midday
Already , in imagination , I saw myself back at Bella Vista , with the house rebuilt and furnished in luxurious style , the land amply restocked , and plenty of money in the bank as well ! Alas , I little guessed what lay before me ; and it was just as well , perhaps , that I did not ; otherwise -- But I must not get ahead of my story . With my head full of pleasant visions , and my imagination busily employed in the construction of _ chateaux en Espagne _ , we proceeded upon our journey , travelling over undulating country which ahead manifested a disposition to become hilly , and still closely following the course of the stream , until , about noon , we arrived in the midst of what in the distance had appeared to be a cluster of curiously shaped kopjes , but now proved , to my great surprise , to be ruins , thickly overgrown with vegetation . Here , my curiosity being powerfully aroused at so unexpected a sight , and it being also time to outspan , I called a halt ; and while Piet busied himself in the preparation of my midday meal , I took my rifle and sauntered off to examine the ruins . They proved to be very much more extensive than I had imagined , for when I came to inspect them at close quarters I found that the structures which had at first attracted my attention formed but a very small part of the whole , the greater portion of the buildings having been razed to the level of the ground , large heaps of rubbish and the foundations being all that now remained , with the exception of the ruins above-mentioned , of a town or village that had originally covered more than a hundred acres of ground . But it was to the ruins which had originally arrested my attention that I now chiefly devoted myself , entirely forgetful of the fact that a meal was awaiting me at the wagon . And these remains I found to be extraordinarily interesting , for I had not been among them ten minutes before I became convinced that they were the work of a people of far higher intelligence than the Mashonas -- that they must indeed have been built by a race having some pretensions to civilisation .