64 MATABELE LAND. 
three weeks at most, and the king says I have still 
two months of favourable weather, but so anxious is 
he that no white man should come to grief in his 
country, that he has been urging on me all possible 
haste from the moment the subject was first men- 
tioned. He has given me two excellent men as 
guides ; these two, having the king's authority, will 
carry all before them. 
" I left Gubuleweyo last night, and came on as 
far as here, the house of Mr. Thomson the mission- 
ary, for my first trek. Mr. Thomson has kindly 
interested himself in me, and done all he could to 
assist me. He has a nice wife and children, and this 
morning I have had the luxury of a civilized break- 
fast, including tablecloth, bread and butter and eggs, 
and milk to one's coffee — things that I don't often 
see now. I am now availing myself of one of his 
rooms to write to you in. 
" One of the men appointed by the king to guide 
me — himself a man of high character and good 
family, as Mr. Thomson tells me — left Gubuleweyo 
with me, and this morning hurried on to get bearers 
for me at the kraals ahead. I shall want from twenty 
to thirty, and as it will take some time to collect 
them, and my oxen want rest, I shall follow slowly, 
making a three or four days' journey of what is 
usually done in two days. At Inyati, where I am 
to leave my waggon, are two white men trading. 
These are the last outposts of civilization, but up to 
that point there is regular communication all the 
way — that is to say, all the way my waggon takes 
