The whole of the next morning was devoted by us to the task of cutting out the ivory from the three big tuskers killed in the forest, and the exceptional size of the elephants may be judged from the fact that the weight of ivory taken from them amounted in the aggregate to four hundred and forty-seven pounds. Then, about two o’clock in the afternoon, we inspanned the oxen and trekked in a north-easterly direction, with the range of hills cut through by the curious gorge about a quarter of a mile on our left and the Drakensberg range of mountains towering aloft on our right some fifty miles distant. We trekked until within half an hour of sunset, by which time we had rounded the north-eastern spur of the range of hills, passed the northern extremity of the gorge, and “struck” another river, about one hundred and twenty yards in width, flowing northward, on the right bank of which we outspanned for the night. Two days later, trekking northward along the course of the last-mentioned river, we arrived at its junction with the Limpopo, on the farther side of which lay my goal, Mashonaland; and here we again outspanned, while Piet and I went on a prospecting tour in search of a drift by means of which the wagon might be safely taken across.
Leaving the wagon, our spare horses, and the zebras in charge of Jan, the Hottentot driver, with strict injunctions that he was to take the utmost care of the captives, and treat them with the greatest kindness, Piet and I set out at daybreak—the former mounted upon Punch, while I rode Prince as usual—taking with us the elephant gun and my rifle, with a sufficiency of ammunition for each, and provisions for four days. The dogs Thunder and Juno accompanied us as a matter of course. We were on the right or southern bank of the mighty stream, and this we followed closely, mile after mile, anxiously scrutinising every foot of the turbid flood for signs indicative of a sand bar extensive enough to enable us to transport the wagon to the opposite bank; but although we found no less than four shoals in the course of our first day’s search, three of them extended less than halfway across the river, while the fourth proved to be a quicksand in which we narrowly escaped losing both our horses, saving them at last only by the skin of our teeth and after nearly an hour’s hard and strenuous labour. This occurred about three o’clock in the afternoon, and when at length we were all once more safe on solid ground we were, horses as well as men, so utterly fagged out that there was nothing for it but to off-saddle for the remainder of the day in order to recover. A good night’s rest, however, completely restored us all, and enabled us to resume our search on the following morning.
Our experiences on the morning of this day were simply a repetition of those of the previous day, except that, profiting by experience, we took care not to allow ourselves to be trapped in any more quicksands; and I began to fear that our search was going to be a much more protracted one than I had anticipated. But shortly after midday we arrived at a spot where, on the opposite side of the river, another river, about a hundred yards wide, discharged into the main stream. At this point also the Limpopo widened out until it was fully a quarter of a mile in width, the combined effect of these two circumstances being the formation of numerous eddies and so much slack water that the soil held in suspension by the two streams was here afforded an opportunity to settle and form a shoal extending right across the main river, with a maximum depth of water over it of barely four feet. This shoal we thoroughly tested both on foot and on horseback, with the result that we found it to be an ideal crossing place.
Having satisfied myself as to this, my next business was to arrange for the dispatch of Piet as my ambassador into the Mashona country. I had been considering the matter very carefully during the past two days, recalling to mind all that my friend, Major Henderson, had told me with regard to his experiences among the Mashona, and the advice that he had given me; and I finally determined that my most prudent course would be to send Piet into the country absolutely empty-handed, with a message to the effect that I desired the permission of the king to cross his borders, traverse the country, and visit him at his Place, hunting and trading with his people on the way. I was at first somewhat undecided as to whether or not I should entrust Piet with a present for the king, but I finally decided that it would be better to wait until I should obtain audience with His Majesty and then personally hand him the gift; otherwise, for aught that I could tell to the contrary, the sable monarch might seize the gift and then do away with poor Piet in some horrible manner, while if the Tottie went empty-handed there would be no inducement for the king to destroy him, or rather there would be the prospect of the gift to deter him from doing so. Therefore, upon the following morning, after charging the man with my message, and making him repeat it over and over again to me until there was no possibility of his forgetting it, I sent him across the river on foot with all the provisions that we had left, and then, riding Prince and leading Punch, to whose saddle I had securely strapped the elephant gun and my stock of ammunition, I set out, accompanied by the dogs, on my return to the spot where I had left the wagon.
Upon my arrival I found Jan, my Tottie driver, in great tribulation, it appearing that he had been beset by lions during the second night of my absence, and that the brutes had killed no less than three of the oxen and both zebras, despite the utmost efforts of himself and ’Ngulubi, the Bantu voorlouper; while two other oxen had died through eating tulip, a poisonous plant which he had too late discovered grew in profusion in the immediate neighbourhood of the outspan. Furthermore, it appeared that four of the other oxen had suffered severely from the same poison, but had been saved by the prompt administration of a decoction made from the roots of the plant. This was serious news, because I had promised Piet that he should find us outspanned at the spot where he and I had parted, and I knew not how soon he might return; therefore it was very desirable that we should reach that spot without delay. After considering the matter, therefore, I finally decided to cache all the ivory which I had with me, abandon the pelts, and go forward to the rendezvous with nothing in the wagon save the “truck” which I had brought up with me as presents and for trading, the ammunition, and the remains of our stock of provisions, which by this time was becoming pretty well depleted. And this I did, arriving at the arranged meeting place three days later, without suffering any further loss.
It was well on in the afternoon of the tenth day after Piet’s departure when he turned up again, dusty, leg-weary, and somewhat footsore, but otherwise not very much the worse for wear. He reported that the country was pretty densely populated, the kraals being very extensive, and dotted over the country at intervals of, in some cases, not more than twenty miles apart, the first kraal at which he arrived being within ten miles of the river bank. He described the Mashona as being a very fine race of people, almost if not quite equal in physique to the Zulus, but of a much more suspicious and unreliable character than the latter, and apparently exceedingly averse to the intrusion of strangers. Nevertheless, upon stating the nature of his mission, he had been passed on from kraal to kraal until finally he had arrived at Gwanda, the Place (or town) of King Lomalindela, which, it appeared, was situated among a rather curious group of mountains, five days’ march from the river. Lomalindela, it seemed, had received my envoy with a very considerable display of austerity, and had submitted him to a most rigorous cross-questioning; but, luckily, the Tottie had nothing to conceal, and was therefore able to tell a perfectly straightforward story, which, as Piet believed, had not only allayed the monarch’s suspicions, but had also aroused in him a very lively curiosity to see the white man and his wonderful fire tubes which slew from afar. The result of the mission was therefore, on the whole, quite satisfactory, the king having not only accorded me permission to enter his country and kill game in it, but also entrusted my messenger with an invitation to me to visit him at Gwanda, and remain there as long as I pleased. This being the case, and the river having fallen nearly a foot since Piet and I had first arrived at the ford, I seized the favourable opportunity, and safely transferred the wagon and all my other belongings to the Mashona side of the river upon the afternoon of the day of Piet’s return; and, following the course of the stream to which I attributed the formation of the ford—and which, Piet informed me, led direct to Gwanda—outspanned for the night some six miles to the northward of the Limpopo.
The next day we continued our trek, and shortly before noon arrived at the first Mashona village on the route. It was a place of some importance, containing about a thousand huts of the usual beehive shape, but somewhat larger than those usually built by the Zulus, and with entrances large enough to enable a man to pass through by merely bending his body instead of having to go down upon his knees. The village was circular in plan, and was protected by a solidly constructed stockade, built of stout tree trunks driven deeply into the ground, with a slight outward slope; the stockade being about sixteen feet high on the outside, with the tops of the piles sharpened to render it unclimbable. There were four gateways in the stockade, giving access to the two principal streets, which crossed each other at right angles, intersecting in the centre of the village, at which point there was a spacious open square, where the public business of the village was transacted and where the village sports were held. We did not enter the village, but outspanned at a distance of about half a mile from its eastern gate.
The cattle had scarcely been turned loose to graze, under the guardianship of ’Ngulubi, the voorlouper, when the headman of the village, accompanied by some half a dozen minor dignitaries, and followed by ten women bearing baskets containing preternaturally skinny fowls, eggs, green mealie cobs, sugar cane, and calabashes of milk, emerged from the village and advanced upon the wagon. The men were unarmed, and the presence of the women with the baskets—the contents of which were of course a present to us—showed that the visit was to be one of ceremony and compliment; therefore with Piet’s assistance I at once proceeded to unpack one of my bales of “truck”, and withdrew therefrom the articles which I proposed to present in turn. I had hardly completed my preparations when the little party arrived, and I had an opportunity to study the first Mashonas I had ever seen.
Both men and women were finely built and well proportioned, but their best friends could not conscientiously pronounce them handsome; and their unattractiveness was further increased by the expression of their countenances which seemed to be compounded of suspicion, craftiness, greed, and cruelty. They saluted me respectfully enough, however, offered their presents, and then sat down, at my invitation, squatting upon their heels in the usual native fashion, while I sorted out the gifts which I intended to give them. These consisted of a bandana handkerchief or two, a few yards of gaudily printed calico, a few yards of copper wire, and a handful of mixed beads to each of the women; and from the grins of appreciation of the recipients I concluded that they were all well satisfied. Then, with the inquisitiveness of the lower type of savage, they began to question me, not in a straightforward fashion, but covertly and by roundabout processes, with the view of discovering my motive for journeying so far from my own people; whereupon I told them frankly that I was a hunter and trader, seeking for ivory and gold. They did not seem to understand what I meant by “gold” until I spoke of it as the yellow metal that shines when polished, and showed them the ring that I wore; whereupon they nodded their heads in comprehension, and shortly afterward rose and returned to the village. But about half an hour later the headman and three others came back to the wagon, bringing with them a number of rough-shaped nuggets of a dull, ruddy-yellow gold, which looked as though they might have been crudely smelted out of the quarried ore, and wanted to trade them with me for beads and printed calico. The quantity which they brought amounted to about twelve pounds avoirdupois altogether, which I estimated to be worth between six and seven hundred pounds sterling; but they fixed such an exorbitant value upon the metal that had I acceded to their demands my stock of trade stuff would soon have been exhausted. Of course the gold was worth far more than my entire stock of “truck”, but when I purchased the latter I had quite reckoned upon being able to obtain for it as much gold as I could possibly load upon the wagon, and still have “notions” enough left to supply all the presents that I should probably find it necessary to make; therefore as soon as my visitors pointed out to me what they required in exchange for their gold I laughed at them, waved them away, and proceeded—not too hurriedly—to repack my treasures. The result was what I had anticipated and intended; they refused to leave the wagon, and gradually reduced their demands until finally I obtained the whole of the gold for about two yards of calico, a bandana handkerchief, four yards of copper wire, and a handful of beads; and even these prices, I explained, were far higher than I could possibly afford to give in future!
I fully anticipated that the result of this transaction would be to bring out the remainder of the villagers with proposals to barter such gold as they might possess; but although so many of them turned out that by sunset I estimated that every man, woman, and child in the village must have visited the wagon, I saw no more gold that day. And for a very good reason; for it afterwards appeared that the headman had spent a busy afternoon going round the village, buying up every particle of gold he could lay hands upon, doubtless with much profit to himself: and on the following morning, while we were inspanning the oxen, he turned up, accompanied by a couple of women bearing between them nearly sixty pounds of gold, and detained me more than two hours while he haggled with me over the sale of it. But I had by this time come fully to understand that gold possessed absolutely no value for these people, except as a plaything for the children; and the result was that when at length I bade the man goodbye, and gave the order to trek, the fellow was glad to let me have the whole at my own price, and I secured it upon very favourable terms.