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Imperial Library
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Index
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Contents
I: Mutiny – The lash – A destination.
II: River crossing – Ablutions interrupted – Fingo defectors – General flight – The case against desertion – Slay and eat – Thoughts of women.
III: A burial – The suffering of beasts – Bitis arietans – A Dutchman – A long shot – A crone’s daghasack – Fingo levies – Gatestown – Disagreements in a bar – A fountain of blood – Waine recovered – The Minié rifle – Evans’ reaping hook – Happy Jack deserted.
IV: The rocky pass – Signs of conflict – Right fork to Fort Adams – Provenance – Methods for encouraging oxen – Breakfast – A dusty citadel on the Nameless River – Indifference of the Kabyles – A demon horde.
V: The General arrives – Preparation for action – Into the Eastern Mountains – Strange projectiles – A charge – Chieftain on a white horse – Skirmishing in the forest – His companion, Providence – Children aflame – A hasty burial – Return to camp – Sex and death.
VI: Woman and child – Mountain bivouac – Captured cattle – Fingo spoils – The dance – Cannabis sativa.
VII: West to Fort Cox – Assessment of women – A captive – Death at a crossing – Below the Kromme – Desecration – Jinqi – Escort to Fort Cox – Music of their vowels – Westward once more – Pies – Measurement of skulls – Sand storm – Black ghosts.
VIII: Reed Fountain – West to Charleville – Baptised in the river – Orchards of natche – A heathen child – The business of war – Return to Reed Fountain – Umlungus – A plague of flies – A letter – Wilful wind – Explosions.
IX: Escort to Gatestown – Spitted hog – A prophecy – The capacity of hell – Dinner with the General – The heathen and Jinqi – A degree of terror.
X: Return to Reed Fountain – Fireflies – The Kromme – First sight of Mount Misery – An army of horribles – Headless on the heights – Jones and the kid – Jinqi’s strategy – Retreat – Ambush – Hartung taken – An evisceration.
XI: The heathen rampant – An interrogation – Hintsa – The kid’s ear – Clayton’s first misfortune – Columns of fire – Return to Fort Cox – A bath without wine – Procreation of the beast – Providence makes a purchase – Considering the Mfengu – Gibbering heads – Murder – A warning.
XII: Second attack on the Kromme – The Northern Highlands – Norris – To the aid of the Rifles – Mundell’s farm – A skull – Steaming mourners – Hymn on a darkling plain – The Great Western Ravine – Beauty and decay – A homestead – Roots of Pelargonium – Buried again – Providence, the healer.
XIII: Recovery – A head for Mlanjeni – To Fort Cox for supplies – Bivouac on the Shining Water – Deluge – The joiner on ownership – The kid intuits an outcome – Stolen munitions – Progress towards the pass – Argument for invasion – The lies in their rows.
XIV: Regulations – Dutch scouts – The General’s cutlets – Attacked at the path to the Kromme – Clayton’s second misfortune – A spy – Debate on first settlers – Hail.
XV: Patrolling the ravines – A heathen village – Inefficacy of Pelargonium – Dogs – Clearing the plateau – Women as targets – Return to Shining Water Post – Hartung’s coat – A canvas city on the floodplain.
XVI: Land as incentive – Ownership – Forces assembled against Jinqi – Commerce and war – Entanglement – Teleology in the universe – Johnny bring stretcher – The kid finds an amulet – Figures in the mist – Waxworks – A cortège to Post Retief – Sentimentality of the English – Return to Shining Water Post.
XVII: Colonel Ire – Conflicting land claims – Provenance of the Kuffār – Ire on otherness – Dining with Providence – A pipe shared – The godfire.
XVIII: Mfengu polity – A beast in the reeds – The kid’s discretion – A necklace – Fate of the God-struck Lieutenant – Colonel Ire advises – The General crosses the Big Fat – Chicanery.
XIX: Idyll at Post Retief – Unhygienic conditions – The Captain considers his reader – Night sortie with refreshment – War and literacy – Luminosity in a being endarkened – Voyeurs at a shadow-play – The tree – Hayes.
XX: An African – Watching others work – Captured women – Surrounded – Rautenbach – A plague as staple.
XXI: Goliath – Rautenbach’s nephew – How wars start – Sacrifices of a chieftain – The General’s problems – Starvation as a weapon – The sinking of the Birkenhead – The General recalled – A Masonic reburial.
XXII: General Cathcart – Botha imprisoned – Ire’s ire – Established on the highlands – Roadworks – A green serpent – Clayton’s third misfortune – The Captain interrogates – The kid names the culprit.
XXIII: Cathcart’s assault on Mount Misery – The Captain’s desire – Giants in a story – Fort Gaunt – Return to Fort Cox – Waine and the kid – Ire’s strategy – Cathcart crosses the Big Fat – A council of apes.
XXIV: Prospective landowners – A lesson.
XXV: Arms to Fort Adams – Jinqi on a white horse – The discipline of General Branders – Surrounded – Return to Fort Cox – An attempt at peace – Bounty on a defector’s head – The Captain’s motive.
XXVI: Their analogues in history – A caveat in Eden – Prisoners taken – Resolute suicide – Strange fruit – Desperate mothers – Ire turns to prophecy – The dead above.
XXVII: A free hand – Blakeway’s farm – The uses of children – Slot-hounds on a trail – A village at night – An unexpected meeting – Terror.
XXVIII: The little heathen – Cathcart declares victory in the Kromme – Ahab – Jinqi’s sister – Excursion to Mount Misery – Jinqi’s message – Teachers – Heads – Christ on the stone – Rejoice burning – The kid’s clemency – Waine’s revenge.
XXIX: A future in Africa – The kid descends – Dumplings.
XXX: Jewels – Disappearances considered – Gift from a Dutchman – Shadows on the plain.
XXXI: An ambiguous peace – Event horizon – The Captain rewarded.
XXXII: Solvitur ambulando – Kinship – The full moon.
Disclosure
Acknowledgements
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