John Bull and co; the great colonial branches of the firm- Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (1894) (14758124726)

Identifier: johnbullcogreatc00orel (find matches)
Title: John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: O'Rell, Max, 1848-1903
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, C. L. Webster & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



Text Appearing Before Image:
not take coffee in bed.That is no business of his. He has his routine to gothrough, and, to carry it out, he has the intelligence andthe fidelity of a French sentinel. As in America and Australia, if your neighborat table takes you for a stranger in the land, hecannot resist the temptation of asking you the eternalquestion, Well, sir, and what do you think of SouthAfrica? Here, as in Australia and New Zealand, the importanttowns are on the seaboard—Cape Town, Port Elizabeth,East London, Durban. Port Elizabeth has a grreat 262 JOHN BULL & CO. commercial importance, and the future of East Londonis assured. All these towns are now in direct communi-cation with the diamond mines of Kimberley and thegold mines of Johannesburg. In a few months Durbanwill be so connected also. There are two towns that I would advise the travelernot to miss—King Williamstown, a pretty place embow-ered in verdure, and a veritable hive of activity, andGrahamstown, the city of saints, inhabited by 16,000
Text Appearing After Image:
f,lr„t inl<;ml,.ly human beings perfectly petrified, and lighted by a fewparaffin lamps as sleepy as the inhabitants. But it isthe journey that I recommend more particularly: abouteighty miles driving to do across that most interestingcountry, the centre of Kaffirland. You pass throughgroups of kraals, where the natives continue to liveas if no white man had ever yet set foot on Africansoil. The last eighteen miles or so before reaching Grahams- JOHN BULL & CO. 263 town present a series of enchantments. The countrybecomes wild and hilly. You enter Plutos Valley,along the bottom of which you pass between steep andwooded crags, peopled with large baboons, which gam-bol around you, or, perched on a tree or the edge of arock, calmly look down on you from the height of theirgrandeur. Add to that; at about six oclock in theevening, a marvelous sunset. You will arrive in townshaken, stiff, bruised, famishing, and enchanted withyour days journey. It would be out of place in a book li