SOLOMON'S MINES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6833, 22 April 1890, Page 4

SOLOMON'S MINES.

THE SWAZILAND DISCOVERT. . PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. The telegram with thia heading will probably have appeared to moat people as a hoax inspired by Rider Haggard's romance of that name. But I do not I think this is necessarily so, judging from my personal knowledge of the country and from what I have heard from South-east African travellers on the subject. Almost without exception I have found them of i 1 the opinion that the Ophir of Solomon's time was in South-east Africa. The general expectation was that eventually exploration would prove the region about Sofala to have been the ancient Ophir. Many arguments are adduced by travellers in favour of this. Chief of these is the undeniable fact of the existence, all over this region, of ancient workings and ' fort 3 of very great antiquity, undoubtedly made long before the occupation of the ! country by the now dominant Zulu tribes of Kaffirs, of whom it is only known that their ascendancy overthenative tribes they found in occupation, was established in the commencement of the nineteenth century, they having invaded the country from the North. It is not known exactly from where they came. It is somewhat j remarkable that several of their cuutomß resemble those of the Jews, such, aa the "Feast of First Fruits" held upon the ripening of the maize, when the whole nation gathers at the king's kraal ; and j the custom of raising up seed to a deceased brother. The numerous native tribes (speaking variouß languages) that were conquered by, and remain subject to the Zulus, disavow any knowledge of the ruins except that they were left by some people who have long paosed away. These tribes are probably the remains of the various inhabitants who have for centuries past been subject to the inroads of stronger i and more warlike tribes, conquering, enslaving.andthen, in turn, themselves being treated in like manner. It is reasonable to suppose that, if this really was once the country of the QTTKEN 'OF BHEBA, some of its present degenerate inhabitants have descended from her people, and may have retained some of their old customs, notably that of female chieftainship. In this connection it is remarkable that native queens are only found in this region of South Africa, where there are now tribea that are governed by successive queens. Therefore it is argued that this, instead of being a mere coincidence, may be the survival of a custom of the time of the Queen of Sheba. Swaziland is within 1 the radius of the country in which these I ruins are found, some of which I have seen myself, though not of such an extensive character as those found farther North in the neighbourhood of Sofala. It was in Swaziland that in 1875 I visited the kraal of one of these queens situated at the foot of the Chicundo Mountains between the rivers Oliphant and Limpopo, and the following description I glean from my diary : — QUEEN UMJANJIE. This great personage (she is said to weigh twenty btone) is hedged round with a great deal of mystery by her subjects, of whom only her female indunas (councillors) have access to her presence. No man is said to have ever beheld Her Majesty. It is admitted that she has a daughter, but that is considered to a perfectly immaculate occurrence. Above our camp the thorny- wooded hill arose in an undulating slope to a considerable height. Somewhere on this hill the Queen's kraal is hidden, and there she lives her life with a few women. She has a widespread reputation as a rainmaker, and chiefs from great distances send her valuable presents to secure her good offices with the Clerk of the Weather, who, I believe, they take to be the Devil. She is said to have acquired great wealth in ivory, &c, from this source. The object of our visit was to induce the Queou to allow her subjects to go and work for hire on the Natal plantations, Transvaal gold fields, aud Vaal River diamond fields, and we were accredited to her by Sir Garnet (now Lord) Wolseley, who was then Royal Commissioner in South Africa. Here we waited about eight days, having frequently recurring interviews with the Queen's indunas, about fifty in number, very dignified grey-woolled old ladies, wearing inanfclesof leopard skin thrown over their shoulders, who went to and returned from the Queen by labyrinthine paths which enabled her to maintain her mystery and seclusion. Thus were the negotiations with Her Invisible Majesty carried on in a very dilatory manner. However, at last the conference by proxy came to an end. The natives of this rich and beautiful highland country we were leaving had been very kind to us, and the study of their manners and modes of life and amusement had been extremely interesting. Now, as our boys placed their burdens on their heads, and, assegais in hand, commenced their descent from the plateau on which the village was perched, the little naked children ceased playing and joined their elders, who, headed by the venerable induna9 in their leopard-skin capes, came to see us off, and pointing their fingers upwards, said " Good-bye," calling out in chorus, " Amba gashly malungo " (go in peace, white man). THE LIBtBOMBO MOUNTAINS. Four days' journey from Uuijanjie's kraal we crossed the Liinbombo Mountains. In this locality they are also called the White Mountains. They seem to be considerably higher here than farther South, and here aud there throw up massive rocky peaks which gleam white and glaring under the tropical sun. They appeared to be veined with quartz in every direction, and wherever the soil in the neighbourhood was stony there was crumbly quartz in abundance. About a mile off 1 saw a reef of quartz, looking pure white in the sunlight and just like a wall of masonry about six feet high. It ran up one side of a hill and down the other. Close by wa3 a deep circular pit about one j hundred yards in diameter and shaped just like a Maori oven. Evidently it had been a mine of some description. There were mounds of quartz and other rocks around the edge, and the whole was over-grown by thorn trees. My companion, an old traveller, said it was a small specimen of many more that he knew of, and was an ancient mine. But I could not iuduce him to delay that I might examine it, a3 we were in great straits trying to reach water. In other parts of the Liinbombo Range, which extends from Zululand to the Limpopo, I have always found quartz, and in some localitieo very fine, deep red cornelians and clear crystals not unlike diamonds. Extending, as these mountains do, parallel with the Transvaal gold diggings, and within easy reach of prospecting parties from them, no doubt many interesting discoveries will now be made. The climate is comparatively healthy. Sofala, where the more extensive ruins are situated, is very inaccessible and malarious. DIFFERING OPINIONS. In the Public Library may be read Anderson's " Twenty-five Yearß in a Waggon in South Africa," and Baineß' " Travels in South Africa," both of which give descriptions and illustrations of these old ruins, and the localities in which they are found, together with their theories in accounting for them. Against the theory of this being the ancient Ophir, it has been stated that Ophir translated means " land of peacocks," and there are no peacocks in South Africa. To this is objected that the word literally translated means " Jand of beautiful plumaged birds," referring to ostriches. Some attribute the ruined forts and mines to the Portuguese, but the Portuguese can give no evidence written or otherwise in support of this, although they have ever since their occupation traded with the natives and obtained gold from them in exchange, chiefly in the form of dust, carried ia OBtrich quills. It is also thought by some that there is sufficient phonetic resemblance in Sofala to Ophir to warrant the idea that the former name is a corrupted form of the latter. Iseethat Professor Drummond is now at Adelaide, on a tour of the Australian Colonies. It would be interesting to obtain hiaopiniononthisaubject. S.D. Barker. r S^ lt ? B , wiU construct chip yards at Jeddah, Tripoli.