How the World Travels

								

bull, and is decorated with the Mikado's crest, a sixteen-petalled
chrysanthemum.

CHAPTER VI
JOURNEYS THROUGH AFRICA

"From the Cape to Cairo." We have all heard of the wonderful
railway which some day is to run all the way from Table Bay to
Egypt, and is to carry passengers in ease and luxury through the
heart of Darkest Africa. That will be in the future, no doubt;
but, even if the railway were already finished, it would surely be
more interesting to travel in the old-fashioned ways, and, even if
it necessitated hardships and fatigue, see something of the great
continent and of its inhabitants.
Let us suppose, then, that we start on our journey from Cape Town,
and, ignoring the railway which already could carry us far into
Central Africa, put the clock back for fifty years, or more, and
engage one of the great bullock wagons in which the old colonists
made their adventurous pilgrimages.
A traveller who journeyed through South Africa in 1846 gives an
interesting account of his conveyance and experiences.


"In travelling by wagon one gets along slowly," he says. "Twenty
miles a day is reckoned moderate, and two and a half miles an hour
is the usual rate of progress. Cooking utensils, as a kettle, a
gridiron, and a pot, accompany the wagon. Bedding is also a part of
the travelling appurtenances, and is either made up at night in the
body of the wagon or in the open country, according to the weather."
This description sounds pleasant and comfortable enough, but
the men and women who in those days set out across unexplored
country in search of new homes often had to endure hardships and
face terrible dangers, for the Kaffirs and Zulus were fierce and
warlike, and they often attacked and murdered the newcomers.
As a safeguard against these enemies the colonists used to arrange
their wagons at night in a circle, and within the primitive fort,
or laager as it was called, they would make their camp and light
watch-fires to frighten away lions and other beasts of prey.
South African wagons are very large and have canvas hoods. Whole
families can travel in them comfortably, and sometimes as many as
sixteen oxen are used.
North of Cape Colony is Natal, the oldest of the British
possessions in South Africa, and now we will leave our quaint,
old-world wagon and pay a visit to the port of Durban as it is
to-day.


Here we shall see careering along the streets or waiting to be
hired, some very strange little vehicles indeed, and shall hardly
recognise them at first as our old friends the rickshaws of Japan
and Ceylon. When we look more closely, however, we shall see that
the rickshaws themselves are just the same as those which speed
along the red roads of Colombo or under the cherry blossoms of
Yokohama.
It is the men who drag them that are extraordinary, for the Kaffir
rickshaw boys of Durban wear the most amazing costumes and deck