Through South Africa: His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, NatalStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
Through South Africa: His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
South Africa -- Description and travel
It must have struck even the most unobservant of our guests how the land
improved as we travelled northward. How the ungrateful looking Karroo
of Cape Colony was presently followed by expansive plains covered with
dwarf shrubs; how the plains became more promising after we passed the
Hart River: how the rolling grassy prairie-like country of Southern
Bechuana was followed by the acacias and mimosas of Northern Bechuana;
and how as we neared Rhodesia these trees in a few hours of travel rose
from 10 feet to 20 feet in height; how the land became more compact, and
lost much of its loose porous texture, and consequently the grasses were
higher and water might be found at a lesser depth. That improvement, I
am told, continues as we go northward towards Salisbury, even though we
may keep on a somewhat uniform level, that is on the tableland
separating the river flowing eastward, south to the Limpopo and
north-west to the Zambesi. So rapid is the effect of a lower altitude,
and consequent greater heat and moisture, that about 80 miles from
Bulawayo to the north-west a magnificent forest of teak has been found,
from whose grand timber we saw several specimens of furniture, such as
tables, desks, and bureaus, a log of 20 feet long and a foot square,
besides a quantity of planks.
Rhodesia's Fine Climate.
Now, this Rhodesia consists of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, and covers
about a quarter of a million square miles. It is the northern portion
of the Great South African tableland, and its highest elevations run
north-east and south-west, varying from 4000 to nearly 6000 feet above
the sea. This height declines on the eastern, southern, and
north-western sides, as it slopes along with the rivers flowing from
them. This high land, which is eminently suitable for European
families, is about 70,000 square miles in extent, of solid, unbroken
agricultural country as compared with Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Those who remember what countries of similar superficial area in Europe
can contain in population may be able to gauge what numbers of the white
race may exist in Rhodesia. Outside the limit I have mentioned the
resident must expect to be afflicted with malarial fevers, and the lower
one descends towards the sea, the more frequent and severe will they
become. There is this comfort, however, that long before the upper
plateau is over-populated, population will have made a large portion of
the malarious districts healthy and inhabitable--at least, it has been
so found in every land that I have visited. On the upper lands, the
resident who has come by way of the Cape and Bechuanaland need have no
fear of malaria. I regard my own oft-tried system as a pretty sure
indicator of the existence of malaria, for a very few hours' residence
in a country subjected to this scourge would soon remind me of my
predisposition to it; but during the whole of the time I have spent in
Rhodesia I have not felt the slightest symptom. I have seen white women
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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