18 
imposed on its importation) is entailed in getting any 
quantity through, the customs. It is a government 
monopoly, and can be bought in Natal quite as cheaply 
and as good as in England. In the afternoon I bought a 
Berea" cart for E. to travel in up the country, and also 
some Salempore and glass beads for payment of Caffre 
bearers. It is very essential to get the right bead, as the 
natives are very particular in this respect, and wont look 
at any that they do not fancy as the right thing ; each 
tribe has its own fancy, and the fashions in beads are 
often changing amongst them. 
April 22nd. Left Durban in the omnibus for Pieter- 
Maritzburg with Erskine and his wife. "We took the ' bus 
special, as it is a long day's journey of fifty-four miles over 
abominable roads, in a still more abominable machine, 
with no room to move a leg if full of passengers, and 
scarcely any luggage allowed. We left at 6-0, and 
reached our destination at 5-30. After leaving the wooded 
slopes of the ^^Berea," we emerged into a hilly grass 
country, which reminded me somewhat of the American 
prairies, only more broken ; not a tree to be seen, except 
where occasionally planted round the farm houses, which 
were very few and far between. We stopped for break- 
fast, luncheon, and five o'clock tea, at the appointed 
posting houses, and arrived at the Crown Hotel at Pieter- 
Maritzburg in time for dinner; the air gradually becoming 
more bracing and fresher than at Durban, which is two 
thousand feet lower than Pieter-Maritzburg. The Crown 
Hotel the best in the place, but no great things. The 
attendance, owing to the difiiculty in obtaining white 
servants, was bad, and the food very moderate, and the 
cost of living quite equal to an ordinary English hotel. 
The company at the table-d'hote a queer lot, but all are 
ladies " and gentlemen" out here ; the tailor next door, 
and the housemaid of the hotel dined at table, the latter 
