28o Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



whose opinion a certain amount of reliance can be 

 jDlaced liave sent in promising reports, Xot such 

 reports as woukl justify the assumption that im- 

 portant gokl discoveries have been made, but 

 which seem to demand the thorough and elaborate 

 prospecting of those districts. From Fort Victoria 

 more important news arrived. Two or three 

 large and promising reefs were discovered by 

 ]3rospectors known to be experienced, whose good 

 opinion of their discoveries had been confirmed by 

 a liigh authority. Personally I attributed so much 

 importance to this latest find that I altered m}' 

 plans for the return journey to the coast. Instead 

 of travelling to Manica, inspecting the gold-fields 

 there, and thence to Beira, it became my intention 

 to 23roceed at once to Fort Victoria, and to reach 

 Cape Colony by the route through Bechuanaland. 

 This plan prevented me from seeing the Manica 

 district, in many -s^'ays so interesting, the raiin' 

 season being within measurable distance and the 

 journey long. I the less regretted this for the 

 reason that at that time no very good reports of 

 the Manica district had arrived, nor had any good 

 specimens of quartz been brought in. In the face 

 of unfavourable expert opinion of the uncertainty 

 as to the existence of any important gold-field, I 

 clung to the idea that the country would yet reward 

 its possessors and its earlier settlers. On this 

 opinion, or fancy, as some would call it, I acted. 

 Unable to remain in Mashonaland through the 

 rainy season until next year, I established 

 Captain Williams and Mr. Mackay at Fort Salis- 



