. Southern Rhodesia. the coach would strike a stump or runover an ant heap, and overturn. A delay wouldoccur to collect the scattered luggage and mail bags,set the coach up again, and adjust the tangled har-ness. At length, the journey accomplished, thepassengers would alight at their destinations parched,grimy, and weary, to find rest and refreshment inthe comparative luxury of town life. But bit by bit wagon transport and coaches gaveway before the advancing railways. As far backas January 23rd, 1890, Mr. Cecil Rhodes had en-tered upon his first railway agreement with theCape, in which he un
. Southern Rhodesia. the coach would strike a stump or runover an ant heap, and overturn. A delay wouldoccur to collect the scattered luggage and mail bags,set the coach up again, and adjust the tangled har-ness. At length, the journey accomplished, thepassengers would alight at their destinations parched,grimy, and weary, to find rest and refreshment inthe comparative luxury of town life. But bit by bit wagon transport and coaches gaveway before the advancing railways. As far backas January 23rd, 1890, Mr. Cecil Rhodes had en-tered upon his first railway agreement with theCape, in which he undertook to construct a line of127 miles from Kimberley to Vryburg. This portionof the line, which was the initial step in his schemefor the Cape to Cairo Railway, was completed, andafterwards taken over by the Cape GovernmentRailways. The next section from Vryburg north-wards was also built by Mr. Rhodes under a furtheragreement, and reached Bulawayo on November 4th,1897. Capital was found by the issue of debentures. TRANSPORT 325 guaranteed by the British South Africa Company,and a company was floated called the Rhodesia Rail-ways, Limited. At the same time steps were taken to link upSouthern Rhodesia with the port of Beira in Por-tuguese East Africa. Under the Anglo-PortugueseTreaty of 1891, the British Government, at the in-stance of Mr. Rhodes, stipulated for the constructionby Portugal of a line from Beira to the easternportion of Southern Rhodesia. The concession forthe construction of the line, with pier, docks andother facilities at Beira, was acquired by the BeiraJunction Railway Company, which owned the linefrom Beira to Fontesvilla, and the Beira RailwayCompany, which owned the line from Fontesvilla toUmtali, the most eastern town in Southern two-foot gauge railway was first laid, and bothcompanies were established under the auspices ofthe British South Africa Company. The next step was the laying of a broad gaugerailway from Umtali to Salisbury, and this
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