ely pounded, unable to advance or retreat. One
of their leading chiefs, however, had seen where we had run across the
vlei; so, assembling his men, he came over the causeway at a run,
followed by some two hundred men. I allowed him to come almost within
an assagy-throw's distance, and then, aiming carefully with my gun, I
shot him dead. Four or five other shots were fired by the men with me,
and as many men fell dead. The result was that a panic seized these
men, and they retreated; but our own people had now formed up, and were
charging on the Zulus, and a terrible slaughter ensued. The men in the
vlei were knocked on the head with stones or knob-kerries, and a second
disaster befell the Zulu army. In the meantime, the Umlass Caffres, led
by Umnini, had driven back a large force of Zulus, which had attempted
to work round outside the bush and to outflank us. These men
retreating, as also the few who had escaped from the first attack, led
to a general rush among the Zulu army, who were not certain but what
they might be attacked by a much larger force than their own. They knew
they had been surprised, and they saw that our plans had been well
arranged. This, together with the fact that our people possessed
firearms, spread such alarm that they could not be made to attempt
another attack. Our people followed up the retreat as far as the
Umganie river, killing a large number more of the Zulus--and our victory
was complete.

That night we had a great dance and a great feast, amidst which songs
were sung descriptive of our various deeds during the day. We had
placed our spies at different commanding positions, so as to give early
intelligence in case the Zulu army recovered itself and again attacked
us; but they did not attempt to do so, for they had captured several
cattle up the country, which they drove into Zululand and claimed a
victory over us. We heard that our tribe was the only one that had ever
been able to stand against the Zulu army.

We had not gained our victory without loss, for the part of the Zulu
army that we had cut off, although outnumbered, yet fought well, and
killed more than two hundred of our men, whilst five or six hundred were
wounded. The rapidity with which the wounded recovered was marvellous--
a result due, I suppose, to their having lived almost entirely on
vegetables and milk, and always being out in the open air.

Although there was much rejoicing on our return, there were al