gallant Colonel and officers of the North-Western Rhodesia
Native Police, a smart body of 380 natives, officered by eleven or
twelve Englishmen. To Colonel Colin Harding, C.M.G., was due the credit
of recruiting and drilling this smart corps, and it was difficult to
believe that these soldierly-looking men, very spruce in their dark blue
tunics and caps, from which depend enormous red tassels, were only a
short time ago idling away their days in uninviting native kraals.

I was much impressed in a Kalomo house with the small details of a
carefully arranged dinner-table, adorned with flowers and snowy linen;
the cooking was entirely done by black boys, and of these the "Chinde"
boys from the Portuguese settlements are much sought after, and cannot
be excelled as cooks or servants, so thoroughly do the Portuguese
understand the training of natives. The staple meat was buck of all
kinds; sheep were wellnigh unknown, oxen were scarce and their meat
tough; but no one need grumble at a diet of buck, wild-pig, koran,[51]
guinea-fowl, and occasionally wild-duck. As regards other necessities of
life, transport difficulties were enormous; every ounce of food besides
meat, and including precious liquids, had then to be dragged over
nearly 250 miles of indifferent roads; and not only groceries, but
furniture, roofs of houses, clothes--all had to be ordered six to eight
months before they were required, and even then disappointments occurred
in the way of waggons breaking down, of delays at the rail-head and at
the crossing of the river. To us who are accustomed to the daily calls
of the butcher, the baker, and the grocer, the foresight which had to be
exercised is difficult to realize, and with the best management in the
world great philosophy was required to put up with the minor wants.

As to the climate of North-Western Rhodesia in the dry season--which
lasts from April or May to November, or even later--it is ideal. Never
too hot to prevent travelling or doing business in the heat of the day,
it is cold enough morning and evening to make fur coats by no means
superfluous; rain is unknown, and of wind there is just enough to be
pleasant, although now and then, especially towards sunset or before
dawn, a very strong breeze springs up from a cloudless horizon, lasts
about thirty minutes, making the trees bend and tents flap and rattle,
and then dies away again as suddenly as it has come. Sometimes, in the
early morning, this breez