FROM TETE TO FORT JAMESON. ^9 



I saw a bull hartebeest standing among the trees. As we were all meat hungry, 

 I determined to shoot him, so I tried to get closer. 



He saw me, however, and ran off; so I got on the spoor and followed him. As he 

 was not much scared he let me get within a couple of hundred yards, so I tried a shot 

 just as he was starting off again and was lucky enough to hit him hard. The poor 

 animal struggled on, but I ran into him and killed him with another bullet. We then 

 cut him up and, the meat being equally distributed among the different loads, went on. 

 Next day, hearing water was very scarce along the main path to Fort Jameson, 

 I branched off to the eastward by a native path and reached the Chiritse stream. 

 Once while on a shooting trip to the north-east, I had reached the headwaters of this 

 pretty stream, where it flows out of some rough hills. 



On the following day I saw a herd of impala, but I could not get near enough 

 for a good shot, and the bullet I fired missed the mark. I always arrange the day's 

 march as follows : Before sunrise I am called, and have a cup of tea or two and a 

 little food ; then the tent comes down and is rolled up, each carrier taking off his 

 load and tying on his own impedimenta, which usually consists of a mat and perhaps 

 a cooking-pot, and a few cobs of chimanga (maize), or a leather bag with ufa (flour). 



I march ahead so as not to miss a chance at game, and keep going for two or 

 three hours until I come to water, or, if none is found, I use some of what I always 

 carry in bottles or in a canvas water-bag. I rest for about an hour and have 

 tea, and make a better meal than I do early in the morning. Sometimes the 

 men cook their nsima (porridge) or eat some they have cooked the night before. 



This rest does us all good, and we get on until about midday, when the distance 

 covered will be from eighteen to twenty-five miles, if the start has been made 

 very early. 



The heat was so great that I sometimes did night marches by moonlight, or 

 started about 3 a.m. However, the path was often so rough and difficult to see in 

 the shade of the trees that I preferred starting about 5 a.m., for marching at night 

 cuts the carriers' feet about, and one is very apt to sprain an ankle stumbling along 

 in the semi-darkness. As there is nothing much to do in the evenings, one is 

 generally in bed by 8 p.m. The day's march is tiring, and it is easy to sleep through 

 the night, unless awakened by the cries of some nocturnal animal which has smelt 

 out the meat and paid a call. The 25th saw me as far as the Ruio stream, and I 

 shot a warthog on the morning of that day, and missed another which I ought to 

 have also bagged. 



The Ruio was only in pools, which were full of mudfish. I had caught some of 

 these in the Chiritse, and the pools here were full of them, so I got out a hook and 



