18 
THE NEW AFRICA 
“ King, make the white man pay a penalty for his misdeeds.” 
And then the king changed his thoughts and shouted, “You 
shall all pay me for this white man’s lie; and as for him, I will 
take all his things.” Then the king told us to go, and we all 
went away fearing, yet glad that no one was killed. And we all 
had to pay a gun each to the king. And the king seized all the 
white man’s goods whose boy had shot the sea-cows, and Selous 
gave the white man a horse and told him to ride to Mongwato 
without stopping. By-and-by, when the king’s anger was over, 
a good missionary, who was at the king’s kraal, and Selous got 
most of the white man’s things back, and sent them to him at 
Mongwato. But I had to give my only rifle to Lobengula, and 
baas, I am never going to Matabeleland again.’ 
True to his word, King Khama let us hear from him by 
sending two guides to accompany us as far as the Victoria falls, 
with a message that we should have to pay them a blanket 
apiece for the four hundred mile journey. They were two ser¬ 
viceable fellows, called respectively Janiari and Ramkujan, who 
vrore no clothing but skin aprons and blankets. So with this 
new staff of three, we faced the long, dismal journey through 
the sandy, bush-grown wastes, alternating with stretches of lower- 
lying turf flats, sparsely covered with mimosa and other thorn- 
clad trees. Formerly mighty troops of game inhabited these 
wilds; but the demand for ivory, and the unmitigated greed of 
many hunters, have effectually cleared this country of anything 
that had a tusk, plume, or hide which could be sold. On our way 
through the granite range of hills sheltering Shoshong to the 
north-west, we passed some volcanic rock that forms hills of a 
sombre hue, with evidences of a lava overflow, and then came 
upon a broad granite formation, with the characteristic granite 
koppjes that make the scenery most beautiful. From here the 
view of an endless, tree-grown rolling flat struck our gaze with 
an almost weird monotony never experienced before. Putting 
all sentiment aside, our nearest concern was to reach water for 
the night’s camp. The tales we had heard of thirst endured in 
this inhospitable country were somewhat mitigated by the know- 
