the Matabili suddenly appeared in advance
of the route they were pursuing.

It was not large enough to attempt opposing the progress of the
Makololo, and, on seeing the latter, fled.

In the afternoon, some scouts that had been left in the rear hastened
with the news that a large body of the enemy was coming up in pursuit.

The forces of Moselekatse had become concentrated; and the hunters now
agreed with Macora that flight could no longer avail them, and that in
less than twenty-four hours a contest would be inevitable.

It would never do to be attacked when on the march. They must halt in
some place favourable for defence. There was no such place within
sight, but Macora believed he might find a more defensible position on
the bank of the river; and towards that he hastily proceeded.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

BESIEGED.

It wanted but an hour to sundown when the Makololo reached the river.
The enemy could not be far-away, and preparations were immediately
commenced for receiving them.

Hendrik and Arend, laying claim to more wisdom in military affairs than
the others, rode a little in advance for the purpose of choosing the
battle-field.

Good fortune had conducted them to a spot favourable to the carrying out
of their scheme.

A little above the place where they first struck the stream, the current
had made a sort of horseshoe bend, leaving a peninsula, which, during
the rainy season when the river was swollen, formed a large island. The
narrow and shallow channel was here uncovered with water to the width of
about fifty yards, and over this the cattle were driven. Quickly did
the Makololo secure themselves and their property in a position where
they could not be surrounded.

There was but one way in which the enemy could easily reach them,--by
the isthmus, which was not more than fifty yards in width. Growing by
the side of the river and on the edge of the isthmus, was a gigantic
nwana-tree, which nature had been for hundreds of years producing,--as
Hendrik declared, for the special purpose of saving them.

The nwana is one of the most remarkable trees of the African forest.
Some of them obtain the extraordinary size of ninety feet in
circumference, and are lofty in proportion. Its wood is as soft as a
green cabbage-stalk, and has been pronounced "utterly unserviceable."
The hunters did not find it so.

Amongst other implements brought from Graaf Reinet were two good axes,
which their former e