238 MATABELE LAND. 
This might account for the state of her back, and the 
fact of her slavering when she ate her corn, but I 
don't think they can have been the proximate cause 
of death. . . . Out shooting to-day, but the game 
here is very wild. 
" November 30M. — Cloudy morning ; close, hot 
afternoon. . . . On returning from the veldt in the 
evening, found every one who had been left at the 
waggons nearly drunk ; the Griquas rushing about 
with loaded guns and fighting. Inspanned, to restore 
order, and went about four miles." 
The following morning, some five miles further 
again brought the party to the Matengwe River, 
where a halt was made. At this point two English 
hunters, whom Frank Oates had met before during 
his wanderings — Messrs. Wood and Selous — came 
up on their way to Tati from the Zambesi. It was 
the result of this meeting which apparently determined 
Frank Oates's future plans ; for, almost from the 
first day he left the Tati, the idea seems to have 
been present to his mind that he might yet make 
the Zambesi the present season, without waiting for 
the cessation of the rains. His own inclination was 
strongly in favour of this attempt, as saving him from 
the dilemma, otherwise presented, of either leaving 
the country with the river unvisited, or remaining 
there another season for the purpose ; and the opinion 
and experience of the two hunters mentioned above, 
coincided, as it happened, with his own wish and 
inclination. They both believed, and perhaps rightly, 
that the present was a safer time for the Zambesi 
