THE MATABELE WARS. 714 photographed, the native superstition being that the process involved the stealing of the soul of the person so pictured."

advanced, and establishing fortified posts at intervals,it reached, on September 12th, 1890, after a march of 500 miles, Mount Hampden, in the east of Matabeleland, which had been selected as the centre of the Company's operations. There was some fear that,notwithstanding Lobengula's permits, his warriors might resent the coming of the white settlers and attack the column. There was alsosomerisk of opposition from the Boers in the first,and from tlae Portuguese in the last,part of the march; but, happily, the expedition reached Mount Hampden without firing a shot or losing alife. Here Fort Salisbury was built, and a town beganto grow up besideit.

Tlae fighting men of the Matabele nation were estimated at about 15,000. They were organised in regiments, distinguished from each other by the marks on their shields, and commanded by indunas, or chiefs. There had been rumours that tlae Boers of the Transvaal were about to organise a large expedition to effect settlements in Matabeleland, and to prevent this the country was proclaimed to be within the sphere of British influence in 1888. Lobengula's court at Buluwayo wasnow visited byagent after agent,representing various'groups of capitalists who were anxious to obtain permission to effect settlementsin his dominions and seek for tlae gold with which tlae land was said to abound. Enthusiastic explorers told how in various parts of the country one found outcropping reefs, old gold workings, and e\e\\ traces of ancient PhSnician settlements. This, they said, was tlae rediscovered land of"King Solomon's mines," tlae Ophir that abounded in So far all had gone well,but when the rainy season began, the arrangements for supplying the pioneers broke down, and fever and scarcity thinned their ranks. Many died, others abandoned the enterprise, but the rest held bravely on, and were soon reinforced by newcomers. Compared with the glowing reports that had heralded the enterprise, the resultsof thefirst prospectingforgoldreefs weredisappointing-. The districtofManica on the easternslope of the Matabelelandplateau was by all accounts a more promising district for the gold seekers, and it was resolved to occupy it. The result was a conflict with thePortuguese,who claimed that Manica was par of their East African territories.

gold.

Subsequent experience has shown that these reportsof the riches of the country were greatly exaggerated. As the shrewd old king,Mosilikatse, had foreseen, gold proved to be the magnet that brought the white men into Matabeleland in overpowering strength. In 1889 Lobengula granted concessions to occupy land and search forminerals to Mr.C. D.Rudd and Mr. Rochford Maguire, M.P., who were actingfor Mr. Cecil Rhodes and his friends,the founders of the future British South Africa Company. Somewhat similar concessions were grantedto Mr. A.E.Maund, the representative of another group,which afterwardsjoined forces with Mr. Rhodes. On October 15th, 19, a royal charter was granted to the British South Africa Company, the country which it w'aj! to explore and develop being defined as " tlae region of South Africa lying immediately to the north of BritishBechuanaland,and to tlae north and west of the South AfricanRepublic (i.e. the Transvaal), and to the west of the Portuguese dominions." , Tlae district had b ienexplored by the Bortuguese traveller,Colc.iel Pavia de Andrada, who claimed that he ' eld concessions from local chiefs and from lobengula himself, of earlier 1 o I date than thos as tlae South Africa Company. These concessio is had been turned over to a Portuguese association,tlae" Mozambique Company," in which, curiously enough, the chief shareholders were Englishmen. During the period while the agents of tlae rival companies were pushing from opposite directions into Manicaland, there was a skirmish at Massi Kessi between a detachment of the South Africa Company's forces, under Major Forbes, and an armed party led by Andrada, in which the Portuguese were defeated and their leader was taken prisoner. The quarrel was finally adjusted by the British and Portuguese Governments agreeing, inJune, 1801, to a division ofManicaland, the new frontier giving some valuable territory to the South Africa Company.

In the following year the first steps were taken to turn the concessions to practical account. A pioneer expedition of 500 settlers, well equipped and armed, and commanded by Lieutenant -Colonel Pennetather, of the 6th Dragoon Guards, started from the borders of Bechuanaland,and, making a rough road as it During the next two years the development of the Mashonaland settlements made steady progress. Salisbury grew into a town. Labour