s led them. At the head of the valley the range
was slightly depressed, and a saddle was thus formed between two high
peaks. Elevated tablelands, gently sloping to the north-west, and
intersected by narrow, shallow valleys, stretched away from the level
of the saddle. Each valley carried its stream of water, running between
low banks covered with a thick growth of reeds. It was now May, and the
cold at night on these high plains was very severe. Fuel was scarce,
and the Zulus consequently suffered very much. They had now for some
days been passing through a totally uninhabited country. Game was very
plentiful, but impossible to capture in the open.

They pressed forward along an old disused foot-path, or rather a number
of such, running parallel. As a matter of fact they were on the route
which had been traversed lay the Makalaka expedition sent for copper
ore in the previous year, and which had not returned nor been heard of.

On the morning of the third day after crossing the saddle, it was found
that the guides and the cattle had disappeared during the night.
Kondwana found that, overcome by fatigue, the two sentries had fallen
asleep at their post, so he speared them with his own hand. He then
called the men together, and they deliberated as to what course they
should pursue. With one accord it was decided to go forward.

Taking up the track of the cattle, parties were sent out to endeavour
to recover them, and between twenty and thirty head, which had become
foot-sore and were thus unable to proceed, were brought back in the
afternoon. These were at once killed, and the expedition moved on next
morning, the men carrying the meat.

The men were now very footsore, in spite of the sandals which they had
from time to time made out of the skins of the slaughtered cattle. They
were gaunt and haggard from nearly three months of hardship and
exposure. Their faces were sunk and their limbs emaciated. Yet no
thought of returning before the object of the expedition should have
been accomplished occurred to them.

Three days after that on which they had discovered the desertion of the
guides, they began to pass human skeletons lying on the path, the bones
scattered about and broken, evidently through the agency of beasts of
prey. All those that had contained marrow had been cracked, apparently
by the jaws of hyenas. Late in the afternoon they reached a spot where
about forty or fifty disjointed skeletons were lying indiscr