er this campaign Burnham led an expedition of ten white men and
seventy Kaffirs north of the Zambesi River to explore Barotzeland
and other regions to the north of Mashonaland, and to establish the
boundaries of the concession given him, Ingram, and Clifford.

In order to protect Burnham on the march the Chartered Company signed
a treaty with the native king of the country through which he wished
to travel, by which the king gave him permission to pass freely and
guaranteed him against attack.

But Latea, the son of the king, refused to recognize the treaty and sent
his young men in great numbers to surround Burnham's camp. Burnham had
been instructed to avoid a fight, and was torn between his desire to
obey the Chartered Company and to prevent a massacre. He decided to make
it a sacrifice either of himself or of Latea. As soon as night fell,
with only three companions and a missionary to act as a witness of what
occurred, he slipped through the lines of Latea's men, and, kicking
down the fence around the prince's hut, suddenly appeared before him and
covered him with his rifle.

"Is it peace or war?" Burnham asked. "I have the king your father's
guarantee of protection, but your men surround us. I have told my people
if they hear shots to open fire. We may all be killed, but you will be
the first to die."

The missionary also spoke urging Latea to abide by the treaty. Burnham
says the prince seemed much more impressed by the arguments of the
missionary than by the fact that he still was covered by Burnham's
rifle. Whichever argument moved him, he called off his warriors. On
this expedition Burnham discovered the ruins of great granite structures
fifteen feet wide, and made entirely without mortar. They were of a
period dating before the Phoenicians. He also sought out the ruins
described to him by F. C. Selous, the famous hunter, and by Rider
Haggard as King Solomon's Mines. Much to the delight of Mr. Haggard,
he brought back for him from the mines of his imagination real gold
ornaments and a real gold bar.

On this same expedition, which lasted five months, Burnham endured one
of the severest hardships of his life. Alone with ten Kaffir boys, he
started on a week's journey across the dried-up basin of what once had
been a great lake. Water was carried in goat-skins on the heads of the
bearers. The boys, finding the bags an unwieldy burden, and believing,
with the happy optimism of their race, that Burnham's warni