e turned and left me with her sentence
unfinished.

So thus it came about that by the help of Providence I was enabled to
rescue all these worthy folk from a miserable and a bloody death. And
yet I have often reflected since that if things had gone differently;
if, for instance, that king aasvogel had found strength to carry itself
away to die at a distance instead of soaring straight upwards like
a towering partridge, as birds injured in the lungs will often do--I
suppose in search of air--it might have been better in the end. Then
I should certainly have shot Dingaan dead and every one of us would as
certainly have been killed on the spot. But if Dingaan had died that
day, Retief and his companions would never have been massacred. Also as
the peaceful Panda, his brother, would, I suppose, have succeeded to the
throne, probably the subsequent slaughter at Weenen, and all the after
fighting, would never have taken place. But so it was fated, and who
am I that I should quarrel with or even question the decrees of fate?
Doubtless these things were doomed to happen, and they happened in due
course. There is nothing more to be said.

Early on the following morning we collected our oxen, which, although
still footsore, were now full fed and somewhat rested. An hour or two
later began our trek, word having come to us from Dingaan that we must
start at once. Also he sent us guides, under the command of the captain
Kambula, to show us the road to Natal.

I breakfasted that day with the Reverend Mr. Owen and his people, my
object being to persuade him to come away with us, as I did not consider
that Zululand was a safe place for white women and children. My mission
proved fruitless. Mrs. Hulley, the wife of the absent interpreter, who
had three little ones, Miss Owen and the servant, Jane Williams, were
all of them anxious enough to do as I suggested. But Mr. and Mrs. Owen,
who were filled with the true fervour of missionaries, would not listen.
They said that God would protect them; that they had only been a few
weeks in the country, and that it would be the act of cowards and of
traitors to fly at the very beginning of their work. Here I may add that
after the massacre of Retief they changed their opinion, small blame to
them, and fled as fast as anyone else.

I told Mr. Owen how very close I had gone to shooting Dingaan, in which
event they might all have been killed with us. This news shocked him
much. Indeed, he lectu