Evidently Janee's yell was the last straw which broke the back of such nerve as remained to them.

Doubtless they believed it to be the signal of attack by hordes of cannibals.
As there was nothing to said or done, since any pursuit of these curs was out of the question, we made the best of things as they were.

It proved a simple business.

From the loads we selected such articles as were essential, ammunition for the most part, to carry ourselves--and the rest we abandoned, hiding it under a pile of stones in case we should ever come that way again.
The guns they had thrown aside we distributed among the Zulus who had none, though the thought that they possessed them, so far as I was concerned, added another terror to life.

The prospect of going into battle with those wild axemen letting off bullets in every direction was not pleasant, but fortunately when that crisis came, they cast them away and reverted to the weapons to which they were accustomed.
Now all this sounds much like a tale of disaster, or at any rate of failure.