136 MATABELE LAND. 



full of delicious honey, on which and coffee I dined 

 sumptuously." 



And now discouraged by the scarcity of game, 

 the Dutchman — about the 20th — took his departure 

 for John Lee's, the Hottentot having left two days 

 previously for the Shashi River. 



A little before the latter's departure Frank Oates 

 had chanced to hear from him that, at a spot not 

 far from their encampment, some miles up the river, 

 a number of Bushmen had been murdered the pre- 

 vious year, and he resolved, if possible, to visit the 

 place, that he might obtain some of their remains. 

 In this search his informant had undertaken to 

 accompany him, and had even sent to Tati for a 

 reliable guide to the spot, when suddenly, at the last 

 moment, he changed his mind, and excused himself 

 from going upon the plea of illness. The circum- 

 stances of his defection and some other incidents of 

 the day are thus related in the traveller's Journal : — 



" February 18//2. — Fine day; the first day with- 

 out rain for an age. Last night Klaas (the Hotten- 

 tot) told me he was going on to Tati to-day, being 

 too unwell to accompany me in my excursion in 

 quest of the bones, but would leave me his two 

 Bushmen — the one he had sent for from Tati, who 

 knew the place, and the one he has had with him 

 here. The former was out hunting, when his 

 fourteen companions — men, women, and children — 

 were killed at their hunting kraal by the Matabele. 

 He found them all dead on his return. It seems 

 that they were a party of Mungwato Bushmen, and 



