A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



Serenje, and considerably increase the length of our 

 journey. 



The rainy season was upon us. The rains might 

 commence any day, and the effect they would have 

 on our progress was an unknown quantity, de- 

 pendent entirely on the intensity with which they 

 would break. We now realized to the full the 

 mistake we had made in engaging our passages 

 from Beira in advance. Had we not done so, our 

 difficulties would have been light. It was now, 

 unfortunately, too late to remedy the error, and 

 the best must be made of the situation. 



Then, again, we hoped to combine sport with 

 travel. After crossing the Wulangulu Hills, North- 

 West Rhodesia would be entered, and here all 

 shooting must cease, unless we were prepared to 

 pay another /^^o licence on arrival at Broken Hill. 



For sport, therefore, there remained at the most 

 eighteen days, and the best shooting was likely to 

 be obtained in the first eight days. 



The name of Rhodesia was of course well known 

 to us as representing the great territory that Mr. 

 Rhodes' energy and genius had added to the 

 Empire. It was only on arrival at Fort Jameson, 

 however, that we learned the name did not, as 

 we supposed, represent a territory sub-divided into 

 provinces, the whole being under one central 

 administration, but that it embraced three inde- 

 pendent states, each with their separate systems 

 of administration, customs, and licences. That we 

 did not know all this was doubtless crass ignorance 

 on our part — we plead guilty to it. The news, 



172 



