Personal Impressions of the Transvaal. 29 



more than the population of Ireland and the total white 

 population 's only about twice that of Belfast. 



As regards the nature of her population, it is made up of 

 Cape Dutch, Britishers, Negroes, Malays and Indians. The 

 Cape Dutch are a mixed race, being descendants through inter- 

 marriage of the original Dutch settlers and the French 

 Huguenots who came to the country in the 17th century. 

 Their language is not pure Dutch, but a patois called the 

 " Taal." The lead in social improvement and the amassing 

 of wealth is taken by the British, and their superiority is due 

 to their greater application to habits of industry. The native 

 races comprise Kaffirs, Bechuanas, Hottentots, Fingoes, Zulus, 

 Mashonas and Matabele. The Zulu is the first type of the 

 coloured people of South Africa — he is at once a warrior and 

 a gentleman, and until Cetewayo was crushed in 1879 he never 

 soiled his fingers with work, as his women folk did all that for 

 him. Each native man who is not a Christian is entitled to as 

 many wives as he can buy, and his ideal number is four. The 

 price of wives when I was there last being 10 cows, and a 

 commission of ont to the prospective mother-in-law. 



The Malays who inhabit chiefly Cape Colony were brought 

 there from the East Indian Islands by the Dutch as slaves, and are 

 very energetic and industrious. Another element of the popu- 

 lation, and a serious one, is the Indian element. Natives were 

 brought from India to work in Natal, and are to a very appreci- 

 able extent supplanting the white man in that colony, and so 

 causing a burning question that will have some day t3 be 

 settled by the Home Government. Broadly speaking Cape 

 Colony is more Dutch than British ; Natal has only a sprinkling 

 of Dutch inhabitants ; in the Orange Free State there are five 

 Dutch to one Britisher, and in the Transvaal almost two 

 Uitlanders to one Boer. 



As may be observed in the several views at this stage thrown 

 on the screen, Cape town and Table Bay present a magnificent 

 sight to the visitor. Towns up country, however, are hardly 

 worth being called towns, they are small collections of houses 



