THE TRANSVAAL, AND KALAHARI DESERT.* GILLMORE, who has travelled over

the greater part of the world and round it in search of sport, and who has also seen active service in the Crimea, India, and China, has been on a hunting journey to South Africa. As a writer, he is well known by the soubriquet of " Ubique," nor is the name undeserved. To a man who has visited almost every quarter of the inhabitable— and it may be added, the uninhabitable—globe, who has seen so much and rambled so widely, time and space may possibly be reduced to the merest matters of detail. Or does he possibly take refuge in the Kantian philosophy, and regard space and time as forms of the intellect ? However this may be, the pleasure of reading this really interesting and entertaining work has been sadly marred by want of a map of his route, and by the marked absence of any date whatever. Without giving us any starting- point, he writes continually "next day," or "next morning," or "after a -few days," so that of his book we feel constrained to say that,—

" To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time,"

—for the first and "last syllable of recorded time" occurs only within fifteen pages from the end. Nor was Mr. Gillmore very far from being lighted on the way to dusty death, for he nearly perished from lack of water in the great desert. Not until reaching page 453 could we discover even the year in which he was in Africa, and though with the aid of maps we have managed to follow him with some difficulty on the greater part of his route, we have utterly failed to grasp the period occupied in getting over the ground, or to learn where he was at any given time.

We are almost tempted to call the title of this book, The Great Thirst-Land, a dry jest. It is obviously suggested by Captain Butler's well-known work, the Great Lone Laud; but it is not a dry book, and although it contains no new geographical or scientific information, yet it is full of the every-day remarks and descriptions of scenery of a shrewd and widely-travelled man, who is a keen sportsman and a close observer of human nature. In taking up a work on sport in South Africa, the reader can scarcely fail to remember what Livingstone says on the subject : ---" When they [the natives] can get a man to kill large quan- tities of game for them, whatever he may think of himself or his achievements, they pride themselves in having adroitly turned to

accctunt the folly of an itinerant butcher." Unfortunately, too many stories of sport, in our sporting papers and elsewhere, are utterly disfigured by sickening descriptions of wanton slaughter, and useless butchery of the beautiful creatures that are to be found on the hunting-grounds of the Old and New World. We have been glad to find Mr. Gillmore's book free from enormities of this kind. Ile shoots, he tells us, "to fill the pot, and when that is done, ceases to take the lives of valuable food-furnishing animals." He seems to have done his utmost to prevent useless slaughter, and killed for food only, "with the exception of kill- ing elephants and ostriches, for the sake of their ivory and feathers."

Mr. Gillmore landed at Durban with a companion some time—

we take it—in the summer of 1875. Purchasing cattle at Pieter- maritzburg, he started for the Transvaal. Trouble commenced at once. His tackle was tampered with, and broke down ; his oxen refused to pull ; the weather was very severe ; his servants proved worthless, drunken, and treacherous. His friend falling sick,

had to leave him for a time ; and he soon found that "to get to the game, not to kill it, is the great difficulty, in this land." At

last, with the hired help of some Boers, the Draekenberg was crossed, at an elevation of 6,500 feet ; the Orange River Free State traversed, and an entry gained into our latest annexation, the Transvaal. Much that is interesting is told about our newest fellow-subjects, the Boers, and of their relations with the natives. Many years ago, Livingstone pointed out that no Boers had attempted to settle in Kaffir-land since the introduction of fire- arms, but had advanced upon the less spirited and more effemi- nate Bechuanas, leaving their quarrels with the Kaffirs to English settlement and the cost of their wars to English gold. This manceuvre has at last been repeated once too often, and has com- pelled us to add the Transvaal to our South-African dominions. The Boers, who naturally felt averse to the English, tried in many ways to prevent Mr. Gillmore from going into the Kalahari, and even at one time, in his temporary absence near Zeerust, took actual possession of his wagon, goods, and chattels. He says :—

* The Great Thirst-Land ; a Ride through Natal, Orange Free Slate, Transvaal, and Kalahari Desert. By Parker Gillmore. London : Caseell, Patter, and Oalpla. The fact is, the Boors are jealous, and had they the power, wouht stop every one from passing here. The ivory and feathers of the whole interior they consider theirs by right, and opposeli persons possibly obtain a share in this trade. Again, they particularly who may Englishmen entering far Kaffir-land, for they are certain to hear of their slave-hunting propensities the numerous brutal outrages they have committed on the inoffensive population, as well as the way they have swindled every one, from king to peasant, of grain, caresses, and other productions of this distant, sun-dried land. Moreover, Englishmen have a way of speaking out their minds, and calling a spade a spade, and travelling away down into the Old Colony, and communicating with newspapers and persons of standing there. And as public feeling at present exists, the Boers are not altogether popular with the Colonial Government, and they know it. And who can be certain but that these bated Englishmen might not take it in their heads to annex them, and release all their ' folks ' (slaves) ? Who knows, indeed, if they let so many people go up North. that when they come back again, they will not talk about what they have heard and seen? No, the Boers would close all distant Kaffir-land to the world ; but a hundred well-armed Englishmen could open the gate in spite of the whole population, if it were assembled to oppose them."

The Boers destroy hundreds and thousands of the lovely animals of the country in wanton recklessness, and as a consequence, Kama, the Bechuana King—eldest son of Tekotni, who ruled at the time of Dr. Livingstone's journeys in 1849 and 1852—has "refused to permit any of these people to hunt in his country, or traverse it to reach the game-haunts beyond." Mr. Gillmore says he has actually seen them practising their rifles on antelopes, leaving their carcases to rot on the plain. The existence of slavery amongst them has caused them to be hated and dreaded by the natives, whose feelings towards the English are very dif- ferent. One redeeming point—and about the only one—is their love for wife and children, and they constantly. when absent from home, talk of their frotes and Ainderkins. Many of the English who go up the country marry Boer women, and seem to find such favour in their eyes, that a certain disappointed lover pro- posed, at a meeting of the guardians of the community, to intro- duce a law forbidding Boer women to marry Englishmen. "One older than he added an addendum to it,—that before it became law, it should be submitted to the female portion of the inhabi- tants. It is unnecessary to add that it did not gain their approval.'' We learn that these people are extremely religious, very dirty in their habits, and exceedingly clever at driving a bard bargain. Our traveller says that, as far as his experience goes, " whether the Boer acts the manly part or the stupid part, the insignificant part or the cowardly part, when you settle difficulties with biro you are morally certain to owe him money."

Mr. Gillmore traversed Gordon Cumming's ground, and found his name still visible on the boomslang tree, near the Limpopo river, from beneath which his faithful driver was carried away by a lion. Lions are still abundant. Mr. Gillmore destroyed several, and saw many More, but elephants and buffaloes have become scarce since the days of the mighty lion-slayer. Many natives- are still living who witnessed his prowess, and confirmed to Mr. Gillmore the stories of his adventures ; and his memory as a hunter is spoken of with admiration among them. It does not appear— and here Mr. Gillmore strongly corroborates Dr. Livingstone— that Cumming's stories are exaggerated or untrue, although it has- been the fashion at home to decry them.

After crossing the beautiful Limpopo, and picnicking amid its lovely scenery with a party of Boers travelling to a distant settle- ment, some " Dopper " Boers were fallen in with, who were probably going to take possession of the rich bottom-lands of the Limpopo. These " Poppers " form a religious sect, adopt a peculiar dress, are opposed to all improvements, and are cruel slave-holders, kidnapping Bechuana children for slaves, and treating the unfortunates throughout their lives with great severity. Offers of a prospective chieftainship and a wife of the tender age of fifteen were resisted, and after parting from them, and crossing the south-eastern corner of the great Kalahari Desert, Soshong, the most northern mission station, and the residence of King Kama, was entered. Here Mr. Gillmore recruited. He was fortunate in being able to buy a valuable " saulted " horse ; his own three horses had perished on the journey,—one, a clever Basuto pony, from horse-sickness, or pen-pneumonia. This terrible disease is one of the curses of South Africa, and north of the Vaal river is extremely destructive. A horse that has once got over the epidemic never has it again, and is then called by the Boers " saulted." Such an animal is- very valuable, for few recover, and even when they do, are sluggish and careless, the eye losing its lustre, and a perceptible swelling being found between the maxillary bones, close to the windpipe. Mr. Gillmore tells us a good deal about this strange disorder. A " nuked" horse worth only £6 in the Free State will fetch from £100 to £120 in the Bechuana country, and £150

among the Matabeles, where the epidemic is most fatal ; and of course it is useless to take any unsaulted horse into those regions.

With natives only, for his friend had long ago gone back sick and ill, a start was made north, into the Kalahari Desert. This vast region was crossed by Livingstone thirty years ago, and he gave a detailed account of its vegetation and inhabitants. The

Limpopo is the northern boundary of the Transvaal, and by reference to a map it will be seen that the Kalahari joins our newly-acquired territory on the north and west. A "desert," in the ordinary sense of the word, it is not, but it is so called from the absence of rivers and streams and the lack of wells. It is by no means barren of grass and cover, and abounds in game of all sorts. Occasional pools and fountains are to be

met with, but there are large tracts absolutely devoid of water, and these are crossed with difficulty ; and it is in getting over such portions that agonies of thirst are endured by men and cattle, water not unfrequently failing at expected pools. Abund- ance of game and plenty of adventure fell to Mr. Gillmore's lot, and although he tells his story with becoming modesty whenever his own prowess is the theme, yet it is evident that he is a hunter of great experience and indomitable pluck. On foot, and ac-

companied by Massara Bushmen who had joined him, he went into the "fly-country," and many elephants, ostrich, and buffalo fell to his rifle. Ile tells us a good deal about these Massaras, and mentions the custom—probably arising from the value of the services of the young women in procuring food—of handing over babes to their grandmothers to be suckled, adding, "such unfair treatment of the child is rather to be deplored." But Living- stone's very curious information on this subject leads to a different conclusion. At length, laden with spoils of ivory and ostrich- feathers, but stricken with fever, he turned south, and after going through a fearful ordeal from drought and thirst, regained Soshong, which seemed, after the solitude of the desert, to be the centre of civilisation, and travelled, via the Diamond Fields, to the coast.

It is a pity that Mr. Gillmore occasionally defaces his pages with familiarities of style that are unworthy of him, and not at all in good-taste. His book is very readable and lively, and con- tains much useful information and warning to the would-be settler or sportsman in South Africa.

We will conclude with his remarks on the fighting qualities of the Kaffirs, as they are pertinent to the present war at the Cape, and their truth cannot be called in question. Speaking of the last war, he says :—

"In many of the actions we had not much to boast of, yet the Kaffirs in those days were only armed with assegais, while our infantry soldiers had muskets, and in the majority of instances wore supported by -cavalry and artillery. Now that the natives are well armed, how would the battle go ? "Very doubtful indeed I should think the issue of the struggle, if fought in bush or rocky ground. I told several leading politicians and gentlemen, when the late war between the Beers and Kaffirs took place, that the former would inevitably be beaten. Not one believed me ; their answer invariably was, 'The Boers have always thrashed them, and will assuredly do so again.'—' Yes, when the native had but an assegai ; but now ho has a rifle or musket, and knows how to use it.' Who was right and who was wrong is now a matter of history. I hope I shall never see English soldiers engaged with such an enemy, for the natives, with their present arms, are as fine light in- fantry as can be found,—courageous, active, and enduring, and better than all, requiring little or no commissariat. Can it be otherwise with men who follow the chase from childhood upwards, with courage enough to attack the most dangerous animal, and stealth sufficient to approach the most wary ? Africanders would be better than Englishmen in such a war, but native troops led by Ahicander officers would be better still."