CAPE OF GOOD HOPE GOLD-FIELDS.

Southland Times, Issue 930, 8 April 1868, Page 2

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE GOLD-FIELDS.

* (From the " Graham's Town Journal," Feb. 4) At present 'the information as to the locality and natural capabilities of the reported gold country is meagre aad unsatisfactory. Herr Mauch is saying his knowledge,, in thefirst instance for Dr Petermann, of Gotha, the editor of a geographical journal, and the little he has doled, out for 7the immediate benefit of his Pptschefstroom and colonial friends is just sufficient to excite, a desire to go "prospecting,'' and there leave it. Mr H. Hartley, the well-dnown elephant hunter, who likewise exploied the gold territory, is even less explicit. We gather from the statement of the former gentlemen that the Transvaal is the nearest; civilized point to the gold-fields, Potschefstroom being some 450 or 500 miles distant.- Herr Mauch represents that there are immense veins of gold quartz, one mpre than sixty miles in i length, and another twenty miles in breadth, besides numerous parallel veins. ] Mr Hartley saw a field eighty miles in length and tweor three miles in breadth, and numerous smaller and isolated veins ; and Herr Mauch. states that the vast extent/ and : beauty of this auriferous region were such, as it were, to transfix him to the place on beholding its marvellous riches, struck with amazement and wonder. Neither of .them is, so liberal in his information;as to disclose the; lajitude and longitude. But if the dimensions of the veins are as,stated, they will be readily distinguishable tp the intelligent explorer, and incapable of becoming a subject of monopoly. All that is known definitely is that the gold-fields Ue in the Matabele country, some two' hundred miles north of the Limpopo Riverr known as Moselekatse's. To reach it from Albany, the traveller can accept two routes, the,better one of the two by the Transvaal, and the other,' which froni its character would probably Joe avoided, is via Kuruman. ( > Erom Hobart .Town to Kuruman is about one hundred and sixty miles. 7 The latter place is within the limits of the Bechuana country, which extends in a north-easterly direction from Mr Moffat's station, nearly four hundred miles. The intermediate district is arid and sandy—water being only found at long intervals. The traveller must skirtthe westernboundary of the Transvaal Republic, pass through the domains, r oi several populous tribes^ arid, leaving the open sandy plairis'at Sekhoma's, enter a more woody region. —There iB then a journey of abouttwo hundred and twenty miles across an uninhabiteCcQriritry, over which, we are told, one may Jfcrayel day after day without seeing the face of man —as much isolated as: thpngh crossing the wide Atlantic. Game and lions abourid, but water is only to be met with by digging in the sand beds of large river courses, which are very seldom known tobe covered with moisture. After this wearisome and painful journey the traveller strikes Moselekatse's present territory. He is still about 300 miles from the Zambesi, which is the only limit to the chieftain's power north-west and north. To the south-east, about three weeks or a month's journey ori foot, is the nearest settlement of the Transvaal Boers at Zoutspanberg^. About aa far to the west is Lake 'Ngami,.; Moselekatse has no near neighbors except on the eastern

frontier of his widespread territory, where numerour tribes of Masnuna still hold their mountain retreats against all his efforts to expel them. So that it is at once evident that the statement that the auriferous fields "are in Moselekatse's country" is of very general and indefinite character. It is clear that they do not correspond in position with the goldwashings south of Tete, described by Dr Livingstone. These are near the sixteenth parallel of latitude. Moselekatse's present territory is on the twentieth allparel, and, of course, Messrs Hartley and Mauch, in speaking of his country, refer to that which he now occrpies. The inference is deducible, however, that the whole of the country from the Zambesi to the chieftain's territory is impregnated with gold, and with efficient quartz-crushing apparatus may yield immense riches. But there are impediments in addition to those of difficulty of access. It is hinted, for example, that an armed expedition will be necessary to control the opposition with which Moselekatse is pretty sure to meet the invasion of his territory ; and the means of subsistence in that region will be totally insufficient for any considerable influx of strangers.