THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 143 



Zoutpansberg district, and though I believe they would 

 never be induced to fight for the Boers, they would still 

 make excellent soldiers if properly trained, armed, and 

 led by white officers. They could thus be led to storm 

 a redoubt, though they would never prove material for 

 forming Waterloo squares as targets for French cannon. 

 The future development of the Transvaal depends 

 greatly upon the Kafir, for in him centres the " labour 

 question." Many undertakings already achieved would 

 have been impossible had it not been for the cheapness 

 with which unskilled labour could be obtained, and all 

 calculations for large buildings or railway cuttings are 

 greatly dependent on this factor, for the natural fea- 

 tures of the wild country he has known so long will 

 eventually be transformed by his hands. 



The drainage and sanitary arrangements of Pretoria, 

 when I visited it, would have been a disgrace to a 

 country village at home, but great difficulties have been 

 overcome and improvements are being made. It was 

 somewhat singular to be strongly advised by all medical 

 men not to drink any water, even if mixed with alcohol, 

 without the same had been first strongly boiled and then 

 filtered, for the water supplied to the town in open 

 sluits was the most dangerous disseminator of typhoid 

 malaria, the real danger of Pretoria and Johannesburg. 

 No Good Templar ever more longed for a glass of 

 pure water than I frequently did myself in a land 

 where the smallest bottle of English ale is charged two 

 shillings, and this, again, the doctors advised us not 

 to drink, or at least seldom. The Boer has long since 

 become one of the greatest coffee-drinkers on the face 

 of the earth, and has found there is nothing better to 

 be taken on his long wagon journeys ; for those who 

 use stimulants the coolest and mildest drink is a mix- 

 ture of Cape hock and seltzer water ; for the spirit- 

 drinker, whiskey diluted with water. A company, how- 

 ever, has now supplied Pretoria with pure water, and 

 drinking-fountains are erected in the town. There are 

 three dangers to health in the Transvaal which may 

 easily be avoided want of cleanliness, intemperance, 



