142 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



attempt to grow vegetables even for their own use; no, they 

 prefer almost to go without, as is the case at Vryburg. It 

 is true that water is scarce in the whole of the country ; rivers, 

 although swollen after rain, are soon dry again, and rain is 

 never abundant. Yet water can always be obtained by digging ; 

 there is plenty at a reasonable depth windmills would pump 

 it up, dams would prevent the rain-water from being wasted, 

 and be of the utmost value to the gardener and settler. The 

 water scarcity has been a great bar to agricultural settlements. 

 Yet the country is not drier than Australia, where, thanks to 

 wells and dams, large sheep farms flourish. 



The whole country is covered with grass and bush, and 

 would be with water a magnificent field for the farmer. At 

 present the veldt is only able to support the cattle, sheep, and 

 goats of the native tribes, and to grow barely sufficient corn for 

 their use. Instead of being forced to import maize and corn, 

 a little enterprise would soon reverse the case. The native 

 cattle do very well ; they are used for food and waggon teams, 

 while their hides are sold to European traders. A heavy 

 import duty of 3 was imposed on every head of cattle brought 

 into the Transvaal, but during the late famine this prohibitive 

 tax was removed, with the result that cattle bought for 2 in 

 Bechuanaland were sold at Johannesburg for 8. About seven 

 miles from Mafeking are the gold mines of Malmani. Although 

 not at present worked to any great extent, some of the mines 

 are rich in gold, and the country around, being well supplied 

 with water, is very fertile as, indeed, is all the northern part 

 of the country of the Boers. Leaving the native reserve of 

 the Baralong chief, Montsoia, near Mafeking, we in succession 

 pass through the capitals of three other native chiefs all living 

 in security under the protectorate of England Batween, of 

 the Bankwaketse at Kanya ; Sechele, chief of the Backwena 

 at Molopolole; and Linchwe, of the Backatla at Mochudi. 

 Living with each is a missionary, to whom to turn for advice, 

 spiritual and temporal, and a European trader, who from his 

 store supplies the people with all they may require except 

 drink, which the chiefs themselves in their wisdom asked to 

 have excluded when they came under the protectorate. The 

 rocky hills upon which these capitals are built guaranteed them 

 security against their restless neighbours in former times a 



