The distance is less by several hundred miles from the above region to Kimberley over an easy route, than it is to the Congo river through a difficult and mountainous country, where large rivers would have to be bridged, making a line almost impracticable. Such a line would also open up the country on the south side of the Zambese river. Towns would spring up, and the advantages to the Cape Colony would be incalculable. If fifty miles at a time were laid down and completed, or more, if funds could be obtained, it would not take many years to accomplish this grand object. It would be far more to the advantage of the Colony and English trade in time than extending the railway from Kimberley to the Transvaal, although the commerce may be largely increased under the present Boer rule, with whom we should have trouble in the duties they would levy on every article entering or leaving the state.
I have explored the whole line of country from the Zambese river to Kimberley, and have no hesitation in stating that a better country could not be selected for a railway, or where the cost would be less. The country north of the Zambese river, already spoken of, is one of the most valuable portions of South Central Africa, intersected by large rivers, tributaries of the Zambese, the elevation being nearly 3000 feet above sea-level, with splendid open and extensive grass plains, most valuable for grazing all kinds of stock. It is also a fine corn-growing country. With a railway to the Zambese river, it would be easy for settlers to reach it, and a road for an outlet for their produce. The plan is feasible: it only requires a little more energy on the part of the colonists, whose interests in the trade of the Colony are important, to seriously consider this matter, and develop a plan for carrying it into effect. This would counteract in a great measure the loss the colonists must suffer in their trade with the interior, by the Delagoa Bay railway.
I have referred before to the wild cotton of that part of Africa the quality of which, as I have before stated, is superior to the cultivated American cotton. If the Manchester cotton princes had a little more vitality in their composition, and turned their attention to growing their own cotton, and had their own cotton-fields in the finest part of the world for cotton culture, instead of being dependent on foreign markets for their supply, when at any time that supply may be stopped, they would find that they could produce a better quality of cotton and at a cheaper rate than that now imported to England from the United States of America.
I have explored this extensive cotton-growing region, and have for years devoted much attention to the subject, and from my knowledge of the extent of the country in which the cotton-plant is indigenous, this region would, with proper attention, become the largest cotton-growing country in the world. It is useless to suppose that with the growing competition with other nations, that trade will be the same in the future as it has been in the past. If this idea prevails, the sooner we are disabused of it the better for those who are embarked, in it; and we must devise means whereby they may retain and improve the trade of this country, which must be increased if we are to find employment and food for the growing population, which is enormously increasing. Therefore it is the duty of those who have capital at command and are engaged in mercantile pursuit, to develop the British trade, not only for their own benefit, but for the general good of the nation; and here is a wide field in which their capital can be advantageously employed, and be of immense benefit to the Cape Colony and England.
There are three kinds of cotton indigenous to the regions above-named. The first and most important is that from which some of the natives make blankets. The yellow flower is cup-like in shape, eight inches in diameter, and the pod when ripe is six inches in length. The plant grows to the height of seven and eight feet, with light-green leaves. In the second specimen the flower was, when full blown, four inches in diameter, the pod two inches in length, the height of the tree three feet, with light-green leaves. The third kind is the obendly already described, viz. the flower is green, pod five inches in length, has three sides with a rib between, each side one and a quarter inches wide, and green; the leaf is light-green above and white under.
The Mashonas manufacture a coarse cloth made from the bark of the baobab tree, the size of blankets, and dye them brown; they are very strong and are used as mantles by the natives; they are made by hand without any machinery. This bark could, with machinery, be turned to valuable uses. They also make beautiful bags to hold milk or water, and sacks for general use, very strong and durable. Paper also could be made from this bark, and there are also millions of immense bulbous roots found everywhere, suitable for paper-making, besides other plants valuable for many purposes.
The importance of this railway for opening up the rich gold-fields known to exist in the Mashona country, must not be overlooked in calculating its advantages, for they far surpass in extent those in the Transvaal. Copper, lead, and silver are known to exist also, close to where the railway would go, which cannot now be profitably worked from the expensive carriage and the slowness of the transit to the Colony. Immense quantities of skins of all kinds of animals are now lost in consequence of the expense of bringing them down to the coast for shipment, as well as ivory, horns, feathers, and gums, without taking into consideration the valuable woods, such as mahogany, ebony, lignum-vitae, and others; and what is of the greatest importance in considering a railway, coal is known to exist in the country in any quantity required.
When I visited the Matabele country the last time, I came on a mission from Sir Bartle Frere, to report on the cotton-bearing country, and other matters that information was required on by the Government. On my arrival I reported myself to the king, where I found him on the 30th of December, at his country village, Umkano, or, as some term it, Umganine, a pretty situation with only a few huts beside the king’s, that numbered eight or ten, as before stated in a former part of this chapter.