San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-01-28

| found the country almost entirely
depopulated. Not very long before No
silikatzi the Lion, Chakas general, had
swept across it in his progress toward
what is now Matapeleland. His foot
steps were evident enough. Time upon
time trekkcd 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 were the bones of hun
dreds Of men, women and children, all
Of whom had kissed the Zulu aSsegai.
We We're trekking parallel with the
kolOng river when a herd of blesbock
crossed the track. fired at one of them
and hit it behind. 1t galloped about
thousand yards with the rest of the herd,
then Law down. AS we were in want Of
meat. not having met with any game for
a few days past, jumped on to my re-
naming horse, and, telling lndabazimbi
that would overtake the wagons or
Meet chem on the further side of riss
about an hours trek away, started
after the wounded buck As soon as
came within a hundred wards Of it,
however, it jumped up and ran away as
fast as though it were untouched. only
to lie down again at 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 | was out of
both temper and patience | thought |
I IL. 1 1 a
| could get shot at it on the further
side.
reached the ridge, which WAS slrewn
with stones looked over ii, and >aw-a
Zulu Inp!
Rubbed my eyes and looked again.
Yes. there wa, no doubt of it, They
were halted about 4 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-
nes5-whal on earth they could be doing
there, suddenly heard u wild CRY to the
right and left of me glanced first one
way, then tive oth /. From either side
two great Zulus were bearing down on
me, their broad stabbing asscgais 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 acD! thrill Of fear, that in an
Nthnr tlran SnI,,nH- thnSn :. hn,,rr-
vans might b" buried in nv vitalS
On such occasions we act, | suppose,
more from instinct than anything else
there is no time for thought 1T any
rate, dropped my rcins. 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 &C
CuStOmed to standing still when l 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. 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
seen the death of their two scouts, ]
;&::T;i,I - ..yi,2 .,i..I drove my heels
into his sides. rs BON as l was down
the slope of the rise pulled a 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 establishment,
| struck trail marked with wagon
wheels and the hUuls 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 I'M
deratood the intpi was following the
track Of tho wagons, which in all prOba.
bility belonged to Il party of emigrant
Beers
The spoor of the wagons ran in the di-
rection l wished to 90, so followed it.
About mile further on came to the
crest of 4 rise. and there, about five fur
longs away, | saw the wagons drawn I'D
IN rough laager upon the banks of the
river. There, too, were my own wagons
trekking down the slope towards them.
In another five minutes l was there
The Boers-for Beers they were-were
standing about outside the little laager
watching the approach of my two wag