onsider the time
wasted in the long railway journey, and the haulage by ox-wagon to the
mines, we shall find a much heavier bill of costs against the gold
output of Rhodesia, than on that of the Transvaal. A good substantial
railway from Beira or Sofala to Bulawayo, _via_ Victoria, would
completely reverse things. Bulawayo would then be about the same rail
distance from the sea as Johannesburg is; the poorer ores could then be
worked profitably, and the aggregate of gold product would in a few
years rival that of the Rand. If I were a Chartered Director, my first
object should be to get the shortest and most direct route to the sea
from Bulawayo, and a substantial railway along it, and having obtained
that, and a liberal mining law, I should feel that the prosperity of
Rhodesia was assured.

CHAPTER FOUR.

LETTER FROM JOHANNESBURG.

GO-AHEAD BULAWAYO.

Between Bulawayo and Johannesburg there is a great difference. In
common with some 400 guests of the Festivities Committee, I looked in
admiring wonderment at the exuberant vitality, the concentrated joyous
energy, and the abounding hopefulness of the young sons of British
fathers who, in the centre of Rhodesian life, were proud of showing us a
portion of their big country, and what they had done towards beginning
their new State. We shared with them their pride in their young city,
their magnificently broad avenues, the exhibits of their resources,
their park, their prize cabbages, and the fine, bold, go-ahead-iveness
which distinguished their fellow-citizens. We felt they had every
reason to be proud of their victories over the rebel Matabele, the
endurance they had shown under various calamities, and the courageous
confidence with which they intended to face the future. From our hearts
we wished them all prosperity.

JOHANNESBURG'S WRONGS.

At Johannesburg, however, different feelings possessed us. Without
knowing exactly why, we felt that this population, once so favoured by
fortune, so exultant and energetic, was in a subdued and despondent
mood, and wore a defeated and cowed air. When we timidly inquired as to
the cause, we found them labouring under a sense of wrong, and disposed
to be querulous and recriminatory. They blamed both Boers and British:
the whole civilised world and all but themselves seemed to have been
unwise and unjust. They recapitulated without an error of fact the many
failures and shames of British Colonial policy in t