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I COMMENCED my African ramblings in 1871. At that time the facilities for reaching the interior from the Cape Colony were very different from those which are now available, as there was only one short line of railway from Cape Town to the village of Wellington in existence in the whole country.

Landing at Algoa Bay on September 4th, I at once proceeded to the Diamond Fields by bullock waggon, a journey which occupied two months. At that time neither diamonds nor gold had any charm for me, as my only desire was to get away into the far interior; but as I found that it would be inadvisable to start on such a journey until the rainy season was over, I bought a waggon and oxen, and spent the intervening time in a trading trip through Griqualand, and down the northern bank of the Orange River as far as the country of Klas Lucas, a Namaqua or Koranna chief.

In April, 1872, accompanied by two young men of about my own. age, Messrs. Dorehill and Sadleir, I set out for Matabeleland. We had one waggon and span of oxen between us, and, as our money had run short, were rather badly fitted out for a long journey in the way of stores and trading goods. However, we had heard that elephants were plentiful in Matabeleland, and, being young and hopeful, we thought that everything would come right when we got amongst the tuskers, as indeed it did. The route we followed was the old trade road which skirts the eastern edge of the Kalahari desert, passing through Kuruman and Molepololi, and from thence to Shoshong, in the country of the Bamangwato, who were then ruled over by Machin. This chief was as much disliked by the traders living in his country as the present

*Read at the Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, February 13th, 1893. Map, p. 384. No. IV.-APRIL, 1893.]

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ruler, Khama, is honoured and respected. At Sechele's town (Molepololi) we had met Mr. Frank Mandy, who was also on his way to Matabeleland, and who, having been there before, was personally acquainted with Lo Bengula and his people; and we all travelled together as far as Bulawayo, which we at length reached in the end of August.

*

As Lo Bengula has of late years become such a well-known personality in Zambesia, and may become much better known in the near future, I may perhaps be pardoned for quoting the account I wrote of my first interview with him, now more than twenty years ago :—

"We found that owing to the scarcity of grass for cattle near the chief town, Lo Bengula had trekked away and built a temporary kraal near Amachi Mashlopay (white stones); so we too trekked straight across the country to where he was, getting there towards evening. Here we found Mr. G. A. Phillips, who had already been eight years in the country, trading and hunting, and he kindly gave us a goat to slaughter. The following morning Lo Bengula, king of the powerful tribe of the Matabele (or Amandebele, as they should be called), came down to our waggons. He is a man standing about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches, strongly and stoutly built, and even at that date was growing very fat. He was then dressed in a greasy shirt and dirty pair of trousers; but I am happy to say that he soon afterwards discarded European clothing, and now always appears in his own native dress, in which he looks what he is the chief of a savage and barbarous people. After saying a few words to Mandy, whom he knew, and seemed pleased to see again, he asked who was the owner of the other waggon, and being told by Mr. Phillips, who acted as interpreter, that I was, he asked me what I had come to do. I said I had come to hunt elephants, upon which he burst out laughing, and said, 'Was it not steinbucks' (a diminutive species of antelope) that you came to hunt? Why, you're only a boy!' I replied that, although a boy, I nevertheless wished to hunt elephants, and asked his permission to do so, upon which he made some further disparaging remarks regarding my youthful appearance, and then rose to go without giving me any answer. He was attended by about fifty natives, who had all been squatting on the ground in a semicircle during the interview, but all of whom, immediately he rose to go, cried out 'How! how!' in a tone of intense surprise, as if some lovely apparition had burst upon their view; then, as he passed, they followed, crouching down, and crying out, 'Oh, thou prince of princes! thou black one! thou calf of the black cow! thou black elephant!"" etc., etc.

Finally Lo Bengula gave me permission to go and hunt wherever I pleased, as I was only a boy, and I took to the life so kindly that for

*The correct pronunciation is Lo Beng-úla, not "Ben-gula," as is common.

three years I remained in Zambesia, without ever experiencing the slightest desire to exchange my free wild life for the comforts and restraints of civilisation. During that period I travelled over a great deal of country; but, being always engaged in elephant hunting, which occupied all my time and attention, I am sorry to say that I did no surveying work whatever. The rainy seasons I spent in Matabeleland, not remaining in one place, but travelling about the country trading with the natives. In this way, during the rainy season of 1873, and again in 1874, I travelled all over the splendidly-watered plateau, in which the Nwanetsi, Lundi, and Tukwi Rivers take their rise, and went as far south as the junction of the Ingesi and Lundi Rivers not far from Mount Bufwa. Unfortunately, as I have said above, I made no sketch maps of these journeys; but they were not altogether useless, as it was my remembrance of the way in which George Wood and myself piloted our waggon through this country which enabled me sixteen years later to undertake, with an easy conscience, to guide the British South Africa Company's Pioneer Expedition to Mashonaland through this same country in 1890.

During the dry seasons-from May till November-of these three years, I travelled and hunted always on foot, with a few native carriers, all over the country between Matabeleland and the Zambesi, as far eastwards as the Sanyati River, and westwards to the Victoria Falls, and up the Chobe or Kwando River as far as the Sunta outlet.

In 1874 I found a lot of Masubias, refugees from the tyranny of Sipopo, chief of the Barotsi tribe, living on islands in the marshes of the Chobe, and in a very miserable condition, as, having fled from their homes without being able to carry any food with them, they were reduced to all kinds of shifts to save themselves from starvation. I found them living principally upon fish and a kind of meal made by pounding up the dried roots of a water plant. They were also eating a kind of food which looked exactly like sawdust. This, I-found, was made from the roots of the palm tree, which are first roasted under the ashes of a fire and then hammered, when this substance falls out between the fibres. They said it was very good, and I took their word for it, but did not try it. I became very friendly with these people, and spent some months amongst them; and as during that time I shot twenty-four elephants, besides other large animals, every ounce of every one of which they used as food, I think I may say that I was a welcome visitor. I was the first white man any of the women and children had ever seen, though some of the men said they had seen Dr. Livingstone in Sekeletu's time. It was during the dry season of 1874 that I first noticed that the waters of the Chobe were rising instead of falling, although every day the weather was getting hotter and hotter. I noticed this phenomenon more carefully in subsequent years, and will refer to it later on.

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