It was said that she was the daughter of a Swazi headman of the tribe of the Halakazi, and that she was born of his wife is true, but whether he was her father I do not know; for I have heard from the lips of Macropha herself, that before she was born there was a white man staying at her father's kraal.

He was a Portuguese from the coast, a handsome man, and skilled in the working of iron.

This white man loved the mother of my wife, Macropha, and some held that Macropha was his daughter, and not that of the Swazi headman.

At least I know this, that before my wife's birth the Swazi killed the white man.
But none can tell the truth of these matters, and I only speak of them because the beauty of Nada was rather as is the beauty of the white people than of ours, and this might well happen if her grandfather chanced to be a white man.
Now Umslopogaas and Nada were always together.

Together they ate, together they slept and wandered; they thought one thought and spoke with one tongue.