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TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A 
WAGGON 


TWELVE  HUNDRED   MILES 
IN  A  WAGGON 


BY 


ALICE  BLANCHE  BALFOUR 


WITH     ILLUSTRATIONS    BY    THE    AUTHOR 


EDWARD    ARNOLD 

13ublist)fr  to  tf)c  Cnliia  ©fficc 
LONDON  NEW  YORK 

37   BEDFORD  STREET  70  FIFTH  AVENUE 

1895 


DT 
731 


TO  MY 


1198718 


INTRODUCTORY    NOTE 

In  the  spring  of  last  year  our  party  of  four 
started  for  the  Cape,  intending  to  travel  through 
Matabililand  and  Mashunaland  by  waggon.  We 
were  in  happy  uncertainty  as  to  how  this  was 
to  be  accomplished,  but  as  regarded  both  the 
route  to  be  pursued  and  the  mode  of  convey- 
ance to  be  employed,  two  things  only  were  cer- 
tain— that  no  two  people  gave  the  same  advice, 
and  that  each  person  was  convinced  that  his  plan 
was  the  only  one  that  was  practically  possible. 
Finally,  our  arrangements  were  made  in  accord- 
ance with  the  advice  of  Mr.  G.  Grey,  who  had 
lived  for  some  time  in  the  Chartered  Company's 
territory,  and  who  made  the  fifth  member  of 
our  party  during  the  whole  of  our   "  trekking  " 

expedition.      I   may  add  that  we  never  had  any 

b 


X        TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

reason  to  regret  having  put  ourselves  in  his 
hands. 

As  two  of  our  waggons  had  to  be  built 
specially  for  our  needs,  it  was  some  weeks  before 
we  were  able  to  start.  These  were  spent  at 
the  Cape  and  in  visiting  the  Orange  Free  State, 
Basutoland,  Johannesburg,  and  Kimberley  ;  and 
we  finally  joined  our  waggons  on  the  30th  May 
near  Mafeking. 

The  following  extracts  are  compiled  from  my 
letters  and  journal.  They  were  written  with  no 
thought  of  publication,  and  do  not  pretend  even 
to  give  a  full  account  of  our  travels,  much  less 
an  account  of  the  country.  I  have  thought  it 
advisable  to  leave  out  almost  all  reference  to  the 
various  political  and  social  problems  which  naturally 
presented  themselves  in  the  different  countries 
which  we  visited,  as  well  as  descriptions  of  towns, 
mines,  and  other  subjects  which  have  either  been 
described  before,  or  would  require  much  more 
knowledge  than  can  be  hastily  acquired  by  a 
passing  visitor  like  myself,  to  do  justice  to. 
Nearly  everything  personal  has,  of  course,  been 


PREFACE  xi 

omitted,  and  that  being  so,  I  take  this  oppor- 
tunity of  saying,  once  for  all,  that  we  were 
everywhere  received  with  a  kindness  it  is  impos- 
sible to  exaggerate.  Every  one  we  met  seemed 
to  think  no  trouble  too  great  and  no  incon- 
venience worth  considering  which  could  minister 
to  our  comfort ;  and  we  shall  always  retain  the 
most  grateful  remembrance  of  the  wonderful 
hospitality  of  South  Africa. 

ALICE  BLANCHE  BALFOUR. 


Whittingehame, 

December  1895. 


\ 


CONTENTS 


Introductory  Note 


LETTER    I 

Start  for  the  Cape — The  Captain's  merman — A  passenger  in  a  butter 
cask — Madeira — TeneritTe — "Portuguese  men-of-war" — Flying 
fish — -The  murder  of  Carey — Saldanha  Bay — Table  Bay 


LETTER    II 

Cape    Town — Groot    Schuur — Klip-springers   and    spring-bucks- 
Orange  scale  and  ladybirds — Fish-carts . 


LETTER    III 

Scenery  near  Cape  Town — Table  Mountain — Aerial  tramway — Stel- 
lenbosch  —  Slave  graves  —  Cape  cart — Frenchoek — Leopards 
and  baboons — Wages  of  natives — Bushman  folklore — A  fight 
with  Bushmen — Snake  bites— Seismic  disturbances — Arrange- 
ments for  waggon  journey  .....  i6 


LETTER    IV 

Leave  Cape  Town — Worcester — Ostrich  farm — Cape  railways — The 
Karroo — Karroo  Hills — The  first  meerkat — Orange  Free  State 
— Native  huts — Opening  of  the  Folksraad — Locusts 


xiv      TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 


LETTER    V 

PAGE 

Journey  to  Basutoland — The  Presidential  Coach — Birds — Thaba-n- 
chu — Drift  on  the  Caledon  River — Maseru  native  dress — 
Basuto  Hills — Dongas — Absence  of  trees — Berea  church — 
Berea  donga — Roma  Mission — Letloba's  hut — Basuto  decora- 
tion— Baskets^A  Frenchman's  easy  path — Thaba  Bosigo — 
Mosupha — Basuto  riches — Purchase  of  wives — Division  of 
labour — Taxes — Return  to  Bloemfontein  .  .  .40 


LETTER    VI 

Johannesburg — Political  situation  in  the  Transvaal — Native  dance — 
A  mimic  Witch  -  Doctor — Wooden  pianos — Thunderstorm — 
Kimberley  .......  60 


LETTER    VII 

Kimberley  to  Marizani — Straight  line  of  railway — An  American 
story — Our  waggons  and  attendants — First  afternoon's  trek — 
Stuck  in  the  mud — Jolts — Mafeking — Custom-House  and 
vaccination  difficulties — Visit  to  Willow  Park — Rapid  growth 
of  Eucalyptus  trees  ......         69 


LETTER    VIII 

How  our  trekking  days  are  apportioned — More  "  sticks  " — Yells  and 
thrashings — Dust — Camel  -  thorns — Wait  -  a  -  bits — Birds  and 
beasts — Difficulties  of  sketching  .  .  .  .82 


LETTER    IX 

Palla — The  Derby — Landscape — Mopani  trees — Larv?s  of  Botflies — 
Muddy  water — Digging  for  water — Crossing  the  "Thirst 
land  " — W^aggons  driven  against  branches — Nine  imaginary 
lions — Palapsye — A  broken  and  mended  umbrella — Khama — 
A  bath  in  a  breakfast  cup  .  .  .  .  .89 


CONTENTS 


LETTER    X 

Strayed  horses — A  moonlight  ride — The  spider  left  behind — Mr. 
Fitzwilliam  is  lost  on  the  veldt — He  finds  his  way  back  at 
night — Kopjes — Euphorbias — Flowering  aloes — An  oven  on 
the  veldt — Ant  heaps — Nearly  upset — Arrival  at  Bulawayo — 
Our  abode  there — The  ruins  of  old  Bulawayo — Insulting  be- 
haviour of  the  Matabili  before  the  war — The  commencement  of 
new  Bulawayo    ....... 


LETTER    XI 

Mrs.  Colenbrander's  hut — A  native  dance — Native  views  of  the 
past  and  present  —  Leaving  Bulawayo — The  Bembesi  and 
Shangani  battlefields —Leave  the  main  road — Sixteen  "sticks" 
— The  diisselboom  gives  way — Reach  the  Selukwe  Hills — The 
Bonsor  mine— Gold  panning — Crossing  the  Selukwe  Hills — 
Melancholy  result  of  ascending  kopjes — We  follow  a  honey- 
bird — Threshing  0(7/i7<? — Crossingthe  Tokwe — Failure  of  attempts 
to  blow  up  a  crocodile — Arrival  at  Victoria        .  .  .123 


LETTER    XII 

Visit  to  two  Makalanga  kr.aals — Offerings  to  ancestors — A  native 
chorus  of  welcome — The  spider  breaks  down  again — Zimbabye 
ruins — The  fortress — A  lion  story — Natives  carving  wooden 
bowls — The  Zimbabye  temple — A  walk  on  the  wall — Cats  and 
dogs  in  church — Shoeing  oxen    .....        149 


LETTER    XIII 

Leave  Victoria  for  Charter — "Charter  flats" — Magoussy  trees — 
Oranges— Granite  kopjes  and  "Kaffir  booms" — Soft  water  from 
granite — Climate — The  oxen  begin  to  get  weak — Mumbu — How 
puff-adders  strike — Twisting  reims — Ant  heaps — Flowers  in 
drought — Arrival  at  Salisbury     .....        166 


xvi     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 


LETTER    XIV 

PAGE 

Leave  Salisbury — Bushman  rock  drawings — Matabili  and  Mashunas 
— Tribal  government — Native  commissioners — Jim's  dangerous 
snake — Legend  of  chameleon — Native  fear  of  chameleon — Native 
game-traps  —  Rides  —  Chipanga's  kraal  —  Chipanga  —  Ruins  of 
native  town — Wall  at  Chipadze's  grave  —  Kaffir  beer  —  The 
"  Devil's  Pass  '' — Mr.  Coope's  lion  stories — A  lioness  caught  in 
a  trek  chain — Two  more  lionesses  killed — A  lion  kills  a  native 
— Sad  end  of  a  trooper's  saddle — Lost  on  the  veldt — Mr.  G. 
Grey  shoots  a  sable  antelope — Ride  from  the  Odzi  River  to 
Umtali — We  are  taken  in  at  the  Hospital — A  native  injured  by 
a  veldt  fire  .  .  .  •  ■  ■  -179 


LETTER    XV 

Obliged  to  leave  Umtali  to  catch  steamer  —  Spring  vegetation — 
Attempts  to  dig  up  plants — The  Standard-wing  Nightjar — 
Moths  and  grasshoppers  —  Crossing  watercourses — Carriers — 
Mr.  Coope's  genius  for  barter — Machabel  trees — Native  articles 
for  use  and  ornament — Decoration  of  hair — Making  a  fire  by 
rubbing  sticks — Final  collapse  of  the  spider — Camp  at  the  Revue 
Drift — Heavy  rain — Last  hope  of  seeing  lions  abandoned — 
Chimoio's — We  part  from  our  waggons — Start  for  "  Seventy- 
five  " — My  machila-bearers — Dinner  under  difficulties — An  ant 
foray — Catch  a  construction  train — Tropical  forest — A  snake_  on 
the  railway — Seventy-five  mile  peg — Attempt  to  improve  our 
fare — Parasols — Tall  hats — Leave  for  Fontesvilla — Mrs.  Grey 
sees  a  lion's  spoor — Diversions  of  a  railway  guard — On  the 
Pungwe — Arrival  at  Beira — A  lion  stuck  in  the  mud     . 


LETTER    XVI 

Beira  to  Zanzibar — IMozambique — Mr.  Hunt's  lion-shooting — Dar 
es  Salaam — The  German  7\  the  English  system — Convicts — 
Arab  graveyard — Native  canoes  and  fishermen — Delay  in  un- 
loading cargo — A  native  ferry — Baobabs — The  market — Manioc 
— Musical  instrument— First  sight  of  Zanzibar   .  .  -235 


CONTENTS 


LETTER    XVII 

PAGE 

Zanzibar — Driving  in  the  streets — Driving  in  the  country — Jibbing 
— Clove  plantations — Revenue  from  sale  of  cloves — Mangos 
and  palms — Slaves — Shops — Swahili  dress — Rain  storm — A 
native  feast — Start  for  home — Crossing  the  line — Male  nurses — 
A  French  depute's  views  on  titles — Youthful  enthusiasm — The 
Red  Sea — The  end         ......       249 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


Inspanning 


Frontispiece 


Cloud  Effects,  Saldanha  Bay  .... 

Groot  Schuur        ...... 

Cape  Cart,  Frenchoek     ..... 

Donga  at  Berea  Mission  Station,  Basutoland 

Hill  and  Donga  near  Mosupha's  Kraal,  Basutoland 

Basutos  riding  Oxen        ..... 

Kaffir  Dance,  Robinson  Mine  Compound,  Johannesburg 

Mr.  Jansen  standing  at  the  Foot  of  Trees  planted  by 
Himself        ...... 

MoPANi  Leaf  ...... 

Digging  For  Water  in  a  Sandy  River  Bed 

Empty  Transport  Waggons  crossing  a  Sandy  River  Drift 

Aloe  on  the  Veldt,  Bechuanaland 

Ant-Heap  Oven     . 

Matabili  Hut 

Ruins  of  Old  Bulaw^ayo  . 


The  Principal  Square,  Bulawayo. 
Water-Barrel 

Waggon  coming  out  of  a  Drift 

Natives  threshing  Oofoo 

Spider  crossing  the  Tokvve  River 

A  Native  Chorus  of  Welcome   . 


Natives  dragging  a 


PAGE 

9 

12 

23 

47 
54 
58 
65 


90 
93 
95 
III 
112 
116 
119 

121 

135 
141 

145 
151 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Rocks  at  Entrance  of  Zimbabye  Fortress 
Natives  carving  Wooden  Bowls,  Zimbabye     . 
View  between  Zimbabye  Fortress  and  Temple 
Our  Camp  a  few  Miles  north  of  Victoria,  31ST  Jul 
Granite  Rocks  between  Victoria  and  Salisbury 
Twisting  Reims      ..... 

IMakalaka  Trap  for  Small  Antelopes,  Wild  Cats,  etc 
Makalaka  Snare  for  Small  Game 
Chipanga    ...... 

Playing  the  Piano  .... 

Sable  Antelope  on  Pony,  shot  by  Mr.  G.  Grey 
Waggons  crossing  the  Revue  Drift 
Navvies  working  on  the  Beira  Railway 
Tram-Car  at  Beira  .... 

Native  Canoe,  Dar  es  Salaam    . 

A  Gossip  round  the  Well,  Native  Quarter,  Dar  es  Salaam 

A  Sprig  of  Cloves  ...... 


157 
161 

163 

167 
171 
177 
187 
188 

193 
206 
207 
219 
228 
232 
241 

245 
252 


LETTER   I 

Start  for  the  Cape — The  Captain's  merman — A  passenger  in  a  butter  cask 
— Madeira — Teneriffe — "Portuguese  men-of-war" — Flying  fish — The 
murder  of  Carey — Saldanha  Bay — Table  Bay. 

On  Board  the  S.S.  Roslim  Castle, 
Tpth  March  1894. 

We  started  from  Southampton  on  24th  March, 
our  party  consisting  of  Mr,  and  Mrs.  Albert 
Grey,  Mr.  H.  Fitzwilliam,  and  myself  It  was 
a  lovely  evening,  the  setting  sun  shedding  an 
exquisite  light  over  the  "  Needles."  Till  we 
passed  the  island  of  Ushant  the  vessel  remained 
steady,  but  there  she  began  to  roll  (her  nick- 
name— fully  deserved — is  the  ''Rolling  Castle''), 
and  has  never  stopped  since  except  during  the 
few  hours  we  were  at  Madeira,  and  for  about 
an  hour  as  we  passed  among  "the  Islands,"  as 
the  ship's  officers  always  designate  the  Canaries. 
On  Saturday  evening  I   dined  in  the  saloon  (I 


2        TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

haven't  had  a  meal  in  it  since),  and  made  ac- 
quaintance with  our  commander,  a  good-humoured 
Scotchman,  who  tells  capital  stories,  and  isn't 
the  least  ashamed  of  his  early  life  as  a  sailor 
before  the  mast.  He  told  us  of  his  one  experi- 
ence of  seeing,  what  he  jokingly  calls,  a  Merman. 
It  was  off  Cape  Blanco  (just  where  we  are  passing 
now,  4  P.M.  30th),  some  ten  years  ago.  He  was 
on  the  bridge,  and  looking  down  saw  a  creature 
in  the  water  of  a  sort  of  nondescript  gray-brown 
colour,  with  long  fore  and  hind  limbs,  but,  as  far 
as  he  could  see,  with  no  tail.  It  seemed  about 
15  or  20  feet  long.  The  creature  used  its  fore- 
limbs  to  swim  exactly  like  a  man  does,  and  he 
could  see  a  kind  of  scalloped -edged  web  ex- 
tending from  the  wrists  to  the  body.  The 
head  appeared  to  be  flattish  ;  but  he  only  saw 
it  for  a  short  time,  and  was  too  far  above  it  to 
make  out  more  about  it.  He  never  saw  a  beast 
like  it. 

Another  of  his  stories  was  of  when  he  was 
a  sailor  before  the  mast  in  a  sailing  vessel, 
where,  as    the    voyage    was    longer   than    usual, 


A  PASSENGER  IN  A  BUTTER  CASK  3 

great  care  had  to  be  taken  to  waste  no  food. 
He  was  sent  down  to  where  the  provisions  were 
stored  to  collect  a  lot  of  potatoes  which  had  got 
loose,  and  put  them  into  a  sack.  A  passenger, 
a  young  man  who  had  taken  a  liking  to  him, 
went  down  with  him  to  help  him.  Our  captain 
asked  this  passenger  to  hold  up  the  sack  when 
he  had  got  some  of  the  potatoes  in  it,  and  to 
shake  them  to  the  bottom.  The  man  was  too 
short  to  do  this  easily,  and  in  order  to  manage 
better,  got  on  to  a  cask.  As  he  heaved  the  sack 
with  a  mighty  jerk,  the  top  of  the  cask  on  which 
he  was  standing  gave  way.  It  was  in  the  Tropics 
and  very  hot,  and  the  cask  was  full  of  butter  in 
a  half-melted  condition.  In  went  the  passenger 
bodily,  and  out  spurted  the  butter  in  a  fountain 
all  round.  A  great  lump  hit  our  captain  in  the 
eye,  and  when  he  had  cleared  it  away  he  saw 
the  unfortunate  passenger  standing  in  the  cask, 
completely  enveloped  in  butter,  and  so  firmly 
stuck  that  it  was  some  time  before  he  could  be 
got  out  again. 

We  got  to  Madeira  at  about  twelve  on  the 


4        TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

28th,  and  very  lovely  the  island  looked.  We 
were  immediately  surrounded  by  the  usual  boat- 
loads of  chattering  Portuguese,  trying  to  sell  all 
sorts  of  wicker  chairs  and  baskets,  parrots,  fruit, 
embroidery,  etc.,  and  other  boats  with  men  naked 
to  the  waist,  diving  for  money  thrown  into  the 
water  by  the  passengers.  In  one  boat  was  a 
tiny  boy  who  was  made  to  dive  :  the  poor 
little  wretch  looking  so  miserable,  with  his  fore- 
head and  cheeks  puckered  to  his  eyes,  and 
shivering  and  shaking  with  cold.  We  landed  in 
one  of  the  boats,  and  in  the  afternoon  went  up 
to  the  Mount  Church,  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  in  ham- 
mocks and  the  men  on  horseback  ;  they  (the  men) 
being  much  amused  at  the  way  the  owners  of  the 
ponies  held  on  by  their  tails  up  the  hill.  The 
Bougainvilleas,  geraniums,  daturas,  and  all  sorts 
of  flowers  looked  supremely  lovely,  and  after  the 
miseries  of  the  voyage  how  one  longed  to  remain, 
instead  of  going  on  in  that  vile  steamer  shining 
white  in  the  smooth  bay  below.  The  oak-trees 
were  just  in  full  leaf,  the  planes  and  vines  coming 
out.     Robins  were  singing  in  the  evergreen  oaks, 


MADEIRA 


picturesque-looking  wrinkled  old  women  looked 
down  at  us  from  the  terraced  walls,  and  the  bare- 
footed children  ran  alongside  carrying  baskets 
balanced  on  poles  over  their  shoulders. 

The  Mount  Church  is  nearly  2000  feet  above 
the  sea,  and  the  correct  thing  to  do  is  to  come 
down  most  of  the  way  back  in  a  basket  sledge. 
The  road,  which  is  paved  with  cobbles  worn  smooth 
by  many  generations  of  sledgers,  is  so  steep  that 
the  sledges  go  down  at  a  tremendous  pace,  even 
with  two  men  holding  on  with  ropes  as  drags  ; 
and  Mrs.  Grey  and  I,  being  a  light  load,  did  it 
in  style.  Whenever  the  slope  lessens,  one  or 
other  of  the  men  runs  forward  to  place  a  greased 
cloth  under  the  smoking  runners  to  prevent  them 
heating  too  much.  It  was  pleasant  to  renew  the 
old  experiences  and  see  the  old  sights  with  which 
I  had  once  been  so  familiar  ;  but  it  was  a  sadly 
discordant  note  to  observe  a  wheeled  vehicle  in- 
truding among  the  bullock  sledges  of  my  youth. 

Yesterday  morning  we  came  in  sight  of  Tene- 
riffe.  The  peak  was  visible  for  some  hours, 
though  surrounded  by  cloud  banks  ;  and  glorious 


6        TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

it  looked  standing  snowclad  against  the  blue  sky, 
and  below  purple  and  pink  to  the  water's  edge. 
But  I  was  disappointed  to  find  that  the  mountain 
rises  far  less  abruptly  from  the  sea  than  I  had 
expected.  The  outlines  of  the  island  on  our 
right  were  much  more  beautiful,  and  a  shower 
on  the  hill -tops  added  wonderful  lights  and 
shades.  This  afternoon  we  have  been  passing 
Cape  Blanco  —  a  long  white  sandbank  looking 
like  a  low  chalk  cliff.  Several  schooners  were 
seen  afar  off  fishing  on  the  bank  near  which  we 
were  passing.  The  temperature  is  perfect,  and 
to-day  for  the  first  time  since  we  started  (except 
the  few  hours  at  Madeira)  have  I  felt  that  life  is 
not  wholly  unadulterated  misery. 

yd  April. — We  cross  the  Equator  to-day. 
The  last  two  days  and  nights  have  been  oppres- 
sively hot — not  so  much  that  the  temperature  was 
very  high  (I  don't  think  it  has  been  above  80°) — 
but  because  the  air  is  so  muggy  and  damp. 
Drops  of  moisture  coagulate  in  rust  at  the  points 
of  my  scissors  and  knives.  Everything  is  sticky, 
and  the  smuts  from  the  funnels  adhere  to  every- 


FLYING  FISHES 


thing.  Yesterday  morning  thousands  of  "  Portu- 
guese men-of-war  "  ^  —  so  called  because  they 
topple  over  on  the  smallest  provocation — floated 
by.  Their  colours  are  perfectly  exquisite — deli- 
cate yet  brilliant  pinks,  violets,  and  oranges 
gradating  into  one  another.  There  are  a  good 
many  flying  fishes  about,  and  of  course,  like 
every  one  else,  I  tried  to  make  up  my  mind 
whether  they  really  fly,  or  only  jump  with  the 
fins  acting  as  parachutes.  They  skim  along  for 
great  distances, — far  greater,  it  seems  to  me,  than 
could  be  done  by  a  mere  spring  into  the  air, — 
and  keep  very  much  at  the  same  pace  and  at 
the  same  level  above  the  water,  their  fins 
vibrating  rapidly  all  the  time.  Occasionally  they 
just  touch  the  water  and  go  on  again,  but  whether 
they  receive  fresh  impetus  by  so  doing  I  can't 
make  out.  I  have  not  been  able  to  see  whether 
they  can  turn  in  the  air,  but  they  do  go  in  curves, 
blown,  I  think,  by  the  wind.  One  jumped  in  at  a 
porthole  window  one  night,  attracted  by  the  light. 


^  Physalis  pelagicus,  an  animal  belonging  to  the  same  class  as  jelly 
fishes. 


8        TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

The  first  officer  has  been  telling  me  how  he 
arrested  O'Donnell  on  board  the  Melrose  Castle 
when  he  murdered  Carey,  the  informer  of  the 
Phoenix  Park  murders.  He  (the  first  officer)  was 
on  the  bridge  when  he  heard  a  shot.  He  rushed 
down,  hearing  two  more  shots  as  he  ran,  and  just 
as  he  got  to  the  passengers'  quarters,  saw  Carey 
run  along  into  the  arms  of  his  wife,  who  came  out 
of  her  cabin  with  a  child  in  her  arms,  and  they  all 
fell  in  a  heap  together.  The  steward  was  too 
much  startled  to  do  anything,  so  the  first  officer 
rushed  forward  and  seized  O'Donnell.  He  was 
afterwards  several  times  advised  to  go  away  and 
not  give  evidence,  for  fear  of  danger  to  himself 
from  the  Fenians, 

iitk  April — This  afternoon  we  arrived  at 
Cape  Town.  We  could  see  Table  Mountain  fully 
fifty  miles  away.  On  our  left  was  the  low  coast 
of  Saldanha  Bay,  with  extraordinary  horizontal 
and  perpendicular  bars  of  cloud,  indistinguishable 
in  colour  from  the  hills  on  which  they  rested, 
and  looking  like  Titanic  tables  with  innumerable 
legs.     Nearer  the  Cape  there  was  a  great  deal  of 


TABLE  BA  V 


mirage,  so  that  land  appeared  where  no  land  was, 
and  foreshortened  ships  looked  like  tall  factory 
chimneys.  It  was  brilliant  sunshine,  and  as  we 
approached  the  harbour  the  great  group  of  hills — 
Table  Mountain,   Devil's  Peak,  and  the  Twelve 


CLOUD   EFFECTS,    SALDANHA    BAY. 


Apostles  —  looked  splendid  in  pink  and  blue. 
Robben  Island  beside  us,  a  low,  flat  sandbank, 
dull  green  above  and  sandy  gray  beneath,  looked 
inexpressibly  dreary  by  contrast ;  and  one  felt 
doubly  for  the  lepers  living  there  in  monotonous 
misery. 


LETTER    II 

Cape  Town — Groot   Schuur— Klip -springers  and  spring -bucks — Orange 
scale  and  ladybirds — Fish-carts. 

Groot  Schuur,  Rondebosch, 
Cape  Town,  i^th  April  1894. 

We  expected  to  have  to  go  to  a  hotel  on  landing, 
and  were  therefore  agreeably  surprised  when  we 
were  met  at  the  quay  with  the  information  that 
Mr.  Rhodes  had  placed  his  house  at  Rondebosch 
at  our  disposal — Mr.  Rhodes  himself  being  in 
Pondoland.  The  quay  presented  a  wonderful 
mixture  of  nationalities  :  Malays  in  turban  or 
fez ;  Negroes  and  Kaffirs  of  all  shades  from 
yellow  to  black,  and  equally  variable  hairiness  of 
face  ;  whites,  pure  and  mixed  ;  and  some  people 
looking  like  Indians,  notably  Mr.  Rhodes'  coach- 
man, an  orange-coloured  individual  with  glossy 
black  hair  and  luxuriant  whiskers,  correctly 
dressed  in  plain  livery,  and  driving  a  typical  pair 


GROOT  SCHUUR 


of  Cape  grays  in  a  Cape  cart.  This  is  a  most 
fascinating  kind  of  vehicle  on  two  wheels,  holding 
four  persons,  all  facing  the  horses,  the  whole 
being  covered  with  one  large  hood.  In  this  Mrs. 
Grey  and  I  were  driven  to  Mr.  Rhodes'  house, 
Groot  Schuur,  which  is  a  few  miles  from  the 
harbour,  along  a  flat  road,  at  first  running  through 
the  outskirts  of  the  town,  with  low,  irregular 
houses  scattered  on  either  side,  mostly  roofed 
with  corrugated  iron,  and  surrounded  with  the 
usual  dreary  wastes  of  rubbish  heaps  and  excava- 
tions for  new  houses,  which  seem  to  be  the  almost 
invariable  accompaniments  of  a  town  which  is  what 
is  called  "thriving."  Presently  you  come  to  rows 
of  barrels  set  up  at  intervals,  and  without  any  tops 
to  them.  These  are  at  first  puzzling  to  the  new- 
comer ;  but  careful  inspection  shows  that  a  tiny 
eucalyptus  is  concealed  in  each  of  them  for  pro- 
tection against  the  cutting  winds.  Another  thing 
that  strikes  one  as  odd  at  first  is  the  habitual  use 
of  old  biscuit-tins  for  flower-pots,  which  does  not 
add  to  the  beauty  of  a  garden.  Further  from  the 
town  are  rows  of  larger  eucalyptus,  stone  pines, 


12       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

and  oaks,  and  hedges  of  huge  aloes.  But  all 
these  are  spoiled  by  the  thick  rust-red  dust  from 
the  road.  Everything  for  ten  or  twenty  yards  on 
either  side  becomes  rust-coloured — the  grass,  the 
aloes,  the  stems  and  twigs  of  the  trees,  and  even 


GROOT   SCHUUR. 


every  needle  on  the  pines  ;  and  one's  towel  is 
equally  tinged  when  one  washes  one's  face  after 
going  along  the  road. 

Groot  Schuur  is  an  old  Dutch  house  which  had 
been  anglicised,  and  which  Mr.  Rhodes  is  now 
restoring  to  the  original  Dutch  type  once  more, 


THE  KLIP-SPRINGER  13 

by  adding  high  rococo  gables  ornamented  with 
white  plaster-work.  The  oak-trees  all  round  are 
still  quite  green,  although  it  is  early  winter,  and 
the  garden  is  full  of  lovely  tea  roses  and  other 
flowers. 

We  drove  three  or  four  days  ago  to  call  on 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rudd.  They  have  a  most  lovely 
view  over  the  Hottentots  Holland  mountains, 
which  looked  brilliant  in  the  setting  sun.  Mr. 
Rudd  keeps  a  few  tame  African  antelopes.  One 
of  them,  a  poor  little  Klip-springer  (Klip  =  Rock), 
looked  so  melancholy  in  the  thick  grass  of  its 
field,  where  its  hoofs  grow  too  long  for  want 
of  exercise  on  the  cliffs.  They  once  took  it 
to  the  front  door,  when  it  immediately  began 
dancing  up  and  down  the  steps  with  joy.  It 
is  about  as  large  as  a  good -sized  lamb,  and 
about  the  colour  of  a  hedgehog.  The  spring- 
bucks, of  which  Mr.  Rudd  has  several,  are 
very  pretty  indeed.  When  they  are  excited 
they  career  over  the  field  in  true  "buck-jump- 
ing" style,  springing  high  into  the  air  on  all 
four  legs  at  once,  the  legs  held  perfectly  straight 


14       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

and  stiff,  the  head  down,  the  back  arched,  and 
body  contracted  behind  the  ribs,  so  that  they 
look  just  Hke  the  badge  of  the  Order  of  the 
"Golden  Fleece."  While  jumping  or  running 
a  great  ruff  of  long  white  hair  suddenly  starts 
up  like  magic  on  the  croup  round  the  tail, 
disappearing  again  as  soon  as  they  are  quiet. 
Mr.  Rudd  also  showed  us  the  scale  which 
infests  orange -trees,  and  is  so  fatal  to  their 
growth.  When  this  ravaged  the  Colony  a  short 
time  ago,  he  sent  to  California  for  the  lady- 
bird, which  destroys  the  scale.  A  large  number 
were  sent,  but  most  died  on  the  way.  Those 
that  lived  were  carefully  nursed,  and  soon  in- 
creased rapidly,  and  almost  exterminated  the 
scale  over  the  country.  They  then  died  out 
themselves — having  nothing  left  to  feed  on — 
and  when,  some  time  after,  the  scale  reappeared, 
Mr.  Rudd  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  getting 
any  ladybirds  in  the  district.  The  ladybird  is 
very  small — smaller  than  most  of  our  ordinary 
English  ones  ;  and  coloured  black  with  red  spots. 
There    is  as  great  a  variety   in   the    vehicles 


FISH-CARTS  15 


you  see  in  Cape  Town  as  in  the  nation- 
alities. Waggons  drawn  by  "spans"  of  twelve 
or  fourteen  oxen,  or  half  a  dozen  mules,  are 
frequent.  The  horses  are  small  and  light,  and 
it  is  far  more  common  to  see  two  horses  in 
a  cart  than  one.  It  rather  surprises  one  at 
first  to  meet  a  cart  full  of  empty  bottles  or 
other  rubbish  driven  four  in  hand ;  or  to  see 
what  we  should  call  a  cadger's  cart,  in  which 
fish  is  being  hawked  along  the  streets,  drawn 
by  two  fiery  steeds,  with  the  invariable  accom- 
paniment of  a  horn  like  an  English  stage-coach. 
The  number  of  these  fish-carts  is  extraordinary. 
You  hear  them  passing  all  day.  Once  I  re- 
marked to  some  one  that  there  must  be  an 
immense  amount  of  fish  being  caught  just  now, 
and  was  immediately  informed  that  fish  was 
then  unusually  scarce ! 


LETTER    III 

Scenery  near  Cape  Town — Table  Mountain — Aerial  tramway — Stellenbosch 
— Slave  graves — Cape  cart  —  Frenchoek  —  Leopards  and  baboons — 
Wages  of  natives — Bushman  folklore — A  fight  with  Bushmen — Snake 
bites — Seismic  disturbances — Arrangements  for  waggon  journey. 

Groot  Schuur,   1st  May  1894. 

Since  I  last  wrote  we  have  made  several  ex- 
peditions in  the  neighbourhood.  The  scenery 
wherever  we  have  been  is  wonderfully  fine.  I 
cannot  imagine  why  one  has  never  heard  of  the 
beauties  of  this  country.  You  have  the  sea, 
with  a  very  varying  coast  line ;  magnificent 
ranges  of  serrated  hills,  glorious  in  colour,  often 
running  out  into  promontories  ;  and  long  stretches 
of  fiat  land  covered  with  all  sorts  of  vegetation 
and  exquisite  fiowers,  from  which  the  hills  rise 
often  quite  abruptly.  My  idea  before  I  came 
here  was  that  the  district,  otherwise  uninterest- 
ing, was  made  remarkable  though  not  beautiful 


TABLE  MOUNTAIN  17 

by  one  flat -topped  hill.  In  reality  Table 
Mountain  is  but  an  unusual  incident  amongst 
a  wealth  of  splendid  points  and  jagged  edges. 
How  I  should  like  to  spend  months  here  trying 
to  paint  their  beauties  ! 

On  the  1 8th  we  rode  up  Table  Mountain. 
It  is  a  bad  time  of  year  for  flowers,  yet  every 
step  brought  lovely  new  ones  into  sight.  When 
we  got  to  the  upper  part  of  the  hill  the  ground, 
instead  of  being  sandy  as  it  is  below,  was  peaty, 
and  the  streamlet  beside  us  was  amber-coloured 
like  a  Highland  burn.  The  general  colour  was 
also  similar  to  the  higher  parts  of  a  Scotch  hill ;  it 
was  only  when  you  looked  close  that  you  saw 
that  the  heaths,  rushes  etc.,  are  quite  different 
from  our  own,  and  have  no  grass  growing 
between  the  tufts. 

At  the  Wynberg  reservoir  we  were  met  by 
Mr.  Stewart,  the  engineer  of  the  new  Cape 
Town  reservoir,  about  half  a  mile  further  on. 
Under  his  guidance  we  were  shown  the  new 
reservoir,  which  is  simply  a  natural  basin  fed 
by    the    surface    drainage    of    the    top    of    the 


1 8      TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

mountain,  and  closed  at  the  narrow  rocky  gorge 
which  forms  its  only  outlet,  by  a  strong  masonry 
dam. 

Instead  of  riding  back  by  the  way  we  had 
come  we  went  down  in  an  aerial  tram  used  for 
bringing  up  cement,  which  starts  from  a  cleft 
between  two  of  the  "Twelve  Apostles,"  a  group 
of  peaks  forming  one  side  of  Table  Mountain. 
The  tram  consists  of  a  cage  hung  on  a  wire- 
rope  passing  over  high  iron  standards,  and  is 
worked  by  a  steam  engine  at  the  bottom  of 
the  mountain.  The  cage  hangs  below  and  on 
one  side  of  the  rope,  being  supported  on  a 
framework  above  connecting  two  wheels  with 
deeply  grooved  tyres,  which  run  tandem -wise 
on  the  rope.  On  the  lower  and  less  steep 
part  of  the  mountain-side  the  standards  are  not 
very  far  apart ;  but  on  the  precipitous  upper 
part  the  spans  between  them  are  as  much  as 
1400  and  1500  feet,  and  the  descent  is  the 
steepest  of  any  aerial  tram  in  the  world. 
Although  it  is  so  steep,  the  hill  is  so  nearly 
perpendicular   that    in    one    place,    as    you    look 


AN  AERIAL  TRAMWA  V  19 

down  out  of  the  cage,  the  ground  below  you 
is  200  feet  off.  The  vertical  descent  amounts 
to  2200  feet.  It  takes  ten  minutes  at  ordinary 
speed  to  go  from  one  end  to  the  other ;  but 
in  consideration  of  our  nerves  we  were  taken 
much  more  slowly,  and  even  so,  as  the  wheels 
passed  over  each  standard  there  was  a  jolt. 
The  engineer  told  us  that  once  when  he  was 
going  along  fast,  the  jolt  was  so  great  that  one 
of  the  wheels  went  right  up  off  the  rope.  Had 
it  not  luckily  come  down  again  on  the  rope  the 
cage  would  have  fallen.  Mr.  Grey  decided 
{after  we  had  come  down)  that  it  was  not  a 
safe  method  of  progression  ;  but  the  engineer 
would  not  hear  of  this,  saying  that  it  was  far 
safer  than  a  railway  train,  for  if  you  had  an 
accident  in  that  you  might  be  mutilated,  whereas 
in  this,  speedy  and  sudden  death  were  your  in- 
inevitable  portion. 

Perhaps  the  pleasantest  expedition  we  have 
made  was  to  Stellenbosch  and  Frenchoek.  We 
started  at  7.30  in  the  morning  by  train  for  the 
former,  and  were  met  there  by  Mr.   Merriman, 


20      TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

an  ex  -  minister  of  the  Colony,  at  whose  farm 
we  were  to  lunch.  On  the  way  we  went  to 
see  the  village,  which  is  very  picturesque,  with 
its  attractive  old  Dutch  buildings.  Every  street 
has  avenues  of  oak  and  eucalyptus  along  it,  and 
streams  of  running  water  on  either  side.  Many 
of  the  oaks  are  nearly  two  hundred  years  old, 
the  trees  having  been  introduced  by  the  early 
Dutch  settlers.  The  old  houses  have  quaint 
rococo  gables,  and  roofs  thatched  with  rushes 
which  have  a  strong  aromatic  smell.  Alas !  new 
thatched  roofs  are  no  longer  permitted  in  the 
villages  for  fear  of  fire,  and  iron  roofing  is  being 
everywhere  substituted.  When  a  Dutchman  puts 
on  a  new  iron  roof  (which  he  does  with  conscious 
pride),  he  usually  also  takes  away  the  pretty 
ornamented  gables,  so  that  all  the  houses  are 
gradually  being  reduced  to  the  commonplace 
nineteenth-century  type. 

I  never  saw  anything  like  the  size  and  number 
of  the  acorns  the  oak  -  trees  produce  in  this 
country.  They  cover  the  ground  so  thickly  that  to 
walk  over  them  is  like  walking  on  coarse  gravel. 


SLAVE  GRAVES  AND  A  CAPE  CART  21 

The  acorns  are  collected  by  the  coloured  women 
and  children,  and  are  kept  to  feed  stock  on. 
After  leaving  Stellenbosch  we  drove  through  the 
plain  to  Mr.  Merriman's  farm,  a  nice  old  Dutch 
house  surrounded  by  oak  -  trees ;  and  mixed 
casually  among  these  were  a  number  of  oval, 
slightly  raised  patches,  surrounded  by  stones  and 
looking  like  large  unused  flower  -  beds.  Mrs. 
Merriman  told  me  these  were  the  graves  of  the 
slaves  belonging  to  the  original  Dutch  proprietors. 
It  was  melancholy  to  see  these  neglected  looking 
spots,  without  a  sign  as  to  what  lay  beneath. 
The  poor  creatures  were  only  considered  suf- 
ficiently above  the  beasts  to  be  buried — the  how 
and  the  where  were  matters  of  no  moment. 

After  lunch  we  all  got  into  a  Cape  cart  with 
three  seats  painfully  close  together  (the  chinks 
being  filled  with  our  luggage)  and  drawn  by  four 
horses.  With  the  driver  and  his  black  boy,  we 
were  seven  altogether.  This  seemed  to  me 
rather  a  feat,  but  I  afterwards  saw  a  Cape  cart 
with  nine  Malays  in  it,  three  on  each  seat,  beside 
which  our  performance  sank  into  insignificance. 


22       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

The  low  pass  which  we  first  crossed  on  our 
way  to  Frenchoek  (so  called  after  the  French 
Huguenots  who  settled  here  on  the  Revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes)  was  covered  with  large 
heaths  six  or  eight  feet  high,  and  sugar  bushes 
(Proteas)  covered  with  their  splendid  large  flowers, 
in  shape  somewhat  like  the  great  cactus  flowers 
of  our  greenhouses,  but  delicate  pink  in  colour, 
sometimes  with  each  overlapping  petal  tipped  as 
with  black  velvet.  The  celebrated  silver  trees 
were  growing  in  patches  here  and  there.  They 
are  far  more  silvery  than  any  tree  I  have  ever 
seen.  The  rest  of  the  drive  to  Frenchoek  was 
most  lovely,  along  flat  plains  shut  in  on  either  side 
by  splendid  serrated  hill  ranges.  We  slept  at  an 
old  Dutch  farm-house  belonging  to  a  Mr.  Kril, 
which  he  has  made  a  boarding-house.  At  half-past 
six  we  sat  down  to  "  high  tea,"  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Kril  presiding  at  the  ends  of  the  table,  we  sitting 
at  either  side,  and  the  driver  of  our  Cape  cart 
being  also  one  of  the  party.  The  Krils  were 
most  attractive  people,  ready  to  tell  one  every- 
thing they  could  about   the  country.     Mr.    Kril 


LEOPARDS  AND  BABOONS  25 

said  that  there  were  still  tigers  (by  which  he 
meant  leopards)  to  be  found  among  the  surround- 
ing hills,  which  sometimes  come  down  at  night 
to  prey  on  the  sheep  or  poultry,  when  the  whole 
of  the  neighbouring  inhabitants  pursue  them  with 
dogs,  chasing  them  from  tree  to  tree  till  they  are 
driven  into  an  isolated  one  from  which  there  is  no 
retreat.  Then  they  light  a  fire  under  it,  and  the 
glare  of  the  flames  gives  light  enough  to  shoot  the 
hunted  animal.  Baboons  are  also  a  nuisance. 
They  come  down  to  get  the  ripening  fruit  from 
the  orchards.  Only  a  week  before  this  a  pack  of 
them  came  down  from  the  rocks  to  the  orchard  of 
a  neighbouring  shepherd.  He  had  had  children 
watching  the  orchard  every  day  for  weeks,  but 
they  had  happened  to  be  absent  on  this  one  day, 
whereupon  the  baboons  took  the  opportunity  and 
came  down  in  force.  Luckily  the  shepherd  saw 
them  from  afar  and  hurried  back  with  his  dogs. 
The  baboons  took  refuge  in  the  trees,  and  he  left 
the  dogs  to  keep  guard  over  them  while  he  went 
to  fetch  some  neighbours  with  guns,  when  they 
killed  seven  of  them. 


26      TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

We  were  told  by  Mr.  Kril  and  some  others 
the  wages  they  paid  their  coloured  labourers,  and 
as  all  paid  about  the  same,  I  should  think  it  was 
a  common  rate  among  the  better  class  of  em- 
ployers. The  men  on  the  farms  get  one  shilling 
a  day  including  Sunday,  dried  fish  morning  and 
evening,  meat  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  bread 
at  each  meal,  and  wine  five  times  a  day.  If  you 
wish  to  keep  your  labourers  in  a  fairly  permanent 
way,  you  must  also  give  them  a  house  ;  but  there 
are  great  complaints  of  the  difficulty  of  getting 
them  to  stay  any  length  of  time. 

I  have  just  been  reading  some  stories  collected 
from  Bushmen.  None  of  them  are  good  as 
stories,  but  they  are  interesting  from  the  strong 
points  of  resemblance  in  them  to  European  folk- 
lore. For  instance,  incidents  such  as  that  of  the 
girl  and  boy  who  fly  from  a  witch  or  ogre  and 
place  obstacles  {e.g.  a  stick  which  straightway  be- 
comes a  forest)  in  the  way  of  the  pursuer,  are 
here  constantly  reproduced,  the  pursuer  being  in- 
variably a  cannibal,  either  male  or  female.  Mr. 
Orpen,  who  lent  me  these  stories,  some  of  which 


A  FIGHT  WITH  BUSHMEN  27 

he  had  collected  himself,  was  once  seriously- 
injured  by  Bushmen.  As  a  magistrate  he  had 
gone  to  an  encampment  of  them,  to  persuade 
them  to  remove  from  the  land  of  a  Dutch  farmer 
on  which  they  had  squatted.  The  force  he  had 
with  him,  though  kept  by  him  at  a  distance, 
alarmed  them,  and  they  gathered  themselves 
together  in  one  of  their  huts,  prepared  to  resist 
his  entrance.  After  some  search  he  found  them, 
when  they  immediately  let  fly.  One  wounded  him 
with  an  assegai,  another  wounded  a  Boer  who 
was  with  him  with  a  poisoned  arrow,  and  his  life 
was  only  saved  by  Mr.  Orpen  making  him  lie  down 
and  at  once  cutting  out  the  flesh  round  the  wound 
with  a  knife.  There  followed  a  general  melee,  in 
which  another  Boer  was  wounded  in  the  wrist 
with  a  poisoned  arrow,  of  which  he  died.  Long 
afterwards,  Mr.  Orpen  met  these  Bushmen  again, 
and  found  out  the  cause  of  their  resistance. 
They  had  believed  that  it  was  intended  to  collect 
them  together  and  shoot  them  down  wholesale. 

Mr.  Orpen  also  talked  to  me  about  the  poison- 
ous snakes  of  the  country.     One  species  ejects  the 


28       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

poison  from  its  teeth  to  a  distance  of  several  feet 
in  small  jets.  If  the  poison  touches  skin  which  is 
whole,  it  only  acts  as  an  irritant,  but  it  is  sufficiently 
powerful  to  cause  blindness  if  it  gets  into  the  eyes. 
He,  like  every  one  else,  looks  upon  danger  from 
snakes  as  but  a  remote  possibility.  But  also,  like 
every  one  else,  he  proceeded  to  tell  me  of  a  case 
of  a  fatal  snake  bite  occurring  within  his  own 
experience.  His  son  was  riding  a  valuable  horse 
through  some  long  grass,  when  the  animal  suddenly 
swerved,  and,  after  going  on  for  a  few  more 
minutes,  began  to  shiver  violently.  His  rider 
got  off,  and  on  examination  found  the  marks  of 
the  poison  fangs  of  a  snake  on  the  body  just 
below  the  saddle.  The  horse  was  shot  to  save  it 
from  a  more  painful  death. 

We  hope  to  go  to  the  Observatory  this  evening. 
There  is  a  pool  of  mercury  there  for  observing 
the  reflections  of  the  stars.  The  other  day  I 
heard  that  on  the  night  of  the  earthquake  in 
Greece  which  destroyed  Thebes  a  few  days  ago, 
no  observations  could  be  made  on  the  mercury 
owing  to  the  seismic  disturbances. 


ARRANGEMENTS  FOR  WAGGON  JOURNEY       29 


This  is  our  last  day  at  Cape  Town.  We  have 
stayed  here  longer  than  we  intended,  as  there  has 
been  considerable  difficulty  in  making  the  neces- 
sary arrangements  for  our  waggon  journey  up 
country.  At  one  time  it  had  been  settled  that  we 
should  go  in  small  light  waggons  drawn  by  mules, 
as  these  go  faster  than  oxen,  but  when  Mr. 
George  Grey  (Mr.  Albert  Grey's  cousin)  joined 
us  from  Mashunaland,  it  was  decided  to  have  ox 
waggons  instead.  This  avoids  the  difficulty  of 
carrying  food  for  the  mules.  Oxen  feed  on  the 
dried  grass  of  the  veldt  as  they  go  along.  Be- 
sides that,  ox  waggons  will  be  much  more  com- 
fortable and  roomy  than  mule  waggons.  Two 
are  now  being  built  for  us  at  the  Paarl,  and  as 
soon  as  they  are  ready  and  have  gone  to  Vryburg 
by  rail,  we  shall  meet  them  near  there.  Mean- 
while we  are  going  to  make  a  short  tour  in 
Basutoland  and  elsewhere,  starting  early  to- 
morrow. 


LETTER    IV 

Leave  Cape  Town — Worcester — Ostrich  farm — Cape  railways — The  Karroo 
— Karroo  Hills — The  first  meercat — Orange  Free  State — Native  huts — 
Opening  of  the  Folksraad — Locusts 

Bloemfontein,  Orange  Free  State, 
'jth  May  1894. 

We  left  Cape  Town  on  the  morning  of  the  2nd 
by  a  slow  train  (the  express  runs  by  night)  in 
order  to  see  the  country,  as  the  train  winds  up 
among  the  hills  to  the  Karroo  plateau,  some  3000 
feet  above  the  sea.  And  certainly  it  was  very 
well  worth  seeing,  and  I  am  more  than  ever 
impressed  by  the  stupidity  of  mankind  elsewhere 
in  not  having  long  since  appreciated  its  beauty. 
We  slept  two  nights  at  the  little  town  of  Worcester. 
From  there  we  drove  one  morning,  starting  before 
sunrise,  to  see  an  ostrich  farm.  The  owner, 
Mr.  Rabie,  keeps  about  a  hundred  adult  cocks 
and  about  sixty  hens  and  young  birds.      It  was 


AN  OSTRICH  FARM  31 

most  amusing  to  watch  the  former  when  they 
came  up  to  be  fed.  They  made  great  pretence 
of  bravery,  pairs  of  them  advancing  at  each  other 
with  wings  flapping  excitedly,  first  one  wing  and 
then  the  other  alternately,  their  great  muscular 
legs  raised  to  strike  in  the  most  pugnacious 
manner ;  but  just  as  you  thought  a  deadly  battle 
was  inevitable,  one  of  the  pair  always  suddenly 
dropped  his  wings,  turned  tail,  and  walked  off 
calmly,  as  though  the  idea  of  fighting  had  never 
entered  his  mind.  I  have  seen  many  pictures 
of  ostriches,  but  they  never  conveyed  to  me  the 
impression  of  the  disproportionately  small  head 
and  thin  neck,  and  the  even  more  disproportion- 
ately huge  legs.  The  "drumstick"  part  of  the 
leg  is  as  bare  of  feathers  as  that  of  a  plucked 
fowl,  and  stands  out  boldly  against  the  soft  black 
feathers  of  the  body  in  almost  indecent-looking 
nakedness.  It  is  a  bad  moment  to  see  the  birds 
on  this  farm,  as  their  white  wing  and  tail  plumes 
have  lately  been  all  cut  off  for  sale.  This  is 
done  about  every  nine  or  ten  months.  The 
stumps  of  the  quills  are  easily  pulled  out  with- 


32       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

out  hurting  the  birds  when  they  have  dried  up, 
about  three  months  after  the  feathers  have  been 
cut ;  but  the  feathers  would  get  injured  if  they 
were  left  on  till  the  quills  were  dry.  Near  the 
house  was  a  brood  of  young  ostriches  about  six 
weeks  old,  but  already  much  bigger  than  turkeys, 
and  covered  with  brown  down ;  and  close  by 
was  an  enclosure  in  which  were  a  cock  and  two 
hen  ostriches  put  there  to  breed.  Unless  both 
hens  lay  at  the  same  time,  the  one  who  has  no 
eggs  will  attempt  to  destroy  the  young  of  the 
other.  If  both  hens  lay  simultaneously  they  put 
their  eggs  in  the  same  place  and  both  sit  on  them 
by  day.  The  cock  sits  on  them  by  night,  his 
black  plumage  being  then  nearly  invisible,  instead 
of  conspicuous  as  it  would  be  by  day. 

We  slept  at  Matjesfontein  next  night,  having, 
in  order  to  get  as  far,  had  to  go  in  the  guard's 
van  of  a  goods  train  from  Touws  River  (this 
is  a  name  I  can  never  spell  right  without  much 
effort).  Mrs.  Grey  sat  on  a  raised  part  at  the 
end  of  the  van,  looking,  in  the  flickering  light  of 
an  oil  lamp,  like  the  Sir  Joshua  picture  of  Mrs. 


CAPE  RAIL  WA  YS  33 

Siddons,  dignifying  all  her  surroundings  ;  but  I 
am  afraid  neither  Mr,  Fitzwilliam  nor  myself  acted 
up  to  the  part  at  all,  as  we  sat  nodding  down 
below.  Next  day  we  travelled  through  the 
"  Karroo."  We  were  now  in  the  express  train — 
average  pace  about  nineteen  miles  an  hour,  an  im- 
provement of  about  four  miles  an  hour  on  the  slow 
train.  Comfortable  as  railway  travelling  is  here, 
speed  is  not  its  strong  point,  and  the  humorous 
side  of  this  is  fully  appreciated  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Colony.  It  is  said  that  an  express  train 
and  a  bullock  waggon  once  agreed  to  have  a 
race,  when  the  former,  in  its  extreme  anxiety  to 
win,  ran  off  the  line.  Here  is  another  story  that 
we  were  told.  A  train  once  stopped  for  a  long 
time  where  there  was  no  station.  At  last  a 
passenger  put  out  his  head  and  inquired  the 
reason,  and  was  told  by  the  guard  that  a  number 
of  cattle  were  on  the  line.  After  a  time  the  train 
went  on,  but  in  about  twenty  minutes  stopped  once 
more.  Again  the  impatient  passenger  asked  the 
cause,  and  received  the  same  answer.  "What! 
more  cattle,"  said  he.     "  Oh  no,  sir — same  cattle!" 

D 


34       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

The  Karroo  plateau  as  we  first  saw  it  was 
really  ugly :  no  distance  visible  anywhere ;  the 
earth  of  a  dirty  brown  colour,  sparsely  dotted 
with  dull  green  and  gray  scrub  ;  low  hillocks  on 
either  side,  spotted  with  big  rusty-black  stones, 
and  here  and  there  with  ridges  of  rock  cropping 
out  along  their  tops,  looking  exactly  like  low 
dry-stone  dykes.  Later  on,  the  plain  became 
flatter,  and  distant  views  began  to  appear.  These 
always  redeemed  the  colour  of  the  landscape  by 
their  beautiful  pinks  and  blues.  Sometimes  we 
passed  a  herd  of  Angora  goats,  or  a  flock  of 
mixed  goats  and  sheep,  always  watched  by  an 
attendant  Hottentot.  More  rarely  we  crossed 
a  dry  water  -  course  marked  by  a  few  thorny 
bushes — the  only  approach  to  trees  to  be  seen  for 
■miles.  Cattle  were  visible  occasionally,  and  their 
bleached  skeletons  bordered  the  line.  I  suppose 
they  were  mostly  killed  by  the  trains.  We  heard 
here  that  when  the  railway  was  made,  the  Cape 
Government  promised  to  fence  the  line  on  either 
side,  but  hitherto  this  has  not  been  done,  which  in 
the  Orange  Free  State  causes  great  dissatisfaction. 


KARROO  HILLS  35 


When  cattle  are  killed  by  day  the  owners  get 
compensation,  but  by  night  the  owners  are 
supposed  to  "  kraal "  them,  and  if  they  do  not  do 
so  (and  they  are  apt  to  be  lazy  about  this  in  fine 
weather),  and  the  animals  are  killed,  they  are  paid 
nothing. 

The  typical  Karroo  hills  are  low  and  flat, 
as  if  their  tops  were  sliced  off  with  a  knife, 
frequently  looking  exactly  like  artificial  fortifica- 
tions. Most  of  them  seem  to  be  capped  with  a 
horizontal  layer  of  hard  rock,  and  associated  with 
these  are  conical  hills,  so  regular  in  outline  as  to 
exactly  resemble  the  sand  heaped  at  the  bottom 
of  an  hour  glass.  As  these  conical  hills  appear  to 
be  a  little  lower  than  the  flat-topped  ones,  and  are 
usually  quite  close  to  them,  I  suppose  they  were 
once  part  of  them,  and  that  the  edges  of  the  rock 
capping  continually  breaks  away,  and  thus  some 
outlying  spurs  of  the  hills  gradually  become 
separated  into  isolated  masses.  When  the  capping 
is  entirely  broken  away  a  regular  cone  remains. 

I  am  sure  that  no  one  can  be  more  worthy 
of  travelling    through    a    new    country   than   our 


36       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

party.  Everything  we  pass,  down  to  the  small- 
est flower,  do  we  crane  our  necks  to  see  ;  and  the 
first  "  meerkat "  (a  little  beast  rather  larger  than 
a  squirrel)  we  saw  evoked  such  a  shout  that 
poor  Mrs.  Grey,  who  happened  to  be  looking 
the  other  way  at  the  moment,  nearly  jumped  out 
of  her  skin,  I  wonder  whether  anybody  from 
Cape  Colony  coming  to  England  and  seeing  a 
rabbit  for  the  first  time  was  ever  so  much  excited 
about  it  as  we  were  about  that  meerkat  ? 

After  crossing  the  Orange  River  (just  the 
colour  of  the  Tiber)  and  entering  the  Orange 
Free  State,  the  country  becomes  much  more 
grassy,  and  the  ant  heaps  dotted  about  it  look  just 
like  the  manure  heaps  on  a  stubblefield  at  home, 
while  on  every  ant  heap  is  perched  a  bird  flirting 
its  wings.  There  were  a  good  many  farms  with 
a  few  trees,  a  dam  (artificial  reservoir),  and  a 
crudely  green  patch  of  barley  as  their  invariable 
accompaniment,  and  as  we  neared  Bloemfontein 
we  passed  several  native  villages.  The  huts  in 
these  are  dome-shaped,  and  are  covered  with  bits 
of  tarpaulin  and  other  materials,  looking  more  like 


OPENING  OF  THE  FOLKSRAAD  2>y 

low  rounded  haycocks    spread    over    with    dirty 
rags  than  anything  else. 

We  have  happened  to  come  here  just  in  time 
to  see  the  annual  opening  of  the  Folksraad  or 
Free  State  Parliament.  One  of  the  Judges  was 
most  kind  in  making  all  arrangements  for  us,  and 
we  were  taken  to  the  House  in  the  President's  own 
carriage.  It  is  a  fine  block  of  new  building,  and 
as  there  are  only  about  fifty-six  Members,  about 
half  the  space  in  the  hall  where  the  debates  take 
place  is  given  up  to  spectators,  including  women, 
who  are  not  separated  by  a  grating  as  if  they 
were  Mahomedans,  as  they  are  at  home.  Soon 
after  we  were  seated  President  Rietz  entered, 
dressed  in  black,  as  is  the  rule  for  all  members  of 
the  Folksraad,  and  with  a  broad  oranQ^e  ribbon 
across  his  breast.  The  band,  which  comprises  a 
large  part  of  the  standing  army,  then  struck  up 
the  National  Anthem,  and  after  a  long  prayer 
from  a  clergyman  present,  the  President  began 
his  opening  speech.  As  it  was  in  Dutch  we 
naturally  did  not  understand  anything  of  it,  until 
suddenly   in   the  middle   of  it   came  the  familiar 


38       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

words  "five  shillings  and  sixpence."  The  Free 
State  has  no  coinage  of  its  own,  and  uses  chiefly 
English  coinage,  but  whether  the  speech  had 
reference  to  this  I  don't  know.  The  President 
again  most  kindly  lent  us  his  carriage  in  the  after- 
noon, and  after  seeing  the  principal  buildings  and 
the  Fort,  guarded  by  a  sentinel  comfortably  seated 
in  the  shade,  we  called  on  the  President's  sisters. 
We  had  some  interesting  talk  about  the  recent 
flights  of  locusts,  and  Miss  Rietz  told  us  that 
many  of  the  Boers  refuse  to  take  any  steps  to 
destroy  the  insects  on  the  ground  that,  like  the 
plagues  of  Egypt,  they  are  the  direct  visitation  of 
God.^ 


^  I  subjoin  an  extract  which  I  read  afterwards,  from  the  Standard  and 
Diggers^  News,  published  at  Johannesburg  : — 

Bloemfontein,  zgth  May. 

The  memorial  against  the  destruction  of  locusts  on  account  of  religious 
scruples  aroused  considerable  discussion.  Several  members  contended  that 
locusts  were  a  plague  sent  by  God,  and  He  alone  could  remove  them  ;  while 
others  urged  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  burghers  to  work  together  for  the 
destruction  of  the  plague  and  the  safety  of  the  crops.  One  member  proposed 
that  no  further  money  be  voted  for  the  destruction  of  locusts,  but  whenever 
locusts  or  other  plague  arises,  that  the  President  consult  with  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  Synod  and  other  Protestant  preachers,  and  appoint  a  day 
of  humiliation  and  prayer.  This  caused  a  warm  discussion,  several  members 
objecting  to  introducing  questions  of  religious  belief.  Ultimately  the  resolu- 
tion was  carried  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  Chairman  ;  but  the  Raad  cannot 
accede  to  the  petition,  and  authorises  Government  to  assist  in  the  destruction 
of  locusts  when  appealed  to. 


LOCUSTS  39 

I  forgot  to  say  that  soon  after  we  entered  the 
Orange  Free  State,  we  passed  through  some 
swarms  of  locusts.  We  heard  that  a  few  days 
before  that  there  were  such  enormous  numbers 
along  the  line,  and  their  squashed  bodies  made  it 
so  slippery,  that  the  train  was  delayed  about  two 
hours.  This  indirectly  led  to  the  accident  that 
happened  at  Touws  River,  when  the  late  train 
dashed  into  another  and  killed  the  assistant 
enofineer. 


LETTER  V 

Journey  to  Basutoland — The  Presidential  Coach — Birds — Thaba-n-chu — 
Drift  on  the  Caledon  River — Maseru  native  dress — Basuto  Hills — 
Dongas  —  Absence  of  trees  —  Berea  church  —  Berea  donga  —  Roma 
Mission — Letloba's  hut — Basuto  decoration — Baskets — A  Frenchman's 
easy  path  —  Thaba  Bosigo  —  Moshesh  —  Basuto  riches  —  Purchase  of 
wives — Division  of  labour — Taxes — Return  to  Bloemfontein. 

Johannesburg,  I'jth  May  1894. 

We  have  j'ust  come  back  after  a  delightful  week's 
expedition  to  Basutoland.  We  are  gradually- 
making  acquaintance  with  all  the  different 
vehicles  of  the  country  ;  but  the  one  we  have 
just  been  in  must,  I  think,  be  unique.  We 
call  it  the  Presidential  Coach,  as  it  is  used  by 
President  Rietz  when  he  travels  about  the 
country ;  and  in  token  thereof  it  has  a  huge 
metal  plate  on  the  door,  on  which  are  painted 
the  arms  of  the  Orange  Free  State.  It  is 
drawn  by  six  horses,  managed  by  two  black 
"boys."     The  "driver,"  who  is  the  principal  of 


BIRDS  41 

the  two,  rarely  touches  the  reins,  but  on  the 
other  hand  he  uses  the  whip  freely,  and  we  left 
the  town  at  a  gallop,  the  little  man  with  the 
reins  being  quite  hoisted  off  his  seat  in  his 
efforts  to  hold  the  six  excited  animals.  Luckily 
on  this  flat  veldt  you  may  go  pretty  safely  any- 
where, unless  you  come  to  a  spruit  (stream) 
or  a  mudhole.  When  we  did  come  to  one  of 
these,  the  "boy"  who  usually  wielded  the  whip 
took  the  reins  of  the  leaders,  and  the  other 
"boy"  held  the  wheelers  (the  two  middle  horses 
had  no  reins),  and  in  this  peculiar  style  we 
successfully  crossed  some  very  nasty  places. 
We  tried  to  get  some  information  from  these 
"  boys "  as  to  the  birds  we  saw  in  passing,  but 
the  result,  though  occasionally  amusing,  was 
rarely  instructive.  Once  we  asked  the  names 
of  three  large  birds  which  we  saw  sitting  on 
an  ant  heap.  The  driver  answered  that  he 
didn't  know  what  the  black  one  was,  but  the 
two  white  ones  were  black  crows.  Another 
time  he  assured  us  that  a  couple  of  birds 
(which  I  believe  were  storks)  were  wild  turkeys. 


42       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

There  were  a  great  many  birds  on  these  fiat, 
grassy  plains,  the  most  remarkable  being  the 
famous  "Secretary  bird,"  who  certainly  would 
attract  any  one's  attention  as  he  stalks  about 
with  his  long  legs  and  half  a  dozen  pens  stuck 
behind  his  ear,  from  which  he  gets  his  name. 

It  took  us  two  days'  driving  over  the  plains 
to  get  to  Basutoland,  and  except  at  one  or  two 
farms  (where  the  Boer  had  planted  a  poplar  or 
a  weeping  willow  near  his  "  dam "),  and  along 
the  banks  of  one  river,  I  do  not  remember 
seeing  a  single  tree  the  whole  way.  This 
river,  which  is  very  pretty,  is  called  the  Mud 
River,  presumably  by  contraries,  as  it  is  the 
only  stream  we  have  passed  of  which  the  water 
is  clear.  We  slept  at  a  village  about  half  way 
to  the  frontier,  called  Thaba-n-chu,  a  native 
name  transferred  from  a  neighbouring  hill.  If 
you  can  speak  the  language  properly  you  put 
a  click  in  between  the  n  and  the  c,  but  this 
is  beyond  me.  In  this  neighbourhood  we  passed 
through  many  swarms  of  locusts,  the  survivors 
of  the   thick   clouds  of   them   which    but   a   few 


DRIFT  ON  THE  CALEDON  RIVER  43 

weeks  ago  had  come  upon  the  country  covered 
with  luxuriant  green  vegetation,  and  had  left  it 
as  we  saw  it,  with  nothing  on  it  but  short  dead 
stalks. 

Towards  sunset  on  the  second  day  we  reached 
the  Caledon  River,  which  here  forms  the  boundary 
between  the  Orange  Free  State  and  Basutoland. 
It  runs  in  a  very  deep  channel,  with  perpendicular 
sides,  through  which  the  road  has  been  cut. 
The  place  for  a  drift  (ford)  is  a  matter  for  care- 
ful selection,  as  in  most  places  the  river  beds 
are  full  of  dangerous  quicksands.  The  drift  by 
which  we  crossed  was  about  four  feet  deep  ;  and 
until  a  few  days  ago  it  had  been  unfordable  by 
wheeled  vehicles  for  four  months. 

At  Maseru,  just  beyond  the  river,  we  were 
received  by  the  Acting  British  Resident,  Mr. 
Lagden,  and  his  wife,  who  with  the  invariable 
hospitality  of  South  Africa  had  asked  us  to  stay 
with  them.  As  there  is  not  so  much  as  a  pot- 
house in  the  whole  country  we  should  have  been 
in  a  bad  way  but  for  their  kindness.  We  felt 
it    all    the    more   as    while    we    were   with    them 


44       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

one  of  their  children  was  very  ill,  and  died  just 
before  we  left. 

The  day  after  we  arrived  I  went  out  sketch- 
ing, greatly  to  the  delight  and  amusement  of  the 
laughing   and    chattering    natives,  who    crowded 
round    me,    of    all    ages    and    sizes,    and    in    all 
degrees    of    costume,    from    the    small    children 
with  nothing  on  at  all,  except  perhaps  a  string 
of  beads  round  the  waist,  to  the  grown-up  men 
and  women  attired  in  a  red  blanket  fastened  under 
one  arm  and  over  the  opposite  shoulder,  like  a 
Roman  toga.     These  blankets  are  the  universal 
costume  for  grown-up  people.     They  are  bought 
at  stores,  and  cost  from  fifteen  shillings  to  thirty 
shillings.     The  fashionable   colour  here  is  crim- 
son, on  which  is  usually  a  loud  pattern,  such  as 
hearts  and  diamonds  a  foot  long.     After  lunch 
Mrs.  Grey  and  I  went  with   Mrs.  Lagden  to  the 
French    Protestant    Mission    Station,    near    the 
Berea   Mountain.      This   hill   is   typical   of  most 
of  those  in  this  district  of  the  country.      They 
rise    abruptly    from    the    plain    with    very    steep 
sides,    and    the    tops,    which    are   often    several 


DONGAS  45 

square  miles  in  extent,  are  quite  flat,  and  con- 
sist of  plateaux  of  hard  rock  about  50  to  100 
feet  thick,  with  perpendicular  edges  forming 
walls  impossible  to  scale,  except  where  they 
have  got  broken  away  irregularly  at  rare  in- 
tervals. Great  blocks  of  rock  continually  fall 
down  to  the  bottom,  but  the  typical  shape  of 
the  hills  remains  until  the  whole  of  the  rocky 
plateau  has  broken  away.  The  rain  pours  over 
the  edges  of  the  plateaux  in  waterfalls,  and 
washes  out  gullies  in  the  soft  earthy  sides  of 
the  hills.  Immediately  on  reaching  the  plains 
the  streams  thus  formed  begin  to  make  don- 
gas, or  watercourses,  through  the  soil,  which  is 
here  often  of  prodigious  thickness.  These  don- 
gas rapidly  increase  in  size  and  depth  as  they 
go  along,  their  sides  being  almost  perpendicular, 
only  furrowed  with  rain,  which  sometimes  leaves 
most  fantastic  pinnacles  and  spires  of  somewhat 
harder  soil  sticking  up  here  and  there.  No 
doubt  the  formation  of  dongas,  which  intersect 
the  plains  in  every  direction,  and  which  are  so 
rapidly  increasing  in  size  and  number,  is  greatly 


46       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

aided  by  the  absolute  absence  of  trees.  In  the 
hollows  of  the  hillsides,  where  the  cattle  cannot 
get  at  it,  grows  a  good  deal  of  small  bush  ; 
elsewhere  the  country  is  absolutely  bare  of  any 
natural  wood  whatsoever.  Where  any  white  men 
have  settled,  there  immediately  a  few  trees — 
chiefly  EucalypHis  globulus  —  are  planted,  and 
the  English  Government  tries  to  encourage  the 
natives  to  plant  trees,  so  that  at  almost  every 
kraal  you  will  find  one  or  two.  These  are 
usually  planted  singly  in  the  centre  of  deserted 
mud  huts,  by  which  they  are  protected  from  the 
cattle  who  would  otherwise  speedily  destroy 
them.  I  asked  the  priests  at  the  Roma  station 
a  day  or  two  after,  why  more  trees  were  not 
planted  by  the  natives,  considering  the  value  of 
even  the  smallest  timber.  He  said  that  the 
doves  and  pigeons,  which  are  common  enough 
as  it  is,  congregate  and  multiply  so  enormously 
wherever  there  is  any  wood,  that  they  almost 
destroy  the  neighbouring  crops,  and  hence  a 
'  natural  dislike  on  the  part  of  the  natives  to  any 
afforesting. 


BEREA  CHURCH 


47 


On  reaching  the  Berea  Mission  Station  we 
went  to  see  the  church,  a  neat  mud  structure, 
the  remarkable  feature  of  which  was  its  seats, 
which,  owing  to  the  impossibihty  of  getting  wood. 


From  a  Photograph. 

DONGA    AT   BEREA    MISSION    STATION,    BASUTOLAND, 

were  also  of  mud,  and  ran  out  from  the  wall  like 
benches.  As  they  are  given  a  fresh  plastering 
of  mud  every  year  they  have  gradually  grown 
wider  and  wider,  and  now  the  space  between 
them  is  so  narrow  that  there  is  scarcely  room 
for  the  natives'  feet.     The  missionaries  are  very 


48       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

anxious  to  improve  them  away,  but  I  thought 
them  rather  quaint  and  attractive,  if  uncomfort- 
able. From  this  we  were  taken  to  see  a  donga 
close  by.  It  differs  in  nowise  from  other  dongas, 
except  in  being  somewhat  bigger  than  most. 
But  the  interesting  point  about  it  is  that  its 
commencement  as  a  little  ditch  across  which 
you  could  jump,  was  seen  by  a  missionary  who 
only  lately  left  here  ;  and  the  whole  of  its  growth 
is  the  work  of  fifty  years.  It  is  now,  we 
guessed,  about  80  feet  deep  and  about  150  feet 
wide. 

Another  day  we  drove  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Mission  Station  called  Roma,  some  twenty  miles 
from  Maseru.  The  Government  spend  much 
time  and  money  in  keeping  the  Basutoland  roads 
in  order,  but  no  newcomer,  unacquainted  with  the 
washing-out  powers  of  the  rain  in  this  country, 
would  guess  it  to  look  at  them.  The  road  got 
worse  as  we  went  on,  the  dongas  getting  deeper 
and  more  frequent  as  we  got  to  more  hilly  country. 
At  Roma  we  found  a  considerable  plantation  of 
blue   gums,   black   wattle,   and   other   Australian 


ROMA  MISSION  49 


trees,  and  a  well-kept  garden.  The  Mission  is  a 
French  one,  so  it  was  a  considerable  shock  to  be 
welcomed  by  the  priests  at  the  door  with  a  strong 
Irish  brogue.  True,  the  Superior  was  French, 
but  he  did  not  speak  much  English.  We  were 
treated  as  most  honoured  guests,  presented  with 
bouquets  and  addresses — the  one  to  me  containing 
flattering  allusions  to  the  Irish  policy  of  the  late 
Unionist  Government.  These  were  read  by  a 
Basuto  boy  in  English  with  a  strong  French 
accent.  Then  followed  little  plays  acted  by  the 
boys,  arrayed  in  every  variety  of  costume,  from 
coloured  paper  caps  to  a  gorgeous  gold  em- 
broidered white  coat  of  the  date  of  the  French 
Revolution.  Then  we  went  to  the  convent  and 
saw  the  girls'  schools.  The  nuns  are  teaching 
spinning  and  weaving,  and  they  told  us  that  girls 
who  have  learnt  these  arts  are  in  great  request  as 
wives.  The  absence  of  clothes  among  the  natives 
is  what  seemed  to  distress  the  good  sisters  most — 
more  than  the  absence  of  Christian  doctrines. 
The  Fathers  told  us  that  they  were  now  making  no 
converts,  and  attributed  their  want  of  success  in 

E 


so       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

this  respect  partly  to  the  apathetic  attitude  of  the 
neighbouring  chiefs,  but  still  more  to  the  fact  that 
no  one  could  be  admitted  to  the  Church  without 
abandoning  polygamy.  As  wives  are  valuable 
property,  the  natives  naturally  dislike  being 
limited  to  one,  and  having  to  repudiate  the 
others. 

Next  day  we  rode  over  the  hill  beneath  which 
the  Mission  is  placed,  visiting  a  chief  called  Let- 
loba,  who  did  us  the  honour  of  acting  as  our 
guide  on  the  way.  He  had  a  nice,  clean,  round, 
red  mud-built  hut,  with  thatched  roof,  and  with  a 
scherm  (sheltering  fence)  of  reeds,  about  seven  feet 
high  in  front,  and  forming  a  small  courtyard  at  the 
entrance  to  the  hut.  The  tall  grass  used  for 
thatching  and  the  reeds  used  for  the  scherms  are 
some  of  the  more  valuable  possessions  of  the 
natives,  and  there  are  more  quarrels  and  trials  in 
regard  to  the  stealing  of  these  than  of  anything 
else.  The  floor  of  the  hut  was  clean  red  mud. 
Most  huts  have  no  furniture,  but  Letloba  had  a 
bed,  chairs,  and  table.  He  himself  was  dressed 
in  correct   European  costume  to  grace  the  occa- 


BASUTO  DECORATIONS  51 

sion,  but  his  wives  and  families  were  in  native 
costume.  He  presented  me  with  a  decorated 
clay  pot,  and  then  added  a  small  one,  which  he 
called  the  "child"  of  the  other.  Mrs.  Grey 
photographed  him  and  his  harem,  with  one  of  the 
wives  in  the  attitude  of  grinding  mealies  (Indian 
corn).  The  mealies  lie  in  a  shallow  depression  in 
a  large  flat  stone,  and  are  ground  by  rubbing 
them  with  another  stone.  The  wives  and  mothers 
all  wore  the  universal  red  blanket,  and  the  chil- 
dren wore  scarcely  anything  but  strings  of  beads. 
All  their  heads  are  more  or  less  shaved.  I  saw 
no  native  here  with  hair  more  than  one  inch  long, 
and  it  grows  in  little  knots  and  rings  dotted  all 
over  the  head  like  bedded-out  plants  in  a  garden, 
with  bare  spaces  between.  The  women  are  con- 
stantly tattooed  on  the  face,  the  most  favoured 
decoration  being  three  lines  starting  close  together 
from  the  front  of  the  ear  and  spreading  out,  one 
to  the  eye,  another  half-way  down  the  nose,  and 
the  third  to  the  chin.  Sometimes  four  dots  are 
marked  on  the  forehead,  or  a  straight  line  down 
it.     The  colour  of  the  skin  is  usually  dark  brown, 


52       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

sometimes  almost  black,  and  when  dusty  appears 
to  have  a  plum-like  bloom  on  it,  which  I  think 
beautiful ;  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  remarks 
I  made  to  that  effect  were  received  with  jeers  by 
the  rest  of  the  party. 

At  another  kraal  (native  village)  which  we 
passed  on  our  way,  some  of  the  children  had  their 
heads  smeared  with  red  paint  and  oil,  and  I  saw 
one  or  two  men  with  the  same.  I  believe  this 
used  to  be  a  universal  custom,  which  is  now 
gradually  dying  out.  We  were  shown  here  also 
how  the  Basutos  make  their  baskets,  which  are 
sometimes  so  close  in  texture  as  to  hold  water. 
They  are  made  of  grass  in  concentric  ropelike 
circles,  which  are  sewn  together  by  means  of  long 
needles  flattened  like  sword  blades.  Some  of  the 
baskets  made  for  holding  mealies  are  quite 
enormous,  several  feet  wide  and  high. 

We  came  down  the  hill  on  the  precipitous  side 
above  the  Mission  station.  I  had  stayed  behind 
the  rest  of  the  party  to  finish  a  sketch,  and  finding 
that  they  had  all  dismounted  when  the  path 
became  steep,  I  proposed  doing  so  also.     How- 


A  FRENCHMAN'S  EASY  PATH  53 

ever  the  red-haired  French  lay-brother  who  was 
convoying  me  assured  me  it  w^as  quite  easy  to 
ride  down,  and  that  if  I  were  not  there  he  would 
go  down  mt  galop.  [N.B. — He  would  certainly 
have  broken  his  neck  if  he  had.)  Under  these 
circumstances,  I  felt  that  the  least  I  could  do  was 
to  ride  down  at  a  foot's  pace,  and  certainly  I 
never  rode  over  a  worse  path.  In  one  particularly 
bad  place  he  advised  me — too  late — to  go  round  ; 
and  as  my  pony  went  down  he  looked  anxiously 
to  see  the  result.  When  I  reached  the  bottom 
safely  he  exclaimed  in  a  tone  of  ecstasy  :  "  Ah ! 
mais  vous  etes  Amazone  !  " 

Our  last  expedition  was  to  Thaba  Bosigo,  a 
hill  celebrated  for  the  successful  defence  of  it  by 
the   Basuto  chief   Moshesh,   against    the    Zulus. ^ 

^  "  Moselekatse's  [the  Zulu  chief]  regiments  had  on  one  occasion 
attacked  his  stronghold  :  they  rushed  up  its  sides  in  great  numbers,  but 
an  avalanche  of  stones,  accompanied  by  a  shower  of  assegais,  sent  them 
back  with  more  rapidity  than  they  had  advanced.  Their  repulse  was 
decisive,  and  the  Zulus  had  to  march  away.  At  the  moment  of  their 
departure  a  messenger  came  towards  them,  driving  some  fat  oxen,  with 
the  word  of  the  chief :  '  Moshesh  salutes  you.  Supposing  that  hunger  has 
brought  you  into  his  country,  he  sends  you  these  cattle,  that  you  may  eat 
them  on  the  way  home.'  The  Zulus  were  amazed.  'This  man,'  said 
they,  '  after  having  rolled  down  rocks  on  our  heads,  sends  us  oxen  for 
food.  We  will  never  attack  him  again.'  And  they  kept  their  word." — 
Noble,  Handbook  of  the  Cape  and  South  Africa,  p.  415. 


54       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

There  are  only  five  accessible  places  in  the  rock 
wall  at  the  top,  all  easily  defended  ;  and  on  the 
flat  plain  above  is  plenty  of  pasture  and  good 
water.  We  clambered  up  through  one  of  these 
gaps,  and  were  well  rewarded  by  a  fine  view  of 
the  Maluti  Mountains,  the  highest  peaks  of  which 


HILL    AND   DONGA    NEAR    MOSUPHA  S    KRAAL,    BASUTOLAND. 


reach  to  something  like  10,000  feet  ;  but  these 
were  not  in  sight.  In  the  foreground  was  an  extra- 
ordinary conical  hill  with  a  tall  upright  stone  on 
the  top.  This  stone  is  apparently  the  last  remains 
of  the  usual  flat  plateau  of  rock,  and  no  doubt 
it  will  soon  break  and  fall  down,  and  then  the 
rest  of   the    hill   will    be    quickly   washed    away. 


MO  SUP  HA  55 


While  I    was  sketching,  the  others  went  to  see 
the  graves   of  Moshesh   and    his   family.     They 
were    oval    heaps    of   stones,    with    the    names 
very  badly  and  irregularly  painted   on  them,  and 
in    the  case   of   Moshesh,    cut    very  roughly    in 
the  stone.     Coming  down  we  went  to  the  large 
kraal  of  Mosupha,  a  son  of  Moshesh,   which  is 
quite  close  to  the  conical  hill  before  mentioned. 
He  received  us  in  state,  dressed  in  ordinary  coat 
and    trousers,   with   a  black    cap    like    a   railway 
porter's,  decorated  in  front  with  a  tuft  of  heron's 
feathers.      He  had  mats  spread  out,  and  three  or 
four  chairs    on   which   we   were    seated,   and    he 
then  asked  us  a  good  many  questions  in  English 
or  through  his  interpreter.     When  he  heard  that 
we  intended  going  to  Matabililand,  he  ejaculated 
"  Fools ! "  but  whether  the  exclamation   was   in- 
tended to  be  in  Sesuto  or  English  we  know  not. 
His  headmen  lying  and  sitting  all  round  us  were 
a  picturesque,  rough-looking  lot,  quite  the  men 
who  one  would  expect  to  attend  on  a  man  formerly 
famed  for  his  ferocity.      He  is  now  about  eighty 
years  old,  and  his  dark  skin  is  drawn  tight  over  his 


56       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

face  like  a  mummy's.  We  asked  permission  to 
photograph  his  men,  and  he  condescended  to 
express  a  wish  to  be  included,  but  not  till  his 
knobkerrie  had  been  brought  him.  This  he  held 
up  like  a  sceptre,  and  was  as  particular  as  any 
girl  about  being  placed  in  an  effective  position. 
Before  we  went  he  made  us  look  at  his  race 
horses,  of  which  he  is  very  proud.  The  Basutos 
are  great  horse  racers,  racing  barebacked,  as 
they  assert  that  girths  interfere  with  the  animals' 
breathing.  On  the  Queen's  Birthday  a  race 
meeting  is  held  at  Maseru  under  the  auspices 
of  the  English  Resident,  and  for  one  or  more 
of  the  races  over  a  hundred  enter,  and  all  run 
their  best,  as  it  is  considered  as  bad  to  be  last 
as  it  is  good  to  be  first. 

That  part  of  Basutoland  which  we  have  seen 
seems  to  me  to  be  very  thickly  populated — more 
so  than  any  part  of  South  Africa  we  have  yet 
visited.  You  see  more  villages  and  pass  more 
people  as  you  go  along  than  you  would  in  many 
country  districts  at  home.  Many  of  the  natives 
are  extremely  rich,  that  is  as  regards  cattle,  which 


PURCHASE  OF  WIVES  57 

appear  to  be  the  possession  they  most  covet. 
One  is  absolutely  astonished  at  the  number  and 
size  of  the  herds  over  the  whole  country  ;  and  we 
were  told  that  that  is  nothino-  like  the  number 
they  really  have,  most  of  them  being  still  on  the 
higher  hill  ranges.  They  also  have  a  great  many 
ponies,  some  sheep  and  goats,  and  many  compact 
and  well  -  shaped  pigs.  The  cattle  and  ponies 
seemed  to  be  chiefly  valued  as  possessions,  as 
they  are  not  much  used,  either  for  milking,  eating, 
draught,  or  riding.  No  doubt  the  oxen  have  to 
do  a  certain  amount  of  ploughing,  as  there 
is  almost  more  cultivation  than  pasture  on 
the  low  -  lying  lands.  The  Basutos  do  not 
like  selling  either  cattle  or  ponies  for  money, 
unless  at  very  high  prices.  The  cattle  are 
chiefly  used  for  buying  wives.  A  wife  costs 
about  twenty  bullocks,  ten  sheep  and  a  pony ; 
and  a  chief's  daughter  double.  A  man's  first 
wife  is  usually  bought  for  him  by  his  father. 
After  that  he  must  buy  wives  for  himself.  Each 
wife  has  to  be  housed  in  a  separate  hut. 

The  boys   usually  herd  the  cattle,    and  while 


58      TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

doing  so  we  often  saw  them  with  their  tiny  bows 
and  arrows  prepared  to  shoot  any  unfortunate 
field-rat  or  mouse  which  might  fooHshly  make  its 
appearance.     These  creatures  are  regularly  used 


.,,v<".>-w!..j;^|:i5tvli:^^ 


BASUTOS   RIDING   OXEN. 


as  food  by  the  natives.  The  men  do  the  plough- 
ing, and  the  women  all  the  rest  of  the  work. 
You  will  every  now  and  then  meet  a  Basuto 
riding  along  the  road  on  his  pony  or  his  ox,  his 
wife  trudging  alongside,  her  baby  on  her  back, 
and  all  their  worldly  goods  in  a  great  bundle  on 


RETURN  TO  BLOEMFONTEIN  59 

her  head.  Some  of  these  groups  I  tried  to 
photograph,  but  the  natives  are  in  as  much 
terror  of  a  camera  as  of  a  gun, — perhaps  they 
think  it  is  one, — and  make  off  at  headlong  speed 
the  moment  it  appears. 

The  prosperity  of  the  country  is  of  course  due 
to  the  supervision  of  a  civiHsed  government 
over  the  native  chiefs.  A  hut  tax  of  los.  is  paid 
annually,  being  collected  by  the  police  ;  and  this 
is  the  only  tax,  direct  or  indirect,  paid  by  the 
natives. 

The  two  days'  drive  back  to  Bloemfontein 
were  without  particular  incident ;  only  whereas, 
in  going  to  Basutoland,  we  had  thought  the  road 
very  bad,  on  our  return  journey  we  became 
aware  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  remarkably 
good.  Such  difference  in  our  views  had  the 
Basutoland  dongas  produced  !  By  leaving 
Thaba-n-chu  at  about  5  a.m.  we  got  to  Bloem- 
fontein in  time  to  catch  the  train  to  Johannes- 
burg, where  we  arrived  early  yesterday  morning. 


LETTER   VI 

Johannesburg — Political  situation  in  the  Transvaal — Native  dance — A  mimic 
Witch-Doctor — Wooden  pianos — Thunderstorm — Kimberley. 

De  Beers  House,  Kimberley, 
28M  May  1894. 

I  FELT  depressed  on  leaving  Basutoland  to  come 
to  Johannesburg  and  here,  as  I  expected  to 
dislike  both  places  very  much  ;  but,  after  all,  I 
have  found  them  both  exceedingly  interesting, 
and  should  have  been  sorry  not  to  see  them. 
At  Johannesburg  there  are  two  absorbing  topics 
of  interest — gold  mining  and  politics.  We  spent 
our  days  in  going  over  some  of  the  great  works  for 
treating  the  gold  ore,  when  the  difficulties  which 
had  one  by  one  been  overcome,  and  the  keen- 
ness with  which  the  scientific  part  of  the  work 
was  pursued  by  the  principal  engineers  and 
managers,  almost  roused  me  to  enthusiasm.  The 
three  or  four  greatest  experts  are  all  Americans, 


POLITICAL  SITUATION  IN  THE  TRANSVAAL    6i 

as  is  also  the  manager  of  the  De  Beers  diamond 
mines  here.  More  interesting  even  than  gold- 
mining  is  the  present  state  of  politics  in  the 
Transvaal :  the  ever  -  smouldering  irritation  of 
the  English  at  the  inequality  of  treatment  they 
suffer  under  the  Boers  being  ready  to  burst  into 
a  blaze  at  the  prospect  of  the  commandeering 
for  the  war  with  the  natives  near  Zoutpansberg. 
The  inability  of  the  Boers  to  see  that  they  will 
have  to  accommodate  themselves  in  the  end  to 
the  much  larger  and  intellectually  superior  popula- 
tion of  Johannesburg,  comes  partly,  I  suppose, 
from  the  contempt  in  which  they  have  held 
the  English  (and  perhaps  not  without  some 
apparent  reason)  ever  since  the  war.  But  they 
do  not  realise  in  how  many  ways  the  situa- 
tion has  changed.  Even  they  themselves  have 
changed.  For  instance,  thirty  years  ago  the 
plains  of  the  Transvaal  were  stocked  with  in- 
numerable herds  of  antelopes,  and  the  Dutch- 
men became  expert  marksmen  in  shooting  them 
down.  So  effectually  did  they  do  this  that  the 
game  is  now  practically  extinct,   and   I   am  told 


62       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

that  the  younger  generation,  having  had  no 
practice  in  rifle -shooting,  are  not  much  better 
shots  than  the  average  "  Tommy  Atkins." 

Before  we  left  Johannesburg  we  were  taken 
to  see  a  Kaffir  dance  in  the  Robinson  Mine 
Compound.  There  were  about  two  hundred 
natives,  who  divided  themselves  into  groups 
according  to  tribes.  They  were  dressed  in 
every  possible  variety  of  costume,  the  minimum 
being  three  or  four  yards  of  bright  -  coloured 
cotton  stuff  ("limbo,"  as  it  is  called  here), 
wound  round  thighs  and  body,  and  the  maxi- 
mum being  the  whole  contents  of  a  ragshop. 
Some  wore  tufts  of  feathers  or  wool,  or  armlets 
and  leg-bands  made  of  a  strip  of  ox-tail  so 
fastened  round  that  the  hair  stuck  out  like  the 
spokes  of  a  wheel.  One  man  had  a  circular 
comb,  like  children  wear  at  home  to  keep  their 
hair  back,  stuck  coquettishly  upside  down  on 
one  side  of  his  woolly  head,  a  pair  of  oxhorns 
hung  round  his  neck,  and  his  snuff-box  (an  old 
cartridge  case)  stuck  through  a  slit  in  the  lobe 
of  his  ear.       No   rag  or   bit   of  rubbish   comes 


A  MIMIC  WITCH-DOCTOR  63 

amiss  to  these  grown-up  children,  and  the  whole 
is  mixed  up  with  fragments  of  European  costume 
of  all  kinds,  from  a  German  cuirassier  helmet  to 
an  old  stocking  -  leg.  The  dancing  consisted 
chiefly  of  advances  in  lines  or  groups,  each 
man  lifting  up  one  leg  as  high  as  possible  at 
each  step  and  then  bringing  it  down  with  a 
bang,  all  in  unison,  accompanied  by  monotonous 
singing,  both  tunes  (of  only  a  few  notes)  and 
words  perpetually  repeated.  At  other  times 
they  would  advance  or  retreat  in  mimic  fight ; 
or  a  man  who  had  really  killed  some  one 
(whether  man,  woman,  or  child  mattered  not) 
would  advance  by  himself  and  go  through  the 
pantomime  of  creeping  on  his  enemy,  dodg- 
ing his  blows,  or  plunging  his  assegai  into  his 
heart.  Such  a  pantomime,  vividly  executed, 
would  draw  a  loud  hum  of  approval  from  all 
his  group.  There  was  also  the  mimic  Witch- 
Doctor,  whose  costume  combined  the  contents 
of  a  ragshop  with  all  the  paraphernalia  of  his 
trade.  He  executed  his  wild  dances  with  roll- 
ing of  eyes,  mouthings,  charms,  and  contortions. 


64       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

when  suddenly  a  little  fox  -  terrier,  who  had 
watched  him  suspiciously  for  some  time,  rushed 
forward  and  seized  him  by  his  coat-tail.  The 
effect  was  magical.  The  Witch-Doctor  promptly 
collapsed  into  the  ordinary  "  boy" — an  anticlimax 
which  was  hailed  with  universal  derision.  The 
dancing  was  accompanied  by  drums  and  three 
wooden  Kaffir  pianos.  These  last  consist  of 
two  logs  of  wood  wrapped  in  rags,  laid  parallel 
to  each  other  on  the  ground  in  front  of  the 
player.  Side  by  side  across  these  are  placed 
a  number  of  slats  of  wood  about  fifteen  inches 
long,  which  are  actively  hammered  upon  with 
a  couple  of  drumsticks.  The  slats  are  slightly 
hollowed  out  underneath,  and  I  presume  that 
the  variations  in  the  hollows  produce  the  varia- 
tions in  the  sounds — I  cannot  call  them  notes. 

Ever  since  we  have  been  in  South  Africa 
we  have  been  informed  that  the  weather  at  any 
given  moment  was  abnormal.  It  was  abnormally 
hot  at  the  Cape,  then  abnormally  dry.  It  was 
abnormally  hot  at  Johannesburg,  then  abnormally 
wet ;  and  on  our  railway  journey  from  Johannes- 


K  1MB  E  RLE  V  67 


burg  here  it  was  abnormally  stormy.  There  was 
very  heavy  rain  at  times  with  thunder  and  light- 
ning, and  the  cloud  effects  were  magnificent. 
Unfortunately  the  rain  has  delayed  our  wag- 
gons, which  have  been  going  from  Vryburg  to 
Marizani,  both  by  producing  unexpected  mud- 
holes  in  the  road,  and  also  because  the  necks 
of  the  oxen  are  apt  to  get  sore  if  they  are 
made  to  work  in  wet  weather.  Consequently 
we  have  had  to  remain  here  longer  than  we 
intended,  but  we  expect  to  start  to-morrow. 

Here  we  have  spent  our  time  in  going  down 
the  Kimberley  diamond  mine,  wonderfully  arrayed 
in  canvas  jackets  and  sou'wester  hats,  and  being 
shown  all  the  different  processes  for  securing  the 
diamonds.  Such  disappointing  things  they  are 
when  you  see  them  in  the  rough !  The  Kaffirs 
who  work  in  the  mines  are  kept  in  compounds 
during  the  whole  time  for  which  they  engage 
to  work  in  the  mines,  never  being  allowed  to 
go  outside,  for  fear  of  diamond  stealing ;  and 
all  sorts  of  precautions  are  taken  to  cut  them 
off  from  any  chance  of  communication  with    the 


68       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

outside  world.  Inside  the  compound  fence  they 
are  made  very  comfortable,  with  house  and  food 
arrangements  which  they  would  never  have  half 
so  good  in  their  own  kraals.  There  are  stores 
where  they  can  buy  all  they  want,  and  a  hospital 
in  case  of  illness.  The  De  Beers  Company  have 
also  capital  houses,  reading-rooms,  etc.,  for  their 
white  employees,  at  some  distance  off. 

This  is  the  last  civilised  place  we  shall  stop 
at  for  weeks,  and  in  thirty-six  hours  we  shall 
really  begin  to  live  an  unconventional  life  in  a 
country  unspoilt  by  the  hand  of  man. 


LETTER   VII 

Kimberley  to  Marizani — Straight  line  of  railway — An  American  story — 
Our  waggons  and  attendants — First  afternoon's  trek — Stuck  in  the 
mud — ^Jolts — Mafeking — Custom  -  House  and  vaccination  difficulties — 
Visit  to  Willow  Park — Rapid  growth  of  Eucalyptus  trees. 

Willow  Park,  Zeerust,  Transvaal, 
yd  June  1894. 

We  have  actually  begun  our  waggon  trek  ^  at  last, 
but  though  we  started  last  Wednesday  we  have 
only  had  two  nights  in  the  waggons,  so  you  see 
we  are  being  broken  in  gradually.  We  left 
Kimberley  on  Tuesday  last.  That  night  at  about 
ten  we  reached  Vryburg,  and  there  slept  in  the 
train,  going  on  next  morning  in  a  little  "special" 
along  the  as  yet  unopened  line  as  far  as  the  rails 
are  laid,  which  is  about  ninety  miles.  The  land- 
scape was  fiat  or  slightly  undulating  the  whole 
way,  and  dotted  with  scattered  bush.  In  this 
country   they   will    go    round    almost    any   curve 

^  I.e.  to  travel  over  the  country. 


70       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

rather  than  aker  the  gradients  of  the  hne  or  have 
to  make  either  cutting  or  embankment ;  con- 
sequently even  in  flat  districts  the  track  usually 
keeps  incessantly  twisting  about.  It  shows, 
therefore,  how  absolutely  level  is  thirty-six  miles 
of  the  country  through  which  we  passed,  that  the 
railway  goes  the  whole  of  that  distance  in  a 
straight  line.  I  told  you  in  one  of  my  letters  one 
or  two  stories  about  the  pace  of  the  Cape  Colony 
trains.  Mr.  Gardner  Williams,  the  American 
manager  of  the  De  Beers  mines,  capped  these  by 
telling  us  of  a  railway  in  the  west  of  the  United 
States  where  the  trucks  containing  hay  had  to 
be  covered  in  order  to  prevent  the  cattle  eating 
it  all  up  as  the  train  went  by !  At  Marizani 
Mr.  G.  Grey  met  us  with  the  horses  and  spider  (a 
kind  of  buggy),  drawn  by  four  mules,  whence  we 
drove  for  about  six  miles  to  where  our  waggons 
were  outspanned.  There  are  three  of  them.  One 
is  a  second-hand  buck-waggon  ^  for  the  stores  and 
heavy  luggage  ;  the  other  two  are  occupied,  one 
by  the  three  gentlemen  and  one  by  the  two  ladies. 

^  A  transport  waggon  with  a  particular  kind  of  rail  at  the  sides. 


OUR   WAGGONS  71 


Ours  is  supposed  to  be  a  model  of  all  that  is 
luxurious.  It  is  about  fourteen  feet  long,  and  about 
six  feet  wide  above  the  wheels.  It  is  covered 
with  a  canvas  tent  over  its  whole  length,  but  the 
roof  is  not  quite  high  enough  to  allow  me  to 
stand  upright  inside.  It  is  divided  by  a  curtain 
about  half  way  along.  At  the  front  end  are  our 
beds,  which  lie  parallel  to  the  length  of  the 
waggon,  and  when  down  meet  in  the  middle. 
They  can  be  fastened  up  by  day  to  the  sides  of 
the  waggon  if  required.  Under  them  are  lockers, 
and  our  boxes  fill  up  the  floor  in  the  middle.  The 
waggon  is  lined  with  dark  green  cloth.  The 
back  end  has  small  lockers  along  its  sides  with 
cushions  on  them  to  sit  on.  One  gets  out  at  the 
end  by  a  high  step,  or  when  the  oxen  are  out- 
spanned  (unharnessed),  by  a  ladder,  as  the  floor 
of  the  waggon  is  over  four  feet  from  the  ground. 
The  gentlemen's  waggon  is  of  the  same  size  as 
ours,  but  it  has  no  central  partition,  and  the  beds 
lie  across  instead  of  along  it.  Both  waggons  are 
closed  at  the  ends  by  curtains,  which  can  be 
fastened  firmly  all  round.     The  buck-waggon  is 


72       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

drawn  by  a  span  (team)  of  eighteen  oxen,  and  the 
other  two  by  fourteen  and  twelve  j'espectively. 
The  harness  is  of  the  most  elementary  kind,  con- 
sistinof  of  a  trek-chain  fastened  to  the  end  of  the 
diisselbooni  (pole),  and  having  yokes  attached  to 
it  at  intervals  of  about  eight  to  ten  feet.  The 
yoke  is  like  a  thick  curtain-pole,  about  five  feet 
long.  At  each  end  of  it  (the  trek-chain  being 
fastened  to  the  middle)  is  a  pair  of  notched  slips 
of  wood  called  skeis,  let  into  holes  in  the  yokes 
at  a  sufficient  distance  apart  for  the  neck  of  an 
ox  to  fit  in  between  them.  The  yoke  thus  lies 
across  the  necks  of  the  oxen,  the  skeis  being  per- 
pendicular, and  the  whole  pull  being  against  the 
backbone  just  in  front  of  the  shoulders.  The 
skeis  and  a  bit  of  7^ei]n  (strip  of  raw  hide)  fastened 
to  one  skei,  brought  round  under  the  neck  and 
hitched  to  the  other,  prevent  the  yokes  from 
slipping  off.  There  are  no  reins,  except  a  little 
bit  of  reim  fastened  to  the  front  pair  of  oxen,  by 
which  the  "leader"  or  "boy,"  who  walks  in  front 
in  difficult  places,  pulls  them  in  the  required 
direction.     All  other  guiding   is   done  by  shouts 


OUR  ATTENDANTS  73 

and  a  liberal  use  of  the  whip  in  the  hands  of  the 
"  driver,"  The  yokes  seem  to  me  to  combine  the 
greatest  amount  of  discomfort  to  the  oxen  with 
the  smallest  amount  of  efficiency ;  but  the  fact 
that  it  is  necessary  to  have  the  harness  as  far  as 
possible  made  of  materials  and  in  a  form  that  can 
be  easily  procured  or  repaired  on  the  veldt  (open 
country),  by  unskilled  labour,  is  no  doubt  one 
reason  why  no  efforts  seem  to  have  been  made  to 
improve  it. 

Our  party  consists,  besides  ourselves,  of  a  con- 
ductor, called  Dennison  ;  a  driver  and  leader  to 
each  waggon  ;  a  man  to  look  after  the  horses  ; 
Hendrik,  the  little  Hottentot  driver  of  the  spider, 
whose  nostrils  are  wider  from  side  to  side  than 
from  top  to  bottom,  giving  him  a  most  monkey- 
like appearance  ;  Eley  the  cook,  a  first-rate  man  ; 
and  a  good-looking  youth  called  Soul,  whose  soul 
seems  to  have  more  resemblance  to  his  colour 
than  to  his  form.  He  is  the  cook's  boy,  but  can- 
not be  of  much  service,  as  he  washes  plates  at 
the  rate  of  about  six  an  hour.  His  luggage  con- 
sists of  a  tuft  of  ostrich  feathers  and  a  concertina 


74       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

tied  up  in  a  blue  handkerchief,  on  which  he  plays 
one  dismal  ditty  of  four  notes  repeated  about  a 
thousand  times  consecutively.  All  these,  except, 
of  course,  the  conductor,  are  "boys,"  i.e.  coloured 
men. 

On  the  day  we  started,  our  oxen  were  in- 
spanned  (harnessed)  about  6  p.m.,  and  we  all 
walked  behind.  It  was  quite  dark,  and  after 
going  a  mile  or  two  we  blundered  into  so  many 
mud-holes  that  I  got  into  the  waggon  (Mrs,  Grey 
having  done  so  some  time  before).  The  men 
soon  joined  us  there,  and  jolt,  jolt,  jolt  we  went 
along.  How  we  shall  ever  learn  to  sleep  when 
the  waggons  are  moving  I  don't  know.  We  got 
more  and  more  bored  with  sitting  on  narrow  high 
seats,  jogging  along  in  the  dark  at  the  rate  of  two 
and  a  half  miles  an  hour.  We  had  had  nothing 
to  eat  since  luncheon,  and  were  not  to  be  allowed 
anything  till  the  oxen  were  outspanned  at  lo  p.m. 
Everything  was  higgledy-piggledy.  We  were 
very  tired,  and  Mrs.  Grey  had  a  bad  headache. 
Mr.  G.  Grey  thought  we  had  a  great  deal  too  much 
luggage,  and  that  we  were  all  very  unreasonable 


STUCK  IN  THE  MUD  75 

about  things  in  general.  Mr.  A.  Grey  didn't 
wish  us  to  trek  as  had  been  arranged  by  our  con- 
ductor, for  fear  that  it  would  tire  his  wife  too 
much.  Mr.  G.  Grey  kept  saying  the  oxen  would 
get  knocked  up  if  the  arrangements  were  altered. 
Altogether  there  was  an  air  of  depression  about 
us.  Suddenly,  amid  hoarse  yells  and  shrieks,  the 
waggons  stopped.  Out  the  men  jumped  to  see 
what  was  wrong.  The  buck-waggon  in  front  of 
us  had  stuck  in  the  mud,  and  the  leaders  and 
drivers  were  screeching  enough  to  skin  their 
throats  in  their  efforts  to  make  the  oxen  pull  it 
out.  Their  shouts  were  accompanied  by  violent 
crackings  of  whips,  and  the  poor  oxen  got  well 
beaten  also.  Mr.  A.  Grey  presently  came  back 
minus  his  slippers.  He  had  rashly  ventured  for- 
ward too  near  the  buck-waggon,  and  was  only 
saved  from  sticking  in  the  mud,  like  it,  by  leaving 
them  behind.  We  recovered  them  next  day. 
They  were  the  last  fond  present  of  his  eldest 
daughter,  and  I  am  sure  she  would  not  have 
known  them  again.  Presently  the  oxen  from  our 
waggon  were  taken  to  help  the  others,  and  about 


76       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

ten  o'clock,  it  being  evident  that  we  were  fixed 
here  for  some  time,  we  made  efforts  to  get  some- 
thing to  eat.  Eley  rose  to  the  occasion,  made  a 
fire  in  the  middle  of  the  road,  and  managed  to 
brew  some  tea  and  bake  some  scones  ("cookies" 
they  call  them  here).  A  couple  of  tins  of  potted 
meat  were  rescued  out  of  the  buck-waggon,  and 
with  the  aid  of  our  pocket-knives  and  good  will 
we  soon  made  a  very  hearty  meal.  The  oxen 
were  now  so  tired  that  it  was  arranged  to  give 
them  a  rest  of  two  hours  before  again  trying  to 
get  the  waggon  out.  So  we  all  went  to  bed,  and 
had  a  good  sleep  till  4.30  a.m.,  when  at  last  the 
mud-hole  was  crossed.  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  had  got 
to  bed  under  difficulties,  for  our  lamps  went  out 
before  we  were  half  undressed.  From  4.30  to 
about  eight  we  again  jolted  along,  sometimes 
nearly  thrown  from  one  side  to  another,  the  cold 
frosty  air  getting  down  our  necks,  our  pillows  and 
mattresses  slipping  in  every  direction  but  the 
right  one,  and  with  generally  a  thorough  feeling 
of  dirt  and  discomfort.  At  about  eight  we 
happened  to  look  out  of  the  little  window  in  front, 


MA  PEKING  77 


and  saw  we  were  coming  to  a  small  drift  (ford) 
full  of  rocks,  so  we  hastily  lay  down  and  held  on 
with  both  hands  till  we  were  through  it.  Lucky 
for  us  that  we  did  so.  The  men,  who  had  not 
seen  it,  were  thrown  backwards  and  forwards  all 
over  the  place.  Just  beyond  this  we  outspanned. 
The  men  had  a  good  bathe  in  the  river,  but  we 
poor  women  had  to  do  without  water  till  we  were 
dressed,  and  then  our  supply  was  of  the  scantiest, 
and  my  ablutions  were  performed  standing  out  on 
the  veldt.  We  have  an  excellent  cook,  and 
except  for  the  scantiness  of  the  meal  on  the  first 
night,  we  have  fed  like  fighting  cocks.  We  have 
game  of  various  kinds  shot  by  the  men,  and  we 
have  a  fine  provision  of  tinned  meats,  jams, 
butter,  etc.  Preserved  milk  is  the  weakest  point 
of  our  fare. 

We  got  to  Mafeking  about  luncheon-time,  and 
settled  to  stay  there  for  the  day  to  arrange  our 
luggage,  and  try  and  get  rid  of  some  superfluities. 
Thereupon  the  veldt  was  strewn  with  our  goods 
in  most  admired  confusion,  and  the  afternoon  was 
spent  in  sorting  them,  to  the  astonishment  of  all 


78       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

beholders.  Mr.  Taylor,  who  has  a  large  farm 
about  thirty-six  miles  off,  and  who  knew  Mr.  A. 
Grey  in  England,  came  over  to  see  us  at  Mafe- 
king,  and  invited  us  to  stay  with  him  for  a  day  or 
two.  The  difficulty  was  how  to  get  our  luggage 
through  the  Custom  House,  as  Mafeking  is  in 
British  Bechuanaland  and  Willow  Park  is  in  the 
Transvaal.  Mr.  A,  Grey  telegraphed  to  Pretoria 
for  facilities  for  our  waggons,  and  next  day  we 
drove  with  Mr.  Taylor  to  Malmani,  where  we 
were  to  receive  the  answer  which  was  to  decide 
whether  the  waggons  were  to  follow  or  not.  On 
our  way  through  Mafeking  the  magistrate  told  us 
we  might  very  likely  be  stopped  on  the  frontier 
if  we  had  no  doctor's  vaccination  certificate.  This 
was  awkward,  as  of  course  we  had  none.  The 
happy  thought  occurred  to  us  of  asking  him  to 
write  one,  which  he  did  ;  and  some  miles  further 
on  when  we  saw  the  Boer  policeman  riding  up  to 
us  across  the  veldt,  we  applauded  our  prudence. 
He  demanded  it,  studied  it  with  attention,  and  let 
us  pass.  We  afterwards  heard  that  he  couldn't 
read.     At   Malmani   Mr.  A.  Grey  called  on  the 


VISIT  TO   WILLOW  PARK  79 

Custom   House  officer,   who  was   all   smiles   and 
civility,  which  was  not  lessened  by  timely  admira- 
tion of  the  baby;  and  our  waggons  were  permitted 
to  pass  with  the  nominal  duty  of  eighteen  shillings. 
We  arrived  at  Willow  Park  that  evening,  and 
were  most  hospitably  welcomed  by  Mrs.  Taylor. 
It  was  very  kind  of  her  and  Mr.  Taylor  to  have 
us,  especially  just  now,   when  their  only  trained 
servant  had  just  departed  without  notice — a  way 
these  native  women  have.     The  quantity  of  the 
others  did  not  make  up  for  their  lack  of  quality. 
The  first  morning  I  gave  my  brown  leather  boots 
to  the  black  handmaiden  to  be  cleaned,  and  they 
were  just  rescued  by  Mrs.  Taylor  as  a  great  mass 
of  blacking  w^as  about  to  be  dabbed  on  to  them. 
Mr.  Taylor  has  gradually  enlarged  the  house,  and 
has   made   it   very   nice   and   comfortable.      It    is 
easy  to  add  on  to  a  house  in  this  country,  where 
the  custom  is  for  the  bedrooms  to  open  straight 
out  of  doors.      If  you  want  more  rooms,  all  you 
have  to  do  is  to  add  them  on  casually  anywhere, 
so  long  as  they  do  not  interfere  with  an  already 
existing  window. 


8o       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

Yesterday  we  were  taken  to  a  German  mission 
station  some  miles  from  here,  in  the  native  loca- 
tion. There  are  about  2300  native  huts  together, 
nearly  all   circular,  built  of  red   mud   of  a   harsh 


From  a  Photog7-apk 


MR.    JANSEN    STANDING    AT   THE   FOOT   OF   TREES    PLANTED   BY   HIMSELF. 


rusty  tone  of  colour,  and  often  decorated  with 
large  patterns,  such  as  triangles  and  stripes 
painted  in  white,  black,  and  red.  They  have 
neat  peaked  thatched  roofs,  and  a  scherm 
(sheltering  fence)  of  red  mud  in  front,  with  a  few 
fruit-trees  round.     The    natives    are    Bechuanas, 


RAPID  GROWTH  OF  EUCALYPTUS  TREES       8i 

dark  brown  in  colour  with  woolly  hair,  and  lips 
projecting  beyond  their  noses.  Like  the  Basutos 
a  blanket  of  loud  pattern  fastened  on  one  shoulder 
and  under  the  other  arm  is  their  usual  costume, 
and  the  children  wear  practically  no  clothes  at 
all.  The  missionary,  Mr.  Jansen,  has  been  here 
about  thirty  years,  and  has  planted  a  number  of 
Eucalyptus  globulus  and  orange  -  trees.  The 
former  are  now  about  120  feet  high,  with  trunks 
in  proportion,  and  the  orange-trees  are  much  the 
finest  I  have  ever  seen  anywhere.  The  country 
here  is  what  books  call  "Park-like."  It  is  un- 
dulating, covered  with  grass  (now  yellow),  dotted 
over  with  bushes  and  small  trees,  and  is  quite 
varied  compared  to  the  country  between  Kim- 
berley  and  Mafeking. 


LETTER   VIII 

How  our  trekking  days  are  apportioned  —  More  "sticks" — Yells  and 
thrashings — Dust — Camel-thorns — Wait  -  a  -  bits — Birds  and  beasts — 
Difficulties  of  sketching. 

Between  Sekamis  and  Palla,  Bechuana- 
LAND,  iT^thJune  1894. 

We  have  now  had  a  real  trial  of  trekking  life,  and 
so  far  it  is  the  greatest  success.  It  has,  however, 
one  great  drawback  in  common  with  a  good  many 
other  phases  of  life  —  there  is  not  near  time 
enough  to  do  all  one  wants  to  do.  Every  one 
prophesied  that  if  we  didn't  break  down  we  should 
become  frightfully  bored  from  having  nothing  to 
do.  Even  I  thought  that  there  would  always  be 
ample  time  for  sketching,  walking,  and  riding. 
But  far  from  it.  This  is  how  our  day  passes. 
We  trek  at  about  three  in  the  morning  till  about 
seven.  As  the  road  is  usually  pretty  jolty,  and 
therefore   not  conducive   to  slumber,   Mrs.   Grey 


HO IV  OUR  TREKKING  DAYS  ARE  APPORTIONED  83 

and  I  sleep  on  for  another  hour  after  we  stop,  i.e. 
from  seven  to  eight.      During  this  time  the  tent 
is  put  up,  and  some  water  got,  if  possible,  for  our 
baths.     Meanwhile  the  men  have  gone  out  shoot- 
ing.    We   have   breakfast   together  on  the  veldt 
about  half-past  nine  or  ten.     After  that  till  about 
half-past  one,  is  free.     I   sometimes  sketch,  but  I 
usually  want  to  walk  as  well ;  or   I   ought  to  be 
writing  journal,  or  washing  clothes,  or  dusting  out 
the   waggon,  or   skinning  birds,   or  darning    my 
stockings  (especially  the  last)  ;  and  the  time  avail- 
able is  all  too  short.     At  one  we  have  a  cup  of 
cocoa  and  a  biscuit,  and  then  pack  up  for  another 
two  hours'  trek,  from  two  to  four.     One  has  to 
pack  everything  in  most  carefully,  as  otherwise  it 
would  be  either  jolted  to  pieces  or  tossed  out. 
Washstand,   campstools,   ladder,   books,   etc.,  are 
all  located  in  our  waggon,  and  have  to  be  taken 
out  and  in  at  each  trek.     When  the  afternoon 
trek  begins,  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  usually  go  in  the 
spider   or  ride.       At  four  or  half- past  we   out- 
span  again  ;    then   I   sometimes  sketch,   or  write 
(as  I  am  doing  to  you  at  this  moment),  with  the 


84       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

sun  going  down  a  great  red  ball  in  the  west.  It 
is  too  dark  to  go  on  sketching  for  long  after  five, 
and  then  we  have  dinner.  This  is  hurried  over 
to  get  the  things  packed  in  again,  and  away  we 
go,  trekking  from  half-past  six  or  seven  till  ten  or 
thereabouts.  Now  that  there  is  a  moon,  Mrs. 
Grey  and  I  either  ride  or  go  in  the  spider  at  first, 
and  walk  after.  Sometimes  I  go  on  walking  till 
the  waggons  outspan.  Then  we  bundle  into  bed 
as  quickly  as  possible,  eating  a  biscuit  and  drink- 
ing a  cup  of  cocoa  or  Bovril  before  going  ofi"  to 
sleep.  This  time,  from  ten  to  three,  is  the  only 
quiet  time  for  sleeping  ;  so  one  tries  to  make  the 
most  of  it.  The  "boys"  usually  sleep  under  the 
waggons.  Almost  the  only  drawback  of  the  life 
is  the  dirt  and  dust.  For  the  first  week  the  roads 
were  muddy,  and  our  buck-waggon  got  "  stuck  " 
several  times — once  for  about  eight  hours.  They 
had  to  use  twenty  pair  of  oxen  to  pull  it  out,  tak- 
ing the  spans  from  the  other  waggons,  and  even 
then  only  succeeded  after  "off-loading  "  and  much 
digging  in  front  of  the  wheels.  Our  conductor 
told  me  that  our  oxen  were  not  accustomed  to 


YELLS  AND  THRASHINGS  85 

trekking,  else  we  should  have  got  out  of  the  bog 
much  more  quickly.  Our  oxen  would  not  pull 
with  a  will,  nor  all  together.  One  lay  down  and 
had  to  be  cruelly  thrashed  till  he  got  up  again  ; 
and,  indeed,  they  were  all  thrashed  most  unmerci- 
fully. I  suppose  it  can't  be  helped,  but  it  is 
horrid  to  see  ;  and  all  the  time  the  drivers  and 
leaders  rush  about  along  the  line  making  day 
hideous  with  their  yells  and  shrieks.  Now  we 
have  passed  the  mud  and  got  into  the  land  of 
dust.  It  is  inches  deep  on  the  roads,  and  flies  up 
in  thick  clouds  as  you  go  along.  Luckily  it  does 
not  bother  us  when  we  are  outspanned  ;  but  one 
is  never  clean,  as  everything  that  one  touches  is 
covered  with  it.  Since  I  wrote  from  Willow 
Park  we  have  travelled  about  i6o  miles.  The 
country  has  been  mostly  very  flat,  but  one  day  we 
had  a  pretty  view  of  low  hills,  and  twice  we  have 
been  near  low  kopjes  (little  hills),  and  once  in  a 
native  village.  The  vegetation  is  utterly  different 
to  what  I  saw  of  it  in  Cape  Colony.  There  all 
sorts  of  low  shrubs  and  flowering  plants  grow  out 
of  the  sand.     Here  it  is  all  grass  with  very  few 


86       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

flowering  plants.  The  grass  is  often  three  feet  high 
or  more,  and  at  this  time  of  year  it  is  quite  yellow 
and  dead.  Out  of  it  grow  quantities  of  bushes, 
some  quite  small,  and  some  as  large  as  hawthorns. 
The  commonest  is  the  camel-thorn,  a  kind  of 
acacia  with  white  thorns,  sometimes  several  inches 
long ;  but  their  size  and  colour  advertise  them  so 
well  that  they  are  easily  avoided.  There  is 
another  bush  with  very  small  leathery  heart- 
shaped  leaves,  and  thorns  which  divide  into  two, 
and  then  again  into  four,  and  sometimes  into  six 
points.  A  third  has  pairs  of  thorns,  one  straight 
and  the  other  hooked  back.  But  the  worst  of  all 
is  the  well-named  "Wait-a-bit,"  with  small  thorns 
in  pairs,  both  hooked  back,  which  you  hardly  see 
till  you  are  caught  fast. 

Two  days  ago  we  reached  the  left  bank  of  the 
Marico  River,  and  now  we  are  near  the  Limpopo. 
Alonor  the  banks  of  these  rivers  the  trees  are 
larger,  and  sometimes  moderately  good  from  the 
English  standpoint.  There  are  quantities  of 
birds,  some  of  perfectly  gorgeous  colours — blue, 
green,    yellow,    pink,    scarlet,    white,    in    varying 


BIRDS  AND  BEASTS  87 

shades  and  combinations — and  many  of  strange  and 
interesting  shapes.  Animals  are  not  so  easily- 
seen,  but  there  are  a  good  many  small  antelopes 
about.  I  saw  a  lot  of  spring-buck  one  day.  This 
morning  I  saw  two  fascinating  little  creatures  in  a 
tree,  like  lemurs  or  small  monkeys.  They  don't 
usually  come  out  much  by  day,  so  it  was  rather 
luck  seeing  them.  They  are  here  popularly  called 
"  Night-Apes."  There  are  many  snakes — though 
we  have  seen  none — most  of  them  deadly  poison- 
ous. There  are  also  hyaenas,  but  neither  have  we 
seen  these.  The  men  of  the  party  are  always 
trotting  about  with  their  guns,  and  always  com- 
plaining of  the  said  guns,  or  the  dogs,  or  some- 
thing. Certainly  they  miss  pretty  often.  Guinea 
fowl,  small  bustards,  and  francolins  (commonly 
called,  in  this  land  of  misnomer,  pheasants  and 
partridges)  are  the  commonest.  We  have  four 
dogs,  and  only  one  is  of  the  least  use.  One 
was  run  over  by  the  waggon  the  other  day, 
right  across  the  body.  I  never  thought  the  poor 
brute  would  recover ;  but  he  is  quite  cheerful 
now. 


88       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

My  sketches  are  mostly  bad.  The  air  is  so 
dry  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  put  on  a  wash 
at  all,  and  I  hardly  ever  have  time  for  more  than 
a  very  hasty  attempt. 


LETTER    IX 

Palla — The  Derby — Landscape — Mopani  trees — Larvae  of  Botflies — Muddy 
water — Digging  for  water — Crossing  the  "Thirst  land" — Waggons 
driven  against  branches — Nine  imaginary  lions — Palapsye — A  broken 
and  mended  umbrella — Khama — A  bath  in  a  breakfast  cup. 

Palapsye,  Bechuaxaland, 
10th  Jtme  1894. 

We  arrived  here  this  morning  and  found  a 
delightful  bundle  of  letters  awaiting  us.  We 
have  now  been  practically  three  weeks  without 
hearing  anything  of  the  outside  world  —  even 
from  a  newspaper ;  so  that  you  can  imagine  how 
we  devour  every  word.  Characteristically,  there 
was  one  thing  we  did  hear.  When  we  were  at 
Palla,  Mr.  G.  and  Mr.  A.  Grey  rode  into  the 
village  (we  were  outspanned  two  miles  off)  and 
saw  one  of  the  English  Bechuanaland  police. 
From  him  they  inquired  and  learned  who  had 
won  the  Derby.  I  don't  believe  they  asked  for 
any  other  news. 


90       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

My  last  letter  was  written  from  near  Palla. 
Since  then  we  have  continued  to  trek  through  an 
almost  absolutely  flat  country,  dotted  over  with 


MOPANI    LEAF. 


bush  which  varies  in  thickness  and  in  the  species 
of  which  it  is  composed,  but  which,  as  regards 
general  effect  in  the  landscape,  hardly  varies  at 
all.     Owing  to  it  you  can  rarely  see  more  than 


MOPANI  TREES  91 


three  hundred  yards  in  any  direction.  In  one 
place  where  we  outspanned,  the  bush  was  chiefly 
composed  of  Mopani  trees  —  a  shrub  or  small 
tree  with  a  very  curious  evergreen  leaf,  almost 
like  the  outspread  wings  of  a  butterfly,  the  stalk 
taking  the  place  of  the  body.  The  two  halves 
usually  fold  together  a  little,  instead  of  being 
quite  flat.  The  commonest  shrub  of  all  is  the 
camel-thorn,  which  I  mentioned  in  my  last  letter. 
This  being  the  beginning  of  winter,  many  trees 
are  bare,  and  others  are  yellow  and  russet  in 
their  autumn  colouring.  We  have  had  no  ad- 
ventures since  I  last  wrote,  and  the  life  is  very 
monotonous,  though  anything  but  dull.  We 
have  kept  along  the  Limpopo  for  a  long  way  ; 
and  this  was  a  paradise  to  the  men,  because 
where  there  are  trees  and  water,  there  there  is 
game.  Mr.  G.  Grey  shot  a  hartebeest  the  other 
day ;  it  is  about  the  size  of  a  red  deer,  and  its 
meat  was  quite  excellent.  This  particular  animal 
was  in  very  good  health  and  condition,  but  when 
the  skull  was  cut  open  to  take  off  the  horns,  we 
found  that  both   the   top   of  the   nasal   passages 


92       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  hV  A    WAGGON 

just  under  the  floor  of  the  brain,  and  also  the 
cavities  below  the  horns  and  above  the  brain, 
were  full  of  horrible  white  maggots,  about  an 
inch  long  and  very  fat.  You  never  saw  so 
disgusting  a  sight.  I  put  some  of  the  maggots 
in  spirits  of  wine  to  bring  home.^  Yesterday, 
both  Mr.  G.  and  Mr.  A.  Grey  had  shots  at 
koodoo,^  but  missed.  The  latter  came  home  wild 
with  excitement  about  the  sport. 

For  some  days  past  the  water  has  been  dirty 
and  scarce.  It  is  often  so  dirty  that  you  can't 
see  the  bottom  of  a  cup  which  is  half  full  of  it 
and  this  we  not  only  wash  in,  but  drink  ;  and 
Mr.  G.  Grey  says  it  is  remarkably  good.  But 
the  tea  does  taste  very  nasty  at  times.  I  am 
becoming  thankful  for  small  mercies.  When  I 
left  home  I  thought  tea  without  cream  poor  stuff. 
Then  I  began  to  be  thankful  for  fresh  milk.  Now 
tea   with    preserved    milk,    if    made    with    clean 


^  These  larvae  were  sent  to  the  Natural  History  Museum  in  London, 
and  have  proved  to  be  a  new  species  of  Botfly,  and  probably  belong  to  a 
new  genus.  An  allied  form  has  been  found  in  an  allied  species  of 
Hartebeest. 

"^  An  antelope  nearly  as  large  as  a  cow  with  long  spiral  horns. 


MUDDY  WATER 


water,    is   quite    delicious,    and   even    with    dirty 
water  is  tolerable. 

Three  days  ago  we  had  to  cross  forty  miles 
of   "  Thirst   land,"  for    which    preparations    had 


DIGGING   FOR    WATER    IN    A    SANDY   RIVER    BED. 


to  be  made.  Mrs.  Grey's  and  my  part  in  this 
consisted  in  preparing  some  drinking  water. 
Accordingly  the  cook's  boy,  Soul,  was  sent 
to  fetch  some.  After  about  an  hour  he  re- 
turned with  a  bucket  full  of  the  muddy  mixture, 


94       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

which  had  been  collected  by  means  of  a  tin 
pannikin  from  a  deep  hole  dug  in  the  dry- 
sand  of  a  river  bed.  (I  have  sketched  that 
river  bed,  and  when  you  see  it  you  will  not  be 
surprised  at  its  taking  so  long  to  get  water  from 
it.)  We  precipitated  the  mud  in  this  by  means 
of  alum,  then  boiled  and  filtered  it.  But  though 
we  spent  hours  over  this,  we  still  had  not  enough, 
and  tea  and  coffee  had  to  be  made  with  the 
muddy  water.  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  kept  a  small 
private  store  of  the  clean  water  in  vulcanite 
water-bottles  of  our  own,  else  we  should  have 
got  none  for  either  painting  or  drinking,  as  the 
men  drank  all  the  rest,  and  had  some  of  mine 
too.  The  "  men  "  means  only  white  men,  for 
all  coloured  men  are  called  "boys."  The  diffi- 
culty in  getting  over  the  forty  miles  of  "  Thirst 
land  "  was  the  absence  of  water  for  the  oxen  and 
horses,  and  we  had  to  arrange  our  plans  accord- 
ingly. We  trekked  at  night  for  ten  miles 
(average  pace,  two  and  a  half  miles  an  hour). 
When  we  outspanned  early  next  morning,  the 
oxen    were    slowly   driven    back    for   five    miles. 


CROSSING  THE  ''  THIRST- LAND''  97 

feeding  as  they  went,  to  where  there  was  a  little 
water  which  tkey  could  drink,  though  too  filthy 
for  us  ;  after  which  they  were  driven  slowly  back 
to  camp.  We  then  made  three  treks  of  four 
hours,  with  intervals  of  only  two  hours  between, 
arriving  at  Mopani  Pan  at  about  nine  next  day. 
Though  we  have  light  loads,  and  travelled  all 
night,  our  poor  beasts  were  pretty  well  done  up 
by  that  time.  One  of  our  drivers  is  not  so  good 
as  the  others,  and  does  not  make  his  oxen  work 
evenly,  so  that  one  of  his  span  was  completely 
worn  out,  and  it  and  its  yoke-fellow  had  to  be 
taken  out  and  allowed  to  come  here  loose.  The 
heavy  sand  of  the  roads  is  pleasant  for  those 
in  the  waggon — when  the  wind  blows  the  dust 
away, — and  I  sleep  during  such  treks  like  a  top  ; 
but  I  have  not  yet  learned  to  sleep  when  the 
road,  as  it  was  this  morning,  is  like  the  dry  bed 
of  a  river  full  of  boulders,  and  everything  jumps 
up  and  down  in  the  waggon,  including  its  human 
occupants.  I  lie  on  my  back  with  my  knees  up, 
and  support  myself  on  my  elbows  and  feet  to 
lessen   the  jar.      Mrs.    Grey   rolls    and    bounds 

H 


98       TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

about,  groaning  when  a  worse  jolt  comes  than 
usual,  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  always  makes 
me  go  into  hopeless  laughter.  All  our  springs 
are  more  or  less  broken,  but  I  don't  think  that 
it  makes  much  difference.  These  wonderful 
waggons  are  not  such  paragons  of  excellence  as 
they  should  have  been.  Our  trek-chains  break 
whenever  a  good  strain  is  put  on  them,  our 
springs  are  broken  and  bent,  the  strain  is  causing 
opening  of  the  boards  like  in  a  ship  after  a  storm. 
One  thing  has  stood  well,  and  that  is  the  canvas 
tent  over  each,  which  so  far  remains  entire, 
although  the  drivers  appear  to  take  a  peculiar 
pleasure  in  driving  them  against  the  thorn- 
bushes.  The  other  night,  in  a  place  where  the 
road  was  extra  wide  and  good,  the  men's  waggon 
was  driven  against  a  great  projecting  branch,  of 
which  all  the  twigs  had  been  torn  off,  so  that 
the  thick  sharp-pointed  spike  stuck  out  in  the 
most  aggressively  conspicuous  manner.  The 
canvas  was  injured,  but  wonderful  to  relate,  was 
not  ripped  open. 

If  you  hear  that  we  have  killed  nine  lions  on 


PALAPSYE  99 


our  way  here,  you  can  believe  as  much  of  it  as 
you  like.  Some  men  in  a  waggon  in  front  of  us 
have  spread  the  report  along  the  road  that  we  saw 
nine,  and  spent  our  time  in  pursuing  them  with 
rifles  and  revolvers.  So  much  has  this  been 
believed,  that  our  conductor  met  some  men 
carrying  rifles  who  had  gone  about  with  them 
ever  since  they  heard  the  story,  so  as  to  be  pre- 
pared for  the  lions'  appearance. 

We  have  most  kindly  been  lent  a  hut  to  live 
in  here  for  the  twenty-four  hours  of  our  stay  ; 
its  owner,  Mr.  Saddler,  having  vacated  it  for 
our  benefit.  Its  shape  is  that  of  a  magnified 
native  hut,  round,  with  high  -  peaked  thatched 
roof,  in  which  lizards  run  about.  I  am  looking 
forward  to  Mrs.  Grey's  misery  to-night  if  she 
fancies  she  hears  rats  in  the  roof. 

The  town  is  built  on  the  slope  of  a  hill,  and 
there  is  a  lovely  view  of  blue  hills  to  the  north, 
which  augurs  well  for  the  future  of  our  trip.  I 
wanted  to  sketch  this  view,  so  Mr.  Grey  pro- 
cured one  of  the  police  horses  for  me  to  ride 
up   to    the    place.      The    animal   was  very   lazy. 


loo     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

and  I  thwacked  him  so  hard  with  my  umbrella 
that  I  broke  the  stick  in  two.  (Do  not  imagine 
that  I  was  cruelly  urging  him  to  unheard  -  of 
exertions  :  my  ambition  was  only  to  make  him 
keep  up  with  Mr.  Grey  who  was  walking  on 
foot !)  As  Bechuanaland  stores  do  not  boast 
of  such  rarely  required  articles  as  umbrellas,  and 
as  it  was  absolutely  necessary  for  me  to  have  one 
to  shade  me  when  sketching,  my  broken  stick 
was  oriven  to  a  native  to  mend.  It  came  back 
most  artistically  spliced  with  brass  wire  in  orna- 
mental patterns.  The  only  drawback  is  that 
now  the  umbrella  can  neither  be  opened  nor 
shut. 

The  chief  Khama  came  to  see  our  waggons 
this  morning  and  appeared  to  admire  them,  but 
thought  them  too  wide  for  the  bush.  (They  are 
wider  than  is  usual.)  He  is  much  like  other 
natives  in  general  appearance,  to  our  undistin- 
guishing  eyes,  and  was  of  course  dressed  in 
European  costume.  He  scarcely  uttered  a  word, 
so  I  don't  know  how  much  English  he  knows.  I 
am  told  that  he  is  not  likely  to  be  succeeded  by 


A  BATH  IN  A  BREAKFAST  CUP 


any  one  who  will  be  able  to  carry  out  his  policy 
so  well  as  he  himself  has  done. 

In  telling  you  of  our  difficulties  in  getting 
water,  I  forgot  to  mention  that  once  all  we  had 
for  washing  during  twenty-four  hours  was  exactly 
one  cupful — and  that  black  with  mud.  This  not 
only  did  duty  in  the  morning,  but  had  to  be 
reserved  for  subsequent  use.  Our  hands  get 
filthy  again  but  a  few  minutes  after  washing,  so 
that  one  must  try  and  wash  them  at  least  once 
during  the  day  ;  and  the  state  of  dirt  in  which 
one  is  obliged  to  go  to  bed  is  disgusting.  If  such 
are  the  pleasures  of  ox-waggon  travelling,  it  is 
better  to  stay  at  home,  you  may  say.  Yet  when 
Mr.  Grey  lately  appealed  to  each  of  us  all  round 
to  say  whether,  if  we  could  at  that  moment 
suddenly  project  ourselves  back  to  England,  we 
should  do  so,  there  was  a  unanimous  chorus  of 
"No." 


LETTER   X 

Strayed  horses — A  moonlight  ride — The  spider  left  behind — Mr.  Fitz- 
william  is  lost  on  the  veldt — He  finds  his  way  back  at  night— Kopjes 
- — Euphorbias — Flowering  aloes — An  oven  on  the  veldt — Ant  heaps — 
Nearly  upset — Arrival  at  Bulawayo — Our  abode  there — The  ruins  of 
old  Bulawayo — Insulting  behaviour  of  the  Matabili  before  the  war — 
The  commencement  of  new  Bulawayo. 

Bulawayo,  Matabililand, 
^thjiily  1894. 

Here  we  are,  arrived  at  the  end  of  the  first  stage 
of  our  trekking — and  perfectly  successfully.  And 
here  again  we  find  a  delightful  batch  of  letters 
awaiting  us.  You  say  that  Sir  Henry  Loch 
thinks  we  shall  never  stand  the  journey.  He  is 
not  the  only  man  who  thinks  us  crazy.  The 
general  view  over  the  country  is  that  we  are 
crazy  to  come,  and  Mr.  A.  Grey  crazy  to  bring 
us.  People  cannot  believe  we  are  not  utterly 
bored  with  waggon  travelling.  On  the  contrary, 
I  find  one  gets  to  suit  oneself  more  and  more  to 
the  situation,  and,   except   for  the  dust  and  dirt 


STRA  YED  HORSES  103 

and  the   hurry,  there  are  very  few  drawbacks  to 
the  Hfe. 

My  last  letter  was  from  Palapsye,  written  just 
before  we  ought  to  have  started  to  continue  our 
travels.  Our  waggons  had  started  the  night 
before,  and  we  were  to  ride  and  catch  them  up, 
accompanied  by  Mr.  A.  Grey's  cousin,  Major 
Grey,  who  joined  us  here  and  remained  with  us 
till  we  reached  Tati.  But  as  the  moment  for 
departure  approached,  a  whisper  ran  round  that 
the  horses  were  lost.  A  hue  and  cry  was  set 
up,  and  after  some  hours  they  were  recovered  ; 
but  by  that  time  it  was  too  late  to  join  the 
waggons  by  daylight.  Accordingly  it  was 
settled  that  we  should  start  when  the  moon 
rose  between  eight  and  nine ;  and  as  the 
waggons  would  meanwhile  be  going  on,  we 
would  have  about  eighteen  miles  to  go  before 
we  joined  them.  As  everything  that  could  had 
been  sent  on  by  the  waggons,  and  we  had  ex- 
pected to  ride  in  the  hot  sun,  we  had  kept  out 
no  wraps.  Mrs.  Grey  got  one  of  her  husband's 
jackets,  and,  except  that  the  sleeves  were  about 


I04     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

six  inches  too  long,  she  managed  well  enough.  I 
had  nothing  to  put  over  my  thin  white  cotton  shirt 
except  a  bath-towel.  So  behold  me  heading  the 
cavalcade  on  a  cream  -  coloured  pony,  the  said 
bath-towel  gracefully  disposed  about  my  person 
or  ballooning  in  the  breeze  !  Before  starting  we 
all  assembled  in  the  Store  (our  host  was  the  store- 
keeper), and  the  gentlemen  drank  success  to  our 
expedition  in  whisky-and-soda,  all  of  us  sitting  in 
various  positions  on  the  counter.  The  first  two 
miles  of  the  ride  were  most  unpleasant — the  road 
consisting  of  heavy  sand  thickly  mixed  with 
boulders,  like  strawberries  in  whipped  cream. 
Mrs,  Grey  very  soon  drew  the  line,  and  preferred 
bumping  in  the  spider  to  stumbling  over  them  on 
horseback.  I  rode  all  the  way  and  enjoyed  it 
much,  except  that  I  fully  expected  to  come  a 
cropper  over  the  roots  and  stumps  which  project 
here  and  there  in  the  track,  and  which  you  can't 
see  at  all  by  night.  Before  we  reached  the 
waggons  we  noticed  that  the  spider  was  no 
longer  near  us.  Mr.  A.  Grey  rode  back  to  see 
what    had  happened,   and   found   that   the  mules 


THE  SPIDER  LEFT  BEHIND  105 

were  thoroughly  tired  out  by  the  heavy  sand  on 
the  road,  and  poor  Mrs,  Grey,  finding  herself 
deserted,  was  despairingly  resigning  herself  to 
spending  the  night  in  the  spider  on  the  veldt 
with  only  little  Hendrik  as  a  protector.  Mr. 
Grey  tied  his  horse  behind  the  carriage  and  drove 
the  mules  while  Hendrik  whipped  ;  and  in  this  way 
they  at  last  reached  the  waggons  about  midnight. 
We  were  now  beginning  to  get  into  a  country 
varied  by  kopjes  from  the  eternal  bushy  plain 
through  which  we  had  hitherto  passed  ;  and  there 
was  also  a  certain  amount  of  big  game,  and  with 
big  game,  the  possibility  of  lions.  The  gentle- 
men used  to  start  every  morning  at  sunrise  in 
hopes  of  killing  some  buck,  but  were  not  very 
successful.  Mr.  G.  Grey  had  an  excellent  chance 
at  a  cock  ostrich  in  full  plumage,  but  just  as  he 
was  about  to  fire,  his  horse  ran  in  between  him 
and  the  bird.  Another  day  he  wounded  a  mag- 
nificent koodoo  bull,  but  could  not  follow  its 
i;^(7^?^  (footprints).  On  the  23rd,  Mr.  Fitzwilliam 
and  Major  Grey  went  out  together  in  one  direc- 
tion, and  the  other  two  men   in  another.     Before 


io6     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

our  afternoon  trek  the  two  latter  returned,  but 
not  t^e  two  former.  This  did  not  make  us 
anxious,  as  we  expected  they  would  follow  us  to 
where  we  outspanned  for  dinner.  And  sure 
enough  while  at  dinner  Major  Grey  appeared— 
but  with  anxious  face,  asking  where  was  Mr. 
Fitzwilliam  ?  It  was  now  clear  that  the  latter 
was  lost,  and  to  be  lost  in  this  country  is  no  joke. 
They  had  followed  a  gemsbok.^  Major  Grey  got 
off  to  fire  and  his  horse  sfot  loose.  Mr.  Fitz- 
william  continued  to  gallop  on,  and  was  seen  no 
more.  You  can  imagine  what  an  evening  we 
spent,  speculating  as  to  what  had  happened,  and 
what  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  would  do.  Mr.  Grey  and 
Major  Grey  were  most  anxious,  the  former  saying 
that  when  lost,  even  people  of  experience  on  the 
veldt  frequently  lose  their  heads,  and  telling  us 
of  men  who  had  been  lost  for  days,  and  yet  never 
were  more  than  a  few  miles  from  the  road  ;  or 
who  were  never  found  at  all.  Awful  visions  of 
Mr.  Fitzwilliam  in  a  similar  plight  rose  before  us. 
But  Mrs.   Grey  and    I   firmly  maintained  that  we 

^  ^  Large  antelope  with  very  long  straight  horns. 


MR.  FITZ WILLIAM  LOST  ON  THE  VELDT      107 

did  not  believe  that  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  would  lose 
his  head.  We  said  he  would  be  perfectly  calm, 
and  would  reason  as  to  the  right  course  to  take, 
and  act  accordingly.  Indeed,  so  convinced  was  I 
of  this,  that  my  real  fear  was  that  he  had  met 
with  an  accident  and  was  disabled.  Major  Grey 
rode  back  directly  dinner  was  over  to  light  a  bon- 
fire on  a  kopje,  and  to  arrange  for  natives  to 
follow  the  spoor  as  soon  as  it  was  daylight.  We 
sat  up  till  late,  firing  guns  at  intervals  and  wonder- 
ing whether  our  lost  companion  had  food,  drink, 
or  matches  with  him.  When  we  went  to  bed  we 
gave  strict  injunctions  that  we  were  to  be  waked 
if  any  news  came  ;  and  as  we  undressed  we  told 
each  other  what  brutes  we  felt  for  thinking  of 
sleep  at  all,  while  poor  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  might  be 
shiverinof  on  the  veldt.  At  about  three  in  the 
morning  we  were  waked  by  stentorian  yells  of 
"Hallo,"  "I  say,"  "Hallo,"  and  found  Mr.  G. 
Grey  had  been  vainly  endeavouring  to  make  us 
hear  that  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  had  turned  up,  adding 
a  variety  of  scornful  remarks  on  the  soundness  of 
our  slumbers  when  we  professed  so  much  anxiety 


io8     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

as  to  his  fate.  He  declared  he  had  been  shouting 
for  several  minutes  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  to 
which  we  returned  that  had  he  used  either  our 
names  or  Mr.  Fitzwilliam's  we  should  have  waked 
at  the  first  call. 

It  appeared  that  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  had  followed 
the  gemsbok  till  his  horse  became  so  leg-weary 
that  he  could  go  no  more.  Then  he  got  off  and 
walked  slowly  back  with  him  in  the  direction 
where  he  had  left  Major  Grey.  His  watch 
marked  2.30,  so  there  was  no  reason  for  hurry. 
After  a  little  time  he  noticed  that  the  sun  was 
very  low,  and  looking  again  at  his  watch,  found  it 
still  at  2,30.  He  knew  now  that  he  could  not  get 
to  the  road  before  dark,  and  the  moon  did  not 
rise  till  after  ten.  When  the  sun  set  he  deter- 
mined to  lie  down  and  wait  for  the  moon  before 
going  further.  He  had  no  food  and  no  matches, 
only  some  whisky,  which  he  husbanded  with  care. 
He  padded  his  coat  well  with  dry  grass  to  keep 
himself  warm,  for  the  nights  are  often  frosty,  and 
then  went  fast  asleep.  When  the  moon  rose  he 
got  up,  saddled  his  horse,  and,  guiding  himself  by 


MR.  FITZ  WILLIAM  RETURNS  109 

the  Stars,  rode  on  till  he  reached  the  waggon- 
track.  He  followed  this  till  he  came  to  a  camp, 
when  he  shouted  to  know  if  there  was  any  white 
man  there.  It  proved  to  be  Major  Grey's,  and 
he,  overjoyed,  hastily  provided  refreshment  for 
man  and  beast,  after  which  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  rode 
on  to  our  waggons.  Thus  happily  ended  this 
adventure. 

We  have  neither  seen  nor  heard  any  lions,  but 
we  are  told  that  one  killed  a  horse  near  Tati 
about  a  fortnight  before  we  passed,  and  our 
"boys"  were  some  of  them  quaking  for  fear  at 
having  to  go  through  the  district,  and  would 
scarcely  go  a  yard  away  from  the  waggons  at 
night.  One  night  something  was  prowling  round, 
for  Major  Grey's  mules  were  very  nervous  ;  but 
it  was  probably  a  hysena. 

For  several  days  before  we  arrived  here  we 
passed  through  some  very  curious  country,  dotted 
over  with  kopjes.  Some  of  these  are  of  granite  ; 
others  are  of  some  dark  stone,  and  are  covered 
with  all  sorts  of  extraordinary  and  beautiful  trees 
and  plants,  just  like  gigantic   rock   gardens,  the 


no     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

huge  blocks  of  which  they  are  composed  looking 
as  artificial  and  unnatural  in  arrangement  as  any- 
wretched  little  fernery  stuck  down  on  an  English 
suburban  grass-plot.  7^he  most  remarkable  of 
the  shrubs  growing  on  these  kopjes  are  the  big 
green  fleshy  euphorbias,  looking  like  the  seven 
golden  candlesticks,  only  with  seventy  instead  of 
seven  branches.  There  were  also  baobabs,  but 
none  were  near  the  road,  so  I  didn't  see  any  ;  and 
wild  figs,  wild  oranges  (I  measured  one  :  it  was 
13I-  inches  in  circumference,  and  as  hard  as  a 
cricket  ball),  wild  plums,  and  many  new  and 
curious  trees  and  fruits.  One  tree  has  a  leaf 
rather  like  a  mopani  leaf,  with  huge  beans  about 
a  foot  long  dangling  all  over  it.  Another  has  a 
flat  circular  winged  seed,  as  large  as  the  top  of  a 
breakfast  cup,  with  a  globular  centre  prickly  like 
a  Spanish  chestnut.  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  brought  us 
the  seeds  of  a  bush  which  he  saw  blazing  red  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  off.  The  seeds  grow  in  clusters, 
each  seed  being  winged  and  bright  crimson  in 
colour.  There  are  also  two  plants  which  grow 
several  feet  hio;-h,and  are  extraordinarily  handsome. 


FLOWERING  ALOES 


They  have  a  tuft  of  thick  fleshy  cactus-like  leaves 
at  the  base,  and  out  of  this  grows  a  tall  flower- 
spike.  In  one  of  the  species  the  flower  is  like  a 
long  and  narrow  "  red-hot  poker "  [kiiiphojid). 
The    other   has    a  branching  flower  -  spike,  each 


ALOE  ON  THE  VELDT,  BECHUANALAND. 


branch  being  covered  with  pendant  scarlet  flowers. 
They  are  called  here  "  flowering  aloes." 

We  continued  to  pass  sandy  river  beds  at 
intervals,  usually  outspanning  near  them  in  order 
to  get  water  by  digging  in  them.  The  worst  of 
this  is  that  these  outspanning  places  are  apt  to  be 
extremely  dirty,   as   every   waggon  stops  at  the 


112     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 


same  place  for  the  same  reason.  Close  to  the 
drift  of  the  Macloutsie  River  I  photographed  an 
old  ant  heap,  which  some  transport  riders  had  used 


1>  ''^A     •!..       .  ^\0 


ANT-HEAP    OVEN. 


as  an  oven  for  baking  bread,  by  cutting  out  a 
hole  in  the  side.  These  ant  heaps  are  made  of 
earth  and  become  as  hard  as  stone  ;  indeed  when 
walking  at  night,  and  sitting  down  to  wait  for  the 
waggons  (one  never  could  walk  slowly  enough  to 


NEARL  V  UPSE  T  113 


keep  with  them,  if  the  road  was  rough),  I  soon 
learned  to  avoid  an  ant  heap  as  a  seat,  however 
inviting  looking,  as  stones  seemed  cushions  com- 
pared to  them. 

The  last  two  days  before  we  got  here  were 
signalised  by  two  narrow  escapes  of  our  being  up- 
set, once  in  the  spider  and  once  in  the  waggons. 
One  of  our  leading  mules,  Stembok  by  name,  has 
a  strong  will  of  his  own,  and  when  it  is  crossed 
he  turns  right  round  and  faces  you.  As  the 
spider's  front  wheels  are  too  high  to  go  under  the 
body,  this  manoeuvre  is  not  an  agreeable  one. 
On  this  occasion  one  front  wheel  did  get  under 
somehow,  and  the  other  was  hoisted  wildly  up  in 
the  air — how,  I  can't  imagine  ;  and  the  more  I 
look  at  the  spider,  the  less  I  can  imagine. 
Luckily  it  was  where  we  outspanned,  so  some  one 
caught  the  unruly  one  by  the  head,  and  saved  us 
from  going  over.  The  last  night  before  we  got 
here,  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  and  I  were  walking  on 
ahead  (the  two  Messrs.  Grey  had  ridden  on  to 
Bulawayo  the  day  before),  when  we  came  to  a 
spruit  (running   stream)  with    very  steep    sides, 


114     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

and  on  the  south  side  a  perpendicular  drop  at  the 
bottom.  We  inquired  of  some  Americans  out- 
spanned  just  beyond,  whether  this  was  the  best 
drift,  and  were  told  it  was  ;  so  we  warned  the 
conductor  of  what  was  coming,  and  got  Mrs. 
Grey  out  of  her  waggon.  It  was  very  funny  to 
see  the  waggons  going  into  the  drift  with  their 
serpentine  lines  of  oxen  in  front ;  and  in  spite  of 
most  powerful  screw-drags,  almost  shoving  the 
wheel-oxen  off  their  legs.  And  when  one  of 
them  made  a  dangerous-looking  lurch  over,  I  saw 
Dennison  put  up  his  arms  as  if  to  support  it — a 
perfectly  futile  proceeding  had  it  really  capsized. 
Dennison  was  nervous  about  the  two  tented  wag- 
gons. However,  all  got  through  without  further 
accident  than  smashing  the  pole  of  the  spider, 
which  was  tied  behind  the  men's  waggon,  although 
they  swayed  about  in  the  most  drunken  manner. 

Our  poor  brown  pointer  Jess  was  run  over  and 
killed  this  morning  when  the  waggons  started 
again,  as  she  chose  to  lie  down  to  sleep  between 
the  wheels.  She  was  such  a  nice  dog.  Merci- 
fullv  she  did  not  live  a  minute  after. 


OUR  ABODE  A  T  BULA  WAYO  115 

We  passed  through  the  new  town  of  Bulawayo 
on  the  morning  of  the  4th,  having  been  exactly 
five  weeks  trekking.  This  is  supposed  to  be  an 
extraordinarily  quick  journey,  and  has  quite  upset 
all  the  prophecies  of  the  croakers.  Dr.  Jameson 
and  Sir  John  Willoughby,  who  have  a  house  be- 
tween the  old  and  new  towns,  about  two  miles 
from  the  latter,  are  living  in  tents  and  have  given 
us  their  rooms.  It  makes  one  quite  ashamed  to 
accept  so  much  kindness.  I  have  Sir  John  Wil- 
loughby's  room.  This  is  a  true  and  faithful 
description  of  it.  It  has  mud  walls,  mud  floor, 
thatched  roof  with  no  ceiling,  doors  made  of  two 
packing-case  lids,  and  an  unglazed  window  with 
shutter  of  rough  boards.  Furniture  :  a  bedstead, 
one  box  upside  down,  some  wooden  shelves,  a 
small  strip  of  matting,  an  empty  whisky-bottle 
doing  duty  as  a  candlestick,  and  (oh !  luxury)  a 
table !  Dr.  Jameson's  room,  occupied  by  Mrs. 
Grey,  is  much  the  same,  only  it  has  a  six-inch- 
square  looking-glass  as  well ;  and  for  the  first 
time  for  five  weeks  she  has  been  able  to  look  at 
her  back  hair.     The  dining-room  and  kitchen  are 


ii6     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

close  by,  and  I  suppose  it  is  owing  to  the  heat  of 
the  latter  that  there  were  a  few  flies  about.  Mr. 
A.  Grey  asked  Dr.  Jameson's  factotum,  Garlick, 
whether  the  flies  had  been  very  troublesome  in 
the  summer,  to  which  he  replied,  "Yes,  indeed, 
sir ;  you  couldn't  see  through  them."     The  house 


MATABILI    HUT. 


is  very  comfortable  really,  although  my  descrip- 
tion of  it  may  make  you  think  it  is  an  inappro- 
priate abode  for  the  Administrator  of  a  territory 
as  large  as  France.  But  this  indifference  to  show 
is  one  of  the  things  that  make  one  proud  of  one's 
countrymen.  Dr.  Jameson  dined  with  us  the 
evening  of  the  day  we  arrived.  He,  Mr.  A. 
Grey,  and  Sir  J.  Willoughby  have  now  gone  on 


THE  R  UINS  OF  B  ULA  WA  VO  117 

to  the  Bonsor  mine,  and  we  join  them  there  in 
the  waggons  early  next  week  ;  so  I  hope  we  shall 
see  more  of  him. 

I  have  been  sketching  in  Lobengula's  old  town 
of  Bulawayo,  which  is  about  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  from  here.  It  was  burnt  by  his  order  when 
he  fled.  It  is  on  the  top  of  a  slope,  and  consisted 
of  an  enormous  circle  of  red  mud  huts,  about  four 
deep,  and  close  together,  the  space  enclosed  being 
about  600  yards  in  diameter.  Within  the  circle 
were  Lobengula's  brick  house  and  his  wives'  huts, 
with  a  wooden  stockade  round  them.  His  indunas 
(chiefs  or  headmen)  lived  with  their  belongings  in 
the  circle  of  huts,  whose  broken  and  blackened 
walls  still  remain,  though  the  thatch  is  all  burnt 
off.  They  were  only  about  four  or  five  feet  high 
to  the  eaves,  and  the  rounded  doorways  not  more 
than  two  or  three  feet  high.  Of  Lobengula's 
house  nothing  but  a  low  heap  of  bricks  remains. 
It  is  very  pathetic  to  see  the  great  deserted  kraal 
once  so  populous,  and  now  tenanted  only  by  a 
few  screaming  plovers  flying  round  and  round 
over  it.     One  or  two  miserable  -  looking   blacks 


ii8     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

were  squatted  among  the  ashes  grubbing  for  glass 
beads.  Far  away, — the  only  thing  that  breaks 
the  monotony  of  the  horizon, — you  see  Thabas 
Induna,  the  hill  where  Lobengula  won  his  first 
victory.  In  spite  of  all  his  cruelties,  one  cannot 
help  being  rather  sorry  for  the  old  king.  I  think 
that  feeling  is  held  by  most  of  the  people  engaged 
in  the  war.  The  Matabili  seem  absolutely  quiet, 
and  have  no  sense  of  the  ignominy  of  defeat. 
But  their  insolence  before  the  war  is  almost  be- 
yond belief.  They  would  enter  an  Englishman's 
waggon  unbidden,  pull  the  book  he  was  reading 
out  of  his  hand  and  throw  it  on  the  floor  again 
and  again,  spit  into  his  water-bottle,  snatch  off  his 
hat,  and  if  he  tried  to  recover  it,  chuck  a  knob- 
kerrie  (club  or  knobbed  stick)  under  his  chin  so  as 
almost  to  shatter  his  teeth.  These  insults  had  to 
be  borne  in  silence,  as  resistance  would  only  have 
ended  in  murder  by  overwhelming  numbers.  But 
the  forbearance  and  self-restraint  of  the  white  men 
when  their  turn  came,  seems  to  me  to  have  been 
marvellous  after  such  provocation. 

Garlick  has  given  me  a  delightful  knobkerrie 


BULA  WA  YO  AS  IT  IS 


made  of  rhinoceros  horn,  which  he  found  in 
Lobengula's  kraal  when  the  troops  entered  it 
at  the  end  of  the  war.  We  have  been  spend- 
ing  the    morning    in    buying    Matabili    ostrich- 


THE    PRINCIPAL   SQUARE,    BULAWAYO.       NATIVES   DRAGGING   A   WATER- 
BARREL. 


feather  head-dresses,  etc.,  which  are  unutterably 
filthy,  and  will  have  to  undergo  a  severe  course 
of  fumigation  before  they  are  presentable. 

The  new  town  of  Bulawayo  at  present  consists 
of  little  more  than  a  few  iron-roofed  sheds,  with 
here  and  there  a  tent  interspersed  among  them. 


122     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

The  most  conspicuous  building  is  a  store,  with 
the  initials  of  the  company  to  which  it  belongs 
writ  large  on  the  roof.  This  stands  at  the 
corner  of  the  principal  square  —  an  unkempt 
stretch  of  red  dust.  Water  is  scarce,  and  has 
to  be  dragged  up  in  barrels  by  natives  or  by 
oxen.^ 

^  Within  a  year  of  our  visit  to  Bulawayo  so  many  brick  houses  have 
been  built  that  I  am  told  v/e  should  not  recognise  the  place  now.  An 
elaborate  system  of  water  supply  is  in  contemplation  if  not  actually  in 
progress. 


LETTER   XI 

Mrs.  Colenbrander's  hut — A  native  dance— Native  views  of  the  past  and 
present — Leave  Bulawayo — The  Bembesi  and  Shangani  battlefields — 
Leave  the  main  road — Sixteen  "sticks" — The  diisselboom  gives  way 
— Reach  the  Selukwe  Hills — The  Bonsor  mine — Gold  panning — Cross- 
ing the  Selukwe  Hills — Melancholy  result  of  ascending  kopjes — We 
follow  a  honey-bird — Threshing  oofoo — Crossing  the  Tokwe — Failure 
of  attempts  to  blow  up  crocodile — Arrival  at  Victoria. 

Victoria,  idthjtdy  1S94. 

We  left  Bulawayo  on  the  7th,  arriving  here  two 
days  ago,  having  had  a  very  interesting  journey, 
with  about  as  near  an  approach  to  anything  like 
adventure  as  we  are  likely  to  experience.  The 
day  we  left  we  lunched  with  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Colenbrander,  who  have  built  a  set  of  large  huts 
close  to  the  new  Bulawayo.  One  of  these  is 
decorated  with  leopard  skins,  which  are  spread 
on  all  the  seats  and  tables,  a  large  kaross  cover- 
ing the  bed,  the  whole  having  an  air  of  barbaric 
splendour.  It  was  hoped  that  there  would  be  a 
large  number  of  natives  assembled  for  the  dance 


124     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

which  was  to  follow,  but  from  various  causes, 
comparatively  few  came.  Among  those  that  did 
come  were  two  of  Lobengula's  brothers  and 
several  other  chiefs.  The  dances,  as  at  Johan- 
nesburg, consisted  chiefly  of  rows  of  men  in 
line,  holding  their  knobkerries  upright  in  one 
hand,  and  slowly  lifting  each  foot  alternately  as 
high  as  possible,  and  bringing  it  down  flat  on  the 
sole  with  a  thump  that  made  one's  own  soles  ache 
to  see  it.  This  was  accompanied  by  a  mono- 
tonous chant  of  some  eight  or  ten  notes  repeated 
endlessly  with  the  same  words.  One  of  these 
phrases,  we  were  told,  was  to  the  effect  that 
as  they  had  no  corn  that  year  to  make  beer, 
the  white  man  should  give  it  them.  Another 
was  in  praise  of  the  "good  old  times";  but, 
to  judge  by  the  singing,  these  much -vaunted 
times  must  have  been  lugubrious  enough  to 
make  the  old  cow  die  on  the  spot.  The  women 
danced  in  a  group  by  themselves,  several  of 
them  with  their  babies  tied  on  their  backs,  the 
little  things  taking  the  jogs  and  shakes  to  which 
they  were    subjected  with    absolute    equanimity. 


WE  LEA  VE  BULA  WA  YO  125 

Both  men  and  women  were  dressed  in  every 
variety  of  garment,  from  a  suit  of  tweeds  to  a 
mere  little  piece  of  skin  hanging  from  the  waist. 
Brass  anklets  and  bracelets  were  frequent,  and 
every  native  carries  a  snuff-box,  either  round  the 
neck  or  waist  or  stuck  in  his  ear.  For  this 
latter  position  empty  cartridge-cases  are  in  much 
request.  They  are  stuck  through  a  slit  in  the 
lobe  of  the  ear. 

We  left  Bulawayo  that  evening  with  the 
waggons  and  three  fresh  spans  of  oxen.  On 
the  way  we  passed  the  scene  of  the  two  fights 
between  the  Chartered  Company's  forces  and  the 
Matabili  on  the  march  from  Victoria  to  Bula- 
wayo. Mr.  G.  Grey  was  in  both  fights,  and 
by  close  questioning  we  got  very  vivid  descrip- 
tions of  them  from  him.  The  extraordinary 
folly  of  the  Matabili  strikes  me  more  than  any- 
thing else.  They  absolutely  thought  that  they 
had  only  to  fire  a  shot,  and  walk  in  and  assegai 
our  men  without  a  struggle.  They  neglected 
almost  every  natural  advantage,  and  showed 
neither    tactics    nor    generalship    of    any    kind. 


126     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

Neither  of  the  fights  seem  to  have  been  nearly 
as  severe  as  those  in  the  Soudan  War,  compar- 
ing them  with  what  one  has  heard  of  the  latter. 
In  the  first  fight  the  attackers  were  chiefly  slave 
regiments.  In  the  second  they  were  the  crack- 
and-hitherto-invincible  pure  Matabili  regiments. 
Some  of  the  men  in  these  last  were  really  very 
brave,  and  came  on  recklessly  until  they  were 
shot  down,  but  none  got  nearer  than  about  150 
yards  from  the  laager. 

We  reached  the  Shangani  River  early  on  the 
morning  of  the  iith,  and  when  we  woke  up  I 
called  to  John,  our  special  "boy,"  to  know  on 
which  side  of  the  river  we  had  outspanned,  to 
which  his  lucid  reply  was  "  On  this  side."  After 
leaving  here  we  diverged  from  the  main  road 
across  high  grassy  tableland,  very  bare  of  bush, 
where  so  few  vehicles  passed  that  the  track  was 
extremely  indistinct,  and  occasionally  every  one 
was  hunting  about  to  find  it  at  all.  We  went 
along  the  watershed,  the  streams  on  our  right 
all  joining  the  Lundi,  and  those  on  our  left 
eventually  reaching  the  Zambesi.      Unfortunately, 


''STICKS' 


127 


the  track  was  rather  on  the  south  side  of  the 
watershed,  and  every  mile  or  so  we  came  upon 
a  boggy  hollow  forming  the  commencement  of 
a  stream,  and  equally  every  time  the  buck- 
waggon  stuck  in  the  bog.  Then  followed 
thrashings  and  yells  for  about  twenty  minutes 
or  more,  and  then  a  second  or  even  a  third 
span  of  oxen  from  the  other  waggons  was  put 
on  ;  and  after  more  thrashings  and  yells  we  got 
through.  You  may  wonder  why  the  second  span 
isn't  put  on  at  once.  It  ought  not  to  be  put 
on  at  all  unless  absolutely  necessary,  for  the 
oxen  of  the  first  span  get  cunning,  and  if  they 
are  indulged  won't  pull  at  all  till  the  second 
span  is  put  on. 

Our  conductor  was  terribly  disgusted  with  this 
road.  Naturally  his  pride  is  to  get  over  the 
ground  as  quickly  as  possible,  with  as  few  hitches 
as  possible.  But  once  he  has  poured  out  his 
griefs  he  sets  to  work  with  great  energy  and 
resource  to  overcome  the  difficulties.  Never- 
theless, he  remarked,  with  an  air  of  resigned 
despair,  at  the  sixth  "stick"  in  eight  hours,  that 


128     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

"  this  gets  kind  of  monotonous."  The  monotony 
was  presently  changed  for  the  worse.  After 
seeing  a  second  span  of  oxen  set  to  pull,  and 
disliking  to  watch  the  thrashing  the  poor  brutes 
had  to  undergo,  we  walked  on  in  the  dark  as 
far  as  the  next  bog.  There  we  were  stopped 
by  cries,  and  were  presently  overtaken  by 
Mumbu,  one  of  our  lately  -  acquired  Mashuna 
boys,  who  said,  "  Dusselboom  broke,"  and  de- 
parted. We  retraced  our  steps,  to  find  the  buck- 
waggon  still  in  the  hole,  while  the  sound  of  the 
axe  betrayed  where  a  tree  was  being  cut  down 
to  replace  the  dusselboom  (pole).  Meanwhile 
vigorous  efforts  were  still  being  made  with  the 
two  spans  of  oxen  to  move  the  waggon,  and 
just  as  we  got  back  we  heard  a  crack,  and  away 
went  the  twenty-eight  oxen  up  the  hill  at  a  run, 
leaving  the  waggon  behind.  The  iron-work  in 
front  of  it  had  broken.  "It  would  take  a  black- 
smith two  days'  work  to  repair  it,  and,  indeed, 
only  a  professional  waggon -maker  could  do  it, 
and  he  supposed  he  would  have  to  remain  there 
for  days  while  the    other  waggons  went  on    to 


A  NEW  DUSSELBOOM  129 

fetch  a  blacksmith."  Such  were  our  conductor's 
melancholy  prognostications,  and  with  such  a 
prospect  we  retired  to  bed.  But  his  pessimistic 
feelings  having  now  evaporated  in  words,  he 
off-loaded  the  waggon,  had  it  dug  and  hauled 
out  by  the  "boys,"  put  in  his  new  diisselboom, 
fixed  it  to  the  waggon  by  an  ingenious  arrange- 
ment of  chains  in  place  of  the  broken  iron-work, 
reloaded  it,  and  was  ready  to  start  again  in  four 
or  five  hours. 

These  "sticks"  recurred  about  sixteen  times, 
but  as  there  is,  as  Dennison  says,  considerable 
monotony  about  them,  I  will  describe  no  more. 
At  the  last  one  the  dusselboom  gave  way  again, 
the  only  wonder  being  that  it  had  held  out  so 
long,  but  Dennison  had  anticipated  this,  and  had 
got  another  one  ready,  which  we  still  have  on. 

There  were  extraordinary  variations  in  tem- 
perature all  along  this  road  at  night,  the  hollows 
being  very  damp  and  cold,  with  every  now  and 
then  on  the  hillsides  quite  a  warm  spot.  I 
fancied  that  the  slopes  facing  north  were  warmer 
than  those  facing  south,  as  the  former  get  more 

K 


I30     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

heated  during  the  day  ;  but  I  may  have  been 
mistaken  about  this.  There  was  often  frost  in 
the  early  morning,  and  one  day  the  cook  showed 
me  a  thick  lump  of  ice  which  he  had  taken  out 
of  the  kettle  which  had  hung  under  the  waggon 
all  night. 

For  the  last  few  miles  we  were  in  more  hilly 
ground,  and  prospectors  for  gold  had  been  con- 
tinually passing.  The  result  was  any  number 
of  veldt  fires,  which  sometimes  look  very  fine 
in  the  distance  with  their  great  columns  of  smoke 
by  day  and  lurid  glow  in  the  sky  at  night,  but 
which  are  most  odious  from  all  other  points  of 
view,  as  they  destroy  the  bush  and  make  the 
great  plains  a  sheet  of  black.  The  dust  from 
this  is  so  fine  that  it  gets  inside  all  one's  clothes, 
and  the  consequent  washing  required  is  serious. 
At  last  we  reached  the  Selukwe  Hills,  and  out- 
spanned  near  the  Bonsor  mine,  where  Mr.  Grey 
rejoined  us.  The  road  here,  if  road  it  may  be 
called,  ceases.  A  few  Scotch  carts  (light  two- 
wheeled  waggons)  have  passed  along,  but  no 
tent- waggons   had    ever    done    so.       From    this 


THE  BONSOR  MINE  131 

time  till  we  got  near  to  Victoria  we  travelled 
almost  entirely  by  day,  as  we  should  almost 
certainly  have  been  upset  had  we  trekked  by 
night.  The  waggons  started  one  morning  at 
7.30,  with  Mr.  G.  Grey  as  pioneer  cutting  the 
trees  before  them,  while  the  rest  of  us  went  to 
see  the  Bonsor  mine.  It  consists  of  a  shaft 
newly  sunk  on  the  site  of  some  prehistoric  work- 
ings, the  dug-out  holes  of  which  are  still  visible ; 
while  close  by  are  little  pits  and  grooves  in  the 
rock  believed  to  have  been  worn  by  grinding 
the  quartz.  Even  the  stones  with  which  they 
ground  it  still  lie  beside  or  in  the  holes.  To 
allow  of  our  going  down  the  shaft  a  kind  of  seat 
had  been  rigged  up,  attached  by  a  rope  round 
a  hand-windlass,  and  in  this,  guiding  ourselves 
by  our  feet  from  hitting  the  walls  of  the  shaft, 
we  descended  one  by  one,  some  sixty  feet  to 
the  bottom.  The  ancient  miners,  whoever  they 
were,  had  gone  down  within  about  four  feet  of 
this,  and  the  question  was  why  they  had  stopped 
there?  Were  they  driven  out  of  the  country  or 
had    the   gold    come    to    an  end   at  that  depth  ? 


132     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

It  is  now  believed  that  here  at  any  rate  it  was 
not  from  the  latter  cause,  but  whereas  near  the 
surface  the  gold  lies  in  the  quartz  free,  at  the 
lower  level  it  is  combined  with  pyrites,  and  it 
is  only  within  the  last  few  years  that  chemical 
processes  have  been  discovered  which  permit  of 
its  being  extracted  from  this  in  a  way  that  pays. 
A  small  drive  of  some  ten  or  twenty  feet  has 
been  made  from  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  across 
the  quartz  reef  bearing  the  gold.  At  Johannes- 
burg the  gold-bearing  strata  that  I  saw  are  gray- 
coloured,  and  not  at  once  distinguishable  from 
the  surrounding  rock.  In  this  district  the  gold 
is  found  in  white  quartz  (if  streaky,  like  bacon, 
so  much  the  better)  between  layers  of  dark 
reddish-brown  "slate."  Here  the  quartz  reef  is 
vertical,  and  extends  along  the  surface  above 
ground  for  more  than  a  mile.  Experience  shows 
that  as  a  rule  when  the  extension  above  ground 
is  as  much  as  that,  the  extension  below  is  also 
considerable.  The  "slate"  is  a  metamorphosed 
aqueous  stratum.  All  this  I  gathered  (I  hope 
correctly)    from    Mr.   M'Intyre,   the   engineering 


GOLD  PANNING 


133 


manager,  who  took  infinite  pains  to  explain  and 
show  us  everything.  We  were  afterwards  shown 
some  "panning"  of  the  quartz  from  here  and 
from  the  Dunraven  mine  (where  they  have  come 
on  three  gold-bearing  reefs  of  different  thick- 
nesses), and  though  the  quartz  thus  panned  was 
so  coarsely  crushed  that  among  pieces  of  the  size 
of  peas  taken  up  at  random  we  could  see  the 
gold,  yet  the  gold  left  after  the  panning  was 
over  was  considerable  in  amount.^  When  we 
left  the  mine  we  went  down  a  pass  through 
lovely  wooded  hills,  along  which  the  wag- 
gons were  slowly  threading  their  way.  The 
trees  were  mostly  either  mountain  acacia  or 
mahobo-hobo,  this  last  resembling  a  magnolia 
more  than  anything  else,  only  the  leaves  are 
coarsely  ribbed  and  wider,  and  it  bears  a  fruit 
which  we  are  told  is  very  good  eating.  We  had 
not  gone  far  before  we  saw  one  of  the  waggons 
resting  in  a  fainting  condition  (if  waggons  can 
be  imagined   to   faint)   against  a  tree,    while    all 

^  Panning  consists  in  shaking  some  finely-crushed  gold-bearing  rock 
in  a  basin  of  water,  until  the  gold,  being  heaviest,  forms  a  fine  sediment 
at  the  bottom,  the  rest  being  carefully  poured  off. 


134     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

the  drivers,  leaders,  conductor,  and  assistants 
were  employed  in  trying  to  hoist  it  up  so  as 
to  get  it  past  the  tree.  Our  contingent  of  men 
materially  assisted  in  that  process,  and  what 
between  digging  on  one  side  and  shoving  on 
the  other,  they  at  last  succeeded  in  righting  it, 
but,  alas !  no  longer  in  its  pristine  beauty,  for 
all  one  side  of  the  tent  was  battered  in,  and  all 
my  dressing  and  drawing  things,  which  were 
hung  on  that  side,  were  scattered  in  wild  con- 
fusion, some  spoiled  and  some  lost.  However, 
the  damage  was  not  as  great  as  I  at  one  time 
feared,  and  I  have  had  no  irreparable  losses. 
This  over,  poor  Dennison  had  to  rush  forward 
to  the  buck-waggon,  which  had  taken  the  oppor- 
tunity to  get  stuck  ahead  of  us  ;  and  so  it  con- 
tinued. No  sooner  had  one  waggon  got  past 
a  critical  place  than  another  was  in  one.  Some- 
times the  slope  of  the  hill  at  right  angles  to  the 
direction  of  the  track  was  so  great  that  the  wag- 
gons were  only  saved  from  capsizing  by  four 
men  hauling  with  reims  on  the  opposite  side, 
and    here   Mr.    M'Intyre's   strength   was    invalu- 


CROSSING  THE  SELUKWE  HILLS  137 

able.  Sometimes  a  very  steep  dip  with  rocky- 
sides  and  bottom  would  occur,  and  the  absence 
or  presence  of  a  small  stone  (and  there  were 
always  plenty  of  both  small  and  big  ones)  at 
the  critical  moment  would  determine  whether 
the  waggon  went  over  or  not ;  or  a  turn  would 
be  so  sharp  that  many  trees  would  have  to  be 
cut  to  allow  of  the  oxen  getting  sufficiently  in 
a  straight  line  to  be  able  to  pull.  It  was  really 
very  exciting  to  watch.  At  last  we  got  through 
the  worst  of  the  pass  without  an  upset,  but  the 
poor  spider  following  behind  got  the  bolt  joining 
the  under-carriage  to  the  body  jerked  out,  and 
the  four  mules,  pulling  the  driver  and  front 
wheels  after  them,  left  the  rest  mildly  but  firmly 
in  a  hole.  Luckily  this  was  close  to  where  the 
waggons  had  outspanned,  and  the  resourceful 
Mr.  G.  Grey  managed  to  mend  it  somehow  in 
the  course  of  the  evening ;  and  by  always  get- 
ting out  whenever  the  road  was  more  than 
usually  covered  with  rocks  and  boulders,  and 
by  continual  tieing  together  with  reims,  we 
have   actually  got  it   here  with    only  one  more 


138     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

breakdown.  After  getting  through  the  Selukwe 
Hills  the  road  got  much  better,  or  rather,  the 
grass  plains  were  smooth  enough,  and  spruits 
only  came  at  intervals.  We  lost  a  whole  day 
through  our  two  black  guides  taking  us  wrong, 
and  thus  we  only  succeeded  in  going  eighteen 
miles  on  the  right  road  in  four  days.  Extra 
delay  was  caused  by  the  "long-waggon"  (perch- 
pole)  of  the  buck-waggon  getting  badly  cracked 
in  crossing  a  spruit  on  the  wrong  road.  We 
had  immediately  to  outspan,  and  as  no  suitable 
tree  could  be  found  to  replace  it,  it  had  to  be 
tied  up  with  reims  wound  round  it  while  wet, 
which  shrunk  when  drying,  so  as  to  hold  ex- 
tremely tightly  and  firmly.  Reims  are  one's 
salvation  in  this  country.  Dennison  shot  a 
beautiful  reed-buck  this  day,  which  I  spent  my 
time  in  sketching,  while  Mrs.  Grey  and  Mr. 
Fitzwilliam  climbed  up  to  the  top  of  a  neigh- 
bouring kopje.  She  came  down  almost  in  tears, 
and  looking  like  a  prickly  hedgehog.  You  never 
saw  such  a  sight.  Her  whole  dress,  inside  and 
out,  was  one  mass  of  prickles  :  you  could  hardly 


WE  FOLLOW  A  HONEY-BIRD  139 

see  an  inch  of  the  stuff  of  which  it  was  made. 
These  prickles  are  seeds  about  half  an  inch  long, 
ending  in  four  little  points,  which  hold  on  like 
grim  death.  You  can't  brush  them  off;  they 
must  be  picked  off  by  hand.  The  plant  grows 
in  great  profusion  wherever  there  has  been  native 
cultivation,  and  as  the  Makalangas  always  live 
at  the  tops  of  the  kopjes  for  fear  of  the  Matabili, 
and  grow  all  sorts  of  plants  in  the  crannies  of 
the  rocks,  you  invariably  find  this  abominable 
weed  in  such  places.  So  bad  is  it  that  I  am 
almost  afraid  to  go  up  kopjes  now. 

All  through  this  district  there  is  a  good  deal 
of  game,  and  riding  about  I  constantly  saw  the 
spoor  of  various  kinds  of  buck,  and  sometimes  the 
animals  themselves,  as  well  as  jackals  and  huge 
baboons.  One  day  we  galloped  some  w^ay  after 
several  of  these,  until  they  got  to  ground  where 
we  could  not  follow  them.  Another  day,  when  I 
was  out  riding  with  Mr.  G.  Grey  and  Mr.  Fitz- 
william,  we  saw  a  honey-bird  which  perched  near 
us  on  a  tree  and  began  uttering  its  chattering 
note.      We  followed  it  as  it  went  from  bush  to 


140     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  JN  A    WAGGON 

bush  for  some  way,  till  we  came  to  a  tree  from 
which  someone  had  previously  cut  out  a  bees' 
nest  with  an  axe.  The  bird  still  kept  chatter- 
ing and  flew  on,  so  we  followed  it  again  for 
about  a  hundred  yards,  when  it  stopped  once 
more.  We  examined  the  trees  beside  us,  and 
presently  found  one  which  was  quite  hollow,  and 
through  a  small  hole  we  could  see  the  honeycomb 
inside,  but  as  we  had  no  axe  we  could  not  cut 
the  tree  open.  Then  the  bird  left  off  chattering, 
and  we  saw  no  more  of  it.  What  a  fraud  it  must 
have  thought  us!  It  is  a  very  insignificant-looking 
bird,  smaller  than  a  thrush  and  dirty-gray  or  drab 
colour,  as  far  as  I  could  see.  The  native  super- 
stition is  that  if  you  do  not  give  the  bird  some 
of  the  honey  to  which  it  leads  you,  it  will  lead 
the  next  person  it  finds  to  a  snake  or  a  lion. 

We  are  surrounded  now  with  native  servants, 
with  fine  black  skins  and  the  minimum  of  clothes. 
They  are  just  like  children,  thoughtless,  callous, 
and  good-humoured.  You  have  to  tell  them  the 
same  thing  over  and  over  again  every  day,  as 
they  never  remember  a  general    order.     Some- 


THRESHING  OOFOO,  143 

times  I  surreptitiously  try  to  draw  their  portraits, 
but  they  don't  like  it,  and  shift  somewhere  else 
before  I  have  done  more  than  a  stroke  or  two. 
Some  natives  are  very  finely-built  men,  but  most 
are  rather  poorly  made,  and  of  low  type. 

One  day,  as  Mr.  A.  Grey  was  riding,  he  heard 
singing  in  the  bush  some  way  off,  and  on  going  to 
see  what  it  was,  found  a  number  of  men,  women, 
and  children  threshing  oofoo  (a  kind  of  millet), 
who  immediately  on  his  appearance  took  to  flight. 
They  presently  returned,  however,  and  he  then 
went  to  fetch  the  rest  of  us.  They  had  a  thresh- 
ing-floor, round  which  were  arranged  platforms 
of  branches  about  three  or  four  feet  high,  on 
which  were  great  heaps  of  unthreshed  grain.  In 
the  middle,  on  the  ground,  was  the  oofoo  they 
were  threshing,  and  round  it  was  a  circle  of  about 
forty  men  and  ten  women,  each  with  a  new  white- 
peeled  club  rather  like  a  heavy  hockey-stick,  with 
which  they  threshed,  hitting  with  the  convex  outer 
side  of  the  knob.  All  the  time  they  sang  and 
danced  round  the  heap,  the  blows  coming  down 
in  regular  time  to  the  singing.     The  songs  were 


144     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

all  short,  of  one  or  two  phrases  only,  both  as  to 
music  and  words,  and  mostly  descending  some- 
what chromatically.  One  especially  was  rather  like 
irregular  chimes,  ending  on  what  would  be  the  third 
of  our  scale.  But  they  sang  so  out  of  tune,  and 
their  intervals  were  often  so  unexpected,  that  it 
was  impossible  for  me  to  say  what  their  scale 
was.  The  songs  were  not  specially  minor  in  key. 
In  the  intervals  for  rest  between  the  songs  (each 
song  was  repeated  ad  nauseam  without  a  pause), 
they  drank  Kaffir  beer.  Mr.  G.  Grey  ordered 
the  indiina  (chief)  to  fetch  a  calabash  (hollowed- 
out  gourd)  of  beer  for  him  to  drink.  It  was 
curious  to  see  the  chief  of  all  these  men,  who 
could  have  crushed  us  in  a  minute  had  they  been 
so  minded,  after  a  look  at  Mr.  G.  Grey,  humbly 
go  and  lift  up  the  calabash  and  bring  it  to  him 
without  a  murmur,  while  the  rest  of  the  natives 
stood  gazing  at  us.  I  didn't  half  like  it,  but  I 
expect  it  is  right  to  impress  them  with  our  "  moral 
superiority."  While  we  were  there  the  women 
were  kept  at  that  part  of  the  circle  which  was 
farthest  away  from  us.     Mr.  G.  Grey  says  we  are 


WE  ATTEMPT  TO  BLOW  UP  A  CROCODILE    147 

very  lucky  to  have  seen  this  threshing  dance,  as 
the  natives  will  not  do  anything  of  the  sort  to 
order,  and  you  only  get  the  chance  by  chance. 

On  the  2 1  St  we  reached  the  Tokwe  River,  the 
rocky  drift  of  which  was  somewhat  troublesome 
for  the  waggons  to  cross.  Mr.  G.  Grey  had 
procured  some  dynamite  to  explode  in  the  water 
in  hopes  of  stunning  a  crocodile  ;  and  while  the 
waggons  were  crossing  the  drift  we  repaired  to  a 
large  deep  pool  a  little  way  off,  threw  in  the 
dynamite,  and  waited  anxiously  for  the  result, 
cameras  in  hand.  After  a  pause,  two  or  three 
little  fishes  floated  to  the  top,  and  nothing  more. 
Mr.  G.  Grey  saw  the  marks  where  a  crocodile 
had  been  lying  on  a  sand -bank,  but  that  hardly 
consoled  us. 

Yesterday  morning  the  two  Messrs.  Grey  rode 
on  to  make  arrangements  for  our  stay  here.  We 
were  still  about  seven  miles  off  when  we  inspanned 
after  dinner.  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  walked  in  front  of 
the  waggons  all  the  way,  accompanied  by  the  two 
dogs.  About  two  miles  from  the  town  we  heard 
footsteps    in   front.      The   dogs   rushed   forward 


148     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

barking,  and  then  equally  quickly  rushed  back 
and  kept  cowering  behind  us.  The  terrible  danger 
from  which  they  fled  turned  out  to  be  Mr.  G. 
Grey,  who  came  to  meet  us  and  show  us  where 
in  the  town  we  were  to  outspan,  and  we  walked 
on  with  him.  Somehow  we  missed  the  right  track 
in  the  town,  and  wandered  about  trying  to  find 
our  abode,  knocking  people  up  from  their  first 
sleep,  and  generally  being  a  nuisance,  till  at  last 
we  got  to  our  destination,  after  being  four  hours 
on  our  feet.  I  don't  wonder  at  our  missing  the 
track,  for,  close  to  the  town  there  are  dozens,  all 
just  alike  ;  and  it  was  quite  dark  with  no  moon, 
and  no  lights  in  the  houses.  Most  of  the  houses 
are  set  down  apparently  perfectly  casually  on  the 
veldt,  and  at  considerable  intervals.  Only  about 
fifty  whites  live  here,  of  whom  three  or  four  are 
women.  The  town  is  much  more  picturesquely 
situated  than  Bulawayo,  with  pretty  hills  all  round  ; 
but  the  veldt  itself  close  by  is  ugly  just  now,  the 
grass  being  short  and  eaten  of  locusts,  and  with 
scarcely  any  bush  on  it. 


LETTER   XII 

Visit  to  two  Makalanga  kraals — Offerings  to  ancestors — A  native  chorus 
of  welcome — The  spider  breaks  down  again — Zimbabye  ruins — The 
fortress — A  lion  story — Natives  carving  wooden  bowls — The  Zimbabye 
temple — A  walk  on  the  wall — Cats  and  dogs  in  church — Shoeing 
oxen. 

Victoria,  lothjuly  1894. 

Three  or  four  days  ago  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  went 
with  Mr.  Egghart  and  Captain  Brabant  to  see 
two  kraals  (native  villages)  about  three  miles  from 
here.  They  are  built  on  two  smooth  rounded 
granite  kopjes,  rising  like  huge  blisters  on  the 
grassy  plain.  Their  inhabitants  all  came  out  to 
meet  us  when  they  knew  Captain  Brabant  (the 
native  commissioner)  was  there,  singing,  dancing, 
and  waving  their  knobkerries.  The  women 
joined  with  shrill  prolonged  howls,  at  the  same 
time  holding  their  hands  upright  in  front  of  their 
faces  with  the  palms  together,  and  moving  one 
hand  a  little,  back  and  forwards  from  the  other, 


ISO     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

SO  as  to  produce  a  wobbling  in  the  note.  These 
women  had  their  bodies  tattooed  in  horizontal 
lines  close  together.  We  were  taken  through  the 
kraal  and  over  some  granite  boulders  (where  the 
stench  was  appalling)  to  the  entrance  of  a  cave  in 
which  eighty  or  more  of  the  inhabitants  took 
refuge  when  attacked  there  last  year  by  the 
Matabili,  before  the  war.  Fortunately  the  cave 
proved  a  sufficient  protection.  Just  below  the 
kraal,  on  the  flat,  is  a  scrubby-looking  little  cotton- 
tree  which,  Captain  Brabant  told  us,  is  held 
sacred  by  the  people  of  the  kraal,  as  in  some  way 
representing  their  ancestors  ;  and  in  spring-time 
when  it  is  bursting  into  fresh  life  they  make 
offerings  to  it  of  beer  and  meal.  While  we  were 
there  it  did  not  seem  that  much  attention  was 
paid  to  it,  and  the  cattle  had  gnawed  it  unrestrained. 
It  is  not  an  indigenous  plant  in  this  part  of  the 
country,  and  this  one  has  been  planted  by  the 
natives,  who  look  upon  its  survival  as  a  special 
mark  of  favour  from  their  dead  ancestors. 

By    this    time    a   great    crowd    had    collected, 
singing  open-mouthed,  and  led  by  a  man  with  a 


A  NATIVE  CHORUS  OF  WELCOME  153 

drum  about  four  feet  high,  on  the  top  of  which 
was  stretched  a  piece  of  skin  about  a  foot  in 
diameter.  He  hit  this  near  the  edge  with  the 
palm  of  his  hand  near  the  wrist,  producing  a 
comparatively  deep  note,  and  with  his  fingers  in 
the  middle  to  produce  a  higher  note.  He  always 
thumped  it  in  three  time — low  note  once,  high 
note  twice — with  unvarying  regularity,  and  with 
absolute  indifference  as  to  whether  the  crowd 
around  him  were  singing  in  four  time  or  three.  The 
singing  was  much  of  the  character  we  had  heard 
before,  only  here  the  tenors  and  basses  were  more 
or  less  separated  into  groups,  and  at  times  the 
singing  was  in  parts,  like  a  catch,  different  people 
coming  in  at  different  times.  Sometimes  there 
would  be  solos,  with  the  chorus  singing  a  word  or 
two  at  intervals,  and  a  regular  chorus  at  the  end 
of  each  verse — if  verse  it  could  be  called  when 
the  same  words  were  repeated  each  time. 

We  have  just  come  back  from  our  long-wished- 
for  expedition  to  the  Great  Zimbabye  ruins,  where 
we  stayed  two  days,  and  would  have  liked  to  stay 
twenty.     The  ruins  are  about  seventeen  miles  from 


154     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

here.  Mr.  Egghart's  waggon  went  on  the  night 
before  with  our  "  boys  "  and  all  the  provisions,  and 
we  started  next  morning,  the  men  on  horseback, 
and  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  in  the  spider.  A  new  iron 
bolt  had  been  put  in  it  in  place  of  the  one  lost  in 
the  Selukwe  Hills,  and  trusting  in  this  we  went 
gaily  forward  till  we  came  to  a  boggy  spruit,  into 
which  we  boldly  drove.  But  put  not  your  trust 
in  blacksmiths.  As  happened  before,  the  mules 
and  front  wheels  went  cheerfully  on,  leaving  the 
body  with  Mrs.  Grey  and  myself  in  it,  stuck  in 
the  bog.  We  got  out  as  best  we  might,  and 
proceeded  to  photograph  the  situation,  and  were 
thus  found  by  the  gentlemen,  Mr.  G.  Grey 
muttering  that  he  believed  we  thought  of  nothing 
but  our  photography.  Examination  of  the  broken 
iron-work  made  even  him  despair  of  mending  it 
sufficiently  well  to  enable  us  to  take  the  spider  on 
to  Zimbabye.  So  we  made  a  kind  of  platform 
over  the  front  wheels  and  pole,  tied  up  all  our 
goods  in  bundles  and  fastened  them  on  this  with 
reims.  Two  mules  were  to  draw  this  novel 
carriage,   and   Mrs.   Grey  and   I   with  heavy  feet 


ZIMBABYE  RUINS  155 

prepared  to  start  on  our  six-mile  tramp  in  the 
broiling  sun.  But  relief  was  to  come.  At  this 
juncture  up  rode  Mr.  Gale,  the  engineer  at  one 
of  the  neighbouring  gold  mines,  and  Mr.  G. 
Grey  appealed  to  him  whether  he  thought  it 
possible  to  mend  up  the  spider.  He  looked, 
said  Yes,  and  with  reims  he  did  it.  We  mounted 
once  more — but  now  with  only  two  mules,  as 
Stembok's  habit  of  turning  slap  round  would 
have  been  fatal, — and  at  somewhat  greater  speed 
than  that  of  a  funeral  march,  proceeded  successfully 
to  out  destination.  I  may  add  that  a  new  bolt  was 
once  more  put  into  the  spider,  and  that  it  bent 
hopelessly  the  first  day  it  was  used.  After  that 
we  determined  to  stick  to  reims. 

At  Zimbabye  we  found  tent  and  waggon  ready 
close  to  the  temple.  To  the  north  of  us  was  the 
high  steep  kopje,  on  the  top  of  which  are  the  ruins 
of  the  ancient  fortress.  You  climb  up  the  kopje 
by  a  winding  path,  and  it  is  not  until  you  turn 
round  the  western  shoulder  of  the  hill  that  you  see 
the  native  kraal,  and  to  the  right  of  that  the 
gigantic   smooth   granite  rocks,   piled   one  above 


156     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

the  Other,  which  form  the  natural  defences  on 
the  north  side  of  the  fortress.  The  chinks 
between  these  boulder-like  rocks  were  once  all 
carefully  walled  up  ;  and  having  squeezed  through 
one  of  them,  we  found  ourselves  in  the  fortress 
itself,  in  the  midst  of  a  perfect  labyrinth  of  half- 
ruined  walls,  with  narrow  winding  passages, 
crumbling  stairways,  curved  buttresses,  and  all 
sorts  of  devices  for  defence,  the  whole  overgrown 
with  tangled  vegetation,  and  the  rocks  covered 
with  lovely  creepers  and  trees  with  long  hungry 
snake-like  roots  lodged  in  the  crevices.  The 
outer  wall  of  the  fortress  crowns  the  kopje  on  the 
south  side,  and  is  almost  continuous  with  the  cliff 
below  it,  so  that  from  a  distance  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  see  where  the  one  begins  and  the  other 
ends.  From  here  you  see  the  country  spread  out 
before  you,  fantastic  kopjes  and  exquisite  blue 
hills  in  the  distance,  and  at  your  feet,  on  the 
yellow  grassy  plain,  the  Zimbabye  temple  en- 
closure, filled,  as  the  circle  of  a  coronet  is  with 
velvet,  with  luxuriant  vegetation.  The  masonry 
is  all  dry-stone,   and  the   stones,    which   are   not 


ROCKS    AT    ENTRANCE   OF   ZIMBABVE    FORTRESS. 


THE  FORTRESS  159 


much  larger  than  bricks  on  their  outer  surface, 
are  laid  with  marvellous  regularity.  They  are 
usually  slightly  wedge-shaped,  so  as  to  permit  of 
being  built  into  curves.  At  places  there  were 
signs  of  furnaces,  apparently  without  chimneys, 
for  the  whole  of  the  walls  near  them,  both  inside 
and  out,  had  turned  orange-red  from  the  heat. 
Both  Mr.  G.  Grey  and  Mr.  Gale  averred  that  the 
modern  native  could  not  produce  heat  enough  in 
the  space  to  have  had  such  an  effect  on  the 
surrounding  stones. 

That  evening  after  dinner  we  sat  over  our 
camp-fire,  and  Captain  Brabant  told  us  some  of 
his  experiences  among  the  natives.  He  says 
that  they  are  much  pleased  at  our  conquest  of 
the  Matabili.  When  the  telegraph  wire  was  first 
put  up  they  had  an  idea  that  no  Matabili  would 
be  able  to  pass  under  it  without  being  killed,  and 
came  to  him  with  sorrowful  complaints  when  they 
found  this  was  not  so.  They  believed  a  traction- 
engine  to  be  a  cannon  which  would  with  ease 
sweep  the  Matabili  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Lion  stories  succeeded,  the  best  being  one  told 


i6o     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

by  Mr.  Gale,  of  one  of  the  post-riders  whose 
horse  fell  sick  and  died  on  the  road,  so  he  left  it 
and  walked  on.  After  some  time  he  became 
aware  that  he  was  being  followed  by  a  lion, 
which  stopped  when  he  stopped,  and  went  on 
when  he  went  on,  always  keeping  about  the 
same  distance  behind  him.  Evidently  it  meant 
to  wait  till  night  to  spring  upon  him.  He  knew 
that  a  few  miles  ahead  was  a  deep  drift  in  a 
river,  and  on  the  opposite  bank  higher  up  was  a 
farm.  He  went  down  the  drift,  put  a  large  ant 
heap  between  himself  and  the  lion,  hastily  stuck 
his  stick  in  the  ground  and  hung  his  hat  on  it  so 
that  it  should  just  show  above  the  top  of  the  ant 
heap,  and  then  (still  keeping  the  mound  between 
himself  and  the  lion)  rushed  down  into  the  water, 
where  the  bank  concealed  him.  Then  he  hurried 
up  stream  till  he  got  to  the  farm.  Next  day  the 
ground  round  the  ant  heap  was  found  torn  up  in 
all  directions,  and  the  hat  had  been  reduced  to  a 
pulp.  I  don't  think  Mr.  Gale  vouched  for  the 
truth  of  this  story.  It  does  really  seem  to  be 
true  that  lions  were  killed  at  Zimbabye  not  long 


NATIVES  CARVING  WOODEN  BOWLS 


i6i 


ago.  Certainly  the  long  grass,  often  ten  feet 
high,  which  abounds  there,  would  make  admir- 
able cover  for  them. 

Next  morning  we  again  examined  the  fortress 
and  the  kraal  beside  it.      Here  two  natives  were 


NATIVES   CARVING   WOODEN    BOWLS,    ZIMBABYE. 


engaged  in  carving  wooden  bowls.  One  of  them 
was  delicately  hacking  small  chips  off  the  outside 
of  the  bowl,  with  a  small  native-made  adze,  the 
blade  of  which  was  about  four  inches  lone,  and 
the  cutting  edge  about  one  inch  wide.     He  had 

M 


1 62     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

several  of  these  with  the  blades  set  into  the 
handles  at  various  angles.  One  had  the  edges 
curved  in  at  the  sides.  The  other  man  was 
hollowing  out  a  bowl,  which  he  grasped  firmly 
between  his  feet,  while  he  scraped  out  thin 
shavings  of  wood  with  a  small  iron  loop,  with 
cutting  edges  on  both  sides,  fixed  into  the  end 
of  a  wooden  stick.  We  tried  to  buy  these  tools, 
but  they  refused  to  part  with  them  at  any  price, 
saying  they  could  not  replace  them. 

We  spent  the  afternoon  in  the  temple.  The 
workmanship  of  its  walls  is  similar  to  that  of  the 
fortress,  but  if  possible  better,  and  with  some 
ornamentation  in  parts. ^  It  consists  of  a  great 
irregular  oval,  with  sometimes  three  concentric 
walls  only  a  few  feet  apart  and  about  thirty  feet 
high.  At  the  end  opposite  the  entrance,  and 
just  within  the  outside  wall,  is  the  tall  solid  cone- 
shaped  tower  of  perfect  masonry  ;  but  you  do 
not  see  it  till  you  get  close  up,  because  of  the 
trees  and  creepers  that  fill  the  enclosure.      The 

1  The  reader  is  referred  to  Mr,  Theodore  Bent's  book  on  The  Ruined 
Cities  of  Mashonaland,  for  plans,  illustrations,  and  description  of  the 
Zimbabye  buildings. 


THE  ZIMBABYE  TEMPLE 


163 


creepers  are  like  the  lianas  one  reads  of  in 
accounts  of  Brazilian  forests, — long  rope-like  stems 
climbing  up  to  the  tops  of  the  trees  and  down 
again,  and  embracing  everything.  The  whole 
place    was    wonderfully  impressive.     Within,  the 


VIEW    BETWEEN    ZIMBABYE    FORTRESS    AND   TEMPLE. 


great  tower,  the  work  of  an  unknown  race  at  an 
unknown  time,  the  sunlight  flecking  the  delicate 
pale  gray  of  its  stonework,  the  sacred  enclosure 
now  wholly  appropriated  by  a  luxuriant  jungle  of 
half -tropical  vegetation  of  richest  green,  cool 
and  shadv.    Without,  the  bare  walls  in  the  blazing 


1 64     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

sun,  the  orange-coloured  grassy  plain  and  groups 
of  weird -looking  fleshy  euphorbias  and  scarlet- 
flowered  aloes.  We  wound  up  our  inspection  of 
the  walls  by  mounting  the  outside  one,  and  walk- 
ing round  on  the  top  of  it.  It  begins  by  being 
about  thirteen  feet  wide,  and  gradually  narrows 
to  about  four.  Most  of  the  party  soon  got  down 
again,  but  some  of  us  went  on  as  far  as  was 
possible.  While  we  were  on  the  narrowest  part 
of  the  wall,  and  I  was  beginning  to  feel  the  posi- 
tion none  of  the  most  comfortable,  Mr.  G,  Grey 
meanly  took  the  opportunity  of  photographing, 
us.  Do  you  not  think  it  speaks  well  for  my 
magnanimity  that  I  have  not  retaliated  ? 

On  Sunday  evening  after  our  return  here  we 
went  to  church,  but  the  service  was  somewhat 
marred  by  a  small  terrier,  who  sat  in  the  gang- 
way and  gnawed  the  matting  the  whole  time. 
The  clergyman  said  to  me  afterwards  that  he 
had  quite  ceased  to  mind  the  presence  of  dogs 
and  fowls,  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  keep 
out,  and  told  how  at  Umtali  a  cat  had  once  come 
in   during  service  and  taken  a  flying  leap  across 


SHOEING  OXEN  165 


the  reading-desk  into  the  arms  of  the  preacher, 
where  it  lay  purring  during  the  rest  of  the 
sermon. 

Several  of  our  oxen  had  become  very  footsore 
on  the  way  here  and  had  to  be  shod  before  going 
further.  The  animal  to  be  operated  on  is  thrown 
down  and  its  legs  tied  to  the  diisselboom,  and  the 
little  flat  iron  shoes  are  nailed  on  after  holes  have 
been  bored  in  the  hoofs  w4th  a  fine  gimlet.  I 
don't  think  it  hurts  them  when  carefully  done, 
but  they  get  up  after  it  is  over,  looking  wildly 
scared.  They  are  too  stupid  to  allow  themselves 
to  be  shod  as  a  horse  does.  Our  horses  often 
lose  their  shoes  on  the  veldt,  but  neither  they 
nor  any  one  else  seem  to  mind,  and  they  just 
go  on  without  till  we  reach  the  next  place  suffi- 
ciently civilised  to  produce  a  blacksmith. 


LETTER    XIII 

Leave  Victoria  for  Charter — "  Charter  flats  "■ — Magoussy  trees — Oranges — 
Granite  kopjes  and  "  Kaffir  booms  " — Soft  water  from  granite — Climate 
— The  oxen  begin  to  get  weak — Mumbu — How  puff-adders  strike — 
Twisting  reims — Ant  heaps — Flowers  in  drought— Arrival  at  Salisbury. 

Salisbury,  \2th  Attgtist  1894. 

This  will  be  an  extremely  dull  letter,  for  our 
eleven  or  twelve  days'  trek  from  Victoria  to  this 
place  has  been  thoroughly  uneventful,  and  with- 
out any  novelty  of  conditions.  For  most  of  the 
way  the  track  went  over  the  "  Charter  fiats," — 
a  long  line  of  watershed  forming  a  high  bare 
plateau  about  4000  feet  above  the  sea,  the  streams 
going  into  the  Zambesi  on  one  side,  and  into  the 
Sabi  on  the  other.  At  this  time  of  year  the  grass 
everywhere  is  much  burnt,  and  the  result  when 
seen  close  by  is  very  ugly.  It  is  still  more  ugly 
when  the  young  green  grass  comes  up  through 
the  ashes  ;  and  it  then  reminds  me  of  nothing  so 


M AGO  USSY  TREES  169 

much  as  those  black  and  green  tablecloths  so 
characteristic  of  the  English  lodging  -  house. 
However  the  country  has  redeeming  features, 
especially  if  you  get  a  mile  or  two  away  from 
the  road  on  either  side.  The  scrubby  patches  of 
wood  are  chiefly  composed  of  Magoussy  trees, 
which  are  now  beginning  to  be  covered  with 
spring  foliage  of  the  loveliest  shades  of  pink, 
crimson,  and  orange.  They  vary  enormously  in 
colour,  for  no  apparent  reason.  The  old  leaves 
(which  in  shape  are  rather  like  those  of  Berberis 
mahonia,  but  are  less  glossy,  without  prickles  and 
have  no  terminal  leaflets)  fall  only  a  few  days 
before  the  new  ones  come  out.  There  are  also 
numbers  of  wild  orange-trees  ;  but  they  are  of  a 
different  species  to  the  European  one.  The 
oranges  are  nearly  all  green  just  now,  and  as  the 
trees  are  deciduous  and  are  losing  their  leaves, 
the  fruit  is  very  conspicuous,  and  the  general 
effect  very  beautiful.  Mr.  Fitzwilliam  counted 
over  350  oranges  on  one  tree,  but  this  is  a  very 
exceptional  number. 

When  you  leave  the  track  (which  keeps  along 


I70     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

the  highest  ground  to  avoid  the  boggy  hollows 
on  either  side)  you  come  to  undulating  country, 
with  patches  of  wood  alternating  with  wide 
grassy  glades,  and  dotted  with  granite  kopjes. 
These  are  just  heaps  of  huge  boulder- shaped 
rocks  piled  one  above  the  other  in  the  most 
extraordinary  and  fantastic  manner.  Sometimes 
they  look  as  though  artificially  placed  by  some 
giant  hand,  but  as  each  boulder  is  as  big  as  a 
house,  even  the  Titans  would  have  found  them 
difficult  to  manipulate.  Often  they  appear  so 
insecurely  poised  one  upon  the  other  that  their 
remaining  in  position  seems  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  nature.  The  Mashuna  kraals  are  usually  built 
on  these  kopjes  for  the  sake  of  defence  ;  and  the 
native  grain-stores,  which  are  like  miniature  huts, 
are  perched  on  the  most  inaccessible  parts  of  the 
rocks.  The  "Kaffir  booms,"  ^  with  their  magni- 
ficent scarlet  flowers,  look  gorgeous  when  grow- 
ing, as  they  habitually  do,  among  the  boulders. 

One  great  advantage  of  being  in  the  granite 
country  is  that  the  water  is  always  soft,  and  our 

^  Erythrina  Caffra,  a  tree  flowering  when  bare  of  leaves. 


if\  mm 


m.  m±^ 


SOFT  WATER  FROM  GRANITE  173 

hands,  which  in  the  earHer  part  of  our  journey 
were  Hke  nutmeg-graters,  and  our  nails  which 
could  never  be  kept  from  breaking  and  splitting, 
are  now  more  like  those  of  civilised  beings. 
Moreover,  the  sand  of  the  roads,  though  deep, 
is  also  heavy,  and  does  not  fly  up  and  penetrate 
everything  as  the  dust  did  during  the  first  few 
weeks  of  our  trekking.  There  is  usually  plenty 
of  water  to  be  had  now,  slightly  milky-looking, 
but  ideal  compared  to  the  filthy  muddy  mixture 
we  endured  in  Bechuanaland.  The  air  (as  it  has 
been  throughout  the  journey)  is  very  dry  and 
deliciously  bracing  and  invigorating,  though  the 
sun  is  too  hot  for  my  taste.  We  have  had  an 
occasional  gray  day,  but  no  rain  since  we  left 
Marizani,  beyond  once  or  twice  a  few  spattering 
drops  ;  and  probably  there  will  be  none  before 
we  leave  the  country.  Indeed,  all  I  have  to 
complain  of  is  the  monotony  of  the  perpetual 
blue  sky.  I  have,  contrary  to  my  ideas  of  a 
tropical  climate,  never  seen  the  sky  so  rich  and 
dark  a  blue  as  it  often  is  at  home.  As  to  health, 
we  are  all  robust,  and  I  have  never  felt  better  in 


174     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  h\  A    WAGGON 

my  life.  The  open-air  life  is  most  enjoyable,  and 
there  is  almost  too  much  to  look  at  and  think 
about,  wherever  one  goes. 

Our  former  record  of  speed  was  by  no  means 
kept  up  between  Victoria  and  here,  for  the  roads 
were  mostly  very  deep  sand,  which  is  very  hard 
on  the  oxen.  The  natural  hay  of  the  veldt  is 
also  beginning  to  lose  its  nourishing  qualities,  so 
that  the  poor  animals  get  more  work  and  less 
food  than  before.  Gradually  we  had  to  take  out 
one  bullock  after  another  from  the  spans,  because 
they  got  exhausted  and  kept  lying  down  every 
few  minutes.  Two  had  eventually  to  be  shot, 
and  now  we  are  about  to  leave  the  men's  waggon 
here  and  go  on  with  only  the  other  two,  leaving 
eight  oxen  behind,  and  taking  on  the  remainder. 
The  span  in  the  ladies'  waggon  is  still  all  right, 
the  weight  to  drag  being  so  much  less,  and  suit- 
able for  the  small  hardy  Mashuna  oxen  which 
now  pull  it.  The  six  oxen  which  were  too  ex- 
hausted to  remain  in  the  spans  were  driven 
behind  each  day  by  our  Mashuna  boy  Mumbu, 
who  is  the  butt  of   all    the    other  "boys."     He 


MUMBU  175 

has  gradually  accumulated  a  large  number  of 
ragged  old  sacks,  which  are  disposed  about  his 
person  till  his  appearance  has  become  quite  Fal- 
staffian,  and  thus  attired,  with  his  two  hands 
spread  out  over  his  chest,  he  walks  along,  his  face 
suffused  with  the  most  completely  self- satisfied 
grin  that  I  ever  saw.  Occasionally  one  of  the 
oxen  he  was  driving  was  put  into  the  span  for 
a  short  time  in  exchange  for  another,  and  then  he 
complained  bitterly  that  they  had  taken  one  of 
his  oxen  away,  and  given  him  instead  a  beast 
that  could  hardly  walk. 

We  constantly  hear  now  of  there  being  lions 
about.  An  ox  at  a  farm  we  passed  was  said  to 
have  been  killed  by  one  a  week  before,  and  at  the 
Umfuli  Drift,  a  little  further  on,  two  oxen  had 
been  taken  by  them  from  a  waggon  outspanned 
there.  But  we  never  see  or  hear  them.  We 
have  got  quite  callous  as  regards  such  stories  now. 
We  walk  at  nights  out  of  sight  of  the  waggons. 
If  we  hear  howls  we  say,  "  It's  only  a  hysena," 
and  pass  on.  We  have  ceased  to  think  of  snake- 
bites when  we  walk  through  the  grass.      I   have, 


176     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

however,  at  last  seen  snakes  ;  I  saw  two  in  one 
day  quite  close  to  me,  but  they  instantly  made  off 
at  such  a  pace  that  I  could  not  examine  them. 
Every  one  tells  you  that  puff-  adders  can  only 
strike  at  you  backwards,  and  as  long  as  you  are 
in  front  of  them  you  are  safe.  This  I  can 
believe,  but  when  they  further  state  that  in  order 
to  strike  backwards  they  put  their  heads  upside 
down  so  that  the  under -jaw  is  uppermost,  I 
find  it  very  hard  to  believe, — in  fact,  I  haven't 
succeeded  in  believing  it  yet ;  but  every  one 
says  so,  and  it  is  one  of  my  stock  questions 
to  ask. 

At  the  Umfuli  Drift  above  mentioned,  I  photo- 
graphed a  native  twisting  raw  hide  to  make 
"reims."  The  strips  of  hide  were  hung  from  a 
cross  bar  between  two  trees,  and  fastened  to  a 
large  stone.  The  man  then  walked  round  and 
round,  turning  the  stone  by  means  of  a  stick  till 
the  strips  were  quite  twisted  up  into  knots.  Then 
he  let  them  untwist,  reinserted  his  stick,  and 
solemnly  walked  round  and  round  the  other  way. 
This   operation   is  repeated  with  unvarying  mon- 


TWISTING  REIMS 


177 


otony  for  days  and  days,  until  the  hide  gets  quite 
soft  and  flexible. 


TWISTING   REIMS. 


About  twelve  miles  from  here  we  came  on  the 
biggest  ant  heaps  we  have  yet  seen.  I  should 
think    they   must    be    fully   forty  feet   high,   and 


N 


178     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

really  big  trees  grow  on  the  top  of  them.  That 
"  ants  "  is  entirely  a  wrong  name  to  apply  to  the 
creatures  that  make  the  heaps  I  have  little  doubt. 
As  a  rule,  no  one  in  South  Africa  can  tell  you  the 
name  of  any  natural  object,  but  if  they  do  give  a 
name  it  is  generally  wrong. 

There  are  real  signs  of  spring  now,  all  sorts  of 
pretty  shrubs  and  flowers  are  coming  up  on  the 
dry,  burnt  veldt,  and  I  am  permanently  lost  in 
astonishment  as  to  how  they  manage  it,  as  there 
has  been  no  rain  for  months.  We  are  told  that 
the  flowers  in  spring,  after  the  rains  begin,  are 
perfectly  gorgeous. 


LETTER   XIV 

Leave  Salisbury — Bushman  rock  drawings — jNIatabili  and  Mashunas — 
Tribal  government — Native  commissioners — ^Jim's  dangerous  snake — 
Legend  of  chameleon—  Native  fear  of  chameleon — Native  game-traps 
— Rides — Chipanga's  kraal — Chipanga — Ruins  of  native  town — Wall 
at  Chipadze's  grave — Kaffir  beer — The  "Devil's  Pass" — Mr.  Coope's 
lion  stories — A  lioness  caught  in  a  trek  chain — Two  more  lionesses 
killed — A  lion  kills  a  native — Sad  end  of  a  trooper's  saddle — Lost 
on  the  veldt — J\Ir.  G.  Grey  shoots  a  sable  antelope — Ride  from  the 
Odzi  River  to  Umtali — We  are  taken  in  at  the  Hospital — A  native 
injured  by  a  veldt  fire. 

Umtali,  28M  Aus^-nsf  1894. 

We  left  Salisbury  on  the  14th,  after  spending 
several  very  pleasant  days  there,  every  one  as 
usual  going  out  of  their  way  to  make  us  comfort- 
able. One  afternoon  a  large  party  of  us  rode  to 
see  some  Bushman  drawings  some  miles  off 
They  are  on  the  face  of  a  granite  boulder  pro- 
tected from  the  weather  by  overhanging  rocks, 
and  are  done  in  two  colours,  brick-red  and  black.^ 
Figures    of  human    beings,    animals,    and    some 

■^  There  is  an  engraving  of  this  rock  in  one  of  Mr.  Selous's  books,  but 
the  drawings  on  it  are  not  very  well  reproduced. 


i8o     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

attempt  at  landscape  background  and  palm-trees 
were  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  boulder,  the 
men  being  extraordinarily  badly  drawn  in  every 
way,  whereas  the  drawing  of  many  of  the  animals 
is  very  clever  and  full  of  character,  especially  the 
elephants  and  antelopes.  Having  said  this  you 
will  be  surprised  to  hear  that  one  of  the  animals 
has  formed  a  subject  of  controversy  among  us 
ever  since,  the  Greys  maintaining  it  to  be  an 
obvious  buffalo,  and  I  that  it  is  equally  clearly  a 
warthog,^  and  that  what  they  say  are  horns  on  its 
forehead  are  really  tusks  curling  from  its  snout. 
As  the  drawing  is  much  rubbed,  and  as  neither  of 
us  have  seen  either  a  buffalo  or  a  warthog  since 
we  came  to  the  country,  the  controversy  is  not 
likely  to  be  settled  one  way  or  the  other. 

I  have  had  some  interesting  conversations  lately 
about  the  native  races  in  the  Chartered  Com- 
pany's territory,  and  I  shall  try  and  give  you  a 
sort  of  abstract  of  what  I  gathered  from  them. 

The  Matabili  appear  at  present  to  be  at  a 
somewhat   lower   level    of   civilisation    than    the 

^  A  species  of  wild  boar  with  enormous  curved  tusks. 


MATABILI  AND  MASHUNAS  iSi 

Mashunas,  although  they  have  completely  sub- 
jugated the  latter  by  superior  physical  bravery. 
In  both  nations  the  basis  of  government  was  the 
patriarchal  tribal  one,  but  with  most  of  the 
Mashunas  this  had  been  destroyed  by  the  re- 
peated raids  and  tyranny  to  which  they  had  been 
subjected  by  the  Matabili.  It  practically  still 
exists  in  its  integrity  among  the  Matabili,  who 
had  a  regular  succession  of  chiefs  from  the  heads 
of  small  single  kraals  to  paramount  chiefs  who  are 
rulers  over  many,  and  from  them  to  the  king  him- 
self. The  king  now  being  dead,  they  have 
simply  transferred  their  allegiance  to  the  Adminis- 
trator of  the  Chartered  Company.  It  seems, 
therefore,  likely  that  there  will  be  little  difficulty 
about  governing  them.  The  government  they 
were  accustomed  to  will  be  continued,  but  on 
juster  and  more  humane  lines,  with  a  security  to 
life  and  property  which  they  never  before  enjoyed. 
On  the  other  hand,  government  among  the 
Mashunas  having  been  completely  disorganised, 
the  chiefs  having  lost  authority,  and  being  rulers 
more  in  name  than  in  fact,  there  is  but  little  native 


1 82     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  LY  A    WAGGON 


organisation  to  utilise,  and  hence  some  trouble 
has  already  arisen  and  more  is  likely  to  arise. 
The  difficulty  is  added  to  by  the  faults  of  the 
whites.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  maintain 
the  supremacy  of  the  whites,  yet  the  crime  of 
the  Mashuna  may  be  a  consequence  of  the  law- 
lessness of  the  white  man.  Thus,  not  long  ago  a 
prospector^  had  been  murdered  by  the  Mashunas. 
He  had  tried  to  get  some  native  carriers,  and 
when  difficulties  were  put  in  his  way  he  resorted 
to  force.  The  result  was  that  he  was  killed,  the 
headman  of  the  kraal  stabbing  him  with  an 
assegai  behind  as  he  turned  to  speak.  The  sur- 
render of  the  murderer  was  demanded,  but  of 
course  no  one  knew  who  he  was,  and  the  villagers 
dispersed  themselves  for  fear  of  capture.  It 
seemed  difficult  to  know  what  course  now  to 
pursue.  It  would  clearly  not  do  to  let  the  matter 
drop.  Murder  of  white  men  would  then  im- 
mediately become  common.  As  there  were  no 
native  authorities  who  had  sufficient  power  to 
enforce    a    command,     nothing    could    be    done 

^  Person  seeking  for  gold. 


NATIVE  COMMISSIONERS  183 

through  chiefs,  neither  capture  of  the  murderer 
nor  collection  of  a  fine  in  the  district.  It  would 
be  of  no  use  to  burn  the  kraal.  The  punishment 
would  be  too  slight,  as  huts  are  so  easily  rebuilt 
elsewhere,  and  the  only  result  would  be  to  frighten 
the  inhabitants,  and  especially  the  women  and 
children,  who  would  fly  to  some  other  district 
already  sufficiently  populated. 

Such  difficulties  would  be  much  less  likely  to 
arise  were  an  efficient  tribal  government  in  exist- 
ence. To  remedy  this  defect  it  is  believed  that 
the  best  course  to  pursue  is  to  place  white  men 
who  know  the  language  and  customs  of  the  people 
as  Native  Commissioners  in  the  various  districts, 
and  as  far  as  this  has  already  been  done  it  seems 
to  be  succeeding. 

We  have  had  an  interesting  journey  from 
Salisbury  here.  Mr.  A.  Grey  and  Mr.  Fitz- 
william  remained  behind  some  days,  and  then 
rode  after  us,  catching  us  up  the  day  before  we 
got  here,  while  Mr.  G.  Grey  escorted  Mrs.  Grey 
and  myself  As  our  oxen  were  weak,  owing  to 
the  feeding  being  now  so  bad  on  the  veldt,  we 


1 84     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

only  trekked  at  night.  This  had  the  advantage 
of  giving  one  more  time  by  day,  but  on  the  other 
hand  one  saw  even  less  of  the  country  than  before. 
During  the  last  week  we  passed  through  very 
pretty  scenery.  The  Magoussy  trees  seem  to  get 
more  and  more  brilliantly  red.  I  am  sure  you 
will  think  the  red  in  my  sketches  exaggerated, 
but  the  view  of  the  members  of  our  party  is  far 
otherwise. 

One  morning  Mrs.  Grey  and  I  heard  Lama 
yelping  excitedly,  and  saw  Jim,  our  "stud-groom," 
running  up  to  her.  He  had  scarcely  reached  her 
when  he  rushed  back  at  the  top  of  his  speed, 
calling  out  that  there  was  a  great  big  snake  in  a 
hole.  We  instantly  ran  forward  to  see  it,  while 
Dennison,  gun  in  hand,  also  came  up,  followed 
by  the  reluctant  Jim,  who  was  ordered  to  show 
the  place  where  the  snake  was  lying.  He  paused 
at  a  safe  distance,  pointing  at  a  small  depression 
in  the  ground.  Dennison  poked  in  it  with  a  stick, 
but  saw  nothing.  We  then  questioned  Jim  about 
his  snake:  "Was  it  large?"  "Oh,  yes,  it  was 
very  large  ;  he  saw  it  down  to  here," — and  he  put 


NATIVE  FEAR  OF  CHAMELEONS  1S5 

his  two  hands  round  his  neck.  "  How  laree  was 
it?"  "  It  was  about  as  thick  as  his  toe  !  "  Jim  was 
now  pursued  with  jeers,  during  which  Mrs.  Grey 
happened  to  look  up  at  a  small  tree  beside  the 
hole  and  saw  a  gray  lizard  strongly  resembling  a 
chameleon  hastily  ascending  it.  This  was  Jim's 
dangerous  snake !  He  and  Hendrik  were  called 
to  look  at  it,  but  nothing  would  induce  them  to 
come  within  ten  yards,  and  even  then  only  with 
crouching  bodies,  frightened  eyes,  and  deprecat- 
ing hands.  Dennison  told  Hendrik  to  break  off 
a  stick  for  him,  which  he  did,  and  as  he  brought 
it  Dennison  made  a  grab  at  his  wTists ;  but 
Hendrik  was  too  suspicious  to  be  caught,  and 
made  off  at  the  top  of  his  speed,  followed  by  Jim. 
This  lizard  is,  I  believe,  the  kind  about  which 
there  is  a  Kaffir  legend,  which  Mr.  G.  Grey  told 
me  some  days  before.  The  legend  is  as  follows  : 
Many  ages  ago  God  sent  the  chameleon  to  man 
to  tell  him  that  there  was  a  future  life.  The 
Devil,  overhearing  this,  sent  a  lizard,  which  being 
able  to  run  much  faster  than  the  chameleon, 
arrived  first,  and  told  men  that  "  they  should  eat 


1 86     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

and  drink,  for  to-morrow  they  die."  The  lie, 
having  the  proverbial  start,  has  been  believed  and 
acted  on  ever  since.  The  species  of  lizard  which 
so  alarmed  Jim  has  at  first  sight  a  strong  super- 
ficial resemblance  to  the  chameleon,  and  perhaps 
our  "  boys "  do  not  distinguish  between  them. 
Certain  it  is  that  they  are  in  mortal  dread  of  the 
latter,  and  will  not  come  near  one.  They  were 
immensely  puzzled  to  see  us  carrying  one  about 
on  our  fingers  without  injury,  and  took  refuge  in 
the  theory  that  "he  bites  blacks."  We  asked 
Hendrik  one  day  on  which  side  of  the  road  he 
would  eo  if  he  saw  a  lion  on  one  side  and  a 
chameleon  on  the  other,  and  he  did  then  indicate 
that  he  thought  a  lion  on  the  whole  the  most 
dangerous  of  the  two,  by  saying  "  he  would  go  by 
the  littlest."  One  chameleon  we  caught  had  only 
one  eye.  I  noticed  that  it  changed  colour  less 
rapidly  on  the  blind  side  than  on  the  other,  but 
both  sides  became  alike  in  time  if  in  similar 
conditions. 

I  have  been  riding  a  good  deal  latterly  during 
the   afternoon   treks.      It   is   well   worth    it,  even 


RIDES 


187 


apart  from  the  enjoyment  of  it,  as  one  sees  so 
much  more  of  the  country  than  one  can  by  merely 
following  the  track.     The  bogs  are  the  only  thing 


MAKALAKA    TRAP    KOR    SxMALL    ANTELOPES,    WILD    CATS,    ETC. 

The  Bark  Net  A  is  placed  in  a  narrow  gangway  through  a  hedge.  When  an 
animal  tries  to  go  through,  it  presses  against  the  net,  which  pulls  down 
the  stick  B.  This  releases  the  stick  C,  thus  loosening  the  stick  E.  The 
heavy  log  then  falls  into  the  gangway  on  the  top  of  the  animal. 


I  really  dislike.  Luckily  my  pony,  Tweedledee, 
is  remarkably  careful  about  these  and  the  in- 
numerable holes  and  deserted  traps  which  abound 


1 88     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    V/AGGON 

everywhere.  One  of  the  first  cautions  Mr.  G.  Grey 
gave  us  was,  If  you  see  a  hedge  with  a  gap  in  it, 
ride    anywhere    but    through    the    gap.       These 


MAKALAKA    SNARE   FOR    SMALL   GAME. 

The  net  C  is  placed  in  a  narrow  gangway  as  in  No.  i.  Pressure  against  the 
net  pulls  down  the  bar  A,  thus  releasing  the  stick  B.  The  bent  sapling 
D  then  springs  up  and  draws  the  noose  E  tight. 


hedges,  which  are  usually  only  branches  cut  down 
and  laid  in  long  lines,  are  made  by  the  natives,  to 
hinder  antelopes  from  crossing  them  except  at 
the  gaps,  where  they  dig  deep  holes  lightly  covered 


NATIVE  GAME-TRAPS 


over,  into  which  the  animals  fall.  Besides  these 
holes  the  natives  make  several  very  ingenious 
kinds  of  snares  with  string  made  of  tough  bark, 
and  the  animal  or  bird  is  either  caught  in  a  noose 
or  killed  by  a  log  or  stone  falling  on  it.  Some- 
times they  dig  deep  holes  with  spikes  stuck  up- 
right in  them,  in  the  middle  of  a  patch  of  long 
grass.  This  grass  is  often  well  above  my  head 
when  I  am  on  horseback  (I  measured  some,  and 
that  not  the  tallest  I  have  seen,  which  was  twelve 
feet  in  height),  and  as  you  cleave  your  way  through 
it,  it  is  impossible  to  see  the  holes  till  you  are 
almost  in  them.  In  riding  about  one  has  to  be 
careful  to  remember  the  general  direction  of  the 
track,  and  also  on  which  side  of  it  one  is,  in  order 
to  find  one's  way  back.  When  one  reaches  the 
road  it  has  to  be  examined  to  see  whether  the 
waggons  have  passed  along  or  whether  one  must 
go  back  to  meet  them,  and  one  has  to  note 
whether  any  recent  tracks  are  those  of  one's  own 
party  or  of  someone  else's  waggon.  I  was  apt 
to  be  very  stupid  about  remembering  to  notice 
which  way  I    rode,  for   I   was  always  looking  at 


igo     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

everything  about  me,  and  leaving  the   points  of 
the     compass    to    be    noted    by   my  companion. 
The  only  time  when   I    even  approached  getting 
lost  was  on  one  of  these  rides.      I  was  with    Mr. 
G.  Grey  who  was   on   foot,  and   had  his   rifle.      I 
got  separated  from  him  on  a  stony  kopje,  which  I 
thought  too  rough  to  ride  over,  and  round  which  I 
therefore  made  a  circuit,  thinking  he  saw  which  way 
I  was  going  and  that  we  should  meet  on  the  other 
side.     There   I  waited,  but  saw   nothing  of  him. 
I  heard  some  shots,  and  supposed  he  was  pur- 
suing   some    beast,    and    would   come    presently. 
However,  time  passed,  and  there  were  so  many 
shots  that  I  concluded  they  were  signals   to   me, 
and  shouted  in  answer,  without  response.     Then 
I  saw  that  the   sun  was   getting  very  low,  and   I 
knew   I  was   some  way  from   the  track.      Luckily 
on  this  one  occasion   I    had  noticed   that  we  had 
faced   the   sun   on   our  way   out,  so   it   was  easy 
enough  to  get  back  by  always  keeping  the  sun 
exactly  behind  me.     I  struck  the  road  about  300 
yards   from   camp,    and   found    Mr.  G.   Grey  had 
returned  before  me,  in  great  anxiety  lest  I  should 


CHIPANGAS  KRAAL 


be  lost,  and  preparing  to  shoot  off  rockets  to 
guide  me  when  night  fell.  He  had  not  noticed 
my  leaving  him  at  first,  and  then  had  been  unable 
to  find  my  spoor  owing  to  the  rocky  ground.  He 
fired  off  his  rifle  in  the  vain  hope  that  he  would 
hear  me  shout  in  answer,  and  had  finally  gone 
back  to  the  waggons  to  see  if  I  had  returned 
there. 

On  the  23rd  we  outspanned  at  the  Rusapi  or 
Lesapi  River,  near  which  there  are  some  ruins 
that  Mr.  Selous  told  us  of  and  thought  we  should 
like  to  see.  Accordingly  we  started  after  break- 
fast, riding  about  four  miles  to  Chipanga's  kraal, 
he  being  the  chief  to  whom  we  were  to  apply  for 
a  guide  to  take  us  to  Chititeke  and  Chipadze's 
grave,  at  both  of  which  places  there  were  ruins. 
The  natives  are  afraid  to  go  to  the  latter,  hence 
Mr,  Selous  told  us  we  were  to  say  we  were  his 
friends  to  induce  Chipanga  to  help  us.  The 
kraal  is  most  picturesquely  situated  on  high  rocky 
ground  above  the  river.  We  were  taken  to  the 
further  side  of  it,  to  where  there  was  a  rough 
semicircular  wall  of  rock  and  stones  on  the  brow 


192     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  LN  A    WAGGON 

of  the  hill,  and  overlooking  the  numerous  huts 
of  the  village.  Here  a  number  of  natives  were 
sitting,  to  whom  Mr.  Grey  spoke,  asking  for  the 
chief.  Some  went  to  fetch  him,  and  presently 
from  one  of  the  huts  emers^ed  a  tall  thin  bent  old 
man,  without  a  single  hair  on  his  scalp,  but  with 
a  thin  gray  moustache  and  beard  in  a  circle  round 
his  mouth,  and  wearing  for  sole  garment  an  old 
worn  out  green  greatcoat,  with  brass  buttons, 
reaching  well  below  his  knees.  Several  of  the 
headmen  walked  with  him  and  round  him,  clapping 
their  hands  gently  together  as  they  approached. 
He  came  up  slowly  and  with  as  much  dignity  as 
his  tottering  steps  would  allow,  and  sat  down  on 
a  stone  seat  within  the  semicircle.  Mr.  G.  Grey 
told  the  old  chief  what  we  wanted,  adding  that  I 
was  Mr.  Selous's  friend.  The  name  had  a 
markedly  good  effect,  and  after  some  palaver 
among  themselves,  in  which  the  words  Chititeke, 
Chipadze,  Zimbabye,  etc.,  came  in,  Chipanga  told 
a  boy,  dressed,  unlike  the  others,  in  European 
costume  (and  who,  we  afterwards  found,  had  been 
Lady  Henry  Paulet's  servant  for  a  time),  that  he 


CHIPANGA 


193 


was    to    be  our   guide   to    the    ruins.     The    boy 
evidently  wished  to  avoid  so  unpleasant  a  task, 


CHIPANGA, 


and  there  was  a  good  deal  more  talk  among  the 
natives,  and  then  a  long  pause,  during  which  no 


194     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

one  uttered  a  word,  and  we  remained  spectators 
of  the  scene,  wondering  what  the  outcome  would 
be,  and  whether  the  chief  would  be  obeyed. 

Then  Chipanga  once  more  addressed  the  boy, 
who  replied  by  getting  up  and  signing  to  us  to 
follow.     This  we  did  for  about  three-quarters  of  a 
mile,  surrounded  by  most  of  the  male  population 
of  the   kraal,  particularly   the   "piccaninnies,"  of 
whom  there  were  any  number.    Piccanin  or  picca- 
ninny is  the  universal  word  to  express  "little  "  or  "a 
child."     At  last  we  came  to  a  circle  of  trees  at  the 
edge  of  a  still  traceable  ditch  enclosing  a  mass  of 
large  granite  boulders  mixed  up  with  ruined  walls. 
Here  we  dismounted,  and  found  that  there  was  a 
flat  space  of  some  twenty  yards  between  the  ditch 
and   a   further   line   of  bank  covered  with  trees  ; 
and   again  inside  that  was   a  wall  enclosing  the 
granite  boulders.     This  wall  was  of  better  work- 
manship  than   modern   native   masonry,    but   not 
nearly  so  good  as  the  Zimbabye  walls.      It  had 
low   doorways,   with   stone   lintels,   the    openings 
being  too  small  to  get  through  without  crouching. 
As  we  went  round  we  saw  a  great  many  other 


RUINS  OF  NATIVE  TOWN  195 

bits  of  wall,  some  better,  some  worse,  some 
apparently  loopholed,  and  most  of  them  built  with 
mortar,  in  this  respect  differing  from  those  at 
Zimbabye,  which  are  pure  dry-stone  work.  There 
also  seemed  to  be  some  remains  of  modern  huts 
mixed  up  with  the  older  buildings.  One  circular 
wall,  about  the  circumference  of  an  ordinary  hut, 
but  consisting  now  of  only  three  or  four  courses 
of  stone,  had  holes  left  at  intervals  all  round  it, 
but  whether  this  was  the  foundation  of  a  hut,  or 
of  some  more  important  ancient  building,  was  not 
easy  to  determine.  We  did  a  number  of  photo- 
graphs of  the  ruins,  with  and  without  the  natives, 
who  viewed  our  cameras  with  scarcely  any  alarm. 
Every  available  scrap  of  ground  in  the  fortress 
was  planted  with  tobacco.  Evidently  there  was 
no  fear  in  the  native  mind  of  anything  super- 
natural here.  We  now  asked  where  Chipadze's 
grave  was,  and  were  pointed  out  a  group  of  rocks 
and  trees  between  two  kopjes  a  little  way  off  to 
the  north-west.  We  walked  thither,  preceded  by 
our  guide,  but  now  not  one  of  the  natives  except 
him  would  come  another  step  with  us.     The  grass 


196     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

was  tremendously  luxuriant  and  long  and  difficult 
to  get  through,  being  high  over  our  heads  ;  and 
it  was  not  till  we  came  right  up  to  a  wall  that  we 
realised  its  presence.  The  masonry  of  it  is 
almost  as  perfect  as  of  that  at  Zimbabye,  but  the 
stones  (if  my  recollections  are  right)  are  some- 
what larger.  As  at  Zimbabye,  they  are  wedge- 
shaped  and  beautifully  fitted  together  in  even 
rows  without  mortar.  The  wall  is  not  continuous, 
but  fills  up  gaps  between  boulders,  and  with  them 
encloses  a  space,  which,  at  a  guess,  Mr.  G.  Grey 
puts  at  thirty  by  fifty  yards.  The  bits  of  wall  vary 
in  size,  and  what  I  saw  (for  I  did  not  go  round, 
owing  to  the  difficulty  of  getting  through  the 
jungle  of  vegetation)  was  broken  down  in  places, 
and  nowhere  finished  at  the  top,  so  that  one  could 
not  tell  how  high  it  may  originally  have  been.  The 
height,  where  I  measured  it, was  about  seven  feet  six 
inches,  and  the  thickness  about  five  feet  six  inches. 
There  were  four  graves  within  the  enclosure,  one 
by  itself  and  three  in  a  group.  All  had  at  one  time 
been  covered  by  huts  of  upright  sticks,  but  not, 
as   is   usual,   plastered    with    clay,   and    with    the 


KAFFIR  BEER  i()j 


ordinary  thatched  roofs.  They  were  all  in  a  more 
or  less  ruinous  condition,  only  one  still  having 
any  roof  left  on.  This  one  was  in  the  group  of 
three,  and  inside  it  were  three  stones  arranged  in 
a  triangle,  with  a  large  clay  pot  on  them,  just  as 
natives  usually  arrange  stones  to  support  a  pot 
for  cooking.  Mr.  Grey  saw  nothing  else  of 
interest,  but  the  place  was  so  overgrown  that  it 
would  have  been  difficult  to  see  anything  had  it 
been  there. 

When  we  returned  to  old  Chipanga  to  thank 
him,  he  received  us  graciously  and  produced  a 
large  ornamented  pot  of  "  very  good  "  Kaffir  beer. 
After  our  party  had  drunk  some,  the  old  chief, 
with  trembling  hands,  raised  a  large  cupful  to  his 
mouth  and  drank  off  its  contents  at  a  draught, 
which  was  followed  by  a  terrible  fit  of  shake-you- 
to-pieces  cough.  Mr.  G.  Grey  then  intimated 
that  the  "  chieftainesses,"  referring  to  us,  would 
like  the  rest  of  the  beer  given  to  the  people.  The 
beer  was  then  handed  out  to  each  person  in  turn 
in  a  ladle-shaped  gourd,  even  the  tiny  babies 
taking  long  drinks   while   clasping  the  gourd  in 


198     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

the  prettiest  manner  with  their  chubby  little 
hands.  Each  person  after  drinking  clapped  his 
hands  together  softly  several  times,  as  did  every 
fresh  person  who  joined  the  crowd.  This  is  the 
recognised  way  of  expressing  respect  in  this 
part  of  the  country.  We  offered  the  chief  some 
beads  before  leaving,  and  he  tottered  forward, 
his  wrinkled  old  face  quite  brightening  up  as  we 
poured  them  into  his  two  hands  held  out  to- 
gether to  receive  them. 

I  have  told  you  about  this  visit  to  Chipanga's 
somewhat  fully,  as  it  is  one  of  the  few  occasions 
on  which  we  had  any  intercourse  with  the  natives 
otherwise  than  merely  for  barter. 

Day  after  day  as  we  went  along  we  have  heard 
the  usual  rumours  of  lions  having  killed  oxen 
about  a  week  before  (it  is  always  a  week  before), 
and  now  they  have  at  last  proved  true.  We  have 
been  shown  the  exact  spot  where  the  lions  were 
shot,  and  have  seen  their  skins  and  skulls.  Mr. 
Coope,  who  is  engineering  a  new  waggon-road  in 
the  "  Devil's  Pass  "  between  Salisbury  and  here,  is 
the  principal  hero  of  the  story.     A  Dutchman  had 


A  LIONESS  CAUGHT  IN  A   TREK-CHAIN       199 

outspanned  for  the  night  on  the  road  just  below 
his  hut,  his  oxen  as  usual  fastened  to  the  trek- 
chain,  and  a  number  of  Mr.  Coope's  "boys" 
sleeping  close  by,  when  a  lioness  came  up  the 
road  and  seized  the  first  living  thing  she  came  to, 
which  luckily  happened  to  be  an  ox,  and  not  a 
"boy."  The  ox  and  the  lioness  rolled  over  to- 
gether, and  somehow  the  trek-chain  got  twisted 
round  the  body  of  the  lioness  and  was  held  there 
by  the  rest  of  the  oxen  pulling  hard  in  the  opposite 
direction.  The  Dutchman  fired  at  the  lioness, 
and  thereupon  heard  some  others  retreating, 
alarmed  at  the  sound  of  the  shot.  Awakened  by 
the  noise,  Mr.  Coope  came  down,  and  he  and  the 
transport  rider  arranged  to  sit  up  with  their  rifles 
for  the  rest  of  the  night  in  case  the  lions  should 
return.  Luckily  they  did  not  do  so,  for  morning 
broke  to  find  both  men  lying  fast  asleep,  their 
heads  pillowed  on  the  dead  lioness.  It  was  then 
that  they  found  that  she  was  twisted  up  so  tightly 
in  the  trek-chain  that  she  would  have  been 
squeezed  to  death  if  she  had  not  been  shot  first. 
Mr.    Coope   gave    Mrs.   Grey    the   skull    of  this 


200     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

lioness.  She  was  old  and  in  very  poor  condition, 
with  her  teeth  much  worn,  and  had  three  porcupine 
quills  in  her,  two  stuck  in  her  fore-paws,  and  one 
long  one  running  upwards  through  her  lower  jaw 
and  piercing  her  tongue.  They  had  all  made  bad 
festering  wounds,  so  that  the  poor  beast  must 
have  suffered  greatly. 

The  other  lions  went  up  to  a  neighbouring 
kopje,  where  they  spent  their  time  among  the 
baboons,  whose  lives  were  thereby  made  a  burden 
to  them,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  screams  and 
yells  that  ensued  for  several  days.  After  about  a 
week  another  Dutch  transport  rider  came  past. 
He  was  warned  that  there  were  lions  about,  but 
took  no  heed,  even  allowing  his  oxen  to  wander 
loose  all  night  to  feed.  This  was  too  good  an 
opportunity  to  be  lost,  and  next  day  it  was  found 
that  three  had  been  killed  by  the  lions.  Mr. 
Coope  bought  the  carcases,  removed  two  entirely, 
and  left  the  third  for  the  lions  to  come  back  to. 
He  had  a  little  shelter  of  branches  and  poles  laid 
against  a  tree  beside  the  remaining  carcase,  and 
inside  this  he  and  his  overseer  and  the  Dutchman 


TWO  MORE  LIONESSES  KILLED 


watched  for  the  reappearance  of  the  Hons.  It 
was  moonHght,  and  after  waiting  some  time  Mr 
Coope  at  last  saw  the  tall  grass  divide  close  to 
him  and  the  head  of  a  lioness  appear,  and  could 
hear  the  sound  of  her  hungry  grunts,  and  the  swish 
of  her  tail  from  side  to  side,  as  she  paused 
suspiciously  and  then  retreated.  Mr.  Coope 
might  have  shot  her  if  he  had  not  promised  the 
first  chance  to  the  transport  rider,  whom  he  now 
found  to  be  asleep.  Presently  the  animal  returned  ; 
he  fired,  and  she  disappeared  without  a  sound,  so 
he  believed  he  had  missed  her.  The  smoke  was 
hardly  cleared  away  before  he  became  aware  that 
another  lioness  was  close  by  on  the  other  side. 
He  fired  again  ;  a  roar  followed,  and  she  also  dis- 
appeared, and  he  could  hear  her  moaning  in  the 
grass  a  little  way  off.  At  the  same  time  a  third 
lion  bounded  away  into  the  bush.  Next  morning 
the  first  lioness  was  found  shot  through  the  head 
and  lying  just  where  she  had  stood,  about  five 
yards  off  The  second  had  gone  away  about  a 
mile,  and  was  there  despatched.  The  third  was 
no   more  seen.      The   lioness'   skull    which   was 


202     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

given  to  Mrs.  Grey  caused  great  excitement 
among  our  "boys"  that  night.  Our  outspan  was 
at  the  foot  of  the  pass,  and  most  weird  was  the 
scene, — the  waggons  dimly  visible  among  the 
tall  trees  in  the  hollow,  and  the  blazing  fire  with 
the  "boys"  sitting  round  it  like  the  Witches  in 
Macbeth,  eagerly  scanning  the  skull  as  they 
handed  it  from  one  to  the  other  with  almost 
reverential  gestures. 

Some  considerable  time  before  this  Mr.  Coope 
had  another  adventure  with  lions.  A  detachment 
of  police,  among  whom  he  was,  had  been  sent  out 
to  bring  to  reason  a  powerful  chief.  Their  guide 
was  a  "  boy  "  whose  brother  had  been  murdered  by 
the  chief,  and  who  wished  to  be  revenged  on  him. 
The  police  thought  the  chief  would  very  likely 
attack  them  under  cover  of  night,  and  when  their 
"  boys,"  who  were  sleeping  a  little  way  off,  suddenly 
with  a  dreadful  outcry  rushed  panic-stricken 
towards  them,  they  at  first  believed  that  this  was 
what  had  happened.  It  was,  however,  a  lion 
who  had  seized  their  guide,  and  he  was  calling 
out  pitifully  to  the  white  man  to  save  him,  that 


A  LION  KILLS  A  NA  TIVE  203 

he  had  got  the  Hon  down,  but  it  was  eating  him, 
and  the  white  man  must  be  careful,  careful !  And 
they  heard  the  scrunching  of  bones.  It  was  pitch 
dark,  but  one  of  the  police  held  up  a  lantern  while 
Mr.  Coope  shot.  The  lion  was  gnawing  the  man's 
arm.  The  shot  apparently  missed,  and  the  lion  only 
left  the  arm  and  began  tearing  the  thigh  instead. 
A  second  shot  forced  the  brute  to  leave  the 
"  boy  "  and  disappear  in  the  darkness.  Mr.  Coope 
stooped  down  and  took  hold  of  the  "  boy's"  arm, 
and  it  came  off  in  his  hand.  The  poor  fellow  was 
carried  to  the  camp,  and  all  night  long  he  kept 
alternately  raving  in  delirium,  or  telling  them 
pluckily  that  he  would  soon  be  well  again.  The 
lion  had  taken  off  his  scalp  before  it  touched  his 
arm.  Next  morning  he  died,  after  telling  them 
that  the  chief  was  in  league  with  the  lions  and 
had  sent  them  to  punish  him. 

Meanwhile  the  camp  had  settled  down  again, 
as  no  one  believed  that  the  lions  would  venture 
back  after  all  the  disturbance.  But  all  at  once 
there  was  a  great  commotion  among  the  horses  ; 
the   lions   had  attacked   them,  and   breaking   the 


204     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

rope  which  tied  them,  they  stampeded  in  all 
directions.  The  men  thought  they  heard  one 
pulled  down  by  a  lion,  and  then  they  heard  tear- 
ing and  chewing  and  smacking  of  lips.  When 
daylight  came  they  went  to  the  place  and  found 
the  melancholy  remains  of  a  trooper's  saddle  re- 
duced to  shreds  and  tatters.  Eventually  the  lion 
which  attacked  the  "  boy"  was  killed,  and  all  the 
horses  were  recovered,  though  some  were  badly 
mauled. 

At  the  "  Devil's  Pass  "  we  met  a  man  whose 
terrible  experiences  some  two  or  three  years  ago 
had  often  been  held  over  us  in  terrorem  by  Mr. 
G.  Grey,  when  we  did  not  show  sufficient  appre- 
ciation of  the  dangers  of  getting  lost  on  the  veldt. 
This  man  was  travelling  up  country  with  a 
waggon,  and  got  lost  on  the  veldt  for  forty-six 
days.  During  all  this  time  he  was  without  fire 
and  without  food,  beyond  what  an  unarmed  man 
could  procure.  For  days  he  had  no  water,  and 
was  so  tortured  with  thirst  that  he  went  into  the 
reeds  in  hopes  that  wild  beasts  would  devour  him. 
At  last    he    came    to   a   small   vley,   or  pond,   of 


LOST  ON  THE  VELDT  205 

Stagnant  water.  He  lived  upon  the  frogs  which 
he  caught  in  the  vley  and  ate  raw,  and  on  any 
roots  and  fruits  that  he  could  find  ;  but  they  were 
so  hard  that  his  teeth  became  quite  worn  down 
by  them.  At  night  he  crawled  feet  foremost  into 
a  deserted  ant-bear's  hole,  blocking  up  the 
entrance  after  him  with  a  bundle  of  dry  grass. 
Thus  he  existed  till  some  Dutchmen  happened  to 
come  across  his  spoor  where  he  had  worn  a  path 
to  the  vley,  and,  following  it  up,  rescued  him. 
He  was  almost  mad  with  want  and  privation 
when  they  found  him,  and  could  not  give  a 
coherent  account  of  how  he  had  lived  all  those 
awful  weeks.  He  has  now  completely  recovered. 
Next  day  we  outspanned  close  to  the  "  Sugar 
Loaf,"  a  high-peaked  hill  looking  as  if  made  of 
one  single  block  of  granite.  There  are  a  good 
many  hills  of  this  type  in  this  district,  and  as  they 
are  smooth  and  bare  of  vegetation,  their  delicate 
pale  gray  colour  contrasts  beautifully  with  the 
crimson  and  orange  of  the  young  leaves  of  the 
Magoussy  trees,  forests  of  which  extend  on  every 
side.      I  spent  most  of  the  morning  trying  to  note 


2o6     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

down  the  tunes  played  by  two  natives  on  their 
Httle  metal-tongued  pianos  ;  but  as  they  played 
extremely  fast,  and  could  not  be  made  to  under- 


Hik \ 


.^ 


PLAYING    THE    PIANO. 


Stand  that  we  wanted  to  hear  the  tune  played 
slowly,  I  did  not  make  much  of  my  well- 
intentioned  efforts.^  Before  we  left,  Mr.  G.  Grey 
brought  home  a  fine  sable  antelope  head  on  his 


1  There  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  one  of  these  pianos  as  well  as  of 
many  other  native  implements  and  ornaments  in  Mr.  Theodore  Bent's 
Ruined  Cities  of  Mashoiialand. 


RIDE  FROM  THE  ODZI  RIVER  TO  UMTALI    207 

pony  (not  forgetting  part  of  the  carcase  to  supply 
the  larder),  of  which  I  got  a  good  photograph. 

At   the    Odzi    River,    about   ten    miles    from 
Umtali,    we    went    on    ahead    of    the    waggons, 


SABLE    ANTELOPE   ON    PONY,    SHOT    BY   MR.    G.    GREY. 


leaving  them  to  follow  slowly.  I  think  I  enjoyed 
this  ride  almost  more  than  any  other  I  have  had, 
for  the  views  were  so  lovely,  the  hills  ideally 
beautiful  in  shape,  and  their  colouring  of  the  rare 
and   exquisite   iridescent  tints   that  one   can  only 


2o8     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

compare  to  rainbows  and  mother-of-pearl.  When 
we  eot  here  we  found  ourselves  minus  an  abode 
to  dwell  in,  but  finally  became  the  guests  of  the 
Sisters  at  the  Hospital,  which  was  luckily  empty 
except  for  one  "boy."  This  poor  fellow  got  into 
a  tree  to  avoid  a  veldt  fire,  and  it  is  supposed  that 
he  was  stupefied  by  the  smoke  and  fell  down. 
At  all  events  he  was  found  afterwards  lying  on 
the  ground  so  terribly  burnt  that  he  lost  an  eye, 
and  both  his  hands  had  to  be  amputated.  This 
is  the  only  case  in  which  I  have  heard  of  any  one 
being  injured  by  these  fires.  As  a  rule  they  are 
very  tame  affairs,  just  a  narrow  line  of  flame 
running  along  the  ground  only  a  foot  or  two  high. 
The  grass  burns  so  quickly  that  you  do  not  often 
see  anything  like  a  sheet  of  flame,  and  I  have 
more  than  once  walked  across  the  advancing  line 
of  fire.  As  for  the  oxen  and  horses,  they  cross  it 
with  scarcely  a  glance,  only  giving  a  kick  out  if  a 
flame  happens  for  a  moment  to  lick  up  their  sides. 
When  the  grass  is  very  luxuriant  and  the  wind 
high,  then  it  is  a  different  matter,  and  I  have  seen 
a  grassy  kopje  one   mass  of  flames  and  smoke, 


VELDT  FIRES  209 


even  the  trees  blazing  furiously.  I  suppose  it  is 
partly  owing  to  the  frequency  of  these  fires  that 
the  "  bush  "  consists  so  rarely  of  trees  higher  than 
hawthorns,  and  that  their  stems  are  so  con- 
spicuously and  inartistically  black  in  colour. 


LETTER   XV 

Obliged  to  leave  Umtali  to  catch  steamer — Spring  vegetation — Attempts  to 
dig  up  plants — The  Standard-wing  Nightjar — Moths  and  grasshoppers 
— Crossing  watercourses — Carriers — Mr.  Coope's  genius  for  barter — 
Machabel  trees — Native  articles  for  use  and  ornament — Decoration  of 
hair— Making  a  fire  by  rubbing  sticks — Final  collapse  of  the  spider — 
Camp  at  the  Revue  Drift — Heavy  rain — Last  hope  of  seeing  lions 
abandoned  —  Chimoio's — -We  part  from  our  waggons — Start  for 
"Seventy-five" — My  machila-bearers — Dinner  under  difficulties — An 
ant  foray — Catch  a  construction  train — Tropical  forest — A  snake  on  the 
railway — Seventy-five  mile  peg — Attempt  to  improve  our  fare — Parasols 
— Tall  hats — Leave  for  Fontesvilla — Mrs.  Grey  sees  a  lion's  spoor — 
Diversions  of  a  railway  guard — On  the  Pungwe — Arrival  at  Beira — A 
lion  stuck  in  the  mud. 

Beira,  x^th  September  1S94. 

We  had  to  hurry  away  from  UmtaH  several  days 
earlier  than  we  had  intended,  because  of  an  altera- 
tion in  the  time  at  which  the  steamer  for  the 
Cape  was  to  call  here.  So  we  had  only  time  for 
one  expedition — of  course  to  a  gold  mine — but 
combining  therewith  much  pretty  scenery  and 
pleasant  company. 

The  scenery  from  Umtali  till  you  get  to  the 
flat  coast  belt  is  all  hilly  and  beautiful.      Umtali 


SPRING  VEGETATION 


is  some  3000  feet  above  the  sea,  so  the  road 
descends  nearly  the  whole  way  except  for  a  long 
hill  over  the  pass  east  of  the  township.  Here  we 
first  saw  palms  and  bamboos  growing  on  the 
banks  of  the  streams.  The  vegetation  gets 
gradually  more  and  more  tropical  as  you  descend, 
but  until  we  got  to  within  seventy  or  eighty  miles 
of  the  coast,  where  its  character  has  become  too 
different  from  that  on  the  high  plateau  to  compare 
with  it,  we  were  surprised  to  find  that  the  spring 
seemed  less  advanced  the  lower  we  came,  in  spite 
of  a  warmer  atmosphere.  Indeed,  at  Salisbury 
in  the  middle  of  August,  the  flowers  were  as  much 
out  as  at  Umtali  nearly  a  fortnight  after  ;  and  it 
was  only  after  heavy  rain  a  week  later  that  we 
saw  many  new  flowers  spring  up.  Among  these 
was  a  pretty  scarlet  flower,  shaped  somewhat  like 
a  periwinkle,  but  with  stalk  and  leaves  like  a 
fritillary,  over  which  we  spent  much  time  in 
attempts  to  dig  it  up  ;  but  as  after  going  down 
about  a  foot  and  a  half  its  single  long  root  never 
showed  any  indication  of  diminishing  in  size, 
much  less  of  coming  to  an  end,  we  at  last  desisted 


212     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

in  despair.  Birds  and  insects  increased  greatly 
in  numbers  and  variety  as  we  descended.  There 
had  been  comparatively  few  of  either  on  the  high 
plateau.  Large  flocks  of  parakeets  now  flew 
chattering  and  screaming  overhead,  and  birds 
with  notes  reminding  one  of  thrushes  and  larks 
used  to  depress  me  continually  by  their  song  ; 
for  they  made  me  sadly  regret  the  spring  at  home 
which  I  had  lost,  and  long  for  the  spring  here 
which  I  was  about  to  lose.  I  had  often  heard  of 
the  beautiful  Standard-wing  Nightjar,  and  was 
one  day  bemoaning  not  having  seen  any,  when 
suddenly,  as  the  sun  went  down,  with  noiseless 
flight  one  passed  close  to  me,  his  long  white 
streamers  waving  as  he  went  by,  and  disappeared 
ghost-like  in  the  darkness. 

At  Revue  huge  moths,  like  our  own  "  Em- 
peror," but  with  wings  five  or  six  inches  across, 
were  just  coming  in  numbers  out  of  their  cocoons  ; 
and  every  now  and  then,  as  you  walked  along,  up 
started  a  monster  grasshopper  with  scarlet  wings 
rustling  as  he  flew ;  and  then  down  he  would 
flop,  tuck  the  scarlet  away  and  become  invisible 


CROSSING  WATER  COURSES  213 

again.  One  day  I  saw  a  strange  cloud  of  a  red- 
brown  colour,  such  as  I  had  never  seen  before. 
It  was  a  great  flight  of  locusts,  which  happily 
passed  away  from  us.  We  have  had  too  many  of 
these  gentry  already. 

After  descending  the  pass  near  Umtali  we 
came  to  a  bit  of  road  continually  crossed  by 
deep  dongas,  or  watercourses,  with  a  very  steep 
pitch  in  and  out — such  as  it  would  never  occur  to 
one  as  possible  to  drive  into  in  England,  but 
which  one  takes  as  a  matter  of  course  out  here. 
Still,  when  lying  in  bed  at  night,  with  one's  head 
down  and  one's  feet  up,  feeling  as  if  the  waggon 
were  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees,  while  the 
oxen  vainly  endeavoured  to  draw  it  up  the  side  of 
the  gully,  one  could  not  help  wondering  what 
would  happen  to  one  if  the  trek-chain  broke.  I 
said  something  of  this  sort  to  our  conductor  one 
day,  when  he  immediately  regaled  me  with 
several  stories  of  such  accidents,  all  ending,  "  the 
waggons  were  smashed  to  bits." 

All  the  way  down  to  the  railway  we  continu- 
ally passed  by  lines  of  "boys  "  carrying  goods  on 


214     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

their  heads  to  UmtaH,  and  returning  unloaded. 
This  is  because  of  the  difficulties  of  transport, 
owing  to  the  tsetse  fly  in  the  low  ground.  Mr. 
Coope,  who  accompanied  us  from  Umtali,  showed 
quite  a  genius  in  persuading  these  natives  to  sell 
us  their  knives  and  other  treasures.  He  would 
begin  by  talking  to  them,  gradually  bringing  them 
into  such  a  state  of  good-humour  that  they  kept 
bursting  into  fits  of  laughter.  Then  he  would 
proceed  to  barter  for  the  article  we  wanted,  and 
gradually  wheedled  them  into  pulling  it  out  with 
reluctant  hands  and  pathetic  smile,  yet  unable  to 
resist  the  voice  of  the  charmer — and  the  bright 
rupees  temptingly  held  before  them.  Nearly  all 
these  "boys"  carried  pillows  —  small  carved 
wooden  stands  with  a  concave  top,  on  which  to 
rest  the  back  of  the  head.  Personally,  I  had  far 
rather  sleep  with  my  head  on  the  ground  than 
resting  on  one  of  these  ;  but  tastes  differ.  Some 
of  the  natives  had  oblonof  dishes  cut  out  of  thick 
bark,  or  carried  the  food  of  their  party  wrapped 
up  in  a  kind  of  cloth  made  of  bark,  got  chiefly 
from   the   Machabel  tree.     This  tree   has  a  leaf 


NATIVE  ORNAMENTS  215 

rather  like  a  Polypody  fern,  but  with  many  more 
leaflets — I  have  counted  as  many  as  nineteen  on 
each  side — and  growing  in  graceful  tufts  like 
bunches  of  ostrich  feathers.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  characteristic  trees  in  the 
country.  The  natives  also  usually  carry  knives, 
often  with  handles  and  sheaths  most  artistically 
decorated  in  patterns  with  fine  brass  or  copper 
wire  (probably  made  in  Germany).  Sometimes 
knobkerries  and  assegais  are  similarly  ornamented. 
Very  often  they  carry  a  pointed  piece  of  iron,  like 
a  large  packing-needle,  in  a  sheath  hung  round 
the  neck  by  a  thong  of  leather  like  a  boot-lace. 
This  is  for  taking  thorns  out  of  their  feet.  With 
it  are  frequently  hung  a  few  brass  rings  like 
curtain  rings,  or  a  snuff-box.  These  last  are  of 
many  sorts,  cleverly  carved  in  wood,  and  of  an 
infinite  variety  of  shapes  and  patterns  ;  or  made 
from  the  seed-vessels  of  different  plants,  carefully 
hollowed  out.  Another  much -prized  ornament 
you  occasionally  see  is  an  ivory-coloured  disc, 
with  a  hole  in  the  middle  by  which  it  is  hung 
round  the  neck.     The  disc  is  about  as  large  as 


2i6    TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

the  bottom  of  a  tumbler,  and  with  a  deep  spiral 
groove  on  one  side,  the  other  being  quite  smooth 
I  cannot  make  out  whether  these  are  natural  or 
artificial.  They  are  said  to  come  from  a  long 
way  off  inland,  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  induce  a 
native  to  part  with  one. 

Considering  how  short  is  the  hair  on  their 
woolly  pates,  it  is  wonderful  what  variety  of  ways 
the  natives  have  of  arranging  it.  Many  wear 
combs  made  of  a  dozen  or  more  small  sticks  about 
as  thick  as  a  match,  tied  together  in  the  shape  of 
a  half-closed  fan,  and  this  often  fastens  in  one  or 
two  shabby  bits  of  ostrich  or  other  feathers. 
Sometimes  they  divide  the  hair  by  wide  partings 
all  over  the  head,  so  that  it  is  left  in  long  parallel 
ridges.  But  one  of  the  most  peculiar  ways  of 
decorating  it  is  by  taking  a  number  of  small  locks 
and  tying  each  of  them  closely  round  and  round 
with  a  wisp  of  grass,  leaving  a  little  tuft  at  the 
end,  so  that  their  heads  look  exactly  as  if  they 
had  stuck  on  a  sort  of  cockscomb  of  fusees. 

One  of  the  men  who  passed  us  had  two  sticks 
for  making  fire,  and  he  showed  us  how  he  did  it. 


MAKING  A  FIRE  BY  RUBBING  STICKS         217 

One  of  the  sticks  was  about  fifteen  inches  long, 
and  about  half  an  inch  in  diameter.  The  other 
was  flatter,  and  had  already  in  it  several  shallow 
round  holes  made  in  getting  fire  on  former  occa- 
sions. He  took  the  latter  piece,  and  having  cut 
a  smaller,  irregular-shaped  hole  in  it,  he  squatted 
on  the  ground  holding  it  firmly  down  at  each  end 
with  his  two  feet.  He  then  took  the  first  piece  of 
stick  and  held  it  upright  between  his  two  palms, 
and  with  the  point  of  the  lower  end  resting  in  the 
hole  he  had  just  made  in  the  horizontal  stick,  he 
twirled  the  upright  stick  rapidly  between  his 
hands,  and  in  less  than  a  minute  it  had  bored  a 
round  hole  in  the  other,  and  the  dust  so  produced 
began  to  smoke,  and  then  ignited  like  tinder.  A 
companion  brought  a  little  handful  of  fine  dry 
grass,  which  caught  a  spark  from  this,  and  which 
he  held  half  enclosed  in  the  palms  of  his  hands, 
gently  blowing  on  it  till  it  flamed  up.  It  is  per- 
fectly marvellous  how  little  the  natives  mind  being 
burned  by  a  fire.  They  will  stand  over  one  while 
the  flames  are  licking  up  their  bare  legs  and  never 
move,  and  will  keep  their  hands  and  feet  in  red- 


2i8     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

hot  ashes  with  the  utmost  indifference  for  several 
seconds. 

Two  nights  after  we  left  Umtali  our  four 
mules  bolted  with  the  spider,  which  coming 
against  the  wheel  of  our  waggon  was  finally 
reduced  to  a  condition  beyond  even  the  powers 
of  the  trekker's  friend — reim — to  remedy.  So 
it  was  left  behind  at  the  Revue  River.  Our 
party  divided  there,  as  some  intended  to  return 
by  the  Cape,  and  the  rest  to  go  back  by  Zanzibar 
and  the  Red  Sea.  The  steamer  calling  at  Beira 
to  ofo  south,  started  a  week  earlier  than  the  one 
going  north,  so  we  who  were  going  by  the 
latter  route  remained  behind,  camping  at  the 
Revue  Drift  until  Dennison  with  the  buck- 
waggon  should  return  to  us  after  depositing  the 
rest  of  the  party  at  Chimoio's,  beyond  which  no 
oxen  can  go  because  of  the  tsetse  fly.  The 
Revue  Drift  is  just  on  the  outskirts  of  the  hill 
country,  and  is  very  pretty.  Here  and  there 
are  very  tall  and  beautiful  palm  -  trees,  with 
huge  fan-like  leaves  which  you  can  hear  rust- 
ling   in    the    wind    from    a   great    distance    off. 


HEAVY  RAIN  221 


Were  it  not  for  the  veldt  fires  there  would 
soon  be  a  large  grove  of  them,  for  there  were 
any  number  of  young  ones  coming  up,  and  the 
burnt  remains  of  many  more.  During  the  few 
days  of  our  stay  at  Revue  we  had  a  good  deal 
of  rain,  coming  unusually  early  in  the  season, 
and  we  had  thus  an  opportunity  of  observing 
the  difference  in  comfort  of  a  life  on  the  veldt 
during  wet  or  dry  weather.  It  is  certainly  not 
an  agreeable  life  to  remain  cooped  up  in  a 
waggon,  shivering  in  clothes  in  which  you  for- 
merly complained  of  heat ;  the  wood  too  wet  to 
make  a  fire,  and  with  the  knowledge  that  if  the 
rain  goes  on  much  longer  you  will  run  short 
of  spirits  of  wine  and  be  unable  even  to  make 
tea.  Luckily  the  situation  was  not  prolonged  to 
this  point  with  us.  The  dark  rainy  nights  are 
those  in  which  lions  do  most  abound,  and  a  few 
miles  off  Dennison  heard  them  roaring  near 
where  he  had  outspanned  on  his  way  back  to 
join  us.  This  gave  me  hopes  that  I  might  still 
come  across  one,  but  we  got  down  to  Chimoio's 
without  seeing  anything  of  greater  interest  than 


222     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

a  puff-adder,  and  the  lions  abstained  from  even 
a  grunt. 

At  Chimoio's  we  bade  a  final  farewell  to  our 
conductor  and  boys  and  to  the  trekking  life  we 
had  so  much  enjoyed.  I  felt  quite  a  lump  in  my 
throat  as  our  waggon  turned  away,  and  only 
saved  the  situation  by  taking  a  hasty  "  snap- 
shot "  as  it  departed.  From  there  to  the  coast 
you  have  to  go  through  "  the  fly  "  as  they  always 
say  here  :  that  is,  the  belt  of  land  infested  with 
the  tsetse  fly,  whose  bite  is  certain  death  to 
cattle,  horses,  and  donkeys,  though  the  latter 
often  live  for  a  few  months  after  being  bitten. 
Mr.  Coope  had  made  arrangements  for  our 
journey  from  Chimoio's  to  the  railway  by  engag- 
ing two  sets  of  carriers  and  a  traction  -  engine, 
besides  arranging  with  the  Portuguese  Com- 
mandant (for  we  had  entered  Portuguese  terri- 
tory at  Massikessi)  for  another  set  of  carriers  and 
a  inachila  or  hammock.  This  sounds  rather  a 
large  order,  but  it  proved  Mr.  Coope's  apprecia- 
tion of  the  situation ;  for  when  we  reached 
Chimoio's  we  found  that  the  engine-drivers  were 


WE  PART  FROM  OUR  WAGGONS  223 

drunk,  the  Commandant's  promises  had  not  got 
beyond  the  stage  of  words,  and  one  set  of  carriers 
had  vanished.  Luckily  there  remained  the  set 
of  carriers  Mr.  Coope  had  brought  with  him. 
The  contents  of  the  waggon  were  spread  out  on 
the  ground,  and  to  each  carrier  was  given  his 
appointed  load,  the  efforts  of  some  of  them  to 
skulk  off  with  less  than  their  share  of  weight 
being  amusing  to  watch.  The  Commandant  and 
his  English  wife  entertained  us  with  the  utmost 
hospitality,  and  at  last,  about  three  in  the  after- 
noon, we  started,  the  gentlemen  walking  and  I  in 
a  hammock.  We  had  not  gone  very  far  before 
we  came  on  the  traction-engine  standing  deserted 
by  the  roadside,  the  men  in  charge  having  "gone 
on  the  burst."  Most  of  our  way  lay  along  the 
half-finished  railway-line,  high  grass  or  bush  on 
either  side,  and  quantities  of  lovely  lilac  petunia- 
like flowers  bordering  the  track. 

Practised  machila  -  bearers  amble  along  at  a 
rate  of  about  six  miles  an  hour,  but  mine  only 
went  about  four,  and  as  they  went, — when  Mr. 
Coope,   who  understood  their  language,  was  not 


224     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

near  enough  to  hear  them, — they  sang  songs  in 
which  the  words  "  Makadze  Mama "  (Lady 
Mother — mother  being  a  term  of  respect  among 
the  nativ^es)  continually  recurred.  Whether  they 
sang  in  my  praise  or  not  I  cannot  tell,  but  as, 
when  previously  bargaining  with  Mr.  Coope 
about  their  pay,  they  had  admitted  that  though 
tall  I  was  not  fat,  I  hope  it  was  the  former. 

At  dusk  we  stopped  after  going  about  ten 
miles,  and  then  found  that  two  of  our  carriers 
were  missing,  and  those  two  carried  most  of  our 
food  and  utensils.  We  had  some  tea,  a  little 
very  peppery  dessicated  soup,  some  very  dry  salt 
ham,  and  some  biscuits, — not  an  inviting  meal  for 
tired  and  thirsty  men.  With  the  aid  of  a  patrol- 
tin,  a  basin,  a  frying-pan,  and  the  lid  of  a  biscuit- 
tin,  which  had  to  do  quadruple  duty  as  cups, 
plates,  pots,  and  pans,  we  managed  very  well. 
The  tent  was  put  up  for  me,  and  the  men  slept 
outside  wrapped  in  waterproof  sheets.  It  was 
lucky  they  had  them,  for  the  dew  was  so  heavy 
that  the  tent  was  dripping  inside  when  I  got  up 
next  morning.     We   were  off  again  by   sunrise. 


AN  ANT  FORA  V  225 


only  stopping  for  an  hour  or  so  before  midday  to 
rest  and  eat,  and  hurrying  on  in  hopes  of  catch- 
ing a  "construction"  train  which  was  to  bring  up 
rails  to  "  Ninety  mile  peg."  Mr.  Coope  had  sur- 
veyed a  good  deal  of  this  country  some  time 
before,  and  told  me  that  near  here  he  had  been 
waked  one  night  by  myriads  of  bites,  and  found 
he  was  assailed  by  a  column  of  ants  marching 
across  country  and  destroying  everything  in  their 
course.  Every  chicken  he  had  was  bitten  to 
death  by  them,  for  being  shut  up  they  could  not 
escape.  I  don't  think  I  have  ever  mentioned  the 
"stink  ants"  to  you.  They  are  the  only  kind 
that  ever  troubled  us.  It  is  said  that  if  you 
annoy  them  in  any  way,  as,  for  instance,  by 
treading  on  them  or  unwittingly  burning  them 
in  your  camp-fire,  they  emit  a  most  horrible 
odour.  Certainly  every  now  and  then  we  did 
experience  such  odours,  but  I  never  investigated 
to  see  whether  they  were  made  by  the  ants  or 
not.  No  other  insects  ever  troubled  us  at  all, 
during  the  whole  of  our  waggon  journey,  though 

the  horses  and  cattle  were  covered  with  ticks. 

Q 


226     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

We  reached  Ninety  mile  peg  just  in  time  to 
catch  the  train,  and  were  allowed  to  go  down  to 
Seventy-five  mile  peg  in  one  of  the  empty  trucks. 
For  some  way  we  kept  along  the  watershed, 
which  in  some  parts  is  so  narrow  that  you  almost 
see  over  both  sides  at  once.  Once  or  twice  we 
went  through  a  patch  of  almost  tropical  forest. 
The  trees  were  very  large  —  they  would  look 
large  in  England — with  tall,  bare  stems.  Some 
were  buttressed  at  the  bottom  as  though  boards 
had  been  put  against  them  ;  others  looked  like 
living  faggots,  the  sticks  of  which  had  partly 
grown  together  and  sprouted  at  the  top. 

A  few  miles  from  "  Seventy-five  "  the  line  winds 
along  a  series  of  narrow  cuttings  and  embank- 
ments, from  the  latter  of  which  you  get  very  fine 
extended  views,  the  crimson  of  the  Magoussy 
trees  and  the  rich  green  of  the  large  Kafifir  plums, 
which  remind  me  of  evergreen  oaks,  giving  a 
splendid  effect  of  colour,  backed  by  blue  hills  in 
the  distance.  The  line  is  single,  the  gauge  only 
two  feet,  and  the  earthen  embankments  are  so 
extremely  high  and  steep  that  they  look  as  though 


SEVENTY-FIVE  MILE  PEG  227 

they  must  be  washed  out  with  the  first  heavy 
rain.  As  we  passed  through  one  of  the  cuttings 
a  snake,  which  had  evidently  fallen  in  over  the 
top,  reared  itself  up  and  struck  at  our  truck  with 
all  its  force,  falling  back  impotently,  as  with  the 
indifference  of  fate  the  train  pursued  the  even 
tenor  of  its  way. 

At  "Seventy-five"  we  were  taken  straight  to 
Herkner's,  the  only  "  House  of  Accommodation  " 
in  the  place  which  has  no  bar ;  and  I  must  say 
that  the  following  night  I  was  thankful  there  was 
such  an  abode  to  go  to,  for  anything  like  the  noise 
and  drunkenness  at  the  bars  I  never  heard.  We 
had  some  nice  little  huts  to  sleep  in,  with  thatched 
roofs  and  bamboo  walls.  On  arriving  we  asked 
for  dinner,  and  were  told  that  they  would  neither 
provide  us  with  food  nor  cook  for  us,  though  they 
would  allow  us  a  Barmecide's  feast  in  the  shape 
of  empty  cups  and  plates.  Luckily  our  missing 
"  boys  "  having  turned  up,  we  had  some  provisions 
with  us,  and  though  I  cannot  say  that  either  their 
quality  or  variety  were  very  enticing,  we  were  far 
beyond    minding    trifles    of  that    sort.       On    the 


228     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

second  day  we  attempted  to  improve  our  fare  by- 
buying  some  tinned  cabbage  at  the  store,  but 
when  opened  the  odour  was  such  that  with  one 
accord  we  fled  hastily  from  the  hut, 


%mi. 


IMJ 


NAVVIES   W^ORKING   ON    THE    BEIRA   RAILWAY. 


Our  carriers  were  paid  the  day  after  we  arrived, 
and  immediately  proceeded  to  a  neighbouring 
store,  where  they  spent  a  large  proportion  of  the 
4s.  6d.  they  had  earned  in  purchasing  the  store- 
keeper's   whole   stock    of    parasols  —  marvellous 


TALL  HATS  229 


objects,  with  each  section  of  a  different  and  flaring 
colour.  The  "boys"  paraded  the  village  with  these 
over  their  heads,  grinning  from  ear  to  ear  with 
childlike  delight.  It  was  the  more  comic  as  they 
don't  care  a  bit  how  hot  the  sun  is  on  their  heads, 
and  anything  they  put  on  them  is  simply  with  a 
view  to  ornament,  as,  for  instance,  the  brim  of  a 
straw  hat  without  its  crown.  But  some  tribes 
always  wear  hats,  some  of  which  are  like  our 
familiar  "chimney-pots,"  but  much  taller,  made  of 
grass,  and  looking  even  more  absurd,  especially 
when  contrasted  with  the  absence  of  civilised 
clothing  on  the  rest  of  their  persons. 

Next  morning  we  left  by  train  for  Fontesvilla, 
the  line  being  laid  in  zigzags  where  the  ground 
sloped  steeply,  and  the  last  few  miles  crossing  an 
absolutely  flat  plain  just  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
and  one  vast  marsh  in  the  rainy  season.  Here 
we  ought  to  have  seen  herds  of  zebras,  buffaloes, 
and  all  sorts  of  antelopes,  as  they  frequently  come 
pretty  close  to  the  train  ;  but  our  usual  luck  at- 
tended us,  and  though  I  was  told  that  the  distant 
black  dots  were  some  of  these  animals,  they  might 


230    TIVELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

just  as  well  have  been  the  common  cow  for  any- 
thing I  could  see.  Mrs.  Grey  (from  whom  I 
have  received  a  letter  written  just  before  she  left 
here)  was  much  more  lucky.  She  saw  a  number 
of  quagga  and  several  kinds  of  antelope  on  this 
plain,  and  also  saw  the  spoor  of  a  lion  on  the  way 
down  from  Chimoio's. 

The  guard  of  our  train,  whose  red  and  yellow 
"blazer"  and  shabby  gray  wideawake  hardly 
recalled  the  spick-and-span  uniformed  guard  of 
England,  spent  his  time  in  trying  to  shoot  every 
hawk  or  crow  we  passed.  It  amused  him,  and 
did  not  hurt  the  birds.  When  not  shooting  he 
kept  striking  matches  and  throwing  them  into  the 
long  grass  on  either  side,  and  whenever  it  caught 
fire  he  pointed  out  the  fact  to  us  with  conscious 
pride.  He  must  have  used  up  several  boxes  in 
this  way.  I  caught  a  number  of  tsetse  flies  in  the 
train,  which  were  buzzing  about  just  as  a  horsefly 
would  do  at  home,  but  unluckily  some  ants  after- 
wards got  into  the  box  in  which  I  kept  them  and 
ate  them  all  up.  A  little  way  from  Fontesvilla 
two  of  the  wheels  of  our  railway  carriage  went  off 


ON  THE  PUNGWE  231 

the  line.  This  is  apparently  so  common  an  occur- 
rence that  some  of  the  passengers  did  not  on  this 
occasion  even  take  the  trouble  to  get  out.  In 
about  ten  minutes  the  wheels  were  put  back  on 
the  line,  and  we  reached  Fontesvilla  safely,  having 
been  nine  hours  going  seventy-five  miles. 

Fontesvilla  is  on  the  banks  of  the  Pungwe, 
which  is  here  a  tidal  river.  The  S.S.  Kiinberley 
came  up  soon  after  our  arrival,  and  we  were 
hurried  off  into  it,  as  the  captain  wished  to  start 
before  the  tide  turned.  Nevertheless,  soon  after 
starting,  we  stuck  on  a  sandbank,  and  remained 
there  till  the  tide  rose  again  next  morning.  The 
Pungwe  is  very  wide  here,  and  the  water  is  so 
muddy  as  to  curdle  in  almost  solid  masses  as  the 
steamer  cuts  through  it.  The  land  on  either  side 
is  absolutely  flat,  and  very  little  above  the  level  of 
the  water.  It  is  clothed  with  innumerable  small 
trees  which  look  about  the  size  of  large  hop-poles, 
which  are  said  to  be  mangroves.  These  are  con- 
tinually undermined  by  the  current,  and  the  banks 
seem  to  consist  of  nothing  but  the  overhanging 
roots  of  trees  about  to  fall,  while  the  edge  of  the 


232     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

water  is  lined  with  those  that  have  already  fallen. 
White  egrets  stand  in  the  mud  among  them,  and 
in  one  place  we  saw  a  troop  of  monkeys  clamber- 
ing along. 

We  reached  Beira  on   13th  September.     It  is 


TRAM-CAR    AT   BEIRA. 


not  the  place  in  which  I  should  take  up  my  abode 
by  choice,  consisting  merely  of  a  few  rows  of  houses 
built  on  a  narrow  sand-spit  with  the  sea  on  one 
side  and  a  malarious  marsh  on  the  other.  The 
streets  are  deep  in  sand,  into  which  one  sinks  to 


A  LION  STUCK  IN  THE  MUD  233 

one's  ankles  at  every  step.  The  only  mode  of 
locomotion  besides  walking  (and  you  may  imagine 
one  does  not  indulge  much  in  that  with  a  tropical 
sun  overhead  and  the  before  -  mentioned  sand 
underfoot)  is  in  funny  little  tram-cars  pushed  by 
native  "boys";  and  every  now  and  then  the 
sand  so  clogs  the  lines  that  the  "  boy  "  has  to  clear 
it  off  before  you  can  proceed  further.  I  photo- 
graphed one  of  the  cars,  at  the  same  time  catching 
a  terrified  youth  in  the  distance,  who  was  making 
off  as  fast  as  he  could  when  he  saw  the  camera. 
We  are  lodged  at  the  British  Consulate,  where 
we  are  living  in  unaccustomed  luxury,  waiting 
for  the  northward  -  bound  steamer  to  take  us 
home. 

Four  days  after  we  came  down  the  Pungwe, 
some  "  boys  "  going  along  in  a  boat  some  miles 
above  the  town,  saw  a  lion  half  sunk  in  the  soft 
mud  at  the  edge  of  the  river,  so  they  rowed  up  to 
him,  and  as  he  could  not  extricate  himself,  they 
beat  him  to  death  with  their  oars,  and  brought 
him  down  to  Beira.  Is  it  not  provoking  to  think 
that  if  we    had    come  down  four  days  later  we 


234     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

should  have  seen  him  ?  As  it  is,  I  have  spent 
five  months  in  the  country  without  seeing  either 
Hon,  crocodile,  or  hippopotamus.  What  has  been 
the  use  of  coming  to  Africa  ! 


LETTER    XVI 

Beira  to  Zanzibar  —  Mozambique  —  Mr.  Hunt's  lion-shooting  —  Dar  es 
Salaam— The  German  v.  the  English  system — Convicts — Arab  grave- 
yard— Native  canoes  and  fishermen — Delay  in  unloading  cargo-^A 
native  ferry — Baobabs — The  market — Manioc — Musical  instrument — 
First  sight  of  Zanzibar. 

The  British  Agency,  Zanzibar, 
30M  September  1S94. 

We  have  at  last  arrived,  having  spent  ten  days  in 
getting  here  from  Beira.  The  delays  seem  end- 
less. Our  steamer  (the  Reichstag)  was  late  in 
arriving  at  Beira,  late  in  leaving  Mozambique, 
later  in  leaving  Dar  es  Salaam,  and  was  finally  so 
late  in  getting  here  that  she  could  not  afford  to 
remain  the  usual  three  days,  so  we  have  left  her, 
and  intend  to  otq  on  in  one  of  the  French 
Messageries  boats  shortly  expected  from  Mada- 
gascar. The  Reichstag  is  principally  a  trading 
vessel,  and  her  export  cargo  seems  to  consist 
almost  entirely  of  earthenware  drain-pipes,  while 


236     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

her  import  cargo  is  chiefly  ground  nuts,  which  she 
takes  in  at  nearly  every  port  along  this  coast,  and 
which  are  carried  to  France  and  Germany  for  the 
manufacture  of  the  "  purest  olive  "  oil ! 

We  spent  two  days  at  Mozambique.  The 
island  is  a  coral  rock,  and  is  covered  with 
buildings,  of  which  the  prison  is  the  only  one  I 
saw  with  any  pretensions  to  architectural  merit. 
It  was  formerly  the  town  hall,  but  having  been 
condemned  as  hopelessly  insanitary,  was  therefore 
obviously  suitable  for  a  prison.  At  the  end  of 
the  island  (which  is  only  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  wide)  is  the  native  town  of  endless  low, 
thatched  huts,  crammed  together  and  interspersed 
with  palms  and  fig  trees.  This  is  some  ten  feet 
or  more  below  the  original  level  of  the  coral  rock, 
which  has  been  quarried  out  to  get  lime.  The 
road  goes  right  along  at  the  original  level,  so  that 
you  look  down  on  the  roof  of  the  huts  as  you 
walk.  The  population  is  most  mixed,  natives  of 
sorts,  Hindus,  Mahomedans,  and  Europeans  of 
many  nationalities.  There  are  at  present  only 
five   Englishmen  living  on  the  island,  and  each 


MR.  HUNT'S  LION-SHOOTING  237 

one  professes  a  different  form  of  church  worship. 
I  am  told  that  the  Portuguese  occupation  of  the 
mainland  is  little  more  than  nominal,  and  that  an 
Englishman  can  land  alone  to  shoot  where  a 
Portuguese  dare  not  go  without  a  guard. 

At  Mozambique  an  additional  passenger  came 
on  board,  a  Mr.  Hunt,  who  has  been  thirteen 
months  senior  lieutenant  of  the  gunboats  on  the 
Zambesi,  where  he  has  had  a  lot  of  shooting. 
One  day  he  shot  five  lions  within  two  hours. 
The  first,  an  old  lioness,  was  eating  a  young 
zebra  when  he  came  upon  her  and  shot  her. 
Most  of  his  "  boys  "  had  fled  up  a  tree,  and  even 
when  she  was  dead  refused  to  leave  it,  whereby 
he  knew  there  was  something  still  in  the  long 
grass  which  alarmed  them,  and  presently  per- 
ceived four  other  lions,  almost  full  grown, 
coming  towards  him.  He  signed  to  his  gun- 
carrier  to  bring  his  rifles,  which  the  "  boy  "  cour- 
ageously did,  passing,  in  order  to  do  so,  within 
about  thirty  yards  of  the  lions.  In  about  ten 
minutes  Mr.  Hunt  had  killed  the  four. 

We    reached    Dar    es    Salaam,    the    German 


9 


238     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

capital,  on  the  26th.  It  is  situated  out  of  sight  of 
the  open  sea,  on  a  narrow  land-locked  harbour, 
the  passage  to  which  in  one  part  is  only  170 
yards  wide.  The  town  is  a  remarkable  produc- 
tion to  be  the  work  of  only  three  years,  but  some- 
how it  looks  more  like  a  German  watering-place 
than  anything  else  ;  and  in  the  European  quarter 
there  is  hardly  any  sign  of  trade  or  business  going 
on.  One  cannot  help  contrasting  it  with  such  a 
place  as  Bulawayo,  where  you  have  a  few  mud 
huts,  a  few  iron  roofs,  officials  in  shirt  sleeves, 
and  a  general  air  of  bustle  and  "  go-aheadness  "  ; 
work  being  paramount  and  appearances  ignored. 
Here,  on  the  contrary,  are  many  large  buildings, 
concrete  roads,  ornamental  gardens,  officers  in 
spotless  uniforms,  much  clicking  of  heels  and 
bowing,  but  nothing  else.  The  resemblance  to  a 
watering-place  is  not  lessened  by  the  presence  of 
a  kiosk  in  the  public  gardens,  which  we  thought 
was  meant  for  a  band,  and  approached  accord- 
ingly. Then  we  concluded  that  it  was  really  an 
open-air  court  of  justice,  and  that  either  the 
Germans    must   be    very    strict,    or    the    natives 


CONVICTS  239 


exceedingly  lax  in  their  ideas  of  law  and  order, 
for  the  place  was  crammed  with  culprits,  and  we 
did  not  see  one  of  them  let  off.  It  was  also  a 
shock  to  our  English  ideas  to  see  numbers  of 
native  women  working  on  the  roads,  and  being 
driven  to  their  work  by  a  white  man  carrying  a 
large  raw  -  hide  whip.  I  became  daily  more 
astonished  at  the  number  of  convicts  or  prisoners. 
Everywhere  you  came  upon  gangs  of  four  to 
eight — often  women — chained  together  by  the 
necks,  and  hounded  along  by  a  black  policeman 
or  soldier.  I  should  think  there  were  fewer 
prisoners  in  all  the  Chartered  Company's  terri- 
tories than  in  this  one  little  town.  As  we 
wandered  along  we  came  upon  the  man  who 
superintended  the  making  of  the  concrete  road. 
He  rode  a  donkey,  with  a  big  whip  in  his  hand. 
Behind  came  an  attendant  carrying  his  crutches  ; 
then  two  more  carrying  white  nets  like  butterfly 
nets,  with  long  handles,  followed  by  another  pair 
carrying  a  number  of  boxes,  presumably  to  hold 
the  butterflies  when  caught.  But  where  the 
butterflies  were  that  were  to  be  captured,  or  how 


240     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 


they  were  to  be  caught  by  the  lame  rider,  did 
not  appear.  I  beHeve  he  had  been  mutilated  in 
one  of  the  many  small  wars  with  the  natives  of 
the  interior.  Beyond  the  town  was  an  old  Arab 
graveyard,  overhanging  the  sea,  full  of  concrete 
tombs  of  large  size  and  fantastic  forms,  with 
common  china  or  earthenware  plates  embedded  in 
their  walls  by  way  of  ornament.  They  are  all 
getting  broken  and  dilapidated  now.  I  should 
think  the  sea  is  encroaching  on  the  place  too,  as 
the  tombs  are  very  near  the  edge  of  the  cliff,  and 
human  bones  stick  out  from  the  face  of  it.  The 
cliff  itself  is  partly  coral  rock  and  partly  a  shell 
beach.  The  cocoanut  palms  grow  down  almost 
to  high  water  mark,  and  the  effect  of  the  long 
promontories  covered  with  them,  blue  sea  and 
white  sand  in  front  and  sunset  sky  with  long  lines 
of  purple  cloud  behind,  was  very  beautiful,  and 
made  one  realise  that  one  was  actually  in  the 
Tropics. 

Next  day  we  walked  again  along  the  shore, 
watching  the  canoes  coming  in  with  little  cargoes 
of  fish.      Most  of  these  canoes  are  hollowed  out 


NATIVE  CANOES  AND  FISHERMEN 


241 


of  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  have  no  keel.  To 
steady  them  they  usually  have  outriggers,  which 
project  for  several  feet,  supporting  boards  resting 
flat  on  the  water  on  each  side  of  the  canoe,  and 


s^£^&^y*:.."j\ 


NATIVE   CANOE,    DAR    ES   SALAAM. 


lying  parallel  to  its  length.  The  moment  the 
fishermen  landed  they  squatted  on  the  shore 
and  commenced  scraping  the  scales  off  the  fish, 
sorting  them  in  heaps  and  then  burying  them  in 
the  sand.  Some  of  the  fish  were  coloured  with 
patches   of  bright  cobalt  blue  round  each   scale, 

R 


242     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

and  others  were  beautifully  tinted  with  scarlet  and 
rose  colour. 

Our  steamer  was  kept  dawdling  at  Dar  es 
Salaam  day  after  day,  owing  to  there  being  only  one 
or  two  lighters  available  for  landing  the  drain-pipes 
brought  out  from  Germany.  The  Captain  was 
disgusted  with  the  delay,  and  complained  bitterly, 
saying  he  hated  the  place,  for  "here  there  is  too 
moch  drink  ;  oh,  it  is  terrible."  Certainly  I  never 
saw  a  beach  so  strewn  with  broken  bottles,  or  a 
pavement  so  covered  with  old  corks.  The  ship's 
officers  employed  their  spare  time  in  flying  kites. 
Meanwhile  we  gradually  extended  our  walks 
further  afield.  One  of  these  was  to  see  some 
Baobab  trees  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  harbour. 
To  get  to  them  we  walked  along  the  shore  some 
way  to  where  we  were  told  there  was  a  ferry  ;  but 
the  only  thing  visible  in  the  nature  of  a  boat  was 
a  native  canoe.  Inquiry  showed  that  this  was 
the  ferry-boat,  and  with  some  qualms  we  stepped 
in.  I  have  now  been  in  many  unexpected  situa- 
tions in  the  course  of  my  life,  but  I  think  the  one 
I  least  anticipated  was  to  find  myself  in  a  dug-out 


A  NATIVE  FERRY 


243 


canoe  (such  as  I  associated  with  the  cannibal  tales 
of  my  childhood)  on  the  bosom  of  the  Indian 
Ocean.  To  my  surprise  she  was  far  more  steady 
than  an  ordinary  rowing-boat,  and  in  fact  was 
exceedingly  comfortable  for  the  person  seated  as 
I  was  on  the  one  little  thwart.  Perhaps  Mr. 
Fitzwilliam,  who  had  to  sit  on  the  two  sharp 
edges  of  the  canoe  where  it  narrowed  close  to  the 
bows,  would  not  quite  endorse  my  opinion  of  its 
comfort.  The  little  vessel  was  only  about  four- 
teen inches  wide  at  the  widest  part,  about  eighteen 
inches  deep,  and  eighteen  feet  long.  A  Swahili 
native  in  turban  and  loin-cloth  propelled  her  by 
means  of  a  single  paddle  with  a  long  wide  blade. 
It  would  not  have  been  possible  to  row  owing  to 
the  outriggers.  The  Baobabs  were  well  worth 
seeing.  We  measured  one  which  was  about  fifty- 
four  feet  in  circumference  at  about  five  feet  from 
the  ground.  If  only  the  branches  were  as  large 
in  proportion  as  the  trunk,  what  magnificent  trees 
they  would  be !  But  they  seem  to  expend  all  their 
energy  of  growth  before  they  attempt  branches, 
which  are  almost  as  small  in  proportion  as  the 


244     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

hairs    of  a    man's    head    are    to  the   rest    of  his 
body. 

Our  last  walk  was  through  the  native  quarter 
of  the  town,  which  was  as  lively  and  picturesquely 
East  African  as  the  European  quarter  is  the 
reverse.  The  market  buildings,  consisting  of 
many  rows  of  pillars,  evidently  of  Arab  workman- 
ship, are  spoiled  by  a  new  corrugated  iron  roof. 
Beneath  it  the  whole  space  is  filled  up  with 
Swahilis,  Arabs,  and  other  coloured  men  display- 
ing their  goods  on  the  ground.  Stinking  fish  was 
the  commonest  of  the  articles  for  sale.  One  man 
had  a  quantity  of  nasty-looking  white  stuff  just 
like  bits  of  old  rotten  bleached  bones.  When  he 
saw  me  looking  puzzled  over  this  he  took  up  a 
piece  and  began  to  eat  it  with  relish.  I  after- 
wards found  it  was  Manioc,  or,  as  the  Zanzibaris 
call  it,  "  Mahogo."  It  is  the  roasted  root  of  a 
shrub  with  a  leaf  somewhat  of  the  shape  of  a 
Japanese  maple,  only  larger,  and  is  much  used  as 
a  substitute  for  bread  about  here.  You  see  fields 
of  this  plant  wherever  there  is  much  cultivation. 
One  of  our  party  bought  a  native  musical  instru- 


FIRST  SIGHT  OF  ZANZIBAR  247 

ment  in  the  market,  consisting  of  a  piece  of  thin 
flat  wood  about  eighteen  inches  long  and  about 
two  inches  wide,  on  which  were  stretched  two 
strings  tied  at  one  end  to  Httle  projections  of 
wood,  and  at  the  other  to  a  bit  of  quill  placed 
transversely  on  the  wood.  This  was  fastened 
near  one  end  to  the  bottom  of  the  outside  of  a 
bowl-shaped  calabash.  The  player  rests  the  flat 
circular  rim  of  the  calabash  against  his  chest,  the 
slip  of  wood  on  which  the  strings  are  stretched 
pointing  downwards,  and  then  he  twangs  away  on 
his  two  strings,  merrily  if  not  musically. 

The  voyage  from  Dar  es  Salaam  to  Zanzibar 
was  only  four  hours  long.  We  could  very  soon 
see  the  island  on  the  starboard  bow,  and  soon 
after  the  higher  buildings  of  the  town  appeared  to 
rise  mysteriously  out  of  the  sea  beyond  the 
horizon.  Small  dhows  and  outrigger  canoes  were 
dotted  about  everywhere.  The  Sultan's  palace, 
an  ugly  square  building,  looking  as  if  it  was  built 
entirely  of  white  painted  iron,  stands  out  most 
conspicuously,  and  mars  the  general  effect.  The 
English  Agency,  an  old  Arab  house  built  right  on 


248     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

the  sea,  is  really  picturesque.  We  landed  at 
once,  and  were  received  by  Mr.  Hardinge,  who 
most  kindly  sent,  as  soon  as  the  ship  was 
anchored,  to  ask  us  to  stay  with  him. 


LETTER    XVII 

Zanzibar — Driving  in  the  streets — Driving  in  the  country — Jibbing — Clove 
plantations — Revenue  from  sale  of  cloves — Mangos  and  palms — Slaves 
— Shops — Swahili  dress — Rain  storm — A]  native  feast — Start  for  home 
— Crossing  the  line — Male  nurses — A  French  d'eptite's  views  on  titles 
— Youthful  enthusiasm — The  Red  Sea — The  end. 

On  board  the  M.M.  Steamer 
AvA  IN  THE  Red  Sea, 

\6th  October  1894. 

Zanzibar  is  the  first  place  I  have  ever  seen 
which  one  would  describe  as  "  Eastern,"  and  I 
have  immediately  fallen  under  the  charm.  The 
climate  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  and  one  could 
dispense  with  the  mosquitos ;  but  for  a  casual 
visitor  these  are  minor  ills, — at  any  rate  when 
you  are  lodged  in  luxury  as  I  was  at  the  Agency, 
with  seven  windows  open  day  and  night,  and  a 
mosquito  net  enclosing  a  space  as  large  as  an 
ordinary  room.  The  narrow  tortuous  streets, 
the  high  houses  with  fine  carved  doorways  from 
Bombay,  studded  with  huge  bronze  bosses,  and 


250     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

the  numbers  of  people  of  all  colours,  types,  and 
costumes,  who  crowd  the  pavement,  are  perfectly 
fascinating.  There  is  only  one  way  through  the 
town  where  a  carriage  can  go,  and  that  was  only 
made  possible  a  few  years  ago  when  the  Sultan 
pulled  down  buildings  and  cut  off  corners  with 
high-handed  recklessness.  Even  there  it  is  only 
by  shouts,  "In  the  name  of  God,"  that  a  passage 
can  be  cleared  ;  and  donkeys  and  goats,  who  un- 
fortunately don't  understand  Arabic,  are  apt  to 
get  severely  banged  by  the  carriage  as  it  passes. 
If  the  driving  inside  the  town  is  peculiar  it  is 
even  more  so  outside.  No  Europeans  appear 
to  possess  horses  and  carriages  of  their  own  : 
they  always  use  the  Sultan's.  The  horses  are 
not  particularly  well  broken  in,  and  the  drivers, 
who  are  mostly  Hindus,  might  be  improved. 
As  long  as  the  road  is  quite  hard  and  flat  all 
goes  well,  but  whenever  you  come  to  a  sandy 
place  or  a  gentle  upward  slope,  the  horses  jib. 
The  only  way  the  coachmen  have  of  preventing 
this  is  to  drive  full  gallop.  As  they  commence 
this  gallop  long  before    you    get    to  the   critical 


DRIVING  IN  THE  COUNTRY  251 

place,  the  poor  brutes  are  quite  blown  by  the 
time  it  is  reached,  and  there  the  carriage  sticks 
hopelessly.  Then  every  one  gets  out ;  all  passers- 
by  are  requisitioned  to  shove  the  wheels,  and 
after  about  ten  minutes  of  ineffectual  effort,  away 
you  go  again  at  a  gallop  till  the  next  bit  of 
heavy  road,  when  the  whole  process  is  repeated. 
Owing  to  these  peculiar  habits  of  the  horses 
our  drives  have  been  neither  rapid  nor  extended, 
but  as  there  are  only  three  roads  by  which  you 
can  drive  out  at  all,  that  does  not  much  signify. 
One  of  the  drives  is  the  fashionable  resort  of 
the  town,  and  going  along  it  at  about  five  in 
the  afternoon  you  meet  quantities  of  victorias 
and  other  vehicles,  in  which  the  wealthy  Indian 
shopkeepers  take  their  airing. 

Another  road  takes  you  along  the  coast  to  the 
clove  plantations — cloves  being  the  most  important 
export  from  the  island.  We  had  hoped  to  go 
along  this  road  as  far  as  the  village  of  Boo-boo- 
boo — a  name  which  promised  much — but  we 
were  only  able  to  get  to  the  first  of  the  planta- 
tions,   owing    to    the    usual   jibbings    every    half 


252     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

mile.  The  clove  bushes  are  planted  in  rows, 
and  in  general  growth  resemble  myrtles,  but 
are  very  much  larger.  They  are  grown  by  the 
Arabs  on  their  shambas,  or  estates,  and  are 
cultivated   chiefly  by  slave    labour.       The   buds 


A    SPRIG   OF   CLOVES. 


are  picked  just  before  bursting  into  flower,  and 
are  most  carefully  dried,  being  spread  out  on 
mats  in  the  sun  every  day  and  taken  in  at 
night.  If  rain  falls  while  they  are  drying  it 
seriously  retards  the  process,  even  though  they 
are  never  wetted  by  it.  So  susceptible  are  they 
to    damp    that    the    cloves    from    the    Island    of 


REVENUE  FROM  SALE  OF  CLOVES  253 

Pemba,  which  is  quite  close  by,  are  of  less 
value  than  Zanzibar  cloves,  owing  to  the  moist- 
ure they  have  absorbed  on  the  short  journey 
from  one  to  the  other.  Drying  by  artificial 
heat  has  been  tried,  but  this  can  always  be 
detected  by  the  smell,  and  the  value  of  the  cloves 
is  thereby  greatly  lessened.  It  takes  about  a 
fortnight  of  good  weather  to  dry  them  properly. 

Zanzibar  and  Pemba  produce  about  nine- 
tenths  of  the  cloves  of  the  world,  and  the  duty 
on  them  is  paid  in  kind.  The  product  of  the 
sale  of  these  constitutes  the  chief  revenue  of 
the  Sultanate.  The  cloves  paid  in  as  duty  are 
stored  in  several  large  rooms,  and  are  kept  for 
the  Government  by  the  English  head  of  the 
Custom  House,  and  sold  when  the  demand  is 
greatest.  The  clove  season  had  only  just  com- 
menced, but  still  I  saw  a  huge  pile  of  the  buds 
in  one  of  the  rooms,  the  aromatic  odour  of  them 
almost  making  me  sneeze ;  and  outside  a  con- 
signment of  eight  hundred  sacks-full  was  just 
being  sewn  up  preparatory  to  their  being  shipped 
for  New  York. 


2  54     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

The  real  beauty  of  Zanzibar  consists  in  the 
mangos  and  cocoanut  palms  —  the  latter  much 
finer  than  at  Dar  es  Salaam — by  which  you  are 
surrounded  as  soon  as  you  leave  the  town. 
Mangos  are  some  of  the  handsomest  trees  I 
have  ever  seen  ;  and  their  enormous  masses  of 
the  richest  dark  green  foliage  contrasting  with 
the  graceful  feathery  lightness  and  delicate  green 
of  the  palms,  was  a  continually  increasing  joy 
to  look  at,  and  I  could  scarcely  turn  my  eyes 
away  from  them.  Here  and  there  you  come 
upon  a  palm  of  which  the  lower  half  of  the 
stem  almost  lies  along  the  ground,  while  the 
rest  of  it  is  perpendicular.  These  are  trees 
which  were  blown  over  by  a  cyclone — unique 
in  the  island  within  the  memory  of  man — but 
not  being  uprooted,  continued  to  grow  at  right 
angles  to  their  fallen  position.  Glimpses  of  the 
sea  between  the  trees  adds  to  the  beauty  of  the 
drives.  Sometimes  we  passed  large  houses  sur- 
rounded by  gardens  and  high  walls  ;  and  I  began 
to  feel  just  like  the  king  in  the  story  of  Puss  in 
Boots,  when   I   asked  who  was  the  owner  of  one 


SLAVES  255 

after  the  other  of  these  palatial  residences,  and 
received  the  invariable  answer,  "  The  Sultan  of 
Zanzibar."  Fortunately  for  him  he  is  not 
obliged  to  live  in  them  all,  else  his  life  would 
be  a  burden  to  him. 

The  Sultan  is  an  Arab  of  the  royal  family  of 
Muscat,  as  is  also  the  Sultana — a  lady  whose  chief 
amusement  appears  to  be  in  playing  with  lambs 
and  other  toys  that  go  by  clockwork.  The  rul- 
ing caste  is  also  Arab,  but  with  so  much  ad- 
mixture of  native  blood  that  often  you  scarcely 
see  the  difference  of  type.  Some  few  families 
remain  pure,  and  think  a  great  deal  of  themselves 
in  consequence.  Most  of  the  land  belongs  to 
them,  but  they  are  getting  poorer  and  poorer, 
as  slave  labour  is  more  and  more  difficult  to 
get  for  the  cultivation  of  the  clove  plantations. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  Swahilis  are  slaves, 
and  among  the  women  you  may  always  know 
which  are  free  and  which  not,  as  the  former 
are  invariably  veiled.  Europeans  at  Zanzibar 
who  desire  to  get  domestic  servants,  usually 
hire  slaves  from   their   masters,   and   the  master 


256     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

and  slave  divide  the  wages  between  them 
by  mutual  agreement.  It  is  said  that  the  Ger- 
mans find  it  more  difficult  than  the  English  to 
hire  domestic  servants,  as  the  natives  do  not 
like  going  to  them.  •  The  curious  thing  about 
slavery  here  is  that  slave-owners  are  frequently 
slaves  themselves,  and  their  slaves  may  also 
own  other  slaves.     It  is  a  regular  case  of 

Big  fleas  have  little  fleas  upon  their  backs  to  bite  'em, 
And  little  fleas  have  lesser  fleas,  and  so  ad  infinitum. 

The  shopkeepers  and  merchants  are  mostly 
Indians,  and  their  tiny  shops  are  open  on  one 
side  to  the  street  like  a  room  on  the  stage. 
Inside  you  will  frequently  see  the  wife  of  the 
owner,  elderly  and  fat,  sitting  crosslegged  and 
barefooted  in  a  low  wide-seated  Bombay  chair. 
The  Indian  children  are  wonderfully  pretty,  but 
the  beauty  seems  very  soon  to  disappear  when 
they  grow  up.  There  seem  to  be  more  grain 
shops  than  any  others,  and  the  number  of  dif- 
ferent seeds  displayed  in  baskets  in  front  of  the 
shops  is  extraordinary.      I   could  never  find  out 


SWAHILI  DRESS  257 


what  most  of  them  were.  There  are  also  many- 
shops  filled  with  pieces  of  printed  cotton,  which 
form  the  ordinary  costume  of  the  Swahili  woman. 
This  consists  of  two  pieces  each  of  about  two 
and  a  half  yards  long,  and  of  the  most  startling 
patterns.  They  are  all  made  in  England  and 
Germany.  One  piece  is  wound  round  the  body, 
the  upper  border  fastened  tight  under  the  arm- 
pits ;  the  other  piece  is  worn  as  a  shawl  and 
often  passed  over  the  head.  Fashion  seems  as 
all  -  powerful  here  as  in  Europe.  Just  now 
gigantic  patterns  in  black  on  a  white  ground 
are  almost  de  rio-ii^eur.  Most  of  the  Swahilis 
go  barefoot,  and  many  of  the  men  are  naked 
save  for  a  kilt,  and  bareheaded.  The  women 
wear  about  five  buttons  stuck  in  the  groove 
round  each  ear,  usually  yellow  or  green  in 
colour ;  and  sometimes  a  gold  or  silver  button 
on  one  side  of  the  wing  of  the  nose.  They  are 
fond  of  parting  their  hair  so  as  to  form  patterns 
like  the  beds  and  walks  of  a  formal  garden,  but 
most  commonly  it  is  arranged  in  parallel  ridges. 
One  day  there  were  frequent  violent  showers — 


258     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A   WAGGON 

certainly  not  before  they  were  wanted.  There  is 
no  system  of  drainage  or  sanitation  in  Zanzibar, 
and  its  not  being  a  hopelessly  unhealthy  place  can 
only  be  attributed  to  its  being  built  on  sand  and 
coral  rock,  which  being  exceedingly  porous,  every- 
thing eventually  filters  through  it  to  the  sea.  But 
when  rain  comes  the  streets  are  flooded,  and  the 
streams  uniting  from  them  pour  out  in  torrents  to 
the  sea  beach,  cutting  deep  channels  in  the  sand 
as  they  go,  and  colouring  tracts  of  the  viridian- 
tinted  sea  with  filthy  mud. 

That  afternoon  we  walked  along  the  Mnasi 
Moja  road,  and  hearing  sounds  of  music  in  the 
native  quarter  we  boldly  penetrated,  mud  notwith- 
standing. A  circumcision  feast  was  being  cele- 
brated with  music  and  dancing.  The  band  con- 
sisted of  three  drums  placed  side  by  side,  one 
wooden  trumpet  and  several  cow-horns  and  sticks 
beaten  together.  The  drums  were  cylinders  of 
wood  about  four  feet  long,  with  skin  stretched 
over  the  upper  ends.  They  were  held  in  a  slant- 
ing position  with  one  end  resting  on  the  ground, 
the  drummers  standing  cross-legged  over  them 


A  NATIVE  FEAST  259 

and  supporting  them  by  sashes  passed  round  them 
and  round  their  waists,  while  they  thumped  on 
them  with  their  hands  entirely  regardless  of  time 
or  tune.  The  trumpeter  stood  close  behind  the 
drummers.  His  trumpet  was  about  fifteen  inches 
long,  pierced  with  six  stops.  The  mouth-piece, 
which  was  large  and  flat,  was  of  ivory,  and  a 
short  piece  joining  wood  and  ivory  was  apparently 
of  tin.  The  tunes  were  only  a  few  notes  re- 
peated any  number  of  times,  without  a  pause  even 
to  draw  breath.  They  were  all  minor,  and  had  a 
pretty  plaintive  effect  enhanced  by  the  wooden 
sound  of  the  instrument.  In  front  of  the  drums 
and  facing  towards  them  were  four  Swahili  women 
each  with  a  cow's  horn  in  one  hand  and  a  piece 
of  stick  in  the  other.  They  stooped  down  in  line 
together,  almost  to  the  ground,  and  with  their  arms 
outstretched,  banging  the  sticks  and  horns  against 
each  other  twice  as  they  did  so  ;  and  then  repeated 
the  operation  standing  up.  This  went  on  without 
intermission  for  an  unlimited  time.  Round  this 
persistent  but  elementary  orchestra  revolved  as 
many  people  as  there  was  room  for,  jammed  up 


26o     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

as  they  were  between  the  thatched  native  huts. 
These  dancers  consisted  of  people  of  both  sexes, 
and  all  ages  and  sizes,  the  women  with  lips  and 
teeth  stained  orange  with  Betel  nuts,  and  with 
heavy  silver  ornaments  on  their  heads.  With  the 
shortest  steps  possible,  they  danced  solemnly  and 
monotonously  round  and  round  as  long  as  we 
were  in  sight,  and  no  doubt  for  hours  after. 

The  Messageries  Maritimes  steamer  Ava,  for 
which  we  had  been  waiting,  came  in  at  last, 
several  days  late,  having  been  delayed  at  Mada- 
gascar owing  to  the  political  troubles  there,  and 
we  left  Zanzibar  on  the  morning  of  the  7th. 
The  cabins  are  large  and  comfortable,  with  big 
square  portholes.  We  have  had  these  always 
open  except  twice,  when  there  was  heavy  rain, 
the  first  time  accompanied  with  a  squall  of  wind 
blowing  the  rain  right  over  the  cabin  like  spray. 
The  stewardess,  an  elderly  stout  Marseilleise, 
came  into  my  cabin  to  shut  the  porthole,  and 
when  I  asked  her  feebly  from  my  bed,  "  Was 
this  necessary  ?  "  she  answered,  "  Si  ca  n'etait  pas 
necessaire,  est-ce   que  je  me  serai  levee  a  trois 


CROSSING  THE  LINE  261 

heures  du  matin  pour  le  faire  ? "  Which  snub 
so  amused  me  that  I  submitted  without  a 
murmur. 

On  Monday  we  crossed  the  Equator,  and 
high  jinks  prevailed  on  board.  Father  Neptune 
and  Amphitrite,  the  latter  a  man  dressed  up  in 
woman's  clothes  with  a  great  tow  wig,  went 
round  the  vessel  in  procession,  accompanied  by- 
trumpeters  and  gens  darmes,  with  faces  painted 
scarlet  and  white,  and  with  six  devils  painted 
black,  with  horns  and  tails.  A  great  sail-bath 
had  been  prepared,  and  presently  all  the  young 
men  and  boys  who  had  not  previously  crossed 
the  line  were  ordered  to  come  up  and  be  "  bap- 
tized." The  recalcitrant  ones  were  seized  by 
the  devils,  and  all  were  first  shaved  with  a  sham 
wooden  razor  about  a  yard  long,  and  then  pre- 
cipitated backwards  into  the  bath,  amid  shouts 
of  laughter  from  the  bystanders.  In  the  evening 
they  received  a  "certificate  of  baptism,"  after 
which  there  were  more  processions  and  dressing 
up  and  dancing.  Much  the  best  and  most  comic 
personation  was  a  camel  made  by  two  men  walk- 


262     TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

ing  one  behind  the  other,  and  covered  with 
canvas.  The  head  and  neck,  also  of  canvas, 
were  supported  by  a  stick  inside.  The  eyes 
were  bits  of  black  and  white  paper  pinned 
on.  The  imitation  of  a  camel's  gait  was  excel- 
lent, as  well  as  the  vicious  way  in  which  it 
turned  its  head,  looking  its  rider  straight  in  the 
face,  with  a  remonstrating  grlint,  every  time 
he  whacked  it. 

Most  of  the  passengers  are  French,  and  among 
them  are  a  good  many  children,  who  use  the 
deck  as  their  nursery,  where  dressing  and  un- 
dressing and  everything  else  goes  on  in  public. 
There  are  a  number  of  soldiers  on  board,  and 
one  exceedingly  stout  lady  has  obtained  permis- 
sion to  have  two  of  these  grenadiers  as  nurses 
for  her  children.  They  spend  the  whole  day  in 
carrying  the  baby  up  and  down  the  deck  in  the 
vain  hope  of  stopping  its  squalling,  or  in  attend- 
ing to  the  two  older  pasty-faced  children,  almost 
invisible  under  their  huge  pith  hats. 

There  is  also  a  large  family  on  their  way  to 
Paris,  the  father  being  a  ddpittd.      After   I    had 


A  FRENCH  DEPUTE' S  VIEWS  ON  TITLES      263 

been  about  a  week  on  board  he  asked  me  whether 
it  was  my  name  that  was  written  on  the  back  of 
my  chair,  and  having  then  by  a  series  of  ques- 
tions ascertained  my  relationship  to  the  Unionist 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  he  informed  me  that 
the  latter  would  soon  be  made  a  lord.  I  re- 
marked that  he  certainly  would  not  become  a 
lord    while   he   Could    remain    in    the    House    of 

Commons.      Monsieur replied  that  after  all 

my  brother  would  not  be  in  opposition  long,  and 
when  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  Government  he 
would  have  to  be  a  lord, — heads  of  Cabinets  had 
to  be  lords.  I  cited  Mr.  Gladstone  to  the  con- 
trary, but  my  friend  persisted  in  his  theory — Mr. 
Gladstone  was  somehow  an  exception,  as  he  was 
exceptional  otherwise  ;  but  there  was  no  doubt 
about  it,  Mr.  Balfour  must  soon  become  a  lord, 
whatever  I  might  think  to  the  contrary. 

We  reached  Aden  on  the  morning  of  the  12th. 
As  we  came  towards  the  rock  it  looked  so  beau- 
tiful that  I  could  not  resist  attempting  a  small 
sketch,  and  was  immediately  surrounded  by  the 
depute  s  family  in  force.      None  of  them   knew  a 


264      TWELVE  HUNDRED  MILES  IN  A    WAGGON 

Straight  line  from  a  curve,  but  none  the  less  did 
they  burst  out  in  a  running  chorus  of  "  Tres  joH  ; 
ah,  que  c'est  beau !  Ah,  Mademoiselle,  comma 
vous  dessinez  bien  !  "  followed  by  such  naive  ques- 
tions as,  "  Cest  la  mer,  n'est-ce  pas  ?  "  till  at  last  I 
was  fairly  forced  to  stop.  This  experience  was 
sufficient,  and  I  did  not  venture  on  sketching 
again  except  at  Obock,  and  then  only  after  watch- 
ing the  youthful  enthusiasts  safely  on  shore.  We 
landed  at  Aden  to  avoid  the  dust  from  coaling  the 
steamer.  One  of  the  French  passengers  amused 
me  much  by  telling  us  how  he  also  had  spent 
the  day  on  shore,  for,  he  explained,  once  you  get 
black  with  the  coal  dust,  you  had  to  remain  black 
for  the  rest  of  the  voyage. 

We  have  had  a  very  good  passage  through 
the  Red  Sea,  which  was  the  greater  relief 
as  we  heard  that  in  the  last  Messageries  boat 
coming  south,  two  people  died  on  board  owing 
to  the  heat.  To  -  morrow  we  are  due  at 
Suez. 

This  is  the  last  letter  you  will  get  from 
me,    as    I    hope    to    be    in    London    only  a   few 


THE  END  265 


days  after  you  receive  it.  We  leave  the 
Ava  at  Suez,  and  intend  to  remain  at  Cairo 
till  the  next  steamer  leaves  for  Brindisi,  and 
so  Home. 


THE    END 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Clark,  Limited,  Edinburgh. 


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20      Lon^tude  East  of  Greonvnch 


Edwai-d  Arnold,  London  it  Npw  "York 


BOOKS  ON  AFRICAN  AND  EASTERN  SUBJECTS. 


FIRE  AND  SWORD  IN  THE  SUDAN. 

A  personal  Narrative  of  Fighting  and  Serving  the  Dervishes, 
1879-1895. 

By  SLATIN    PASHA, 

Colonel  in  the  Egyptian  Army,  formerly  Governor  and  Commandant 
of  the  Troops  in  Darfur. 

Translated  and  Edited  by  Major  F.  R.  Wingate,  R.A.,  D.S.O.,  Author 
of  Mahdiism  and  the  Egyptian  Soudan,  etc.  Fully  Illustrated  by  R. 
Talbot  Kelly. 

Demy  Zvo.      One  Guinea  net. 

Slatin  Pasha  was  by  far  the  most  important  of  the  European  prisoners 
in  the  Soudan.  Before  the  Mahdi's  victories  he  held  the  post  of  Governor 
of  Darfur,  and  was  in  command  of  large  military  forces.  He  fought  no 
fewer  than  twenty-seven  pitched  battles  before  he  was  compelled  to  sur- 
render, and  is  the  only  surviving  soldier  who  has  given  an  eye-witness 
account  of  the  terrible  lighting  that  occurred  during  the  Mahdist  struggle 
for  supremacy.  He  was  present  as  a  prisoner  during  the  siege  of  Khartoum, 
and  it  was  to  his  feet  that  Gordon's  head  was  brought  in  revengeful  triumph 
within  an  hour  of  the  city's  fall. 

The  narrative  is  brought  up  to  the  present  year  when  Slatin  Pasha's 
marvellous  escape  took  place,  and  the  incidents  of  his  captivity  have  been 
so  indelibly  graven  on  his  memory  that  his  account  of  them  has  all  the 
freshness  of  a  romance. 

From  a  military  and  historical  standpoint  the  book  is  of  the  highest 
value.  Slatin  Pasha's  various  expeditions  penetrated  into  regions  as  yet 
almost  unknown  to  Europeans,  but  destined  apparently  to  be  the  subject  of 
serious  complications  in  the  near  future.  The  map  of  these  regions  is 
believed  to  be  the  first  authentic  one  produced.  There  is  also  a  careful 
ground-plan  of  Khartoum  and  Omdurman,  which  might  be  of  immense 
service  in  case  of  military  operations. 

The  work  is  furnished  with  numerous  spirited  illustrations  by  Mr.  R. 
Talbot  Kelly,  who  is  personally  familiar  with  the  Nile  Valley,  and  has 
worked  under  the  direct  supervision  of  Slatin  Pasha  and  Major  Wingate. 

\^Ready  in  January. 

POPULAR    EDITION. 

ENGLAND    IN    EGYPT. 

By  Sir  ALFRED   MILNER,  K.C.B., 

Formerly  Under-Secretary  for  Finance  in  Egypt. 

Fifth  Edition.     Large  crotun  2>vo,  with  Map.,  cloth.,  Js.  6d. 

"  No  journalist  or  public  man  ought  to  be  permitted  to  write  or  speak  about  Egypt  for 
the  next  five  years  unless  he  can  solemnly  declare  that  he  had  read  it  from  cover  to  cover." — 
Daily  Chronicle. 


LONDON: 
EDWARD  ARNOLD,  37  BEDFORD  STREET,  STRAND. 


BOOKS  ON  AFRICAN  AND  EASTERN  SUBJECTS. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  NILE-SPRINGS. 

By  Colonel  Sir  HENRY  COLVILE,  K.C.M.G.  C.B., 
recently  British  Commissioner  in  Uganda. 

With  Photogravure  Frotitispiece,  i6  Full- Page  Illustrations  and 
2  Maps,  Detny  %vo,  ids. 

"One  of  the  most  faithful  and  entertaining  books  of  adventure  that  has  appeared  since 
Burton's  days." — National  Ohserz<er. 

"It  is  not  often  that  men  who  do  things  can  turn  out  such  an  interesting  account  of  the 
things  done  as  Colonel  Colvile  has  written  of  his  administration  of  Uganda.  From  begin- 
ning to  end  there  is  not  a  dull  page  in  the  book." — Daily  Graphic. 

"  It  is,  indeed,  the  reaction  fromthe  Blue-book,  whose  phraseology  he  continually  uses 
with  the  happiest  irony.  And  as  the  reaction  it  is  probably  more  valuable  in  its  way  than 
all  the  Blue-books  that  ever  came  out  of  the  Queen's  printing  press." — Pall  Mall  Gazette. 


MEMORIES  OF  MASHONALAND. 

By  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  KNIGHT  BRUCE,  formerly  Bishop 
of  Mashonaland. 

With  Photogravure  Frontispiece,  Cloth,  Svo,  los.  6d. 

"  To  review  this  book  fully  is  impossible,  as  there  is  not  a  single  page  devoid  of  interest, 
and  all  those  who  take  an  interest  in  South  African  affairs  should  not  fail  to  read  it." — 
Pall  Mall  Gazette. 


THE  BRITISH  MISSION  TO  UGANDA  IN  1893. 

By  the  late  Sir  GERALD  PORTAL.  K.C.M.G. 

Edited  by  Rennell  Rood,  C.M.G. 

With  an  Introduction  by  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  Cromer. 

Illustrated  from  Photographs  taken  during  the  Expedition  by  Colonel 
Rhodes,  with  a  Portrait  by  the  Marchioness  of  Granby. 

Ojie  Vol.,  Demy  8vo,  cloth.     Otte  Gttinea. 

MY  MISSION  TO  ABYSSINIA. 

By  the  late  Sir  GERALD  PORTAL,  K.C.M.G.,  C.B. 

With  Photogravure  Portrait,  Map,  and  numerous  Illustrations. 
Demy  %vo,  151. 


LONDON : 
EDWARD  ARNOLD,  37  BEDFORD  STREET,  STRAND. 


Mr.  EDWARD  ARNOLD'S 

LIST  OF 

NEW  AND    FORTHCOMING  WORKS, 

December,     1895. 


NOTICE. — Mr.  Edward  Arnold  has  noiu  opened  an  Office  at 
70,  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.,  from  which  all  his  new 
Books  are  distributed  in  America. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  NILE-SPRINGS. 

By   Colonel   Sir   HENRY  COLVILE,    K.C.M.G.,   C.B.,  recently 
British  Commissioner  in  Uganda. 

With  Photogravure  Frontispiece,  i6  Full-page  Illustrations  and 
2  Maps,  demy  8vo.,  i6s. 

Summary  of  Contents. — The  Road  to  the  Lake — Usoga 
— Uganda — Kampala — ^Preparations  for  War — Concentration 
on  the  Frontier  —  Crossing  the  Kafu  —  Occupation  of  the 
Capital — Chasing  Kabarega — The  Investment  of  the  Forest — 
Occupation  of  Kibiro  —  The  Magungu  Expedition  —  The 
Wadelai  Expedition— The  Chain  of  Forts — Return  to  Uganda 
— Parade  and  Policy — Life  at  Port  Alice — Affairs  at  Unyoro, 
etc. 


LONDON : 
EDWARD    ARNOLD,    37   BEDFORD    STREET,    STRAND. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


FIRE  AND  SWORD  IN  THE  SUDAN. 

A   personal    Narrative   of  Fighting   and   Serving  the  Dervishes, 
1879-1895. 

By  SLATIN    PASHA,  Colonel  in  the  Egyptian  Army,  formerly 
Governor  and  Commandant  of  the  Troops  in  Darfur. 

Translated  and  Edited  by  Major  F.  R.  Wingate,  R.A.,  D.S.O. 

Anthor  of  Mahdiistn  and  the  Egyptian  Soiida?i,'  etc. 

Fully  Illustrated  by  R.  Talbot  Kelly. 
Demy  8vo.,  One  Guinea  net. 

Slatin  Paslia  was  by  far  the  most  important  of  the  European 
prisoners  in  the  Soudan.  Before  the  Mahdi's  victories  he  held 
the  post  of  Governor  of  Darfur,  and  was  in  command  of  large 
military  forces.  He  fought  no  fewer  than  twenty-seven  pitched 
battles  before  he  was  compelled  to  surrender,  and  is  the  only 
surviving  soldier  who  has  given  an  eye-witness  account  of  the 
terrible  fighting  that  occurred  during  the  Mahdist  struggle  for 
supremacy.  He  was  present  as  a  prisoner  during  the  siege  of 
Khartoum,  and  it  was  to  his  feet  that  Gordon's  head  was 
brought  in  revengeful  triumph  within  an  hour  of  the  city's  fall. 

The  narrative  is  brought  up  to  the  present  year,  when  Slatin 
Pasha's  marvellous  escape  took  place,  and  the  incidents  of  his 
captivity  have  been  so  indelibly  graven  on  his  memory  that  his 
account  of  them  has  all  the  freshness  of  a  romance. 

From  a  military  and  historical  standpoint  the  book  is  of  the 
highest  value.  Slatin  Pasha's  various  expeditions  penetrated 
into  regions  as  yet  almost  unknown  to  Europeans,  but  destined 
apparently  to  be  the  subject  of  serious  complications  in  the 
near  future.  The  map  of  these  regions  is  believed  to  be  the 
first  authentic  one  produced.  There  is  also  a  careful  ground- 
plan  of  Khartoum  and  Omdurman,  which  might  be  of  immense 
service  in  case  of  military  operations. 

The  work  is  furnished  with  numerous  spirited  illustrations  by 
Mr.  R.  Talbot  Kelly,  who  is  personally  familiar  with  the  Nile 
Valley,  and  has  worked  under  the  direct  supervision  of  Slatin 
Pasha  and  Major  Wingate. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


A  LITTLE   TOUR  IN  AMERICA. 

By  the  Very  Rev.  S.  REYNOLDS  HOLE,  Dean  of  Rochester. 

Author  of  '  A  Little  Tour  in  Irelatid,'  '  The  Memories  of  Dean  Hole,' 
'  A  Book  about  Roses,'  etc. 

With  numerous  IHustrations,  demy  8vo.,  i6s. 

Dean  Hole  visited  the  United  States  in  the  winter  of 
1894-95,  and  gave  lectures  in  almost  all  the  principal  cities. 
His  personal  popularity  and  great  reputation  as  an  author  and 
preacher  enabled  him  to  see  everything  under  the  most  favour- 
able circumstances,  and  he  was  received  with  the  warmest 
hospitality  by  all  circles.  He  has  embodied  in  this  volume 
the  results  of  his  shrewd  and  kindly  observation  of  American 
men  and  manners  in  a  way  that  will  bring  home  to  the  reader 
a  true  picture  of  the  Great  Republic  viewed  through  the  good- 
humoured  but  keen  eyes  of  a  friendly  inquirer. 

None  of  Dean  Hole's  works  have  taken  a  more  lasting  hold 
upon  the  public  than  the  well-known  '  Little  Tour  in  Ireland,' 
and  it  is  hoped  that  the  present  volume  may  prove  equally 
popular. 


MEMORIES  OF  MASHONALAND. 

By  the  Right  Rev.  BISHOP  KNIGHT  BRUCE,  formerly 
Bishop  of  Mashonaland. 

With  Photogravure  Frontispiece,  cloth,  Svo.,  los.  6d. 

Bishop  Knight  Bruce  occupied  the  See  of  Mashonaland 
during  the  interesting  period  of  its  development  from  savage 
independence  to  a  more  civilized  condition.  His  intimate 
association  with  the  natives  gave  him  such  opportunities  of 
studying  their  manners  and  habits  as  have  rarely  fallen  to  the 
lot  of  Europeans.  To  all  who  are  interested  in  missionary 
work  the  book  will  be  especially  valuable  ;  but  in  a  land  where 
the  missionary  is  the  true  pioneer  of  civilization — the  land  of 
Livingstone  and  Moffat — Bishop  Knight  Bruce's  work  was 
necessarily  of  an  extremely  varied  character,  and  the  record  is 
full  of  entertainment  for  the  general  reader. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


TWELVE   HUNDRED  MILES   IN  AN  OX- 
WAGGON. 

By  ALICE  BALFOUR. 

With  38  Illustrations  by  the  Author. 

Cloth,  8vo.,  1 6s. 

The  recollection  of  Miss  Balfour's  picturesque  account  of  her 
tour  in  Ireland  with  her  brother,  the  Right  Hon.  A.  J.  Balfour, 
M.P.,  some  years  ago,  will  increase  the  interest  with  which  this 
volume  will  be  anticipated.  Last  year  the  author  made  the 
tour  in  South  Africa  here  recorded  ;  the  party  consisted  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Albert  Grey  (now  Lord  and  Lady  Grey),  the  Hon.  H.  W. 
Fitzwilliam  and  Mr.  G.  Grey,  and  the  journey  was  from  Cape 
Town  to  Salisbury,  thence  to  the  coast  at  Beira,  and  home  by 
Dar  es  Salaam  and  Zanzibar.  For  no  less  than  twelve  hundred 
miles  of  their  journey  the  party  travelled  in  ox-waggons,  and 
thus  experienced  a  full  share  of  the  entertaining  vicissitudes  of 
the  Trekker's  life.  This  portion  of  the  tour  has  been  described 
in  the  National  Revietv^  where  it  attracted  much  attention. 

An  important  feature  of  the  book  will  be  a  number  of 
illustrations  by  the  Author. 

DIARIES  OF  GEORGE  HOWARD,  EARL  OF 
CARLISLE. 

Edited  by  VISCOUNT  MORPETH. 

The  author  of  these  Diaries,  Cicorge  William  Frederick 
Howard,  K.G.,  Earl  of  Carlisle,  best  known  as  Lord  Morpeth, 
was  born  in  1802  and  died  in  1864.  The  Diary  begins  in  1843, 
and  was  continued  by  Lord  Carlisle  until  his  death.  During 
this  period  he  held  successively  the  offices  of  Chief  Commis- 
sioner of  Woods  and  Forests  (1S46-1850),  Chancellor  of  the 
Duchy  of  Lancaster,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  (1855-58 
and  1859-64).  The  Diaries  contain  frequent  allusions  to  most 
of  the  political,  literary,  and  social  personages  of  the  time,  with 
whom  Lord  Carlisle  necessarily  enjoyed  intimate  acquaintance. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


THE    EXPLORATION   OF   THE    CAUCASUS. 

By  DOUGLAS  W.  FRESHFIELD,  F.R.G.S.,  President  of  the 

Alpine  Club, 

Author  of  Travels  in  the  Central  Caucasus,'  '  The  Italian  Alps,'  etc. 

In  two  volumes,    imperial   Svo.,    45s.    net.      Also   a    Large-paper 
Edition  of  100  copies,  ^5  5s.  net. 

Illustrated  by  over  70  Full-page  Photogravures  and  several 
Mountain  Panoramas,  chiefly  from  Photographs  by  Signor 
ViTTORlo  Sella,  and  executed  under  his  immediate  superintend- 
ence, and  by  more  than  100  Illustrations  in  the  Text,  of  the 
Scenery,  People,  and  Buildings  of  the  Mountain  Region  of  the 
Caucasus,  from  Photographs  by  Signor  Sella,  M.  de  Dechv, 
Mr.  H.  Woolley,  and  the  late  Mr.  W.  F.  Donkin. 

These  volumes,  intended  to  form  a  record  of  the  exploration  of 
the  Caucasus  since  1868  by  Members  of  the  Alpine  Club,  as  well  as 
a  narrative  of  the  author's  recent  journeys  in  that  region,  will 
constitute  one  of  the  most  complete  and  lavishly  illustrated  works 
on  mountain  travel  ever  published  in  this  country. 

The  letterpress  will  include  a  concise  account  of  the  physical 
characteristics  of  the  central  portion  of  the  Caucasian  chain,  and  a 
sketch  of  the  principal  travels  and  adventures  of  the  mountaineers 
who  have  penetrated  its  fastnesses,  and  conquered  summits,  eleven 
of  which  are  higher  than  Mont  Blanc. 

The  personal  narrative  will  consist  of  the  story  of  two  summers 
recently  spent  among  the  glaciers  and  forests  of  the  Caucasus  by 
the  author,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Search  Expedition  which 
went  out  to  ascertain  the  locality  and  nature  of  the  catastrophe  by 
which  Mr.  W.  F.  Donkin  and  Mr.  H.  Fox  with  their  guides  lost 
their  lives  in  1S88,  extracts  from  the  diary  of  Mr.  Fox,  and  accounts 
of  the  first  ascents  of  Kostantau  and  Ushba  by  Mr.  H.  Woolley 
and  Mr.  Cockin. 

An  Appendix  will  contain  a  mass  of  novel  and  systematically 
arranged  topographical  detail,  which,  it  is  hoped,  may  prove  of 
great  service  to  future  travellers  and  mountaineers. 

District  Maps  on  the  scale  of  the  old  official  map  (3  miles  to  the 
inch),  forming  together  a  complete  map  of  the  chain  from  Kasbeck 
to  Elbruz,  are  being  prepared  for  the  book  mainly  from  the  unpub- 
lished sheets  of  the  recent  Russian  surveys,  which  have  been 
generously  placed  at  Mr.  Freshfield's  disposal  by  General  Kulberg. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


STUDIES  IN  EARLY  VICTORIAN  LITERATURE, 
1837-1870. 

By  FREDERIC   HARRISON,  M.A., 

Author  of  '  The  Choice  of  Books,'  etc. 

Large  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  los.  6d. 

Contents. 

Victorian  Literature.  Anthony  Trollope. 

Lord  Macaulay.  Charles  Dickens. 

Thomas  Carlyle.  William  Makepeace  Thackeray. 

Benjamin  Disraeli.  Charles  Kingsley. 

Charlotte  Bronte.  George  Eliot. 

The  essays  contained  in  this  volume  have  already  appeared  in  the  Forum, 
but  they  were  written  originally  on  a  definite  preconceived  plan  with  a  view  to 
subsequent  publication,  and  may  be  taken  as  an  expression  of  the  author's 
mature  literary  estimate  of  the  great  Victorian  writers. 

THE  STORY  OF  TWO  SALONS. 

Madame    de    Beaumont    and    the    Guards. 

By  Edith  Sichel, 

Author  of  '  Worthington  Junior.' 

With  Illustrations.     Large  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  los.  6d. 

Miss  Sichel  says  in  her  preface :  '  There  are  some  secrets  which  the  past 
keeps  jealously  from  us,  and  among  these  the  secret  of  the  art  of  society  which 
lies  hidden  in  France,  in  the  Paris  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  the  graves  of 
tender  ladies  and  frilled  philosophers,  as  sparkling  as  they  were  profound.  We 
have  good  things  unknown  to  them,  more  important  than  theirs.  Our  faith  is 
wider  and  warmer  ;  our  outlook  larger.  We  have  sturdier  morals  and  more 
ardent  activities  ;  but  the  lesser  good  must  go.  It  is  our  sense  of  this  which 
makes  us  venture  to  revive  some  of  the  less-known  salons  of  eighteenth-century 
Paris.  The  .Suards  and  Pauline  de  Beaumont  are  names  unfamiliar  to  English 
ears  ;  but  the  bye-ways  are  more  adventurous  than  the  highroads,  and  provide 
us  with  many  une.xpected  points  of  vievi'.  For  this  reason  alone  are  they  worth 
pursuing  ;  still  more  so  if  they  could  only  impart  some  perception  of  "  that 
sociability  which  distinguishes  France  ;  that  charming  interchange  of  intellect, 
as  easy  as  it  is  rapid  ;  that  absence  of  bitterness  or  prejudice  ;  that  inattention 
to  fortune  or  to  reputation  ;  that  natural  levelling  of  all  ranks ;  that  equality  of 
mind  which  makes  French  society  incomparable  and  redeems  its  faults."  ' 

THE  ROMANCE  OF  PRINCE  EUGENE. 

An  Idyll  under  Napoleon  the  First. 

By  ALBERT  PULITZER. 

With  ninnerous  Photogravure  Illustrations,  in  two  volumes, 
,  demy  8vo.,  21s. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


ROBERT  LOUIS  STEVENSON. 

By  WALTER    RALEIGH,    Professor   of  English    Literature  at 
Liverpool  University  College. 

Atcthor  of  '  The   English    Novel'    etc. 

Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 


BENJAMIN  JOWETT,  MASTER  OF  BALLIOL. 

A    Personal    Memoir. 

By  the  HON.  LIONEL  TOLLEMACHE, 

A  iithor  of  '  Safe  S Indies, '  etc. 

Crown  Svo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

KLEINES  HAUSTHEATER. 

Fifteen  Little  Plays  in  German  for  Children. 

By  Mrs.  HUGH  BELL. 

Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  2s. 

Most  of  these  little  plays  have  been  adapted  from  the  author's  '  Petit 
Theatre,'  the  remainder  from  a  little  book  of  English  plays  by  the  same  writer 
entitled  '  Nursery  Comedies.' 

NEW   STORY   BY    THE    AUTHOR    OF    'MISS    BLAKE    OF 
MONKSHAL  TON. ' 

ON  THE  THRESHOLD. 

By   ISABELLA    O.     FORD, 

Author  of  'Miss  Blake  of  Monkshalton.' 

One  vol.,  crown  8vo.,  3s.  6d. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


NEW  STORY  BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF  '  MERRIE  ENGLAND.' 

TOMMY  ATKINS. 

A    Tale    of    the    Ranks. 

By  ROBERT  BLATCHFORD, 

Author  of  '  A  Son  of  the  Forge,'  '  Merrie  England,'  etc. 

Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 

WAGNER'S  HEROES. 

Tannhauser,     Parsifal.     Hans  Sachs.     Lohengrin. 

By  CONSTANCE    MAUD. 

Illustrated  by  H.  Granville  Fell. 

Crown  Svc,  handsomely  bound,  5s. 

'  These  are  just  simple  tales  about  men  and  women  who  once  really  lived  on 
the  earth,  and  about  whom  the  greatest  of  poet-musicians  wrote  in  that  wonder- 
ful music-language  of  his  which  speaks  straight  to  the  heart.  And  in  this 
language  he  told  us  many  things  about  Parsifal,  Lohengrin,  Tannhauser,  and 
dear  old  Hans  Sachs,  which  cannot  by  any  human  power  be  put  into  words  ; 
but  in  so  far  as  he  did  make  use  of  words  to  explain  his  marvellous  music,  I 
have  tried  to  use  the  same,  and  above  all  never  to  depart  from  his  idea  of  the 
heroes  he  loved.' — From  the  Preface. 

LIFE'S  PRESCRIPTION. 

In   Seven    Doses. 

By  D.  MACLAREN  MORRISON. 

Crown  8vo.,  parchment,  is.  6d. 

Contents. — i.  The  Pride  of  Life.  2.  Education.  3.  Man.  4.  Woman. 
5.   Marriage.     6.  Parents.     7.  Home. 

A  few  pages  of  advice  to  men  and  women  on  the  management  of  their  lives  ; 
the  reader  can  hardly  fail  to  be  interested  in  the  shrewd  and  sensible  remarks, 
knowledge  of  life,  sound  advice  and  pleasant  anecdote  with  which  the  book  is 
enlivened. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


CYCLING  FOR  HEALTH  AND  PLEASURE. 

By  L.  H.  PORTER, 

Author  of  Wheels  and  Wheeling,'  etc. 

Revised  and  edited  by 
F.  W.  SHORLAND,  Amateur  Champion  1892-93-94. 

With  numerous  Illustrations,  small  8vo.,  2s.  6d. 

STRENGTH ; 

Or,  The   Development  and    Use  of  Muscle. 

By  the  Champion,  C.  A.  SAMPSON, 
'The  strongest  man  on  earth.' 

With  nearly  forty  illustrations,  8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 


TWO  NEW  COOKERY  BOOKS  BY  COLONEL 
KENNEY-HERBERT. 

FIFTY   LUNCHES. 
FIFTY   DINNERS. 

By  COLONEL  A.  KENNEY  HERBERT, 

Author  of  '  Common-Sense  Cookery,'  'Fifty  Breakfasts,'  etc. 

Each  vol.,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 


POULTRY    FATTENING. 

By  EDWARD  BROWN, 

Author  of  '  Pleasurable  Poultry  Keeping,'  etc. 

With   Illustrations,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,    is.  6d. 


10  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 

NEW  BOOKS   FOR    YOUNG  PEOPLE. 

Price   Five  Shillings   each. 

ERIC  THE  ARCHER. 

By  MAURICE    HERVEY, 
Author  of '  The  Reef  of  Gold,'  etc. 

With  numerous  Full-page  Illustrations,  handsomely  bound, 
crown  8vo.,  5s. 

DR.  GILBERT'S  DAUGHTERS. 

By  MARGARET  HARRIET  MATHEWS. 

Illustrated  by  Chris.  Hammond. 

Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s. 

THE  FUR  SEAL'S  TOOTH. 

By  KIRK  MUNROE. 
Beautifully  Illustrated,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s. 

HOW  DICK  AND  MOLLY  WENT  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

By  M.  H.  CORNWALL  LEGH. 
With  numerous  Illustrations,  fcap.  4to.,  cloth,  5s 


Price  Three  Shillings  and  Sixpence  each. 

HUNTERS  THREE. 

By    THOMAS    W.    KNOX, 

Authoj-of  The  Boy  Travellers,'  etc. 

With  numerous  Illustrations,  crown  8vo.,  cloth.  3s.  6d. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  ii 


THE  SECRET  OF  THE  DESERT. 

By  E.  D.  FAWCETT, 

Aidhor  of  '  Sivallowed  by  an   Earthquake,''  etc. 

With  Full-page  Illustrations,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 


JOEL  :  A  BOY  OF  GALILEE. 

By  ANNIE  FELLOWS  JOHNSTON. 
With  Ten  Full-page  Illustrations,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

THE  MUSHROOM  CAVE. 

By  EVELYN   RAYMOND, 

Author  of  '  The  [.ittle  Lady  of  the  Horse.' 

With  Illustrations,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 


THE  CHILDREN'S  HOUR  SERIES. 

'  A  pause  in  the  day's  occupations 
That  is  known  as  The  Children's  Hour.' — Longfellow. 

This  series  will  consist  of  continuous  stories  for  boys  and  girls  from  about 
seven  to  ten  years  of  age  ;  great  care  will  be  taken  by  the  authors  to  make  the 
books  really  interesting  to  young  readers,  so  that  the  title  of  the  series  may  not 
be  misapplied.  Large  type  will  be  used,  and  each  volume  will  be  illustrated 
with  several  full-page  pictures  specially  drawn  for  it. 

The  following  volumes  are  just  ready,  price  Haifa-crown  eacii  : 


MASTER  MAGNUS. 

By  MRS.  E.  M.  FIELD, 

Author  of  '  Ethne,'  '  Little  Cotint  Paul,'  '  Mixed  Pickles,'  etc. 

With  Four  Full-page  Illustrations,  small  8vo.,  2s.  6d. 


12  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


MY  DOG  PLATO. 

By  M.  H.  CORNWALL  LEGH, 

Autlior  of '  Hotv  Dick  arid  Molly  ivejit  Hound  the  1 1  'o}-ld,'  etc. 

With  Four  Full-page  Illustrations,  small  8vo.,  2s.  6d. 

Further  Volumes  are  in  preparation. 


NEW     VOLUMES     OF 

THE  CHILDREN'S  FAVOURITE  SERIES. 

Price  Two  Shillings  each  ;  Sj'ECIally  Bound,  Gilt  Edges,  2s.  6d. 

MY  BOOK  OF  PERILS. 

Exciting  stories  of  adventure  and  hairbreadth  escapes. 

MY  BOOK  OF  WONDERS. 

An  account  of  some  of  the  most  marvellous  things  in  the  world  described  in 
an  interesting  way  for  children. 


TRAVELS,  SPORT,  AND  EXPLORATION. 
Balfour— MY  SOUTH  AFRICAN  JOURNEY.    {S,ee page  4.) 
Colville— THE    LAND   OF   THE   NILE   SPRINGS.     {See 

page  I.) 

Freshfleld— EXPLORATION  OF  THE  CAUCASUS.     {See 
page  5.) 

Hole— A  LITTLE  TOUR  IN  AMERICA.     {Seepage  3.) 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  13 


Hole— A  LITTLE  TOUR  IN  IRELAND.      By  An  Oxonian 

(the  Very  Rev.  S.  R.  Hole,  Dean  of  Rochester).  With  nearly  forty 
Illustrations  by  John  Leech,  including  the  famous  steel  Frontispiece  of 
the  '  Claddagh.'  Large  imperial  i6mo. ,  handsomely  bound,  gilt  top, 
los.  6d. 

)(.\  Only  a  few  copies  of  this  edition  now  remain. 

Portal— THE    BRITISH    MISSION    TO    UGANDA.     By 

the  late  Sir  Ger.^ld  Portal,  K.C.M.G.  Edited  by  Rennell  Rood, 
C.M.G.  With  an  Introduction  by  the  Right  Honourable  Lord  Cromer, 
G.C.M.G.  Illustrated  from  photos  taken  during  the  Expedition  by  Colonel 
Rhodes.     Demy  8vo. ,  21s. 

Portal- MY  MISSION  TO   ABYSSINIA.      By  the  late  Sir 

Gerald  H.  Portal,  C.B.     With  Map  and  Illustrations.     Demy  8vo.,  15s. 

Slatin  — FIRE  AND   SWORD    IN    THE    SUDAN.     {See 
page  2.) 


AMERICAN  SPORT  AND  TRAVEL. 

These  books,  selected fro7>i  the  Catalogue  (/Messrs.  Rand  McNally  &  Co. ,  the 
well-known  publishers  of  Chicago,  have  been  placed  in  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's 
hands  under  the  i7?ipression  that  majty  British  Travellers  and  Sportsmen  may 
find  them  tcseful  before  starting  on  expeditions  i?i  the  United  States. 

Aldrieh— ARCTIC  ALASKA   AND   SIBERIA;    or,   Eight 

Months  with  the  Arctic  Whalemen.     By  Herbert  L.  Aldrich.     Crown 
8vo. ,  cloth,  4s.  6d. 

AMERICAN  GAME  FISHES.     Their  Habits,  Habitat,  and 

Peculiarities  ;    How,  When,  and  Where  to  Angle  for  them.      By  various 
Writers.     Cloth,  los.  6d. 

Higg-ins- NEW  GUIDE  TO  THE  PACIFIC  COAST.    Santa 

F(S  Route.     By  C.  A.  HiGGiNS.     Crown  Bvo. ,  cloth,  4s.  6d. 

Lefflng;well-THE    ART    OF    WING  -  SHOOTING.      A 

Practical  Treatise  on  the  Use  of  the  Shot-gun.     By  W.  B.  Lefflngwell. 
With  numerous  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  4s.  6d. 

Shields  —  CAMPING     AND    CAMP    OUTFITS.     By  G. 

O.  Shields  ('  Coquina  ').      Containing  also  Chapters  on  Camp  Medicine, 
Cookery,  and  How  to  Load  a  Packhorse.     Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s. 


14  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 

Shields— THE   AMERICAN   BOOK  OF  THE   DOG.     By 

various  Writers.     Edited  by  (j.  O.  Shields  ('Coquina').     Cloth,  15s. 

Thomas— SWEDEN  AND  THE    SWEDES.      By  William 

WiDGEKY  Thomas,  Jun.,  United  States  Minister  to  Sweden  and  Norway. 
With  numerous  Illustrations.     Cloth,  i6s. 


HISTORY  AND   BIOGRAPHY. 
Benson  and  Tatham-  MEN  OF  MIGHT.    Studies  of  Great 

Characters.  By  A.  C.  Benson,  M.A.,  and  H.  F.  W.  Tatham,  M.A., 
Assistant  Masters  at  Eton  College.  Second  Edition.  Crown  8vo. ,  cloth, 
3s.  6d. 

Boyle— THE    RECOLLECTIONS    OF    THE    DEAN    OF 

SALISBUEY.  By  the  Very  Rev.  G.  D.  BoYLE,  Dean  of  Salisbury. 
With  Photogravure  Portrait,      i  vol.,  demy  8vo. ,  cloth,  i6s. 

Custance-RIDING  RECOLLECTIONS  AND  TURF 

STORIES.     By  Henry    Custance,   three   times    winner  of    the    Derby. 

One  vol.,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 

'  An  admirable  sketch  of  turf  history  during  a  very  interesting  period,  well  and 
humorously  written.' — SJ>orting Life. 

Sherard- ALPHONSE  DAUDET  :   a  Biography  and  Critical 

Study.  By  R.  H.  Sherakd,  Editor  of  'The  Memoirs  of  Baron  Meneval,' 
etc.     With  Illustrations.     Demy  8vo.,  15s. 

Fowler— ECHOES  OF  OLD  COUNTY  LIFE.    Recollections 

of  Sport,  Society,  Politics,  and  Farming  in  the  Good  Old  Times.     By  J.  K. 
Fowler,  of  Aylesbury.    Second  Edition,  with  numerous  Illustrations,  8vo., 
IDS.  6d.     Also  a  large-paper  edition,  of  200  copies  only,  21s.  net. 
'A  very  entertaining  volume  of  reminiscences,  full  of  good  stories.' — Truth. 

Hare— MARIA  EDGEWORTH :  her  Life  and  Letters.    Edited 

By  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare,  Author  of  'The  Story  of  Two  Noble  Lives,' 

etc.     Two  vols.,  crown  8vo. ,  with  Portraits,  i6s.  net. 

'  Mr.  Hare  has  written  more  than  one  good  book  in  his  time,  but  he  has  never  produced 
anything  nearly  so  entertaining  and  valuable  as  his  latest  contribution  to  biography  and 
literature.'—  Saiztrday  Revieiv. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  15 


Hole— THE  MEMORIES   OF  DEAN   HOLE.    By  the  Very 

Rev.  S.  Reynolds  Hole,  Dean  of  Rochester.  With  the  original 
Illuslrations  from  sketches  by  Leech  and  Thackeray.  New  Edition, 
twelfth  thousand,  one  vol.,  crown  8vo.,  6s. 

'  One  of  the  most  delightful  collections  of  reminiscences  that  this  generation  has  seen. 
— Daily  Chronicle. 

Hole— MORE  MEMORIES :  Being  Thoughts  about  England 

Spoken  in  America.  By  the  Very  Rev.  S.  REYNOLDS  HOLE,  Dean  of 
Rocliester.     With  Frontispiece.     Demy  8vo.,  i6s. 

'  Full  alike  of  contagious  fun  and  mature  wisdom.' — Daily  Chronicle. 

Kay— OMARAH'S   HISTORY   OF   YAMAN.     The  Arabic 

Text,  edited,  with  a  translation,  by  Henry  Cassels  Kay,  Member  of  the 
Royal  Asiatic  Society.     Demy  8vo.,  cloth,  17s.  6d.  net. 

Knight-Bruce— MEMORIES  OF  MASHONALAND.     {See 

page  3.) 

Lecky— THE    POLITICAL   VALUE   OF  HISTORY.      By 

W.  E.  H.  Lecky,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.  An  Address  delivered  at  the  Midland 
Institute,  reprinted  with  additions.     Crown  Svo. ,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 

Le  Fanu— SEVENTY  YEARS  OF  IRISH   LIFE.     Being 

the  Recollections  of  W.  R.  Le  Fanu.  Third  Edition,  one  vol.,  demy 
8vo.,  i6s.     With  Portraits  of  the  Author  and  J.  Sheridan  Le  Fanu. 

'  It  will  delight  all  readers — English  and  Scotch  no  less  than  Irish,  Nationalists  no  less 
than  Unionists,  Roman  Catholics  no  less  than  Orangemen.' — Times. 

Macdonald— THE  MEMOIRS  OF  THE  LATE  SIR  JOHN 

A.  MACDONALD,  G.C.B.,  First  Prime  Minister  of  Canada.  Edited  by 
Joseph  Pope,  his  Private  Secretary.  With  Portraits.  Two  vols.,  demy 
8vo. ,  32s. 

Milner— ENGLAND  IN  EGYPT.     By  Sir  Alfred  Milner, 

K.C.B.  Popular  Edition,  with  an  Additional  Prefatory  Chapter  on  Egypt 
in  1894.     Large  crown  8vo. ,  with  Map,  cloth,  7s.  6d. 

'  No  journalist  or  public  man  ought  to  be  permitted  to  write  or  speak  about  Egypt  for 
the  next  five  years  unless  he  can  solemnly  declare  that  he  has  read  it  from  cover  to  cover.' 
— Daily  Chronicle. 


i6  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


Morpeth— LORD  CARLISLE'S  DIARIES.    {Seepage  4.) 
Oman— A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.    By  Charles  Oman, 

Fellow  of  All  Souls'  College,  Rnd  Lecturer  in  History  at  New  College, 
Oxford  ;  Author  of  '  Warwick  the  Kingmaker,'  '  A  History  of  Greece,' 
etc.     Crown  8vo. ,  cloth,  4s.  6d.  net. 

'  This  is  the  nearest  approach  to  the  ideal  School  History  of  England  which  has  yet 
been  written.' — Guardian. 

Pulitzer— THE  ROMANCE  OF  PRINCE  EUGENE.     {See 
page  6.) 

Raleig-h-R.  L.  STEVENSON.     {Seepage  7.) 

Ransome— THE  BATTLES  OF  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT; 

Extracts  from  Carlyle's  '  History  of  Frederick  the  Great.'  Edited  by  Cyril 
Ransome,  M.A.  ,  Professor  of  History  in  the  Yorkshire  College,  Leeds. 
With  a  Map  specially  drawn  for  this  work,  Carlyle's  original  Battle-Plans, 
and  Illustrations  by  Adolph  Menzel.     Cloth,  imperial  i6mo. ,  55. 

Santley— STUDENT  AND    SINGER.     The  Reminiscences 

of  Charles  Santley.     New  Edition,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 

Tollemache— BENJAMIN  JOWETT.    {See  page  t.) 
Twining-RECOLLECTIONS    OF   LIFE    AND    WORK. 

Being  the  Autobiography  of  LouiSA  TwiNiNG.     One  vol.,  8vo.,  cloth,  15s. 


LITERATURE  AND  BELLES  LETTRES. 
WORKS   BY  THE  REV.    CANON    BELL,   D.D., 

Rector  of  Cheltenham  and  Honorary  Canon  of  Carlisle. 

DIANA'S  LOOKING  GLASS,  and  other  Poems. 

Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s.  net. 

POEMS    OLD    AND    NEW. 

Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  7s.  6d. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  17 


THE  NAME  ABOVE  EVERY  NAME,  and  other 
Sermons. 

Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s. 


Butlep-SELECT  ESSAYS  OF  SAINTE  BEUVE.    Chiefly 

bearing  on  English  Literature.  Translated  by  A.  J.  Butler,  Translator 
of  'The  Memoirs  of  Baron  Marbot.'     One  vol.,  8vo.,  cloth,  5s.  net. 

'  Knglish  readers  should  not  fail  to  make  themselves  acquainted  with  the  work  of  one 
of  the  clearest,  most  broadly  tolerant,  and  sanest  critics  of  their  literature  that  France 
has  produced.' — Daily  Telegraph. 

THORSTEIN  OF  THE  MERE  :  a  Saga  of  the  Northmen  in 

Lakeland.  By  W.  G.  Collingvvood,  Author  of  '  Life  of  John  Ruskin,' 
etc.     With  Illustrations.      Price  los.  6d. 

Gosehen— THE  CULTIVATION  AND  USE  OF  IMAGINA- 

TION.  By  the  Right  Hon.  George  Joachim  Goschen.  Crown  8vo., 
cloth,  23.  6d. 

GREAT    PUBLIC     SCHOOLS.      Eton  —  Harrow  —  Win 

CHESTER  —  Rugby  —  Westminster  —  Marlborough  —  Cheltenham 
—  Haileybuky  —  Clifton  —  Charterhouse.  With  nearly  a  hundred 
Illustrations  by  the  best  artists.  One  vol.,  large  imperial  i6mo.,  hand- 
somely bound,  6s.  Among  the  contributors  to  this  volume  are  Mr.  Max- 
well Lyte,  C.B.  ;  the  Hon.  Alfred  Lyttelton,  Dr.  Montagu  Butler,  Mr.  P. 
Thornton,  M.P.  ;  Mr.  Lees  Knowles,  M.  P.  ;  his  Honour  Judge  Thomas 
Hughes,  Q.C.  ;  the  late  Earl  of  Selborne,  Mr.  H.  Lee  Warner,  Mr.  G.  R. 
Barker,  Mr.  A.  G.  Bradley,  Mr.  E.  Scot  Skirving,  Rev.  L.  S.  Milford, 
Mr.  E.  M.  Oakeley,  Mr.  Leonard  Huxley,  and  Mr.  Mowbray  Morris. 

Harrison-STUDIES  IN  EARLY  VICTORIAN  LITERA- 
TURE.   [Seepages.) 

Hole— ADDRESSES  TO  WORKING  MEN  FROM  PULPIT 

AND  PLATFORM.  By  the  Very  Rev.  S.  Reynolds  Hole,  Dean  of 
Rochester.  This  volume  contains  nineteen  Addresses  and  Sermons 
delivered  by  Dean  Hole  to  Working  Men  on  Friendly  Societies,  Gambling 
and  Betting,  the  Church  and  Dissent,  to  Soldiers,  on  Temperance,  Un- 
belief, True  Education,  Work,  etc.     One  vol.,  crown  8vo. ,  6s. 


i8  Air.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


Langr-LAMB'S  ADVENTURES  OF  ULYSSES.    With  an 

Introduction  by  Andrew  Lang.     Square  8vo.  cloth,  is.  6d.     Also  the 
Prize  Edition,  gilt  edges,  2S. 

Maud— WAGNER'S  HEROES.     {Seepage  8.) 
Morrison— LIFE'S  PRESCRIPTION.    (Seepage  8.) 


WORKS    BY    RENNELL    RODD,    C.M.G. 
FEDA,  with  other  Poems,  chiefly  Lyrical. 

With  an  Etching  by  Harper  Pennington. 
Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 

THE  UNKNOWN  MADONNA,  and  other  Poems. 

With  a  Frontispiece  by  W.  B.  Richmond,  A.R.A. 
Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s. 

THE  VIOLET  CROWN,  AND  SONGS  OF  ENGLAND. 

With  a  Frontispiece  by  the  Marchioness  OF  Granby. 
Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  5s. 

THE  CUSTOMS  AND  LORE  OF  MODERN  GREECE. 

With  seven  full-page  Illustrations  by  Tristram  Ellis. 
8vo.,  cloth,  8s.  6d. 


WINCHESTER  COLLEGE.  Illustrated  by  Herbert  Mar- 
shall. With  Contributions  in  Prose  and  Verse  by  Old  Wykehamists. 
Demy  4to. ,  cloth,  25s.  net.  A  few  copies  of  the  first  edition,  limited  to 
1,000  copies,  are  still  to  be  had. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


19 


FICTION. 

SIX  SHILLING  NOVELS. 

TOMMY  ATKINS.     By  Robert  Blatchford.     {See  p.  8.) 

ORMISDAL.    A  Novel.    By  the  Earl  of  Dunmore,  F.R.G.S., 

Author  of  'The  Pamirs.'     One  vol.,  crown  8vo. ,  cloth,  6s. 

'  In  this  breezy  and  entertaining  novel  Lord  Dunmore  has  given  us  a  very  readable  and 
racy  story  of  the  life  that  centres  in  a  Highland  shooting,  about  the  end  of  August.' — 
Glasgo-M  Herald. 

THE     TUTOR'S     SECRET.      (Le    Secret    du    Precepteur.) 

Translated  from  the  French  of  Victor  Cherbuliez.     One  vol.,  crown 
8vo.,  cloth,  6s. 

'  If  Victor  Cherbuliez  did  not  already  possess  a  great  reputation,  his  latest  production 
would  have  been  quite  sufficient  to  secure  him  renown  as  a  novelist.  From  the  first  line 
to  the  last  we  recognise  a  master-hand  at  work,  and  there  is  not  a  page  that  even  the 
veriest  skimmer  will  care  to  pass  over.' — Westminster  Gazette. 

THREE  SHILLING  AND  SIXPENNY  NOVELS. 
ON  THE  THRESHOLD.     By  I.  O.  Ford.     {Seepage  7.) 

THE    MYSTE^RY   OF   THE   RUE    SOLY.      Translated  by 

Lady  Knutsford  from  the  French  of  H.   de    Balzac.     Crown   8vo. , 
cloth,  3s.  6d. 

'  Lady  Knutsford's  translation  of  Balzac's  famous  story  is  excellent.' — Scotsman. 

DAVE'S    SWEETHEART.     By   Mary   Gaunt.     One   vol., 

8vo. ,  cloth,  3s.  6d. 

'  Of  all  the  Australian  novels  that  have  been  laid  before  readers  in  this  conntry, 
"Dave's  Sweetheart,"  in  a  literary  point  of  view  and  as  a  finished  production,  takes  a 
higher  place  than  any  that  has  yet  appeared.  From  the  opening  scene  to  the  closing 
page  we  have  no  hesitation  in  predicting  that  not  a  word  will  be  skipped  even  by  the 
most  blase  of  novel  readers.' — Spectator. 

MISTHER    O'RYAN.       An    Incident   in    the    History   of  a 

Nation.     By  Edward  McNulty.    Small  8vo.,  elegantly  bound,  3s.  6d. 

'  An  extremely  well- written  satire  of  the  possibilities  of  blarney  and  brag.' — Pall  Mall 
Gazette. 


20  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


STEPHEN   REMARX.     The  Story  of   a  Venture  in   Ethics. 

By  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  James  Adderley,  formerly  Head  of  the  Oxford 
House,  and  Christ  Church  Mission,  Bethnal  Green.  Twenty  Second 
Thousand.     Small  8vo.,  elegantly  bound,  3s.  6d.    Also  in  paper  cover,  is. 

'  Let  us  express  our  thankfulness  at  encountering  for  once  in  a  way  an  author  who  can 
amuse  us.' — Saturday  Review. 


HALF-A-CROWN  NOVELS. 

LOVE-LETTERS   OF  A  WORLDLY  WOMAN.     By  Mrs. 

W.  K.  Clifford,  Author  of  'Aunt  Anne,'   'Mrs.   Keith's  Crime,'    etc. 
One  vol.,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 

One  of  the  cleverest  books  that  ever  a  woman  wrote.  '—Queen. 


THAT  FIDDLER  FELLOW  :  A  Tale  of  St.  Andrew's.  By 
Horace  G.  Hutchinson,  Author  of  'My  Wife's  PoHtics,'  'Golf,' 
'  Creatures  of  Circumstance,'  etc.     Crown  8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 


COUNTRY  HOUSE— PASTIMES. 
EUacombe— IN   A  GLOUCESTERSHIRE   GARDEN.     By 

the  Rev.  H.  N.  Ellacombe,  Vicar  of  Bitton,  and  Honorary  Canon  of 
Bristol.  Author  of  '  Plant  Lore  and  Garden  Craft  of  Shakespeare. ' 
Crown  Svo. ,  cloth,  6s. 

'  The  book  may  be  warmly  recommended  to  all  who  love  gardens,  while  it  also  cannot 
fail  to  interest  even  the  horticulturally  unlearned.  It  is  written  in  a  style  that  is  clear, 
bright,  and  simple,  and  from  beginning  to  end  there  is  not  a  dull  or  wearisome  sentence.' 
. —  TAe  Guardian. 

'  Altogether  a  charming  book.' — M'est minster  Gazette. 


Hole— A  BOOK  ABOUT  THE  GARDEN  AND  THE 

GARDENER.     By  the  Very  Rev.  S.  Reynolds  Hole,  Dean  of  Rochester. 
Second  edition.     Crown  Svo.,  6s. 

Hole— A   BOOK   ABOUT    ROSES.     By  the  Very  Rev.  S. 

Reynolds    Hole   (Dean   of   Rochester).     Twentieth   thousand.     Crown 
Svo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  21 


Brown  —  PLEASURABLE    POULTRY  -  KEEPING.      By 

E.  Brown,  F.L.S.     Fully  illustrated.     One  vol,  crown  8vo. ,  cloth,  2S.  6d. 

'  Mr.  Brown  has  established  for  himself  a  unique  position  in  regard  to  this  subject,  and 
what  he  has  to  say  is  not  only  sound  counsel,  but  is  presented  in  a  very  readable  form.' — 
Nottingham  Daily  Guardian. 

Brown— POULTRY-KEEPING  AS  AN  INDUSTRY  FOR 

FARMERS  AND  COTTAGERS.     By  Edward  Brown.     Fully  illustrated. 
Second  edition.      Demy  4to. ,  cloth,  6s. 

Brown— INDUSTRIAL  POULTRY-KEEPING.  By  Edward 

Brown.       Illustrated.      Paper   boards,    is.      A   small    handbook   chiefly 
intended  for  cottagers  and  allotment-holders. 


Brown— POULTRY   FATTENING.     By  E.  Brown,  F.L.S. 

Fully  illustrated.     Crown  8vo.,  is.  6d. 

White— PLEASURABLE  BEE-KEEPING.  By  C.  N.  White, 

Lecturer  to  the  County  Councils  of  Huntingdon,  Cambridgeshire,  etc. 
Fully  illustrated.     One  vol.,  crown  8vo.,  cloth,  2s.  6d. 

'  A  complete  guide  for  the  amateur  bee-keeper,  as  clear  and  concise  as  such  a  guide  can 
be  made.' — Glasgow  Herald. 

Gossip— THE  CHESS  POCKET  MANUAL.     By  G.  H.  D. 

Gossip.  A  Pocket  Guide,  with  numerous  Specimen  Games  and  Illustra- 
tions.    Small  Svo. ,  2s.  6d. 

Cunningham— THE  DRAUGHTS  POCKET  MANUAL.   By 

J.  G.  Cunningham.  An  Introduction  to  the  Game  in  all  its  branches. 
Small  Svo. ,  with  numerous  diagrams,  2s.  6d. 

'  These  two  excellent  little  manuals  may  be  mentioned  together.  Both  will  be  found 
well  worth  study  by  those  who  are  interested  in  the  subjects  which  they  discuss.' — 
Spectator. 

Kenney-Herhert— COMMON-SENSE   COOKERY:    based 

on  Modern  English  and  Continental  Principles,  Worked  out  in  Detail. 
By  Colonel  A.  Kenney-Herbert  (' Wyvern').  Large  crown  8vo.,  over 
500  pp.,  7s.  6d. 

'  A  book  which  is  sure  to  have  a  large  circulation,  since  the  author,  the  well-known 
"  Wyvern,"  has  been  for  some  time  generally  accepted  as  perhaps  the  chief  English 
authority  on  the  art  of  cookery.' — Times. 


22  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 

Kenney-Herbert— FIFTY    BREAKFASTS  :    containing  a 

great  variety   of  New   and   Simple   Recipes   for    Breakfast   Dishes.      By 
Colonel  Kenney-Herbert  ('  Wyvern  ').     Small  8vo.,  2s.  6d. 

Kenney-Herbert— FIFTY  LUNCHES.  By  Colonel  Kenney- 

Herbert.     Small  8vo.,  cloth,  2S.  6d. 

Kenney-Herbert— FIFTY  DINNERS.  By  Colonel  Kenney- 

Herbert.     Small  8vo.,  cloth,  2S.  6d. 

Shorland— CYCLING  FOR  HEALTH  AND   PLEASURE. 

{See pa^e  c,.) 


SCIENCE  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 
Fawcett— THE    RIDDLE   OF  THE   UNIVERSE.     Being 

an  Attempt  to  determine  the  First  Principles  of  Metaphysics  considered  as 
an  Inquiry  into  the  Conditions  and  Import  of  Consciousness.  By  Edward 
Douglas  Fawcett.     One  vol. ,  demy  Svo. ,  14s. 

THE  JOURNAL   OF  MORPHOLOGY.    Edited  by  C.    O. 

Whitman,  Professor  of  Biology  in  Clark  University,  U.S.A.  Three 
numbers  in  a  volume  of  100  to  150  large  4to.  pages,  with  numerous  plates. 
Single  numbers,  17s.  6d. ;  subscription  to  the  volume  of  three  numbers, 
4SS.  Volumes  I.  to  X.  can  now  be  obtained,  and  the  first  number  of 
Volume  XI.  is  ready. 

'  Everyone  who  is  interested  in  the  kind  of  work  published  in  it  knows  it. 
It  is  taken  by  all  the  chief  libraries  of  colleges,  universities,  etc. ,  both  in  England 
and  the  Continent.'— Professor  Ray  Lankestek. 

'  Ih^  Journal  of  Morphology  is  too  well  known  and  appreciated  to  need  any 
praise  from  me.'— Professor  Michael  Foster. 

Morgan-ANIMAL    LIFE    AND    INTELLIGENCE.      By 

Professor  C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  F.G.S.,  Principal  of  University  College, 
Bristol.  With  40  Illustrations  and  a  Photo-etched  Frontispiece.  Second 
Edition.     Demy  Svo.,  cloth,  i6s. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  23 

MoPg-an— PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  TEACHERS.     By  Professor 

C.    Lloyd   Morgan,    F.G.S.,    Principal  of   University  College,   Bristol. 
Crown  8vo. ,  cloth,  3s.  6d.  net. 


Morg-an— THE    SPRINGS    OF    CONDUCT.     By  Professor 

C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  F.G.S.     Cheaper  Edition.     Large  crown  8vo.,  3s.  6d. 


ILLUSTRATED  GIFT  BOOKS,  ETC. 

For  further  particulars  of  books   under  this   heading   see 
special  Catalogue  of  Gift  Books  for  Presents  and  Prizes. 


WINCHESTER      COLLEGE.        Illustrated     by     Herbert 

Marshall.  With  Contributions  in  Prose  and  Verse  by  Old 
Wykehamists.  Demy  4to. ,  cloth,  25s.  net.  A  few  copies  of  the  first 
edition,  limited  to  1,000  copies,  are  still  to  be  had. 


GREAT    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS.      Eton  —  Harrow  —  Win 

CHESTER  —  Rugby — Westmlnster — Marlborough — Cheltenham — 
Haileybury  —  Clifton  —  Charterhouse.  With  nearly  a  Hundred 
Illustrations  by  the  best  artists.  One  vol.,  large  imperial  i6mo. ,  hand- 
somely bound,  63. 


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Very  Rev.  S.  R.  Hole,  Dean  of  Rochester).     With  nearly   forty  Illustra- 
tions  by  John  Leech,   including   the   famous   steel  Frontispiece  of  the 
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*»*  Only  a  few  copies  of  this  edition  now  remain. 


WILD  FLOWERS  IN  ART  AND  NATURE.      By  J.  C.  L. 

Sparkes,  Principal  of  the  National  Art  Training  School,  South  Kensing- 
ton, and  F.  W.  BuRBiDGE,  Curator  of  the  University  Botanical  Gardens, 
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handsoKiely  bound,  gilt  edges,  21s. 


24 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


PICTURES   OF  BIRDS.     For  the  Decoration  of  Home  and 

Schools. 

List  of  Coloured  Plates  : 


Blue  Tit. 

Thrusb. 

Cliaflincla. 


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Yellowhammer. 


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Blackbird. 

Sparrow. 


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Starling. 

Robin. 


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mounted  and  framed  together,  4s.  6d.  each. 

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and  School.      Twenty-one  Beautifully  Coloured  Plates,  issued  in  the  same 
style  and  at  the  same  prices  as  the  '  Birds.' 


Honeysuckle. 

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Convolvulus. 

Iris. 

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Hawthorn. 

Rose. 

Primrose 

Lychnis. 

Buttercup. 

Violet. 

Harebell. 

Heather. 

Daffodil. 

Daisy. 

Water-Lily. 

Anemone 

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Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  25 


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26  Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


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Illustrated,  square  8vo.,  2S.  5d. 

THE  CHILDREN'S  FAVOURITE  SERIES.      A  Charming 

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prizes.  The  utmost  care  has  been  taken  to  maintain  a  thoroughly  healthy 
tone  throughout  the  Series,  combined  with  entertaining  and  interesting 
reading.      Price  2s.  each;  or  gilt  edges,  is.  6d. 

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My  Book  of  Fables.  My  Story  Book  of  Animals. 

Deeds  of  Gold.  I  Rhymes  for  You  and  Me. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  27 

THE  INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES. 

FROEBEL'S  PEDAGOGICS  OF  THE  KINDERGARTEN  ;    or,  His  Ideas 

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Jena.     Crown  Svo.,  cloth,  4s.  6d. 

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28 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List. 


PERIODICALS. 

THE    NATIONAL    REVIEW, 

Edited  by  L.  J.  MAXSE. 
Price  Half-a-crown  monthly. 
Among  recent  contributors  to  the  Review  have  been  : 


H.  O.  Arnold-Forster,  M.P. 

Lord  Ashbourne. 

Alfred  Austin. 

Right  Hon  A.  J.  Balfour,  M.P. 

Miss  Balfour. 

Sir  David  Barbour,  K. C.S.I. 

A.  C.  Benson. 

Hon.  St.  John  Brodrick,  M.P. 

Right    Hon.     J.    Chamberlain, 

M.P. 
Admiral  Colomb. 
E.  T.  Cook. 
Rt.    Hon     Leonard    Courtney, 

M.P. 
Hon.  G.  N.  Curzon,  M.P. 
Sir    Mouritstuart    Grant  -  Duff, 

G.C.S.L 
Dr.  Symons  Ecdes. 
Violet  Fane. 
Lord  Farrer. 
Earl  Grey,  KG. 
George  Gissing. 
Lord  George  Hamilton,  M.P. 
Benjamin  Kidd. 
Rudyard  Kipling. 
James  W,  Lowther,  M.P. 


Sir  John  Lubbock,  Bart,  MP. 

Hon.  Alfred  Lyttelton. 

Hon.  Mrs.  Alfred  Lyttelton. 

The  late  Earl  of  Lytton. 

J.  A.  Fuller  Maitland. 

Admiral  Maxse. 

Sir    Herbert    Maxwell,    Bart., 

M.P. 
Mortimer  Menpes. 
George  Meredith. 
Sir  H.  Stafford  Northcote,  Bart., 

M.P. 
R.  H.  Inglis  Palgrave. 
Sir  Frederick  Pollock,  Bart. 
Stanley  Lane  Poole. 
T.  W.  Russell,  M.P. 
The  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  K.G. 
F.  C.  Selous. 
Leslie  Stephen. 
St.  Loe  Strachey. 
The  Earl  of  Suffolk. 
H.  D.  Traill. 
Sir     Richard    Webster, 

MP. 
Rev.  J.  E.  C.  Welldon. 
Viscount  Wolmer,  M.P. 


QC, 


London 


EDWARD    ARNOLD,   37   BEDFORD    ST.,   W.C. 
^ttblwhtr  to  the  inbia  (Dffic«. 


Mr.  Edward  Arnold's  List.  29 


THE    PHILOSOPHICAL    REVIEW. 

Edited  by  J.  G.  SCHURMAX, 
Professor  of   Philosophy  in  Cornell  University,  U.S.A. 

Six  Numbers  a  year.      Single  Numbers,  3s.  6d.  ;  Annual  Subscription,  14s. 
post  free.     The  first  number  was  issued  in  January,  1892. 

The  Review  ranges  over  the  whole  field  of  Philosophy  ;  the  articles  are 
signed,  and  the  contributors  include  the  names  of  the  foremost  philoso- 
phical teachers  and  writers  of  America,  and  many  of  those  of  England  and 
the  Continent  of  Europe. 


THE  JOURNAL  OF  MORPHOLOGY  ; 

A    Journal   of    Animal   Morphology,    devoted   principally   to   Embryological, 
Anatomical,  and  Histological  Subjects. 

Edited  by  C.  O.  WHITMAN,  Professor  of  Biology  in  Clark  University,  U.S.A. 

Three  numbers  in  a  volume  of  100  to  150  large  4to.  pages,  with  numerous 
plates.  Single  numbers,  17s.  6d.  ;  subscription  to  the  volume  of  three 
numbers,  45s.  Volumes  I.  to  X.  can  now  be  obtained,  and  the  first 
number  of  Volume  XI.  is  ready. 


PUBLICATIONS    OF    THE     INDIA    OFFICE 
AND  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  INDIA. 

Mr.  Edward  Arnold,  having  been  appointed  Publisher  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  India  in  Council,  has  now  on  sale  the 
above  publications  at  2>7  Bedford  Street,  Strand,  and  is  prepared 
to  supply  full  information  concerning  them  on  application. 

INDIAN   GOVERNMENT  MAPS. 

Any  of  the  ^laps  in  this  magnificent  series  can  now  be  obtained 
at  the  shortest  notice  from  Mr.  Edward  Arnold,  Publisher  to 
the  India  Office. 


5n^er  to  Hutbors. 


Adderlev. — Stephen  Remarx 
Aldrich. — Arctic  Alaska     . 
American  Game  Fishes 

Balfour.    —  Twelve     Hundred 

Miles  in  an  Ox-Waggon  . 
Bell,  Mrs. — Kleines  Haustheater 
Bell  (Rev.  Canon). — Sermons  . 
,,  Diana's  Looking  Glass 
,,  Poems  Old  and  New  . 
Benson. — Men  of  Might 
Blatchford.  —Tommy  Atkins  . 
Boyle. — Recollections  of  the  Dean 

of  Salisbury  .... 
Brown.   —  Works    on     Poultry 

Keeping  ....  9, 
Burbidge.  —  Wild  Flowers  in  Art 
Butler. — Select  Essays  of  Sainte 

Beuve         ..... 

Cherbuliez. — The  Tutor's  Secret 
Children's   Favourite  Series 
12, 
Children's  Hour  Series  .      11, 
Clifford. — Love-Letters     . 
Clowes.— Double  Emperor 
Collingwood. — Thorstein  . 
COLVILE.  —  Land     of     the     Nile 
Springs      ..... 
Cunningham.  —Draughts  Manual 
CUSTANCE.  — Riding  Recollections 

Dunmore.— Ormisdal  . 


14 


Ellacombe.  — 
shire  Garden 


In  a  Gloucester- 


Fawcett. — Hartmann  the  Anar- 
chist .         .         .  .         .         .26 

Favvcett.  — Riddle   of    the    Uni- 
verse .         .         .         .         .22 

Fa wcett.  — Secret  of  the  Desert  .   11 
Swallowed  by  an  Earth- 
quake   26 


Field.— Master  Magnus  .  .  n 
Ford.— On  the  Threshold  .  .  7 
Fowler.— Echoes  of  Old  County 

Life 14 

Freshfield.— Exploration  of  the 

Caucasus   .         .         .         .         .     c 


Gardner.— Friends     of     Olden 

Time 26 

Gaunt. — Dave's  Sweetheart         .  ig 
Goschen.— Cultivation   and    Use 

of  the  Imagination  .  .  .17 
Gossip.— Chess  Pocket  Manual  .  21 
Great  Public  Schools    .        .  17 


Hans  Andersen.— Snow  Queen.  24 
>>  Tales  from    .  24 

Hare.— Life  and  Letters  of  Maria 

Edgeworth         .         .         .         .14 
Harrison. — Early  Victorian  Lite- 
rature        .         .         .         .         .6 
Hervev.  — Eric  the  Archer  .         .   10 
Reef  of  Gold        .         .   25 
HiGGiNS. — New    Guide    to    the 

Pacific^Coast    .         .         .         .13 
Hole.  —  Addresses    to   Working 

Men 

Hole.— Book  about  Roses  . 

Book  about  the  Garden  . 

Little  Tour  in  America  . 

,,         Little  Tour  in  Ireland     . 

,,         Memories 

,,         More  Memories 

Hutchinson.  —  That        Fiddler 

Fellow        ..... 


17 


3 
13 
IS 
15 


India  Office  Publications 

International     Education 

Series      .... 


29 


27 


Johnston.  —  Joel  ; 
Galilee       . 


a     Boy     of 


Index  to  Authors. 


31 


Kay. — Omarah's  Yaman       .         .   15 

Kenney-Herbert.— Fifty  Break- 
fasts   22 

Kenney-Hereert.  —  Fifty  Din- 
ners -        .         .         ■         •         -9 

Kenney-Herbert.  —  Fifty 
Lunches     .         .         .         .         -9 

Kenney-Herbert.  —  Common- 
sense  Cookery  .         .         .21 

Knight-Bruce.  —  Memories  of 
Mashonaland     ...         .3 

Knox.— Hunters  Three        .         .   10 

Knutsford.  —  Mystery  of  the 
Rue  Soly 19 

Lang.  —  Lambs  Adventures  of 
Ulysses 18 

Lecky. — Political  Value  of  His- 
tory     15 

Le  Fanu. — Seventy  Years  of  Irish 
Life IS 

Leffingwell.  —  Art  of  Wing- 
Shooting    13 

Legh. — How  Dick  and  Molly 
went  round  the  World  .   10 

Legh. — My  Dog  Plato         .  12 

Mathews.  —  Dr.    Gilbert's 

Daughters          .  .   10 

Maud. — Wagner's  Heroes    .  .     8 

McNulty. — Misther  O'Ryan  .   19 

MiLNER. — England  in  Egypt  .   15 

Morgan. — Animal  Life       .  .  22 

,,        Animal  Sketches    .  .  26 

,,        Psychology  for  Teachers  23 

, ,        Springs  of  Conduct  .  23 

Morpeth.  —  Lord    Carlisle's 

Diaries       ...         .  .     4 

Morphology,  Journal  of  .  22 

Morrison. — Life's  Prescription  .     8 

MuNROE. — Fur  Seal's  Tooth  .   10 

Nash. — Barerork  .         .        .  c^ 


VAGf. 

National  Review     .        .        .28 

Oman. —History  of  England         .    16 

Philosophical  Review  .  .  29 
Pictures  of  Birds  .  .  .24 
Pope. — Memoirs  of  Sir  John  Mac- 

donald  .  .  .  .  .15 
Portal.  —  British     Mission     to 

Uganda     .        .         .         .        .13 
Portal. — My   Mission   to  Abys- 
sinia .         .         .         .         .13 
Pulitzer.  —  Romance  of  Prince 
Eugene      .         .         .         .         .6 

Raleigh. — Robert  Louis  Steven- 
son      7 

Ransome. — Battles   of    Frederick 

the  Great 16 

Raymo.vd. — Mushroom  Cave       .  11 

RoDD. — Works  by  Rennel  Rodd  .  18 

Sampson.  — Strength  .  .  .9 
S.\ntley. — Student  and  Singer  .  16 
Sherard. — Alphonse  Daudet  .  14 
Shields. — Camping    and    Camp 

Outfits 13 

Shields.— American  Book  of  the 

Dog 14 

Shorland. — Cycling  for  Health 

and  Pleasure  ...  .9 
Sichel — The  Story  of  Two  Salons  6 
Slatin.— Fire  and  Sword  in  the 

Sudan         .         .         .         .         .2 

Tatham. — Men  of  Might  .  .  14 
Thomas. — Sweden  and  the  Swedes  14 
Tollemache. — Benjamin  Jowett  7 
Twining. — Recollections  of  Life 

and  AV'ork  .         .         .         .16 

White. — Pleasurable  Bee-Keeping  21 
Wild    Flowers    in    Art    and 

Nature 23 

Wild  Flower  Pictures  .  .  24 
Winchester  College       .        .  18 


32  Mr.  Edward   Arnold's  List 


The  following  Catalogues  of  Mr.  Edward  Arnold'' s  Publica- 
tions tvill  be  sent  post  free  on  application  : 

CATALOGUE    OF    WORKS    OF    GENERAL 
LITERATURE. 

GENERAL    CATALOGUE    OF    EDUCATIONAL 
WORKS, 

Including  the  principal  Publications  of  Messrs.  Ginn  and  Company,  Educa- 
tional Publishers,  of  Boston  and  New  York,  and  Messrs.  E.  L.  Kellogg 
and  Company,  of  New  York. 

CATALOGUE   OF    WORKS    FOR    USE    IN 
ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 

With  Specimen  Pages. 

ILLUSTRATED    LIST    OF    BOOKS    FOR 
PRESENTS  AND   PRIZES. 

CATALOGUE    OF    INDIA    OFFICE 
PUBLICATIONS. 

CATALOGUE    OF    INDIA    OFFICE    MAPS. 

Price  6d. 

LIST    OF    AMERICAN     PERIODICALS    WITH 
SUBSCRIPTION    RATES. 

AMERICAN  BOOKS.  — The  importation  of  all  American 
Books,  Periodicals,  and  Neitispapers  is  conducted  by  a  special 
depart?ne7it,  with  accuracy  and  despatch,  and  full  information 
can  be  obtained  on  application. 

London  :  EDWARD  ARNOLD,  37  BEDFORD  .STREET,  STRAND. 
J3ttblishcr  to  tlic  Eiit^in  (DfKcr. 


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