"SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 35 
fae as they assured me, in some mysterious way made their 
__ There is a fascination to me in the remembrance of the 
' past in all its connections : the free life, the self-dependence, 
the boring into what was then a new country ; the feeling as you 
_ lay under your caross that you were looking at the stars from 
_ 2 point on the earth whence no other European had ever seen 
_ them; the hope that every patch of bush, every little rise, 
_ was the only thing between you and some strange sight or 
_ scene—these are with me still ; and were I not a married man 
_ with children and grandchildren, I believe I should head 
__ back into Africa again, and end my days in the open air. It is 
"useless to tell me of the advantages of civilisation ; civilised 
_ man runs wild much easier and sooner than the savage becomes 
_ tame. I think it desirable, however, that he should be suffi- 
3 ciently educated, before he doffs his clothes, to enjoy the 
_ change by comparison. Take the word of one who has tried 
_ both states : there are charms in the wild ; the ever-increasing, 
_ never-satisfied needs of the tame my soul cannot away with. 
_ But I am writing of close upon fifty years ago. Africa is 
nearly used up ; she belongs no more to the Africans and the 
beasts ; Boers, gold-seekers, diamond-miners and experimental 
farmers—all of them (from my point of view) mistakes—have 
_ changed the face of her. A man must be a first-rate sports- 
_ man now to keep himself and his family ; houses stand where 
_ we once shot elephants, and the railway train will soon be 
whistling and screaming through all hunting-fields south of the 
