Let me conclude with a question. Those who still reject my solution, who cast about for the gold of Ophir all over the Indian Ocean—Egypt, Arabia, Persia, India—anywhere except South Africa, what do they propose doing with the hundreds of old Rhodesian workings, which are known to have yielded at least £75,000,000 in their time, and with the stupendous Semitic monuments connected with these workings, of which Mr. Hall here presents the public with scores of photographic reproductions, drawn exclusively from the central Great Zimbabwe group? Where does India, the spoilt child of the etymologists, stand beside these remains, which betray such undoubted evidence of their South Arabian origin?
GREAT ZIMBABWE[13]
CHAPTER I
ARRIVAL AT GREAT ZIMBABWE
First Impressions—View from Acropolis Hill
ON the 21st May, 1902, I arrived at Victoria in Mashonaland, en route to the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe, which lie about seventeen miles south-east of the township. In 1891, when the late Mr. Theodore Bent visited Zimbabwe, he occupied exactly one week in covering the distance between Victoria and the ruins. Unfortunately for him and his party, he had been advised to follow the Moshagashi Valley, instead of taking the higher ground towards the west, and consequently he experienced great difficulty with his wagons in crossing spruits, rivers, and swamps, which are numerous in that direction.
There is now an excellent road to Zimbabwe, and the distance can be covered by a cyclist well within an hour and a half, while visitors driving can now arrive at Zimbabwe early in the morning and spend the whole day among the ruins and yet be in town in ample time for the evening meal. The distance by road is seventeen miles, and by a native path cutting across country it is reduced to fifteen miles.
Victoria is a town with barely one hundred white inhabitants. It is the centre of the largest and finest grain country of Southern Rhodesia, and the opening up of the gold, copper, and coal areas of the Sabi district will tend to increase its importance.
The Acting-Civil Commissioner, Mr. Lawlor, arranged for requisitions to be made for stores, plant, etc., required for the work at the ruins, and the Officer Commanding the British South Africa Police provided wagon and ten mules to transport stores out to Zimbabwe. The Native Commissioner, Mr. Alfred Drew, sent out M’Guti, a native police boy, to the chief Mogabe, who lives near the ruins and rules over a large tract of country and is practically independent, to find fifteen “boys” (afterwards increased to forty) to be at our camp at Zimbabwe at sun-up on Saturday. The work of collecting stores and plant filled up the rest of the day.
Early the following morning we loaded up the wagon and left for Great Zimbabwe, arriving at the main ruins at midday. The wagon was off-loaded, and in the shade of a large candelabra-shaped euphorbia tree we lunched, while the “boys” carried the stores up on to a low granite knoll, where were three spacious native huts, built for the Civil Commissioner, and occupied by Lord Milner in 1897. Of course, half the population of Mogabe’s kraal came down the kopje sides in black strings to watch all that took place, and a jabbering, laughing, noisy crowd they were. There was not a pair of trousers or a vest among the lot, and all were absolutely bare, save for their aprons. I liked their appearance better than that of the average Matabele, for they had better and more genial faces, and were not at all haughty and reserved.