A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 119 



rains, and the oxen drawing the transport wagons were 

 terribly distressed as they drew their heavy loads up the 

 steep ascent and through the deep mire. From this 

 part to near Newcastle the road was one of the worst 

 I had ever travelled over. We had exchanged the 

 ponderous coach for a light kind of wagonette, which 

 was better able to traverse the yielding soil ; heavy rain 

 descended and came through the canvas roof and side 

 coverings of the vehicle ; water poured down the steep 

 hill-roads in rivulets, and the scene and surroundings 

 were desolate in the extreme, especially when we 

 crossed the Ingogo heights, where monument and cross 

 denote the burial-place of so many British soldiers. 



Our driver was a Cape boy, our conductor a half-bred 

 Indian, whose father, he told me, had been an English- 

 man. Both exhibited an inclination to make merry of 

 England and her soldiers on a basis of Boer supremacy. 

 As a delicate piece of sarcasm the driver at length asked 

 me if we grew pine-apples in England. Certainly, I 

 replied, in glass houses at home, and plentifully in the 

 open air in that part of Britain called Natal. But you 

 would not call me an Englishman "? he asked, in startled 

 surprise. Certainly, I replied, if you were born and 

 are living under the British flag, under British law, 

 and prepared to maintain British rule. Ah! but, he 

 remarked, all Englishmen don't say that, most of them 

 call Natal "Kafir-land." I cannot help that, I responded, 

 I call Natal England as much as I do Scotland, and one 



^ 7 



day, 1 hope, Ireland. 



We reached Newcastle about 6.30. This town is 

 rapidly becoming a prosperous one ; it possesses abun- 

 dance of coal in the neighbourhood, but the Transvaal 

 Government have placed a prohibitive duty on that 

 article being imported into the Republic, which is thus 

 prevented from becoming a customer. Probably, how- 

 ever, Newcastle has reached its zenith, and the railway 

 will not only pass it by, but carry a considerable portion 

 of its trade to the terminus at the frontier. 



Since my visit, the railway, in April of this year 

 1891, has been completed and opened to Charles- 



