white men come here and bother me. I want you to take them with you to see whether the White Queen is living." Mr. Maund hesitated at first, but the next day he thought it would be well to accede to the King's request, and in a couple of days Mr. Maund with two old Matabele started for Cape Town.

The following is the text of Lobengula's letter to Her Majesty:

Lobengula desires to know that there is a Queen. Some of the people who come into this land tell him there is a Queen, some of them tell him there is not.

Lobengula can only find out the truth by sending eyes to see whether there is a Queen.

The indunas are his eyes.

Lobengula desires, if there is a Queen, to ask her to advise and help him, as he is much troubled by white men who come into his country and ask to dig gold.

There is no one with him upon whom he can trust, a d he asks that the Queen will send some one from herself.

THE INDUNAS.

One of the emissaries was Babjaan, an old man of seventy-five and a relative of the King's, whose life he had saved at the great battle at the commencement of his reign. The other man was Umsheti, a small, gouty, bad-tempered fellow of sixty-five, who had elephantiasis in one leg, and a weak heart. Lobengula paid all expenses. They started naked, but by the time they reached Cape Town Mr. Maund had succeeded in dressing them, but on their way back they undressed and entered their native land in the same condition of nudity in which they had left it. The mission was carried out in Lobengula's usual simple and direct method of dealing with things. He could trust these two indunas, therefore he would send them right across the sea to the presence of the White Queen herself to verify the fact of her existence and to obtain her advice at first hand. To secure obedience to his mandate he told the indunas that if they came back without having seen the queen they would be killed at once.

IN VINO VERITAS.

It is unnecessary to follow their journey down the country, and of the difficulties which red tape placed in the way of their having an interview with Her Majesty. All difficulties, however, were overcome, and the mission was a remarkable succees. Lobengula could not bring himself to believe their report, so again bringing his native cunning to his aid he verified the reports from regions lying far beyond the borderland of the Matabele country by the expedient of making the envoys drunk night after night and interviewing them separately. As their statements agreed, he came to the conclusion that they must be speaking the truth. It is a thousand pities that no shorthand writer was present to take down the report of these two aged indunas. It more than any other document would have enabled us to understand the difficulty which the savage has in understanding civilized things. The indunas began at the beginning and went through the whole of their travels surrounded by a listening throng of wondering chiefs.

WHAT THE INDUNAS SAID OF THE SEA.

They found their first difficulty in trying to make the King understand what the sea was. He had never seen the sea, so they told him that it was like the blue vault of heaven at noon, and that the waves rushed on the shore as the impis of the King charged at a review. If the sea was as the firmament above, the steamer or floating kraal was the sun in the heavens, while all round was blue water. They explained the motion of the ship by the statement that the great iron kraal was pushed through the water from behind by the engine. This puzzled Lobengula; he said, he could not understand how an iron kraal could float upon the water, and concluded that it must have supports from the bottom, and you may depend," he added, "that it was by these supports that the kraal was pushed along." His idea evidently was that the kraal walked through the water, its legs being concealed by the waves. This naturally appeared to him wonderful. Truly," he said, "these white men are sons of the sea." But sometimes, said the indunas, the blue sea was overcast, and the sea was full like a river in the rainy season. Then the floors and the roofs of the kraal rocked until the white men danced-a picturesque reminiscence of the Bay of Biscay. On their way they passed the Portuguese gate, as they called Lisbon. This, too, was a great trouble to Lobengula, for how could the great White Queen allow Portugal to be between her and Africa?

THE WHITE ANTS OF LONDON.

But the wonders of the voyage were nothing to the wonders which they saw in England. London, as usual with savages, impressed them more than anything else:

London they described as the place all white men must come from; people, people everywhere, all in a hurry, serious of faces, nd always busy like the white ants. There was not room for any one above ground in this great kraal, for they could see men and horses moving in a stage below, just as they live in houses built one above the other (this referring to Holborn Viaduct). The fire carriages, too (locomotives), like those between Kimberley and Cape Town, have to burrow in the earth under the streets for fear of being stopped by the crowd.

THE QUEEN'S STOREHOUSE.

They were greatly impressed also by the Bank of England, which they call the " Queen's storehouse." They described how they had been allowed to lift bags of gold, and how it made their hearts sad to see so much gold that they could not put into their pockets. They told how they visited the bullion room, where there were great piles of ingots, some of which were heavier than Babjaan could lift with all his strength; nor did they omit to remark that the Queen's storekeeper took no notice of their hint that in their country, when any distinguished visitor was received by their King, he usually gave the largest beast in the herd to the stranger. "But," said Lobengula, “the ingots of gold were in stone?" "No," said Babjaan, they were all ready to be cut into money." Then." said Lobengula, "why, if the

great Queen has so much gold, do her people seek for more?" Then answered the indunas, It is because the Queen makes her subjects pay so much gold, that they have to go all over the world seeking it, in order that they may pay their tribute!"-an ingenious explanation, which completely satisfied Lobengula, and led to his pegging out forty reef and two alluvial gold claims in Mashonaland.

THE KRAAL OF THE WHITE QUEEN. Then they described Windsor, and said how they had seen the great White Queen, whom it was easy to recognize from her manner and bearing. They told how the Queen's soldiers were clothed in iron, and on either side of the approach to the Queen's castle so motionless did they stand that the indunas believed that they were stuffed, until one of them saw their eyes moving. The White Queen was the greatest woman they ever saw, but the most beautiful was Lady Randolph Churchill. They were taken to the Zoological Gardens, where they somewhat resented not being allowed to poke the lions with their umbrellas; also the Alhambra, where they found the dancing even more to their taste than that with which they were familiar in Matabeleland. Madame Tussaud's delighted them, for all the kings and queens that were shown them they believed represented monarchs who had been conquered by the great White Queen, Cetewayo bringing up the rear. But always they came back to London.

THEIR IMPRESSION OF ENGLAND.

It was like the ocean, they said. A man might walk and walk and never get to the end of the houses, nor did they ever get over their marvel at the number of Englishmen. If every Englishman was killed at the Cape, for every drop of blood from their bodies a fresh man would spring up, they told their King. They described the manoeuvres they saw at Aldershot, and repeated over and over again their first burst of enthusiasm over the horses so big and so strong, and the discipline of the men. After describing the sham fight, old Babjaan would address the indunas, and told them :

Never talk of fighting the white man again, aough! They rise up line after line, always firing. Their little boys, the sons of headmen, all learn to fight like men (referring to Eton boys). Their generals correct all faults; they won't pass a man who is out of time as they dance by in line coming from the fight (the march past).

THE WITCHCRAFT OF THE TELEPHONE. But the thing which completely astounded them was the telephone. They could conceive-though with difficulty—that it was possible for English witchcraft to make a machine which could talk English even when those who talked were a mile from each other, but they could not understand the witchcraft which enabled the English to make the telephone speak Matabele. But that it did they could swear. They had been separated, and at the distance of a mile apart Babjaan had talked to Umsheti by means of this magic, and the machine spoke as pure Matabele

as if it had been made in Africa. Another experience of theirs did not turn out so well. They were breakfasted by the Aborigines Protection Society, where they were received, they said, by many white-haired indunas, whose influence with the government they somewhat exaggerated.

The immediate result of that mission was that, whether owing to the caution of Lord Knutsford and the counsel of the Aborigines Protection Society, Lobengula believed that the great White Queen and the English public opinion were hostile to the granting of the concession to the Chartered Company, and there and then he slew his Prime Minister Lofcha, who had advocated the granting of the concession, and some seventy of his companions.

CAPTAIN FERGUSON'S MISSION.

It was then decided to send a guardsman envoy out with presents. The chief aim of this mission was to undo as far as possible the mischief made by Lord Knutsford's hint that he should not give away all his land to the first comer. There is a difference of opin

ion as to the impression produced by the uniform of the guards which Captain Ferguson wore; some said it did good because it proved to Lobengula that his indunas had not lied when they stated that the Queen clothed her soldiers in iron; others assert that it made a bad impression upon the king because he thought it cowardly for a soldier to hide himself behind an iron breastplate, instead of meeting his enemy as a brave man should without sheltering himself behind anything.

THE ROAD TO MASHONALAND.

After signing the concession which brought the South African Company into existence, Lobengula got somewhat alarmed. He had given Dr. Jameson permission to take the pioneers through to Mashonaland. When the time for the occupation came he fought shy, and declared that there was only one road to Mashonaland, and that lay through his country. Dr. Jameson had not only his consent to the cutting of a road to Mashonaland, but also promises to send men to clear the route. When pressed to perform his promises he drew back. Mr. Selous in his new book says:

When Mr. Doyle reminded him of his promises to Dr. Jameson, he avoided any discussion of that question, and only said, "There is only one road to Mashonaland, and that goes through my country and past Bulawayo;" and he further said: "If Rhodes wants to send his men round my country, let him send them by sea to beyond the Sabi River." At last he said to Mr. Doyle, "Rhodes has sent me many emissaries, and amongst them Dr. Jameson, whom I like, and whom I am told is Rhodes' mouth; but I am Lobengula, and I want to see the big white chief himself; I am tired of talking with Rhodes' messengers and the bearers of his words: their stories don't all agree."-("Travels and Adventures in Africa," p. 359).

It was impossible for Rhodes to come, and they then saw that they had nothing but hostility to expect from Lobengula, and the pioneers marched along the Selous road prepared and expecting to be attacked at any moment.

LOBENGULA AND THE PIONEERS.

The whole country was full of preparations for war, and more than one message was sent by Lobengula which might have deterred less resolute men than those at the head of the expedition. Mr. Selous speaks very frankly on this point:

Personally, Lobengula probably never wanted to fight, though it is the most absolute nonsense to talk of his ever having been friendly to the expedition. But he had a very difficult part to play, and it is wonderful that he managed to restrain his people as he did.

We cut the road to Mashonaland in defiance of them, and our advance would most certainly have been resisted but for two circumstances. The first was the fact that

the old man to disadvantage, with one characteristic exception. On the whole he plays rather a dignified part. The exception is the report dated July 5, 1892, announcing that the King had had the Regent and the Regent's brother killed, and that their sons, wives and children were all being killed, their dogs were also killed, but all the cattle and slaves were captured. They were accused of witchcraft. The Regent was strangled, and his brother was shot, and the King had given orders to clean out the whole family. He had also sent an impi to kill his brother Molhaplini. The Regent was, in the interpreter's opinion, the best and the least harmful man in the country, but he was powerless against the accusation of witchcraft. The

during the progress of the expedition a well-equipped force of five hundred mounted men of the Bechwanaland Border Police were encamped on the southwestern border of Matabeleland ; and the second, that after the expedition crossed the Tuli, and until it reached the plateau of Mashonaland, Lobengula and his people never knew where we were.-("Travel and Adve. ture in Southeast Africa," p. 381.)

When the English had established themselves in the country and the forts were built it was too late, and Lobengula made the best of a bad bargain.

AFTER THE SETTLEMENT OF MASHONALAND.

The last two years things have gone pretty smoothly, nor have there been any serious complaints on either side. The last published Blue Book does not show

execution of the Regent, however, was one of those internal affairs which must be judged in the light of the conditions in Africa.

THE CUTTING OF THE TELEGRAPH.

The present trouble seems to have arisen over the cutting of the telegraph wires of the company. Some five hundred yards of wire were cut and carried off. The thieves belonged to a chief named Goomala, who lived on the frontier line. Instead of giving the culprits up the chief paid the fine in cattle, and then at once sent word to Lobengula that the English had seized the King's cattle. This seems to have upset Lobengula altogether. Mr. Colenbrander, the interpreter resident, wrote on May 10 that the King was

very angry about the seizure of the cattle. Mr. Colenbrander had stated during the previous month that the King was much disturbed that people should be allowed to come into Matabeleland for trading and otherwise from the east without first getting his permission. He said what was perfectly true, that worse dangers might arise if white people were allowed to wander about in his districts without his knowledge.

THE BRITISH AGENT'S WARNING.

Mr. Colenbrander was evidently impressed with the sincerity of the King. He writes that he is sure the King is trying to pull straight, and that Dr. Jameson should help him all he could. Some traders who had come into the country without the King's permission had been robbed. As soon as Lobengula heard of it, although they had entered his country without his permission, he used all his authority to secure their goods, and succeeded. Mr. Colenbrander concluded his letter by the following significant sentence: "Prevention is better than cure; and in my humble opinion it is better to avoid any open rupture, unless the British South African Company are fully prepared, which I very much doubt." After the seizure of the cattle, Mr. Colenbrander writes, "I have written to Drs. Harris and Jameson to be more careful about the seizures, as these matters may not always be taken so coolly by the King." The King sent a message to these officials, asking them to be more careful. and also asking them the pertinent question whether it was right to punish natives without being positively sure that they were the real offenders.

LOBENGULA'S REMONSTRANCE.

Nothing could be more sensible and dignified than the old King's letter:

May 13, 1893.

My Friend: Your people, the people of the company, have taken from my servant, Setausé, my cattle which he was herding.

The cattle were taken from the young men who were herding them, and who came and reported the matter to the men.

Upon the men going to see and ask why this was done they were told that the telegraph wire had been cut, and that my cattle were taken and would be kept until the people who had cut the wire were found and given up.

My people said they had not cut the wire and knew nothing of it, and asked to be shown the place where it had taken place. Instead of your people doing this they bound and took away some of my men.

I now ask you why you allow your people to do these things.

The King professed to be satisfied with Dr. Harris' explanation, and expressed a hope that the cattle would be returned to his people at Tuli.

WHY THE IMPI WAS SENT.

Lobengula's conduct seems to have been extremely correct. As soon as he received the complaint that the telegraph wires had been cut and stolen by natives on his side of the frontier, after first protesting against his cattle being stolen to punish the offenders whom he repudiated, he dispatched immediately a large impi to destroy and punish the thieves. Telegraph

ing from Bulawayo, Colenbrander warned Captain Lindy not to be scared, as the expedition was not against the whites, but intended to punish the recent wire-cutters as well as some of the Mashonas who had stolen some of his cattle. The impi, however, having received instructions, carried them out with small regard to the more or less imaginary frontier line which had been drawn between Mashonaland and Matabeleland. In the eyes of all the Matabele, Mashonaland is part and parcel of Matabeleland, and if the South African Company is there it is by virtue of a concession by Lobengula, and that it in no way prevented the King sending his impi into Mashonaland to punish any of the Mashonas who may have stolen his cattle. This, although natural, is not a very workable arrangement. The only method by which the two jurisdictions can be worked side by side is for Lobengula and Dr. Jameson to agree as to a frontier line. The British troops disregarded this in the first instance when they levied a fine upon Goomala's men on the Matabele side of the frontier, and it is not surprising that the Matabele chased the Mashona right into the town of Victoria. The Mashonas, as usual, were killed like rabbits and their cattle driven off. Some of them, however, took refuge under the British flag.

THE SCARE AT VICTORIA.

The indunas demanded their surrender, which was promptly and energetically refused. Thereupon the Matabele took up a position which menaced the security of Fort Victoria. Then, as Dr. Jameson telegraphed, the Victoria people had the jumps." Volunteers were called out, rifles distributed, and some four hundred men gathered together at Port Victoria All business was at a standstill, and every one watched for the threatened attack. They were given notice to disperse within an hour's time. At the expiration of the hour they were still hanging about, whereupon Captain Lindy with fifty-four mounted men rode out of Fort Victoria amid a whirling storm of cheers. They dispersed the impi and pursued them for nine miles killing both the indunas and others. This was a very melancholy response to Lobengula's attempt to punish the cutters of the telegraph wire. Colenbrander repeatedly wrote to say that Lobengula knew it was a serious thing cutting and carrying away the telegraph wire, as it was the white man's mouth. Naturally Lobengula was very indignant at the impi dispatched to punish the wire-cutters.

LOBENGULA'S PROTEST.

The following three telegrams set forth Lobengula's view of the case, with a native eloquence which leaves nothing to be desired:

July 20.-I shall return no cattle or compensate anybody for either cattle captured by my impi or damage done to property until such time that Rhodes returns to me all the captives, their wives and children, cattle, goats and sheep which were given protection to by the Victoria people, and had I known at the time when I dispatched my impi in the direction of Victoria what I know now, I would have ordered them to capture and loot all they could lay their hands on belonging to the whites, to compensate myself for the people and their property which were withheld from me.

July 27.-My own messengers have arrived, and they tell me that the captured cattle you complain of as belonging to the company have been duly returned, but you did not tell me that you had a lot of the Amaholi cattle hiding with you, together with their owners; and that when my indunas claimed them from Captain Lindy, he refused to give up either cattle or men, and told my induna that the Amaholis and their cattle did not belong to me any longer, and then turned his cannon on to my people. Are the Amaholis then yours, including their cattle; did you then send them to come and steal my cattle? Captain Lindy said you had bought them for money; where then did you place the cash? Who did you give it to? Let my cattle be delivered to my people peacefully. I wish you to let me know at once. I thought you came to dig gold, but it seems that you have come not only to dig gold but to rob me of my people and country as well; remember that you are like a child playing with edged tools. Tell Captain Lindy he is like some of my own young men ; he has no holes in his ears, and cannot or will not hear; he is young, and all he thinks about is a row, but you had better caution him carefully or he will cause trouble, serious trouble, between us.

I have received your wire-you accuse me wrongfully. I only sent my impi to recover some of my stolen cattle and to punish the Amaswini that your people complained to me about as constantly cutting your telegraph wires; but it would s em now to me that the white people stole my cattle, for white people know very well that the Amaswini had stolen some of my cattle, for I had written to tell Dr. Jameson; so what have you got to say now? You said before that you would not punish my Amahole, but now that I send to punish them for you for harm done to your telegraph wires you resent it-my impi on its way back. What goods have my impi stolen and destroyed, and how many cattle have they captured? You only say that my impi has done all this as an excuse for firing on them. I am not aware that a boundary exists between Dr. Jameson and myself; who gave him the boundary lines? Let him come forward and show me the man that pointed out to him these boundaries; I know nothing whatever about them, and you, Mr. Moffat, you know very well that the white people have done this thing on purpose. This is not right-my people only came to punish the Amahole for stealing my cattle and cutting your wires; do you think I would deliberately go and seize cattle from you? No, that would not be right.

On the same day Colenbrander and Dawson left Brlawayo, the King saying that it would be as well if they were away, as the hearts of his people were sore. So far it is difficult for one at a distance reading these dispatches not to feel that Lobengula had the right on his side.

THE BRITISH OPINION ON THE SPOT.

It is, however, well to recognize the opinion of the British at the front, and this has been expressed with no uncertain sound by a public meeting of the inhabitants of Fort Victoria. They held a meeting on July 21 and drew up three resolutions, which are summarized as follows:

1. Absolute necessity of immediate settlement of the questio.

2. Utter want of faith in word of Lobengula, or his power to keep it, with reasons.

3. Result of these yearly raids, paralyzing all business, mining, agricultural or transport, with evidence of the present condition of affairs, loss of means of subsistence, £4,000 per month would have been spent in mining and

other salaries, now nil, in farming; loss of stock and burning of crops already experienced on nearly every farm; the natives in the employ of the farmers have been killed by the Matabele, and in many cases cold-blooded murders in their presence; emphatically know that these raids have been and will be of yearly occurrence during the dry or working season; beyond this, fear of their wives and children being murdered, many Dutch in laager here, with their families, stock, seeds and farming implements, determined to return unless matter promptly settled; seriousness of interruption to road of entry, post oxen stolen and boys in charge killed; so that unsafe to travel by transport or post; necessity of accumulating in centres, so leaving property, merchandise, etc., to be looted.

THE SITUATION IN SEPTEMBER.

When Colenbrander left Bulawayo it was equivalent to the departure of an ambassador immediately before the outbreak of war. Lobengula was very furious, or pretended to be so, when the news came of the way in which he had been treated. Colenbrander, who has always been pacific and inclined to rely upon the friendly sentiment of Lobengula, says bluntly, in a dispatch received August 27, that under the circumstances there is no future security for Europeans. Lobengula publicly declared that he would send an impi for the Mashona, their servants and their families who had taken protection under the British flag, and would take them away by force if we refused to surrender them. He abused the impi because it did not retaliate on the English, although he had previously told it to do nothing. He refused to send for the cattle which had been sent him, and he also refused the monthly payment made to him by the British South African Company. He had thus broken as far as he could with the whites. He had sent messengers at once to bring back the impi that was on its way to attack the Barotzi. When these return it will add 6,000 men to his available forces, or one-third of his total army. Sir Henry Loch, in his estimate of the situation, says that he thinks Lobengula dreads attack, and that he will paralyze industry in Mashonaland by placing a large impi within striking distance of Victoria. Mr. Rhodes reckons that by this time he will have a thousand armed and mounted men at Forts Victoria and Salis bury, and he is not at all likely to allow an impi to remain long within striking distance of Mashonaland. The situation, therefore, is very strained. The British Government has forbidden any aggressive movement; but, of course, if the impi could be induced to take the aggressive, Mr. Rhodes, would have a free hand. There is therefore reason to hope that Mr. Rhodes, who has made no secret of his belief that all men, even Matabeles, can be squared, may succeed in squaring Lobengula this time. The present crisis is the most severe test through which he has had to pass for some time, and every one must hope that he will emerge from it triumphantly. A victory would be a disaster only second to a defeat. What Mr. Rhodes has to do is to keep the peace and avail himself of Lobengula's friendly disposition in order to prevent the war party rendering the situation impossible.