EXCESSIVE DROUGHT. 219 



appreciated as usual, which I need not say is not a 

 little. It is dated July 3d. I am sorry you seem 

 to doubt my getting your letters. In my letter to 

 the Mater I mention the hoard of letters, containing 

 a complete and connected history of home affairs, 

 which met my delighted eyes when I returned here 

 from my third attempt to reach the Zambesi, of which 

 I have given her an account. The road between 

 here and Bamangwato is all but closed from the 

 drought now, as it is the end of the dry season. 

 The waggons that brought this mail in were delayed, 

 and suffered considerably. Several of the oxen died, 

 and one waggon is still in the veldt at the Gokwe 

 River, where there is a little water, and which is the 

 half-way house between Mungwato and here. In 

 distance it is more than half way, but it is always a 

 stopping-place, on either side of which stretches a 

 parched-up country. On the first day of this month 

 I began a letter to the Mater, expecting it would be 

 taken on in a day or two. However, the waggons 

 that were to take it did not set off, preferring to 

 wait for rain, so the letter has been lying unfinished. 

 Now, however, another arrives from you, and sets 

 me off into the writing vein. Moreover, I am expect- 

 ing very shortly to start into the veldt for a month 

 or two, which means two months of course, before 

 I fairly set off home. I have in the meantime been 

 collecting birds here, and reflecting on the vanity 

 of human ambition. It may surprise you that I 

 don't hurry home, now that the Zambesi affair is 

 over. It is certainly not that I don't long to see 



