Some years after the South African Republic was established, the Lebombo Mountains became the boundary line between it and the Portuguese possessions. The British Chartered Company took possession of the interior plateau farther north. A dispute arose, but the boundary finally agreed upon is not yet marked off.
Many improvements are noticeable. From Delagoa Bay a railroad is being constructed to Pretoria. From Port Beira at the Pungwé River a railway is being constructed inland, which will reach a large portion of the British Chartered Company's possessions. Thus all these apparently inaccessible portions of the continent are being rapidly brought into easy communication with one another. Swaziland is a tract of country inclosed on three sides by the South African Republic, and on the remaining side by the Lebombo mountain ranges.
The country contains valuable gold fields, and is characterized by fertile, well-watered sections. The climate is generally healthy.
The Swazis are regarded as the bravest of all the Bantu tribes, and were the stanch friends of the early emigrant farmers.
They number at the present time about sixty or seventy thousand. Their chief, who died a number of years ago, granted to different white men so many concessions of all kinds—to extract metals, to till ground, to graze cattle—that he left few possessions or rights to his followers. This state of affairs led to the establishment of a mixed government, whereby the Europeans, acting under the approval of the chief, were to rule the country.
At the present time the reigning chief of the Swazis, acting in harmony with the ruling powers in Great Britain and in the South African Republic, has established a form of government which is recognized and upheld by the Europeans of the territory.
CHAPTER XLVI.
RETROSPECTIVE VIEWS.
It will be remembered that the country east of Cape Colony, extending along the slope of the Drachenberg Mountains to the Indian Ocean, as far as the southern border of the province of Natal, bears the name of British Kaffraria, or Kaffirland.