So it went on till at length a runner arrived and whispered something to Indudu who saluted, showing me that it was a royal message, and ordered us to move.  Of this I was glad, for had I stopped there much longer, I think I should have personally assaulted those gossiping female idiots.

Of our journey through Zululand there is nothing particular to say.  We saw but few people, since most of the men had been called up to the army, and many of the kraals seemed to be deserted by the women and children who perhaps were hidden away with the cattle.  Once, however, we met an impi about five thousand strong, that seemed to cover the hillside like a herd of game.  It consisted of the Nodwengu and the Nokenke regiments, both of which afterwards fought at Isandhlwana.  Some of their captains with a small guard came to see who we were, fine, fierce-looking men.  They stared at me curiously, and with one of them, whom I knew, I had a little talk.  He said that I was the last white man in Zululand and that I was lucky to be alive, for soon these, and he pointed to the hordes of warriors who were streaming past, would eat up the English to “the last bone.”  I answered that this remained to be seen, as the English were also great eaters, whereat he laughed, replying, that it was true that the white men had already taken the first bite—­a very little one, from which I gathered that some small engagement had happened.

“Well, farewell, Macumazahn,” he said, as he turned to go, “I hope that we shall meet in the battle, for I want to see if you can run as well as you can shoot.”

This roused my temper and I answered him—­

“I hope for your sake that we shall not meet, for if we do I promise that before I run I will show you what you never saw before, the gateway of the world of Spirits.”

I mention this conversation because by some strange chance it happened at Isandhlwana that I killed this man, who was named Simpofu.

During all those days of trudging through hot suns and thunderstorms, for I had to give up the mare to Kaatje who was too fat to walk, or said she was, I was literally haunted by thoughts of my murdered friends.  Heaven knows how bitterly I reproached myself for having brought them into Zululand.  It seemed so terribly sad that these young people who loved each other and had so bright a future before them, should have escaped from a tragic past merely to be overwhelmed by such a fate.  Again and again I questioned that lump Kaatje as to the details of their end and of all that went before and followed after the murder.

But it was quite useless; indeed, as time went on she seemed to become more nebulous on the point as though a picture were fading from her mind.  But as to one thing she was always quite clear, that she had seen them dead and had seen their new-made grave.  This she swore “by God in Heaven,” completing the oath with an outburst of tears in a way that would have carried conviction to any jury, as it did to me.