The result was that
among this small people there were two strains, one of the bellicose
type, who practically remained Zulus, and the other of the milder and
more progressive Basuto stamp, who were in the majority.
Among these Sisas missionaries had been at work for a number of years,
with results that on the whole were satisfactory. More than half of
them had been baptised and were Christians of a sort; a church had been
built; a more or less modern system of agriculture had been introduced,
and the most of the population wore trousers or skirts, according to
sex. Recently, however, trouble had arisen over the old question of
polygamy. The missionaries would not tolerate more than one wife, while
the Zulu section of the tribe insisted upon the old prerogative of
plural marriage.
The dispute had ended in something like actual fighting, in the course
of which the church and the school were burnt, also the missionary's
house. Because of these troubles this excellent man was forced to camp
out in the wet, for it was the rainy season, and catching a chill, died
suddenly of heart-failure following rheumatic fever just after he had
moved into his new habitation, which consisted of some rather glorified
native huts.
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