Occupation of Mashonaland

Looking for 'a few paying gold reefs' and with a concession granting him rights to minerals, Rhodes formed the British South Africa Company which sent its heavily guarded pioneer column north to exploit the land between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers in 1890. The column, consisting of 192 prospective miners, with the hunter F.C. Selous as guide, and 500 troopers of the newly formed British South Africa Police Company, established a camp (Fort Salisbury) at the site of present day Harare. 'An album was produced of 154 of Ellerton Fry's original whole-plate photographs, which form a comprehensie record of the historic trek of the Pioneer column from Mafeking to Fort Salisbury in 1890.' (A.D. Bensusan, Silver Images, History of Photography in Africa, Cape Town, 1966, p.29)