LETTER FROM THE MATENGWE. 241 



now. Indeed, you would infer from my letters that 

 it was not my intention to do so. However, things 

 have so turned out that I think I am choosing the 

 best course in going on now. 



"In the first place, I have here met waggons 

 coming from the Zambesi, those of Wood and 

 Selous, two Englishmen who hunt and know the 

 country well. They both advise me to go on at 

 once. They say they would rather go on now than 

 stand all the time, and then go on in April. In 

 fact it seems that April is too early ; and all agree 

 that it is infinitely better to go now that the rains 

 are falling than it is to go too soon after they have 

 ceased to fall. They say the risk of fever is not so 

 great as long as the rains fall, and the really bad 

 time is when they have ceased to fall. The traders, 

 however, must wait, in order to avoid the really bad 

 time, as they could not go there and trade and 

 come back again ; whereas in my case I have only 

 to spend a fortnight in getting to the standing- 

 place where the waggons are left, and say ten days 

 or a fortnight in going from there to the Falls and 

 back (it can be walked in three days, I am told, 

 easily), whilst another fortnight will bring me back 

 in the waggons. So you may say six weeks will 

 do it all, and it would not only be possible to be 

 back in Tati before the end of January, but this 

 would allow a lot of extra time. It is only three 

 weeks from Tati to Daka, the standing-place, and I 

 am now a week's journey on the way. 



"A man who knows the Falls and this road well 



