those serving in the regular army being also deprived of their commissions by the war office.

"In February, 1897, a claim of £1,667,838 3s 3d was made by the Transvaal government against the B. S. A. Company as compensation for Dr. Jameson's raid. Of this sum £1,000,000 was on account of moral and intellectual damages. The Imperial Commission of Enquiry into the responsibility of the company commenced in the same month, and the answer was delayed. Mr. S. J. Paul Kruger was president from 1882 until compelled to vacate the office during the recent British-Boer war, and administered the country's affairs subject to the advice of the first and second Volksraad, the former body, which consisted of twenty-four members, being endowed with the real power of government.

"The Transvaal lies to the north of the Orange Free State, and is divided from it by the Vaal river, whence the ground rises to the Witwatersrand range, forming the watershed between the tributaries of the Vaal and the Limpopo, at a height of about 6,000 feet above sea level.

"South of the range the climate may be regarded as uniformly healthy, although in parts good water is scarce. This is particularly the case in the southwest of the country-an extensive flat, exceeding even the plains of the Free State or Karoo in extreme monotony. The principal towns on the southern slope of the range are Johannesburg (5,600 feet), only a couple of miles from the summit; Potchefstrom (4,100 feet), and Heidelburg (5,000 feet).

"The largest of these is, of course, Johannesburg, of which the mushroom growth during the last few years has astonished the world. The town is situated on bleak, open, treeless downs, and is often bitterly cold during the winter, when snow occasionally falls, frosty nights being experienced during a considerable part of the year. Probably owing to its elevated and exposed position, dust storms are frequent, even in the winter, and by causing inflammation of weak lungs are to some extent responsible for the high death rates.

"Heidelburg is considered the best sanatorium in the Transvaal. It' is pleasantly situated on the mountain slopes to the southeast of Johannesburg, about 5,000 feet above sea level,

and is much resorted to by invalids from Pretoria and Johannesburg.

"Pretoria, the capital, was laid out in 1855. It was named after Commandant Pretorius, first president of the South African Republic, of which it has been the capital since 1863, when the seat of government was removed from Potchefstrom. The town is regularly laid out, the streets being of equal width throughout, and in many instances lined with magnificent willows, which, planted originally as fencing poles, have thriven amazingly in the damp soil. Population about 12,000."

In addition to the foregoing we also give the following from Mr. Agnew's own pen:

"About six miles from Johannesburg is a village called Germiston. It is situated almost in the center of a group of mines. One of these mines, called the Simmer and Jack, is the largest one along the reef. Four thousand natives are employed, besides several hundred white men. The stamp battery for pulverizing the ore on this mine is the largest in the world, having two hundred and eighty stamps, each weighing 1,000 pounds. Adjoining the Simmer and Jack is the New Primrose mine, which is the principal one belonging to the Barnato company. Barney Barnato, the South African Jewish millionaire, practically owned the New Primrose, and his daughter was named after it. His millions did him but little good, as he committed suicide at sea by jumping overboard from a steamer. His nephew and successor, Woolf B. Joel, survived him but a short time. In the beginning of 1898 he also came to a tragic end, a bullet from the revolver of an assassin sending him to the other world."

Near to the Primrose mine, in January, 1897, the way was providentially opened for Mr. Agnew to work among the natives in the compounds, of which there were over a dozen in the neighborhood belonging to different mines. In these compounds there were then over 15,000 young men quartered, all of whom, when he began his work there, were entirely unevangelized and spiritually uncared for,

CHAPTER XXVIII.

TIDINGS OF MR. HAVILAND'S DEATH-OFF FOR INHAMBANE-RETURN TO NATAL-SECOND MARRIAGE—

SETTLED AT JOHANNESBURG.

He leadeth me! O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be,

Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.

Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,
By waters still, o'er troubled sea,
Still 'tis His hand that leadeth me.

-Prof. S. H. Gilmore.

About two months after his arrival in Johannesburg, and before getting properly settled down to work, Mr. Agnew received a letter from Mrs. Emma Hillmon Haviland, mailed at Delagoa Bay, telling of the death of her husband, the Rev. John J. Haviland, missionary at Inhambane, sent out in March, 1892, by the same board under which Mr. Agnew was sent out and had been working for some years. This good man and devoted missionary died of hematuria fever March 18, 1897, after an illness of but a few days. Mr. Agnew held him in high esteem for his sterling qualities, mourned deeply because of his death and left on record a touching tribute to his memory.

Immediately on receipt of Mrs. Haviland's letter Mr. Agnew made arrangements to go to Inhambane

MISSION HOUSE AT MAVILI STATION, INHAMBANE, IN WHICH MR. HAVILAND DIED. LATER OCCUPIED BY DR. AND MRS. BACKENSTOE.

by way of Durban, Natal. Upon arriving at Inhambane he devoted himself for some time to getting matters at the mission in as good shape to leave as possible, and then, about May 1st, took his departure, returning, as he went, by way of Natal.

At Durban on the third day of May, 1897, he was united in marriage to Miss Lillie A. Smith, a very devoted young woman who had been laboring as a missionary in Natal for over three years. This union proved to be a very happy one, and resulted in greatly strengthening him for the few years of toil on the foreign field which were to terminate his mortal career. Perhaps he could have found no other so at one with him in his own religious convictions, and in his views of and devotion to foreign missionary work; and certainly no other could ever have stood more heroically by him amid all the inconveniences, hardships, sacrifices, disappointments and sorrows incident to his calling than did she who, by his death a few years later, was left in widowhood on the foreign field, with two young children to care for, just as they were all on the eve of starting on a leave of absence for America. The fortitude with which she bore this crushing blow, and has since borne up and devoted herself to travels and toils in the home land for the benefit of the field her husband's death compelled her to relinquish, testifies to all who know her the sterling worth her husband must have found in her as a companion and help-meet on the foreign field. Her ability and adaptability for foreign missionary work are such. as to make it desirable that she may some day find the way open to return and take up again the work