2 20 THROUGH GASA LAND. 



for some reason or other their efforts have failed, 

 and a native will at once distinguish the difference 

 between the foreign and native production, rejecting 

 the result of Europe's skilled labourers, and paying 

 high prices for what was fashioned and fabricated 

 with a rock for an anvil, and a foot-worked bellows 

 to keep the furnace in full blast. 



It is strange that the Boers never took posses- 

 sion of this country, for many of the burgers of the 

 Transvaal have visited it while elephant hunting, 

 and so were fully cognisant ot the value of this 

 wonderfully attractive land ; but these degenerate 

 descendants of Holland knew well that such a pro- 

 ceeding would incur the wrath of Mosoulikatsi, or 

 in later years Lobengulo, who would have thought 

 nothing of " wiping " the would-be colonists, off the 

 face of the earth. Again, a Boer is not an agricul- 

 turist, but a pastoral farmer ; he has not industry 

 for the former pursuits, and just sufficient indolence 

 in his composition to attach him to the last men- 

 tioned occupation ; but the tetze fly in sections of 

 Mashoona Land, especially on the savannahs and 

 low lying country, frightened him off from trusting 

 his flocks and herds to the ravages of this pesti- 

 ferous insect. However, in the hilly districts of 

 Mashoona Land, large herds of cattle are to be found, 

 and I venture to say that handsomer, better bred 

 beasts, are not to be seen anywhere. True ! they 

 are small, very small, but the excellence of the beef 



