THE TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC. 185 



stock-raising country the true source of wealth to the 

 inhabitants are cattle ; thus a more than usually dry 

 season may reduce the farmer of comparative opulence 

 to the verge of beggary. 



By the Yaal, Marico, Notawaney, and Limpopo 

 rivers, where water could be raised by machinery for the 

 purpose of irrigation, splendid crops of millet, Indian 

 corn, sugar, cotton, with nearly every variety of fruit, 

 could be raised ; tobacco also, if properly cultivated, 

 might be made one of the staples of the country. Near 

 the Vaal river I took the opportunity of examining a field 

 which was in an advanced stage the growth was very 

 strong, and the colour denoted that the plants were in 

 robust health ; but, instead of being topped, so as to 

 make the leaf large and reduce the quantity of fibre, it 

 was permitted to grow to any height, and carry any 

 quantity of leaves. Now, if this had been in America, 

 in Kentucky or Virginia, not a single plant would have 

 been permitted to bear over five or six leaves. 



Although the Kaffir population is abundant, labour 

 is very difficult to obtain in this distant part of the 

 earth. Herding cattle, and such-like occupations, they 

 do not object to, but tillage in fact, manual labour 

 of any kind is very much opposed to their ideas 

 of independence and manhood. Thus it is that the 

 women about Kaffir kraals do all the cultivation of the 

 soil. On this account, to a very great extent, may be 

 attributed the opposition the native population offer to 

 all attempts made by the missionaries to put a stop to 

 polygamy, the number of a man's wives being exactly 

 the estimate that may be formed whether he is poor 

 or has an abundance. 



On our road, for we are now on the highway from 



