lo MATABELE LAND. 
farms are few and far between in that desolate 
region; they grow Indian corn and a few peaches, 
and have a few cattle and sheep. The Boers are 
rather good sort of people, and though trying to get 
every penny they can in a bargain, honest, I should 
say, on the whole, and hospitable. I cannot speak 
any Dutch yet, so communication is limited, having 
to be carried on through an interpreter. 
" Here in Pretoria are a great many English. 
The English keep stores ; the Dutch Boers stick 
to farming. The latter come in with their waggons 
of grain, wood, and other produce, which is sold by 
auction at 8 a.m. in the market-place. 'Mealies' 
(unground Indian corn) fetch fifteen shillings a 
muid, which is about 200 lbs. This the Englishmen 
buy, get ground for two-and-sixpence a muid, and 
ask twenty-two and sixpence, or even twenty-five 
shillings for, and make a good thing of the numbers 
of people passing through here to the Marabastadt 
and Leydenburg gold-fields. The latter fields were 
newly discovered and much talked about when we 
were at Durban and Pietermaritzburg, but do not 
seem as good as the Marabastadt. No one thinks 
much of the Tati or Balnes's gold-fields in Mosili- 
katze's country. 
" I fear the English who are here are a bad lot, 
with few exceptions. One man who cheated me I 
asked if he had a conscience. He replied that no 
one here had them. 
" Though here and there you see a garden with 
a few trees in it, and, as I mentioned, orange-trees 
