Ill BATTLE OF ZWANG INDABA 39 



decimated by these insect pests, retraced his steps 

 to the elevated, fertile, and healthy country in which 

 his indunas had already settled themselves. These 

 men, who little expected to see their king again, 

 paid dearly for their desertion ; the inexorable 

 monarch surrounded them with his warriors, and, 

 driving them on to the top of the aforesaid mountain, 

 slaughtered them to a man. The second place of 

 interest is the deserted town of " Zwang Indaba," 

 situated on the Bembees river. It was here that a 

 bloody battle was fought in i 870 between Lobengula's 

 faction and the adherents of Kuruman, the rival 

 claimant to the throne. Lobengula's force w^as 

 numerically much superior to that of his opponent, 

 which was, in fact, composed solely of the warriors 

 belonging to the two kraals of Induba and Zwang 

 Indaba, led by Umbigo, the induna of the latter 

 town. These men, however, represented the flower 

 of Umziligazi's warriors, and had they but been 

 joined by the fierce regiment of Inyama Inghlovo, 

 according to agreement, the day might have gone 

 hard with Lobengula. As it was, after a desperate 

 fight, he dispersed the rebels with much slaughter, 

 burning down the town of Zwang Indaba and killing 

 Umbigo ; he acted, however, very leniently towards 

 the vanquished, permitting all who escaped from the 

 fight to return home and become his subjects. Mr. 

 Phillips, who with Mr. Sykes attended the wounded 

 after the battle, told me that, although the king's 

 people had many guns, nearly all the killed had been 

 stabbed at close quarters with assegais. In many 

 instances he found two men lying dead together, 

 each with the other's assegai through his heart. 



On the fifth day from Inyati we reached Viljoen's 

 encampment on the little river Gwenia, having 



