The ruined cities of Mashonaland : being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891 / by J. Theodore Bent ; with a chapter on the orientation and mensuration of the temples by R.M.W. Swan.

Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ruined cities of Mashonaland : being a record of excavation and exploration in 1891 / by J. Theodore Bent ; with a chapter on the orientation and mensuration of the temples by R.M.W. Swan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    firstly, the Crown colony to the south, with its rail- way, its well-to-do settlements at Taungs, Vryberg, and Mafeking, and with its native chiefs confined within certain limits ; secondly, the British protec- torate to the north of this over such chiefs as Batuen, Pilan, Linchwe, and Sechele, extending vaguely to the west into the Kalahari Desert, and bounded by the Limpopo Eiver and the Dutchmen on the east; thirdly, the independent dominions of the native chief Khama, who rules over a vast territory to the north, and whose interests are entirely British, for with their assistance only can he hope to resist the attacks of his inveterate foe King Lobengula of Matabeleland. Two roads through Bechuanaland to Mashonaland were open to us from Mafeking : the shorter one is by the river, which, after the rains, is muddy and fever-stricken; the other is longer and less fre- quented ; it passes through a corner of the Kalahari Desert, and had the additional attraction of taking us through the capitals of all the principal chiefs: consequently, we unhesitatingly chose it, and it is this which I now propose to describe. We may dismiss the Crown colony of Bechuana- land with a few words. It differs Httle from any other such colony in South Africa, and the natives and their chiefs have little or no identity left to them. Even the once famous Montsoia, chief of the Ba-rolongs of Mafeking, has sunk into the lowest depths of servile submission; he receives a monthly pension of which said sum he always puts under his pillow