On the 8th of June, his waggon at last ready, Frank Oates added a few lines to this letter, announcing his intended departure on the following day, and on the 9th he started for the Zambesi. There seemed now no reasonable probability of anything occurring to interfere with the successful issue of his journey, yet in reality, as things turned out, this was only the first of three separate attempts he made to reach the Zambesi from this point the present season. By the shorter route now to be adopted--for he was not going by Gubuleweyo--he would proceed pretty direct northwards, passing through the country of the Makalakas, who are subject to the Matabele, and hold the key to the Zambesi country by this approach. Before crossing the boundaries of these people, it is necessary for travellers to have first obtained permission from the king to proceed, and such a permission Frank Oates distinctly had; yet, in spite of all remonstrances on his part, the Makalakas refused to let him pass, thinking, perhaps, to reap some profit from his discomfiture, or, it may be, that Lobengula would in reality be no worse pleased if he were stopped. Indeed the traveller did not himself entirely exonerate the king from blame, but suspected at one time he was playing a double game--on the one hand giving him leave to proceed to the Zambesi, whilst on the other purposely neglecting to send the needful instructions to his subjects to let him pass. The king was anxious to encourage a certain number of traders in his country, but may have looked with suspicion on one whose objects were less intelligible to him. At all events, be this as it may, it is perfectly certain that these Makalakas threw every possible obstacle in the way of his advance--and not once only, but each time he reached their boundaries--whilst several traders, going and coming, were permitted to proceed upon their journey, and the final fatal issue of his expedition to the Zambesi was practically the result of the behaviour of these people. It is true that other circumstances, irrespective of their proceedings, combined to hinder and delay him, again throwing his journey into the unhealthy season of the year; but these alone would not have been of the same vital consequence, and the period of his misfortunes dates from the time when the Makalakas--the king’s permission already plainly granted--first turned him back, as related in the succeeding chapter, and forced him to seek a fresh interview with Lobengula. In such a country, with but a brief healthy season, delays like this were little short of fatal. [Illustration: WATTLED STARLING.--_Dilophus carunculatus._] But it is time to follow him in the first of these ill-starred journeys. CHAPTER IX.