Also I was hard put to
it to keep the camp in meat, for although the country proved to be very
sparsely populated, there was but little game about. Indeed, during all
that time I hardly killed anything larger than a waterbuck, and, as you
know, waterbuck's flesh is not very appetising food. On the twentieth
day, however, we came to the banks of a largish river, the Gonooroo it
was called. This I crossed, and then struck inland towards a great range
of mountains, the blue crests of which we could see lying on the distant
heavens like a shadow, a continuation, as I believe, of the Drakensberg
range that skirts the coast of Natal. From this main range a great spur
shoots out some fifty miles or so towards the coast, ending abruptly in
one tremendous peak. This spur I discovered separated the territories of
two chiefs named Nala and Wambe, Wambe's territory being to the north,
and Nala's to the south. Nala ruled a tribe of bastard Zulus called
the Butiana, and Wambe a much larger tribe, called the Matuku, which
presents marked Bantu characteristics. For instance, they have doors and
verandahs to their huts, work skins perfectly, and wear a waistcloth and
not a moocha. At this time the Butiana were more or less subject to
the Matuku, having been surprised by them some twenty years before
and mercilessly slaughtered down. The tribe was now recovering itself,
however, and as you may imagine, it did not love the Matuku.
"Well, I heard as I went along that elephants were very plentiful in the
dense forests which lie upon the slopes and at the foot of the mountains
that border Wambe's territory.
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