I had made my way along the coast till I was past the Umbilo river, and
was crossing some tolerably open ground, when I saw before me a large
party of Caffres. I halted to examine them, and instantly saw that they
were not Zulus. Although I did not wish to again join any tribe, and
perhaps be compelled to remain with them, yet a few friends to back one
up, when pursued by an armed party of Zulus, would do one no harm. I at
once made up my mind to advance to this party and claim their
protection. As I approached them they uttered exclamations of surprise,
and one man came forward quickly, and when near enough to be recognised,
I saw he was a young chief called Eondema, who had fought with me when I
came into this country with the Umzimvubu Caffres against the Zulus.
Eondema expressed the greatest surprise at seeing me, and began asking
me a multitude of questions. I, however, told him there was no time to
talk now, as I was pursued by a party of Zulus, and that we must be
prepared either to run, or to stop and fight. On looking at the party
with Eondema, I believed them equal in numbers with the Zulus; and as I
possessed my gun and plenty of ammunition, I had no fear of our side
getting the worse of a battle. Eondema spoke to his men, and they all
agreed to fight; and the only thing, therefore, to be done now was to
make our plans, so that we should take the Zulus at a disadvantage. The
rapidity with which arrangements were made showed that Eondema's young
men were well-trained: the plan was to divide the party into two
divisions, each concealing themselves in the bush. I remained with
Eondema, and informed him that I intended to shoot the chief of the
party as a commencement, and then the most formidable-looking men among
the enemy. We had sent two men to the front in order to look out and
give us due notice of the approach of the Zulus; for I had no doubt
that, however much care I had taken to conceal my spoor, yet these
keen-eyed men would soon find my footprints, and follow them up just as
truly as would a bloodhound. Our preparations having been made, I was
able to talk to Eondema, and to tell him how I happened to be at this
place. I described my life among the Zulus and my escape from them;
also the manner in which the white men had been killed by the Zulus, and
my escape from the water. Then how I had feared to move from the bluff
where I had made my hut, lest I should fall into an ambush; and then I
told him how I had been awakened by the cry of the sea-eagle, and had
seen the Zulus preparing to cross the channel and get to the bluff. I
accounted for the Zulus knowing where I was, by a small quantity of
smoke from my fire having risen on the evening previously. This had no
doubt been seen, and as smoke will not rise without a fire, and as fire
cannot usually be kindled except by man, the suspicions of these men had
been raised, and so they were determined to examine the bluff and see
who was there.
Now a Zulu in a very short time would be able, from the signs near my
hut, to read a history of my proceedings. He would see where I had
opened the oysters on the rocks, where I had caught fish, where I had
left the bones of the buck I had killed; and, in fact, would know what I
had done as correctly as though he had seen me each day. The Zulus
consequently would know I was alone, and that to capture me was not a
difficult task. It was about three miles from my hut to the place where
I had met Eondema and his party, and this distance would soon be passed
over by the Zulus, even when following a trail; so that at any moment we
might see our look-out men signal to us that the enemy was in sight.
Although Eondema and I were talking, we yet carried on our conversation
in so low a tone that no one could hear us who was three times our
length from us.
In describing various things connected with my early life among these
people, I naturally use the same terms which these people employed. For
example, they had no knowledge of time, as we understand it: "an hour"
or "ten minutes" would be unintelligible terms to them. If a Caffre
wished to tell you how long a time it would occupy you to journey to
some near river or kraal, he would point to the sky and say, "You will
journey there whilst the sun is travelling from where he is to that
point in the sky." If the journey was a very long one, occupying many
days, he would name the number of days; or he would refer to the moon
and say, "If the moon is half grown when you start, it will be full size
when you arrive." A two-moon journey would be two months. Then, for
short distances, a Caffre would describe it as two assagy-throws, which
would be a little more than one hundred yards; twice or three times my
length would be about twelve or eighteen feet. After a time these
comparisons become quite natural to one, and when I go back in memory to
my life among them, I at once speak as I then spoke.
"I am going half a moon's journey in the direction of the rising sun," a
Caffre would say; and this would mean that he was going a journey of
fourteen days towards the east.
The patience that Caffres will show when waiting for an enemy or for
some animal to approach them was well shown on this occasion. Not a man
showed himself, or spoke above a whisper, during at least two hours; at
the end of which time one of our scouts signalled to us, and then came
rapidly somewhat in our direction; but he was too well-trained to come
to us, for he might have been seen, and our ambuscade consequently would
have been a failure. This scout ran past the bush where we were
concealed, and about four assagy-throws to the left of it. After he had
passed us a long way, he disappeared behind some bushes, and immediately
commenced creeping towards us. We could only now and then get a glimpse
of him, but an enemy at a distance could not have seen him. On reaching
our position the scout told Eondema that all the Zulus were coming, and
were following my footprints; that they were all armed with assagies
except one, who possessed a gun. He added that the Zulus did not seem
to be aware that any enemy was near, for they had no spies out, that he
could see; although three or four men walked on each side of the main
body, and at some distance, so as to be ready to run round and cut off
my retreat, in case they found me unprepared for them. From my ambush I
was able to obtain a good view of the Zulus, as they advanced; and I saw
that the man who possessed the gun was a chief of some note. He was one
of those who had been engaged in the slaughter of the white men, from
one of whom he had probably obtained his gun. I told Eondema I would
shoot this chief, and would then make him learn how to use the gun. The
Zulus did not come carelessly on to the ambush, as English soldiers
would have done, and been in consequence taken by surprise; but they
spread on each side of the bushes, two or three men going down to
leeward, in order to _smell_ if there was anything extraordinary
concealed in the bush. A white man with a good nose could smell a Zulu
at the distance of several hundred yards, if the wind were blowing from
the Zulu towards the white man; so that men accustomed to the woods will
often smell a wild animal before they see it. The Zulus who had gone to
smell for an enemy evidently suspected an ambush, as they called to the
chief, and we could hear "_Kona eclatini_," as the end of the sentence,
which means, "There in the bush."
The Zulus, at this warning, closed together, and seemed preparing for a
rush at the bush in which we were concealed. Eondema had remained
quiet, watching the enemy, not a move being made by any of his men.
Slowly and steadily the Zulus now advanced until they were about two
assagies' distance from me. Seeing the chief with the gun was coming
straight towards me, I aimed at him and fired. He made a bound like a
buck and fell to the ground. Eondema and his men instantly sprang to
their feet and rushed at the enemy, whilst I reloaded and watched to see
where I could be most useful. It was now a hand-to-hand fight. The
assagies were flying about freely, and several couples had separated
themselves from the main body, and were engaged in single combat.
Eondema was occupied with a powerful Zulu, who was pressing him hard,
the shields being used to cover the greater part of the body, whilst the
stabbing assagy was thrust now and then at an apparently exposed part of
the body. I watched this encounter for a few minutes, when I saw a Zulu
stealing up behind Eondema, his assagy ready to stab him. Now was the
time for my gun to be of use; so, aiming at this creeping savage, I shot
him dead just as he was within stabbing distance of Eondema. The fight
between the two parties did not continue long. It was mostly
hand-to-hand; and with such men as the Caffres, who were brave as men
could be, it was fighting to the death; so that one of the two engaged
was sure to be assagied. Eondema was active as a cat, and managed to
wound his antagonist with his assagy; and then, closing with him,
finished him without difficulty. Only a few Zulus escaped, for when
they found their chief shot they fought desperately, and retreated only
when there were four to one against them.
After the fight I explained to Eondema how to use the gun that the Zulu
had carried. It was a gun with a flint and steel lock, and Eondema was
never tired of cocking it, pulling the trigger and seeing the sparks fly
from the flint. I remembered that in India I had seen fire produced by
means of tinder and brimstone matches. I could easily make the tinder,
but had no brimstone with which to make matches. As, however, to create
fire was a very long process with the Caffres, I thought of making some
matches out of a small bundle of dry grass, the end of which bundle I
rubbed over with wet gunpowder. As this gunpowder dried it stuck to the
grass. I then placed the gunpowder end of this large match in the pan
of the gun; and, on pulling the trigger, ignited it by the spark. I by
this means produced a fire instantaneously: which was considered by the
Caffres a wonderful discovery, and the gun was thought to be more useful
as a fire-producing machine than as a weapon.
After defeating this party of Zulus we held a great council of war to
talk about what should be done. We knew the character of the Zulus too
well to imagine they would wait long before they revenged themselves for
the defeat, of this expedition, which had evidently been sent by the
Great Chief of the Zulus to search for me. After considerable talking,
we came to the conclusion that it would take four days for the men who
had escaped to reach the kraal of the chief, two days more to plan an
expedition, and four days additional for the expedition to again reach
the locality that we were now in.
Eondema decided to move with his cattle and wives across the Umlass
river, and to seek the aid of Umnini, a chief who was related to him,
and who could bring a thousand men to fight.
These Caffres, however, did not like this kind of fighting--there was
nothing to gain by it. The style of fighting they liked was, when many
cattle could be captured, if an enemy were defeated. In the present
instance they would be fighting merely to defend themselves, and prevent
their own cattle from being captured; and I had great doubts whether I
should not be given up to the Zulus, if by this act a fight could be
prevented. The difficulty of an arrangement was how to communicate with
the Zulus. These people usually made sudden attacks, and practised
surprises, and did not understand what civilised nations called a flag
of truce; so that assagies began to fly before a word was spoken, and as
soon as blood was drawn it was too late to attempt to settle the
difficulty by talking. I was very anxious about myself, for although
the Caffres are hospitable when visited by any one independent of them,
they are disposed to come the "chief" over those who require aid. I,
although a recognised chief among the Umzimvubu, was at present an
escaped prisoner; and had it not been for Eondema and his men, I might
have been captured and killed by the party of Zulus who had traced me
from my hut on the bluff. Consequently, Eondema had a sort of hold on
me; but he was a generous young fellow, and though he was sorry to lose
several of his men, yet he said nothing to me about any obligation on my
part.
My great object, however, was to find some means of rejoining the white
people. I did not know enough of the geography of South Africa to be
aware of any way of reaching the Cape Colony, except by means of a ship
entering Natal Harbour.
I had learnt from my old companions that there were white men in numbers
to the west of the Umzimvubu; but that the tribe of the Amakosa was very
warlike, and had frequently drawn the assagy against the white men. To
journey through the country of the Amakosa, therefore, would have been
dangerous, if not impossible; and the white men were to the west of
these tribes. If, then, I was to rejoin the white men, it must be by
means of a vessel coming to Natal Harbour; for no other harbour up the
coast was suitable for a ship to enter.