“It is impossible, we find, to get to Lake Ngami now, as there are a hundred miles to go through heavy sand without water to get there. Frank still thinks of going to the Victoria Falls, through Mosilikatze’s country, by way of the Tati River, and I intend to go as far as the Tati.... Every morning here lots of women go out to collect locusts, which swarm a short distance off, and are the only food the natives get now, as their crop of corn has failed, and they are half starving. They have a few little goats, but there is hardly any grass, and only one very small stream of water about two miles off.” Frank Oates also writes the same day as follows:-- “You have, I hope, got our letters written from Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal. Since then we have not come more than 250 miles, if as much, and have been about a month in doing it. Buckley and Gilchrist have accompanied us, making, with our waggons, three waggons in all, and I think we shall probably go on together for some time at any rate. The present idea is for us all to go together to the Tati, a river marked in the recent maps, where gold is being found. From here I may go on to Mosilikatze’s Town, the residence of the King of the Matabele, in the north-east, and thence be able to get on to the Zambesi and Victoria Falls, though I hardly hope it now, on account of the lateness of the season. “The country we have passed through so far may be divided into two distinct regions--the high veldt and the bush veldt. The former I described in my last letter. At Pretoria we entered the second, and are still in it. The former is high land, covered with grass, and with scarcely a bush on it. The country since then has been covered with bush, and contains many fine rivers. The Crocodile (or Limpopo) is a really beautiful river, its banks covered with fine trees. The ‘bush,’ as it is called, consists for the most part of smallish trees, most of which are thorny, with park-like glades here and there. In other places there is a great deal of thorny bush, through which you can hardly force your way. The great want here is water, the smaller streams being now dry, and in travelling it is often necessary to go many miles before reaching water. Still, the road is so well known that one can calculate almost to a certainty where and when to get water, and make a push when necessary, taking one’s time both before and after it. Water for our own use can be carried easily in our casks, and it is for the animals we have to travel quickly on such occasions. Meat is rather scarce, but we generally manage to get enough, and, with bread and porridge, coffee and sugar, make out very well. We shall be glad to get away from here, as it is difficult to get anything in the shape of food except what we have with us, and what Gray gives us. There has been a scarcity of corn this year, and the people are very hard pressed, living principally on locusts, which are brought in every day