240 MATABELE LAND. 
make a hurried run to the Zambesi and back again 
now. Indeed, you would infer from my letters that 
it was not my intention to do so. However, things 
have so turned out that I think I am choosing the 
best course in going on now. 
" In the first place, I have here met waggons 
coming from the Zambesi, those of Wood and 
Selous, two Englishmen, who hunt and know the 
country well. They both advise me to go on at 
once. They say they would rather go on now than 
stand all the time, and then go on in April. In 
fact it seems that April is too early ; and all agree 
that it is infinitely better to go now that the rains 
are falling than it is to go too soon after they have 
ceased to fall. They say the risk of fever is not so 
great as long as the rains fall, and the really bad 
time is when they have ceased to fall. The traders, 
however, must wait, in order to avoid the really bad 
time, as they could not go there and trade and 
come back again ; whereas in my case I have only 
to spend a fortnight in getting to the standing- 
place where the waggons are left, and say ten days 
or a fortnight in going from there to the Falls and 
back (it ca7t be walked in three days, I am told, 
easily), whilst another fortnight will bring me back 
in the waggons. So you may say six weeks will 
do it all, and it would not only be possible to be 
back in Tati before the end of January, but this 
would allow a lot of extra time. It is only three 
weeks from Tati to Daka, the standing-place, and I 
am now a week's journey on the way. 
