By this time we had the army in the kraal at our mercy.

Laputa not having returned, they had no plans.

It had been the original intention to start for the Olifants on the following day, so there was a scanty supply of food.
Besides, there were the makings of a pretty quarrel between Umbooni and some of the north-country chiefs, and I verily believe that if we had held them tight there for a week they would have destroyed each other in faction fights.

In any case, in a little they would have grown desperate and tried to rush the approaches on the north and south.
Then we must either have used the guns on them, which would have meant a great slaughter, or let them go to do mischief elsewhere.

Arcoll was a merciful man who had no love for butchery; besides, he was a statesman with an eye to the future of the country after the war.