Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/182

 186 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. little town of Seymour has alreaJy been founded by the English settlers in the centre of the old Hottentot Reserve. Farther south Lovedule, centre of schools and missions, and Alice, east of Fort Beaufort, lie both in the valley of the Keis- kiimnia. Fui't Peddle, un old military station nearer to the coast, has become the chief centre of population in the " neutral zone," which was formerly limited on one side by the Great Fish River, on the other by the Keiskamma. Farther east the border lands still more recently contested by the Kafirs and the English squatters are now pacified, and have also their white settlements. The capital of this conquered territory is King Wiliiam's Town, more commonly designated by the simple name of King. Of late years it has become a great trading centre, and the chief depot for the traffic between the British colonists and the Kafirs, Nearly all the farmsteads dotted along the banks of the river in this district are inhabited by Germans, descendants of the Anglo Germanic Legion which was disbanded after the Crimean war. Hence such names as Berlin^ Potsdam, Braunschweig, Frankfurt, given to the recent settlements in this part of the country. Like Graham's Town, King has also sought for an independent outlet for its trade, and it is now connected by a railway with Fast London, one of the most dangerous seaports on this coast. Jetties, quays, and breakwaters have been constructed, and extensive works carried out to deepen and shelter the estuary ; but all in vain, and the harbour often remains inaccessible for days together. The Buffalo River, which reaches the sea at this point, has occasionally swept away the bar during some sudden freshet, and then vessels drawing 20 feet of water could enter the port, but now the bar is fixed, and has seldom a depth of more than 8 or 9 feet at the flow. In South Africa the remark has become proverbial that East London is one of those ports which are highly in favour with owners who want to lose their ships, crew and all, in order to recover the insurance on the freight from the underwriters. Yet in spite of everything, East London is the second port in the colony for the shipment of wool, of which nearly eighteen million pounds were forwarded in 188G. Like the large towns in the western district. King William's Town is connected with the Orange ba-in by a railway, which surmounts the Storm-berg at a pass nearly 5,700 feet high. The line passes through Stutterheim, Cat heart, and Queens- town, in the well-watered district which formerly belonged to the Tambuki Kafirs. It then turns the pyramidal mass of the Hang-Klip and crosses the main range at an altitude 800 feet higher than the Puy de Dome in the south of France. On the opposite slope this line traverses the coalfields of MoHeno, which supplies the whole railway system of the colony with fuel. Beyond the Molteno district the route passes through Burghers on the inland plateau, reaching the Orange River at the station of Aliical North, which carries on a considerable trade with the Orange Free State, whose territory begins on the opposite side of the river. A bridge 860 feet long connects Aliwal North with a suburb on the right bank of the river. There can be little doubt that this important line will soon be continued northwards through the Orange republic to Transvaal, as ear|^ in the