270 MATABELE LAND. 



he learnt the few additional particulars of his death 

 which could be supplied, and which have been em- 

 bodied in the preceding narrative. 1 



For this twofold purpose — of visiting the grave 

 and seeing Dr. Bradshaw — Mr. Gilchrist, on reach- 

 ing Bamangwato, had gone on thence with both his 

 waggons as far as the Tati settlement, where he 

 arrived on the 18th of July. There he found the 

 same difficulty as to proceeding farther which Frank 

 Oates himself had often previously encountered, a 

 great fear still prevailing amongst the natives of 

 "red water" — the Natal cattle - disease — being 

 brought into their country, and Lobengula having 

 recently sent strict orders to the kraals on the out- 

 skirts of his territory to keep all waggons from 

 Natal from attempting to cross their boundaries. 

 Fortunately, however, it happened that the Dutch- 

 man, Piet Jacobs, was now at Tati, who had not only 

 selected the spot for the late traveller's grave, but 

 was also intimately acquainted with the whole of 

 the surrounding district, and who had, besides, a 

 general permission from the king to enter his country 

 when, and as often as, he pleased ; for keeping, 

 as he did, his oxen standing at Tati, when he was 

 not out with them in the veldt himself, there was 

 little fear of his introducing the dreaded disease into 

 the country. With him therefore, as guide, Mr. 



1 By a singular coincidence, Frank Oates's devoted favourite, 

 " Rail " — for four years after reaching England the valued companion 

 of his late master's relatives — died on the 5th of February 1880, the 

 fifth aniversary of his master's death, followed but three weeks later 

 by his companion, " Rock." 



