and has none of the Boer peculiarities, of which I shall have to speak when I come to the Transvaal and the Free State. The Dutchman is the descendant of the old Dutch Colonist, and when living on his farm is called a Boer, the word having the same signification as husbandman with us. It flavours altogether of the country and country pursuits, but would never be applied to any one who worked for wages. They are rare in the part of the country we were then visiting, having taken themselves off, as I have before explained, to avoid English rule. There is however a settlement of them still left in the northern part of the Colony, about the Klip River and in Weenen. One Hollander whom we visited was very proud indeed of what he had done in the way of agriculture and gave us, not only his own home-grown oranges, but also his own home-grown cigars. I had abandoned smoking, perhaps in prophetical anticipation of some such treat as this. Others of the party took the cigars,-which, however, were not as good as the oranges. This man had planted many trees, and had done marvels with the land round his house. But the house itself was deficient,especially in the article of flooring. Then we came to a German farmer who had planted a large grove about his place, having put down some thousands of young trees. Nothing can be done more serviceable to the country at large than the planting of trees. Though there is coal in the Colony it is not yet accessible, -nor can be for many years because of the difficulty of transport. The land is not a forest-land,—— like Australia. It is only on the courses of the streams that trees grow naturally and even then the growth is hardly more than that of shrubs. Firewood is consequently South Africa. I. 18 very dear, and all the timber used in building is imported. But young trees when planted almost always thrive. It has seemed to me that the Governments of South Africa should take the matter in hand, as do the Governments of the Swiss Cantons and of the German Duchies, which are careful that timber shall be reproduced as it is cut down. In Natal it should be produced; and Nature, though she has not given the country trees, has manifestly given it the power of producing them. The German gentleman was full of the merits of the country, freely admitting his own success, and mitigating in some degree the general expressions against the offending Native. He could get Zulus to work-for a consideration. But he was of opinion that pastoral pursuits paid better than agriculture. We came to another household of mixed Germans and Dutch, where we received exactly the same answers to our enquiries. Farming answered very well,—but cattle or sheep were the articles which paid. A man should only grow what corn he wanted for himself and his stock. A farmer with 6,000 acres, which is the ordinary size of a farm, should not plough at the most above 40 acres,just the patches of land round his house. For simply agricultural purposes 6,000 acres would of course be unavailable. The farming capitalists in England who singlehanded plough 6,000 acres might probably be counted on the ten fingers. In Natal, and in South Africa generally, when a farm is spoken of an area is signified large enough for pastoral purposes. This may be all very well for the individual farmer, but it is not good for a new country, such as are the greater number of our Colonies. In Australia the new coming small farmer can purchase land over the heads of the pastoral Squatters who are only tenants of the land under Government. But in South Africa the fee of the land has unfortunately been given away. On many of these farms we found that Zulus had "locations." A small number, — perhaps four or five families,—had been allowed to make a kraal,—or native village, on condition that the men would work for wages. The arrangement is not kept in any very strict way, but is felt to be convenient by farmers who have not an antipathy to the Zulus. The men will work, unless they are particularly anxious just then to be idle;which is, I think, as much as can be expected from them just at present. Throughout this country there are other "locations,”—very much larger in extent of land and numerously inhabited, - on which the Natives reside by their own right, the use of the soil having been given to them by the Government. - At Greyton the capital of the district I met an English farmer, a gentleman living at a little distance whose residence and station I did not see, and found him boiling over with grievances. He found me walking about the little town at dawn, and took out of his pocket a long letter of complint, addressed to some one in authority, which he insisted on reading to me. It was a general accusation against the Zulus and all those who had the management of the Zulus. He was able to do nothing because of the injuries which the vagabond Natives inflicted upon him. He would not have had a Zulu near him if he could have helped it. I could not but wish that he might be deserted by Zulus altogether for a year, so that he might have to catch his own horse, and kill his own sheep, and clean his own top boots-in which he was dressed when he walked about the streets of Greyton that early morning reading to my unwilling ears his long letter of complaint. At his camp in the neighbourhood of Greyton I bade adieu to the Governor and his companions and went back to Pieter Maritzburg by the mail cart. I had quite convinced myself that the people whom I had seen during my little tour had done well in settling themselves in Natal, and had prospered as Colonists, in spite of the dog tax and the wickedness of the Zulus to the unfortunate owner of the top boots. CHAPTER XVII. The Zulus. UPON entering Natal we exchange the Kafir for the Zulu,-who conceives himself to be a very superior sort of man-not as being equal to the white man whom he reverences, but as being greatly above the other black races around him. And yet he is not a man of ancient blood, or of long established supremacy. In the early part of this century,-beyond which I take it Zulu history goeth not, there was a certain chief of the Zulus whom we have spoken of as King Chaka. To spell the name aright there should be a T before the C, and an accent to mark the peculiar sound in the Kafir language which is called a click. To the uninstructed English ear Chaka will be intelligible and sufficient. He was King of the Zulus, but the tribe was not mighty before his time. He was a great warrior and was brave enough and gradually strong enough to "eat up" all the tribes around him; and then, according to Kafir fashion, the tribes so eaten amalgamated themselves with the eaters, and the Zulus became a great people. But Chaka was a bloody tyrant and if the stories told be true was nearly as great an eater of his own people as of his enemies. In his early days the territory which we now call Natal was not inhabited by Zulus but by tribes which fell under his wrath, and which he either exterminated or assimilated, -which at any rate he "ate up." Then the Zulus flocked into the land, and hence the native population became a |
