713 MINOR WARS AND EXPEDITIONS OF THE 'NINETIES.

I.-THE MATABELE WARS.

CHAPTER I.

THE CAPTURE OF BULUWAYO AND THE SHANGANI PATROL TTHE Matabele, or Amandebele, are a tribe of the warlikerace called Kaffirs (i.e.idolworshipping infidels) by theMohammed-He used to deny the reports that there was gold in the country, rightly conjecturing that the preciousmetalwouldbringacrowdof prospectors, miners, and adventurers, whose presence would be a danger to the independence of his tribe.

It u s the law that anyone who by chancefound a small nugget in the river sand should throw it back again. To keep it would be, in native parlance, "lo call theking a liar."

ansof theEast African coa.-t,a namestill applied to them by the European settlers. In the fust years of the century they formed part of the great Zulu confederacy formed by the lighting chief,Chaka. whoplayedamong thenative races of South Africa the part that the FirstNapoleon was playing among the civilised nations of Europe. In 1817, Mosilikatse (or Umziligazi, to use another form of his name), the chief of the Matabele,quarrelled with Chaka. .After a successful foray, he omitted to send his overlord a due share of the spoil. The dusky Napoleon announced his intention of chastising such contumacy, and Mo-ilikatse fled from Zululand with his people, crossed the Drakensberg Mountains,and spent some timein whaf is now theTransvaal territory,maintaining his followers by hunting the abundant game and raiding the less uarhke tribes of the district. In 1836 and .1837 'hey came into conflict with the Boers, who were then trekking from Natal and Cape Colony across theDrakensberg and the Vaal to found their new republics in an unexploredland they wouldbe free from the interference ot the colonialgovernments.

In iHijS Lobengula (i.e. "Driven by the-Wind"), the son ot Mosilikatse, succeeded to the rule of .Viatabeleland. Unlike his father,he was anxious to open up communications with the whilefolk— otherthan the Boers, withwhom he had fought more than once, and whose; po-sible aggression he hoped to ward off bv friendship with the British. Messrs. Wills and Collingridge, in their semi-official narrative of the Matabele War, give the following account of the unfortunate king :— "ManyEuropeans who have held intercourse with him speak of Lobengula with something of admiration, and even strong personal liking. In figure he was tall— almost six feet two inches in height— broad, and muscular,though as he grew old heinclined to that obesity which is common t<-almost every native chief in South Africa. Hi:. mien and manners have always been described as majestic. Mr. C. D. Rudd, who knew him well, and who owed his life on one occasion to Lobengula's firmness, says that the royal Matabele looked every inch a king. . ..

Worsted in the struggle with the Boers, the Matabele moved still further north, cr< ssed the Limpopo, and gradually subdued the tribes of is now known as Rhodesia, but till lately wa- marked on our maps as Matabeleland and onaland. Mosilikatse,whoreignedtill 1868, when be died in extreme old age, was alvvav. anxious tokeep the whitesettlersout of the land.

Several alleged photographic representations of Lobengulahave appeared in the press from time to time;but,in point of fact, Lobengula never on any occasion permitted himself to be