Buch lesen: «The White Chief of the Caffres», Seite 9
A week had passed since I had procured the gun and some assagies from the place where the Zulus had ambushed the white men, and I had seen no signs of a human being; but I knew too well the enemy by whom I had been captured, not to be aware, that if he intended to recapture me, he would lie concealed for many days, watching for a chance of surprising me. My intention was to support life until a ship came to Natal, for I concluded that when the schooner which had escaped, reached Table Bay, and informed the authorities there that the Zulus had overrun Natal, some steps would be taken to obtain at least information as to what had since occurred. Thus I lived in daily hopes of seeing a sail, and once more joining with white men.
One night I had retired to my hut, and had slept till the dawn began to show, when I woke with a strange feeling of oppression and weight on my chest. My gun was close beside me, and my knife within reach of my hand. For a moment I was not aware what was the cause of the singular feeling I experienced, and I opened my eyes without otherwise moving. In the dim light I saw that which, for an instant, caused my heart to cease beating. Over my chest was the coil of the body of a rock-snake, this coil being bigger round than my thigh. I could see that the tail of the snake was outside my small hut, and in consequence of my lying on the ground the huge reptile had not been able to coil completely round me. I knew I was in imminent danger, and I also at once decided on the safest and most probable means of escape. Moving my arm slowly, I grasped my knife, and then raising my head, saw the snake’s eyes within two feet of mine. His head was on the ground, and so close that I could lift my hand above it. I carried out this movement very slowly, the snake remaining motionless. Then with a sudden stab I drove my long knife through the snake, just where his head joined his neck, and pinned him to the ground. With a struggle I slipped from under his body, and now the fight began. So tenacious of life are these reptiles that, although I had separated his head from his body as regards the vertebrae, yet he twisted and rolled the great coils of his body so rapidly and powerfully that several times he had surrounded my legs with a loop, and it was only by a quick movement on my part that I escaped the danger of being enclosed in a vice-like embrace. I succeeded, however, in avoiding its coils, and suddenly scrambled out of the hut, leaving the snake in possession.
I knew that the reptile was mortally wounded, and that if I let him remain where he was he would die. I had no wish to enter the hut again, and finish him; for his weight was so great that he might hold me to the ground. So I sat outside and listened to him as he occasionally rolled, or turned over. It was lucky for me that the snake was a rock-snake, which is not poisonous. I could fight this fellow on fair terms; for it was strength against strength, and, with such a weapon as a knife even, I felt equal to the combat. When, however, one meets a puff-adder or a cobra, the fight is not equal. You may kill either of these, but if either has bitten you your death is certain. Of all the creatures with which I have had to fight, a poisonous snake is the very worst. During my residence among the Umzimvubu tribe I had many escapes from these poisonous snakes, some of which I may as well now relate.
Round the kraal in which my hut was situated when I lived among the Umzimvubu was a fence, made somewhat in the manner in which hurdles are built in England. One morning I wanted to go out to look for the cattle, and stepped on the fence, intending to leap over it. As my foot rested on the upper part, I saw a cobra raise its head from among the branches, and I instantly fell back, escaping by the smallest distance from the rapid dart made by the reptile. To have been bitten would have been certain death, for a full-grown active cobra is sure to kill where he strikes.
Another escape was from a puff-adder, a snake equally as deadly as the cobra. I was looking after the cattle in the Umzimvubu country, and finding the sun very warm I went to an acacia tree, so as to sit in the shade, and sat down on a rock near which was some moss. My right hand held my assagies, and as I came to the ground my hand and assagies rested on a large puff-adder. I felt the reptile move, and seeing my hand was on its neck, I pressed it down, whilst with my other hand I drew an assagy and drove it through the head of the serpent, and thus escaped the bite which would have proved fatal. I scarcely ever passed a day in the bush without seeing a snake, and I must have killed over a hundred during my residence among the Umzimvubu.
With considerable difficulty I dragged this snake out of my hut and pushed it down the sloping side of the bluff, and into the water, where the tide carried it out, and it probably became a feast for shark, which were in great numbers outside the harbour.
A few days passed after my adventure with the python, and nothing extraordinary happened. I had succeeded in capturing two red bush-buck, which supplied me with animal food; but the oysters on the rocks and the fish I secured when the tide was low, in the various pools, afforded me plenty to eat. I should certainly have liked some Indian corn, but I did not dare venture near any of the kraals which were in the neighbourhood, for fear I might not be well-treated by the Caffres, or might be seen by some of the Zulus who, I still believed, were lurking in the neighbourhood.
People who have passed their lives amidst scenes of civilisation are not aware of the patience which so-called savages can practise without doing anything unusual. A Caffre will sit for a whole day and watch for a buck to come to some pool to drink; or he will set a trap every evening for a month, on the chance of capturing some animal; and never gives up after repeated failures, as a white man would do. Knowing these peculiarities, I believed it possible that the Zulus would wait a month even, rather than give up the chance of capturing me.
About a week after my escape from the snake, I woke one morning in consequence of hearing a sea-eagle screaming. Two or three of these eagles used to fish in the bay, and were splendid birds. I always noticed that whenever I appeared on the shore, one of these birds gave a shrill warning sort of scream; so, immediately I heard the bird, I crept out of my hut to look round, in order to see if anything was visible on the shores of the bay. From close beside my hut was a very good look-out station, from whence I had a very good view of the shore, from the Point to the Berea bush and the Umslatazane river. I scanned this shore carefully, and after a time saw a man in a tree, evidently examining the bluff where I was. I looked round to see if any smoke was coming from the embers of my fire, for such a circumstance would at once have exposed my whereabouts. Luckily none was visible; so, keeping watch, I turned my attention to this one man. After a time he descended the tree, and then from out of the bush came more than fifty Caffres. At first I could not discover whether they were Zulus or Natal Caffres. Each of the two tribes were armed alike with assagies and shields, but the esikoko (the ring round the head) was higher with the Zulus than with the Natal Caffres; and by this peculiarity I discovered at last that it was a party of Zulus; and, from their movements. I had no doubt they were in search of me, as they repeatedly stopped and pointed to the bluff. As this party advanced along the shore, to a point opposite that on which was my hut, I thought out what was the best course for me to adopt. The Zulus would have to swim across the channel in order to land near where my hut was situated; and, if I had only been backed with two or three men with guns, I could have defied the whole of this party, and either shot them as they were swimming or when they landed. To adopt this plan single-handed would, I knew, be useless. I might shoot perhaps half a dozen of them, but the others would close in on me and assagy me before I could reload. If they did not do this, they would lie in ambush; and when I moved near them, would assagy me when my back was turned. It would not do, therefore, to stop and fight. Having come to this conclusion, I waited to see the chief of this party order his men into the water, so that they should swim across the channel. I then crept back to my hut to get my gun and ammunition and two assagies. I concealed the other assagies and scattered the embers of my fire, so that the Zulus should not by that know how lately I had been there. I then walked backwards for some distance, and, scrambling down the sea-face of the bluff, reached the shore; and, keeping as much as possible on the rocks, so as to leave no footmarks, I started at a run towards the west. My intention was to make for the Umbilo river, and work up this to the Berea bush. There was an immense amount of cover in the Berea, and elephant-paths in numbers. If I could conceal my trail I might remain in this bush for a long time without being discovered. There were plenty of berries also that were good to eat, and water would not fail me. Once on my trail, I knew the Zulus too well to doubt their searching for me for weeks; but near the Umlass river were Caffres who would soon dispose of these fifty Zulus. But I did not want to be again taken among any tribe of Caffres. My instincts now induced me to wish to rejoin white men. A little savage life for a change is agreeable; too much of it soon tires a man who has once enjoyed civilisation.
I did not fear being overtaken by the Zulus; for they would ascend the steep bluff to my hut very cautiously, and would then be some time before they hit off my trail, so I had a good long start of them. What I did fear, however, was that some outlying party might be concealed along the ridge of the bluff; and from these it would be difficult to escape, as I should probably come on them within assagy-throw before I saw them. In cover, the man who remains still has an immense advantage over another who is moving about. The man who moves cannot do so without making a noise; and, in cover, where the extent of one’s vision is limited, the ears often discover what the eyes cannot perceive. All animals which live in the forest, therefore, possess large ears, which enable them to hear well all that is going on round them. The leopard, bush-cat, etc, remain still and watchful when in the forest and watching for their prey. If they moved about, even their stealthy tread would be audible, and the animal which they wished to capture would be alarmed, and would escape. I knew the danger I incurred in moving through the bush, but there was no help for it.
Chapter Thirteen
I had made my way along the coast till I was past the Umbilo river, and was crossing some tolerably open ground, when I saw before me a large party of Caffres. I halted to examine them, and instantly saw that they were not Zulus. Although I did not wish to again join any tribe, and perhaps be compelled to remain with them, yet a few friends to back one up, when pursued by an armed party of Zulus, would do one no harm. I at once made up my mind to advance to this party and claim their protection. As I approached them they uttered exclamations of surprise, and one man came forward quickly, and when near enough to be recognised, I saw he was a young chief called Eondema, who had fought with me when I came into this country with the Umzimvubu Caffres against the Zulus. Eondema expressed the greatest surprise at seeing me, and began asking me a multitude of questions. I, however, told him there was no time to talk now, as I was pursued by a party of Zulus, and that we must be prepared either to run, or to stop and fight. On looking at the party with Eondema, I believed them equal in numbers with the Zulus; and as I possessed my gun and plenty of ammunition, I had no fear of our side getting the worse of a battle. Eondema spoke to his men, and they all agreed to fight; and the only thing, therefore, to be done now was to make our plans, so that we should take the Zulus at a disadvantage. The rapidity with which arrangements were made showed that Eondema’s young men were well-trained: the plan was to divide the party into two divisions, each concealing themselves in the bush. I remained with Eondema, and informed him that I intended to shoot the chief of the party as a commencement, and then the most formidable-looking men among the enemy. We had sent two men to the front in order to look out and give us due notice of the approach of the Zulus; for I had no doubt that, however much care I had taken to conceal my spoor, yet these keen-eyed men would soon find my footprints, and follow them up just as truly as would a bloodhound. Our preparations having been made, I was able to talk to Eondema, and to tell him how I happened to be at this place. I described my life among the Zulus and my escape from them; also the manner in which the white men had been killed by the Zulus, and my escape from the water. Then how I had feared to move from the bluff where I had made my hut, lest I should fall into an ambush; and then I told him how I had been awakened by the cry of the sea-eagle, and had seen the Zulus preparing to cross the channel and get to the bluff. I accounted for the Zulus knowing where I was, by a small quantity of smoke from my fire having risen on the evening previously. This had no doubt been seen, and as smoke will not rise without a fire, and as fire cannot usually be kindled except by man, the suspicions of these men had been raised, and so they were determined to examine the bluff and see who was there.
Now a Zulu in a very short time would be able, from the signs near my hut, to read a history of my proceedings. He would see where I had opened the oysters on the rocks, where I had caught fish, where I had left the bones of the buck I had killed; and, in fact, would know what I had done as correctly as though he had seen me each day. The Zulus consequently would know I was alone, and that to capture me was not a difficult task. It was about three miles from my hut to the place where I had met Eondema and his party, and this distance would soon be passed over by the Zulus, even when following a trail; so that at any moment we might see our look-out men signal to us that the enemy was in sight. Although Eondema and I were talking, we yet carried on our conversation in so low a tone that no one could hear us who was three times our length from us.
In describing various things connected with my early life among these people, I naturally use the same terms which these people employed. For example, they had no knowledge of time, as we understand it: “an hour” or “ten minutes” would be unintelligible terms to them. If a Caffre wished to tell you how long a time it would occupy you to journey to some near river or kraal, he would point to the sky and say, “You will journey there whilst the sun is travelling from where he is to that point in the sky.” If the journey was a very long one, occupying many days, he would name the number of days; or he would refer to the moon and say, “If the moon is half grown when you start, it will be full size when you arrive.” A two-moon journey would be two months. Then, for short distances, a Caffre would describe it as two assagy-throws, which would be a little more than one hundred yards; twice or three times my length would be about twelve or eighteen feet. After a time these comparisons become quite natural to one, and when I go back in memory to my life among them, I at once speak as I then spoke.
“I am going half a moon’s journey in the direction of the rising sun,” a Caffre would say; and this would mean that he was going a journey of fourteen days towards the east.
The patience that Caffres will show when waiting for an enemy or for some animal to approach them was well shown on this occasion. Not a man showed himself, or spoke above a whisper, during at least two hours; at the end of which time one of our scouts signalled to us, and then came rapidly somewhat in our direction; but he was too well-trained to come to us, for he might have been seen, and our ambuscade consequently would have been a failure. This scout ran past the bush where we were concealed, and about four assagy-throws to the left of it. After he had passed us a long way, he disappeared behind some bushes, and immediately commenced creeping towards us. We could only now and then get a glimpse of him, but an enemy at a distance could not have seen him. On reaching our position the scout told Eondema that all the Zulus were coming, and were following my footprints; that they were all armed with assagies except one, who possessed a gun. He added that the Zulus did not seem to be aware that any enemy was near, for they had no spies out, that he could see; although three or four men walked on each side of the main body, and at some distance, so as to be ready to run round and cut off my retreat, in case they found me unprepared for them. From my ambush I was able to obtain a good view of the Zulus, as they advanced; and I saw that the man who possessed the gun was a chief of some note. He was one of those who had been engaged in the slaughter of the white men, from one of whom he had probably obtained his gun. I told Eondema I would shoot this chief, and would then make him learn how to use the gun. The Zulus did not come carelessly on to the ambush, as English soldiers would have done, and been in consequence taken by surprise; but they spread on each side of the bushes, two or three men going down to leeward, in order to smell if there was anything extraordinary concealed in the bush. A white man with a good nose could smell a Zulu at the distance of several hundred yards, if the wind were blowing from the Zulu towards the white man; so that men accustomed to the woods will often smell a wild animal before they see it. The Zulus who had gone to smell for an enemy evidently suspected an ambush, as they called to the chief, and we could hear “Kona eclatini,” as the end of the sentence, which means, “There in the bush.”
The Zulus, at this warning, closed together, and seemed preparing for a rush at the bush in which we were concealed. Eondema had remained quiet, watching the enemy, not a move being made by any of his men. Slowly and steadily the Zulus now advanced until they were about two assagies’ distance from me. Seeing the chief with the gun was coming straight towards me, I aimed at him and fired. He made a bound like a buck and fell to the ground. Eondema and his men instantly sprang to their feet and rushed at the enemy, whilst I reloaded and watched to see where I could be most useful. It was now a hand-to-hand fight. The assagies were flying about freely, and several couples had separated themselves from the main body, and were engaged in single combat. Eondema was occupied with a powerful Zulu, who was pressing him hard, the shields being used to cover the greater part of the body, whilst the stabbing assagy was thrust now and then at an apparently exposed part of the body. I watched this encounter for a few minutes, when I saw a Zulu stealing up behind Eondema, his assagy ready to stab him. Now was the time for my gun to be of use; so, aiming at this creeping savage, I shot him dead just as he was within stabbing distance of Eondema. The fight between the two parties did not continue long. It was mostly hand-to-hand; and with such men as the Caffres, who were brave as men could be, it was fighting to the death; so that one of the two engaged was sure to be assagied. Eondema was active as a cat, and managed to wound his antagonist with his assagy; and then, closing with him, finished him without difficulty. Only a few Zulus escaped, for when they found their chief shot they fought desperately, and retreated only when there were four to one against them.
After the fight I explained to Eondema how to use the gun that the Zulu had carried. It was a gun with a flint and steel lock, and Eondema was never tired of cocking it, pulling the trigger and seeing the sparks fly from the flint. I remembered that in India I had seen fire produced by means of tinder and brimstone matches. I could easily make the tinder, but had no brimstone with which to make matches. As, however, to create fire was a very long process with the Caffres, I thought of making some matches out of a small bundle of dry grass, the end of which bundle I rubbed over with wet gunpowder. As this gunpowder dried it stuck to the grass. I then placed the gunpowder end of this large match in the pan of the gun; and, on pulling the trigger, ignited it by the spark. I by this means produced a fire instantaneously: which was considered by the Caffres a wonderful discovery, and the gun was thought to be more useful as a fire-producing machine than as a weapon.
After defeating this party of Zulus we held a great council of war to talk about what should be done. We knew the character of the Zulus too well to imagine they would wait long before they revenged themselves for the defeat, of this expedition, which had evidently been sent by the Great Chief of the Zulus to search for me. After considerable talking, we came to the conclusion that it would take four days for the men who had escaped to reach the kraal of the chief, two days more to plan an expedition, and four days additional for the expedition to again reach the locality that we were now in.
Eondema decided to move with his cattle and wives across the Umlass river, and to seek the aid of Umnini, a chief who was related to him, and who could bring a thousand men to fight.
These Caffres, however, did not like this kind of fighting – there was nothing to gain by it. The style of fighting they liked was, when many cattle could be captured, if an enemy were defeated. In the present instance they would be fighting merely to defend themselves, and prevent their own cattle from being captured; and I had great doubts whether I should not be given up to the Zulus, if by this act a fight could be prevented. The difficulty of an arrangement was how to communicate with the Zulus. These people usually made sudden attacks, and practised surprises, and did not understand what civilised nations called a flag of truce; so that assagies began to fly before a word was spoken, and as soon as blood was drawn it was too late to attempt to settle the difficulty by talking. I was very anxious about myself, for although the Caffres are hospitable when visited by any one independent of them, they are disposed to come the “chief” over those who require aid. I, although a recognised chief among the Umzimvubu, was at present an escaped prisoner; and had it not been for Eondema and his men, I might have been captured and killed by the party of Zulus who had traced me from my hut on the bluff. Consequently, Eondema had a sort of hold on me; but he was a generous young fellow, and though he was sorry to lose several of his men, yet he said nothing to me about any obligation on my part.
My great object, however, was to find some means of rejoining the white people. I did not know enough of the geography of South Africa to be aware of any way of reaching the Cape Colony, except by means of a ship entering Natal Harbour.
I had learnt from my old companions that there were white men in numbers to the west of the Umzimvubu; but that the tribe of the Amakosa was very warlike, and had frequently drawn the assagy against the white men. To journey through the country of the Amakosa, therefore, would have been dangerous, if not impossible; and the white men were to the west of these tribes. If, then, I was to rejoin the white men, it must be by means of a vessel coming to Natal Harbour; for no other harbour up the coast was suitable for a ship to enter.
