20 J. A. Liebman.—Mashonaland and [July 29... 
grow luxuriantly and fruit well. So too do the figs. There were - 
beautiful groves of them in the missionary’s garden. The vines 
growing over high trellised alleys also havea great deal of luscious 
fruit, The white ant is the gardener’s enemy, but luckily he seems. 
to prefer sandy soil to the rich loams. Many will be the splendid | 
market gardens by and by to supply the mining centres. The 
Matabele women are the labourers. One sees during tne picking ~ 
season long rows of girls, often with a queen among them, keeping 
time with their matlocks to a not unmelodious chant. Great 
quantities of excellent tobacco are grown by the Mashonas and - 
Makalakas ; that grown at Inyoka, of which the king receives a 
yearly tribute, being considered the best. It is principally converted 
into snuff. The rice grown in Mashonaland is excellent, and cost 
last year about eighteen shillings’ worth of goods per sack. The - 
grass, corn, rice, tobacco, and gardening capabilities of this country 
are sufficient allurements for farming colonists, whilst undoubtedly 
it would produce coffee and sugar. Cotton and indiarubber we know 
‘it produces in the North, as the Mashonas wear blankets of the - 
former and make candles of the latter. Indigo grows as a weed, - 
and is used by the Mashonas for dyeing their home-made blankets.” 
Mr. F. Selous, a name well-known to the members of this society, . 
in an article in the Fortnightly Review states, in fact, that this is 
a country where European children would grow up strong and 
healthy. Let me quote his own words [ May, 1&89] : 
“The highest and healthiest portions of the country are very open ; - 
still one is never out of sight of patches of forest trees. This is, 
in fact, a country where European children would grow up strong ~ 
and healthy, and our English fruits retain their flavour.” 
On the 9th of June, 1891, the Rev. Mr. Surridge read a paper on 
Mashonaland and Matabeleland before the Royal Colonial Institute. 
(See Proceedings, R.C.I., 1890-91, page 316.) Inter alia he says : 
‘“‘ Intending travellers into the interior of Africa are generalty, I 
believe, haunted by the word Fever, for months before their departure. - 
There ueed, I think, be but little fear as regards the fever of the: 
Mashonaland plateau. The so-called influenza is far more severe: 
in our own Mother Country. There may be some mild cases in the low 
valleys, when the torrent streams are washing down decayed vegetation 
after dry weather. But with proper care, and duly considering those - 
requirements which nature demands of us, there is every reason to~ 
believe that the European may remain strong and active on the 
