“We arrived here (at Pretoria) on the morning of the 23d of June. It is very different from what it was in crossing the Drakensberg. There is scarcely ever ice here, and now (the coldest season) the temperature is perfection--neither hot during the day nor cold at night. There are orange-trees with fruit on them in the gardens, and high hedges of monthly roses in flower; there are also a few large trees (blue gums), something like poplars in mode of growth, but with dark foliage. These are planted here, for the country does not seem to bear much timber naturally. There is plenty of scrub on the slopes of the high land as you descend, and I believe there is a large extent of bush country round here, and when we get into the regular bush, plenty of timber, I imagine, such as it is; but this part of Africa is no timber country. On the high veldt there is nothing but parched grass, in many places burnt for a whole day’s trek, as fires are of everyday occurrence. On one occasion we had £5 to pay a man in front of whose house our men had set fire to the veldt whilst lighting our camp fire. The farms are few and far between in that desolate region; they grow Indian corn and a few peaches, and have a few cattle and sheep. The Boers are rather good sort of people, and though trying to get every penny they can in a bargain, honest, I should say, on the whole, and hospitable. I cannot speak any Dutch yet, so communication is limited, having to be carried on through an interpreter. “Here in Pretoria are a great many English. The English keep stores; the Dutch Boers stick to farming. The latter come in with their waggons of grain, wood, and other produce, which is sold by auction at 8 A.M. in the market-place. ‘Mealies’ (unground Indian corn) fetch fifteen shillings a muid, which is about 200 lbs. This the Englishmen buy, get ground for two-and-sixpence a muid, and ask twenty-two and sixpence, or even twenty-five shillings for, and make a good thing of the numbers of people passing through here to the Marabastadt and Leydenburg gold-fields. The latter fields were newly discovered and much talked about when we were at Durban and Pietermaritzburg, but do not seem as good as the Marabastadt. No one thinks much of the Tati or Baines’s gold-fields in Mosilikatze’s country. “I fear the English who are here are a bad lot, with few exceptions. One man who cheated me I asked if he had a conscience. He replied that no one here had them.