CHAPTER I 



SOUTH AFRICA 



Some Reminiscences 



A CERTAIN amount of satisfaction is to be 

 derived in recalling the pleasures of the 

 past, and there are, I expect, few of us 

 who do not reflect on bygone days. In the early 

 eighties South Africa was attracting a good deal 

 of attention. Cecil Rhodes was stirring things up 

 in that part of the Empire. The formation of the 

 British South African Company, a very grand and 

 ambitious project, was boomed and boosted to such 

 an extent that the shares actually rose to ^9. 

 Now in 192 1 they stand at 14s. and have never 

 paid a dividend, but no doubt in years to come 

 it will be proved that the country can support an 

 immense population. 



Early in 1890 I joined the British Bechuanaland 

 Border Police, a force established to watch the 

 Boers on the Transvaal border, as for some time 

 they had been inclined to be restless and truculent, 

 ceasing to treat the British with respect. Some- 

 times they referred to us as "those Bloody 

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