“I began by informing them that I was only going to ask them such questions as would enable me to judge whether I should be justified in sending them on to my Chief, Lord Chelmsford, now in Zululand carrying on the war. The headman, Umfundi, then made the following statement: ‘We are Umfundi and Umkismana, Zulu messengers from Cetywayo. I am sent here by Cetywayo to ask for time to arrange a meeting of Chiefs with a view to arranging peace. We did not go to the head white Chief, because Fynn at Rorke’s Drift, whom I knew, told me the Great White Chief was in Zululand, and we had better see Shepstone and the second White Chief, who were at Pietermaritzburg, so we came on here advised by Fynn. I have been here about twice a year for the last six years as King’s messenger, but not as Chief. I am nothing but a messenger, and I have no authority from the King to treat for peace, or to do anything besides delivering my message, asking if time will be given to assemble a meeting of Chiefs. I know Mr. Shepstone, Mr. Gallway, and Bishop Colenso, and I have seen Bishop Colenso in this town, and also at his place in the country, but I do not wish to see him now, and I have not asked to see him.’ (This, according to their custom, merely implied that they had no message for him.) ‘I want to see the Great Chief, as the King ordered me to do. I only came here to deliver my message and because Fynn told me. This is the seventeenth day since I left the King’s kraal. Am an old man and cannot go so fast as I could when I was young, and heavy rain detained me three days. The King told me to hurry on and return quickly. It will take us seven days to get from here to Ibabamango Mountain if we go by Rorke’s Drift. We only know of two other messengers sent by the King; one is Sintwango, the name of the other we do not know. They have been sent to the lower column because Cetywayo thinks there are two Chiefs of equal power, one with the upper column and the other with the lower column. They are sent like us to ask for time to get out by the door. The King does not know the name of your big Chief, and we do not either. We are the same messengers the King sent to Fort Buckingham with the same message we have now. Only then our orders were not to go to your Chief as now, but to go to Fort Buckingham and wait for the answer there. We delivered our message to the military Chief there, and he sent the message on. The Chief was at Etshowe fighting, and the answer did not come for two months; when it came it was that the great Chief was surprised we were still there. He thought we had gone back to the King long ago. The officer at Fort Buckingham advised us to go to the great white Chief, but we said: “No, those are not the King’s orders; our orders are to come here, and now we will return and tell the King;” and it was half of the third month when we got back to him. We told him what had taken place. He consulted his great Chiefs,