proviso that Nala should furnish me with men to carry them down to the
coast.

"To this modest request Nala and the head men gave an unqualified and
hearty assent, the more hearty perhaps because they never expected to
get the ivory.

"The next thing I stipulated was, that if we conquered, the white man
John Every should be handed over to me, together with any goods which he
might claim. His cruel captivity was, I need hardly say, the only reason
that induced me to join in so hair-brained an expedition, but I was
careful from motives of policy to keep this fact in the background.
Nala accepted this condition. My third stipulation was that no women
or children should be killed. This being also agreed to, we went on to
consider ways and means. Wambe, it appeared, was a very powerful petty
chief, that is, he could put at least six thousand fighting men into the
field, and always had from three to four thousand collected about his
kraal, which was supposed to be impregnable. Nala, on the contrary, at
such short notice could not collect more than from twelve to thirteen
hundred men, though, being of the Zulu stock, they were of much better
stuff for fighting purposes than Wambe's Matukus.

"These odds, though large, under the circumstances were not
overwhelming. The real obstacle to our chance of success was the
difficulty of delivering a crushing assault against Wambe's strong
place. This was, it appeared, fortified all round with schanses or stone
walls, and contained numerous caves and koppies in the hill-side and at
the foot of the mountain which no force had ever been able to capture.
It is said that in the time of the Zulu monarch Dingaan, a great impi of
that king's having penetrated to this district, had delivered an assault