blindfolding the animal with his coat lest it should betray him. As it
chanced, the great fight of the day, that of the regiment of veterans,
which Sir Melmoth informed me Panda had sent down at the last moment to
the assistance of Umbelazi, his favourite son, took place almost at the
foot of this kopje. Mr. Quatermain, in his narrative, calls this
regiment the Amawombe, but my recollection is that the name Sir Melmoth
Osborn gave them was "The Greys" or "Upunga."

Whatever their exact title may have been, however, they made a great
stand. At least, he told me that when Umbelazi's impi, or army, began
to give before the Usutu onslaught, these "Greys" moved forward 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!