4 MATABELE LAND. 



yesterday, but Frank is not ready, he has so many 

 things to get. 1 



" We have got some blankets, beads, knives, etc., 

 as there is no good taking money, and everything 

 you want you must pay for in that way. The 

 waggons are very comfortable and hold a great deal, 

 including a mattress which lies on the top of the 

 boxes. We are taking coffee, sugar, tea, flour, oat- 

 meal, pickles, some brandy, and several other things 

 for our own use. The Kaffirs are supposed to get 

 nothing but meal, which they boil in a large pot 

 and eat with pieces of stick. They occasionally 

 get a little coffee also. . . . There is very little 

 here in the way of fruit and vegetables. The only 

 fruit now is oranges, though there are peaches and 

 apricots in the season. Altogether, there seems very 

 little pains taken to cultivate the land, as the natives 

 are too lazy to work, and white labour is expensive." 

 On May 15th the waggons of the two brothers 

 started, with W. E. Oates's servant, Thomas Bell, 

 who had accompanied him from England, and made 

 their first halt about four miles from Maritzburg. 



Frank Oates, still at Maritzburg, writes thence 

 the following day, May 16th: — 



" Our waggons left yesterday, and we went with 



1 Mr. T. E. Buckley, the gentleman here alluded to, had come out 

 from England in the same ship as Frank Oates and his brother, on 

 a shooting expedition, and had been joined at Maritzburg by Mr. Gil- 

 christ of Ospisdale, Sutherlandshire, who had already been out up- 

 wards of two years, travelling and hunting in South Africa. These 

 gentlemen both accompanied the brothers as far north as the Tati 

 River, whence Frank Oates went on alone towards the Zambesi. 



