Genre:

Essay, Travelogue

Relevant illustrations:

map

Subjects:

Imperialism, Exploration, Race, Natural History, Zoological Gardens, Hunting

    Describes the progress of Cecil J Rhodes through Mashonaland in the African interior, making occasional observations on the natural history of the region. For example, notes that wherever you have 'an anthill you have fertile soil and sweet grass' because the 'whole of the soil is, as it were, turned over and thrown up to the surface by these wonderful little toilers who in Africa perform the function which Darwin tells us is performed by the earthworms in your country' (198). Also observes that the entire region is 'simply one huge zoological garden' with an 'abundance of wild animals [...] left all these ages undisturbed by man'. Now, however, the hunters have moved in and 'for the sportsman no such region exists in the world', with enormous 'herds of buffaloes [to] be seen within gunshot of the road'. (195)