“The scene, with the king sitting on his front-box, would make a picture: the setting sun; the dark green trees beyond the kraal, and the green walls of the newly-erected kraal; the yellow beehive-like huts; the yellowish trodden grass in the space; the herds of goats and sheep, with lambs and kids, and pack of dogs, crowding round the king’s waggon; the group of natives, some all but naked, some adorned with feathers, some with a single article of European dress, as a hat, crouching on their haunches, forming the court of the black king; tusks of ivory lying about. To complete the picture, a white trader or two should be introduced, not above crouching before his sable majesty, who sits there in his broad-brimmed black felt hat, pipe in mouth (a small briar-root, worth perhaps 2d. at home), cotton shirt not over clean, unbraced baggy trousers, and large clumsy shoes, a benignant smile generally on his black face.” The day after this the king took his departure for another place, John Lee left for Mr. Thomson’s, and Frank Oates started back to Tati. [Illustration: MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.] CHAPTER VI. Return to Tati--Changed aspect of the country--Constant delays--The Mashonas--At Manyami’s again--John Lee’s--Letter home--The Inkwesi--Wild fruit--A hornbill’s nest--The Impakwe and Ramaqueban Rivers--Graves of Englishmen--White ants--Bushman remains--The Tati reached. Frank Oates’s plan on leaving Gubuleweyo was to return slowly, by way of Tati, to Bamangwato, there to prepare himself with a fresh outfit of goods and other necessaries for a renewed attempt to reach the Zambesi early in the year; unless on his arrival there he should find letters which required his return to England. As it was yet too soon to think of making at once for the Zambesi, he took his time upon the road to Tati, not arriving there till near the end of February. He stopped to hunt some time upon the Ramaqueban, and, the whole journey, progress was inevitably slow, owing to the heavy state of the country from the recent rains. The waggon was constantly sticking, and delays were endless. The route taken was the same as that by which he had come to Gubuleweyo, but the country was now rendered so much more attractive with the advancing season, that some extracts may be given from the Journal. Leaving the neighbourhood of Gubuleweyo, as already mentioned, on January 26th, he reached Kumala River the following day, and on the 28th again pushed forward towards the Shashani, where he arrived after many stoppages two days later, John Lee’s farm being reached early on the morning of the 1st of February. For three days before his arrival at John Lee’s, the Journal reads as follows, the first extract finding him at a point in the road still a few miles from the Shashani, where his waggon had sunk deep the night before, necessitating a halt:--