venture 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 Zu