64 MATABELE LAND. 



says I have still two months of favourable weather ; 

 but so anxious is he that no white man should come 

 to grief in his country, that he has been urging on 

 me all possible haste from the moment the subject 

 was first mentioned. He has given me two excel- 

 lent men as guides ; these two, having the king's 

 authority, will carry all before them. 



" I left Gubuluwayo last night, and came on as 

 far as here, the house of Mr. Thomson the mission- 

 ary, for my first trek. Mr. Thomson has kindly 

 interested himself in me and done all he could to 

 assist me. He has a nice wife and children, and 

 this morning I have had the luxury of a civilized 

 breakfast, including tablecloth, bread and butter and 

 eggs, and milk to one's coffee — things that I don't 

 often see now. I am now availing myself of one of 

 his rooms to write to you in. 



" One of the men appointed by the king to 

 guide me — himself a man of high character and good 

 family, as Mr. Thomson tells me — left Gubuluwayo 

 with me, and this morning hurried on to get bearers 

 for me at the kraals ahead. I shall want from 

 twenty to thirty, and as it will take some time to 

 collect them and my oxen want rest, I shall follow 

 slowly, making a three or four days' journey of what 

 is usually done in two days. At Inyati, where I am 

 to leave my waggon, are two white men trading. 

 These are the last outposts of civilization, but up 

 to that point there is regular communication all the 

 way — that is to say, all the way my waggon takes 

 me. If I find that I am delayed and cannot reach 



