RHODESIA. 203 



upon the whole healthy enough to be comfortably 

 and safely inhabitable by the northern European 

 races. 



As a stockbreeding country Matabeleland is 

 at least equal to the best settled parts of any 

 portion of South Africa, and in that respect my 

 impression is that it will be found superior to b'je 

 more elevated country of Mashonaland. Upon 

 the whole, the prospects of pastoral and agri- 

 cultural settlers in any parts of Rhodesia likely 

 to be permanently occupied by immigrants are 

 decidedly cheery, conditional of course on the 

 success of mining operations. In the absence of 

 such success I must candidly confess that I do 

 not think that any settlements in tropical Africa 

 of national importance will achieve enough 

 success to compensate adventurers for the numer- 

 ous difficulties and drawbacks incidental to the 

 general nature of these countries, where up to the 

 present a conspicuous dearth of exportable com- 

 modities in adequate quantities is at all events 

 the rule. Here and there, even in the absence of 

 gold, the energy of modern progress will doubt- 

 less eventually dot over the whole of the healthier 

 portions of the African continent with isolated 



