Company Of Spears

After ten minutes, as Gaika sat down and motioned for more mead to be brought, Somerset turned to him. ‘Colonel Hervey, your intrusion is not apt.’

Hervey bit his lip. ‘Fairbrother says you are not being served faithfully by the interpreters. They give the impression of Gaika’s concurrence with what you ask of them, whereas he speaks conditionally.’

Somerset checked his instincts to curse Fairbrother for his impudence: if what ‘the half-caste’ said were so then it changed the conclusions he was coming to. He bowed to Gaika, turned and beckoned Fairbrother to him.

‘What is all this?’

‘Colonel, Gaika is not saying that he will not cross into the colony, and that he will oppose the Zulu, he is saying that he would if he were able to persuade the elders of the Xhosa to muster their warriors, and if the men in red and the horses fight alongside him.’

Colonel Somerset looked dismayed. ‘You are sure?’

‘I am. And he implies he had already taken an unfortunate decision – I suspect to throw in with Shaka. He said Ngebe silahlekile ukuba ubungasibonisanga indlela: “we would have got lost if you had not shown us the way.” ‘

Somerset thought for a moment. ‘Come with me.’

Hervey followed too.

Gaika smiled, and invited them to sit on hides next to him. They drank more mead, and he revealed that he recognized Hervey, and Fairbrother (whom he called njengomXhosa – ‘like a Xhosa’).

‘Ndisafunda, mhlekazi,’ replied Fairbrother, raising his palms.

Colonel Somerset looked at him.

‘I said that I was still learning.’

But Gaika smiled. He liked mhlekazi – ‘big handsome one’. He turned to Somerset. ‘This man we shall speak through,’ he said decidedly.

Fairbrother relayed the sentiment to Somerset, who nodded.

He did not wait to be asked by either party. ‘‘Mhlekazi, if you are able to muster all the warriors, how many will they be?’

Colonel Somerset looked affronted. But he did not speak.

Gaika told him twenty thousand, though Fairbrother told Somerset he thought he exaggerated. And Gaika spoke with increasing warmth. He and Fairbrother talked as if equals for a quarter of an hour, during which Somerset – with unexpected patience, thought Hervey – remained content to listen without understanding.

At length Fairbrother turned to Somerset. ‘I believe I now have it. Gaika can muster seven thousand warriors at his own call, and his two vassal chiefs a further ten. He speaks of the Zulu in most measured terms, however. He says it had first been his intention in the event that they invade the Xhosa territory to hide all his corn and drive the cattle, of which he has twenty thousand head, towards the Keiskama. He says the Tambooka tribe, whose territory is nearest the Zulu, have already lost much of their cattle and are powerless to resist. When I told him he would have the immediate support of a thousand of the King’s troops, and artillery, he expressed himself willing to meet the Zulu in battle, and not to cross the Keiskama.’

Somerset’s mouth fell open. ‘You told him we would support his warriors?’

‘I did. But it was a mere matter of pride. He would do precisely what you wanted him to do were we to confront the Zulu. He puts on a brave face, but he is terrified for his life.’

Somerset said nothing.

Fairbrother waited. He had said all there was to say to Gaika; if Somerset wished to repudiate the offer…

The commander of the Kaffraria Field Force braced himself. ‘Very well. Please ask Chief Gaika when we may march.’

Hervey’s head swam as he sat down in a camp chair in the welcome shade of his tent. The Xhosa mead had been strong, and the sun had seemed twice its usual power. Johnson brought him the blackest coffee, and he opened his journal and picked up his pen, as he had intended to do before Gaika had invited – summoned – the officers to feast.

29th December 1827