has chosen. For me, I am leaving this part of the country, and if you,
Heer Botmar, like to buy my farm, I shall be happy to sell it to you at
a fair price; or perhaps the Heer Kenzie will buy it to live on after he
is married; if so, he can write to me by this messenger. Farewell."


Now, when they heard this letter, the others looked more happy; but for
my part I shook my head, seeing guile in it, since the tone of it was
too humble for Swart Piet. There was no answer to it, and the messenger
went away, but not, as I learned, before he had seen Sihamba. It seems
that the medicine which she gave him had cured his child, for which he
was so grateful that he drove her down a cow in payment, a fine beast,
but very wild, for handling was strange to it; moreover, it had been
but just separated from its calf. Still, although she questioned him
closely, the man would tell Sihamba but little of the place where he
lived, and nothing of the road to it.

Here I will stop to show how great was the cunning of this woman, and
yet how simple the means whereby she obtained the most of her knowledge.
She desired to learn about this hiding-place, since she was sure that it
was one of the secret haunts of Swart-Piet, but when she asked him the
messenger grew deaf and blind, and she could find no one else who knew
anything of the matter. Still she was certain that the cow which had
been brought to her would show the way to its home, if there were
anybody to follow it thither and make report of the path.

Now when Sihamba had been robbed and sentenced to death by Swart Piet,
the most of her servants and people who lived with her had been taken
by him as slaves. Still two or three had escaped, either then or
afterwards, and settled about in the neighbourhood of the farm where