CHAPTER XI.
THE ORANGE FREE STATE.—PRESENT CONDITION.
Sir George Grey, who was at that time Governor of the
Cape of Good Hope writing to Lord John Russell on 17th
November 1855,—Lord John having then been Secretary of
State for the Colonies,—expresses himself in the following
glowing terms as to the region of which I am now writing.
"The territory of the Orange Free State forms one of the
finest pastoral countries I have ever seen. There is no
district of country in Australia which I have visited which
throughout so great an extent of territory affords so uniformly
good a pastoral country." A short time previous to this, Sir
George Clerk, when he was about to deliver the State up to
the Government of the Dutch, declared,—or at any rate is
popularly reported to have declared,—that the land was a
"howling wilderness." I think that the one colonial authority
was quite as far astray as the other. Sir George Grey
had ever a way with him of contending for his point either
by strong language or by strong action. He was at one
time Governor of South Australia, but perhaps never travelled
as far north as the Salt Bush country of that Colony.
The Colony in his time was in its infancy and was not
known as far north as the pastoral district in question. I
