The White Chief of the Caffres

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

  I had made my way along the coast till I was past the Umbilo river, andwas crossing some tolerably open ground, when I saw before me a largeparty of Caffres. I halted to examine them, and instantly saw that theywere not Zulus. Although I did not wish to again join any tribe, andperhaps be compelled to remain with them, yet a few friends to back oneup, when pursued by an armed party of Zulus, would do one no harm. I atonce made up my mind to advance to this party and claim theirprotection. 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 Icame into this country with the Umzimvubu Caffres against the Zulus.Eondema expressed the greatest surprise at seeing me, and began askingme a multitude of questions. I, however, told him there was no time totalk now, as I was pursued by a party of Zulus, and that we must beprepared either to run, or to stop and fight. On looking at the partywith Eondema, I believed them equal in numbers with the Zulus; and as Ipossessed my gun and plenty of ammunition, I had no fear of our sidegetting the worse of a battle. Eondema spoke to his men, and they allagreed to fight; and the only thing, therefore, to be done now was tomake our plans, so that we should take the Zulus at a disadvantage. Therapidity with which arrangements were made showed that Eondema's youngmen were well-trained: the plan was to divide the party into twodivisions, each concealing themselves in the bush. I remained withEondema, and informed him that I intended to shoot the chief of theparty as a commencement, and then the most formidable-looking men amongthe enemy. We had sent two men to the front in order to look out andgive us due notice of the approach of the Zulus; for I had no doubtthat, however much care I had taken to conceal my spoor, yet thesekeen-eyed men would soon find my footprints, and follow them up just astruly as would a bloodhound. Our preparations having been made, I wasable to talk to Eondema, and to tell him how I happened to be at thisplace. 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, andmy escape from the water. Then how I had feared to move from the bluffwhere I had made my hut, lest I should fall into an ambush; and then Itold him how I had been awakened by the cry of the sea-eagle, and hadseen the Zulus preparing to cross the channel and get to the bluff. Iaccounted for the Zulus knowing where I was, by a small quantity ofsmoke from my fire having risen on the evening previously. This had nodoubt been seen, and as smoke will not rise without a fire, and as firecannot usually be kindled except by man, the suspicions of these men hadbeen raised, and so they were determined to examine the bluff and seewho was there.

  Now a Zulu in a very short time would be able, from the signs near myhut, to read a history of my proceedings. He would see where I hadopened the oysters on the rocks, where I had caught fish, where I hadleft the bones of the buck I had killed; and, in fact, would know what Ihad done as correctly as though he had seen me each day. The Zulusconsequently would know I was alone, and that to capture me was not adifficult task. It was about three miles from my hut to the place whereI had met Eondema and his party, and this distance would soon be passedover by the Zulus, even when following a trail; so that at any moment wemight 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 conversationin so low a tone that no one could hear us who was three times ourlength from us.

  In describing various things connected with my early life among thesepeople, I naturally use the same terms which these people employed. Forexample, they had no knowledge of time, as we understand it: "an hour"or "ten minutes" would be unintelligible terms to them. If a Caffrewished to tell you how long a time it would occupy you to journey tosome near river or kraal, he would point to the sky and say, "You willjourney there whilst the sun is travelling from where he is to thatpoint in the sky." If the journey was a very long one, occupying manydays, he would name the number of days; or he would refer to the moonand say, "If the moon is half grown when you start, it will be full sizewhen you arrive." A two-moon journey would be two months. Then, forshort distances, a Caffre would describe it as two assagy-throws, whichwould be a little more than one hundred yards; twice or three times mylength would be about twelve or eighteen feet. After a time thesecomparisons become quite natural to one, and when I go back in memory tomy 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," aCaffre would say; and this would mean that he was going a journey offourteen days towards the east.

  The patience that Caffres will show when waiting for an enemy or forsome animal to approach them was well shown on this occasion. Not a manshowed himself, or spoke above a whisper, during at least two hours; atthe end of which time one of our scouts signalled to us, and then camerapidly somewhat in our direction; but he was too well-trained to cometo us, for he might have been seen, and our ambuscade consequently wouldhave been a failure. This scout ran past the bush where we wereconcealed, and about four assagy-throws to the left of it. After he hadpassed us a long way, he disappeared behind some bushes, and immediatelycommenced creeping towards us. We could only now and then get a glimpseof him, but an enemy at a distance could not have seen him. On reachingour position the scout told Eondema that all the Zulus were coming, andwere following my footprints; that they were all armed with assagiesexcept one, who possessed a gun. He added that the Zulus did not seemto be aware that any enemy was near, for they had no spies out, that hecould see; although three or four men walked on each side of the mainbody, and at some distance, so as to be ready to run round and cut offmy retreat, in case they found me unprepared for them. From my ambush Iwas able to obtain a good view of the Zulus, as they advanced; and I sawthat the man who possessed the gun was a chief of some note. He was oneof those who had been engaged in the slaughter of the white men, fromone of whom he had probably obtained his gun. I told Eondema I wouldshoot this chief, and would then make him learn how to use the gun. TheZulus did not come carelessly on to the ambush, as English soldierswould have done, and been in consequence taken by surprise; but theyspread on each side of the bushes, two or three men going down toleeward, in order to _smell_ if there was anything extraordinaryconcealed in the bush. A white man with a good nose could smell a Zuluat the distance of several hundred yards, if the wind were blowing fromthe Zulu towards the white man; so that men accustomed to the woods willoften smell a wild animal before they see it. The Zulus who had gone tosmell for an enemy evidently suspected an ambush, as they called to thechief, 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 arush at the bush in which we were concealed. Eondema had remainedquiet, watching the enemy, not a move being made by any of his men.Slowly and steadily the Zulus now advanced until they were about twoassagies' distance from me. Seeing the chief with the gun was comingstraight towards me, I aimed at him and fired. He made a bound like abuck and fell to the ground. Eondema and his men instantly sprang totheir feet and rushed at the enemy, whilst I reloaded and watched to seewhere I could be most useful. It was now a hand-to-hand fight. Theassagies were flying about freely, and several couples had separatedthemselves 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 thestabbing assagy was thrust now and then at an apparently exposed part ofthe body. I watched this encounter for a few minutes, when I saw a Zulustealing up behind Eondema, his assagy ready to stab him. Now was thetime for my gun to be of use; so, aiming at this creeping savage, I shothim dead just as he was within stabbing distance of Eondema. The fightbetween the two parties did not continue long. It was mostlyhand-to-hand; and with such men as the Caffres, who were brave as mencould be, it was fighting to the death; so that one of the two engagedw
as sure to be assagied. Eondema was active as a cat, and managed towound his antagonist with his assagy; and then, closing with him,finished him without difficulty. Only a few Zulus escaped, for whenthey found their chief shot they fought desperately, and retreated onlywhen there were four to one against them.

  After the fight I explained to Eondema how to use the gun that the Zuluhad carried. It was a gun with a flint and steel lock, and Eondema wasnever tired of cocking it, pulling the trigger and seeing the sparks flyfrom the flint. I remembered that in India I had seen fire produced bymeans of tinder and brimstone matches. I could easily make the tinder,but had no brimstone with which to make matches. As, however, to createfire was a very long process with the Caffres, I thought of making somematches out of a small bundle of dry grass, the end of which bundle Irubbed over with wet gunpowder. As this gunpowder dried it stuck to thegrass. I then placed the gunpowder end of this large match in the panof the gun; and, on pulling the trigger, ignited it by the spark. I bythis means produced a fire instantaneously: which was considered by theCaffres a wonderful discovery, and the gun was thought to be more usefulas a fire-producing machine than as a weapon.

  After defeating this party of Zulus we held a great council of war totalk about what should be done. We knew the character of the Zulus toowell to imagine they would wait long before they revenged themselves forthe defeat, of this expedition, which had evidently been sent by theGreat 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 whohad escaped to reach the kraal of the chief, two days more to plan anexpedition, and four days additional for the expedition to again reachthe locality that we were now in.

  Eondema decided to move with his cattle and wives across the Umlassriver, 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 wasnothing to gain by it. The style of fighting they liked was, when manycattle could be captured, if an enemy were defeated. In the presentinstance they would be fighting merely to defend themselves, and preventtheir own cattle from being captured; and I had great doubts whether Ishould not be given up to the Zulus, if by this act a fight could beprevented. The difficulty of an arrangement was how to communicate withthe Zulus. These people usually made sudden attacks, and practisedsurprises, and did not understand what civilised nations called a flagof truce; so that assagies began to fly before a word was spoken, and assoon as blood was drawn it was too late to attempt to settle thedifficulty by talking. I was very anxious about myself, for althoughthe 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 anescaped prisoner; and had it not been for Eondema and his men, I mighthave been captured and killed by the party of Zulus who had traced mefrom my hut on the bluff. Consequently, Eondema had a sort of hold onme; but he was a generous young fellow, and though he was sorry to loseseveral of his men, yet he said nothing to me about any obligation on mypart.

  My great object, however, was to find some means of rejoining the whitepeople. I did not know enough of the geography of South Africa to beaware of any way of reaching the Cape Colony, except by means of a shipentering Natal Harbour.

  I had learnt from my old companions that there were white men in numbersto the west of the Umzimvubu; but that the tribe of the Amakosa was verywarlike, and had frequently drawn the assagy against the white men. Tojourney through the country of the Amakosa, therefore, would have beendangerous, if not impossible; and the white men were to the west ofthese tribes. If, then, I was to rejoin the white men, it must be bymeans of a vessel coming to Natal Harbour; for no other harbour up thecoast was suitable for a ship to enter.