nd preachings led to cavillings. Indications of evil
intentions likewise reached Captain Gardiner, who sent to warn Mr. Owen,
and to offer him a refuge at Hambanati in case of need. Still Mr. Owen
could gather nothing; he was called from time to time to read the
Dutchmen's letters, but was never told how they were to be dealt with. In
fact, Dingarn had replied by an offer of the very district he had given
Captain Gardiner, on condition that the new-comers would recover some
cattle which had been carried off by a hostile tribe. This was done, and
the detachment which had been employed on the service arrived at
Umkingoglove, where they were welcomed with war-dances, and exhibited
their own sham-fights; but in the midst of the ensuing meal they were
suddenly surrounded by a huge circle of the Zulus, as if for another war-
dance. The black ring came nearer and nearer still, and finally rushed
in upon the unhappy boers, and slaughtered every man of them.

Mr. Owen had suspected nothing of what was passing, till he received a
message from Dingarn that he need not fear; the boers had been killed for
plotting, but the umfundisi should not be hurt. A time of terrible
anxiety followed, during which the Owen family saw large bodies of the
Kaffir army marching towards the Tugela, and in effect they fell upon the
Dutch camp, and upwards of a hundred and fifty white men, women, and
children were massacred. This horrible act, showing that no reliance
could be placed on Dingarn's promise, made the Owens decide on leaving
Umkingoglove, and they arrived at Hambanati, whence they proceeded to
Durban. The Gardiner family waited for another week; but, finding the
whole of the settlers infuriated, and bent on joining the Dutch in a war
of extermination against Dingarn, they were obliged to retreat to the
coast. First, however, Captain Gardiner assembled his Kaffirs, and
promised to do his utmost to find another tract, where they might settle
in peace, if they would abstain from all share in the coming war. They
promised; but in his absence the promise was not easy to keep; they
joined in the fight, many were killed, and the settlement entirely broken
up. The cause seemed to Gardiner hopeless; and, after waiting for a
short time in Algoa Bay, he decided on leaving the scene of action, where
peaceful teaching could not prevail for some time to come. Whether it
would not have been better to have tarried a little while, and then to
ha