"
Later in the day I and Kaatje, who stuck to me like a burr,
departed from the camp.
The rest of our journey was uneventful, except for more
misunderstandings about Kaatje, one of which, wherein a clergyman
was concerned, was too painful to relate. At last we reached
Maritzburg, where I deposited Kaatje in a boarding-house kept by
another half-cast, and with a sigh of relief betook myself to the
Plough Hotel, which was a long way off her.
Subsequently she obtained a place as a cook at Howick, and for a
while I saw her no more.
At Maritzburg, as in duty bound, I called upon various persons in
authority and delivered Cetewayo's message, leaving out all
Zikali's witchcraft which would have sounded absurd. It did not
produce much impression as, hostilities having already occurred,
it was superfluous. Also no one was inclined to pay attention to
the words of one who was neither an official nor a military
officer, but a mere hunter supposed to have brought a native wife
out of Zululand.
I did, however, report the murder of Anscombe and Heda, though in
such times this caused no excitement, especially as they were not
known to the officials concerned with such matters. Indeed the
occurrence never so much as got into the papers, any more than
did the deaths of Rodd and Marnham on the borders of Sekukuni's
country. When people are expecting to be massacred themselves,
they do not trouble about the past killing of others far away.
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