rward above 3,000
strong, drawn up in a triple line, and were charged by one of Cetewayo's
regiments.

The opposing forces met, and the noise of their clashing shields, said
Sir Melmoth, was like the roll of heavy thunder. Then, while he watched,
the veteran "Greys" passed over the opposing regiment "as a wave passes
over a rock"--these were his exact words--and, leaving about a third of
their number dead or wounded among the bodies of the annihilated foe,
charged on to meet a second regiment sent against them by Cetewayo. With
these the struggle was repeated, but again the "Greys" conquered. Only
now there were not more than five or six hundred of them left upon their
feet.

These survivors ran to a mound, round which they formed a ring, and
here for a long while withstood the attack of a third regiment, until
at length they perished almost to a man, buried beneath heaps of their
slain assailants, the Usutu.

Truly they made a noble end fighting thus against tremendous odds!

As for the number who fell at this battle of Endondakusuka, Mr. Fynney,
in a pamphlet which he wrote, says that six of Umbelazi's brothers died,
"whilst it is estimated that upwards of 100,000 of the people--men,
women and children--were slain"--a high and indeed an impossible
estimate.

That curious personage named John Dunn, an Englishman who became a
Zulu chief, and who actually fought in this battle, as narrated by Mr.
Quatermain, however, puts the number much lower. What the true total was
will never be known; but Sir Melmoth Osborn told me that when he swam
his horse back across the Tugela that night it was black with bodies;
and Sir Theophilus Shepstone also told me that when he visited the scene
a day or two later the banks of the river were strewn with multitudes of
them, male and female.

It was from Mr. Fynney that I heard the story of the execution by
Cetewayo of the man who appeared before him with the ornaments of
Umbelazi, announcing that he had killed the prince with his own hand.
Of course, this tale, as Mr. Quatermain points out, bears a striking
resemblance to that recorded in the Old Testament in connection with the
death of King Saul.

It by no means follows, however, that it is therefore apocryphal;
indeed, Mr. Fynney assured me that it was quite true, although, if he
gave me his authorities, I cannot remember them after a lapse of more
than thirty years.

The exact circumstances of Umbelazi's death are unknown, bu