brought up by Babatyana
remarking in an audible aside that the people had not assembled to take
part in a prayer meeting but to hear the news. So he took the hint and
started his address.

He began by sketching the history of the people, within their own time.
Since the days of the old wars they had increased immensely and were
still increasing, so that soon the land would not be able to hold its
population. It would hold them but for the white man. The white man.
But was this the white man's land? Did Nkulunkulu [Literally, "The
Great Guest." one of the names for the Deity] give him this land? No.
The white man came over the sea in ships and took it. Nkulunkulu said
"This is the black man's land and here have I placed him," yet the white
man took it. The whites came over in small numbers, then more. But
even now what were their numbers? Why, a handful, a mere handful. The
whites who ruled them could live in an ostrich's nest, when compared to
the blacks whom they had dispossessed. And why had they been able to
dispossess them? Because there was no unity among the native nations.
Each was jealous of the other and none could combine. The time,
however, was at hand when these dissensions should be of the past; when
all the native nations should unite, when their native land should
belong to them and not to the white man, when the Amazulu and the
Basutu, the tribes in Natal and the Amampondo and the Amaxosa should all
possess their own again, should all dwell together as brothers, none
lording it over the other, should dwell together in peace and unity in
the land which Nkulunkulu had given to them--to them and not to the
white man.

The preacher was working himself up to a pitch of eloquence that
impressed his audience--and a native orator can be very eloquent indeed.
Murmurs of applause greeted his periods, and now as he paused to wipe
his clammy forehead with the white handkerchief of civilisation, these
grew quite tumultuous. Only Manamandhla the Zulu kept saturnine
silence. He knew who, in this wonderful brotherhood of equality, was
going to have the upper hand, and any idea to the contrary moved him to
mirth, as too absurd to be worthy of a moment's consideration.

But the ways of Nkulunkulu--went on the preacher unctuously--though
sometimes slow were always sure, and now He had revealed His will to
some who had come across great distances of sea to bring it to them; not
white men but black like the