Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-07-08
MODERN MATABELELAND.
BuIawayo, the Capital, Only 26 Days
From New York.

Twenty three days from New York,
are in Cape Town. Fourteen hundred
miles by rail from that city. seventy
hours running and you are in Mata-
beleland. Twenty eight years ago when
first came to Africa" writes a cor
respondent of the Lyceumite, the
same journey took six months.
THE heart Of Matabeleland is some
1,600 miles north from the Cape Of
Good Hope. 400 miles south from
Cairo, $50 miles west from the Indian
ocean, $50 miles west of the Atlantic
ocean and 1,S00 miles from Roosevelt's
hunting country. Less than twenty
years ago the mind, imagination and
practical enterprise of Cecil Rhodes
opened up and added to the British
empire this vast stretch of territory
$50, 900 square miles in extent.
"BulawayO, the capital of Matabele-
land, is a finely laid out town, full Of
commercial activity-the centre Of
business life for the whole country.
But yesterday Lobengula the savage
had his cornfields spread over this very
site, and close by where stands the
government house of today was the
spot upon which iron handed justice
was decreed by this despotic monarch.
What strange creatures these Ma
tabeles are! A stalwart, Independent
race, for generations used to power,
passionately fond of fighting. For an
army of them to start out in the even
ing and return the next afternoon, hav-
ing disposed of 5000 victims. was not
an unusual occurrence. Old King
Lobengula was terror.
"As one goes about among the people
today the spirit of war seems dead in
them, and yet when one talks to the
older men of fighting days their backs
seem to stiffen, their eyes light up and
every muscle quivers like an old war
horse at the sound of the bugle.
'I have been living among these peo-
pie for some time, taking their pic
lures, listening to their songs, hear
ing their wonderful folk lore. 1t Is as
tonishing to find even in the far away
places how the natives knew and rev.
cred Rhodes. A statue of the empire
maker stands on the main street or
Bulawayo. The Matabeles for long
time were scared of it, and as dry
season followed its unveiling they eX-
pressed their belief that rain could not
be expected to fall while Mr.. Rhodes
was hatless. (The statue was bare
headed.)
THE eXcursionist to a country like
Rhodesia sees but the outside of its
life. To understand something of its
fascination one must stay for years.
On my first trip to this continent, more
than a generation ago, / vowed II L
was spared to see my native land again
nothing should drag me back here.
After six Journeys to and fro. today
I settle nowhere so well as in AFRICA.
There is a magnetism about the Dark
Continent which gets into the very
marrow of your bones. OF all the one
and nal1 mllllOll Wllle peopiS III 'h'
sub-continent none are outside this in
fiuence, and in it you have the secret
Of African progress.
mo primeval country in the history
of the world has made such swift ad-
vance in fifty years as has this. The
spirit of Livingstone, Stanley ana
Rhodes still lives. and another five
decades will see Africa nation. the
stupendous dream of Cecil Rhodes Is
rapidly becoming a reality. Last month
the first train ran from the Cape to the
Congo border, journey of 2,l4O miles,
and in the north the railway from
Khartum southwark reached Wad Me-
dani 12O miles south of Khartum, l,46l
from Cairo. But $3.50 more miles TO
complete, and in our day we may hear
the call All aboard for the Cape to
Cairo express.