ome spot in the plain
below, there was no one to tell us. One curious trace of insecurity
remained in a dry and light tree-trunk, which had been left standing
against the side of a flat-topped rock some thirty feet high, with the
lowest dozen feet too steep to be climbed. It had evidently served as a
sort of ladder. By it the upper part of the rock might be gained, and
when it had been pulled up, approach was cut off and the fugitives on
the flat top might be safe, while the Matabili were plundering their
stores of grain and killing their friends beneath.

All this eastern side of the country was frequently raided by the
Matabili, whose home lay farther west towards Bulawayo. The Makalakas
could offer no resistance, not only because they were poor fighters, but
also because they were without cohesion. The clans were small and obeyed
no common overlord. Most of the villages lived quite unconnected with
one another, yielding obedience, often a doubtful obedience, to their
own chief, but caring nothing for any other village. Among savages the
ascendency of a comparatively numerous tribe which is drilled to fight,
and which renders implicit obedience to its chief, is swift and
complete. The Matabili when they entered this country had probably only
ten or twelve thousand fighting men; but they conquered it without the
slightest difficulty, for the inhabitants, though far more numerous,
were divided into small communities, and did not attempt to offer any
collective resistance. Then for more than half a century slaughter and
pillage reigned over a tract of some ninety thousand square miles. Much
of this tract, especially the eastern part, which we call Mashonaland,
was well peopled by tribes who lived quietly, had plenty of cattle,
tilled the soil, and continued to dig a little gold, as their
forefathers had done for centuries. They were now mercilessly raided by
the Matabili all the way from Lake Ngami on the west to the edge of the
great plateau on the east, till large districts were depopulated and
left desolate, the grown men having been all killed or chased away, the
children either killed, or made slaves of, or taken as recruits into the
Matabili army. Constant war and the sanguinary government of Lo Bengula
reduced the number of the true Matabili, so that such recruiting became
a necessity. Their successes filled the Matabili with an overweening
confidence in their power. Through all South Africa they despised every
na