guard.
Selous led the pioneers and marked the roadway. FinÂally, on the 13 th
of August, 1890, the road-makers came to the great plateau of
Mashonaland, through an easy mountain pass, and a heavy weight was
lifted from the minds of the leaders, for on this open plateau hostile
attacks were no longer to be dreaded, and a few hundred well armed and
mounted men might well defy a horde of marching Matabeles. It is
probable that this daring advance would not have been made unmolested,
if Lobengula's attention had not been artfully distracted by a feint of
entry in another quarter made by a body of Bechuanaland police on the
