Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1890-01-11

$S we trekked along
the line which
now divides the Orange Free state from
Griqualand West, and the Transvaal from
Bechuanaland.
I found the country almost entirely
depopulated. Not very long before Mo
silikatzi the Lion, Chaka's general, had
swept across It in his progress toward
what is now Matapeieland. His foot
| steps were evident enough. Time upon
time trekked up to what had evidently
been the sites Of the Kaffir kraals. Now
the kraals were ashes and piles Of tum-
| bled stones, and strewn about among
the rank grass wene the bones of hun
dreds Of men, women and children, all
| Of whom had kissed the Zulu assegai.
We were trekking parallel with the
Kolong river when herd of blesbock
| crossed the track. Ifired at one of them
and hit it behind. It galloped about q
| thousand yards with the rest of the herd,
then lay down. AS we were in want Of
meat, not having met with any game for
a few days past, jumped ON to my re-
manning horse, and, telling Indaba-zimbi
that I would overtake the wagons or
meet them on the further side Of rise
about an hours trek away, started
| after the wounded buck. AS soon as
came within a hundred yards of it,
however, 1t jumped up and ran away as
fast as though it were untouched, only
| to lie down again at a distance. fol-
lowed, thinking that strength would
soon fail 1t. This happened three times.
| On the third occasion it vanished behind
a ridge, and though by now / was out of
both temper and patience I thought !
might as well ride to the ridge and see II
could get shot at it on the further
side.
Preached the ridge, which was strewn
with stones, looked over 1t, and saw--a
Zulu Impil
I rubbed my eyes and looked again
Yes, there was no doubt of it. They
were halted about a thousand yards away,
by the water; some were lying down, some
were cooking at fires, others were stalk
ing about with spears and shields in their
hands; there might have been two thou
sand of them in all. While was won
dering-and that with no little uneasi-
ness-what ON earth they could be doing
there, suddenly heard wild cry to the
right and left of me. / glanced first one
way, then the other. From either side
two great Zulus were bearing down on
me, their broad stabbing assegais aloft,
| and black shields in their left hands. The
man to the right was about fifteen yards
away, he to the left was not more than
ten. On they came, their fierce eyes al
most starting out of their heads, and
felt, with cold thrill Of fear, that in an
other three seconds those great "bang-
vans" might be buried in my vitals.
On such occasions we act, suppose,
more from instinct than anything else
there is no time for thought. At any
rate, I dropped my reins, and, raising
my gun, fired point blank at the left
hand man. The bullet struck full in the
middle Of his shield, pierced it and
| passed through him, and over he rolled
upon the veldt, swung round in the
saddle; most happily my horse was ac-
customed to standing still when fired
from his back, also he was so surprised
he did not know which way to shy.
| The other savage was almost on me; his
outstretched shield touched the muzzle
| Of my gun as / pulled the trigger of the
left barrel. It exploded, the warrior
sprung high into the air, and fell against
my horse dead, his spear passing just in
front of my face.
Without waiting TO reload or even to
look If the main body of the Zulus had
seen the death Of their two scouts, /
turned my horse and drove my heels
into his sides. As soon as was down
| the slope of the rise pulled little to
the right, in order to intercept the
wagons before the Zulus saw them. !
had not gone 800 yards in this new di-
rection when, to my utter astonishment,
l struck trail marked with wagon
wheels and the hoofs Of oxen. OF wag-
| ons there must have been at least eight,
and several hundred cattle. Moreover,
they had passed within twelve hours; !
could tell that by the spoor. Then UNI
derstood the impi was following the
track of the wagons, which in all proba-
bility belonged to a party of emigrant
Beers.
! The spoor Of the wagons ran in the d.