1 88 MATABELE LAND. 
ing to the Matabele after being absent at a mission- 
ary meeting at Kuruman.^ 
" On reaching Tati I had some more trouble, 
which has ended in my making fresh arrangements 
altogether. John, my Kafir driver, refused point- 
blank to go with me to the Zambesi, and though I 
could have compelled him to do so, I thought it best 
to be rid of such an unwilling servant. Brown's 
waggons are starting for Potchefstroom to-morrow, 
and by them this letter is to be taken, which I hope 
will reach you by the end of September. John's 
only chance of leaving is to get away with these 
waggons, and of course if I say the word Brown will 
not let him go near them, and he cannot possibly go 
alone. However, I told John I should not stop him, 
because I did not think him worth keeping, and he 
will leave with the waggons to-morrow. Then the 
Dutchman in two instances had acted very badly 
whilst I was travelling with him, and when I was 
obliged to return to Tati I secretly intended to get 
rid of him, though I did not tell him so. 
" It was the 15th of July when I got back here 
from the King's, and the very same day a trader arrived 
from the Zambesi, coming to get a fresh stock of goods. 
He had had to drive his own waggon, having lost his 
^ This was the last occasion on which Frank Gates encountered 
Mr. Thomson, who, some time after the events here narrated — in 1877 
— returned to England, to convey thence, under the auspices of the 
London Missionary Society, a party of missionaries to Lake Tanganyika. 
He accomplished the journey successfully, but unhappily was attacked 
by sunstroke soon after his arrival, and died from its effects in 
September 1878. 
