Leaving my boy in charge of some kind people in Durban, I started into
"the Zulu"--a land with which I had already become well acquainted as a
youth, there to carry on my wild life of trading and hunting.
For the trading I never cared much, as may be guessed from the little
that ever I made out of it, the art of traffic being in truth repugnant
to me. But hunting was always the breath of my nostrils--not that I am
fond of killing creatures, for any humane man soon wearies of slaughter.
No, it is the excitement of sport, which, before breechloaders came in,
was acute enough, I can assure you; the lonely existence in wild places,
often with only the sun and the stars for companions; the continual
adventures; the strange tribes with whom I came in contact; in short,
the change, the danger, the hope always of finding something great and
new, that attracted and still attracts me, even now when I have found
the great and the new. There, I must not go on writing like this, or I
shall throw down my pen and book a passage for Africa, and incidentally
to the next world, no doubt--that world of the great and new!
It was, I think, in the month of May in the year 1854 that I went
hunting in rough country between the White and Black Umvolosi Rivers, by
permission of Panda--whom the Boers had made king of Zululand after the
defeat and death of Dingaan his brother. The district was very feverish,
and for this reason I had entered it in the winter months. There was so
much bush that, in the total absence of roads, I thought it wise not
to attempt to bring my wagons down, and as no horses would live in
that veld I went on foot. My principal companions were a Kafir of mixed
origin, called Sikauli, commonly abbreviated into Scowl, the Zulu chief
Saduko, and a headman of the Undwandwe blood named Umbezi, at whose
kraal on the high land about thirty miles away I left my wagon and
certain of my men in charge of the goods and some ivory that I had
traded.
This Umbezi was a stout and genial-mannered man of about sixty years of
age, and, what is rare among these people, one who loved sport for its
own sake. Being aware of his tastes, also that he knew the country
and was skilled in finding game, I had promised him a gun if he would
accompany me and bring a few hunters. It was a particularly bad gun that
had seen much service, and one which had an unpleasing habit of going
off at half-cock; but even after he had seen it, and I in my honesty had
explained its weaknesses, he jumped at the offer.