The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-12
A land which supplies native work-
 mem for gold miues OftRe Rand


painful. but it does not usually lay a man up for more than a day or so at time"
 What hours do your men work ?" "From sunrise to sunset. They work , hard, and should say they are as good hands in the cotton fields as our ne- groes at home. They are much like our negroes, but they are on the whole better formed and, if anything, more muscular"
 Portuguese Natives for African Mines.
 Portuguese East Africa is now one of the chief sources of the labor supply of the mines of the Transvaal. Before the Chinese were imported four-fifths of the negro workmen were brought in from the outside, and mostly from this region. The miners paid about S3 a head to the Por- tuguese authorities. Within the past year it has been decided that the Chinese must be sent back home as soon as can be, and a large number of natives will be required to take their places. There are white labor contractors now going through Portuguese East Africa and British Central Africa looking up men to work in the gold mines.
 We took a great gang of such laborers on the ship at Chinde. the chief port for Nyassaland. We came down the coast to Beira. The landing there is rough. We anchored far outside the bar and the negroes were brought to the ship in steam launch and loaded by means of great basket This basket was about as large around as hogshead and about 10 feet in height. There was a door at one side The negroes, to the number of dozen at time stepped into this. The door was closed and then the basket. ne- groes and all was raised by means of a derrick to our steamer. The human freight nowled out in unison as 1t rose. and the men thought they were killed when the basket came down with a thud Cn the deck.
 During our stay we took about two score such baslSetful of ebony humanity. I was told that the men would be taken to Delagoa bay and thence shipped in by railroad to the mines of the Rand They are employed on short time con tracts, and as rule serve only few months, when they are anxious to go back home. The Chinese came in on three years contract, with the privilege of ex- tending them to six years. They have made much better laborers than the na tive Africans, who, as a rule, wish to stop labor as soon as they have accumulated enough money to buy an extra wife or so who can support them at home.
 A Night at Bamboo Creek.
 1 stopped at Bamboo creek on account of washout on the railroad going into Ehodesia. l had travelled all day from Beira, the Indian ocean, passing through lands largely covered with water. It had been raining for week or so and the country is now flooded. Some of the bridges have been swept away and the road is so unsafe that the engineers do not dare to go over 1t at night. The result is that our party is landed here ill the wlds. There is no town excepting hotel and this cotton plantation The hotel is a tin shanty of one story, with bar room in front, a dining room at the side and . kitchen in the rear. The barroom is filled with mementos of big game hunting The huge skull of hppopota- mus lies on one end of the counter, and there are lion skulls and leopard skulls among the whisky and brandy bottles at the rear. At one end of the room Is a stuffed zebra with stuffed leopard on top of him, and abont the walls are the heads and horns of dozen different kinds of antelopes. The bartender sells hippopotamus hide whips and canes at extravagant prices, and he offers to- lend