lse dated from the time of the above-mentioned
struggle in which his father, Umlali, had been killed, thus leaving him
in undisputed succession to the chieftainship.

The sun was dropping over the lip of cliff-ringed crescent which shut in
the hollow. Sapazani sat outside his hut, surrounded by three or four
indunas, taking snuff; in this, too, he was conservative, not having yet
come to the European pipe. The cattle were being brought in for
milking, and the frantic bellowing of calves, and the responsive "moo"
of their mothers, mingled with the shrill-voiced shouts of the young
boys who were driving the respective herds. His thoughts were busy.
News--great news--had come in. Down in Natal events were stirring. The
tribes there were arming, and they were looking towards Zululand. No
longer were they the white man's dogs, as during the great war, when
they had dared to come into the Zulu country to fight for the white man,
and side by side with him. Now they were looking towards the House of
Senzangakona, and--the representative of that House was dumb.

The song and clear laughter of women and girls bringing up water from
the stream sounded pleasant and melodious upon the evening air, and the
deep-toned voices of men, criticising the condition and well-being of
the cattle in the kraal.

Blue reeks of smoke rose from the huts. The whole scene, in short, was
one of quiet and pastoral peace; but in the chief's plotting brain peace
was the last consideration that entered. Peace! What was he but a mere
slave--obliged to go here, or go there, at the bare official word?
Peace! All the blood in his warrior veins fired at the word. Peace! on
those terms! Every downy-faced youth among the whites expected him to
salute him as a king: he, the descendant of kings. The black preacher
of another race, who had stealthily visited his kraal two moons back
preaching "Africa for the Africans," had inspired him with ideas. He
had listened, had turned the man, so to say, inside out; but one idea
had taken hold. Sapazani was shrewd. He knew that by force of arms, by
sheer force of arms alone, his people were incapable of holding their
own. They could "eat up" every white in the country, and that in a
single night. But they could not hold it afterwards. The whites could
pour in such reinforcements as to eat _them_ up in turn. But the one
idea which the preacher had left in his mind was that the whites were so
divided amo