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 Telegraphing to the Company after the massacre of his warriors by Captain Lendy's troops, he says: "I thought you came to dig for gold; but it seems that you have come not only to dig for gold, but to rob me of my people and country as well." He refused to accept the monthly payments falling due under the Rudd and Lippert Concessions, as it "is the price of my blood." He repeatedly appealed to the High Commissioner:

He wrote to the Queen:

Proceeding to give his version of the events attending and preceding the Lendy episode which, as we have seen, was afterwards corroborated by the official inquiry, he asked:

Lobengula's anxiety to keep .the peace and so prevent the slaughter and ruin of his people which he knew must be otherwise inevitable, is vouched for in a number of public statements made at the time, or since, by European residents in Buluwayo: most of them are to be found in the Blue Books. The High Commissioner's dispatches to Dr. Jameson show that he himself was persuaded of the sincerity of the Matabele ruler.

The Company continued imperturbably its preparations for the invasion. On October 18, an incident occurred which must have finally convinced Lobengula of the fruitlessness of his efforts to avert the impending doom of his country. He had despatched three of his Indunas as envoys to the High Commissioner. They arrived at the British camp on a "safe-conduct" pledge. In that camp, on the day of their arrival, two out of the three were "accidentally killed."