300 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



They have no military drill or training, no shoot- 

 ing instruction. Riding post employs a small 

 number of police, but, with this exception, while I 

 was in the country, I was wondering what this 

 most costly force had done, what it was doing, or 

 what it was going to do. It is true that some 

 thirty of the company's police rendered a great 

 service in routing the Portuguese near Massikessi, 

 but the spasmodic energy of a few does not excuse 

 the normal sluggishness and uselessness of the 

 many. Formed of much the same material as 

 the Bechuanaland Border Police, this force in 

 proper hands would have been actively and bene- 

 ficially employed on public works all over 

 Mashonaland, but I am constrained to remark that 

 the contrast between the police force of the 

 Chartered Company and the Bechuanaland Border 

 Police is startling and deplorable, the latter being 

 as smart, as efficient, and as thoroughly to be de- 

 pended upon as the former is the reverse. The 

 company have wisely reduced their police from a 

 strength of upwards of six hundred to one of about 

 three hundred men. If they persevere in this 

 policy and abolish the whole force, their financial 

 resources will be largely added to, and no one in 

 Mashonaland one whit the worse. ^ 



We reached Fort Victoria after many naiTow 

 escapes from smash and overset, at midday on the 

 26th October. The Aveather had become very un- 

 settled. On one night the horizon all round was 



^ The police force has recently been almost entirely 

 aLolished. 



