THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN
“Notwithstanding all that we had gone through, perhaps indeed on
account of it, for I was thoroughly worn out, I slept that night as
soundly as poor Gobo, round whose crushed body the hyænas would now be
prowling. Rising refreshed at dawn we went on our way towards Nala’s
kraal, which we reached at nightfall. It is built on open ground after
the Zulu fashion, in a ring fence and with beehive huts. The cattle
kraal is behind and a little to the left. Indeed, both from their
habits and their talk it was easy to see that these Butiana belong to
that section of the Bantu people which, since T’Chaka’s time, has been
known as the Zulu race. We did not see the chief Nala that night. His
daughter Maiwa went on to his private huts as soon as we arrived, and
very shortly afterwards one of his head men came to us bringing a sheep
and some mealies and milk with him. ‘The chief sent us greeting,’ he
said, ‘and would see us on the morrow.’ Meanwhile he was ordered to
bring us to a place of resting, where we and our goods should be safe
and undisturbed. Accordingly he led the way to some very good huts just
outside Nala’s private enclosure, and here we slept comfortably.
“On the morrow about eight o’clock the head man came again, and said
that Nala requested that I would visit him. I followed him into the
private enclosure and was introduced to the chief, a fine-looking man
of about fifty, with very delicately-shaped hands and feet, and a
rather nervous mouth. The chief was seated on a tanned ox-hide outside
his hut. By his side stood his daughter Maiwa, and squatted on their
haunches round him were some twenty head men or Indunas, whose number
was continually added to by fresh arrivals. These men saluted me as I
entered, and the chief rose and took my hand, ordering a stool to be
brought for me to sit on. When this was done, with much eloquence and
native courtesy he thanked me for protecting his daughter in the
painful and dangerous circumstances in which she found herself placed,
and also complimented me very highly upon what he was pleased to call
the bravery with which I had defended the pass in the rocks. I answered
in appropriate terms, saying that it was to Maiwa herself that thanks
were due, for had it not been for her warning and knowledge of the
country we should not have been here to-day; while as to the defence of
the pass, I was fighting for my life, and that put heart into me.
“These courtesies concluded, Nala called upon his daughter Maiwa to
tell her tale to the head men, and this she did most simply and
effectively. She reminded them that she had gone as an unwilling bride
to Wambe—that no cattle had been paid for her, because Wambe had
threatened war if she was not sent as a free gift. Since she had
entered the kraal of Wambe her days had been days of heaviness and her
nights nights of weeping. She had been beaten, she had been neglected
and made to do the work of a low-born wife—she, a chief’s daughter. She
had borne a child, and this was the story of the child. Then amidst a
dead silence she told them the awful tale which she had already
narrated to me. When she had finished, her hearers gave a loud
ejaculation. ‘_Ou!_’ they said, ‘_ou!_ Maiwa, daughter of Nala!’
“‘Ay,’ she went on with flashing eyes, ‘ay, it is true; my mouth is as
full of truth as a flower of honey, and for tears my eyes are like the
dew upon the grass at dawn. It is true I saw the child die—here is the
proof of it, councillors,’ and she drew forth the little dead hand and
held it before them.
“‘_Ou!_’ they said again, ‘_ou!_ it is the dead hand!’
“‘Yes,’ she continued, ‘it is the dead hand of my dead child, and I
bear it with me that I may never forget, never for one short hour, that
I live that I may see Wambe die, and be avenged. Will you bear it, my
father, that your daughter and your daughter’s child should be so
treated by a Matuku? Will ye bear it, men of my own people?’
“‘No,’ said an old Induna, rising, ‘it is not to be borne. Enough have
we suffered at the hands of these Matuku dogs and their loud-tongued
chief; let us put it to the issue.’
“‘It is not to be borne indeed,’ said Nala; ‘but how can we make head
against so great a people?’
“‘Ask of him—ask of Macumazahn, the wise white man,’ said Maiwa,
pointing at me.
“‘How can we overcome Wambe, Macumazahn the hunter?’
“‘How does the jackal overreach the lion, Nala?’
“‘By cleverness, Macumazahn.’
“‘So shall you overcome Wambe, Nala.’
“At this moment an interruption occurred. A man entered and said that
messengers had arrived from Wambe.
“‘What is their message?’ asked Nala.
“‘They come to ask that thy daughter Maiwa be sent back, and with her
the white hunter.’
“‘How shall I make answer to this, Macumazahn?’ said Nala, when the man
had withdrawn.
“‘Thus shalt thou answer,’ I said after reflection; ‘say that the woman
shall be sent and I with her, and then bid the messengers be gone.
Stay, I will hide myself here in the hut that the men may not see me,’
and I did.
“Shortly afterwards, through a crack in the hut, I saw the messengers
arrive, and they were great truculent-looking fellows. There were four
of them, and evidently they had travelled night and day. They entered
with a swagger and squatted down before Nala.
“‘Your business?’ said Nala, frowning.
“‘We come from Wambe, bearing the orders of Wambe to Nala his servant,’
answered the spokesman of the party.
“‘Speak,’ said Nala, with a curious twitch of his nervous-looking
mouth.
“‘These are the words of Wambe: “Send back the woman, my wife, who has
run away from my kraal, and send with her the white man who has dared
to hunt in my country without my leave, and to slay my soldiers.” These
are the words of Wambe.’
“‘And if I say I will not send them?’ asked Nala.
“‘Then on behalf of Wambe we declare war upon you. Wambe will eat you
up. He will wipe you out; your kraals shall be stamped flat—so,’ and
with an expressive gesture he drew his hand across his mouth to show
how complete would be the annihilation of that chief who dared to defy
Wambe.
“‘These are heavy words,’ said Nala. ‘Let me take counsel before I
answer.’
“Then followed a little piece of acting that was really very creditable
to the untutored savage mind. The heralds withdrew, but not out of
sight, and Nala went through the show of earnestly consulting his
Indunas. The girl Maiwa too flung herself at his feet, and appeared to
weep and implore his protection, while he wrung his hands as though in
doubt and tribulation of mind. At length he summoned the messengers to
draw near, and addressed them, while Maiwa sobbed very realistically at
his side.
“‘Wambe is a great chief,’ said Nala, ‘and this woman is his wife, whom
he has a right to claim. She must return to him, but her feet are sore
with walking, she cannot come now. In eight days from this day she
shall be delivered at the kraal of Wambe; I will send her with a party
of my men. As for the white hunter and his men, I have nought to do
with them, and cannot answer for their misdeeds. They have wandered
hither unbidden by me, and I will deliver them back whence they came,
that Wambe may judge them according to his law; they shall be sent with
the girl. For you, go your ways. Food shall be given you without the
kraal, and a present for Wambe in atonement of the ill-doing of my
daughter. I have spoken.’
“At first the heralds seemed inclined to insist upon Maiwa’s
accompanying them then and there, but on being shown the swollen
condition of her feet, ultimately they gave up the point and departed.
“When they were well out of the way I emerged from the hut, and we went
on to discuss the situation and make our plans. First of all, as I was
careful to explain to Nala, I was not going to give him my experience
and services for nothing. I heard that Wambe had a stockade round his
kraal made of elephant tusks. These tusks, in the event of our
succeeding in the enterprise, I should claim as my perquisite, with the
proviso that Nala should furnish me with men to carry them down to the
coast.
“To this modest request Nala and the head men gave an unqualified and
hearty assent, the more hearty perhaps because they never expected to
get the ivory.
“The next thing I stipulated was, that if we conquered, the white man
John Every should be handed over to me, together with any goods which
he might claim. His cruel captivity was, I need hardly say, the only
reason that induced me to join in so hair-brained an expedition, but I
was careful from motives of policy to keep this fact in the background.
Nala accepted this condition. My third stipulation was that no women or
children should be killed. This being also agreed to, we went on to
consider ways and means. Wambe, it appeared, was a very powerful petty
chief, that is, he could put at least six thousand fighting men into
the field, and always had from three to four thousand collected about
his kraal, which was supposed to be impregnable. Nala, on the contrary,
at such short notice could not collect more than from twelve to
thirteen hundred men, though, being of the Zulu stock, they were of
much better stuff for fighting purposes than Wambe’s Matukus.
“These odds, though large, under the circumstances were not
overwhelming. The real obstacle to our chance of success was the
difficulty of delivering a crushing assault against Wambe’s strong
place. This was, it appeared, fortified all round with schanses or
stone walls, and contained numerous caves and koppies in the hill-side
and at the foot of the mountain which no force had ever been able to
capture. It is said that in the time of the Zulu monarch Dingaan, a
great impi of that king’s having penetrated to this district, had
delivered an assault upon the kraal then owned by a forefather of
Wambe’s, and been beaten back with the loss of more than a thousand
men.
“Having thought the question over, I interrogated Maiwa closely as to
the fortifications and the topographical peculiarities of the spot, and
not without results. I discovered that the kraal was indeed impregnable
to a front attack, but that it was very slightly defended to the rear,
which ran up a slope of the mountain, indeed only by two lines of stone
walls. The reason of this was that the mountain is quite impassable
except by one secret path supposed to be known only to the chief and
his councillors, and this being so, it had not been considered
necessary to fortify it.
“‘Well,’ I said, when she had done, ‘and now as to this secret path of
thine—knowest thou aught of it?’
“‘Ay,’ she answered, ‘I am no fool, Macumazahn. Knowledge learned is
power earned. I won the secret of that path.’
“‘And canst thou guide an impi thereon so that it shall fall upon the
town from behind?’
“‘Yes, I can do this, if only Wambe’s people know not that the impi
comes, for if they know, then they can block the way.’
“‘So then here is my plan. Listen, Nala, and say if it be good, or if
thou hast a better, show it forth. Let messengers go out and summon all
thy impi, that it be gathered here on the third day from now. This
being done, let the impi, led by Maiwa, march on the morrow of the
fourth day, and crossing the mountains let it travel along on the other
side of the mountains till it come to the place on the further side of
which is the kraal of Wambe; that shall be some three days’ journey in
all.[*] Then on the night of the third day’s journey, let Maiwa lead
the impi in silence up the secret path, so that it comes to the crest
of the mountain that is above the strong place, and here let it hide
among the rocks.
[*] About one hundred and twenty miles.—Editor.
“‘Meanwhile on the sixth day from now let one of thy Indunas, Nala,
bring with him two hundred men that have guns, and lead me and my men
as prisoners, and take also a girl from among the Butiana people, who
by form and face is like unto Maiwa, and bind her hands, and pass by
the road on which we came and through the cutting in the cliff on to
the kraal of Wambe. But the men shall take no shields or plumes with
them, only their guns and one short spear, and when they meet the
people of Wambe they shall say that they come to give up the woman and
the white man and his party to Wambe, and to make atonement to Wambe.
So shall they pass in peace. And travelling thus, on the evening of the
seventh day we shall come to the gates of the place of Wambe, and nigh
the gates there is, so says Maiwa, a koppie very strong and full of
rocks and caves, but having no soldiers on it except in time of war, or
at the worst but a few such as can easily be overpowered.
“‘This being done, at the dawn of day the impi on the mountain behind
the town must light a fire and put wet grass on it, so that the smoke
goes up. Then at the sight of the smoke we in the koppie will begin to
shoot into the town of Wambe, and all the soldiers will run to kill us.
But we will hold our own, and while we fight the impi shall charge down
the mountain side and climb the schanses, and put those who defend them
to the assegai, and then falling upon the town shall surprise it, and
drive the soldiers of Wambe as a wind blows the dead husks of corn.
This is my plan. I have spoken.’
“‘_Ou!_’ said Nala, ‘it is good, it is very good. The white man is
cleverer than a jackal. Yes, so shall it be; and may the snake of the
Butiana people stand up upon its tail and prosper the war, for so shall
we be rid of Wambe and the tyrannies of Wambe.’
“After that the girl Maiwa stood up, and once more producing the
dreadful little dried hand, made her father and several of his head
councillors swear by it and upon it that they would carry out the war
of vengeance to the bitter end. It was a very curious sight to see. And
by the way, the fight that ensued was thereafter known among the tribes
of that district as the War of the Little Hand.
“The next two days were busy ones for us. Messengers were sent out, and
every available man of the Butiana tribe was ordered up to ‘a great
dance.’ The country was small, and by the evening of the second day,
some twelve hundred and fifty men were assembled with their assegais
and shields, and a fine hardy troop they were. At dawn of the following
day, the fourth from the departure of the heralds, the main impi,
having been doctored in the usual fashion, started under the command of
Nala himself, who, knowing that his life and chieftainship hung upon
the issue of the struggle, wisely determined to be present to direct
it. With them went Maiwa, who was to guide them up the secret path. Of
course we were obliged to give them two days’ start, as they had more
than a hundred miles of rough country to pass, including the crossing
of the great mountain range which ran north and south, for it was
necessary that the impi should make a wide détour in order to escape
detection.
“At length, however, at dawn on the sixth day, I took the road,
accompanied by my most unwilling bearers, who did not at all like the
idea of thus putting their heads into the lion’s mouth. Indeed, it was
only the fear of Nala’s spears, together with a vague confidence in
myself, that induced them to accept the adventure. With me also were
about two hundred Butianas, all armed with guns of various kinds, for
many of these people had guns, though they were not very proficient in
the use of them. But they carried no shields and wore no head-dress or
armlets; indeed, every warlike appearance was carefully avoided. With
our party went also a sister of Maiwa’s, though by a different mother,
who strongly resembled her in face and form, and whose mission it was
to impersonate the runaway wife.
“That evening we camped upon the top of the cliff up which we had so
barely escaped, and next morning at the first breaking of the light we
rolled away the stones with which we had blocked the passage some days
before, and descended to the hill-side beneath. Here the bodies, or
rather the skeletons of the men who had fallen before my rifle, still
lay about. The Matuku soldiers had left their comrades to be buried by
the vultures. I descended the gully into which poor Gobo had fallen,
and searched for his body, but in vain, although I found the spot where
he and the other man had struck, together with the bones of the latter,
which I recognized by the waist-cloth. Either some beast of prey had
carried Gobo off, or the Matuku people had disposed of his remains, and
also of my express rifle which he carried. At any rate, I never saw or
heard any more of him.
“Once in Wambe’s country, we adopted a very circumspect method of
proceeding. About fifty men marched ahead in loose order to guard
against surprise, while as many more followed behind. The remaining
hundred were gathered in a bunch between, and in the centre of these
men I marched, together with the girl who was personating Maiwa, and
all my bearers. We were disarmed, and some of my men were tied together
to show that we were prisoners, while the girl had a blanket thrown
over her head, and moved along with an air of great dejection. We
headed straight for Wambe’s place, which was at a distance of about
twenty-five miles from the mountain-pass.
“When we had gone some five miles we met a party of about fifty of
Wambe’s soldiers, who were evidently on the look-out for us. They
stopped us, and their captain asked where we were going. The head man
of our party answered that he was conveying Maiwa, Wambe’s runaway
wife, together with the white hunter and his men, to be given up to
Wambe in accordance with his command. The captain then wanted to know
why we were so many, to which our spokesman replied that I and my men
were very desperate fellows, and that it was feared that if we were
sent with a smaller escort we should escape, and bring disgrace and the
wrath of Wambe upon their tribe. Thereon this gentleman, the Matuku
captain, began to amuse himself at my expense, and mock me, saying that
Wambe would make me pay for the soldiers whom I had killed. He would
put me into the ‘Thing that bites,’ in other words, the lion trap, and
leave me there to die like a jackal caught by the leg. I made no answer
to this, though my wrath was great, but pretended to look frightened.
Indeed there was not much pretence about it, I was frightened. I could
not conceal from myself that ours was a most hazardous enterprise, and
that it was very possible that I might make acquaintance with that lion
trap before I was many days older. However, it seemed quite impossible
to desert poor Every in his misfortune, so I had to go on, and trust to
Providence, as I have so often been obliged to do before and since.
“And now a fresh difficulty arose. Wambe’s soldiers insisted upon
accompanying us, and what is more, did all they could to urge us
forward, as they were naturally anxious to get to the chief’s place
before evening. But we, on the other hand, had excellent reasons for
not arriving till night was closing in, since we relied upon the gloom
to cover our advance upon the koppie which commanded the town. Finally,
they became so importunate that we were obliged to refuse flatly to
move faster, alleging as a reason that the girl was tired. They did not
accept this excuse in good part, and at one time I thought that we
should have come to blows, for there is no love lost between Butianas
and Matukus. At last, however, either from motives of policy, or
because they were so evidently outnumbered, they gave in and suffered
us to go our own pace. I earnestly wished that they would have added to
the obligation by going theirs, but this they declined absolutely to
do. On the contrary, they accompanied us every foot of the way, keeping
up a running fire of allusions to the ‘Thing that bites’ that jarred
upon my nerves and discomposed my temper.
“About half-past four in the afternoon we came to a neck or ridge of
stony ground, whence we could see Wambe’s town plainly lying some six
or seven miles away, and three thousand feet beneath us. The town is
built in a valley, with the exception of Wambe’s own kraal, that is
situated at the mouth of some caves upon the slope of the opposing
mountains, over which I hoped to see our impi’s spears flashing in the
morrow’s light. Even from where we stood, it was easy to see how
strongly the place was fortified with schanses and stone walls, and how
difficult of approach. Indeed, unless taken by surprise, it seemed to
me quite impregnable to a force operating without cannon, and even
cannon would not make much impression on rocks and stony koppies filled
with caves.
“Then came the descent of the pass, and an arduous business it was, for
the path—if it may be called a path—is almost entirely composed of huge
water-worn boulders, from the one to the other of which we must jump
like so many grasshoppers. It took us two hours to climb down, and,
travelling through that burning sun, when at last we did reach the
bottom, I for one was nearly played out. Shortly afterwards, just as it
was growing dark, we came to the first line of fortifications, which
consisted of a triple stone wall pierced by a gateway, so narrow that a
man could hardly squeeze through it. We passed this without question,
being accompanied by Wambe’s soldiers. Then came a belt of land three
hundred paces or more in width, very rocky and broken, and having no
huts upon it. Here in hollows in this belt the cattle were kraaled in
case of danger. On the further side were more fortifications and
another small gateway shaped like a V, and just beyond and through it I
saw the koppie we had planned to seize looming up against the line of
mountains behind.
“As we went I whispered my suggestions to our captain, with the result
that at the second gateway he halted the cavalcade, and addressing the
captain of Wambe’s soldiers, said that we would wait here till we
received Wambe’s word to enter the town. The other man said that this
was well, only he must hand over the prisoners to be taken up to the
chief’s kraal, for Wambe, was ‘hungry to begin upon them,’ and his
‘heart desired to see the white man at rest before he closed his eyes
in sleep,’ and as for his wife, ‘surely he would welcome her.’ Our
leader replied that he could not do this thing, because his orders were
to deliver the prisoners to Wambe at Wambe’s own kraal, and they might
not be broken. How could he be responsible for the safety of the
prisoners if he let them out of his hand? No, they would wait there
till Wambe’s word was brought.
“To this, after some demur, the other man consented, and went away,
remarking that he would soon be back. As he passed me he called out
with a sneer, pointing as he did so to the fading red in the western
sky—‘Look your last upon the light, White Man, for the “Thing that
bites” lives in the dark.’
“Next day it so happened that I shot this man, and, do you know, I
think that he is about the only human being who has come to harm at my
hands for whom I do not feel sincere sorrow and, in a degree, remorse.”