3i6 Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. 



too highly of this force. Xo drinking, no idleness, 

 no slovenliness can be detected ; in this lonely 

 spot, fiir away from civilization, day after day, 

 throughout the long year, the members of this 

 force manage to occupy all their time and to keep 

 themselves in an irreproachable condition of 

 efficiency and smartness. ]^o duty or errand is 

 repugnant to the Bechuanaland Border Police. A 

 j)rivatc will start off to ride two or three hundred 

 miles through the bush with nothing' but a haver- 

 sack containing biscuit tea and coffee, and a small 

 patrol tin. So the whole force Avould march, if 

 necessary, Avithout tents, baggage or impedimenta 

 of any sort or kind. A wonderful esprit de corps 

 animates them. Two of the officers had just re- 

 turned when I arrived, from a ten days' prowl all 

 by themselves right into Lobengula's country, 

 entered upon 23artly for survey ^^urposes, partly 

 for the obtaining of information : a service by no 

 means devoid of peril performed in the most 

 light-hearted but effectual manner. Here we 

 tarried a night and a day, lodged in comfort- 

 able huts and cheered by the comparative luxury 

 of a well-kept mess. Major Gould Adams, the 

 commanding officer, was in hospital, recovering, 

 we were happy to learn, from a serious and pro- 

 tracted attack of fever, contracted proljably when 

 guarding the drifts of the Limpopo against the 

 Boer trekkers. Captain Sitwell displayed the 

 efficiency of his force in a field-day performance 

 specially ordered for our benefit and instruction. 

 Some two hundred and fifty men, mounted on small 



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