Now I saw I was going to get at a wonderful story. The incidents and
recollections which would cluster round that beautifully-made
dark-handled spear could not fail to be copious as well as passing
strange. Then, in his pleasant and flowing Zulu voice--_the_ voice _par
excellence_ for narrative purposes--the old man began:
"I am Untuswa, the son of Ntelani, a Zulu of the tribe of Umtetwa. I
was a boy in the days when Tshaka, the great King, ruled this land, and
trampled his enemies flatter than the elephant tramples the
grass-blades. But I was full of the fighting blood which has made our
people what they are--what they wore, rather"--he parenthesised sadly,
recollecting that we were looking down upon the relics of fallen
greatness, as represented by the silent desolation of the razed
capital--"ah, yes! But instead of fighting for Tshaka I fought under a
very different sort of king.
[Tshaka: The name of the celebrated Zulu King should, in strict
accuracy, be written Tyaka. The above spelling, however, has been
adopted throughout this narrative in consideration for the British ear.
To spell the name with a C is quite erroneous.]
"When there are two bulls of nearly equal size in one kraal, they will
not look long at each other before locking their horns. There were two
such bulls in those days in the land of Zulu, and they were Tshaka, the
son of Senzangakona, who was the King, and Umzilikazi, the son of
Matyobane. I was but a boy, I repeat, in those days, but they tell me
that Umzilikazi loved not the house of Senzangakona. But he was wiser
than the serpent if braver than the bull-buffalo in full charge. He
thought it better to be a live king than a dead _induna_.
[Umzilikazi: More commonly, but quite erroneously, known as
Mosilekatse.]
"It befell that he dropped out of favour with the great King; for being,
though young, one of the first fighting chiefs among the Amazulu, he
soon gathered to himself an immense following. To him, too, came my
father, Ntelani, and many others who loved not the House which had
deposed the tribe of Umtetwa, the royal House of Dingiswayo, which was
our own. Then Tshaka grew jealous, as he ever did when he saw one of
his chiefs increase in power and influence. He sent Umzilikazi upon war
expeditions, in the hope of procuring his death, and when this failed,
and our chief returned covered with greater glory than ever, the King
tried another plan. He declared we had hidden the best of the spoil,
had sent the best of the cattle and captives away into the mountains,
and an _impi_ was ordered out, to take us unawares and destroy us.
"But not thus were we to be taken. Such a move had been expected, and
for some time previously Umzilikazi had been sending men to explore the
passes of the mountains--the great Kwahlamba range--which shut us in
behind as with great rocky walls; hither, too, our cattle and women were
sent. The while our chief had been talking to the heads of the
different clans which made up his following, and his talking had fallen
upon ready ears. There were fair lands away beyond the mountains--lands
of waving grass and flowing streams and countless herds of game, lands
where dwelt tribes whose only destiny was to serve the all-powerful
Amazulu. They had only to cross the mountains and conquer those lands.
"The old men took snuff and listened, and saw that the words were wise.
To remain was certain death; to fly would mean possible safety and
wealth. The young men listened and gripped their weapons. The prospect
of conquering out a new kingdom, of the enemies we should meet and
slay--this it was that fired our blood. Besides, we would have gone
through flame at the bidding of our chief, who had led us so often to
victory. Moreover, it was darkly whispered that the iron yoke of
Tshaka, in the matter of earlier marriage being permitted, and
such-like, would be relaxed. So day by day, in batches, our women and
cattle were moved higher and higher up the mountain-passes, preparing
for flight; and we lay under arms, and ready to give our destroyers a
great deal of trouble when they should arrive. And in order that we
should be found thoroughly prepared, some of us younger men, fleet of
foot and strong of vision, were posted upon the lower heights of the
Kwahlamba, whence we could see for an enormous distance. At last the
day came.
"The sun had just risen, and was flooding the land with gold. It was a
clear morning, and entirely free from mist; and, seated there on my
lofty watch--pinnacle, I beheld a movement far away towards the rising
sun. I sprang to my feet and gazed eagerly forth. A curtain of cloud
was rising over the land-spreading higher and higher, rolling nearer and
nearer with great rapidity. Cloud? No. It was a curtain of dust.
"So immense was the space spread out beneath me that it seemed as though
I could see over the whole world. On swept this great dust-cloud, still
at an enormous distance, but nearing rapidly every moment. And then I
knew what caused it. That dust-cloud was stirred up by countless herds
of game fleeing in panic and terror. Then I called to my brother, who
sprang upon the rock beside me.
"`Look, Sekweni! Yonder the game is in full flight. Yonder are the
Zulu spears. The King's _impi_ is coming!'
"We stood for a little while longer, watching the dust-cloud till we
could see among it rolling, tumbling forms.
"`Go now, Sekweni, and cry aloud the news from post to post,' I said.
`I go to warn Umzilikazi, our father.'
"And as I sprang down the mountain-side, leaping from stone to stone,
from crag to crag, with the surefootedness and fleetness of a buck, long
before I reached the level I could see the flash and glitter of sparks
of flame through the towering dust-cloud, extending in a great line over
the plain. It was the glitter of innumerable spears. The host
advancing behind those flying game herds--advancing to destroy us--was
as the whole of Tshaka's army.
"How I ran! There was none who could run against me in those days,
_Nkose_. With head down, and panting for breath, yet far from being
exhausted, I rushed into the presence of Umzilikazi.
"`Greeting, father!' I cried. `They are at hand!'
"`Ha!' And the battle-light we who had followed him knew so well came
into the face of our chief.
"`How many regiments do they number, son of Ntelani?' he said, taking
snuff.
"`I know not, O my father. But it seems to me that half [this would
mean about 20,000 men] of the army of the Great King is advancing upon
us.'
"`And we number but half that. Well, Untuswa, get you back to your
watching-place with six others being young and swiftfooted, and send
them as messengers as there shall be aught to report. Go now!'
"I saluted the chief and bounded away like a buck. But when I had
regained the mountain height with the youths whom I had chosen as
runners, lo! the army of Tshaka spread out black on all hands, covering
the ground as it were a swarm of young locusts--sweeping on now in a
huge half-circle as it were of the black waves of the sea.
"But our leader had mustered his fighting strength, and was rapidly
moving up to the place he had fixed upon as his battle-ground. This was
to be the entrance of the pass by which our flight should continue, for
there, the lay of the ground being high and steep, a few determined
fighters could repel the attacks of many; and besides this, another
species of defence had been organised by the strategy and forethought of
our chief.
"I saw the huge _impi_ surround and burst upon our principal kraals, and
I laughed aloud, for in them none remained save the very old. These
were put to the assegai in a moment, and then our intending destroyers
held on their way to where our warriors awaited them, on the steep sides
of the pass I have described, concealed by thick bush. But they could
not believe that we meant fighting. All they had to do was to overtake
us and slaughter us as we fled. How mistaken they were--ah, yes, how
mistaken!
"For as the foremost of their host streamed carelessly forward, not
waiting for its supports, our chief gave the word, and immediately from
the bush which flanked the way on either side there poured two large
bodies of our younger and most fiery warriors, to the number of about
two thousand. The advance guard of the King's _impi_, taken thus by
surprise and also in flank, was thrown into utter confusion. But ah!
while it lasted, it was as though two seas had met--the shock and the
surging, the crash of shields and the splintering of spears, the roars
and the hissing of the war-whistles! Ha! they fought--ah, yes, they
fought; but we rolled them back, crushed and scattered, upon the main
body, and before it could charge forward we were in position again, this
time higher up the pass. But the ground was covered with the dead.
"`My children are young lions indeed! The first blow struck for a new
kingdom is a hard one.'
"Such was the word which our chief caused to be passed round for our
encouragement.
"Still the King's _impi_ could not understand that we intended seriously
to give battle; and indeed, as we gazed forth upon this immense sea of
tossing spears and tufted shields rolling up towards us, it was little
to be wondered at. For we were as a mouthful to it. Yet every man of
us was fighting for his life, and under such circumstances the meanest
of animals will show bravery. But yet we were fighting for something
more--for freedom, for the pride of setting up a new nation.
"On they came, those waves of a living sea, and the earth shook beneath
the rumble of their tread; the air rustled with the hissing of their
plumes. And as they advanced they raised the great battle-song of
Tshaka, its echoes tossing like thunder from cliff to cliff:--
"`Waqeda--qeda izizwe!
Uyauhlasela pi-na?'
"`Thou hast made an end--made an end of the nations.
Whither now wilt thou maraud?'"
"Above was the narrow opening of the pass, and between, for a little
distance, a well-nigh open space. Here we met them hand to hand; here
we held them back, while those behind pressed them onward by sheer force
of weight. Foot by foot we met them, forced slowly back, but ever with
our faces toward them. The ground was wet with blood, alive with
falling, writhing bodies. The heights rang back our screams of rage,
our defiant war-cries, and the clangour of our blows. Foot by foot we
gave way; but they never got above us, never got around us. Thus shone
forth the generalship of our chief in choosing this for our
fighting-ground.
"Above us the pass narrowed to a steep rock-gateway overhung by lofty
slopes. Suddenly, at the signal of a loud, sharp whistle, our men
ceased the fight as though slain, and, turning, sprang into retreat,
pouring through this great natural door. With a roar the king's _impi_
dashed forward in pursuit, then paused in obedience to the mandate of
its leaders, who suspected a snare.
"But only for a moment did it thus halt. The mighty mass of our
would-be destroyers surged up the pass and began to stream through the
narrow defile. On they came, shouting ever the battle-cry; and
then--_Whau, Nkose_! you should have soon what happened! It was as
though the mountains were falling in upon us. For from either side
great masses of rock came crashing down the slopes--enormous blocks of
stone--some splitting into fragments as they bounded and rolled, others
crashing, in their stupendous size, upon the warriors of Tshaka. These
in dismay tried to draw back, but could not, for the weight of those
behind pressed them on; failing in this, they bounded forward, and our
assegais were there to receive them, while all the time the rolling
rocks were crashing down upon their rear, filling up the entire mouth of
the gap. We had shut back the army of Tshaka as it were by a gate. The
great pile of rocks which filled the gap was far too high for men to
leap over, too loose to be pulled down, lest the entire mass should fall
upon and crush them. Such was the strategy of our chief.
"And now upon those of our enemies who were thus walled in with us there
bore down the whole of our force, led by Umzilikazi in person. Those of
us who were in flight turned, re-formed, and sprang like lightning to
the charge; while others of us, who had been lying concealed, leaped
from our ambush, and, forming a dense half-circle, we rushed upon the
warriors of Tshaka. These were about two thousand, we being four times
their number. But, encouraged by the roars of their brethren on the
other side, they stood their ground. _Whau_! it was like a contest of
lions! When we whirled down upon them they met us in full shock; about
them there was no giving way. But by the time a man might have counted
a hundred, nigh half their number had fallen; but we, too, had lost
fearfully. In the same time again there would not have been one left,
when Umzilikazi, waving his great shield, cried, in tones of thunder, to
give them a truce.
"`Yield, Gungana!' he cried to the _induna_ in command. `Yield, men of
Tshaka! To fight on is death; to return to the king is death. We go to
find a new kingdom. Join us--for it is better to live than to die.'
"`Thou sayest truly, son of Matyobane,' replied Gungana, after a moment
of hesitation. Many, too, were there in that body who in their hearts
favoured Umzilikazi, and were tired of the hard rule of Tshaka. If they
went back to the King with their task unperformed, or badly performed,
certain death awaited, and from the stout resistance we had made they
deemed our force to be greater than it was. So the warriors agreed to
accept their lives and come under our chief.
"This settled, we resumed our flight. And with this new accession to
our fighting strength, we moved up the pass, singing back at those who
would have followed, in derision, the war-song of Tshaka, but altered
to, `We go to find new nations to conquer.' Then it grew dark, but
still we pressed on to where our women and cattle were awaiting us
higher up, and, marching through the night, the next morning we gained
the other side of the mountains.
"Then it was as the word of our chief had promised us. Fair and rolling
plains lay beneath us, stretching as far as the eye could behold, dotted
with kraals and cattle, and away in the distance coursed herds of game--
elands and springboks and gnus and many other kinds. Then our eyes and
our hearts were glad, and great and mighty was the acclamation with
which we greeted him who had thus led us forth, and with one voice we
all cried the royal `Bayete!' A new nation hailed Umzilikazi as King."