The journey resumed--Halt on the Seruli--Bushmen on the
Gokwe--The Shashe--The Tati settlement--Adventure with a
lion--W. E. Oates returns to the coast; particulars of his
journey.
Frank Oates left Bamangwato on the 7th of August, and the following
day joined his brother, who had been waiting for him a little way out
of the town. In the evening the Makalapsi River was reached, where
were a number of Dutchmen just returned from hunting on the Motloutsi,
to the north of the Limpopo. They had got a number of rhinoceros,
but no elephant. Continuing their journey the following morning, and
subsequently crossing the Touani and Lotsani Rivers, the brothers
reached the Palatswe River on the 12th. “The scenery here,” writes
Frank Oates, “is very pretty. A row of low kopjes on the right, with
large stones piled on one another, forms a natural terrace to the
eastward, from which you look over a sea of green bush, with a few
kopjes standing out from the midst.” Here goat’s milk was brought in a
large tortoise-shell from a kraal somewhere near, and exchanged for a
small piece of tobacco. Most of the natives carried guns, and game was
scarce and wild.
Starting again the ensuing evening, and continuing their journey during
the following day, they arrived early on the morning of the 15th at
the Seruli River, where a water-pit, sunk in the dry sandy bed of the
river, was found for watering the oxen. Here were a party of natives,
living in the bush, hunting. They were said to be Bushmen. One of
their number, who came to the waggon the following day, looked very
striking--a leopard-skin thrown gracefully over his well-formed person,
and a necklace of large lavender beads round his neck. Four days were
spent by the brothers at the Seruli, whence they proceeded on their
journey on the evening of the 19th, making a halt about midnight. From
this point Frank Oates’s Journal takes up the story for the next few
days--till their arrival at the Shashe on the 24th--as follows:--
“_August 20th._--Have coffee, and hear the monotonous call of
the night-hawk, as we rest and let the cattle feed. W. called my
attention yesterday, at close of day, to another (a clucking) note,
which he says proceeds from the hornbill. We have been living, whilst
at the Seruli, on ostrich eggs. Fried with a little meal is the best
way we have had them, or made into a pudding with maizena. They are
strong, unless nicely cooked. Started again at 2.30 A.M.,
and trekked for three hours. Horned moon and bright morning star in
the east; horizon dark against the sky, already glowing with the pale
orange of approaching morning, fading into the dark violet of the upper
firmament. Notes of birds are heard. What a loss not to be able to
appreciate beautiful things, as must be the case with our men, and how
much less they affect me even than they used to do, when I seemed to
find the world more full of hope and high ends to be attained than it
looks now.
“Inspanned again about 8, and crossed the dry bed of a large stream,
which continued to keep near the road on the right. It was full of
sand, with plenty of bush and trees about it. Francolins abundant,
also hornbills, and many other birds in numbers, so I think there
must be water somewhere in it, or very near. Reached the Gokwe about
noon, having gone nine miles. The trek was a slow one, and part of it
being when the sun was getting high, the oxen were tired. Found good
francolin shooting where we passed the last spur of the range along
the river, and where we outspanned; sand-grouse coming to drink in
the evening at the latter place. There was fresh giraffe spoor where
we crossed the ‘spruit’[10] by the kopjes, and further on fresh lion
spoor.... The people at the Gokwe are a sort of outcast race under the
Basutos, called Bushmen. Men, women, and children came to the waggon.
They have fine pack-oxen. They live in the bush, Hendrik says, having
a sort of temporary abode near the bed of the river to the left of the
road. They were ornamented with beads, and had on necklaces of blue
cut ones and skins. They always ask for tobacco, making signs that
they want snuff. They are hunting here. They brought ostrich eggs,
exchanging them for a cheap knife, mirror, or handkerchief. I had great
difficulty in buying an ostrich feather for about three or four pounds
of lead. They wanted a whole bar, and on no other terms would bring
more feathers.
“_August 21st._--Calm day, after a very windy night.... Started at
7.15 P.M., and went about seven miles, crossing two spruits,
and outspanned for the night about 11.
“_August 22d._--Cool morning. Trekked from 6.30 to 10 A.M., the
road twisting a good deal; say seven miles.... Stopped to rest, and
inspanned again about 4 P.M., the road now winding through stony crags,
and numbers of kopjes appearing to our right, to our left, and in
front. Going a fair pace. Crossed the dry bed of the Seribi, apparently
a very large river. Deep descent, sand very heavy, banks of river
picturesquely wooded. We had seen lots of fresh lion spoor on the road
before crossing the Seribi, and on this side I see more. Delicious
fragrance from a sort of sallow-like blossom. Later, approaching the
Motloutsi, we saw large numbers of sand-grouse flying both towards us
and the opposite way--to and from the water. Finished trekking about
7, but did not outspan till much later, as when we entered the broad
bed of the Motloutsi we stuck in the deep sand, and made many fruitless
efforts to get out before outspanning. There was a little pool of water
at which the oxen drank, and which the grouse resorted to. The sand
around it was covered with feathers of birds.
“Sunset scene very lovely. In the foreground, brown bushes. Two little
violet kopjes appear against the sky, behind one of which the sun has
set. A lovely rose hue, deepest around the position of the sun, is
on the horizon; this fades into violet, and this again into a pale
greenish blue. Some very small, clearly defined, deep violet clouds,
edged with gold, stand out from the sky.
[Illustration: DOUBLE-BANDED SAND-GROUSE.--_Pterocles
bicinctus._]
“_August 23d._--Before daybreak the little sand-grouse were
flying round, and a few settled to drink. I did not disturb them. The
Motloutsi is a large river, with a very sandy bed, and here and there
large rocks, and a twisting course. Hendrik says all these sandy rivers
become dry or nearly so in winter. Both yellow and cream-coloured
acacia blossoms very beautiful and sweet. Pleasant breeze where W.’s
waggon is outspanned, mine being hot in the river-bed. Some people
came here, but had neither eggs nor feathers for sale. As usual they
carry muskets. It is a wonder they find anything to shoot, as they
seem to be spread all over the country. At the Gokwe we were told that
the Bamangwato hunters were hunting about in that district, but could
get nothing. At this time of year the people seem to come out to hunt
from all the kraals, leaving only those unfit for that work at home.
A giraffe was killed near here by some Bushmen, who gave us meat in
exchange for tobacco. When out this morning I saw some kind of melon,
which at first looked like ostrich-eggs, growing by the river-bed--the
kind, I think, which the oxen eat in times of drought.
“_August 24th._--Trekked for three hours, then rested, and
started again at 11 A.M.... Reached the Shashe about two,
and outspanned. We had come extremely slow; sun hot, sand heavy, road
bad, bullocks tired. Ground broken and stony, and falling towards
the Shashe. Many crags crop up around, and in front of us are some
kopjes--Hendrik says where the Tati is. The Shashe is a very broad
river, all deep sand, with water in one place where it has been dug
for, both for cattle and people. We enlarge the hole (hard work under
the heat of the sun), and let the cattle drink.... There is an old
Bushman here, destitute and alone. He says the Mungwato men took his
gun. The other side of the river, he says, is under Lobengula, this
under Sekomi, and Hendrik says the Makalakas are not independent,
all here belonging to the Matabele and Mungwato sovereignties. These
Bushmen are, I suppose, the original inhabitants. Hendrik says they are
slaves to the others. They certainly are outcasts. This man does not
beg, takes what is given him, and lies naked with his head on a stone
by the fire at night. He has no blanket.... Watched the Bushman make
his fire with two sticks. He took off his sandals, placed a stick on
one of them, and holding it firm with his foot, twisted the other stick
rapidly between both hands, working it in a little hollow of the first
stick, till black dust began to form. This soon turned red-hot, and
there was fire like that in a pipe.”
Continuing their journey on the 26th, the brothers reached the Tati
the same evening, where a small English settlement of a few huts has
collected round the gold mines, which are being worked by Sir John
Swinburne. “There is nothing remarkable in the scenery here,” writes
Frank Oates soon after their arrival; “a few kopjes only, with low
scrub and trees. Everything is very much dried up. The river is broad,
with deep sand in its bed. Yesterday Nelson[11] gave me a live fish,
four or five inches long, something like a perch. He says they live in
the sand now. Water is got by digging in the river’s bed.... The veldt
where we are outspanned,” he concludes, “is quite ploughed up with the
spoor of elephants which used to come here five years ago, and have
been found quite near here since.”
At this point Frank Oates and his brother remained a few days before
separating, and on the 29th the former wrote home the following letter,
giving some account of his future plans, and adding some particulars to
his experiences above related:--
“... When we left Bamangwato,” he writes, “whence I last wrote, Buckley
and Gilchrist went on with W. I followed two or three days later,
having been busy seeing people and making arrangements. I soon picked
W. up, who was waiting for me, the others having gone on in advance--of
course, as we thought, to Tati. We, however, met a trader with a note
from Buckley saying they had turned off at the Seruli River.... We have
been here now two or three days, and to-night Buckley and Gilchrist
arrived, having abandoned their new route.
“The road we have come crosses a number of sandy river-beds.
These rivers are large streams in summer, but are now dry, except
occasionally there is a little pool in some, or water may be sometimes
obtained by digging. This tract of country through which we have come
is called by the Dutch the ‘thirst land,’ and is now at its worst. On
our return it will no doubt be easy enough to cross, but now it is hard
work, especially for the oxen. We trek about three hours at a time,
doing perhaps seven or eight miles in a trek. Generally two treks are
enough in the twenty-four hours, one in the morning and one in the
evening, but in going through the ‘thirst’ we have to push on and trek
as much by night as possible.
[Illustration: TATI SETTLEMENT.]
“I was in advance of W. when I reached the Shashe, and, as it happened,
had then only one man, Hendrik, my black servant, with me; for my
driver and his boy had decamped, though they afterwards returned--as
of course they were likely to do--the same evening. They will not have
their wages paid till they return to Maritzburg, and then not unless
they have behaved properly, and they would have had a miserable time
if they had actually deserted me. Hendrik can drive, and knowing, as
I did, the hold I had on the others and the folly of giving way, I
let them go, telling them the sooner they left me the better, and the
result of this treatment proved satisfactory. The difference originated
in the driver asking me for tobacco when I told him to inspan, and
refusing to comply till I had supplied him, which of course I would
not do, as I treat them quite liberally enough, and indeed too well.
Hendrik was a little poorly at the time, but behaved very well, and we
reached the Shashe, where we dug for water.
“Being rather tired, we returned to the waggon after watering the oxen,
without driving them away from the river first, which I know now we
ought to have done on account of lions, but I have never yet thought it
necessary to take such precautions except at night, when we tie them
up and light fires. Soon after reaching the waggon I heard the loud
cries of an ox in distress, and exclaiming to Hendrik that I thought
a lion must be the cause, locked up my medicine chest, from which I
was taking medicine for Hendrik, and seized my gun. Hendrik followed
me, and we both ran to the river. As we peered over the bank, there
we saw the ox, the largest and fattest in my span, lying in the grass
at the bottom of the bank with a lion tearing him. He was only a few
yards below me, and before I could distinguish the lion properly as it
lay upon his prostrate form, the brute leapt off the ox and retreated
across the river. I fired as he ran, and hit him hard, for he rolled
over, and I ought to have given him the second barrel at once, but
thinking him mortally wounded, I hesitated a moment, and in the next
he had disappeared in the dry reeds. I did not like to follow him at
once, and Hendrik would not accompany me, but tried to dissuade me from
following him at all. However, in about half-an-hour I went in search
of the brute, but never found it, and do not know what became of it.[12]
“I have yet been brought very little into contact with wild beasts, and
have had few stirring incidents, but I have been pretty fully employed
one way or another, and continue to persevere in my journey. I found on
reaching here that it was too late to go to the Victoria Falls without
risk of sickness, in which case I had long before decided to travel
in a north-easterly direction to Mosilikatze’s country, the country of
the Matabele, over whom Lobengula, son of Mosilikatze, now reigns. I am
told I shall see some very beautiful scenery on my way there, and I am
now interested in pursuing my journey as far as I can. From here to the
King’s Town they call six days, but it will probably take me more.
“Here I have met two very nice fellows. One of them, Nelson, a Swede,
is managing the mine of the Tati Gold Company. It is on a very small
scale, and there are, I think, only seven white men here altogether.
Brown, the other I refer to, has also some office connected with the
mine, and keeps a store. They are both extremely kind, and willing
to do anything to help one, and I expect to find more friends at the
King’s Town--especially Mr. Thomson, the missionary, for whom I have
a letter from Mr. Mackenzie, and another from Mr. Hepburn. I likewise
carry the mail.
“A flower is almost an unheard-of thing at present, everything
being dried up; but the thorny shrubs (mimosas), with their yellow
sweet-scented blossoms, are an exception, and a sign of approaching
spring. The shrubs they grow on are covered with long sharp thorns,
and there are no leaves on them, but blossoms are appearing. There is
another kind with hooked thorns and whitish sallow-scented blossoms,
which attain the size of a good-sized English fruit-tree. The thorns
which defend nearly every tree here are a great impediment in
travelling through the bush.
“The nights are now cool, though not so sharp as they were a while ago.
The thermometer seldom falls much below 50°. It is coolest just before
sunrise. At mid-day and in the afternoon it gets considerably above 80°
in the shade, in fact I should set the point reached at nearer 90°. As
I sit writing in my tent, I hear the engine working--an odd sound up in
these remote regions.”
Three days later, September 2d, W. E. Oates supplements this letter:--
“I am just adding a line to the above, to leave it before I go. Frank
left the day before yesterday, to go to the King’s Town. The king
(Lobengula) is the great nigger chief here, and behaves very well to
all white men. I am staying with Buckley and Gilchrist, and we are now
going to the Shashani River, about five days’ journey. I think Frank
will be all right. He has a Cape Colony black man with him, who knows
this country well, and speaks excellent English.[13] He was up here
with Sir John Swinburne, who owns the gold-mine, so I am not afraid for
Frank if he takes care of himself....
“The country here is regularly burnt up now, and will continue so till
the rains fall in November. The river is nothing but a dry bed of sand,
with a little pool of water in it about three miles off--the only
water near for miles. You may imagine the luxury of a bath, under such
circumstances, out of the question. There are two men here who have
been very kind, one sending us milk twice a day--and, I can assure you,
milk is exceedingly scarce. The country is most uninteresting; nothing
to see but thick bush, composed chiefly of low thorn-trees with immense
spikes, which hold you fast if you get amongst them.
“The only pleasant part of the day is from sunrise (about half-past
six) to half-past eight. After that, the less you do the better until 5
P.M., when it is moderately cool again. At half-past six it is
dark. The flies are a perfect plague all day, and get into everything.
Towards the end of October there are some heavy thunder showers, and
then summer begins, but the regular rains don’t fall until November.
There are great numbers of hyænas and jackals, which prowl about the
waggons all night. Last night one of Buckley’s oxen was ill, and the
hyænas knowing it attacked him, and this morning we found they had
actually eaten part of him alive. Of course the poor brute had to be
shot. Unfortunately the hyæna escaped, though fired at by Buckley’s
driver. The people are very glad when anybody shoots these animals,
as they are constantly killing goats, and sometimes oxen. They are,
however, so wary, that it is difficult to get them.
“Mr. Nelson, the manager of the mine, lent us some newspapers up to the
24th of May, the latest news we have seen from England. He also sent
me a small bottle of beer, worth about five shillings here. Nelson is
getting the king, Lobengula, some furniture from England, as he told
the latter that a king ought not to sit on the ground. Lobengula’s
country extends from here to the Zambesi, and he is an absolute despot,
having the lives of all his people in his own hands. They say if one of
the Matabele is found stealing from a white man he has him executed.”
Soon after writing the above, W. E. Oates left Tati in company with
Messrs. Gilchrist and Buckley, to hunt on the Semokwe River, where
they had very good sport. Returning thence in due time to the coast,
they took the same route as that by which they had travelled north,
the change of season, however, from winter to summer producing,
as they returned, a remarkable change in the entire aspect of the
country. By the end of October they were back at Bamangwato, and
reached Pietermaritzburg on the 2d of January. A few extracts from W.
E. Oates’s letters, written as they proceeded, may here be read with
interest. He writes first from Bamangwato on November 3d as follows:--
“I arrived here with Buckley and Gilchrist about a week since, and
shall probably make a start for Pretoria to-night. The spring has now
commenced, and the grass is beginning to grow. There have been heavy
thunderstorms, and the lightning is wonderful, never ceasing for a
moment during the storms. The heat also is very great.... There has
just been a row here. The old chief’s eldest son has left the place,
and nearly the whole of Mungwato went with him. The chief himself,
Sekomi, is still here, and often comes down to the waggons begging. He
got quite drunk the other night, and tumbled under my waggon. We had to
see him home. He thinks his son means to kill him. He himself killed
two or three of his own brothers when he came to be chief, but his two
eldest sons are both Christians, and Mackenzie thinks Sekomi is in
no danger from them.... There are some nice flowers of the lily sort
sprung up since the rain began, but very few flowers of other kinds
yet. The rains, however, have only just commenced, and we shall have
all the summer heat going down.”
Again, from Pretoria, he writes on December 5th:--
“I got here on the 2d instant, and great was my delight on
receiving letters from home--the first I have had since leaving
Pietermaritzburg.... It seems quite strange to be in a civilized place
again. It is very pretty here now, just the height of summer. We are
indulging in fruit and vegetables, eggs and milk, to all of which we
have long been strangers. The peaches are hardly ripe yet, but apricots
are to be bought for a shilling a hundred.... In coming from Mungwato
we had to stop a week at the Meriko, as the river was very high with
the rains and we couldn’t cross. I had some thoughts of taking my
waggon in pieces, and floating the things across on rafts, but the
water kept subsiding, and at last we got over, the water only just
taking the oxen off their feet. In dry weather there is hardly any
water, but after the rains the river gets tremendously swollen, and
there are very steep banks. Whilst waiting there Dawnay[14] came up
with two waggons. He has been out two years, and been to the Victoria
Falls. He says it would be worth walking from Durban to see them. He
showed me some little sketches he had made, but said it was almost
impossible to draw on account of the flies. The tsetse-fly, which kills
everything except men, wild beasts, and donkeys, swarms there, and
bites so furiously that your hands and face are puffed up in no time.
He describes the scenery on the Zambesi as lovely.
[Illustration: BOERS’ FARMS, CROCODILE RIVER.]
“The country is much prettier now than it was when we went up. The
grass has sprung up and is quite green, and all the trees are in
leaf. The Transvaal, from the Crocodile River here, is beautiful. All
along the banks of the river are farms, belonging to the Dutch Boers,
surrounded with orange and peach trees. At most of these you can now
get milk, butter, and eggs. We have had heavy thunderstorms, which,
seen at night, are most gorgeous; lightning all round, all colours, and
darting in all directions at the same moment. It is just like a display
of fireworks. It is much cooler now than we have lately had it, the
thermometer seldom being above 90° in the shade, and the last few days
there has been a nice breeze.
“My Kafir driver, who came up with me from Maritzburg, ran away
when we were staying at the Meriko, and Bell and I had to drive the
waggon down here. Fortunately they are very good oxen, so there has
been no difficulty, and I have managed to get another driver here.
Bullock-driving is quite a business in itself, and a very difficult
thing in the bush with refractory beasts. This fellow, Solomon, stole
a horse which we had found straying. It belonged to the old chief at
Mungwato, and when I was going to hand the horse over to a Dutchman,
whom Sekomi had authorised to take charge of the horse if he found him,
Solomon went to the waggon where he was tied up, jumped on him, and
galloped away. He will probably be caught, as the horse is well known.
“A ‘salted,’ or seasoned, horse is worth a great deal, as there is a
sickness in the bush which is generally fatal to horses which are not
‘salted.’ It commences when the rains begin to fall. I much regretted
losing my little horse. I was told, when I got him, he was salted, but
he died after a few hours’ illness. There is no cure known for it. He
was looking beautiful; his coat shone like satin, and he was getting
quite fat with the young grass and some corn which I got for him at
Mungwato. The oxen are thriving tremendously, and, since the grass has
grown, from wretched skeletons they have become regular Tichbornes.
“I shall write to you again from Maritzburg, if there is a ship sailing
before I go, for I expect I shall have to stay a fortnight or three
weeks there, to sell the waggon, oxen, etc.... I mean to trek to-night
when the moon gets up. We get into the high veldt now, where there is
no bush. My waggon looks very seedy, the cover torn in many places by
mimosa bushes, and the paint worn off. It is infested with beetles, and
occasionally a lizard or scorpion is detected. Ants, too, occasionally
pay me visits, to which I greatly object, as they bite uncommonly hard
in this country. At night, if you are outspanned near water and have
a lanthorn in the waggon, the candle is put out by numberless little
beetles which creep in; and the frogs literally yell all night long. It
is very pretty to see the fire-flies.”
On January 2d, as already stated, W. E. Oates reached
Pietermaritzburg, where he found the heat very intense. Three weeks
later he sailed from Durban, accompanied by Mr. Gilchrist, and landed
in England early in the following March.
[Illustration: SOUTH AFRICAN WART
HOG.--_Phacochærus æthiopicus._]