70 
SOLDIERING AND SPORT IN MASHONALAND. 
between tlie English, and Portuguese Governments it was restored to 
its former owners, and the Chartered Company’s Police retired to their 
own fort at XJmtali, some fifteen miles further to the west. Whilst 
this trouble with the Portuguese on their eastern boundary was going 
on the Chartered Company had to deal with a threatened invasion of 
their country by the Transvaal Boers, who collected together in large 
numbers on the south banks of the Crocodile with the avowed intention 
of entering Mashonaland, if necessary by force, and occupying it for 
farming purposes. To oppose this, strong posts garrisoned by the 
Chartered Company’s forces, assisted by some of the Bechuanaland 
Border Police, were established at all the points on the river at which 
a crossing could be effected, and the banks were constantly patrolled 
from.post to post. Eventually this trouble was settled without blood¬ 
shed, the leader of the Boer expedition being taken prisoner, and a 
large number of his followers agreeing to enter the country and accept 
land for farming purposes under the Chartered Company’s rules. The 
third possible enemy of the Company, viz., the Matabeles, have as yet 
made no signs of hostile intentions, but how long they may remain thus 
peacefully inclined it is impossible to predict, and at any time some 
enterprising prospector in search of gold, having crossed the vaguely 
defined boundary, or some other cause having aroused the anger of the 
king or his warriors, the occupants of the country may find themselves 
plunged into a bloody war against a savage and merciless nation. 
The principal centre of population and seat of Government in 
Mashonaland is Fort Salisbury, and the distance of this place from 
civilisation may be realised from the fact that it is, roughly, 1000 
miles from the nearest railway, and 400 miles from the nearest port. 
It can be reached at present by two routes, one from the south and the 
other from the east. The first and as yet better known route is from 
Cape Town via Kimberley to Yryburg by rail (some 750 miles), and 
thence, in a northerly direction, along the road taken by Sir Charles 
Warren’s expedition in 1885, through Bechuanaland to Macloutsie 
(some 550 miles), where a camp garrisoned by three troops of the 
Bechuanaland Border Police has been established; and from there a 
distance of about 50 miles across a the disputed territory ” to Fort Tuli, 
the base of operations, and depot of the Chartered Company’s forces. 
Old campaigners in South Africa will know, or be easily able to calcu¬ 
late, that this journey, performed with ox-wagon transport, would take 
under the very best circumstances 30 days, or with mule wagons 20 
days, exclusive of the two days and a half in the train; but they will 
also know that under ordinary circumstances oxen with loaded wagons 
would not perform the journey much under 50, nor mules under 30 
days. As the pace at which troops can march through this country is 
regulated of necessity by the transport, it will be seen that in the event 
of an expedition being sent to Mashonaland by this route a very con¬ 
siderable time must elapse before any body of troops could be assembled, 
even at Fort Tuli, which is the most southerly point in the country. 
In the autumn of 1890, a troop of the 11th Hussars, escorting His 
Excellency the Governor of Cape Colony, marched from Yryburg along 
this road as far as Macloutsie and back, performing the distance with 
