The colony of Natal; an official illustrated handbook and railway guide . en to eighteen oxen, pace slowlyacross the vievv^ A solitary horseman, like a tiny speck, canbe seen for a moment, and then lost; while a group of deer,with wondering eyes, stand knee-deep in tangle, gazing interror, and then with a sudden panic, wheel off in longbounds to some sheltering ravine. In the old days, whenrailwa\-s were unknown in South Africa, the journey fromDurban to Pretoria, which can now be accomplished in about 262 twenty-seven hours, was a matter of months : then the traveller really endured the hards
The colony of Natal; an official illustrated handbook and railway guide . en to eighteen oxen, pace slowlyacross the vievv^ A solitary horseman, like a tiny speck, canbe seen for a moment, and then lost; while a group of deer,with wondering eyes, stand knee-deep in tangle, gazing interror, and then with a sudden panic, wheel off in longbounds to some sheltering ravine. In the old days, whenrailwa\-s were unknown in South Africa, the journey fromDurban to Pretoria, which can now be accomplished in about 262 twenty-seven hours, was a matter of months : then the traveller really endured the hardships incidental to a journey through the wilds, and the stories of adventure and hair-breadth escapes from ravenous beasts Who made night hideous with hoarse bellowings were no idle tales. Later on, when Johannesburg becameestablished, post carts, with frequent relays of horses,reduced the time between the railway terminus in Nataland the Fields, to a few days. A spice of adventure still clung about them ; floodedand unbridged rivers, crossed on rickety punts, torrents. INTERIOR OF BATTERY, JOHANNESBURG. begotten of a nights rain, quagmires in which the wheelsbecame imbedded, were familiar incidents, while accidents,more or less alarming, kept attention strained and fixed,sometimes to a painful degree. Nowadays this is altered, and stepping from the steamer at 26; s 2 Durban, the traveller is conveyed to his destination withoutthe slightest fear or j)ersonal discomfort. In dr,e course the Vaal River is sii^dited, and the town ofStanderton, situated on its further bank, is entered. There isbut slight difference between this settlement and the otheroutlying towns which have already been described. Most ofthe business houses are owned and managed by Europeans. As Standerton is an old-established market centre, itsbuildings are of a much more permanent character than thoseof Volksrust. While the town is for the most part English,its streets are generally thronged with Boers from th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcolonyofnata, bookyear1895
