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"Oh! to the Temple, as my daughter calls our house. My partner and I are labour agents, we recruit natives for the Kimberley Mines," he said in explanation, adding, "Where do you propose to shoot?" I told him. "Isn't that rather a risky district?" he said. "I think that Sekukuni will soon be giving more trouble, although there is a truce between him and the English.
Disorganisation ensued. The burghers would not pay taxes and the treasury was empty. One fierce Kaffir tribe threatened them from the north, and the Zulus on the east. It is an exaggeration of English partisans to pretend that our intervention saved the Boers, for no one can read their military history without seeing that they were a match for Zulus and Sekukuni combined.
"Yes," answered Sekosini, "there are Ingona, Lambati, Mapela, Moroosi, Amakosa, N'Ampata, and Sekukuni, all chiefs." "Quite a formidable little crowd," mused Dick, as he drew forth his pocket book to make a few notes. "Just repeat those names again slowly, if you please," he commanded.
But the British Government had some other local matters to set right, the rooting out of Sekukuni and the breaking of the Zulus, before they would fulfill their pledges. The delay was keenly resented. And we were unfortunate in our choice of Governor. The burghers are a homely folk, and they like an occasional cup of coffee with the anxious man who tries to rule them.
As I thought it contained the ordinary Kaffir gun of commerce, cost delivered in Africa, say 35s.; cost delivered to native chief in cash or cattle, say #10, which, when the market is eager, allows for a decent profit. Contemplating those cases, survivors probably of a much larger stock, I understood how it came about that Sekukuni had dared to show fight against the Government.
Many of the natives from the latter vicinity belonged to the Baphedi tribe, whose chief was the celebrated Sekukuni. These people used to arrive in an unspeakably miserable physical condition; they had traveled hundreds of miles almost without food. Literally, they were nothing but skin and bone.
Let the four chiefs, Ingona, Lambati, Moroosi, and Sekukuni, be brought hither in charge of the guards which you have placed over them; then will I lay my magic upon them so that they shall speak only the plain, simple truth, even as Sekosini spoke it just now to his own condemnation; and thus shall ye be able to judge exactly how far each man may be trusted in the future.
Now for my part, as I did not think it wise to get too near to Sekukuni, I should have given them up and gone to hunt something else. Anscombe, however, was of a different opinion and pleaded hard that we should follow them. They were the only herd within a hundred miles, he said, if indeed there were any others this side of the Lebombo Mountains.
"The odd part of the affair is that one of those Basutos called out to us that some infernal scoundrel of a white had warned Sekukuni of our coming and that he had ordered them to take our guns and cattle. This Basuto, who was wounded and praying for mercy, was drowned before he could tell me who the white man was." "A Boer, I expect," said Marnham quietly.
Yet Ingona, Lambati, Moroosi, and Sekukuni have all been my friends; they have aided me with valuable counsel when I have been confronted with problems of great difficulty and danger; and never until now have they shown the least sign of disloyalty.
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