ay a girl whom I had married from
among them, and with her a few of my own friends whom I wished should
be spared, as I intended to become a kind of chief over them, and if he
would grant it me, to hold all the land of Natal under his rule and
the protection of the English. To these proposals Dingaan answered
that "they seemed wise and good, and that he would think them over very
carefully."

Pereira said further that coming out of the hut after Dingaan had gone
away he reproached me bitterly for my wickedness, and announced that he
would warn the Boers, which he did subsequently by word of mouth and in
writing. That thereon I caused him to be detained by the Zulus while I
went to Retief and told him some false story about him, Pereira, which
caused Retief to drive him out of his camp and give orders that none
of the Boers should so much as speak to him. That then he did the only
thing he could. Going to his uncle, Henri Marais, he told him, not all
the truth, but that he had learnt for certain that his daughter Marie
was in dreadful danger of her life because of some intended attack of
the Zulus, and that all the Boers among whom she dwelt were also in
danger of their lives.

Therefore he suggested to Henri Marais that as the General Retief was
besotted and would not listen to his story, the best thing they could
do was to ride away and warn the Boers. This then they did secretly,
without the knowledge of Retief, but being delayed upon their journey by
one accident and another, which he set out in detail, they only reached
the Bushman's River too late, after the massacre had taken place.
Subsequently, as the commandant knew, hearing a rumour that Marie Marais
and other Boers had trekked to this place before the slaughter, they
came here and learned that they had done so upon a warning sent to them
by Allan Quatermain, whereon they returned and communicated the news to
the surviving Boers at Bushman's River.

That was all he had to say.

Then, as I reserved my cross-examination until I heard all the evidence
against me, Henri Marais was sworn and corroborated his nephew's
testimony on many points as to my relations to his daughter, his
objection to my marriage to her because I was an Englishman whom he
disliked and mistrusted, and so forth. He added further that it was true
Pereira had told him he had sure information that Marie and the Boers
were in danger from an attack upon them which had been arranged between
A