The Irish standard., 1890-02-08

towards what Is now N Gland. aa =
Y footsteps were evident enough E1rne|
I upon time t trekked up to what had bag evil
IDENTIFY been the sites Of the Kane laII :,
kraals. Now the kraals were ashes ana!
piles of tumbled stones, and streWn,
about among the rank grass were the
bones Of hundreds Of men, women ana
children, all of whom had kissed the Zulu
assegai. / remember that in one OF
] these desolate places found the skullS
I of a child in which a ground lark haa'
built its nest 1t was the tWltterlEg OF
!, the young birds inside that t1rs5
called nv attention to it. Shortly after:
this event we met with our second great
adventure, a much more serious "uu'
| tragic one than the first.
1 We were trekking parallel WITH the
Kolong river when a herd of blesbockE
! crossed the track. I fired at one OF.
them and hit it behind. 1t galloped
about thousand yards with the rest OF
the herd, then lay down. Az we were
! in want of meat, not having met with
any game for few days past, jumped
on to my remaining horse, and telling
/ Indaba-zimbi that 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 I came within a hundred
! yards of it, however, it jumped up and
ran away as fast as though it were un.
touched, only to lie down again at q
! III hi III
strength would soon fail it. This hap
pened three times. On the third oc-
casion it vanished behind ridge, and
though by now was out of both tenn
per and patience, thought might as
we'll ride to the ridge and see if could
get shot at it on the further side.
| reached the ridge, which was strewn
with stones, looked over 1t, and saw--a
Zulu Impi.
rubbed my eyes and looked agsin.
! Yes, there was no doubt of it. They;
were halted about Thousand yardS
away, by the water; some were lying
down, some were cooking at fires, others
were stalking about with spears and
shields in their hands; there might
have been two thousand OF them in ALL;
While was wondering-and that with
no little uneasiness-what OH earth
they could be doing there, suddenly l
heard a wild cry to the right and left OF
me. 1 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 almost starting
out of their heads, end I felt, with a
cold thrill of fear, that in another three
seconds those great ''bang-wans" might
be buried in my vitals. On such coca
sions we act, suppose, more from In
stinct than any thing else-there is no
time for thought. At any rate, Il
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 voldt.
I swung round in the saddle; most hap
PLY my horse was accustomed to stand
ing still when l fred 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
I 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 to reload, or even to
look if the main body of the Zulus had
seel 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 a little to
the right in order to intercept the wag~
ons before the Zulns saw them. had
not gone three hundred yards in this
new direction when to my utter aston
ishment struck trail marked with
wagon-wheels and the hoofs of oxen.
OF wagons there must have been at least
eight, and several hundred cattle. More
over, they had passed within twelve
hours; could tell that by the spoor.
Then understood the Impi was follow
ing the track of the wagons, which, in
all probability, belonged to party of
emigrant Beers.
The spoor Of the wagons ran in the
direction / wished to CO. so followed it.
About mile further on I came to the
crest of a rise, and there, about five fur
longs away, saw the wagons drawn up
in rough lager upon the banks Of the
river. There, too, were my own wag-
ons trekking down the slope towards
them.
In another five minutes I was there.
The Boers-for Beers they were-were
standing about outside the little laager
watching the approach of my two wag-
ons. called to them, and they turned
and saw me. The very first man mE
eyes fell On was Boer named Hans
Botha, whom I had known we'll years
ago in the Cape. He was nota bad spec
linen of his class, but very restless
person, with great objection to author
ity, or, as he expressed it, ga love Of
freedom" He had joined party of tho