y, Mafeking,
Ladybrand, Durban, and Bloemfontein. But it seemed to us that,
considering the newness of the country and the difficulty in many places
of furnishing a house well and of securing provisions, the entertainment
was quite tolerable, sometimes much better than one had expected. In the
two Colonies, and the chief places of the two Republics, clean beds and
enough to eat can always be had; in the largest places there is nothing
to complain of, though the prices are sometimes high. Luxuries are
unprocurable, but no sensible man will go to a new country expecting
luxuries.

[Footnote 38: At the time of my visit it went no further than Mafeking.]

[Footnote 39: There is also a line of railway from Port Elizabeth to
Graaf-Reinet, some short branch lines near Cape Town, and a small line
from Graham's Town to the coast at Port Alfred.]

CHAPTER XIV

FROM CAPE TOWN TO BULAWAYO

In this and the four following chapters I propose to give some account
of the country through which the traveller passes on his way from the
coast to the points which are the natural goals of a South African
journey, Kimberley and Johannesburg, Bulawayo and Fort Salisbury, hoping
thereby to convey a more lively impression of the aspects of the land
and its inhabitants than general descriptions can give, and incidentally
to find opportunities for touching upon some of the questions on which
the future of the country will turn.

First, a few words about the voyage. You can go to South Africa either
by one of the great British lines across the Atlantic to the ports of
Cape Colony and Natal, or by the German line through the Red Sea and
along the East African coast to Beira or Delagoa Bay. The steamers of
the German line take thirty days from Port Said to Beira, and two days
more to Delagoa Bay. They are good boats, though much smaller than those
of the two chief English lines to the Cape (the Castle and the Union),
and the voyage from Port Said has the advantage of being, at most times
of the year, a smooth one pretty nearly the whole way. They touch at
Aden, Zanzibar, Dar-es-Salaam, and Quilimane, and give an opportunity of
seeing those places. But all along the East African coast the heat is
excessive--a damp, depressing heat. And the whole time required to reach
Beira from England, even if one travels by rail from Calais to
Marseilles, Brindisi, or Naples, and takes a British steamer thence to
Port Said, joining the German boat at