202 AlEN, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



Fort Victoria appeared to be miserably weak con- 

 structioiis, wbicli a few thousand Matabele would 

 probably rush with ease, attacking, as is their 

 habit, in the dark just before daybreak. There is 

 nothing to stop the rush of the savage foe, save a 

 ditch from 3 to 4 feet deep, a mound from 10 to 

 12 feet hio-h from the bottom of the ditch, and 

 two or three strands of barbed wire stretched on 

 weak posts. I thought that something in the 

 nature of clievaux de frise — something in the 

 nature of wire entanglements, would be advan- 

 tageous and easy of construction, but I was assured 

 that such ideas were quite wrong and foolish. The 

 oflSlcers of the police evidently disdain the Matabele, 

 and have perfect confidence in their Martini- 

 Henry rifles and their jMaxim gun. I hope they 

 are right, but the African savage has often proved 

 himself to be no contemptible foe, even against arms 

 of precision. The precaution of sinking a well 

 either within or close by the fort has been taken 

 neither here nor at Victoria, nor at Fort Salisbury. 

 Surely this neglect is imprudent. The garrisibn 

 of Fort Charter consisted of a lieutenant and 

 twelve troopers, of whom ten were sick with 

 various ailments. The medical arrangements for 

 the health of the Company's force appeared to be 

 altogether inadequate. There was no doctor either 

 at Fort Tuli, where there are upwards of a 

 hundred men all told, or at Fort Victoria, where 

 there are nearly seventy, or at Fort Charter. 

 Hospital orderlies have to do duty as doctors. For 

 three months during last rainy season a force of 



