Beginning with Kimberley and the extraordinary world created by diamond mining, Trollope observes speculation, labour, rapid urban growth, and the economic consequences of the mines before entering the Orange Free State, where he recounts Britain’s abandonment of the former Orange River Sovereignty, the emergence of an independent Boer republic, wars with the Basutos, the economic stimulus provided by the diamond fields, and the political and social life of Bloemfontein, finding the republic more stable and financially successful than might have been expected, then turns to Thaba ’Ncho, Kreli and his Xhosa people, the Basutos, and Namaqualand to consider the continuing collision between settler expansion and Indigenous land and political autonomy, before concluding with a reassessment of British relations with the Boers, the Transvaal annexation, and the proposed federation of South Africa and expressing doubts that a simple imperial union could resolve the region’s competing interests.