XV 



A HOUGH JOURNEY 

 1891 



THE following is a sketch of a journey of about 900 miles 

 from Bulawayo, Lobengula's capital in Matabeleland, to 

 Kimberley, made early in February, in the above year. It was 

 during the wet season, and although the country looked its best, 

 the roads were very bad, the rivers treacherous, and, above all, the 

 terrible horse-sickness at its worst. We left Bulawayo with our 

 wagon drawn by six mules, all that remained, while my com- 

 panion and I rode horses, though not for long. Both died on 

 the first day, but we borrowed another from a friend at the 

 capital and bestrode him in turns. Nothing particular happened 

 to the wagon except that the mules bolted twice 'with the fore 

 carriage leaving the body ignominiously in the road, the jerk 

 sending the drivers into the mud to where by right the centre 

 mules should have been. The first time we straightened the 

 bent pin by means of fire and hammering with stones ; the second 

 time it broke and nothing remained to be done except to send 

 back to Bulawayo for another. Then we struggled on again in 

 the black mud, and on the third day were fortunate enough to 

 save a native's life by filling him with goat's flesh, bartered 

 shortly before for beads. This man, unable to accompany his 

 former companions to Johannesburg on account of an injured 

 leg, was nearly dead from starvation, and began to devour the 

 goat's head, hair and all, immediately after the animal had been 

 killed. At the Tati gold-fields (100 miles) we only stayed a 

 night, and left next morning for the Shashi River, near which we 

 met Khama's son Sekomo with wagons, horses, hunters, &c., 

 ready to take us for a shooting trip into the bush bordering on 



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