Maiwa’s Revenge · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for Maiwa’s Revenge by H. Rider Haggard.
Chapter 1
Maiwa's Revenge
Maiwa recounts her harrowing story to the council, detailing Wambe's betrayal, the murder of her child, and her own brutal treatment, which galvanizes the group to devise a plan for revenge and rescue.
Chapter 2
Gobo Strikes
Allan Quatermain recounts his hunting expedition into the territory of the cruel chief Wambe, where he defies his bearers' fears and asserts his authority to proceed, while also sharing tales of past adventures and demonstrating his marksmanship in a woodcock shoot.
Chapter 3
II: A Morning’s Sport
Quatermain describes a beautiful African landscape and recounts a morning hunting expedition. After tracking buffalo, he encounters a rhinoceros that charges him and his men. He kills the buffalo and later tracks and shoots the rhinoceros, reflecting on a successful morning's sport.
Chapter 4
III: The First Round
Quatermain is awakened by Gobo to meet a headman from one of Wambe's kraals, who begs him to kill three bull elephants that have been destroying their crops. Quatermain agrees, sends a message to Wambe, and moves to the kraal. He devises a plan to shoot the elephants from a baobab tree at night. During the hunt, the elephants attack the hut of the headman's estranged wife, and Quatermain shoots one elephant, which dies near the hut. The other two escape. The headman is punished by Quatermain for providing a rotten log, but the wife survives.
Chapter 5
IV: The Last Round
Quatermain wakes sore from his night battle with three bull elephants, but eager to claim their tusks. Despite his men's reluctance and superstitious fears, he forces them to follow the spoor. After a long day's tracking, he finds the elephants at dusk. In a daring moonlight attack, he shoots one bull through the heart, then faces the charge of the remaining two, firing at the head of the nearest.
Chapter 6
V: The Message of Maiwa
Quatermain finishes butchering the elephants and is approached by Maiwa, a wife of Wambe, who delivers a message from John Every warning of an impending attack by Wambe's impi. She also recounts the murder of her child by Wambe and her vow of revenge. Quatermain and his party begin a perilous ascent of a cliff to escape, with Maiwa leading the way. During the ascent, Quatermain shoots two Matuku captains with his express rifle to delay the enemy, and the party struggles to haul the elephant tusks up the cliff face.
Chapter 7
VI: The Plan of Campaign
Quatermain devises a plan to rescue John Every and defeat Wambe. He negotiates terms with Nala, including claiming the ivory stockade and ensuring Every's release. Maiwa reveals a secret path to attack Wambe's kraal from the rear. Quatermain leads a decoy group of prisoners, including a disguised Maiwa, toward Wambe's stronghold, facing hostility from Wambe's soldiers. They halt at the second gateway to await Wambe's word, setting the stage for the upcoming assault.
Chapter 8
VII: The Attack
The chapter depicts the climactic battle between Nala's impi and Wambe's forces. Maiwa leads a desperate charge from the wall, turning the tide. After the Matuku break and flee, Nala and Maiwa interrogate a wounded prisoner about Wambe's whereabouts, learning he may be in his kraal or a nearby cave.
Chapter 9
VIII: Maiwa Is Avenged
After the battle, Nala's forces spare the wounded and advance to Wambe's kraal, where they discover a stockade of ivory tusks. They rescue John Every from a lion trap set by Wambe, and Maiwa confronts and taunts her husband before he is caught in his own trap and executed. The Matuku tribe submits to Maiwa's rule, and Quatermain claims the ivory stockade as his reward. The expedition departs, and Quatermain reflects on Maiwa's future as a just chieftainess.
Chapter 10
Endnotes
The Editor provides footnotes attesting to the veracity of Mr. Quatermain's hunting stories, citing a similar incident of killing four elephants with four consecutive bullets and noting the weight of the largest known elephant tusk.