[168] The speaker referred to Sitimela, a notorious upstart, whose example had been quoted by Mr. Saunders, and of which fact Mmangwana had just told Sigananda privately as above related.
[169] A hyperbole. The reference is to Dinuzulu.
[170] That is, the King of Great Britain and Ireland.
[171] Cetshwayo's grave.
[IX.]
THE NKANDHLA FORESTS.—SIGANANDA AND HIS TRIBE.—DINUZULU'S ATTITUDE.—EARLY OPERATIONS AT NKANDHLA.—MURDER OF H.M. STAINBANK.
Some account is now necessary of the locality within which the rebel bands took refuge, shortly to become the focus of more than a month's operations by some 2,000 European troops and a like number of Native levies.
The name Nkandhla is probably derived from the verb kandhla, meaning "to tire, exhaust, or prostrate," and is applied collectively to the various great and more or less connected forests that clothe the mountains, spurs and valleys of that part. The area in question, as will be seen from the map, is about eleven miles long by five broad. Separate names are given to about ten of the forests, among them: Dukuza (wander about), Elendhlovu (the elephant one), Elibomvana (the little red one), and Kwa Vuza (the dripping one). The slopes of the mountains are remarkable for their steepness, especially when approached from the low ground in the vicinity of Cetshwayo's grave. The altitude of the slopes, of course, varies, but the steepness is practically uniform, whether the height be 2,000, 3,000, or 3,500 feet. The bed of the Insuze River, from the Tate to the Halambu, would average about 1,100 feet—where the Mome enters the Insuze, it is 1,122. In many parts, the peaks and ridges rise to a height of 1,500 to 2,000 feet from the nearest stream bed, and within a distance of less than a mile, measured from the foot of the perpendicular.