PREFACE

As I have explained in the introductory chapter the scope and plan of this volume, I need do no more here than acknowledge the assistance which I have derived in the historical part of it from two or three books, and especially from the treatises of Mr. Theal, a diligent and careful writer who has done much for the annals of his adopted country. I have also been aided by the interesting lectures on the Emigrant Boers in Natal of the late Mr. Cloete, and by the lucid and judicious Historical Geography of the British Colonies" (vol. iv.) of Mr. C. P. Lucas. No special reference seems needed to the other works I have consulted, except to Mr. Noble's very well executed "Official Handbook of the Cape and South Africa."

I have to thank Sir Donald Currie and the Castle Mail Packets Company for the permission kindly given me to use the maps in the excellent "Guide to South Africa" (published by them) in the preparation of the three maps contained in this volume; and I trust that these maps will prove helpful to the

reader, for a comprehension of the physical geography of the country is essential to a comprehension of its history.

The friends in South Africa to whom I am indebted for many of the facts I have stated and views I have expressed are too numerous to mention but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of returning thanks for the genial hospitality and unfailing kindness which I received in every part of the country.

As I have been obliged to correct the proofs of this book at a distance from all books of reference, I ask indulgence for any minor errors which may be discovered in it.

September 13, 1897.

JAMES BRYCE.

INTRODUCTION

In the latter part of the year 1895 I travelled across South Africa from Cape Town to Fort Salisbury in Mashonaland, passing through Bechuanaland and Matabililand. From Fort Salisbury, which is only two hundred miles from the Zambesi, I returned through Manicaland and the Portuguese territories to Beira on the Indian Ocean, sailed thence to Delagoa Bay and Durban, traversed Natal, and visited the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, Basutoland, and the eastern province of Cape Colony. The country had long possessed a great interest for me, and that interest was increased by studying on the spot its physical character as well as the peculiar economic and industrial conditions which have made it unlike the other newly settled countries of the world. Seeing these things and talking with the leading men in every part of the country, I began to comprehend many things that had previously been obscure to me, and saw how the political troubles of the land were connected with the life which nature imposed on the people. Im

mediately after my return to Europe, fresh political troubles broke out, and events occurred in the Transvaal which fixed the eyes of the whole world upon South Africa. I had not travelled with the view of writing a book; but the interest which the events just mentioned have aroused, and which is likely to be sustained for a good while to come, leads me to believe that the impressions of a traveller who has visited other new countries may be useful to those who desire to know what South Africa is really like, and why it makes a noise and stir in the world disproportionate to its small population.

I have called the book " Impressions" lest it should be supposed that I have attempted to present a complete and minute account of the country. For this a long residence and a large volume would be required. It is the salient features that I wish to describe. These, after all, are what most readers desire to know these are what the traveller of a few weeks or months can give, and can give all the better because the details have not become so familiar to him as to obscure the broad outlines.

Instead of narrating my journey, and weaving into the narrative observations on the country and people, I have tried to arrange the materials collected in a way better fitted to present to the reader in their natural connection the facts he will desire to have. Those facts would seem to be the following: