--now
only a few hundred yards distant, keeping, as far as possible, their
circular formation. The circle was formed two deep, the men of the
outer ring sloping their shields outwards and those on the inner ring
sloping their shields inwards, so as to ward off the assegais passing
over the opposite edges of the circle. The Makalakas came on, making a
horrible noise in which a buzzing sound seemed to mingle with a rumble
formed in the throat. In the meantime reinforcements to the Makalakas
came pouring in, and massing principally between the Zulus and the
river, for the Chief had impressed on all the necessity for not
allowing a single Zulu to escape.

The slaughter began with a discharge of assegais from all sides at
once, the Zulus crouched down, covering as much as possible of their
bodies with the shield. A few men fell, but the gaps were at once
filled by the circle shortening in. For some time the Zulus only
resisted passively, the circle slowly moving on towards the
forest-fringe of the river, and consequently the Makalakas became bolder,
and closed in nearer and nearer to the doomed circle. But the Zulus did not
mean to die quietly. All at once they stopped in their slow, silent
progress, and the Makalakas moved in closer, thinking that the time for
finishing them off had arrived. Then the war-cry rang out, and with one
splendid dash the Zulus were amongst the densest mass of their foes.
Nothing could withstand the fury of their onslaught and the Makalakas
tell under their spears like corn to the sickle.

The sun was just sinking. The Zulus had broken almost completely
through the thickest portion of the ring formed by their foes. Only a
few yards before them was the dense river-forest, offering sanctuary.
But escape was not to be.

Having been unable to re-form after the charge, they were practically
defenceless against a tremendous attach on their rear led by the
Makalaka Chief in person, whilst hundreds of assegais were hurled in
with deadly effect from both sides. About twenty bleeding men managed
to reach the forest, but their pursuers leached it at the same time,
and one by one the Zulus died in desperate hand to hand encounters
amidst the twilight of the trees.

As night fell, the Makalakas drew off under the impression that the
last Zulu was dead. Their own loss had been heavy. In the final charge
they had been cut down by wholesale. But the Chief now felt safe from
the avenging wrath of Tshaka.

T