ry
absence, was of good augury. The audience was at an end, the king
disappearing inside his hut, and the Union Jack being struck, the new
comers, escorted by a band of armed braves, singing a monotonous song,
and accompanying themselves with the regular but discordant noise of the
spears striking against the shields, marched off to the camp, where an
ox previously purchased was slaughtered, cut up, and distributed among
the braves, the absent but friendly sorcerer not being forgotten.

"A curious interview, Wyzinski and one I am not sorry to have got
through," observed Hughes, as the two were seated that evening, near the
camp fire.

"At all events, we may look upon the point as gained, and from this day
will date our search for the ruined cities of Zulu Land," replied
Wyzinski.

The night was dark, and the radius lit up by the blaze was of small
extent. Luji and his man had lit their fire under a huge boulder of
rock, which had rolled down apparently from the mountain range at whose
feet they were encamped. The Matlokotlopo fires could be seen twinkling
on the hill-top, and before them lay the plain, watered by the Limpopo,
whose sinuous course they had marked, running like a blue thread through
the land, from the rude council chamber of the tribe. From the boulder
round which the men were squatted came the noise of many tongues, among
which that of Luji played a prominent part; away on the plain the
jackals and hyenas were to be heard, and the night breeze came rustling
the leaves of the tree underneath which the two were talking by the
fire.

"How strange," said Hughes, breaking a long silence, "that a land so
beautifully situated and so temperate in its climate should be so
sparsely populated, and so utterly uncultivated!"

"It won't remain so long," replied the missionary. "Natal is a sugar
and coffee producing country, and that of the Zulus must follow. Both
possess the inestimable advantage of being perfectly healthy for human
beings, the soil is abundantly fertile, and the land is intersected by
rivers."

"You are speaking of Natal, but what about this part of the country?"

"Between the Coastland and the Drakenburgh range every variety of
tropical and European productions can be cultivated, from the pine apple
to the gooseberry, and I have seen wheat, too, unequalled in size and
quality, grown near where we now are."

"I thought," replied Hughes, "that wherever the sugar cane prospers the
clim