WHITE MEN AT THE FALLS. 157 
N garni with two traders, both looking dreadfully ill 
from the effects of fever ; indeed they seemed to 
have had a very narrow escape. They had buried 
one man, and reported the death of another at the 
Lake, — Henry Gray, the trader who, the year 
before, had accompanied Frank and William Gates 
a good part of the way up country when they first 
left Pietermaritzburg. 
Before resuming his journey Frank Gates wrote 
home a few lines to his brother Williami, as follows : — 
"Bamangwato, May a^th, 1874, 
" I wrote to Charley a few days ago, telling him 
I was just setting off for the Zambesi. As bad luck 
would have it, one of my hind wheels came to grief 
in jolting over that vile piece of road you must 
remember, about ten miles from here, and there I 
was, laid on my back. However, I put the wheel 
on a sledge of branches, and brought it with six 
oxen to be mended here, and once again am off. I 
am going to ride to the waggon to-night by moon- 
light, and hope to be at the Makalapsi River before 
the sun is very high. . . . 
"We have reckoned up about thirty waggons 
going Zambesi way this year ; some are hunters, 
some traders, and some tourists. I expect most of 
them will stand at the same place, beyond Daka, and 
one must walk from there to the Falls. I suppose 
twelve white men at least will be at the Falls this 
year, so I shall not be alone, and one will be in the 
way of help in case of emergency arising, which is 
