224 MATABELE LAND. 



I go, as long as I keep him in good humour by 

 giving him presents. He never objects to people 

 who are in the country hunting for meat. However, 

 he is down on you if he sees any ostrich egg-shells 

 lying on the breakfast-table, and asks how you can 

 expect to get feathers if you eat the eggs. He is 

 also very sensible in his denunciation of killing cow 

 and young elephants, the ivory of which is scarcely 

 worth taking. The Boers, wherever they go, shoot 

 everything, big or little, on the principle that all's 

 fish that comes to the net. 



"We have just had a heavy shower, and there 

 was one last night ; in fact the rainy season is setting 

 in. Rain is very much wanted, and all the live 

 stock requires fresh grass." 



Amongst the letters, twice alluded to above, 

 which Frank Oates had found awaiting him at Tati, 

 was one from his brother William, who was just 

 about to start at the time he wrote (in the June 

 previous) on a three months' yachting trip to Spitz- 

 bergen ; after his return from which he contem- 

 plated again coming out to Natal, early in the follow- 

 ing year, there to rejoin his brother on his way back 

 from the Zambesi, and accompany him — if he cared 

 to go — on a short hunting expedition in Zululand, 

 or, going north as far as Zanzibar, strike inland with 

 him thence instead. To this proposal Frank Oates 

 replied as follows : — 



"Tati, October 27th, 1874. 



11 I have been delighted to get your letters, and 

 to find there is a chance of our uniting our forces 



