I recall, however, that Sigananda, a very old chief--he must have been over ninety--spoke the first.

He told them that he had been friend of Chaka and one of his captains, and had fought in most of his battles.

That afterwards he had been a general of Dingaan's until that king killed the Boers under Retief, when he left him and finally sided with Panda in the civil war in which Dingaan was killed with the help of the Boers.

That he had been present at the battle of the Tugela, though he took no actual part in the fighting, and afterwards became a councillor of Panda's and then of Cetewayo his son.

It was a long and interesting historical recital covering the whole period of the Zulu monarchy which ended suddenly with these words-- "I have noted, O King and Councillors, that whenever the black vulture of the Zulus was content to attack birds of his own feather, he has conquered.