The murder of Mr. Joubert in the Bronkhorst Spruit Mine--for which, on November 20, four Chinamen were executed in Pretoria jail--who received some fifty stabs before succumbing, was due to starvation. The men wanted to find food. They were not allowed to eat apparently, and so, maddened by ill-treatment, overwork, and starvation, they committed murder. Perhaps the most tragic part of the whole business is that one cannot completely blame them for such an awful act. They have grown to hate the white man. It is small wonder. There are now nearly 50,000 Chinamen on the Rand, and in the breasts of all these men there seems to have been imbued a hatred and detestation of the white man. It seems almost as if these slaves considered it fair game to commit any outrage, however brutal, on white men and white women whenever the opportunity occurs. They are treated outrageously themselves. They get little justice from magistrates, so it is small wonder that they are indulging themselves in a sort of blood carnival of revenge. Discussing this question the other day with a representative of the London journal _South Africa_, Dr. Corstorphine seriously declared that the difficulties attendant on the Chinese labour question had been magnified out of all proportion to the main facts. "We must expect to find a few black sheep amongst the Chinese," sagely observed the doctor. Ye gods!--a _few_. It would be interesting to know what constitutes a "few" in the mind of the worthy geologist. Dr. Corstorphine would probably indignantly deny the existence of yellow slavery on the Rand. But possibly he would admit its existence under another name, just as Sir Edward Grey did at Alnwick the other night. Addressing his constituents, Sir Edward said he had never said that the working of the mines by the Chinese in South Africa was slavery; but the question he would put to those who said it was not, would be--"Was it _Freedom_?" That is a question that I would put to Dr. Corstorphine, Mr. Fricker, Mr. E. P. Mathers, and others of their kidney. If Chinese labour on the Rand isn't slavery, what is it--is it _Freedom_? I pause for a reply. CHAPTER V THE YELLOW TRAIL The mark of the yellow man is upon the Rand. He has set his seal upon the country, and it is to be seen in a hundred things. Johannesburg was never an exactly heavenly place. A gold centre attracts all the evil passions of men--draws to it, like the lodestone draws the needle--every species of adventurer and world vagabond.