The White Chief of the Caffres

by Alfred W. Drayson

They wanted to follow the animal; but I explained to them that they might as well follow a bird on the wing, as the elephant would probably not stop until it had gone some four or five miles through the bush, and would then be on the alert and difficult to approach.

Finding there was no chance of again seeing the elephant, the officers decided to come out of the bush, and try to get a shot at some buck on the more open ground.

We had gone some distance from the bush, when, on looking towards the Umganie river, I saw in the distance a large party of Caffres. I instantly lay down, and called eagerly to the officers to do the same; for from the glance I had obtained I thought this must be a war-party of the Zulus, probably sent down to see what the ship was doing here. The officers laughed at my caution, but they concealed themselves, though not as quickly as they ought to have done. I wished now that I had my glasses with me, for the body of Caffres was a long way off. I soon saw, however, that the party were Zulus; and informed the officers of the fact, and that we must run for our lives.

Had I been alone I should not have feared for the result of a race, because we were some considerable distance in advance of the Zulus, and I could run as fast and as far as the best man amongst them; but I had already found that the officers were not fit to run far, the long time they had been on board ship having prevented them from getting into racing condition. Our boat was fully a mile and a half, as I should now term the distance, from where we were concealed, and I knew that a Zulu would run this distance about as fast again as the officers. I told them that their lives now depended on their doing exactly what I directed them to do; and I added that they ought now to know that I was better acquainted with things in this country than they were, as I could distinguish an elephant from a dead tree. They said—

“All right, give your orders.”

We crawled along the ground for some distance, till we were concealed by a portion of the bush; we then rose and ran along the edge of the bush, but we did not run very fast, for I was afraid that my companions would get out of breath before the real race began. When we had gone some distance near the bush, I found that, to go in the direction of our boats, we must now move in the open country. I told my companions of my plan, and said that we could move no faster than the slowest runner among them. I saw that one of the officers, who was rather stout, was already out of breath, and I feared that we should find it hard work reaching our boat before the Zulus were upon us. When we struck off into the open plain I looked round, and then knew that the Zulus must have seen us from the first, as they were coming on at a run, which, although not very fast, had yet enabled them to decrease the distance between them and us.

“Now do your best,” I said, and we commenced our run.

The Zulus uttered a shout, as they now saw us plainly, and several of their fastest runners advanced in front of the main body. I now carried two guns of the officers that they might get on the more easily, but found that our pursuers were gaining rapidly on us.

When we were within a short distance of the boat, about twenty Zulus were nearly within an assagy’s-throw of us. I said to the officers, “Run to the boat: I will stop the Zulus.” The officers ran on whilst I stopped, and, dropping one of the guns, aimed with the other at the leading Zulu. The man dodged about as I aimed, but my bullet struck him, and he fell to the ground; with the second barrel I hit another Zulu, and then the other men dropped on the ground to conceal themselves. Picking up the gun I had dropped, I darted off to the boat, into which the officers had embarked, and jumped into it, telling them to push off at once. The water for some distance was shallow, and before we could get into deep water, about a hundred Zulus dashed in, and were hurling their assagies at us. We fired at these men, whilst the four sailors in the boat rowed as fast as they could; and as the water became deeper, we could move faster than the Zulus, and so were soon beyond the range of their assagies.

The Zulus, on finding they could not reach us, instantly left the water and concealed themselves in the bush, in order to avoid our bullets.