the landdrost of a town, as chief magistrate,
exercises absolute power. He can sentence any one,
white or black, to be flogged, even without the preliminary
of a trial, reminding one of Jed wood justice, “ hang in haste
and try at leisure,” as Scott said.
I remember reading- in an Orange Free State newspaper
of an Englishman, fifty years of age, receiving fifty lashes
for having given his drunken wife a kick, although not a
mark could be found on the woman.
Religious zeal is extravagantly strong in the Boer Republic,
and the outward ardour of the feeling has the happy
effect of making travellers form golden opinions regarding:
the devout character of the people. One traveller, especially—
and no mean literary authority—has evidently been
strongly influenced by the pious, atmosphere of a Boer’s
front room, which he breathed with refreshing delight,
finding no doubt additional solace in draughts of Boer
coffee. But the drop curtain was never raised to show life
behind the scenes. And so the traveller when he is safe in
his arm-chair, beside a blazing hearth in old England, draws