36 MATABELE LAND. 
sent me a small bottle of beer, worth about five 
shillings here. Nelson is getting the king, Loben- 
gula, some furniture from England, as he told the 
latter that a king ought not to sit on the ground. 
Lobengula's country extends from here to the Zam- 
besi, and he Is an absolute despot, having the lives 
of all his people in his own hands. They say if one 
of the Matabele is found stealing from a white man 
he has him executed." 
Soon after writing the above, W. E. Oates left 
Tati in company with Messrs. Gilchrist and Buckley, 
to hunt on the Semokwe River, where they had very 
good sport. Returning thence in due time to the 
coast, they took the same route as that by which 
they had travelled north, the change of season, how- 
ever, from winter to summer producing, as they re- 
turned, a remarkable change in the entire aspect of 
the country. By the end of October they were back 
at Bamangwato, and reached Pietermaritzburg on 
the 2d of January. A few extracts from W. E. 
Oates's letters, written as they proceeded, may here 
be read with interest. He writes first from Bamang- 
wato on November 3d as follows : — 
" I arrived here with Buckley and Gilchrist about 
a week since, and shall probably make a start for 
Pretoria to-night. The spring has now commenced, 
and the grass is beginning to grow. There have 
been heavy thunderstorms, and the lightning Is 
wonderful, never ceasing for a moment during the 
storms. The heat also Is very great. . . . There 
has just been a row here. The old chief's eldest 
