tured into this country. We were received with the utmost
kindness by him and his wife and household, and it is impossible for me
to say what pleasure I found, after all my journeyings, in meeting an
educated man of my own race.

Near to our camp was a stone-covered koppie, where, on the morning after
our arrival, I saw six or eight men executed in a way that I will
not describe. Their crime, according to Mr. Owen, was that they had
bewitched some of the king's oxen.

While I was recovering from this dreadful spectacle, which, fortunately,
Marie did not witness, the captain Kambula arrived, saying that Dingaan
wished to see me. So taking with me the Hottentot Hans and two of the
Zulus whom I had hired at Delagoa Bay--for the royal orders were that
none of the other white people were to come, I was led through the fence
of the vast town in which stood two thousand huts--the "multitude of
houses" as the Zulus called it--and across a vast open space in the
middle.

On the farther side of this space, where, before long, I was fated to
witness a very tragic scene, I entered a kind of labyrinth. This was
called "siklohlo", and had high fences with numerous turns, so that it
was impossible to see where one was going or to find the way in or out.
Ultimately, however, I reached a great hut named "intunkulu", a word
that means the "house of houses," or the abode of the king, in front
of which I saw a fat man seated on a stool, naked except for the moocha
about his middle and necklaces and armlets of blue beads. Two warriors
held their broad shields over his head to protect him from the sun.
Otherwise he was alone, although I felt sure that the numerous passages
around him were filled with guards, for I could hear them moving.

On entering this place Kambula and his companions flung themselves upon
their faces and began to sing praises of which the king took no notice.
Presently he looked up, and appearing to observe me for the first time
asked:

"Who is that white boy?"

Then Kambula rose and said:

"O king, this is the Son of George, whom you commanded me to capture. I
have taken him and the Amaboona" (that is, the Boers), "his companions,
and brought them all to you, O king."

"I remember," said Dingaan. "The big Boer who was here, and whom
Tambusa"--he was one of Dingaan's captains--"let go against my will,
said that he was a terrible man who should be killed before he worked
great harm to my people. Why did you not