The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1894-03-22

hocke Of sheep and goats. The sheep d
not have wool but short soft hair an,
are red, black and white and combina
tlons of those colors. Men herd th
cattle and the women carry water. an,
grind maize (Kaffir corn-of which the,
make their beer) Sweet potatoes, beans
pumpkins, peanuts and cotton are raised
Besides, the Mashonas raise rice, toma
toes and tobacco.
! We reached Smitsdorp On July 18th
1t is not much Of place now as most Q
! the houses are abandoned and the .peo
pie removed to Petersburg. Only, one
hotel remains open. 1t is kept by /
Scotchman named Duncan and his wife
Mrs. Duncan was once an actress. She
left Duncan once and ran away with
another man, but Dune. like fool took
her back. The whole party partook of 8
badly cooked meal at the hotel and when
Mrs. D. told as that she had cooked the
dinner herself we wished someone else
had been given the job.
4 We arrived at Petersburg the next
day and were joined by man named
Stevens, who was left behind, and q
friend Of his named Walters. who came
up with q pair of horses and buggy.
They sold the horses and tried to trade
the buggy for some oxen to add to our
team but without success, SO after three
days waiting we tied the buggy behind
and pulled out .
Petersburg is town Of about 400 in
babitants. It has three churches all
Dutch. The English hold services in
the landrost kantoor or court house. It
has newspaper, called the Loutspans-
burg Review, a daily market and it is a
gold mining center.
On July 18th we reached mission
station where the spider was traded for
three oxen with a storekeeper named
Austin-the first decent trader on the
road, the others being Russian Jews. A
fourth OK was bought for e23
On July 23d we reached another Kaffir
village and mission station. Here we
were joined by a man named Jackson,
who was bringing seventeen Indian
coolies and st. Helena boy as passen-
gers. His oxen were skin and bone, and
near the salt pans he stole eight oxen.
in good condition which he inspanned in.
place Of eight Of his own. Before he
reached Victoria he only had two Of his,
own original oxen left. If it were not,
for the eight Exchanged" he never
would haye reached Victoria. +e,,,
We crossed the Limpopo river August
9th, when we had to undress and carry,
our clothes over, the oxen having; as.
much as they could do to pull the wagon.
The river has a sandy bottom with
granite boulders here and there.
Every white man coming into Mashona-
land has to take out prospecting
license, so we went to the police station
and took ours out.
There are fcur police stationed at the
place we crossed the river. AS we did
not get any game near we traded some
coffee for part Of a waterbuck which one.
OF the police had shot. 1t was as large
as two-year-old heifer. The police
have good time of 1t at this station.
Plenty OF game and fish, the surplus Of
which they trade for -four and other
groceries. As they draw money for pro-
visions, besides their wages, they make
big money.
After we drew into the British South
African company's territory we slept
with every gun loaded as we had heard
that the chartered companys police had
been, fighting with the Matabeles and
had killed thirty. ,fssa
On, August 18th we arrived at Gong's
loop whore a lot Of hunters were camped.
They had eight live zebras which they
had caught with lassoos. They expected
to get from f10 to ELS each for them
from the coach people, as there are some
places where horses and mules will not
live and oxen at present have to be used
and they are too slow. The zebra has
one vice, and that is, biting. Hunters
have to pay e25 license and even then
they must not kill ostriches, hippopota-
mus, rhinoceroa, elephant or giraffe.
There are quite a number of English
gentlemen out here for sport. Tt is
about the only pl ace where one can find
plenty Of big game.
Nothing particular happened until
September Sd hen we camped on the
north side of the Lundl river. We
visited some old ruins, similar to the
Zirbabe ruins. The ruins were of cir
cular shaped building built of granite.
On the east side of the ruin there was
bulge, and was told by gentleman