Sompseu:

For I will call you by the name that for fifty years
has been honoured by every tribe between the Zambesi and
Cape Agulhas,--I greet you!

Sompseu, my father, I have written a book that tells
of men and matters of which you know the most of any
who still look upon the light; therefore, I set your name
within that book and, such as it is, I offer it to you.

If you knew not Chaka, you and he have been seen the same
suns shine, you knew his brother Panda and his captains,
and perhaps even that every Mopo who tells this tale, his
servant, who slew with the Princes. You have seen
the circle of the witch-doctors and the unconquerable Zulu
impis rushing to war; you have crowned their kings and
shared their councils, and with your son's blood you have
expiated a statesman's error and a general's fault.

Sompseu, a song has been sung in my ears of how first
you mastered this people of the Zulu. Is it not true, my
father, that for long hours you sat silent and alone, while
three thousand warriors shouted for your life? And
when they grew weary, did you not stand and say, point-
ting towards the ocean: "Kill me if you wish, men of
Cetywayo, but I tell you that for every drop of my blood
a hundred avengers shall rise from yonder sea!" And
then, so it was told me, the regiments turned staring
towards the Black Water, as though the day of Ulundi
had already come and they saw the white slayers creeping
across the plains.

Thus, Sompseu, your name became great among the
people of the Zulu, as already it was great among many

-v-