LETTER HOME. 63 



" I cannot give you a detailed account of my stay 

 of nine days at the king's town ; it is really to a 

 stranger a most curious place. The king, Loben- 

 gula, lives in royal state. He is absolute monarch, 

 and feared and obeyed far and wide. The people 

 inhabiting the country we have passed through in 

 coming here are altogether of an inferior race. At 

 Bamangwato there is a king, but he is thought 

 nothing of. I called on Lobengula, accompanied by 

 Fairbairn, the day I arrived here, and found him the 

 picture of a savage king, just as one might have 

 imagined, and coming quite up to the standard. 

 The day I first saw him he was nearly naked and 

 lying on a skin inside his hut, to enter which you 

 have to crawl in on your hands and knees through 

 a little aperture in the front ; in fact it is like a bee- 

 hive entrance. He took me by the hand and placed 

 meat before me, and asked a few questions about 

 my journey. I told him I should come again next 

 day. Of course I had to make him a present, and 

 I knew he would expect it next day, after which I 

 should ask his leave and assistance to go through 

 his country to the Victoria Falls if possible. I gave 

 him a gun and ammunition, which pleased him very 

 much, and he has done everything he could for me. 

 It appeared that I was still in time to reach the Falls 

 by going on foot, after leaving my waggon at the 

 place marked on the map as Inyati. The king said 

 it was possible to get to the Falls in ten days, and I 

 suppose at my rate of travelling it ought to be done 

 in a fortnight or three weeks at most, and the king 



