6 THROUGH GASA LAND. 



otherwise I do not believe we should ever have left 

 Lorenzo Marquez by the land route. At that time 

 no domestic animal of any description could come 

 down from the Transvaal to Delgoa Bay, for the 

 simple reason that the intervening country between 

 the two swarmed with tetze fly, an insect whose bite 

 is alike deadly to horse, ox, dog, or donkey, the wild 

 game and man alone appearing impervious to iis 

 attacks. The country between the coast and the 

 so-called South African Republic then swarmed with 

 buffalo, in the dung of which, these pests of the 

 explorer and hunter bred. The Portuguese call this 

 insect the elephant fly, supposing it was produced in 

 the ordure of the elephant ; this is now well known 

 to be a mistake. 



The labour we encountered for the first ten 

 days' tramp, with the exposure and scantiness of 

 provisions we suffered from, was enough to break 

 the hearts of any human beings but Zulus. They 

 had their loads of about forty pounds each, led the 

 way all day, made our night fires, ate with gratitude 

 what food we could spare them, and slept with a 

 single and very sieve-like blanket alone around them, 

 but never a murmur escaped their lips. Truly they 

 are a grand race, far, far superior to any indigenous 

 people I ever met. 



Hitherto we had been following native or wild 

 beast paths through a tropical forest or intricate 

 marshy river beds ; now we struck the edges of spurs 



