CHAPTER XX. 



BRITISH AND OTHER EUROPEAN 

 PIONEERS AND VISITORS. 



After we had been in Pretoria for some time, 

 other Europeans came to reside there, among them 

 John Robert Lys with his cheery anecdotes, his 

 unbounded and genuine hospitality, his ingrained 

 loyalty to the British Empire, and his downright hon- 

 esty in public affairs. Mauch the explorer used to be 

 much in Robert Lys' house where he came with the dear 

 old hunter and pioneer William Hartley, who was 

 afterwards killed by a rhinoceros, in what is now 

 Rhodesia. He took the traveller Mauch to the 

 Zimbabye ruins. Thos. Baines (the first to paint 

 the Victoria Falls,) a quaint, unassuming, but ster- 

 ling man, was one of the first to obtain a concession 

 from Lobengula. He was given more to geographi- 

 cal and scientific research, than mere money making. 

 We enjoyed his visits to Pretoria and "The Willows." 

 Alexander McKorkindale, another real pioneer, who 

 endeavoured to introduce British settlers into the 

 Transvaal, and connect it with the nearest sea port. 

 He obtained from President Pretorius large tracts of 

 land in "New Scotland" district, near Lake Chrissie, 

 eastern Transvaal. The higher portion of this land, 

 named New Scotland, was dotted over with lakes, 

 some so deep that hippopotami lived in them and the 

 district was considered by the Boers too swampy to 

 farm on. Of late years, the lakes have shrunk, some 

 almost dry, and heavy wagons now go over on dry 

 ground what were formerly swamps and "vleis." The 



