94 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



races, I own that it would be with the greatest 

 misgiving and reluctance that I could persuade 

 myself as a member of Parliament to support the 

 surrender to the Boers of the fortunes and destinies 

 of the Swazis ; a race, in many respects, of superior 

 quality and promise, one, moreover, which in recent 

 years has fought gallantly side by side with British 

 troops, and has acquired a peculiar title to British 

 protection. 



The Boer farmer |)ersonifies useless idleness. 

 Occupying a farm of from six thousand to ten 

 thousand acres, lie contents himself with raising 

 a herd of a few hundred head of cattle, which are 

 left almost entirely to the care of the natives whom 

 he employs. It may be asserted, generally with 

 truth, that he never plants a tree, never digs a 

 Avell, never makes a road, never grows a blade 

 of corn. Rough and ready cultivation of the 

 soil for mealies by the natives he to some extent 

 permits, but agriculture and the agriculturist he 

 holds alike in great contempt. He passes his day 

 doing absolutely nothing beyond smoking and 

 drinking coffee. He is perfectly imeducated. 

 Witli the exception of the Bible, every Avord of 

 which in its most literal interpretation he believes 

 with fanatical credulity, he never opens a book, he 

 never even reads a newspaper. His simple ignor- 

 ance is unfathomable, and this in stolid composure 

 he shares with his wife, his sons, his daughters, 

 being proud that his children should grow up as 

 ignorant, as uncultivated, as hopelessly unpro- 

 gressive as himself. In the winter time he moves 



