90 EXPEDITION INTO 



overtaken in his flig-lit by his piirsuers, the domestic Boper 

 transfixed hiin with his weapon. raUing- at their feet; the 

 wretch besoug'ht his assassins in the most abject terms to let 

 him hve, that he mig-ht be their slave. To this dastardly 

 appeal; however^ no heed was given; he Avas presentl}^ 

 speared to death, and the assassins then left him in order to 

 execnte a similar deed upon the chiefs who were with him, 

 and Avho had also attempted to escape, but w^ere arrested 

 in their flig-ht, and shared the fate of their ferocious master. 

 One of these Avas an old g-rey-headed warrior, who had only 

 a short time before put to death his seven concubines, to- 

 g-ether with their children, for having- neglected to mourn 

 for the death of Umnante. Returning* to the prostrate body 

 of their oppressor, the regicides then danced and howled 

 around it, as round the carcase of a vanquished panther, an 

 animal they greatly dread. The inhabitants of the kraal 

 fled in consternation, and during- the confusion that ensued, 

 Dino-aan ascended the throne. 



So fell Chaka. The Zooloo nation had too long- groaned 

 under the Aveight of his tyranny, and had superstitiously 

 boAved to the yoke of his oppression, until they could no 

 longer bear up under his insatiable and Avanton cruelties ; 

 of him it cannot be even said as of the scourge of Home, 

 that, 



" Some hand unseen strewed flowers upon his tomb " — 



His fall Avas folloAved by a general rejoicing throughout 

 the country. It afforded to the nation an interval of repose 

 from the horrors of Avar, and from the terror Avhich his savage 

 decrees had constantly excited. During his life there had 

 been no securit}^ either for person or property ; no escape 

 from his barbarous innovations and inhuman butcheries. 

 His subjects each had lived from day to day in increasing- 

 dread lest the reeking- finger of the tyrant should next point 

 at him as a sij'nal for death and devastation. 



