36 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



their enemies. It was probably that event that gave the Boers 

 the courage to bring on the war which followed. Had the 

 British been able to defeat the Boers at this time, I doubt if 

 there would have been any war. It is too late to say any- 

 thing about that now however. It is settled, and settled, let us 

 hope, in the right way. 



Returning we made our way towards Rhodesia, and on 

 the way stopped at Kimberley, which is the capital of the 

 Diamond fields. It has 35,000 or 40,000 inhabitants and is 

 quite a lively little place, as you can see. The houses are 

 two or three stories high. You can see the heaps of debris 

 from the diamond mines. This is one of the biggest holes 

 man has ever dug in the ground. It is 1000 or 2000 feet 

 across the upper part. Here you come down to the solid 

 rock, the blue part from which the diamonds are obtained. 

 They are not using this open pit any longer. You come right 

 upon it in the street and it is well that there is a good wire 

 fence around the edge of it. The mines are in the town it- 

 self. Half a dozen of them are producing large amounts of 

 diamonds, although there are ten or twelve in all. The price 

 of diamonds has gone up at least double since the early days. 

 They say, however, that Cecil Rhodes and his party had full 

 control of the trade and that the rise in price was purely 

 artificial. 



As one goes north, one finds a different type of scenery 

 again. The trees are immensely wide. Bulawayo is the 

 largest city in Rhodesia. After another long excursion this 

 was one of the sights that met us, the famous spot where 

 Cecil Rhodes the empire builder, has his grave ; far away 

 from the nearest town and hardly any inhabitants in the 

 neighborhood. He wished that the railroad should not be 

 carried to his grave. The station stops four or five miles 

 from the grave and you must take a team. This is the 

 vehicle that I was on. Five teams of mules in front of it. 

 The roads were heavy and the loads were heavy too. The 

 tomb of Rhodes is an absolutely simple one. The tomb of 

 that great man is merely a cavity, and cut into the granite, 



