ABSTRACT
ONE of the greatest hindrances to the spread of christianity and civilization in the country of the Amandebele, is the great distance between that land and the nearest part of the civilized world. Being a thousand miles from the Orange River-the northern boundary line of the Cape Colony-and still further from Natal, the Amandebele felt none of those restraining influences which European settlements invariably exert upon adjacent heathen tribes. Hence their cruelties among the Amaswina and other tribes who occupied the extensive country situated between them and the Zambesi, and on the southern bank of that river, were endless. By opening up these unknown regions, and exposing the bad deeds of the blood thirsty Zulu king to the eyes of the European hunter, trader, and goldseeker, it was fondly hoped that the hand of the slayer would be checked, if not entirely stayed. Aware of all this, Umzilikazi was very reluctant to permit any white man to proceed from his kraal to the Zambesi. That consent, however, was given me on the 19th of June,
1867, whell, accompanied by fifty-six llatives, I left Inyati for the nearest point on tIle Ukwempe, as the natives called the Zambesi.
