1893
Responsible Government granted to Natal 1893
Protectorate declared over the Tonga Chiefs 1894
Rising at Johannesburg and expedition of Dr. Jameson from
Pitsani 1895
Outbreak of war between Britain and the two Dutch
Republics Oct. 1899

INTRODUCTION

In the latter part of the year 1895 I travelled across South Africa from
Cape Town to Fort Salisbury in Mashonaland, passing through Bechuanaland
and Matibililand. From Fort Salisbury, which is only two hundred miles
from the Zambesi, I returned through Manicaland and the Portuguese
territories to Beira on the Indian Ocean, sailed thence to Delagoa Bay
and Durban, traversed Natal, and visited the Transvaal, the Orange Free
State, Basutoland, and the eastern province Cape Colony. The country had
long possessed a great interest for me, and that interest was increased
by studying on the spot its physical character as well as the peculiar
economic and industrial conditions which have made it unlike the other
newly settled countries of the world. Seeing these things and talking
with the leading men in every part of the country, I began to comprehend
many things that had previously been obscure to me, and saw how the
political troubles of the land were connected with the life which nature
imposed on the people. Immediately after my return to Europe, fresh
political troubles broke out, and events occurred in the Transvaal which
fixed the eyes of the whole world upon South Africa. I had not travelled
with the view of writing a book; but the interest which the events just
mentioned have aroused, and which is likely to be sustained for a good
while to come, leads me to believe that the impressions of a traveller
who has visited other new countries may be useful to those who desire to
know what South Africa is really like, and why it makes a noise and
stir in the world disproportionate to its small population.

I have called the book "Impressions" lest it should be supposed that I
have attempted to present a complete and minute account of the country.
For this a long residence and a large volume would be required. It is
the salient features that I wish to describe. These, after all, are what
most readers desire to know: these are what the traveller of a few weeks
or months can give, and can give all the better because the detai