MATABELE OPPRESSION. 79 



the bullocks. He says there are plenty of croco- 

 diles in the river beyond the Gwailo. 



" Nelson showed me, when we were out together 

 in the veldt the day before yesterday, some remains of 

 Mashona huts destroyed by the Matabele. He says 

 they are to be found all over the veldt, and bones 

 amongst many of them. Some of the Mashonas are 

 subject to the Matabele. Those that refuse allegiance 

 are mercilessly hunted down. They are all formed 

 of independent little tribes, and when war is made 

 against one the others don't assist them. Therefore 

 they fall an easy prey. The ' impis ' sent out against 

 them for their cattle are what I heard of at Gubulu- 

 wayo. Nelson says lately in an impi a kraal was 

 taken, the young men killed (they throw away their 

 scanty dress and run, and are ' killed like springbok '), 

 and the old men and women burnt to death. The 

 young women and children were made slaves of, and 

 the cattle taken. Nelson's Matabele boys wanted 

 him lately to drive off some cattle, saying the king 

 might give him fifty of them, but he refused. The 

 cattle and all the animals are kept in the same place as 

 the Mashonas themselves live in (the same ' house,' 

 Nelson calls it). They are thus easily surrounded 

 by the Matabele. The Matabele despise those who 

 own allegiance to their chief and call them slaves. 

 One of the latter in Nelson's employ blew his face 

 off with some gunpowder, doing something for his 

 master on one occasion. ' Never mind,' said Nelson's 

 Matabele, ' it is nothing, he is a dog ' (the usual 

 epithet). The man's father came to Nelson and 



