number of tribes and petty chiefs who | consequently feared and respected by occupy this high plateau is bewildering his men, and has conducted several in the extreme. Sixty years ago they successful raids upon his neighbors. had no enemies to molest them save Years ago, when he was a boy, he told their own internal jealousies; the us, his tribe used to live on the top of strong chiefs attacked the smaller ones; one of the highest mountains overlookconstant quarrels arose and desultory ing Providential Pass, where a Matabele warfare without end. It was at this impi fell upon them, and drove most of juncture that Moselikatze came and his the inhabitants over a steep precipice Zulu followers, and made short work to their death; the remnant that esof the aborigines of this country, appro- caped came here and settled, and have priating their lands and taking up the now, under Cherumbila's rule, grown best portion of their territory, which we strong. now know as Matabeleland. For years Umgabe is the name of the neighborand years Mashonaland has been the ing chief with whom Cherumbila is happy hunting-ground of the Matabele constantly at war, petty squabbles impis. Right from Buluwayo to the about cattle and trespass and such like Sabi River these troops marauded, being the cause; this condition of whereas on the left bank of the Sabi affairs before the English occupation the great chief Gungunyama raided, was suicidal; these chiefs fought and the two mighty robbers, Lobengula amongst themselves, and when the and Gungunyama, by tacit consent, kept Matabele came each chief in succession to their own districts. fell an easy sacrifice to the invader. Umgabe is a very different man from Cherumbila, very fat and inert, devoted

It is impossible to speak too emphatically on the subject of the misery wrought by the Matabele on the Ma- to his Kaffir beer, and rarely, if ever, shona tribes. Matabeleland is to-day full of Mashona slaves. The aristocratic Matabele do not care to do their own work, but entrust the care of their cattle and their fields to Mashonas snatched from their homes and their relatives in these annual raids.

This is why all Mashona villages are perched on the pinnacles of their rocky hills or kopjes. Sometimes five hundred feet above the plain these villages are placed; and when we travelled through untrodden paths in Mashoualand, where the motive of the white man was not as yet thoroughly understood, we could see the naked black savages scampering away as fast as they could up the rocks, like goats or lizards, aud on more than one occasion we had some difficulty in explaining to them that we were not a Matabele impi, and that our motives were entirely peaceful.

sober; his kraal is in a narrow valley shaded by trees, and their protection against attack from the Matabele impis is a curious one. A stream runs down this valley, and in its course passes underneath a vast mass of granite rocks which form a labyrinth of caves exceedingly difficult to approach. To aid themselves in entering this cavern the Mashonas have made bridges of trees, and in time of danger from the Matabele they take refuge therein. They always keep the cave well victualled with granaries and so forth, and water is always easily obtained from the stream which foams and boils at their feet. Old Umgabe was reluctant for us to enter this secret, retreat, but with the aid of candles we penetrated into its inmost recesses and inspected the preparations which they permanently keep there against a Matabele attack. They drive all their cattle into the cave and put their women and children into snug quarters, and here they remain until the enemy has passed on.

Cherumbila is the chief of a tribe about twelve miles distant from Fort Victoria. His town is situated on a long ridge, the approach to which is For several weeks we had with us a exceedingly difficult. He is a man of | Mashona servant called Mashah, a most activity both of mind and body, and is intelligent men. He, his father and

his mother and his wife, a sister of the country will offer certain difficulties at chief Umgabe, had been captured some the outset until the nature of the soil years ago by the Matabele, and they and climate are thoroughly underspent several years in servitude, during stood; the peculiar conditions of cliwhich time Mashah had learnt the Zulu matology must be met by the farmers tongue with fluency and the more ener- with special arrangements. The rainy getic habits of the stronger race; after season, from the end of November to the death of his father and mother Mr. the end of March, interferes greatly and Mrs. Mashah succeeded in escap- with work, while at the same time it is ing, and when the Chartered Company the season for the crops. A large area came up he offered his services to of Mashonaland is granite, which in them. On one occasion he distin-places retains the moisture in swamps. guished himself by rescuing a party of Then, again, the dry season is long and pioneers who had hopelessly lost their trying to the farmer unless his land is way, and for this he received a present well placed where irrigation is possible. of a Martini-Henry rifle, of which he is The natives have only farmed the very proud. He constantly affirmed to country on a small scale, but the rice us that should the white man ever that they produce is excellent; tobacco leave the country he would go too, for also flourishes in the small patches the country, exposed as it was to Mata- they have planted around their kraals; bele raids and eaten up by internal tomatoes of a huge size are produced, jealousies, was intolerable to live in. and sweet potatoes, chilis, and groundEven when we were there confidence nuts. These productions, which the in the new state of affairs was begin-natives cultivate with scarcely any ning to be established. Many of the trouble, are in themselves an earnest inhabitants were abandoning their hill- of what the country can do when peace set villages and coming down to live on is again restored and colonization exthe plain. Many more acres were tends. being put under cultivation,,and many more head of cattle kept. This state of affairs has of course gone on increasing, and now that the officers of the Chartered Company are putting down the internal quarrels with a strong hand, and putting a stop to the Matabele raids, there is every prospect that a country so well endowed by nature will become rich and prosperous. Up to the time of the outbreak of hostilities with Lobengula, a contingency certainly expected, but at the same time lamentable, farming operations in the new colony had progressed as favorably as could be expected. Deputations from the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State have visited the country, and estimate from analogy with their own countries that at least forty thousand square miles will be well adapted for colonizing purposes, and already a total area of 3,178 square miles has been granted and located, and when the gold-fields are opened these farms ought all to be worked at a considerable profit. For cereals the

Locomotion in the country is at present difficult; if you leave the great Selous road, which runs right up the country from Fort Tuli to the Zambesi, you are confronted with endless difficulties.

From Fort Victoria to the Zimbabwe ruins is a distance of barely eighteen miles; but there was only a narrow Kaffir path, and we had to take our wagon and goods with us. It took us exactly seven days to do these eighteen miles, and that with the sweat of our brows, the constant making of corduroy bridges, the cutting down of trees, and the digging out of our wagons in swampy ground. Of course, towards the end of the dry season this condition of affairs is greatly ameliorated, and it only took our wagons two days to get back. This is pretty much the same style of country that the Chartered Company's forces which are marching against the Matabele have to face. Thick bush, composed of thorny trees-the mimosa, the mapani, and others will have to be cut through; the rocky ridge of the Matopo hills will

have to be crossed, affording excellent | low everlastings, and endless rare specicover to natives, who are as active as mens of the flower world, decorate the cats and exceedingly subtle in their forests and glades of this favored land. methods of attack. Rivers, too, im- Villages in Mashonaland are for the pede the way, and across all these the most part, as I have said, perched on invading force will have to convey its the top of rocky heights, and the aspect Maxim guns and heavy artillery, and of them is uniform when you have take good care that the enemy does not seen one you have seen them all; they get round and attack them in the flank. are generally hedged round with paliAs for the scenery of Mashonaland, I sades, inside which there is a conglomdo not call it particularly beautiful, ex-erate mass of from fifty to one hundred cept in parts; but it is exceedingly round huts, with low doors, and they peculiar. The rocky granite kopjes are particularly dark and dingy inside; offer a landscape of the oddest, weirdest the Mashona is extremely frugal in his appearance; in places the flat plateau requirements; his grain, which when is sown broadcast with these strange made into porridge forms the staple. piles of granite, like the structures of a food of the country, together with catgiant race, rising out of the thick vege- erpillars, locusts, and mice, is housed tation in all directions, fantastic in out- in granaries made of clay, and arranged line, producing to the eyes of those round the hut; his shield, his assegais, who love to see forms in rocks and thus and his axes are hung to the rafters; name them, an endless and fascinating when he goes to bed he merely spreads variety of shapes. Much has been said a grass mat on the floor, and lays his about the beauty of Providential Pass, neck on a wooden pillow, so that his the natural approach from the river somewhat elaborate coiffure does not country to the high plateau. But to my get disturbed during the night; most mind it is exceedingly commonplace, things he has are made of bark taken though pretty; in South Africa it might | from the forest trees at certain seasons be called beautiful, but in Scotland or Wales it certainly would have to take a second place. It is on its kopje scenery that Mashonaland must pride itself, not on its valleys.

of the year-namely, his quiver, his bee-hive, and the long, sausage-like cases in which he stores his food, hung from the branches of trees in the kraal; and before the Chartered Company's days his only blanket was made of barkfibre.

The green of the country is not at all pretty, though there is an abundance of it. The acacias are dull and grey, The Mashonas are particularly fond the mapani is somewhat of the color of of dancing to the tune of a tom-tom; an ivy leaf, the machabel or elephant- they keep up this amusement for an tree is slightly better, but its foliage is interminable time, never seeming to not beautiful; the most striking effect tire of the monotonous music, and the we saw was when all the coarse grass still more monotonous steps. When of the country was ripe, and for miles their husbands are away on a hunting and miles the general aspect was that expedition, the women will often get of a series of harvest-fields. When hold of the tom-tom and some of their this is dry and easily ignited, they set husbands' weapons, executing a warfire to it, and at certain seasons of the dance for their own benefit, and I must year vast prairie fires devour the coun- say they often look fiercer in their gestry and blacken the horizon with thick ticulations than the men. The women volumes of smoke. But the flora of all have their stomachs tattooed, or, Mashonaland is exquisite; masses of rather, furrowed with cicatrices, differaloes, with fiery spikes, nestle amongst ent tribes having different patterns, the rocks, lilies and flowers of all hues and they have a dance which consists and descriptions cover the plains, in smacking the aforementioned part of Bignonias climb amongst the trees with their person and their breasts alterfestoons of flowers. Indian shot, yel-nately, as they proceed, making thereby.

a weird sound not altogether unlike the drum's.

lion priest, called the mondoro, is a more powerful man in the tribe than the chief himself.

Once a year le sacrifices a bullock and a goat to what they call the Maklosi or luck spirit of their ancestors. The ceremony takes place in February, the same time as the Matabele war dance, and much Kaffir beer is drunk on the occasion, and dancing doue.

Near most villages, especially those at the foot of Mount Wedza, the great iron-producing district, we find the primitive Mashona forge for smelting iron. It is done with inflated skins, a clay blow-pipe, and a charcoal fire, and the instruments are filled by pulling the skin backwards and forwards. Curiously enough, this very form of smelt- We had a curious proof that the idea ing iron is still in vogue in Abyssinia of sacrifice is common amongst them and Arabia, and the Mashonas make during our excavations at Zimbabwe. all their own weapons and knives with We found in a small cave the skeleton the iron they find in their mountains. of a kid tied by cords to a mat, and Arabian influence is quite obvious in by the side of it the knife with which this country; the type is by no means the sacrifice was performed, with porstrictly negroid; frequently one sees a tions of the goat's skin still adhering to fine aquiline nose, thin lips, and the it. The native seemed much annoyed cast of countenance common to the Se-at our discovery, and would tell us little mite. Again, the Mashona game called or nothing about it. From what we isufuba, played with long rows of holes could gather during our wanderings, I dug in the ground, and with stones should say that the Mashonas believe moved rapidly from one to the other, is a game always found in countries where Arabian influence has been felt. The Mashona piano, consisting of a number of iron notes fastened on to a wooden board, and placed in a gourd to bring out the sound, is similarly of northern origin, and this Arabian influence in Mashonaland dates from a very remote period, when early traders settled here and built their fortresses to protect their workmen who were procuring gold.

in a vague, supreme spirit, or god, which they call Muali. They do not appear to pay any direct worship to this spirit, being doubtless too infinitely vague to their minds, but instead they sacrifice to their ancestors, who act, they suppose, as intercessors between them and the Supreme Being, or at any rate have better means of knowing more about it than they have.

At Mangwendi's the great tribal gathering is on the anniversary of the death of the late Mangwendi, when a great feast is held in honor of the dead

There is much conflict of evidence concerning the religion of the Ma-chief. I may here add that the names shonas, and whether they have one or not is doubted by many. Up to now very little has been done towards obtaining their confidence on this point, and they are exceedingly shy of communicating their ideas to strangers.

In M'toko's country, to the northeast of Fort Salisbury, we came across a lion-god. The lion is the totem of the tribe, a sort of spiritual lion, which only appears in the time of danger and fights for the men of M'toko; all good men of the tribe, when they die, pass into the lion form and reappear to fight for their friends. They gave us an instance of how lions had fought for them against the Portuguese, and the

of the chiefs of tribes amongst the Mashonas are all dynastic; when a Mangwendi dies his successor drops his own name and is henceforth known as Mangwendi; this custom is probably the result of ancestor worship aud the desire to pay respect to the defunct line of chiefs. The spirits of their ancestors are called Mozimo.

To the north-east of Fort Salisbury there is better opportunity of judging what the Mashona is like when left to himself than there is in those parts most exposed to Matabele raids. M'toko's chief enemy has been Gouveia, the half-caste Portuguese, whose territory adjoins his on the eastern

side, and whom he, or rather his father | when we consider the misery, the who lately died, conquered on more butchery, and the dastardly cruelty than one occasion. Here the timid, which these impis bring along with cringing manner of the inhabitants them, it seems altogether past belief around Fort Victoria is changed for how any one professing advanced and decidedly noble bearing and finer liberal views can stand up for the savphysique. M'toko treated us with age sovereign of Matabeleland, who is scant courtesy, and refused to let us so obviously an anomaly and a thing of encamp in close proximity to his kraal. the past in this age. He visited us with a band of armed followers, and he was the first chief in the country for whom we felt the least respect.

An eye-witness writes to me that not far from Fort Victoria, a whole village under the chief Setoutse had been wiped out by the last raid, the younger His neighbor Mangwendi is the inhabitants being made slaves of, while same; also Makoni and Chipunza. the older ones were ruthlessly butchHere the kraals are not necessarily ered. I was witness myself of the placed on rocky heights. Three or devastation wrought by these raids in four huts are seen together, scattered over the country, with well-tilled fields around them, and cattle, showing a condition of peace and prosperity to which the unfortunate inhabitants of those parts near the Matabele frontier are absolute strangers, and there is every prospect that under a good government these tribes to the east of their territory will be infinitely more valuable to the Chartered Company than the others.

Much is said just now about the rights of Lobengula over Mashonaland, and that inasmuch as he only conceded mining rights to the Chartered Company, he is at perfect liberty to exercise his lordship over the Mashonas and exact tribute from them and make them his slaves.

the direction of the Sali River—of a whole district depopulated which had once possessed many villages, the remains of which could be traced on every side, of the abject terror of the inhabitants, who fled at our approach to the rocks; and yet there are those found in England who profess to support this state of affairs, and to say that Lobengula has a perfect right to do what he likes with what they call his own.

Mashonaland has several reefs running across it from east to west, right into the heart of the Matabele country, which are all auriferous. Many of them were worked in ancient times, when shafts to the depth of one hundred feet were sunk, and gold was extracted from the quartz by crushing and washing. Many hundreds of these shafts, and crushing-stones and smelting-furnaces, pointing to a very extensive trade, are to be found scattered over the country, and since a systematic prospecting has been gone into numerous virgin reefs have been discovered which the ancients have not touched.

I must say that people who advocate these views, and let us hope they do so through ignorance, are a disgrace to civilization and the age they live in. I should like to know what right anybody has to reduce his fellow-creatures to a condition of slavery? What right has anybody to seize the cattle and goods of those people who refuse to be made slaves of? What right has anybody to One gold belt starting from Umtali exact tribute from a race who get passes through Victoria, and it is connothing in return, and who are now sidered probable that it will connect entirely removed from the jurisdiction with the Tati gold-fields in the westof the man who demands this tribute ? ern portion of Matabeleland, which is Thus, on purely international grounds, at present occupied by Major Goold it is obvious that there is no justifica- Adams and the Bechuanaland Border tion for Lobengula's raids into the Police. The latest news from the Chartered Company's territory, and neighborhood of Fort Salisbury, the