The White Chief of the Caffres

by Alfred W. Drayson

I considered for some time whether I should try to work my way down the coast, so as to reach the Umzimvubu and my old friends; but a strange longing had come over me to once more be among white people, and I thought that the Bay of Natal would be a much more likely place from which to find a ship than down by the Umzimvubu district. So I decided to keep myself concealed on the bluff, at least for some time; for I need not want for food, as there were oysters in abundance on the rocks, and when the tide went down there were several pools of water left on the rocks, in which were fish of various sizes: these I caught with a forked stick, and so managed to live on fish diet. I was not long, however, before I adopted a Caffre expedient for obtaining meat. In the bush were numbers of red bush-buck, and also duikers: to trap these I bent down the stem of a young tree, so as to form a spring, and by means of withes and the bark of a shrub, which was as strong as rope, I made a noose in the path frequented by these buck. Scarcely an evening passed but I caught a buck, and so had plenty of meat. I sadly wanted some salt, however; but I soon thought of a plan for securing this. There were several small hollows in the rocks above high-water mark, these I filled with sea-water, and, as they were exposed to the sun, the water soon evaporated, and a deposit of salt remained. With this salt I rubbed the strips of buck-meat I had cut with my knife; and, hanging these in the sun, made a provision for the future. I was obliged to hang them at the end of thin branches at a distance from the ground, for I found that leopards frequented this place, and although they might not attack me, yet they would at once carry off and devour my meat.

I wanted some weapon very badly: I had cut a stout stick to make a knob-kerrie, but such a weapon would be harmless against a leopard. I should have felt more comfortable if I had possessed two or three assagies, for there is a feeling of power when one grasps a weapon which we know how to use. I believed it possible that I might find some assagies, if I crossed the bay and searched along the shore where so many of the Zulus had been killed or wounded. I waited till it was nearly dark one evening, and then swam across the channel that separated the bluff from the wooded shore opposite. I landed on this shore, and, keeping close to the bush, examined all the likely places for an assagy to be found, and at length found three very good ones. I could see no fresh traces of men’s footprints, and concluded that all the Zulus had left Natal.

I therefore ventured further inland, and visited the locality where the white men had been ambushed by the Zulus. I found the remains of their bodies: hyaenas and vultures having feasted on them, but little remained except their bones. Almost hidden by the long grass, I saw the stock of a gun; and found this to be a double-barrelled gun, with a flask of powder and a bag of bullets close beside it. Such a treasure I had not expected, and I now felt that I was secure against any average enemy. In order to get across the channel with my powder dry, I collected a quantity of wood and fastened this together by withes and bark, so as to make a raft on which to keep my powder and gun above the water. This raft I pushed before me whilst I swam, and thus succeeded in getting over the water with my valuable cargo in safety.

I now felt well prepared to pass a long time in my solitary locality; so I set to work to cut down some small trees, and make a sort of Caffre hut. This I deemed necessary for my safety by night, or when I slept; for if a leopard or a rock-snake found me asleep, the first might carry me off before I could use my gun, and the snake might encircle me in his folds, and crush me before I could use even a knife. It occupied me two days to complete my hut, which was then waterproof and quite safe from the attacks of any animals—at least so I imagined.

In the present day, when a box of lucifer matches enables every person to instantly procure a fire, it is not easy to realise the difficulty that is experienced by those unprovided by any such artificial aids. To procure a fire I was obliged to adopt the usual Caffre method of using two dry sticks. One of soft wood was placed on the ground, the other of hard wood was held in the hands and worked round, whilst it was pressed into a hole in the soft wood. After several minutes of this work a few sparks would be produced, which were placed in a wisp of dry grass, and swung round at arms-length. By this means a small flame was produced and a fire kindled. It was then my particular care to preserve this fire, and never let it die out. To do so was no easy matter, for I was obliged to have a large stock of dry wood collected, and to so heap this up, and protect it from the wind, that it would smoulder for hours. If there came rain, it was even more difficult to keep the fire permanently burning; and, after rain, to reproduce fire was extremely laborious. This, then, was one great source of anxiety to me, for I dare not let any smoke rise in the air, for this would let any enemy know that man was on the bluff; for, clever and cunning as all animals in a wild state become, even the monkey or baboon does not know how to create a fire, or how to keep this fire blazing when they do find one which man has lighted, I have now to relate one of the greatest escapes I ever experienced, though many which I have already described may appear to have been marvellous.

A week had passed since I had procured the gun and some assagies from the place where the Zulus had ambushed the white men, and I had seen no signs of a human being; but I knew too well the enemy by whom I had been captured, not to be aware, that if he intended to recapture me, he would lie concealed for many days, watching for a chance of surprising me. My intention was to support life until a ship came to Natal, for I concluded that when the schooner which had escaped, reached Table Bay, and informed the authorities there that the Zulus had overrun Natal, some steps would be taken to obtain at least information as to what had since occurred. Thus I lived in daily hopes of seeing a sail, and once more joining with white men.

One night I had retired to my hut, and had slept till the dawn began to show, when I woke with a strange feeling of oppression and weight on my chest. My gun was close beside me, and my knife within reach of my hand. For a moment I was not aware what was the cause of the singular feeling I experienced, and I opened my eyes without otherwise moving. In the dim light I saw that which, for an instant, caused my heart to cease beating. Over my chest was the coil of the body of a rock-snake, this coil being bigger round than my thigh. I could see that the tail of the snake was outside my small hut, and in consequence of my lying on the ground the huge reptile had not been able to coil completely round me. I knew I was in imminent danger, and I also at once decided on the safest and most probable means of escape. Moving my arm slowly, I grasped my knife, and then raising my head, saw the snake’s eyes within two feet of mine. His head was on the ground, and so close that I could lift my hand above it. I carried out this movement very slowly, the snake remaining motionless. Then with a sudden stab I drove my long knife through the snake, just where his head joined his neck, and pinned him to the ground. With a struggle I slipped from under his body, and now the fight began. So tenacious of life are these reptiles that, although I had separated his head from his body as regards the vertebrae, yet he twisted and rolled the great coils of his body so rapidly and powerfully that several times he had surrounded my legs with a loop, and it was only by a quick movement on my part that I escaped the danger of being enclosed in a vice-like embrace. I succeeded, however, in avoiding its coils, and suddenly scrambled out of the hut, leaving the snake in possession.

I knew that the reptile was mortally wounded, and that if I let him remain where he was he would die. I had no wish to enter the hut again, and finish him; for his weight was so great that he might hold me to the ground. So I sat outside and listened to him as he occasionally rolled, or turned over. It was lucky for me that the snake was a rock-snake, which is not poisonous. I could fight this fellow on fair terms; for it was strength against strength, and, with such a weapon as a knife even, I felt equal to the combat. When, however, one meets a puff-adder or a cobra, the fight is not equal. You may kill either of these, but if either has bitten you your death is certain. Of all the creatures with which I have had to fight, a poisonous snake is the very worst. During my residence among the Umzimvubu tribe I had many escapes from these poisonous snakes, some of which I may as well now relate.

Round the kraal in which my hut was situated when I lived among the Umzimvubu was a fence, made somewhat in the manner in which hurdles are built in England. One morning I wanted to go out to look for the cattle, and stepped on the fence, intending to leap over it. As my foot rested on the upper part, I saw a cobra raise its head from among the branches, and I instantly fell back, escaping by the smallest distance from the rapid dart made by the reptile. To have been bitten would have been certain death, for a full-grown active cobra is sure to kill where he strikes.

Another escape was from a puff-adder, a snake equally as deadly as the cobra. I was looking after the cattle in the Umzimvubu country, and finding the sun very warm I went to an acacia tree, so as to sit in the shade, and sat down on a rock near which was some moss. My right hand held my assagies, and as I came to the ground my hand and assagies rested on a large puff-adder. I felt the reptile move, and seeing my hand was on its neck, I pressed it down, whilst with my other hand I drew an assagy and drove it through the head of the serpent, and thus escaped the bite which would have proved fatal. I scarcely ever passed a day in the bush without seeing a snake, and I must have killed over a hundred during my residence among the Umzimvubu.