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many of them drink, all of them use curious and intricate
oaths. I have acquired a good deal of useful information
from them, and made myself popular, as I must try and do with
every class. They are full of schemes and prejudices, but all
believe firmly in Milner and all offer to make my
fortune, if I ever want any tips. It is an amazing
country - the Transvaal, for the people are all wealthy, some
of them enormously, and none seem to have much brain-power,
except the Scotsman Gibson. As for the Colonial statesmen they
are pleasant fellows but platitudinous to a degree, and in
their whole mind and character more like provosts or baillies
of a small town than serious politicians. However the
able people must be there, somewhere.

The other class is very small and consists of the few
of us who sit at the Captain's table. It is made
up of the Rathdonnells, the Pleydell-Bouveries, a
Mrs Nelson and a Mrs Cotterell (two soldiers' wives going out
to join their husbands) two naval officers and myself.
Barring us, they are very unpopular among the other passengers,
and with cause, for they absolutely ignore them. I like Mrs
Nelson very much, she is Scotch and a cousin of Ralston-
-Patrick, & was a Miss Ralston of Warwickhill in
Ayrshire. She know hundreds of people I know and is my