CHAPTER XVI 



Scarcity of Game and Provisions — Reach Sitanda's Kraal — Mosquitoes 

 — Lukanga River — Lechwe Antelopes — Fever — Dismal Prospects 

 — Arrival of Canyemba — Buy a Kafir — Start for the Zambesi — 

 — Reach Mendonc^a's Island — Start for the Matabele Country — 

 Inyoga — Reach Inyati. 



January i, 1878. — Went on westwards for about 

 twenty miles, and slept on a little rivulet called 

 Calolo, running towards the Katukwe. Shot a reed- 

 buck in the evening. There are several kraals about 

 here, but we could not buy any corn, so that the 

 people must be badly off for food this season. These 

 Manica people are a miserable lot, unacquainted 

 with several simple arts known to all other Kafirs 

 and Bushmen that 1 have ever seen — such, for in- 

 stance, as dressing skins. Either through laziness or 

 stupidity, they are unable to make any use of a skin 

 larger than that of an antelope of the smallest species, 

 or a wild cat. The scanty clothing of both sexes 

 consists of pieces of the inside bark of the machabel 

 tree sewn together. They also make blankets of a 

 considerable size of the same material. The Manica 

 men all carry bows and arrows, the latter said to be 

 poisoned. 



January 2nd. — Walked on to the little river 

 Kemba in the morning, a stretch of about fifteen miles. 

 Although so much rain had fallen lately, there is no 



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