instance, refused
permission to young Thomas, the son of the missionary, to accompany
them, only allowing him to do so on the urgent representation of
Captain Patterson. The reason for this was, no doubt, that he had
kindly feelings towards the lad, and did not wish to include him in the
slaughter.

Captain Patterson was a man of extremely methodical habits, and, amongst
other things, was in the habit of making notes of all that he did. His
note-book had been taken off his body, and sent down to Pretoria with
the other things. In it we found entries of his preparations for the
trip, including the number and names of the bearers provided by Lo
Bengula. We also found the chronicle of the first three days' journey,
and that of the morning of the fourth day, but there the record stopped.
The last entry was probably made a few minutes before he was killed; and
it is to be observed that there was no entry of the party having been
for several days without water, as stated by the messengers, and then
finding the poisoned water.

This evidence by itself would not have amounted to much, but now comes
the curious part of the story, showing the truth of the old adage,
"Murder will out." It appears that when the waggon was coming down to
Pretoria in charge of the interpreter, it was outspanned one day outside
the borders of Lo Bengula's country, when some Kafirs--Bechuanas, I
think--came up, asked for some tobacco, and fell into conversation with
the driver, remarking that he had come up with a full waggon, and now he
went down with an empty one. The driver replied by lamenting the death
by poisoned water of his masters, whereupon one of the Kafirs told him
the following story:--He said that a brother of his was out hunting, a
little while back, in the desert for ostriches, with a party of other
Kafirs, when hearing shots fired some way off, they made for the spot,
thinking that white men were out shooting, and that they would be able
to beg meat. On reaching the spot, which was by a pool of water, they
saw the bodies of three white men lying on the ground, and also those of
a Hottentot and a Kafir, surrounded by an armed party of Kafirs. They
at once asked the Kafirs what they had been doing killing the white men,
and were told to be still, for it was by "order of the king." They
then learned the whole story. It appeared that the white men had made a
mid-day halt by the water, when one of the bearers, who had gone to the
edge of