Before this time, indeed, a few white men had come to and fro to the
kraals of Chaka and Dingaan, but these came to pray and not to fight.
Now the Boers both fight and pray, also they steal, or used to steal,
which I do not understand, for the prayers of you white men say that
these things should not be done.
Well, when I had been back from the Ghost Mountain something less than
a moon, the Boers came, sixty of them commanded by a captain named
Retief, a big man, and armed with roers--the long guns they had in
those days--or, perhaps they numbered a hundred in all, counting their
servants and after-riders. This was their purpose: to get a grant of
the land in Natal that lies between the Tugela and the Umzimoubu
rivers. But, by my council and that of other indunas, Dingaan,
bargained with the Boers that first they should attack a certain chief
named Sigomyela, who had stolen some of the king's cattle, and who
lived near the Quathlamba Mountains, and bring back those cattle. This
the Boers agreed to, and went to attack the chief, and in a little
while they came back again, having destroyed the people of Sigomyela,
and driving his cattle before them as well as those which had been
stolen from the king.
The face of Dingaan shone when he saw the cattle, and that night he
called us, the council of the Amapakati, together, and asked us as to
the granting of the country.
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