The Downfall of Lobengula: the cause, history, and effect of the Matabeli war ... With contributions by ... P. W. Forbes ... Sir J. C. Willoughby ... H. R. Haggard ... F. C. Selous ... and ... P. B. S. Wrey

Front matter

PHE DOWNFALL OF LOBENGULA: THE CAUSE, HISTORY, AND EFFECT OF THE MATABELI WAR. Copyright. Entered at StationepnS' Hall. and THE DOWNFALL OF LOBENGULA: THE CAUSE, HISTORY, AND EFFECT OF THE MATABELI WAR. By W. A. WILLS and L. T. COLLINGRIDGE. With Contributions by Major P. IV. FORBES, Major SIR JOHN C. WILLOUGHBY, Bart. Mr. II. RIDER HAGGARD, Mr.' F. C. SELOUS, F.Z.S., and Mr. P. B. S. 1 1 'REV, A.M. Inst. C.E. LONDON : "THE AFRICAN REVIEW" Offices, io, Basinghall Street, E.C.; and Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co., Ltd. SOUTH AFRICA: The Argus Company, Ltd., Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Salisbury, Buluwayo. LONDON : PRINTED BY W. H. AND L. COLLINGRIDGE, 148 & 149, ALDF.RSGATE STREET, E.C. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Introductory Review Of The War

page i By Frederick Courtenay Selous. The downfall os Lobengula — Struggle between civilisation and savagery — One of the boldest enterprises — A tribute to the brave — The war forced by the Matabeli — The little England party — Mining capital lying idle — Mr. Richmond's Mashona boy killed — Mashonaland abandoned, or Lobengula's power broken — Memorial drawn up by Mr. Philip Wrey — Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Jameson organise the force — ■ Diversion caused by Colonel Goo'.d-Adams' column — Khama's desertion unjustifiable —Gambo disheartened — The effect of the war — Plenty of room for Englishmen — Picturesque natives — Dutch of British in Matabeliland — Development of the country — Trains to Buluwayo — Power broken of military despotic rule — Supremacy of British power in South Africa.

Chapter II. Matabeliland Under Mosellkatsl

page 14 The Greeks and Africa — Vasco da Gama at Cape of Good Hope — The expedition in 1890 — A Dutch trek — Moselikatsi natives across the Drakensberg — Early Matabeli military training — Murder of Boers — Battle at Vechtkop — Kruger's first fight — Defeat of the Matabeli— Moselikatsi driven further north — Lobengula condemned to be strangled — Saved by Umcumbate — Policy of extermination — Death laws — Death of Moselikatsi— Succeeded by Lobengula in 1868.

Chapter III. The Dawn Of Civilisation

page 22 Lobengula preserves the old traditions — Every inch a king — Cruelty tempered with humanity — His personal habits — Strength of the Matabeli army — Matabeliland coveted by the Boers — Rival missions — Mr. C. D. Rudd and Mr. Rochfort Maguire win for Mr. Rhodes — Effective occupation — Organising the pioneer force— Selous as pioneer — Lobengula's opposition — Pioneers arrive safely at Salisbury — Early day troubles — Boer filibusters retire before " Maxim " — Dr. Jameson administrator. Contents. VI

Chapter IV. The Founders Of The Hinterland Empire

page 29 Cecil Rhodes and General Gordon— South Africa or Khartoum— The Consolidation of the Diamond mines — The belief in Mr. Rhodes' resources— The Cape to Cairo idea — Dr. Jameson's career — The direction of the Chartered Company — The Duke of Abercorn — The Duke of Fife— Lord Gifford— Sir H. B. Farquhar, Bart.— Mr. A. Beit— Mr. G. Cawston— Mr. A. H. G. Grey — Mr. R. Maguire — Mr. Herbert Canning — Dr. F. Rutherfoord Hanis— Mr. B. F. Hawkesley— Mr. C. D. Rudd-Mr. F. C. Selous— Mr. P. B. S. Wrey.

Chapter V. The Collision At Victoria

page 58 By P. B. S. Wrey, A.M.I.C.E. Matabeli impis cross the border — Mashonas' fear of the Matabeli — Dr. Jameson remonstrates with Lobengula — Telegraph wires cut at Gomalla's kraal — Lobengula claims the right to raid the Mashonas — An impi at Victoria, Sunday, July 19th — Dr. Jameson arrives at Victoria — Loath to take active measures — The indaba— Lobengula breaks his compact — Young Matabeli warriors beyond control — The impi ordered to leave in an hour, or be driven out — Threats of the colonists to leave the country.

Chapter VI. Organising The Forces

page 63 By Major P. W. Forbes. Declaration of War— Major Forbes to take command — Dr. Jameson arranges for starting to Buluwayo— The Matabeli fighting strength— Military stores at Salisbury— Lack of horses — Organising the Salisbury Horse— Selecting the officers— The conditions for volunteering — The Victoria Column— Buying the horses —Leaving Salisbury— Practicing military manoeuvres — The Tuli Column delayed — The Matabeli reported massing at Shangani River — Dr. Jameson reviews the Salisbury Horse at Charter— Ammunition— Forming laager — Manning the waggons.

Chapter VII. Leaving Mashonaland For The Front

... page 83 By Major P. W. Forbes. The Salisbury Column advance from Charier — Crossing the Umniati river — In Matabeliland— — A scouting party — Halt at Iron Mine Hill — Recovering cattle — First sight of the Matabeli — Captain Campbell shot — The Victoria Column join us — Formation of their laager — Their strength and officers— Difficulties with the Victoria Artillery overcome Arrangements for the combined march — The realities of war — Native guides. Contents. VII

Chapter VIII. From Sigala Mountaln To The Shangani

... page 97 By Major P. W. Forbes. Advance of the Combined Columns— A false alarm— Finding gold— Insukameni kraal deserted — Somabula Forest— Matabeli scouts— E. Burnett shot— Crossing the Shangani River- Capturing cattle— Arranging pickets— The eve of the first battle— The first attack— Quested's natives driven in — Plucky advance of the Insukameni regiment — Driven back by the Maxims — Captain Heany 's skirmishers nearly cut off — The enemy routed — Strength of the Matabeli — Matabeli inferior to the Zulu — Effect of fire upon the oxen — The Columns advance — Captain Williams cut off and lost — A threatened attack — Sighting the Matoppo Hills— Captain Heany burns Enxna kraal.

Chapter IX. The Occupation Of Buluwayo

page 11S By Major P. W. Forbes. Scouts sent to reconnoitre Buluwayo — News of Lobengula — Umsingweni kraal burnt by the natives — An anxious march — The battle of Imbembesi — The horses stampeded — The picket surprised — The Matabeli within 300 yards — Attempt to surround the laager — Plucky advance of Captain Delamere's dismounted men — The enemy retire — The Imbezu beaten by a lot of boys — The Matabeli power broken — Heading straight for Buluwayo — Kraals deserted — Buluwayo blown up — Letter from Burnham and Fairbairn — Buluwayo occupied — Short of supplies — News of the Southern Column — A messenger sent to Lobengula — Capturing the king's peacocks — Lobengula's reply: "Where am I to live?" — The first church parade at Buluwayo- — Despatches for England.

Chapter X. The Pursuit Of The King

page 135 By Major P. W. Forbes. Preparations for attacking Umhlangeni — The royal kraals deserted — News of the king on the Bubye river — Messengers sent to Lobengula and the Imbezu — Captain Raaf objects to advance — A consultation — The patrol to retire to Umhlangeni — Imbezu cattle captured by our Mashonas, driven off by the Matabeli, and again recaptured — Further messages sent to the king— Heavy rain storms — Retire to Shiloh — Arrival of reinforcements — The second advance — Lobengula's message to Dr. Jameson — Dividing the force— Following the king's spoor— The Matabeli tired of righting— Finding the king's bath chair and two waggons. Contents.

CHAPTER XL THE LOSS OF THE WLLSON PATROL

page 153 By Major P. W. Forbes. Close upon the king — An anxious time for the scouts — Preparations for an attack — The king's camp deserted — Major Wilson sent to reconnoitre — Preparations for a dash for the king— Messengers sent back to Major Forbes — Captain Borrow sent with reinforcements —Heavy firing across the river — The column attacked — The sole survivors of Major Wilson's party — Burnham's account of the disaster — To retire up the river — Short of ammunition — News sent to Dr. Jameson — A deluge of rain — Mr. Howard's plucky swim across the river.

Chapter XII. The Retreat From The Shanganl River

... page 173 By Major P. W. Forbes. Down the river's bank — Horses falling off fast— Short of food — Capturing the royal cattle — A skirmish in the bush — A heavy rain storm — The men depressed — The last of the horses done up — A sudden attack— The gun carriages lest behind — Captain Raaf addresses the force — The first night march — Tired out — Horse flesh flavoured with garlic— A fight while on the march— The Matabeli now behind us— Mr. Selous brings tidings of food — Back to Umhlangeni and Buluwayo— Disbanding the force — Pegging out farms — -Death of Captain Raaf — A parade of all forces before Mr. Rhodes — Rumours of Major Wilson's party — How Englishmen can die.

Chapter XIII. Crossing The Border

... page 189 By Major Sir J. C. Willoughby, Bart. The Victoria incident — The state of public seeling — The organisation of the Volunteers- Correspondence with the High Commissioner — The Southern Column — The start of the Columns — Our rival allies— Crossing the Border — Junction of the Salisbury and Victoria Columns.

Chapter XIV. The Close Of The Campaign

page 203 By Major Sir J. C. Willoughby,* Bart. The surrender of Indunas — Major Forbes instructed to pursue Lobengula — The Shangani reached — Major Wilson sent on ahead — The party surrounded and cut off — The last stand — A relief party organized — The retreat of Major Forbes' patrol — Hardships on the way— Submission of the Matabeli — The duties of the British South Africa Company's Police and the Bechuanaland Border Police — Messrs. Dawson and Riley 's mission — The death of Lobengula — The final settlement of the country. Contents. IX

Chapter XV. With The Southern Column

page 215 The diversion of a part of Lobengula's army — 8,000 men under Gambo sent to intercept Colonel Goold-Adams — Mr. Dawson's mission — The indunas arrested — Mantuse and Inqubo, in attempting to escape, are killed — Major Sawyer's inquiry — Commandant Raaf joins the Column— Meet Chief Khama at Shashi River — The plans of the march- Scarcity of water — The Matabeli in force in front— The waggons attacked — The Matabeli rush the rearmost waggons — Mr. Selous wounded — Driven off by the Maxims — Small-pox breaks out amongst Khama's men — He decides to return home — Submission of Makalaka chiefs — News of victories of Major Forbes' Column — At Buluwayo.

Chapter XVI. The Patterson Embassy To Lobengula

page 227 By H, Rider Haggard. (Being a Arote on the circumstances attending the Deaths of Captain Ii. Robert Patterson, Mr. J. Sargeaunt, and Mr. Thomas in Matabeliland in September, 1 878. j

Chapter XVII. In Memoriam

page 234 The effect of the war — Its causes — The vassals of the Matabeli— The cost of the campaign — A story of heroes — The last stand — A hallowed circle — The national regret — The memorials at Buluwayo and Zimbabye — The conduct of the expedition — Major Allan Wilson— Commandant P. J. Raaf, C.M.G.— Captain FI. J. Borrow — Captain A. L. Campbell— Captain F. Fitzgerald — Captain Greenfield— Captain Judd — Captain A. B. Kirton — Captain C. F. Lendy, R.A. — Captain O. G. Williams, and the others.

Chapter XVIII. The Rhodesian Roll Call

page 276 The character of the troops — Their esprit de corps and stamina — The Administrator — The Commanding Officer— Sir J. C. Willoughby, Bart.— Major Hamilton Browne — Captain Finch— Captain Fleany — Captain Spreckley— Captain Moberley — Captain Kennedy — Adjutant Kennelly— Captain Bastard— Captain Napier — Captain Delamere— Captain Reid— Captain White— Captain Donovan— The other officers. Contents. X

Chapter XIX. The Position And Prospects Of Mashonaland

page 301 By P. B. S. Wrey, A.M.I.C.E. A land of promise — A succession of gardens — Climatic conditions — The question of markets — A comparison with Johannesburg in its early days — Labour and fuel — The native population — The administration — A final conclusion.

Chapter XX. The Settlement And Administration Of Zambesia

page 308 The extent of our latest territorial acquisitions — Northern Zambesia — The gold areas — The value of real estate — The terms of settlement with the Colonial Office — Mr. Rhodes' views on the fiscal policy of the Empire — Railways, telegraphs, and coach services.— Col. F. W. Rhodes — Mr. James Dawson. E RRATA. Page 46, line 6, for "contumelious" read "contumacious.'' Page 80, line vJor "flanking" read "Mt flanking." Page 81, line 14, for "to place his men" read "to his place." Page 9r, line 23, for "taken" read "recovered." Page 94, line 4, for " two " read "four." Page 176, line g,for "before " read "below.'' Page 195, line 22, before "bank" read "south." Page 211, line 24, for "Mapondein" read "Umpandine." For "Gwynyd" (Captain Williams) *«r^"Gwynydd"; and for "Raaf" (Captain) read "Raafif," wherever occurring.

Preface

. It has always been felt to be a matter of great regret that so very few, if indeed an}-, reasonably comprehensive and authoritative histories of any of the numerous campaigns fought between the European colonists and the warlike native tribes of South Africa have been written. That which is recorded on the following pages has the undeniable advantage in that the story of the war is told by the commanding officer of the forces engaged. It has further a special feature — and one which will be considerably amplified in subsequent editions — in the form of two chapters in which a brief biographical reference has been made to most of the officers of the expedition, and to nearly all nf those — whether commissioned or otherwise — who lost their lives in protecting their Mashona dependants, their hard-won interests, and in providing for their own safety, which was threatened by their fierce and intractable neighbours.

This information has necessarily been difficult to obtain, and the chapters devoted to the subject are still incomplete. It is hoped, however, that relatives or friends will, before the next edition, enable the deficiencies in this respect to be remedied by for warding biographical particulars and portraits. At the outset it was not intended that this volume should take so comprehensive a character. The announcement of its forthcoming publication, however, and the march of events, brought forth such a number of valuable contributions, and such a mass of important information of various kinds, that the limits originally proposed were Preface. XII insensibly but largely exceeded. The occasion may be taken to record our obligations to members of the British South Africa Company's forces and others for much valuable aid ; notably to Major P. W. Forbes, who has furnished a complete and careful account of the operations of the columns under his command.

Originally it was intended to print Major Sir John Willoughby 's account also in full, but as it came to hand somewhat late for that purpose, and as it was in a large measure practically identical with that of Major Forbes, it was finally decided to publish only such portions as referred to the origina tion of the war, to the tragic but splendid incident which marked its close, and to the circumstances under which the pacification of the country was carried out. Thanks are also due to Mr. H. Rider Haggard, who has related all that is known, or reasonably conjectured, as to the murder by Eobengula of Captain Patterson's Embassy ; to Mr. F. C. Selous, who has traced, in his own graphic style, the causes of the war, and alluded to its results ; to Mr. P. B. S. Wrey, who has dealt with " the Victoria incident," and the prospects of the new South African colony; to Captain C. H. W. Donovan, Mr. Cecil R. Batley, Mr. J. Murray Gourlay, Mr. R. T. Coryndon, Mr. W. Hacker, and numerous others who have assisted with much valuable information, and a number of notes, sketches, and photographs which have been utilised in the body of the book.

Finally, it should be said that in the ensuing pages stress is naturally laid upon the services of those volunteers who formed the advancing columns. At the same time it is hardly necessary to say that those volunteers and burghers who stayed behind to garrison the forts at Salisbury, Victoria, Charter, and Tuli, and to forward supplies to their comrades at the front, formed an important and indispensable portion of the volunteer army, and that their services demand grateful recognition by the Rhodesian community. W. A. WILLS. L. T. COLLINGRIDGE. 10, Basinghall Street, London, E.C. 2o///* August, 1894. Photo ly Elliott & Fry, Baker Street.-] THE HONOURABLE CECIL J. RHODES. (Premier of the Cape Colony ; Founder and Managing Director of the British South Africa Company. )

Chapter I. Introductory Review Of The War

By Frederick Cotjrtenay Selous. The downfall of Lobengula — Struggle between civilisation and savagery — One of the boldest enterprises — A tribute to the brave — The war forced by the Matabeli — The little England party — Mining capital lying idle — Mr. Richmond's Mashona boy killed — Mashonaland abandoned, or Lobengula's power broken — Memorial drawn up by Mr. Philip Wrey — Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Jameson organise the force — Diversion caused by Colonel Gould-Adams' column — Khama's desertion unjustifiable — Gambo disheartened — The effect of the war — Plenty of room for Englishmen — Picturesque natives— Dutch or British in Matabeliland — Development of the country — Trains to Buluwayo — Power broken of military despotic rule— Supremacy of British power in South Africa. The year 1893, most fateful in the history of British enterprise in South Africa, has passed and gone ; but the events of that year, culminating as they did in the conquest of Matabeliland and the downfall of Lobengula, will never be forgotten by the colonists of Mashonaland, who will ever look back upon the Matabeli war with feelings of pride mingled with sorrow.

Sorrow for the comrades who have fallen in the struggle between civilisation and savagery ; pride, not alone in the valour of those dead comrades, but also in the steady courage and strength of purpose which marked the conduct of the whole campaign. As a detailed account of the war will be found in the pages of the book to which this little sketch is a prelude or preface, I shall not touch upon the conduct of the campaign ; except to say that, successful as it was, it was yet one of the boldest enterprises ever undertaken by B our adventurous race. A slight reverse at the commencement might easily have led to a grave disaster, and that no reverse occurred until after the white men were in occupation of Buluwayo is due, I think, at least as much to the absolute want of generalship displayed by the Matabeli, as to the care and skill of the whites.

The luck seems to me to have been all on our side. However successful though this enterprise has been, the conquest of Matabeliland has cost the colonists of Mashonaland dear. In number, the lives that have been lost are com paratively few, but it is a regrettable fact that amongst the fallen are a large proportion of the best men in the country — men like Allan Wilson and Henry Borrow, whose places none can fill. On the day that these two splendid specimens of the British race fell fighting side by side — Allan Wilson the Scotchman and Henry Borrow the English man — there fell with them their thirty followers, a picked band from a body of brave men. But sad though the death may be of these gallant fellows, and wide-spread as must be the grief amongst relations and friends at their untimely loss, the sorrow and grief must be in some sort mitigated by the manner of their death and the knowledge that their splendid spirit of comradeship and true nobility of character have embalmed their memory in every true man's heart wherever the English language is spoken.

Amongst the others who have fallen in this brief campaign are many to whose memory I would fain pay a tribute of regard. Poor Ted Burnett, by whose side I have lain for months at a time beneath the stars which look down upon Mashona land, without ever a cross word ; and Gwynyth Williams, untimely slain in his early manhood, beloved by all who knew him, and as gentle and kind and brave as any Bayard ; and Lendy, soldierlike and hand some, and as kind-hearted as he was brave; and poor Raaff, too, and Eustace Forbes, who, like Lendy, both lost their lives after the campaign was over, but were none the less the victims of the war. These men were all my personal friends, and there are others whom I did not know so well whose loss will be deeply mourned, not alone by their relations in this country, but also by their friends and fellow colonists in Mashonaland.

Great, however, as has been the price paid in noble lives for the conquest of Matabeliland, I am one of those who think that the war was an absolute necessity, and the crushing of the Matabeli power at any cost the only possible means of maintaining the supremacy of our race on the plateau of Central South Africa. Was the war against the Matabeli justifiable or not ? In Mashonaland there has never been but one opinion on the subject ; an opinion, be it noted, which was not only held by every white man who had gone to the country with a view to bettering his condition in life, but which was also fully shared in by every member of every religious denomination in Mashonaland with one single exception, that exception being Mr. Douglas Pelly, a member of Bishop Knight Bruce's mission. This gentleman, who, save for a few days spent in the hospital at Salisbury before the outbreak of the war, had been stationed in Manica, and who therefore could never have seen a Matabeli in his life, or had any opportunity of studying the character of these people, or of knowing the paralysing effect on the enterprise of the colonists produced by their encroachments in the district of Victoria, seems to have been somewhat rash and presumptuous in the expression of opinions so adverse to his fellow-countrymen, as that " the war was a most unjust one, and was forced on the Matabeli by the Chartered Company."

However, unjust as such an opinion undoubtedly is, it is as well that it should be recorded, if only that the colonists should know their enemies. With this single exception all the members of the different religious denominations in Mashonaland— Wesleyans, Church of England ministers, and Roman Catholic priests — were in complete accord that the war with the Matabeli was a necessity, and was forced on the colonists by the action of the Matabeli themselves. In this country, however, there is a small and contemptible class of men, a part of whose political creed it appears to be to discredit the actions of British colonists in all parts of the world, and these men have not only been constant in their denunciations of all that has been done by their countrymen in Mashonaland during the last four years, but have been particularly venomous in their criticisms concerning the cause and the conduct of the Matabeli war.

Mr. Labouchere has, by his constant attacks upon the dead and the living alike, won for himself the reputation of being the most unscrupulous, dishonest, and virulent enemy of the colonists in Mashonaland, and his lead has been followed by some of the press in this country, who, curiously enough, seem to B believe that they are serving the political ends they have in view by calumniating indiscriminately a large body of their fellow-countrymen in South Africa. Mr. Labouchere has summed up his opinion concerning the origin of the war in a sentence which I quote from the number of Truth for November the 16th, 1893. This sentence runs: — "The Mashonaland bubble having burst, a war was forced by the Company on Lobengula in order to get hold of Matabeliland." My answer to this charge was lately given in the course of a lecture before the members of the Royal Colonial Institute, and ran as follows : — " What exactly Mr. Labouchere means to convey by the expression, ' the Mashonaland bubble having burst,' I don't know ; but if he means that Mashonaland had been proved by this time to be worthless as a field for British enterprise, and that the officials of the Chartered Company had therefore made all the preparations necessary for a war of aggression against the Matabeli, then I say that Mr. Labouchere states what is absolutely untrue, for what are the facts?

In July, 1893, when the Victoria district was devastated by the Matabeli, and the settlers' servants were killed within sight of the houses ; when their cattle were driven off, and their farm steads destroyed, there were only thirty-eight horses in the whole of the Victoria district, and less than 150 in the whole of Mashonaland. At this time the first half of the dry season had already passed, and I ask if, given this absolute state of unpreparedness so late in the dry season, it is possible to suppose that at this time — the time of the Matabeli invasion of the Victoria district of Mashonaland — an aggressive war against the Matabeli could have been in contemplation by Dr. Jameson and the officials of the Chartered Company ? Now for the assertion that the ' Mashonaland bubble had burst.' " In this connection I have been authorised by Mr. Philip Wrey, the mining engineer of the Mashonaland Agency, a gentleman who has spent nearly three years in Mashonaland, and who is one of the best, because one of the most experienced, authorities upon mining work in that country, to state that the working capital represented by the different companies floated in London early in 1893 f°r the purpose of fully developing Mashonaland amounted to between £300,000 and £400,000.

Now, as the people who subscribed this large sum of money must have been more or less in the confidence of the directors of the British South Africa Company in London, is it to be supposed that they would have subscribed this amount of capital if a war with so powerful a nation as the Matabeli — a war which at that time must have seemed of very doubtful issue — had been in contemplation ? Owing to the breaking out of the war the greater part of this capital has never been utilised. At the very time when the raid took place in the Victoria district, in July, 1893, there were 120 natives working at Long's Reef in the employ of the Mashonaland Agency, all of whom had been brought, at a great expense, from the east coast, and 100 more were actually on their way to Victoria from Inhambane. At the same time something like 300 men were at work on the " Cotopaxi," one of the properties belonging to the " Gold Fields of Mashonaland," whilst other large gangs were working on reefs belonging to Willoughby's Syndicate, the Zambesia Exploring Company, and many other mining syndicates in Mashonaland.

Indeed, in July, 1893, so far from the Mashonaland bubble having burst, as Mr. Labouchere has so often asserted, I fail to see in what way the men who were interested in the development of the country could possibly have shown their belief in its value in a more tangible form than by undertaking the works of development upon which they were engaged in all the mining districts. And what, I would ask, is occurring now that the Matabeli power has been crushed and Matabeliland lies open to European enterprise ? Have the mining operations in Mashonaland been abandoned ? Have the men whom Mr. Labouchere calls greedy adventurers, border ruffians, riff-raff, marauders and murderers, abandoned the burst bubble of Mashonaland en masse, and flocked, to use another of Mr. Labouchere's choice similes, like vultures to the fresh-killed carcase of Matabeliland ?

Not at all. In every district of Mashonaland mining development work and every other enterprise has now been resumed > and that fact is, I think, the best refutation of the false assertion, that war was made on the Matabeli without just cause, in order to raise money, because " the Mashonaland bubble had burst." As to the actual circumstances which led to the war, I cannot recapitulate them at length here, but the raid by the Matabeli into the Victoria district in July, 1893, is a matter of history; and if that raid itself was not a sufficient justification for the war which was subse quently undertaken against the Matabeli, I fail to see how any war that has ever taken place can be justified. It is true that no white man was murdered by the Matabeli during the prosecution of this historical raid ; but, short of this, everything was done to stir up the bitterest feelings of exasperation in the hearts of the colonists.

More than 400 Mashona men, women, and children were killed in the neighbourhood of the township of Victoria. This, Mr. Labouchere tells us, ought not to have been resented by the settlers, as Lobengula was acting within his rights in slaughtering Mashonas at his pleasure. Probably the colonists in Mashonaland would not have been very strongly moved had they heard of the slaughter of native tribes by Lobengula at a distance from their settlements. But the killing of natives in the immediate vicinity of Victoria created a panic throughout the district, and not only put a stop to all mining development work in the country, but brought every other description of industry and enterprise to a stand still. Besides this, not only were many natives killed by the Matabeli close to the houses forming the little township of Victoria — so near, in fact, that their bodies had to be buried for sanitary reasons, by the white men — but in several instances, personal servants of white men were killed before the eyes of their masters.

Amongst others who have made sworn affidavits to this effect, are the Rev. Mr. Sylvester, the English chaplain at Victoria, and Mr. Richmond, a prospector. The latter having been summoned to Victoria by Captain Lendy, in common with all the white men who were living at the various minin° camps in the outlying districts, was coming in with all his worldly goods packed on a donkey. This donkey was being led by a Mashona lad, Mr. Richmond walking behind. A party of Matabeli being encountered, the Mashona boy let go the donkey, and ran and clasped Richmond round the legs. The Matabeli dragged him shrieking and assegaied him to pieces before the eyes of his master. Richmond, although I believe he had a rifle with him, was afraid to use it ; but he remonstrated strongly with the murderers of his servant, when one of them, placing his hand on his arm, said, " You keep quiet, white man ; we have been ordered not to kill a white man now, but your day is coming!' This same threat was made to other white men.