SOLDIERING AND SPORT IN MAS HON ALAND. 
71 
mule wagons in remarkably quick time., but it must be remembered 
that, during a considerable part of every year, this road would be 
almost impassable for any large body of men, owing to scarcity of 
water, in obtaining which the Officer Commanding the troop of Hussars 
had considerable difficulty, even with so small a body of men. 
The other route to Mashonaland is from Port Beira, which is a small 
Portuguese town on the east coast, about five days 5 voyage from Dur¬ 
ban, having a very fair harbour in the mouth of the river Pungwe, 
which runs out at this point. This is much the shorter route of the 
two, but it has at present a serious drawback in the tsetse fly which 
infests a belt of country through which the road passes, and which 
destroys all transport animals brought within the region which it in¬ 
habits. This fly has always been dreaded by African explorers, but 
never until last year has its fearful power been fully realised by any 
but the very few who had witnessed its ravages. In the spring of last 
year a convoy of some 18 or 20 wagons and coaches, each drawn by a 
span of oxen, were landed at Port Beira, and attempted to make their 
way to Mashonaland. Of this convoy only one coach ever arrived, and 
the remainder of the wagons, etc., may be seen lying abandoned in the 
bush, whilst, if search be made, the skeletons of the animals, which fell 
victims to this terrible scourge, may be found lying about in the 
vicinity. For this reason the only means of transport available on a 
part of this route are native “ bearers/ 5 each of whom can carry some 
fifty pounds weight, at an average speed of twenty miles a day; but 
this is an expensive, uncertain and inconvenient system of transport 
for any large body. Expensive because the bearers require high wages 
and have also to be fed, besides requiring other bearers to carry their 
food; uncertain, because they cannot always be obtained in sufficient 
numbers, and are, moreover, very apt to desert on the road; and incon¬ 
venient, because of the small loads into which all the stores to be 
conveyed have to be packed, as well as for other reasons which are 
sufficiently obvious without being detailed here. This route leads from 
Port Beira, up the Pungwe Biver by boat for 70 miles, to Mt. Pandas, 
thence with bearers, through “the fly country/ 5 about 100 miles, to 
Chermoy, from which place a wagon road leads to Umtali, the most 
easterly point of the Chartered Company’s territory, another 100 miles 
or so. This route lies through Portuguese territory, but negotiations 
are now proceeding between the Chartered Company and the govern¬ 
ment of Portugal for the construction of a railway from Port Beira 
through the fly country, which, when it is completed, will give this 
route such enormous advantages over that from the Cape Colony, that 
the latter route will become almost, if not entirely, disused. 
Thus the two most accessible points in the Chartered Company’s 
territory are Fort Tnli on the south, which is about 600 miles from the 
nearest railway, and Umtali on the east, which is 270 from the nearest 
port. This latter distance is calculated by the present wagon road, 
but the railway will, no doubt, take a more direct line. A word more 
about the tsetse fly before concluding what there is to say about the 
approaches to the country : this fly inhabits clearly defined portions of 
the country, outside which it is never found, Mashonaland itself being 
