and drank the blood greedily.
They then cut up the hides and bound pieces around their feel. After
this, and a short rest, they felt like new beings. Hope took the place
of the blank despair which had overwhelmed them a few hours previously.
Another effort and they would reach the river beyond which lay safety.
So they started again, driving the remainder of the herd of cattle
before them, and each man carrying a small quantity of meat. Their
number was now reduced to but a little over two hundred.

But they were not to escape from the toils. Their trail had been
discovered, and the pick of the Makalaka impi was now overhauling them
fast. Yet they had another short respite. It seemed indeed as if Fate
were playing with them. They traveled on through the night, and in the
darkness the pursuers lost their trail.

The Makalakas thought that the Zulus would make for the river at its
nearest point, losing sight of the fact that the latter were strangers,
blindly groping in unfamiliar surroundings; so when morning broke, the
pursuers found that the trail was lost. They soon, however, ascertained
that they were proceeding by a course parallel to that taken by the
fugitives, and about a mile to the right of the latter. In spite of all
they had under-gone, the Zulus were still keeping the lead slightly,
but their limit of endurance had almost been reached. They were now
making down a long, gentle slope towards the river, which was only
about four miles distant. They had abandoned the cattle, and their
formation was lost; in fact, they were just a disorganised mob of
staggering men. The Makalakas were now gaining on them rapidly. The
foremost of the pursuers did not make direct for the Zulus, but for a
point lying between the latter and the river, so as to intercept them.

When Kondwana saw that they were cut off, he called out his men to
halt, so they formed up and then lay down on the ground to rest. On
came the main body of the Makalaka impi, and soon the haggard little
band of Zulus was surrounded by foes outnumbering them by more than ten
to one. At a signal from Kondwana, his men sprang to their feet, and
forming themselves into a ring, faced the enemy on all sides. Under the
stimulus of attack they almost ceased to feel fatigue. They knew they
had now to die, and they burned with fierce resentment against the foes
that had so pitilessly tormented them.

Kondwana gave the order that they were still to make for the river