Thf Gold-fields. 209 



land is a gold-producing country or not. Even if 

 it turns out to be a country possessing gold 

 deposits, the payable character of these depends 

 entirely u])on ^vhether cheap and easy access to 

 them can be gained. Xothing can be more un- 

 certain than the character of the Pungwe lli\'e]' 

 route. Accounts are most conflicting, some 

 persons asserting that this I'oute is quite imprac- 

 ticable, others that it is extraordinarily easy. 

 But eyen if the latter assertion be true, nenrly 500 

 miles of land transit will embarrass the Avorking of 

 the mines near Hartley Hill. So well aware of 

 this serious fact were the officials of the Company 

 that Sir John Willoughby was commissioned to 

 form a sjoecial expedition to discoyer, first, whether 

 a road can be made from the Hartley Hill district 

 to Zumbo on the Zambesi, a distance of about one 

 hundred and sixty miles, and secondly, to ascertain 

 whether the Zambesi is nayigable between Zumbo 

 and Tette. In my opinion, at the present time all 

 that can be said of ]\Iashonaland from a minino' 

 point of yiew is that the odds are oyerwhelmingiy 

 against the making of any i-apid or large fortune 

 by any indiyidual. 



The mule Ayaggon arriyed safely at Fort 

 Salisbury late on the eyening of the 16th, the 

 mules being harassed and exhausted. Mr. Henry 

 C. Perkins, the mining expert, Avho accompanied 

 me, was desirous of proceeding at once to the 

 Mazoe Eiyer district, Avhither had repaired a 

 few days preyiously Mr. Alfred Beit and ■Mr. 

 Rolker, the mining expert sent out b\' the 



p 



