There was a great change in the behaviour--of the Caffres towards me now
that I had been made an Inkosana. Before this dignity had been
conferred on me, there was a kind of watch kept on me; but now every
Caffre, man, woman, and child, seemed to regard me as one of themselves.
I was now always given _amasi_ to drink instead of _ubisi_, the former
being considered suitable for men, the latter for women and children.
Finding myself a person of greater importance, I one day asked Inyati if
I might go and see my white friends. He hesitated for some time, and at
length said: "To-morrow at sunrise you may go. Inyoni will show you the
way; you will reach their kraal when the sun goes down. Stay one day,
then return."
I told Inyati I would do as he told me, and on the following morning I
started with Inyoni on the journey. I had never asked what had become
of the men and sailors who had been saved from the wreck. At first _I
did not ask_ because I did not know a word of Caffre, but afterwards I
did not do so because I saw that the Caffres seemed disinclined to make
any answers to my questions. Now, however, I was alone with Inyoni, he
told me all the details of the massacre. He told me how we had been
watched for two days, and it was found that the men had firearms; so
they were all killed. On my inquiring why they were killed, Inyoni told
me that many moons ago some white men had come on the coast, and had
landed and had carried off some men and women from a kraal; that when
the Caffres had assembled to get back their friends, the white men had
fired their guns at them and had killed several Caffres, and then
escaped in their boats. So that the chiefs had agreed that, if ever
white people came again on the coast, they were to be watched,
surprised, and the men assagied. From what I afterwards learned, I
believe the men who thus visited the coast were slave-hunters.
We passed several kraals on our journey, at most of which the people
came out and spoke to us, and every one who saw my necklace at once
addressed me as "Inkosana." At least a dozen times Inyoni gave an
account of my leopard-trap, and how we had killed this leopard, and I
found myself looked at with envy by the boys and admiration by the
girls, whilst both were very friendly, and usually walked with me for
some distance on the journey.
The sun was several times its own diameter above the horizon when we
reached a kraal in which, so Inyoni told me, one white woman was living.
I entered this kraal, and Inyoni telling the head man that the chief
had allowed me to come to visit the white woman, I was shown a hut and
told I might go in. On entering this hut I saw Constance, who at once
caught me in her arms and kissed me, expressing great delight at seeing
me, as she feared I had been killed. I soon told her all that had
happened to me, and that I was well-treated and not very unhappy. She
listened to all I had to say, and told me she was very glad to hear so
good an account, but that she was utterly miserable and wished she were
dead. I tried to cheer her by giving her hopes of a better future, but
she assured me it was impossible that we should ever see our friends
again, and that if she did not marry one of the chief's sons they
intended to kill her. We sat talking the greater part of the night, and
the next morning went for a walk, the Caffres appearing to take no
notice of us, though I could see one or two boys go on the hill-tops and
sit down, evidently to watch us. We sat down under the shade of some
euphorbia trees and talked over our prospects. Constance could tell me
nothing of Mrs Apton or her daughter; they had been taken away to some
distant kraal, and for a long time I heard nothing of them. I passed
the whole of my time with Constance, and promised to come and see her
again; then, bidding her good-bye, I started at daybreak on my return to
my own kraal.
Although I was living among a race of black people who would be deemed
savages, and who had slaughtered my companions who had been shipwrecked
on the coast, still I felt a sort of home-feeling on rejoining my kraal
and on meeting Inyati again after only three days' absence. Now that I
knew about the male passengers and sailors having been assagied, I
talked to several of the young Caffres about it; and their remarks were
so sensible, and seemed to me so reasonable, that I must here repeat
them.
They said that only twice had white men come on their coast. The first
men who came made signs of friendship, and were well received. They
stayed two days on shore, and then enticed several young men and maidens
to go with them to the shore, where they captured them and carried them
to their ship. Resistance was of course offered by the men, and several
were shot, also two females were shot. On hearing of this treachery,
all the chiefs along the coast met in council, and agreed that, if any
more white men came to the coast, the people were to retreat, and a
watch was to be set on the white men, and they were to be surprised and
assagied before they could shoot anybody. Seeing our shipwrecked men on
the coast, the Caffres concluded that we had come on an expedition
similar to that of the former visitors, and so they had attacked us.
They admitted that when they found there were women among the party they
hesitated, but having received the chief's orders to attack us, they had
no choice but to obey. "Now," they said, "we must keep you always, for
if you went back among white people, you would tell them we had killed
your companions, and then an army of white men would come and attack
us."
There was no doubt it was by a mistake that my fellow-voyagers had been
killed, but when I heard the Caffres' explanation I could not think them
very wrong. We, in fact, had suffered for the sins of some
slave-hunters, who might or might not have been English.
I explained to the Caffres how we had been shipwrecked and had escaped
on rafts, and how they would have received presents had they been kind
to us, and had they forwarded us to the nearest English or Dutch town.
They admitted that such might have been the case, but now, having killed
the white men, they said they must keep the thing quiet. I told them,
that even now, if they forwarded me and the three ladies to the Cape
Colony, they would be rewarded; but they shook their heads and said,
"When you go among your own people you could not help telling them we
had assagied your people, then an army come here and kill us. No, we
keep quiet." It was useless my assuring them that I would not tell any
of my people that the men had been assagied. The Caffres smiled and
replied, "You don't know yourself. Now you believe you not tell, but
when with your own people you could not help telling. Don't think of
going away--that never be. You will by-and-by be Caffre Chief here."
All these conversations were of course carried on in the Caffre
language, and I have endeavoured to give as nearly as possible the
meaning in English of the various words. In consequence of hearing
nothing but Caffre spoken, and also having to express all my meaning in
the same language, I could now speak it as well as the Caffres
themselves, and so was able to learn all the views that the Caffres had
on various matters. In thinking over in after-life these days of my
early experiences, I have come to the conclusion that these people were
a strange mixture of common sense, very acute perceptions, and also very
childish in many things. As regards what we term science they were of
course completely ignorant, so much so, that, child as I was, I knew
more than they did. For example, a great argument had been going on in
our village once during several evenings. I had heard in my hut some of
the words, and distinguished the word _inyanga_ used very often, this
word being used to signify the moon, and also a month. A Caffre counts
his age as so many moons. Thus a Caffre boy who was one hundred and
twenty moons old would be nearly twelve years of age, and if he lived to
be nine hundred and thirty moons old, he would be about seventy years.
I have since wondered whether this was the way that the people in the
East formerly counted their ages, and were therefore said to live to
nine hundred years of age. For if, as it has been suggested by some
modern explainers, this great age was given to the ancients in order
that they might people the world, it seems that they sadly neglected
their duty. For Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years
before he devoted himself to this duty, and Lamech lived also one
hundred and eighty-two years before he had a son. A Caffre who was one
hundred and eighty-two moons old would be about fourteen years old, and
as these people come to maturity very quickly he would be quite a young
man.
After several long arguments the men at length appealed to me, and the
question was this:--"Is it the same moon that comes each month,
gradually grows larger, and then gets small again? or is it a fresh moon
that is born each month, gets full-grown, and then dies?"
I told them it was the same moon, and they then asked me for proof,
which I was quite unable to give; and so, although my statement was
considered of some value, yet it did not convince the opponents of the
theory about a different moon. They argued the subject during several
evenings, and at the end of the discussion the result was not very
dissimilar to that which occurs among a certain type of scientific men:
each party remained of the same opinion with which he commenced the
inquiry. From what I could learn, I found that those who asserted that
it was a fresh moon born every month, had the best of the argument, and
seemed to be most reasonable. There was, however, a peculiarity about
these arguments which I always thought of in after years when I could
compare them with the discussions and arguments in the civilised world
on various questions. The Caffres always seemed to desire truth, and to
argue for the purpose of eliciting it. They would admit the soundness
of an opponent's reasons, and sometimes allow that these could not be
answered. They never indicated that their object was to prove
themselves right and their opponents wrong, no matter what was the
result.
Inyati, talking to me afterwards about the moon, said, "Your white
people believe it always the same moon."
"Yes," I replied, "they know it is the same." Inyati said, "I have
often found that what is true cannot be made by words to appear to be as
true as something else that is false. Talking is no good."
Finding that Inyati now talked to me on many occasions, I took the
opportunity of asking him one day what had become of the things that
they had taken from the men; for I knew there were some guns and other
things which might be of use. He told me that most of them were buried
in a hole near a kraal some miles away; and that the people were afraid
of these things, thinking that they might blow up and kill them. I told
Inyati there was one thing I knew of amongst these which would be of
great use if we could find it, and I could show him what to do with it.
I described this to him, and he then told me that this and a few other
things were at his kraal, and he would show them to me. That evening he
took me to his kraal, and lifting up a wicker door, he showed me several
articles in a hole below. I there saw what I wanted, and took from the
hole a pair of opera-glasses in a leather case. I then went with Inyati
to a little hill near, and seeing about two miles off some Caffres, I
asked him who they were.
He said they were too far off to recognise.
I then adjusted the glasses for my focus and told him the names of the
Caffres, whom I knew, and then handing him the glasses showed him how to
use them.
I never saw greater astonishment than that of Inyati when he looked
through the glasses and perceived distant objects as plainly as though
they were near. He never seemed tired of looking, first at distant then
at nearer objects. He asked me what I called them, and I said in
English, "opera-glasses." He shook his head at this, and then said in
Caffre, "I shall call them `bring near.'" He went back to his kraal and
seemed deep in thought, and every now and then looked at the glasses,
which he preserved with the greatest care.
On the following morning he assembled all the men, and had a council.
He told them that I had shown him the use of a thing that was like
"_tagata_" (witchcraft); and that this thing, though quite harmless, was
wonderful. He said that people and things at a distance were instantly
brought close to you, and you could almost touch them with your hand.
At first the older men seemed inclined to disbelieve, but Inyati said,
"What I tell you, that I can show." There was one old man who had the
reputation of being a rain-maker, and was called Amanzinina, who would
not believe what Inyati told him. This old man had always disliked me,
and was one of those who had expressed the wish that I should be
assagied. He said that I might practise witchcraft, and that this thing
which made people come near was and could be only due to witchcraft; as
it was impossible to be anything else. He suggested that the glasses
should be burned, and that if I were burned too it would be all the
better for the tribe.
Inyati answered him; but a great many of the men who were afraid of
Amanzinina, agreed with him as to burning the glasses, though they said
that I might be spared. At first I felt disposed to laugh at the
nonsense spoken by this old man, but when I found how important his
remarks were considered by the men, I was somewhat alarmed. Inyati,
however, answered Amanzinina well, and said that I had nothing to do
with this "bring near"; that it was made by white men, just as Caffres
made assagies; that it was a thing which white men used everywhere; and
that I, having seen men use it, knew what it was for, and that
witchcraft had nothing to do with it. After a time the chief convinced
all the men except Amanzinina, who would have nothing to do with the
glasses, and would not even look through them.
The astonishment shown by the men when they looked through the glasses
was quite equal to that which had been displayed by Inyati: they thought
it wonderful, and several of them, seeing people at a distance, put
their mouth to the glasses and shouted, believing that this would make
their voices heard. They could not understand why it was, that if they
could see people close, by aid of the glass, they could not also make
them hear. At length, however, these glasses were looked on as a
valuable treasure, and Inyati never went out without them. People came
from great distances to see them, and every one was equally surprised at
their use.
It was now the time when the crops of mealies and other corn were coming
up, and a circumstance now happened which enabled me to judge of the
manner in which these people, among whom I had cast my lot, would fight
against an enemy. From a village about ten miles from us, news was
brought that two bull-buffaloes, very savage and cunning, had taken up
their quarters in some thickly wooded ravines near the corn-ground of
the village. Each night these buffaloes used to come from the bush,
break through the fences, and eat the young corn. This meant a famine
for this kraal, for the people depend on mealies for their food during
the year. Aid was wanted from our kraal and from others in order to
hunt these buffaloes and to kill them. In two days the hunting party
had been assembled, and consisted of about five hundred men, armed with
assagies, for the knob-kerrie was no use against a buffalo. I obtained
permission to join this party, and we had assembled in the evening at
the distant kraal, and were to hunt on the following day.
It was decided that there should be a great dance performed by the
warriors before we attacked the buffaloes. There were two kinds of
dances practised by these Caffres, one before a war was undertaken, the
other before a hunt. The dance was performed by the men, who formed in
a circle, and stood three deep. The dance consisted merely of stamping
on the ground, first with one foot then with the other, keeping time to
a song. The effect of about five hundred heavy feet striking the ground
at the same instant was grand, and the shouts of the men became louder
and louder, as their excitement increased. In the centre of the ring
one or two men would occasionally dash about, quivering their assagies,
and pretending to throw them; then, almost falling on the ground, they
would suddenly spring in the air, dart from side to side, and rush
forward making movements of stabbing an enemy. The proceedings of these
men were carefully watched, for they were known as the quickest movers
and fastest runners in the tribe, and their skill in dodging an assagy
was such that no man ever had a chance of hitting them in the games they
played with blunted assagies. The dance lasted about two hours, and we
then lay down to sleep, some in the huts and others on the ground.
At daybreak we all got up, and having employed a short time in
sharpening our assagies, we assembled in groups to receive our orders.
The buffaloes were known to be concealed in a dense ravine about two
miles from the kraal. There were two parts of this ravine whence the
animals could escape, and it was decided that they should be driven
towards that end nearest the kraal. About one hundred men were told off
to go round the top of this ravine and to enter at the far end, so as to
drive the buffaloes before them. About twenty boys were placed round
the top of the ravine, whose duty it was to watch the buffaloes and to
give notice where they were in the bush. I was told to go with these
boys, but I begged Inyati to let me go with him and to join the party
who were to attack the animals when they were driven out into the open
country. With a smile Inyati consented, and asked me if my assagies
were sharp. I showed them to him, and having felt them he nodded his
approval, and then assembling his men we marched off to our station.
When we had reached the top of the ravine, we were placed in a
semicircle and then concealed ourselves. A party of about a hundred men
then took up their position near the top of the ravine, and their duty
was to run between the buffaloes and the ravine immediately they broke
cover, so as to cut off their retreat, and thus to prevent them from
breaking back, and dashing through the beaters. Everything was done in
silence; a wave of the arm by Inyati was sufficient for an order, his
hand held upright halted the whole party. Since then I have seen
English soldiers at drill, but I never saw better discipline than I saw
among these Caffres. When we were all placed in the positions allotted
to us, a shrill whistle was the signal that all was ready, and the men
at the far end of the bush advanced, beating the bushes and making a
noise so as to frighten the buffaloes, and make them retreat from the
ravine in the required direction. The boys on the top of the ravine
soon saw the animals moving through the bush, and signalled to us,
imitating their movements. It was amusing to see how well these boys
acted. Two of them pretended to be buffaloes, and when the buffaloes
moved on they moved; when the buffaloes stopped and listened, the boys
stopped and imitated every movement, twisting round and round, just as
these animals do when alarmed.
Nearer and nearer came the buffaloes, but there was not a movement among
the men who were waiting for them. When the animals came near the edge
of the bush they seemed to become suspicious, and we could hear them
sniffing the air and snorting, though they did not move for some time.
The boys did just as they saw the buffaloes do, and we thus knew all
about them. Suddenly we saw the boys rush forward in our direction, and
almost at the same time the buffaloes charged out of the bush. Inyati
whistled shrilly, and in an instant a hundred men dashed in between the
buffaloes and the ravine, and cut off their retreat, whilst the other
men who had hitherto lain down sprang to their feet, in front of the
animals. No time was given to the buffaloes: the men closed all round
and assagies were hurled at the animals, and in a few seconds they were
covered with assagies, just as a porcupine is with quills. The buffalo,
however, is a powerful animal and dies hard; so, although badly wounded,
they turned, one towards the ravine, and charged at the men there, the
other came towards where I was. The buffalo that went towards the
ravine was met by a shower of assagies, but he dashed straight on, and
knocked over three or four men, and escaped into the ravine. The other,
putting its head down, came at me, I suppose, because my white skin
attracted his attention. The Caffres jumped right and left as he came
close, and left me standing alone. The men called to me to jump, but I
waited till the buffalo was within a few yards of me; I then held my
heavy assagy by the wooden end, and sprang on one side so quickly that
the buffalo missed me; when swinging my assagy round, I struck the
animal on the hind leg just above the hock, and hamstrung it, so that it
could only move on three legs. Before it could turn and charge again,
the Caffres had closed round it, and had stabbed it in so many places
that it slowly sank to the ground, giving a loud moan as it did so.
I was greatly excited at this scene, and hurled my assagy at the animal,
burying it deep in its side; and then danced about and shouted with
delight as I saw it fall, the Caffres being equally pleased. From down
the ravine we now heard shouts from the men, who announced that the
other buffalo was down and dead. Two of the men whom the buffalo had
knocked down were much hurt, but they were helped home, and in a week
were quite well again; for these people recover very quickly from even
most dangerous wounds.
The buffaloes were quickly skinned and cut up, the meat being carried to
the kraal, where fires were lighted in every hut, and the flesh roasted,
and boiled in large earthen pots. The whole of the afternoon and
evening was passed in feasting, whilst songs with choruses were sung. I
was frequently mentioned as the young white chief, for my performance
was thought highly of, the fact of hamstringing the buffalo having
greatly contributed to the success of the affair, and my quickness in
escaping from the buffalo's charge being also a performance much
appreciated by the Caffres.
The opera-glasses which Inyati had brought with him caused the usual
astonishment when shown to the people at this kraal, and a chief there
offered to buy them for five cows, but Inyati was not willing to sell
them, as he said there was nothing like them in the country.
We returned home the next day, and I once more resumed the usual daily
routine at our kraal.