98 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XIL 



sagacity, that " such cripples were only in the way, 

 rind without making him any return, did but con- 

 sume his beef, which was required to make young 

 men stout and lusty !" Upon the occasion of this 

 foul slaughter of numerous brave veterans, to whose 

 valour and devotion Chaka owed a large portion of 

 his richest conquests, the vs'retch erected a kraal 

 upon which the name of Gibbeklack, signifying 

 " pick out the old ones," was humorously bestowed, 

 in commemoration of the base and barbarous deed ! 

 Fully impressed with the conviction that his 

 warriors, thus organized and disciplined, would 

 prove themselves invincible, Chaka now indulged 

 in projecting movements upon a grander scale than 

 formerly ; planning new predatory inroads upon 

 those independent tribes whose wealth in cattle 

 afforded the greatest inducements, and looking for- 

 ward with a sort of prophetic spirit to a day not 

 far distant when all his ambitious schemes should 

 be achieved, when his expectations should be fully 

 realized, and he should find himself the sole and 

 undisputed " master of the world." A winter never 

 set in without its marauding expeditions ; every 

 season also brought upon the weak and tributary 

 tribes, visits of violence, desolation, and plunder ; 

 each in its turn sooner or later feeling the monster's 

 scourge for some alleged offence against majesty, 

 which alone had existence in his fertile invention. 

 The eve of going to war was with him always the 

 period of brutal and inhuman murders, in which he 

 seemed to indulge with the savage delight of the 



