AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
266 
his warriors. A fierce battle ensued, and the Matabeles 
—whose very existence was at stake—fought so 
desperately as to completely defeat the hitherto vic¬ 
torious Chaka, and slay more than half his warriors. 
The Matabeles, led by the renowned Mosilikatze and 
his general N’Umbaze, then pursued their course in a 
north-westerly direction, driving all the Bechuana hordes 
in their path before them, till they settled down in a 
very fruitful district near the Magaliesberg Mountains, 
where they lived undisturbed till the Boers made their 
way over the Yaal River, and the interests of the two 
races clashed, after which ensued a long desultory 
struggle, the Matabeles being finally driven away by 
the whites, whose firearms gave them an unfair advan¬ 
tage. Mosilikatze then led his people to the district 
named after them, which begins a little to the north of 
the Transvaal Republic, at about 22°, and extends to 
the Zambesi. The former inhabitants of these lands 
were the Maclionas, who are gradually being exter¬ 
minated by the stronger Matabeles. 
As I said before, no successor to Mosilikatze had 
been appointed on my arrival at the Tati, for although 
the Indunas met daily in council at Umchlauclilausela, 
they seemed unable to come to a decision. Hundreds 
of oxen were slain and devoured, and rivers of joalla or 
durra beer consumed with no result. Such was the 
state of things when circumstances rendered it necessary 
for me to pass through the land of the Matabeles, as 
the quickest way to accomplish the aim of my journey. 
We left the Tati and started in a northerly direction 
for the Ramakoban, a tributary of the Sacha, arriving 
there at four o’clock in the afternoon, when we halted 
and cooked our meal. 
The entire march from the Tati to Linyanti is over 
a rocky plateau with an inclination to the north-west 
and south-east, and our course led us between the 
sources of the periodical streams and rivers which— on 
the left—run from the south-east to the north-west, 
and flow first into the Guay, discovered by James 
Chapman (which also, as I ascertained later in 1870, 
