; while Matabililand and
Mashonaland present features resembling those of the Northern Transvaal,
differing only in being rather hotter and rather better watered. So far
as nature is concerned, the conditions she prescribes for the life of
man, the resources she opens to his energies, are very similar over
these wide areas, save, of course, that some parts are much richer than
others in mineral deposits. It is only along the frontier line which
divides Natal and the Portuguese dominions from the Transvaal and the
territories of the British South Africa Company that a political
coincides with a physical line of demarcation. Even German South-west
Africa differs scarcely at all from the Kalahari Desert, which adjoins
it and which forms the western part of Bechuanaland, and differs little
also from the north-western regions of Cape Colony. If the reader will
compare the two physical maps contained in this volume with the map
which shows the political divisions of the country he will notice that
these political divisions do not correspond with the areas where more or
less rain falls, or where the ground is more or less raised above the
sea or traversed by mountain chains. The only exception is to be found
in the fact that the boundary of Natal towards Basutoland and the Orange
Free State has been drawn along the watershed between the Indian Ocean
and the Atlantic, and that the boundary line between the Portuguese
territories and those of the Transvaal Republic and of the British South
Africa Company, is in many places the line of division between the
mountains and the low country. The Orange River and the Limpopo have, in
parts of their courses, been taken as convenient political frontiers.
But rivers, though convenient for this purpose to the statesman and the
geographer, are not natural boundaries in the true sense of the term.
And thus we may say that the causes which have cut up South Africa into
its present Colonies and States have been (except as aforesaid)
historical causes, rather than differences due to the hand of nature.

CHAPTER VI

NATURE AND HISTORY

Now that some general idea of how nature has shaped and moulded South
Africa has been conveyed to the reader, a few pages may be devoted to
considering what influence on the fortunes of the country and its
inhabitants has been exerted by its physical character. The history of
every country may be regarded as the joint result of three factors--the
natura