1/7 Currently reading the only 1st hand account P.W. Forbes ever wrote about the conquest of Matabeleland by Rhodes' Pioneers, published in 1894. Forbes was the Commander of Cecil Rhodes' "Pioneers", @matigary , @Jamwanda2

2/7

26 year old Capt. Borrow, who owned Borrowdale Farm in Hre, also features heavily, having left his farm & new bride in Salisbury (Harare), to go to Byo for no other reason than that he "wanted some adventure" and to "kill some natives". Borrow was killed by Lobengulas...

3/7 ...bodyguard & Imbezu Regiment together with Allan Wilson's Victoria Column when they closed in on Lobengula on the Shangai River. Captain Borrow's Farm is now the Harare suburb of Borrowdale. It's amazing how many kraals (villages) Major Forbes cavalierly states they burned,

4/7 how many cattle they confiscated (totaling +/-300k) & how many old women, children etc they "took prisoner" as they invaded Matabeleland from Mashonaland & then pursued Lobengula, @VascoDaGappah. Forbes' account is 1 of only three written accounts by any of the "Pioneers"..

5/7 ..the other ones being by the American Burnham, a Pioneer Scout, published in 1895 & William Harvey Brown, another American in the "Pioneer Column" of 1890. Both Americans published books. Also fascinating is seeing photographs and accounts of how Shonas and Ndebeles....

6/7 ...were just before Rhodes' invasion and occupation. These last 2 photos are from Burnham's 1899 book

7/7 Interestingly, it is claimed that the photos we see of Lobengula are fake coz all the white men @ Byo in the 1890s, Selous the hunter etc say Lobengula never allowed himself to be photographed: he believed his soul would be captured by the camera if he permitted it.