ne could not forget
that the Transvaal was their country, ceded to them by the English
nation. They left Cape Colony years ago, to escape our laws, which they
considered unjust. It is certain we should never have followed them into
the Transvaal but for the sudden discovery of the gold industry; it is
equally true they had not the power or the wish to develop this for
themselves, and yet without it they were a bankrupt nation. There is no
doubt that the men who made the most mischief, and who for years
embarrassed the President, were the "Hollanders," or officials sent out
from the mother-country of the Dutch. They looked on the Transvaal only
as a means for getting rich. Hence the fearful state of bribery and
corruption among them, from the highest official downwards. But this
very bribery and corruption were sometimes exceedingly convenient, and I
remember well, when I revisited Johannesburg in 1902, at the conclusion
of the war, hearing people inveigh against the hard bargains driven by
the English Government; they even went so far as to sigh again for the
good old days of Kruger's rule. Now all is changed once more, after
another turn of the kaleidoscope of time, and yet it is well to remember
that such things have indeed been.

CHAPTER V

THREE YEARS AFTER--LORD MILNER AT CAPE TOWN BEFORE THE
WAR--MR. CECIL RHODES AT GROOT SCHUURR--OTHER INTERESTING
PERSONAGES

"There are many echoes in the world, but few voices."
GOETHE.

On May 6, 1899, we sailed from Southampton on the S.S. _Norman_. We
purposed to spend a few months in Rhodesia, but such is the frailty of
human plans that eventually we stayed in South Africa for one year and
three months.

Dr. Jameson was our fellow-passenger to Cape Town, and with him we
travelled up to Bulawayo, and passed five weeks there as the guests of
Major Maurice Heaney.[13] Part of this time we spent on the veldt, far
from civilization, sleeping in tents, and using riding ponies and mule
waggons as transport. I can recommend this life as a splendid cure for
any who are run down or overworked. The climate of Rhodesia in the month
of June is perfection; rain is unknown, except as the accompaniment of
occasional thunderstorms; and it is never too hot to be pleasant. Game
was even then practically non-existent in Matabeleland, but our object
was to inspect the mines of Major Heaney's various companies. T