many nationalities, soldiers not
being in such prominence as at Pretoria. The afternoon we devoted to
seeing some of the principal mines, including the Ferreira Deep, which
had been worked by the Transvaal Government for the last eight months.
For this purpose they had engaged capable managers from France and
Germany, and therefore the machinery was in no way damaged. At a
dinner-party the same evening, given by Mr. A. Goldmann, we met a German
gentleman who gave an amusing account of the way in which some of the
city financiers had dashed off to the small banks a few days before Lord
Roberts's entry, when the report was rife that Kruger was going to
seize all the gold at Johannesburg as well as that at Pretoria. They
were soon seen emerging with bags of sovereigns on their backs, which
they first carried to the National Bank, but which, on second thoughts,
they reclaimed again, finally confiding their treasure to the Banque de
la France.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Colonel Baden-Powell had been promoted to the rank of
Major-General.

[37] Now Earl of Derby.

[38] Now Major-General Haig.

[39] Now Major Brinton.

CHAPTER XVI

MY RETURN TO CIVILIZATION ONCE MORE--THE MAFEKING
FUND--LETTERS FROM THE KING AND QUEEN

"Let us admit it fairly,
As business people should,
We have had no end of a lesson:
It will do us no end of good."
KIPLING.

On June 27 I left Johannesburg under the escort of Major Bobby White,
who had kindly promised to see me safely as far as Cape Town. We
travelled in a shabby third-class carriage, the only one on the train,
which was merely composed of open trucks. Our first long delay was at
Elandsfontein, practically still in the Rand District. There the officer
in charge came up with the pleasing intelligence that the train we were
to join had broken down, and would certainly be four hours late; so we
had to get through a very weary wait at this most unattractive little
township, whose only interesting features were the distant chimneys and
unsightly shafts of the Simmer and Jack and the Rose Deep Mines, and far
away, on the horizon, the little white house, amid a grove of trees,
which had been Lord Roberts's headquarters barely a month ago, and from
which he had sent the summons to Johannesburg to surrender. All around,
indeed, was the scene of recent fighting, and various polite transport
officers tried to while away the tedium of our enforced delay by