will be no room left for me and my people. Was it not
this same apprehension that caused the Tembu, the Pondos, and the
Griquas to arise and unite in an attempt to drive the white man into the
sea?"

"It was," I said. "But the apprehension was quite unjustified: the
English had no thought, no desire, no intention to steal the land of the
black man; their own land is amply large enough for all their needs.
But the Kafirs would not believe it, therefore they treacherously arose
and swept down upon the white man's land, attacking isolated farms and
murdering their inhabitants--my own parents died upon the spears of the
Griquas. And what have the black men gained by their treachery?
Nothing! And what have they lost? Everything! Thousands of them have
perished in the war of retribution which they have provoked; and the end
of it all is that, by way of further punishment--and as a warning to
others--the white man has seized their land and driven them out of it."

"Au!" ejaculated the king again. "So have I heard. And I tell thee
again, white man, that I like it not. If it be as thou sayest, that
thine own land is large enough for thy need, why hast thou not remained
there? Why comest thou to my country?"

"Because," answered I, "as I have already said, I have business in the
far north, and to get there I must needs pass through Basutoland."

"And what is thy business in the far north?" demanded Moshesh. "I have
a right to know, since thou sayest that it necessitates a passage
through my country."

"I think not," said I. "Nevertheless I will tell thee, since the matter
is no secret. When the southern Kafirs took up their spears to drive
the white men into the sea, my father's farm was one of the last which
they attacked. They slew my parents, burnt down the house, and drove
off all the cattle, leaving me with only sufficient means to buy a wagon
and oxen, and weapons to undertake a hunting expedition. The land
itself remains, and is mine, but I have not the wherewithal to put fresh
stock upon it; therefore nothing remains for me but to hunt ivory and so
procure the means to purchase fresh stock. Also I am hoping to find
gold; but most of all am I anxious to find a white 'ntombozaan who was
captured and carried off by the Kafirs."

"Ou!" ejaculated the king. "Now I begin to understand. At first I
feared that thy business was to spy out the nature of the land in this
my country, so that, if it were found