“So you are still here, Mynheer Pereira!” he said coldly.  “Now be good enough to tell me, what is this matter about the abandoning of our arms?”

“The king charges me to say—­” began Hernan.

“Charges you to say, Mynheer Pereira!  Are you then this black man’s servant?  But continue.”

“That none must come into his private enclosure armed.”

“Well, then, mynheer, be pleased to go tell this king that we do not wish to come to his private enclosure.  I have brought the cattle that he desired me to fetch, and I am willing to deliver them to him wherever he wishes, but we will not unarm in order to do so.”

Now there was talk, and messengers were despatched, who returned at full speed presently to say that Dingaan would receive the Boers in the great dancing place in the midst of the kraal, and that they might bring their guns, as he wished to see how they fired them.

So we rode in, making as fine a show as we could, to find that the dancing place, which measured a good many acres in extent, was lined round with thousands of plumed but unarmed warriors arranged in regiments.

“You see,” I heard Pereira say to Retief, “these have no spears.”

“No,” answered the commandant, “but they have sticks, which when they are a hundred to one would serve as well.”

Meanwhile the vast mob of cattle were being driven in a double stream past a knot of men at the head of the space, and then away through gates behind.  When the beasts had all gone we approached these men, among whom I recognised the fat form of Dingaan draped in a bead mantle.  We ranged ourselves in a semicircle before him, and stood while he searched us with his sharp eyes.  Presently he saw me, and sent a councillor to say that I must come and interpret for him.

So, dismounting, I went with Retief, Thomas Halstead, and a few of the leading Boers.

“Sakubona [Good day], Macumazahn,” said Dingaan.  “I am glad that you have come, as I know that you will speak my words truly, being one of the People of George whom I love, for Tho-maas here I do not trust, although he is also a Son of George.”

I told Retief what he said.

“Oh!” he exclaimed with a grunt, “it seems that you English are a step in front of us Boers, even here.”

Then he went forward and shook hands with the king, whom, it will be remembered, he had visited before.

After that the “indaba” or talk began, which I do not propose to set out at length, for it is a matter of history.  It is enough to say that Dingaan, after thanking Retief for recovering the cattle, asked where was Sikonyela, the chief who had stolen them, as he wished to kill him.  When he learned that Sikonyela remained in his own country, he became, or affected to become, angry.  Then he asked where were the sixty horses which he heard we had captured from Sikonyela, as they must be given up to him.