have a wild beauty of their own. The grass is what is called
sour grass, and has a peculiar blue tinge, but stock do not like it so
well as the low-veldt grass, which is sweeter, and fattens them more
quickly, though it does not put them in such good fettle. The rock here
is all white sandstone, and thinly overlaps an enormous bed of coal,
cropping up from beneath the water-washed surface. At this time of year
there are very few beasts or birds of any sort to be seen, though in the
winter the veldt is one moving mass of "trek" or migratory game.

Our destination that day was Botsabelo, the most important
mission-station, and one of the very few successful ones, in
South-Eastern Africa. As we neared it, the country gradually broke into
hills of peculiar and beautiful formation, which rendered the last two
hours of our ride, in the dark, through an unknown country, rather a
difficult job. However, we stumbled through streams, and over boulders,
and about nine o'clock were lucky enough to come right upon the station,
where we were most kindly received by Dr. Merensky. The station itself
stands on the brow of a hill surrounded by gardens and orchards; beneath
it lie slope and mountain, stream and valley, over which are dotted
numbers of kraals, to say nothing of three or four substantial houses
occupied by the assistant missionary and German artisans. Near Dr.
Merensky's house stands the church, by far the best I have seen in the
Transvaal, and there is also a store with some well-built workshops
around it. All the neighbouring country belongs to the station, which
is, in fact, like a small independent State, 40,000 acres in extent.
On a hill-top overshadowing the station, are placed the fortifications,
consisting of thick walls running in a circle with upstanding towers,
in which stand one or two cannon; but it all reminds one more of an old
Norman keep, with its village clustered in its protecting shadow, than
of a modern mission establishment.

Dr. Merensky commenced his labours in Secocoeni's country, but was
forced to fly from thence by night, with his wife and new-born baby,
to escape being murdered by that Chief's orders, who, like most Kafir
potentates, has an intense aversion to missionaries. Twelve years ago he
established this station, and, gathering his scattered converts around
him, defied Secocoeni to drive him thence. Twice that Chief has sent out
a force to sweep him away, and murder his people, and twice t