thing.

The guides led Kondwana and his men through a part of the country which
was very thinly populated, so they saw hardly any human beings and no
cattle--nor were any signs of cultivation visible. They passed far to
the eastward of the populated areas. One day two strange men joined the
guides, and after traveling for a short time with the expedition,
disappeared. This roused the suspicions of Kondwana, but the guides,
although questioned apart from each other, each declared that the
strangers were only casual travelers. As a matter of fact, these men
were messengers laden with the doom of Kondwana and every man in his
force.

This is what had happened. Until the Zulus started from the captured
kraal, the Makalakas were under the impression that they had to deal
with a full Zulu regiment, numbering probably two thousand men, but
when the expedition moved off, and its numerical weakness thus became
apparent, the Makalaka Chief at once determined on its destruction. So
messengers were at once dispatched in every direction to collect the
Makalaka forces, and the two "casual travelers" had been sent to tell
the guides to desert two days after crossing the mountain range
separating the Makalaka from the Balotsi territory, and, if possible,
to take the cattle with them.

Weak as the Zulus were in point of numbers, the Makalakas did not yet
dare to attack them.

The gigantic forms, the red shields and the gleaming, broad-bladed
spears of Kondwana's small band, and the terrible evidence of prowess
as shown in the night attack, had inspired great dread. Moreover, the
Makalaka Chief determined on making sure that not a single man should
escape to tell the tale to Tshaka. So as the Zulus marched on, a large
army, collected from all available quarters, followed on their track at
a respectful distance. Fleet runners had been sent on ahead to
endeavour to arouse the Balotsi, and thus the Makalaka Chief trusted to
being able to crush his foes as though between the jaws of a vice. The
guides had been told to delay the march as much as possible by avoiding
the direct route wherever such could be done without creating
suspicion.

Kondwana and his men reached the mountain range which is a continuation
of the great Quathlamba or Drakensberg chain, and saw great frowning
precipices rise over steep slopes covered with dense forest. One long
winding valley, overhung by precipitous cliffs, cleft the range, and
through this the guide