South Africa -- Description and travel; South Africa -- History -- 1836-1909; South Africa -- History -- To 1836
On leaving these farm houses the Boers, if asked, will make a charge for
the accommodation afforded, generally demanding about 5s. for the
supper, a night’s rest, and breakfast if the traveller chooses to wait
for it. Others, English and Germans, will take nothing for their
hospitality. Both the one and the other expect to be paid for what the
horses may consume; and we thought we observed that forage with the
English and Germans was dearer than with the Boers,--so that the cost
came to much the same with the one as with the other. At the English
houses,--or German,--it was possible to go to bed. In a Boer’s
establishment we did not venture to do more than lie down.
Starting on the following day with our three horses we reached
Potchefstroom, which, though not the capital, is the largest town in the
Transvaal. The road all along had been of the same nature, and the
country nearly of the same kind as that we had seen before reaching
Pretoria. Here and there it was stony,--but for the most part capable of
cultivation. None of it, however, was cultivated with the exception of
small patches round the farm houses. These would be at any rate ten
miles distant one from each other, and probably more. The roads are
altogether unmade, and the “spruits” or streams are unbridged. But the
traffic, though unfrequent, has been sufficient to mark the way and to
keep it free from grass. Travelling in wet weather must often be
impossible,--and in windy weather very disagreeable. We were most
fortunate in avoiding both mud and dust, either of which, to the extent
in which they sometimes prevail in the Transvaal, might have made our
journey altogether impossible.
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