My temporary sojourn was full of anxiety and annoyance. Not only was I harassed by my unsuccessful endeavours to procure bearers, but I was called upon to sustain a disappointment, which I could not do otherwise than feel very keenly. The report was brought to me by one of the traders that Theunissen had made up his mind that he would go no further, but that he should forthwith return to the south. I could not believe it; he had always shown himself so staunch an ally, that I had learnt to confide in him entirely; moreover, I had chosen him out of a number of volunteers as being in every way the most reliable of them all; and now to be told that just at the critical moment when most of all I required a trustworthy associate he was going to forsake me, was a thing that seemed incredible; but on referring to Theunissen himself, I ascertained that the report was only too true.
To add to my difficulties Pit had begun to behave himself in various ways so badly that I had been obliged to get rid of him.
Thus it was that on the very eve of what promised to be the fulfilment of my long-cherished plan, my hopes appeared suddenly dashed to the ground. I was utterly at a loss to know where I could apply for bearers; alone and friendless as I was, I was not even in a position to go and search for them in any of the native villages in the woods to the east. My condition was altogether disheartening.
In my dilemma Westbeech and Francis most considerately came to my assistance. Under the condition that I should first accompany them to “the splendid falls,” they guaranteed to find me bearers enough amongst the Manansas or Batokas that we should fall in with on our way. I felt that I had no alternative but to accept their offer. Before starting I engaged a man as my servant in the place of Pit; he was a Masupia, who had come from the Zambesi to seek employment. I gave him the name of “Elephant.”
As the Victoria Falls were fifty miles to the right of the route which I had proposed taking, it was not part of my original scheme to visit them at all; it was only the circumstances in which I found myself that led me to undertake the journey, but I have since congratulated myself very much upon the decision to which I came.
Leaving my waggon in the charge of Westbeech’s people, I started off with my new friends. The party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Westbeech, Mr. and Mrs. Francis, Bauren, Oppenshaw, Walsh, and myself, besides four Cape half-castes, my own Masupia servant, and twenty Makalakas and Matabele, who were engaged as bearers, and carried our provisions, cooking-apparatus, and wraps. We travelled in a couple of waggons as far as the Gashuma Flat, the way thither being attractive and pleasant for travellers. It was about three o’clock in the morning when we reached the first pools on the plain, whence we altered our course, which previously had been north-north-west, to east-north-east towards the falls.
The next portion of our route lay through a district known to be so much infested by the tsetse-fly, that we left our bullocks and waggons, and proceeded in a cart drawn by six donkeys. We did not, however, start until the 15th, waiting till we had put up a thoroughly substantial fence around the waggons, because we had noticed a number of lion-tracks in the neighbourhood. The plain was adorned with some splendid fan-palms and dense palm-thickets. The grass had been nearly all burnt down, but here and there, in patches where it had begun to sprout again, pretty little orbeki-gazelles were lying in twos or fours quite flat on the ground, and would suddenly start up at our approach and bound away, turning round to gaze at us when they were at a safe distance. Oppenshaw and I started off in pursuit of them, and were induced to go a very considerable way from our party; we were obliged to give up the chase as unsuccessful, and were making our way back, when scarcely thirty yards in front of us, a pair of orbekis sprang up. Oppenshaw fired at one of them as it was turning to look at us, and broke its fore leg just above the ankle; it bounded away on three legs; we fired again, but missed; the gazelle continued its flight, and seemed likely to escape altogether, when a third shot from me caught it on its side and brought it down. It died just as we got up to it, and as we had no servants in attendance, we had to carry it in turns for two hours under a burning sun, till we came to the spot where our companions were camping in the wood.
In the course of the afternoon we went six miles farther, making altogether an advance of thirteen miles in the day. Beyond the Gashuma Flat and a sandy forest, we crossed four shallow valleys, and made our camp for the night in a fifth, that in point of size was more important than the others; all the spruits except the last two were dry and overgrown with grass, the whole of them becoming deeper towards the south-east, the direction which they took to join the Panda ma Tenka. As we crossed the third of these valleys we saw a herd of giraffes, about 600 yards away.
Between the Gashuma Flat and the place where we encamped we came across the following sorts of game, or their traces:—Orbekis, rietbocks, steinbocks, waterbocks, zulu-hartebeests, koodoos, giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, and zebras.
