1 88 MATABELE LAND. 



ing to the Matabele after being absent at a mission- 

 ary meeting at Kuruman. 1 



" On reaching Tati I had some more trouble, 

 which has ended in my making fresh arrangements 

 altogether. John, my Kaffir driver, refused point- 

 blank to go with me to the Zambesi, and though I 

 could have compelled him to do so, I thought it best 

 to be rid of such an unwilling servant. Brown's 

 waggons are starting for Potchefstroom to-morrow, 

 and by them this letter is to be taken, which I hope 

 will reach you by the end of September. John's 

 only chance of leaving is to get away with these 

 waggons, and of course if I say the word Brown will 

 not let him go near them, and he cannot possibly go 

 alone. However, I told John I should not stop him, 

 because I did not think him worth keeping, and he 

 will leave with the waggons to-morrow. Then the 

 Dutchman in two instances had acted very badly 

 whilst I was travelling with him, and when I was 

 obliged to return to Tati I secretly intended to get 

 rid of him, though I did not tell him so. 



"It was the 15th of July when I got back here 

 from the king's, and the very same day a trader ar- 

 rived from the Zambesi, coming to get a fresh stock 

 of goods. He had had to drive his own waggon, 

 having lost his driver and other boys through being 



1 This was the last occasion on which Frank Oates encountered 

 Mr. Thomson, who, some time afterwards — in 1877 — returned to Eng- 

 land, to convey thence, under the auspices of the London Missionary 

 Society, a party of missionaries to Lake Tanganyika. He accomplished 

 the journey successfully, but unhappily was attacked by sunstroke soon 

 after his arrival, and died from its effects in September 1878. 



