166 
AFRICA SINCE 1888 
mains of ancient surface workings, probably hundreds of years 
old, have been found, supposed by some to be the mines of King 
Solomon. 
Beside the gold mines, the Transvaal is rich in all kinds of 
minerals, especially silver, copper, coal, and iron. The soil also 
is very rich, and with a proper system of irrigation is capable of 
yielding large returns ; but the farms of the Boers are neglected 
and unproductive. The late Lord Kandolph Churchill, who vis- 
ited it in 1892, wrote of it that “ it might be the most wealthy 
and prosperous spot on earth, but Providence has cursed it with 
the rule of fifty thousand- Boers.” 
The foreigners, or Uitlanders, as they are called, desire rep- 
resentation in the government and claim rights and privileges 
to which as foreigners and unnaturalized citizens they are not 
entitled. They assert that taxes in Johannesburg, contrary to 
the convention of 1884, are ten times as high as in Pretoria, 
and that nine-tenths of all the taxes are paid by them ; that 
they have no right to vote or to participate in the administra- 
tion of the general or local governments ; that they are com- 
pelled to sustain schools where all the instruction is in the 
Dutch language. In answer it is said that Pretoria is a town of 
poor farms ; Johannesburg a bustling, growing, thriving mining 
city, with a large, unruly population, where taxes must be high ; 
tliat the foreigners are absorbing the trade and carrying away 
the wealth of the country, and should therefore pay the larger 
part of the taxes; that the laws give the Uitlanders the right to 
vote after naturalization and to become members of the lower, 
though not of the higher, house ; that the sehools were established 
b}’’ the Boers for their own children, not for the English, and 
that naturally no provision has been made for instruction in a 
foreign language; that the Uitlanders came into the Transvaal a 
short time ago without invitation from the Boers, without any 
fixed determination to remain, solely for their own profit, and 
have therefore no right to complain of laws to which they have 
voluntarily submitted. 
The Uitlanders looked to Mr Cecil Rhodes and his company for 
help and gladly promised to join any force that might be sent 
to their relief. In response to tins appeal Dr Jameson collected 
the police force of the chartered company, crossed the boundary 
into the Transvaal in the last days of 1895 to restore the Trans- 
vaal to English rule ; but he had underestimated the strategical 
skill, the strength, and ability of tbe Boers. General Joubert, 
