THE BEG ION bOUTII OF THE ZAMBESI. 
205 
might they could not evade it, and would have been 
bound to go with us to the Victoria Falls, if we could 
have got as far. I confess, however, that I had my 
own fears of a breach of contract, and I expressed them 
to the chief, wdio laughed heartily at the very idea, 
shook his spear, and made a very intelligible gesture of 
incredulity. 
The Matabeles were originally a branch of the Zulu 
race, a lineage of which they are still very proud ; and 
when driven from Zululand by the tyranny of the chief 
Chaka, they are said to have numbered some twenty 
thousand souls, including women and children. They 
made their way over the Drachenberg Mountains, but 
wnre pursued and overtaken by the Zulu despot and 
MARCH FROM TATI TO LINYANTI. 
