[Footnote 82: The niece, Nongqause by name, stated: "This talking of the new people commenced after my having reported to Mhlakaza that I had seen about ten strange Kafirs in the gardens. [The first meeting is said to have occurred about 2-1/2 years before the date of giving the information.] ... I told him I was afraid to go there. The people I saw were Kafirs--young men. I was afraid of them, because I did not know them. Mhlakaza told me not to be afraid of them, as they would do me no harm. He told me to speak to them, and ask them what they were doing there. I did so. They replied: 'We are people who have come to order you to kill your cattle, to consume your corn, and not to cultivate any more.' Mhlakaza asked them through me: 'What are we to eat when we kill our cattle, etc.' They answered: '_We_ will find you something to eat.' The people then said that was enough for that day--they would return some other day. We asked who sent them; they answered: 'We have come of our own accord, as we wish everything in the country to be made new.' They said they had come from _a place of refuge_. I asked them where this place of refuge was. They said: 'You will not know if we even told you.' I always pressed them to tell me where this place of refuge was, but they gave me the same answer. The next day Mhlakaza killed one head of cattle. He then called a meeting of the people and told them that strangers had come to tell them to kill their cattle--to destroy their corn, and that great plenty would be provided for them hereafter. The people dispersed, and from that day they commenced killing their cattle, etc.; and Mhlakaza continued killing his cattle, one a day. The people killed more cattle than they could use...." The same, as well as other, strange men--commonly believed by the Natives to be spirits of the departed--came on other occasions and conversed with Nongqause and Mhlakaza on the foregoing lines. Their object was "to change the country" by "driving the English out" and "making them run into the sea." Such intention was to be communicated to the Paramount Chief Kreli (Sarili) and other Chiefs. On Mhlakaza reporting to Xito (Kreli's uncle), the latter directed him to spread the news throughout the country. This was done. Kreli and others had confidential meetings with Mhlakaza, the latter eventually leaving his kraal to live on roots and shell-fish. Mhlakaza often blamed the Paramount Chief as the sole cause of the widespread cattle-killing that then went on. Nongqause, too, declared that Kreli had said "the English were in his way," and that he looked to the strangers to assist him in fighting and driving them out of the country. "I have been at a loss," he added, "to know what to do with the English, as they have been stronger than the Kafirs."]