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The Past, Present, and Future Trade of the

But, besides this, the country contains a great many vegetables, india-rubber, arrowroot, cannabis, splendid fibre for texture, and other products which, when brought into the market, would soon be sold. I brought a few of those articles with me, and I was sorry, when I came from the Exhibition of Prague, that I could not take them out, and bring them over here to show them. I found there whole forests of trees. One tree, called Mapani, contains oil, the leaves themselves, in a fresh state, will burn beautifully. So, I believe, we shall be able to make use of these and extract this oil. Besides this, the natives can cultivate different kinds of corn and beans which, I believe, will be very useful. Then there is a beautiful fruit there. I found some which had the same quality and flavour as the South American vanilli (contained in the pulpa), and contains a good deal of the elements of a vegetable marrow; and the natives use it like corn. They let it rest under the sun for a certain time to dry, and then they open the stone and grind the pippins to make bread and porridge of it, and use it for corn and meat. Besides that, these parts are very rich in fruits, &c., of healing properties. It is well known that gold is found along the banks of the Tati River. There are places where we find seven ounces of gold in one ton of quartz; but there are places where we find twenty-four ounces of gold in one ton of quartz. But those parts belong to the king of the Matabele (a Zulu king). This kingdom is very rich indeed, but still richer is that of the Mashonas. The Matabele are a Zulu tribe. The founder of this empire came up into these countries, which are at present occupied by the Matabele, from Zululand; he came among the Makalaka, who were peaceful husbandry-men, and there gained ascendency of this tribe, disturbed the villages at night and burned them, killed men and women taken as prisoners, the boys to be educated for Matabele warriors; and in this way, with forty warriors, a kingdom has been established which at present extends between the Limpopo and the Zambesi, and is about 450 miles broad from the south to the north. To the east of this country, the richest country in the whole of South Africa, lies the Mashona country, a land where the natives cultivated cotton and rice for many years, and which is also rich in alluvial gold. But we never could explore it to any extent worth speaking of; the king of the Matabele would never allow, excepting to a very few, explorers and white traders to go into those parts, he was frightened that we should. He is continually at war, and every year sends two or three of his regiments to rob and kill the Mashonas, and to bring guns into the Mashona country would make them become strong