The Portuguese had been there before them, but, repelled by the evil weather, and lured forwards by rumours of gold, they had passed the true seat of empire and had voyaged further to settle along the eastern coast.

Some gold there was, but not much, and the Portuguese settlements have never been sources of wealth to the mother country, and never will be until the day when Great Britain signs her huge cheque for Delagoa Bay.

The coast upon which they settled reeked with malaria.

A hundred miles of poisonous marsh separated it from the healthy inland plateau.

For centuries these pioneers of South African colonisation strove to obtain some further footing, but save along the courses of the rivers they made little progress.