THE MEETING IN THE DESERT

Now I do not propose to describe all our journey to Kendahland, or at
any rate the first part thereof. It was interesting enough in its way
and we met with a few hunting adventures, also some others. But there is
so much to tell of what happened to us after we reached the place that
I have not the time, even if I had the inclination to set all these
matters down. Let it be sufficient, then, to say that although owing
to political events the country happened to be rather disturbed at the
time, we trekked through Zululand without any great difficulty. For
here my name was a power in the land and all parties united to help me.
Thence, too, I managed to dispatch three messengers, half-bred border
men, lean fellows and swift of foot, forward to the king of the Mazitu,
as Hans had suggested that I should do, advising him that his old
friends, Macumazana, Watcher-by-Night, and the yellow man who was named
Light-in-Darkness and Lord-of-the-Fire, were about to visit him again.

As I knew we could not take the wagons beyond a certain point where
there was a river called the Luba, unfordable by anything on wheels, I
requested him, moreover, to send a hundred bearers with whatever escort
might be necessary, to meet us on the banks of that river at a spot
which was known to both of us. These words the messengers promised to
deliver for a fee of five head of cattle apiece, to be paid on their
return, or to their families if they died on the road, which cattle we
purchased and left in charge of a chief, who was their kinsman. As it
happened two of the poor fellows did die, one of them of cold in a swamp
through which they took a short cut, and the other at the teeth of a
hungry lion. The third, however, won through and delivered the message.

After resting for a fortnight in the northern parts of Zululand, to give