“Stoffel is going to take his own waggon and the ten oxen he bought of me, leaving the new waggon here.... Brown has just refused £110 for a little ‘horse’--of course you know ‘horse’ means ‘pony’ every time I use it--which he bought for £80. A good horse is worth anything to one here, and I cannot wonder at the price given for ‘salted’ horses. Suppose, for instance, I had had to go to the King’s on foot, and got foot-sore, where should I have been? The question is one not easily answered; but I suppose at any rate I should not have got on as well as I did. The absurdity is, that for a small insignificant-looking pony you have to pay the same price as for a good English hunter. A day or two ago we had some races here. We could only muster four horses, but by varying the riders and riding disputed races over again, we managed to get five races, in all of which I rode, and got the reputation of being a good jockey, as out of the five I rode in I won four.” Favourable as the above arrangements seemed for a renewed attempt to reach the Falls, the traveller’s hopes, as will soon be seen, were again doomed to disappointment; and this in a most unlooked-for manner. CHAPTER X. Third start for the Zambesi--Again stopped by natives--Fresh leave from the king--The journey resumed--Frank Oates’s companion obliged to leave him--He goes forward alone--Breakdown of his waggon--Annoyances from the natives--Help from Tati--Return there--Letters home--Future plans. Leaving Tati on the evening of the 25th of July, on his third attempt to reach the Zambesi, Frank Oates halted for the night a few miles beyond the settlement, completing the distance to the Ramaqueban the following morning. Here, whilst waiting a couple of days in search of game and for other purposes, he was again unexpectedly stopped by natives, professedly armed with authority from Lobengula to stop all waggons from advancing northwards. The story of this encounter, with its immediate consequences, is thus related in the Journal:-- “_July 27th_.--Fine and oppressively hot, after a cold night. The days are now very hot, though the nights continue cold and frosty. I was going to ride over to the Inkwesi to-day, with a letter from Brown to Greit, and to see if Greit could let me have one of his drivers. However, before I set off, a Matabele came down the Zambesi road, bearing a shield, and accompanied by a Makalaka bearing another. A second Makalaka appeared later, but the moment the Matabele arrived, he came up to the waggons, and began interrogating us. On hearing that we were going to the Zambesi, he began to leap and dance about like a madman, brandishing a battle-axe. I thought it a case of temporary insanity, brought on by smoking ‘dacha,’[48] but it appeared from his statement he had been sent from the king to the Makalakas, with a fresh order to stop waggons, and was now going on to Tati, to tell white men there the same tale.