2 68 MATABELE LAND. 
he learnt the few additional particulars of his death 
which could be supplied, and which have been em- 
bodied in the preceding narrative.^ 
For this twofold purpose — of reaching the grave 
and seeing Dr. Bradshaw — Mr. Gilchrist, on reach- 
ing Bamangwato, had gone on thence with both his 
waggons as far as the Tati settlement, where he 
arrived on the i8th of July. There he found the 
same difficulty of proceeding further which Frank 
Gates himself had often previously encountered, a 
great fear still prevailing amongst the natives of " red 
water " — the Natal cattle disease — being brought into 
their country, and Lobengula having recently sent 
strict orders to the kraals on the outskirts of his ter- 
ritory to keep all waggons from Natal from attempting 
to cross their boundaries. Fortunately, however, it 
happened that the Dutchman, Piet Jacobs, was now at 
Tati, who had not only selected the spot for the late 
traveller's grave, but was also intimately acquainted 
with the whole of the surrounding district, and who had, 
besides, a general permission from the king to enter his 
country when, and as often as, he pleased; for keeping, 
as he did, his oxen standing at Tati, when he was 
not out with them in the veldt himself, there was 
little fear of his introducing the dreaded disease into 
the country. With him therefore, as guide, Mr. 
Gilchrist was speedily enabled to make a start north- 
1 By a singular coincidence, Frank Oates's devoted favourite, 
" Rail " — for four years after reaching England the valued companion 
of his late master's relatives — died on the 5th of February 1880, the 
fifth anniversary of his master's death, followed but three weeks later 
by his companion, " Rock." 
