224 MATABELE LAND. 
I go, as long as I keep him in good humour by 
giving him presents. He never objects to people 
who are in the country hunting for meat. However, 
he is down on you if he sees any ostrich egg-shells 
lying on the breakfast-table, and asks how you can 
expect to get feathers if you eat the eggs. He is 
also very sensible in his denunciation of killing cow 
and young elephants, the ivory of which is scarcely 
worth taking. The Boers, wherever they go, shoot 
everything, big or little, on the principle that all's 
fish that comes to the net. 
" We have just had a heavy shower, and there 
was one last night ; in fact the rainy season is setting 
in. Rain is very much wanted, and all the live 
stock requires fresh grass." 
Amongst the letters, twice alluded to above, 
which Frank Oates had found awaiting him at Tati, 
was one from his brother William, who was just 
about to start at the time he wrote (in the June 
previous) on a three months' yachting trip to Spitz- 
bergen ; after his return from which he contem- 
plated again coming out to Natal, early in the follow- 
ing year, there to rejoin his brother on his way back 
from the Zambesi, and accompany him — if he cared 
to go — on a short hunting expedition in Zululand, 
or, going north as far as Zanzibar, strike inland with 
him thence instead. To this proposal Frank Oates 
replied as follows : — 
"Tati, October z'^th, 1874. 
" I have been delighted to get your letters, and 
to find there is a chance of our uniting our forces 
