Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/216

 at times as many as thirty thousand inhabitants, exclusive of numerous villages usually grouped in a circle like the cattle enclosures, all really constituting part of the same urban population. But this gross aggregate has been considerably reduced by wars of succession, and had fallen in 1880 to little over six thousand. Since then, however, the population has again increased, thanks to the cessation of internecine strife. Lying 3,400 feet above sea-level in a vast plain, not, like most other Bechuana capitals, on a steep escarpment, Shoshong stretches along both sides of a mostly dry rivulet, which is dominated on the north by a granite ridge some 12 miles long. Southwards a basalt eminence is disposed parallel with

this granite mass, the intermediate space between the two heights being occupied by well-cultivated gardens and hamlets.

The Ba-Mangwatos have long been subject to the influence of the English missionaries, and have now for the most part adopted the Christian faith. Throughout their territory the sale of alcoholic drinks and the brewing of beer are forbidden under severe penalties — a fine of £100 for the foreign dealer, whether English or Boer, and banishment for the natives convicted of this offence.

At Shoshong converge the two main commercial highways which traverse Bechuanaland, one running north in the direction of the Zambese, the other northwest towards Lake Ngami. Southwards both merge in a common route which skirts the west frontier of the Dutch republics, but, except at one point, keeping well within the British Protectorate. At present the total annual foreign trade of Bechuanaland is estimated at £100,000. Yet at the beginning of the present