St. Georges Public School, Bulawayo.

Abstract

AFTER an absence of four months, Fr. Nicot returned to Bulawayo in the middle of Febr., 1902. He had travelled by the same boat which brought Mr. Cecil Rhodes and Dr. Jameson from England to the Cape. Of the latter Fr. Nicot had seen a good deal, and the Doctor had inquired with interest after every member of the Society he had known in Rhodesia 'during the term of his administration. Of Mr. Rhodes, whom ill-health confined to his cabin during most of the voyage, he had seen little; enough however to notice how broken down and prematurely aged the Empire-builder looked. Alarming reports of Mr. Rhodes' state of health soon found their way into the public press. The end came at the end of March, and on the 9th of April the Founder of Rhodesia was buried in the granite grave he had chosen for himself on a lofty eminence in the Matoppo Hills. Of Mr. Rhodes' relations with the Society and of his opinion of its members and of the work done by them in the country called after him, a short but interesting account will be found in the Z.M.R. II. 95 seq. 'The closing day of the month of May brought at last the long desired peace of Vereeniging and the conclusion of the Boer War. It was about the middle of the same month that an apostolic expedition, planned and prepared long before, started from Bulawayo in search of a suitable site for mission-work beyond the Zambesi. The veteran Fr. Prestage was in command and was accompanied by Fr. Mor'eau. The party returned to their base six months later, after a trek of some 1,200 miles by ox-waggon and on foot. The result wa'3 the establishment (in June, 1905 ) of the now flourishing mission of Chikuni.