CHAPTER II
F IR S T IMPRESSIONS OF MASHONALAND
We left Port Tuli on May 9, 1891, and for the
ensuing six months we sojourned in what is now
called Mashonaland; of our doings therein and of
our wanderings this volume purports to he the narrative.
Besides our excavations and examinations into
the ruins of a past civilisation, the treatment of
which is necessarily dry and special, and, for the
benefit of those who care not about such things, has
been, as far as possible, confined within the limits of
Part II., we had ample time for studying the race
which now inhabits the country, inasmuch as we
employed over fifty of them during our excavations
at Zimbabwe, and during our subsequent wanderings
we had them as bearers, and we were brought into
intimate relationship with most of their chiefs.
The Chartered Company throughout the whole of this
period kept us supplied with interpreters of more or
less intelligence, who greatly facilitated our intercourse
with the natives, and as time went by a
certain portion of the language found its way into
our own brains, which was an assistance to us in
guiding conversations and checking romance.
axwuiiu. ¿jmiuauwti, uown
to the Sabi River and north to Port Charter—and this
is the most populous part of the whole country call
themselves by one name, though they are divided
into many tribes, and that name is Makalanga. In
answer to questions as to nationality they invariably
called themselves Makalangas, in contradistinction to
the Shangans, who inhabit the east side of the Sabi
River. ‘ You will find many Makalangas there,’ ‘ A
Makalanga is buried there,’ and so on. The race
is exceedingly numerous, and certain British and
Dutch pioneers, with their characteristic perseverance,
have given them various names, such as Banyai
and Makalaka, which latter they imagine to be a
Zulu term of reproach for a limited number of people
who act as slaves and herdsmen for the Matabele
down by the Shashi and Lundi Rivers. I contend
that ah these people call themselves Makaldngas, and
that their land should by right be called Maka-
langaland.
In this theory, formed on the spot from intercourse
with the natives, I was glad to find afterwards
that I am ably supported by the Portuguese writer
Father dos Santos, to whom frequent allusion will be
made in these pages. He says, ‘ The Monomatapa
and ah his vassals are Mocarangas, a name which they
have because they live in the land of Mocaranga, and
talk the language caUed Mocaranga, which is the best
and most polished of aH Kaffir languages which I
have seen m this Ethiopia.’ Couto, another Portuguese
writer, bears testimony to the same point and