myself that the "cave" and its accompanying mound
of debris could be nothing else than an ancient working; while upon
entering the opening, which extended inward and downward for a distance
of nearly half a mile, I discovered evidence enough to prove that the
working was that of an extraordinarily rich gold mine, visible gold
showing everywhere in the worked face of the rock! And at once the idea
seized me that if I could but contrive to ingratiate myself sufficiently
with Lomalindela, His Majesty might be induced to grant me a concession
to work the mine, and so place me in possession of wealth "beyond the
dreams of avarice". I thought at first that possibly this might be the
identical mine from which the gold in my wagon had come, but a close
examination of the working at length convinced me that the rock had
remained untouched for ages; and then it occurred to me that perhaps the
dead and forgotten inhabitants of the ruined village which I had so
recently left might have been the miners.

And now, with every mile of our progress, the country became more broken
and hilly, and at the same time more open and park-like, the great
masses of bush and scrub with which we had so long been familiar giving
place to trees of handsome appearance and noble proportions, growing for
the most part singly, but occasionally in clumps of from three or four
to a dozen or two, while occasionally the clumps magnified themselves
sufficiently to justify the term of a wood, or even a small forest;
moreover, the grass was in places profusely dotted with beautiful
flowers, while where the trees grew most thickly they were often
enwreathed with parasitic growths which, if they were not actually
orchids, very strongly resembled them, the blooms they abundantly bore
being of the most remarkable and often most beautiful shapes and
colours. Thus the broken character of the country, with its
accompanying features of swelling hills, scarred here and there with
foaming rivulets, ravines, and gorges hemmed in and overhung by lofty
trees garlanded with flowering parasites, and intermingled in places
with luxuriant shrubs--some of which bore leaves of such curious shapes
and brilliant colours that they might easily have been mistaken for
flowers--and with birds of strange forms and gaudy plumage flitting
hither and thither, was a most agreeable change from the characteristic
scenery of South Africa. It was a beautiful and very fertile country,
taken