178 MATABELE LAND. 
rested — the Tati now well behind him, and his 
imagination full of hope in the future and interest in 
the present — it is likely enough he may have con- 
gratulated himself on the successful progress of his 
journey, but scarcely probable he should have re- 
flected on the possibility that here, not many hundred 
yards from this very spot, he might but a few months 
hence, when returning from the Falls, find his last 
lonely resting-place ; yet so he did. 
Again, after a brief rest, renewing the journey 
about mid-day, he still advanced a short distance 
further in the same direction before coming to another 
halt ; and here the Journal once more takes up the 
story : — 
" Jtine \%th. — . . . Inspanned again about noon, 
and crossed another spruit with a sharp turn in it. 
Soon saw cornfields, then the bright green of tobacco- 
fields and a kraal,^ and outspanned at i p.m. I was 
pleased with the appearance of this little kraal, sur- 
rounded by its green fields of tobacco, and emerging 
suddenly to view from amidst the mopani trees ; but I 
little thought of the disappointment in store for me 
here. Though we had trekked so short a time, and 
made our previous trek so short as to be scarcely 
worth mentioning, I almost decided to outspan here 
before I found that it was absolutely necessary I must. 
The people told us that there was a message from 
the king, which the induna would convey to me, but 
^ This kraal, the first outpost of the Makalakas, is described as 
" Wankee's " in the traveller's later Journals, and is so marked upon 
the map. 
