The Wealth oe Mashoxalaxd. 



1/5 



CHAPTER XII. 



DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL ON THE VELDT. 



The wealth of MashonalanJ — We make a speedy trek and 

 overtake our Avaggons — Further losses by horse sickness — 

 Stuck fast in Wanetse River — The Sugar Loaf and other 

 miniature mountains — A pestilential spot on the Lundi 

 Ri^■el• banks — A word of warning — Viandt, the Boer 

 ostrich hunter — -We rerch Fern Spruit — -Death of my 

 shooting pony "Charlie" — A veldt fire— A day of dis- 

 comfort and disaster — Providence Gorge — Description of 

 Fort Victoria — Great loss of horses — Advice to intending 

 emigrants. 



The wealth of Maslioiialand may l^e great even 

 beyond all that wild rnmour has asserted, but if it 

 is to be made a^'ailable for mankind, another route 

 thereto will have to be established than that which 

 I travelled o^'er. Not only does the length of the 

 overland road from the south, some thousand 

 miles or more, present dilficulty to the traveller 

 or the merchant, but the character of the countrv 

 traversed, its geological formation in parts, its 

 climatic and hvo'ienic conditions elsewhere, oiFer 

 insuperable obstacles to any successful commercial 

 enterprise into this region, conducted from the 

 base of Cape Colony or of the Transvaal. These 

 propositions the mere narrative of my journey 

 will, I think, adequately support. Our camp on 

 the Bubjane River was struck at daybreak on the 

 29th of July. An arduous trek through the bush 

 back to the road lay before us ; many difficult 

 spruits had to be traversed ; many long circuits 



