Wichita eagle., 1890-01-05
CHAPTER ".

| now divides the Orange Free state from
| Griqualand West, and the Transvaal from
! Bechuanaland.
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 Matapeleland. His foot
steps were evident enough. Time upon
time | trekked up TO what had evidently
| been the sites Of the haffir kraals. Now
| the kraals We're ashes and piles Of tuIn-
/ bled stones, and strewn about among
| the rank grass We're 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. fired at one of them
and hit it behind. It galloped about a
! thousand yards with the rest of the hera,
then iav 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 lndabaZimbi
that | would overtake the wagons or
meet chem on the further side of rise
| about an hours trek away, | started
after the wounded buck. AS soon as
I came within hundred yards of it,
however, it 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 it. This happened three times.
On the third occasion it vanished behind
a ridge, and though by now l was out of
both temper and patience | thought |
might as well ride to the ridge and see if
1 could get shot at it on the further
, side.
| reached the ridge, which was strewn
with stones, looked over it, and saw-a
Zulu Impi!
l rubbed my eyes and hooked again.
! Yes, there was no doubt of it. They
were halted about a thousand yards away,
| by the water; some We're 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 l was Won
| dering-and that with no little uneasi-
ness-what on earth they could be doing
| there. suddenly ] heard a wild cry to the
| right and left of me. | glanced first one
wa., then the other. From either side
two great Zulus were bearing down on
me, their broad stsbbing 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 l
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, l suppose,
more from instinct than anything else
there is no time for thought. At any
rate, dropped my reins, and. raising
my gun, fired point blank st 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 veidt. l swung round IN the
saddle; most happily my horse was &C.
customed to standing still when fired
! from his back. also be 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 1t 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 10 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 Us I was down
the slope of the rise pulled little 70
the right. in order to intercept the
wagons before the Zulus saw them. I
had not gone SEQ yards in this new di-
rectio1 wslen. toEa.pt' a-.<r -Assh.nant