the “ Mimosa-bark,” that now supplies a large quantity
of tanning-material for export to England. I may
here at once state, and the fact will explain the
difficulties and expense of transport to the Transvaal,
that I found this bark could be absolutely delivered at
£2 per ton less in London than at Pretoria. The cultivation
of these “ Wattles” is largely on the increase,
and will considerably add to the exports from Durban.
Christmas had passed without pleasure, for, even
stripped of the pagan accessories of holly and mistletoe,
it will always be to Englishmen a time of family
reunion, and my thoughts were with my family away in
snow-covered Surrey. On “ boxing-day ” I left by the
coach for Johannesburg, and once more began to retrace
my steps towards the sea. I t soon commenced to rain,
and we subsequently drove through a white mist or
damp fog, such as I had not seen since leaving home,
and which seemed little in keeping with what one
anticipates in South-east Africa.
Johannesburg, which we reached about 7 p .m., is the
veritable Chicago of South Africa. The Rand is high,
healthy, and cool, and the atmosphere quite invigorating
after the close and still air of sheltered Pretoria. The
surrounding country looks bare and desolate in the
extreme, there are scarcely any trees to be seen, there
is nothing picturesque, but there is Johannesburg and
the site of the finest gold-producing reef in the country.
It is here that the real pulse of the Transvaal is felt,
though the heart may beat at Pretoria. Young trees
are being planted in considerable numbers, and by the
time these have grown and added sylvan beauty to the
spot, may commercial prosperity also have returned to a
town that holds so many of our countrymen and contains
so much capital belonging to English investors.
Gold is the main strength of the Transvaal, but its
quest by unscrupulous company promoters has been its
curse.
I t was a great relief at Johannesburg to once more
stay in a comfortable hotel, especially with single-bedded
rooms. To occupy a double-bedded room without
having seen the other guest, who may turn in very
late, and perhaps not sober, is what I once or twice
experienced during my stay in the country, but which
I gladly, relinquished when possible. The Grand
National Hotel was built at the time of the greatest
prosperity of Johannesburg, and the cashier assured me
that the takings then averaged £200 daily; but at the
time of my visit the receipts only amounted to about a
fourth of that sum. Some of the smaller hotels were virtually
closed, and fires had become somewhat frequent.
I remember years ago travelling with an American who
praised in no half-hearted way his native Chicago. Some
considerable conflagrations having recently occurred
there, I ventured to remark that fires sometimes took
place. That is nothing, replied my companion: “ when
a business man in Chicago is going to fail, he burns his
place down.”
I left Johannesburg at 5 a .m . on a fine Sunday
morning for the long coach-drive to Newcastle. The
journey was scarcely different to what I had formerly
experienced, save that the coach was less crowded and
the veld was now green in its summer dress, whereas it
was in winter brown when I crossed before. But the
sky was now clouded, frequent showers of rain occurred,
and one missed the lovely warm umber tints of the veld
and hills as seen under the clear winter sky.
We reached Heidelberg about 10 a .m ., a small and
early established town, but, like the rest, suffering from
the present depression. It has a considerable “ coolie”
or Indian population, and a priest of Islam, who had
been travelling through the South-African diocese,
joined the coach. He was certainly one of the most
handsome men I had ever met. Tall and of graceful
stature, he possessed a perfectly formed and chiselled
mouth, such as one seldom sees in man, but is found
principally in women of the classical type of beauty;
and with an aquiline nose was also combined the dark
soft spiritual eyes which mark the true type of the
visionary priest of all creeds. This man was evidently
o good birth, as proved by the ease, confidence, and