The Officials of the Chartered Company. 299 



persons, including drivers, servants, and about 

 three thousand pounds weight of baggage and pro- 

 visions. Between Fort Charter and Fort Victoria 

 the road is in a shocking condition, much worse 

 than was the case when I travelled up. The heavy 

 sand, which extends for scores of weary miles, had 

 been terribly cut into by the passage of numerous 

 waggons, and progress over this was hopelessly 

 slow. Where the soil was harder, the protruding 

 stumps of felled trees, huge boulders of rock, and 

 ant-heaps were a constant source of danger to a 

 vehicle on springs. It is certainly a great disgrace 

 to the administration of the country that no efforts 

 liave been made by it to put this important high- 

 way in decent order. Tlie sand, it is true, is 

 incurable, but nothing would be easier than to 

 remove the stumps and rocks and level the ant- 

 heaps. The presence of these results in an immense 

 and unnecessary wear and tear of ^vaggons, and of 

 injury and of loss of draft animals. The officials 

 of the Chartered Company had ready to their 

 hands, in their police, a force well qualified to make 

 and repair the roads. But this force has, since the 

 occupation of the country last year, been main- 

 tained in a condition of complete and utter idleness. 

 The men are not even made to keep the forts and 

 the military lines decently clean. The works 

 which have been constructed by them, whether of 

 fortification or of dwelling, are pitiable, showing 

 neither design, skill, nor solidity. The force was 

 offered tracts of crround round the huts for o-ardens, 

 but these they have neglected even to mark out. 



