HEAR OF MATABELE SPIES 
271 
meat, by ropes, from high branches in the trees under which we 
camped, to prevent the leopard from claiming a share. How¬ 
ever, he never molested us in the least, and we passed the 
evening in cutting up biltong and feasting. The flavour of meat 
from a fat tender ox after our protracted dry game and corn 
diet came upon us like a luxurious revelation. It was so good 
that I am afraid we demolished more than was actually necessary, 
although our cast-iron digestions made light of such trifles as a 
few extra pounds weight of meat at a meal. 
We remained on the island till the following afternoon, to 
give our biltong the chance of drying sufficiently to stand travel¬ 
ling, and then went on, first through water, as before, and finally 
passing through a thick camel-thorn mimosa forest growing on 
a sand-belt, where a small troop of rooi-buck fled from our 
approach beyond the possibility of pursuit. 
With regard to the information given to us by the natives 
concerning distances, water, food, or any other circumstances 
connected with the trip, we found that they never by any 
possible chance made correct statements. If our guides wished 
to rest, they simply declared that there was some obstacle, such 
as a sand-belt, on ahead, that required a full day to encompass 
it; if they wished to go on, they claimed to know of corn in 
plenty on ahead at some village, which, spite of the accurate 
description given, never appeared in our route. Should the 
natives wish us to purchase and remain with them, then fearful 
obstacles were to be met with on the road that required a long 
rest to prepare one for the exertion, or, in the reverse case, a 
rosy picture was painted of the facilities on ahead. The state¬ 
ments they made were never based upon facts, but rather were 
prompted by their own desires; and in time, feeling that no 
information was better than wrong information, we ceased to 
inquire at all, and simply went on as circumstances moulded our 
inclinations. At the last kraal we passed we again heard tales of 
a white man with Matabele spies, still supposed to be wandering 
in the veldt, but what portent this ever-repeated news contained 
for us we at the time did not quite comprehend. 
