."

"Turn it the other way, Hughes; he is a chief in the land, known and
respected; we are strangers, with nothing but the white man's prestige
placing us at all on the footing of his equal. Masheesh is naturally
the leader of our party, and is responsible to his chief for our safety.
It is on this I rely."

The Matabele rode well, and he now came dashing along bestriding a small
horse which had been given him. He disdained the use of a saddle, and
as he came along at full speed, his ostrich feather streaming on the
wind, the loose panther skin floating behind, and his long black legs
nearly touching the ground, there was something grotesque and yet
striking in his appearance. He held his slender assegai in his hand.
Dashing up to the two in front, he checked his horse suddenly, bringing
it instantly to a standstill, and sending the ground and grit beneath
its hoofs flying into the air. Bending down over its shoulder, the
savage pointed with the spear head to some marks on the earth, and then
looking up into the soldier's face, uttered some words in a low guttural
tone, and laughed.

"The track of elephants," said the missionary, who spoke the Zulu
tongue, though imperfectly. In a moment Hughes was off his horse, and
stooping low as he examined for the first time the footprint of the
mighty denizen of the African forests. Masheesh rode on, and in a few
moments, a low guttural cry was heard, and the Matabele was seen,
halting under a tree, and signing with his spear for the rest to come
on. The path had led through a forest, the trees not growing thickly
together, but at intervals, and now and then broken by rich undulating
plains. Following the direction of the chief's assegai, the two halting
by his side under the shade of the mohunno trees, saw stretched before
them the winding silver line of the Limpopo, one of the favourite
hunting grounds of the Bazizulu.

Herds of antelope, and of hartebeest, were feeding over the vast plain.
They could be counted by thousands, and it was indeed a glorious sight
for the hunter's eye, that vast undulating plain, whose gentle rises
concealed the distance, and were covered with rich pasture, over which
were feeding great herds of cattle, who owned no master. About five
miles distant the line of the Limpopo bordered by trees, was seen
glistening through the foliage as it sparkled in the morning sun. To
the right and close to them a large snake was curling along the groun