4 MATABELE LAND. 
yesterday, but Frank is not ready, he has so many 
things to get.^ 
" We have got some blankets, beads, knives, etc., 
as there is no good taking money, and everything 
you want you must pay for in that way. The 
waggons are very comfortable and hold a great deal, 
including a mattress which lies on the top of the 
boxes. We are taking coffee, sugar, tea, flour, oat- 
meal, pickles, some brandy, and several other things 
for our own use. The Kafirs are supposed to get 
nothing but meal, which they boil In a large pot and 
eat with the help of pieces of stick. They occasion- 
ally get a little coffee also. . . . There Is very little 
here in the way of fruit and vegetables. The only 
fruit now Is oranges, though there are peaches and 
apricots in the season. Altogether, there seems very 
little pains taken to cultivate the land, as the niggers 
are too lazy to work, and white labour Is expensive." 
On May 15th the waggons of the two brothers 
started, with W. E. Oates's servant, Thomas Bell, 
who had accompanied him from England, and made 
their first halt about four miles from Maritzburg. 
• Frank Oates, still at Maritzburg, writes thence 
the following day. May i6th : — 
" Our waggons left yesterday, and we went with 
^ Mr. T. E. Buckley, the gentleman here alluded to, had come out 
from England in the same ship as Frank Oates and his brother, on 
a shooting expedition, and had been joined at Maritzburg by Mr. Gil- 
christ, of Ospisdale, Sutherlandshire, who had already been out up- 
wards of two years, travelling and hunting in South Africa. These 
gentlemen both accompanied the brothers as far north as the Tati 
River, whence Frank Oates went on alone towards the Zambesi. 
