le to obtain a good view of the Zulus, as they advanced; and I saw
that the man who possessed the gun was a chief of some note. He was one
of those who had been engaged in the slaughter of the white men, from
one of whom he had probably obtained his gun. I told Eondema I would
shoot this chief, and would then make him learn how to use the gun. The
Zulus did not come carelessly on to the ambush, as English soldiers
would have done, and been in consequence taken by surprise; but they
spread on each side of the bushes, two or three men going down to
leeward, in order to _smell_ if there was anything extraordinary
concealed in the bush. A white man with a good nose could smell a Zulu
at the distance of several hundred yards, if the wind were blowing from
the Zulu towards the white man; so that men accustomed to the woods will
often smell a wild animal before they see it. The Zulus who had gone to
smell for an enemy evidently suspected an ambush, as they called to the
chief, and we could hear "_Kona eclatini_," as the end of the sentence,
which means, "There in the bush."

The Zulus, at this warning, closed together, and seemed preparing for a
rush at the bush in which we were concealed. Eondema had remained
quiet, watching the enemy, not a move being made by any of his men.
Slowly and steadily the Zulus now advanced until they were about two
assagies' distance from me. Seeing the chief with the gun was coming
straight towards me, I aimed at him and fired. He made a bound like a
buck and fell to the ground. Eondema and his men instantly sprang to
their feet and rushed at the enemy, whilst I reloaded and watched to see
where I could be most useful. It was now a hand-to-hand fight. The
assagies were flying about freely, and several couples had separated
themselves from the main body, and were engaged in single combat.
Eondema was occupied with a powerful Zulu, who was pressing him hard,
the shields being used to cover the greater part of the body, whilst the
stabbing assagy was thrust now and then at an apparently exposed part of
the body. I watched this encounter for a few minutes, when I saw a Zulu
stealing up behind Eondema, his assagy ready to stab him. Now was the
time for my gun to be of use; so, aiming at this creeping savage, I shot
him dead just as he was within stabbing distance of Eondema. The fight
between the two parties did not continue long. It was mostly
hand-to-hand; and with such men as the Caff