88 EXPEDITION INTO 



put to death with truly monstrous refinement by the hands of 

 their own rehitives^ and lea^ ing* the remainder to be after- 

 A\"nrds indiscriminately butchered. Upon the completion of 

 this infernal work, liis Majesty announced his intention of 

 consulting- Umbeah^ "in order that he mig-ht find out the rest 

 of the delinquents;" adding-, that on the morrow he contem- 

 plated putting* to death all who had offended since the com- 

 mencement of his reig"n^ in order that nothing* mig*ht be 

 "waiiting'to complete his own happiness, and that of his people. 

 Shortly after the perpetration of this satanic deed, Um- 

 nante the queen mother, died ; and every subject in the 

 realm was expected to proceed, according* to established 

 custom, to the king-'s residence, there to mourn for the 

 illustrious deceased. Umnante had been repudiated by 

 Essenzincon^^arna, and had afterwards been g'uilty of sig'nal 

 infidelity to the nation, by cohabiting* with a commoner of 

 her father's tribe. Whether in consequence of this lapse, 

 or from some other circumstance, the usual etiquette was 

 somewhat laxly observed, and there ensued an appalling* 

 trng*edy, ^^hich had never been exceeded either in brutality 

 or foulness, by any of the black and inhuman exploits de- 

 tailed in the long* and bloody cat-alog'ue of Chaka's crimes ! 

 Upon the g*rounds that " some of the subjects must have 

 been accessory by witchcraft to the death of the queen 

 mother, and did not therefore attend to mourn," several 

 kranls and villag*es were fired ; men, women, and children, 

 having* first been cruelly tortured, were ronsted alive in the 

 flames, by the ferocious ag*ents of a still more fiendish 

 master ', this act of unprecedented barbarity being* folloA\ed 

 up by a g'eneral massacre throughout the realm — the tide 

 of blood flowing* for a whole fortnig-ht, and reeking* of 

 cruelties too revolting" to narrate ! 



But with this horrible and fiendish slauo-hter, terminated 

 the unexampled reig'u of the bloody-minded Chaka. He 



