Making a Clean Breast of it. 269 



we see England again. The choice of route also 

 perplexes ; whether to retread the weary and 

 monotonous 2:>ath to Victoria and Tuli, or whether 

 to attempt to reach the coast vw the Pungwe, 

 hraving the " fly," the fever, and the discomfort of 

 being deprived of all wheeled vehicles, furnishes 

 matter for frequent and anxious deliberation. The 

 gold district of Manica has still to l^e visited, 

 but exjDectation is lowered and hope no longer 

 glows. For now I arrive at the most unsatis- 

 factory portion of my narrative, and have to make 

 a melancholy and mortifying confession. 



In the earlier pages of this book I more 

 than once wrote about the wealth and fertility 

 of Mashonaland as of a fact about which there 

 could be neither doubt nor question. An ex- 

 traordinary concurrence of opinion on the part 

 of many travellers, confirmed largely by his- 

 torical record and by the traditions of gene- 

 rations, altogether misled me. But the truth 

 has to be told. jMashonaland, so far as is at 

 present known, and much is known, is neither an 

 Arcadia nor an El Dorado. The discovery that 

 the Mazoe river gold district Avas a disappointment, 

 and that no expectations of fortune could be 

 derived from it, was borne with comparative 

 equanimity, for all were assured, those who had 

 been resident in the country for some time and 

 those who had recently arrived, that the mineral 

 wealth in the district of Hartley Hill would more 

 than compensate for the deficiencies of Mazoe. It 

 seemed impossible that such a mass of apparently 



