Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls ... Edited by C. G. Oates ... Second edition

Preface

TO THE SECOND EDITION. A considerable time has now elapsed since the still unsold copies of the first edition of this book were destroyed by fire at the publishers. The demand for the book had at that time by no means ceased, and I was considering the advisability of preparing a second edition for the press when it came before my notice that there was still much valuable matter which might be introduced into the Appendix, in addition to those amendments which, as I already knew, might be made in the body of the work. This combination of circumstances led to my determining, under the advice of friends, to bring out a new edition; and that my purpose should have been so slow of fulfilment as it unfortunately has been is mainly due to the fact that I have been obliged to spend at intervals much of the intervening time abroad, during which periods progress with the work in hand has proved almost impossible.

PR PEACE. VI The main features which characterize the present edition are the following : — In the body of the book some slight additions have been made to the narrative portion of the text from memoranda of the traveller's which had escaped notice at an earlier period ; whilst in the footnotes some fresh information has been given, chiefly on botanical points. A uniform system of spelling of native names has also been adopted, under the guidance of the Rev. John Mackenzie, only such words being excepted as have become crystallized, as it were, in other forms by custom or long usage.1 The chromo-lithographs have been reproduced by Mr. Kaufmann, and all the woodcuts executed by Mr. Pearson. Of changes in the countries traversed by my brother there have been wonderfully few. The boundaries of Matabele Land remain the same, and Lobengula maintains his supremacy in the tribe.

Sekhomi, the former chief of the Bamang wato, died peaceably in his son's dominions in the year 1883, having been predeceased by his hostile kinsman Matcheng, who is also mentioned in these pages, about four years. Khamani, Khame's 1 The word Kaffir, spelt with one / only in the first edition, is here spelt with two. It seems useful to revert to this (the older) mode of spelling the word as applied to the natives of South Africa to mark the distinction between them and the inhabitants of Kafiristan.

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. VII younger brother, was recently heard of in the north west of the Transvaal, where he was understood to be plotting against the security of his brother's realm. The old headman, Monyama, frequently alluded to in this volume, is reported to have been executed by Lobengula's orders some years ago, in consequence of his having become troublesome to white men. John Lee has left the Matabele Country to take up his abode in the Transvaal, other white men now occupying his farm on the Mangwe. The Tati Gold-mine has, since the year 1882, been worked by a company formed in Kim berley for the purpose. Turning to the Appendix it will be found, in the article on Ethnology, that Mr. W. Hatchett Jack son, of the Oxford Museum, has kindly contributed towards the elucidation of certain points which had been left doubtful at Professor Rolleston's death ; whilst in his paper on Ornithology Mr. Sharpe has reconstructed the classification of the species on what he conceives to be a sounder basis, has brought the nomenclature up to date, and made some necessary revisions.

To Professor Westwood's former contribution on the insects in the collection he has made several additions, including a complete list of the Orthop tera; and in the same department Mr. W, L. Distant has furnished a list of the Rhynchota, and

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. VIII Mr. A. Sidney Olliff— to whom I am indebted for much careful and very helpful work in this direc tion — has turned to good account a considerable amount of hitherto unworked material in the collection, chiefly amongst the Coleoptera, adding thereto several new species. Mr. W. F. Kirby has also been unsparing in his valuable and kind assistance. The botanical portion of the Appendix has been completely revised by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, who has worked out no fewer than eleven hitherto un described species of plants, and determined the nomenclature of several others which were left doubtful in the former edition. To the natural history illustrations have been added one plate of beetles and three of plants, drawn respectively by Mr. W. Purkiss and Mr. W. H. Fitch. The list of Native Words and Phrases has been increased by the addition, from one of the traveller's note-books, of a number of words which had previously escaped notice ; the entire list having undergone revision in spelling by Mr. Mackenzie, who has kindly supplied the rules for pronunciation, which will be found set forth in a footnote.1 To all the gentlemen above named I must take this opportunity of warmly expressing my thanks 1 These rules do not apply to native words and names used else where in the book and in the maps, which have for the most part been spelt on phonetic principles.

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IX for their valuable contributions and aid ; and in the case of Mr. Mackenzie — besides the assistance he has rendered me in the native languages — I am further deeply indebted for his unfailing help and counsel in all matters relating to those tribes and regions with which he is so familiar. In other departments of inquiry I am no less indebted to the clear judgment and scientific attain ments of my friend the Rev. Thomas Hincks ; whilst Mr. H. W. Bates has again proved to me in this edition, as he did in the first, an unfailing source of strength whenever I have applied to him. To Dr. Jentinck of Leyden and the Rev. P. H. Wicksteed I owe my sincere thanks for the light they have thrown on numerous doubtful points of Dutch philology and spelling ; as I do in other branches of knowledge to Professors Mayor, Sayce, and Skeat, Messrs. J. G. Baker, J. O. Waterhouse, E. A. Beck, and F. Jeppe, and in more general matters, to those other friends who have so kindly and generously assisted me.

A sadder task remains to me in referring to the untimely deaths, first of Professor Rolleston, which occurred shortly before the appearance of the first edition of this book, and (more recently) of Mr. Gilchrist of Ospisdale, whose name is so tenderly and enduringly associated with my brother's memory and all that befell him in South Africa.

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. X And now looking back, as my labour closes, there lies behind me — in connexion with the first edition — a vista of thoughts and memories to which it were impossible to give expression, but to which I cannot omit all reference in this place ; and to my brother's personal friends, to my own friends, and to those of my family generally, and to the perfect strangers to me who criticized the volume in the press, whose friendly and sympathetic words are still present to me as I write these lines, I would fain take this opportunity of recording — in the names of myself and the surviving members of my family — our deep sense of gratitude for the consolation which their words afforded us. The beloved companion of my own wanderings abroad, above referred to, for the restoration of whose health they were under taken, is no longer here to join in this expression of thankfulness, my mother having passed away from us since these lines were first written.

With these words, then, of thankfulness for the past, alike on my lips and in my heart, I beg to offer this second edition of the work to any readers who have not seen the first, or who, having seen it, desire to renew acquaintance with the book in its present form. C. G. O. July 1889.

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TO THE FIRST EDITION. In offering to the public the following pages, I feel, as editor, that I owe a few words of apology and explanation to the reader by way of preface — apology for the imperfections of the volume ; explanation how such imperfections have arisen. The traveller whose journey to the Zambesi is here recounted died of fever a few days after he had left that river on his way homewards, and the book has been compiled from his note-books and letters home. The latter were written with no view to publication ; the former were intended only for the writer's own subsequent use and as suggestive guides to memory. It is always a question in such a case how far the surviving friends of the deceased writer or traveller do well in publishing the unfinished labour of his pen. What his own wish would have been cannot be known, or even guessed at, unless specially expressed ; and the reflection forcibly presents itself

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. XII to the mind that perhaps a certain injustice may be done to the memory of the dead by publishing, in a form which may fairly challenge the criticism of the general reader, a few hasty jottings by the wayside, written under circumstances the least favourable to literary composition, and a limited number of letters home, meant merely for the perusal of the writer's nearest and most indulgent friends. On the other hand, however, it must be borne in mind that, much as must inevitably be lost in editing pages such as these for want of the final touches which the writer himself would have given, there may yet be to some extent a counterbalancing gain in the directness and freshness of expressions suggested on the spot, where the traveller was unhampered by any oppres sive consciousness that he was addressings " the public " — so formidable in the abstract, yet made up after all of a number of individuals like himself, all with the same human heart and interests.

Guided, then, by the latter consideration, and by the reflection that every day the number of our countrymen is increasing who look to South Africa with a growing interest — whether as a land for colonization, exploration, or scientific research, — I venture to add another to the long list of already published books upon that country, hoping that the reader may find therein matter of some general interest, and that, if not, he will look leniently on

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. XIII the error of judgment which has led me, together with those who have here shared my responsibility, to offer for his perusal pages prepared at first mainly for private friends, but which it was afterwards thought might possibly prove of interest to a some what wider circle. Further, with reference to the length of time which has elapsed between the date of the writer's death and the publication of this volume, I can only urge in extenuation of this circumstance that a considerable period necessarily intervened before the traveller's journals and papers reached this country, that they required when they arrived much care in their disposal, and that the whole of the natural history collections had to be gone through systematically before being finally placed in competent hands for arrangement and classification.

The delay has enabled me to include in the volume the papers in the Appendix on the latter subject, contributed by very able hands, which I believe will add interest to the whole ; and that not only in the case of scientific readers, but of all those who would realize in a measure what it is which makes up the life and experiences of the naturalist traveller in his wanderings in distant lands. I may add, moreover, that the general state and condition of the country of which these pages treat would appear, from the accounts of those who have recently

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. XIV visited it, to remain substantially the same, or only to have changed in points of minor interest. The abandonment, however, of the Tati Gold-mine and the establishment of Khame in the Bamangwato sovereignty perhaps demand attention. In editing this work it has been my object to preserve, wherever possible, the writer's narrative in exactly his own words ; and this plan has been steadily adhered to throughout, those passages only being omitted which appeared little likely to interest the general reader, or in which — as several times occurred — old ground was re-tra versed. In such cases the intervening periods have been bridged over by a short narrative of my own, intended merely to connect the story and weld the whole together. The maps, it may be added, are all of them the result of the traveller's own special observations, recorded as he went along.

Of the illustrations in the body of the work, I may remark that they are all from original drawings taken on the spot, or from the objects they purport to represent. Some are from sketches by the late Frank Oates ; the remainder — and these the larger number — from those of his brother, W. E. Oates, who accompanied him during a portion of his journey. It may therefore perhaps be fairly claimed for them that, whatever their artistic

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. XV merits, these drawings are — what alone they claim to be — faithful representations of the scenes and objects they depict. In the " List of Illustra tions " it will be found to which of the two brothers each drawing may be respectively attributed. And now there only remains to me the pleasing duty of returning my warmest thanks to the many friends who have helped me with my task. To those gentlemen who have contributed the valuable papers which form the Appendix to this volume, my thanks are specially due ; I refer to Professors Rolleston, Westwood, and Oliver, Dr. Albert Giin ther, Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, and Mr. J. G. Baker. And in this connexion I have also to thank Captain G. E. Shelley, who named the majority of the birds in my late brother's collection before they passed into the hands of Mr. Sharpe, to be permanently de posited in the British Museum.

From all of these, and especially from Mr. Sharpe, I have received, besides, much friendly help and advice with reference to the general arrangements of the volume, as I have proceeded with my labours ; as well, also, as from Mr. H. W. Bates, the well-known Assistant Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, to whose kindness I am deeply indebted for many valuable suggestions and much practical assistance. The four beautiful plates which accompany Professor Westwood's paper have been

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. XVI drawn by his own hand to illustrate his descriptions of new or remarkable insects. Of those gentlemen, moreover, who have contributed their professional assistance, I must also in common gratitude add a word. Mr. Francis Holl has bestowed much pains on the production of a portrait of my late brother, from a photograph by Messrs. W. T. and R. Gowland of York, which I believe to be very successful ; Mr. Kaufmann's chromo-lithographs are the result of much careful effort on his part to catch the spirit and preserve the effect of the original water-colour drawings from which they have been taken ; the lithographs in the Appendix, drawn respectively by Messrs. J. G. Keulemans, R. Mintern, W. H. Fitch, and (as already men tioned) Professor Westwood, have been accurately rendered by the skilful hands of Messrs. M. and N. Hanhart, and Messrs. Mintern Brothers ; and the wood -engravings have been ably and conscien tiously executed by Messrs. G. Pearson, J. D. Cooper, and E. Evans, all of them with a faithful determination to do the fullest justice to their re spective subjects, and I believe with admirable result.

The birds and animals have been placed on wood chiefly by Mr. Smit, and some by Mr. Davenport ; whilst Mr. Charles Whymper has contributed two original drawings of the author's dogs and the designs upon the cover ; the maps which accompany

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. XVII the volume having been made as perfect and complete as the attention and proficiency of Mr. Edward Weller and his son could render them. To all these gentlemen my grateful thanks are due, and most heartily do I acknowledge what I owe them. To enumerate more fully the names of those who have further assisted me, either professionally or as private friends, I must now forbear from under taking ; suffice it to say there are many, especially of the latter class, without whose assistance and encouragement I should probably never have succeeded in bringing my labours to a close. Let me thank them now for the generous help and sym pathy so ungrudgingly given, and which, alas, it is so impossible for me to recompense. It may be proper to add, before concluding — what I have failed elsewhere to mention — that a considerable number of specimens in my brother's collection were destroyed in his lifetime during a gale at Shoshong, by the unroofing of the hut where they were stored, and that some of the spirit jars of reptiles and beetles were afterwards left behind when the collections were conveyed to England ; circumstances which led in all probability to the loss of many valuable specimens.

There are not many who will need to be reminded that to " inspan " and "outspan," words of b PREFA CE. XVIII frequent occurrence in the traveller's Journal, mean, in South African parlance, to "yoke" and "unyoke," and that "spoor" means "footprints" or "track." All other words of Dutch or native origin intro duced into the text are explained, I believe, where they occur. The accent in the word " Matabele " falls, it may be added, on the third of its four syllables. My task is ended — in many respects a very mournful, yet a very pleasing one ; and if there be found but a few readers who derive either pleasure or profit from a perusal of these pages, I shall feel amply rewarded for my trouble. C. G. O. May 1881. MEMOIR. " To be able to give one's name to a bird, or a flower, may seem to many but a poor ambition ; and yet, materially considered, it is quite as likely to be perpetuated as to give it to a street or town, and is much more likely to define the tastes and individuality of the giver." — Bret Harte.

The saying has seldom been truer of any one than of the writer of the succeeding pages, that "the child is father of the man." His love of nature generally, and of natural history in all its branches, was one of Frank Oates's earliest instincts; and to the study of our English wild birds — their ways and haunts, their comings and their goings he was especially devoted from boyhood. The pages of Waterton and Buffon, treating of wider fields of study, supplied his imagination at that period with richer food ; and the plates of Audubon's Birds, when access could be had to them, were turned by him with feelings little short of reverence. From his earliest days he had resolved to visit those distant, and to him, still mysterious lands, where the page of nature was by the white man in c MEMOIR. XX great part yet unread; and those who, after his death in the full prime of manhood, witnessed the arrival at his English home of his large collections of natural history specimens, brought from the interior of South Africa by the devoted service of a friend, realized strangely how the boy's ambition had been fulfilled in after life, and felt that, though cut off in the very perfection of his powers, the purpose of his being had not wholly failed.

Those even who knew him best were surprised indeed, when these evidences of his work abroad arrived, to see how much he had accomplished in the brief period — a little short of two years — of his absence. As, one after another, the packing-cases were opened, each in its turn afforded to the looker-on some fresh illustration of the untiring determination of the deceased traveller to make the very utmost of his opportunities whilst abroad. The voice that could alone have told the story of those collections, the hand that had brought them thus together, were silent and still in a far distant grave ; but an utter ance — the more pathetic because it was inaudible — seemed to go forth, unbidden, from those speechless records of devoted work and enterprise, and tell the secret tale of a life in earnest sympathy with nature curtailed — the hand, as it were, yet warm from its labours.

There, on the one hand, lay the opened cases of MEMOIR. XXI rare and brilliant bird-skins, each specimen with its separate label, in the collector's writing, carefully recording its habitat, and other particulars useful to the student, accompanied in many instances by examples of nests and eggs. There, on the other hand, were lesser boxes, filled with varied specimens of insects, some from those very Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, the rich and almost untried harvest-ground of the naturalist, whose attractions had lured the wanderer to his untimely grave. And there, again, were those large wide-necked bottles, familiar to the collector, containing, some of them, strange-looking beetles, others still stranger reptiles ; there the packets of botanical drying paper, each sheet enveloping its floral treasure.

Turning again to other cases, were found in numbers the singular implements of savage warfare, or industry, and with them many of those rude yet tasteful attempts at ornamentation suggested by native fancy ; evidences — the whole of them — of that untutored skill and delicate refinement of workmanship which charac terize many of the finer races of unlettered savages. Whilst further, the mighty tusks of the huge African elephant, the skins of the lion, the leopard, and the cheetah, — for it was these beasts of prey that the traveller had especially loved to hunt, — besides those of many an African antelope, with horns and heads of equal grace and beauty, told silently of MEMOIR. XXII stirring adventures in the bush. Lastly, but yet not least, were those scientific instruments he had used in taking observations of his journey with so much faithful perseverance ; the note books ; the letters of friends (some of these unopened, containing those triflinsf items of home news, so sweet to the far-off traveller, which his eyes had never seen, for they had arrived after his decease) ; the pencilled outlines of the country's scenery ; the water-colour drawings of those fatal Falls ; how much did not these records breathe to the silent bystander, how much suggest of what had been, and still more what might have been !

Poor fellow ! not there himself to speak to us, those records of an earnest life, those cared-for and well-worn letters which he had received and treasured, how far more eloquent they were to us than any words could have been ! They told us all more than any words which he could, or at least would, have spoken — so lightly did he ever treat his own achievements — and seemed to leave the world and ourselves poorer and yet richer by his death ! But the subject has led me, in my capacity of editor of these pages, beyond the proper limits of my duties, and I must crave the indulgence of the reader for this long digression. My object is merely to relate, as briefly as I can, such simple facts of Frank Oates's earlier life as may serve to illustrate MEMOIR. XXIII the scope and bearing of the ensuing pages, and bring to view the motives which led him to enter on his life of travel.

What I have said, indeed, may perhaps, it is true, help to show — what I was anxious early to point out — how very catholic were the interests of the deceased, how strong the hold each separate department of the world's life, and history, and daily growth, had laid upon him. Devoted to the study of natural history, as I have already pointed out, and especially to that of birds — the pursuit of which might be called his ruling passion - — he yet never closed his eyes to those varied interests of other kinds, which were constantly opening round him in his life of foreign travel. "He was not" indeed, as has been said of the young French naturalist Jacquemont, who, like Frank Oates himself, died early and in harness, — "He was not at all one of those specialists who shut themselves up in a narrow speciality, and become blind and deaf to the great interests of human life."1 Rather may it be said of him, that his interests were perhaps too wide, and that he overtaxed his strength and powers in following the promptings of his nature.

Speaking indeed in homely phraseology, whilst out in Africa, he admitted himself that he had "too many irons in the fire," and some of the difficulties and vexations 1 Mr. P. G. Hamerton, 'Lives of Modern Frenchmen,' p. 95. MEMOIR. which beset him upon his journey must be attributed to the delays which were occasioned by his desire of embracing every opportunity which presented itself, not only of adding a new specimen to his collection, but also of noting any fresh fact with regard to the country and its inhabitants which came under his notice. For, in addition to his natural history pursuits, he was, as above intimated, engaged on this journey in taking observations of the country which he passed through, and laying down his route, and also, wherever possible, in seeking intercourse with the natives, and gaining knowledge of their character.

This same tendency of his — to attempt too much — had once before proved injurious to him when at the University in earlier life. Born on the 6th of April 1840, a son of the late Mr. Edward Oates, of Meanwoodside, near Leeds — himself a lover of nature, and a man of literary tastes — Frank Oates entered at Christ Church, Oxford, at the close of 1860. And here his love of nature and her teachings soon displayed itself by his choice of reading for a class in the Natural Science Schools. His work, however, in this direction did not keep him from study in many other departments of knowledge ; and, besides his studies, all out-door pursuits had each their re spective fascination for him. Of these, ridinoheld with him, as it had always done, the foremost place ; MEMOIR. XXV and when the time os year or incidental circumstances kept him from an occasional gallop with the hounds, he would have a long day's ride into the country instead, drinking in, the while, deep draughts of enjoyment from the scenes he passed through.

One such ride, still showing him faithful to his love of birds, he describes himself in a letter to one of his brothers on May Day, 1864, as follows : — "I had a jolly ride," he writes, "to Wychwood Forest a few days ago, with S of Wadham. We both enjoyed it, as we both entered into the loveliness of the scene. Unfortunately the day was cold, and few birds were seen, though we did hear the nightingale once, and the cuckoo once or twice. We were riding about the forest in the dark, with some prospect of being lost, and did not get back to Oxford till eleven o'clock, having ridden about thirty-six miles." The exhilaration of these long rides was almost a necessity to him, counteracting, as they did in a measure, the strain of mental work. He also loved bathing, swimming, and sailing, the first two of which Oxford supplied him with in liberal measure, whilst he found occasional opportunity of indulging his taste for the last-named on the Isis.

Then there were cricket and rowing, to both of which he gave a share of his attention, with rifle-shooting at the butts, and fencing at the gymnasium. MEMOIR. This is a tolerable list of occupations, in addition to which Oxford had also its social attractions for him ; for, besides the undergraduates of his own standing whom he knew, he was further privileged with the acquaintance of a few such men as the present distinguished Master of Balliol, and others since deceased, including the late Dean of West minster — then Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University — the late Sir Benjamin Brodie, and Professor Henry Smith ; whilst the nature of his studies brought him into frequent pleasant intercourse with the late Professor Rolleston and others at the museum. The second year of his residence he sustained a loss, which he long felt, in the death of his young tutor, Mr. G. R. Luke, Senior Student of Christ Church, to whom he had formed no slight attachment.

Of this event, rendered doubly sad by the circumstances under which it occurred, he wrote to a friend the day afterwards (March 4, 1862) as follows : — "Oxford," he says, "has just lost one of its brightest lights, and I a valuable friend, whom, I fear, I did not sufficiently appreciate in his lifetime — poor Luke! It would be too much to say that there was not so good, but I can confidently assert that I do not think there was a better, man in Oxford. He was such a genuine, worthy, and conscientious fellow as is rarely met with ; and his MEMOIR. XXVII kindness was equalled by his noble spirit — his modesty by his high learning and abilities. And this valuable life, difficult as it is to realize it, has been cut short ; — Luke was drowned in the river yester day, having gone alone, quite contrary to his custom, in a whiff1 It seems that he was near half an hour in the water, and dead when taken out.