King Solomon's Mines

large tree, which made a conspicuous mark for miles round. It was a wonderfully fine lot of ivory. I never saw a better, averaging as it did between for

pace to detail, we reached Sitanda's Kraal, near the Lukanga River, the real starting-point of our expedition. Very well do I recollect our arrival at that place. To the right was a scattered native settlement with a few stone cattle kraals and some cultivated lands down by the water, where these savages grew their scanty supply of grain, and be

e down which, twenty years before, I had seen poor Silvestre creeping back after his attempt to reach So

its vast expanse. Leaving Good to superintend the arrangement of our little camp, I took Sir Henry with me, and walking to the top of the slope opposite, we gaze

ll round Solomon's Mines, but God

all reach him somehow," said Sir Henry, in that

en I saw that we were not alone. Behind us, also gazing earnes

ad observed him, addressing Sir Hen

meaning, I believe, an elephant, and the name given to Sir Henry by the

atives to have a name for one among themselves, but it is not decent that they should call a white man

o doubt; one can see it in his size and by his mien; so, mayhap, am I. At least, I am as great a man. Be my

ow he impressed me, and besides I was curious to know what he had to say. So I translated, express

ered Sir Henry, "I

ered with snow, and man cannot say what lies beyond them behind the place where

slated

I believe that a man of my blood, my brother, has

a white man went out into the desert two years ago towards tho

it was my brother

said that he had thine eyes and a black beard. He said, too, that the name of

about it," said I

ally did it. It was always so from his boyhood. If he meant to cross the Suliman Berg he has

English, though

ncubu," he put in, and

bopa, that he cannot do, there are no mountains he may not climb, there are no deserts he cannot cross, save a mountain and a desert of which you are s

ansl

eed of the grass, blown hither and thither, sometimes multiplying itself and dying in the act, sometimes carried away into the heavens. But if that seed be good and heavy it may perchance travel a little way on the road it wills. It is wel

e that Zulus sometimes indulge in, which to my mind, full though they are of vain repetiti

world of stars, and the world that lies above and around the stars; who flash your words from afa

wings are seen in the light of the fire, and, lo! we are gone again into the Nowhere. Life is nothing. Life is all. It is the Hand with which we hold off Death. It is the glow-worm t

an," said Sir Henry,

we are much alike, Incubu. Perhaps

t dost thou mean?" I asked; "what

s; a land of brave people, and of trees, and streams, and snowy peaks, and of a great white road.

him doubtfully. Th

l in. I make no plots. If ever we cross those mountains behind the sun I will tell what I know. B

ion, and returned towards the camp, where shortly after

odd man," sa

and will not speak out. But I suppose it is no use quarrelling with him. We are in fo

missing our bearers, we made an arrangement with an old native who had a kraal close by to take care of them till we returned. It went to my heart to leave su

nd it did go off, and blew a hole right through one of his oxen, which were just then being driven up to the kraal, to say nothing of knocking him head over heels with the recoil.

ay up there in the thatch," he sa

and haunt him and turn his cattle mad and his milk sour till life was a weariness, and would make the devils in the guns come out and talk to him in a way he did not like, and generall

pa, and the Hottentot Ventv?gel-were to take with us on our journey. It was small enough, but do what

fles and two hundred

es (for Umbopa and Ventv?gel), wi

ter-bottles, each

bla

eight of biltong-i.e.

ht of best mixed

ng an ounce of quinine, and one

matches, a pocket filter, tobacco, a trowel,

at load was a heavy one per man with which to travel across the burning desert, for in such places every additional oun

able us to refill our water-bottles after the first night's march, for we determined to start in the cool of the evening. I gave out to these natives that we were going to shoot ostriches, with which the desert abounded. They jabbered and shrugged their shoulders, saying that we we

l her glory, flooding the wild country with light, and throwing a silver sheen on the expanse of rolling desert before us, which looked as solemn and quiet and as alien to man as the star-studded firmament above. We rose up, and in a few minutes were ready, and yet we hesitated a little, as human nature is prone

we can succeed in it. But we are three men who will stand together for good or for evil to the last. Now before we start let us for a moment pray to the P

minute or so, he covered his face with

believe that he is very religious. Good too is pious, though apt to swear. Anyhow I do not remember, excepting on one single occasion, ever putting up a better prayer in my life than

said Sir He

e st

ess depended upon it, such as it was. If we failed in finding that pool of bad water which the old Dom marked as being situated in the middle of the desert, about sixty miles from our starting-point, and as far from the mountains, in all probability we must perish miserably of thirst. But to my mind

ry few miles we had to stop and empty them; but still the night kept fairly cool, though the atmosphere was thick and heavy, giving a sort of creamy feel to the air, and we made fair progress. It was very

cond there arose all around us a most extraordinary hubbub, snorts, groans, and wild sounds of rushing feet. In the faint light, too, we could descry dim galloping forms half hidden by wreaths of sand. The natives threw down their loads and prepared to bolt, but remembering that there was nowhere to run to, they cast themselves upon the ground

ly enough got up and made off with him. Calling out to the others that it was all right, I ran towards Good, much afraid lest he should be hurt, but to my g

e o'clock, when we called a halt, and having drunk a little water, not mu

ss the desert. The stars grew pale and paler still, till at last they vanished; the golden moon waxed wan, and her mountain ridges stood out against her sickly face like the bones on the cheek of a dyin

an hour later, we spied a little pile of boulders rising out of the plain, and to this we dragged ourselves. As luck would have it, here we found an overhanging slab of rock carpeted beneath with

y, and no number of knives would have tempted them to come a step farther. So we took a hearty drink, and having emptied our water-bottl

ne insect, however, we found abundant, and that was the common or house fly. There they came, "not as single spies, but in battalions," as I think the Old Testament[1] says somewhere. He is an extraordinary insect is the house fly. Go where you will you find him, and so it must have been always. I have seen him

out, and soon were all asleep. There was no need to set a watch, for we had nothing to fear from anybody or anything in that vast untenanted plain. Our only enemies were heat, thirst, and flies, but far rather would I have faced any danger from man or beast than that awful trinity. This time we were not so lucky as to find

f flies which buzzed cheerfully round

!" said

ot!" ech

d there was no rock or tree, nothing but an unending glare, rendered dazzling by the h

sked Sir Henry; "we can

at each ot

dig a hole, get in it, and cover

eping into the hole, pulled it over us all, with the exception of Ventv?gel, on whom, being a Hottentot, the heat had no particular effect. This gave us some slight shelter from the burning rays of the sun, but the atmosphere in that amateur grave can be better imagined than described. The Black Hole of Calcutta must have been a fool to it; indeed, to this moment I

noon we determined that we could bear it no longer. It would be better to die walking that to be killed slowly by heat and thirst in this dreadful hole. So

e that the desert is marked as measuring forty leagues across, and the "pan bad water" is set down as being about in the middle of it. Now forty lea

g more than a mile and a half in an hour. At sunset we rested again, wai

flat surface of the plain about eight miles away. At the distance it looked like a

know what we went through. We walked no longer, we staggered, now and again falling from exhaustion, and being obliged to call a halt every hour o

of the queer hill, or sand koppie, which at first sight resembled a gigantic ant-

t, sucked down our last drops of water. We had but half

dropping off to sleep I heard

e shall all be dead before

such an awful death is not pleasant, but even t

me are prone to do. Although his reading evidently was limited, the impression produced by it upon his