In South Africa there are two races of people living side by side.
First, there are dark-skinned Africans like those of Uganda and the
Congo. These belong to many tribes, each speaking its own language.
Secondly, there are many Europeans who, about three hundred years ago,
began to come across the great salt sea to live in South Africa.
Their own countries in Europe were too small for all the people in
them, but South Africa is so large that there was plenty of room.
These Europeans live in houses of brick or stone, and wear the same
kind of clothes which are worn by the people in Europe. Their skins
are lighter-coloured than even those of the Egyptians and Arabs of
North Africa, and their hair is straight and often very fair. There
are two chief European peoples in South Africa, the English and the
Dutch. These speak different languages, but many of them can speak
both. Europeans, as perhaps you know, are very clever at making
machines of iron to work for them. They have made motor-cars to carry
them quickly along ordinary roads, and another machine called an
"engine" which draws many cars on its own road, which is made of two
iron rails.
Among the African people of South Africa there are many different
customs, but most people live in their own villages very much like
those of Central Africa. Some tribes keep great herds of cattle,
which find plenty of food on the grassy plains of the "veldt." Many
have learned to copy European customs, especially those living near
the great European towns. Some go long distances to work in these
towns, especially in places where gold or other valuable things are
found under the ground in the "mines." It is about these men who work
on the mines that we will read now.