g6 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ON THE ROAD TO :\IASHONALAND. 



The Chartered Company's Station at Fort Tuli — Mining in the 

 Zoutspunburg District — The Progress of the " Spider " — 

 Our first cooking efforts — Hints for sportsmen — Sixty 

 miles Avithout water — A glimpse of Fairyland — We meet 

 Major Sapte and Mr. Victor Morier — Meeting with 

 Captain Laurie at Rhode's Drift — The Bechuanaland 

 Border Police — A " Boer trek " — President Kruger's posi- 

 tion — Sir Frederick Carrington and the B.S.A.C. Co.'s 

 police — Experiment with the new magazine RiHe. 



" There is Fort Tuli." Sacli were the welcome 

 words uttered by Captain Laurie, of the Bechu- 

 aualand Border Police, ^vho was riding with me 

 on the morning of Sunday, the 12th of July. I 

 looked up and found that a sudden turn of the 

 road descending to the Tuli River disclosed an emi- 

 nence about 300 feet hio-h, somewhat resemblino- in 

 miniature the Hog's Back at Aldershot, surmounted 

 by a group of white tents over which floated in the 

 breeze the British flag. Early in March, 1891, I 

 was in the AVestminster Palace Hotel, talking over 

 with 'My. Cecil Rhodes the journey to South 

 Africa which I then contemplated. " There is Fort 

 Tuli," he said, " the first station of the Chartered 

 Company," pointing to a spot on the map before 

 him, and drawing a straight line in pencil fi'om 

 Pretoria to Tuli. He added, "And that is the 



