Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/276

 214 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. tories by the streams flowing to the lower Limpopo. The European settlers are here concentrated mainly about the towns of Middclhurg and Lydcnhurg, in the upper basin of the Olifant, which joins the Limpopo 120 miles above its mouth, and in the upland valleys of the Manissa (Nkotami) and its affluents. Here are situated the recently founded towns of Barherton (already with a population of six thousand) and Eureka, centres of the De Kaap gold fields as Jo/tan nesbcrg is of those in the Witwater-rand district. In the middle of the year 1887, the latter place was stated to have already as many as ten thousand inhabitants, although its very name was not yet entered on a single map. As soon as the railway from Delagoa Bay penetrates into the heart of the plateau, the population and trade of this region cannot fail to be increased tenfold. This railway had already been pushed forward in 1888 to within 60 miles of Barberton, with which place it was connected by a steam tramway pending the construction of a regular line. Barberton itself, which three years previously consisted only of a few huts, now possesses several hotels, three banks, two share exchanges, a good club, and a theatre. The capital of the numerous companies engaged in developing the De Kaap gold fields exceeds several millions, and more undertakings are being floated every week.* The vast majority of the miners throughout the whole of this auriferous regions are of British descent, and English is everywhere the current language of trade and general intercourse. Thus with the rapid material development of the country, the Anglo-Saxon race threatens to swamp the Boer element, just as it absorbed the Spanish in California, Texas, and other parts of the United States in a single generation. South of the auriferous region the escarpment of the elevated plateau com- prises the territory of New Scotland, which appears to abound in carboniferous deposits. Here is situated Lake Chrissie, an extensive sheet of water which is now all that remains of the vast inland sea which formerly flooded a large part of the plateau. The coal-fields are continued southwards across the provinces of Wakkerstroom and Utrecht till they merge in the rich coal mines now being worked in the Newcastle district of North Natal. East of the plateau the enclave in Zululand, lying near the waterparting and traversed by the Black and White Umvolosi rivers, was occupied in 1885 by some six hundred or seven hundred Boer settlers grouped chiefly in and about the little town of Vrijheid (" Freedom "), on a small affluent of the "White Umvolosi. Administration of the Transvaal. In the South African Republic, as in the Orange Free State, the white element has reserved to itself all political rights. From their present masters the old rulers of the land can now expect nothing but tolerance, and such a measure of liberty as the administration may voluntarily confer on them. The whites, whether citizens by birth or naturalised after a five years' residence and on payment of £25, are alone entitled to take part in the elections of the members of the Volks- • Marrin, op. cit., p. 17.