PRETORIA. ii 



ment, does not contain a single good building. It 

 is like some little frontier town in America. There 

 is not even a book-shop in it. The country imme- 

 diately around is flat and devoid of trees, though in 

 the distance are some ranges of hills. The day we 

 reached Pretoria, the mail, a fortnightly one, arrived 

 from Pietermaritzburg with a paper containing 

 English news, very bare items though, up to May 

 15th. It seems dreadful that we were nearly six 

 weeks in coming here, and the mail came in six days. 

 The mail brings passengers also, but they are 

 allowed hardly any baggage. It goes out again 

 to-day to Pietermaritzburg, so I am writing this 

 letter by the light of my lantern as I recline in my 

 waggon. I think it is now about 6 a.m., but the sun 

 does not rise till after 7. 



" Gray, the trader, left us at Newcastle, and had 

 left here before we arrived for Bamangwato, en route 

 for Lake N garni, where our programme was to accom- 

 pany him. 1 We are not certain whether we shall fol- 

 low him or alter our plans. I will write again, letting 

 you know what we have decided. If I leave a 

 second letter here, it will go to Pietermaritzburg a 

 fortnight hence, so you will get it in England soon 

 after you get this." 



Four days later W. E. Oates writes, also from 

 Pretoria, "We have now been here a week, and are 



1 Strictly speaking, Bamangwato is the name applied to the district 

 north of the Transvaal inhabited by that branch of the Basuto or 

 Bechuana race, and Shoshong the name of the king's town or resi- 

 dence ; but the latter also is more frequently spoken of, in common 

 parlance, as Bamangwato or Mungwato. 



