MAGEPA THE BUCK
In a preface to a story of the early life of the late Allan
Quatermain, known in Africa as Macumazahn, which has been published
under the name of "Marie," Mr. Curtis, the brother of Sir Henry
Curtis, tells of how he found a number of manuscripts that were left
by Mr. Quatermain in his house in Yorkshire. Of these "Marie" was one,
but in addition to it and sundry other completed records I, the Editor
to whom it was directed that these manuscripts should be handed for
publication, have found a quantity of unclassified notes and papers.
Some of these deal with matters that have to do with sport and game,
or with historical events, and some are memoranda of incidents
connected with the career of the writer, or with remarkable
occurrences that he had witnessed of which he does not speak
elsewhere.
One of these notes--it is contained in a book much soiled and worn
that evidently its owner had carried about with him for years--reminds
me of a conversation that I had with Mr. Quatermain long ago when I
was his guest in Yorkshire. The note itself is short; I think that he
must have jotted it down within an hour or two of the event to which
it refers. It runs thus:--
"I wonder whether in the 'Land Beyond' any recognition is granted
for acts of great courage and unselfish devotion--a kind of
spiritual Victoria Cross. If so I think it ought to be accorded to
that poor old savage, Magepa, as it would be if I had any voice in
the matter. Upon my word he has made me feel proud of humanity.
And yet he was nothing but a 'nigger,' as so many call the
Kaffirs."
For a while I, the Editor, wondered to what this entry could allude.
Then of a sudden it all came back to me. I saw myself, as a young man,
seated in the hall of Quatermain's house one evening after dinner.
With me were Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good. We were smoking, and
the conversation had turned upon deeds of heroism. Each of us detailed
such acts as he could remember which had made the most impression on
him. When we had finished, old Allan said:--
"With your leave I'll tell you a story of what I think was one of the
bravest things I ever saw. It happened at the beginning of the Zulu
War, when the troops were marching into Zululand. Now at that time, as
you know, I was turning an honest penny transport-riding for the
Government, or rather for the military authorities. I hired them three
wagons with the necessary voorloopers and drivers, sixteen good salted
oxen to each wagon, and myself in charge of the lot. They paid me,
well, never mind how much--I am rather ashamed to mention the amount.
The truth is that the Imperial officers bought in a dear market during
that Zulu War; moreover, things were not always straight. I could tell
you stories of folk, not all of them Colonials, who got rich quicker
than they ought, commissions and that kind of thing. But perhaps these
are better forgotten. As for me, I asked a good price for my wagons,
or rather for the hire of them, of a very well-satisfied young
gentleman in uniform who had been exactly three weeks in the country,
and to my surprise, got it. But when I went to those in command and
warned them what would happen if they persisted in their way of
advance, then in their pride they would not listen to the old hunter
and transport-rider, but politely bowed me out. If they had, there
would have been no Isandhlwana disaster."
He brooded awhile, for, as I knew, this was a sore subject with him,
one on which he would rarely talk. Although he escaped himself,
Quatermain had lost friends on that fatal field. He went on:--
"To return to old Magepa. I had known him for many years. The first
time we met was in the battle of the Tugela. I was fighting for the
king's son, Umbelazi the Handsome, in the ranks of the Tulwana
regiment--I mean to write all that story, for it should not be lost.
Well, as I have told you before, the Tulwana were wiped out; of the
three thousand or so of them I think only about fifty remained alive
after they had annihilated the three of Cetewayo's regiments that set
upon them. But as it chanced Magepa was one who survived.
"I met him afterwards at old King Panda's kraal and recognised him as
having fought by my side. Whilst I was talking to him the Prince
Cetewayo came by; to me he was civil enough, for he knew how I chanced
to be in the battle, but he glared at Magepa, and said:
"'Why, Macumazahn, is not this man one of the dogs with which you
tried to bite me by the Tugela not long ago? He must be a cunning dog
also, one who can run fast, for how comes it that he lives to snarl
when so many will never bark again? /Ow!/ if I had my way I would find
a strip of hide to fit his neck.'
"'Not so,' I answered, 'he has the King's peace and he is a brave man
--braver than I am, anyway, Prince, seeing that I ran from the ranks
of the Tulwana, while he stood where he was.'
"'You mean that your horse ran, Macumazahn. Well, since you like this
dog, I will not hurt him,' and with a shrug he went his way.
"'Yet soon or late he /will/ hurt me,' said Magepa, when the Prince
had gone. 'U'Cetewayo has a memory long as the shadow thrown by a tree
at sunset. Moreover, as he knows well, it is true that I ran,
Macumazahn, though not till all was finished and I could do no more by
standing still. You remember how, after we had eaten up the first of
Cetewayo's regiments, the second charged us and we ate that up also.
Well, in that fight I got a tap on the head from a kerry. It struck me
on my man's ring which I had just put on, for I think I was the
youngest soldier in that regiment of veterans. The ring saved me;
still, for a while I lost my mind and lay like one dead. When I found
it again the fight was over and Cetewayo's people were searching for
our wounded that they might kill them. Presently they found me and saw
that there was no hurt on me.
"'"Here is one who shams dead like a stink-cat," said a big fellow,
lifting his spear.
"'Then it was that I sprang up and ran, who was but just married and
desired to live. He struck at me, but I jumped over the spear, and the
others that they threw missed me. Then they began to hunt me, but,
Macumazahn, I who am named "The Buck," because I am swifter of foot
than any man in Zululand, outpaced them all and got away safe.'
"'Well done, Magepa,' I said. 'Still, remember the saying of your
people, "At last the strong swimmer goes with the stream and the swift
runner is run down."'
"'I know it, Macumazahn,' he answered, with a nod, 'and perhaps in a
day to come I shall know it better.'
"I took little heed of his words at the time, but more than thirty
years afterwards I remembered them.
"Such was my first acquaintance with Magepa. Now, friends, I will tell
you how it was renewed at the time of the Zulu War.
"As you know, I was attached to the centre column that advanced into
Zululand by Rorke's Drift on the Buffalo River. Before war was
declared, or at any rate before the advance began, while it might have
been and many thought it would be averted, I was employed transport-
riding goods to the little Rorke's Drift Station, that which became so
famous afterwards, and incidentally in collecting what information I
could of Cetewayo's intentions. Hearing that there was a kraal a mile
or so the other side of the river, of which the people were said to be
very friendly to the English, I determined to visit it. You may think
this was rash, but I was so well known in Zululand, where for many
years, by special leave of the king, I was allowed to go whither I
would quite unmolested and, indeed, under the royal protection, that I
felt no fear for myself so long as I went alone.
"Accordingly one evening I crossed the drift and headed for a kloof in
which I was told the kraal stood. Ten minutes' ride brought me in
sight of it. It was not a large kraal; there may have been six or
eight huts and a cattle enclosure surrounded by the usual fence. The
situation, however, was very pretty, a knoll of rising ground backed
by the wooded slopes of the kloof. As I approached, I saw women and
children running to the kraal to hide, and when I reached the gateway
for some time no one would come out to meet me. At length a small boy
appeared who informed me that the kraal was 'empty as a gourd.'
"'Quite so,' I answered; 'still, go and tell the headman that
Macumazahn wishes to speak with him.'
"The boy departed, and presently I saw a face that seemed familiar to
me peeping round the edge of the gateway. After a careful inspection
its owner emerged.
"He was a tall, thin man of indefinite age, perhaps between sixty and
seventy, with a finely-cut face, a little grey beard, kind eyes and
very well-shaped hands and feet, the fingers, which twitched
incessantly, being remarkably long.
"'Greeting, Macumazahn,' he said, 'I see you do not remember me. Well,
think of the battle of the Tugela, and of the last stand of the
Tulwana, and of a certain talk at the kraal of our Father-who-is-dead'
(that is King Panda), 'and of how he who sits in his place' (he meant
Cetewayo), 'told you that if he had his way he would find a hide rope
to fit the neck of a certain one.'
"'Ah!' I said, 'I know you now, you are Magepa the Buck. So the Runner
has not yet been run down.'
"'No, Macumazahn, not yet, but there is still time. I think that many
swift feet will be at work ere long.'
"'How have you prospered?' I asked him.
"'Well enough, Macumazahn, in all ways except one. I have three wives,
but my children have been few and are dead, except one daughter, who
is married and lives with me, for her husband, too, is dead. He was
killed by a buffalo, and she has not yet married again. But enter and
see.'
"So I went in and saw Magepa's wives, old women all of them. Also, at
his bidding, his daughter, whose name was Gita, brought me some
/maas/, or curdled milk, to drink. She was a well-formed woman, very
like her father, but sad-faced, perhaps with a prescience of evil to
come. Clinging to her finger was a beautiful boy of something under
two years of age, who, when he saw Magepa, ran to him and threw his
little arms about his legs. The old man lifted the child and kissed
him tenderly, saying:
"'It is well that this toddler and I should love one another,
Macumazahn, seeing that he is the last of my race. All the other
children here are those of the people who have come to live in my
shadow.'
"'Where are their fathers?' I asked, patting the little boy who, his
mother told me, was named Sinala upon the cheek, an attention that he
resented.
"'They have been called away on duty,' answered Magepa shortly; and I
changed the subject.
"Then we began to talk about old times, and I asked him if he had any
oxen to sell, saying that this was my reason for visiting the kraal.
"'Nay, Macumazahn,' he answered in a meaning voice. 'This year all the
cattle are the king's.'
"I nodded and replied that, as it was so, I had better be going,
whereon, as I half expected, Magepa announced that he would see me
safe to the drift. So I bade farewell to the wives and the widowed
daughter, and we started.
"As soon as we were clear of the kraal Magepa began to open his heart
to me.
"'Macumazahn,' he said, looking up at me earnestly, for I was mounted,
and he walked beside my horse, 'there is to be war. Cetewayo will not
consent to the demands of the great White Chief from the Cape,'--he
meant Sir Bartle Frere--'he will fight with the English; only he will
let them begin the fighting. He will draw them on into Zululand and
then overwhelm them with his impis and stamp them flat, and eat them
up; and I, who love the English, am very sorry. Yes, it makes my heart
bleed. If it were the Boers now, I should be glad, for we Zulus hate
the Boers; but the English we do not hate; even Cetewayo likes them;
still, he will eat them up if they attack him.'
"'Indeed,' I answered; and then as in duty bound I proceeded to get
what I could out of him, and that was not a little. Of course,
however, I did not swallow it all, since that I suspected that Magepa
was feeding me with news that he had been ordered to disseminate.
"Presently we came to the mouth of the kloof in which the kraal stood,
and here, for greater convenience of conversation, we halted, for I
thought it as well that we should not be seen in close talk on the
open plain beyond. The path here, I should add, ran past a clump of
green bushes; I remember they bore a white flower that smelt sweet,
and were backed by some tall grass, elephant-grass I think it was,
among which grew mimosa trees.
"'Magepa,' I said, 'if in truth there is to be fighting, why don't you
move over the river one night with your people and cattle, and get
into Natal?'
"'I would if I could, Macumazahn, who have no stomach for this war
against the English. But there I should not be safe, since presently
the king will come into Natal too, or send thirty thousand assegais as
his messengers. Then what will happen to those who have left him?'
"'Oh! if you think that,' I answered, laughing, 'you had better stay
where you are.'
"'Also, Macumazahn, the husbands of those women at my kraal have been
called up to their regiments and if their wives fled to the English
they would be killed. Again, the king has sent for nearly all our
cattle "to keep them safe." He fears lest we Border Zulus might join
our people in Natal, and that is why he is keeping our cattle "safe."'
"'Life is more than cattle, Magepa. At least you might come.'
"'What! And leave my people to be killed? Macumazahn, you did not use
to talk so. Still, hearken. Macumazahn, will you do me a service? I
will pay you well for it. I would get my daughter Gita and my little
grandson Sinala into safety. If I and my wives are wiped out it does
not matter, for we are old. But her I would save, and the boy I would
save, so that one may live who will remember my name. Now if I were to
send them across the drift, say at the dawn, not to-morrow and not the
next day, but the day after, would you receive them into your wagon
and deliver them safe to some place in Natal? I have money hidden,
fifty pieces of gold, and you may take half of these and also half of
the cattle if ever I live to get them back out of the keeping of the
king.'
"'Never mind about the money, and we will speak of the cattle
afterwards,' I said. 'I understand that you wish to send your daughter
and your little grandson out of danger; and I think you wise, very
wise. When once the advance begins, if there is an advance, who knows
what may happen? War is a rough game, Magepa. It is not the custom of
you black people to spare women and children; and there will be Zulus
fighting on our side as well as on yours; do you understand?'
"'/Ow!/ I understand, Macumazahn. I have known the face of war and
seen many a little one like my grandson Sinala assegaied upon his
mother's back.'
"'Very good. But if I do this for you, you must do something for me.
Say, Magepa, does Cetewayo /really/ mean to fight, and if so, how? Oh
yes, I know all you have been telling me, but I want not words but
truth from the heart?'
"'You ask secrets,' said the old fellow, peering about him into the
gathering gloom. 'Still, "a spear for a spear and a shield for a
shield," as our saying runs. I have spoken no lie. The king /does/
mean to fight, not because he wants to, but because the regiments
swear that they will wash their assegais; they who have never seen
blood since that battle of the Tugela in which we two played a part,
and if he will not suffer it, well, there are more of his race! Also
he means to fight thus,' and he gave me some very useful information,
that is, information which would have been useful if those in
authority had deigned to pay any attention to it when I passed it on.
"Just as he had finished speaking I thought that I heard a sound in
the dense green bush behind us. It reminded me of the noise a man
makes when he tries to stifle a cough, and frightened me. For if we
had been overheard by a spy, Magepa was as good as dead, and the
sooner I was across the river the better.
"'What's that?' I asked.
"'A bush buck, Macumazahn. There are lots of them about here.'
"Not being satisfied, though it is true that buck do cough like this,
I turned my horse to the bush, seeking an opening. Thereon something
crashed away and vanished into the long grass. In those shadows, of
course, I could not see what it was, but such light as remained
glinted on what might have been the polished tip of the horn of an
antelope or--an assegai.
"'I told you it was a buck, Macumazahn,' said Magepa. 'Still, if you
smell danger, let us come away from the bush, though the orders are
that no white man is to be touched as yet.'
"Then, while we walked on towards the ford, he set out with great
detail, as Kaffirs do, the exact arrangements that he proposed to make
for the handing over of his daughter and her child into my care. I
remember that I asked him why he would not send her on the following
morning, instead of two mornings later. He answered because he
expected an outpost of scouts from one of the regiments at his kraal
that night, who would probably remain there over the morrow and
perhaps longer. While they were in the place it would be difficult, if
not impossible, for him to send away Gita and her son without exciting
suspicion.
"Near the drift we parted, and I returned to our provisional camp and
wrote a beautiful report of all that I had learned, of which report, I
may add, no one took the slightest notice.
"I think it was the morning before that whereon I had arranged to meet
Gita and the little boy at the drift that just about dawn I went down
to the river for a wash. Having taken my dip, I climbed on to a flat
rock to dress myself, and looked at the billows of beautiful, pearly
mist which hid the face of the water, and considered--I almost said
listened to--the great silence, for as yet no live thing was stirring.
"Ah! if I had known of the hideous sights and sounds that were
destined to be heard ere long in this same haunt of perfect peace!
Indeed, at that moment there came a kind of hint or premonition of
them, since suddenly through the utter quiet broke the blood-curdling
wail of a woman. It was followed by other wails and shouts, distant
and yet distinct. Then the silence fell again.
"Now, I thought to myself, that noise might very well have come from
old Magepa's kraal; luckily, however, sounds are deceptive in mist.
"Well, the end of it was that I waited there till the sun rose. The
first thing on which its bright beams struck was a mighty column of
smoke rising to heaven from where Magepa's kraal had stood!
"I went back to my wagons very sad--so sad that I could scarcely eat
my breakfast. While I walked I wondered hard whether the light had
glinted upon the tip of a buck's horn in that patch of green bush with
the sweet-smelling white flowers a night or two ago. Or had it
perchance fallen upon the point of the assegai of some spy who was
watching my movements! In that event yonder column of smoke and the
horrible cries that preceded it were easy to explain. For had not
Magepa and I talked secrets together, and in Zulu?
"On the following morning at dawn I attended at the drift in the faint
hope that Gita and her boy might arrive there as arranged. But nobody
came, which was not wonderful, seeing that Gita lay dead, stabbed
through and through, as I saw afterwards, (she made a good fight for
the child), and that her spirit had gone to wherever go the souls of
the brave-hearted, be they white or black. Only on the farther bank of
the river I saw some Zulu scouts who seemed to know my errand, for
they called to me, asking mockingly where was the pretty woman I had
come to meet?
"After that I tried to put the matter out of my head, which indeed was
full enough of other things, since now definite orders had arrived as
to the advance, and with these many troops and officers.
"It was just then that the Zulus began to fire across the river at
such of our people as they saw upon the bank. At these they took aim,
and, as a result, hit nobody. A raw Kaffir with a rifle, in my
experience, is only dangerous when he aims at nothing, for then the
bullet looks after itself and may catch you. To put a stop to this
nuisance a regiment of the friendly natives--there may have been
several hundred of them--was directed to cross the river and clear the
kloofs and rocks of the Zulu skirmishers who were hidden among them. I
watched them go off in fine style, and in the course of the afternoon
heard a good deal of shouting and banging of guns on the farther side
of the river.
"Towards evening someone told me that our /impi/, as he called it
grandiloquently, was returning victorious. Having at the moment
nothing else to do, I walked down to the river at a point where the
water was deep and the banks were high. Here I climbed to the top of a
pile of boulders, whence with my field-glasses I could sweep a great
extent of plain which stretched away on the Zululand side till at
length it merged into hills and bush.
"Presently I saw some of our natives marching homewards in a scattered
and disorganised fashion, but evidently very proud of themselves, for
they were waving their assegais and singing scraps of war-songs. A few
minutes later, a mile or more away, I caught sight of a man running.
"Watching him through the glasses I noted three things: First, that he
was tall; secondly, that he ran with extraordinary swiftness; and,
thirdly, that he had something tied upon his back. It was evident,
further, that he had good reason to run, since he was being hunted by
a number of our Kaffirs, of whom more and more continually joined the
chase. From every side they poured down upon him, trying to cut him
off and kill him, for as they got nearer I could see the assegais
which they threw at him flash in the sunlight.
"Very soon I understood that the man was running with a definite
object and to a definite point; he was trying to reach the river. I
thought the sight very pitiful, this one poor creature being hunted to
death by so many. Also I wondered why he did not free himself from the
bundle on his back, and came to the conclusion that he must be a
witch-doctor, and that the bundle contained his precious charms or
medicines.
"This was while he was yet a long way off, but when he came nearer,
within three or four hundred yards, of a sudden I caught the outline
of his face against a good background, and knew it for that of Magepa.
"'My God!' I said to myself, 'it is old Magepa the Buck, and the
bundle in the mat will be his grandson, Sinala!'
"Yes, even then I felt certain that he was carrying the child upon his
back.
"What was I to do? It was impossible for me to cross the river at that
place, and long before I could get round by the ford all would be
finished. I stood up on my rock and shouted to those brutes of Kaffirs
to let the man alone. They were so excited that they did not hear my
words; at least, they swore afterwards that they thought I was
encouraging them to hunt him down.
"But Magepa heard me. At the moment he seemed to be failing, but the
sight of me appeared to give him fresh strength. He gathered himself
together and leapt forward at a really surprising speed. Now the river
was not more than three hundred yards away from him, and for the first
two hundred of these he quite outdistanced his pursuers, although they
were most of them young men and comparatively fresh. Then once more
his strength began to fail.
"Watching through the glasses, I could see that his mouth was wide
open, and that there was red foam upon his lips. The burden on his
back was dragging him down. Once he lifted his hands as though to
loose it; then with a wild gesture let them fall again.
"Two of the pursuers who had outpaced the others crept up to him--
lank, lean men of not more than thirty years of age. They had stabbing
spears in their hands, such as are used at close quarters, and these
of course they did not throw. One of them gained a little on the
other.
"Now Magepa was not more than fifty yards from the bank, with the
first hunter about ten paces behind him and coming up rapidly. Magepa
glanced over his shoulder and saw, then put out his last strength. For
forty yards he went like an arrow, running straight away from his
pursuers, until he was within a few feet of the bank, when he stumbled
and fell.
"'He's done,' I said, and, upon my word, if I had had a rifle in my
hand I think I would have stopped one or both of those bloodhounds and
taken the consequences.
"But no! Just as the first man lifted his broad spear to stab him
through the back on which the bundle lay, Magepa leapt up and wheeled
round to take the thrust in the chest. Evidently he did not wish to be
speared in the back--for a certain reason. He took it sure enough, for
the assegai was wrenched out of the hand of the striker. Still, as he
was reeling backwards, it did not go through Magepa, or perhaps it hit
a bone. He drew out the spear and threw it at the man, wounding him.
Then he staggered on, back and back, to the edge of the little cliff.
"It was reached at last. With a cry of 'Help me, Macumazahn!' Magepa
turned, and before the other man could spear him, leapt straight into
the deep water. He rose. Yes, the brave old fellow rose and struck out
for the other bank, leaving a little line of red behind him.
"I rushed, or rather sprang and rolled down to the edge of the stream
to where a point of shingle ran out into the water. Along this I
clambered, and beyond it up to my middle. Now Magepa was being swept
past me. I caught his outstretched hand and pulled him ashore.
"'The boy!' he gasped; 'the boy! Is he dead?'
"I severed the lashings of the mat that had cut right into the old
fellow's shoulders. Inside of it was little Sinala, spluttering out
water, but very evidently alive and unhurt, for presently he set up a
yell.
"'No,' I said, 'he lives, and will live.'
"'Then all is well, Macumazahn.' (/A pause/.) 'It /was/ a spy in the
bush, not a buck. He overheard our talk. The King's slayers came. Gita
held the door of the hut while I took the child, cut a hole through
the straw with my assegai, and crept out at the back. She was full of
spears before she died, but I got away with the boy. Till your Kaffirs
found me I lay hid in the bush, hoping to escape to Natal. Then I ran
for the river, and saw you on the farther bank. /I/ might have got
away, but that child is heavy.' (/A pause/.) 'Give him food,
Macumazahn, he must be hungry.' (/A pause/.) 'Farewell. That was a
good saying of yours--the swift runner is outrun at last. Ah! yet I
did not run in vain.' (/Another pause, the last/.) Then he lifted
himself upon one arm and with the other saluted, first the boy Sinala
and next me, muttering, 'Remember your promise, Macumazahn.'
"That is how Magepa the Buck died. I never saw anyone carrying weight
who could run quite so well as he," and Quatermain turned his head
away as though the memory of this incident affected him somewhat.
"What became of the child Sinala?" I asked presently.
"Oh! I sent him to an institution in Natal, and afterwards was able to
get some of his property back for him. I believe that he is being
trained as an interpreter."
