THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 147 



old English home-scenes in the land of his adoption, 

 and flowers spring up around his African home ; his 

 presence in the Transvaal is also denoted by the cricket- 

 ground, and in the large towns by the race-course and 

 grand stand, which seem to be inseparable signs of an 

 English settlement in every part of the world I have 

 visited. As time passes, and mutual antagonism and 

 misunderstanding between Boer and Briton become 

 more and more reduced, the British element in the 

 Transvaal will be very considerable, and its descendants 

 will form true colonials with little wish to return to 

 their native land. Such men become good citizens, 

 especially when they meet with a prosperity which was 

 denied to them at home. 



I once met a thriving Scotchman in Natal who gave 

 me the history of his career in the colony. Twenty- 

 seven years previously he had left a northern Scottish 

 town, where he supported a wife and two children on 

 a weekly wage of nineteen shillings. As he related the 

 tale, " there were forty of us where I was employed and 

 I was the best of the lot, but nineteen shillings a week 

 was the most I could get." After his regular labour 

 he worked at another occupation from 7 to 11 in the 

 evening, and thus increased his small income. But at 

 last he struck, he felt it was neither just nor honest he 

 should always work like a slave in the mere effort of 

 sustaining life, and he came to Natal as a government 

 emigrant. The first day of his arrival he looked about, 

 the second he obtained work and earned a sovereign, 

 which he took home and justifying himself said: " There, 

 wife, in one day in this country as much as I could earn 

 in a week in Scotland ! " Now he is a wealthy and 

 prosperous man, and has been home for a trip to see 

 the old land, where he cares not to live though he could 

 now afford to do so. " No," as he remarked to me, " this 

 is my country and my home ; Natal has been so kind to 

 me, and Scotland so different and so hard.'" This is the 

 true spirit of the colonist there is a gratitude and love 

 for his adopted land, and a stern resolve to protect her 

 interests even if jeopardized by the mismanagement of 



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