2/6 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



CHAPTER XYIIL 



LIFE AT FORT SALISBURY. 



Mineral wealth of Mashonaland — Reefs in tlie Mazoe Eiver 

 Valley — The '^ Matchless " Mine— Good news from Fort 

 Victoria — A personal statement — Enterprise at Fort Salis- 

 Ij^^ry — A model Ranche — Farms leased by the Chartered 

 Company — An interesting auction — Indignation meeting 

 against the Chartered Company — Horse-racing at Fort 

 Salisbury — Organizing the administration of Mashonaland 

 — Mr. Cecil Rhodes's views of the country. 



The formation of any definite and precise opinion 

 about this country, its resources, and its prospects 

 I found to be a matter of difficulty. It cannot 

 be denied that the high hopes which were enter- 

 tained by so many and various competent 

 authorities as to the great mineral and agricultural 

 wealth of IMashonaland have not hitherto been 

 justified or nearly justified. This much is j)rob- 

 ably true : that agriculture, while it might be a 

 profitable enterprise for the feeding of a large 

 resident mining j^opulation, for purposes of ex- 

 port could not succeed. The soil, which in no 

 part, so far as I have seen or can learn, is of 

 any considerable- depth or richness, which over 

 vast tracks is of the most rocky and stony 

 character, which, over other vast tracks is 

 swampy, requiring difficult and costly drainage, 

 does not j^romise the cheap and easy production 

 of abundant crops of grain. The great length of 



