These prisoners are strong men, prominent men, and I believe they are all educated men.  They are well off; some of them are wealthy.  They have a lot of books to read, they play games and smoke, and for awhile they will be able to bear up in their captivity; but not for long, not for very long, I take it.  I am told they have times of deadly brooding and depression.  I made them a speech—­sitting down.  It just happened so.  I don’t prefer that attitude.  Still, it has one advantage—­it is only a talk, it doesn’t take the form of a speech.  I have tried it once before on this trip.  However, if a body wants to make sure of having “liberty,” and feeling at home, he had better stand up, of course.  I advised them at considerable length to stay where they were—­they would get used to it and like it presently; if they got out they would only get in again somewhere else, by the look of their countenances; and I promised to go and see the President and do what I could to get him to double their jail-terms.

We had a very good sociable time till the permitted time was up and a little over, and we outsiders had to go.  I went again to-day, but the Rev. Mr. Gray had just arrived, and the warden, a genial, elderly Boer named Du Plessis—­explained that his orders wouldn’t allow him to admit saint and sinner at the same time, particularly on a Sunday.  Du Plessis —­descended from the Huguenot fugitives, you see, of 200 years ago —­but he hasn’t any French left in him now—­all Dutch.

It gravels me to think what a goose I was to make Livy and Clara remain in Durban; but I wanted to save them the 30-hour railway trip to Johannesburg.  And Durban and its climate and opulent foliage were so lovely, and the friends there were so choice and so hearty that I sacrificed myself in their interests, as I thought.  It is just the beginning of winter, and although the days are hot, the nights are cool.  But it’s lovely weather in these regions, too; and the friends are as lovely as the weather, and Johannesburg and Pretoria are brimming with interest.  I talk here twice more, then return to Johannesburg next Wednesday for a fifth talk there; then to the Orange Free State capital, then to some town on the way to Port Elizabeth, where the two will join us by sea from Durban; then the gang will go to Kimberley and presently to the Cape—­and so, in the course of time, we shall get through and sail for England; and then we will hunt up a quiet village and I will write and Livy edit, for a few months, while Clara and Susy and Jean study music and things in London.

We have had noble good times everywhere and every day, from Cleveland, July 15, to Pretoria, May 24, and never a dull day either on sea or land, notwithstanding the carbuncles and things.  Even when I was laid up 10 days at Jeypore in India we had the charmingest times with English friends.  All over India the English well, you will never know how good and fine they are till you see them.