The following morning, some five miles further again brought the party to the Matengwe River, where a halt was made. At this point two English hunters, whom Frank Oates had met before during his wanderings--Messrs. Wood and Selous--came up on their way to Tati from the Zambesi. It was the result of this meeting which apparently determined Frank Oates’s future plans; for, almost from the first day he left the Tati, the idea seems to have been present to his mind that he might yet make the Zambesi the present season, without waiting for the cessation of the rains. His own inclination was strongly in favour of this attempt, as saving him from the dilemma, otherwise presented, of either leaving the country with the river unvisited, or remaining there another season for the purpose; and the opinion and experience of the two hunters mentioned above, coincided, as it happened, with his own wish and inclination. They both believed, and perhaps rightly, that the present was a safer time for the Zambesi than the month of April, when the rains would only just be over and the moisture not all dried up. Indeed Stoffel, who adhered to his present plan and waited to go on till April, himself took the fever when he reached the river, and died from its effects. The fact is that neither one plan nor the other was a good one, and between the two it was but a choice of evils. So anxious, however, was Frank Oates to reach the river that season, that, gladly catching at the moderate degree of encouragement he now chanced to receive from these two gentlemen, he resolved forthwith to push forward there at once, without intending, however, to make a lengthened stay, or do more on this occasion than merely see the Falls, and obtain a few specimens of natural history. And thus resolved, he again resumed his journey on December 3d, and with no serious delay or hindrance succeeded in reaching the Zambesi. Before starting, however, he wrote home the following short letter, which Messrs. Wood and Selous undertook to convey as far as Tati:-- “MATENGWE RIVER, _December 2d, 1874_. “Again I report progress. I am past the obnoxious Makalakas, and am actually going to start for a hurried run to the Victoria Falls. I left Tati with the people I told you of, who were going on to a place about three days ahead of here on the Zambesi road, intending to wait there till April and then go on to the Zambesi. I intended to accompany them and turn back, as I did not wish to wait for another season, and did not think it advisable to make a hurried run to the Zambesi and back again now. Indeed, you would infer from my letters that it was not my intention to do so. However, things have so turned out that I think I am choosing the best course in going on now.