as the eye could behold, dotted
with kraals and cattle, and away in the distance coursed herds of game--
elands and springboks and gnus and many other kinds. Then our eyes and
our hearts were glad, and great and mighty was the acclamation with
which we greeted him who had thus led us forth, and with one voice we
all cried the royal `Bayete!' A new nation hailed Umzilikazi as King."

CHAPTER TWO.

THE KING'S PROMISE.

"We saw no more of Tshaka's _impi_. Perhaps it was that a great cloud
came upon the mountains after our passage and rested there for days, and
they attempted to follow, and failed because of the darkness and the
mist, or refrained from following at all. Anyhow, this cloud came, as I
have said, and all men hailed it as a good omen and that Umzilikazi's
_muti_ [Medicine, mystery, magic. In this sense, the latter] had caused
it to gather thus, in order that we might evade further pursuit.

"But as we swept down upon this new land like a swarm of devastating
locusts--ah, the terror of its people! The report was cried from kraal
to kraal that the great Zulu sea had overflowed the mountains, and was
sweeping on to engulf all within the black fury of its wrath. Wherefore
soon we found nothing but empty kraals, whose people had fled, but we
took their cattle and their grain, and laughed and went on. Then, as
our march progressed further and further, we began to find kraals which
were not empty, and whose people had neglected to remove out of our
destroying path. _Au_! it was something to see the faces of these as we
sprang upon them with our fierce, roaring war-shout, which was as the
thunders of heaven. Their faces were those of men already dead, and
dead they soon were, for our spears devoured them as they stood, or as
they lay, screaming for mercy. But mercy was no part of our plan in
those days--not that Umzilikazi loved bloodshed for its own sake, or was
wantonly cruel, as some of the white men say, but it was necessary to
stamp out all the people in our path, to leave none behind who should
say to Tshaka's _impis_ pursuing us: `This way has Umzilikazi gone.' So
a broad trail of fire and blood marked our course, which, indeed, a man
might trace by watching the clouds of vultures aloft in the heavens.
But time went on, and we moved further and further from Zululand, and
still no pursuit.

"Now, of all this killing I and many others of the younger warriors soon
grew tired. It was too much