Shortly after my trip in search of the ostrich-feathers, an event
occurred which obliged our people to call a meeting of the whole tribe.
There came to our country some Caffres belonging to the tribes which
lived west of us, and on the banks of the Kei river. These tribes were
the Amakosa, the Amaponda, and others. Beyond them were the white men,
consisting of the English, called the Umlungos, and the Amabores, as the
Dutch farmers were called by the Caffres.
Between these white people and the Amakosa, there had been a sort of war
going on for some months. The Caffres had been unable to resist the
temptation of seeing fine fat cattle grazing near them, and but
carelessly watched. The young Caffres especially were excited by such
sights, because many of these wished to purchase a wife, and as the
price demanded for a wife was ten cows, they were unable to buy the girl
they were fond of. If, however, they could manage to drive off ten cows
from the white men they might purchase a wife at once. Now in India, I
remembered, it was just the reverse: there a father had to give a large
sum of money to get his daughter married, so that a man who had several
daughters was simply ruined in consequence of the money he had to give
for his daughters to get husbands. Consequently, in India it became a
general practice to kill female children as soon as they were born, as a
matter of economy; whereas here, in South Africa, female children were a
source of wealth to their fathers.
When the white men found their cattle had been stolen, they formed a
party and started on the spoor, and if they caught the Caffres who had
stolen them they shot them as if they were hyaenas. Fights consequently
took place between the Amakosa and the white men, and several had been
killed on both sides. These events led to war being declared against
the Amakosa by the English, and this war had just commenced when the
visitors came to our country.
All the principal men of our tribe having been assembled, we formed a
large circle about four deep on some open ground near my hut. We sat
down close together and remained silent whilst the two Amakosa stood in
the middle of the ring to address us, which they did in the following
manner:--
"Chiefs of the Umzimvubu!--We come as speakers from the Amakosa, to ask
you to help us against the white man. We have lived for many
generations on the banks of the Kei and in the Amatola Mountains. We
once owned the land down to the Great Fish River; the Fingoes were our
slaves, the Hottentots were afraid of us. The white man has now come,
and on small pretences has taken our land, and made us give them
hundreds of cattle. Our young men have been shot down like dogs; but at
last we have quivered the assagy in our defence, and in our bush and in
our mountains we are strong. We want your aid in two ways: first, to
let your young men join us; and, secondly, that you will let us drive
our cattle into your country, so that the white man cannot capture them.
For this we will pay you cattle, giving you one in every ten. Your men
are brave, and can fight as we heard they did against the Amazulu. If
we are eaten up, the white man will soon come to your country; so we are
a strong fence against them, and you should help to strengthen that
fence. I have spoken as our chiefs have told me."
The two Amakosa then moved from the centre of the circle and sat down
among our chiefs. There was a silence of several minutes, during which
each of the intending speakers was reflecting on what had been said.
That we should receive one in ten of the cattle that we took care of was
a tempting offer to many, whilst several of the young men were pleased
at the idea of encountering the white man, and showing their bravery. I
crept round the circle to where Ebomvu the Rain-maker was sitting, and
whispered to him, "What do you think of this?" He replied, "I have not
yet obtained the right thought!" I said, "The white men have all guns;
they are in thousands; and if we join the Amakosa, they may come and
attack us, and then, would the Amakosa help us?" Ebomvu nodded, and
took a large pinch of snuff; and then, seeing that no chief came
forward, he walked into the centre of the ring, and stretching out his
arm addressed the chiefs.
Since that time I have heard among civilised nations many so-called
orators, but I can fairly state that I never heard greater eloquence
than I did from Ebomvu.
He said: "Men of the Umzimvubu!--Our visitors from the Amakosa have
asked us to help them against the white man, who is encroaching on them.
They also ask us to take care of their cattle, so that the white man,
if he enters the Kloofs of the Amatola, may not carry off their cattle.
They tell us that it is to our advantage to join them against the white
man; for otherwise the white man will soon push against us. And if we
take care of their cattle they will give us one out of ten. Now when
anything is done between two tribes it is done because of friendship and
brotherhood, or because of trading one with the other. Although we are
friendly with the Amakosa, yet they have not treated us like brothers.
They have been hard with us in trade: the knives, spearheads, and other
things they obtained from the white man, they would not part with to us
except for high prices. So we must look at this matter as trade, and I
cannot see that we gain much advantage by sending our young men to be
shot down by the whites. We should be fighting for the Amakosa; and we
are asked to do this because, perhaps, by-and-by, the white man may want
to fight with us. So we are asked to do now what would be very bad for
us if we had to do it by-and-by. Then we are to protect the Amakosa
cattle, and to receive as reward just one in ten. This is not enough:
the Amakosa are hard at a bargain, and I think we are required to give
much and receive but little."
Ebomvu then sat down again among the principal men, a murmur of "_Di'a
vuma nawe_" ("I agree with you") being uttered by the older chiefs,
whilst loud cries of "_Hi, Hi, musa_" were uttered by the younger men.
After a little delay a young chief, who had fought well against the
Amazulu, stepped into the centre of the circle, and raising his shield
and assagies, said, "Listen to me, men of the Umzimvubu. I am for war.
I think we ought not to sit down like boys or women, and let our
friends, the Amakosa, fight alone. We are strong and we know how to
fight. If we join the Amakosa we shall share in the spoil; we must have
our share of the cattle, of the guns captured, and we may also procure
some of those animals on which men ride. Shall our tribe be termed a
tribe of cowards? I say, let us join the Amakosa, and dip our assagies
in the blood of the white man."
A tremendous shout was given at the termination of this address; and it
was evident that, as far as numbers went, there were more in favour of
war than there were against it. This was an example of what took place
among civilised nations. If the majority of an assembly are emotional
rather than intellectual, a man who appeals to the emotions gains more
adherents than the speaker who talks sound sense. Consequently, when
another young chief spoke in favour of war, it was decided that we
should join the Amakosa and fight the white man.
What I was to do I did not know. I felt that, although I had become a
regular Caffre in habits and thoughts, yet I was an Englishman; and if I
fired and killed a white man, I should be guilty of murder. I thought a
great deal about this matter; for though I had nothing to complain of in
my present life, yet I longed to see my father again, and to let him
know I was not dead. I knew that, lost as was the ship in which I had
left Calcutta, there would be no records of her ever found. I alone
could tell the tale, for the ladies who had been saved had become the
wives of Caffres, and they told me that now they must live and die as
they were, and could never again return to civilisation.
I had great doubts whether the life I now led was not _the_ one which
most men in cities toiled for all their lives. Boy as I was, yet I had
rank, I was a chief; I had cattle, the great wealth in this land; I had
a gun and ammunition; I had always plenty to eat; I wanted no clothes, I
could wrap myself in an _ingubu_ (blanket or kaross) made of jackals'
skins, which kept me warm in the cold nights; I had no work to do that I
didn't like. There was plenty of game to shoot or trap; and, except
during a short rainy season, the climate was as fine as any in the
world. What more pleasant life than this could I lead anywhere? In
England I should be at a school, having to learn a lot of things in
which I took no interest; perhaps, if I did not work properly, I might
be caned, I, who was now a chief, and if any man struck me should
probably use my assagy against him. There were two sides to the
question of returning to civilisation. I had read also that my uncle
passed seven or eight hours a day in a dark office in London, in a place
crowded round by other houses, so that you could scarcely see the sun,
and where there were so many men that you scarcely ever breathed
anything but second-hand air. Still, there was the longing always
coming over me to see my father, and to tell him that I was happy, and
if he did not mind I should prefer remaining where I was. But the
war-spirit had broken out, and every one, even to the smallest _intombi_
(girl) was dancing about, singing war-songs. As was the custom with
these tribes, a great war-dance was arranged; all the fighting men, in
full war-dress, assembled from miles round. We mustered more than five
thousand fighting men, besides about three thousand boys able to throw
an assagy, and assist at critical moments, when the enemy were broken or
too powerful at any particular point.
I shall always remember the war-dance which now took place; it was a
sight only to be seen in the wilderness, and where civilisation has made
no progress. The men assembled formed a ring three and four deep, and
sat quietly on the ground for more than an hour, each with his shield in
front of him. At a given signal we all started to our feet, with a
shout; then, imitating the movements of an old chief who entered the
centre of the ring, we beat the ground, first with one foot, then with
the other; then, jumping in the air, came to the ground with both feet
at once, making the earth shake as we did so. After we had continued
these proceedings for some time, a young bull was brought into the ring
and turned loose, three young chiefs entering at the same time. They
shouted and beat their shields, so as to alarm the bull, and then closed
on him, hurling their assagies at him. The animal soon became savage
and charged at the young chiefs, and a regular bullfight occurred; but
so active were the Caffres, and so well did they back one another up,
that in a few minutes the bull was so terribly wounded by assagies that
it sank to the ground and died.
Four bulls were killed in the same manner and by different sets of young
chiefs, the circle of warriors all the time singing their war-songs and
dancing and beating their shields. During two days these festivities
were kept up, and then the leading chiefs met in council to decide upon
the plan of operations. I soon began to observe that several of the
chiefs regarded me in a manner different from that in which they had
formerly done. They were not unfriendly, but they were silent; and I
feared that some enemy had been at work who was jealous of my rise and
progress. I was rich for so young a chief, as I now possessed fourteen
cows and several calves; but I did not think I was rich enough to be
accused of witchcraft, and my cows taken from me. I had but to wait a
few days before I learned why this change in manners had taken place.
One evening an old chief sent for me to his kraal for a _kaluma_ (talk),
and on my entering his hut I found two other chiefs there. They offered
me snuff, and _Itchuala_, and then the old chief said:--
"Umkunkinglovu! we know you are brave and can fight well, and we should
have liked you to lead a division of our men; but we have thought that,
as you, although a Caffre at heart, are still white, you might not like
to fight against white men. We don't know about white men; we don't
know who are friends, and who enemies. We, the Umzimvubu, fight against
the Amazulu, though we are both black. Do you white men ever fight one
against the other?"
"Yes," I replied, "when nations like your great tribes disagree they
fight."
"Then are the people at war with the Amakosa of your tribe?"
"Yes, they are."
"Then you would not like to fight against them?"
"No; I should be a rascal to do so."
"We thought it might be so," said the old chief, "so we are going to
leave you in charge of the tribe, to take care of the cows and the young
people, until we return."
"I should like to speak about this war," I said; "may I?"
A nod was the only answer.
"This war," I said, "will probably bring great trouble to the tribe.
You have been misled by the Amakosa; for the white men against whom you
are fighting are powerful, and if they require them can bring ten men to
your one. You with assagies only cannot defeat them, for they are all
armed with guns, and are good shots. They can wear you out; for they
can destroy your crops of corn, and capture your cattle, or worry them
so that they cannot feed. You have little to gain, and all to lose.
Why do you go on this expedition?"
The three chiefs sat silent for a few minutes, and then the elder said,
"We believe the Amakosa. Their chiefs say the white men are not
numerous, and are very slow--that in spite of their guns, which are not
much use in the bush, the assagy has gained the victory; unless we fight
the white man, he will march on and will soon want our country, and we
shall be wiped out. We are now bound by promise to fight, so it is no
use now thinking any more about it. Besides, the Amakosa tell us that
the white men employed to fight are not allowed to fight as they like or
could, but are bound up with straps and tight clothes, and are made to
wear red blankets round their bodies, so as to be easily seen and
therefore easily shot. They have to carry a number of things also,
which prevent them from running fast, and tires them when they walk. So
an Amakosa warrior feels he is better able to fight than a white
soldier, who cannot move through the bush, as the thorns hold him by his
clothes; so that he cannot shoot, and is easily assagied."
I endeavoured to convince these chiefs that it was no use fighting
against the English; but they listened patiently, and then said that,
when I left my friends the whites, I was too young to be able to judge
correctly of numbers and strength, and that I should see them return
with many guns and plenty of cattle.