How we made Rhodesia

Front matter

Royal Sto., price au. net. Just published. THE CAMEL: Its Uses and Management. By MAJOR ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD, late 2nd East Lancashire Regiment. SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. SPECTATOR.— ■' A thoroughly practical work on the soldier's camel. The author has been for sixteen years a transport officer. He has been engaged in this service in Afghanistan, South Africa, India, and the Soudan. Major Leonard's practical experience leads him to the conclusion that, of all transport animals, the camel is best for military use in the East. While the experiences of a single march, noted by Major Leonard, give a glimpse of the comparative " oissedness" of different transport animals, which is as fresh as it is amusing.' FIELD.—* Major Leonards work is most admirably written. He does not profess to be a scientific zoologist, but treats the whole matter from a military and utilitarian point of view.

To render his work more acceptable to the young soldier, he has written it in plain and very simple language, and rendered it thoroughly interesting by the relat'on of incidents and anecdotes. The work is so generally readable that it is difficult to select one part which is more interesting than another. As regards the military employment of camels, we cannot but strongly recommend Major Leonard's bouk, which is one that must of necessity find its way into the library of every regiment that is ordered to the East.' ARMY AND NAl'Y GAZETTE.— ' Upon all questions relating to the camel — upon species, breeding, feeding, loading, marching equipment, management, and ailments— Major Leonard has much to say, and he says it in such a manner that his book is as readable as it is valuable, and its praulical value can scarcely be over-estimated.' PALL MALL GAZE TTE. — 'Major Leonard's exhaustive book may be considered in two aspects : as a book on the camel, and as a book on the camel and the British Army.

It deserves the highest praise.' A THENÆUM. — 'Thechapters on watering, feeding, loading, marching and carrying power, purchasine, &c. , in which he gives the result of his long practical experience, are highly instructive. Major Leonard is a close observer, and most of his remarks and suggestions will meet with general approval. His book contains much practical information which we hope may some day be embodied in a manual for the use of the army.' SATURDAY REVIEW.— 'We can commend this book as a very thorough account of the camel from many points of view. It is most com prehensive, ranging from anatomy to accoutrements, from characteristics and temperament to carrying power and ailments.' NATURE. — 'The subject is of great importance ; and as a practical work, the result of much experience, this book meets a want.' SCOTSMAN. — ' The book is a perfect storehouse of valuable information regarding this useful animal, which should be of the greatest possible value to transport officers.' LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. LONDON AND NEW YORK.

Chapter I. Pilapwie

From the 2gth March to 13th May, 1890. T N consequence of an offer of a troop in the Chartered -*- Company's Police, received by cable from Sir Fred Carrington on the 29th of March, 1890, I left Southampton on May the 4th in the Union Company's steamer Tartar, arriving at Cape Town, after a pleasant passage, on April the 23rd, a day famous, by the way, as having, over 300 years ago, produced our greatest poet. Much impressed as I was by the natural beauty of the place and its immediate surroundings, the bold outline of Table Mountain, flanked by the Lion's Head en couchant, forming a background that, as we approached from the sea, was splendidly imposing, I was anxious to get on, so had little time to look about, as in 24 hours after landing I was in the train on my way to Kimberley. As we rattled along over the Karoo I was very much struck by its comparative fertility, as some of the Colonials on board, who had evidently never seen the sandy expanse of the great Sahara, or the arid wastes of Libya, had described it to me as a desert, and it occurred to me as being a country suitable in every way for the camel.

A week at Kimberley, where I met with great kindness and hospitality from every one, passed most pleasantly, and, among other things, I was initiated into the mysteries of De Beers Consolidated both above and below ground. My eyes were bewildered by the unusual and dazzling spectacle of thousands of sparkling brilliants that were worth millions. Still in a hurry to get on, the 4th of May found me at the Post Office, along with seven other passengers, in addition to a driver and leader, and over a ton of luggage and mails. Oh, for the pathos and humour of a Dickens or Cruikshank, that I might sketch for you, either in pen or pencil, my first experience of a South African post cart ! Tender recollections of the swinging "doolie," the creaking "dak-garri," and the jingling "ekka," haunt odd corners of my memory, but Banagher never banged the devil more effectually than the Cape cart did all other conveyances I have ever travelled in.

Of the passengers, one was abnormally stout, another enormously tall, and a third a living skeleton, while the rest of us were of the ordinary run of average humanity. We looked at each other in a critical, taking-stock, what-the dickens-do-you-want-here? sort of way, and the long man, a friend of mine, who I knew had a precise, mathematical mind, began an inward calculation, first algebraic, then trigonometric, as to how we were all going to fit in. Fit, did I call it ? Packed sardine fashion I ought to say, or squashed into pulp like mashed turnips, would be, perhaps, more applicable. The cart had room enough for two to travel in with tolerable comfort, and four with a certain amount of dis comfort ; but nine of us, two being considerably above the average, besides 2500 lbs. of correspondence, were a trifle too much for it.

However, after much outward glaring and inward criticism of each other, we were soon on speaking terms, and got into the cart as best we could, but how we managed it is a mental problem that to this day remains unsolved, even by my long friend, who, with unusual energy, applied every equation and theorem he could think of to unravel the mystery, but without success. I was wedged in between two extremes. On one side the stout man taking up the whole seat ; on the other the skeleton jammed against the side of the cart, against which our luggage was strapped. Where he came in I cannot say, but that I was in the middle of it there was no mistake. Wedged, did I call it? Never has pancake undergone the flattening process more vigorously — and what awful salients, in the shape of elbow and knee-joints, which ran into me like blunt razors, and remained there, had the skeleton !

Where the long man stowed his legs, a good yard of which hung over the splash-board, frequently coming in useful by tickling up the wheelers when they grew lazy, I cannot say. PILAPWIE. 13 All I know is that my sympathy for him was heartfelt, for the agonies I suffered from my own legs, which are of a respectable length, were too dreadful, and at times I felt as if I had none at all, while at others doubts actually assailed me as to whether I had ever possessed any. The bottom of the cart was strewn, thicker than autumnal leaves, with small boxes and parcels, and I found my knees on a level with my chin, but where my feet were stowed heaven alone knew, except occasionally when a terrific attack of pins and needles reminded me very forcibly of their actuality ; so that, in spite of the squeezing I was undergoing, my faculties were alive in inverse ratio.

I will spare you further detail, however, except to say that never in the whole course of my life have I received such a jolting. The country was flat and uninteresting, and very much intersected by rivers and ravines, and the places we passed through — Berkley East, Taungs, and Vryburg — were small and miserable, while Mafeking, which we drove into on the morning of the 7 th May, was very little better, though there was more stir and bustle about it. Colonel Sir Fred Carrington, K. C.M.G, who was here in command of the Bechuanaland Border Police, was pleased to see me, and gave me all the information he could about what was going on — little more than I had learnt in the Secretary's office at Kimberley, which was practically nil. Indeed, the prevailing ignorance of the country, and of things in general, is astounding !

The same evening we continued our journey, after a rest of six hours, which consisted in trying to clean ourselves, and in running about all over Mafeking, seeing various people and securing stores, and, to our dismay, we found that we were to go some hundred miles further on, over a hilly country, in a smaller cart than the one we had left Kimberley with. Our number had now been reduced to seven, and the weight of the mails was lighter by several hundred pounds, but we had not driven many miles before we found that we had jumped from the frying-pan into the fire. Not only was the cart of lesser dimensions, but its springs were broken, and, to make matters worse, bolstered up by solid blocks of wood. Oh, our poor nerves ! How we trembled in anticipation at every stone and stump we saw in the road — and their name was legion —and when we struck, which was frequently, curses and imprecations thickened the air.

Speaking for myself, never, while memory lives, shall I forget those jars and bumps. Our teams were now composed of mules — for the horses had long since succumbed to the deadly horse sickness — and wonderfully surefooted and nimble they were, especially in the dark, while it was a marvel to all of us how on earth the drivers managed to keep to the road, such as it was, during the night. The following afternoon we were at Kanya, which is well situated, the village being on the slope of a large hill commanding a fine and extensive view. Here the long man unfortunately fell ill, and we were obliged to leave him, but as he was in good hands, we did not mind. Resuming our journey, we had not driven on half a mile, when a small rock proved too much for us, and over we went. Luckily no one was hurt, but the cart was damaged, so we were obliged to return to Kanya for repairs.

We had to remain all night, and put up at Mr. Williams's store, who did all he could to make us thoroughly comfortable, and his charges were absurdly low. I can only say I wish all storekeepers were like him, for he made himself so civil and genial with it all, that when we left the next morning, we were genuinely sorry to say good-bye. The long man, though not quite right, had, I am glad to say, sufficiently recovered to proceed with us, and that evening found us at Molepolole, a large town where Kaffir corn and tobacco were growing extensively. There were two stores here, but we did not go near them, as our commissariat was well supplied. The following morning we reached Mashindi's, or Linchwai's, an independent and somewhat troublesome Chief. Here also, is a large town, occupying a situation which is wild and picturesque in the extreme, and enclosed nearly on all sides by hills.

On again, for we never stopped more than two hours at an outspan, and the evening overtook us at Lonetree Pan, a name suggestive of poetry and pathos, and anything or everything in fact. A bare patch in the veldt, with a tree standing solitary, gnarled and knotted with the hoariness of age, in a half-dried-up-quagmire. It was an uncanny spot, far away from even a sign of humanity, but here we had to stop for two hours, to rest and graze the mules. And we drank tea brewed out of the very muddy water of the Pan, with a relish that would have amused our London Club friends. PILAPWIE. 15 That night was the worst we experienced, in spite of the beauty of a full moon, and of a sky almost choked with stars, the Milky Way, in particular, being strewn and studded with them. And so, I might say, was the road with boulders and stumps, broken also by ravines and undulations innumerable.

Sleep all along had been out of the question, but some of us had occasionally been able to snatch five minutes' nap over a level stretch, but the bumping and jolting was simply terrible, and to add to our misery, the driver, who had been over 70 hours in harness, kept falling asleep from sheer exhaustion. But like everything else it came to an end, and the morning found us enjoying our breakfast at Miller's store, while by dusk on the same evening we arrived at Notwani Junction, on the Crocodile River. Here we were turned into a still smaller conveyance — a kind of Scotch cart with a canvas hood to it. We were still seven, not atoms, but shreds of humanity, what was left of us. The stout man alone seemed to have retained his substantiality, but the skeleton was thinner than ever, and the long man's legs had been elongated to an extent, equal only to a stretch of very vivid and elastic imagination.

As for me, I felt more like a letter-bag that had been sat upon with a vengeance, and the others resembled parcels and packages that had been flattened beyond recognition. However, get in and get on we did, but this time with bullocks instead of mules, and at a steadier, if slower, pace. The next morning, as we turned round a bend in the road, we were delighted to see, in the distance, patches of white standing out from the surrounding green, that turned out to be the tents of the Pioneers who are concentrated here. Cecil Camp, which is the name they call it, stands close to the Crocodile River. It is well chosen and nicely laid out, and the scenery about it is charming. These same Pioneers seem to be doing themselves, as they did us, with a good breakfast — well, and after a couple of hours pleasantly spent, we swung along again, forward, yet ever forward, the morning of the 13th May landing us at Pilapwie, where Messrs. Harman and Moffatt kindly put us up.

Between Mafeking and Kanya the country is thickly wooded and pretty, while the first ten miles beyond the latter is hilly, and the scenery lovely, park-like, in fact, in many places. Water and wood were very plentiful, but except some partridges, we saw no game. Nothing but a few stray huts are to be seen from the road. The villages seem to be built either on or underneath the hills, for protection, presumably. After passing Notwani Junction, game was more abundant, especially buck of various kinds, and at times we might have shot them from the cart. The most characteristic feature of the country is the enormous ant-heaps that are generally thrown up round trees and bushes, sugar-loaf in shape, many of them from fifteen to twenty feet high, and several yards in circumference at the base ; while between Molepolole and Pilapwie, the number of dead trees was very noticeable — the work of the white ant, which, destructive everywhere, is in these parts unusually so.

The huts at Pilapwie were only native built, and far from luxurious, but Messrs. Harman and Moffat made up for it by their excessive kindness. I was shown into a hut, and a bath given me. Oh ! the luxury and the joy of that tub, the first since leaving Kimberley ; for water was scarce at Mafeking, and we had only been able to get a wash down ; while on the road the stoppages had been so short, and the cold so intense, that every available moment was snatched by us for food and sleep. B 17

Chapter II. Pilapwie

From 13th May to 14th May, 1890. T N the afternoon, having helped Moffatt, the postmaster, to ■*■ sort the mails, which, after so close an acquaintance, I felt myself part and parcel of, I sallied out to call on Chief Khama, as well as to take a look round his town. Moffatt, who talks Mangwato fluently, accompanied me, both as guide and interpreter. He is a nice young fellow, and has been very civil and obliging to us. Born in Bechu analand, he is the grandson of the famous missionary who was a friend and helpmate of Livingstone's, and, like the great explorer, a man of enterprise, and looked up to by the natives with great respect ; and his son, the Rev. J. Moffatt, is also much respected. After a short walk, we arrived at Khama's house, which is erected in the centre of the town, and which, except that it is rather larger, and stands in a good-sized enclosure all by itself, is no different to those around.

We had not been waiting many minutes when Khama made his appearance, and, I must say, my first impressions of him were very favourable. Tall and thin, with a kind and rather refined face, he is quiet, self-possessed, courteous, dignified, and a gentleman in every sense of the word, and we had exchanged but a few sentences when I felt that we were in the presence of more than an ordinary gentleman — of a man who was not only chief and king through the Divine right of heredity, but by the diviner right of his own striking individuality. No mere savage potentate, ruling over a common herd of wild barbarians, but a man of intelligence and humanity, wielding power with justice and firmness over a quiet and orderly people. A man upon whom the mantle of the great minded Livingstone and Moffatt has fallen, enlightening and influencing him with a result unparalleled in the mission history of the world, the moral improvement of a savage race; and whose determined opposition to the liquor traffic is per fectly sincere, reflecting great credit on his strength of will and singleness of purpose.

He informed us that he was always glad to see white men, but especially Englishmen, for whom he has a sincere regard ; but he was not communicative, and confined himself to commonplace remarks about things in general. Indeed, he appeared to me as very reserved, and I noticed that he was particularly reticent about our movements, though, from something he let fall casually, I inferred that he thoroughly grasped the difference between the Imperial Government and the Chartered Co. — "Rhodes' concern" — as he called it, a name which struck me as being singularly applicable. In fact, he was neither talkative nor inquisitive, and Moffatt afterwards told me that, among the Ba-Mangwatos, curiosity is looked upon as want of etiquette and bad form. Leaving Khama, who, by the way, I forgot to mention dresses like a European, and uses furniture of the very plainest and simplest description, we walked through the town.

It is long and straggling, but neatly laid out in squares, each of which represents a regiment and occupies an ex tensive area. The present population is said to be from 15,000 to 25,000, a very broad margin, but then it must be remembered that numbers of the people keep floating back wards and forwards between the town and their cattle-posts that are in the bush. Besides, though Khama is anxious to assist civilisation in every way, he has not as yet adopted the census, doubtless a necessity, but a highly refined mode of torture all the same. The huts are round and low, and look for all the world like overgrown bee-hives, though, in our walk, the drones, mostly males, seemed to predominate over the bees, all of whom were female, and engaged chiefly in carrying water to and fro. The hives are built of reeds and bulrushes, which grow strong, tall, and in abundance along the river banks, and they are plastered with mud and clay, the roofs being thatched with the long grass that, after the rains, overruns the veldt in rank luxuriance.

Considering that it is only a year ago since the Mangwatos left Shosong, their old capital, the progress they have made is simply marvellous, but most of the credit of this, I believe, is KHAMA 19 due to Khama, who dislikes idleness and has made them work. Harman tells me that Khama keeps his people in splendid order, and that he is a strict disciplinarian. He has instituted " roll call," which is called twice a day — morning and evening — and if a man is late he is reprimanded, while 20 to 30 lashes well laid on is the penalty for absence. And he says it is quite a common occurrence, of a morning especially, when they have overslept themselves, to see men running as hard as they can to be in time for roll call. Many of the regiments are completely armed with Martini- Henrys, and all of them carry flint-locks, blunderbusses, and weapons of every kind, sort, or description, old Brown Bess being apparently a hot favourite.

The old town, Shosong, I am told was abandoned on account of the scarcity of water, and the present site occupied because of its abundance, no less than three large springs rising in the hill under which the town stands, while its fertility of soil was another inducement. Khama, it seems, would have taken possession of this place years ago, but was deterred from so doing by fear of the Matabeles, who are in the habit of raiding in every direction, and of the Boers, who were inclined to be troublesome and aggressive. So that our occupation of Bechuanaland, and projected invasion of Mashonaland, has done him a good turn, and secured him entirely from attack. Owing to this move, however, and from other causes, the people are rather hard up for food, which they are buying from the store of the Bechuanaland Trading Association.

This Company, which has the sole trading monopoly in Khama's country — of which I will speak later on — was established about two years ago by two very enterprising men of the name of Johnson and Heany, who were serving at the time in the B.B.P., one as Orderly-room-, the other as Quartermaster-Sergeant ; the former, now Major Johnson, commanding the Pioneers, the latter, Captain Heany, in command of a troop of that semi-civil demi-Military Force ! The concern is evidently profiting by the move from Shoshong, and fattening on the misfortunes of the Mangwato, and that it is flourishing is evident from the fact that a large Jewish firm is financing it. In one way, however, the scarcity of food produce is doing good, for Khama is encouraging his people to cultivate to a greater extent, so that in the future they will have a supply in excess of their own requirements.

In fact, it is evident his idea is to create a reserve in case of emergency, as also to have a surplus to sell to outsiders; and, with this object in view, he is urging them all round to buy the iron ploughs, which the B.T.A. are importing largely. Surely a progres sionist and a far-seeing man is this same chief. His people are by no means a comely or a fine-limbed race, but if not good-featured, they make up for it by being peace and-order-loving, and, on the whole, fairly industrious. They ceitainly treated us with great civility, and with far less of that aggressive curiosity which is so marked a feature of the cockney; but they are most persistent beggars, and will ask for anything, the more so if you are a stranger, and they think they can impose on you, which they will naturally do, if you are weak enough to give them the chance.

They do it, too, with a persistence equalled only by the pertinacity of the Egyptian fly, which, to my mind, is the most aggravating creature in existence ; and Moffatt's servant, who is looking after me, keeps on pointing out to me, at every turn, the rents in his shirt and trousers, dropping broad hints that new ones would be acceptable — hints that, needless to say, are wasted on me. Three slits on the right temple form the distin guishing marks of the Ba-Mangwato pure, but I believe I am not wrong in saying that as a race they are mixed, and far from being pure. For Pilapwie is a City of Refuge, and Khama is by no means averse to receiving fugitives from other tribes, so long as they behave themselves; and many have come to him from the countries north of Lake Ngami, and beyond the Zambesi, and these latter can be distinguished by the removal of two of the central front teeth, which gives them a most repulsive appearance.

The women, though not actually hideous, are by no means beautiful, and they have inordinate vanity and love for colour and beads, which they wear in all shapes, sizes, and shades. Take, for instance, one woman I saw, who was aged and ugly. Yards of large green beads were glittering round her skinny neck, bracelets of chain-brass and coils of brass wire encased her legs, jingling like clashing cymbals, as she waddled about. Round her waist was a belt of small blue beads, and armlets of a bright yellow variety covered her arms, from the shoulders down to the elbow-joints, while to complete the toilet were anklets, strung together, of beads in variegated hues. The THE FASHIONS OF MANGWATO. 21 general effect was very striking ; while the contrast between the decay of nature pure and simple on one side, and the advance of civilised humanity with its cheap tawdriness on the other, was striking enough to point a moral — Vanity Fair, even in the midst of Afric's dusky wilds !

Surely a biting sarcasm on our boasted civilisation, and suggesting the idea that Solomon, when he moralised on the vanity and vexatious spirit of the world, was criticising the Queen of Sheba, whose kingdom, the land of Ophir, is generally supposed to be the country that we are now about to occupy. Both sexes dress in and ape European fashions as nearly as possible, and in accordance with their means, and it is very amusing to see with what an air of dignity and assumption they will wear rags and tatters that have been thrown away. Not thrown away on them, however, for they patch them up and make the most of them. In fact patches, not on the face, as our genial ancestors wore them, but on their clothes, even brand new ones, is the latest fashion in Pilapwie, and, as I write, a man stands before me wearing a pair of trousers with two stripes of yellowish brown right down to the knee, and a broad patch of a greenish cord behind; the original garment, of which there is but little left, is a dark tweed, a highly-respectable, Sunday go-to-meeting pair.

For Khama's people are Christians, sing hymns in chorus rather well, and go to church regularly on the Sabbath, the Rev. T. Hepburn being their spiritual guide, at the same time that he is Khama's private secretary and counsellor. Feathers worn in the hat is another Mangwato fashion, and it is not uncommon to see an ebony figure, nude except for a waistcloth, wearing a huge felt wideawake, surmounted by a tall waving bunch of feathers, stalking along with any amount of swagger, and with a look of gravity that adds to the comicality of the situation — a mingling of the sublime and the ridiculous. It is really too ludicrous for words. So you see that Paris and London are not the only capitals that can set the fashion, and that society in the Mangwato metropolis, with its many coloured beads, its patches and its plumes, is as happy in its own cheap conceits as European society in its velvet and diamonds.

I do not know of any thing the Mangwatos make or manufacture, except pots and pans of a coarse earthenware; curing sheepskins or occasionally those of wild animals, the silver jackal and leopard being about the handsomest, which they sew together and make into karosses ; and turning whips or shamboks out of hippo and giraffe hides, the handles of which they bind very neatly with thin brass wire. Their principal occupation seems to consist in raising crops of mealies, Kaffir corn, pumpkins sufficient for their own wants, and a little tobacco ; breeding large herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, the flesh of which they very seldom, if ever, eat, but the milk of which they usually drink. It is not an easy thing by any means to buy milk from them, as the young animals are allowed to drink a great deal, and, when they do sell, they will not part with an ordinary quart bottle for less than a shilling.

Poultry they do not seem to cultivate to any extent, and what they have are miserable specimens, while an egg is quite a rarity. Having seen all that was to be seen, and found out what was worth knowing of the people, my next object was to get a conveyance to take us on. The post-cart service ceases at Pilapwie, the mails being carried on in a small Scotch cart belonging to the B. B. P., passengers as best they can. There was only room for one in this uncovered vehicle, and as the stout man declared that he was in a violent hurry, long man and I elected to come on in a waggon. Mr. Harman kindly promised to raise one from Khama, and after some shilly shallying on the part of the natives, he managed to procure an empty waggon for us. So, thanking Harman and Moffatt most cordially for all their kindness, we started at 1 1 on the morning of the 14th with a team of seven span of oxen ; and, on comparing notes, long-man and I found that we had arrived at the same conclusion, namely, that they were evident descendants of Pharaoh's lean kine !