THE MATABELE WARS. 734 back from thenorth with a great army,and that some terrible disaster would soon fall upon the whitemen. These prophecies were said tojaave for their origin a wizardwho lived in a cavein the MatoppoHills. But all this talk caused no real alarm. No one knew the country and its people better than Mr. Selous, the hunter and explorer, and he says of the situation early in 1896: "Although these rumours of a native rising were current some time before tlae insurrection actually broke out, andwere reported to theacting nativecommissioner, Mr. Thomas, and to the heads of the Govwas coming. On Friday, March 20th, at a station on the Umzingwani River, one of the native police and two of their servants were murdered by an armed party of Matabele, who then fled to the Matoppo Hills. Umfondisi a nephew of Lobengula, was with the party. Even this was supposed to be a mere isolate-; act. But three days later, on Monday, March 23rd, the attacks on the whitesettlers began all over thecountry. At isolatedfafitis andmining stationsmen and women werecruelly murdered by Matabele servants and dependants, who the; very evening before were ernment,Ido not think they wouldhave been warrantedin taking any steps of a suppressive nature at this juncture, for there was absolutely nothing tangible to go upon, nor could any commission of enquiry have come to any other conclusion than that the natives had no intention of rebelling;for they were as quiet and submissive in their demeanour towards Europeans as they ever had been since the war,and there was absolutely no evidence of any secret arming amongst them; and the fact remains that, quietly going about their ordinary work. Rescue parties from Buluwayo brought in some of those who escaped. Others madetheir way toone or other of the outlying forts on the waggon road. During these terrible days more than one heroic deed was done by brave men who fought their way through the rebels,bringing with them sick and wounded comrades. Many of the natives, chiefly Makalakas aaad other tribes that had been subject to tlaeMatabele, remained true to their white SIK JOHN WILLOUGHBV.

masters,but most of the pureblooded Matabele joined the rebels. Three-fifths of the native police went over to them, taking with them their Winchester repeating rifles and plentyofammunition. "From theUmzingwani," says Mr. Selous, " the flame of rebellion spread through the Filibusi andInsiza districts to the Shangani and Inyati, and thence to the mining camps in the neighbourhood of the Gwelo and Ingwenia Rivers, and indeed throughout the country wherever white men,womenandchildren could be taken by surprise and murdered either singly or in small parties; and so quickly was this cruel work accomplished, that although it was only on March 23rd that the first Europeans were murdered, there is reason to believe that by the eveningof the 30thnot a whiteman was left alive in tlae outlying districts of Matabeleland."

vvitla one exception, all those Europeans in Matabeleland who had had a long experience of the natives— that is, the native commissioners, missionaries, and a few old traders and hunters, amongst whom Imust include myself— were unanimous in the opinionthat no rebellion on thepart of the MatabeleWas to be apprehended. Isay there was oneexception, as Ihave been told that Mr.Usher,an old trader long residentin Matabeleland,and whosincethe first war had been living altogether among the natives,hadalways maintained that theMatabele wouldonedayriseagainst the whiteman."

There is little doubt that the first stepin tlae rising wasintended to be a simultaneousmurder of all the white men at the outlying farms and stations. But, as usual, the premature action of few of therebels gave some warning of what