[Illustration: Decorative]
[Illustration: Decorative]
BECHUANALAND.
I was very much struck with the appearance of the country on first
entering Bechuanaland. The vast plain, over which I was then riding on
horseback, was bounded by low, sloping hills, covered with brushwood and
trees. It suggested to me forcibly the idea of a "land of promise,"
wanting only an intelligent and energetic people to secure its proper
and successful development.
In fact, as a field for settlement, I entirely concur with the remarks
of Mr. John Mackenzie, who has worked for so many years in
Bechuanaland, and who states in his recent work, entitled, "Austral
Africa"--
"I come now to give my own thoughts as to the capabilities of
Bechuanaland as a field for colonisation. My mind reverts at once
to thrifty, and laborious people who are battling for dear-life on
some small holding in England or Scotland, and who can barely make
ends meet. I do not think that any class of men, or men of any
colour, endure such hardships in South Africa. There are portions
of Bechuanaland where, in my opinion, a body of some hundreds of
agricultural emigrants would, like the Scottish settlers in
Baviaan's river, some sixty years ago, take root from the first,
and make for themselves homes.
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