210 THE SEA. 



existing things as art or science, or poetry, or aught that pertains to civilisation." An 

 unpleasant picture, truly, and one to which there are many exceptions. It was doubtful 

 whether Mr. Vasson could read. His farm was several thousand acres. The ancient law 

 of Cape Colony gave the settler 3,000 morgen something more than 0,000 acres. He was 

 not obliged to take so much, but, whatever the size of his farm might be, it must be 

 circular in shape ; and as the circumference of a property could only touch the adjoining 

 grants it follows that there were immense corners or tracts of land left waste between. 

 Clever and ambitious farmers, in these later days, have been silently absorbing said corners 

 into their estates, greatly increasing their size. 



The Cape cannot be recommended to the notice of poor emigrants, but to capitalists 

 it offers splendid inducements. Mr. Irons, in his work on the Cape and Natal settlements,* 

 cites several actual cases, showing the profits on capital invested in sheep-farming. In one 

 case 1,250 realised, in about three years, 2,860, which includes the sale of the wool. 

 A second statement gives the profits on an outlay of 2,225, after seven years. It amounts 

 to over 8,000. Rents in the towns are low; beef and mutton do not exceed fourpence 

 per pound, while bread, made largely from imported flour, is a shilling and upwards per 

 four-pound loaf. 



So many sailors have made for the Diamond-fields, since their discovery, from the Cape, 

 Port Elizabeth, or Natal, and so many more will do the same, as any new deposit is found, 

 that it will not be out of place here to give the facts concerning them. In 1871, when 

 Mr. Boyle visited them, the ride up cost from 12 to 16, with additional expenses for 

 meals, &c. Of course, a majority of the 50,000 men who have been congregated at times 

 at the various fields could not and did not afford this; but it is a tramp of 750 miles 

 from Cape Town, or 450 from Port Elizabeth or Natal. From the Cape, a railway, for about 

 sixty miles, eases some of the distance. On the journey up, which reads very like Western 

 experiences in America, two of three mules were twenty-six hours and a half in harness, 

 and covered 110 miles ! South Africa requires a society for the prevention of cruelty to 

 animals, one would think. Mr. Boyle also saw another way by which the colonist may 

 become rapidly wealthy in ostrich-farming. Broods, purchased for 5 to U, in three years 

 gain their full plumages, and yield in feathers 1- to 6 per annum. They become quite 

 tame, are not delicate to rear, and are easily managed. And they also met the down coaches 

 from the fields, on one of which a young fellow almost a boy had no less than 235 carats 

 with him. At last they reached Pniel ("a camp"), a place which once held 5,000 workers 

 and delvers, and in November, 1872, was reduced to a few hundred, like the deserted 

 diggings in California and Australia. It had, however, yielded largely for a time. 



The words, "Here be diamonds," are to be found inscribed on an old mission- map of 

 a part of the Colony, of the date of 1750, or thereabouts. In 1867, a trader up country, 

 near Hope Town, saw the children of a Boer playing with some pebbles, picked up along 

 the banks of the Orange River. An ostrich-hunter named O'Reilly was present, and the 

 pair of them were struck with the appearance of one of the stones, and they tried it on 

 glass, scratching the sash all over. A bargain was soon struck : O'Reilly was to take it 

 to Cape Town; and there Sir P. E. Wodehouse soon gave him 500 for it. Then came an 



<* " The Settler's Guide to the Cape of Good Hope," &c., by Mr. Irons. 



