248 MATABELE LAND. 



rainy season. We have not had very much rain, but 

 of course enough to fill the pools, and enough to 

 make the road, where it goes through turf, as it does 

 before reaching this place, extremely heavy. My 

 waggon stuck the night of my arrival, but Blockley 

 brought his oxen and helped me out ; which, how- 

 ever, he failed to accomplish that night, though suc- 

 ceeding the morning following. He then brought 

 my waggon up here on to the top of a little hill where 

 his house is, close to which it is now drawn up. 



" This must be a comparatively healthy spot, even 

 in the most unhealthy time, as it overlooks the flat, 

 wet country around it, and the water will run from it. 

 There appeared to me to be much more watery land, 

 and more pools of water, about Daka than here. It 

 is where so much land lies under water that, about the 

 end of the rainy season, the fever is so bad ; people 

 may get it almost any time, but February, March, 

 and April seem to be the worst months. I think 

 Baines is said to have stated that he would rather be 

 on the Zambesi in January, the height of the rainy 

 season, than in May, a lovely month, but when the 

 moisture is perhaps not all dried up ; when it is dried 

 up, it is then all right. Another thing seems to be, 

 that people moving about are better off than those 

 who have to remain stationary in one place. 



"One of my goats was reported to have been 

 killed by a leopard on Christmas Eve. We all went 

 with our guns, and I took my dogs. We found the 

 unfortunate goat lying dead, a live companion stand- 

 ing over it ; and, also standing over it and facing 



