8 MATABELE LAND— PRESS NOTICES. 



MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. 



This account of Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls of the 

 Zambesi will be read with new interest since those regions have been 

 thrown more definitely open to English industry and enterprise. The 

 interest of the narrative is rather increased than diminished by the 

 perfectly unvarnished form in which it is given to the public . . . and 

 the story that is read between the lines will find a pathetic echo by 

 many a fireside. 



CAPE TIMES. 



The republication of this work in an improved form at a time when 

 public attention is so earnestly fixed upon the territory with which it 

 deals is rather a happy coincidence than the result of design. . . . Mr. 

 Frank Oates, having visited the country long before any grand scheme 

 for its exploitation was thought of, may be accepted as a witness 

 unaffected by any bias of personal interest. . . . The narrative, com- 

 piled from his journals and letters, is told in the free unrestrained style 

 of one who writes because he has something to say, while, as an ardent 

 naturalist, the writer has a great deal more to say, because he sees so 

 much more, than the ordinary traveller. . . . The world's knowledge 

 of Matabele Land will probably be largely increased within the next 

 few years ; and Mr. Oates's narrative may soon have its chief value as 

 a description of the prehistoric condition of a settled land and the ways 

 of a vanished barbarism. To Matabele Land as it is this handsome 

 and substantial volume is the most complete guide as yet put forth ; 

 and the scientific character of the Appendix gives it a special value to 

 the naturalist. 



CAPE ARGUS. 



With the present growth of interest in everything relating to the 

 interior of South Africa it is no wonder that a second edition of this 

 work should have been called for. . . . No one could have foreseen when 

 the work was first published that Matabele Land would, in so short a 

 course of time, become the central point of attraction in South African 

 affairs. . . . Frank Oates's journals are wanting in all the ordinary 

 attractions of the book-maker, but they are valuable as the records of a 

 keen and minute observer, who was of too simple and truthful a nature 

 to add a single word to his descriptions for the sake of effect. . . . The 

 republication of Mr. Oates's journal is very opportune ; and will add 

 considerably to the public knowledge of Matabele Land. 



