124 



CAPE COLONY AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



the center of each kraal is the arsenal in which 

 are kept the assegais and war shields of the 

 regiment. The members of the regiment are 

 always on the spot ready for the call to arms, 

 except in the case of some regiments that have 



A MATABELK LADY. 



grown small from losses or from age, which are 

 brought up to their normal strength by drafts 

 of young men who remain inhabitants of other 

 kraals. The vigilant chief of this military or- 

 ganization is King Lobengula, who is an abso- 

 lute monarch, exercising power of life and death 

 over all his subjects, the fountain of justice, 

 power, and honor. He is said to be a man of 

 intellectual force, enlightened and progressive, a 

 capable organizer and administrator, a cunning 

 diplomatist, and an incessant worker, keeping 

 all the affairs of his little kingdom well in hand. 

 He is about sixty years old, a man of huge 

 frame, dignified and agreeable in manners. Some 

 say that his disposition is mild and his policy one 

 of peaceful progress toward civilization. His 

 liking for white men has long been a notable 

 trait in his character, which was exhibited in his 

 admission of the English to Mashonaland, where 

 his people would come into a contact with the 

 whites free from subjection. Some, however, 

 represent Lobengula as false and bloodthirsty, 

 and it is said that, like other Zulu tyrants, he 

 has maintained himself in power by ruthlessly 

 putting to death most of his near relatives. Con- 

 flicting accounts have been given of the char- 

 acter of the Matabele as a people. Their history 

 shows them to be a tribe of robbers and slave 

 hunters, whose chief occupation was making 

 raids, sometimes beyond the Zambesi, and kill- 

 ing the young men, carrying off the women and 



children, and driving away the cattle of other 

 tribes, or imposing upon them a regular tribute. 

 The Mashonas, who are not much skilled in war 

 and have no king nor military organization, but 

 are industrious producers and possess remarka- 

 ble facility in mechanical work, were subjugated 

 and enslaved by the Matabele. But when the 

 Matabele tyrant gave the English permission to 

 settle in Mashonaland, his people could no longer 

 expect to live on the labor of these people or 

 continue long their predatory customs. The 

 promoters of the South Africa Company hoped 

 that they would learn to depend on the abun- 

 dant resources of their country, composed of 

 grassy plains where immense herds of fine cattle 

 range, all the absolute property of the king, and 

 in which millet is grown with little labor, though 

 only to be converted into the native beer, all of 

 which must be delivered up to the king. While 

 some who knew these people believed them capa- 

 ble of and ripe for peaceful development, like 

 the Basutos or Bechuanas, others depicted them 

 as incorrigible savages, unable to live without 

 bloodshed, and even given to cannibalism. 

 When a new regiment is formed Matabele law 

 forbids the young men of the kraal to marry 

 until they have won from the king the Zulu ring 

 by washing their spears in blood and thus 

 proving themselves men. The company had 

 built plenty of strong places and provided an 

 abundance of improved arms and perfected a 

 militia organization, in order to be ready not 

 merely for an outbreak of the young men of the 

 royal guard, whose turbulence was with diffi- 

 culty restrained by Lobengula, or an incursion 

 of a young regiment ambitious to prove their 

 title to the estate of warriors, but for a war with 

 the whole military force of Lobengula, number- 

 ing at least 20,000, perhaps 25,000 trained men 

 under thorough discipline. 



Lobengula's change of attitude after the ar- 

 rival of the expeditionary force caused the offi- 

 cers of the company to redouble their military 

 precautions, and acted as a serious check upon 

 the enterprise. He denied that he had granted 

 the right to settle, or conveyed a title to any 

 land, or abandoned h'is sovereign rights over 

 Mashonaland and its people, and repudiated the 

 treaty and concessions as construed by them by 

 sending back the 10,000 rifles, and renounced the 

 allowance of 100 a month which he received as a 

 consideration. He had taken this position when 

 the whites first entered Mashonaland, and there 

 was indeed nothing in the treaty that gave the 

 South Africa Company the right to rule in the 

 country or to occupy and convey land, though 

 such right was conceded in the royal charter. 

 Against his protest, and with a display of mili- 

 tary force, they had taken possession of the 

 country, and made use of the labor of the Ma- 

 shonas^ who had previously toiled under the 

 Matabele yoke. Lobengula dreaded to engage 

 in an armed conflict with the British, and did 

 his best to restrain the rage of the young fight- 

 ing men. At length their impatience at his 

 dilatory policy rose to such a pitch that he was 

 compelled to put the question to a test whether 

 he had resigned his sovereign rights over the 

 Mashonas if he would remian King of the Mata- 

 bele. Outside of the districts claimed by the 

 British as their territory, the Matabele were suf- 



