144 Recollections of Adventures 



Mr. Kruger it was changed to the present one via 

 Waterval-onder, partly because Mr. Kruger did not 

 want it to go through Swaziland, and partly to serve 

 certain private interests. Major Machado afterwards 

 Governor of Mozambique, surveyed it but did not 

 consider it the best route. I was appointed by unani- 

 mous votes of the Volksraad in 1876, as the first 

 Director of the Delagoa Bay Railway and represen- 

 tative of the Transvaal. Mr. George Piggott Moody, 

 afterwards Surveyor-General representing Portugal, 

 was also a director. Mr. Burgers went to Holland 

 to negotiate the loan, and to Belgium to purchase 

 rolling-stock, rails, etc. The loan in Holland was 

 only partially taken up, Mr. Burgers in the mean- 

 time ordered a state coach and some rails and rolling 

 stock in Louvain, but had not a penny to turn a sod 

 or buy a wheelbarrow, and I as director, had the 

 unpleasant duty of explaining the financial situation, 

 and the unbusinesslike way in which the loan, etc., 

 had been conducted, including the excessive commis- 

 sion charged by the people in Holland who assisted 

 Mr. Burgers. The president was in an awkward 

 dilemma, but no more money could be got on loan, 

 the Hollanders evidently distrusting the Transvaal 

 Government ; for as soon as the Annexation was 

 known in Amsterdam, the people at once communi- 

 cated with London, offering to complete or over- 

 subscribe the loan. Their offer was not entertained by 

 the British authorities. Mr. Burgers was authorised 

 by the Raad to borrow 300,000 ; he only obtained 

 14,000, much of which went in commissions and 

 donations to Hollanders and Belgians. A very large 

 safe he bought to put surplus cash in fell overboard 

 while being landed, and lay at the bottom of the sea 

 in Delagoa Bay. Hollander love of the Transvaal 

 rose to the highest level when they obtained valuable 

 concessions for the mint, railways, the National 



