l and keep their cattle in
their own way. The rest are scattered over the country, mostly employed
as herdsmen to the farmers. Save on the reservation, they cannot own
land or travel without a pass, and of course they are not admitted to
the electoral franchise. They seem, however, to be fairly well treated,
and are perfectly submissive. Their wages average thirty shillings a
month. Native labour has become so scarce that no farmer is now
permitted to employ more than twenty-five. Of the whites, fully
two-thirds are of Dutch origin, and Dutch is pretty generally spoken.
English, however, is understood by most people, and is the language most
commonly used in the larger villages. The two races have lived of late
years in perfect harmony, for there has never been any war between the
Free State and Great Britain. As the tendency of the English citizens to
look to Cape Colony has been checked by the sentiment of independence
which soon grew up in this little Republic, and by their attachment to
its institutions, so the knowledge of the Dutch citizens that the
English element entertains this sentiment and attachment has prevented
the growth of suspicion among the Dutch, and has knitted the two races
into a unity which is generally cordial.[64] Nevertheless, so much Dutch
feeling remained slumbering, that when it had been reawakened by Dr.
Jameson's expedition into the Transvaal in December, 1895, the scale
was decisively turned in favour of one out of the two candidates at the
election of a President which followed shortly thereafter, by the fact
that the one belonged to a Dutch, the other to a Scottish family. Both
were able and experienced men, the former (Mr. Steyn) a judge, the
latter (Mr. Fraser) Speaker of the Volksraad. It may be added that the
proximity of the Colony, and the presence of the large English element,
have told favourably upon the Dutch population in the way of stimulating
their intelligence and modifying their conservatism, while not injuring
those solid qualities which make them excellent citizens. The desire for
instruction is far stronger among them than it is in the Transvaal.
Indeed, there is no part of South Africa where education is more valued
and more widely diffused.

The only place that can be called a town is Bloemfontein, the seat of
government, which stands on the great trunk-line of railway from Cape
Town to Pretoria, seven hundred and fifty miles from the former and two
hundred and ninet