so exposed to the fierce southeasterly gales that it is | barren plateaus. The streams, also, are utilized and visited by but few sailing-vessels, nearly the whole distributed by canals over the surrounding land, of its foreign trade being conducted by powerful while the underground waters are reached by deep ocean-going steamers, landing from which, in rough wells, pumps and other appliances. Pasturage and weather, is an ordeal not without risk. This "Liv-stock-breeding of all kinds have been greatly develerpool of Africa," as it has been called, is the sea- oped, especially in the eastern provinces. Cattle of ward terminus of two important railways,-one to the long-horn Dutch variety are largely bred as draft Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, with animals; the native fat-tailed sheep yield mutton for a branch to Graham's Town, and another north- the market; while the Angora and English breeds westward branch; and the other lying more to the supply large quantities of wool for exportation. The west, and running to Graafreynet through several colony is, in respect of industries, still mainly dethriving market towns and centers of agricultural pendent on the mother country for textiles, hardindustry. ware, chemicals, paper, china and earthenware; but more or less successful essays have already been made at distilling, brewing, tanning, spinning and weaving, carriage-building and soap-making. Foreign trade is rapidly increasing, the total imports and exports having advanced from $60,000,000 in 1884 to $123,475,000 in 1893. In the eastern division, beyond Graham's Town toward the Kafir frontier, there are no Dutch and very few English settlements. Six in the extreme east are all stations on a railway running from East London on the coast to Aliwal north on the Orange River at the Free State frontier. It was in this district that various settlements were formed by the Anglo-German legion when it was disbanded after the Crimean War. The administrative center here is King William's Town, a flourishing trading-place and chief depot for the traffic with Kaffraria. East London, the only outlet for the whole region, has extensive harbor-works, carried out in recent years, yet it still remains an exposed roadstead, inaccessible for days together. Since 1888 the South African railways have been developed in the direction of a common continental system, which already reaches Pretoria, capital of the South African Republic, and Johannesburg in the same state, and is likely to be extended to the Zambesi, and thence to Buluwayo and Salisbury. Cape Colony has over 8,000 miles of roads, and government railways 2,253 miles in total length, involving an investment of $99,160,095. The telegraph lines comprise 5,602 miles. They are operated and were in great part constructed by the government. The Besides 537 square miles of forest in Cape Colony, a total area of 100,609,606 acres is in the hands of private owners, and 41,041,025 acres are still public land. The chief agricultural productions are wheat, oats, barley, mealies, Kafir corn, rye, oat hay, tobacco, wine, brandy and raisins. Other products are wool, mohair, ostrich feathers, butter and cheese. sheep-farms of the colony are often of very great extent, from 3,000 to 15,000 acres and upward. Farms in tillage are comparatively small. It is owing to the generally deficient rainfall that pastoral pursuits necessarily prevail over tillage. Of the 92,000,ooo acres distributed among 20,000 holdings in 1890, less than 1,000,000 were under cultivation, the chief crops being wheat (4,000,000 bushels) and maize (3,000,000 bushels). Nearly 20,000 acres are occupied by the most productive vineyards in the world, yielding an average of 6,000,000 gallons of wine and 1,250,000 of brandy. Improved methods of irrigation are bringing more land under cultivation every year, especially where advantage can be taken of the nature of the ground to create artificial reservoirs. Basins of vast size, containing from 100 to 200 and even 250 million gallons, have been made the means of reclaiming extensive tracts in the karoos, or dry, The government of Cape Colony is a governor appointed by the crown, a ministry of 6 members, a house of assembly elected for 5 years, and a legislative council, or upper house, of 22 members elected for seven years. By a law passed in 1882, speeches may be made in the Cape parliament both in English and in Dutch. The systematic British immigration begun in 1820, and at first promoted by state aid, resulted in making an eastern division of the colony, which was mostly British, with its center at Graham's Town, while the western division remained almost wholly Dutch; but a process of fusion followed, making Cape Town, in the west, almost an English city, while some of the eastern districts show a majority of voters of Dutch descent, and antagonism between the English and Dutch is nowhere found. It BASUTOLAND. On the northeast of the extreme east end of Cape Colony lies Basutoland, an irregular oval with an area estimated at 10,293 square miles. It borders on the Orange Free State. is one continuous elevated plateau, though broken and rugged, and the abundant grass on it has enabled the Basutos, its native African population, to rear immense herds of cattle. It is well watered and has a fine climate, and is said to be the best grain-producing country in South Africa. British possession was first taken by annexation to Cape Colony in August, 1871, but since March 13, 1884, it has been directly under the crown, with a resident commissioner as governor. The population at the last census, in 1891, was 587 Europeans, and 218,324 natives. European settlement is prohibited, permanent occupation being reserved to the natives. BECHUANALAND. On the other side of the Orange Free State, and to the west of the South African Republic, lies an extensive region constituting an annex to Cape Colony, on the north side of the Orange River, and bordering to the west on German West Africa. The larger part of this region to the west and north is the crown colony of Bechuanaland, with an area of 71,000 square miles, annexed Sept. 30, 1885, and a still larger extent of territory to the north of it, attached by way of a protectorate, making the whole Bechuanaland region under the colonial governor 170,000 square miles. The governor of Cape Colony is the governor, acting | in the whole world. At present there are no open through an administrator, whom he appoints. The general elevation of the country is from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea-level. The climate is healthy. Many parts are deficient in water-supply. The chief industry is agriculture, and the country is well adapted to the growing of maize and the raising of cattle. GRIQUALAND WEST. The southeastern section of this region north of the Orange River is Griqualand West, lying next to the Orange Free State. It is an integral part of Cape Colony, annexed in 1871 and incorporated in 1877. It comprises an area of about 18,000 square miles. Kimberley, its principal town and its chief mining center, distant 620 miles by rail from Cape Town and 430 from Port Elizabeth, has a population of about 20,000, and is rapidly becoming a great stronghold of British power and influence throughout South Central Africa. Here was held the first "South African and Intercolonial Exhibition," in the year 1892. The diamond-fields of Griqualand West are the chief mineral wealth of Cape Colony. An African diamond was first found south of the Orange River, in the Hopetown district, early in 1867. It was eventually sold for $2,500. A much larger stone, obtained in the same locality in 1869, was sold, when cut down from 83 to over 46 carats, for $56,000. No other finds were made on the south of the Orange, but search elsewhere led to valuable finds, scattered over a vast area north of the Orange. Valuable river diggings were discovered at Pniel Kopje and Klipdrift (now Barkly), facing each other on the left and right banks of the Vaal. The diamonds of this district are said to be of purer water than any others. The diggings still yield over $200,000 a year, the total production down to 1893 having been considerably over $10,000,000. The true placers, or dry diggings, where the stones occur in situ, and have consequently to be mined with costly appliances, lie clustered together about 24 miles southeast of Pniel, in a district less than 12 miles in circumference, close to the Orange Free State frontier. Here have been opened the four great "pipes," as they are called, of Bultfontein, Du Toit's Pan, De Beers, and Kimberley, the last, which gives its name to the neighboring town, being the richest diamond-mine in the world. The pipes, rising above the surface from 60 to 100 feet, are most probably extinct craters. They are found to broaden out to depths of over 2,000 feet, penetrating, in descending order, through a variety of rocks, down to the primitive granite and gneiss. The diamonds are found, not in the rock formations, but in the yellow and the lower-down blue eruptive matter which fills the pipes, and which is supposed to have been forced upward by the pressure of the underground gases. The stones are distributed in the blue rock, apparently in a certain regular order known to experienced miners. A peculiarity of the Cape diamond-fields, as compared with those of Brazil and India, is the high proportion of large stones that they have yielded. Several have been found weighing upward of 100 carats in the rough state. The famous "Stewart," found in an outside claim in 1872, weighed 288 carats, being exceeded in size by only three others workings, all operations being carried on by means of shafts and underground galleries, as in ordinary coal-mines. To control the output, and prevent a glut of the market, individual claims were gradually bought up by the larger capitalists, sometimes at enormous prices, and the whole of the diamond interest united in one amalgamated corporation. Owing to the great depth of the pipes, the mines may be regarded as practically inexhaustible. In 1889, 1890 and 1891 the output exceeded $20,000,000, while from 1867 to 1893 the total yield fell little short of $332,500,000. Besides the diamond-fields and the copper-mines already mentioned, the extensive coal-measures of the Stromberg uplands, which the railway from East London crosses at a pass 5,750 feet high, contain a vast store of fuel for future use. NATAL. The present colony of Natal was formerly an integral part of the Cape of Good Hope settlement. It was erected in 1856 into a separate colony under the British crown, and has been, since 1882, under a governor appointed by the crown. By a colonial charter granted in 1893, the governor appoints a cabinet of ministers, and, with their advice, a legislative council, or upper house, of 11 members. He also provides for the election, by the people, of a legislative assembly of 37 members. The colony has an area of about 20,460 square miles, with a coast about 200 miles in length. Of the land of the colony, 2,250,000 acres are reserved for native occupation, and 8,250,000 acres have been acquired, by grant from the crown, by Europeans. The leading crops are sugar, maize, wheat, oats, and other cereal and green crops, and tea-planting has been recently introduced. The coal-fields of the colony are of large extent, and rich beds of iron ore have been found in many parts. There are 399 miles of railway open, nearly all constructed and worked by the government. The main line extends from the port of Durban to the border of the Transvaal, 306 miles. An extension of 161 miles gives railway communication to Johannesburg. The population of Natal at the last census (1891) was 544,000. Durban, founded in 1846, on the only inlet accessible to shipping along the whole of the Natal coast, and the outlet for the whole trade of the colony, consists of two distinct quarters, connected by rail Durban proper, on the north side of the basin, in which the water is only seven feet deep, and Port Natal, at the entrance. The population of Durban (Europeans, Zulus, Hindus, Arabs, Chinese, and other Asiatics) is about 30,000. ZULULAND. Zululand, lying on the coast to the north of Natal, has an area of a little over 12,500 square miles, with a population, in 1893, of 857 whites and 163,447 natives. After the death of Cetywayo in 1884, and the Zulus proving unable either to establish orderly government or to resist encroachment by the Transvaal Boers, England interfered, and in May, 1887, constituted what remained of the old Zulu kingdom a British protectorate, administered by a resident commissioner under the governor of Natal. In 1895 this protectorate was extended by taking in the southern section of Tongaland to the south limit of Portuguese East | mongrel class, which consists of whites, Hottentots, Africa. ORANGE FREE STATE-SOUTH AFRICAN Republic. Two large Dutch states, lying inland in eastern South Africa. The Orange Free State, extending from the Orange River to the Vaal River, and the much larger South African Republic, extending from the Vaal north to the Limpopo, mark the final territorial and political result of the presence of a peculiar Dutch element in the original settlement of South Africa. The earliest formal act of possession at the Cape was that of two passing ships of the English East India Company in 1620, the year of the first planting of New England, in America; but this was not followed up by the British government, and the first permanent settlement was effected by the Dutch, in 1652, in sequel to compulsory explorations carried out, during the four years previous, by the crew of a Dutch vessel wrecked on the coast of Table Bay. The Dutch held undisturbed possession for over 140 years. The first Boers (pronounced Bûrs), or peasant farmers, began to arrive as early as 1654. They were mainly Dutch, but with a few Germans, and after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) a considerable number of French Huguenots were added, together with other Protestants (Waldenses) from the Piedmontese Alpine valleys. Owing to the great intelligence, energy, and agricultural skill of these non-Dutch immigrants, they took a leading part in the development of the colony, and to them is especially due the successful introduction of the culture of the vine. Having brought their families with them, they increased more rapidly than the Dutch, many of whom were officials and soldiers without families, who intermarried with the native women, and gave rise to the mongrel element still commonly known as "Bastards." Thousands of the present Boers are still proud of their Huguenot descent, and numerous family and geographical names remain to attest the former widespread influence of the French settlers. Nevertheless, the French and other non-Dutch settlers were gradually depressed under dominant Dutch rule, which, in 1724, officially banished all languages, except Dutch, from the schools and the pulpits. The Dutch attitude toward the natives was equally that of brutal selfishness, such as has everywhere appeared in Dutch colonial operations. Beginning by purchasing lands from the Hottentots, they employed, instead, forcible dispossession as they grew more powerful, and at last added the extreme measure of holding the owners of seized lands as slaves for tilling the soil. The Hottentots, accustomed only to the tending of flocks, proved inferior agricultural laborers, and were gradually replaced by negroes or negroid Bantus, mainly from the East Coast. The foreign slave-trade, for accomplishing this, began within 10 years of the foundation of the settlement, and was for a time so extensive that the black slaves outnumbered the free peasantry. With the falling off, later, of the importation of negro slaves, the number at the time of emancipation carried out by Great Britain in 1833 was not more than 25,000, scattered over the agricultural districts, and most of these have since been absorbed in the and blacks. The original purpose of the Dutch settlement being that of a fortified trading-station, and not that of a colony looking to territorial expansion, the colonial authorities tried to confine the plantation to a narrowly limited vicinity, even threatening with death and confiscation of property those who ventured to "trek”—that is, travel by wagon — in search of new settlements at a distance. To trek means to drag or draw. Dutch trekking was always done by means of huge wagons, drawn by long teams of oxen,-wagons which were immense schooners, covered and fitted to serve for both carrying and housing purposes. Not only could the trekker travel slowly onward at will, but he could tarry by the for a season of hunting or fishing, or delay on account of weather, or even for a season long enough to plant and gather crops. Trekking became an irresistible movement away from the original Cape station, the continuance of which to the present time has not only created the two Dutch states mentioned, but has scattered the primitive Boer element throughout the greater part of South Africa, from the Cape northward to the Cunene River, and northeastward to the Limpopo. way At the time of the British occupation in 1806, the total population of about 75,000 was about one third Boers, one third pure and mixed Hottentot serfs, and one third negro slaves. The Boers regarded themselves literally as "the chosen people," with a divine, indefeasible right to ownership of "the cursed children of Ham." They resisted to the utmost the movement for the emancipation of the slaves, breaking out into open revolt in 1815, with extensive resort to trekking, and, when slavery was abolished in 1833, undertaking the so-called "Great Trek" of 1834, to carry their families, their slaves and their herds beyond the jurisdiction of the British authorities. Moving with immense wagons, which served as their dwelling-places, and driving before them such cattle as were not yoked in long files to their wagons, or tarrying in choice places for pasturage and for sufficient tillage of the ground to supply their food necessities, they moved steadily northward, out of reach of English control. Many went to Natal, but moved farther on when Natal was annexed by the British. In this way the Dutch Boers finally found, on the north side of the Orange River, a land of their own, which they developed into the Orange Free State, the present estimated area of which is 41,500 square miles, with an estimated population of 208,000, of which about 78,000 are whites. The proceedings of the Boers followed the plan of either dispersing or reducing to virtual servitude the natives whom they found on the soil; and even with concession to British demands in the matter of slavery, they still exclude the blacks from the franchise, from ownership of land, and from bearing of arms, and both pay them badly and treat them with great harshness. The Orange Free State found its limit on the north at the Vaal River. Across the Vaal, by the advance northward of other trekkers, a second extensive settlement of Dutch Boers was made, and ways open in September, 1895, was 424; under construction, 384; and projected, 381. Pretoria is, by rail, 1,040 miles from Cape Town. Telegraph lines within the Transvaal extend 1,952 miles. TONGALAND. North of Zululand, the low-lying malarious coast region extending from Lake St. Lucia to Delagoa Bay, and known as Tongaland, had always been claimed by the Portuguese, although they had not entered it to make any permanent settlement. By an agreement of August, 1890, between England and Portugal, a line was drawn annexing the more northern part, 5,000 square miles, to Portuguese East Africa, and giving England the south part, with an area of 2,000 square miles. The extremely unhealthy climate, and the absence of mineral wealth, protects the natives, who are mostly peaceful agriculturists, from the encroachments of white settlers. SWAZILAND. To the east of Tongaland, on the edge of the upland regions, and extending back from the Lebombo range to the Drakenberg, the border of the Transvaal, there had sprung up the little native state of Swaziland, through a successful assertion of independence by the people, whose chief was named Swazi. The rich pasture-lands and extensive gold-fields of the district, together with the desire of the Boers to push their limits as near as possible to the coast, led to efforts of encroachment by the Transvaal, the last result of which was a convention of November, 1893, between the British and Dutch authorities, by which Swaziland was annexed to the Transvaal. The right to make a railway through it to Kosi Bay, on the Tongaland coast, had a short time before been conceded to the Boers. this became the Transvaal, which, by the convention | mine close to Pretoria. The total mileage of railof London, Feb. 27, 1884, was recognized as the South African Republic, the total area of which is roughly estimated at 114,000 square miles, with a population, in 1890, of 680,000, 120,000 of whom are whites, probably about half of them Boers, and nearly all the rest English, or others of English speech. Rough, cruel, exterminating treatment of the natives has been the rule of the Dutch trekkers. Livingstone testified to having been a frequent eyewitness of the cruelties inflicted by the Boers on the native populations, making captives of children, preferably very young children, to be reared as slaves, and unhesitatingly carrying out these or other measures of Boer civilization, at whatever cost of bloody suppression of native resistance. Dwelling in rude habitations little better than hovels, on allotments averaging about 6,000 acres, often clothed in the skins of animals, and knowing little contact with others except that of the bloody hand with the natives, the Boer life tended to be one of savage isolation, absolutely barbarous, until the discovery of the gold-fields and the rapid development of mining and associated industries brought British civilization upon the scene, with the extraordinary recent development of Johannesburg in the Witwatersrand region, and of Barberton, the center of the Kaap gold-bearing region, near the Portuguese frontier. So late as 1891 Dutch resistance to the limitations of civilization manifested itself in an attempt to organize another trek in the direction of the Zambesi, with the view of founding a new Dutch republic somewhere beyond the Limpopo. Against this, prompt protest was effectually made to President Kruger, April, 1891, by Sir Henry Loch, the high commissioner at the Cape, plainly intimating that any attempt whatever to plant another Boer state within reach of British authority would be forcibly resisted. President Kruger's acceptance of this marked the close of Boer political expansion in South Africa. The Transvaal capital, Pretoria, planned to accommodate ten times the number, has 6,000 to 8,000 inhabitants. Its southern rival, Potchefstroom, 90 miles farther south, the first place founded in the Transvaal, and for some time the seat of government, and largest town in the state, has a population of about 5,000. Johannesburg has a population of more than 60,000, and a floating population of 45,000 in the gold-fields. Barberton numbers about 10,000. In the Orange Free State there are no large centers of population. The government of the Orange Free State is that of a popular assembly, the Volksraad, of 58 members, and of a president, with an executive council of 5. The capital is Bloemfontein. The Transvaal government consists of a parliament of two chambers, each of 24 members, and of a president with an executive council of five. Gold-mining, carried on to a great extent in the various gold-fields, principally Witwatersrand and Barberton, is increasingly the overshadowing interest of the Transvaal. The total output for the first half of 1895 was $28,180,610. For the year 1894, 31 coal-mines were under development. Iron is also known to abound, and silver is worked in a It PORTUGUESE STATE OF EAST AFRICA. Portuguese East Africa extends from Kosi Bay, the north limit of British coast territory in South Africa, for about 1,400 miles northeastward to the Rovuma River, the south limit of German East Africa. is divided into two nearly equal sections by the lower course of the Zambesi River. The southern section stretches from the coast for an average distance of some 200 miles inland to the east border of the Transvaal and the eastern limit of British Central Africa. This section is also carried up the valley of the Zambesi as far as Zumbo, more than 500 miles from the sea, and constitutes a Portuguese district nearly surrounded by British Zambesi. The northern section extends from the coast, for an average distance of 300 miles, to Lakes Nyassa and Shirwa and the River Ruo, beyond which a long north and south region constitutes a British Central African protectorate. The southern region is commonly designated Gazaland, and the northern, Mozambique. In 1891 the whole was constituted the State of East Africa, and the two sections designated Mozambique and Lourenço Marques. The collective area of the two provinces is about 620,000 square miles, with an estimated population of 1,500,ooo. There are several ports on the coast. Mozambique is the capital of the northern section, and Lourenço Marques of the southern. The latter has acquired special commercial and political importance as the terminus of the railway to the Transvaal AFRICA and the natural outlet of the Boer republic. The rail- 81 estimated at about 4,000,000. This new British possession occupies the whole of the central region between the German and Portuguese possessions on the west, and the Dutch republics and Portuguese East Africa on the east. It stretches from the north limit of Cape Colony uninterruptedly northward to the southern extremity of Lake Tanganyika, where it has the Congo Free State on the west and German East Africa on the east. This gives a British highway from the Cape through the Zambezi region and across the Zambezi-Congo water-parting into the Upper Congo basin. With the free navigation of Lake Tanganyika, which is likely to be secured by international agreement, British trade and enterprise secure 400 miles more of continuous highway and thereby reach a point only 150 miles distant from Mount Mfumbiro, which is now the southern limit of the advance of British influence through Egypt by way of the Nile. By an Anglo-German agreement of July, 1890, British passengers and goods have freedom of transit across the 150 miles from Tanganyika to Mfumbiro. England only needs to obtain, by agreement with the Congo Free State, on the west, and Germany, occupying to the east, a connecting link of territory 150 miles long, to be able to travel within her own borders down the center of Africa from the mouth of the Nile to the Cape of Good Hope. A principal aim of Great Britain has has been to secure herself in the possession of this continuous territory through the heart of Africa from Cape Colony in the extreme south to Lake Tanganyika in the extreme north of Zambezia. The Boers, soon after the restoration of the Transvaal (1881), threatened this by aggressive movements on the west,-movements made in secret concert with Germany in Southwest Africa. This led the British government, acting under an agreement with the sub-native Bechuana chiefs, to constitute the greater part of South Bechuanaland a British crown colony. British interests were further safeguarded by a protectorate over North Bechuanaland, proclaimed in March, 1885, and by agreements, first with Germany, July, 1890, and later with Portugal, May, 1891, the result of which was to definitely fix frontiers toward the Congo Free State and the Portuguese and German West African possessions on the west, and German East Africa, Portuguese East Africa and the Transvaal on the east, the border of Cape Colony being the limit on the south. The whole of this vast region, between the Cape Colony border and Lake Tanganyika, is roughly divided into Bechuanaland south and north and Zambezia south and north. Across the whole of Zambezia, from the north border of the Transvaal, the map carries the general name Rhodesia, about one third of which, lying to the south and east of the Zambezi River, includes the two great native districts of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, within which the English settlements so far made are situated. It is in Mashonaland, to the northeast, that Salisbury, the Rhodesia seat of administration, has been founded. Buluwayo, the seat of Matabele uprising against English rule (1896), is the chief point of English occupation in Matabeleland. It was in 1890 that the chartered South Africa Company took formal possession of Mashonaland, BRITISH SOUTH-CENTRAL AFRICA. Within less than 10 years vast changes have taken place in the political relations of South Africa, the chief result of which has been the creation of "British SouthCentral Africa," a territory nearly 1,000,000 square miles in extent, with a population approximately |