The Gasa country stretches north from Delagoa Bay to the Lower Zambesi, and is under the rule of a powerful Zulu chief. He has power over all this vast territory, with the exception of a few places on the coast under the protection of the Portuguese.
Inland from the Gasa country extends the kingdom of the Matabele Kaffirs. It is a complete military despotism.
The land of this kingdom rises higher than that of the Gasa country. The picturesque granite hills of the Matoppo and Mashona ranges often attain an elevation of forty-five hundred feet.
The king of this country has his residence at the kraal, or village, on the southern slope of the Matoppo hills.
A plateau Kaffir tribe, named the Makololo, having adopted the military system of government, marched northward, early in the present century, through the Transvaal to the central valley of the Zambesi, in search of conquest.
Having enslaved the natives of the river valleys, they established a powerful kingdom, which extended south and north across the Zambesi.
Disputes arose in the kingdom as to the right of succession. Those who had been conquered took up arms against their conquerors, and having revenged themselves for the years of servitude they had had to endure, completely destroyed the Makololo tribe.
The Kalahari Desert represents that portion of the interior of South Africa which has the greatest deficiency in moisture. It may be termed the heart of Bechuanaland.
It reaches away in a northerly direction from the Orange River as far as Lake N'gami.
The change from the fertile, verdant plains of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State to the arid desert is a very gradual one, corresponding to the change from the Soudan to the Sahara in the north.