throne. He is now a very old man, some say one hundred
years of age, and a very enlightened monarch, only he won't let any one
penetrate into the interior."

"And why should you wish so strongly to get into the interior?" asked
Hughes. "Is your object to found new missions, or are you seeking a
crown of martyrdom?"

"Neither one nor the other," replied the missionary, "and I must go back
some six hundred and thirty years before the birth of our Saviour, to
explain my object to you."

"Go ahead!" said Hughes.

"Well, then, about that period, Pharaoh Necho was king of Egypt, and he
collected a large fleet, consisting of one hundred ships, great and
small, in the Red Sea, and if he had not done this, you and I would not
be talking at this moment on the banks of the Limpolulo."

"I don't exactly see what the Egyptian king has to do with the matter.
Listen, Wyzinski, there's the lion again!"

"Well, King Necho's fleet sailed right into the Southern Ocean, until
winter came with its cold and storms, against which the frail ships of
that day could not contend. They then ran for the nearest harbour, and
the crews landing tilled the soil until the fine season came round
again. Then, reaping their crops, with a well-filled hold they made
sail for other lands, and thus those adventurous seamen roamed about the
then unknown ocean, passing Aden, Zanzibar, and Mozambique, and on one
occasion wintering in a beautiful inlet hereaway to the northward,
called Santa Lucia Bay."

"And were none of the ships lost?" asked Hughes.

"Some on this very coast," replied Wyzinski; "and their crews, unable to
return to Egypt, settled in this land, and it is believed by many, by
none more firmly than myself, that the present race of Zulus,
incontestably the finest in Southern Africa, sprang from the fusion of
Pharaoh's seamen with the then cultivators of the soil. Others go
further still, and say that this now almost savage land was the ancient
Ophir, discovered by Pharaoh's fleet, and from which at a later period
the ships of Tarshish drew gold, cedar-wood, and precious stones. Some
of our brethren who have dwelt long in the land tell of a geological
stratum promising great mineral wealth."

"Then you are in search of gold?" asked Hughes, with a slight curl of
the lip, for he could not help, when gazing on the intelligent face of
the man before him lighted up by the fitful gleams of the fire,
regretting that a missionary should sho