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Also that wizards are smelt out and slain, which happens but rarely now; all of this contrary to the promises I made to Sompseu when he came to recognize me as king upon my father's death, and some other such small matters." "What is demanded if you would avoid war, O King?"
You have seen the circle of the witch-doctors and the unconquerable Zulu impis rushing to war; you have crowned their kings and shared their counsels, and with your son's blood you have expiated a statesman's error and a general's fault. Sompseu, a song has been sung in my ears of how first you mastered this people of the Zulu.
Moreover, you shall take a message from me to the Queen's officers and captains. It is that I will send an answer to their demands upon the point of an assegai. Yet add this, that not I but the English, to whom I have always been a friend, sought this war. If Sompseu had suffered me to fight the Boers as I wished to do, it would never have come about.
Elephant that is not turned! You who nursed us from of old! You who overshadowed all peoples and took charge of them, And ended by mastering the Boers with your single strength! Help of the fatherless when in trouble! Salutation to you, Father! Bayete, O Sompseu! The writer of this romance has been encouraged to his task by a purpose somewhat beyond that of setting out a wild tale of savage life.
This he could not do according to our law, since how can a stranger name the King of the Zulus? Therefore the Council of the Nation and the doctors I was not among them, King moved the spirit of Chaka the Lion into the body of Sompseu and made him as Chaka was and gave him power to name you to rule over the Zulus.
You, my friend, into whose hand, if you live, I hope these scribblings of mine will pass one day, must well remember the 12th of April of the year 1877 at Pretoria. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, or Sompseu, for I prefer to call him by his native name, having investigated the affairs of the Transvaal for a couple of months or so, had made up his mind to annex that country to the British Crown.
How is it now? Has the king listened? Does he hold fast those words? No! not one. The promises he made are all broken. What does Sompseu say to this? Fynney says, "When a charge is made against a Zulu, the question is generally asked, 'Has he any cattle? and if answered in the affirmative, there is little chance of escape.
Some remarked, 'Yes, a trial of bullets; others, 'Yes, we get a trial, but that means surrounding the kraal at daybreak and shooting us down like cattle. One asked me what the Government in Natal intended doing, or what was thought in Natal about the killing, saying, 'It was not in the night that Sompseu spoke, but in the sunshine; the king was not alone, but his people were around him, and the ears of all Zululand heard these words, and the hearts of all Zulus were joyful, and in gladness they lifted up their hands saying: The mouth of our white father has spoken good words; he has cautioned his child in the presence of his people, and a good sun has risen this day over Zululand!
Thus, Sompseu, your name became great among the people of the Zulu, as already it was great among many another tribe, and their nobles did you homage, and they gave you the Bayete, the royal salute, declaring by the mouth of their Council that in you dwelt the spirit of Chaka. Many years have gone by since then, and now you are old, my father.
For I will call you by the name that for fifty years has been honoured by every tribe between Zambesi and Cape Agulbas, I greet you! Sompseu, my father, I have written a book that tells of men and matters of which you know the most of any who still look upon the light; therefore, I set your name within that book and, such as it is, I offer it to you.
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