Whenever he captured such a party he would spare one of them, sending him back with a message to the Umpondwana.

They were all to one effect, namely, that if the tribe would deliver over to him the lady Swallow who dwelt among them he would cease from troubling it, but if this were not done, then he would wage war on it day and night until in this way or in that he compassed its destruction.
To these messages Sihamba would reply as occasion offered, that if he wanted anything from the Umpondwana he had better come and take it.
So things went on for a long while.

Swart Piet's men did them no great harm indeed, but they harassed them continually, until the people of the Umpondwana began to murmur, for they could scarcely stir beyond the slopes of the mountain without being set upon.

Happily for them these slopes were wide, for otherwise they could not have found pasturage for their cattle or land upon which to grow their corn.

So close a watch was kept upon them, indeed, that they could neither travel to visit other tribes, nor could these come to them, and thus it came about that Suzanne was as utterly cut off from the rest of the world as though she had been dead.