The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-04-15
SOUTH AFRICA.
It's Great Fertility and Varied Resources
Capable of Supporting 10000,
0O0 Inhabitants.

One of the lands opened to settlement
on large scale is South Africa. Al
though it was colonized by the Dutch
i'll 1852 and held by them until 1895,
when the English seized it, it is only re-
Gently that its almost boundless capa-
bilities for the support of human life
have been even suspected. In 1872, the
semi civilized country, exclusive OF Ma
tai, covered about 100000 square miles.
Its population $50, 900, $50, 600 OF whom
were blacks. Natal, which was set off
from the rest Of the settlement In 1856,
contains 10000 square miles and pop
ulation of 1900 white and 300, 900
blacks. There has lately been some
trouble between the handful OF whites
and the mass of semi-subjects, and Mr..
Froude, the eminent historian, was sent
by the British Government to 1nvesti-
gate matters and things in general in
that region. He returaed a short time
since The London Times OF the 22d
ult., contains an account Of compli-
mentary dinner given Mr.. Froude two
days previously, at which he gave an in
teresting sketch of the possible future of
South Africa.
He said he believed that ''both for
climate and natural capabilities, the
country was unmatched in any other
part of the world" It contains enor-
nous mineral wealth. The diamond
fields, unlike those of Arizona, are nat
raj, not artificial, and rich. There are
vast deposits of IRON, of coal, and Of
copper, and Immense gold fields,
which bid fair to rival those Of Califor-
MIA and Australia. /" The soil, he de-
clares, is amazingly fertile. The sur
veyor-general of Natal, very careful
observer, calculates that the rough,
wild grasses which are burnt over and
wasted every year would support cattle
which would serve as food for II, 000,-
900 people. Natal alone, eff decently
cultivated could probably support co.,
100000 inhabitants. The slow growth
of the country is due to the presence Of
two races on its soil. Civilized white
and savage black cannot agree. The
natives work only long enough to buy a
wife, and then live by the labor of these
feminine slaves. Any surplus profit is
invested in fresh stock of wives. The
small cost of living causes an enormous
increase in the population. The masses
of blacks are warllke and bIoodthirsty.
They have guns and ammunition, and
their fighting men are drilled in some
cases by renegade Europeans. The con-
slant danger of bloody warfare checks
immigration and the development of the
country.
There can be no doubt, however, that
millions on millions of whites will, some
time in the future, occupy South Africa.
The more tractable blacks will be used
as laborers, servants, etc. The wilder
tribes viii be driven back towards the
equator. The process Will be slow, for
the white vanguard will press against a
mass of blacks which, like an elastic,
will resist more strongly the more ii
yields. Still under this residence be-
comes too great, and until the north
ward movement reaches geographical
point where the heat is too intense for
the white man to live, the blacks will
have to yield. There is a great field for
colonization there When line of
training-posts mites the Egyptian and
the English frontiers, the slave trade on
the eastern shore of Africa will be sup
pressed, and probably not till then. 1t
is strange that this new world has Just
been opened up to civilization, when it's
outskirts have been held by Europeans
for more than two centuries Chicago
Tribune.