a somewhat similar plight
to ourselves.

The natives and their splendid loyalty were always a source of interest.
Formed into a "cattle guard," under a white man named Mackenzie, the
young bloods did excellent service, and were a great annoyance to the
Boers by making daring sorties in order to secure some of the latter's
fat cattle. This particular force proudly styled itself "Mackenzie's
Black Watch." There were many different natives in Mafeking. Besides
the Baralongs before alluded to, we had also the Fingos, a very superior
race, and 500 natives belonging to different tribes, who hailed from
Johannesburg, and who had been forcibly driven into the town by Cronje
before the siege commenced. These latter were the ones to suffer most
from hunger, in spite of Government relief and the fact that they had
plenty of money; for they had done most of the trench-work, and had been
well paid. The reason was that they were strangers to the other natives,
who had their own gardens to supplement their food allowance, and blacks
are strangely unkind and hard to each other, and remain quite unmoved if
a (to them) unknown man dies of starvation, although he be of their own
colour.

The native stadt covered altogether an area of at least a square mile,
and was full of surprises in the shape of pretty peeps and rural
scenery. Little naked children used to play on the grass, pausing to
stare open-eyed at the passer-by, and men and women sat contentedly
gossiping in front of their huts. The whole gave an impression of
prosperity, of waving trees, green herbage, and running water, and was
totally different to the usual African landscape. To ride or drive
through it on a Sunday was quite a rest, when there was no risk of one's
illusions being dispelled by abominable shells, whose many visible
traces on the sward, in the shape of deep pear-shaped pits, were all the
same in evidence.

Standing in a commanding position among the thatched houses of the
picturesque native stadt was the Mission Church, of quaint shape, and
built of red brick, the foundation of which had been laid by Sir Charles
Warren in 1884. One Sunday afternoon we attended service in this
edifice, and were immensely struck with the devotion of the enormous
congregation of men and women, who all followed the service attentively
in their books. The singing was most fervent, but the sermon a little
tedious, as the clergyman preached in English, and his discourse had to
be