"As you know, I was attached to the centre column that advanced into
Zululand by Rorke's Drift on the Buffalo River. Before war was declared,
or at any rate before the advance began, while it might have been and
many thought it would be averted, I was employed transport-riding
goods to the little Rorke's Drift Station, that which became so famous
afterwards, and incidentally in collecting what information I could of
Cetewayo's intentions. Hearing that there was a kraal a mile or so
the other side of the river, of which the people were said to be very
friendly to the English, I determined to visit it. You may think this
was rash, but I was so well known in Zululand, where for many years,
by special leave of the king, I was allowed to go whither I would quite
unmolested and, indeed, under the royal protection, that I felt no fear
for myself so long as I went alone.

"Accordingly one evening I crossed the drift and headed for a kloof in
which I was told the kraal stood. Ten minutes' ride brought me in sight
of it. It was not a large kraal; there may have been six or eight huts
and a cattle enclosure surrounded by the usual fence. The situation,
however, was very pretty, a knoll of rising ground backed by the wooded
slopes of the kloof. As I approached, I saw women and children running
to the kraal to hide, and when I reached the gateway for some time
no one would come out to meet me. At length a small boy appeared who
informed me that the kraal was 'empty as a gourd.'

"'Quite so,' I answered; 'still, go and tell the headman that Macumazahn
wishes to speak with him.'

"The boy departed, and presently I saw a face that seemed familiar to
me peeping round the edge of the gateway. After a careful inspection its