e cruel
men both white and black, but for downright brutality the nigger is hard
to beat, and it is also quite certain that whom the latter does not fear
he will not love. I have personally experienced great devotion and most
attentive service on the part of natives, and they are deserving of the
kindest and most considerate treatment; but it has often made me
indignant to hear people, who have had little or no experience of living
in the midst of a native population, prate of the rights of our "black
brothers," and argue as if the latter thought, judged, amused
themselves, or, in short, behaved, as the white men do, who have the
advantage of hundreds of years of culture.

The day following our drive to Krugersdorp we left for Cape Town and
England. We made the voyage on the old _Roslin Castle_. Always a slow
boat, she had on this occasion, in sporting parlance, a "wing down,"
having broken a piston-rod on her way out from England, when we had
vainly awaited her at Cape Town, and I think it was nearly three weeks
before we landed at Plymouth. Again Randolph's African journey was
brought back to my recollection. The captain of the _Roslin Castle_,
Travers by name, had commanded the _Scot_, which brought his party home
from Mashonaland, and he had very agreeable recollections of many an
interesting conversation and of quiet rubbers of whist.

Numerous and exciting events had been crowded into the past six weeks,
and in spite of revolutions and strife we had found our South African
visit a very pleasant one. A curious thing about that continent is: you
may dislike it or fall under its charm, but in any case it nearly always
calls you back. It certainly did in my case; and while recalling the
people we had met and the information we had acquired it was impossible
not to think a little of the Boers themselves, their characteristics and
their failings. At Johannesburg I had been specially struck by men, who
knew them from long experience, telling me how fully they appreciated
the good points of the burghers--for instance, their bravery, their love
of their country, and their simple, unquestioning, if unattractive
faith, which savoured of that of the old Puritans. Against these
attributes their pig-headedness, narrow-mindedness, laziness, and
slovenliness had to be admitted. All these defects militated against
their living in harmony with a large, increasing, and up-to-date
community like the Johannesburg Uitlanders. Still, o