Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) -- Fiction; English fiction; Xhosa (African people) -- Fiction
Lyle explained to him, in a mingled jargon, that the words _were_
mystical, but not intended to injure _him_. "Take it," he said, "to
Daveney's Great Place, Annerley. Be like the asphogels. Watch them,
but let them not see you till the time comes to cast the weapon before
them. You know that Daveney is your enemy. Doda knows that I am the
friend of the Amakosas. I have brought you guns and powder. I have
made a path between you and the Dutch. The Dutch hate the English more
than you do now. There are people in my country, beyond the great
waters, who know that the English colonists are great liars. Can the
white chiefs sent hither ever carry their threats as far they declare
they will? No. You know that when they have laid schemes to drive you
from your lands, a word comes to them across the foaming vley, and they
are forced to eat their own words.--Your chiefs have many to speak for
them in my country. I have been one of your mouths there. I was here
long ago, when the son of Umlala's great wife was no taller than that
mimosa: when I went back to my land, I spoke in council. I said you
were under the feet of the English here; that you were not permitted to
sit still in green places in your own territory; that you only wanted
grazing-ground and patches of land to grow corn in; but that instead of
rewarding you for refusing to help the Boers against the English, we
have suffered your cattle and your land to be taken from you. You see,
too, that the Boers are angry. They have cause. You and they were as
two gnoos fighting for plunder. One gnoo comes first, and possesses
himself of the prey; another follows, and would seize it. Up stalks the
lion, he parts the combatants, seizes the plunder, and takes it to
himself. What should the gnoos do? They should unite, go to war with
the lion, take the plunder from him and share it. The land is large
enough for all; but when you would have justice, the lion puts his paw
beyond his own boundary, shakes his mane, his eyeballs burn and roll
like flames, he roars, and the very trees of the forest tremble at the
sound. Up, then, Amakosas, and at this roaring, ravaging lion. Quarrel
not among yourselves; the musket and the flint, and the powder and the
bullet, are all good when used together; apart, what are they?
"Drive these greedy white men to the sea. The Boers are already treking
towards those great solitudes where the sun rises; divide this glorious
country among you, and make a place along the shore for white men to
come and traffic, bringing you beads, and blankets, and knives, and
brandy, and all those good things which white men love best, but which
they tell you, when they preach, that God has no delight in, and
forbids."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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