inly peopled, has not been ascertained to
possess any mineral wealth, and lies far from any possible market. Parts
of it may turn out to afford good pasture, but for the present little is
said or thought about it, and no efforts have been made to develop it.

The third region comprises Matabililand and Mashonaland, that is, the
country between the Transvaal Republic and the valley of the Middle
Zambesi, all of which is now administered by the Company. What there is
to say about its prospects may be summed up under three heads--health,
wealth, and peace. It is on these three things that its future welfare
depends.

_Health._--A large part of the country, estimated at nearly 100,000
square miles, belongs to the Upper South African plateau, and has an
elevation of at least 3000 feet above the sea; and of this area about
26,000 square miles have an elevation of 4000 feet or upward. This
height, coupled with fresh easterly breezes and dry weather during eight
months in the year, gives the country a salubrious and even bracing
climate. The sun's heat is tempered, even in summer, by cool nights, and
in winter by cold winds, so that European constitutions do not, as in
India, become enervated and European muscles flaccid. It is not
necessary to send children home to England when they reach five or six
years of age; for they grow up as healthy as they would at home.
Englishmen might, in many districts, work with their hands in the open
air, were they so disposed; it is pride and custom, rather than the
climate, that forbid them to do so. So far, therefore, the country, is
one in which an indigenous white population might renew itself from
generation to generation.

_Wealth._--It was the hope of finding gold that drew the first British
pioneers to these regions; it is that hope which keeps settlers there,
and has induced the ruling Company to spend very large sums in
constructing railways, as well as in surveying, policing, and otherwise
providing for the administration of the country. The great question,
therefore, is, How will the gold-reefs turn out? There had been formed
before the end of 1895 more than two hundred Development Companies, most
of them gold-mining undertakings, and others were being started up till
the eve of the native outbreak in March, 1896. Very many reefs had been
prospected and an immense number of claims registered. The places in
which actual work had been done in the way of sinking shafts and opening