I went to the hills next day and saw numbers of pits, some fifty feet deep, that had been made by the diggers in their search for gold; and on one hill to the north, contiguous to the slope of the Tati valley, I found another ruin, consisting of the remains of a wall that formed a rampart round the hill-top, joined on to a second wall three times its size that ran round the next hill a little lower down. It was over three feet thick, and, like what I had previously seen, made of stones, blocks of iron mica, piled together without cement. On the inside it could be seen how the erection was made of oblong lumps of various dimensions, but outside, probably with some view to symmetry and decoration, there had been inserted double rows of stone hewn into a kind of tile, and placed obliquely one row at right angles to the other. Each inclosure had an entrance facing the north, that of the largest being protected by the wall on the right projecting outwards, whilst on the left it curved inwards towards the centre. Altogether the resemblance between these ruins and those we had seen before on the Shasha was very striking; to my mind they conveyed the impression that the walls might originally have been put up with some reference to the gold that was being found in the locality; but I look for a future visit, in which I may be able to make such investigations as may settle whether they were erected by the Mashonas in the east or by the people of Monopotapa.
Hearing on my return that Pit Jacobs had come home, I called and stayed some hours with him. It could hardly be otherwise than with intense interest that I listened to the recounting of the many episodes in the experience of five-and-twenty years of a man who had acquired the reputation of being the second-best elephant-hunter in all South Africa.
Numerous as lions are in other parts, I never heard of them being so bold as they notoriously are in the neighbourhood of the Tati station. The gold-diggers suffered greatly from their depredations, and they had been known to get inside kraals enclosed by a thorn-fence six feet high, and the same thickness at its base. Brown and Pit Jacobs had often seen them prowling in the night in the space between their houses, and one morning, while the mining operations were going on, a native labourer on entering the coal-cellar to get fuel for the engine, was pounced upon by a lion, that would certainly have torn him to pieces if it had not been that it was old and its teeth blunt. On another occasion a lioness had been shot at midday; and within the last few days Mr. Brown’s horse had been dragged from the stable, which was well protected by a strong fence, except on the side facing the house. These are facts that illustrate the persistent daring of the lions in the locality, and of which an example now came within my own experience.
LIONESS ATTACKING CATTLE ON THE TATI RIVER.
I had occasion to make some purchases, and on the morning of the 2nd of April called at the office of Mr. Brown’s foreman. Whilst we were transacting our business, a negro came rushing in with the intelligence that lions were among the cattle. No time was to be lost in giving chase. I hurried with what speed I could down to our camp, nearly a quarter of a mile away, to get my Snider and some cartridges, and communicated the news to Bradshaw, who entered into the spirit of the thing at once, and seized his double-barrelled muzzle-loader, a weapon with which he had often done wonders. We quickly made up a party of about twenty, including besides ourselves a lot of half-armed negroes, Pit Jacobs’ son, and the half-caste hunter Africa, the two latter being on horseback. Leaving the hill surmounted with the ruins on our left, we worked our way up the river-valley, which was here from 200 to 300 yards wide, to a spot close to the river where there was a mass of mimosas. On our way the negroes told us that the lions, only the day before, had attacked some cattle down at a watering-place that had been dug in the sand at the river-side, not very distant from where we were; a lioness had seized a cow by the heel in a very unusual way, and had dragged it to the ground. Acting upon this information, we turned our course in that direction, and in a short time arrived at a mimosa, upon which we were told that the terrified herdsmen had taken refuge on the previous day. We discovered the herdsman’s dog still lingering near the tree, and guided by its barking, we followed on to a glade, where, we caught sight of the head of a cow above the long grass, and in another moment ascertained that it was being mangled by a great lioness. Without a word of warning, before we were aware of his intention, Africa fired. No luckier shot was ever aimed. The bullet hit the brute in the back, and shattered the vertebral column; it rolled over in the grass behind its prey. The dog, which was famous among the Tati people for its courage, and which already had been disturbing the lioness at its meal, now darted forward, and seizing it by the ear drew back the head, while the negroes pummelled away at its sides. The ill-fated cow was not quite dead, although the lioness had begun to gnaw at its entrails; we put the poor thing at once out of its misery. Africa was kind enough to make me a present of the skin of the lioness.
Since I met Africa on the Chobe, Khame had banished him from the Bamangwato country on account of his poaching propensities with regard to elephants and ostriches; he had now come to Tati, and hoped to induce Lo Bengula to accept payment from him and allow him to hunt ostriches on his land.
Until the 7th my time was fully occupied in making a geological investigation of the neighbourhood, and in making records of some of the interesting adventures of Pit Jacobs, Bradshaw, and another Boer hunter, who had just arrived. One day Africa received a visit from his son, who brought him some puku-meat; he cautioned us to be more than ever on our guard against lions, saying that at his own encampment, only a few miles away, he hardly ever passed a night without being disturbed by them. Another ivory-dealer arrived next day from the south, by way of Shoshong; he seemed to be a keen man of business, but nothing more; like other people, he complained of the number of lions in the neighbourhood, and mentioned that water was scarce between this place and Shoshong.
Westbeech arrived from Gubuluwayo on the following day. He was accompanied by his friend Philipps, and by F., an ivory-trader. Mr. Brown and his young bride returned likewise at the same time. Westbeech brought a document attested by Lo Bengula’s mark, granting permission for elephant-hunting on his western territory in consideration of the payment of a salted carcase of a horse. Mr. Brown and the trader both told me several things that entertained me about Lo Bengula. The king had a very corpulent sister, who exercised a very considerable influence over him. On being asked one day why she did not get married, she replied that she was too fat to walk, and as her brother was the only person in the country who kept a waggon, she thought it was far better for her to remain where she was, and not to entertain any idea of having a husband.
It is my own impression about Westbeech that he never turned to such good account as he might the favour he enjoyed with Lo Bengula; I think too that he yielded over much to Sepopo, and failed to manage Khame judiciously. In the course of his twelve years’ residence amongst the various tribes he had mastered all their languages in a way that could not fail to give him a great advantage at the different courts. As a proof of his familiarity with Lo Bengula, I was told that during his last visit he and some friends (probably some of the ivory-traders, or the two missionaries who resided in the vicinity of the royal quarters) went to call upon the king just at the moment when the dish (which, by the way, I may mention was rarely washed) was brought in containing the dinner for the high table. Without waiting for any invitation, Westbeech calmly proceeded to help himself, and to hand some of the food to his companions. The indunas, who were waiting in expectation, began to grumble; “George,” they said, “is treating the king like a child.” “Yes,” replied Westbeech; “I have been trusted by Moselikatze himself to drive his waggon and treat him as a child; and surely if I may do this with Moselikatze, I may do it with his son too; I am treating Lo Bengula as my child.” The answer seemed thoroughly to satisfy the chiefs, and they clapped their hands in applause.