LETTER FROM TATL 141 
to started on their hunt. Before leaving, Frank 
Oates wrote to his brother William, now in Eng- 
land, as follows : — 
"Tati, February 24//;, 1874. 
" It is quite a pleasure to get a letter from you — 
I mean the one you left for me here. I shall get no 
more now for five or six weeks, when I expect to be 
in Mungwato. I am sorry that wretched old croaker, 
Palmer,^ put you in a funk about me. He says it 
would be a good thing for people travelling to have 
* portable coffins.' I am thankful to say my health 
is excellent. I did not, as doubtless you know by 
this time, get to the Zambesi. I believe the king 
was at the bottom of it (not of the Zambesi ; but 
excuse grammar). I took my waggon fifty miles 
on the way, as far as Inyati, and then put all out 
for fifteen carriers to take. It was a fortnight's 
walk through ' the fly ' to the Falls. After wait- 
ing nearly a week, it transpired that no boys were 
forthcoming as promised. Partly, I think, they 
were afraid of fever, and partly of the natives, with 
whom they are at war ; partly also they wanted to 
get back in time to cultivate their gardens. How- 
ever, I believe I could have got them myself easily, 
had I not trusted to the man given me by the king. 
" I then sent back to Lobengula, asking him for 
hunting veldt. I had given him your shot gun, and 
his sister some furniture print of gorgeous pattern. 
He gave me a fine veldt between the Gwailo and 
Umvungu Rivers, where I was six weeks. I then 
' A trader of that name at Tati. 
