ii2 MATABELE LAND. 



a certain white trader here, who has left for a time 

 — hoping, I believe, that she may be married when 

 he returns. She can't marry till the king takes his 

 wife from whom the future king is to be born. His 

 present wives have nothing to do with it. 1 



"John Lee's waggon arrived to-day, to my great 

 pleasure. I had just returned from visiting the 

 king, whom John and I had found standing at the 

 entrance of his kraal in a Mackintosh coat. Dick 

 and Jacob joined us, and the case of Jacob was 

 discussed, Dick also urging the hardship of his 

 own dismissal, in which the king seems partly to 

 agree, and says it would be better not to leave him 

 in his country, but where we can try the case with 

 our own laws. At length the king went to his hut, 

 saying this case would take a long time, and it was 

 not a day to discuss it. Certainly the weather was 

 against a law-suit being carried on in the open air. 

 In the evening I went again to the king. Lee was 

 sitting on the front-box of his waggon, and went 

 over my case with him, and thus I got a decision 

 quickly. The king said his decision had been that 

 I was to take Dick and Jacob, but I had refused to 

 do this, so now I must pay the wages of the boy, as 

 he considered Jacob, having been brought by Dick, 

 was under his protection. I sent for them, and paid 

 the money to the king, who promised to keep it for 

 Jacob as far as he could, though he said if they left 



1 Some time after this the king married for his chief wife a mem- 

 ber of Umzila's household (the powerful chieftain to the eastward), 

 who, jealous of Nini's influence over Lobengula, persuaded the latter 

 to have her put to death. 



