I only try to put down the thoughts that struck me so long ago as my mind renders them to-day.

But very likely they are not quite the same thoughts, for a full generation has gone by me since then, and in that time the intelligence ripens as wine does in a bottle.
Besides these general matters, I had questions of my own to consider during those days of imprisonment--for instance, that of my own safety, though of this, to be honest, I thought little.

If I were going to be killed, I was going to be killed, and there was an end.

But my knowledge of Dingaan told me that he had not massacred Retief and his companions for nothing.

This would be but the prelude to a larger slaughter, for I had not forgotten what he said as to the sparing of Marie and the other hints he gave me.
From all this I concluded, quite rightly as it proved, that some general onslaught was being made upon the Boers, who probably would be swept out to the last man.