identified as the Cinnyris metallica, and found all
along the east coast of Africa.
We reached the ruin in good time, and halted by
it for a couple of hours. It is a small ancient fort,
built, as usual, on a granite Jcopje, and constructed
with courses of wonderful regularity, equal to what we
term the best period of Zimbabwe architecture. Not
much of the wall was standing ; enough, however, to
show us that the fort had been almost twenty feet in
diameter, and to cause us to wonder where the remaining
stones could have gone to, as there are no buildings
or Kaffir kraals anywhere near it. This is another of
the many mysteries attached to the Mashonaland
ruins ; where the walls are ruined the stones would
seem to have entirely disappeared. This difficulty
confronted us at several places, and I am utterly at
a loss to account for it.
The fort, as it stands now, is exceedingly picturesque,
in a green glade with mountains shutting it in
on all sides; fine timber grows inside it and large
boulders are enclosed within the walls. It was obviously
erected as a fort to protect the miners of the
district, and is a link in the chain of evidence which
connects the Zimbabwe ruins with the old workings
scattered over the country.
On our homeward journey we visited a lot more
ancient workings, some of which are being opened
by the present occupiers, who seemed tolerably well
satisfied with their properties, despite the strictures
which had been passed by experts, that the gold reefs
in the Mazoe Talley ‘ pinched out ’ and did other disagreeable
things which they ought not to do. From
a picturesque point of view the Mazoe Valley is
certainly one of the pet places in Mashonaland : the
views in every direction are exquisite, water is
abundant everywhere; and verdure rich, and if the
prospectors are disappointed in their search for gold,
and find that the ancients have exhausted the place,
they will have, at any rate, valuable properties from
an agricultural point of view.
Owing to our previous arrangements we were
obliged to return to Fort Salisbury the next day,
regretting much that we had not time to proceed
farther up the Mazoe Valley, where, about forty miles
farther on, is another great centre of ancient industry.
I was told of another ruin there, probably built for the