To-morrow,at break of day,Ignosi,wilt thou give us an escort who shall lead us across the mountains?Is it not so,O king?"Ignosi covered his face with his hands for a while before answering.
"My heart is sore,"he said at last;"your words split my heart in twain.What have I done to ye,Incubu,Macumazahn,and Bougwan,that ye should leave me desolate?Ye who stood by me in rebellion and battle,will ye leave me in the day of peace and victory?What will ye:wives?
Choose from out the land!A place to live in?Behold,the land is yours as far as ye can see.The white man's houses?Ye shall teach my people how to build them.Cattle for beef and milk?Every married man shall bring ye an ox or a cow.Wild game to hunt?Does not the elephant walk through my forests,and the river-horse sleep in the reeds?Would ye make war?
My Impis (regiments)wait your word.If there is anything more that I can give,that will I give ye.""Nay,Ignosi,we want not these things,"I answered;"we would seek our own place.""Now do I perceive,"said Ignosi,bitterly,and with flashing eyes,"that it is the bright stones that ye love more than me,your friend.
Ye have the stones;now would ye go to Natal and across the black water and sell them,and be rich,as it is the desire of a white man's heart to be.Cursed for your sake be the stones,and cursed he who seeks them.
Death shall it be to him who sets foot in the Place of Death to seek them.
I have spoken,white men;ye can go."
I laid my hand upon his arm."Ignosi,"I said,"tell us,when thou didst wander in Zululand,and among the white men in Natal,did not thine heart turn to the land thy mother told thee of,thy native land,where thou didst see the light,and play when thou wast little,the land where thy place was?""It was even so,Macumazahn."
"Then thus does our heart turn to our land and to our own place."Then came a pause.When Ignosi broke it,it was in a different voice.
"I do perceive that thy words are,now as ever,wise and full of reason,Macumazahn;that which flies in the air loves not to run along the ground;the white man loves not to live on the level of the black.
Well,ye must go,and leave my heart sore,because ye will be as dead to me,since from where ye will be no tidings can come to me.
"But listen,and let all the white men know my words.No other white man shall cross the mountains,even if any may live to come so far.
I will see no traders with their guns and rum.My people shall fight with the spear and drink water,like their forefathers before them.I will have no praying-men to put fear of death into men's hearts,to stir them up against the king,and make a path for the white men who follow to run on.
If a white man comes to my gates I will send him back;if a hundred come,I will push them back;if an army comes,I will make war on them with all my strength,and they shall not prevail against me.None shall ever come for the shining stones;no,not an army,for if they come I will send a regiment and fill up the pit,and break down the white columns in the caves and fill them with rocks,so that none can come even to that door of which ye speak,and whereof the way to move it is lost.But for ye three,Incubu,Macumazahn,and Bougwan,the path is always open;for behold,ye are dearer to me than aught that breathes.
"And ye would go.Infadoos,my uncle,and my Induna,shall take thee by the hand and guide thee,with a regiment.There is,as I have learned,another way across the mountains that he shall show ye.Farewell,my brothers,brave white men.See me no more,for I have no heart to bear it.Behold,I make a decree,and it shall be published from the mountains to the mountains,your names,Incubu,Macumazahn,and Bougwan,shall be as the names of dead kings,and he who speaks them shall die.So shall your memory be preserved in the land forever.
"Go,now,ere my eyes rain tears like a woman's.At times when ye look back down the path of life,or when ye are old and gather yourselves together to crouch before the fire,because the sun has no more heat,ye will think of how we stood shoulder to shoulder in that great battle that thy wise words planned,Macumazahn;of how thou wast the point of that horn that galled Twala's flank,Bougwan;whilst thou stoodst in the ring of the Grays,Incubu,and men went down before thine axe like corn before a sickle;ay,and of how thou didst break the wild bull's (Twala's)strength,and bring his pride to dust.Fare ye well forever,Incubu,Macumazahn,and Bougwan,my lords and my friends."He rose,looked earnestly at us for a few seconds,and then threw the corner of his kaross over his head,so as to cover his face from us.
We went in silence.
Next day at dawn we left Loo,escorted by our old friend Infadoos who was heart-broken at our departure,and the regiment of Buffaloes.Early as the hour was,all the main street of the town was lined with multitudes of people,who gave us the royal salute as we passed at the head of the regiment,while the women blessed us as having rid the land of Twala,throwing flowers before us as we went.It really was very affecting,and not the sort of thing one is accustomed to meet with from natives.