The migratory character of the South African natives is well known. Not only whole nations move, but the tribes among themselves move also, thus making it exceedingly difficult to trace their migrations except for a few generations back. The Portuguese historians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries referred to the Makalanga nation as occupying this country with their centre at “the Great Zimbabwe,” where resided the Monomotapa, or supreme chief, and where was “the mightie wall of five and twenty spans thick.” Three hundred years after this was written we find a dense population of Makalanga (“the People of the Sun”) still occupying Southern Mashonaland and forming the great bulk of its inhabitants.[27] In this respect, though their various tribes have frequently changed localities, the Makalanga as a general rule have not followed the migratory custom of South African peoples. Makalanga are to be found in both Matabeleland and Mashonaland, but mainly in the latter province, where the Chicaranga language, which Dos Santos in 1602 described as “the best and most polished of all Kafir languages which I have seen in this Ethiopia,” is still the language of the nation. Makalanga are also to be found in Barotseland, whither the Barotse[28] and their dependents the Makalanga migrated, in 1836–8, just previously to, and at the time of, the Matabele invasion of what is now known as Matabeleland. [Illustration: A MAKALANGA, ZIMBABWE] [Illustration: THE CAMP WATCHMAN (KUMURI)] But for nearly four hundred years the historical relations and the very existence of the Makalanga and their history were forgotten. From being a powerful and semi-civilised people (see _The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia_, chapter x.) they have become a people of no account—mere “Makalaka,” as the people of the present Bechuanaland scornfully called them in reference to their present slavish position. To their successive conquerors they have always been but “dogs of slaves.” So far as the purely local natives are concerned, the following notes, based upon a series of conferences of the oldest native authorities held at Zimbabwe during 1902 and 1903, at which Mr. Alfred Drew, Native Commissioner, the Rev. A. A. Louw, Dutch Reformed Mission near Zimbabwe, and Dr. Helm, Medical Missionary, and other admitted authorities on native language and customs, have taken part, will explain the local occupations for almost if not more than one hundred and fifty years. The local Makalanga, Barotse, and Amangwa are agreed upon the correctness of the statements here recorded, and the information so obtained has also been verified by the above-named gentlemen in other quarters. (_a_) In this portion of Southern Mashonaland the Makalanga have formed, since long before 1570, the greatest portion of the population, especially in the Zimbabwe district. This is both history and also well-rooted tradition among the natives, going back for very many generations.