BOOKS.
MISS BALFOUR IN AFRICA.*
IT is seldom that a woman, on essaying the ordeal of print, practises such rigorous restraint as the author of this exceedingly genial record of South African travel. " I have thought it advisable," writes Miss Balfour in her preface, "to leave out almost all reference to the various political and social problems which naturally presented themselves in the different countries which we visited, as well as descriptions of towns, mines, and other subjects which have either been described before, or would require much more knowledge than can be hastily acquired by a passing visitor like myself, to do justice to." Miss Balfour has no sympathy with impressionist travellers of the type satirised by Artemus Ward in the title of one of his burlesque lectures, "Sixty Minutes in Africa ; " and we cannot pay her a better compliment than by expressing our regret that she should have adhered so loyally to the principles laid down in the passage quoted above. Still, in spite of the restricted nature of this record, it furnishes un- commonly good and, at the moment, exceedingly opportune reading, since a good deal of the ground traversed coincides with the scenes where history has been made in the last three weeks.
Miss Balfour and her fellow-travellers left for the Cape in the spring of 1894, with the intention of travelling through Matabeleland and Mashonaland by waggon. On reaching Cape Town they were embarrassed by a multiplicity of counsellors, but were fortunate in eventually securing an apparently ideal conductor in Mr. George Grey, who had lived for some time in Mashonaland and been through the Matabeleland campaign. As waggons had to be specially built for the needs of a party including two ladies, Miss Balfour and her companions turned this period of prepara- tion to excellent account by visiting the Orange Free State, Basutoland, Johannesburg and Kimberley, and finally set out on their " trek " at Mafeking—the starting-point of Dr. Jameson's raid—on May 30th. The interim was well spent, and Miss Balfour's descriptions of Cape scenery, Mr. Rhodes's house at Rondebosch, an ostrich farm at Worcester, and the various modes of locomotion adopted in Cape Colony, are ex- ceedingly fresh and entertaining. On reaching Bloemfontein they were fortunate enough to arrive just in time for the annual opening of the Free State Parliament. It is worthy of note that, in spite of the patriarchal customs that prevail among the Dutch, women are allowed to attend the debates "without being separated by a grating as if they were Mahomedans as they are in England." The President placed his carriage at their disposal, and they made the acquaintance of his sisters, one of whom informed them ti propos of the recent flights of locusts, that" many of the Boers refuse to take any steps to destroy the insects on the ground that, like the plagues of Egypt, they are the direct visitation of God." The week spent in Basutoland is chronicled in one of the best chapters in the book, the extraordinary conformation of the hills and riverbeds being graphically portrayed both by pen, pencil, and camera. At the French Protestant Mission-station near Berea Mountain Miss Balfour had the curious experience of listening to a complimentary address, containing flattering allusions to the Irish policy of the Unionist Government, read by a Basuto boy in English, with a strong French accent! " The absence of clothes among the natives," observes Miss Balfour, "is what seemed to distress the good sisters most,— more than the absence of Christian doctrines. The Fathers told us that they were now making no converts, and attributed their want of success in this respect partly to the apathetic attitude of the neighbouring chiefs, but still more to the fact • Twelve Hundred Miles in a Waggon. By Alice Blanche Balfour. With Illuktrationa by the Author. London : Edward Arnold.
that no one could be admitted to the Church without abandon- ing polygamy. As wives are valuable property [all the more valuable, it appears, from their knowledge of the arts of spinning and weaving taught them by the nuns] the natives naturally dislike being limited to one, and having to repudiate the others." Miss Balfour's brief chapter on Johannesburg and Kimberley is chiefly notable for the following passage :— " More interesting even than goldmining is the present state of politics in the Transvaal : the ever-smouldering irritation of the English at the inequality of treatment they suffer under the Boers being ready to burst out into a blaze at the prospect of the commandeering for the war with the natives near Zoutpansberg." From Kimberley the party travelled by rail to Vryburg, and then for ninety miles along anew railway line to where the waggons were awaiting them. These comprised a " buck " or transport waggon for the stores, one for the two ladies, and a third for the three gentlemen of the party, the two latter vehicles measuring 14 ft. by 6 ft. and fitted with tilts, let-down beds, and lockers. The three waggons were drawn by teams of eighteen, fourteen, and twelve oxen respectively, while a "spider," or buggy drawn by four mules, completed the list of vehicles. Miss Balfour's account of the start is highly amusing. The jolting was terrific, everything was higgledy-piggledy, and everybody depressed and dissatisfied. And it is obvious that a great deal of discomfort continued to be the portion of the travellers throughout the whole of the " trek." The water-supply for ablutions was often miserably scanty; while for drinking purposes it was seldom inviting. The harness was constantly giving way, poles smashing, and waggons getting fast in mud-holes. But the beauty of the scenery, the constant interest of their surroundings, and the slight spice of peril due to the proximity of lions, soon recon- ciled the party to the inevitable disagreeables of their mode of progression. " The general view over the country," writes Miss Balfour, after " trekking " for about five weeks, "is that we are crazy to come. People cannot believe that we are not utterly bored with waggon-travelling. On the contrary, I find one gets to suit oneself more and more to the situation, and, except for the dust and dirt and the hurry, there are very few drawbacks to the life." Although they never came to close quarters with any lions, there was no lack of milder sensations on their journey. One of the party got lost on the veldt,—luckily, only for a few hours; near Buluwayo, they passed the scene of the two fights between the Chartered Company'a forces and the Mata- bele, and obtained a vivid description from their pilot, who had been present at both; they visited the wonderful remains at Zimbabye, and paid a visit to Chipanga's kraal. At Beira some of the party returned by steamer to the Cape, but Miss Balfour made her way to Zanzibar via Mozambique and the German port of Dar-es-Salaam. Of the last-named town Miss Balfour gives a picture which throws a flood of light on the cast-iron methods of German Colonial adminis- tration :-
" The town is a remarkable production to be the work of only three years, but somehow it looks more like a German watering- place than anything else; and in the European quarter there is hardly any sign of trade or business going on. One cannot help contrasting it with such a place as Buluwayo, where you have a few mud huts, a few iron roofs, officials in shirt-sleeves, and a general air of bustle and go-aheadness,' work being paramount and appearances ignored. Here, on the contrary, are many large buildings, concrete roads, ornamental mardens, officers in spotless uniforms, much clicking of heels and bowing, but nothing else. The resemblance to a watering-place is not lessened by the presence of a kiosk in the public gardens, which we thought was meant for a band, and approached accordingly. Then we concluded that it was really an open-air court of justice, and that either the Germans must be very strict or the natives exceedingly lax in their ideas of law and order, for the place was crammed with culprits, and we did not see one let off. It was also a shock to our English ideas to see numbers of native women working on the roads, and being driven to their work by a white man carrying a large raw-hide whip. I became daily more astonished at the number of convicts or prisoners. Everywhere you came upon gangs of four to eight—often women —chained together by the necks, and hounded along by a black policeman or soldier. I should think there were fewer prisoners in all the Chattered Company's territory than in this one little town."
This is not a pleasant picture, but testimony to its accuracy is forthcoming in a variety of quarters. The German comic papers never fail to emphasise the contrast between naked savages and German soldiers in elaborate uniforms. As for the dearth of trade or business it is only necessary to refer our readers to the remarkable article recently published in the German Nation, in which a German merchant describes the facilities for commercial enterprise held out in Sumatra, a Dutch possession, and turned to good account by himself, because no such facilities exist in any single German colony. But of all the remarks in this charming record of a most interesting journey, none has impressed ne more than the following :— After surmising that "ante" is probably a wrong name to apply to the creatures that make the enormous so-called ant- heaps in Mashonaland, Miss Balfour continues, " As a rule, no one in South Africa can tell you the name of any natural object, but if they do give a name it is generally wrong." An exception should probably be made in favour of minerals ; otherwise Miss Balfour's observation is probably only too true. Where nineteen people out of twenty are consumed with the can sacra fames, they have neither the time nor the inclina- tion to master the nomenclature of the fauna or flora of a country. It only remains to be added that the value and attractiveness of the book is greatly enhanced by a number of admirable sketches from the pen of the author.
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