One . of the most remarkable and baffling features
of this, as of most parts of savage Africa, is the almost
absolute lack of any history. Such traditions as I could
gather from the natives I have for the most part already
recounted, especially those relative to the origin of thé
Matabele and the recent history of the Zulu race
generally. I was now about to make acquaintance with
the most considerable example of another kind of
historical evidence—if such vague enigmas can be called
evidence — the extraordinary ruins which are to be
found in several parts of this vast region. Some of
these I have briefly noticed already, but the notice has
been of necessity very brief indeed, because it is
impossible to find any trustworthy theory concerning
them. Before visiting Zimbabwe I had seen, as has
already been said, several ruins which, unimportant in
themselves, are of interest as being unquestionably of
similar origin.
It might be well briefly to recount the lesser ruins I
had seen before approaching the greatest of these
romantic puzzles. First, at Tati there were two circles
on the top of a hill between 40 and 50 yards in diameter.
The wall, however, is almost entirely destroyed, as the
stones have been used by miners to build their huts.
Second, I found another circular wall on a hill to the
north of Mount Inyangakwe—this also very ruinous.
Third,, on the river Umbukwe, a tributary of the Tati,
is a ruin on a little rocky eminence. T he outer wall
is in excellent preservation, and you can trace very
plainly a passage leading into the interior. These
ruins display work exactly similar to that of Zimbabwe,
and it can hardly be doubted that they date
from the same epoch. Fourth, on the river M’pakwe. The
outer wall here is very dilapidated, but the plan of the
interior is like that of Zimbabwe in certain respects,
though on a very much smaller and less elaborate scale.
Fifth, on the river Lundi, in Mashonaland. Here again
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we find points : of similarity to the outer wall of Zimbabwe.
In all these ruins there still remain distinct signs
of furnaces which must have been used for smelting gold
or iron. Those I have named by no means exhaust
the list; many others exist along the Semokwe and
Sabi rivers. These are all circular, and not more than
40 yards or so in diameter.
As for the ruins of Zimbabwe, I found nothing more
TH E GREAT WALL, ZIMBABWE.
interesting in the whole 01 my journey. Their extent,
their gigantic proportions, and their general plan indicate
a loftiness of conception very far superior to the present
ability of the negro race. They consist of two perfectly
distinct parts. The first of these stands on a rising
ground in the middle of a plain. It consists of an
elliptical, almost circular enclosure, nearly 400 yards in
circumference, and surrounded by walls varying from
14 to 30 feet in height. In some parts this wall is nearly
1 5 feet thick at the base, and rather more than half as
much at the summit. The second part of the ruins is
rather over a quarter of a mile from this enclosure. Here
a hill rises to a height of some 300 feet above the level
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