the gradations of savagedom. In somefor example, among the Zulus-comparative neatness, order, and cleanliness prevail; their blankets and rugs are brightly striped, their rags are brilliant, their sleeping-places have some semblance of being human resorts, and even faint traces of attempted decoration can be detected. In others, notably among the Baralongs and Batlapins, the interiors are like nothing else than the lairs of grovelling beasts of the field. One habit, however, seems common to all. Whatever the heat of the weather or warmth of the spot, the sleeping savage is careful to envelop completely in his blanket not only his body but his head, leaving not the smallest chink for breathing, so that it is marvellous he is not asphyxiated. The higher tribes of Kaffirs are, however, clean in their habits, and delight in wallowing in the large compound tank provided for them, and are remarkably free from bouquet de native; whereas a single whiff of a Chinaman is sickening, and proximity even to a bath-loving Japanese elicits an involuntary" phew."

My conductor assures me that although the number of Europeans is a mere fraction of the total of black residents, not the slightest difficulty is experienced in maintaining order. This is due partly to the multiplicity of tribes, each one of which regards with distrust the others, and declines to combine; partly to the constant influx of fresh arrivals and departure of old hands; partly to the entire absence of women and children; and finally, to the fact that all are healthy adults, whose time is pretty well taken up in working, eating, and sleeping. Moreover, a certain number of tribal princelets, who receive wages but never do a stroke of work, materially contribute to suppress quarrels. My guide appeared to be on excellent terms with his charges, rousing numerous sleepers whom I wished to question, by gently pulling their ears, and eliciting from them willing if not intelligent replies. Among the representatives of races, taking them roughly in order of superiority, were Zulus, Basutos, Delagoa Bay men, Fingoes, Hottentots, Baralongs, Batlapins, Korannas, and Bushmen. These latter give rise to a sombre repugnance, almost amounting to a shuddering aversion, in that they are examples of the lowest depths of a degraded humanity. A char

acteristic distinction between monkey and man is the power possessed by the latter of opposability between the forefinger and thumb. This power is lacking in the Bushmen. "Pinch my finger," I said to one of them; "pinch much harder." In vain; the pressure would scarcely have injured a fly. Now, an anthropoidal ape possesses many human characteristics, but is essentially a monkey; a Bushman possesses many apish characteristics, but is essentially a man. A miserable, dwarfed, decrepit, repulsive man. One whom I measured was only four feet three inches in height, with a skinny feeble body to correspond, a screwed-up chest, drumstick legs and arms, very small cerebellum, prognathous jaws, high cheek-bones, acute facial angle, and lack-lustre eyes. His features were totally devoid of expression; his demeanor, when examined and handled, was more stolid than that of a sheep; his language could barely be called coherent; and in fact, it was difficult and painful to realize that this poor brutish animal must be classified in a genus which comprises a Newton, a Milton, and a Shakespeare. The only instance I witnessed of Bushman intelligence was in a tiny infant in Kimberley hospital. The creature was about the size of a puppy, and equally bright and vivacious, illustrating the theory that in a race of low intellect intelligence is in an inverse ratio to age.

To supply the incarcerated Kaffirs with any means of intellectual occupation-to give them books, paper, writing materials, etc.-would be like presenting ruffles to a man wanting a shirt. I inspected the small nominal school; it was a mere farce. I espied two or three Methodist hymnbooks in possession of so-called converts; but alas here, as elsewhere in South Africa, the expression "native convert" is, in cases which are sadly numerous, synonymous with "outward show and inward deceit." To put the matter crudely, yet I believe not inaccurately, between Christianity and the Kaffir faith intervenes a wide and debased gap. It is not difficult for missionaries to drag the savage down from the elevation, however slight, of his own creed; but instead of endeavoring forthwith to raise him to the pinnacle indicated by Christ's teaching, they are too frequently content to acquiesce in a small measure of individual success, and

to leave him wallowing in the aforesaid gap. I refer the reader to Mr. Bodley's admirable"Ride in Kaffir Land" for the further consideration of South African missionary undertakings, so imperatively required of us as a duty, so noble in their conception, and, alas ! sometimes so feeble in their execution.

The compound hospital is admirable; the percentage of sick among sturdy laborers in the prime of life, and leading a model healthy existence, is naturally small. Every comfort and every essential requirement of modern medical science is here forthcoming; and albeit the Kaffirs are somewhat puzzled at a gratuitous compassion for suffering, they rejoice and believe in their English doctors.

Almost every traveller has encountered certain marvellous experiences which, if he be prudent, he will forbear detailing, under the penalty of being considered a bold-faced liar; and I only venture to allude to the following circumstance because it can be corroborated by many independent witnesses. The Kimberley Kaffirs are extremely fond of cigars, but they smoke with the lighted end in their mouths. When this peculiarity was first mentioned to me, I supposed that my informant was cracking a somewhat vacuous joke; but to my amazement I saw numerous instances of the reality in the compound. The native first lighted his cigar by the ordinary method, then turning it round, he deftly arranged the hotly glowing end in his mouth, and tucking away his tongue in his cheek, proceeded to inspire and expire the fumes, very gradually consuming the whole of the cigar. The smokers assured me that the process was warm, comforting, delicious, and far superior to the usual mode. On subsequent trial I found that the knack is less difficult to acquire than might be supposed.

The Kaffirs, when hired, enter into agreements for minimum periods of three months, and during these terms they are never suffered to quit the mining enclosure on any pretext whatever. They do not appear to find this restraint irksome ; some, indeed, voluntarily thus pass three or four years in unbroken captivity, while others at the end of their contract sally forth for a week's swinish orgies, and then return to renew their engagements.

* Blackwood's Magazine, February 1891.

During their incarceration they are at all times liable, and are sometimes subjected, to sudden search, but the thorough and crucial investigation is carried out during their last seven days' residence. On reaching this margin they are separated from the mass of their fellows, closely confined in a large hut set aside for the purpose, and watched day and night like felons under sentence of death. Admitted within its precincts, I see about forty naked fellows either lying on the ground comfortably dozing or squatting, in the contented vacuity of do-nothingness so charming to all torpid intellects. Each Kaffir wears a pair of thick leather gloves, padlocked round the wrist and never for a moment removed. Being fingerless and resembling boxing-gloves without padding, they render the hands almost useless for purposes of hiding or picking and stealing. Their sole custodian is one sturdy Englishman, the picture of boredom, and who unassisted is perfectly competent to maintain order, stop squabbling, and to some extent baffle schemes for thieving. At my request he gives me an example of the way in which his captives are searched before being set free-in addition to certain other effectual measures. Awakening a sleeper by a friendly pull of the ear, "Jigger" is his first injunction, and forthwith the naked savage gravely begins to hop, skip, and jump, as though executing a horn-pipe. These movements would cause stones ensconced about the person to fall on the ground. Next the custodian minutely searches the hair, ears, toes, and every part of his charge's body; then he thrusts his fingers into the native's month and rummages about the teeth and inside the cheeks; and finally, the suspect is required to waggle his tongue in case any stone shall have been secreted about the root. Were The History of a Diamond" written, like that of its cousin carbon, "The History of a Lump of Coal," it might furnish us with two scenes in such strange contrast as to leave to us the alternative of a smile or a sneer.

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Scene 1.-A squalid African hut; a white overseer is compelling a naked Kaffir prisoner to go through grotesquely degrading antics; a dirty little white stone, only useful to be strung like an ornamental bead, drops from the poor black carcass; overseer triumphantly pounces on the discovery.

Scene 2.-Six thousand miles distant; a London ball-room with all accessories of civilized splendor; the stone reappears cut, and in the shape of a brilliant enhancing the charms of some young loveliness, and prompting the instinct which bids us worship and honor her beauty, as though it were something divine.

Notwithstanding all the precautions I have indicated, the blacks occasionally succeed in besting the whites. Some have the knack of stowing a diamond for a few minutes a short distance down the throat, and when the search is over, working it back into the mouth by a muscular movement. I am shown several tin boxes used by the natives for holding the rag or two they may possess, and wherein stones have been most ingeniously concealed behind the metal lining plate or the handle. On one occasion a liberated Kaffir was passing the last outside sentry. swinging a small open flimsy basket, such as children use in England when gathering cowslips. Let me look at it," said the warder, without any real suspicion, and in the mere vacuity of idleness. The wicker handle was a little loose; it was lightly tacked on to a small slip of wood at the brim, and when pulled aside it was discovered that a neatly concealed cavity had been scooped out, and a valuable diamond deposited therein. Equally ingenious means have been devised for baffling the outside detectives, and for smuggling stones from Kimberley to a remote and safe locality. A diamond is wrapped in a piece of meat and given to a dog, which is conveyed out of the district and slaughtered, when the stone is removed from the intestines. Sometimes carrierpigeons are utilized; and for a long time the parcel-post was rendered an accomplice, by means of an ordinary book with a hollow cut out of the central pages, wherein the booty was ensconced. The detective department is elaborately and effectually organized, and breaches of the diamond laws are very properly punished with extreme severity, five years' penal servitude on the Government works being a not infrequent sentence. A convict digging at one of the Cape Town forts hid a very valuable diamond, which had escaped discovery when he was apprehended, in a corner of the parapet, as the surest place of concealment. He was unexpectedly transferred temporarily to another work,

and on his return found that a large mass of earth had been carted over his cache. The diamond has remained unrecovered up to the present day, and the 4-gun battery is invested with a halo in consequence of its latent treasure, quite irrespective of its value for annihilating an enemy's ships. Again, no one is allowed to deal in the rough stones without a special license; only cut jewels-which exist in very small numbers in Kimberley-are open to free traffic. Were a casual wayfarer to pick up a chance diamond on a waste piece of land, the retention of it or any attempt to sell it would be penal. Yet, as I have already mentioned, the "I.D.B.," as it is called-illicit diamondbuying-is carried on to a serious extent, and I could quote one of the most prominently prosperous individuals in South Africa, who, as is generally admitted, amassed, in former days, a considerable sum by the nefarious traffic, and who is now flourishing in several public capacities, though, according to the rules of ju tice, he should be behind the bars of a jail. Some years back detectives lighted on a very hotbed of "I.D.B.," but were unable to obtain legal proof. At dead of night some disguised members of the force betook themselves to the thieves' den, and offered for sale a certain number of the precious stones. Only a woman was forthcoming, who handled them, admitted that they were genuine, but professing herself unable to do any business, restored them to the fictitious sellers. The detectives withdrew haffled, but were considerably more baffled the next morning on discovering that the intended victim had so cleverly exercised her sleight of hand as to have substituted her own imitation diamonds for the valuable stones originally tendered.

Thus far I have endeavored to explain the working of a diamond-mine in its perfected organization, with all the appliances of modern mechanical science; but without following the sarcastic exhortation "Commençons au déluge," I must admit the expediency of describing the nature of its infancy some twenty-one years ago, when the entire district was a drear, scarcely inhabited wilderness. By a fortunate coincidence, at the very date I paid my visit to Kimberley, a new adjacent diamond-field, the Wesselton, had just been discovered-an event which may not occur once in a decade; and I was a wit

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ness of the feverish excitement, the rush to, and the initiatory working of, a fresh mine. In company with the Government inspector, Captain Erskine, I drove four and a half miles, through a country resembling Aldershot Heath in 1855, to the site in the open slightly undulating veldt. Radiating from a central area where the ground was being actually turned up, were innumerable" claims," 30 feet square, each marked out by four pegs bearing the name of the claimant. They had been stuck in in a manifestly hasty higgledypiggledy manner, one plot frequently overlapping another, and some day will constitute a useful accumulation for firewood, since there seems little doubt that the ground is already vested property. The crazy rushers, however, who a few days ago were streaming across the veldt like files of ants, apparently consider that "le propriété c'est le vol," " and in its turn should be volé'd accordingly, and have petitioned the Government that the field should be handed over to public digging, with about the same right which would justify the deprivation of a house proprietor's kitchen-garden for the benefit of street scavengers. The rushers had returned to their usual avocations in Kimberley, but in attempted substantiation of their claims, had left a guard of Europeans, who profitably employed their time snoozing in an adjacent tent, with a daily pay of seven shillings each for doing nothing. That part, however, which I may call the nucleus spot,,was being worked by the lawful owners, and was the scene of feverish activity. Digging, washing, sifting, and searching were carried on in an amusingly primitive fashion, with the help of a few small wheezy engines, with mules and donkeys turning windlasses, and with Kaffirs working with wheelbarrows, shovels, and watering-pots. I estimated the total number of blacks and whites present at 300; and the requirements of this wild rabble of delvers for wealth were represented by some rickety tin structures, a few rags of tents, and an accumulation of liquor-barrels and bottles. "Blue" had as yet been barely reached, and efforts were restricted to washing the yellow soil; but already the cuttings and piercings were in a condition imminently perilous to the workmen, and until the mine had been proclaimed, the Governinent inspector had no authority to enforce

measures for safety. Up comes one of the foremen with a couple of largish diamonds, unquestionably genuine, and of the approximate value of £70, which he alleges have just been found in the washings, and which, in language worthy of Billingsgate, he declares are the mere harbingers of other priceless findings. "Look at those black villains eyeing me,' he adds, indicating the repulsively covetous glances of some native bystanders who had heard his story-" I must be off to stop their thieving ;" and away he rushes in an apparent frenzy of excitement, to continue his quest of "delved stones, the wailer's heap.

Before dismissing the mines, justice demands I should allude to the Beaconsfield Institute three miles distant, and to which access will shortly be provided by cheap conveyances, established for the benefit of the numerous Europeans who have taken up their abode in these wild regions. The extensive grounds have been planted with an immense number of ornamental trees, and laid out in a manner which in two or three years' time will result in delightful gardens. The handsome, large, red brick buildings are divided into dwellings for families, and into a club and boarding-house for both married and single. Here every provision has been made for supplying meals, for washing, and for reading, writing, and recreation, on a complete scale of civilized comfort. Granted that the Institute more than pays its own expenses, its establishment reflects high credit on those who designed and carried out the scheme, and notably on one of the chief mining shareholders, Mr. Cecil Rhodes, the present Premier of Cape Colony.

Another admirable adjunct of Kimberley is its town hospital. I speak advisedly in declaring my opinion that in no other part of the world have I seen a similar institution so attractive to a non-professional visitor, from its kindly administration, its graceful comforts, and its pitying efforts to relieve all sufferers-so that it has undoubtedly won the confidence and affection of all classes, both inside and beyond the district. The expense of its maintenance is high; but Kimberley is the headquarters of numerous speculators and financial magnates, and probably a generous superstition prompts many a large contribution in tacit recognition of fortu

nate coups.

Some of the wards are entirely self-supporting, and are made up of private rooms for patients who are willing to pay a higher price an indescribable blessing for those who have endured the bitter evil of illness in a strange country, far separated from relations. Some wards are partly self-supporting, and still more are entirely free. A careful classification of races is naturally most essential; and as I pass through the corridors, I observe that the inmates comprise all classes and all ages, from the infant to the old man, and from the wealthy European gentleman to the semi-animal Bushman; while the variety of the diseases ranges from the rickety Koranna baby to the appalling leper adult.* Probably some of the cases would prove of interest to the greatest scientists of the leading London hospitals. A Bushman boy of fourteen, walking about with a conspicuous cicatrice in his throat, is pointed out as the subject of successful tracheotomy for malignant growth. I am assured that the extraordinary number of 80 per cent of these fearful operations are successful in this "Carnarvon Hospital." The chief medical officer, Dr. Smith, to whom a large share of credit for the efficiency of the hospital must be awarded, stated that the natives possess a recuperative power, when subjected to corporeal wounds, which is characteristic of animals rather than of human beings; and he instanced the recent case of a native suffering from an incised wound in the abdomen, seven inches long, and so deep that the viscera were exposed though not injured. No means were available for antiseptic or any special treatment; cold water and common bandages were the sole expedients; but the wound healed by first intention, and in seven days the patient was walking about as sound as though he had never received a pin-prick in his life. The nurses, who possess advantages beyond the common of attractive appearance and ladylike demeanor, undergo a strictly orthodox, prac

* In the veldt districts leprosy is by no means uncommon among the natives.

tical hospital training; and so high is their repute, that their services are not infrequently telegraphed for from feverstricken, drain soaked Cape Town, 600 miles distant. That scrupulous cleanliness and order should prevail throughout was a matter of course; but I was not prepared for the aspect of decorative comfort, of luxurious brightness, of the almost smiling spirits of the adults, and of the ecstasies of merriment among the children. To those who have contributed to infuse such happiness in the midst of wonted pain and sorrow, I venture to think we may fitly apply that quotation whereof the first words are, "Inasmuch as ye have done it . . .”

In truth, Englishmen have every reason to be proud of this South African town as worthily representing our nation. Free from much of the rowdyism and sharp practice of many gold-mining districts, from the surly loutishness and savage treatment of natives which render odious certain Boer settlements, and from the barand-billiard propensities of a very considerable section of torpid Cape Town manhood, the law-abiding characteristics of Kimberley are unimpeachable, its energy and enterprise arc incontestable, and the gentleman-like highly educated tone of its society is unsurpassed throughout this part of the world. If I must needs qualify by some cynical detraction a description which otherwise might appear a mere eulogistic rhapsody, I can only refer to the prime motive power of all Kimberley's expenditure of toil, money, and ingenuity

the collection of small shining white stones, almost valueless except for the capricious adornment of youthful beauty which requires no such adventitious aids, or for the illustration of the ugliness of aged hags. The irony of the consideration can scarcely be exceeded by the matchless sarcasm of Captain Lemuel Gulliver when he parodies our craze for alphabetical titular distinctions, by representing the best and wisest of the Lilliputians as crouching and crawling, hopping, bounding, and grovelling, for the award of a piece of blue thread.-Blackwood's Magazine.