The European population of this large tract of land is said to be only 30,000, blacks numbering 150 to one white person—and it is doubtful if that number will ever be greater, for the large graveyards with numerous fresh mounds of dirt are becoming better known through the receipt of mail by friends living in countries of the North sent by cadaverous, shaking relatives dying in the fever glades of Rhodesia.
From Livingstone, 1,650 miles north of Capetown, the projected Cape-to-Cairo line extends 300 miles further, to Broken Hill, where it stops. The route from here is to the southern borderline of the Belgian Congo, thence through that country, crossing the equator, until Uganda is reached. From Uganda it will traverse the Soudan, running thence into southern Egypt. At a point in this country the line will connect with a tongue extending southward from Cairo, the northern terminus. When the center has been linked, the length of the line from Capetown, the southern terminus, to Cairo, will be about 5,000 miles.
Returning to Johannesburg, we passed through Bulawayo, then over the Matabeleland borderline into Bechuanaland, through the Kalahari Desert, next into Cape Colony, and thus into Boerland.
Perhaps the prettiest and most shapely mountains in the world are those in South Africa. Though not so high as those in other countries, their shapeliness attracts, most of them bearded with brush at bases and sides, the tops being round and grassy. With the deep blue sky above—the sun nearly always shining on the high veld, except during a shower of rain—and the same colored horizon all round, together with the rays from a bright sun lavishly diffusing the summits, there is a tone and finish to Boerland mountains which, in other countries, rocks, snow and timber do not bestow. The highest mountain is Mount Aux Sources, rising 10,000 feet, located in the Drakensburg range.
CHAPTER VII
From the Gold City we traveled southward to the Diamond City.
"You haven't been in town long?" a Kimberley policeman addressing me, remarked, as he stepped in front. As a matter of fact, I had only got about a hundred yards from the railway station. I surmised that I had been taken for an "I. D. B." (illicit diamond buyer), having been told a bird can scarcely alight in Kimberley without coming under police surveillance. "We're from the same country, I believe," the officer continued, when I felt easier. "My native town is St. Louis," he added. "Come to my home this afternoon and have dinner with us, after which we'll call on an American living in a house a few doors below," he went on kindly. This courtesy allayed all suspicion that I would be asked to establish my identity before staying longer in the diamond fields. The invitation was accepted, his hospitality being generous. The second American had been on the diamond fields for more than 30 years, but local interest was a secondary consideration to meeting some one just come from the United States. He had been in British territory so long that he had acquired the British accent, but that was the only thing foreign about him, as one would not know where to find a more patriotic son of America. On a second visit to the "Diamond City" every kindness was shown me by these two "exiles."
Kimberley, with a population of about 35,000, one-third of this number being white, is the capital of Griqualand West, a section of Cape Colony. Before diamonds were discovered, the territory embraced in the Kimberley district was understood to be a part of the Orange Free State. When the diamond fields promised rich returns, Cape Colony officials claimed this tract as being part of that province. The matter was finally adjusted by the Free State surrendering its claim to the Cape authorities upon payment by the latter to the Boer republic of several million dollars. The Diamond City has evidently stood still while other places in the sub-continent have kept pace with the progress of the times. Its newspapers are inferior; only one building reaches three stories; there is very little street paving, practically no sidewalks, and public buildings are quite ordinary; the shacks standing not far from the business center, built by colored people out of American oil cans, are a disgrace; church bells even are suspended from a crosspiece resting on the top of two posts, 10 feet high, in the churchyard; the parks do not amount to much, most of the shade trees in these being fine-bearded pine, through which the sun beats down on one. If there was anything of a creditable character here, save for a modern street car system, we did not observe it. To Alexandriafontein, a fenced-in private pleasure resort, an electric line runs, but it costs 25 cents to reach this park.
Were one in need of an object lesson to understand thoroughly what a trust means to a municipality, he would learn that lesson in Kimberley. A number of diamond mines are in operation in the Kimberley district, but there is but one diamond mining company—the De Beers. Diamond mining is the only industry in Kimberley. Mine officials are very kind to visitors who wish to look about the works.