( 291 ) 
CHAPTER VIII. 
The Zambesi Region. 
Besides Mohr, many other travellers have explored 
the region to the south of the Zambesi river; and as 
that region is one of special interest, and has to a large 
extent been included within the domain of the British 
Empire, we shall proceed to give a few episodes from 
the narratives of some of the more noteworthy of these 
travellers. Hr. Emil Holub is an enterprising Austrian 
medical man, who, when quite young, in 1872 proceeded 
to South Africa, mainly to gratify his love of adventure. 
He tells us frankly he had no means of his own, but he 
had it in his power to obtain the sinews of travel, and 
his method proved highly successful. At the date of 
his visit to South Africa, medical men were not so 
plentiful as they have since become, and so Dr. Holub 
found his services greatly in demand. Landing at Port 
Elizabeth, he took up his quarters in that town for a 
time, and soon made money sufficient to enable him to 
proceed to Kimberley, then the centre of the great 
diamond mines, peopled by a busy crowd of adventurers, 
coining money day by day, to many of whom a com¬ 
petent medical man was a great boon. Dr. Holub soon 
found himself with a flourishing practice at his com¬ 
mand. In a comparatively short time he had saved 
some hundreds of pounds. His object, however, was not 
to make his fortune, but simply to obtain the means for 
enabling him to pursue his travels into the interior. 
Purchasing a waggon and oxen, he would start on an 
exploration, and remain away as long as his means 
permitted. In this way he made one journey after 
another, so that in the end he managed to reach the 
u 2 
