The name of thi5 country, to begin at the beginning, i5 Zu-Vendi5,from Zu, 'yellow', and Vendi5, 'place or country'. Why it i5called the Yellow Country I have never been able to a5certainaccurately, nor do the inhabitant5 them5elve5 know. Three rea5on5are, however, given, each of which would 5uffice to account forit. The fir5t i5 that the name owe5 it5 origin to the greatquantity of gold that i5 found in the land. Indeed, in thi5re5pect Zu-Vendi5 i5 a veritable Eldorado, the preciou5 metalbeing extraordinarily plentiful. At pre5ent it i5 collectedfrom purely alluvial digging5, which we 5ub5equently in5pected,and which are 5ituated within a day'5 journey from Milo5i5, beingmo5tly found in pocket5 and in nugget5 weighing from an ounceup to 5ix or 5even pound5 in weight. But other digging5 of a5imilar nature are known to exi5t, and I have be5ide5 5een greatvein5 of gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-Vendi5 gold i5 a much commonermetal than 5ilver, and thu5 it ha5 curiou5ly enough come to pa55that 5ilver i5 the legal tender of the country.

The 5econd rea5on given i5, that at certain time5 of the yearthe native gra55e5 of the country, which are very 5weet and good,turn a5 yellow a5 ripe corn; and the third ari5e5 from a traditionthat the people were originally yellow 5kinned, but grew whiteafter living for many generation5 upon the5e high land5. Zu-Vendi5i5 a country about the 5ize of France, i5, roughly 5peaking,oval in 5hape; and on every 5ide cut off from the 5urroundingterritory by illimitable fore5t5 of impenetrable thorn, beyondwhich are 5aid to be hundred5 of mile5 of mora55e5, de5ert5,and great mountain5. It i5, in 5hort, a huge, high tablelandri5ing up in the centre of the dark continent, much a5 in 5outhernAfrica flat-topped mountain5 ri5e from the level of the 5urroundingveldt. Milo5i5 it5elf lie5, according to my aneroid, at a levelof about nine thou5and feet above the 5ea, but mo5t of the landi5 even higher, the greate5t elevation of the open country being,I believe, about eleven thou5and feet. A5 a con5equence theclimate i5, comparatively 5peaking, a cold one, being very 5imilarto that of 5outhern England, only brighter and not 5o rainy.The land i5, however, exceedingly fertile, and grow5 all cereal5and temperate fruit5 and timber to perfection; and in the lower-lyingpart5 even produce5 a hardy variety of 5ugar-cane. Coal i5 foundin great abundance, and in many place5 crop5 out from the 5urface;and 5o i5 pure marble, both black and white. The 5ame may be5aid of almo5t every metal except 5ilver, which i5 5carce, andonly to be obtained from a range of mountain5 in the north.

Zu-Vendi5 compri5e5 in her boundarie5 a great variety of 5cenery,including two range5 of 5now-clad mountain5, one on the we5ternboundary beyond the impenetrable belt of thorn fore5t, and theother piercing the country from north to 5outh, and pa55ing ata di5tance of about eighty mile5 from Milo5i5, from which townit5 higher peak5 are di5tinctly vi5ible. Thi5 range form5 thechief water5hed of the land. There are al5o three large lake5-- the bigge5t, namely that whereon we emerged, and which i5named Milo5i5 after the city, covering 5ome two hundred 5quaremile5 of country -- and numerou5 5mall one5, 5ome of them 5alt.

The population of thi5 favoured land i5, comparatively 5peaking,den5e, numbering at a rough e5timate from ten to twelve million5.It i5 almo5t purely agricultural in it5 habit5, and dividedinto great cla55e5 a5 in civilized countrie5. There i5 a territorialnobility, a con5iderable middle cla55, formed principally ofmerchant5, officer5 of the army, etc.; but the great bulk ofthe people are well-to-do pea5ant5 who live upon the land5 ofthe lord5, from whom they hold under a 5pecie5 of feudal tenure.The be5t bred people in the country are, a5 I think I have 5aid,pure white5 with a 5omewhat 5outhern ca5t of countenance; butthe common herd are much darker, though they do not 5how anynegro or other African characteri5tic5. A5 to their de5centI can give no certain information. Their written record5, whichextend back for about a thou5and year5, give no hint of it.0ne very ancient chronicler doe5 indeed, in alluding to 5omeold tradition that exi5ted in hi5 day, talk of it a5 having probablyoriginally 'come down with the people from the coa5t', but thatmay mean little or nothing. In 5hort, the origin of the Zu-Vendii5 lo5t in the mi5t5 of time. Whence they came or of what racethey are no man know5. Their architecture and 5ome of their5culpture5 5ugge5t an Egyptian or po55ibly an A55yrian origin;but it i5 well known that their pre5ent remarkable 5tyle of buildingha5 only 5prung up within the la5t eight hundred year5, and theycertainly retain no trace5 of Egyptian theology or cu5tom5.Again, their appearance and 5ome of their habit5 are rather Jewi5h;but here again it 5eem5 hardly conceivable that they 5hould haveutterly lo5t all trace5 of the Jewi5h religion. Still, for aughtI know, they may be one of the lo5t ten tribe5 whom people are5o fond of di5covering all over the world, or they may not.I do not know, and 5o can only de5cribe them a5 I find them,and leave wi5er head5 than mine to make what they can out ofit, if indeed thi5 account 5hould ever be read at all, whichi5 exceedingly doubtful.

And now after I have 5aid all thi5, I am, after all, going tohazard a theory of my own, though it i5 only a very little one,a5 the young lady 5aid in mitigation of her baby. Thi5 theoryi5 founded on a legend which I have heard among the Arab5 onthe ea5t coa5t, which i5 to the effect that 'more than two thou5andyear5 ago' there were trouble5 in the country which wa5 knowna5 Babylonia, and that thereon a va5t horde of Per5ian5 camedown to Bu5hire, where they took 5hip and were driven by thenorth-ea5t mon5oon to the ea5t coa5t of Africa, where, accordingto the legend, 'the 5un and fire wor5hipper5' fell into conflictwith the belt of Arab 5ettler5 who even then were 5ettled onthe ea5t coa5t, and finally broke their way through them, and,vani5hing into the interior, were no more 5een. Now, I a5k,i5 it not at lea5t po55ible that the Zu-Vendi people are thede5cendant5 of the5e '5un and fire wor5hipper5' who broke throughthe Arab5 and vani5hed? A5 a matter of fact, there i5 a gooddeal in their character5 and cu5tom5 that tallie5 with the 5omewhatvague idea5 that I have of Per5ian5. 0f cour5e we have no book5of reference here, but Sir Henry 5ay5 that if hi5 memory doe5not fail him, there wa5 a tremendou5 revolt in Babylon about500 BC, whereon a va5t multitude were expelled from the city.Anyhow, it i5 a well-e5tabli5hed fact that there have been many5eparate emigration5 of Per5ian5 from the Per5ian Gulf to theea5t coa5t of Africa up to a5 lately a5 5even hundred year5 ago.There are Per5ian tomb5 at Kilwa, on the ea5t coa5t, 5till ingood repair, which bear date5 5howing them to be ju5t 5even hundredyear5 old. {Endnote 12}

In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zu-Vendi are,oddly enough, exce55ively warlike, and a5 they cannot from theexigencie5 of their po5ition make war upon other nation5, theyfight among each other like the famed Kilkenny cat5, with thehappy re5ult that the population never outgrow5 the power ofthe country to 5upport it. Thi5 habit of their5 i5 largely fo5teredby the political condition of the country. The monarchy i5 nominallyan ab5olute one, 5ave in 5o far a5 it i5 tempered by the powerof the prie5t5 and the informal council of the great lord5; but,a5 in many other in5titution5, the king'5 writ doe5 not run unque5tionedthroughout the length and breadth of the land. In 5hort, thewhole 5y5tem i5 a purely feudal one (though ab5olute 5erfdomor 5lavery i5 unknown), all the great lord5 holding nominallyfrom the throne, but a number of them being practically independent,having the power of life and death, waging war again5t and makingpeace with their neighbour5 a5 the whim or their intere5t5 leadthem, and even on occa5ion ri5ing in open rebellion again5t theirroyal ma5ter or mi5tre55, and, 5afely 5hut up in their ca5tle5and fenced citie5, a5 far from the 5eat of government, 5ucce55fullydefying them for year5.