APN262427

Description

By far the largest part of Mafeking consisted of a rambling native kraal, the chief of which was one Montisoa. Montisoa at one time used to spend all his spare time fighting my old friend Mankarani of Taungs, but the advent of the Bechuanaland Border Patrol on the scene had put a stop to all that sort of thing. (Henry Francis (Skipper) Hoste : Rhodesia in 1890). The little boy on the right appeared in another photograph by Fry. He obviously took a liking to Fry or vice versa. From an album “Occupation of Mashonaland – Views by W Ellerton Fry”. Cecil John Rhodes commissioned the Pioneers Column, accompanied by the newly formed British South Africa Company Police, to march into Mashonaland and form the core of the civilian population. Lieut. Fry was an Intelligence Officer on the Pioneer Corps and its official photographer.