Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/116

 the fire as the flames burned his face, as though he would have extinguished it. But for all that, the obstinate wretch gave no sign of repentance. Then they set fire to the furnace underneath, and as the flames mounted he made the most frantically violent efforts. But the plank on which he rested was quickly burned, and he fell face foremost into the left hand part of the furnace. And from these flames he passed to try the anguish of the eternal fire!"

And the ladies of Palermo sipped their ices as they watched the scene.

This is the story of the last execution by fire that ever took place in Sicily.

And very strange it is to think, that the great grandfathers and grandmothers of people now living may have been present at it; stranger still, that a portion of the sentence of condemnation which consigned these unfortunates to the flames, should have continued in operation up to the spring of the present year!

has been discovered in South Africa, also diamonds worth from twenty to five-hundred pounds.

The writer of this narrative, who lately left the Cape Colony, and while there specially directed his attention to the subject of the gold fields, will endeavour to tell what was known on the subject when he left South Africa.

From Cape Town, the capital of the Colony, to Hope Town, situated on its north-eastern frontier, near where the diamonds before alluded to have been found, is a distance of six hundred miles. To reach Hope Town by bullock waggons would take at least thirty days. Hope Town might, however, be reached in twenty days from Port Elizabeth, a place further eastward, and about four days more distant from England by steam than Cape Town. No other means of transit are available than waggons eighteen feet long, drawn by sixteen oxen, at the rate of twenty miles a day. After crossing the Orange river the explorer still has seven hundred and six miles of country to traverse before he reaches the southern end of the line of gold fields, which do not belong to the Cape, but will eventually form a grand extension of the colony of Natal.

But what ground have we for believing that there really are valuable gold fields in South Africa; and what reason have we to expect that they will prove remunerative? It need hardly be said that waggon loads of gold would be perfectly valueless to a man in the heart of a desolate country, without any means of carrying it to where it can be turned to account. Before twenty-four hours had passed, the possessors would willingly give all for a mutton chop and a glass of water. "What with the gold works of the tract which, I think, really supplied the Ophir of Solomon, and the great coal fields of Natal, South Africa is about to become au El Dorado." These are the words of perhaps the greatest living authority in Europe, to the greatest living authority in South Africa upon the subject. They are words pregnant with hope, but hope still unborn.

The discoverer of the southern gold fields is Herr Mauch, a German traveller of considerable acquirements, connected scientifically with Dr. Petermann of Gotha. He describes himself as perfectly amazed at the immense auriferous wealth spread before him, and believes that the yield will be above that of Australia or California. Specimens of the quartz found by him were forwarded to Port Elizabeth, and tested with very satisfactory results. Herr Mauch was at the time of his discovery accompanied by a celebrated elephant hunter, Mr. Hartly.

These gold fields lie within the territory of a chief called Machien, who has since the discovery of gold proposed to Sir Philip Wodehouse, the governor of the Cape Colony, to transfer the sovereignty of his territory to Great Britain.

The reason why the chief is so ready to make the offer unsolicited, is that his territory lies contiguous to what is called the Transvaal Republic, a colony of disaffected boers who, in consequence of the abolition of slavery in the Cape Colony, parted with their farms, withdrew beyond the boundary, and have more than once been engaged in active hostility against the crown. They have, whether wisely or not, been recognised as an independent state; and their numbers are recruited by adventurers from other parts.

The Transvaal Republic is the refuge of every miscreant who finds the Cape Colony too hot to hold him. It is the Alsatia of South Africa; and it is unquestionable that slavery there exists under the mild term of apprenticeship, and in order to obtain "apprentices" the adult aborigines are constantly, under one pretence or another, shot down in cold blood, men and women, and the children carried off as slaves. This proceeding is facetiously called hunting for "black ivory."

No sooner did the Transvaal Republic learn that gold exists in the territories of their neighbours, than their legislators, by a very simple process of enactment, annexed to their own dominions a large slice of land to which they have not the slightest claim, to which their title never has been, and never will be recognised. The chief, Machien, fearing that he will be unable to cope with such unscrupulous adversaries, recruited as they will doubtless still further be by the scum of other parts of the earth, has offered his land to the Queen of England.

The offer of annexation was made by Machien through the Rev. Mr. Mackenzie, a missionary resident in those parts, who has added his testimony, in favour of the auriferous wealth of that region, and transmitted to the colony several fine specimens of gold quartz. Some diggers from the Transvaal Republic are already at work.

Attention having thus been directed to the