ate is unhealthy?"

"The single exception is that of Natal. The pasture land is eminently
adapted for sheep, and nothing but capital is required--capital and
labour. As we go more north towards the Zambesi, the nature of the land
will alter."

"And Mozelkatse--will he keep his word, think you?"

"He is known for never breaking it," replied the missionary, "he is--."
The sentence was not finished, for a black arm and hand seemed to glide
out of the darkness, and was laid on the missionary's shoulder.

Starting up, he seized the intruder by the throat, but instantly
released him, laughing. It was Masheesh, the Matabele brave, who had
presented them that day to Mozelkatse, and as it may be easily imagined
that the king, though able to create the sun and moon, was readier with
his spear than his pen; the credentials, which were to make his
protection of the party known, assumed the tangible form of the chief
who thus unceremoniously startled them, and who soon, squatted beside
the blaze, proceeded gravely to light his pipe and smoke in silence.
The fire grew low, the two Europeans retired into the tent, but Masheesh
smoked on quietly and composedly. One by one the Kaffirs and Hottentots
lay down, but still the glow of the chief's tobacco could be seen by the
fire side. Rising at last, he heaped fresh wood on the embers, and
calmly taking his place by the tent door and outside, though he had but
to lift it to enter, Masheesh rolled himself in his buffalo hide, and,
gorged with meat and tobacco, soon slept as soundly as the rest.

Volume 1, Chapter V.

THE MATABELE HUNT.

Masheesh had been deputed by Mozelkatse to accompany them, and there was
now nothing to stay their progress northward. The country, too, at the
foot of the mountains, was comparatively bare of game, so early the
following morning the small party outspanned, and took their way across
the plain to strike the banks of the Limpopo.

"How easily the Matabele falls into our ways!" said Wyzinski; as on the
morning of the second day after leaving the mountains, the two were
riding about half a mile ahead of the waggon, which was coming lumbering
along behind them, the shouts of the drivers and the cracking of the
long whip reaching their ears.

"It seems strange to see him take the management of our people, and at
the same time associate himself with us on a footing of perfect
equality," replied Hughes, "he a half-naked and totally uneducated
savage