A Breath from the Veldt 185 



ensconced in his arm-chair at the club, surrounded with luxuries of every 

 description. To him Africa does not look half such a rough place as it is 

 painted by those who have been there. On the map the country seems to be 

 intersected with cool rivers and innumerable spots which rejoice in the name 

 of fontein ; and through the smoke of a good cigar it is easy to picture the 

 troops of antelope, herds of elephant and buffalo moving down to the sunlit 

 pools to drink, and, wallowing in their depths, the hippopotamus and the 

 alligator. But oh the fraud of those " sunny fountains " that some of us have 

 been taught to believe in ! I wish I had here to-day the dear old cleric who 

 wrote that mission hymn, and could see him squirm. It is a beautiful hymn — 

 that " Greenland's icy mountains " — but of its geology perhaps the less said the 

 better. Most of the natural features of the universe as described here probably 

 emanated from the good parson's own romantic brain, or from some favourite 

 Sunday School book of the goody-goody order. There are no mountains to 

 speak of in that world of ice ; and as to " India's coral strand," coral is not a 

 product of the sea insects of the Indian Ocean, but of the islands of the Pacific. 

 " Afric's sunny fountains " ! Imagination, dear reader, pure imagination. So, 

 too, are the " spicey breezes " that sweep over " Ceylon's isle," unless the 

 aroma from the native quarters may be held to justify the phrase. Still it is a 

 fine soul-stirring hymn for all that, though, like some famous artists' pictures, 

 it is not a bit like nature. Many and many a half-crown has it caused to be 

 dropped by tender-hearted old ladies into the mission-bag, though the money 

 would have been far better expended on our own suffering humanity at home. 

 For whatever may be done by such men as Livingstone, Moffat, Mackay of 

 Uganda, or Bishop Hannington, there is nothing to be gained, so far as I can 

 see, by sending out such feeble specimens of missionaries, soft in head as well 

 as in heart, as one too often comes across in foreign lands. They hinder 

 rather than help the cause they are sent to advance. In fact, it is only very 

 great men — born leaders of men — that can obtain a real grasp of the mind of 

 the already happy savage, and place him on a plane where he can appreciate 

 the spiritual advantages of Christianity. 



All the grass round here for miles is burning. This is done by natives to 

 entice the game, as the first rains on the charred and blackened surface of the 

 ground bring up the young grass shoots, which are an immediate source of 

 attraction. 



" When things are at their worst they are sure to mend " is a good maxim 

 for the hunter, as for every one else. In proof of it, the day after the above 



2 B 



