Warrior

'They bore messages as well as gifts, I imagine, this embassy?'

'Nothing in writing, of course, but an assurance that Shaka wishes to live in peace as long as we do not provoke him.'

Hervey thought this curious, and glanced at Colonels Smith and Bird, but they appeared to know of it already. 'Provocation is rather more a question of judgement than fact, is it not? Does he mean, I wonder, that the affair at Umtata was provoking? Is that why he sent the embassy?'

'Strange to relate,' said Somervile, blowing a great deal of smoke into the circle: 'Shaka denies there were Zulu at Umtata.'

Hervey's brow creased. 'Then Umtata was not a provocation. Unless, of course, he thinks we believed we were seeking to bring on a battle with him there.'

'Black men look very much the same when they're feathered and carrying spears,' said Fairbrother.

'A little droll, Captain Fairbrother,' suggested Somervile.

'I stand rebuked, Sir Eyre.'

'Not rebuked, sir. Not at all rebuked,' Somervile insisted, taking a particularly satisfying draw on his cheroot.

'May I ask a question?' continued Fairbrother, recrossing his legs and folding his arms.

'By all means.'

'The presence of Shaka's men in Algoa Bay will not have escaped the notice of the Xhosa. What do you propose to do to reassure their chief that our intentions are unchanged, that we have no design to make alliance with Shaka against them?'

Somervile nodded. 'I have instructed the officer commanding the frontier to send word to the Xhosa of Shaka's embassy, and of my intention to make an embassy in return. For the greater safety of the frontier and for the Xhosa.'

Fairbrother bowed.

'May I, Sir Eyre?' asked Colonel Smith, indicating that he wished to question Fairbrother.

'By all means.'

Colonel Smith turned, distinctly hawk-like. 'Captain Fairbrother, I would hear your view of the Xhosa unrest, its cause and so forth. You will know there are contrary opinions.'

Fairbrother shifted not at all in the chair, his legs remaining crossed, for all the world looking as if these matters were to him an open book. 'It does not follow that all these opinions must each be worthy of consideration, Colonel.'

Hervey winced: his friend had a most unfortunate predisposition to assume hostility on the part of others.

But Colonel Smith took no offence. Or, at least, he did not show it. 'I am proceeding on the supposition that yours is worthy, however. Continue, if you please.'

Fairbrother nodded. 'My opinion is very easily given.' (He spoke with just a trace of the emollient.) 'The late irruptions into the east of the colony by the Xhosa do not stem from any ambition on their part, but are occasioned by Shaka. His cohorts press in from the north-east of the Xhosa's territory, and they in their Archimedean turn are displaced towards the south-west and over the frontier. The reiving is to all intents and purposes, therefore, a Zulu peril.'

Colonel Smith asked upon what evidence he had formulated this opinion, to which Fairbrother replied that he had spoken with several Xhosa elders, who had also expressed their belief that Gaika, the paramount chief, and others could be persuaded to resist the Zulu if they were given military assistance – which had indeed been the case before Umtata. He expressed himself certain that, from all he knew of the Colony and beyond these past ten years, Shaka would not give up his predations. At best he would push the Xhosa from their land, and they in turn would cross the frontier and make war with the Colony. But at worst Shaka might subjugate them by battle, or otherwise coerce them, and then the Colony would be obliged to fight an alliance of both Xhosa and Zulu – and for that matter, every Kaffir tribe east of the Keiskama.

Colonel Smith remained thoughtfully silent for some moments.

'The implication of what you say is that, one way or another, Shaka is a menace to the peace of the Colony.'

'It would be folly to rely on a line on the map when Shaka does not read or write. Besides, the growth of such a power to rival ours could not but have an unsettling effect.'

'You are not persuaded, Colonel?' asked Somervile, taking the cheroot from his mouth and leaning forward in his chair.

'I have been at the Cape but a month, Sir Eyre; and while I have been aware of the conflicting opinion as to the native menace, I have not been able to form any view of the consequences of inaction. My instinct, I must confess, is to delay until matters are clearer, for although I would always urge the boldest strategy – and the swiftest – it must be directed towards an objective which is unequivocally defined.' He spoke in a measured way, seeming to weigh his words with great care, as if still trying to come to a conclusion. 'This mission from Shaka, poorly handled as it was, is encouraging; it implies that war is perhaps avoidable. Which is as well, for our military strength is not great. Even if the government in London were to agree its increase, it would be a year at least before there was the means to undertake a campaign. The Zulu – what do they number?'

Somervile raised his hands. 'We have no number. We have no clear notion, indeed, where Shaka's domain ends.'

Colonel Smith shook his head. 'You will know what is my duty in this, Sir Eyre. But I do say one thing: there can be no military objection to an embassy to Shaka. I am perfectly clear in my mind in that regard.'

Somervile was grateful. He was by no means certain that General Bourke would have come to that determination.

Colonel Smith had one more question, though the ease of his expression no longer boded ill. 'You spoke of extra intelligence.'

Somervile smiled, but grimly. He leaned back in his chair and drew long on his cheroot before laying it aside and clasping his hands together in a gesture of resolve. 'On the death of his mother, by the name of Nandi, in October of last year, Shaka slaughtered a good many of his own people for reasons that are unclear, which may indeed be some manifestation of insanity, and ordered a year's mourning in which there was to be no cultivation of the soil, nor milk taken, nor conjugal activity – on pain of death. Indeed, any woman found with child suffers death with her husband.' Somervile spoke in an entirely detached way. He had seen things as cruel and senseless in India, though not on such a scale as this, if the reports were to be believed. 'Shaka has most brutally enforced these prohibitions, say our intelligencers, to the point that there is now talk of plots against him. It is well, therefore, that we meet with Shaka as soon as may be.'

All was silent. Fairbrother spoke the first. 'It is said that Shaka has never impregnated any of his harem. Did your intelligencers make remark on who is the rightful heir?'