chief of a very large native location situated right on
the border--and in this connection I have often wondered how it is that
with the fear of that awful and bloodthirsty tyrant Cetywayo (see the
Blue Books) before their eyes, such a congested native population could
have been found to plant itself, of its own free will, right bang within
assegai throw of his "manslaying machine" (see again the Blue Books),
that is to say, with only the division afforded by an easily fordable
river between it and them. Tyingoza's father had migrated from Zululand
what time the Dutch and Mpande fought Dingane, and Dingane fought both;
for, like a wise man, he held that he could not _konza_ to three kings,
and now Tyingoza would have returned to his fatherland, with which all
his sympathies--sentimental--lay, but for the material fact that he--and
incidentally, his followers--were exceedingly comfortable where they
were.

"M-m!" hummed Tyingoza. "In truth it is hot here, but--not over there,
Iqalaqala."

There was a quizzical twinkle in Tyingoza's eyes, as he pointed down
into the valley beneath--and I understood him. The above, by the way,
was my native name, meaning one who is wide awake at a deal; bestowed
presumably because when I had bought out the former owner of the trading
store at Isipanga the guileless native had discovered rather a more
difficult subject to get round than that worthy dealer; who was all too
frequently in his cups, and easy to "best" while in that halcyonic
condition. I did not resent the use of the sobriquet on this or any
other occasion: in the first place because it was not an unflattering
one; in the next because I liked Tyingoza, who was a gentleman every
inch of him, and--shrug not in horror, oh ye noble white brethren--in my
heart of hearts I could not but recognise that this aristocratic scion
of a splendid race was, taking him all round, every whit as good a man,
albeit dusky, as a certain happy-go-lucky inconsequent and knockabout
trader in the Zulu.

I understood his meaning. "Over there"--_la pa_--referred to the abode
of my nearest neighbour, a retired British officer, who had lived to no
better experience than to imagine himself expressly cut out for a second
and farming career, entered on late in life--and, I suspected, on little
beyond a commuted pension, here on the Natal border. He owned a
comfortable homestead, and a grown-up family, including a brace of
exceedingly good-looking da