ff during the night back to his friends
the Zulus." But I was wrong, for next morning there was Gaasha, and
there he remained even after his foot was quite well, making the best
Kaffir servant that ever I had to do with.

After that day we saw no more of the Zulus at Vetchkop, although later
with the help of other Boers we attacked them twice, killing more than
four thousand of them, and capturing six thousand head of cattle, so
that they fled north for good and all, and founded the nation of the
Matabele far away.

But oh! our fate was hard there at Vetchkop; never have I known worse
days. The Zulus had taken away all our cattle, so that we could not
even shift the waggons from the scene of the fight, but must camp there
amidst the vultures and the mouldering skeletons, for the dead were
so many that it was impossible to bury them all. We sent messengers to
other parties of Boers for help, and while they were gone we starved,
for there was no food to eat, and game was very scarce. Yes, it was
a piteous sight to see the children cry for food and gnaw old bits of
leather or strips of hide cut from Kaffir shields to stay the craving
of their stomachs. Some of them died of that hunger, and I grew so thin
that when I chanced to see myself in a pool of water where I went to
wash I started back frightened.

At length, when we were all nearly dead, some oxen came and with them we
dragged a few of the waggons to Moroko, where an English clergyman
and his wife, taking pity on us, gave us corn, for which reason I have
always held that among the British the clergymen must be a great deal
better than the rest of that proud and worthless race, for it is true
that we judge of people as they deal by us. Yes, and I will go so far
as to say that I do not believe that the Reverend Mr. Owen, the English
missionary at the kraal of the Zulu King Dingaan, did in truth advise
him to massacre Retief and his seventy Boers, as was generally reported
among my countrymen.

Well, after Moselikatse's Zulus were finally defeated the question arose
whether we should proceed to Zoutpansberg and settle there, or follow
our brethren who in large numbers had already crossed the Quathlamba
Mountains into Natal under the leadership of Retief. In the end we
decided for Natal because it was nearer the sea, for in those days we
never dreamed that the treacherous British Government would steal that
land also; so trekking slowly, we headed for Van Reenen's P