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fflSTOET OF THE ZULU WAE 

AKD ITS OBIQIN. 



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HISTORY OF THE ZULU WAR 



AND ITS OBIGOr. 



FEAirOlS E. COMINSO. 



UBnT-COLONEL BDWAED DUENPORD. 




CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ldiitid, 193, PICCADILLT. 




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PREFACE. 



It is probable that tbe Bisbop of ^atsl may be held leBpon- 
sible for tbe oontents of a Tolame ^tten partly by bis 
daugbter, and having for its aabject the Zulu War; more 
especially if a general coincidence can be traced between what 
are known to be bis -views and tbose which are expresaed in 
this .history. My father's opinions have, natnrallyj oonsider- 
able inflnence over those hdd or expressed by his family, uid 
I do not im^^e that mnch will be fonnd in these pagee from 
which he will dissent. Nevertheless, it is desirable that my 
readers sbonld understand from the first that he is in no 
sense responsible for their oontents. , 

When I left Natal, in September last, the idea of writing 
upon tbe snbject of the Zoln War had hardly occurred to me ; 
it has developed since to an extent qoite beyond my original 
intentions, and I find that its fulfilment has rather taken my 
bther by snrprise. I bad no opportunity of consulting him 
npon the sabject, nor has he yet seen a word of what I have 
written, for on reaching England I found that, to be of any 
nse at all, the book should appear almost at once. 

I made, indeed, ample nse of the pamphlets which the 
Bishop of Natal has written on behalf of Langalibalele and 
Cetshwayo, which have saved me many hours of weary search. 
Consequently, while the Bishop is in no way responsible for 
mob errors or omiseiona as may occur in this volume, any 



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vi PREFACE. 

merit or nsefalness whicli my portion of the book may coDtun 
is dne chiefly to his labours. 

The general plan of my history was laid out, and the first 
few oliapters were written, during the voyage from Natal, and 
upon reaching England I obtained the assistance of my friend 
L]eat.-Colonel Edward Dnmford in that portion of the work 
which deals with the military condnct of the war. While it 
was desirable that a record of military events should be made 
by one whose professional knowledge qualified him for the 
da^, there was an additional reason which made his help 
appropriate. It may easily be understood from his name that 
the interest taken by bim in his task wonld be of no ordinaiy 
kind. Colonel Domford has written the military portions of 
the book, bnt is not responsible for any repressions of opinion 
npon matters strictly political. 

I am far from feeling that I am the best person to under- 
take such a work as this, which my father himself wonld look 
npon as a Berions one, and which he, or even my sister, who 
has worked with him thronghont, wonld do so mnch better 
than I ; bnt they were not at hand, and I have thought it 
my doty to do what I conid, while I could have had no better 
aid than that given me by Colonel Dnmford. 

However insnfficient the result may prove, we shall at least 
hope that our work may give some slight assistance to that 
cause of justice, truth, and mercy, the maintenance of which 
atone can ensure the true honour of the British name. 

Fbavcis Ellxh Colihbo. 



izedtyGOO^IC 



riBST OAWOB. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER L 



CRAPTER IL 



CHAPTER HL 

IBUIi Of IiANOAXJHAIiELB ..... 

CHAPTER rV. 

TBX BOHOp'a DKFBHOB ...... 

CHAPTER T. 

THS PUTIN I TRtBX ....... 

CHAPTER VI 

UB OAfiim WOIBBLBT : WHAT Bl OiXM FOB, WHAT BE DID, 

AND WHAT HB DID NOT DO 78 

CHAPTER VII. 

THS KAIBHAHA INQUIBT AND COLOHIL OOLLIT ... 69 

CHAPTER VUL 

IBB ASmZATIOn OF THB TRANBVAAL 112 

CHAPTER IX. 

TUB DUU>UTU) THBBITOBT 13S 

CHAPTER X. 
na BomioAitT oounssioi' 168 

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6S 



Tiii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

HIOAYO, UMBIUNI, AND THB KIHBIONARIBB IN ZULUIAND, . . 192 

CHAPTER XIL 

THI CLTDtATUH, DBCLARATION OF WAB, AND O0MHKH08MENT OF 

OAHFAIQN 235 

CHAPTER Xm. 

ISANSHLWANA T 23 

CHAPTER XIV. 

RORKb'B DRtPI — HmfHASAAB — COURT OF DdlDIBI, ETC. 302 

CHAPTER XV. 

THB aAKfATOH ASAINBI BIEDKUHI 325 

CHAPTER XVL 

NO. 4 COLUMN — IHTOKBI — INDBLOHANE — KAUBUU — KDIO'S 

UBBBSKaEIlS 344 

6hapter XVIL 

The lowbb tcqeu — intezakb — btshowb .... 368 
CHAPTER XVin. 

NamOINDHLOTC — REUBF OF VISBOVE — BOBDXR KAIDINa . 380 

CHAPTER XT X . 

BmNFOBOBMENia — IBAHDHLWANA REVIBIIBD .... 394 

CHAPTER XX 

THE FRINGE IMPERIAL 418 

CHAPTER XXI. 

DLOTDI 433 

CHAPTER XXIL 

BIB QAHNBT WOISBLET — CAPTURE OF OBTSHWATO . 463 

CONCLUSIOIT 476 

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THE ZULF WAR 



CHAPTER I. 

FIBST CAUSES. 

England's collisions with the savage races bordering 
upon her colonies have in all probability nsuallj beea 
brought about by the exigencies of the moment, by 
border-troubles, and acts of violence and insolence on 
the part of the savages, and &om the absolute necessity 
of protectaug a small and trembling white population 
from their assaults. 

No snch causes as these have led up to the war 
of 1879. For more than twenty years the Zulus and 
the colonists of Natal have lived side by side in perfect 
peace and quietneas. The tranquillity of our border 
had been a matter of pride as compared to the dis- 
turbed and uncertain boundaries between Zululand and 
the Transvaal The mere feet of the utterly unprotected 
condition of the frontier farmers on our border, and the 
entire absence of anything like precaution, evinced by 
the common practice of building houses of the most 
combustible description, is a proof that the colonists 

U B 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



2 T3E ZULU WAR. 

felt no real alaxm concerning the Zulus until the idea 
was suggested to them by those in authority over them.* 
The only interruption to this tranquil condition of the 
public mind about the Zulus was in the year 1861, 
when a scare took place in the colony, for which, as 
it afterwards proved, there were no grounds whatsoever. 
A general but unfounded belief was rife that Cetahwayo,-!- 
king, or rather at that time prince, ruling Zululand, 
was about to invade Natal, in order to obtain possession 
of his young brother Umkungo, a claimant of the Zulu 
crown, and who had escaped over the border at the 
time of the great civil war of which we shall presently 
treat. This young prince had been placed — by the 
Secretary for Native Affairs, Mr. Shepetone — at Bishop- 
stowe,t for his education in the Native Boys' School 
there ; and it was not until he had been there for years 
that the fancy arose, suggested and fostered by the 
border formers and traders in Zululand, that Cetshwayo 
intended to take him by force from amongst us, or at 
all events to make the attempt. 

Under the influence of this belief the troops then 
stationed in Natal were ordered to the frontier, the 
colonial volunteers were called out, the defence of the 
principal towns became a matter for consideration ; while 

* "Few things atmck ma mote than the endeiit haato and 
fempoiaiy ohaiactei of the defensive measures undertaken by the 
£ngluh part of the population" — in the border districts of NatoL 
(See letter from Sir Bartle C^re to Sir Michael Hidu-Beacb, dated 
March 28th, 1879. P. P. [C. 2318] p. 32.) 

f Spelt thus to give the nearest proper pronunciation of 
" Cetywayo." 

X B«sidence of the Bishop of Katal. 

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FIRST 0AUSE8. 8 

outlying fanners, and reeidenta m the coimtry, hastened 
to remove their families to places of comparative safety. 
Bishopstowe was supposed to be the special object of 
the expected attack ; but the Bishop himself, having 
occa^onal opportunities of learning the state of things in 
Znluland, through his missionary there, could never be 
bronght thoroughly to believe in the gravity of the danger. 
It is true that, as a matter of precaution, and in defer- 
ence to the strongly-expressed opinion of the Lieut- 
Governor of the Colony and of Mr. Shepstone, he sent 
away the threatened boy to some of his own people, in a 
more remote and safer part of the colony. But he was 
extremely reluctant to take the further step, strongly 
urged upon him, of removing his family and people to 
the adjacent city of Pietermaritzborg, and only con- 
sented to do so under protest During the night 
following his consent, but before the project had been 
carried out, he had reason for a few hours to suppose 
that he had been mistaken in his own judgment. The 
femlly at Bishopstowe was knocked op at one o'clock in 
the morning by a messenger from a passing Dutch 
farmer, who, on his way into town with his own family, 
bad sent word to the Bishop that Cetshwayo's army had 
entered the colony, was already between him and Table 
Mountain — that is to say within a distance of nine miles 
— and was burning, killing, and destroying all upon the 
way to Bishopstowe. There seemed to be no doubt of 
the feet ; so, hastily collecting their native villagers,* the 

* These people bad lefused to leave their homes, or desert theii 
Bishop, as long aa he and hie family remained at Bishopstowe, although 
twUi black and white, for milea around, had sought shelter elsewhera. 

B 2 _^ 

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4 THE ZULU WAS. 

ColensoB left their homes and started for the town, which 
they reached, most of them on foot, about daybreak. 
The consequence of their being accompanied and 
followed by a considerable party of natives (of both 
sexes and all ages I) was that the townspeople im- 
mediately supposed that the " Zulus had come ; " and 
some of them actually left their houses, and took refuge 
in the various places of safety — such as the fort, the ' 
principal churches, and so on — previously decided upon 
by the authorities in case of necessity. In common 
South African terms they " went into laager." 

As the day passed, and still no further tidings 
arrived of the approach of the Zulus or the destruction 
of Bishopstowe, the Bishop began to have strong 
suspicions that, after all, he had been right in his 
original opinion, and that " the killing, burning, and 
destroying" had been conjured up by some excited 
imagination. This opinion was confirmed, if not com- 
pletely established, in the course of the day, by the 
reception of a letter from the missionary in Zululand 
before mentioned, in which he inquired, on the Zulu 
king's behalf, what fault the latter had committed 
towards the English, that they should be preparing to 
invade his country. The missionary added that all was 
perfectly quiet in Zululand, until the border tribes, 
seeing the British troops approaching, fled inland in 
alarm, killing their cattle to prevent their ftUling into 
the hands of the invaders, and burying their other 
possessions where they could not cany them away. In 
point of fact the " scare " had no foundation whatsoever, 
and the Zulus were quite as much alarmed by the actual 

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FIRST CAF8E8. 5 

approacli of the Britisli troops as the Kataliana had 
been by the imaginary Zulu army. The worst im- 
mediate consequence of the mistake was the want, 
almost amounting to famine, produced- amongst the 
border Zulus by the loss of their cattle. A later and 
more serious result has been that general impression, 
whicb has long obtained credence at home in England, 
that the colonists of Katal have not only been in fear of 
their lives on account of the Zulus for many years, but 
have also had good and sufficient reason for their alarm. 
But for this fixed, though groundless idea, England 
woidd hardly have been in such a hurry to send out 
additional troops for the protection of the colony as she 
was in the summer of 1878 ; to her own great loss and 
to the very considerable injury of the colony itself, not 
to speak of its unhappy neighbours and heretofore 
friends the Zulus. 

It is certainly true Uiat during the year 1878 the 
inhabitants of Natal did honestly feel great fear of the 
Zulus, and of a possible invasion of the colony by tbem, 
the alarm in many cases amounting to absolute panic. 
But this feeling was produced by no warlike menaces 
&om out neighbours, no sinister appearances on our 
borders. The panic — or " scare," as it would popularly 
be called in Natal — was forced upon the people by the 
conduct and language of their rulers, by the preparations 
made for war, troops being sent for from England " for 
defensive purposes" (as was so repeatedly asserted by 
both Sir Bartle Frere and Lord Chelmsfoid, then Lieut.- 
General the Hon. F. A. Thesiger), and by the perpetual 
agitation of the local newspaper editors. 

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6 THE ZULU WAE. 

It is true indeed that a certain section of the 
coloniBts eagerly desired war. To some the presence of 
the troops was a source of actual fortune, to others the 
freedom and independence of so large a body of black 
people, whom they could neither tax nor force to work 
for them, was, and had long been, odious ; the revenue 
to be derived &om a hut-tax levied upon the Zulus, and 
the cheap labour to be obtained when their power and 
independence should be broken, formed one of the chief 
subjects for speculation when the war wasfirat suggested. 
To others, again, the prospect of war was simply a source 
of pleasurable excitement, a hunt on a large scale, martial 
glory to be won, with just apice enough of danger to 
give zest to the affair ; as had been the case in the war 
just concluded in Kaffraria. Naturally tbis feeling was 
commonest amongst the volunteers and their friends. 
Some of them looked upon the matter in a light which 
would meet with utter condemnation in any civiUsed 
society ; but many others, especially the young lads who 
filled up the ranks of the volunteer corps, were simply 
dazzled by visions of military distinction, excited by the 
popular phrases in perpetual use about " fighting for 
their country, and doing their duty as soldiers," to the 
extent of losing sight altogether of the question as to 
whether or no their country reoUy required any defence 
at alL 

Natal cannot honestly claim to be guiltless in 
bringing about the war with the Zulus, and will hardly 
deny that in 1878 the prospect was a most popular one 
amongst her sons. Perhaps Sir Barfie Frere could not 
BO easily have produced a war out of the materiala 

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FinST OJ.USSS. 7 

which be had at band but for the aasistauce given him 
by the popohtt cry in the colony, and the general fear of 
the Zulus, which called forth England's ready sympathy 
And assistance. But it must be remembered that the 
panic was not a genuine one, nor even one like that of 
1861, produced by the foUy of the people themselves. 
It was distinctly imposed upon them by those in 
authority, whose policy was to briDg about a collision 
with the Zulus, and who then made use of the very fears 
which they had themselves aroused for the furtherance 
of tJieir own purpose. 

The subjugation of the Zulus and the annexation 
of tb&i country, formed part of a policy which has 
occupied the minds of certain British statesmen for 
many years. The ambition of creating a South African 
Empire, to be another jewel in Victoria's crown, which, 
if no rival, should at least be a worthy pendant to the 
great Tnrliftn Empire, was a dazzling one, and towards 
that object all Government action in South A&ica has 
apparently tended since the year 1873. "When the 
idea was first conceived those only know who formed 
it, but it took practical and visible form in 1873. In 
that year by crowning the Zulu king we assumed a 
light to interfere in the internal management of the 
country, thereby establishing a possible future cause of 
offence, which, as the Zulus obstinately refused to put 
themselves in the wrong by any sort of interference 
with us, was necessary in order to bring about a state 
of things which should eventually give us a sufficient 
excuse for taking possession of the country altogether. 

The origin of this performance was as follows. In 

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8 TME ZULU WAR. 

the year 1856 a great revolution took place in Zululand, 
and a civil war broke out between two claimants to the 
heirship of the throne (then filled by Umpande), namely, 
the present king, Cetshwayo, and his brother Umbulazi. 
Cetshwayo was quite young at the time, and appears 
to have been put forward by some ambitious warriors, 
who intended to rule in his name, and did not expect 
the remarkable power and talent which he afterwards 
developed. 

XJmbulazi's party was beaten, he himself being killed 
in battle, great carnage ensuing, and many fugitires 
escaping into Natal. 

Amidst all the bloodshed and horror which naturally 
attends such a warfare as this between savages, there 
stands out the singular, perhaps unprecedented, fact that 
Cetshwayo, although victorious to the extent of carrying 
the nation with him, not only never made any attempt 
upon the old king, his father's, life, but did not even 
depose him or seize his throne. The old man lived and 
• — nominally, at all events — re^ed for many years, 
though, owing to bis age and obesity, which was so 
great as to prevent his walking, he seems to have been 
willing enough to leave the real authority in the hands 
of his son, while retaining the semblance of it himself. 
He was treated with all due respect by Cetshwayo and 
his followers until he died a natural death in the year 
1872, when Cetshwayo ascended the throne which had 
long been virtually his own, and was proclaimed king 
of Zululand This was looked upon as a fitting time 
for a little display of authority by ourselves, hence the 
friendly expedition to Zululand of 1873, when we gave 

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. FIRST CAUSES. 9 

Cetsbwayo to tmderatand that, however it might appear 
to him, he held his power from ua, and was no true 
king till we made him such. It was also rightly 
thought to be an oppwrtunity for suggesting to the Zulu 
king such reforms in .the gOTemment of his country as 
would naturally commend themselTes to English ideas. 
We considered, and with some reason, that capital 
punishment was an OTer-&equent occurrence in Zulu- 
land, and that, on the other hand, judicial trials before 
sentence should be the universal rule. It was also 
desirable, if possible, to decrease the belief in witchcraft, 
by which so much power was left in the hands of the 
witch-doctors or priests;* and finally it was thought 
necessary to provide for the safety of the missionaries 
r^ident in the land.! How far this was a desirable 
step depends entirely on whether the men themselves 
were earnest, self-sacrificing, peace-loving teachers of 
the g<»pel of Christ, or mere traders for their own 
benefit, under the cloak of a divine mission, ready to 
hail a bloody war. " Only the utter destruction of the 
Zulus can secure future peace in South AMca .... 
we have the approbation of God, our Queen, and our 
own conscience." (See letter from a missionary clergy- 
man to Sir Bartle Frere,| dated December 17th, 1878. 
(P. P. [C. 2316] p. 3.)) 

It was frequently asserted at the time in Katal that 
this coronation ceremony (Ist September, 1873) was 

* A syatem not unlike tlie Inqnisitiian in its evil reaulte. 

t Who, it may be remarked, have alwaya been well treated in 
Znlnland. 

% Fortiona of this letter aie omitted from the Blue-book. It 
iToUld be inteieeting to see the letter as originally reoeived. 

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10 TSB ZULU WAR. 

nothing better than a farce, and the way in which it was 
carried out seems hardly to have been understood by the 
king himself. The Natalians were puzzled as to what could 
be the meaning or intention of what seemed to them a 
hollow show, and were on the whole rather inclined to 
put it down to Mr. Shepstone's supposed habit of 
" petting the natives," and to " Exeter Hall influences," 
resulting in a ridiculous fuss on their behalf. 

From Mr. Shepstone's despatch on the subject of the 
coronation of Cetshwayo (P. P. [C. 1137}), andfrom mes- 
sages brought from the latter to the Government of Natal 
after his father's death, there appears to have been a 
strong desire on the part, not only of the people, but of 
the king himself, that his formal succession to the 
throne should be unattended by bloodshed and disorder, 
such as had ushered in the rule of his predecessors for 
several generations. How greatly the character of the 
Zulu rule had improved in a comparatively short period 
may be judged by a comparison of the fact [p. 5, ibid.'} 
(mentioned by Mr. Sh^tone), that during the reigns of 
Chaka and Dingana (grand&ther and great-ancle to 
CetBhwayo), all the royal wives were put to death either 
before the birth of their children, or with their infants 
aftenrards, with the behaviour of Cetshwayo, both to 
his father and to his father's wives.* And Mr. Shepstone 
himself speaks of Cetshwayo on the occasioa of tMs visit 
in the following manner : — " Cetywayo ia a man of 
considerable ability, much force of character, and has 
a dignifled manner ; in all my conversations with him," 

* Ooa put to death in 1861 Vaa oondenmed on a chaige of higli 
tieason. 

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PIBaT 0AU8EB. 11 

the Secretary for Native Affairs continues, " he was 
remarkably &ank and Btraightforvard, and he ranlcs in 
every reapect far above any native chief I have ever 
had to do with." Throughout the despatch, indeed, 
Mr. Shepstone repeatedly speaks of the king's "frank- 
ness " and "sagacity," in direct opposition to the charges 
of craft and duplicity so recklessly brought against the 
latter of late. 

King Umpanile died in October, 1872, having 
reigned nearly thirty-three years, and on the 26th 
February, 1878, messengers from Cetshwayo brought 
the news of bis father's death to the Governor of Natal, > 
requesting at the same time that Mr. Shepstone might 
be sent to instal Cetshwayo as his successor,* in order 
that the Zulu nation should be "mora one with the 
government of Natal," and be "covered by &e same 
mantle." The message ended with the request which 
Cetshwayo never lost an opportunity of making, that 
we would protect his country from Boer aggressions.t 
" We are also commissioned," eay the messengers, " to 
rage, vAat has already been urged aofrequmtly, that the 
government of Natal be extended so as to intervene 
between the Zulus and the territory of t^e Transvaal 
fiepublic." 

The mere fact that this proposition was frequently 
and earnestly pressed upon the Natal Government by the 
Zulus, is in itself a proof positive that the agressions 
were not on their side. They desired to place what they 

* Ab he Iiad previonely, in the year 1861, visited Zulnlaad {or the 
puipose of fixing the succeaaioii upon the hoiue of Cetahwajo. 

t Since hy om desite be tefiaiaed from piotaeting it bf force of 

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12 THE ZULU WAR. 

looked upon aa an impassable barrier between the two 
countries, and could therefore have had no wish 
themselves to encroach. 

Further messages passed between Cetshwayo and 
the Natal Government upon the subject, until it was 
finally arranged that the coronation should be performed 
by Mr. Shepetone, in Zululand, and, with a party of 
volunteers as escort, he crossed the Tugela on the 8th 
August, 1873, accompanied by Major Dvimford, R.E., 
Captain Boyes, 75th Regiment, and several other officers 
uid gentlemen. 

Mr. Shepstone's long despatch, already quoted from, 
and in which he describes, with true native minuteness, 
the moat trivial circumstances of the journey, and 
BubaequcDt proceedings, gives the impression that he 
looked upon his mission as a service of danger to all 
concerned. It was, however, carried out without any 
break in the friendly relations between the Zulus and 
his party, who returned to Pietermaritzburg " without 
unpleasant incident" on the 19th September, 

The coronation mission was carried out — ^how far 
successfully entirely depends upon the results expected 
or desired by those in command. The king himself, ' 
while looking upon the fact of his recognition as 
sovereign of Zululand by the English as important, is 
quite keen enough to have detected certain elements of 
absurdity in the proceedings by which they invested him 
with his dignity. There waa perhaps a little good- 
humoured scorn in hia reception of the somewhat oddly- 
chosen presents and marks of honour offered him. 
Without losing that respect for and faith in the 

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FIB8T CAUSES. 13 

English which has always characterised his dealings 
with them, he felt impatiently that they were rather 
making a fool of him ; especially when they put upon 
his shoulders a little scarlet mantle — formerly a lady's 
opera-doak — the curtailed dimensions of which made 
him ridiculous in his own eyes ; and upon his head a 
pasteboard, cloth, and tinsel crown, whose worthless- 
ness he was perfectly capable of comprehending. Mr. 
Shepstone's despatch represents him as greatly impressed 
by-the ceremony, etc. ; but the impression on the minds 
of many observers was that he put up with much which 
both seemed and was trifling and ridiculous, for the 
sake of the solid benefits which he hoped he and his 
people would derive from a closer connection with the 
English. 

The portion of Mr. Shepstone's despatch, however, 
which it is important that we should study with 
attention is that which refers to the "coronation pro- 
mises" (bo called) of Cetshwayo, and treats of the 
political subjects discussed between king and kiog- 
mak^. 

Sir Bartle Frere repeatedly speaks of the transaction 
as " a solemn act by the king, undertaken as the price 
of British support and recognition ; " of Cetahwayo as 
having "openly violated his coronation promises;" of 
his " undoubted promises ; " while Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
in his speech to the assembled chie& and people of the 
Zulu nation, speaks of the coronation promises as though 
the want of attention to them had been the chief, if not 
the only, cause of the king's misfortunes ; and the same 
tone is taken in all late despatches on the subject. 

Dig-izedbyGoO^Ie 



14 TSS ZULU WAB. 

And now let us turn to Mr. Shepstone'a own teport, 
prepared at the time, and see whether we gather from it 
the impression that the conditions of hia treaty with 
Oetshwayo were thought of, or intended by him, to 
stand as solemn and binding promises, of which the 
infraction, or delay in carrjring out, would render the 
king and his people liable to punishment at our hands. 
After giving his reasons for objecting to "forma! or 
written " treaties with savages,* BIr. Shepstone himself 
remarks, "Ours is an elastic arrangement." This ifi a 
singularly candid confession, of the truth of which there 
can be little doubt Whether such a term should be 
applicable to the treaties made by an English Govern- 
ment is quite another question, to which we will leave 
the English public to find an answer. We have, 
however, but to quote from Mr, Shepstone's own 
despatch to prove the convenient "elasticity" of hia 
propositions, and how greatly they have been magnified 
of late in seeking a quarrel against the Zulu king. At 
p. 16 of the report, after enumerating the "arrange- 
ments and laws " proposed by him, and heartily approved 
by the Zulus, Mr. Shepstone remarks : " Although aU 
this was fully, and even vehemently, assented to, it 



* He gives as reasons for bis objections ; firat, that such traatiea 
"mvolve on admission of equality between the contracting parties," 
and ttxerefore " enconiage presumption " on the part of the inferior, 
etc. ; aecondly, that " men who cannot read are apt to forget or distort 
the words of a treaty." A third reason, which does not seen to have 
occurred to Mr. Shepstone, lies in the ease with which a savage may 
be deceived as to the contents of a written document, which facility 
we shall soon largely illustrate in the matter of Boer treaties with the 
natives. 



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FIRST 0AU8E8. 15 

cannot be expected that the amelioration deBcribed will 
Immediately take effect. To have got such principles 
admitted and declared to be what a Zulu may plead 
when oppressed, was but sowing the seed, which will 
Btill take many years to grow and mature." And at 
p. 17 he says ; " I told the kiug that I well knew the 
difficulties of his position, and that he could overcome 
them only by moderation and prudence and justice, but 
without these they woidd certainly oTercome him." 
And again (p. 18, par. 82) he explains that when he lefb 
Natal he had looked upon the " charge " which he knew 
that he would be expected to deliver to Cetshwayo on his 
installatiou, as something in the nature of an ordination 
sermon, or bishop's charge to candidates for confirma- 
tion, likely to influence ouly in so far as the conseiencea 
of those addressed might respond, etc. ; but that, on 
entering Zululand, he found that 'tiie people thought 
so much of this part of the duty he had undertaken that 
be felt himself to have "become clothed with the power 
of fundamental l^islation," and thought it right to take 
advantage of the opportunity for iutrodudng improve- 
ments in tiie government of the people. "I have 
already described my success," he continues, " and I 
attribute it to the sagacity of Cetywayo." 

But in all this there is no mention of "solemn 
promises," to break which would be an insult to the 
majesty of England, and au excuse for war ; nor is 
there, from beginning to end of the despatch, any token 
that Mr. Sh^stone looked upon them in that light, or 
had any immediate expectation of proving the usefitlness 
of his " elastic " arrangement. 

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16 THE ZULU WAn. 

In describing liis interviews and political diacusaions 
with the Zulu king, Mr. Shepstone speaks repeatedly in 
high praise of the ability and behaTiour of the fonner. 
He says in one place ; ".Cetywayo received us cordially 
as before. . . . Major Dumford and my son, with the 
Natal Native Indunas, sat down with me to an inter- 
view with Cetjrwayo and the councillors, that lasted for 
five hours without intermission. It was of the most 
interesting and earnest kind, and was conducted with 
great ability and frankness by Cetywayo. HieoreticaUy, 
my business was with ther councillors who represented 
the nation ; but, had it not been for the straightforward 
manner in which Cetywayo insisted upon their going 
direct to the point, it would have been impossible to 
have got through the seriooB subjects we were bound to 
decide in the time we did." 

Of the points discussed in this way the most 
important was that which, a little later, led directly 
up to the Zulu War — namely, the aggressions of the 
Transvaal Boers and the disputed boundary between 
tbem and the Zulus. "The whole of the afternoon," 
says Mr. Shepstone, "was occupied with this subject, 
about which he occasionally grew very earnest, and 
declared that he and every Zulu would die rather than 
submit to them — viz. the Boer encroachments. He 
reproached the Government of Natal for not having 
taken up the Zulu cause, and for not even having 
troubled themselves to examine whether their state- 
ments were true or not, whUe they treated them as if 
without foundation." 



izedtyGOO^IC 



FIRST CAUSES. 17 

In fact, on this, as on every otiier occasion, the Zulu 
Hug lostno opportunity of protesting against the encroach- 
ments of the Boera, lest his peaceable conduct towards 
these latter, maintained in deference to the wishes of the 
Natal GoTemment, should be brought up against him 
later as a proof of their rights. Whatever may have been 
the intentions and opinions of Mr. Shepstone on the 
subject of the " coronation promises," he left Cetshwayo 
unfettered in his own opinion, Jiaving merely received 
certain advice as to the government of his people from 
his respected friends the EogUsh, to whose wishes he 
should certainly give full at^tention, and whose counsel 
he would carry out as far as was, in his opinion, wise or 
feasible. As already stated, the principal item of the 
English advice related to capital pumahment, which we, 
with some justice, considered a too frequent occurrence 
in Zululand, especially in cases of supposed witchcraft, 
this saperstition being undoubtedly the bane of the 
country. 

But in judging of the king's acts in this respect, it 
should be remembered that, to rule a nation without any 
assistance in the form of gaols or fetters, capital punish- 
ment must needs be resorted to rather more frequently 
than in our own country, where, indeed, it is not so long 
unce we hung a man for stealing a sheep, and for other 
acts far short of murder. And as to the superstition con- 
cerning witches, it can hardly have led to more cruelty 
and injustice in Zululand than in civilised European 
countries, where at Treves 7000 victims were burned 
alive for witchcraft ; 500 at Grcneva iu three months ; 



D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



18 THJB ZULV WAR. 

1000 in the province of Como ; 400, at once, at TouIoubc ; 
with many other like cases on official record.* The 
practice of smelling out a witch, as it is cidled, is 
one to be put a stop to as soon as possible by 
gradual and gentle means, and Cetahwayo himself had 
arrived at that conclusion without our assistance, as 
shown in his conversation witii the native printer 
Magema, whose accoimt of a visit paid to the Zulu 
king appeared in " HacmUlan's Magazine " for March, 
1878. 

But the custom of a people — the law of a land — ^is 
not to be done away with or altered in an hour ; nor 
could wo English reasonably expect such radical changes 
in the administration of a country to foUow our ordefa 
as immediately and naturally as we should expect a new 
ordinance to be received by the natives of Natal living 
under our own rule. Neither could we justly consider 
the non-fdlBlment of our wishes and commands a sufficient 
cause for attacking Zululand, although such supposed 
non-fulfilment was the first, and for a long time the 



• See Lecky's *' Eationaliflm in Europe" :— 7000 at Trfeves ; 600 
by a single Biahop of Bambe^ ; 800 in one year, in tbe bishopric of 
Wurtiburg ; 1000 in the piorinoe of Como ; 400 at onee, at Toolonse ; 
500 in three months, at Geneva ; 48 at Conatance ; 80 at the little 
town of Valary in Saxony; 70 in Sweden j and one Christian judge 
boasted that he himself had been the means of putting to death, in 
Bixteen years, 800 witchea ! 

In Scotland, two centuries ago, but after many centuries of 
Christianity and civilisation, John Brown, the Ayrshin carrier, was 
shot, and, within a fortnight, an aged widow and a young maid ware 
tied to stakes in the Solway and drowned by the rising tide, for the 
crime of neglecting episcopal worship, and gokig aside into the moor 
to spend the Sabbath day in piayer and praise. 



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FmST CAUSES. 19 

only casus heUi wbicli could be found agaiuBt the 
Zulu king. 

The first occasion on which the solemnity of these 
"coronation promises" was made of importance was in 
1875, when Bishop Schreuder undertook to pay Cetsh- 
wayo a visit for the purpose of presenting him with a 
printed and bound copy of S&, Shepatone's Report upon 
the coronation in 1873, and impressing him fidly with 
the wishes of the English Government. Even then, 
judging from Bishop Schreuder's account of his inter- 
view^ neither king nor councillors were thoroughly satis- 
fied with the result.* Cetshwayo, while admiring the 
eiact report given of what took place during Mr. Shep- 
atone's visit, objected that he had reserved his own 
royal prerogatives and the right of putting criminals to 
death for certain serious crimes, and pointed out that 
Mr. Shepstone had neglected to inform the Queen of 
this &ct. 

Bishop Schreuder, from his own account, appears to 
have overruled all objections with a very high hand, and 
fdmost forced the "book," with his own interpretation 
of it, upon the seemingly reluctant king, who, he says, 
" evidently felt himadf out of his depth." 

* P. P. [0. 1401] p. SO. 



D°zLvGoog[e 



CHAPTER IL 

LANGALIBALELE. 

Meanwhile in Natal mischief was brewing. A certain 
chief in the north of the colony was supposed to be in 
a very rebelliouB frame of mind, and it was rumoured 
that force of arms would prore necessary in order to 
bring him to his senses. 

This chief was one Langalibalele, who, with his 
tribe, the Ama-Hlubi, had been driven out of Zululand 
by Umpande in the year 1848, and had taken refuge 
in Natal He was located by the Englifih Government 
in the country below the Draakensberg Mountains, with 
the duty imposed upon him of defending Natal against 
the attacks of the predatoiy hordes of Bushmen who, 
in the early days of the colony, made perpetual and 
destructive raids over the mountains. From this point 
of view it would seem reasonable that the Hlubi tribe 
should be permitted the use of firearms, prohibited, 
except under certain restrictions, to the natives of Natal ; 
inattention to which prohibition was the ground upon 
which the original suspicions concerning Langalibfdele's 
loyalty were based. The law, however, by which this 
prohibition and these restrictions were made was one of 

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LANOALIBALELE. 21 

tiioBe enactments which, even when theoretically wise, 
are often practically impossible, and to which new 
communities are bo prone. 

Theoretically no native can possess a gun in Natal 
which has not been registered before a mag^trate. 
Practically, in every kraal, in every part of the colony, 
there were, and doubtless still are, many unregistered 
guns, bought by natives, or ^iven to them in lieu of 
wages by their masters (a common practice at the 
Diamond Fields), with very vague comprehension or 
total ignorance on the part of the native that any 
unlawful act had been committed. This would be more 
especially natural when the masters who thus furnished 
their men with the forbidden weapon were themselves 
in aome way connected with the government of the 
country (Natal), whose sanction would therefore be 
looked upon by the natives as an equivalent to the 
permission of Government itself. But in point of fact 
the law had always been enforced in such an extremely 
lax way, the evasions of it were so easy and numerous, 
and so many white men of position and respectability 
in the colony were party to the infraction of it, that it 
is no wonder that its reality and importance was but 
lightly engraved upon the native mind. 

The special accusation, however, brought against 
Langalibalele to prove his rebellious tendencies was that 
young men of his tribe were in possession of unregistered 
guns, which, in addition, had not been brought in to 
the magistrate, when demanded, for registration. The 
reason for this unwillingness (on the part of the young 
men) to comply with the above demands, appeared 

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22 TEB ZULir WAM. 

afterwards in the lact that other guns which had beea 
properly produced for registration, had, after consider- 
able delay, been returned to their owners in an injured 
condition, rendering them unfit for use. 

As these guns were the well-earned reward of hard 
labour, and greatly valued by their possessors, it ia little 
to be wondered at that there should be considerable 
reluctance on the part of others to risk the same loss. 
A little forbearance and consideration on the part of 
tiiose in authority might, however, easily have overcome 
tiie difficulty. But in this case, as in others, the 
mistake was committed of ret^uiring prompt and 
unquestioning obedience, without sufficient care being 
taken to protect the rights of those who rendered it. 
As usual we would not stop to reason or deal justly with 
the savage. Carelessness of the property of the natives^ 
the overbearing impatience of a magistrate, the want of 
tact and good-feeling on the part of a commonplace 
subordinate — all these led to an indefinitely uneasy 
state of things, which soon produced considerable 
anxiety in the colonial mind. This feeling prevailed 
during Mr. Shepstone's absence in Zululand, and it was 
generally understood that the Secretaiy for Kative 
Affairs' next piece of work after crowning Cetshwayo 
would be that of "settling Langalibalele." 

But beyond the reluctance to produce their guns for 
registration, there was nothing in the behaviour of the 
Hlubi tribe to give the colonists cause for apprehension. 
No lawless acts were committed, no cattle stolen, no 
farmhouse fired, and the vague fears which existed 
amongst the white inhabitants as to what might happen 

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LANQALIBALELE. 23 

were rather tie result of the way in whidi "Grovemmeut" 
shook its head over the matter as a serious one, than 
joatified hy any real cause for alarm. It was in fact 
one of those "Government scares" which occasionally 
were produced from causes or for reasons not apparent 
on the surface. 

On Mr. Shepstone's return &om the coronation of 
Cetshwayo, Government native messengers were sent to 
Langalibalele, requiring the latter to come down in 
person to Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal, to answer 
for the conduct of his tribe concerning their guns. The 
message produced a great — and to those who were 
ignorant of the cause of it — a most unreasonable panic 
in the tribe, in which the chief himself shared 
considerably. The Ama-Hlubi appeared exceedingly 
suspicious, even of the designs of the Government 
messengers, who were made to take off their great-coats, 
aud were searched for concealed weapons before being 
admitted into the presence of Langalibalele. Such 
distrust of British good faith was held in itself to be a 
crime, the insolence of which could not be overlooked. 
Furthermore it was soon evident that the tribe would 
not trust their chief, nor he his person, in the hands of 
the Government, now that he was in disfavour. Without 
actually refiising to obey the ordera he had received and 
proceed to Pietermaritzburg, Langalibalele sent excuses 
and apologies, chiefly tumiDg upon his own ill-health, 
which made travelling difficult to him. This answer 
was the signal for the military expedition of 1873, 
which was entered upon without any further attempts to 
bring about a peaceful settlement of the affair, or to find 

Dig-izedtyGoOgle 



24 THE ZULU WAB. 

out the real grounds for the evident fear and distrust of 
the Hlubi tribe. In October, 1873, the force, partly of 
regulars, partly colonial, a few Baauto horse, with an 
entirely unorganised and useless addition of untrained 
Natal natives, started from Pietcrmaritzburg, with all 
the 'pomp and circumstance of war; and much to the 
delight of the young colonial blood on the look-out for 
martial distinction. The tribe, however, far from ha\'ing 
the least wish to fight, or intention of opposing the British 
force, deserted their location as soon as the news reached, 
them that the army had started, and fled with their 
chief over the Draakensberg Mountains. Our force, 
commanded by Colonel Milles of the 75th Regiment, 
and accompanied by the Lieut. -Governor Sir R C. C. Pine 
and Mr. Shepstone, reached a place called Meshlyn, 
situated on the confines of the district to be subdued, 
on October 31at ; but the " enemy " had vanished, and 
were reported to be making the best of their way out of 
the colony, without, however, committing ravages of any 
description on their way, even to the extent of carrying 
ofi" any of their neighbours' cattle. In fact they were 
frightened, and simply ran away. Our object now was 
to arrest the tribe in its Bight ; and a plan was formed 
for enclosing it in a network of troops, seizing all the 
passes over the mountains, and thus reducing it to 



Positions were assigned to the diflferent officers in 
command, and the scheme looked extremely well on 
paper, and to men who were not acquainted with t^e 
district and the exceeding difficulty of travelling through 
it. Unfortunately, with the same lamentable failure in 

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LANOALIBALELE. 25 

the Intelligence Department which has characterised the 
more important proceedings of 1879, very little was 
known, by those in command, of the country, or of what 
was going on in it. Mr. Shepatone himself, whose 
supposed knowledge of the people, their land, and all 
concerning them was so greatly and naturally relied 
upon, proved totally ignorant of the distances which lay 
between one point and another, or of the difficulties to 
be overcome in reaching them. 

In consequence of this singular ignorance a little 
force was sent out on the evening of November 2nd, 
under command of Major Dumford, RE., chief of the 
staff, with orders to seize and hold a certain pass 
known as the Bushman's River Pass, over which 
Langalibalele was expected to escape ; the distance 
having been miscalculated by about two-thirds, and 
the difficulties of the way immensely underrated. 

Major Dumford was himself a new-comer in the 
colony at that time, and had therefore no personal 
knowledge of the country ; but he was supplied with full, 
though, as it soon appeared, unreliable information hy 
those under whose command he served, and who were . 
in possession of a plan or diagram of the district which 
turned out to be altogether incorrect. He did, indeed, 
reach his assigned post, 'though four-and-twenty hours 
after the time by which he expected to be diere ; while 
those sent out to take up other positions never reached 
them at all, owing to the same incorrect information 
concerning locality. 

Major Dumford was in command of a party com- 
posed of 2 officers, 6 noU'Commiasioued officers, and 

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26 TSS ZTTLXT WAR. 

47 rank and fild of the Natal and Karkloof Carbineers, 
24 mounted Basutoa,* and a native interpreter. His 
orders weref to seize and hold the Buahman's River 
Pass, " with a view to preventing the entrance in or out 
of the colony of iany natives until the expedition is ready 
to cross over." Special orders were also given to him 
that he was on no account to fire the fiiat shot. 

There was one excellent reason, not generally taken 
into consideration, for this order, in the fact that the 
three days given by Government to the tribe in which 
to surrender would not be over untLL midday on the 
3rd of November. 

Starting at 8.30 P.M. on the 2nd November, Major 
Dumford's force only reached its destination at 6.30 A.M. 
on the 4th, having traversed a moat dif&cult country^ 
broken, pathless, and well-nigh inaccessible. On the line 
of march many men fell out, utterly unable to keep up ; 
pack-horaes with provisions and spare ammunition were 
lost; and MajorDumford had his left shoulder dislocated, 
and other severe injuries, by his horse falling with him 
over a precipice on the 3rd. He pressed on for some 
hours, but became quite exhausted at the foot of the 
Giant's Casde Pass, where he lay some time; he was 
then dragged up with the aid of a blanket, reaching the 
top of the pass at 2 A.M, At 4 A.M, Major Dumford 
was lifted on his horse, and with his force — reduced to 
1 officer, 1 non-commissioned officer, 33 troopers, and 
the Basutos — pushed on to the Bushman's Biver Pass, 

* If^atiTefl of Basaloland, leudent foi maoy yean la NataL 
f See Field force Oidei^ 1873. 

Dig-izedbyGoO^lc 



LANGAMBALELS, 27 

and occnpied it at 6.30 A.M., finding Laogalibalele's men 
already in the pass. 

M^jor Dumford posted his men, and went forward 
with the interpreter to parley with the chiefe, and induce 
thran to letom to their allegiance. This was a service 
of danger, for the young warriors were very excited. 
Seeing that the enemy were getting behind rocka^ etc., 
commanding the mouth of the pass, he made every 
preparation for hostilities, though restricted by ike order 
not to fire the first shot. Finding that, although the 
natives drew back when he bade them, they pressed on 
again when his back was turned, and that the volunteers 
were wavering, he at last reluctantly directed an orderly 
retreat to higher ground, from whence he could still 
command the pass. Upon a shot being fired by the 
natives, the retreat became a stampede, and a heavy fire 
being opened, three of the Carbineers and one Basnto felL 
The horse of the interpreter was killed, and, while Major 
Dumford was endeavouring to reach the man and lift 
him on his own horse, the interpreter was killed by his 
side, and Major Dumford was surrounded and left alone. 
Dropping the reins, he drew his revolver, and shot his 
immediate assailants, who had seized his horse's bridle, 
and, a^r running the gauntlet of a numerous enemy 
at dose quarters, escaped with one serious wound, an 
assegai-stab in the left arm, whereby it was permanently 
disabled. He received one or two trifling cuts besides, 
and his patrol-jacket was pierced in many places. 
Getting clear of the enemy. Major Dumford rallied a 
few Carbineers and the Basutos, and covered the retreat. 
The head-quarters camp was reached about 1 a.u. 

Dig-izedtyGoOgle 



28 THE ZULU WAR. 

on the 5tL At 11 P.M. on that day, Major Dumford 
led out a volunteer party — artillery with rockets, 50 
men of the 75th Regiment, 7 Carbineere, and 30 
Basutos — to the rescue of Captain Boyes, 75th Eegi- 
ment, who had been sent out with a support on the 
3rd, and was believed to be in great danger. Major 
Dumford had received such serious injuries that the 
doctor endeavoujed to dissuade him from further exer- 
tion, but as those sent to his support were in danger 
and he knew the country, he determined to go. He was 
lifted on his horse, and left amid the cheers of the troops 
in camp. Having marched all night — resting only from 
3 to 5 A.M. — they met Captain Boyes' party about mid- 
day ; they had lost their way, and thus did not find the 
Giant's Castle Pass. 

After this. Major Dumford, with a considerable 
force, occupied Bushman's River Pass, recovered and 
buried the bodies of his comrades, and held the pass. 
He afterwards patrolled the disturbed districts. The 
Lieut.-Governor, Sir B. C. C. Pine, in a despatch dated 
13th November, 1873, accepted the responsibility of the 
orders not to fire the first shot, and said of Major 
Dumford : " He behaved, by testimony of all present, in 
the most gallant manner, using his utmost exertions to 
rally his little force, till, left absolutely alone, he waa 
reluctantly compelled to follow them — wounded." 

Colonel Milles, commanding the field force, published 
the following order : 

" Camp Mbbhltn, 7th November, 1673. 
" The Commandant, with deep regret, announces 

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LANGALIBALELK 29 

to the field force under his commaiid the loss of 
three Carbineers, -viz. : Mr. Ereldne, Mjr. Potterill, and 
Mr. Bond, and of one native interpreter, Elijah, who 
formed part of the small force sent up with Major 
Dumford, B.E., to secure the passes, and who were 
kUled during the retreat of that puty &om the passes, 
which, although they had gallantly seized, they were 
uiLable to hold, the orders being for ' the forces not to 
fire the first shot,' and so having to wait till they were 
placed at a great disadvantage. The brave conduct of 
those killed is testified to by all their comrades, and 
there is consolation alone in the thought that they died 
nobly fighting for their country. The Commandant 
must, however, publicly render his thanks to Major 
Dumford for the way in which he commanded the 
party, for his courage and coolness, and especially for 
the noble way in which, after his return firom the 
passes, being almost exhausted, he mustered a volunteer 
party and marched to the relief of Captain Boyea, who 
was considered in great danger. 

" By command, 

"A. E. Abengo Cross 

"(For Chief of the Staff)." 

Although the main body of the fighting-men of the 
tribe had left Natal, most of the women and children, 
the sick and infirm, with a few ablebodied men to watch 
over them, had taken refuge in holes and caves, of which 
there are a considerable number in that mountainous 
part of the colony. The men of the tribe, indeed, were 
in di£^;race with the Gfovermuent, and thought it best 

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80 THE ZULU WAR. 

to be out of the way when the Britiah force paid their 
homes a visit, but it waa not for a moment imagined 
that the soldiers would make war upon women and 
children. The latter, in any case, could not have taken 
that tremendous and hurried journey aeross the great 
mountains; and, with what soon proved a very mistaken 
cocfidence on the part of die people, all who could 
neither fight nor travel were left in these hiding-places, 
from which they ejected to emerge in safety as soon 
as the troops, finding no one to oppose them, should 
have left the district. *' The English soldiers will not 
touch the children,"* was the expression used. So far, 
however, was this idea from being realised, that the 
remainder of the expedition consisted of a series of 
attempts, more or less successful, to hunt the unfor- 
tunate '■ children " out of their hiding-places and take 
them prisoners. 

During these proceedings many acta were committed 
under Gtovemment sanction which can only be charac- 
terised by the word "atrocities," and which were as 
useless and unnecessary as they were crueLf 

Poor frightened creatures were smoked to death or 
killed by rockets in caves which they dared not leave 
for fear of a worse fate at the hands of their captors ; 
women and children were killed, men were tortured, 
^d prisoners put to death. On one occaaon a white 



* Bi ttie Zulu lai^piage the word ahantwana (children) ia s genenl 
one, inoludii^; both women luid childien. 

-f- It is D11I7 ftuT to Majot Dumford to state that dnriog the whole 
of theae proceedings he was away oret the mountains, in rain ptusnit 
of an enemy to be f onght. 



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LANOALISAIiELE. 31 

commander of native forceB is said to have given the 
significant information to hia men that he did not wi^ 
to s« the faces of any prisoners ', and it is reported 
that a prisoner was made over to the native force to 
be put to death as the latter chose. The colonial 
newspapers apologiBed at the time for some of theie 
acta, on the score that they were the result of the 
youthful enthusiasm of "Young Nat^l '* fleshing his 
maiden sword. 

These acts were chiefly committed by the irregular 
(white) troops and native levies, and are a signal proof 
of how great a crime it is to turn undisciplined or 
sav^e tioops, over whom no responsible person has any 
real control, loose upon a defenceless people. The excuse 
made by those in authority in such oases lEt always 
"We did not intend these things to take place, but 
horrora are always attendant on savage warfare." 
But such excuses are of small value when, In campaign 
after campaign, It has been proved that the use of 
colonial troops under their own ofiicera, and of dis- 
organised masses of armed "firiendly natives," is inr 
variably productive of scenes diagraoefiil to the name of 
England, without any attempt being made to introduce 
a better ayateuL Certainly if " horrors " beyond the fair 
fortune of war are necessarily attendant upon savage 
warfiwe, they should not be those inflicted by British 
txoops and their atlies upon unarmed or solitary men, 
women, and children. 

So many women were injittcd in dislodging them 
from the caves that Major Ihimford, on his second 
return from the moimtains, instituted a hospltol-tent 

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82 TEE ZULU WAR. 

where they might be attended to; but such humanity 
was by no means the general rule. 

If acts of barbarity were for the most part committed 
by the irregular troops, there is one instance to the 
contrary which can never be forgotten in connection 
with this affair — so fla^aut a case that the Mends of 
the officer in command, when the story first appeared in 
the colonial papers, refused to believe in it until it was 
authenticated beyond a doubt 

A body of troops — ^infantry, irregular cavalry, and 
undisciplined natives — upon one occasion during this 
expedition were engaged for some hours in trying to 
dislodge a solitary native fi^sm a cave in which he had 
taten refuge. The force had discovered the hiding- 
place by the assistance of a little boy, whom they 
captured and induced to betray his friends. 

The " rebel " (in this case there was but one) refused 
to surrender, and for a long while defended himself 
gallantly against the attacks of the whole force. Shots 
were fired through the apertures of the cave, rockets (a 
new and horrible experience to the poor creature) were 
discharged upon him. At last, after holding out for 
some hours, the man gave up the struggle, and coming 
out from his insufficient shelter, begged for mercy at the 
hands of his numerous foe. He had a good many 
wounds upon him, but none sufficiently severe to 
prevent his walking out amongst his captors, and asking 
them to sp^re his life. After a short consultation 
amongst the officers, a decision was arrived at as to the 
proper treatment of this ma^, who had proved himself a 
brave soldier and was now a helpless captive. 

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LANGALIBALELE. 33 

By order of the officer commanding, a trooper named 
Moodie put liis pistol to the prisoner's head and blew 
out his braina. A court-martial sat upon this officer in 
the course of the following year, and he was acquitted 
of all blame. The defence was that the man was so 
seriously injured that it was an act of humanity to put 
an end to him, and that the officer dared not trust him 
in the handa of the natives belonging to the English 
force, who were exasperated by the long defence he had 
made. But the prisoner was not mortally nor even 
dangerously wounded. He was able to walk and to 
speak, and had no wound upon him which need 
necessarily have caused hie death. And as to the 
savage temper of the native force, there was no reason 
why the prisoner should be left in their charge at all, 
as there was a considerable white force present at the 
time.* 

* 1. The foUoving aoooimt of the above tianeaction was given by 
one of those concerned, in a letter to The Natal Times of that date : 
" Twenty of ns volonteered yesterday to go up and into a cave about 
eight miles from here. We found only one native, whom we shot, 
took a lot of goats (eighty-seven), and any amount of assegais and other 
iveflpoiis. We also searched about the country and killed a few 
niggeiB, taking fourteen priaonete. One fellow in a cave loaded his 
rifle with stones, and slightly wounded Wheelwright and Lieutenant 
Clarke, £.A. We, however, got him out, and Moodie shot Tiirn 
through the brains. Fifteen of ours have just volunteered to go to a 
cave supposed to contain niggeis, We are gradually wiping out the 
three poor fellows who were shot, and all oar men are determined to 
have some mote." 

2. Tlte Natal Government Gazette, Decemher 9th, 1 873, contains the 
following enactment : " All officers and other persons who have acted 
ander the authority of Sii Benjamin ChUlay CampbeU Fine, K.C.M.G., 
as Lieut-Goveroor of the colony of Natal, or as Supreme Chief 
orer the native population, or have acted bond fide i"''^ ^^ purposes 

D 

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84 THE ZULU WAR. 

The leatilt of the expedition againat the Hlubi tribe 
was 80 little satiBfactory that those in authority felt 
themaelves obliged to look about for something else to 
do before taking the troops back to Pietermaritzburg. 
They found what they wanted ready to their hand. 
Next to Langalibalele's location lay that of the well-to- 
do and, quiet little tribe of Putini. " Government " had 
as yet found no fiiult with these people, and, securb 
in their own innocence, they had made no attempt to 
get out of the way of the force which had come to 
destroy their neighbours, but remained at home, helped 
their cattle, and planted their crops as usual Un- 
fortunately, however, some marriages had taken place 
between members of the two tribes, and when that of 
Laogalibalele fled, the wives of several of his men took 
refuge in their fathers' kraals in the next location. No 
further proof was required of the complicity of Putini 
with Langalibalele, or of ihe rebellious condition of the 
smaller tribe. Consequently it was at once, as the 
natives term it, '* eaten up," falling an easy prey owing 
to its unsuspecting state. The whole tribe — men, 
women, and children — were taken prisoners and carried 
down to Pietermaritzburg, their cattle and goods were 
confiscated, and their homes destroyed. Several of the 
Putini men were killed, but there was very little resist- 
ance, as they were wholly taken by surprise. The colony 

aud during the time afoiesaid, vhether such acts weie done in any 
district, county, or division of the colony in irbioli martial law vas 
proclaimed or not, an hereby indemnified in respect of all acta, 
matters, and things done, in order to suppress the rebellion and prevent 
the spread thereof; and such acts bo done are hereby made and 
declared to be lawful, and are confirmed; 

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LANQAUBALELE. 35 

was charmed ^th this success, and the spoils of the 
Putini people were generally looked to to pay some of 
the expenses of the campaign. WhateTer may have been 
the gain to the Government, by orders of which the 
cattle (the chief wealth of the tribe) were sold, it was 
not long shared by the individnal colonists who pur- 
chased the animals. The pasture in that part of the 
country £rom which they had come is of a very different 
description from any to be found in the environs of 
Fietermaritzburg, and, in consequence of the change, the 
captured cattle died oflf rapidly almost as soon as they 
changed hands. But this was not all, for they had time, 
before they died, to spread amongst the original cattle 
of their new owners two terrible scourges, in the shape 
of ** lung-aickness " and "red-water," from which the 
midland districts had long been free. One practical 
result of the expedition of 1873 seems to be that neither 
meat, milk, nor butter have ever again been so cheap in 
the colony as they were before that date, the two latter 
artides being often unobtainable to this day. 

The nnhappy prisoners of both tribes were driven 
down like beasts to Pietermaritzburg, many of the 
weaker dying from want and exposure on the way. 
Although summer-time, it happened to be very wet, and 
therefore cold ; our native force had been allowed to 
strip tiie unfortunates of all their possessions, even to 
their blankets and the leather petticoats of the women. 
The sufferings of these poor creatures — many of them 
with infants a few days old, or bom on the march 
down — were very great. A scheme was at first laid, by 
those in authority, for ''giving the women and children 

D 2 _^ 

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36 THE ZULU WAB. 

out " as servants for a t«rm of years — that is to say, for 
making temporary slaves of them to the white colonists. 
This additional enormity was vetoed by the home 
Government, but the fact remains that its perpetratiou 
was actually contemplated by those entrusted with the 
government of the colony, and especially of the natives, 
and was hailed by the colonists as one of the advantages 
to accrue to them from the expedition of 1873. Several 
children were actually given out in the way referred to 
before the order to the contrary arrived from England, 
and a considerable time elapsed before they were all 
recovered by their relatives. 

The unhappy women and children of the Laugali- 
balele tribe were mere emaciated skeletons when they 
reached the various places where they were to live 
under siirveiUance. They seemed crushed with misery, 
utterly ignorant of the cause of their misfortunes, but 
silent and uncomplaining. Many of the women had 
lost children — few knew whether their male relatives 
were yet alive. On being questioned, they knew 
nothing of Mr. Shejfitone, not even his name, which 
was always supposed to command the love and fear of 
natives throughout the length and breadth of the land. 
They did not know what the tribe had done to get 
into such trouble ; they only knew that the soldiers had 
come, and that they had run away and hidden them- 
selves ; that some of them were dead, and the rest were 
ready to die too and have it all over. A considerable 
number of these poor creatures were permitted by 
Government to remain upon the Bishop's land, where 
most of them graduaUy regained health and spirits, 

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LANGALIBALELE. 37 

but retained always the longing for their own homes 
and people and their lost chief which characterises 
them BtiiL* 

* It IB hard to undeiataiid vliy thcee people should yet be 
detained and theii h&nnless old cbiei still kept prisoner at Capetown. 
The common saving that fhey are all content and the chief better off 
than he ever was before in his life, is an entirely and cruelly false one. 
Langalibalele is wearying for his freedom and hia own people ; the 
few women with liim are tired of their loneliness, and longing to be 
wiUx their children in XataL The present writer paid the chief a 
visit in September of this year (1879), and foond him very sad. " I 
am weary ; when wiU they let me go 1 " was his continual question. 



izedtyGOO^IC 



CHAPTER III. 

TRIAL OP LANOALIBALELE. 

Meadwhils the fugitive chief had at last been captured 
hy the treachery of a Basuto chief named Molappo, who 
enticed him into his hands, and then delivered him up 
to Mr. Griffiths, resident magistrate in that part of 
British Baautoland. When he and his party were first 
captured they had with them a horse laden with all the 
coin which the tribe had been able to get together during 
the last few days before the expedition started from 
Pietermaritzburg, and which they had collected to send 
down as a nmsom for their chief Their purpose was 
arrested by the news that the soldiers had actually started 
to attack them ; when, feeling that all was lost, they 
fled, carrying the chief and his ransom with them. 
"What became of the money, whether it became 
Molappo'a perquisite, or whether it formed part of the 
English spoil, has never been publicly known. But it 
can hardly be denied that the readiness of the people to 
pay away in ransom for their chief the whole wealth 
of the tribe earned by years of labour on the part of 
the working members, is in itself a proof that their 
tendencies were by no means rebellious. 

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TRIAL OF LANGALISALELK 39 

Langalibalele, with seven of lis 8ons and many 
induuas (captains) and head-men, was brought down 
to Fietermaiitzburg for trial, reaching the town on the 
2l8t December, 

So strong was the unreasoning hatred of the colonists 
against him on account of the death of the three 
Carbineers which had resulted from the expedition, 
that the unhappj man, a helpless captive, was insulted 
and pelted by the populace as he was conveyed in irons 
to the capital ; and again, after sentence had been passed 
upon him, upon his way to Durban, 

It was at this stage of affairs that the Bishop of 
Natal first came upon the scene, and interfered on 
behalf of the oppressed. Until 1873, while earnestly 
endeavouring to do his best as teacher and pastor 
amongst the natives as well as amongst their white 
fellow-colonists, he had not found it to be his duty to 
go deeply into political matters concerning them. He 
had great confidence at that time in the justice and 
humanity of their government as carried on by 
Mr. Shepstone, for whom he had a warm personal 
regard, based on the apparent uprightness of his 
conduct ; and he had therefore contented himself with 
accepting Mr. Shepstone's word in all that concerned 
them. 

That so many years should have passed without the 
Bishop's having discovered how greatiy his views and 
those of his friend differed in first principles as to the 
government of the people, is due partly to the fact that 
the two met but seldom, and then at regular expected 
intervals, and partly because no great crisis had 

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40 TBE ZULU WAR 

previously taken place to prove the principles of either 
in that respect. Their regular interviews were upon 
Sundays, when the Bishop, going into Pietennaritzburg 
for the cathedral service, invariably spent a couple of 
hours with his friend. During these comparatively 
short meetings doubtless Mr. Shepstoae's real personal 
regard for the Bishop caused him temporarily to feel 
somewhat as he did, and, where he could not do so, 
to refrain from entering upon political discussion. The 
sympathy with Mr. Shepstone which existed in the 
Bishop's mind prevented the latter from looking more 
closely for himself into matters which he believed to 
be in good hands, and which did not naturally fall 
within the sphere of his duties ; while ■ the com- 
paratively trivial character of the cases with which 
the native department had hitherto dealt, was not such 
as to force their details before a mind otherwise and 
fully employed. 

The Langalibalele expedition, however, opened the 
Bishop's eyes. While it lasted, although deeply 
deploring the loss of life on either side, and feeling 
great indignation at the atrocities perpetrated on ours, 
he did not doubt that Mr. Shepstone had done all he 
could to avert the necessity of bloodshed, and expected to 
find him, upon his return to Pietermaritzbui-g, much 
grieved and indignant at the needless amount of suffering 
inflicted upon his people, the greater portion of whom 
must be entirely innocent, even although the charges 
against their chief should be proved. 

The discovery that IVIr. Shepstone entirely ratified 



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TMIAL OF LANGALIBALELE. 41 

what had been done* was the first blow to his friend's 
reliance on him. The mockery of justice tenned a 
trial, granted to Langalibalele, was the next ; and the 
discovery of how completely he had misconceived Mr. 
Shepstone's policy closed the intimacy of their friendship. 

It soon became apparent that the trial of the chief 
was indeed to be a farce — a pretence, meant to satisiy 
inquiring minds at home that justice had been done, 
tut which could have but one result, the condemnation 
of the prisoner, already prejudged by a Government 
which, having declared him to be a rebel and having 
treated him as such, was hardly likely to stultify itself 
by aUowing him to be proved innocent of the charges 
brought against him. 

That there might be no doubt at all upon the 
subject, the prisoner was denied the help of counsel, 
white or black, in the hearing of bis case, even to watch 
t^e proceedings on his behalf, or to cross-examine the 
witnesses ; consequently the official record of the trial 
can only be looked upon as an ea; -parte statement of the 
case, derived from witnesses selected by the Supreme 
Chief,t examined by the Crown Prosecutor, and not 
cross-examined at all on the prisoner's behalf, although 
the assistance of counsel was recognised by the Crown 
Prosecutor himself as being in accordance with Kafir law. J 

* Not inclnding those individual acts of cruelty 'vhicK no one 
coold defend, although many speak of them aa unsToidable. 

t The Lieut -Go vetnot of the colony. 

J Kafir law, under which Langalibalolo was tried, because most 
of Uie offeucea with which he was charged were uot recognisable by 
English law. 



DigizedtyGOOgle 



42 THE ZULU WAR. 

But the formation of the court and its whole pro- 
ceedings were palpably absurd, except for the purpose 
of securing a conviction ; and that this was the case was 
generally understood in Natal. Even those colonists 
who were most violent against the so-called "rebel," Mid 
would have had him hanged without mercy, asserting 
that he had been "taken red-handed," saw that the 
authorities had put themselves in the wrong by granting 
the prisoner a trial against the justice of which so much 
could be alleged- 

In point of fact, the Lieut -Governor had no 
power to form a court such as that by which 
Langalibalele was tried, consisting of his excellency 
himself as Supreme Chief, the Secretary for Native 
Affairs, certain administrators of native law, and 
certain native chiefe and indunas. Besides which the 
Lieut -Governor was not only debarred by an ordinance 
of the colony* from sitting as judge in such a court, 
from which he would be the sole judge in a court 
of appeal, but had already committed himself to a 
decision adverse to the prisoner by having issued the 
proclamation of November 11th, 1873, declaring that the 
chief and his tribe had " set themselves in open revolt 
and rebellion against Her Majesty's Government in this 
colony," and " proclaiming and making known that they 
were in rebellion, and were hereby declared to be 
outlaws," and that "the said tribe was broken up, and 
from that day forth had ceased to exist," and by further 
seizing and confiscating aU the cattle and |m>perty of 
the said tribe within reach, deposing Langalibalele from 
* Ordinance No. 3, 1849. 

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TRIAL OF LANGALIBALELE. 43 

his chiefttdnsliip, and otherwise trecttiog him and his 
tribe as rebels. 

His Excellency, therefore, could not possibly be 
looked upon as an unprejudiced judge of the first 
instance in the prisoner's case ; nor could the Secretaiy 
for Native Affairs, Mr. Shepstone, by whose advice and 
with whose approval the expedition had been under- 
taken. Aa to the minor members of the court, they 
could hardly be expected to have an independent 
opinion in the matter, especially the " native chie& and 
indunas," who knew very well that they would be liable 
to the accusation of disaffection themselves if they 
ventured to show any bearing towards the prisoner, 
or to do otherwise than "blindly follow the lead of their 
white " brother-judges " (!) and masters. 

The native names gave a satisfactory air of justice 
to the proceedings of the court in EngUah eyes, but in 
point of fact they were but dummy judges after alL 

Not only, however, was the court wrongly con- 
stituted, but its proceedings were irregular and illegal 
It was called, and considered to be, a native court, but 
in point of fact it was a nondescript assembly, such 
usages of either native or supreme court as could 
possibly tell on the prisoner's side (notably the use of 
counsel) being omitted, and only those which would 
insure his conviction admitted. 

It was not the practice of the colony for serious 
crimes to be tried before a native court But in this 
ease they were obliged to run counter to custom for 
the reason given in a previous note, that most of the 
separate charges against the diief could not be recog- 

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44 THE ZXnU WAR. 

nised as crimes at all in an English court of law. At 
the same time the sentence finally given waa one quite 
beyond the power of the court to pronounce. Clause 4 
of the ordinance limits the power of the Supreme Chief 
to " appointing or removing the subordinate chiefs or 
other authorities" among the natives, but gives him 
no power to sentence to death, or to "banishment or 
transportation for life to such place as the Supreme 
Chief or Lieut-Governor may appoint." When Lan- 
galibaJele had been " removed " from his chieftain- 
ship, and himself and the bulk of his tribe " driven 
over the mountain out of the colony " by the Govern- 
ment force, as announced in the bulletin of November 
13th, 1873, the cattle within the colony seized, and 
many of the tribe killed in resisting the attempt to 
seize them, the Supreme Chief, under native law, had 
expended his power ; while banishment is a punishment 
wholly unknown to Kafir law, as is plainly stated in 
" Kafir Laws and Customs," p. 39. 

Again, throughout the trial, the prisoner was assumed 
to have pleaded guilty, although in point of fact be 
had merely admitted that he had done certain acts, but 
desired witnesses to be called whose " evidence would 
justify or extenuate what he had done," a plea which 
in any ordinary court would be recorded as a plea of 
"Not guilty." 

The native members of the court, alsOj were made 
to sign a judgment, the contents of which had been 
"interpreted" to them, and their signatures "wit- 
nessed," by which the prisoner is declared to have been 
" convicted, on clear evidence, of several acts, for some 

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TRIAL OF LANGALIBALELE. 45 

of which he would be liable to forfeit his life under 
the law of every civilised country in the world." The 
absurdity of this is palpable, syice it was impossible 
that these men should know anything of the law of 
any civilised land ; it is plain, therefore, that in pre- 
tending to agree with assertions, of the meaning of 
which they were totally ignorant, they were under 
some strong influence, such as prejudice against the 
prisoner, undue fear of the Supreme Chief, or desire to 
please him — one of them being " Head Induna of the 
Natal Government," and another the " Induna to the 
Secretary for Native Affairs." 

To turn to these crimes, "for some of which he 
would be liable to forfeit his life under the law of 
every civilised country in the world "■ — ^to which state- 
ment His Excellency the Supreme Chief, the Secretary 
for Native Affairs, and the Administrators of Native 
Law have also signed their names — we find that the 
charges run as follows : 

1. "Setting at naught the authority of the magis- 
trate in a manner* not indeed sufficiently palpable to 
warrant the use of forcible coercion to our (civilised) 
laws and customs." Which charge we may at once 
dismiss as absurd. 

2. " Permitting, or probably encouraging, his tribe 
to possess fire-arms, and retain them contrary to law." 

3. "With reference to these fire-arms, deiying the 
authority of the magistrate, and once insulting the 



4. "Refusing to appear before" the Supreme Chief 
* The italics are tlie Author's own in this and following charge. 

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46 THE ZULU WAB. 

when summoned, " excusing bia refusal by evasion and 
falsehood," and " insulting his messenger." 

5. " Directing hia cattle and other effects to be 
taken out of the colony under an armed escort," 

6. Causing the death of Her Majesty's subjects at 
the Bushman's River Pass. 

It ia plain to the moat casual observation that none 
of the first five accusations, even if fully proved, refer to 
crimes punishable by death in any civilised land ; and it 
is difficult to see how the Chief could reasonably be con- 
sidered responsible for the sixth and last, seeing that the 
action took place in his absence, against his express 
commands, and to his great regret 

Returning to the five first-named ofiences, we find 
that the statements contained in the second and third 
charges are the only proofs alleged of the truth of the 
first — to which therefore we need give no further atten- 
tion — the magistrate himself stating that "this was the 
first time the prisoner ever refused to appear before him 
when ordered to do so ; " and this was the first time for 
more than twenty years that he had been reported for 
any fault whatever. 

Proceeding to charge No. 2, we find that the prisoner 
entirely denied having encouraged his young men to 
possess themselves of guns ; nor could he justly be said to 
have even " permitted " them to do so merely because he 
did not actively exert himself to prevent it. The men 
went away from home, worked, were paid for their 
services in guns, or purchased them with their earnings, 
without consulting him. He had never considered it to 
be part of his duty to search the huts of his people for 

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TRTAZ OF LANGAZIBALELE. 47 

unregiatered gODB, but bad simply left them to suffer 
tlie coDsequeiices of breaking the lawB of the colony, if 
diBcoTered. It is also to be observed that amongst the 
sevea sons captured with him only one had a gun at a 
time when certainly, if ever, they would have carried 
them ; which does not look as though he had greatly 
encouraged them to possess themselves of fire-arms. 

But if the second charge, in a very modified form, 
might be considered a true one, yet Langalibalele had 
done no worse in that respect than most of the other 
chie& in the colony. In proof of this assertion may be 
brought " Perrin's Register" for the years 1871-2-3 — 
the years during which a hxge number of natives 
received payment for their services at the diamond- 
fields in guns. From this register it appears that the 
total number of guns registered in eight of the principal 
northern tribes of the colony — ^the two first-named chiefs 
being indunag to the very magistrate who complained 
of Langalibalele — ^was as follows : 





g™. 














im. 


lan. 


m. 


Ifdomba 


. 1190 




_ 


_ 


Faku . 


. 2071 


— 


2 


— 


li^aiin. 


. 1277 


— 


— 


— 


Pii]^e. 


. 2222 


1 


— 


1 


7.\}tM . 


. 1651 


— 


1 


— 


Kodada 


. 3000 


— 


1 


2 


Putmi . 


. 1239 


— 


1 


— 


Ltmgalibal 


lie. 2244 


~ 


9 


4 



Furthermore, any fiault with respect to tiie guns 
was not an offence under Kafir Law, and could only 



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48 TEE ZULU WAR. 

have been tried in the Colonial Court under the 
ordinary law of the colony. 

The third and fourth charges were those which, when, 
first reported in Natal, produced considerable alarm 
and indignation in the minds of the colonists. A 
defiance of the authority, both of magistrate and 
Supreme Chie^ and insult offered to their messengers, 
looked indeed like actual rebellion. The charges, how- 
ever, dwindled down to very little when properly 
examined. The "defiance" in question consisted only 
in an answer made to the magistrate to the effect that 
he could not send in as desired five young men — in 
possession of unregistered guns — because they had run 
away, he knew not whither, being Mghtened by the 
course pursued by the magistrate's messenger ; and that 
he could not find eight others, said to have come 
into the colony with guns, and to belong to his tribe, 
upon such insufficient data, and unless their names 
were given to him. The sincerity of which reasoning 
was shortly proved by the fact that, as soon as their 
names were notified to him, he did send in three of 
those very lads, with their guns, and two more belong- 
ing to other members of their party, besides sending 
in with their guns those who had worked for Mr. "W. 
E. Shepstone, and who probably thought that the name 
of their master was a sufficient guarantee for their right 
to possess fire-arms. 

The charge of insulting the native messengers from 
Government, of which a great deal was made at first, 
proved to be of very little consequence when investi- 
gated, but it is one to which special attention should 

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TRIAL OF LANGAUBALELE. 49 

be given becaase, indirecUy^ it is connected with the 
Znlu War. 

The facts are as follows : One of the chief witnesses 
for the piosecutioD, Mawiza, a messenger of the Gorem- 
ment, stated in his evidence-in-chief on the second day 
of the trial, that on the occasdon of his carrying a message 
from Government, the prisoner's people had "taken 
aU his things from him," and had "stripped, and 
taken him naked " into the Chiefs presenca But on ike 
fourth day, in answer to a question from His Excellency, 
he said "that ihej had ijUended to strip him but had 
allowed him to retain his trousers and boots," thereby 
contradicting himself flatly. Nevertheless the court 
being asked by His Excellency whether it required 
further evidence on this point, replied in the negative. 
They did not even ask a question, on the subject, of 
Mawiza's two companion messengers, Mnyembe and 
Gaycde, though both these ware examined ; Mnyembe's 
evidence-in-chief being cut short hefore he came to that 
part of the story, and Gayede's taken up just after it. 

The chief was kept in sohtary confinement from 
the day when he was brought down to Pietermaritzbui^, 
December 31st, till the day when his sons were sentenced, 
Febmary 27th ; not being allowed to converse with any 
of his sons, or with any members of his tribe, or with 
any friend or adviser, white or black. It was therefore 
quite out of his power to find witnesses who would 
have shown, as li&iyembe and Grayede would have done, 
that Mawiza's statements about the "stripping" were 
fidse; that he still wore his waistcoat, shirt, trousers, 
boots, and giuters, when he was taken to the chi^; 

I 

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50 TSE ZULU WAM. 

and that the " Btripping " in question only amounted 
to this, that he hinlself put off his two coats, by the 
diiefs orders, " as a matter of precaution caused by 
fear" and not for the poipose of insulting the meBsenger, 
or defying the Supreme Chiet They would have satisfied 
the oourt also that other ac^ chained against the 
prisoner arose from fear, and dread of the Supreme 
Chief, and not &om a spirit of d^ance. 

This afiair of the messenger, explained by fear and 
suspicion 'on the part of Langalibalele, by which, also^ 
he accounted for his refuaal to "appear before" the 
Supreme Chief (which is to say that, being desired to 
give himself up into the hands of the Government, he 
was afraid to do so, and ran away), was the turning- 
point of the whole trial What special reason he had 
for that fear and distrust will be inquired into shortly. 
Meanwhile the court considered that such expressed 
distrust of the good faith of the auUiorities was an 
added offence on the part of the prisoner, who was 
formally condemned to death, but his sentence commuted 
to banishment for life to Bobben Island, the abode of 
lunatics and lepers, in which other captive native chiefs 
had languished and died before him.* 

* The other rebel chiefs of the Cape Colony haie alladed to, 
howoTer, woie not " banished," but merely imptisonad in a portion of 
their own Sapieme Ciiief a temtoiy, vheie, at proper times, they could 
be visited by membeis of their families and tribee ; moreover, they 
were duly tried and convicted before the ordinary courta of eeriona 
Crimea committed by themselyea individnaUy, and they had actually 
resisted by force their Supreme Chief within hia territory ; whereas 
Langalibalele bad made no resistance— be was a runaway, but no 
rebel ; he had not been tried and condemned for any crime in the 
Colonial Coart, and banlahment for life to Bobben Island, away from 
all hifl people, was a fate worse than death in hia and their eyes, 

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CHAPTEE IV, 

THE bishop's defence. 

The daily accounts of the trial which appeared in the 
local papers were read with great interest and attention 
by the Bishop, who quickly discerned the injustice of 
the proceedings. Mawiza's manifest contradiction of Ms 
own evidence first attracted his attention, and led to his 
hearing firom some of his own natives what was not 
allowed to appear at the trial, that Mawiza's story was 
entirely false. Seeing how seriously this fact bore upon 
the prisonei^s case, he went to Mr. Shepstone and told 
him what he bad heard. 

The Secretary for Native Affairs was at first very 
indignant with the Bishop's informant, doubting the 
truth of bis statement, and declaring that the man must 
be severely punished if it were proved that he had lied. 
The Bishop, confident in the integrity of his native,* 
assented, saying, however, that the same argument 
should apply to Mawiza. The matter was at once 
privately investigated by Mr. Shepstone — the Bishop, 
Mawiza, Magem^ and others being present — ^with the 

* The eame "Hagemt, tlw Biihop's printer, befon montioned. 

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52 TSB ZULU WAB. 

result that Mr. Shepstone himself was obliged to 
acknowledge the imtrustworthiness of Mawiza, who was 
reproved in the severest terms for his prevarications by 
the other native induna&* 

Singularly enough, however, this discovery made no 
difference whatever in the condemnation and sentence cf 
the prisoner, although the charge thus, to a great extent, 
disposed of, was the most serious of those brought 
against him. 

But this was not alL Another point struck the 
Bishop very forcibly, namely, the perpetual recurrence 
of one phrase from various witnessea " He (Langa- 
libalele) was afraid, remembering what was done to 
Matshana," and " he was a&aid that he should be treated 
as Matshana was, when he was summoned to appear 
by €rOTemment." Such expressions, used in excuse of 
the Chiefs conduct, would, of course, have been inquired 
into had the prisoner been allowed counsd, or had any 
one watched the case on his behalf. But although the 
court judged the excuse of " fear " to be an added fault 
on the Chiefs part, and although perpetual allusions 
were made by witnesses to a specific cause for tiiia 
fear, no question was asked, and no notice taken 
by those present of the perpetually recurring phrase. 
The Bishop, however, in the interests of justice and 
truth, made inquiries amongst his own natives as to the 
meaning of these allusions. He knew, of course, in 
common with the rest of the inhabitants of Natal, that, 

* AlUioogli Mavriza'B Ilea were plunlf exposed, he yna never 
poiuflhed, but nmains to thu day ia chai^ of a large tribe, orer 
vhich he haa been placed by the OoTemment 

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THE BISHOP'S DEFENCE. 68 

in the year 1858, a native chief named Matahana had 
got into some trouble with the Government of Natal 
A commando had gone out against him, imd, after a 
skirmish with some native troops under Mr. John 
Shepstone, in which Mr. Shepstone was wounded, and 
some men on the other side killed, he had escaped with 
his people into Zululand, where he had lived ever since. 
The Bishop had never heard the details of the affair, and 
knew of nothing in connection with this incident which 
could account for the " fear because of what was done to 
Matshana," 

" Can you tell me anything of the stoiy of Matshana's 
escape firom Natal 1 " was the question put by him at 
different times to diflferent natives ; and everyone thus 
questioned gave substantially the same account, of 
what was plainly among them a well-known, and well- 
remembered incident in the history of the colony. 

Matshana, they said, was accused of some ofience, and 
being summoned before the authorities to answer for 
it, had refused to appear. Mr. John Shepstone, with a 
native force, of whom this very LaJigalibalele, then a 
young chief, with his followers formed a portion, was 
sent out to endeavour to reduce him to obedience. 
Mr. She]»tone invited him to a friendly interview, in 
which they might talk over matters, but to which 
Matshana's men were to bring no weapons. In con- 
sequence of the reluctance of Matshana to fulfil this 
condition, the proposed interview fell through several 
times before it was finally arranged. Matshana's people, 
even then, however, brought their weapons with them, 
but they were induced to leave them at a certain 

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H THS ZULU WAB. 

spot a short distance o£ The meetiug took place ; 
Mr. Shepstone being seated in a chair with his people 
behind him, Matehana and his men crouched native 
fashion apon the ground, suspicious and alert> in a 
semicircle before him. Suddenly Mr. Shepstone drew a 
gun &om beneath the rug at bis feet, and fired it (he says, 
as a signal), whereupon his men, some of whom had 
already ridden between Hatshana's party and their arms, 
fell on, and the struggle became general, resulting in 
the death of many of Matshuia's people. The chief 
himself, who seems to have been on the look-out for a 
surprise, escaped unhurt^ He was resting upon one knee 
only when the £rst shot was fired, and sprang over the 
man crouching behind him. Another man, named Deke, 
who was sitting close to him, was wounded in the knee, 
but is ahve to this day. 

This stoiy, which in varied form, but substantiaUy 
as given above, was generally known and believed by the 
natives, furnished a very complete explanation of why 
Langalibalele ventured to distrust the good faith and 
honour of the Giovermnent, having himself taken part 
in, and been witness of, such a disgraceful transaction ; 
which, when it came to the knowledge of the Secretary 
of State, was emphatically condemned by him. Re- 
membering this circumstance, it is not wonderful that 
Langalibalele should have taken the precaution of 
seardiing the Government messengers for concealed 
weapons. 

It seemed strange that Mr. Bhepstone, sitting 
as judge upon the bench to tiy a man for his life, 
shoold silently allow so great a justification of hia chief 

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TSE BISHOP'S DEFENCE. 65 

offence to remain concealed. But it seemed etmnger 
still to suppose him ignorant of any part of an affair 
carried out under his aathority, and by his own 
brother. 

However, the Bishop took the matter privately to him 
in the £rat instance, teUiug him what ho had heard, and 
pointing out what an important bearing it hod upon the 
unfortunate prisoner's case. He was met by a total 
denial on Mr. Shepstone's part that any such act of 
treachery had ever taken place, or that there were any 
gronnds for the accusation. 

Nevertheless, afiier careful consideration, and on 
thoroughly sifting the obtainable evidence, the Bishop 
cotdd not avoid coming to the painful conclusion that 
the story was sabstantiaUy true, and was a valid excuse 
for Langalibalele's fear. Finding that further appeal 
on behalf of the prisoner to those on the spot was in 
vain, he now wrote and printed a pamphlet (giving 
the usual native version that the first shot fired was at 
]|(DtteAisna) on the subject for private circulation, and 
especially for Lord Carnarvon's information.* 

One of the first reaulta of tlie appearance of tHs 
pamphlet was a demand on the part of Mr. J. Shepstone's 



* OnJime 24Ui, 1874, thsBiahoppietented this "Appeal on behalf 
of I^n^dibolele" to His Ezcellenoy the Lieut-Goremor of 14'atal and 
the executive committee of the Colonj. The appeal was made in the 
ftnt instance to Sir B. C. C. Pise, vho altogether ref uaed to listen \o it. 
On this the Bishop forwarded a letter tiuongh the Lieut-GoTemor 
to the Earl of Carnaivoii, enclosing a copy of his correapondeuce with 
Sir B. C. C. Pine, and stating his teasons for acting as he had done in the 
matter. This letter was dated Angoet 6th, 187 i, and on August 16th 
the Bishop left home en route to £ngland. 



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56 THE ZULU WAS. 

solicitor for "an immediate, full, and unqualified retracta- 
tion of the libel falsely and malicioualy publiahed in the 
pamphlet, with a claim for XIOOO damages for the 
injury done to Mr. J. Shepstone by tJie same." 

Such an action would have had but a small chance 
of a decision upon the Bishop's side at that time in 
Natal, so, to defend himself — and not, as generally 
supposed, out of enmity to the Shepetones — he appealed 
to Lord Carnarvon in the matter, on the grounds that 
his action had been taken for the public good, and in 
the interests of justice. 

Meanwhile the unfortunate chief and his eldest sou 
Malambule were sent to Robben Island, the former as a 
prisoner for life, the latter for five years. Th^ were 
secretly conveyed away from Pietermaritzburg to the 
port, and every effort made to prevent the Bishop from 
seeing them, or interfering on their behalf Other sons, 
two of them mere lada, who had as yet held no more 
important position in the tribe than that of herdboyB to 
their father's cattle, and many of the head men and 
indunas, were condemned to imprisonment in the gaol 
at Fietermaritzbuig for terms varying in length fixun six 
months to seven years. The two young sons, lads 
named Mazwi and Siyepn, were kept prisoners for the 
shortest period named, six months; but it was some little 
time after they left the gaol before they were really set 
at libiaty. The family at Bishopstowe, where their 
mothers and many of their other relatives were located, 
were naturally anxious to have the two boys also, and, 
as soon as their term of imprisonment was up, applied 
for the charge of them. Somewhat to their surprise all 

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TBS BISSOP'S DBFENOB. 67 

sorts of difScolties were raised on the point — one would 
have thought a very simple one — and they were at last 
curtly informed that the boyB did not wish to go to 
Bishopstowe, and would remain where they were, under 
surveillance in another district. The Bishop himself was 
away at the time, but his eldest daughter, acting for him, 
soon discovered through native sources that in point of 
fact the boys were extremely anxious to go to Bish(^- 
Btowe, but were in too terrified a condition to express 
a wish. The question had been put to them in this 
form : " So I you have been complaining I you say 
you want to leave the place you hare been sent to, and 
go to Bishopstowe ? " Whereupon t^e frightened lads, 
their spirits crushed by all that had befallen them, ' 
naturally answered : " We never complained, nor asked to 
go anywhere" — which was perfectly true. By dint of a 
little determination on the part of Miss Colenso, however, 
the desired permission was at last obtained, and Mazwi 
and Siyepu entered the Bishopstowe school, whidi had 
already been established for the boys of the scattered tribe. 
Under the treatment which they there received they 
soon began to recover &om their distress, and to lose the 
terrified ezpresaion in the eyes which characterised them 
painfully at first But the health of Mazwi, the elder, 
was broken by hardship and confinement, and he died 
of consumption a few years after.* 

It soon became apparent that there must be some- 
thing specially injorioas to the prisoners in their life in 

* He ma a bright iatelligent lad, keenly anxioiu foi self-impioTe- 
mao^ and witii « gre&t desire, aaiuaal amongst liia kind, to go to 
TTngiaTiit^ wad HO « eiviliaed ooontry , 

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fia TBS ZULU WAB. 

gaol beyond tbd mere &ct of con^nement. Nearly all 
the men of the Hlubi tribe left it labouiing under a 
dreadful complaint of a complicated form (said to be 
some Bpecies of elephantiasis), of which a considerable 
number died; others, as in Mtizwi'a case, fklling victims to 
consumption. On inquiiy it appeared that the fault lay 
in the excessive wuahing to which every part of the build- 
ing was habitually subjected — floors and bed-boards being 
perpetually scrubbed, and therefore seldom thoroughly 
dry. This state of things was natnraUy a trial to the 
constitutions of people accustomed to life in the warm 
smoke-ladea atmosphere of a native hut However 
beneficial it might be to the natives to instruct them in 
habits of cleanliness,* this was hardly the way to do it, 
and the results were disastrous. The peculiar complaint 
resulting from confinement in the city gaol was com- 
monly known amongst the natives as the "gaol-disease/' 
but it had not attracted the same attention while 
the victims to it were occasional convicts, as it did 
when it attacked a large number of innocent prisoners 
of war 1 

After the chief had been sent to Bobhen Island, it 
waa represented, by those interested in hia wel&re, 
that to leave him there for the rest of his life without 
any of hia family or people near him^ — except his soa 
Malambule, who was to be released in five years' time 
— would be a great and unnecessary addition to the 

* The Zulus and Zuln-K&fira bathe their persons frequently, but 
the; have not om ideas of oleAnllnesa in respect to dieas and 
habitations, although they are vet; particolai about their food, 
utensils, and other matten. 

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THE BISBOF'S PEFWOE. 69 

hardBhip of hia poBition ; and it was finally decided 
that one of his wivea and a Bervant of his own should 
be sent to join him in captivity. A few days after this 
de(aaion a story was cixoolated ia the colony, causing 
some amusement, and a little triumph on the part of the 
special opponents of the chief and hia cause : it was to 
the effect that " out of all LangaUbalele'a wives not one 
was willing to go to him," and many were the sarcastic 
comments made upon the want of family affection thus 
evinced by the natives. On due inquiry it tamed out 
that the manner in which the question had been put to 
them was one highly calculated to produce a negative 
answer. Hatire policemen, who were sent to the kraals 
where they were living, to inquire which of them would 
be willing to go, accosted them with " Come along I 
come along and be killed with your chief I" which 
proposition was not unnaturally looked upon with 
considerate disfavour. When, however, the matter 
was properly exphuned to them, they all expressed 
their willingness to go, although a journey across the 
(to them) great unknown element was by no means a 
trifling matter in their eyes. The woman selected in 
the first instance was one Kokwetuka, then resident at 
Bishopatowe, where she was fitted out for her jonm^, 
and provided with suitable clothes.* She joined her 
hnsband upon the island as proposed, as also did a lad 
of the tatibe Fif^, who happened to be residing (fi^e) 
at the Cape, and obtained permission to attend upon 

* Thia wu doDB at the ezpenae of Qorenmieii^ which likewise 
•llowed cMteia mppliet of meal, Mlt, osd n little meAt to the 



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60 THE ZULU WAS. 

bis chief. It was not until some time after, when 
Langalibalele had been removed to an adjoining portion 
of the mainlimd, bleak and barren indeed, but an im- 
provement upon Robben Island, that two other women 
and a little son were added to the party.* 

For the son, Malambule, however, there was no 
possibility of making any such arrangements during the 
five years of his captivity, as he was a bachelor; 
although when he was captured he had a bride in 
prospect, the separation from and probable loss of whom 
weighed greatly upon his mind. He could not even 
learn whether she was yet alive, as so many women had 
been killed, and others had died since from the effects 
of the hardships they had undergone ; while it was more 
than probable, supposing her to be yet living, that she 
might be given in marriage to some other more fortunate 
individual, either by the authority of her relatives, or, 

* The boy waa one of those who in the meanwhile had loamt at 
BishopetowB to read and write, and who theieforB could be of bohw 
nae to hia fatiier aa scribe, although his osefolneBB in that lespect is 
much curtailed by the exceeding caution of the Government, which in 
its absurd and cauaeless fear of "treasonable correspondence," will 
not allow written words of any description to reach or leave the poor 
old chief without ofGcial inepectlon. This precaution goes so far that 
in one instance some mats made by the women for Misa Colenso, and 
sent from Uitrlugt (the place of Langahbalele's confinement after he 
was removed from the island), never reached ^eir destination, owing 
to the paper attached, signifying for whom they were intended, being 
lemoved, as coming under the head of prohibited liberties. Another 
case is that of a lady who visited the family in September, 1679, and 
asked them to tell her what trifles they would like her to send them 
horn Cape Town, but found that she had no power to send some 
babies* socks which the women hod chosen, and a comforter for the 
old man's neck, except through an official individual and by formal 



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TEE BISHOP'S DEFENCE. 61 

as happened in another case, by that of the GoTeroment 
of Natal.* 

Towarda the end of his impriaonment, Halambule 
grew very restless and morose ; and, when he found 
himself detained some time afber the term of years 
had elapBed, he became extremely indignant and 
difficult to manage, being in fact in a far more 
" rebellions " frame of mind than he ever was before. 
On one occasion he showed so much temper that it was 
thought necessary to put him under temporary reab-aint 
in the gaol. Apparently he was very wise in giviog so 
much trouble, for it was shortly found expedient to 
let him go, though it remains unexplained why he 
should not have been set free immediately upon the 
expiration of his sentence. He was sent back to Natal, 
but still treated as a prisoner until he reached Pieter- 
maritzbm^, where he was finally set at liberty ; putting 
in a sudden and unexpected appearance at Bishopstowe, 
where he was joyfrdly welcomed by his own people. He 

* A woman, vif e of one of the fngitiTee, bdng taken priBonei 
during tlie expedition, found favoni, nrneh agunat Ker irill, in the 
eyes of one Adam (it follower of the Secretary for Native Affura), 
who aaked to be allowed to take her aa hia wife. Penniaaion waa 
granted, bnt the woman refused, aaylng that she had a huaband 
slieadj, to whom she was' attached. Her viahea were disregarded, 
and ahe waa conv^ed home by Adam, from whom ahe ahortly escaped. 
Adam applied to the nearest magistrate for an ordei to take forcible 
poosesaioa of the fogitiTe, and the woman was thrown into gaol by the 
m^ististe, nntU she should consent to be Adam's wif& The man 
took her home a second time, and she again escaped from him ; in 
fact her detenoination waa so great that the matter was finally given 
up altogether, Erentually die rejoined her own hnabaiid, who 
teceived her and her, child with the kindness which her constancy 
deaerred. 

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62 TSB ZJJW WAM. 

did not, however, spend much time amongst them, but 
hurried off aa soon as possible up-country to find hifl 
bride. It ia pleasant to be able to record that he found 
her just in time to prevent another marriage being 
arranged for her, and that his retom was aa satisfactorjr 
an event to her as to himBel£ 



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CHAPTER V. 

THB PnTZNI TRDE. 

To aseiBt ia paymg the expenses of the e:^>editIon, 
"GoTemment" had "eaten tip" the small tribe com- 
monly known, as the " Putini," but properly called the 
" Amangwe " tribe, " Putini " being, in reality, the name 
of their late chief, who died shortly before the dis- 
turbances, leaving the sole custody of their infant son 
and heir to bia young widow, who accordingly held the 
position and dignity of chieftainess in the tribe. 

To Bay that the " eating up " of these people was on 
utter mistake is to say no more than can honestly be 
s^d concerning Langalibalele's tribe, the Ama-HIuH; but, 
in the case of the Putini people, die mistate was a more 
Bagrant one, and, when all was said and done, there was 
no posnbility of making out a charge against them at 
sSL Finally the fact stared the GoTemment (both at 
home and in Natal) in the &ce that a tribe had been 
attacked, members of it killed, the people taken prisoners 
and stripped of all their possessions, without. even the 
shadow of a reason for such treatment being forthcoming. 

Major (by this time Lieutenant-Colonel) Dnrnford 
specially took up the cause of this lajured and innocent 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



64 TME ZULU WAS. 

people. It was plain enough that the GoTernment at 
home would never ratify the action taken against the 
Amangwe tribe by the Gorenunent in Natal ; and that 
Booner or later the latter would be forced, in this 
instance, to undo their work as far as possible — 'to restore 
the people to their location, and to disgorge at least 
part of their plunder :— and it was evident to Colonel 
Dumford that the sooner this was done the better for all 
parties. The Natal GrOTemment would put itself in a 
more dignified position by voluntarily and speedily 
making full amends for the wrong done, and doing of 
its own accord what eventually it would be obliged to do 
at the conmiand of the home Government. It was also 
of special importance to the people themselves that they 
should be allowed to return to their homes in time to 
plant their crops for the following year. 

About May, 1874, it had been decided by the 
Government that Lieutenant-Colonel Dumford, in hia 
capacity of Colonial Engineer, should take a working 
party to the Draakensberg Mountains, and blow up, or 
otherwise destroy, all the passes by which ingress or 
egress could be obtained. The chief object of this demo- 
lition was that of giving confidence to the up-country 
districts, the inhabitants of which were in perpetual fear 
of inroads &om the scattered members of the outlawed 
tribe. They had indeed certain grounds for such appre- 
hensions, as one or two attacks had been made upon 
farmhouses since the expedition. Even these demon- 
strations were not evidence of organised resistance, but 
mere individual acts of vengeance committed by single 
men or small parties, in return for brutalities inflicted 

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TEB PUTim TRIBE. 65 

upon tho women and children belonging to them. They 
were, however, sufBcient to keep the country in per- 
petual alarm, which it was highly advisable should be 
checked. 

The demolition of the passes being decided upon, 
Colonel Dnmford applied for the services of the male 
Pntini prisoners, some eighty in number, and induced 
the Government to promise the men their liberty, with 
that of the rest of the tribe, if, on thdr return, when the 
work should be finished, the Colonel could give them a 
good character. 

He lefb Pietennaiitzbnrg with his party of pioneers 
and a company of the 75th Begiment, under Captain 
Boyes and Lieutenant Trower, in May, and spent some 
months in the complete destruction of the Draakensbei^ 
passes, returning to the capital in September. The 
movement at first raised violent though unavailing oppo- 
sition amongst the colonists, who persisted in looking 
upon the Putini men as bloodthirsty rebels, who might 
at any moment break loose upon them and ravage the 
country. But when the whole party returned from the 
mountains, without a single case of misconduct or deser- 
tion amongst them — although they had had hard work 
and undergone great hardships (shared to the fiill by 
Colonel Dumford, who suffered to the end of his life from 
the effects of intense cold upon his wounded arm) — the 
colonists ceased to look upon them as desperate ruffians, 
and soon forgot their fears. Meanwhile the Colonel 
found considerable difficulty in obtaining the actnal 
freedom of the tribe, for which he and his eighty 
had worked so hard and suffered ao much. 

9 
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66 TEE ZULU WAB. 

Any leas resolute spirit would have been beaten in the 
contest, for " Gktvemment " was determined not to give 
way an inch more than conld possibly be helped. 

However, the matter was carried through at last, 
and the whole tribe returned to their devastated homes 
— ^including the eighty pioneors, to whom the Colonel 
had paid the full wages of free labourers for the time 
during which they had worked — ^in good time to plant 
their crops for the coming year. Eventually they also 
received some small compensation for the property of 
which they had been robbed, though nothing even 
approaching to an equivalent for all that had been taken 
from them or destroyed by the Government force in 
. 1873. 

The same party of mounted Basutoa who were with 
Colonel Dumford at the Bushman's Kivcr Pass aHair, 
accompanied him throughout this second more peaceful 
expedition, and rem^uned his devoted followers for the 
rest of his life. 

The colony was tranquil again, and gradually the 
immediate consequences of the expedition vanished 
below the sur&ce of everyday life, except in the minds 
of those who had suffered by it But one important 
result was obtained. England was once more con- 
vinced that the time for withdrawing her troops irom. 
the colony and leaving it to protect itself had not yet 
arrived. Some such project had been entertained during 
the previous year, and its speedy accomplishment waa 
frequently foretold ; but such a proceeding would have 
been fatal to the plans of the empire-making politicians. 
The imposability of withdrawing the troops waa clearly 

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TSS PUTINI TBIBE. 87 

established by turning a mole-bill into a mountain — by 
proving how critical t^e condition of the native mind 
within the colony waa considered to be by those who 
should be the beat judges — bo that it waa thought 
necessary to turn out the whole available European 
force, regular and irregular, upon the slightest sign of 
disturbance ; and most of all by creating such a panic 
in the colonial mind as had not existed since the early 
days of Natal 

It is doubtful how soon the Secretary of State for 
the Colonies himself knew the extent to which the 
operations of 1873-4 could be made subservient to his 
great confederation scheme ; or rather, to speak more 
correctly, how seriously the latter must be injured by 
any attempt to set right the injustice done to the 
Hlubi tribe. When the Bishop went to England* and 
pleaded in person the cause of the injured people, there 
can be no doubt that Lord Carnarvon was fully impressed 
by the facts then made known to him. None of the 
despatches sent home> could in the least justify the pro- 
ceedings of his subordinates in Natal. Lord Carnarvon's 
own words, expressing his disapproval of the action 
taken against the two tribes, and requiring that all 
possible restitution should be made to them, show 
plainly enough that at l^e period of the Bishop's visit 
to him, with all the facts of the case before him, his 
judgment in the matter coincided with that of the 
Bishop himseU. The latter returned to Natal, satisfied 
that substantial justice would now be done, or at all 
events that the suffering already infiicted upon the 
* Baaching home early in October, 1874. 

D,3-,zsdtvG00^[f 



68 . THE ZULU WAB. 

iimocent Hlubi and Amangire tribes, by the rash and 
mistaken action of the Government, would be alleviated 
to the utmost extent conaidered possible without lower- 
ing that Grovemment in the eyes of the people. 

Certain steps, indeed, were immediately taken. 
Orders were sent out for the release of the Putini 
people, which order Colonel Dumford had abeady 
induced the Natal Government to anticipate; and a 
further order was notified that the tribe should be 
compensated for the losses sustained by them during the 
late expedition. In the case of Langalibalele and his 
tribe, although it was not thought advisable to reinstate 
them in their old position, every effort was to be made 
to mitigate the severity with which they had been 
treated. A few extracts fixim the Earl of Carnarvon's 
despatch on the subject will best show the tone in 
which he wrote, and that the Bishop might reasonably 
feel satisfied that mercy and consideration would be 
shown to the oppressed peopla 

The Earl of Carnarvon, after reviewing tJie whole 
proceeding, comments somewhat severely upon the 
manner in which the trial had been conducted. On this 
point he says : " I feel bound to express my opinion that 
there are several points open to grave observation and 
regret" He speaks of the "peculiar and anomalous" 
constitution of the court, the equally " peculiar " law by 
which the prisoner was tried, and of "the confusion and 
unsatisfactoiy result to which such an anomalous blend- 
ing of civilised and savage terms and procedure must 
lead." He remarks that it was in his judgment "a 
grave mistake to treat the plea of the prisoner as one of 

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THE PVTINI TRIBE. 69 

guilty ; " and he Bays, " etill more serious, because it 
involved practical consequences of a very grave nature 
to the prisoner, was the absence of counsel on his 
behalf." Entering into the various charges brought 
against the prisoner, and the evidence produced to 
support them, he dismisses the magistrate's accusation 
of "general indications, of which, however, it is 
difficult to give special instance, of impatience of 
control"; and the Governor and Secretary for Native 
Affairs comments on the same as unimportant, with the 
words, " I am bound to say that the evidence does not 
appear to me fully to support these statements."* 

Reviewing the circumstances and evidence concerning 
the unregistered guns, he says : " I am brought to the 
condosion that, though there was probably negUgence — 
it may be more or less culpable — in complying with the 
law, there was no sufficient justification for the charge 
in the indictment that Langalibalele did encourage and 
conspire with the people under him to procure firearms 
and retain them, as he and they well knew contrary to 
law, for the purpose and with the intention of, by means 
of such firearms, resisting the authority of the Supreme 
Chief." Of the extent to which the chiefs disobedience, 
in not appearing when summoned by Government, was 
due to a " deliberately-planned scheme of resistance in 
concert with others, or the mere effect of an unfounded 
panic," the Earl remarks : " Unfortunately this was not 
made clear." And, finally, referring to the charge of 

* Acts of " defiance " and " resistance," too vague for any apecial 
instance to 1w given, probably striking hie lotdehip as being of a 
slightly imaginary chaiacter. 

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?0 TEE ZULU WAR. 

insultiag the GoTermnent messengers, he says : " I am 
obliged, with great rogret, to conclude that this very 
important portion of the evidence given against the 
prisoner at the trial was so far untrustworthy as to leave 
it an open question whether the indignities of which the 
witness complained may not have amounted to no more 
than being obliged to take off his coat, which might be 
a precaution dictated by fear, and nothing else." 

Having thus censured the proceedings of his sub- 
ordinates on every point, he says : 

" That the Amahlubi tribe should be removed &om 
its location may have been a political necessity which, 
after all that had occurred, was forced upon you, and I 
fear* it is out of the question to reinstate them Id the 
position, whether of land or property, which they 
occupied previously. The relations of the ctJony with 
the natives, both within and without its boundaries, 
render this impossible. But every care should be taken 
to obviate the hardships and to mitigate the severities 
which, assuming the office of the chief and his tribe 
to be Cfven greater than I have estimated it, have far 
exceeded the limits of justice.^ Not only should the 
terms of the amnesty of the 2nd May last be scrupu- 
lously observed, but as far as possible means should be 
provided by which the members of the tribe may be 
enabled to re-establish themselves in settled occupa- 
tions, "t Lord Carnarvon further says : " With respect to 
the Futili tribe, I have in their case also expressed my 
opinion that no sufficient cause has been shown for 

* Implying plainly that Btriot jiutioa would demand it 

t Anthor'a italics. 

{ "So notioe waa evei taken of the reconuDendation. 

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THS PUTINt TBIBS. 71 

TemoTing them &om their location. I can discover no 
indication of their conspiracy or combination with 
Langalibalele, beyond the vague and wholly uncor- 
roborated apprehension of some movement on their 
part in connection with the supposed tendencies of his 
tribe; anA therefore I can see no good reason for 
any punishment on this ground." 

The proclamation to the native population enclosed 
in this despatch contained the following sentences : 

" Langalibalele we release from imprisonment on the 
island in the sea, but he shall not return to NataL The 
Amahlubi may, if they choose, when that is prepared 
which is to be prepared, go to him, but he will not be 
allowed to go to the Amahlubi." 

In all that Lord Carnarvon thought fit to say on 
this occasion he does not express the slightest approval 
of any person concerned, or action taken, except of 
■die " conduct of Colonel Dumford, whose forbearance 
and humanity towards the natives " (he says) " has 
attracted my attention." A despatch of the same date 
(3rd December, 1874) recalls Sir Benjamin Pine from 
the government of NataL 

Anything more thoroughly condemnatory could 
baldly be imagined^ although it may be reasonably 
questioned how far justice waB done to Sir Benjamin 
Fine* by the whole weight of mismanagement being 

* It is reported that Sir K Fine has felt the injustice to himself 
so keenly that he refuses longer to acknowledge his title of K.G.M.G., 
and styles himself simply Mr. Fine. There can be little doubt that 
in point of fact Mr. Bhepstone was mainly responsible for all thai hap- 
pened^ hut " the right man to annex the Transvaal " could not well 
be spared, and a scap^oat vaa found for him in Sir Beiyamin Pine. 

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72 . THE ZULU WAR. 

placed upon his shoulders, while his coadjutor and 
adviser, Mr. Shepstone, on whose opinion he had 
acted throughout, and whose word, by his supposed 
knowledge of native waya and character, was law 
throughout the affair, was promoted and rewarded. 

After perusiDg Lord Carnarvon's remarks and direc- 
tions, my readers may imagine that some very good 
result would be produced on the fortunes of both tribes, 
but in this supposition they would be greatly mistaken. 
Nor, unless they had been in the habit of perusing South 
African despatches with attention, would it occur to 
them how easily the proclamation quoted from, drawn 
up by Mr. Shepstone, could be evaded. The procla- 
mation itself is almost childish in its foolish way of 
informing the people that they had behaved very badly, 
and deserved all they had got, but would be relieved of 
their punishment by the mercy of the Queen, and must 
behave very well and gratefully in future. Such ex- 
hortations to people who were perfectly aware that tJhey 
had been treated with the utmost injustice were rather 
likely to raise secret contempt than respect in the minds 
of an intelligent people, who would have far better 
understood an honest declaration that " we have 
punished you, under the impression that you had 
done what we find you did not do, and will therefore 
make it up to you as much as possible." 

The two important sentences of the proclamation 
(already quoted at p. 71), however, were capable of 
being adapted to an extent of which Lord CamarvoD 
probably did not dream. His lordship can hardly have 
intended the first sentence by which Langalibalele waa 

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TEE PTJTim TRISE. 73 

released " from, imprisonment on the island in the eea," 
simply to mean that he was to be conveyed to the 
nearest (most dreary) mainland, and imprisoned there, 
within the limite of a small and barren farm, where every 
iiritatisg restriction and annoying regulation were still 
imposed five years after. The words "he shall not 
return to Natal," certainly do not imply rigid confine- 
ment to a small extent of land, where friends, white or 
black, are not allowed to visit him, or send the most 
innocent presents without tedious delay and official 
permiaaion. The second sentence is an admirable 
specimen of South A&iean art The people might 
go to their chief if they chose, " when that is prepared 
vohuA is to be pr^jared "—hut which never has been 
yet 

We give Lord Carnarvon full credit for not having 
the slightest notion that this clause would have no 
result whatever, as nothing ever would be "prepared." 
Tear after year has dragged on — one or two women* 
and a couple of boys being allowed, as a great favour, 
to join the old chief during that time. But every 
difficulty has always been raised about it, and not the 
slightest attempt has been made to enable or permit the 
tribe or any part of it to follow. 

When the chief and his son were first removed from 
Robben Island to XJitvlugt, a desolate and unfruitful 
piece of ground on the adjoining mainland, at a con- 
siderable distance from the nearest dwelling-place of any 
description, it was understood that the family would 
live in comparative liberty, being merely "under surreil- 
* Time at last 

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74 THE ZUlU WJLB. 

lance ;" that is to say, that some suitable person or 
persons would be appointed by the Cape Govemmwit to 
live within reach of them, and to be answerable for 
their general good behaviour, for their gratification in 
every reasonable wish or request, and for their makiDg 
no attfflnpt to escape &om the Oape CJolony and return to 
their homes in NataL 

Strict justice would have required that the chief and 
his people — those that were left of them — should be 
restored to their location, as was done in the case of 
the other tribe, and that both should be repaid the full 
ascertainable value of the property taken from them 
or destroyed; but politicians in these our days place 
" expediency " so &r above justice and truth, that men 
who are fighting for the latter out-of-date objects may 
^ell bo thankful for the smalleBt concession to their 
side. 

The Bishop accordingly was satisfied that the new 
arrangement proposed for the captive chief's comfort 
was as good a one as he could expect from Jjoxd 
Carnarvon, although not what he might have done 
himself had the power lain with him. But when he 
signified his satiafaction in the matter, it was certainly 
on the assumption that Langalibalele was to be made to 
feel his captivity as little as possible upon the mainlaad 
•>-in fact that it was to consist merely in his inability 
to leave the colony, or, without permission, the land 
assigned to him in it But that such reasonable pei^ 
mission should be easily obtainable — ^that as many of his 
family and tiibe as desired to do so should be allowed 
to join him there — t^t no galling restraints {such as 

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TBB PVTINI TSIBB. 75 

still exist) should be imposed upon him, were certainly 
e<mditions proposed by Lord Carnarvon and accepted by 
the Bishop. 

When the Biidiop returned to Natal, however, he 
left behind him in England one who, closely following 
upon his steps, undid much of the work which the other 
had done. }Ss. Shepstone could have brought no new 
light to bear upon the subject — he could have given 
Lord Carnarvon no fresh facts which had not appeared 
already in the despatches, through which the Natal 
€k>Temment had been in constant communication with 
him. It was not likely that Mr. Shepstone should 
possess information hitherto unknown to the rest of the 
world, including Lord Carnarvon himself, which should 
have the povrer of entirely altering the latter's deli- 
berately-formed judgment upon the subject under 
conmderation. But had this been so, Lord Carnarvon 
would assuredly have communicated the fact to the 
Bishop, with whom he had parted in complete 
unanimity of opinion, and to whom, and through 
vhom to the unhappy chief, promises hod been made 
and hopes held out, destined, apparently, never to be 
fnmiled. 

It is needless to conjecture what may have passed 
between Lord Carnarvon and the man who reached 
England somewhat under a cloud, with certain errors 
to answer for to a chief who was well up in facts 
beforehand, but who, in 1876, appears as Sir Theophilus 
Shepstone, E.C.M,G., with a commission aa adminis- 
teator of the Transvaal hidden in the depths of his 
pocket The fiusts speak for tiiemaelves. The desire 

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76 TEE ZULU WAR. 

of the Secretary of State to achieye confederation in 
South Africa {the South African Empire t), the peculiar 
capabilities of Mr. Shqwtone for dealing with the 
native and Dutch races of the country, and the con- 
siderable check which " strict justice " to the injured 
tribes would be to the great confederation scheme, are 
sufficient grounds for believing that absolution for the 
past, and immonity from the consequences of his acts 
were purchased by the cngi^ement, on Mr. Shepstone's 
part, to carry out in quiet and successful manner the 
first decided step towards the great project of con- 
federation and empire, namely, the annexation of the 
Transvaal. In the light cast by succeeding events, 
it is plfun that nothing would have been much more 
inconvenient in the scheme of South African politics 
than any measure which would be a censure upon 
Mr. Shepstone, or prevent his promotion to a higher 
office in the State. 

That no such alteration in the opinion of the 
Secretary of State ever took place may be gathered 
from his very decided though courteous replies to the 
appeals made to him from the colony, to the addresses 
from the ^Legislative Council and other colonists, con- 
taining protests against Lord Carnarvon's decisions, and 
professing to give additional evidence against the tribes 
in question which would completely justify the pro- 
ceedings of the colonial Government, and the severities 
of their punishment 

To all that could be thus alleged Lord Carnarvon 
replies : " I did not form my opinion until I had 
received and considered the fullest explanation which 

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TBE PVnm TBISE. 77 

the GoTemment whose acts are questioned desired to 
place before me, and in consideiing the case I had 
the advantage of personal communication with an officer 
vho was specially deputed to represent the Govemment 
of Natal before me, and who, &om his knowledge, ability, 
and experience, was perhaps better qualified than any 
other to discharge the duty which was confided to him. 
1 fail to find in the present documents the explanations 
which are promised in the address to Her Majesty, or 
indeed any ovidence so specific or concIusiTe as to affect 
the opinion which, after the most anxious consideration. 
Her Majesty's Grovemment formed upon this case." — 
(P. P. [C. 1342-1] p. 45.) 

In another despatch of the same date (July 27, 1875, 
[C. 1342-1] p. 46), addressed to the officer admini&< 
teting the Goremment, Natal, he concludes : "As there is 
apparently no prospect of arriving at an agreement of 
opinion on several points, there is, perhaps, no advantage 
in continuing the discussion of them." Nevertheless, 
although holding so dear and decided a judgment, Lord 
Carnarvon permitted his just and humane directions for 
the tseatment of the injured tribes to be practically set 
a^de by those in authority under him.* 

* It would be an iojuBtice to an asaociation, callecl into existence 
and maintained by a true spirit of Chriatian chanty, to pass over in 
silence the active, if seemingly ineffectual, effoics of the Aborigines 
Protection Society to obtain jostice for the unfortunate people of the 
Fntini tribe. 



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CHAPTER VI. 

SIB aABN£T WOLSELmr. 

WHAT HK CAMS FOB, WHAT HS DID, AHD WHAT HE DID HOT IXX 

Engijlnd, however, waa beginning to feel that her 
South Aihcan posaessionB were in ail unsettled con- 
dition, although in point of fact they were quiet enough 
until she meddled with them in the blundering well- 
meaning fashion in which she has handled Uiem ever 
Btnce. It was patent, indeed, that some interference waa 
required, when innocent tribes were liable to such cruel 
injustice as that inflicted upon the Ama-Hlubi and 
Amangwe in 1873, and, if her interference was honestly 
intended on their behalf, she has at least the credit of 
the " well-meaning " attributed to her above. Whatever 
her intentions may have been, however, the result has 
been a progress &om bad to worse, culminating at last 
in the late unhappy Zulu War. 

It is believed by many that England posBesses but 
one man upon whom she can place any reliance in times 
of difficulty and danger, and accordingly Natal shortly 
received notice that Sir Garnet Wolseley waa coming to 
"setUe her affairs;" and the Natalians, with feelings 

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SIS'OASNET W0L8SLBT. 79 

Tarying &om bumble and delighted respect to bitter 
and suspicions contempt, prepared themselves to be set 
straight — or not — according to their different sentiments. 

The great man and bis "brilliant staff," as it was 
soon popularly called by the colonists — not without a 
touch of homonr — arrived in Natal upon the last day of 
March, 1 8 75, and on the 1st of April he took the oaths as 
Administrator of the Government at Fietermaritzburg. 

He immediately commenced a series of entertain- 
ments, calculated by their unusual number and btillianoy 
to dazzle the eyes of young Natalian damBels. These 
latter, accustomed as they were to very occasional 
and comparatively quiet festivities, and balls at which a 
few of the subalterns of the small garrison at Fort 
Napier were tbeir most valued partners, foxmd them- 
selves in a new world of a most fiiacixtating description, 
all ablaze with gold and scarlet, Y.C's, C.B.'a, titles, and 
clever anthers. Aitd, what was more, all these striking 
personages paid them the most gracious attentions — 
attentions which varied according to the importance of 
the young ladies' male relatives to the political scheme 
afoot. Meanwhile dinner after dinner was given to the 
said rehitives ; Sir Garnet Wolseley entertained the 
whole world, great and smaU, and the different members 
of his ste^ had each his separate duty to perform—his 
list of people to be " &scinated " in one way or another. 
For a short time, perhaps, the popularity desired was 
achieved in consequence of their united and persevering 
efforts, although from the very first there were voices 
.to be heard casting suspicion upon thcHe who were 
"drowning the conscience of the colony in sherry and 

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80 TEE ZULU WAR. 

champagne ; " and there were others, more far-sighted 
still, who grimly pointed out to the gratified and 
flattered recipients of this "princely hoapitality" the 
very reasonable consideration : " You will have to pay 
for the sherry and champagne yooiselTes in the end." 

Undoubtedly the conviction that the colony would 
pay dear for its unwonted gaiety — that it was being 
" humbuj^ed " and befooled — soon stole upon the people. 
While the daughters enjoyed their balls, their fathers 
had to buy their ball-dreaaea ; and while the legislative 
councillors and all their families were perpetually and 
graciously entertaiQed at Government House, the question 
began to arise : " What ia the object of it all ? " 

All unusual treatment calls forth special scrutiny, 
and it is to be doubted whether Sir Garnet's lavish 
hospitality and (almost) universally dropped honey, 
with all the painful labours of his brilliant staflf com- 
bined, did more than awaken the suspicions which a 
coiuse of proceedings involving less effort would have 
failed to evoke. Even the most ignorant of Dutch 
councillors would be wise enough to know that when 
a magnate of the land treated him and his family aa 
bosom Mends and equals of his own, the said magnate 
must want to "get something out of him" — even the 
most untaught and ingenuous of colonial maidens would 
soon rate at their true value the pretty speeches of the 
" men of note," who would have had them believe that, 
after frequenting all the gayest and most fashionable 
scenes of the great world, th^ had come to Natal and 
found their true ideal upon its distant shores. 

A vast amount of tarouble and of enei^ was thrown 

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SIR GABNUT W0L8ELET. 81 

away by all concerned, while the few whose eyes were 
open &oin the first stood by and watched to see what 
would come of it. The question remains unanswered 
to this day. That the annexation of the Transraal by 
Sir Garnet Wolseley did not come of it, is to that dis- 
creet general's great credit And had his decision — ^that 
the work which he was specially sent out to do* was 
one for which the country was not ripe, and would not 
be for many years — ^been accepted and acted upon by 
England, the expense of his six months' progress through 
Natal would have been well worth incurring indeed, for 
in that case there would have been no Zulu War. But 
this, unfortunately for all parties, was not the case. 

The popular answer in Natal to the question, " What 
did Sir Garnet Wolseley do for you ? " is, " He got os up 
an hour earlier in the morning ; " an excellent thing truly, 
but a costly hour, the history of which is as follows : 
For many years the city of Pietermaritzbuig, known as 
" Sleepy Hollow " to its rivals of another and, in its 
own opinion, a busier town, had set all its clocks and 
watches, and regulated all its business hours by the 
sound of a gun, fired daily from Fort Napier at nine 
o'clock A.M., the signal for which came from the town 
itself. The gun was frequently credited with being 
too fast or slow by a few seconds or even minutes, and 
on one occasion was known to have been wrong by 
half-an-faour ; a mistake which was remedied in the most 
(oiginal fashion, by setting the gun back a minute and 
a half diuly till it should have returned to the proper 

* Tlie aiuuizatum of tlie TraiUTaal : — so stated b; one of hia avm 



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82 THE ZULU WAR. 

iame ; to the utter confiiaioii of ail the cbionometers 
in the neighbourhood. But, right or wrong, the nine- 
o'clock gon was the regulator of city time, including 
that of all coontry places within reach of ita report. 
Tha natives understood it, and "gun-fixe" was theii 
nniTeraal hour of call ; the shops were opened at ita 
sound, and but little business done before it But 
during Sir Qamet Wolaeley's reign in Natal it occurred, 
not without reason, to the member of his staff whom 
he placed in temporary authority over the postal and 
other arrangements of the colony, that nine o'clock was 
too late for a struggling community to begin its day, 
and he therefore altered the original hour of gun-fire 
to that of eight A.M, How far the alteration really 
changed the habits of the people it is hard to say, or 
how many of them may now let the eight-o'clock gun 
wake them instead of sending them to work, but the 
change remains an actual public proof of the fact that 
in 1875 Sir Garnet Wolseley visited Natal 

A more important measure was the bill which he 
carried through the Legislative Assembly for the intro- 
duction of eight nominee" members to be chosen by the 
Govemmenti thereby throwing the balance of power 
into the hands of the executive, unless, indeed, nominee 
members should be chosen independent enough to take 
their own course. Whether this measure was looked 
upon as very important by those who proposed it, or 
whether the energy displayed was for the purpose of 
convincing the public mind that such really was Six 
Garnet's great object in Natal, it is not so easy to 
decide. But looking back through the events of the last 

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am QASNST WOLSBLEY. 8S 

few years one u strongly tempted to snspeot that the 
whole visit to Natal, and all the display made there, 
was nothing but a pretence, a blind to hide our designi 
upon the TransTaal, for which Sir Garnet wiady con« 
sidered that the country was not ripe. 

But if in this instance we are bound to admire 
Sir Garnet 'Wolseley's good sense, we must, on the other 
hand, greatly deprecate his behaviour towards the two 
unfortunate tribes whose sorrows have been recorded, ' 
and towards those who took an interest in their welfare 
and just treatment — more especially towards the Biahop 
of Natal* 

From the very first Sir Gramet's tone upon native 
matters, and towards the Biahop, were entirely opposed 
to that used by Lord Carnarvon. Every attempt made 
by the Bishop to place matters upon a friendly footing, 
which would enable the new Governor to take advantage 

* It is neither cuatomnj nor conTenient to ipeak pulilicly of a 
puent, and I desire to let facta speak for themselTes aa mnoh aa 
posrible. I feel, howeTer, bound to lemaik that of all the mjatakaa 
made by a nBOBgaion of mien in Katal, parhapa the most foolish 
and onneceiearf has been that jealousy of episcopal " oi unof&cial" 
interference, which has blinded them to the fact that the Bishop has 
always been ready to give any assistance in bis power to the local 
Govflmment in oarrying out all juat and expedient meosurea towards 
the natiTea^ without claiming any credit or taking any apparently 
prominent position beyond his own ; and, so long as justice ia done, 
woold greatly prefer its being done by those in offioe. He hoi never 
interfered, except when hie duty as a man, and as the seryant of a 
joat and merciful llaater, has mode it imperatively necessary that , 

he should do so ; nor does he covet any politioal power or influence. 
To a gorenunent whieh intends to carry oat a certain line of polioy 
in defianoe of justice and honour, he would ever be an opponent; 
tut one which honestly aims at the truth would assuiedly meet with 
his earnest supporL 

2 

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84 THE ZVLU WAS. 

of his thorough acqaaintance with the natiTes, was 
checked ; nor through the whole of his goTemorsliip did 
he ever invite the Bishop's confidence or me^t him in 
the spirit in which he was himself prepared to act ; a 
course of proceeding most unfortunately imitated by 
some of his successors, especially Sir Bartle Frere, who 
only " iuyited criticism of his policy " — and received it 
— when too late to be of any avail except to expose its 
fallacies. 

It is impossible to rise from a perusal of the 
despatches written by Sir Garnet after his arrival 
in Natal, in answer or with reference to matters 
in which the Bishop was concerned, without coming to 
the conclusion that irom the very beginning his mind 
was prejudiced against the Bishop's course, aud that he 
had no sjrmpathy with him or the people in whom he 
was interested. Far from attempting to carry out 
Lord Carnarvon's instructions in the spirit in which they 
were undoubtedly given, he set aside some, and gave an 
interpretation of his own to others, which considerably 
altered their effect; while his two despatches, dated 
May 12th and 17th, show plainly enough the bias of his 
mind. 

The first is on the subject of the return of 
Langalibalele, which the Bishop had recommended, offer- 
ing to receive him upon his own land at Bishopstowe, 
and to make himself responsible, within reasonable 
limits, for the chiefs good behaviour. Sir Garnet 
" would deprecate in the strongest terms " such return. 
" Langalibalele," he says, " as I am informed by all 
cIbsbos here, official and non-official (a very small knot of 

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SIB GAMNET WOLSELEY. 85 

men of extreme views excepted), ia regarded by the 
native population at large as a chief who, having defied 
the authorities, and in doing bo occasioned the muider 
of some vhite men, is now suffering for that conduct." 
While thus avoiding the direct responsibility of sitting 
" in judgment upon past events," by qttoting from " all 
claasea here," he practically confirms their opinion by 
speaking of those who differ from them as " a very small 
knot of men of extreme views;" and he farther commits 
himself to the very unsoldierlike expression of " murder" ' 
as applied to the death of the five men at the Bush- 
man's River Pass, by speaMng in the same paragraph of 
the punishment of the chief as " a serious warning to 
all other Kafir chiefii .... to avoid imitating his 
example." Without mentioning the Bishop by name, he 
makes repeated allusions to him in a tone calculated to 
^ve an utterly false impression of his action and 
character. " To secure these objects " (the future safety of 
the colony and the true interests of white and black) " it 
is essential that a good feeling should exist between the 
two races ; and I am bound to say that in my opinion those 
who, by the line of conduct they adopt, keep alive the 
recollection of past events,"* etc. etc. "I have no wish 
to attribute to those who adopt this policy any interested 
motives. I am sure that they are actuated by feelings 

* " Th« tecoUection of paat sTenta " — that is to aay, of ths 
slanghtei of many men, vomen, and children, the destruction of 
homee, and the eaSmnga at the living ; — thia can haidlj with reason 
be said to be kept alive hj attempts to ameliorate the condition of 
those that remained, and to sho^r ttiem some small kindneaa and 
pitj. How " a good feeling " was to be restored between the victimt 
and their conqnerora by other means, Sir Garnet does not suggest 

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8$ THB ZULU WAB. 

of high phiknthropy," ( ? simple justice and hones^), 
*' and nothing is &rther itom my mind than a wish to 
cast any slur upon them. Yet I must say that from the 
manner In which they refbse to believe all evidence that 
does not coincide with their own peculiar views, and 
from the fact of their regarding the condition of affairs 
* in Natal from one standpoint alone, I am forced to 
consider them impractical {sic), and not to be relied on 
as advisers by those who are responsible for the good 
government of all classes." In the following paragraphs 
he speaks of " sensational narratives oftentimes based 
upon imsifted evidence," "highly-coloured accounts," 
and " one-eided, highly-coloured, and, in some inBtances, 
incorreot statements that have been made public in a 
sensationai maimer," all which could refer to the Bishop 
alone. If by regarding the condition of affiiirs in Natal 
from one standpoint alone. Sir Garnet Wolseley means the 
standpoint of British honour and justice, and looks upon 
t&ose who hold it as " impractical," there is little more 
to say. But Sir Garnet can never have given his 
attention to the Bishop's printed pamphlets, and could 
therefore have no right to an opinion as to his reception 
or treatment of evidmce, or he would not venture to use 
the en^ressions just quoted of one who had never made 
an assertion without the most carefol and patient sifting 
of the grounds for it, whose only object was to establish the 
truth, whatever thai m^kt be, and who was only too glad 
whenever his investigations threw discredit upon a tale of 
Wrong or oppression. That principles of strict honour 
and justice should in these our days be characterised 



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SIB OABNET W0L3SLEY. 87 

as ** pecoliar views," is neither to the credit of the 
finglish nation nor of its " only man." 

In the second despatch mentioned Sir Oamet makes 
the following singular rematk : " In the meantime I 
take the liberty of informing yonr lordship that the 
words ' the Amahlubi may, if they choose, when that 
is prepared which is to be prepared, go to him,' are 
interpreted, by those who have taken an active part in 
favour of the tribe, as binding the Government to 
convey all members of the Amahlubi tribe who may 
wish to join Langalibalele, to whatever place may be 
finally selected for his location. I do not conceive that 
any such meaning is uitended, and should not recom- 
mend that such an interpretation should be recognised. 
I think, however, it may fairly be matter for considera- 
tion whether Langalibalele's. wives and children, who 
have lost all their property,* might not be assisted with 
paaa^es by sea to join Lai^aUbalele." t 

It is difficult to imagine what other interpretation 
can be placed on the words of the proclamation, or 
how, after it had once been delivered, any narrower 
measures could be foirly considered, or require further 
" instructions." 

In snbsequent letters Sir Gamet scouts altogether 
representations made by the Bishop of the' destitute 
condition of members of the Elubi tribe, replying to 
Lord Carnarvon on the subject by enclosing letters from 

* In common only with the lest of the tribe. 

t Three vomen and two children only have been allowed to join 



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88 THE errLTJ WAR. 

variouB magifitrates in different parta of the country 
denying that destitution existed ; saying that the people 
were " in sufficiently good circumstances ;" and most of 
them suggesting that, should anything like starvation 
ensue, the people have only to hire themselves out 
as labourers to the white people. The Bishop would 
certainly never have made representations unsupported 
by facts ; but in any case it is a question whether we 
had not some further duties towards a large number 
of innocent people whom we had stripped of all their 
possessions, and whose homes and crops we had 
destroyed, than that of allowing them to labour for 
us at a low rate of wages ; or whether the mere fact 
of its being thus possible for all to keep body and 
soul together rdieved us of the responsibility of having 
robbed and stripped them. 

These facts in themselves prove how different from 
Lord Carnarvon's feelings and intentdons wa« those of 
his subordinate, and how real Sir Garnet's antagonism. 
It is not therefore surprising that the commands of 
the fonuar were not, and have never been, carried out. 



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CHAPTER VII. 

THB 1CAT8HAHA INQHIBT AlfD OOLONBL COLLET. 

In consequence of the threatened action for libel against 
the Bishop of Natal on account of statements made in 
his defence of LangalibaJele, which Mr. John Shepstone 
conddered to be " of a most libellous and malicious 
uatore," the Bishop had laid the matter before the 
Lieut - Governor, Sir B. Pine, requesting him to 
durect an inquiry to be made into the truth of the said 
statements. This vrae refused by His Excellency through 
the acting Colonial Secretary in the following terms : 
" Your lordship has thought it tight to make the most 
serious charges against an important and long-tried 
officer of this Government — charges, too, relating to a 
matter which occurred sixteen years ago.* That officer 
has, in His Excellency's opinion, very properly called 
upon your lordship to retract those charges. Instead of 
doing this, you have appealed to the Liait-Govemor 
to institute an inquiry as to the truth of the charges you 

♦ Which did not prevent their being of the utmost importance 
in conridering the cose of the chief under trial at the time the 
Ktatemanta weie made. 



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90 TEE ZULU WAR. 

have made. This the Lieut. -Governor has no teai- 
tation in declining to do." Thereby prejudging the 
case without inquiry. 

The Biahop's next action was an appeal to the 
Secretary of State for the Colonies, which he requested 
the Lieut-GoTemor to forward with a copy of the 
correspondence which had already taken place on the 
subject, in order that Hia Excellency might be fully 
aware of what steps he was taking. 

This appeal contained a short account of the facts 
which had led to his making the statements complained 
of— tiie trial of Langalibalele, and the "fear of 
treachery" perpetually pleaded by many witnesses in 
excnse of the chiefs conduct, but treated with contempt 
both by the court below and the coimcil, each including 
the Secretary for Native Affairs, and presided over by 
His Excellency. The statements made by the Bishop — 
not mere " charges " unsupported by evidaice, but the 
deposition of four eye-witnesses who might be cross- 
examined at will — would, if proved to be true, greatly 
tend to. palliate the offences imputed to the chief, and 
should therefore not have been suppressed by the officer 
concerned, who had kept silence when a word &om his 
mouth would have cleared a prisoner on trial for his life 
from a very serious part of the chai^ against him. The 
Bishop therefore submitted that the &ct of the events 
in question having taken place sixteen years b^ore 
was no reason why they should not be brought to light 
when required for the prisoner's defence. 

The correspondence which ensued — including a very 
curious circumstaace relating to a missing despatch> 

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THE MATSSANA INQUIBT AND COL. OOLLEY. 91 

recorded in the deapatch-book at Ketermaritrburg, 
but apparently never received in Downing Street — 
will be fonnd by those interested in the sabject in the 
Bishop's pamphlet, "The History of the Matshana 
Inquiry." For onr present purpose it ia sufficient to re- 
mark that on the 22nd of April, 1875, Lord Carnarvon 
directed Sir Qamet Wolseley to institute a careful 
inquiry into the inatter, and su^ested that under all the 
drcumstancea this inquiry might be best conducted by 
one or more of the senior officers of Sir Qamet's ttaS, 
who had accompanied him on special service to Natal. 
The correspondence which followed between the parties 
cimcemed, with arrangements for the Bummoning of 
witnesses and for the management of the trial, are 
also all to be found in the above-mentioned pamphlet. 
The inquiry was to be of a private nature, no reporters 
to be admitted, nor counsel on either side permitted.* 
The Bishop and Mr. Shepstone were each to be allowed 
the presence of one friend during tie inquiry, who, 
however, was not to speak to the witnesses, or to 
address the officer holding the inquiry. In addition 
the Bishop asked, and received, permission to bring 
with him the native interpreter, through whom he was 
in the habit of conducting important conver&ati<mB 
with native^ as his own Zulu, although sufficient for 
ordinary purposes, was not, in his opinion, equal to 

* 8ii B. Fine complains in hia despatch, December 3Iat, 1874, of 
the "intolerable injustice" of chaises being made against Mr. J. 
Shepatone, upon evidenco taken b; tlie Bishop ex parte, without the 
tc^ety of ptibliciiy and the opportunit; of crosa^xamination. Tet 
Sir Garnet WoUeley refosed to allow publicity or searching croaa- 
uttkni tfj «]q)eiieaoed Advooatei. 

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02 THE ZULU WAB. 

the reqmrements of the cafie, while Mr. J. Shepetone 
waa familiar irom childhood with colloquial Kafir. 

In the Bishop's pamphlet he points out that the 
couise which Lord Camarron had thought proper to 
adopt in this case was wholly his own, and proceeds as 
follows : — a passage which we will quote entire : — 

"And I apprehend that this inquiry, though of 
necessity directed mainly to the question whether 
Mr. John Shepstone fired at Matahana or not, is not 
chiefly concerned with the character of the act imputed 
to him, described by the Secretary for Native Afiaizs as 
of a treacherous murderous nature, but involves the fiir 
more serious question whether that act, if really com- 
mitted, was suppressed by Mr, John Shepstone at the 
time in his official report, was further suppressed by him 
when he appeared last year as Government prosecutor 
against a prisoner on trial for his life — who pleaded it 
as a very important part of his defence, but found his 
plea treated by the court, through Mr. John Shepstone's 
silence, as a mere impudent ' pretext ' — and has been 
finally denied by him to the Secretary of State himself, 
and is still denied down to the present moment. Such 
an act as that ascribed to him, if duly reported at the 
tiijie, might, I am well aware, have been justified by 
some, or at least excused, on grounds of public policy 
under the circumstances ; though I, for my part, should 
utterly dissent from such a view. In that case, how- 
ever, it would have been unfair and unwarrantable to 
have reproached Mr. Shepatone at the present time for 
an act which had been brought properly under the 
cognizance of his superiors. But the present inquiry, 

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TEE MAT8HANA INQXTIRY AND OOL. OOLLEY. 93 

as I conceive, has chiefly in view the question whether 
the facta really occurred as Mr. John Shepstone reported 
at first officially, and has since reaffirmed officially, or 
not" 

Colonel Colley, C.B., was the officer appointed to 
condnct the inquiry, the Cbminencement of which was 
fixed for August 2nd, 1875. 

The intervening period granted for the purpose was 
employed by the Bishop in aummoning witnesses from 
all parts of the land; &om Zululand, from the Free 
State, and distant parts of the colony. Matshana 
himself was summoned as a witness under an offer 
of safe-conduct from the (Jovemment He, however, 
did not find it convenient, or was afraid, to trust 
himself in peraon ; but Cetshwayo sent some of his 
men in his place. The Bishop's object was to summon 
as many "indunas," or messengers, or otherwise pro- 
minent persons in the affair of 1858; men who were 
thoroughly trustworthy, and "had a backbone," and 
would not be afraid to speak the truth ; his desire being 
to get at that truth, whatever it might be. Thirty-one 
men responded to his call, of whom, however, only 
twenty were examined in court, the Bishop giving way 
to Colonel Coney's wish in the matter, and to save the 
court's time. Four other witnesses summoned by both 
the Bishop and Mr. Shepstone were examined, and nine 
more on Mr. Shepstone's behalf, called by him. The 
Bishop had considerable difficulty in procuring the 
attendance of the witnesses he required. The simple 
order of Mr, John Shepstone would suffice, by the mere 
lifting up of hia fijiger, to bring down to Fietermaritz- 

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04 TES ZULU WAIt. 

burg at once any natiyea whom he desired aa witneafies, 
inTCsted aa he was in the native mind with all the 
weight and all the terroni of the magistenal office ; and 
with the additional influence derived from the &ct of 
his having only recently filled, during hia brother's 
absence in England, the office of Secretary for Native 
Affidrs, with Buch great — almost despotic— authority 
over all the natives in the colony. The Bishop, on the 
contrary, had no such influence. He had no power at 
all to insist upon the attendance of witnesses. He 
could only ccab them to come, and if they came at bis 
request, they would know that they were coming, as it 
were, with a rope around their necks ; and if they were 
proved to have borne false witness, calumniating foully 
go high an official, they had eveiy reason to fear that 
their punishment would be severe, from which the 
Bishop would have had no power — even if, in such a 
case, he had the will-— to save them. 

When, upon the 2nd August, the inquiry began, 
out of the many witnesses called by the Bishop, upon 
whom lay the onus prohandi, only three were at hand; 
and two of these, as will be seen, were present merely 
through the wise forethought of the inteUigent Zulu, 
WilUam Ngidi. But for this last, the inquiry would 
have begun, and — as the Commissioner was pressed 
for time, having other important duties on his hands 
in consequence of Sir Ghonet Wolseley and staff 
being about immediately to leave the colony — might 
even (aa it seemed) have ended, with only a single 
witness being heard in support of the Bishop's story. 
No others were seen or even beard of for some 

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TEE MATSSANA INQVIRY AND COL. COLLET, 95 

days, and then bj accident only. The Secretary 
for Native Affaire, it is true, by direction of Sir 
Oamet Wolseley, had desired Cetahwayo to send down 
Matehana. and the Bishop fiiUy expected that this 
interyention of the QoTemment with a promise of 
safe conduct for him, would have sufficed to bring him. 
But Mr. John Dunn, " Immigratiou Agent" of the 
GoTemment in Zuluknd, and Cetshw&yo'a confidential 
adviser, whom the Bishop met in Durban on July 8th, 
told him at once that be did not think there was 
the least chance of Matshana's coming, aa the Secretary 
for Native Affairs' words in 1873, when he went up to 
crown Cetshwayo (who asked very earnestly that 
Uatshana might be forgiven and allowed to return to 
Natal) were so severe — "He had injured the Secretary 
for Native Affaini' own body;" that is, one of his men 
had wounded his brother (Mr. John Shepstone) fifteen 
years previously, when thirty or forty of Malahana's 
men had been killed — ^that he would be afiraid to come 
at a mere summons like this, notwithstanding the 
promise of safety, the value of which he would naturally 
ap{»eciate by his own experience in former days. Mr. 
Dunn promised to do his best to persuade him to go 
down, but did not expect to succeed. And, in point of 
&ust, he never came, alleging the usual "pain in the 
leg;" and the discussion in Zululand about his coming 
had only the result of delaying for some days the 
starting of the other witnesses whom the Bishop had 
asked Cetshwayo to send. On August 4th, however, 
Zulu measengeis arrived, reporting to the Secretary for 
Native Affairs the sickness of Matshana, and to the Bishop 

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98 TEE ZULU WAB. 

the fact that m^ witnesses from Znluland were cm the way, 
and they themselves had piished on ahead to auuotmce 
their coming, as they knew they were wanted foi 
August 2nd. Accordingly fire of them amTed on 
August 8th, and the sixth, Maboyi, on August 5th, under 
somewhat Bingxdar circumstances, as will presently appear. 
Meanwhile most important witnesses in support of the 
Bishop's story were expected by him &om Matshana's 
old location — Kwa' Jobe (at the place of "Jobe") — 
partly in consequence of a letter written by Magema to 
William N^di,- partly in compliance with the Bishop's 
request seat through Cetshwayo to Matshana himself in 
Zululand. William Ngidi replied to Magema, as follows: 
" Your letter reached me all right, and just in the very 
nick of time, for it came on Saturday, and the day 
before Mr. John arriTed here (Kwa' Jobe), and called the 
men to come to him on Monday, that they might talk 
together about Matshana's affair. On Sunday my friend 
Mlingane came, and we took counsel together ; for by 
this time it was well known that Mr. John had come to 
speak with the people about that matter of Matshana. 
So we put our heads together, and I got up very early 
on Monday morning and hurried off to Deke, and told 
him that he was called by Sobantu (the Bishop) to go 
before the Governor. He readily agreed to go, and went 
down at once, on the very day when Matshana's people 
came together to Mr. John, so that he never went to 
him ; but, when I arrived, there had just come already 
the messenger to call him to go to Mr. John, and another 
came just as he was about to set off for 'Maritzborg. I 
told him to call for Mpupama on his way, and take him 

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THE MATSHANA mqUISY -^^ OOL. COLLET. 97 

on with him. I see that jou have done wdt and wisely 
in Bending that letter without delay to me." 

Accordingly these two men, Deke and Mpupnma, 
reached Bishopstowe safely in good tuna Also Ktam- 
bama, Langalibalele's brother, of whom the Bishop had 
heard as having been present on the occasion, readily 
came at his summons, though he was not asked to give 
his evidence, nor did the Bishop know what it would be 
before he made his statement in court. But for the 
prudent action of William Ngidi, iNtambama would have 
been t^e only witoess whose testimony would have sus- 
tained the Bishop's statements during the first days of 
the inquiry ; and hia evidence, unsupported, might have 
been suspected, as that of Langalibalele's brother, of not 
being disinterested, and would have been contradicted 
at once (see below) by Ncamane's. 

On Saturday, July 3lBt, the inquiry being about to 
begin on the Monday, Magema received a doleful letter 
from William Ngidi to the effect that the 'Inkoa Sobantu 
must take care what he was about, for that all the people 
were afraid, and would not venture to come forward and 
g^ve evidence against a high government official. He 
spoke, however, of one man " whom I trust most of all 
the people here," and who had the scar upon his neck of 
a wound received upon the day of Matahana'a arrest. 

Diflcouragiug, indeed, as it was to find on the very 
eve of the inquiry that all his efforts through William 
Ng^di had fmled to procure witnesses, except the two 
sent down by him at the first, the Bishop was utterly at 
a loss to understand how his message to Cetshwayo had, 
to all appearance, also entirely failed with respect to 

H 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



98 . TEE ZULU WAR. 

those men of Matshaoa still living Kwa' Jobe, as well 
aa (it seemed) those living in Zululand. 

On August 5th the mystery with respect to the 
witneasea Kwa' Johe was explained. Deke, Mpupuma, 
Ntambama, and Njuba, who had come trom Zululand, 
had all been examined, as well aa Ncamane, who, when 
called by the Bishop, had replied that he would only 
come if called by the Government ; and when summoned 
through the Secretary for Native Affairs, at the Bishop's 
request, withdrew oc modified important parts of his 
printed statement. The Bishop had actually no other 
witness to call, and all his efforts to obtain a number of 
well-informed and trustworthy eye-witnesses from Zulu- 
land, Kwa' Jobe, and Basutoland, seemed likely to end 
in a complete fiasco. But on the evening of Thursday, 
August 5th, a native came to him in the street and said 
that hla name was Maboyi. son of Tole (Matshana's 
chief induna, who was killed on the occasion in question), 
and that he had been sent by Matahana to Hr. Fyun, 
the superintendent, and Lutshungu, son of Ngoza, the 
present chief, of the remnant of his former tribe living 
Kwa' Jobe, to ask to be allowed to take down to 
'Maritzbui^ as witnesses those men of bis who w^e 
present on the day of the attempt to seize Matshana, 
Mr. Fynn said that " He did not refuse the men, but 
wished to hear a word by a letter coming from the 
Secretary for Native Affairs — it was not proper that he 
should hear it from a man of Matahana comino' from 
Zululand," and sent him off under charge of a policeman 
to 'Maritzburg, where he was taken to the Secretary for 
Native Affairs, who said to him : " If Matsbana himself 

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TEE MATSEANA INQIUBY AND COL. COLLET. 99 

had eomc, this matter might have been properly settled j 
it won't be without him ! " But the Secretary for Native 
Afikirs said nothuig to Maboyi about his going to call 
the witnesses Kwa' Jobe ; he only asked by whom he 
had been sent, and when informed, he toid him to go 
home to Zululand, as he had not been summoned and 
had uothiiig to do with this affair. Maboyi had reached 
'Maritzbni^ on Monday, August 2Qd, the day on which 
the inquiry began. He saw the Secretary for Native 
Affaiia on Tuesday, and on that day was dismissed as 
above. Not a word was said to the Bishop about his 
being brought down in this way under arrest, which 
fully explained the non-arrival of his witnesses from 
the location ; since, first, their fear of giving witness 
against a government official, and now the arrest of 
Maboyi, had spread a kind of panic among them all, 
and deterred them from coming to give evidence 
against Mr. John Shepstone — himself a resident 
magistrate, only lately acting as Secretary for Native 
Affairs, and the brother of the Seraetary for Native 
Affairs himself— merely in answer to the Bishop's un- 
official amnmons. Hearing, however, on Thursday from 
natives that the case was then going on at Government 
House, Maboyi went up to speak witii the Bishop, but 
arrived when the court had adjourned. He found him 
jout in town, however, just as he was on the point of 
-leaving for Bishopstowe, and was, of course, told to wait 
and give his evidence. Accordingly, he went to Bishop- 
stowe, and Magema was charged to bring him in for 
examinaiion on Saturday, the next day of the inquiry. 
On the way into town for that purpose, Mr. Fynn's 

B 2 

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100 TEE ZULU WAR. 

policeman most positively refused to let him stay, and 
went off ultimately in great wrath, as Maboyi and 
Magema insisted that be must give his evidence before 
I«ifivmg town to return to Zululand. 

On that day, Saturday, August 7th, the Bishop 
explained the whole affair to the Commissioner, and, 
having obtained a list of names &om Maboyi, requested 
that a Government messenger might be sent for the 
men at once, and the Secretary for Native Affairs was 
instructed to summon them. On Monday, August 
9 th, the Secretary for Native Affairs replied that 
be had summoned all these men, except seven, who 
were already in town, having been called by Mr. John 
Shepstone, and having been, in fact, under his hands — 
in charge of his induna Nozitshina — from the veiy first 
day of the inquiry. It seemed as if William Ngidi's 
statement was really to be verified, and that these men 
had all succumbed to their fears. On the other hand, 
among these seven was Matendeyeka, whom 'WiUiaxa 
Ngidi " trusted most of all ; " and there might " be 
amongst them some who would have the courage to 
speak out and to describe the facts connected with the 
arrest of Matshana to the best of their ability. At all 
events the Bishop resolved to call them, and do his best 
to bring the truth out of them ; and Magema after- 
wards whispered that he had heard from one of Mc 
John's men, who was present when he spoke with the 
people (Kwa' Jobe), that the men there had said : " It 
was of no use to discuss it beforehand ; they would say 
.nothing about what they remembered now ; but before 
the Governor they would speak the plain truth aa they 

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TBE MAT3HANA INQVIBY AND GOL. COLLET, 101 

knew it." Accordingly the Bishop called four of these 
men- — Matendeyeka, Faku (son of Tole)^ Magwaza, 
Gwazlzalu — and they all confirmed the story as told by 
his other witnesses. He left the other three to be called 
by Mr. John Shepstone, but he nev^ called them. That 
these witnesses should have been called by Mr. John 
Shepstone, as well as by the Bishop, was satis&ctory, 
showing that they were witnesses to whom no objection 
could be made on the score of character or position in 
the tribe, or as having been in any way, directly or 
indirectly, influenced by the Bishop, 

But the result was that, as these men were in 
the hands of the other side from tibe time they reached 
until they left 'Maritzbui^, the Bishop had never even 
seen tiiem, or had any communication with them, until 
they appeared to give their evidence. He was wholly 
ignorant beforehand of what they would say or what 
they could say; he knew not whether they would 
confirm or contradict the story told by his other 
witnesses ; and he knew not on what particular points, 
if any, they could give special evidence, and was 
therefore unable to ask the questions which might 
have elicited audi evidence. 

By tiiis tame {August 8th) the witnesses from Zulu- 
land had Arrived, from whom the Bishop learned the 
names of other important witnesses living Kwa' Jobe, 
and at his request these also were sent for by Govern- 
ment meflsengers. Unfortunately, through Maboyi'a 
arrest, some of the Bishop's witnesses summoned by the 
Secretary for Native Aflfairs arrived too late on the very 
day (August 21st) on which the evidence was closed, and 

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102 THE ZULV WAR. 

others a day or two afterwards — twelve altogether — of 
whom only, one could be beard, whom the Bishop had 
expressly named as a man whose testimony he espe- 
cially desired to take. Upon the whole, Sir Garnet 
Wolseley, who began by "leaving entirely in the 
Bishop's hands " the difficult and not inexpensive 
business of "obtaining his witnesses," summoned iilti- 
mately twenty-two of them, of whom, however, four only 
could be heard by the Commissioner; two (Matahana 
and Ngijimi) did not come at all ; and three, including 
a most important witness, were called too late to be 
able to arrive till all was over; while four more out 
of the seven who had been called by Mr. John Shepstone 
gave their evidence in support of the Bishop, as doubtless 
the three others would have done, if Mr. John Shepstone 
had called them. 

In the despatch to the Karl of Carnarvon, already 
quoted from (note to p. 91), Sir B. Pine remarks : 
" I think it further my duty to point out to your lord- 
ship that much of the evidence adduced by the Bi^op 
m this case has been taken in this way {exparte, without 
the safety of publicity, and the opportunity of cross- 
examination) ; evidence so taken is peculiarly tmtrast* 
worthy, for everyone moderately acquainted with the 
native character is aware that when a question is put 
to a native, he will intuitively perceive what answer is 
required, and answer accordingly." The above is a 
Common but insufficiently supported accusation against 
the natives, denied by many who are more than 
" moderately acquainted " with their character ; although 
of course it is the natural tendency of a subservient 

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THE UAT8BANA INQUTBT AND COL. OOLLET. 103 

race in its dealings vith its maaters, and possible tyrants. 
But granting for the nonce its truth, it would, in the 
case of the Matshana inquiry, tdl heavdy on the 
Bishop's side. Sir B. Fine was not present at the 
private investigation made by the Bishop, to which he 
alludes in the above sentence, and therefore can be no 
judge of the " crosa-eiamination," which the four 
original witnesses underwent; and they, if they did 
" intaitiTely perceive " what answer was required, and 
"answer accordingly," must merely have spoken the 
truth ; a truth which, at that early period of his investi' 
gatioDs, the Bishop was most rductaiitly recdving, and 
would gladly have had disproved. 

The evidence before the court, however, was given 
nndw circumstances which, if Sir B. Pine's account of 
native witnesses be correct, adds enormously to the 
value of the fact that out of these twenty-four witnesses, 
summoned from various quarters, many of them with- 
out opportunity of conmiunicating either with the 
Bishop or with each other, but one* fEuled when 
it came to the point ; and he, a feeble old man, just 
leleased from prison (one of tiie captured tribe), was 
manifestly in a state of abject alarm at finding 
himself brought up to witness against Uie Qovemment 
whose tender mercies he had so lately experienced, and 
contradicted before Colonel Colley the greater part of 
the story which he had originally told the Bishop. 
This poor creature had been intimidated and threatened 
by a certain man named Adam, under whose surveil- 
lance he lived after being released from gaol, and 
* One of the origmal four. 

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104 THE ZTWU WAS.' ' 

who actually turned him and his &mily out at night 
as a punishment for his having obeyed a Bummons 
to Biflhopstowe. He was manifestly ready to say any- 
thing which would relieve him from the fear of the 
gaol, which he pleaded to Mr. Shepstone a day or 
two later ; on which occasion he unsud all he had 
previously stud, having, as he afterwards confessed, been 
warned by Mr. Shepstone's poHceman Gatsha, who 
asked him for what purpose he had been summoned 
by the Biahop, not to ipeak a word about " Mr. John's " 
treatment of Matshana. But, with the best intentions, 
the man did not succeed in making his story tally 
entirely with that of Mr. Shepstone's other witnesses, 
nor with Mr. Shepstone's own. 

With this one exception the Bishop's witnesses told 
the same story in all essential respects. T|hey were men 
arriving from many different and distant parts of the 
colony, from Zululand, and from the Free State, who 
could not possibly have combined to tell the same story 
in all its details, which, if false, would have been torn to 
pieces when so many men of different ages and characters 
were cross-ezamined by one so thoroughly acquainted 
with all the real fiacta of the case as Mr. Shepstone — 
men who had nothing to expect frxtm the Bishop, but 
had everything to dread from the Government if proved. 
to have brought a false and foul charge against an officer 
so highly placed and so powerfully protected ; yet not 
the least impression was made upon the strength of their 
united evidence. 

The case, however, is very different when we turn to 
Mr. Shepstone's witnesses. Of these, nine in number 

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TBS MAT8EAKA INQUIBY AND GOT,. COLLET. 105 

(besides the four natives called by both the Bishop and 
Mr. Sh^tone), seven were natives ; the other two being 
the Secretary for Native Affairs and Mr. John Taylor — 
a son of Mr. John Shepstone's first wife by her former 
husband. Mr. Taylor was a lad of nine at the time, but, 
having been present with hia mother and litUe Bister 
on the occasion of the attack upon Matshana, was 
sommoned as a witness by Mr. Shepstone. His 
evidence was chiefly important as helping to prove 
that Matahana's party had not the concealed weapons 
which Mr. Shepstone's chief native witness Nozit-' 
shina sud were left by them in immense numbers 
upon the ground; as he stated that he and his 
sister went over the ground, after the affair was over, 
and picked up the assegais, " about eight or nine " in 
nmuber. 

But it is important to remark that the very fact of 
tlie presence at this meeting of Mrs. Shepstone with her 
two children, goes far to disprove ike account given by 
Mr. Bhepstone in his second " statement," prepared by 
him on the occasion of this trial, but which is greatly at 
variance on some vital points with the nanative written 
by him on the day after the event, dated March 17th, 
1858, for the information of His Excellency the Lieut- 
Governor. It seems almost incredible that Mr. John 
Shepstone diould have, as he says in his second state- 
ment, " made up his mind to face almost certain " death, 
not only for himself and all his men, but for his wife and 
her two young children, on the grounds that it was " too 
late to withdraw at this stage " (same report), when at 
any time since tJie "day or two previous" {ibid.), when 

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106 THE ZVLV WAR. 

the information in question^ reached Mm ; according to 
his account he might have put off tibe meeting, or at all 
events have sent his wife and her children to a place of 
safety. The Secretary for Native Affairs' evidence could 
of course be of a merely official character, as he was not 
present on tlie occasion. He stated that Mr. John Shep- 
stoue's letters of February 16th and 24th, 1858, asked 
for by the Biahop, on the subject of the approaching 
interview with Matshana, could not be found, although 
they "must have been recently ndslaid," as he himself 
(the Secretary for Native Affairs) had quoted from one of 
them in his minute for the Secretary of State in Jnne^ 
1874. Of Mr. Shepstone's native witnesses it ctm only 
be said that, amongst the seven called by hita, only, »z 
contradicted themselves and each other to so great an 
extent as to make their evidence of no value, while the 
evidence of the seventh was unimportant, and the four 
witnesses called by both Mr. Shepstone and the Bishop 
told the same story as did the witnesses of the latter, 
most unexpectedly to him. 

Nevertheless Colonel Colley's judgment, although 
convicting Mr. John Shepstone of having enticed the 
ohief Matshana to an interview with the intention of 
seizing him, was received and acted upon iu Natal as an. 
acquittal of that officer. So far was this the case, that, 

* Mr. Shepstone sayB in his second nport that n day or two 
ptevioua to the meeting With Uatahana, he had receired mfotmatioii 
to the effect that the chief's intentions vere to put him and his people 
to death at the axpected interview, and all the efforts mode by Mt> 
Shepstone and his witnesses were to prove, first, the murderous inten- 
tions of Miktshana; and, secundlj, that nevertkdesa Mr. Shepstone had 
no connter-plana for violence, and did not fire upon the people. 

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TBS MAT8HANA IKqUIRY AND OOL. COLLET. 107 

although Lord Carnarvon directed that the Bishop's 
costs should be placed upon the colonial estimates, the 
Legislative Council of the colony refused to pay them on 
the grounds that they were the costs of the losing 
party. In his report Colonel Colley gives his opinions 
as follows : 

" That Matyana was enticed to an interview, as 
stated by the Bishop, and was induced to come unarmed, 
under the bdief that it was a friendly meeting, such as 
he had already had with Mr. Shepstone, for the purpose 
of diBcuasing the accusations against him and tile 
CLuestion of his return to his location. 

"That Matyana, though very auspicious and un- 
willing, came there in good faith ; and that the accusa- 
tions against him — of meditating the assassination of 
Mr. Shepstone and' his party, of a prearranged plan 
and signal for the purpose, and of carrying concealed 
arms to the meeting — which are made in Mr. J. 
Shepstone's statements, are entirely without foun- 
dation. 

" That Mr. Shepstone at that time held no magisterial 
position, but was simply the commander Of a sm^ 
armed force. chai^d with the execution of a warrant; 
and that the manner in which he proposed to effect the 
seizure, vi2. at a supposed friendly meeting, was known 
to and sanctioned by, if not the Government, at least 
the immediate representative of the Government and 
Mr, Shepstone's superior, Dr. Kelly, the resident 
magistrate of the district 

"That Mr. Shepstone did not attempt to shoot 
Matyana, as described by the Bishop, but fired into the 

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108 THE ZULU WAS. 

air after tlie attempt to seize Matyaoa had failed, and in 
consequence of the attempt made almost simultaneoualy 
by 8ome of Matyana'a men to reach the huta and seize 
the anus of Mr. Sbepstone's men. 

" The concealment of the gun," he continues, " and 
the fact that a number of Matyana's men were killed in 
the pursuit, is not disputed by Mr. Shepstone. 

" I confess that I have had the greatest difficulty in 
fonning my opinion on this latter point, and especially 
OS to whether Mr. Shepstone fired into the air as he 
states. The weight of direct evidence adduced at the 
inquiry lay altogether on the other side.""' 

Colonel Colley then proceeds to give the considera- 
tions by which he has been influenced in coming to a 
conclusion directly opposed to the side on which, as he 
himself says, lay the weight of direct evidence. These 
considerations were threefold. The first is an oj»nion 
of his own, considerably at variance with moat people's 
experience, namely, that a story handed down by 
oral tradition " crjrstallises into an accepted form," 
by which he explains away the fact that so many 
witnesses told the same story, and one which stood 
the test of crosa-examination, without any important 
variatioDB. 

The second consideration was even more singnlar, 
namely, that allowance must be made on Mr. John 
Sbepstone's side for the greater ability with which the 
Bishop conducted his case; and the third lay in the 
statement that " Mr. J. W. Shepstone is a man of known 
courage, and a noted sportsman and shot," and " was 
• Aathot'B italics. 

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THE MAT8EANA. INQUIBY AND OOL. OOLLEY. 109 

not likely to have nuBsed " Matyana if he had fired at 
him ; " and, if driven to fire into the crowd in self- 
defence, it is more piobable that ho would have shot 
one of the men on the right" The Bishop's opponents 
from the very first persistently put forward the notion 
that he had "brought a charge againat Mr. J. W. 
Shepstone," and this was countenanced by the Govern- 
ment when they threw upon him the serious task of 
prosecuting before a Court of Enquiry, whereas ia 
point of &ct the real question at issue was not 
whether or no a certain shot was actually fired, but 
whether, on a certain oct^ou, a Government official had 
acted in a treacherous manner towards a native chief, 
thereby giving reason for the excuse of fear on the part 
of Ijangalibalele, treated as a false pretence by the 
court, some members of which were fully aware of the 
fitcts, and the prosecutor himself the official coucemed. 
And, farther, whether the said facts had been concealed 
by high Government officers, and denied by them 
repeatedly to their superiors in England. 

On the former questions Colonel Coney's report 
leaves no doubt, and Lord Carnarvon's comments upon 
it are of a very decided nature. After signifying his 
acceptance of the decision as a "sound and just cou- 
cluaon," and complimenting Colonel CoUey on the "able 
and consdentious manner in which " he " has acquitted 
himself ef an arduous and delicate task," he contiaues : 
" On the other hand, I must, even after the lapse of so 
many years, record my disapprobation of the artifices by 
which it is admitted Matyana was entrapped into the 
meeting with a view to his forcible arrest. Such under- 

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110 TffE ZULU WAR. 

hand manoeuvres are opposed to the moraUty of a 
civilised administration ; they lower English rule in the 
eyes of the natives; and they even defeat their own 
object, aa is abundantly illustrated by the present case." 

Mr. J. W. Shepstone, however, was a subordinate 
officer, and if his mode of executing the warrant was 
approved by the superior authorities in the colony, the 
blame which may attach to the transaction must be 
borne by them at least in equal proportion. 

The gist of Colonel Colley's decision is altogether 
condemnatory of Mr. J. Shepstoue, some of whoso state- 
ments, he says, " are entirely without foundation," and, 
by implication, also of his brother, the Secretary for Native 
Affairs ; yet virtually, and in the eyes of the world, the 
decision was in their favour. To quote from The Naial 
Mercury of November 2nd, 1875 : " It is still understood 
that Mr. Shepstone, in the minds of impartial judges, 
stands more than exonerated from the Bishop's charges." 
Mr. John Shepstone was retained in his responsible posi- 
tion, and received further promotion ; and his brother 
was immediately appointed to the high office of Admi- 
nistrator of Government, and sent out with power to 
annex the Transvaal if he thought proper. 

We have dwelt at some length upon the inquiry 
into the Matahana case ; for, since the annexation of the 
Transvaal was one of the direct and immediate causes 
of the Zulu War, and since it seems improbable that 
any other man than Sir Theophilus Shepstone could at 
the moment have been found equally able to undertake 
the task, it becomes a serious question to what extent an 
inquiry which -had no practical effect whatsoever upoxi 

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THE MATSHANA WQUIRY AND OOL, OOLLEY. Ill 

the position of men whose conduct liad been stigma- 
tised by the Secretary of State himself as " underhand 
manoeuvres, opposed to the morality of a civilised 
administration," may not be considered chargeable with 
the disastrous results. And, further, we must protest 
against the spirit of the last sentence of Lord 
Carnarvon's despatch on the subject, in which he 
eipresses his " earnest hope that his (Colonel Colley's) 
report will be received by all parties to this controversy 
in the spirit which is to be desired, and be accepted as 
a final settlement of a dispute which cannot be pro- 
longed without serious prejudice to public interests, and 
withoat a renewal of those resentments which, for the 
good of the community — English as well as native — had 
best be put to rest" 

A dislocated joint most be replaced, or the limb 
cannot otherwise be pressed down into shape and " pat 
to rest;" a thorn must be extracted, not skinned ove^ 
and left in the flesh ; and as, with the dislocation un- 
reduced or the thorn uneztracted, the human &ame 
can never recover its healthful condition, so it is with 
the state with an unrighted wrong, an unexposed 
injustice. 

The act of treason towards Hatshana, hidden for 
many years, looked upon by its perpetrators aa a matter 
past and gone, has tainted all our native policy since — 
unknown to most English people in Natal or at home — 
and has finally borne bitter fruit in the present unhappy 
condition of native affurs. 



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CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ANNBXiTION OP THE THAN3VAAL. 

On the 5th of October, 1876, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, 
K.C.M.Gr., was appointed "to be a Special Commia- 
aioner to inquire rcepecting certain disturbances which 
have taken place in the territories adjoining the 
colony of Katal, and empowering him, in certain 
events, to exercise the power and jurisdiction of 
Her Majesty over such territories, or some of them." 
(P. P. [C. 1776] p. 1.) 

The commission stated ; " Whereas grievous dis- 
turbances have brokett out in the territories adjacent 
to our colonies in South Africa, with war between the 
white inhabitants and the native races, to t^e great 
peril of the peace and safety of our said colonies . . . 
and, if the emergency should seem to you to be such as 
to render it necessary, in order to secure the peace and 
safety of our said colonies and of our subjects elsewhere, 
that the said territories, or any portion or portions of 
the same, should provisionally, and pending the an- 
nouncement of our pleasure, be administered in our 
name and on our behalf; then, and in such case only, 
we do further authorise you, the said Sir Theophilus 

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THJE ANNEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL. US 

Shepstone, by proclamatdon under your hand, to declare 
that, from and after a day to be therein named, so much 
of any such territories as aforesaid, as to you after due 
coDsideratioD, shall seem fit, shall be annexed to and 
form part of our dominions. . . . Provided, first, that 
no such proclamation shall be issued by you with respect 
to any district, territory, or state unless you shall be 
satisfied that the inhabitants thereof, or a sufficient 
number of them, or the Legislature thereof, desire to 
become our subjects, nor if any conditions unduly 
limiting our power and authority therein are sought to 
be imposed." 

Such was the tenor of the commission which, unknown 
to the world at large, Sir Theophilas Shepstone. brought 
with him when he returned to Natal in November, 1876. 
The sudden annexation which followed was a stroke 
which took all' by surprise except the few already in the 
secret ; many declaring to the last that such an action 
on the part of the English Government was impossible 
• — ■because, they thought, unjust. It is true that the 
Eepablic had for long been going from bad to worse in 
the management of its own afiaire ; its Government had 
no longer the power to enforce laws or to coUect taxes ; 
and the country was generally believed to be fast 
approaching a condition of absolute anarchy. Never- 
theless it was thought by some that, except by the 
request of those concerned, we had no right to intrude 
oar authority for the better control of Transvaal afiairs 
BO long as their bad management did not affect us. 

On one point, however, we undoubtedly had a right 
to interfere, as the stronger, the juster, and more mercifal 

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114 TSE ZULU WAR. 

nation — namely, the attitude of the Transvaal Boers 
towards, and their treatment of, the native tribes who 
were their neighbours, or who came under their control. 
On behaK of the latter unfortunates (IVansvaal aubjecta), 
we did not even profess to interfere ; but one of the chief 
causes alleged by us for our taking possession of the 
country was a long and desultory war which was taking 
place between the Boers and Sikukuni, the chief of the 
Bapedi tribe living upon their northern borders, and in 
the course of which the Boers were behaving towards the 
unhappy natives with a treachery, and, when they fell 
into their power, with a brutality unsurpassed by any 
historical records The sickening accounts of cruelties 
inflicted upon helpless men, women, and children by the 
Boers, which are to be found on official record in the 
p^es of the Blue-book (C. 1776), should be ample 
justification in the eyes of a civilised world for English 
interference, and forcible protection of the auflerers ; and 
it is rather with the manner in which the annexation 
was carried out, and the policy which followed it, than 
with the intervention of English power in itself, that an 
objection can be raised. 

'ilie war between the Boers and the Bapedi arose 
out of similar encroachments on the part of the former, 
which led, as we shall presently show, to their border 
disputes with the Zulus. Boer farmers had gradually 
deprived of their land the native possessors of the soil by 
a simple process peculiarly their own. They first rented 
land &om the chiefs for grazing purposes, then built 
upon it, still paying a tax or tribute to the chief ; finally, 
having well established themselves, they professed to 

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TBE ANNEXATION OF THE TEANSYAjIL. 115 

have purchased the land for the Bum already paid aa 
rent, announced themselves the owners of it, and were 
shortly themselves levying taxes on the very men whom 
they had dispossessed. In this manner Sikukuni was 
declared by the Boers to have ceded to them the whole 
of his territory — that is to say, hundreds of square miles, 
for the paltry price of a hundred head of cattle. 

An officer of the English Government, indeed (His 
Excellency's Commisaioner at Lydehbarg, Captain Clark^, 
RA.), was of opinion [C. 2316, p. 29] that, "had only 
the Boer element in the Lydenburg district been con- 
sulted, it is doubtful if there would have been war with 
Sikuknni," as the Boers, he said, might have continued 
to pay taxes to the native chiefs. And the officer in 
question appears to censure the people who were 
" willing to submit to such humiliating conditions, and 
ambitious of the position of prime adviser to a native 
chie£" It is difficult to understand why there should 
be anything humiliating in paying rent for land, whether 
to white or black owners, and the position of prime 
adviser to a powerful native chief might be made a very 
honourable and usefiil one in the hands of a wise and 
Christian man. 

Captain Clarke continues thus : " It was the foreign 
clement under the late President which forced matters 
to a crisis. Since the annexation the furmers have, with 
few exceptions, ceased to pay tribute to the Chie& ; their 
relations with the natives are otherwise unchanged. 
Culture and contact with civilisation will doubtless have 
the effect of re-establishing the self-respect of ^ese 
people, and teaching them the obligation and benefits 

I 2 

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116 THE ZULU WAS.. 

imposed and conferred on them by their new position." 
That is to say, apparently, teaching them that it is 
beneath their dignity to pay taxes to native land- 
owners, but an "obligation imposed" upon them to rob 
the latter altogether of their land, the future possession 
of which is one of the " benefits conferred on them by 
their new position" (i.e. as subjects of the British Oown). 

"The Bapedi branch of the Basuto family," aaya 
Captain Clarke, in the same despatch, "essentially 
agricultural and peaceful in its habits and tastes, 
even now irrigate the land, and would, if possible, 
cultivate in excess of their food requirements. The 
friendly natives assure me that their greart wish 
is to live peacefully on their lands, and provide them- 
selves with ploughs, waggons, etc. The experience of the 
Berlin missionaries confirms this view. Believed of 
their present anomalous position, into which they 
have been forced by the ambition of then: rulers,* 
and distrust of the Boers, encouraged to follow their 
natural bent, the Basutos would become a peaceful 
agricultural people, capable of a certain civilisation." 
How well founded was this "distrust of the Boers," 
may be gathered from the accounts ^ven in the Blue- 
book already mentioned. 

The objects of the Boers in their attacks upon their 
native neighbours appear to have been twofold — the 
acquisition of territory, and that of children to be brought 
up as slaves. 

The Cape Argus of December 12th, 1 876, remarks : 

* Bather by the determination of their rulers to preservo tiieir 
land from Boer encroacImiQiits. 

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THE ANNEXATION OF TSE TRANSVAAL. 117 

" Througi the whole course of this Eepoblic's existence, 
it has acted in contravention of the Sand Kiver Treaty;* 
and slavery has occurred not only here and there in 
isolated cases, but as an unbroken practice has been one 
of the peculiar institutions of the country, mixed up with 
all its social and political life. It has been at the root 
of most of its wars. . . . The Boers have not only 
fijlen upon unsuspecting kraals simply for the purpose 
of obtaining the women and children and cattle, but 
they have carried on a traflSc through natives, who have 
kidnapped the children of their weaker neighbours, and 
sold them to the white man. Again, the Boers have 
sold an;d exchanged their victims amongst themselves. 
Waggon- loads of slaves have been conveyed from one end 
of the country to the other for sale, and that with the 
cognizance and for the direct advantage of the highest 

* Baud Eivkb TBKAiy, — "Evidence was adduced that the Tmnsraal 
Boeis, who, b; the Sand Kiver Convention, and in consideration of the 
independence which that convention asanied to them, had solemnly 
pledged themselvea to tius country (England) not to reintroduce 
aUveiy into their Bepuhlic, hod heen in the habit of capturing, 
bnying, selling, and holding in forced servitude, African children, 
called by the cant name of ' black ivoiy,' murdering the fathers, 
and driving oflf the mothers ; that thia slave trade was carried on 
with the sanction of the auboidinate Transvaal authoiitiea, and that 
the President did actually imprison and threaten to ruin by State 
prosecution a fellow-coontiymBn who hroi^ht it to the notice of the 
English anthori^ — an authority which, if it had not the power to 
prevent, had at any late a treaty right to denounce it. Thia and 
nuns was done, sometimee in a baibaious way, under an assumed 
divine anttiority to extenninate those who resisted them. So much 
was established by Dutch and German evidence. But it was supple- 
mented and carried farther by the evidence of natives as to their own 
snfFeringB, and of English officers as to that general notoriety which 
nsed to be called ptiblica fatHa." — from an artieh hy Lord Blaehford 
in The Nineteenth CetUurjf Review, August 1879, p. 265. 

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118 . THE ZULU WAR. 

ofScials of the land. The writ^ has himself seen in a 
town situated in the south of the Republic the children 
who had been brought down from a remote northern 
district. . . . The circumstances connected with some of 
these kidnapping excursions are appalling, and the 
barbarities practised by cruel masters upon some of 
these defenceless creatures during the course of their 
servitude are scarcely less horrible than those reported 
from Turkey, although they are spread over a course of 
years instead pf being compressed within a few weeks." 
This passage is taken from a letter to The Argus 
{enclosed in a despatch from Sir Henry Barkly to the 
Earl of Carnarvon, December 13th, 1876), which, with 
other accompanying letters from the same source, gives 
an account of Boer atrocities too horrible for repeti- 
tion, [C. 1776]. A. single instance may be mentioned 
which, however shocking, is less appaUing than others, 
but perhaps shows more plainly than anything else 
could do what the natives knew the life of a slave in the 
Transvaal would be. The information ia given by a 
Boer. "In 1864," he says, "the Swaziea accompanied 
the Boers against Males.^ The Boers did nothing bat 
stand by and witness the fearful massacre. The men 
and women were also murdered. One poor woman sat 
clutching her baby of eight days old. The Swazies 
stabbed her through the body; and when she found that 
she could not live, she wrung her baby's neck with her 
own hands, to save it from future misery. On the 
return of that commando the children who became too 
* A native chief. 

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TSE AimEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL. 113 

weary to continue the journey were killed on the road. 
The snrviTors were sold as slaves to the farmers." 

Oat of this state of things eventually proceeded the 
war between the Boers and Sikukuni, the result of 
which was a very ambiguous one indeed ; for although 
Sikukuni was driven out of the low-lying districts of 
the country, he took refuge in his stronghold, which 
affords such an impregnable position in a thickly-popu- 
lated range of mountains as hitherto to have defied 
all attempts, whether made by Boers or by English, to 
reduce it.* 

Another important reason alleged at the time for 
taking possession of the Transvaal was that the border 
troubles between it and Zululand were becoming more 
serious every day; that, sooner or later, unless we 
interposed our authority, a war would break out between 
the Boers and the Zulus, into which we should inevitably 
be drawn. The Zulus, having continually entreated our 
protection, while at our desire they refrained &om 
defending themselves by force of arms, were natifrally 
rejoiced at an action on our part which looked like an 
answer to their oft-repeated prayer, and eagerly expected 
the reward of their long and patient waiting. 

But, however strongly we may feel that it was the 
duty of the more powerful nation to put a stop to the 
doings of the Transvaal Boers, even at considerable 
expense to ourselves, the manner in which we have 
acted, and the consequences which followed, have been 
such as to cause many sensible people to feel that we 
* WiitteQ in October, 1879. 

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120 TEE ZULU WAR. 

should have done better to withdraw our prohibition 
from Cetehwayo, and allow him and the Boers " to fight 
it out between them." * 

"We might have honeatly and openly interfered and 
insisted upon putting a stop to the atrocities of the 
Boers, annexing their country if necessary, to that end, 
but then we ourselves should have done justice to the 
natives on whose behalf we professed to interfere, instead 

* Lord Bla^oid says in the article alieedy quoted ftotn : " The 
citizens of these Bepublica have gone ont from among ob into a hostile 
wildemesB, becaose they could not endure a humanitarianism which 
not only rons counter to their habits and interest, but blasphemeethat 
combination of gain with godliness which is part of thcii religicai. 
While that humanitarianism forms a leading principle of our govern- 
ment they will not submit to it. Why should we bribe or force Uiem 
to do so 1 It is no doubt right and wise to remain, if pgasitde, on 
good terms irith them. It is wise and generous to save them, if 
possible, in their day of calamity— as, with our own opposite 
policy, we have been able to save them— by a wave of the hand — 
twice from the Basutos, and once from the Zulus. (Once for all 
rather, through the course of many years, during which we have re- 
strained the Zulus from asserting their own rights to the disputed 
territory, by promises that we would see justice done. — Author.) But 
it is neither wise nor necessary to embroil ourselves in their qnaiiels 
until they call for help, until they have had occasion to feel the evil 
effects of their own methods, and the measure of their weakness, and 
are ready, not in whispers or innuendos and confidential comers, but 
outspokenly in public meetings, or through their constituted anthoritiee, 
to accept with gratitude our intervention on our own terms, nittil they 
are, if they ever can be, thus taught by adversity. I do not myself 
believe that we could enter into any political onion with them 
except at the sacrifice of that character for justice to which, I peisist 
in saying, we owe ao much of our power and security in South Afiica. 
Ifor so long as we observe the rules of justice to them shall we do any 
good by disguising our substantial differences, or refraining frwi 
indignant remonstrances against proceedings which are not only le- 
pugnant to humanity, but violate their engagements with us and 
endai^er onr ssourity." 



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THE ANNEXATION OF TEE TRANSVAAL. 121 

of taking over with the country and carrying on those 
rery quarrels and aggressions which we alleged as a 
sufficient reason for the annexation. 

When Sir TheophUus Shepstone went up to Pretoria 
it was, ostensibly, merely to advise the President and 
Volksraad of the Transvaal Republic as to the best 
means of extricating themselves and the country &om 
the difficulties into which they were plunged, and with 
the expressed intention of endeavouring to produce a 
peacefid settlement with Sikukuni, which should protect 
him and his people for the future from the tyranny of 
the Boers. Up to the last the notion that there was 
any intention of fordbly annexing the country was 
indignantly repudiated by the members of the expedi- 
tion, although their chief meanwhile was in possession 
of his commission as Administrator of the British 
Government in the Transvaal There were some who 
snspected that there was more in the movement than 
was confessed to by those concerned. It was argued 
that, were Sir Theophilus Shepstone's visit of a purely 
friendly nature, no armed force would have been sent to 
escort him, as he was going, not into a savage country, 
but into one which, at all events professed to have a 
civilised government and an educated class. The 
unsettled state of feeling amongst the Boers was 
pleaded in answer to this argument, but was commonly 
met by the suggestion that if, under the circumstances, 
the armed force of mounted police which accompanied 
the importfmt visitor might be looked upon as a 
justifiable precaution, yet the possible danger to 
I from the violence of a few lawless men in 

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122 TBE ZULU WAR. 

a country in which the government was not strong 
enough to keep them in check, waa not great enough 
to account for the fact that a regiment of British 
infantry was hastily moved up to Newcastle, from 
whence they could speedily he sumjnoned into the 
Transvaal. The presence of a Zulu army upon the 
other border, where it lay quiet and inofFemdve for 
weeks during Sir Theophilus Shepstone's proceedings 
in the l^ransvaal, was naturally looked upon as a 
suspicious circumstance. There can be little doubt 
that — whether or no Cetshwayo obeyed a hint from 
his old friend the Secretary for Native Affairs, and 
sent his army to support him, and to overawe the 
Boers by a warlike demonstration — the Zulus were 
present in a spirit, however inimical to the Boers, 
entirely friendly to the English. The mere fact thab 
the army lay there so long in harmless repose, and 
dispersed promptly and quietly immediately upon, 
receiving orders to do so from Sir Theophilus Shep- 
stone, proves that, at all events, they and their king 
thought that they were carrying out his wishes. The 
feeling expressed at the time by a British officer,* in 
speaking of this Zulu army, and recommending that 
it should be dispersed, that "it were better the little 
band of Englishmen (including, of course, himself) 
should fall by the hand of the Boers than that aught 
should be done by the former to bring about a war of 
races," can hardly have been shared by Sir Theophilus 
Shepetone himself, or the message to the Zulu king 

* Colonel Domfoid, B.E., vho paid a flfisg TiBit to Fietoria ai 
thatima. 

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TEE ANNEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL. 123 

to vithdraw his army would have been despatched 
some weeks earlier. 

In face of these facts' it strikes one as strange 
that the temporary presence of this Zulu army on the 
Transvaal borders, manifestly in our support (whether 
by request or not), and which retired without giving the 
least offence, or even committing such acts of theft or 
riolence as might be expected as necessary evils in the 
neighbourhood of a large European garrison, should 
have been regarded, later, as a sign of Cetshwayo's 
ioimical feeling towards the English* 

Mr, Pretorius, member of the Dutch executive 
council, and other influential Transvaalers, assert that 
Sir T. Shepstone threatened to let loose the Zulus upon 
them, in order to reduce them to submission ; but the 
accusation is denied on behalf of the Administrator of 
the Transvaal And Mr. Fynney (in the report of his 
mission to Cetshwayo from Sir T. Shepstone, upon the 
annexation of the Transvaal, dated Jiily 4, 1877) gives 
the king's words to him, as follows : " I am pleased that 
Somtsea (Sir Theophilus Shepstone) has sent you to let 
me know that the land of the Transvaal Boers has now 
become part of the lands of the Queen of England. I 
h^ai to wonder why he did not tell me something of 
what be was doing. I received one message from him, 
sent by Unkabano, from Newcastle, and I heard the 

* Hi. John Dmm is aaid to have stated to the Special Cone- 
■pondenl: of The Cape Argus, and to have eiiic« reaffirmed his etate- 
meat, that Sir T. Shepetoiie " sent word to Getahwayo that ho was 
being hemmed in, and the king was to hold himself in leadiness to 
eome to his assistance," This assertion has also been denied by 
Sir T, Shepstone's snpporten. 

D,3-,zedbvG00^[t:_ 



124 THE ZULU WAR. 

Boeis were not treating him properly, and that they 
intended to put him into a comer. If they had done 
so, I should not have wanted for anything more. Had 
one shot been fired, I should have said, ' What more do 
I WMt for ? they have touched my father.* " 

But all doubt upon the subject of Sir T. Shepstone'a 
intention was quickly and suddenly set at rest — the 
silken glove of friendly counsel and disinterested advice 
was thrown aside, and the mailed hand beneath it 
seized the reins of government &om the slackened 
fingers of the President of the Transvaal On the 
22nd January, 1877, Sir Theophilus Shepstone entered 
Pretoria, the capital of the country, where be was 
received with all kindness and attention by the pre^ 
sident, Mr. Bui^;ers, and other important men, to whom 
he spoke of his mission in general terms, as one the 
object of which was "to confer with the Government 
and people of the Transvaal, with the object of initi- 
ating a new state of things which would guarantee 
security for the future." * 

On April 9th, 1877, Sir T. Shepstone informed 
President Burgers that '' the extension over the Tnuu- 
vaal of Her Majesty's authority and rule " was imminent. 

The following protest was officially read and handed 
in to Sir T. Shepstone on the 11th April : 

" Whereas I, Thomas Francois Burgers, State Presi- 
dent of the South A&ican Bupublic, have received a 
despatch, dated the 9th instant, from Her British 
Majesty's Special Commissioner, Sir Theophilus Shep- 
stone, informing me that his Excellency has resolved, 
* P. P. [C. 1776] p. 88. 

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THE ANNSXATIOIf OF THE TBAHSVAAL. 125 

in the name of Her Majesty's Government, to bring 
the Sooth African Bepublic, by annexation, under the 
aaUiority of the British Crown : 

"And whereas I have not the power to draw the 
aword with good success for the defence of the inde- 
pendence of the State against a superior power like that 
of England, and in consideration of the welfare of the 
whole of South Africa, moreover, feel totally disinclined 
to involve its white inhabitants in a disastrous war, 
without having employed beforehand all means to secure 
the rights of the people in a peaceable way : 

" So, I, in the name and by the authority of the 
Government and the people of liie South African 
Bepubhc, do hereby solemnly protest against the 
intended annexation. 

" Given tmder my hand and under the Seal of the 
State at the Government Office at Pretoria, on this 
the 11th day of April, in the year 1877. 

(Signed) "Thomas Bcbgebs, 

" State President." 

A stoong protest was handed in on the same date 
by the Executive Council, in which it was stated " the 
people, by memorials or otherwise, have, by a large 
majority, plainly stated that they are averse to it" 
(annexation). 

On April 17th, 1877, Sir T. Shepstone writes to 
Lord Carnarvon : " On Thursday last, the 12th instant, 
I found myself in a position to issue the proclamations 
necessary for annexing* the South A&ican Bepublic, 

* It may be interasting to compare the above irith the wording of 
SirT. Sbepato&e'a " CommiBsion "— P. P. [C. 1776] p. 111. 

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126 THE ZULU WAB. 

commonly known as the Transvaal, to Her Majesty's 
domiaioDs, aod for assuming the administration thereof." 
P. P. [C. 1776] pp. 152-56. 

His intentions had been bo carefully concealed, the 
proclamation took the people so completely by surprise, 
that it wa3 received in what might be called a dead 
silence, which silence was taken to be of that nature 
which " gives consent." 

It has been amply shown since that the real feeling 
of the country was exceedingly averse to English inter- 
ference with its liberties, and that the congratulatory 
addresses presented, and demonstrations made in favour 
of what had been done, were but eipreBsions of feeling 
from the foreign element in the Transvaal, and got up 
by a few people personally interested on the side of 
English authority. But at the time they were made to 
appear as genuine expressions of Boer opinions favour- 
able to the annexation, which was looked upon as a 
master-stroke of poUcy and a singular success. 

It was some time before the Transvaaleis recovered 
from tlie stunning effects of the blow by which they had 
been deprived of their liberties, and meanwhile the new 
Government made rapid advances, and vigorous attempts 
at winning popularity amongst the people. SirT. Shcp- 
atone hastened to fill up every office under him with his 
own men, although there were great flourishes of trumpets 
concerning preserving the rights of the people to the 
greatest extent possible, and keeping the original men 
in office wherever practicable. The first stroke by 
which popularity was aimed at was that of remitting 
the war taxes levied upon the white population (thong^ 

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THE ANNEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL. 127 

unpaid) to meet the expenses of the war with SUnikuni. 
It became apparent at this point what an empty sham 
was our proposed protection of Sikukuni, and how little 
the oppression under which he and his people suffered 
had really called forth our interference. Sir T. Shep- 
stone, while remitting, as stated, the tax upon the 
Boers, insisted upon the payment in full of the fine 
in cattle levied by them upon Sikukuni's people. So 
sternly did he carry out the very oppressions which he 
came to put an end to, that a portion of the cattle paid 
towards the fine (two thousand head, a large number, in 
the reduced and impoverished state of the people) were 
s^it back, by his orders, on the grounds that they were 
too small and in poor condition, with the accompanying 
message that better ones must be sent in their place. 
A commission (composed of Captain Clarke, R.A., and 
Mr. Osborne) was sent, before the annexation, by 
Sir T. Shepstone, to inquire into a treaty pressed 
by the Boers upon Sikukimi, and rejected by him, as 
it contained a condition by which he was to pay 
taxes, and thereby come under the Transvaal Govern- 
ment.* To these gentlemen "Sikukuni stated that the 
English were great and he was Uttle [C. 1776, p. 147], 
that he wanted them to save him &om the Boers, who 
hunted him to and fro, and shot his people down like 
wild game. He had lost two thousand men" (this 
included those who submitted to the Boers) " by the 

* The chiel repeatedly lefusad to sign aaj paper presented to liiin 
hj the Boera, on the grounds that he oould not tell what it might 
contain, bejond the points explained to him, to which he might after- 
wtvds be laid to hare agreed; showing plainly to what the natives 
wen aocDBtomed in tlteit dealings with the TtanevaiJ. 

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128 THE ZULU WAR. 

war, ten brothers, and four bods. ... He could not 
trust the Boers as they were always deceiving him." 
After saying that " he wished to be like Moshesh " (a 
British subject), and be "happy and at peace," he 
" asked whether he ought tft pay the two thousand head 
of cattle, seeing that the war waa not of his making." 

" To this we replied," say the Commissioners, " that 
it was the custom of us English, when we made an 
engagement, to fulfil it, cost what it might ; that our 
word was our word." 

Small wonder if the oppressed and persecuted people 
and their chief at last resented such treatment, or that 
some of them should have shown ihat resentment in a 
manner decided enough to call for military proceedings 
on the part of the new Government of the Transvaal 
In point of fact, however, it was not Sikukuni, but his 
sister — a chieft»iuess herself — whose people, by a quarrel 
with and raid upon natives living under our protection, 
brought on the second or English " Sikukuni war." 

Turning to the other chief pretext for the annexation 
of the Transvaal, the disturbed condition of the Zulu 
border, we find precisely the same policy carried out. 
When it was first announced that the English had taken 
possession of the country of their enemies, the Zulus, 
figuratively speaking, threw up their caps, and rejoiced 
greatly. They thought that now at last, after years of 
patient waiting, and painful repression of angiy feelings 
at the desire of the Natal Government, they were to 
receive their reward in a just acknowledgmait of the 
claims which Sir T. Shepstone had so long supported, 
and which he was now in a position to confirm. 

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THE ANNEXATION OF TSE TRANSVAAL. 129 

But the qtiiet gabmissioa of the Boers would not 
kave laatedj even upon the surface, had their new 
GfoTemor shown the slightest sign of leaning to the Zulu 
side on the bitter boundary question; and m Sir T. 
Shepstone fancied that the power of his word woe great 
enough with the Zulus to moke them submit, however 
unwillingly, there was small chance of their receiving a 
rood of land at his hands. He had lost sight of, or 
never comprehended the fact, that that power was built 
upon the strong belief which existed in the minds of the 
Zulu king and people with regard to the justice and 
honesty of the English Government. This feeling is 
amply illustrated by the messages from the Zulu king, 
quoted in our chapter upon the Disputed Territory, and 
elsewhere in this volume, and need therefore only be 
alluded to here. 

But this belief, so far as Sir T. Shepstone is con- 
cerned, was destroyed when the Zulus found that, far 
frMn acting according to his often-repeated words, their 
quondam friend had turned against them, and espoused 
the cause of their enemies, whom, at his desire, they had 
re&ained these many years from attacking, when they 
could have done so without coming into collision with 
the English. 

The Zulus, indeed, still believed in the English, and 
in the Natal Government ; but they considered that Sir 
T. Shepstone, in undertaking the government of the 
Boers, had become a Boer himself, or, as Cetshwayo 
himself said, his old friend and father's back, which had' 
earned him so long, had become too ro\igh for him — if 
he could carry him no longer he would get down, and go 

K 

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180 TSE ZULU WAR. 

to a man liia equal in Fietermaritzburg (meaning Sir 
Henry Bolwer, Lieut -Governor of Natal), who wcrald ba 
willing and able to take him up. 

It is a curious fact, and one worthy of note, that Sir 
T. Shepstone, who for so many years had held and 
espreseed an opinion favourably to the Zulus on this 
most important boundary question, should yet have 
studied it so little that, when he had been for six months 
Administrator of the Transvaal, with all evidence, written 
or oral, official or otherwise, at his command, he could 
Bay, speaking of a conversation which he beld with some 
Dutch farmers at Utrecht— Pari. p. (2079, p. 51-4): "I 
then learned for the first time, what has since been proved 
by evidence the most incontrovertible, overwhelming, and 
clear, that this boundary line* had been formally and 
mutually agreed upon, and had been formally ratified by 
the giving and receiving of tokens of thanks, and that 
the beacons had been buUt up in the presence of the 
President and members of the Executive CJouncil of the 
Bepublic, in presence of Commissioners from both Panda 
and Cetshwayo, and that the spot on which every beacon 
was to stand was indicated by the Zulu Commissionets 
themselves placing the first stones on it. 

"I shall shortly transmit to your Lordship" (the 
Secretary of State for the Colonies) " the further evidence 
on the subject that has been furnished to me.*' This 
" further evidence," if forwarded, does not appear in 
the Blue-books, It is plain that the Border Commis- 
sioners of 1878 found both the "evidence the moat 
incontrovertible, overwhelming, and clear," and the 
* That claimed b; the Boen. 

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THE ANNEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL. 131 

"farther evidence" promised, utterly worthless' for the 
purpose of proving the case of the Boers ; but, even 
had it been otherwiae, Sir T. Shepstone's confession of 
ignorance up to so late a date on this most vital 
question is singularly self-condemnatory. 

" When I approached the question," * he says, " I 
did so supposing that the rights of the Transvaal to 
land on the Zulu border had very slender foundation. 
I believed, from the representations which had been 
systematically made by the Zulus to the Natal Govern- 
ment on the subject, of which I was fuUy aware from 
the position I held in Natal, that the beacons along 
the boundary line had been erected by the Ecpublican 
Government, in opposition to the wishes, and in spite 
of the protests, of the Zulu authoritiea.t 

•' I, therefore, made no claims or demand whatever 
for land. I invited Cetshwayo to give me his views 
regarding a boundary, when I informed him from 
Pretoria that I should visit Utrecht on the tour I 
then contemplated making. When I met the Zulu 
prime minister and the indunas on the 1 8th October last " 
(six weeks before he discovered, in conversation with 
some Boers, the " evidence inco^tl■overtible, overwhelm- 
ing, and dear "), " on the Blood Eiver, I was fuUy pre- 
pared, if it should be insisted on by the Zulus, as I 
then thought it might justly be> to give up a tract 
of country which had from thirteen to sixteen years 
been occupied by Transvaal farmere, and to whose 

* P. P. <20T9, pp. 51-5i). 

f The concloaiou oirived at, after a careful cooBideration of all 
ptodncible evidence, by the Koike's Dtift Comioiseion, in 1878. 

K 3 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



132 TEE ZULU WAR. 

farms title-deeds had been issued by the latd Goveto' 
mcnt ; and I contemplated making compensation to 
those farmers in some way or another for their loss, 
I intended, however, first to offer to pttrchase at a fur 
price from the Zulu king all his claims to land which 
had for so many years been occupied and built upon 
by the subjects of the Transvaal, to whom the Govern- 
ment of the eouQtry was distinctly liable." * 

Sir T. Shepstone, when he met the Zulu indunas at 
the Blood River, was prepared to abandon the line of 
1861 (claimed by the Boers), for that of the Blood River 
and the Old Hunting Road (" if it should be insisted on 
by the Zulus," as he "then thought it might justly 
be "), which, in point of fact, would have satisfied neither 
party ; but he does not say by what right he proposed to 
stop short of the old line of 1856-7 — viz. the Blood 
River — and insist upon the "Old Hunting Road." If 
the half-concession were just, so was the whole — or 
neither. 

To these half-measures, however, the Zulus would 
not submit, and the conference failed of its object, 

" Fortunately, therefore, for the interests of the 
Transvaal," says Sir T. Shepstone, " I was prevented 
by the conduct of the Zulus themselves from sur- 
rendering to them at that meeting what my information 
on the subject then had led me to think was after all due 
to them, and this I was prepared to do at any sacrifice to 
the Transvaal, seeing, as it then appeared to me, that 
justice to the Zulus demanded it" 

* A liability kanaferred to the 2ulu king b; Sir BaiHe Fiei* ia 
his correBpondence with the Bishop of Natal 

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THE ANNEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL. 133 

In spite, however, of the concession to the Boers, 
made ia Sir T. Shcpstone's altered opinion on the border 
question, they were by no means reconciled to the loss 
of their independence, although Captain Clarke says 
(C. 2316, p. 28), in speaking of the Boers in Lydenburg 
diatrict, "they, in the majority of cases, would forget 
fancied wrongs if they thought they had security for 
their lives and property, education for their children, 
and good roads for the transport of their produce." * 

The following " agreement signed by a large number 
of farmers at the meeting held at Wonderfontein," and 
translated from a Dutch newspaper, the Zuid A/rikaan, 
published at Capetown on the 15th February (C. 2316, 
P- 1)> gives a different impression of the state of feeling 
amongst the Boers : 

" In the presence of Almighty God, the Searcher of 
all hearts, and prayerfully waiting on His gracious help 
and pily, we, burghers of the South African Republic, 
have solemnly agreed, and we do hereby agree, to make a 
holy covenant for us, and for our children, which we 
confirm with a solemn oath. 

" Fully forty years ago our fathers fled from the Cape 
Colony in order to become a free and independent people. 
Those forty years were forty years of pain and suffering. 

** We established Natal, the Orange Free State, and 
the South African Republic, and three times the English 
Government has trampled our liberty and dragged to 
the ground ova flag, which our fathers had baptised with 
their blood and tears, 

* That ia to my, that they may be bribed by substantial benefits to 
acquiesce in the 1ms of th«ii liberties. 

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134 THE ZULU WAR. 

"As by a thief in the night has our Republic been 
stolen from us. We may nor can endure this. It is 
God's will, and is required of us by the unity of our 
fathers, and by love to our children, that we should 
hand over intact to our children the legacy of the 
fathers. For that purpose it is that we here come 
together and give each other the right hand as men and 
brethren, solemnly promising to remain faithful to our 
country and our people, and with our eye fixed on God, 
to co-operate until death for the restoration of ' the 
freedom of our Republia 

"So help us Almighty God." 

These pious words, side by side with the horrible 
accounts of the use made by the Boers of their liberty 
while they had it, strike one as incredibly profane ; yet 
they are hardly more so than part of the speech made 
by Sir T. Shepstone to the burghers of the Transvaal 
on the occasion of the annexation. 

" Do you know," he aska them, " what has recently 
happened in Turkey ? Because np civilised government 
was carried on there, the Great Powers interfered and 
said, ' Thus far and no farther.' And if this Is done to 
■au Empire, will a little Republic be excused when it 
misbehaves ? Complain to other powers and seek justice 
there ? Yes, thank God I justice is still to be found 
even for the most insignificant, but it is precisely this 
justice which will convict us. If we want justice we 
must be in a position to ask it with unsaUied hands." * 

* Was it by inadverteuco that Sir T. Shepstone speaks of "ua" 
and "we," thus produciag a.Bentence so strangely and unhappily 
applicable I 

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THE ANNEXATION OF TH^ TRANSVAAL, 135 

Oar first quotation was firom the words of ignorant 
Boers, onr aecond from thoae of a man South AMcan 
bom and bred. South A&ican in character and educa- 
tion. But pwhaps both are surpassed by words lately 
written hj'an English statesman of rank. Let us turn 
to a " minute " of Sir Bartle Frere's, forwarded on. 
November 16th, 1878 (2222, p. .45), and see what he 
Bays in defence of Boer conquests and encroachments. 
" The Boeis had force of their own, and every right of 
conquest ; but they had also what they seriously believed 
to be a higher title, in the old commands they found in 
parts of their Bible to exterminate the Gentiles, and take 
their land in possession.* We may freely admit that they 
misinterpreted the text, and were utterly mistaken in its 
application. But tiiey had at least a sincere bdi^ in 
the Divijie authority for what they did, and therefore a 
far higher title than the Zulus could claim for all they 
acquired."* (P. P. [0. 2222] p. 45). 

If the worship of the Boers for their sanguinary 
deity is to. be pleaded in their behalf, where shall we 
pause in finding excuses for any action committed by 
insane hunumity in the name of their many gods ? But 
the passage hardly needs our comments, and we leave it 
to the consideration of the Christian world. 

A pan^aph firom The Daily News of this day, 
Kovembei 8th, 1879,^ will suitably close our chapter on 
the TransraaL It is headed " Serious Disturbance in the 
Transvaal," and gives a picture of the disposition of the 
Boers, and of the control we have obtained over them. 

* Italics not Sir B. Fren's. 

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186 . TBE ZULU WAB: '. 

" Pretoiua, October 13tli. 

"A somewhat serious diaturbance has occurred ai 
Middleberg. A case came in due course l}efore the local 
court, telating to a matter which took place last J.nly. 
A Boot, by name Jacobs, had tied up one of his Kaffir 
servanta by his wrists to a beam, so that his feet could 
not touch the ground. The man was too ill after it to 
move foi some days. The case ^^hat the Boer came 
on on October 8th. A large number of Boers attended 
from sympathy with the defendamt,'^ and anxious to rensf 
any interference hetioeen theinselvet and their Koj^ri. 
The Londiost took the opportonity to read out Sir 
Garnet's proclamation, declaring the permanency of the 
annexation of the Transvaal The attitude of the Boers 
appeared to be so threatening that after a time the 
Landrost thought it h^ter to adjourn the hearing/or a 
couple of hours. 

" On the court's reassembling, he was informed that 
five-and-twenty Boers had visited two of the stores in 
the town, and had seized gunpowder there, gunpowder 
being a forbidden article of sale. The following day a 
much larger attendance of Boers made their appearance 
at the court Seventy of them held a meeting at 
which they .bound themselves to protect those who 
had seised the gunpowder, and t^eir attitude was so 
threatening that the Landrost, on the appUcati<Hi of 
the public prosecutor, adjourned the cose sine dU. 
A fresh case of powder seizing was reported on the 
same day. Colonel Lanyon has already gone to the 
scene of disturbance, which will be dealt with purely, 
* Autlior's itolica thtoaghoat. 

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THE ANNEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL. 137 

at all events of present, aa a civil case of Tiolence 
exercised agtdiist the ovners of the stores. At the eame 
time a troop of dragoons will be there about the day 
a^r to-morrow, and a company of infuitry in a few 
days more, while a considerable number of the 90th 
Kegiment will in a short time be, in r^;ular course, 
passing that way, The spark will therefore no doubt 
be stamped out quickly where it has been lighted. 
The only danger is in the tendency to explosion which 
it perhaps indicates in other directions." 



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CHAPTER IS. 

THE DISPUTED TERRITOEY. 

Wb must now look back and gather up the threads — 
hitherto interwoven with acconnta of other matters — 
connected with what has been rightly called the 
"burning question" of the disputed territory, which 
led eventually to the Zulu War. 

The disputes between the Boers and Zulus conceming 
the boundary line of their respective countries had 
existed for many years, its origin and growth being 
entirely attributable to the well-known and usually 
Buccefisful process by which the Dutch Boers, as we 
have already said, have gradually possessed themselves ctf 
the land belonging to their unlettered neighbours. This 
process is described by Mr. Osbom, formerly resident 
magistrate of Newcastle, now Colonial Secretary of the 
Transvaal Government, September 22nd, 1876 (1748, 
p. 196). 

" I would point out here that this war (with 
Sikukuni) arose solely out of dispute about land. The 
Boers — as they have done in other cases, and are still 
doing — encroached by degrees upon native territory ; 
commencing by obtaining permission to graze stock 

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THE DISPUTED TEBBITORT. 139 

upon portions of it at certain seasons of the year, 
followed by individual graziers obtaining from native 
headmen a sort of license to squat upon certain defined 
portions, ostensibly in order to keep other Boer squatters 
away from the same land. These licenses, temporarily 
extended, as Mendly or neighbourly acts, by iihautho- 
rised' headmen, after a few seasons of occupation by the 
Boer, are construed by him as title, and his permanent 
occupation ensues. Damage for trespass is levied by 
him upon the veiy men from whom he obtained right 
to squat, to which the natives submit out of fear of 
the matter reaching the ears of the paramount Chief, 
who would in all probability severely punish them for 
bpening the door of encroachment to the Boer. Afte^ 
awhile, however, the matter comea to a crisis, in coh- 
eequence of the incessant disputes between the Boers 
and the natives ; one or other of the disputants lays the 
case before the paramount Chief, who, upon hearing both 
"parties, is Uterally frightened with violence and threats by 
-the Boer into granting him the land. Upon this,- the iisutd 
plan followed by the Boer i» at once to colied a few 
■neighbouring Boers, iacluding an Acting Field Comet, 
or even an Acting Provisional Field Comet, appointed 
by the Field Comet or Provisional Comet, the latter to 
represent the Government, although without instmcliohB 
authwising him to act in the matter. A few cattle are 
-collected unong themselves, which the party takes to 
the Chief, and his signature is obtained to a written 
insfsument, alienating to the Bepubhcan Boers a lai^e 
'slice of, or all, his territory. The contents of this 
document are, so for as I can make out, never clearly 

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140 THE ZULU WAB, 

or intelligibly explained to the Chief, who signa it and 
accepts of the cattle, under the imprcasiou that it is 
all in settlement of hire for the grazing licenses granted 
by his headmen." 

"This, I have no hesitation in saying, is the usud 
method hy which the Boera obtain what they call 
ceseions of territories to them by native Chie&. In 
Sikakuni's case, they say that his father, Sikwata, 
ceded to them the whole of his territory (hundreds of 
square miles) for one hundred head of cattle." 

Also Sir H. Barkly, late Governor of the Cape, 
writes as follows, October 2nd, 1876 (1748, p. 140) : 

"The following graphic description of this process 
(of Boer encroachment) is extracted from a letter in the 
-Transvaal Advocate of a few weeks ago: 'Frontiers 
ure laid down, the claim to which is very doubtful. 
These frontlets are not occupied, but farms are inspected 
(" guessed at " would be nearer the mark), title-deeds for 
the same are issued, and, when the unlucky purchaser 
wishes to take possession, he finds his farm (if he can 
find it) occupied by tribes of Kafirs, over whom the 
Government has never attempted to exercise any juris- 
diction/ 'Their Chief,' it adds, 'is rather bewildered 
at first to find out that he has for years been a subject 
of the Transvaal* ' The Chief in question is one 
Lechune, living on the north-west of the Be^ublic. Bat 
the account is equally applicable to the case of Sikukoni^ 
or Umswazi, or half-a-dozen others, the entire circuit of 
the Republic, from the Barolongs and Batlapins on the 
west, to the Zulus on the east, being bordered by a 
aeries of enarocu^ments disputed by the natives.' " 

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TEE DISPUTED TEBBITORT, Ul 

A memorandtlm from Captain Clarke, R.A., Special 
Commis^oaer at Lydenburg, dated April 23rd, 1879 
(C 2367, p. 152), also gives an account of the way in 
wUch the Boers took possession of the Transvaal itself, 
highly illustrative of their usual practice, and of which 
the greater part may be quoted here, with a key to the 
real meaning of phrases which require some study to 
interpret 

" On the entrance of the Fou Trekkers into the 
Transvaal, they were compelled against their hereditary 
instincts to combine for self-defence against a common 
foe." (That is to say, that, having forced themselves 
iato a strange country, they necessarily combined to 
oust those they found thera) " External pressure was 
removed by success, and the diffusire instinct asserted 
itaelf" — which being translated into ordinory English 
simply signifies that, having conquered certain native 
tribes, they settled themselves upon their lands, and 
returned to their natural disunited condition. *' Isolated 
families, whose ambition was to be out of sight of their 
neighbours' smoke, pushed forward into Kafir-land " (as 
yet unconquered). 

" Boimdaries were laid down either arbitrarily or by 
unsatisfactorily recorded treaty with savage neighboursi 
The natives, forced back, acquired the powers of coalition 
lost by the Boera, and in their turn brought pressure to 
bear on their invaders and whilom conqueroni ; farm 
after farm had to be abandoned, and many of the Boers 
who remained acknowledged by paying tribute that 
they retained their lands by the permission of neigh* 
bouring chiefs. The full importance of this retrograde 

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Ua THE ZULU WAM, 

moTemeni! was not at oiice felt, aa a natural 8afet]r-V^vc 
was found." 

"A considerable portion of the east of the Tcansvaal 
is called the High Veldt, and consists of tableland at a 
considerable elevation, overlying coal-measures ; this 
district appears bleak and inhospitable, overrun by largQ 
herds of game and watered by a series of apparently stag- 
nant ponds which take the place of watercourses. . . . 
From various sources, within the last six years, it has 
been discovered that the High Veldt is most valuable 
for the grazing of sheep, horses, and cattle ; and farms 
which possess the advant^e of water are worth from 
£1,000 to £1,300, where formerly they could have been 
bought for as many pence." 

"This discovery has opened a door of escape for 
many of the native'pressed borderers. The pressure on 
those that remain increases, and on tho north-east and 
west of the Transvaal is a fringe of &rmers who live by 
the sufferance or in fear of the interlacing natives." 

The phrases which I have italicised seem to indicate 
th^t the writer has lost sight of the fact that, if tho 
border farmers are " native-pressed," it is because they 
have intruded themselves amongst the natives, from 
which position a just and wise government would seek 
to withdraw them, instead of endeavouring to establish 
and maintain them in it by force. This latter course, 
however, is the one which Captain Clarke recommends. 
The remainder of his memorandum is a series of su^ea- 
tioDS for this puipoeet one of which runs as follows : 
"To take away the immediate strain on the border 
farmer, and the lisk of collision which the present state 

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THE 1}ISPUTED TERBITOBY. 143 

of afiEuismTolves, I wfmid eu^Bt the eatabHshment of 
Government Agents, who should, leside on or }>eyond 
the harden' iiow occu^ed by (Ae/amem* .... ^Sack 
Besidencj should be a fortress, built of stone, and 
prepared for defence agtunst any natire force." 

Sir Bartle Frere's version of Captain Clarke's account, 
given to the Secretary of. State in a despatch enclosing 
tiiB above, runs as follows : " Most of the native chiefs 
now there have gradually crept in, under pressure from 
the northward, and finding no representatives of the 
Transvaal Government able to exercise authority on the 
spot, have gradually set up some sort of government for 
themselves before which many of the Boers have retired, 
leaving only those .who were willing to pay a sort of 
tribute for protection, or to avoid being robbed of their 
cattle." 

With whatever oblique vision Sir Bartle Frere may 
liave perus^ the enclosure from which he gathers his 
facts, no unbiassed mind can fail to detect the singular 
diacrepMicy between the account given by Captain 
Clarke and that drawn from it by the High Commissioner 
jn his enclosing letter. 

He makes no mention of the driving out of the 
ikatives which preceded their creeping in, and which 
figures so largely in Captain Clarke's memorandum, of 
which he professes to give a sketch. And he introduces, 
entirely on his own account, the accusation against the 
natives implied in the phrase " or to avoid being robbed 
of their cattle," of which not a single word appears in 
the memorandum itself, 

. * Author's italics. 

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iU TBS ZULU WAS, 

Rroperly epeaking, there were two disputed bonndary 
lines up to 1879, the one being that between Zululand 
imd the'TruisTaal, to the south of the Pongolo River ; 
the other that between the Zulus and the Swazia, to the 
north of,- and parallel to, that stream.* The Swazia are 
the hereditary enemies of the Zulus, and there has always 
been a bitter feeling between the two races, nevertheless 
the acquisitiveness of the Transvaal Boers was at the 
bottom of both disputes. They profess to have obtained, 
by cession fiivm the Swazi king in 1855, a strip of land 
to the north-east of the Pongolo River and down to the 
Lebomba Mountains, in order fbat they might form a 
barrier between them and the Zulus ; but the Swazis 
deny having ever made such cession. 

In addition to the doubt thrown upon the transaction 
by this denial, and the well-known Boe( encroachments 
already described, it remains considerably open to 
question whether the Swazis had the power to dispose 
of the land, which is claimed by the Zulus as their own. 
The commission which sat upon the southern border 
question was not permitted to enter upon that' to the 
north of the Pongolo, which therefore remains uncertain. 
The one fact generally known, however, is undoubtedly 
favourable to the Zulu claim. The territory in question 
was occupied until 1848 by two Zulu chiefs, Putini <)f 
the Ama-Ngwe, and Langalibalelo of the Ama-HluU 
tribe, under the rule of the Zulu king Umpande. Thes* 
chiefs, having fallen into disgrace with the king, were 
attacked by him, and fled into NataL They were 
ultimately settled in their late locations under th« 
* "^nta-9wazi " foi the plural cotteoUf, oa also " Ama-ZuliL" 

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THE DISPUTED TERRITORY. U5 

Braakensberg, leaving theii' former places in Zulaland, 
noT&i and soath of the Pongolo, the inNgcaka 
(Ibmntain), and inKgcuba (Biver) vacant. 

Sir- Henry Bulwer remarks on this point — (P. p. 2220, 
pp. 400-2) : 

"Sir T. Shepstone says indeed, that there is no 
dispute between the Transvaal and the Ama-Swozi ; but, 
as he adds that, should questions arise between them, 
they may be settled on their own merits, it is not 
impossible that questions may arise ; and I am certainly 
informed that the Ama-Swazi used formerly to deny 
that they had ever ceded land to the extent claimed 
by the Bepublic." But that the western portion, at 
all events, of the land in dispute was at that time 
under Zulu rule, is apparent from an account given by 
members of the house of Masobuza, principal wife of 
Langalibalele, and sister to the Swazi king, who was 
sheltered at Bishopstowe after tiie destruction of the 
Hlubi tribe, and died there in 1877. 

" In Chaka'a tinie, Mate, father of Madhlangampisi, 
who had lived &om of old on his land north of the 
Pongolo, as an ind^>endent chief, not under Swazi rule, 
gave, without fightingj his aUegiance to Chaka ; and 
from that time to this the district in question has been 
under Zulu rule, the Swazi king having never at any 
time exercised any authority over it." The same state- 
ment applies to several other tribes living north, and 
on either side of the Pongolo, amongst them those of 
Langalibalele and Putini 

" Ifadhlaugampisi's land was transferred by the 
' Boer Gtovemmeut as late as January 17tb, 1877, to the 

£ 
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146 TBE ZULU WAR. 

executors of the late Mr. M'Corkiudale, and now goes 
by the name of 'Londina/ in which ia the hamlet of 
' Derby,' . . . We are perfectly aware that the soBthem 
portion of the block is held by command of the Zulu 
chief, and the executor's surveyors have been obstructed 
in prosecuting the sarvey."— Natal Mercury, July 23rd, 
1878. 

In 1856 a number of Boers claimed Natal territory 
west of the Buffalo, as^far as the Biggarsberg range, now 
the south-west boundary of the Newcastle County, and 
some of them were in occupation of it ; and, a commission 
being sent to trace the northern border of the colony 
along the line of the Buffalo, these latter opposed and 
protested against the mission of the Commissioners ; but 
their opposition spent itself in threats, and ended in the 
withdrawal irom Natal of the leaders of the party. 

Other Boers had settled east of the Buffalo, in the 
location vacated by the tribe of Langalibalele, as to 
whom the aforesaid Commissioners write : 

" During our stay among the fermers it was brought 
to our notice by them that they had obtwned fixim 
Panda the cession of the tract of couatiy beyond the 
Buffalo (inNcome), towards the north-west; Uiey had 
subscribed among themselves one hundred head of 
cattle for this land, which had been accepted fay 
Panda." 

And Sir T. Shepstone says : 

" Panda never denied this grant (N.K — in respect (^ 
what lay west of the Draakensberg), but repudiated 
the idea that he had sold the land. His account 
was that, when the farmers were defeated by Her 

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THE DISPUTED TERRITORY. 147 

Majesty's troops in Natal, some of them asked him for 
land to live upon outside the jorisdiction of the British 
GoTemment, and that he gave them this tract ' only to 
live in, as part of Zululand under Zulu law " (P.p. 1961, 
p. 28). " The cattle they say they paid for it, Panda 
looked upon as a thank-offering, made in accordance 
with Zulu custom" (1961, pp. 1-5). 

In reply to messages sent by the Zulu king to the 
Natal Qovenunent, complaining of the encroachments of 
the Boers on the north, as well as the west of Zululand, 
and begging the friendly intervention and iarbitration 
of the English, the advice of the Natal authorities 
was always to " ait still," and use no force, for England 
■would see justice done in the end.* 

From all this it would appear that the clmm of 
Cetshwayo to land north of the Pongolo waa not an 
" aggressive act," without any real foundation in right, 
and merely a defiant challenge intended to provoke war ; 
but waa a just claim, according to the testa applied 
by Sir Bartle Frere— (P. p. 2222, p. 29)— viz. " actual 
occupation and exercise of sovereign rights." 

* Sir Homy Bolwar, speaking o£ the dispated teiritoiy generally, 
mites as follovs : " The Zoln king liad always, in deference rery 
mnch to the wishes and advice of this Government (Katal), forbonie 
from doing anything in respect of the question that m^ht produce a 
oollision, trusting to the good offices of this GoTemment to arrange 
the difficolty by ottier means. But no such atrangement had ever 
been made ; and thus the question had drifted on until the formal 
annexation of the disputed territory by the GoTOmmont of the 
BcpnUio last year, and their subsequent attempt to give a practical 
«Sbet to their proclamation of annexation by lerying taxes upon the 
Zulus rending in the territory, provoked a rosistance and a feeling of 
resentment which threatened to precipitate a general eolIlBion at any 
it"— 8iB H. BuLwwi, Jwie 29th, 1876 (C. 1961, p. 1). 
l2 

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148 TEE ZULU WAR. 

The subject is fiilly gone into, and ftirtiier evidence 
produced, in ,the Bishop of Natal's pamphlet, " Extracts 
from the BIue-Books ; " but the main facts are as here 



On turning to the subject . of the better known 
border dispute, between the Zulus and the Transvaal 
Boers on the east, we are confronted at once. by the fact 
that the decision of tlie Commissioners, chosen by Sir H. 
Bulwer to investigate the matter, was decidedly favour- 
able to the Zulu claim ; which, after careful consideration 
of all the evidence on either side, they found to be a 
just and good one. This decision should, in itself, have 
been suflBcient to relieve the Zulu king from the accusa- 
tion of making insolent demands for territory with 
aggressive and warlike intentions. But as, up to July, 
1878, the above charge was the sole one brought against 
him, and on account of which troops were sent for and 
preparations made for war ; and as, also, Sir Bartle Frere 
has thought fit to cast a doubt upon the judgment of 
the Commissioners by the various expressions of dis- 
satisfaction which appear in hia correspondence with the 
Bishop of Natal ; it will be necessary for us to enter 
fully into the matter, in order to understand the extent 
to which die question bore fruit in the Zulu "War. 

In 1861 Cetshwayo demanded from the Transvaal 
Government the persons of four fugitives, who had 
escaped at the time of the Civil War of 1856, and had 
taken refuge amongst the Boers. One of these fugitives 
was a younger son of Umpande, by name Umtonga, 
who took refuge at first in Natal; from whence, how- 
ever, he carried on political intrigues in Zululand, with 

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THE DISPUTED TEBBITOBT. 149 

the assistaiice of bis mother, which resulted in the deatli 
of the latter and in a message from Cetshwayo to the 
Natal Government, complaining of Umtonga's conduct, 
and requesting that he should be placed in his hands. 
This was refused, but the Government undertook to 
place the yoong man under the supervision of an old 
and trusted colonial chief, Zatshuke, living in the centre 
of the colony. Umtonga professed to accept and to be 
. grateful for thjs arrangement ; but, upon the first step 
being taken to cany it out, he £red twice at the pohce- 
man who was sent to conduct h\m to Zatshuke, but 
missed him^ and then escaped to the Transvaal 
territory. 

From thrice he, with another brother, and two 
indonas (captains) were given up to Cetshwayo by the 
Boers, who required, in return for their surrender, tiie 
cession of land east of the Blood River, and a pledge 
that the young princes should not be killed. Cetshwayo 
is said by the Boers to have agreed to both conditions, 
and he certainly acted up to the latter, three of the four 
being still alive, and the fourth having died a natural 
death.* It is this alleged bargain with Cetshwayo (in 
1861) on which the Boers foimd their claim to the 
main portion of the disputed territory — a " bai^ain in 
itself base and immoral ; the selling of the persons of 
men for a grant of land, and which no Christian govern- 
ment, like that of England, could recognise for a 

* Umttoiga eecaped again, and is now liviDg in the TwuraoL His 
brotlier waa still living in Znlnland, as bead of TTmtonga's kraal, st the 
beginning of the war, and no injur; appears to hsTe been done to any 
of the four. 

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150 TSB ZULU WAR. 

moment as valid and binding," even if it were ever 
made. But it is persistently d-enied by the Zulus that 
such a bargain was ever consented to by them or by 
their prince. On this point Cetshwayo himself says : 
" I have never given or sold any land to the Boers of 
the Transvaal They wished me to do so when I was 
as yet an umtwana (child, prince). They tried to get 
me to sign a paper, but I threw the pen down, and 
never would do so, telling them that it was out of my 
power to either grant or sell land, as it belonged to the 
king, my father, and the nation. I know the Boers say 
I signed a paper, and that my brothers Eamu and 
Ziwedu did also. I never did, and if they say I held 
the pen or made a mark, giving or selling land, it is a 
lie 1 " The Prince Dabulamanzi, and chiefs sitting roaod, 
bore out the king in this statement. (Prom Report of 
Mr. Fynney on July 4tii, 1877— P. p. 1961, p. 45.) 

And BO says Sir T. Shepstoae (1961, p. 5) : " Panda, 
who is still living, repudiated the bargain, and Cetshwayo 
denied it. The Emigrant Farmers, however, insisted on 
its validity, and proceeded to occupy. The Zulus have 
never ceased to tiireaten and protest And the Govern- 
ment of Natal, to whom these protests and tlireats have 
been continually made, has frequently, during a course 
of fifteen years, found it very difficult to impress the 
Zulus with the hope and belief that an amicable solution 
of the difficulty would some day be found, provided that 
they refrained from reprisals or the use of force." 

The first message from the Zulus on the sabject of 
the disputed territory was received on September 5th, 
1861, in the very year in which (according to the Boers) 

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TSS DISPUTED TBRRITOBT. 151 

the 4»aBion in question was made (1961, p. 7). The 
Kshop of Natal, in his "Extracts" already mentioned, 
records eighteen messages on the same subject, com- 
mencing with the above and concluding with one 
brought on April 20th, 1876 (1748, p. 49), showing that 
for a period of fifteen years the Zulu king (whether 
represented by Umpande or by Cetshwayo) had never 
ceased to entreat " the friendly intervention and arbitra- 
tion of this Government between them and the Boer 
Government" (1961, p. 9). These eighteen messages 
acknowledge the virtual supremacy of the English, and 
tiie confidence which the Zulus feel in English justice 
and honour, and they request their protection, or, failing 
tiiat, their permission to protect themselves by force of 
arms ; they suggest that a Commission sent from Natal 
should settle the boundary, and that a fiesident or 
Agent of the British Government should be stationed on 
the border between them and the Boers, to see that 
JDstice was done on both sides. They report the various 
aggressions and encroachments by which the Zulus were 
Buffering at the hands of their neighbours, but to which 
they submitted because the question was in the hands 
of the Government of Natal ; and they repeatedly beg 
that the English will themselves take possesaiou of the 
disputed country, or some part of it, rather than allow 
the unsettled state of things to continue. " They (the 
Zulus) b^ that the Governor will take a strip of connlay, 
the length and breadth of which is to be agreed upon 
between the Zulus and the Commissioners (for whom 
they are asking) sent from Natal, the strip to abut on 
the Colony of Natal, and to ran to t^e northward and 

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152 TSE- ZULU WAR. ' 

eastward in such a manner, in a line parallel to the sea- 
coast, as to iDterpose in ail ita length between the Boers 
and the Zulus, and to-be governed by the Colony of 
Natal, and form a portion of it if thought desirable. 

" The Zulu people earnestly pray that this arrange- 
ment may be carried out immediately, because they have 
been neighbourB of Natal for bo many years, Beparated 
only by a stream of water, and no question has arisen 
between them and the OoTonment of Natal ; they^ know 
that where the boundary is fixed by agreement with the 
English there it will remain. 

"Panda, Cetshwayo, and all the heads of the Zulu 
people assembled, directed us to urge in the most earnest 
manner upon the Lieutenant-€k)vemor of Natal . the 
prayer we have stated." 

This is the concluding portion of the fourth message, 
received on June 5th, 1869 {1961, p. 9). The fifth, 
reporting fresh Boer aggressions, was received on 
December 6th, 1869. 

In the course of the same year Lieutenant-Qovemor 
Keate addressed the President of the South African 
Bepublic on the subject, and suggested arbitration, 
which su^estion was accepted by the President, pro- 
vided that the expenses should be paid by the losing 
party ; and during the following two years repeated 
messages were sent by Mr. Keate reminding the Presi- 
dent that being "already in possession of what the 
Znlu authorities put forward asjustiiying their daims/' 
he only awaits the like information from the other aide 
before " visiting the locality and hearing the respective 
parties."— (P. p. 1961, p. 24). 

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TEE mSPVTSD TBSRTTOSY. 138 

On AugoBt 16th, 1871, the Government Secretary 
d tiie South African Republic replies that he has " been 
instmcted to forward to the Lieutenant-Governor of 
Natal the necessary documents bearing on the Zulu 
question, together with a statement of the case, and 
hopes to do so by next post ; but that, as the session 
of the Volksraad had been postponed from May to 
September, it would be . extremely difficult to settle 
the matter in 1871," he therefore proposed January, 
1872j as a convenient time for the purpose. 

Neariy eight weeks later (October 9th) Lieutenant- - 
Governor Keate informs the President that the docu- 
ments promised, upon the Zulu-border question, have 
not yet reached him; but sees nothing, at present, 
likely to prevent his " proceeding, in January next, to 
the Zulu-border for the purpose of settling the matter 
at issue." 

But tlie promised papers appear never to have been 
sent The arbitration . never took place. Lieutenant- 
Qovemor Eeate was relieved from the government of 
Natal in 1872; and the next stage of the question is 
marked by Uie issue on May 25th, 1875, of a procla- 
mation by Actiug-President Joubert, annexing to the 
dominion of the South African Kepublic the territory, 
the ri^t.to which was to have been decided by this 
arbibration. : 

In this proclamation no. reference. is made to the 
(alleged) Treaty of 1861 (see p. 176), by which 
" what is now and was then disputed territory had 
been ceded to the South African Sepublic," though it 
certainly annexes to the Republic all the country in- 

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1&4 THB ZULU WAB. 

doded in the Treaty, and seems to annex m<ne. But 
no ground of claim is set forth oi alluded to upon 
which the right to annex is founded, " with reserrataon 
of all further claims and rights of the said Republic," 
nor any reason assigned for the act, except to " prerent 
disc^^reement " between the Boers and the Zulus. And 
Sir T. 3hepstone goes on to saj (1961, p. 5) : 

"The ofBcers of the South A&ican Republic pro- 
ceeded to exercise in this annexed territory the ordinary 
functions of government, and among these, the levying 
taxes on natives. The Zulus, who had been permstent 
in repudiating the cession, and who have continued to 
occupy the territory as theirs, resisted the demand by 
Cetshwayo's directions, and a collision appeared immi- 
nent, when the difBculty was avoided by the officers 
withdrawing the order they had issued." 

Nevertheless, in spite of the repeated disappoint- 
ments with which they met, the Zulus continued to 
send complaints and entreaties to the Government of 
Natal ; which messages, although they never varied in 
their respectful and friendly tone towards the English, 
show plainly how deeply they felt the neglect with 
which they were treated. The English "promises" are 
spoken of again and i^ain, and the thirteenth message 
contains a sentence worth recording, in its simple 
dignity. " Cetshwayo desired us," say the messengers, 
"to urge upon the Governor of Natal to interfere to 
save the destruction of perhaps both countries — Zulu- 
land and the Truisvaal. He requests us to state that 
he cannot and will not sabmit to be turned out of 
his own houses. It may be that he will be vanquished ; 

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TSB SiaPUTED TEBBITOBY. 166 

bat, as he is not the a^^reasor, death will not be so 
haid to meet" (1748, p. U). 

Sir Heniy Bulwer's answers to these messages con- 
tain passages which sufficiently prove that up to this 
time the Qov^nment of Natal had no complaints to 
make against the Zulu king. " This is the first oppor- 
tonity the Lieutenant-GoTemor has had," he says, " of 
communicating with Cetshwayo since his (Sir H. 
Bulwer's) arrival in the Colony. He therefoie takes the 
opportunity of sending him a friendly greeting, and of 
expressing the pleasure with which he had heard of the 
satisfactory relations that have existed between this 
Colony and the Zulus," November 25th, 1875 (1748, 
p. 15). 

"This Government trusts that Cetshwayo will 
maintain that moderation and forbearance which he 
has hitherto shown, and which the Government has 
great pleasure in bringing to the notice of the councillors 
of the great Queen, and that nothing wUl be done which 
will hinder the peaceful solution of the Disputed Territory 
question," July 25th, 1876 (1748, p. 97). 

Meanwhile repeated acts of violence and brutality on 
the part of the Boers are reported, and in the Blue-books 
before us ike Zulu complaints are confirmed from various 
official sources, by Mr. Fyuu, Resident Magistrate of 
the Umsinga Division (1748, p. 10), by Sir Henry 
Bnlwer (1748, pp. 8, 11, 12, 25), by Sir T. Shepstone 
himself (1748, pp. 10, 24, 29, 52, 56), by Mr. Oabom 
(1748, p. 82), and by Sir Henry Barkly (1748, p. 25). 
No attempt at settlement, however, had been made in 
answer to these appeals up to the time of the annex- 

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166 TSS ZULU WAR, 

ation of the TrauBvaal, in 1877, by Sir T. Shepatone; 
after whidi so great a change took place in the tone 
of the latter npoa the subject of the disputed 
territory. 

Upon this question we niay quote again from 
Mr. Fynney's report of tie king's anawer to him upon 
the announcement of the annexation of the TransvaaL 
" I hear what you have said about past disputes with 
the Boers, and about the settlement of them," said the 
king ; " the land question is one of them, and a great 
one. I was in hopes, when I heard it was you who 
visited me, that you had brought me some fiual word 
about the land, as Somtseu had sent from NewcaaUe by 
Umgabana to say that his son would come with the - 
word respecting the land so long in dispute, and I felt 
sure it had come to-day, for you are his son. Now 
the TransTaal is English ground, I want Somtseu to 
send the Boers away from the lower parts of the 
Transvaal, that near my country. The Boers are a 
nation of liars ; they are a bad people, bad altogether ; 
I do not want them near my people ; they lie, and claim 
what is not theirs, and ill-use my people. Where is 
Thomas (Mr. Burgers) ? " 

"I informed him," says Mr. Fynney, "that Mr. 
Burgers had left the Transvaal." 

" Then let them pack up and follow Thomas," said 
he, " let them go. The Queen does not want such 
people as those about her land. What can the Queen 
make of them or do with them ? Their evil ways 
puzzled both Thomas and Budolph (Landdrost of 
Utrecht) ; they will not be quiet They have laid 

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THE DI3PUTSD TEBRITORT. 157 

claim to my land, and even down to N'Zahankulu (70U 
Baw the line), Inuned it with fire, and mj people have no 
reat" 

" Umnyamana (Prime Miniater) here remarked," 
continuea Mr. Fynney, " we want to know what is going 
to be done aboat this land ; it has stood orei as an open 
question for so many years. Somtseu took all the 
papers to England with him to show the great men 
there, and we have not heard since." To which Mr. 
Fynney, of course, had no reply to make. 

Within a fortnight of the annexation the Boers on 
the Znlu border presented Sir T. .Shepstone with an 
address, stating that during the last ten or twdve years 
{i.e. from 1861, when this encroachment was begnn by 
the Boers) they had " suffered greatly in consequence of 
the hostile behaviour of the Zulu nation, but more so for 
the last two years" {ie. from 1875, when the Boer 
Government proclaimed the disputed territory to belong 
to the Transvaal, and proceeded to levy taxes upon its 
Znlu inhabitants), so that, they said, their lives and 
goods were in danger (1814, p. 14). 

Accordingly Sir T. Shepstone writes to Lord 
Carnarvon as follows : " I shall be forced to take some 
action with regard to the Disputed Territory, of which 
your lordship' has heard so much, but I shall be careful 
to avoid any direct issue."* 

" It is of the utmost importance/' he continues, 

* Thereby pomtang the tmth of his own remark at b previoiu 
date— March 30th, 1876 (1748, p. 24) : " But mesaages fiom the Zula 
king ore hecomlng more frequent and urgent, and the repliei he rettivet 
aeem to Mm to be both temporising and evative." (Author'a itolica). 

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158 THE ZULU WAR. 

" that all questions mTolving disturbance outside of this 
territoiy shotdd be, if possible, postponed until the 
Oovemment of the TransTaal is consolidated, and the 
numerons tribes within its bonndanes have begun to 
feel and recognise the hand of the new administia- 
tion." 

These remarks already show the change in sentiment, 
on Sir T. Shepstone's part, which was more markedly 
displayed at the Blood River meeting between him and 
the Zulu indunas. The conference proved an utter 
failure, as also did several other attempts on Sir T. 
Shepstone's part to persuade the Zulus to relinquish to 
him, on behalf of the Transvaal, the claims upon which 
they had so long insisted. 

On December 5th, 1877, two indunas came £rom 
Cetehwayo to the Bishop of Natal with a request that he 
would put the Zulu claim in writing, to be sent to Sir H. 
Bulwer and the Queen. The same indunas, a few days 
later, with Umfunzi and Nkisimane — messengers from 
Cetshwayo — appointed, before a notary public. Dr. 
"Walter Smith and Mr. F. E. Colenso to be " diplomatic 
agents " for Cetehwayo, " who should communicate on 
his behalf in the English language, and, when needful, 
in writing," and especiaUy to "treat with the British 
Government on the boundary question " (3000, p. 58) ;* 
which appointment, however, Sir H. Bulwer and Sir T. 

* Imniedutely after they had aigned the insbninent of appoiut- 
ment tiie two Zulu messengers were sest in to the Goremment by 
Atewn. Smith and Colenso, and took with them a letl^ (C. 2000) 
which mentioned them as its hearers, and announoed what they had 
done. 



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THE DISPUTED TERRITORY. 1B9 

Shepstone refiised to recognise ; and the former, having 
proposed the Border CommiBeion before receiving notice 
of this appointment — ^though the Commissionera had not 
yet started &om 'Mahtzbmrg — did not feel it advisable, 
as ''no sach appointment had been made by the Zulu 
king,"* to communicate to Messrs. Smith and Colenso 
Lord Carnarvon's despatch (January 21st, 1878), which 
said: 

" I request that you will inform Mr, Smith and Mr. 
Colenso that the desire of Her Majesty's Qovemment in 
this matter is that the boundary question shall be fully 
and fairly discussed, and a just arrangement arrived at, 
and that you will refer them to Sir T. Shepstone, to 
whom has been committed the duty of negotiating on 
the subject. "+ 

* Mfonzi and NkiBunane were sent down agun to 'Maritzbnig hj 
Cfltahmjo, at the request of Sir H. Balvet, and denied the irhole 
tnuuaction, though it iraa attested by tha gignatuies of the notary 
and two white witnesses. It was afterwards discovered that they hod 
been frightened into this denial by a Natal Government mesaenger, 
who told them that they had made the Governor very angry with 
them and their king by maldng this appointment ; and John Dunn 
Also, after receiving letters from 'MaritzbnTg, told them that they had 
committed a great fault, and that he saw that they would never all 
come home again, 

t Ueaais. Smith and Colenao's explanatory letter to Sir M. Hiclu* 
Beach, dated June 9th, 1876, concludes as follows : 

"This business, ae far aa we are concerned, is, therefore, ended. 
We had hoped to be inBtromental in embodying in a contract a pro- 
poml which we knew was advantageous to both parties. To do so 
<Htl7 reqnind the intervention of Entopetn lawyers trusted by 
Cetewayo. We knew that he tnisted us, and would trust no others. 
Hie task of acting for the king was, therefore, imposed on us as 
lawyms and aa gentlemen. Of pecuniary reward, or its equivalent, 
out labonn have brought us nothii^. We do not require ii Honour 

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160 ■ THE ZULU WAS. 

Meanwhile, however, Sir T. Shepstone's "negotift- 
tions " had proved unBaccessfiil, and Sir Hemy Bulwer 
writes to Sir Bartle Prere (2000, p. 68) : " It seenu but 
too dear, from all that has now happened, that the 
prospect of a settlement of the question by direct 
negotiations between the Gh>Temment of the Transvaal 
and the Zulu Idng is at an end The feeling against the 

we did not desire, nor had a sarage prince any means of conferring it 
The dnty tiiua undertaken we give np only in despair, and we have 
nothing to regret 

" Such information, howerer, as we have gleaned in the course of 
our agency yon are entitled to hear from us, as we are' British 



" The Zulus are hostile to the Boers of the Transvaal, and wonid 
fight with them but foi f ear of being involred in a qaanel wiUi the 
English. But neither Cetewayo himself, who is wise and peaceful, 
nor the most hot-blooded of his yonng warriors have any dwire to 
fight with England, i.e. Natal 

"If they wished to do so there is nothing to prevent them, and 
never has been. As they march, they could march hom their border 
to this city or to Durban in a little more than twenty-four hours. 
Their only fear is, that the English will come with an anny 
'to make them pay taxes.' They say they will rather die than 
do so. The kii^ says the same. Almost every man has a gun. Guna 
and ammunition are cheaper at any militoiy kraal in Zululand than at 
Fort ITataL These goods are imported by Tonga men, who come in 
la^e gangs from Delagoa Bay, for white merchants. An Enfield rifle 
may be had for a sheep of a Tonga man ; many have breech-loaders;. 
The missionaries, whose principal occupation was trading, ileal in 
ammunition. The missionaries have recently lost most of their con- 
verts, who have gone trading on their own account Without thoe 
converts the missionaries cannot do business, and they have left the 
country, except Bishop 8chreuder,who has gone back, that it may not 
be said that a white man is not safe there. Cetewayo says that ha has 
asked the missionaries to stop. They have certainly not been turned 
out or threatened. Theii going makes the Zulus think that we aie 
about to invade the country. 

" Nothing but gross misman^ment will bring about a quaml 
between England and the Zulus."— (P. p. [G. 3144] pp. 3t6, 216^ 



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THE DISPUTED TERBITOBY. 161 

Boers on. the part of the Zulu king and people is too 
bitter, and they are now scarcely less angry against the 
new Government of the Transvaal than they were 
against the old Gorernment" He then suggests arbitra- 
tion as a way by which the Zulu king " can escape the 
alteruativc of war, by which he can obtain justice, and 
by which, at the same time, he can avoid direct negotia- 
tions with the Qovemment of a people whom he dislikes 
and distrusts." 

The diplomatic agents were never recognised by the 
coloDial authorities, or allowed to exercise their func- 
tions ; but a visit which Mr. Colenso paid to the Zulu 
king in connection with the appointment is worth 
recording for the sake of the glimpse it gives of 
Cetshwayo's habits and daily life, as told by a dis- 
interested eye-witness. 

The king, it appears, whom so many have delighted 
to represent as a corpulent unwieldy savage, to whom 
movement must be a painful exertion, was in the habit 
of taking a daily constitutional of about six miles out 
and back. Mr, Colenso observed that this was his 
regular habit, and during his stay at the royal kraal he 
daily saw Cetshwayo start, and could trace his course 
over the hills by the great white shield carried before 
him as the emblem of kingship. 

On luB return the king regularly underwent a process 
of ablution at the hands of his attendants, who poured 
vessels of water over him, and rubbed the royal person 
down with a species of soft stone. This performance 
over, Cetshwayo ascended his throne or choir of state, 
upon which he remained, hearing causes, and trying cases 

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162 TEE ZULU WATl. 

amongst his people, until the shades of evemng fdl, 
before which time he did not break his fast. 

This description, of the accuracy of which there can 
be no question, g^ves a picture of a simple, moderate, 
and useful kingly existence, very different £rom the idoa 
commonly received of a savage monarch, wallowing in 
sloth and coarse luxury, and uung the power which he 
holds over his fellow-creatures only for the gratification 
of every evil or selfish human passion. Cctshwayo ruled 
his people well according to his lights : let us hope 
that, now we have wrested his kingdom from him, oui 
government may prove a more beneficent one. 



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CHAPTER X 

THE BOUKDARY COMMISSION. 

Sib Hbnby Bulwsr's message proposing arbitration 
was sent to Oetehwayo on December 8th, 1877 (2000, 
p. 67). 

In this message he makes it plain to the king that 
" the Governments of Natal and the Transvaal are now 
brothers, and what touches one touches the other." 
" Therefore," he continues, " the Lieut -Governor of 
Natal sends these words to Cetshwayo that he may 
know what is in his mind, and that Cetshwayo may do 
nothing that will interrupt the peaceful and friendly- 
relations that have existed for so many years between 
the English and the Zulua" He then proposes that he 
should write to "the Ministers of the great Queen in 
England, and also to the Queen's High Commissioner 
w^ho reudes at Capetown, in order that they may send 
fit and proper persons, who will come to the country 
with fresh minds, and who will hear all that the Zulus 
have to say on the question, and all that the Transvaal 
Government has to say, and examine and consider all 
the rights of the question, and then give their decision 
in such manner that all concerned may receive and 



164 TBE ZULU WAR. 

abide by that decision, and the question be finally set 
at rest. 

"Meanwhile," he says, "no action should be taken 
to interfere with the existing state of things or to 
disturb the peace. But the disputed territory should be 
considered and treated as neutral between the two 
countries for the time being." 

Before this communication reached him, Cetshwayo 
had already sent messengers to the Bishop of Natal, 
asking advice how to act in his present difficulties. 
And they had carried back " a word," which would 
reach the king about November 19th, to the effect that 
he must on no account think of fighting the Transvaal 
Government, and that he had better send down some 
great indunas to propose arbitration to Sir Henry 
Bulwer, in whose hands he might leave himself with 
perfect confidence, that the right and just thing would 
be done by him. The Bishop knew nothing of Sir 
Henry's intentions when he sent this reply; and, in 
point of fact, the two had separately come to the same 
conclusion as to what would be the wisest course to 
follow. 

Cetshwayo therefore was prepared to receive Sir 
Henry's proposition, which he did, not only with 
respect, but with delight and relief (2000, p. X38). 
His answer to the message contained the following 
passages : " Cetshwayo hears what the Governor of Natal 
says .... and thanks him for these words, for they 
are oil good words that have been sent to Cetshwayo by 
the Governor of Natal ; they show that the Natal Govern- 
ment still wishes Cetshwayo to drink water and live." 

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THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 165 

He BuggestB, however, that before sending for people 
from across the sea to settle the boundary, he should 
be glad if the Qovemor woold send his own representa- 
tives to hear both sides of the dispute, and if they 
cannot come to a decision, " a letter can be sent beyond 
the sea " for others to come. The message continues : 
" Cetshwayo thanks the Governor for the ■words which 
say the ground in dispute should not be occupied while 
the matter is talked over." 

" Cetahwayo says he hears it said that he intends to 
make war upon the TransvaaL He wishes the Natal 
Government to watch well and see when he wiU do such 
a thing. For, if he attended to the wish of the English 
Government in Natal when it said he must not make 
war on the Transvaal Boers, why shoiJd he wish to do 
so upon those who are now of the same Great House as 
Natal, to whose voice he has listened ? " 

" Cetshwayo is informed that he is to be attacked by 
the Transvaal people. If so, and if he is not taken by 
surprise, he will, as soon as he hears of the approach of 
such a force, send men who will report it to the Natal 
Government before he takes any action." 

" Cetshwayo says he cannot trust the Transvaal 
Boers any longer ; they have killed his people, they 
have robbed them of their cattle on the slightest grounds. 
He had hoped Somtseu would have settled all these 
matters. But he has not done so ; he wishes to cast 
Cetshwayo off; he is no more a father, but a firebrand. 
If he is tired of carrying Cetshwayo now, as he did 
while he was with the Natal Government, then why 
does he not put hiin down, and allow the Natal 

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166 TOE ZULU WAR. 

Government to look after him, as it haa always 
done ? " 

Sir Henry Bulwer expressed his satisfoction at this 
reply, speaking of it as a far more satislactory one than 
they had been led to expect (2000, p. 138), and he 
writes of it to Sir T. Shepstone thos : *' Ton will see by 
the king's reply that he has met my representations in 
a very proper spirit. ... I have no reason to think 
that what the king says is said otherwise than in good 
faith; and, if this be so, there seems to me to be .no 
reason why this dispute should not be settled in a 
peaceable manner" (2097, p. 26), and he says to 
Cetshwayo himself, " The Lieutenant-Governor has 
heaid the words of Cetshwayo. He is glad that the 
words which ho lately sent to Cetshwayo were welcome^ 
They were words sent in a friendly spirit, and Cetshwayo 
received them in a friendly spirit This is as it should 
be," and he agrees to the king's proposal concerning 
commissioners from Katal, provided that the Transvaal 
Government jigree also. 

The following is the account given by the Govern- 
ment messengers, who carried Sir H. Bulwer 's message 
to Cetshwayo of the manner in which it was received by 
the king and his indunas (2079, p. 25) : ■• 

" While we spoke to Cetshwayo, we saw that what 
we were saying lifted a great weight from his heart, that 
they were words which he was glad to hear ; and what 
be said to us as we finished showed us we were right in 
this belief. . . . 

"Wc could see, when we arrived at the great kraal, 
that the indunas, and even the king, were not easy in 

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TES SOVNDARY COMMISSION. 167 

their hearts, and from all we could see and gather, the 
chief men under the king did not wish for war. After 
the message was delivered, all of them appeared like 
men who had been carrying a very heavy burden, and 
who had <m]y then been told that they could put it down 
and rest." 

It is beat known to himself how, in the face of 
these words, and with nothlDg to support his statement, 
Sir Bartle Frere could venture to assert in his fourth letter 
to the Bishop, " The offers to arbitrate originated with 
the Natal Government, and were by no means willingly 
accepted by Cetshwayo ;" Cetshwayo having, in point 
of fact, earnestly asked for arbitration again and again, 
as we have already shown, and rejoicing greatly when 
at last it was offered him. Mr. J. Shcpstone's observa- 
tion also (2144, p. 184), that *'To this suggestion 
Cetshwayo replied ' that he had no objection,' " hardly 
gives a fair view of the state of the case. 

But, before this satisfactory agreement had been 
arrived at. Sir T. Shepstone had managed still further 
to exasperate the feelings of the Zulus against the 
new Government of the Transvaal, while the fact that 
Natal and the Transvaal were one, and that to touch 
one was to touch the other, and to touch England also, 
had not been brought home to the king's mind until 
he received Sir H. Bulwer's message. 

Before the receipt of that message, Cetshwayo had 
eveiy reason to believe that the negotiations con- 
cerning the disputed territory were broken off. Sir T. 
Shepetone's tone on the subject had altered; he had 
parted with the king's indunas at the Blood Biver 

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168 THE ZULU WAS. 

in aDger, and the messenger whom he had promised 
to send to the king himself had never appeared. 
Meanwhile, the Bocra had gone into laager, by direc- 
tion, they say, of Sir T. Shepstone himself, and with 
the full expectation that he tiaa about to make war 
upon the Zulus. No offer of arbitration had yet been 
made. Cetahwayo had been played with and baffled 
by the English OoTemment for sixteen years, and to 
all appearance nothing whatever was done, or would 
be done, to settle in a friendly manner this troubled 
question, unless he took steps himself to assert his 
rights, and he seems to have taken the mildest possible 
way of so doing under the circumstances. According 
to the official reports at tiie time, he scut a lai^e force 
of armed men to build a military kraal near Lnneburg, 
north of the Pongolo, in land which was also disputed 
with the Transvaal Government, but formed no part 
of the (so called) disputed territory to the south of 
that river, or as Lord Caroarvou said to a deputation 
of South African merchants {Guardian, January 9th, 
1878): "He (the Zulu king) had proceeded to con- 
struct, in opposition to Sir T. Shepstone's warnings, a 
fortified kraal in a disputed territory abutting upon 
English soil." 

But this was a very exaggerated way of describing 
a comparative trifling circumstance. The erection of a 
kraal — not, as so frequently asserted, a military one, 
but merely an ordinary Zulu kraal for the residence of 
a headman, to keep order among the 15,000 Zulus who 
lived in that district — had long been contemplated, and 



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THS BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 169 

had once, duiing Umpanda's lii^timc, been attempted, 
though the Boers had driven away the Zulu officer 
sent for the purpose, and dealroyed the work he had 
commenced. 

Cetshwayo himself ezphilns his reason for sending ao 
large a force for the purpose, on the grounds that he 
wished the kraal to be built in one day, and his men not 
to be obliged to remain over a night, while, as Colonel 
Dumford, R.E., says (2144, p. 237), " the fact that the 
men at work are armed is of no significance, because 
every Zulu is an armed man, and never moves without 
hia weapon." 

Sir T. Shepatone, however, was greatly alarmed 
when he first heard of the building of this kraal, and 
■writes concerning it — November 16th, 1877 (1961, 
p. 224) : " I feel, therefore (because of the irritating 
effect of it upon the Transvaal), that the building of this 
kraal must be prevented at all hazards." The " hazards " 
do not appear to have proved very serious, as a simple 
representation on the part of Captain Clarke, RA., and 
Mr. Budolph, sent to the spot by Sir T. Shepstone, 
resulted in the Zulu force retiring, having made only a 
gmaZl cattle kraal and chopped and collected some poles, 
which they left on the ground, to be. used for the 
building of the huts hereafter, but which were very 
soon carried off and used as firewood by the Luneburg 
fiurmers. 

But this did not satisfy Sir T. Shepstone, who sent 
messengers to Cetshwayo, complaining of what had been 
done, and of " finding," as he says, " a Zulu force in the 



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170 TSE ZULU WAR, 

rear of where he was staying;"* and saying that, iii 
eonsequence, and in order to restore confidence amongst 
those Boers living on the Blood River border, he {Sir T. 
Shepstone) had decided to send a military force down to 
the waggon-drift on the Blood River, to encamp there on 
our side of the river. Cetshwayo replies that he did not 
send to have the kraal built that trouble might arise> 
but because his people were already living on the ground 
la dispute. He admits that of course the administrator 
could do as he pleased about sending an armed force to 
encamp on his own borders ; but he urges him to think 
better of it, saying that the Zulus would he frightened 
and run away, and, if he in his turn should send an 
armed force to encamp just opposite Sir T. Shepstone's 
encampment, to put confidence into his people's hearts, 
he asks, somewhat quaintly, " would it be possible ftnr 
the two forces to be looking at one another for two days 
without a row?" 

Many expressions are scattered through the Blue- 
books at this period concerning "Zulu aggressions;" 
and Sir T. Shepstone makes ft'cquent, though vague 
and unproveu, accusations concemiog Cetehwayo's 
"mischievous humour," and the terror of the Boer 
• frontier farmers. 

But, so &r as these remarks allude to the border 
squabbles inseparable from the state of affairs, the score 
is so heavily against the Boers that the counter-chargeB 
ore hardly worth considering. The only acts chargeable 

* This U apparently a figure of epeech, since Lanebnig, near 
>^bich the kraal was being built, would aeam by the map not to lie 
"to the rear" — aa seen from Znloland — of Utrecht, where Sir T. 
Shepstone waa staying. 

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TBS BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 1-71 

aponthe king himself are, first, &e building of this kraal, 
which really amounted to no more than a practical 
assertion of the Zolu claim to land north of the 
Pongolo; and, secondly, the execation of a (supposed)- 
2iulu criminal there, which was an exerdse of Cetsh- 
wayo's authority over his own people living in the 
diBtrict 

For the acta of violence committed by the robber 
chief Umbilini, the Zulu king could not justly be 
considered responsible; but of this matter, and of the 
raid committed by the sons of Sihayo, we will treat in a- 
later chapter. 

Sir T. Shepstone himself allows that Cetshwayo's. 
frame of mind was a better one after the reception of 
Sir Henry Bulwer's message offering arbitration (2079, 
pp. 51- 51) ; and says that his (Sir T. Shepstone's) mes- 
sengers "describe Cetshwayo ae being in a very 
different temper to that which he had on former occa- 
sions exhibited ; to use their own expression, " it was 
Cetshwayo, but it was Cetshwayo bom again." , . . 
"They gleaned from the Zulus .... that a message 
from the Governor of Natal had been delivered, and they 
concluded that the change which they had noticed as so 
marked in the king's tone must have been produced by 
that message." 

The fact that Cetshwayo joyfully and thankfully 
accepted Sir Henry Bolwer's promise — 'not to give him 
the land he claimed, but to have the matter investigated 
and justice done — is aufficientiy established ; but from 
the Boers the proposal met with a very different 
receptioa. 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



172 THE ZUlU WAR 

Sir T, Shepstone aclinowledged the receipt of Sir 
H. Bnlwer's despatch of December 1 1th, " transmittiDg 
copy of a message " which he " had thought fit to send 
to the Zulu king," and then summoned a few leading 
men in the district, and laid the proposition before them. 
He reports that after some pretty speeches about the 
" Christian, humane, and admirable proposal," which 
they should have " no excuse for hesitating to accept, 
if Cetshwayo were a civilised king and the Zulu Govern- 
ment a civilised government," etc etc, they proceeded 
to state their objections. They had, they said, no 
misgiving regarding the justice of the claim of the 
State ; and they believed that the more it was investi- 
gated, the more impartial the minds of the investigatoiSj 
the clearer and more rightful would that claim prove 
itself to be. Nevertheless, they professed to fear the 
delay that must necessarily be caused by such an 
investigation* (the dispute having already lasted fifteen 
years I) and to doubt Cetshwayo'a abiding by any 
promise he might make to observe a temporaiy 
boundary line. 

To place the two parties to the dispute on equal 
terms, they said, the land in question should be 
evacuated by both, or occupied by both under the 
control of Sir Henry Bulwer, who, they proposed, 
as an indispensable condition of the proposed arbi- 
tiatioD, should take possession of the land in dispute 
or of some part of it And Sir T. Shepstone remarks : 

* Compare the account of the delaj on the part of the Boer 
Oovenment vhen Ikfr. Eeate propoved to arbitrate. See lost chapter, 
p. 182. 

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THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 178 

"My view is that the consideratiooB above set forth 
aie both weighty and serious. 

" I do not anticipate that, under the circumstances^ 
Cetshwayo would venture to make or to authorise any 
orert attack. I do fear, however, ihs consequences 
of the lawless condition into which the population all 
along the border is rapidly falling, Cetshwayo, I 
fear, rather encourages than attempts to repress this 
tendeucy ; and, although ho will not go to war, he 
may allow that to go on which he knows wiU produce 
war." 

The condition of the border scema, as we have 
abeady shown, to have been " lawless " for many years, 
though the Ca\ilt lay rather with the Boers — whose 
many acts of violence are recorded in the Blue-books 
— than with the Zulus, and ' Sir T, Shepstone has ap- 
parently overlooked the fact that he himself hsA just 
summarily put a atop to an attempt on Cetshwayo's 
part to " repress " any lawless " tendency " amongst his 
awn people (of which the Administrator complains) by 
placing a headman, or responsible person, amongst them 
to keep order. 

Under the above-mentioned conditions Sir T. Shep- 
stone accepts Sir Henry Bulwer's proposal, and informs 
him that, under the circumstances, he shall not carry 
out his expressed intention of placing a military post 
in tiie neighbourhood of the Blood Biver. 

And again he writes — January l7th, 1878 (2079, 
p. 58): 

*' It was, however, necessary to point out to Sir H. 
Bulwer the difficulties and dangers, as well as the loss 

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174 THE ZULU WAR. 

of property, which the white people (Boers ?) feel that 
they will be subjected to by the acceptance of Hia 
Excellency's proposal, unless he can devise some means 
by which their safety and interests can be protected 
duriDg the pending of the investigation, tohich under 
existing circumstances it is Cetahwayo's interest to 
prolong indefinitely." 

The words which I have italicised show that Sir T. 
Shcpstone took for granted beforehand that the decision 
of the Commissioners would be unfavourable to the 
Zulus. 

Sir Henry Bulwer, however, did not see his way to 
falling in with the conditions of the Boers, and replies 
as follows (2079, p. 128) : 

'' I do not see that I am in a position, or that, as the 
Lieutenant-Governor of this colony, I should have the 
power to take actual possession of the country in dispute. 
And if to take over the country, and hold posseBsion oi 
it, is considered by your Government an indispensable 
condition for the acceptance of the mediating course 
I have proposed, I feel that my proposal falls short of 
the requirements of the case." 

On January 29th, Sir T. Shcpstone writes to Sir Heniy 
again, saying that " It was felt that, in consequence of 
the step which you have thought it right to take in your 
communication to the Zulu king of the 8th December 
last, the Government of the Transvaal is placed at a 
disadvantage, and that the longer action on your part ia 
delayed, the greater that disadvantage grows. It follows, 
therefore, that any action in the direction of your 
proposition is better than no action at all; and I was 

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THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION. 175 

tuged to beg your Ezcdlency to take some step in the 
matter without delay." 

Accordingly Sir Henry at once aends a message to 
Cetahwayo, suggesting the observance of a "neutral 
belt," pending the settlement of the boundary question 
(2079, p. 132), and mentioning the two lines, from point 
to point, which he proposed for the purpose. 

The same suggestion was made, of course, to Sir T. 
Shepatone, who replies as follows : " You have rightly 
assumed the concurrence of tlus Government, and I 
trust that Cetshwayo will see in your message the 
neceasity that is laid upon him to prove that he was 
sincere in asking you to undertake the inquiry." 

This ready acquiescence is fully accounted for by the 
foct, shortly apparent, that both the lines mentioned by 
Sir Henry, between which neutrality should be observed, 
were within what was claimed by the Zulus as their own 
country, and Sir T. Shepstoue says; "At present the 
belt of country indicated is occupied solely by Zulus, 
The whole of it has been apportioned in farms to 
Transvaal subjects, but has not been occupied by them." 

Small wonder that the Zulu king, in reply to this 
proposal, " informs the Governor of Natal that the two 
roads mentioned in His Excellency's message are both 
in ZuljiUnd, and therefore the king cannot see how the 
ground between the roads can belong to both parties." 

Nevertheless Sir Henry Bulwer hardly seems to fall 
in with Sir T. Shepstone's suggestion, that Cetshwayo's 
consent on this point should be looked upon as a test of 
his sincerity : "Either," he says (2100, p. 73), " he has 
misqnder^tood the real nature of the proposal, or ho is 

D,3-,zedbvGoog[e 



176 THS ZULU WAR. 

disinclined to accept anything which may in his opinion 
be taken to signify a withdrawal of one iota of his 
claim." And, in point of fact, though no "neutral 
ground" was marked off, the Commission went ou just 
as well without it ; all the apprehensions of disturbance 
and disorder havioig been falsified by the event 

Sir T. Shepstone repeatedly speaks of the border 
Boers having been forced by Zulu acts and threats of 
aggression to abandon their farms and go into laager, 
etc. etc ; but, on investigation, it is apparent that this 
abandonment of farms, and trekking into laager, took 
place in consequence of an intimation from the Landrost 
of Utrecht, under iuBtructions from Sir T. Shepstone 
himself; as appeaxs from the following passages of an 
address from seventy-nine Boers, protesting against 
arbitration as "an absurdity and an impossibility," 
which was presented to Sir T. Shepstone on February 
2ud, 1878(2079, p. 140): 

"The undersigned burghers, etc. . . . take the 
liberty to bring to your Excellency's notice that they, 
in consequence of intimation from the Landrost of 
Utrecht, dated 14th December last, on your Excellency's 
instructions, partly trekked into laager, and partly 
deserted their farms, in the firm expectation that now 
ft banning of a war would soon be made. . . . That 
they have heard with anxiety and understand that 
arbitration is spoken of, which would have to determine 
our property and possessions ; which we fear will decide 
in &vour of a crowned robber, murderer, and breaker of 
his word,, who knows as well as we that be is claim- 
ing a thing which does not belong to him .... for 

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TSS BOmtDAEY COMMISSION. 177 

wbich T8aaon we are sure that such arbitration 13 an 
absurdity and an impossibility. We therefore hereby 
protest against all proposed or to be undertaken arbitra- 
tion ; and we will, with all legal means at our disposal, 
etc, resist a decision, etc., over our property which we 
know would be unlawful and unjust." 

They give as a reason for presenting the address 
&om which these phrases are taken, "because it' is 
impossible /or us to rsTnatn any longer in laager without 
any object," which hardly looks as though they thought 
themselves in daily danger from the Zulus, unless the 
"beginning of a war" should "soon be made" by Sir T. 
Shepstcne. They request His Excellency " to commence 
without any further delay defending " their " rights and 
property and lives ; " and should His Kzcellency " not 
be inclined or be without power " to do ao, they further 
signify their intention of requesting him to assist them 
witih ammunition, and not to hinder them seeking 
assistance, of fellow-countrymen and friends, to maintain 
their "rights," and to check their "rapacious enemies 
and to punish them." 

And they conclude : " We, the undersigned, bind 
ourselves on peril of our honour to assist in subduing 
the Zulu nation, and making it harmless." 

Sir T. Shepstone encloses this in a sympathisiog 
despatch, but Sir Henry Bulwer remarks upon it and 
upon a subsequent memorial* of the same description 
—February 23rd (2100, p. 67) ; 

" Of course, if the object of the memorialists is war, 
if what tiiey desire is a war with the Zulu nation, it is 
* 21«, p. 191. 



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178 THE ZULU WAR. 

not to be wondered at that they should find fault with 
any steps that have been taken to prevent the necessity 
for war. Nor, if they desire waTj is it to be expected 
that they should be favourable to arbitration, though 
I find it diflficult to reconcile the eipresMon of the 
apprehensions of the memorialists that arbitration would 
decide against them, with the unanimous ezpresfdon of 
opinion, previously given to your Excellency by some of 
' the leading men of the district, that the proposal made 
by me was a ChristiaD, humane, and admirable one ; 
that they had no misgivings regarding the justice of the 
claim of the State, and that they believed the more it 
was investigated .... the clearer and more rightful 
would that claim prove itself to be. Your Excellency 
observes that the deep feeling of distrust shown by the 
memorialists is scarcely to be wondered at, wh^ it is 
remembered that they are compelled to occupy with 
their families fortified camps, while their farms in the 
neighbourhood are being occupied by Zulus, their crops 
reaped, and their cultivated lands tilled by Zulus, and 
the timber of their houses used as Zulu firewood. 

" I do not quite understand what &nns and 
cultivated lands are referred to ; because in a previous 
despatch — your despatch, No. 7, of February 5th — 
your Excellency, in referring to the disputed territory, 
states, so I understand, that it 'is at present occupied 
solely by Zidus,' and that, although the whole of it 
has been apportioned in farms to Transvaal subjects, it 
has not been occupied by them.' " 

The matter was r^erred to the High Commissioner, 
Sir Bartle Frere, and the appointment of a commissi<m 

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TEE BOmWABT OOMMT38I0N. 179 

was approved by him. He plainly took it for granted 
that, as Sir T. Shepatone had said, the Transvaal claim 
was based on " evidence the most incontrovertible, 
overwhelming, and clear," and looked to the commission 
for the double advantage of enabling Sir T. Shepatone 
" to clear up or put on record, in a form calculated to 
satisfy Her Majesty's Government, an answer to all 
doubts as to the facts and equity of the question," and 
of gaining time for preparing a military force to silence 
and subjugate the Zulus should they object (as he 
expected) to such an award. That nothing short of 
military coercion of the Zulus would settle the matter, 
was evidently Sir Bartle Frere's fixed idea ; in feet that 
was the foregone conclasion with him from beginning to 
end. 

On Febraaty 12th, Sir Henry Bulwer sent a message 
to Cetshwayo (2079, p. UO), to this effect : 

"The Lieut-Governor now sends to let Cetshwayo 
know that he has selected, for the purpose of holding 
tbia inquiry, the Queen's Attorney-General in Natal 
(Hon. M. H. GaUway, Esq.), the Secretary for Native 
Affairs (Hon. J. W. Shepstone, Esq.), and Colonel 
Dumford, an officer in the Queen's army. 

"These gentlemen will proceed by-Mid-by to the 
place known aa Koike's Drift, which is on the Buffalo 
River, and in Natal territory, and they will there open 
the inquiry on Thursday, March 7th. 

" The Lieut.-Govemor proposes, as the moat con- 
venient course to be taken, that the Zulu king should 
appoint two or three iudunaa to represent the Zulu king 
uid the Zulu case at the inquiry, and that these should 

M 2 

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180 TEE ZULU WAR. 

be at Rorke's Drift on Maxch 7th, and meet the Natal 
Commissioners there. The same thing alao the Governor 
proposes shall be done by the Transvaal Government." 
And the long's reply to the messengers was expreaoive: 
" I am very glad to hear what you say — I shall now .be 
able to sleep." 

On. March 7th the Commission met at Rorke's 
Drift, and sat for about five weeks, taking evidence day 
by day in presence of the representatives deputed, three 
by the Transvaal Government, and three by the Zulus. 

Of the three gentlemen who formed the Commission, 
one was Sir T. Shepstone's brother, already mentioned in 
this history, whose natural bias would therefore certainly 
not be upon the Zulu side of the question ; another was 
a Government of&cial and an acute lawyer; and the 
third, Colonel Dumford, to the writer's personal know- 
ledge, entered upon the subject with an entirely 
unbiassed mind, and with but one intention or desire, 
that of discovering the actual truth, whatever it mi^t 
bo. The only thing by which his expectations — ^rather 
than his opinions — were in the least influenced before- 
hand, was the natural supposition, shared by all, that 
Sir T. Shepstone, who had the reputation of being in hia 
public capacity one of the most cautious of men, must 
have some strong grounds for his very positive statement 
of the Transvaal claim. 

There was, plainly, some slight confusion in the 
minds of the three Transvaal delegates, . as to their 
position relative to the Commissioners, with whom 
they apparently expected to be on equal terms, and 
in a different position altogether from the Zulu dde- 

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THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION, 181 

gates on the other side. This, however, was a manifest 
mistake. It was particnlarly desirable that the Zulus 
should be made to feel that it was no case of white 
against black ; but a matter in whidi impartial judges 
treated either side with equal fairness, and without 
respect of persona. One of the Commissioners was the 
brother of their chief opponent, one of the Transvaal 
del^ates his son; it would naturally have seemed to 
the Zulus that the sii white men (five out of whom 
were either Englishmen, or claimed to be such) were 
combining together to outwit them, had they seen 
them, evidently on terms of Moidship, seated together 
at the inquiry or talking amongst themselves in their ' 
own language. 

The Comnusttoners, however, were careful to avoid 
this mistake. Finding, on their arrival at Eorke's 
Drift, that the spot intended for their encampment 
was. already occupied by the Transvaal delegates, who 
had arrived before them, they caused their own tents 
to be pitched at some little distance, in order to keep 
the two apart. The same system was carried out 
during the sitting of the Court, at which the Com- 
missioners occupied a central position at a table by 
themselves, the Transvaal delegates being placed at a 
smaller table on one hand, mats being spread for the 
Zulu delegates, in a like position, on the other.* 

* The Znhu, of course, would not have appreciated the cod- 
Yenience of a table and cfaaiis; they hod uo "docameute" to lay 
upon the f onner ; and their opinion of the comfort of the latter is 
lieet expressed by the well-knovru Zulu saying that, " Oidy SngliahTnea 
and ehiektTU nt upon percket." The mats piorided for them were, 
therefore, a proper equiTalent to the tables and seats placed for the 
othsr delegates. 

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182 THE ZULU WAR. 

Care waa also necessary to prevent any possible 
altercations arising between the Boer and Zulu at- 
tendants of either party of delegates, Trho, in fact, 
formed the one real element of danger in the affair. 
On one occasion, daring the sitting of the CommisEdon, 
Colonel Dumford observed a Boer poking at a Zulu 
with his stick, in a manner calculated to bring to 
the surface some of the feelings of intense irritation 
common to both sides, and only kept under control 
by the presence of the, Commissioners. Tlie CoIodbI 
at once put a stop to this, and placing a sentry between 
the two parties, with orders to insist on either keepiog 
to its own side of the ground, no further disturbance 
took place. Popular rumour, of course, greatly exa^e- 
rated the danger of the situation, catching as usual at 
the opportunity for fresh accusations against the Zulu 
king, who, it was once reported from Durban, had 
sent an impi to Eorke's Drift, and had massacred, tlie 
Commissioners and all upon the spot. Fortunately the 
same day that brought this report to Pietermaritzburg, 
brought also letters direct from the Commissioners them- 
selves, of a later date than the supposed massacre, and 
in which the Zulus were spoken of as "perfectly quiet;," 

That the impartial conduct of the CommissionerB 
had the desired effect is manifest from Cetshwayo's 
words, spoken after the conclusion of the inquiry, but 
before its result had been made known to him. His 
messengers, after thanking Sir Henry Bnlwer in die 
name of their king and people for appointing the com- 
mission, said that "Cetahwayo and the Zulu people are 
perfectly satisfied with the way in which the inquiry 

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THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION, 188 

was conducted throaghout, the way in which everything 
went on feom day to day in proper order, and without 
the least misunderstanding ; but that eadi party under- 
stood the subject that was being talked about. 

"Cetshwayo says," they continued, "he now sees 
that he is a child of this Government, that the desire 
of this Government is to do him justice. . . . 

" Cetshwayo and the Zulu people are awaiting with 
beating hearts what the Lieut. -Governor will decide 
about the land that the Boera have given the Zulus so 
mnch tarouWe about ; for the Zulus wish very much now 
to reoccupy the land tiiey never parted with, as it is 
now the proper season (of the year) for doing so." 

Such was Cetshwayo's frame of mind (even before 
be knew that the decision was in his favour) at a 
time when he was popularly represented as being in 
an aggressive, turbulent condition, preparing to try his 
strength against us, and only waiting his opportunity 
to let loose upon Natal the " war-cloud " which he was 
supposed to keep " hovering on our borders." 

The boundary question resolved itself into this : 

1. To whom did the land in dispute belong in the 
first instance? 

2. Was it ever ceded or sold by the original 
possessors? 

1. In answer to the first question, the Commissioners 
took the treaty made in 1843, between the English and 
the Zulus, as a standpoint fixing a period when the 
territory in dispute belonged entirely to one or other. 
There was then no question but that the Zulu country 
extended over the whole of it 

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184 TSE ZULU WAR. 

2. The Zulus deny ever having relinquished anj 
part of their country to the Boers, who on the other 
hand assert that formal cessions had been made to them 
of considerable districts. With the latter rested the 
obligation of proving their assertions, which were simplj 
denied hy the Zulus, who accordingly, as they said 
themselves, " had no witnesses to call," having received 
no authority from the king to do more than point out 
the boundary daimed* (2242, p. 80). 

The Boer delegates brought various documents, &oin 
which they professed to prove the truth of their asser- 
tions, but which were decided by the CommisQiouers to 
be wholly worthless, from the glaring discrepancies and 
palpable falsehoods which they contained. One of these 
documents, dated March 16th, 1861, "purporting to 
give an account of a meeting between Sir T, Shepstone, 
Panda, and Cetshwayo," they decided to be plainly a 
fabrication, as Sir T. Shepstone did not arrive at 
Nodwengu,t from Natal, to meet Panda and Cetshwayo, 
until May 9th, 1861. 

Other records of cessions of land professed to be signed 
by the king, but were witnessed by neitlier Boer nor 
Zulu, or else by Boers alone. A definition of boundahea 
was in one case ratified by one Zulu only, a man of no 
rank or importance; and in other documents altera- 
tions were made, and dates inserted, clearly at another 
time. 

* Sir BaiUe Freie gives a very unfair accotmt of this mattai-of- 
conise fact irhen he tiansmite to the Sacpetaiy of State Uie above 
despatch, " infoiming me of the incomplete result, in conKqoence of 
the attitude of CetshTayo's lepieaentativea at the Commianon of 
Inquiry." 

t The king's kraal at that time. 

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TBB BOUNDABT OOUUISSION. 185 

Meanwhile it was apparent, from authentic Boer 
offidal papers, that the Zulus were threatened by the 
Boer GoTemment that, if they dared to complain again 
to the British Government, the South African Republic 
" would deal severely with them, and that they would 
also endanger their lives ; " while such expressions used 
by the Volksraad of the South African Eepuhlic as the 
following, when they resolve " to direct the Government 
to continue in the course it had adopted with reference 
to the policy on the eastern frontier, with such caution 
as the Volksraad expects iiam the Government with con- . 
fidence ; and in this matter to give it the right to take 
such steps as will more fully benefit the interests of the 
population than (he strict loords of the law of the country 
lay doum " (2220, p. 337), convicts them of dishonesty 
out of their own mouths. 

Finally the Commissioners report that in their 
judgment, east of the Buffalo, " there has been no cession 
of land at all by the Zulu kings, past or present, or by 
the nation." 

They consider, however, that — as the Utrecht district 
has long been inhabited by Boers, who have laid out the 
site for a town, and built upon it, and as t^e Zulu 
nation had virtually acquiesced in the Boer authority 
over it by treating with them for the rendition of 
fogitives who had taken refuge there — the Transvaal 
should be allowed to retain that portion of the land in 
dispute compensation being given to the Zulus inhabiting 
that district if they surrendered the lands occupied by 
them and returned to Zululand, or peimission being 
given them to become British subjects and to continue 
to occupy the land. 

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186 TSE ZULU WAR. 

Sir Bartle Frere's Tersiou of this is as follows : 
"The Commissioners propose to divide the area 
in dispute between the Blood Kiver and the Fongolo, 
giving to neither party the whole of its claim." He 
then quotes the recommendation of the Commissioners, 
that compensation should be given to Zulus leaving the 
Utrecht district, and wants to know what is to be done 
for the farmers who " in good faith, and relying on the 
right and power of the Transvaal Government to protect 
them, had settled for many years past on the tract 
which the Commission proposes to assign to the Zulus." 
He wishes to know how they are to be placed on an 
equality with the Zulus from the Utrecht district. 
To this Sir Henry Bulwer ably replies by pointing out 
that compensation to the said fanners lies with their 
own Government, by whose sanction or permismon they 
had occupied laud over which that Government had no 
power by right. In &ct, far from " dividing the area ia 
dispute/' and giving half to either party on equal terma, 
the reservation of the Utrecht district was rather aa 
unavoidable concession to the Boers who had long had 
actual possession of it — which, with due compensatdon, 
the Zulus would have been ready enough to make, while 
receiving back so much of their own land — than an 
acknowledgment that they could make good their 
original claim to it. The Conmiissioners indeed say- 
distinctly *' there has been no cession qf land at aU by 
the Zulu king, past or present, or by the nation." 

Bat indeed, after the decision in favour of the Zulus 
was given, Sir Bartle Frere entirely changed the complacent 
tone in which he had spoken of the Commission before- 

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THE BOUNDABT COMMISSION. 187 

hand. To all appearance his careful schemes for subju- 
gating the Zulu nation were thrown away — the war and 
the South A&ican Bmpire were on the point of eluding 
his grasp. He had sent to England for reinforcements — 
in direct opposition to the home policy, which for some 
years had been gradually teaching the colonies to depend 
upon themselves for protection, and therefore to refrain 
&om rushing headlong into needleea and dangerous wars, 
which might be avoided by a little exercise of tact and 
fbrbeanmce. He and his Mend General Theuger had 
laid out their campaign and had sent men-of-war to 
iavestigate the landing capabilities of the Zulu coast, 
and he had recommended Sir Henry Bulwer to inform 
the Zulu king — when the latter expressed his disquietude 
on the subject of these men-of-war — that the ships he 
saw were "for the most part English merchant vessels, 
bat that the war-vessels of the English Government bre 
quite su£Scient to protect his (Cetshwayo's) coast from 
any descent by any other power" (October 6th, 1878, 
2220, p. 307). 

Sir Henry Bulwer was too honest to carry out this 
recommendation, even had he not had the sense to know 
that Cetshwayo was accustomed to the passing of 
merchantmen, and was not to be thus taken in (sup- 
posing him to be likely to fear attacks from "foreign 
foes"). But the fact remains that, an English offidal of 
Sir Bartle Frere's rank has put on record, in an official 
despatch under his own hand, a deliberate proposal that 
the Zulu king should be tranquiUised, and his well- 
founded suspicions allayed by — a "figure of speech," 
shall we say ? 

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188 TRB ZULU WAR. 

Every possible objection was made bj Sii Bartle 
Freie to the cLecisioa of the Commissioners, and it was 
with the utmost difficulty that he was at last persuaded 
to ratify it, aftor a considerable period employed in pre- 
paring for a campaign, the idea of which he appears 
never for a minute to have relinquished. Sir T. Shep- 
Btone protested against the decision, which, however. 
Sir Henry Bulwer upheld ; while Sir Bartle Frere 
finally decides that " Sir H. Bulwer and I, approaching 
the question by somewhat different roads, agree in Uie 
conclusion that we must accept the Commissioners' 
verdict." Their report was made on June 20th, 1878, 
but it was not until November 16th Uiat Sir H. Bulwer 
sent to Cetahirayo to say that "the Lieut. •Grovemor 
ia now in a position to inform Cetshwayo that His 
Excellency the High Commissioner has pronounced his 
award, etc.," and to fix twenty days from the date of 
the departure of the messengers carrying this message 
from Pietermaritzbm^, as a convenient time for a 
meeting on the borders of the two countries at the 
Ix>wer Tugela Drift, at which the decision should be 
delivered to the king's indunas by officers of the 
Government appointed for the purpose. 

But before this conclusion was arrived at another 
attempt had been made to bring accusations against 
Cetshwayo, who said himself at the time (June 27di, 
1878) : "The name of Cetshwayo is always used 
amongst the Boers as being the first to wish to quarrel" 
Alarming accounts reached the Natal Government of a 
firesh military kraal having been built by the king, and 
notices to quit being served by him upon Boers within 

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TES BOVNDARY COMMISSION. 189 

tlie dispated territoiy, in spite of his engagement to 
await the decision of the Clommissioneis. The fanners 
complained of being obliged to fly, "leaving homes, 
homesteads, and improTemente to be destroyed by a 
BavBge, unbridled, revengeful nation."* Sir T. Shep- 
stoQe iG-echoed their complaint (2220, p. 27), and Sir 
Bartle Prcre comments severely upon the alleged Zulu 
a^;ressious. 

The matter, however, when aiited, sinks into insig- 
nificance. Some squabbles had taken place between 
individual Boers and Zulus, such as were only natural 
in the unsettled state of things ; and Cetshwayo's ex- 
planation of the so-called " notices to quit " placed 
them in a very different light 

Sir Heniy Bulwer writes to Sir Bartle Frere as 
follows on this point (July 16th) : " The Zulu kingaa)™ 
that all the message he sent was a request that the 
Boera should be warned not to return to the disputed 
country, as he was informed they were doing since the 
meeting of the Commission. We know that some of the 
Boers did return to the disputed territoiy after the 
Commission broke up ; t and this, no doubt, was looked 

* The homestead speoully apoken of in thia case does not eppear 
tohftTS been destroyed or injured till March, 1879, in the midst of 
tiie mr, nor ma any hirauui beisg, white or black, belonging to these 
haas, killed by this "savage, unbridled, revei^nl nation," before 
thewar b^an. 

t Apparently by Sir T. Shepstone's orders, as the following phrase 
^pean in one of the Boer protests against arbitration, April 26th, 1873 : 
"The mqority of the people have, by order of yonr Excellenoy, 
trekked into laager on Daoembei 14th last, and after having remained 
in laager for nearly five months, wa are to go and live on ottrjarmt 
again." 

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190 TEE ZULU WAR. 

upon by the Zulus as an attempt on the part of the 
Boers to anticipate the result of the inquiry, and led to 
the giving those notices. . . . The fault has been, no 
doubt, on both sides." 

The military kraal, also, turned out to be no more 
of the nature ascribed to it than was its predecessor : 
"An ordinary private Zulu kraal" — see report of Mr. 
Rudolph (3144, p. 186) — "built simply to have a kraal 
in that locality, where many of Cetshwayo'a people are 
residing without a head or kraal representing the king 
.... the king having given instructions that neither 
the white nor the native subjects of the Transvaid were 
in any way to be molested or disturbed by the Zulus ; " 
and having sent a small force to do the work, because 
the large one he had sent on a previous occasion bad 
frightened the white people. 

Colonel Pearson, conunanding the troops in Katal 
and the Transvaal, writes, June 8th, 1878 (2144, p. 236): 

" The Landrost of Utrecht I know to be somewhit 
of an alarmist, and the border farmers have all along 
been in a great fright, and much given to false reports. 
I allude more particulcu'ly to the Boers. I enclose 
Lieut.-Colonel Dumford's views of the kraal question. 
He is an officer who knows South Africa intimately, and 
his opinion I consider always sound and intelligent." 

And the following is the statement of Lieut-Colonel 
Dumford, R.R, June 8th, 1878 (2144, p. 237) : 

" I know the district referred to, in which are many 
Zulu kraals, and believe that, if such a military kraal is 
in course of erection on the farm of one Eohrs, believed 
to be a field-comet in the Wakkerstroom disboct^ 

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TSE BOUNDARY OOMMISSION. 191 

Teaidtng about fifteen miles from the mission station of 
the Rev, Mr. Meyer, it is being constructed that order 
may be kept amongat the Zulus here residing — ^who owe 
allegiance to the Zulu king alone — and in the interests 
of peace. ... I further believe that, if the German or 
other residents at or near Luneburg have been ordered 
to leave, it is not by orders of the King of Zululand, 
who is far too wise a man to make a false move at 
present, when the boundary between himself and the 
Transvaal is under consideration." 

The excitement concerning the "notices to quit," 
and the second " miHtaty kraal," appears to have been 
as unnecessary as any other imaginary Zulu scare ; and 
there are no proofs to be extracted from the official 
papoB at this period of the slightest signs of aggressive 
temper on the part of the Zulu king. 

On the contrary ; if we turn to the " Message from 
Cetywayo, King of the Zulus, to His Excellency the 
Lieut-Governor of Natal," dated November 10th, 1878, 
we find the concluding paragraph runs : " Cetywayo 
hereby shears, in presence of Oham, Mnyamana, 
Tshingwayo, and all his other chie&, that he has no 
intention or wish to quarrel with the English." — (P. P. 
[O. 2308] p. 16), 



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CHAPTER XL 

SIHAYO, UMBILINI, AKD THE HI3SI0NABIES IN ZULULAITD. 

MtJOH has been said of late years concerning the duty 
imposed by our superior civilisation npon us English, 
in our dealings with the South African races, of eheddng 
amongst the latter such cruel and savage practices 
as are abhorrent to Christian ideas and practices. We 
will proceed to show how this duty has been performed 
by the Government of Natal 

One of the commonest accusations brought against 
the Zulus, and perhaps the most effectual in rousing 
English indignation and disgust, is that of buying and 
selling women as wives, and the cruel treatment of 
young girls who refuse to be thus purchased. 

Without entering into the subject upon its merits, 
or inquiring how many French and English girls yeariy 
are, to all intents and purposes, sold in marriage, and 
what amount of moral pressure is brought to bear upon 
the reluctant or rebellious amongst them ; or whether 
th^ suffer more or leas under the infliction than their 
wild sisters in Zululand do under physical correction ;— 
we may observe that the terrors of the Zulu syitan have 

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8IEAT0, m£BILINI,ANI) TEE MISSIONABIES. 193 

been very much eza^erated That cruel and tyrannical 
things have occasionally been done under it no one will 
deny, still leas that every effort should have been made 
by na to introduce a better one. Amongst the Zaliia, 
both in theii own country and in Natal, marriages are 
commonly arranged by the parents, and the young 
people are expected to submit, as they would be in 
civilised France. But the instance which came most 
directly under the present writer's own obaervation, ia 
one rather tending to prove that the custom is one 
which, although occasionally bearing hardly upon 
individuals, has been too long the practice of the 
people, and to which they have always been brought 
up, to be looked upon by them as a crying evil, calling 
for armed intervention on the part of England. In the 
eariy days of missionary work at Bishopstowe (between 
1860-70), five girls took refuge at the station within a 
few days of each other,- iii order to avoid marriages 
arranged for them by their pi^rents, and objected to by 
them. They dreaded pretty forcible coercion, although 
of course, in Natal, they could not actually be put to 
death. They were, of course, received and protected at 
Bishopstowe, clothed, and put to school, and there they 
might have remained in safety for any length of time, 
-or until they could return home on their own terms. 
But the restraint of the civilised habits imposed on 
them, however gently, and the obligation of learning to 
,read, sew, and sweep, etc., was too much for these wild 
young damsels, accustomed at home to a iree and idle 
life.* Within a few weeks they all elected to return 

* The manisd women wotk in the mealie-gwleiis, etc., and the 
litUe ffiis carry the babies ; but the marriageable young women seem 
to hare an interval of happy freedom from ail labour and c«W^|, CiOOqIc 



194 TEE ZULU WAR. 

home and many the very men on whose account they 
had fled ; and the conclusion finally aniTed at concern- 
ing them was, that tJieir escapade was rather for the 
Bake of attaching a little additional importance to the 
surrender of their freedom, than from any real objection 
to the marriages proposed for them. 

Now let us see what means had been taken by the 
English to institute a better state of things and greater 
liberty for the women. In Natal itself, of course, any 
serious act of violence committed to induce a g^l to 
marry would foe punished by law, and girls in fear of 
such violence could usually appeal for protection to the 
magistrates or miasioDariea. Let us suppose that a girl, 
making such an appeal, receives protection, and is 
married to the mao of her own choice by English law 
and with Christian rites. What is the consequence to 
her? She has no rights as a wife, in fact she is not 
lawfully a wife at all, nor have her children any legal 
chums upon their father ; the law of the colony protects 
the rights of native women married by native custom, 
which it virtually encom^es by giving no protection at 
all to those who contract marriages by the English* or 
civilised system.* 

So much for our dealings with the Zulus of Natal ; 
and even less can be said for us concerning those over 
the border. 

Until quite lately the practice existed in the colony 

* This was comprehensible during the sUempt, whioh proved so 
eigtul a failnre, on the part of Sit T. Shepstone, to impoae a Tnarriaya 
tax upon the natives. The tax was bo extiemely nnpopDlar that it 
was thought advisable to relinquish it, and to make the deuied incnan 
in the revenue of the colony "by doubling the hut-tax. 

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SIHATO, VMBILINI, AND THE MISSIONARIES. 195 

of gnrrendeimg to Zulu demands refugee loomen, as well 
as cattle, as " property," under an order from the Natal 
GtOTcrament, which was in force at the time of Sir H. 
Bolver's arriTal, but was at some time after rescinded.* 

It was well known that, by the laws of Zululand, the 
offence of a woman's escaping from her husband with 
another man was ponishable by death, therefore unhappy 
creatures thus situated were delivered up by the Natal 
GoTemment to certain death, and this practice had been 
continued through a course of many years. 

The law being altered in this respect, and cattle 
only returned, Sir H. Bulwer writes, on February 3rd, 
1877 : " Some few weeks ago I had occasion to send a 
message to Celywayo on account of the forcible remoTid 
from Natal territory of a Zulu girl, who had lately taken . 
refuge in it from the Zulu country. A party of Zulus 
bad crossed the Tugela River in pursuit, and taken the 
girl by force back to Ziiluland. I therefore sent to 
inform Cetywayo of this lawless act on the part of some 
of his subjects " (1776, pp. 86, 87) ; and Cetshwayo replies 
witb thanks, saying that he knew nothing previously of 
what had happened, and that " should anything of the 
same kind take place to-morrow he (the Governor of 
Natal) must still open my ears with what is done by my 
people." 

This is apparently all. There is no attempt to make 
a serious national matter of it ; no demand for the 
surrender of the ofienders, nor for the payment of a 

* Sir T. ShepBtone, when ho uya (1137/p. 18) "Natal givee up 
the cattU of Zulu lefagees. . . . The refugeea themselvea ue not 
given up," plainly inclTidea women amongst the cattle oi " property " 
of tha Znltu. 

2 

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196 TEE ZnLXf WAB. 

fine. Nor is there eren a warning that any future 
oceorrence of the same description will be viewed in 
a more severe light. Sir Heniy " informs " Cetshwayo of 
what has taken place, and Cetshwayo politely ackoow- 
ledgea the information, and that the action taken by his 
people deserves censure. "I do not send and take by 
force," he says ; " why should my people do so 1 It is 
not right." 

Eighteen months later, on July 28th, 1878, a similar 
case was' reported. A wife of the chief Sihayo had left 
him and escaped into Natal. She was followed by a 
party of Zulus, under Mehlokazuln, the chief son of 
Sihayo, and his brother, seized at the kraal where she 
had taken refuge, and carried back to Zululand, where 
she was put to death, in accordance with Zulu law. 

The Zulus who seized her did no harm to .Katal 
people or property; in fact their only fault towards 
England was that of following and seizing her on Natal 
soil, an act which for many years, and until quite 
lately, they would have been permitted to do, and 
assisted in doing, by the border Government officials. 
A week later the same young men, with two other 
brothers and an uncle, captured in like manner another 
refugee wife of Sihayo, in the company of the young 
man with whom she had fled. This woman was also 
carried back, and is supposed to have been put to death 
likewise ; the young man with her, although guilty in 
Zulu eyes of a most heinous crime, punishable with 
death, was safe from them on English soil — they did not 
touch him. But by our own practice for years pas^ 
of surrendermg female refugees as properly, we 

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8IEAY0, msmimi,AND THE MIS810NAMIES. 197 

liad taught the Zulus that we regaxded women as 
cattle. 

While fully acknowledging the savagery of the 
young men's actions, and the necessity of putting a stop 
to such for the future, it must be conceded that, having 
so long countenanced the like, we should have ^ven 
iair notice that, for the future, it would be an act of 
ag^fression on us for a refugee of either sex to be 
followed into our territory, before proceeding to 
stoonger measures. 

Sir Henry Bulwer, indeed, though taking a decided 
view of the young men's offence, plainly understood 
that it was an individual fault, and not a political 
action for the performance of which the king was 
responsible. " There ia no reason whatsoever as yet to 
believe that these acts have been committed with the 
consent or knowledge of the king,"* he says (2220, 
p. 125), and his message to Cetshwayo merely requests 
that he will send in the ringleaders of the part^ to be 
tried by the law of the colony. 

On a previous occasion the king had, of his own 
accord, sent a Zulu named Jolwana to the Natal 
Government to be punished by it for the murder of a 
white man in the Zulu countiy. Jolwana was returned 
upon his hands with the message that he could not be 
tried in Natal as he was a Zulu subject. Under these 
circumstances it was not unnatural that Cetshwayo 

* And later, Not. 18, 1878 (2222, p. 173), be »aya: "I do not 
hold the King responeible for the conuuisBion of the act, because then 
is nothing to show that it had his previous concuneQce oi even cogni- 
zance. Bat be becomes responsible f ot the act aftet its commission, 
and for gvch repaiatdon as we may consider is due for it." 

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]98 THE ZTTLU WAR. 

should have taken the opportunity, apparently offered 
him by the use of the word request, of Bubatituting some 
other method of apology fot the offence committed than 
that of delivering up the young men, who, as he after- 
wards said, he waa afraid would be " sjambokked " 
(flogged). 

Oetshwayo's first answer is merely one acknow- 
ledging the message, and regretting the truth of the 
accusation brought by it. He allows that the young 
men deserve punishment, and he engages to send 
indunas of his own to the Natal Government on the 
subject; but he deprecates the matter being looked 
upon in a more serious light than as the " act of rash 
boys," who in their zeal for their father's house (1 honour) 
did not think what they were doing. 

About this date, August, 1878, when all sorts of wild 
reports were flying about, in and out of official docu- 
ments, relative to Cetshwayo's supposed warlike pre- 
parations, he had ordered thai none ofhispeo'^e ahotUd 
carry arms on pain of death. 

This was in consequence of a circumstance which 
had occurred some months before (January, 1878), 
when during the Umkosi, or feast of first-fruits, a great 
Zulu gathering which annually takes place at the king's 
kraal, two of the regiments fell out and finally came to 
blows, resulting in the death of some men on either aide. 
Sir B. Frere says, in his correspondence with the Biahop 
(p. 4), that many hundred men were killed on this occa- 
sion ; but Mr. F. Colenso, who happened to be there a 
few days after the fight, heard from a white man, who 
had helped to remove the dead, that about fifty wore 

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8IHAT0, VMBILim, AND THE MISSIONJEIES. 199 

kUled. In consequence of thie, "an order had gone 
forth, foibidding native Zulus, when travelling, to cany 
arms, nothing but switches being allowed. A fire took 
place, which burned the grass over Panda's grave,* and 
the doctors declared that the spirits of Dingane and 
Chaka had stated that they view with surprise and 
disgust the conduct of the Zulus at the present day in 
fighting when called before their king; that this was 
the reason Panda's grave was burned ; and such thingB 
would continue until they learned to be peaceful among 
themselves, and wait until they are attacked by other 
natives before spilling blood." 

Cet8hwayo'sneztmessage,September9th(2260, p. 32), 
after he had inqmred into the matter of Sihaj^o's sons, 
acknowledges again that they had done wrong, but 
observes that he was glad to find that they had hurt no 
one belonging to the English. What they had done was 
done without his knowledge. The request of the Natal 
GoTemment concerning the surrender of the offenders, 
he said, should be laid before the great men of the Zulu 
people, to be decided upon by them ; he could not do it 
alone. 

He finally, with full and courteous apologies in the 
same tone, begs that the Natal Government will accept, 
instead of the persons of the young men, a fine of fifty 
pounds, which he sent down by his messengers, but 
which was promptly refused. Sir Henry Bulwer appears 
to have been inclined to allow of the substitution of a 
larger fine for the surrender of the culprits (2222, 

* Since rifled hy oui tioopa, and the bones of tlie old king biought 
OTCZ to England. 

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200 . TBE ZVLV WAR 

p. 173) ; but Sir R Frere insistB on Beverer measures, 
saying : " I think it quite necessary that the delivery 
up to justice of the offenders in this case should have 
been demanded* and should now be peremptorily 
insisted on, together with a fine for the delay in 
complying with the reiterated demand. 

John Dunn, who is supposed to have advised the king 
to send money as an atonement, affirms that the in- 
vasion had been mutual, fugitives &om justice having 
been fetched out of Zululand by Natal officers ; and he 
(Dunn) asks whether outraged husbands, even amongst 
civilised people, are prone to pay much respect to the 
rights of nations when upon the track of their unfaithful 
spouseB. Plainly, neither he nor the king looked upon 
the matter in so serious a light as Sir Bartle Frere chose 
to do when he said, September 30th, 1878 (2220, p. 280), 
'* and, unless apologised and atoned for by compliance 
with the Lieut. -Governor's demands (?) that the leader 
of the murderous gangs shall be given up to justice, it 
will be necessaiy to send to the Zulu king an ultimaium, 
which mu3t put an end to pacific relationt with our 
n€ighbours."f 

Sir M. Hicks-Beach, in reply to Sir B. Frere's last- 
quoted despatch, writes, November 21st ; " The abduction 
and murder of the Zulu woman who had taken refuge 

* Ko "demand'' was mads until it appeared in Sir K Frers's 
ultinutumi 

t On perusing the above italicised words, one leama for the first 
time that the ultimatum, which Sir Bartio Frere sent to the Zulu Icing 
a few months later, was actually sent for the espress purpose of putting 
" an end to pacific relations with our neighbours." This is hardljr the 
light in which the British public hu been taught to look upon tho 
matter. 

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aiEAYO, VMBJLINr, AUD THE m83I0NARIE8. 201 

in Natal is und6ut>tedl7 a serious matter, and no sufficient 
reparation for it has yet been made. But I observe 
that Cetshwayo has expressed his regret for this occur- 
rence; and although the compensation offered by him 
was inadequate, there would seem to have been nothing 
in his conduct with regard to it which would preclude 
the hope of a satisfactory arrangement "—(P. P. [0. 2220], 
p. 320). 

But the whole of Sir Bartle Frcre's statements at 
this period concerning Cetshwayo are one-sided, 
exag^rated, or entirely imaginary accusations, which 
come in the first instance with force from a man of 
his importance, but for which not the slightest grounds 
can be traced in any reliable or official source. He 
brings grave charges against the king, which ore abso- 
lutely contradicted by the official reports from which 
lie draws his information ; he places before the public 
as actual fact what, on investigation, is plainly nothing 
more than his own opinion of what Cetshwayo thinks, 
wishes, or intends, and what his thoughts, wishes, and 
intentions may be at a future period. Every circum- 
stance is twisted into a proof of his inimical intentions 
towards Natal, the worst motives are taken for granted 
in all he does. When the king's messages were sent 
through the ordinary native messengers between him 
and the Government of Natal, they are termed mere 
" verbal " messages (as what else should they be T), not 
** satisfactory or binding ; " when they were sent through 
Mr. John Dunn they were called " unofficial," although 
Mr. Dunn had been repeatedly recognised, and by Sir B. 
Frere himself, as an official means of communication 

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202 THE ZULU WAR. 

with Cetsliwayo on matters of grave importance ; and, 
when Mr. Dunn writes, on his own account, his opinion 
that the "boya" will not be given up, Sir B. Frere 
calls his letter "a similar informal message {ue. from 
the king), couched in insolent and defiant terms." In 
nothing that passed between the kiag and the Govern- 
ment of Natal during this whole period is there one 
single word, on Cetshwayo's part, which could possibly 
be thus described. There are, indeed, many apolt^es 
and entreaties to the Government to be satisfied with 
some other atonement for the fault committed than 
the surrender of the culprits, and there is a great deal 
from various sources, official and otherwise, about cattle 
collected, even beyond the demands of the Government, 
as a propitiation ; but of Sir B. Frere's " semi-sarcastic, 
insolent, and defiant " messages not one word. 

It would take many pages to point out how utterly 
misleading is every word spoken by the High Com- 
misaioner on this subject, but to those who are curious 
in the matter, and in proof of the truth of our present 
statementfl, we can only recommend the South African 
Blue-books of 1878-79. We cannot^ however, better 
illustrate our meaning than by a quotation from Lord 
Blachford (Daily News, March 26th, 1872): "What 
did Sir B. Frere say to all this ? He was really ashamed 
to answer that he did not know. He had studied the 
series of despatches in which Sir B. Frere defended his 
conduct, and he willingly acknowledged the exuberance 
of literary skill which they exhibited. But when he 
tried to grapple with them he felt Uke a man who was 
defending himself with a stick against a cloud of locasts. 

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SISATO, UMBILINI, AJifJ) TEE MTSSIONABIES. 208 

He might knock down one, and knock down another, 
bat * the cry is still they come.' Hia only' consolation 
was, that they did not appear to have convinced Her 
Majeat/s Government, whose replies were from beginning 
to end a series of cautions, qualifications, and protests." 
On tnrmng to the subject of the robber chief, 
Umbilini, and his raids, we are at once confiM3nted by 
the fact that he was not a Zulu at all, but a Swazi, and 
a claimant to the Swazi throne. His claim had not 
been approved by the majority of the Swazi nation, and 
his brother Umhandeni, the present king, was appointed 
instead. Umbilini, however, was not a man to quietly 
sink into an inferior position, and having taken posses- 
sion, with his followers, of some rocky caves in the 
borderland, fonning an almost impregnable fortress, he 
lived for many years, much in the fashion of the border 
freebooters of whose doings we read in Scottish history, 
making raids upon his neighbours on all sides, and 
carrying off cattle, women, and children. His expe- 
ditions were most frequently directed towards the party 
against him in his own country, but neither his Boer 
nor Zulu neighbours escaped entirely. On first leaving 
Swaziland he went to offer homage to the Zulu king, 
and was given land to settle upon in Zululand. No 
doubt Cetfihwayo looked upon a warrior of Umbilini's 
known prowess as rather an important vassal, especially 
in the event of a war between him and his ancient 
enemies the Swazis, in which case Umbilini's adherence 
would probably divide the enemy amongst themselves. 
But he appears to have been in perpetual trouble on 
account of his turbulent vassal, and to have given him 

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204 THE ZULU WAR. 

up altogether at one time. After a raid committed by 
him upon the Dutch, the latter applied to Cetshwayo to 
have him delivered up to them. " I could not do this," 
Bays Cetshwayo ; " I shoiild have got a bad name if I 
had done so, and people would have said it was not good 
to honza (pay homage) to Cetshwayo. I therefore 
refused, but paid one hundred head of cattle for the 
offence he had committed;"* and Cetahwayo's own 
account to Mr. Fynney is as follows (1961) : 

" Umbilini came to me for refuge ftom his own 
people, the Ama-Swazis, and I afforded him shelter ; what 
wo\ild the world have said had I denied it to him ! 
But, while allowing him to settle in the land as my 
subject, I have always been particularly careful to warn 
my people not to afford him any assistance or become 
mixed up in uiy quarrel between him and the Boers ; 
and although I do not deny that he is my subject, still 
I will not endorse his misdeeds. When Mr. Kndolph 
complained to me of the trouble Umbilini was giving, 
I told Mr. Rudolph to kill him — I should not shield 
him ; this the Boers tried to do, but, as usual, made a 
mess of it." 

In fact, on a repetition of Umbilini's offence against 
the Boers, Cetshwayo refused to be longer responsible 
for his acts, and gave the Dutch permission to kill him. 
They fought him, and were beaten by bim with hia 
small band of only nineteen men. On a subsequent 
occasion, after a raid committed by Umbilini upon the 
Swazis, Cetshwayo was so incensed that he sent out a 

* Mi. H. Shepstone (Secietary for Native Affain in the Tmuraal) 
ukmowledgw that this fine vas paid (2322, p. 99). 

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8IHAT0, UMBILINI. AND THE mSBIONAMES. 205 

party to take and kill him ; but he got notice beforehand, 
and escaped. 

Sir Bartle f rere choosoa to consider the king reapon- 
sible for all Umbilini's doings, and even Sir H. Bulwer 
says : " The king disowned Umbilini's acts. . . . 
But there is nothing to show that he has in any way 
punished him, and, on the contrary, it is quite certain 
(of which ' certainty,' however, no proofs are forth- 4 
coming) that even if Umbilini did not act with the 
express orders of Cetshwayo, he did so with the know- 
ledge that what he was doing would be agreeable to the 
king " (2260, p. 46). 

This accusation was made in January, 1879, and 
refers to raids of the previous year, by which time, as the 
Swazis were our allies and the Boers our subjects, 
Umbilini's raids in all directions except those on the 
Zulu side had become offences to us for which Cetshwayo 
was held responsible. In point of fact, it was no such 
simple matter to " punish " Umbilini, whose natural 
fortress could be held by a couple of men against any- 
thing short of the cannon which Cetshwayo did not 
possess. Nor was it singular that, at a time when the 
king had already strong su^icions that his country 
was about to be attacked, he should not have wasted 
his strength in subduing one who, in the event of war, 
would be most useful to himself. 

That, when the evil day came and his country was 
invaded, Cetshwayo should have made common cause 
with all who would or could assist him is a mere matter of 
course, and it was but natural that so bold and skilful a 
leader as Umbilini has proved himself to be should then 

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206 TEE ZULU WAR. 

bare been promoted and fsToared by the unfortunate 
kuLg. 

We need scarcely eay more upon this point, beyond 
calling our readers' attention to the &ct that the expreft- 
sionB "Zulu raids," "indiscriminate massacres," "viola- 
tion by the Zulus of Transvaal territory," "horrible 
erueUies" (2308, p. 62, and elsewhere), so freely 
scattered through the despatches written to prove the 
criminality of the Ziilu king, all, wi^ut eaxeption, 
apply to acts committed either by UmbUini and his 
(chiefly) Swazi followers, or by Manyonyoba, a small 
but independent native chief, living north of the 
Pongolo.* 

The " case of Messrs. Smith and Deighton " is the 
only charge against the Zulu king, in connection with 
Natal, which we have now to consider, and it is one in 
which, as we shall see, a great deal was made of a very 
small matter. 

Mr. Smith, a surv^or in the Colooial Engineet'B 
department, was on duty inspecting the road down to 
the Tugela, near Fort Buckingham. The Zulu mind 
being in a very excited state at the time — owing to 
the obvious preparation for war, of which they heard 
reports from Natal, troops stationed at Greytown, and 
war-ships seen close to the Zulu shore, as though looking 
for a landing-place— Mr. Smith was specially instructed 
to. proceed upon his errand alone, and with great discre- 

* Hanjonyolia owed allegiance to Cetshwayo (as did Umlnliiii). 
He lived north of the Pon^Io, in a part of the country aver whidk 
Sii Baitla Frers and Sir Heniy Bnlwer altogether deny CetBhwayv'i 
auptemacy, and was claimed as a snbject of the Tnmnrul GoTenunent 

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8IHAY0, UMBILim, AND TEE mSSlONABJES. 207 

tion. By way of carrying out these directioiiB he took 
with him only a trader — Deighton by name — and their 
discretion was shown by " taking no notice " when, 
having arrived at the drift into Zululand, they were 
questioned by Zulus, who were on guard there in con- 
sequence of rumours that our troops were about to 
cross.* 

Mr. Wheelwright (a Government official), to whom 
the matter was reported a week after it occurred, not by 
Mr, Smith, the principal person concerned, but by Mr, 
Deighton, ea^ : " The fact that the two white men took 
no notice of ' lots of Zulus shouting out ' from their own 
bank, ' What do you want there 1 ' but ' walked quietly 
along, 't OS if they had not heard, or as if tliey were deaf, 
Teiy naturally confirmed the suspicion that they were 
about no good," 

The consequence was, that when the white men 
reached an islet in the middle of the river (or rather one 
which is generally in tlie middle of the stream when it 
ifl full — it was low at the time), they were seized by the 
Zulus, and detained by them for about an hour and a 
half, whilst all sorts of questions were asked : " What 
are you doing there ? " " What had the soldiers come 
to Greytown for ? " " What did the white men want 
coming down there ? There were two down not long 

* Sir H. Bnlwet nya " they h&VB auspected, quite wrongi;, that 
ve had some deaiga againat them is moldiig it " (the new load to the 
drift). It is to be qnestioned hoT far their snspicion was a wrongful 
one, Memg that it was ondentood from the first that the drift waa 
intended flepecially for militaiy puipcsea, and was undoubted]; 
iiupected by Mr. Smith for the same. 

t Qnotationa from Mr. Peighton's report to Mr. Wheclwiighi 

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208 TSB ZULU WAR. 

ago, then other two only a few days since, and now 
there is other two ; you must come for some reason." 

However, after a time, they were allowed to depart, 
an attempt made to take their horses from them being 
prevented by the induna of the Zulus, 

Sir Bartle Frere does not seem to have thought very 
much of the matter at first, for Sir M. Hicks-Beach, when 
acknowledging his despatch reporting it, says (2220, 
p. 320) : "I concur with you in attributing no special im- 
portance to the seizure and temporary arrest of the sur- 
veyors, which was partly due to their own indiscretion, 
and was evidently in no way sanctioned by the Zulu 
authorities." 

But a Uttle later — although with no firesh &cts before 
him — Sir B. Frere takes a very different tone (2222, 
p. 176). 

" I cannot at all agree with the lenient view taken 
by the Lieut. -Governor of this case. Had it stood 
quite alone, a prompt apology and punishment of the 
offenders might have been sufficient. As the case stands, 
it was only one of many instances of insult and threaten- 
ing, such as cannot possibly he passed over without 
severe notice being taken of them. What occurred," he 
says, " whether done by the king's order, or only by bis 
border-guards, and subsequently only tacitly approved by 
his not punishing the offenders, seems to me a most 
serious insult and outrage, and should be severely 
noticed." 

There is no sign that it was ever brought to the king's 
knowledge, and when Sir B. Frere speaks of its being 
" only one of many instances of insult and threatening," 

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8ISAT0, UMBILINI, AND THE MT88I0NASLE8. 209 

he IB drawing lai^y on his imagination, as there is tio 
other recorded at cJl, unless he means to refer to the 
" notices to quit " in the disputed territory of whidi we 
have ab^ady treated. 

We most now consider the points connected with 
the internal management of the Zulu country, which 
have generally been looked upon as a partial ejccose for 
our invasion. Foremost amongst these is the infraction 
of the so-called " coronation promises," of which we have 
spoken in a previous chapter. Frequent rumours were 
corrent in Natal that the kii^, in defiance of the said 
promises, was in the habit of shedding the blood of his 
people upon the smallest proTOcatiott, and without any 
form of trial Such stories of his inhuman atrocities 
were circulated in the colony that many kind-hearted 
and gentle people were ready to think that war would 
be a hswx evil. Yet, whenever one of these stories was 
examined into or teaced to its source, it turned out 
either to be purely imaginary, or to have for its founda- 
taon some small act of more or less arbitrary authority, 
the justice of which we might possibly question, but to 
which no one would apply the words " barbarities," 
*• savage murders," etc. 

An instance of the manner in which the Zulu king 
has obtained his character of " a treacherous and blood- 
thirsty sovereign,"* came under the notice of the 
present writer about December of last year (1878). 
Happening to be on a visit to some friends in Pieter- 
maritzboig, and hearing them mention Cetshwayo's 

* WoidB applied to him by Mr. Brownlee, late Secretary for 
ITatire Afiain of the Cape Goramment. 

F 

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210 TEE ZULU WAR. 

onielties, I obaerved that I did not much credit them, 
as I had never jet met anyone who knew of them &om 
any trustworthy source. I was met with the assurance 
that their " kitchen-Kafir," Tom, fix»m whom they had 
received their accounts, was a personal witness, having 
himself escaped from a massacre, and they vouched for 
the truthfulness of the man's character, I asked and 
obtained permission to question the man in his own 
language, being myself anxious to find any real evidence 
on the subject, especially as, at that time — with 
military preparations going on on every side — ^it waa 
apparent to all that "we" intended war, and one 
would have been glad to discover that there was any 
justification for it on our side. The same evening I 
took an opportunity of interrogating "Tom," saying, 
*' So I hear that you know all about this wicked Zulu 
king. Tell me all about it." Whereupon the ipft n 
launched out into a long account of the slaughter of 
his people, firom which not even infanta were spared, 
and from which he was one of the few who had escaped. 
He had plainly been accustomed to tell the tale (doubt- 
less a true one), and there were touches in it concerning 
the killing of the children which showed that he had 
been in the habit of recounting it to tender-hearted 
and horror-struck English mothers. When he had 
finished his tale I asked him when all the horrors 
which he had described had taken place. " Oh 1 " he 
replied, "it waa at the time of the fight between 
Cetshwayo and Umbukzi (1856) ; that was when I left 
Zululand." 

" And you have never been tiiere since ? " 

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BISATO, JJMBILINI, AND TSE MISSIONAItlES. 21 1 

" No ; I should be afraid to go, for Cetahwayo kills 
aiwayfl." 

"How do you know that?" I inquired, for he 
liad started upon a &esh account of horrors relating to 
the time at which ho was speaking. 

"Oh! I know it is true," was the ready and 
confident reply, "because the white people here in 
'Maritzburg tell me so out of the papers." 

In point of fact the man, on whose word to my own 
knowledge rested the belief of a considerable circle of 
the citizens, could only give personal evidence concerning 
what happened at the time of the great civil war, when 
Znluland was in such confusion that it would not be 
easy to distribute responsibility, and when Cetshwayo 
himself was a young man in the hands of his warriora 
All he could tell of a later date ho had himself learnt 
from "white people" in the town, who, again, had 
gathered their information from the newspapers; and 
Bishop Schreuder, long resident in Zduland, says : " I 
had not with my own eyes seen any corpse, and per- 
sonally only knew of them said to have been killed. . . . 
I myself had my information principally from the same 
sources as people in Natal, and often from Natal 
newspapers." 

The king's own reply to these accusations may be 
taken entire from Mr. Fynney's report on July 4th, 
1877 (1961), with the portions of the message delivered 
by tiiG latter to which it refers : 

"You have repeatedly acknowledged the house of 
England to bo a great and powerful house, and have 
expressed yourself as relying entirely upon the good- 

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212 TSB ZULU WAR. 

will and power of that house for your own strength and 
the strength of die country over which you are king; 
in fact you have always looked towards the English 
Government. 

"Which way i3 your face turned to-day ? Do you 
look, and still desire to look, in the same direction ? 
Do you rely on the good-will and support of the British 
Government as much as you formerly did ? 

"The Government of Natal has repeatedly heard 
that you have not regarded the agreements you entered 
into with that Government, through its representative, 
Sir Theophilus Shepstone, on the occasion of your 
coronation. These agreements you entered into with 
the sun shining around you, but since that time you 
have practised great cruelties upon your people, putting 
great numbers of them to death. What do you 
say 1 " 

In reply to the above, Cetshwayo said : *' I have 
not changed ; I still look upon the English as my 
friends, as they have not yet done or said anything to 
make me feel otherwise. They have not in any way 
turned my heart, therefore I feel that we have still hold 
of each other's hands. But you must know that from 
t^e first the Zulu nation grew up alone, separate and 
distinct from all others, and has never been subject to 
any other nation ; Tyaka (Chaka) was the first to find 
out the English and make friends with them ; he saved 
t^e lives of seven Englishmen from shipwreck at the 
mouth of the Umfolosi, he took care of them, and from 
that day even until now the English and Zulu nations 
have held each other's handa The English nation is 

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8IEAT0, UMSILINI, AND TEE MI8SI0NABTE3. 2ia 

a jast one, and we are together" (we are at one with 
each other). "I admit that people have been killed. 
There are three claaaesof wrong-doers that I kill — (1) the 
abatfJcati — witches, poisoners, etc.; (2) those who take 
the women of the great house, those belonging to the 
royal household ; and (3) those who kill, hide, or make 
away with the king's cattle. I mentioned these three 
classes of wrong-doera to Somtseu (Sir T. Shepstone), 
when he came to place me as king over the Zulu nation, 
as those who had always been killed. I told him that 
it was our law, and that three classes of wrong-doers 
I would kill, and he replied : ' Well, I cannot put aside 
a standing law of the land.' I always give a wrong- 
doer three chances, and kill him if he passes the last. 
Evil-doers would go over my head if I did not punish 
them, and that is our mode of punishing, ... I do 
not see that I have in any way departed from, or broken 
in anything, the compact I made with the Natal 
Government through Somtseii.'' 

The next subject to be considered is that of the 
treatment of the missionaries and their converts in 
Zululand. 

Sir T. Shepstone, in his account of what passed at 
the installation of Cetsbwayo, writes as follows (C. 1137, 
p. 19) : " The fourth point was the position of Christian 
missionaries and their converts. Cetywayo evidently 
regretted that they had ever been admitted at all, and 
had made up his mind to reduce their numbers by some 
means or other. ... He siud they had committed no 
actual wrong, but they did no good, and that the 
tendency of their teaching was misdiievous ; he added 

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214 TSE ZULU WAS. 

ihat he did not wish to harm them, that they might 
take all their property with them and go in peace. 

" I suggested that they could not take their houses 
away. He replied that the materiaU of which they 
were built — stone, earth, and wood — were all Zulu 
property, but they might take them also if they wished. 
He thought that four, however, were entitled to greater 
consideration; these were Bishop Schreuder and Mr. 
Oftebro, of the Norwegian Mission, because of their long 
residence — more than twenty years — and their services 
in other ways than as missionaries ; and Bishop Wilkiiisoii 
and Mr. Eobertson, because they had brought an intro- 
duction &om the Governor of Natal ; but diat the 
teaching even of these was mischievous, and could not 
be received by the Zulus without injury. . . . The 
advantages of education, the value to a man of being 
able to read and write, and the extreme incoDvenience 
of ignorance were discussed. Cetywayo heartily con- 
curred in all that was said on these subjects, and said it 
was education made the English so great ; and that, if 
he thought he could remember what he might learn, he 
would be taught himself ; and he expressed regret that 
the missionaries did'not confine themselves t-o that kind 
of teaching. 

" The result of oar conversations on the subject of 
the missionaries was an understanding that those who 
were already in the country should not be interfered 
with, and that, if any of them committed an offence fw 
which the offender might be considered deserving of 
expulsion, the case should be submitted to the Govern- 
ment of Natal, and its assent be received before the 

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BISAYO, UMBILim, AND TEE MISSIONASIES. 215 

aeatence ahoiild be carried out It is necessary to 
explain that the Zulus' Iiave no idea of inflicting any 
poniahment upon a missionary except that of expulsion 
&om the country. / did not consider it wise to attempt 
to maix any arrangemerUs in/avour of native converts."* 

What was meant by the teaching of the missionaries 
being mischievous is fully explained by the remarks 
of the prime ministers Mnyamana and Vumandaba, 
reported by Mr. Fynney in 1877 (1961, p. 47) as follows : 

" We will not allow the Zulus to become so-caJled 
ChristianB. It ia not the king says so, but every man in 
Zaiuland. If a Zulu does an3rthing wrong, he at once . 

goes to a mission station, and says he wants to become 
a Christian ; if he wants to run away with a girl, be 
becomes a Christian ; if he wisha to be exempt &om 
serving the king, he puts on clothes, and is a Christian ; 
if a man is an nmt^ati (evil-doer), he becomes a 
Christian. All these people are the subjects of the king ; 
and who will keep a cow for another to Tnillr it ? . . . 
The missionaries desire to set up another power in the 
land, and, as Zululand has only one king, that cannot be 
allowed." 

Mr. Fynney continues : " Before I left Zululand 
(before July, 1877) most of the missionaries had de- 
cided upon leaving; some had already left, not from 
any fear of personal danger, bat because in some cases 
tbey have been draerted by the natives on their stations ; 
in others the native converts were uneasy, and wished to 
leave ; and from the attitude of both the king and chiefe, 
tliey could plainly see that all chances of making fresh 
* Attttiot'i iuUcB. 

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216 TEB ZVLU WAB. 

conTerts, or even retaining those around them, were for 
the ptesent at an end. ... I find there were all sorts 
of wild (?) mmours going about from station to station 
— one that the Britiah Government intended to annex 
Zululand at once. I am afraid that this and the like 
rumours have done harm. Several of the misaionariefl 
have been frequently to the king of late, and, as he told 
me, have worried him to such an extent that he does 
not want to see them any more."* 

In August of the same year Lord Carnarvon requests 
Sir Heoiy Bulwer to make a special point of cansing 
"the miasioDariea to understand distinctly that Her 
Uajesty'B Grovemment cannot undertake to compel the 
king to permit the maintenance of the mission stations 
in Zululand," and to recommend them, if they cannot 
carry on their work without armed support, to leave it 
for the present 

Sir Henry Bulwer writes (2000, p. 33) : 
" The action taken by some of the missionuies in 
leaving that country has apparenUy proved not only 
unnecessary, but iU-advised for their own interests. The 
king was not sorry that they should go, but he was 
angry with them for goiag-'t and on January 26th, 1878, 
a message arrived from Cetshwayo, concerning those that 
remained, to this effect (2100, p. 61) : 

* On one of theae Tieita a misaionary is leported to hATe said to 
the king coanely in Zuln, " Yon aie a liar I " (nnamanga I) upon which 
Cetshwayo turned hie back to him, and apoke irith him no moni, 

f Or lather he vaa angry irith them for the mdanesa which Mbej 
eonunittod in going laihotii taking ieaoe. He said they had nenr 
reoaired anything bnt kindness from him, and might as well Iutb 
paid him the compliment of a farewell salatatioQ. 

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BlSAYO, miBILmt, AKB-TEB MJ88I0NMtE8. 217 ' 

" Cetahwayo states that he wishes Hia Excellency to 
know that he. is not pleased with the missionaries in the 
Zula country, aa be finds out that they are the cause of 
much harm, and are always spreading false reports about 
the Zulu country, and (he) would wish His Excellency 
to advise them to remove, as they do no good." 

Portly after the Eev. Mr. Oftebro and Dr. Oftebro, 
Norw^;ian missionaries from Zululand, were granted an 
interview by the Lieut. -Governor of Natal for the 
purptJse of laying their case before Hia Excellency. 
The king, they said, had informed them that he was 
now quite persuaded that they had communicated to the 
governors of Natal and the Transvaal, and to the 
editors of the public papers in Natal, all important 
matters that occurred in the Zulu country — Uiat the 
accounts they sent were not even truthful — and that he 
had believed these missionaries were " men," but that 
he now found them to be his enemies. 

They believed that amongst the " white men," from 
whom he had obtained his information, were Mr. John 
MuUins, a trader, and Mr. F. E. Colenso, a son of the 
Bishop of Natal, who had been at l^e king's kraal for 
Bome six days and who, they said, "had translated, for 
the king's ^formation, accounts of doings in the Zulu 
country, from several newspapers of the colony." This 
last, aa it happena, was pure fiction. Sir Heniy Bulwer, 
indeed, believed it at the time, and wrote upon it aa 
follows (2100, p. 89): 

" I notice in Messrs. Smith and Colenao's letter to 
the Earl of Carnarvon, a statement to the effect that 
the di^aition and dealings of Cetshwayo had been 

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218 THE ZULU WAS. 

sedulously misrepreseuted by the mLBsionaneB and by 
the Press. And this statement tends, I am afraid, to 
confirm the belief that Mr. F. E. Colenso, when he 
lately visited the Zulu country, . . , made certain 
representations regarding the missionaries in Zululand, 
which were greatly calculated to prejudice the king's 
mind against them, or against some of them." 

But Mr. Colenso, on seeing for the first time the 
above statements in the Blue-book, wrote to Sir M. 
Hicks-Beach as follows (2220, p. 318): 

" The suspicions expressed by the missionaries as to 
my proceedings are entirely without foundation in fact 
So far from attempting to prejudice the king's mind 
against them, I confined myself, in the little I did say 
to Cetshwayo on the subject, to supporting their cause 
with him. The king had received, through some of his 
various chaon^ of information, an account of the 
numerous contributions made by missionaries imd otheis 
living under his protection in Zululand, to the colonial 
newspapers, and in particular, of an exaggerated and 
sensational report, written by the Zululand cam- 
spondent of The Natal Mercury, of the catastrophe 
which occurred at the annual Feast of Firstfruits some 
tea days before my last conversation with the king, 
which report he attributed to the Bev. Mi. Robertson, 
from tbe fact that his waggon-driver was the only 
white man present on the occasion, except Dr. Oftebro, 
Mr. Mullins, and Mr. Dunn. Cetshwayo expressed 
himself as indignant at the conduct of Mr. Robertson, 
who, be said, had never, during his long residence in 
Zululand, received anything but good treatment at ths 

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81EAY0, UMBILINI, AND TEE MISSIONARIES. 219 

liands of Ids (Cetehwayo's) father and himself, and, he' 
added, ' I have borne with him too long.' To this I 
replied that, if he had any distinct ground of complaint 
against Mr. Rob^tapn, he (the king) should get it set 
down in writing, and send it to His Excellency the 
Lieut.-Govemor of Natal ; and I wished him to 
understand that any diflferent course would be pro- 
ductive of no good effect. I then told Cetshwayo, 
omitting further reference to Mr. Bobertson, that in 
my opinion the presence of the missionaries as a body 
in his country was a great advantage to him, tmd that 
they merited hia protection. He disclaimed having 
ever treated them witli anything but great con- 
sideration." 

The particular statement of the two missionaries 
Oftebro, concerning the translation of newspapers, also 
Mr. Colenso specially and distinctly contradicts, saying 
that he had no newspapers with him nor extracts of 
newspapers, nor were any such read to Cetshwayo in 
his presence. 

Sir H. Bolwer states, at the request of the Messrs. 
Oftebro (2100, p. 61), that no member of the Norwegian 
mission had supplied this Qovemment with information 
as above. But it does not follow that no such commu- 
nicalions had been made to Sir B. Frere and Lord 
Carnarvon. Missionaries had written anonymously to 
the colonial papers, and the account in The Natal Mercury 
of the fight at the Umkosi was attributed by Cetshwayo, 
not without reason, to the Bev. B. Kobertson. The 
tone of this letter, and its accuracy, may be gathered 
from the following extract, refetiing to ^e land which, 

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220 THE ZULU WAR 

in the opinion of the Commissioners, "was by right 
belonging to the Zulus." 

"Never waa a more preposterous demand made 
upon any GoTemmettt than that which Cetahwayo is 
now making upon the English Government of the 
TransvaaL .. . . For be it remembered that, until 
very lately, the Zulus have never occupied any portion 
of it, (I) and even now very partially. It is moat 
earnestly to be hoped that Sir T. Shepstone, while 
doing all in his power to keep the peace, vnll be equaUy 
firm, in resisting the unjust 'pretensions of the Zxdus."* 

How far the Zulu king was justified in his opinion 
that the missionaries were not his fiiends may be 
gathered from the above, and from the replies to Sir 
B. Frere's appeal to the " missionaries of all denomina- 
tions " for their opinions on native politics, as published 
in the Blue-books (2316), of which the following 
examples may be given : 

From letter of the Rev. P. D. Hepburn, December l7th, 
1 878: "All in these parts are quiet, and are likely to remain 
quiet, if His Excellency overthrows the Zulu chief, and 
disarms the remaining Zulus. The Zulus are very war- 
like; will attack in front, flank, and rear. They are. and 
have been, the terror of the neighbouring tribes (dnce 
the days of Chaka.t Only the utter destruction of 
the Zulus can secure future peace in South Africa. May 
His Excellency not allow himself to be deceived by the 
Zulu chief Cetywayo." 

" On full inquuy it will be found that our late war, 
* Anthor'a itali<». 

t " Our Correepondent " of The Daily Ntum speaks, in b^dajr's 
iwuo (Hovember 1 7Ui, 1 879), of the " tMnqaiUiBing feu " of Cetahw^jo 
baTiiig been remoTed from " oui own natiTe population.". 



SISAYO, miBJLINI,AND THE MISSIONARIES. 221 

(Ea&aiia) here was to a great extent attributable to 
Zulu influence * If our forces suffer defeat at Natal, 
all native tribra in South Afirica will rise against us. I 
am a man of peace ; I hate war; but if war, let there be 
no dawdling and sentimental nonsense. 

"True and faithful to God, our Queen, and the 
interests of tie empire, we have the approbation of Grod, 
our Queen, and our own conscience. I would have 
much liked had there been a regiment of British cavalry 
at NataL Sword in hand, the British are irresistible 
over all natives. The battle at the Gwanga in 1846, 
under Sir Henry Darrell, lasted only about fifteen 
minutes; about four hundred Kafirs were cut down. . .. . 

" God, our Qod, put it into the minds of our rulers 
that all tribes in south-east and east A&ica must submit 
to British power, and that it is the interest of aU A&icans 
to do so.. Heathenism must perish ; Grod wills it so." t 

These remarks are from a missionary in Kafiraria, but 
the tone of these in Zululfmd is the same, or even worse. 
Compare the following statement made to the Natal 
Government by two native converts from the Etshowe 
mission station — Mr. Oftebro's (1883, p. 2): "We 
know that as many a hundred (Zulus) in one day see the 
sun rise, but don't see it go down. . . . The people, great 
and small, are tired of the rule of Cetshwayo, by which 
he is finishing his people. The Zulu anny is not what it 
was, there are only six full regiments. Cetshwayo had by 

* A mere assertion, oftea made, but never anpported by the 
dightoBt proof. 

t And BO the B«v. Mr. Glockner, speaking of the late wai, a&ja 
thai they (the missionariee) had often ^rarncd the native chiefs of vhat 
wonld bebll them, if thoj refused to become Christians. — Vide The 
Scotmtan, Febmary 5(A, 1880. 

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222 TEE ZULU WAB. 

his tule made himself bo disliked, that they knew of no 
one, and especially of the headmen, who would raise a 
hand to save him from ruin, no matter from what cause." 

Mr. John Shepetone adds, April 27th, 1877 (p. i) : 
"The above was confirmed only yesterday by reliable 
authority, who added that a power such as ^e English, 
stepping in now, would be moat welcome to the Zulus 
generally, through the unpopularity of the king, by his 
cruel and reckless treatment of his subjects." And Mr. 
Fynney, in the report already quoted from, says : 

" The king appeared to have a very exaggerated idea 
both of his power, the number of his warriors, and 
their abihty as such. . . . While speaking of the king 
as having exaggerated ideas as to the number of his 
fighting-men, I would not wish to be imderstood as 
underrating the power of the Zulu nation. ... I am 
of opinion that King Cetywayo could bring six 
thousand men into the field at a short notice, great 
numbers armed with guns ; but the question is, would 
they fight ? . . . I am of opinion that it would greatly 
depend against whom they were called to fight. . . . 
While the Zulu nation, to a man, would have willingly 
turned out to fight either the Boers or the Ama-Swazi, 
the case would be very different, I believe, in the event 
of a misunderstanding arising between the British 
Government and the Zulu nation. ... I further 
believe, from what I heard, that a quarrel with the 
British Government would be the signal for a general 
split up amongst the Zulus, and the king would find 
himself deserted by the majority of those upon whom 
he would at present appear to rely." 

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8ISAY0, VMBILmi, AND THE SII88I0NABIE8. 228 

WhQe Sir T. Shepatone aays, November 30th, 1878 
(2222, p. 175) : " I will, however, add my belief that the 
Zula power is likely to fall to pieces when touched." 

Such were the opinions given by men supposed to 
be intimately acquainted with Zulu character and 
feeling, one of them being the great authority on all 
native matters ; and on such statements did Sir Bartle 
Frere rely when he laid . his scheme for the Zulu War. 
How absolutely ignorant, how foolishly mistaken, were 
these " blind leaders of the blind " has been amply 
proved by the events of 1879. 

We need not enter very fully into the accusations 
brought by the missionaries against the Zulu king of 
indiscriminate slaughter of native converts for their 
religion's sake. They were thoroughly believed in Natal 
at the time; but, upon investigation, they dwindled 
down to three separate cases of the execution of men 
(one in each case) who happened to be converts, but of 
whom two were put to death for causes which had 
nothing whatsoever to do with their faith (one of them 
being indeed a relapsed convert) ; and the third, an old 
man, Maqamsela, whose name certainly deserves to be 
handed down to fame in the list of martyrs for religion's 
sake, was killed without the sanction or even knowledge 
of the king, by the order of his prime minister Gaozi.* 

* Stoiy of Maqamsela, from The Natal OoUmiat of May 4tb, 1877 : 
" Anotbei case lefetied to in our previous article was that of a man 
named Maqamsela, particnlara of which, derived fiom ejo-witnesses, 
we have received ftom different sources. On Friday, Maitsh dtb, he 
attended morning service at Etehowe mission station as usual, went 
home to his kraal, and at noon started to go orot to the kraal of 
Minyegana, hat was seized on the road and hilled because he was a 
Christian I 

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.224 TEE ZULU WAR, 

That the latter received no punishmeat, althougli tlie 
king disapproved of this action, is not a fact of any im- 
portance^ It is not always convement to punish prime 
miniatcrs and high commiBsioners, or powerful indnnas, 

" For many jeeaa he had wished to become a Gbnstian, and Haa 
at his own dasin was repotted to Qaon, his immediate chie( who 
Kolded him, eaying, 'it would occasion him (Oaozi) trouble.' The 
earnest and repeated solicitation of Uaqamsela was that the misaionaiy 
(Mr. Of tobio) would take him to the king to obtain hia permission to 
profess Christianit;. Last winter the missionary consented to mention 
it to the king ; but, failinf) to see Gaoii fint, deemed it imprudent to 
do so at that iims. Maqamaela was greatly grieved at tliis, saying, ' I 
am not afraid of death ; it will be well if I am killed for being a 
Christian.' When an opportunity occurred of speaking to Gaozi about 
Maqamsela'a wish to be baptized, he teould give no direct answer, hut 
complained of his had conduct, Maqamsela, however, persisted in his 
entreaties that his case should be reported to the king. ' If they kill 
me becanse I believe, they may do so.; the Lord will receive me. Has 
not Christ died for me t Why should I fear I ' A favourable oppor- 
tunity of naming the matter to the king presented itself some time 
after. Cetshwayo appeared very friendly, and proposed that the 
Christians should pay a tax, but said that their service should bo 
building houses for him when called; otherwise they might remain 
in peace. Maqamsela was then mentioned as being desirous to become 
a Christian. He was an old man, who could not leave his kiaal, and 
could not come np to serve. He had theiefoie been eaten up, and had 
not now a single head of cattle. On his name being mentioned, the 
king replied that he would say nothing, Gaoxi, Minyegana, and Xubons 
not being there, Maqamsela was glad when he heard what had been 
done, and said, ' If they kill me now, it is all right' 

" A week later his time came. An induna, named Jubene, sent 
for him, and on his return from Jubane's, an imp! came to bim, saying 
they had orders to kill him. He asked for what reason, and hdag 
told it was because he was a Christian and for nothing else, he said 
again, ' Well, I lejoice to die for the woid of the Lord.' He begged 
leave to kneel down and pray, which he was allowed to da After 
praying, he said, ' Kill me now.' They had never seen any man act 
in this manner before, when about to be killed, and seemed afraid to 
touch him. After a long pause, however, a young lad took a gun and 
shot him, and they all ran away." 



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SlffATO, miBIUNl, AND TEE MISSIONARIES. 225 

Sip Bartle Frere of course takes the strongest possible 
-view of the matter against the kiog, and speaks of his 
having killed Zalu converts (2220, p. 270), "at fitst rarely, 
as if with reluctance, and a desire to conceal what he had 
ordered, and to shift the responsibility to other shoulders. 
Utterly more frequently, openly, and as an avowed part 
of a general pohcy for re-establishing the system of 
Chaka and Dingane." This little phrase is of a slightly 
im^inative nature, resting on no (produced) evidence. 
It is, in &ct, a " statement." * 

Sir Henry Bulwer's reply — November 18th, 1878 
(2222, p. 171) — which forms an able refutation of various 
statements of Sir B. Frere, contains the following sentence : 
" I took some pains to find out how the case really stood, 
and ascertained that the nnmber of natives, either converts 
or living on mission stations, who had been killed, was 
three. I have never heard since that time of any other 
mission natives being killed, ... I was, therefore, 
surprised, on reading your Excellency's despatch, to 
see what Messrs. Oftebro and Staven had said. I have 
since made particular inquiries on that point, but have 
failed to obtain any information showing that more than 
three mission natives have been killed. Among others 
to whom I have spoken is the Bev. Mr. Robertson, of 
Zululand, who was in 'Maritzburg a few weeks ago. He 
told me that he had not heard of any other than the 
three cases." 

Sir fiartle Frere replies, December 6th, 1878 (2222, 

* This indiscriminato killing is disproved and dcmied by Cetahwayo 
litmself and his principal chiefs (vide " A Visit to King Ketsbwayo," 
" Maemillan's Magazine," March, 1878). 

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226 TBE ZULU WAR. 

p, 175) : * "I have since made further inquity (he does 
not say what), and have no doubt that though His 
Excellency may possibly be right as to the number 
regarding which there is judicial evidence (Sir H. 
Bulwer plainly decides that there was no evidence at 
all) ; the missionariea had every reason to bdieve that 
the number slain on account of their inclination to 
Christianity was considerably greater than three. One 
gentleman, who had better means of obtaining the truth 
than anyone else, told me he had no doiAt the number 
of converts killed was considerable." 

This gentleman, Sir Bortle Frero assures us, " knows 
the Zulus probably better than any living European ; 
he is himself an old resident in Zululand, and a man 
ahove all suspicion of exaggeration or misrepresen- 
tation (!). He gave me this information, under stipu- 
lation that his name should not be mentioned, otherwise 
it would, I am sure, at once be accepted as a guarantee 
for the accuracy of his statements," 

"With such phrases, " I have no doubt," " every 
reason to believe," " I feel sure," etc etc, has Sir Bartle 
Frere continually maligned the character of the Zulu 
king, called since the war by Mr. John Dunn, "the 
most injured man in South Africa." 

One is rather pnzzled who the man may be to wbcun 
Sir Bartle Frere gives so high a character, his opinion 
of which he evidently expects will quite sotisiy his 
readers. We should much like to have the gentleman's 
name. The number of gentlemen "long resident in 
Zululand " are not so many as to leave a wide field fur 
* Authoi's italics throughout. 

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SIRAYO, jmSILmi, AND TEE MISSIONARIES. 227 

coDJecture. Besides the missionaries, the only names that 
occur to us to which the phrase can apply are those of 
Atr. John Shepstone, Mr. John Dunn, and Mr. Bobertson. 

The only point in the indictment against Cetshwayo 
vhich we have now to consider, is that of the killing of 
girls under the Zulu marriage law, and the sreply to 
Sir Henry Bulwer's remonstrance on the point, which 
Sir Bartle Frere speaks of in his final memorandum as 
expressed "in terms of unprecedented insolence and 
defiance ; " while The Times of Natal (generally recognised 
as the Government organ) went still further, and has 
twice charged the Zulu king with sending repeatecUy, 
insolent messages to the Natal Government. As to the 
repetitim\ of the offence, it need only be said that there 
is no foundation in the Blue-books for the assertion. 
And as to this particular oSence it is enough to say that 
no notice had been taken of it to Cetshwayo himself, till 
two years afterwards it was unearthed, and charged 
upon Mm, as above, by the High Commissioner, notwith- 
standing that, whatever it may have been, it had been 
subsequently condoned by friendly messages from this 
Government. 

The marriage law of Zululand is thus described hj 
Sir T. Shepstone (1137, p. 21) : The Zulu country is but 
sparsely inhabited when compared with Natal, and the 
increase of its population is checked more by its peculiar * 
marriage regulations than by the exodua of refugees to 
surrounding govemmenta Both boys and girls are 
formed into regiments, and are not allowed to marry 
without special leave &om the king, or until the 
regiments to which they belong arc fortunate enough to 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



328 THE ZULU WAR. 

receive bis dispensation. Caprice or state reasons 
occasionally delay this permission, and it sometimes 
happens that years pass before it is given. Contraven- 
tion of these regulations is vidted by the severest 
penalties."* 

The history of the case which we are now considering 
may be ^ven in the following extracts : 

On September 22nd, 1876, Mr. Osboro, resident 
magistrate of Newcastle, writes: "The Zulu king lately 
granted permission to two regiments of middle-aged men 
to marry. These were, however, rejected by the girls, on 
the ground that the men were too old ; upon which the 
king ordered that those girls who reused to marry the 
soldiers were to be put to death. Several girls were 
killed in consequence, some fled into the colony, others 
into tbe Transvaal Republic, and on October 9th, 
Government messengers report (1748, p. 198) : 

" We heard that the king was causing some of the 
Zulus to be killed on account of disobeying biff orders 

* Two Zulu prisoners, captured while on a peocefnl eirand, jost 
l>c(ore the commencement of boatUitief^ and who were penuitted to 
reside at Bishopstowe when released from gaol, until they could safely 
return home, were qnestioned concerning those regulations, and said 
that they applied only to those who voluntarily joined the r^imenta, 
concerning which there was no compulnon at all, beyond the moral 
effect produced by the fact that it was looked upon, by the young 
people themaclTes, as rather a. poor thing to do to decline joining. 
Once joined, however, they were obliged to obey orders unhesitatingly. 
These young men eoid that in the coast, and outlying districts, there 
wore large numbers of people who had retained their liberty and 
married as they pleased, but that strict loyalty was the /osAum nearer 
the court. It was in these very coast districts that the Zuloa 
■urtendered daring the late war, the lojfol inhabitants proving tfaur 
loyalty to tha bitter fnd. 

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8IHAY0, UMBILmi, AND TSB MI8SI0NJMIB8. 229 

respecting tbe marriage of girls, ' and we saw large 
Qombers ' of cattle which bad been taken as fines. 
Otherwise the land was quiet." 

As far as the most careful investigations could dis- 
(sover, the number killed' was not more than four or five, 
while the two Zulus already quoted said that, although 
they had heard of the matter, they did not know of a 
single instance; and as these young men themselves 
belonged to one of the regiments, it can hardly be sup- 
posed that any great slaughter could have taken place 
unknown to them. 

At the time, however, report as usual greatly 
exaggerated the circumstances, and Sir Henry Bulwer 
speaks (1748, p. 198) of " numbers of girls and young 
men," and " large numbers of girls and others connected 
with them," as having been killed. 

He sent a message to Cetshwayo on the subject, 
which in itself was a temperate and very proper one for 
an English governor to send, in the hope of checking 
such cruelty in future, and was not unnaturally some- 
what surprised at receiving an answer from the usually 
courteous and respectful king, which showed plainly 
enough that he was .highly irritated and resented the 
interference with his management of his people. Sir 
Henry bad reminded him of what had passed at his 
coronation, and Cetshwayo replies that if Somtseu (Sir 
T. Shepstone) had told the white people that he (the 
king) had promised never to kill, Somtseu had deceived 
them. "I have yet to kill," he says. He objects to 
being dictated to about his laws, and saya that while 
wishing to be friends with the English, he does not 

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230 THE ZULU WAM. 

intend to goTem Ms people By laws aent to tim by 
them. He remarks, in a somewliat threatening way, 
that in future he shall act on his own accotmt, and that 
if the English interfere with him, he will go away aad 
become a wanderer, but not without first showing what 
he can do if he chooses. Finally he points out that he 
and the Governor of Natal are in like positions,* one 
being goTemor of Natal, the other of Zuloland. 

It is plain that this reply, as reported by the Govern- 
ment messengers, produced a strong effect on Sir H. 
fiulwer's mind, and considerably affected his feeling 
towards the king, though, as already stated, he never 
brought it, at the time or afterwards, to the notice of 
Cetshwayo, and has since exchanged friendly messages 
with him. And no doubt the reply was petulant and 
wanting in due respect, though a dash of arrogance was 
added to it by the interpreter's use of the expression 
" we are equal," instead of " we are in like positions " 
— each towards our own people. But that the formid- 
' able words " I have yet to kill," " I shall now act on my 
own account," meant nothing more than the mere irrita- 
tion of the moment ia plain from the fact that he never 
made the slightest attempt to carry them out, though 
recent events have taught us what he might have done 
had he chosen to " act on his own account." 

The tone of the reply would probably have been very 
different had it been brought by Cetshwayo's own 
messengers. By an unfortunate mistake on the part of 
the Natal Government, one of the measengera aent was a 
Zulu refugee of the party of Umbulazi and Umkungo, 

* "Wq ore equal," said the interpreter ; bat the ujmsaiim oaed is 
more correctly translated as above. j— x,,I.. 



aiBATO, TJMBILim, ANJD TBE mSSIONABIES. 231 

l)6tween whom and the king there was deadly hostilitj, 
which had lately been intensified by the insulting 
manner in which Umkungo'a people had received 
Cetshwayo'a messengers, sent in a friendly spirit to 
inform them of King Umpande's death. The very 
presence of this man, bringing a reproof from the 
Grovemment of Natal, would naturally be resented by 
the Zulu king, who had already declined communications 
&om the Transvaal sent through refugee subjects of his 
own (Sir Henry Bulwer — 1748, p. 10); and waa now 
obliged to receive with courtesy, and listen to words of 
remonstrance from, one of these very refugees who had 
fled to Natal, and, under Zulu law, was liable to be put * 
to death as a traitor, when he made his appearance in 
Zululand. The king's words, exhihiting the irritation of 
the moment, whatever they may have been, would lose 
nothing of their fierceness and bitterness by being 
conveyed through such a medium. 

We do not wish to defend such practices as those of 
fordng girls into distasteful marriages, or putting them 
to death for disohedience in that respect But we 
must remember that, after all, the king, in ordering 
these executions, was enforcing, not a new law laid 
down by himself, but "an old custom" (1748, p. 198). 
From his point of view the exercise of BMch severity 
was as necessary to maintaining his authority as the 
decimation of a regiment for mutiny might appear 
to a commander, or the slaughter of hundreds of 
Langalibalele's people, hiding in caves or running 
away, which we have already described, appeared to 
Sir R Fine and Sir T. Shepstone in 1873-74. 

The king himself gave an illustration of his diffi- 

u,viz.dtvGoo^lc 



232 TEE ZULU WAR. 

culties in a message sent to Sir H. ' Bulwer early in ' 
1878 (2079, p. 96). He reported to His Excellency 
that two of Ms regiments had bad a fight, and many 
of his men had been killed, at which he was much 
annoyed. He reports this to show His Excellency that, 
although he warned them that he would seTerelj 
punish any regiment that caused any disturbance at 
the Umkon, ha cannot rule them without sometimes 
killing them, especially as they know they can ran 
to NataL 

We have now considered in turn every accusation 
brought against the Zulu king up to the end of 1878, 
whsn. Sir Bartle Frere delivered his ultimatum, which 
he had said beforehand would put an end to our 
peaceful relations with our neighbours. We venture 
to assert that, with the exception of the last, every one 
of these accusations is distinctly re&ted on evidence 
gathered from official sources. Of that last, we would 
observe, that, although it cannot be entirely denied, 
the fault has been greatly exaggerated; while Uiat 
part of it which referred to the sole instance of a hasty 
reply to the Natal Government, has been condoned by 
two years' friendly relations since the offence, before, 
it was raked up by Sir Bartle Frere as an additional 
pretext for the war. And, at all events, had Cetshwayo'a 
severity to his people been a hundred times greater than 
it ever was, he could not in a lifetime have produced the 
misery which this one year's campaign has wrought. 

Yet these accusations were the sole pretexts for the 
war, except that fear of the proximity of a nation strong 
enough and warlike enough to injure nB,ifit wished to 

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8IBAT0, UMBILINI, AUB TBE MISSIONARIES. 233 

do ao, vluch Sir Bartle Frere declared inade it impossible 
for peaceful subjects of Her Majesty to feel security for 
life or property within fifty miles of the border, and 
made the existence of a peaceful English community in 
the neighbourhood impossible.* He speaks in the same 
despatch (2269, pp. 1, 2) of the king as "an irre- 
aponaible, bloodthirsty, and treacherous despot," which 
terms, and others like them, do duty again and again' 
for solid facts, but of the justice of which he gives no 
proof whatever. We cannot do better than give, in 
conciusioD, and as a comment upon the above fear, a 
quotation from Lord Blachford'a speech in the House of 
Lords, March 26th, 1879, which runs : 

" Some people assumed that the growth of the Zulu 
power in the neighbourhood of a British colony consti- 
tuted such a danger that, in a common phrase, it had to 
be got rid of, and that, when a thing had to be done, it' 
was idle and inconvenient to examine too closely into' 
the pretexts which were set up. And this was summed 
up in a phrase which is used more than once by the 
High Commissioner, and had obtained currency in what 
he might call the light literature of politics. We might 
be told to obey our ' instincts of self-preservation,' No 
doubt the instinct of self-preservation was one of the 
most necessary of our instincts. But it was one of those 
which we had in common with the lowest brute — one of 
those which we are most frequently called on to keep 

• The nativra of Jfatal, "peaceful subjects of Her Majesty," were 
living in perfect aecniity on one side of the border, and the ZqIub on 
the other, the two populationB intennarrjing and mingling in the moat 
friendly manner, without the smaUest apprehension of injury to life 
or pn^terty, when Sir B. Frere landed at Durban. 

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284 TSE ZULU WAB. 

in order. It was in obedience to the ' instinct of self- 
preserration that a coward ran away in battle, that a 
burglar murdered a policeman, or, what was more to onr 
present purpoee, that a nervous woman jumped out of a 
carriage lest she should be upset ; or that one man in a 
&ight fired at another who, he thought, meant to do him 
an injury, though he had not yet shown any sign of an 
intention of doing so. The soldiers who went down in 
the Birkenhmd — what should we have thought of them 
i^ instead of standing in their ranks to be drowned, they 
had pushed the women and chUdren into the hold and 
saved themselves ? A reasonable determination to do 
that which oar safety requires, so far as it is consistent 
with our duty to others, is the duty and interest of 
every man. To evade an appeal to the claims of reason 
and justice, by a clamorous allegation of our animal 
instinct, is to abdicate our privileges as men, and to 
revert to brutality." 



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CHAPTER XIL 

THE ULTIUATDU, DECLAIUTIOK OF WAB, AKD 
COMMENCEMENT OP CAMFAION. 

Oh December llth the boundary award was delivered 
to the Zulus by four gentlemen selected for the purpose, 
who, by previous arrangement, met the king's envoya 
at the Lower Tugela Drift. The award itself, as we 
already know, was in iavour of the Zulus ; neyertheless 
it is impossible to read the terms in whidi it was given 
without feeling that it was reluctantly done. It is fenced 
in with warnings to the Zulus against transgressing the 
limits assigned to them, without a word assuring them 
that tfmr rights also shall in future be respected ; and, 
while touching on Zulu aggressionB on Boers in 
the late disputed territory, it says nothing of those 
committed by Boets. 

But perhaps the most remarkable phrase in the 
whole award is that in which Six Baxtle Frere gives the 
Zulus to understand that they will have to pay the com- 
pensatiou due to the ejected Transvaal farmers, while 
be entirely ignores all that can be said on the other 

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236 TSB ZULU WAR. 

side of injariea to property and person inflicted on 
Zulus in the disputed territory (of which the Blue-books 
contain ample proof), not to speak of the rights and 
advantages so long withheld from them, and now- 
decided to be their due. 

Sir Henry Bulwer plainly took a very different view 
on thia point when he summed up the judgment of the 
Commissioners (2220, p. 388), and added as follows : 
" I would venture to suggest that it is a fair matter 
for consideration if those Transvaal subjects, who have 
been induced . . . under the sanction, expressed or 
tacit, of the Government of the Republic, to settle and 
remain in that portion of the country, have not a 
claim for compensation from their Government for the 
individual losses they may sustain." 

Sit Bartle Frere, starting with phrases which might 
be supposed to agree with, the above, gradually and 
ingeniously shifts his ground through propositions for 
compensation to be paid to farmers "required or obliged' 
to leave" (omittbg the detail of who ia to pay), and 
then for compensation to be paid to farmers wishing to' 
remove, until he finally arrives, by a process peculiarly' 
hia own, at a measure intended to " secure private rights 
of property," which eventually blossomed out into a 
scheme for maintaining, in spite of tJie award, the Boer 
farmers on the land claimed by them, which we shall 
presently relate in fuIL Although nothing appeared in 
th& award itself on this point, the whole tone of it waa 
calculated to take the edge off the pleasure which the 
justice done them at last would naturally give the Zulus, 
And it was promptly followed up by an " ultimatam." 

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THE ULTIMATUM AND DBOLABATION OF WAR. 237 

from the High Commissioiier calculated to absorb their 
whole attentioD. 

This "ultimatum" contaiaed the following thirteen 
demands, and was delivered on the same day with the 
award, an hour later : 

1. Surrendel of Sihayo's three sons and brother to be tried by the 
Natal coarti. 

2. Payment of a fine of five hundred head of cattle for the 
ontrages commilted by the above, and foi Ketshwayo'a delay io 
complying; witli the Toqnest (N.B., not demand) of the N'atol GoTem- 
ment for the sunender of the offenders. 

3. Payment of a hundred bead of cattle for the offence committed 
against Messrs. Smith and Seigbton (N.B., twenty days were allowed 
for compliance with the abore demands, i.e. until December Slat, 
incloaiTo). 

i. Surrender of tbe Swazi chief Umbilini, and others to be named 
hereafter, to be tried by the Transvaal courts (N.B., no time was 
fixed for compliance with this demand). 

6. Observance of the coronation " promises." 

C. That the Zulu army be disbanded, and tbe men allowed to 
go home. 

7. That the Zulu military system be discontinued, and other 
military regulations adopted, to be decided upon after consultation 
with the Great Council and British Representatives. 

8. That every man, when he comes to man's estate, shall be free 
to many. 

9. All missionaries and their converts, who until 1877 lived in 
Zoluland, shall be allowed to return and reoceupy their stations. 

10. AH such missionaries shall be allowed to teach, and any Zulu, 
if be chooses, shall be fi«e to listen to their teaching.* 

11. A British Agent shall be allowed to reside in Zululand, who 
will see that tbe above provisions are carried ouL 

12. All disputes in which a missionary or European {e.g. trader or 

* Compare with 9 and 10 the distinct instructions on this point 
f^ven by Lord Carnarvon during the previous year (1961, p. 60) : 
" I request, therefore, that you trill cause the miEsionaries to under- 
stand distinctly that Her M^esty's Government cannot undertake to 
compel the king to permit the maintenance of tbe mission stations in 
Zululand." Yet here the clause is m.-ide one of the conditions of 
an ultimatum, tlio alternative of which is war. 



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238 TSS ZULU WAIt. 

travdlet) is oonoemed, eliall be heard by the king in public, and in 
presence of the Kerident. 

13. No sentence of expulsion horn Zululand ehall be earned oat 
nntil it has been approTed by the Resident 

N.B. — ^Ten days mon wen allowed for compUanoe with the abovs 
demands (4-13). 

The Natal Colonist, August 21st, 1879, condenses 
tbe opinions of Sir B. Pine upon the ultimatum — from 
hia article in " The Contemporary Review," June, 1879 
—thus: 

" He thinks the depriving Messrs. Smith and 
Deighton of their handkerchiefs and pipes hardly a 
matter deserving of a place in such a document ; that 
the Sihayo and Umbilini affairs were more serious, but 
that ' full reparation .... might have been obtained by 
friendly negotiations.' He docs not attach to the 
promises alleged to have been made by Cetahwayo ' the 
force of a treaty which we were bound to see executed.' 
And while approving of a British Besident being placed 
in the Zulu country, he frankly recalls the fact that 
' Cetshwayo has himself, on more than one occasion, 
requested such an arrangement' ' At the same lime.' 
he adds, ' I think that the powers proposed to be invested 
in this officer are more than arc necessary or expedient 
and I would especially refer to those relating to the 
protection of missionaries. Christianity ought not to be 
enforced at the point of the sword.' In reference to 
Cetshwayo's alleged coronation promisee, we may note 
in passing that Sir R Fine is careful to point out that 
one chief reason for his sanctioning that expedition was 
'out of deference to Mr. Shepstone's judgment;* and 
that it was expressly stipulated by the High Com- 
missioner that no British troops should accompany 

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THE ULTIMATUM AND DECLARATION OF WAR. 289 

Mr. Shepetone, 'ao that Her Majesty's GoTernment 
might not be compromised in the matter.' With such 
a stipnlation it is amazing that anyone should still 
contend that Oetshwayo entered into engagements so 
solemn as to call for invasion of his country to punish 
the breach of them." 

And the Special Correspondent of ITie Cape Argus 
writes : "As regards the alleged coronation engagements, 
Dunn affirms that no undertaking was made by, or even 
asked from, Cetshwayo. In the act of coronation, Mr. (now 
Sir 1.) Shepstone gave to the king a piece of paternal 
counsel, and the conditions were in reality nothing more 
than recommendations urged upon bis acceptance by the 
Special Commissioner. 

" Lord Kimberlcy, who was Secretary of State for the 
Colonies at the time of Sir T. Shepstone's installation 
of Cetshwayo, spoke upon this subject in the House of 
Lords;" which The Daily News, March 26th, 1879, 
reports as follows : 

" With respect to the so-called coronation promises, 
nothing had more astonished him in these papers than 
to learn that these promises were supposed to constitute 
an engagement between us and the Zulu nation. He 
happened to have had some concern in that matter ; and 
if he had supposed that Sir T. Shepstone, in asking 
for these promises from Cetshwayo, had rendered us 
responsible to the Zulu nation to see that they were 
enforced, he would not have lost a moil in disavowing 
any such responsibiUty. He was supported in the view 
which he took by the late Colonial Secretary (Lord 
Carnarvon). The fact was that these were friendly 
assurances, given in response to friendly advice, and 

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*2«). ■ THE ZULU WAR. 

constituted no engagement But Sir E Frere put these 
'coronation ". promises' in the foreground." Sir M. 
Hicks-Beach, also, says (2144, p. 1) : " It is obriouB 
that the position of Sir T. Shepstone in this mattw 
.was that of a friendly counsellor, giving advice to tiie 
king as to the good government of tihe country." 

The demands which we have recorded were delivered 
to the Zulu envoys, who were not allowed to discuss or 
comment upon them, on the ground that the Cktmmission 
had no authority for that purpose. The envoys, indeed, 
appeared seriously concerned by their import. They 
denied that the coronation stipulations had ever been 
disregarded, and said that they could not nndetstand 
why the Zulu army should be disbanded ; the army was 
a national custom with them as with the English. 
They also asked for an extension of time, and considered 
that on such important matters no specified time should 
h£^ve been fixed ; the reply to which request was that 
the time was considered ample. 

Sir B. Frere, in his covering despatch to' the 
Secretary of State, remarks that the " enclosed extracts 
from demi-official letters," from the Hon. Mr. Brownlee 
and the Hon. Mr. Littleton, " give an outline of the 
proceedings, and show that the messages were carefully 
delivered, well explained, and thorougldy understood^ 
copies of the English text with Zulu translations being 
given to the Zulu envoys." On turning to "the enclosed 
extracts," however, we do not find in them a single 
word of the sort from either gentleman, while the 
extract from Mr. Littleton's letter consists of not a 
dozen lines describing the spot where the meeting to<d: 

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THE ULTIMATirU AND DWLASATION OF WAR. 241 

place, and iu which the writer's opioions are limited to 
these : " they (the Zulus) seemed to take the award 
very quietly," but " were evidently diaturbed " by the 
ultimatum, and "Mr. Shepstone seemed to me to 
manage very well." The young gentleman could not 
well say any more, as he did not know a word of 
Zulu; but one is puzzled to know how Sir B. Frere 
draws his deductions from either extract. How far the 
opinions of the other honourable gentleman are to be 
depended upon, may be gathered from the following asser- 
tion made by him some months after the Boundary Com- 
missioners had deliberately decided that the Boers had no 
claim whatever to the disputed territory, but that it would 
be expedient to allow them to retain the Utrecht district. 
" The falsehood of the Zulu king with regard to the 
Utrecht land question," says Mr. firownlee, " is quite 
on a par with his other actions. After misleading the 
Katal Government upon the merits of the case, it is 
now discovered on the clearest and most incontrovertible 
proof* that a formal cession was made of this disputed 
land to the Transvaal Republic." 

The special correspondent of ITie Cape Argus, 
however, writes about this time as foUows : " Dunn 
states that Cetshwayo does not, even now, know fully 
the contents of the ultimatum, and still less of the subse- 
quent memorandnm.t The document was read over once, 

• Sir T. Shepatone'B incontrovertible, ovorwholming, and dear 
CTideDco, sifted and proved worthless by the Commissionere, 

+ Sir Bartle Frere declareB (CorreapondencB, p. 57) that Gotabwayo 
" could have known nothing of the momomndum," although (ibid, 
p. 6) he himself oBserta that "it was intended to explain for Cetah- 
wajo's benefit what was the nature of the cession to him," and it was 
plainly reiy generally known, and therefore naturally by the king. 

B 

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242 THE ZULU WAR. 

and its length vas sach (2222, pp. 20^9) — eix pages 
of the Blue-book — ^that the messeogers could not possibly 
fix the whole of it in their memory." True, a copy 
was g^vento Dunn himself; but, for sufficient reasons of 
his own, he did not make known the contrats of the 
document in person, but sent word to the king by his 
own messengers, between whom and the indunas there 
was a considerable discrepancy. According to Dunn, 
Cetshwayo was m a great fuiy upon hearing the word of 
the High Commissioner (? as to the maintenance of Boer 
"private rights" over his land). He reproached his 
adviser with having thwarted his purpose to exact satis- 
faction at the bands of the Dutch, and doubly blamed 
him for having represented the English as just in their 
intercourse and friendly in their intentions. Until this 
time he had thought, as Dunn himself had, that the 
congregation of troops upon his borders represented 
nothing but an idle scare. But he saw at length that 
the English had thrown the bullock's skin over his 
head, while they had been devouring the tid-bita of the 
carcass. 

The three causes alleged in the ultimatum for war — 
the raid of Sihayo's sons, the assault on Messrs. Smith 
and Deighton, and the proceedings of Umbilini — 
occurred long after Sir B. Frere had been preparing for 
war, in the full expectation that the Border Commission 
would decide against the Zulu claims, and that Cetshwayo 
would not acquiesce peacefully in such a decision. It would 
seem, indeed, from his remarks on the subject (Corre- 
spondence, Letters ii. and iv.), that he would have even 
set aside the decision of the Commissioners, if he had 

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THE ULTIMATim AND DECLARATION OF WAR. 248 

found it possible to do so. Although he failed iu doing 
this, he sought to attain practically the same end by 
means of a remarkable " memorandum," prepared and 
signed by himself — not submitted to Sir Henry Bulwer, 
bat "prematurdy " published in the Natal newspapers. 

The memorandum in question was on the appoint- 
ment of a Resident in Zululand, and, as Sir BartJe Frere 
himself says, " it was intended to ejqilain for Cetshwayo's 
benefit what was the nature of the cession to him of the 
ceded territory," and it contained the following clause ; 
" It is intended that in tliat district (the late disputed 
territory) individual rights of property, which were 
obtained under the Transvaal Government, shall be 
reepected and maintained, so that asy Transvaal fanners, 
who obtained rights from the Grovemment of the 
Bepublic, and who may now elect to remain on the 
territory, may possess under British guarantee the same 
rights they would have possessed had they been 
grantees holding from the Zulu king under the guarontcQ 
of the great Zulu council." 

The whole of the disputed territory had been ap- 
portioned in farms to Transvaal subjects, and without 
doubt every one of these fiarms would immediately be 
claimed, since their value would be immensely r^sed by 
the fact that in future they would be held " under 
British guarantee." Therefore, to thus maintain the 
farmers upon them without regard to the wishes of the 
Zulu king and nation was simply to take away piece- 
meal with one hand what had just been given as a whole 
vith the other. 

This "memorandum" was hailed with triumph by 
B 2 

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244 THE ZULU WAB. 

some of the colonial papers, and the news that, after all, 
the Zalus were to get no solid satdsfaction from the 
award, soon circulated amongst all classes, not excluding 
the Zulus themselves. 

It was upon this subject that the " Correspondence " 
between Sir Bartle Frere and the Bishop of Natal, already 
leferred to, commenced. In December, 1878, the High 
Commissioner was good enough to invite the Bishop, 
both by message and personally, to "criticise" his policy 
.towards the Zulus. The invitation, indeed, came far 
too late for any arguments or information, which the 
Bishop might be able to afford, to be of tie very slightest 
use. However, the High Commissioner dedred criticism, 
and received it in a series of letters, which — except the 
last two, withheld for some reason best known to 
himself — were published, with Sir B. Frere's replies, in 
the Bine-books. 

The Bishop pointed out that, under the interpretation 
of this memorandum, " the award gives back the land in 
name only to the Zulus, whereas in reality Ketshwayo will 
have no control over it ; he will not be able to exercise 
authority over his own people living on it, without 
coming into collision immediately with their Boer 
masters, who would fiercely resent any intrusion on his 
part on their farms ; he will not be able to send any of 
his people to live on it, or any of his cattle to graze on 
it, or even to assign places in it to such of his people 
as may elect to move fiwm the Boer to the Zulu side of 
the new boundary.* To which Sir Bartle replies, that 
he had "a strong impression t that, if Cetshwayo were 
* Correspondence, p. 3. t Ibid. p. 6. 

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THE ULTIMATUM AND DEOLAMATION OF WAS. 245 

amply told tte disputed land was assigned to him, he 
would at once conclude that it was his in full Zulu 
sovereignty;" which he assumed to be impossible with 
regard to any land which had once been under the British 
flag, while to eject a settler who had bought the land 
from the Transvaal Government, in the belief that it 
could maintain him upon it, he regarded as an " unjust 
and immoral act." In point of fact, the land in question 
could only have been looked upon as "under the British 
flag," in trust for the rightful possessors, and the farmers 
had settled apon it in the full knowledge that the title to 
it was in dispute; while, even had it been otherwise as to 
the latter point, the only just claim that could be raised 
would be against the Boer Government, or its repre- 
sentative, and certainly not against the right of the Zulu 
people to be restored to actual occupation of the land. 

But that from the first, and long before he left 
Capetown for Natal, the High Commissioner was pre- 
paring for war with the Zulus, is evident from his 
despatch and telegram of January 26th, 1878 (quoted 
from at page 179), in the former of which he speaks of 
the delay caused by the border inquiry being no di3_ 
advantage, as, besides other .reasons, it "will increase 
our means of defending whatever we may find to be our 
unquestionable rights ; " and in the latter he aacys again : 
" I hope the delay caused wUl not be great, and what- 
ever there is will have compensating advantages, for I 
have some hopes of being able to strengthen your 
hands." 

These phrases, indeed, might merely refer to Sir 
Bartle Frere's desire to be " ready to defend ourselves 

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246 TSE ZULU WAB. 

' against farther aggressions ; " but certtun statements made 
by Commodore SoUivan show that he had already in 
view the invaaon of ZiUuland. 

Extracts from these statements ran as follows : 

" I am informed by the Governor (Sir B. BWe) that 
there is every chance of hostility in the debateable land 
between the Transvaal, Zululand, and Natal." — December 
16th, 1877 (2000, p. 45). 

" His Excellency (Sir B. Frere) pointed oat to me 
that, as it appeared almost certain that serious com- 
plicationa must shortly arise with the Zulu tribe of 
Kafirs on the borders of Natal and the Transvaal, which 
will necessitate active operations, he considered it better 
that the Active should remain here, in order to render 
such assistance by sea and land as may be practicable." — 
April 12th, 1878 (2144, p. 32). 

" The object of my visit here was .... to make 
myself acquainted with such points on the (Zulu) coast 
as might be aviulable for co-operating with Her 
Majesty's land forces by landing troops or stores.* 

" It had been my intention (abandoned by Sir H. 
Bulwer's desire) to have examined the north of the 
Tugela Kivcr both by land and sea, also a reported 
landing-place situated almost thirty miles eastward of 
the Tugela by sea." 

The High Commissioner was plainly determined not 
to allow the Zulus the slightest law, which, indeed, was 
wise in the interests of war, as there was considerable 

* Compare ^ith Sii Baitle Fieie's snggeBlion to Sic Heniy Bol^rer 
that the latter ehotild peisuade the Zulu king that the Active and 
her fellows weie mostly meiohaiit Teasels, but that the English wac- 
Tessela Tould he sufficient to protect hit eooHI 

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TEE VLTIMATtm AND DECLARATION OF WAR 247 

teax that, in spite of all grieTances and yexatioue, 
Cetshwayo, knowing full well, as he certainly did, that 
colUsion with the Engliah must eventually result in his 
destruction, might prefer half a loaf to no bread, and 
submit to our exactions with what grace he could. And 
so probably he would; for, from all accounts, every 
effort was made by the king to collect the fines of cattle, 
to propitiate the Government 

Sir Bartie Frere, accordingly, was very pwiiicular in 
requesting Sir Henry Bulwer to give Cetshwayo notice 
(C 2222, p. 222) that " rigid punctiuility vntk regard 
to time wiU he insisted on, and, unless observed, such 
tteps as may appear necessary wiU be immediatdy 
taken to ensure compliance," which Sir H. Bulwer noti- 
fies to the Zulu king upon the same day, December 
16th (C. 2308, p. 31). 

Two days later Mr. John Dunn wrote to say that he 
had received a message &om the king (2222, p. 227), 
requesting him " to write and say that he agrees to the 
demands of giving up Sihayo's sons and brother, and 
the fines of cattie ; but begs that, should the number of 
days (twenty) have expired before the arrival of the 
cattle, His Excellency wUl take no immediate action, as, 
owing to Uie many heavy rains* we have had since the 
meeting of His Excellency's Commissioners and his 
indunas, they have not been able to reach him yet ; and 
Sihayo's sons being at their kraals, which are some way 
from him, it wiU take some days to send for them." 

" On the other demands he will give his answer on 
consulting his indunas." 
* Oar own troops' expetience showed that this wu no idle ezcme. 

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248 TEE ZULU WAS. 

Yet Sir Bartle Frere dedares (P. P. [C. 2454] p. 136) 
that Cetahwayo " was revived on war rather than on 
compliance with any demand of ours." 

Bishop Schreuder's opinion, reported through Mr. 
Fannia on December 22nd (2308, p. 31), was that all 
the demands would be agreed to- except that of the dis* 
bandment of the army and the abolition of the military 
ayatem. "The king and nation wiU consider it a 
humiliation, and a descent from their proud position as 
independent Zulus to the lower Mid degrading position 
of Natal Kafirs, to agree to this demand. I asked," 
says Mr. Fannin, " if the announcement that the restric- 
tion on marriage would be removed would not reconcile 
the young men to the change. He (Bishop Schreuder) 
thinks not ; they will stand by their king, and fight for 
the old institutions of their country." 

The king's request for some indulgence as to time 
was peremptorily refused, and was looked upon as 
" a pitifiil evasion," on the grounds that he had already 
had four months to consider the question of Sihayo's 
SODS. In point of &ct, however, the first "demand" 
had only been made a week before, and, until then, the 
word "request" having been used, the king was at 
liberty to offer atonement for the offence other than the 
surrender of the offenders, as Sir Henry Bulwer himaftif 
Bu^ested (2222, p. 173), by paying a fine of five 
thousand head of cattle from the Zulu nation. 

Sir B. Frei-e's answer to Cetshwayo through Mr. 
Dunn (2222, p. 227) was, " That the word of Government 
as already given, cannot now be altered. 

"Unless the prisoners and cattle are given up 

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TSE ULTIMATUM MD DECLAEATION OF WAR. 249 

withia the term specified, Her Majesty's troops will 
advance. But in conaideratioa of the dispositioa 
expressed in Mr. Dunn's letter to comply with the 
demands of Government, the troops will be halted at 
convenient posts within the Zulu border, and will there 
awtut the expiration of the term of thirty days without, 
in the meantime, taking any hostile action unless it is 
provoked by the Zulus." 

And John Dunn adds on his own account (2308, 
p. 34), that the king evidently does not attach sufficient 
importance to the time - stipulated. The cattle, he 
said, " are still being collected, and it will be impossible 
now for them to be up in time." John Dunn in the 
same letter put in a petition on behalf of his own 
cattle and people, saying that the latter would be 
willing to join in with any force should they be 
required. 

Meanwhile, from accounts given by Mr. Fanniu 
(2308, pp. 35 and 37), by Mr. Eobson (2242, pp. 11, 12) 
(2308, p. 35), by Mr. Fynney (3308, p. 36). and from 
other sources, it is plain that Cetshwayo was doing 
his utmost to collect the required cattle in time, though 
liampered in doing so by the extreme di£iculty of 
complying in a hurry with the other demands implying 
such radical changes in the administration of the 
country, and exceedingly distressed at the turn affuis 
■were taking. Every report shows plainly enough that. 
Sax from desiring war, and looking out for an opportunity 
to try their strength with the English, the Zulu king 
and people, or the major part of it, were thrown into 
utmost consternation by the menacing appearance of 

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250 TRE ZULU WAS. 

their hitherto Mendly neighbours. But all explana- 
tions were disregarded, all requests for time treated as 
impudent pretexts, preparations on our part for an 
invasion of Zulnland were hurried on, while every sign 
of agitation (the natural consequences of our own 
attitude) on the other side of the border was con- 
strued into an intention on tte part of the Zulu king 
to attack Natal, and ui^ed as an added reason for 
our beginning hostilities. There were, at that time, 
no grounds whatsoever for this supposition. It is plain 
enough that, when it became apparent that war would 
be forced upon him by us, the Zulu king contemplated 
nothing but self-defence, and that, during these pre- 
liminaries to the unhappy campaign of 1879, there were 
numerous occasions on which, by the exercise of a little 
patience, justice, and moderation, any ruler less bent on 
conquering Zululand than was Sir Bartle Frere could 
have brought matters to a peaceful issue, without the 
loss of honour, men, and money which England has 
since sustained. 

Lord Chelmsford (then Lieut. -General the Hon. F. 
Thesiger) arrived in Natal in August, 1878, and at 
once began his preparations for the expected campaign. 
One of the measures upon which great stress was laid 
was that of forming a native contingent to act with the 
British troops. The original scheme for the organisation 
of this contingent in case of necessity had been prepared 
and carefully worked out by Colonel Dumford, R.E, and 
was based on his thorough knowledge of the natives. 
During the eight years of his life in South Afiica he 
had had ample opportunity of learning, by e^erience, 

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Mffi VLTlllATUM AND JDJBOLARATION OF WAB. 251 

how utterly and mischievously useleas was the plan, 
hitherto invariably followed, of employing disorganiiied, 
trntiained bodies of natives as ttoopa under their own 
leaders, without any proper discipline or controL The 
bravest men in the world would be apt to fiail under 
such circumstances ; while mere bands of imtaught 
savages, unaccustomed to fighting and half-armed, had 
repeatedly proved themselves in former campaigns 
eicellent for running away, but otherwise useless 
except as messengers, servants, and camp-foUowers. 
Added to which there was no possibility of preventing 
euch " troops " as these committing every sort of lawless 
■violence upon the wounded or captured enemy. 

Colonel Dumford's scheme was intended to meet 
both difficulties, and, when laid before the General on 
Ids arrival in Natal, met with his unqualified approvaL 
So much was he struck with it that he was at first 
disposed to entrust the organisation and chief command 
of the entire contingent to one who, by the ability and 
completeness with which he bad worked out the scheme, 
proved himself the fittest person to carry it out, and 
take command of the whole force. But the General 
changed his mind, and decided to divide the native 
contingent amongst the Vfirious columns, the details of 
its distribution being as follows ; 

The Ist Eegiment Natal Native CJontingent of three 
battalions (Commandant Montgomery, Major Bengough, 
and Captain Cheny), and five troops mounted natives 
formed No. 3 Column, commanded by Licut.-ColoneI 
Dumford. 

The 2nd Regiment Natal Native Contingent (two 

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252 THE ZULU WAR. 

battalions, under Major Graves) was attached to No. 1 
Column, commanded by Colonel Pearson. 

The 3rd Regiment Natal Native Contingent {two 
battalions, under Commandant Lonsdale) was attached 
to No. 3 Column, commanded by Colonel Glyn, and 
about two hundred Natal Native Contingent were 
attached to No. 4 Column, commanded by Colonel 
Wood. 

Each battalion of Native Contingent was to consist of 
5 staff and 90 officers and non-commissioned officers 
(white), and 1X0 officers and non-commissioned officers 
and 900 privates (natives) ; the native non-commissioned 
officer being armed with a gun, and being a section- 
leader of 9 men armed with aasegai and shield. 

Lord Chelmsford speaks in various despatches 
(C. 2234) of this Native Contingent in the following 
terms: 

" The Lieut. -Governor, I am happy to say, has 
acceded to the request I made some little time ago 
for the services of six thousand Natal natives. I hope 
to be in a position to equip and officer Uiem very 
shortly" (p. 25). 

"At the time of my arrival in the colony, three 
months ago, these natives possessed no mihtary 
organisation, nor had any arms provided for them by 
Government." 

"The Natal Government have within the last 
fourteen days allowed me to raise and organise seven 
thousand natives for service within or without the 
border " (p. 26). 

" The arrival of these officers (special service officeis 

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THE VLTmATJm AND BEOLARATION OF WAR. 253 

from England) has also enabled me to place Imperial 
officers in command of some of the battalions of native 
levies." . . . 

" The Natal Contingent consiats of three re^ments, 
two of two battalions and one of three " {p. 39). 

** There are in addition five troops of mounted 
natives and three companies of pioueera" . . . 

"The pioneers have been raised, officered, and 
equipped under the orders of the Natal Govemmenti 
imd are now placed at my disposal. The remainder 
of the Contingent have been raised at the cost and under 
the orders of the Imperial authorities " (p. 40). 

In none of his despatches is there mention of any 
Bpeeial officer in connection with this native force, 
bat the following officers were responsible for the 
organisation of the various regiments : No. 1 Regiment 
and mounted contingent, Lieut, -Colonel Durnford, R.R; 
No. 2 Regiment, Major Graves ; No. 3 Regiment, Com- 
mandant Lonsdale. Great difficulties appear to have 
been thrown in the way of the proper equipment, eta 
of the native levies ; but by untiring effort and personal 
determination, better arrangements for pay, clothing, and 
discipline were made for (at all events, a portion of) 
the levy than had been known amongst South African 
troops. The indiscriminate appointment of officers 
caused considerable trouble, illustrative of which we 
may mention an anecdote. Men were repeatedly sent 
to Lieut.-Colonel Durnford with orders from the military 
secretary that they were to receive commissions, some 
of these unfitted by disposition and education for the 
duties reqiiircd of them. A friend has lately furnished 

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254 THE ZX/LU WAR. 

an instance very much to the point. " A young 
feUow came one day to Colonel Dumford &om Ckilonel 
Crealock, who said he had served in tJie Qld colony, 
and boasted that he knew how to make Kafirs fight. 
' How is that ? ' was the inquiry made. ' Oh 1' replied 
the youth, 'just to get behind them with a sjambok 
{ie. whip) — that's the way to do it I' 'All right,' 
replied the Colonel quietly ; ' I have just one piece of 
advice to give you though — make your wUl before yon 
start ! If you're not stabbed by your own men, you will 
deserve it' " 

How successful was the training of the men of the 
2nd Column may lie judged by the behaviour of 
the "Natal Native Horse," a body of mounted men 
(Baauto, Edendale, and Zikali natives) who fought at 
Isandhlwana ; and did right good service throughout 
'the campaign.* He also raised, equipped, and trained 
the three companies of Native Pioneers, organising two 
field-parks, and providing complete bridge equipment 
for crossing the Tugela ; besides preparing, mainly &om 
his own personal observations (having been at Ulundi 
in 1873, and in Zululand on many occasions), the map 
of Zululand in universal use during the campaign, and 
mentioned in despatches as " Dumford's map." 

In reply to Sir Bartle Frere's inquiries as to proposed 

. movements of troops up to Natal, Sir H. Bulwer writes, 

July 18th, 1878, that in his opinion "it is desirable 

* One of Colonel Domford's officers Trrites, January 26th, "that 
ha (the Colonel) had worked so haid at equipping this Katire Con- 
tingent, against mach oppoaition, and toot special pride in hit 
mounted men, thiee hundred men, that be colled ' The ^atal Ifative 

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THE VLTIMATUM AND DECLARATION OF WAB.255 

under the present circumstances, and pending the final 
decision in the matter of the boundary dispute, to avoid 
as much as possible any military demonstration, as liable 
to be misunderstood and to be interpreted as showing 
our intention to settle the question by force. The 
delay, too, that has occurred since the sitting of the 
Commission might be attributed by the Zulu king to 
our desire to make preparations, and it might be 
thought that we were playing false." — (P. P. [C. 2220] 
p. 395). 

And here we may appropriately refer to the opinion 
expressed by the Home Government at a later date. 

Sir M. Hicks-Beach writes to Sir R Freie, 2lBt 
November, 1878 : "I trust that . - . . Cetywayo may 
have been informed that a decision regarding the 
disputed boundary would speedily be communicated 
to him. His complaint that the Lieut-Governor of 
Natal 'is hiding from him the answer that has come 
from across the sea, about the land boundary question^ 
and is only making an excuse for taking time, so as to 
surprise him,' is not altogether an unnatural one for a 
native chief situated in his cirenmstances, who is neces- 
sarily ignorant of much that has passed on this subject, 
and of many of the causes to which the delay is attri- 
butable. But it is a misunderstanding which it should 
be the earnest endeavour of the Government to remove, 
and I am confident that there is no need to impress 
upon you the importance of losing no time in dealing 
with this question or the beneficial efiect which its 
' satisfactory settlement may be expected to have upon 
the strained relations which you describe as now existing 

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256 THE ZULU WAR. 

between the colony of Natal and the Zulu nation/'i. — 
(P. P. [C. 2220] p. 322). 

We must now briefly run through the principal 
points in despatches bearing on the question of 
increasing the military strength in Natal. 

Sir B. Frere, writing from Cape Town on September 
10th, says : " I have consulted General Thesiger on the 
subject. He is very unwilling to ask for reinforcementB 
on the Natal border without the full concurrence of the 
Government of that colony, and I understand that His 
Excellency Sir H. Bulwer is specially anxious that 
nothing should be done in Natal which could possibly 
justify to the Zulu chief the belief that we were pre- 
paring for active hostilities agaioat him. I confess that, 
as at present informed, I very imperfectly comprehend 
the grounds on which the objections of His Excellency 
the Lieut. -Governor, as I understand them, to 
strengthening the Natal frontier are based.* They will 
doubtless be more fully explained when I have the 
advantage of personal communication with him. In 
the meantime I feel quite certain that the preservation 
or speedy restoration of peace will be rendered much 
more certain if General Thesiger had two more battalions 
of Her Majesty's Army within his reach." — (P. P. 
[0. 2220] pp. 282, 283). 

On September 14th, referring to the above despatch. 
Sir B. Frere says he has " since received a telegraphic 
communication from General Thesiger, in which he 
expresses his views In regard to his military require- 
ments in the event of hostilities breaking out with the 
* These words deserve special remark. 

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THE ULTIMATUM AND DECLARATION OF WAS. 257 

Zulus." The General aaks for six more special duty 
officers, and fifteen captains or subalterns for transport 
duties. "General Thesiger cooaiders that an addition 
of two regiments would be essential, and that the 
presence of a cavalry regiment would be of enormous 
advantage " {ibid. p. 254). 

From Durban, Sir B. Frere telegraphs on September 
23rd to Sir M. Hicks- Beach : " I find that the urgency 
of supporting General Thesiger's request is much greater 
even than I supposed. I trust there will be no delay 
in complying with his request to its fullest extent" 
(ibid. p. 255). 

There had been serious and disturbing reporte of 
a Zulu force being assembled on the Tugela Biver, for 
the ostensible purpose of hunting, with reference to 
which Sii H. Bulwer writes to Sir M.. Hicks-Beadi, 
14th September, "on the subject of the gathering of 
a Zulu force within a short distance of our border 
actoss the Tugela. You will learn from these papers 
that the gathering has broken up, and the Zulus 
returned home " (t&tc2. p. 270). 

Sir M. Hicks-Beach, on October 17th, replies to 
Sir B. fWe's despatches of 14th and 23rd September, 
that "arrangements will be made for the early des- 
patch of some additional officers for special duty. Her 
Majesty's GcTemment are, however, not prepared to 
comply with the request for a reinforcement of troops. 
All the information that has hitherto reached them with 
respect to the position of afiairs in Zululand appears 
to them to justify a confident hope that, by the exercise 
of prudence, and by meeting the Zulus in a spirit of 

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258 THE ZUW WAB. 

forbearance and reasonable compromise, it will be 
possible to avert the very serious evil of a war with 
Cetjwayo ; and thej cannot bnt think that the forces 
now at your diqKisal in South Africa, together with the 
additional officers about to be sent, should suffice to 
meet any other emergency that may arise, without a 
further increase to the Imperial troops " (ibid. p. 273). 

On September 30th, Sir B. Frere writes from Pieter^ 
maritzburg : " I regret that I find the position of affairs 
in this colony far more critical even than I expected ;" 
and, after a very exaggerated description of the state of 
affairs, he says : " An attempt of native tribes to com- 
bine to resist the white man and drive him back baa 
been long foreseen. There can be no doubt that this 
design is now in process of attempted execution " (ibid. 
pp. 278-82). . 

Of the truth of this startling assertion, let Sir H. 
Bulwer's despatches, as well as after-events, speak. 

Enclosed in this despatch of Sir B. Frere is General 
Thesiger's memorandum on the military requiremaits, 
and his sketch for a defensive scheme for Natal, for 
which ho requires " 6000 natives, 600 mounted men, 
6 guns, and 3 battaUons of British infantry ; " but he 
remarks : " I cannot, however, conceal from myself that 
security &om invasion depends almost entirely upon the 
forbearance of Cetywayo;" and says, "for defensive 
purposes alone, therefore, Natal and Transvaal colonies 
require 3 battalions of infantry in addition to what 
they have already got" (tfiid. pp. 285, 286). 

In reply, Sir M. Hicks- Beach writes, 2lst November : 
" The several circumstances which you have reported as 

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THE ULTIMATUM AND DECLARATION- OF WAR. 259 

tending to cause an open rupture do not appear, in 
themselves, to present any difficulties which are not 
capable of a peaceful solution. . . . Ou a full review, 
therefore, of all the circumstances reported by you, and 
influenced by the strong representations made by Lord 
Chelmsford as to the insufficiency of his present force 
to ensure the safety of the European residents in Natal 
and the Transvaal, Her Majesty's Government have felt 
themselves justified in directing that further reinforce- 
ments of troops, as well as the additional officers recently 
placed imder orders for special service, should be sent 
oot to Natal, and the necessary steps will at once be 
taken for this purpose. But in conveying to you the 
decision at which, in compliance with your Ttrgent 
representations, Her Majesty's Government have arrived, 
it is my duty to impress upon you that in supplying 
these reinforcements it is the desire of Her Majesty's 
Government not to furnish means for a campaign of 
invasion and conquest, but to afTord such protection as 
may be necessary at this juncture to the lives and 
property of the colonists. Though the present aspect of 
affairs is menacing in a high degree, I can by no means 
arrive at the conclusion that war with the Zulus should 
be unavoidable, and I am confident that you, in concert 
with Sir H. Bulwer, will use every effi)rt to overcome 
the existLDg difficulties by judgment and forbearance, 
and to avoid an evil so much to be deprecated as a Zulu 
war"{i6Mi. pp.320, 321). 

On November 11th, the Lieat -General says that he 
has just been permitted by the Natal Government to 
raise and organise 7000 natives, and ventures "to 

8 2 

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260 TEE ZULU WAS. 

expresB an opinion that the demand for two extra 
battalionB cannot be considered unreasonable even for 
' purely defensive purposes ; " but he goes on to say : " a 
defenaiTe plan, however, cannot be considered as satda- 
jSuitory unless there is the possibility of taking the 
offensive at the right moment. This I am doing my 
best to prepare for; and, so soon as mynative contingent 
is mobilised, I shall be ready, bo far as my limited 
means will allow, to enter Zululand, should such a 
measure become necessary." — (P, P. [C. 2222] p. 19). 

On December 18th, Sir M. Hicks-Beach says: "I 
take thia occasion, however, of reminding you that it is 
the desire of Her Majesty's Government, in sending 
tiieae reinforcements, to assist the local Government as 
far as possible in providing for the protection of the 
settlers in the present emergency, and not to furnish the 
means for any aggressive operations not directly con- 
nected with the defence of Her Majesty's possessions and 
subjects" {ibid, p. 21). 

On December 2nd, Sir B. Frere forwards copies of 
memoranda by Sir T. Shepstone and Mr. Brownlee, in 
which the former proposes measures which " involve the 
extinction of the Zulu power as it now is, and tiie 
attempt to adopt them must, if decided upon, be made 
with the knowledge that the Zulu chief will oppose 
them, whatever course the headmen and common people 
may adopt" {ibid. p. 134). 

Mr. Brownlee says plainly : "The time has arrived 
for decisive action ; we will never again have so favour- 
able an opportunity as the present ; if it ia lost, sooner or 
later we will be taken at a disadvantage " {ibid. p. 138). 

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TffE ULTUUTUM AND DECLARATION OF WAB. 261 

On December 10th, Sir B. Frere unites to Sir M. 
Hicks-Beach : " The chance of avoiding war under such 
circumstaneeB by any ezerciae of prudence, or by meet- 
ing the ZoluB in a spirit of forbearance or reasonable 
compromifw, may depend upon oorselTeB or upon the 
Zulus, or upon the natuie of the issues pending between 
us. . . . Can we then rest on an armed truce ? . . . 
After the most anxious consideration, I can arriTe at no 
other conclusion than that it is impossible to evade the 
necessity for now setUing this Zulu question thoroughly 
and finally .... there is clearly no possibility of now 
evading bringing matters to an issue with the Zulus" 
(ibid. pp. 183-86). 

On the 23rd January, 1879, Sir M. Hicks-Beach 
acknowledges the receipt of Sir B. Frere's despatches 
containing " the demands with which Cel^'wayo has been 
called upon to comply, together with your own descrip- 
tions of the situation with whi(^ yon have to deal, as well 
as other very important memoranda by Sir H. Bulwer, 
Sir T. Shepstone, and Mr. Brownlee," and says, " I may 
observe that the communications which had previously 
been received from you had not entirely prepared them" 
(Her Majesty's Government) "for the course which you 
have deemed it necessary to take. The representations 
made by Lord Chelmsford and yourself last autumn as to 
the urgent need of strengthening Her Majesty's forces 
in South A&ica were based upon the imminent danger of 
an invasion of Natal by the Zulus, and the inadequate 
means at that time at your disposal for meeting it. In 
order to afford protection to the lives and property of the 
colonists, the reinforcements asked for were supplied, 

Dig-izedtyGoOgle 



262 TUB ZULU WAR. 

foid, in mforming you of the decision of Her Majesty's 
GoTemment, I took the opportunity of impressing upon 
yon the importance of using every effort to avoid war. 
But the terms which you have dictated to the Zuln 
king, however necessary to relieve the colony in future 
firom an impending and increasing danger, are evidently 
such as he may not improbably refuse, even at the risk 
of war ; and I regret that the necessity for immediate 
action should have appeared to you so imperative as t» 
preclude you &om incurring the delay which would have 
been involved in consulting Her Majesty's Government 
upon a subject of so much importance as the terms which 
Cetywayo should bo required to accept before those 
terms were actually presented to the Zulu king " (ibid. 
pp. 187, 188). 

The preliminary arrangements for the campaign were 
the formation of four columns, with sufficient transport, 
etc. to enter Zululand at different points, and concentrate 
on Ulundl 

No. 1 Column, Colonel Pearson, to assemble on the 
Lower Tugela, garrison Fort Pearson, and cross and 
encamp on the Zulu side, under the protection of the 
guns of the fort. 

This Column at first was composed of 2 guns Royal 
Artillery, 1 company Eoyal Engineers, 2nd Battalion 
" The Bufis," 99th Begiment. Naval Brigade (2 guns 
and 1 Gatling), 1 squadron Mounted Infantry, about 200 
Natal Volunteers, 3nd Regiment Natal Native Contingent 
(2 battalions), and 1 company Natal Native Pioneers. 

No. 2 Column, Lieut-Colonel Dnmford, R.E, to 
cover the Tugela, and co-operate with Colonel Pearson, 

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TBE VLTIilATVU AND DECLARATION OF WAR. 263 

was almost entirely composed of natives. Its streogth, 
arocket battery, Ist Regiment (3 battalions) Natal Native 
Contingent, 315 "Natal Native Horse," and I company 
Natal Native Pioneers. 

Na 3 Column, Colonel Glyn, C.B., to cross at Rorke's 
Drift, when the time granted the Zulu king had expired. 
"On the advance being ordered," it would "require 
two days for this column to reach a good military 
position ;" and it was to keep up communications " with 
the columns on the lefb and right." Strength of column, 
6 guns Royal Artillery, I squadron Mounted In&ntry, 
l-24th Regiment, 2-24th Regiment, about 200 Natal 
Volunteers, 150 Mounted Police, and Srd Regiment (2nd 
Battalion) Natal Native Contingent, alao one company 
Natal Native Pioneers. A company of Royal Engineers 
was ordered to join this column. 

No. 4 Colnmn, Colonel Wood, V.C, C.R, to advance 
to the Blood River. Strength, 6 guns Royal Artillery, 
1— 13th Regiment, 90th Regiment, Frontier Light Horse, 
some 200 Native Contingent ; and a small Dutch force 
was expected to join this coliunn. 

A dth Column (which had been operating against 
Sekukuni) was under the command of Colonel Rowlands, 
V.C, C.6., composed of the 80th Regiment, thiee guns, 
and mounted irregulars. 

The strength of the columns is given as ; 





lmiWTi.1 NMin 
OtiUaillnavt. Oat^t. 


Ondnclori 

ud 

Dnrtn. 


WigKouandCutt. 


No. 1 Colmnn 


... 1872 ... 2256 . 


.. 238 ... 


266 (144 hired) 


., s „ 


5 ... 3488 . 


.. 84 ... 


30 


., 3 .. 


... 1747 ... 2666 , 


... 293 ... 


233 ( 82 „ ) 


„ * .. 


... 1843 ... 387 


... 162 ... 


102 ( 21 „ ) 


» * .. 


... 1202 ... 338 . 


... 26 ... 


6a( 60 „ ) 



D„„.db,Google' 



264 TEE ZULU WAR, 

Forming a grand total of 

Impaiial Matlra 

■nd Oon- Condncton, tte. 

Oakmlal Itoopt. ttBgrnA. 

6669 ... 9035 ... 802 ... 693 (of vhidi 297 wen hind) 

with about 1200 horses belonging to cavaliy, etc., and 
691 horses, 361 mules, and 5231 ozen. In addition, 
there were the conductors, drivra^ etc., and 4572 ozen 
of the hired waggons. 

The columns to operate on the following bases and 
lines: 

ITo. 1. Durban — Lower Tngelo. 
„ 2. I^etennaritzbiug, Gxeytown — Uiddle Drift (Tugela). 
„ 3. I^rsmith— Bork«'a Drift (Buffalo Kirer). 
„ 4. Newcastle — UtMoht — Blood Eiver. 
„ 6. Middleburg — ^Derbj — Pongolo Biver. 

Ulundi being the objective point of the force. 

In place of any urgent necessity for commeudng the 
war, putting political questions on one side, tiiere were 
strong military reasons for postponing it 

Sir Bartle Frere, in his despatch of 30th June, 1879 
(P. P. [C. 2454] p. 137), seeks to prove that the time of 
moving across the border was "well chosen," and 
accorded with information received, yet l^e &ct remains 
that advice was given that the most favourable time for 
military operations in Zululand was between the periods 
of summer rains and winter grass-fires — i.e. the months 
of March, April, and May. In spite of Sir Bartle 
Frere's pleas, we must hold that no competent " mUitaiy 
critic " would recommend invading an enemy's country 
during the rainy season, when rivers are in flood, plains 
in many cases marshes, and roads almost impassable ; 

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THE VLTIMATVM AND DECLARATION OF WAS. 265 

especially if the invading forces wen required to move 
with a ponderous waggon-train. 

Lord Chelmfiford himself proves the case : he writes 
(January 12th) on the day after crosBing the bord^ : 
" The country is in a terrible state from the rain, and I 
do not know how we shall manage to get our wagons 
across the valley near Sirayo's kraals." — (P. F. [C. 2242] 
p. 43). 

And again on January 14th, &om the headquarter 
camp, Zululand, near Horke's Drift, he writes : " Between 
this camp and Greytown alone, a distance of some 
sevMity miles, three rivers are now impassable, and 
wagons have to cross by ferries, a laborious opera- 
tion requiring more skilled labour than we at present 
have available. 

" The road at various points requires the moat 
constant supervision, and in some parts the heavy rain 
frequently dislodges huge boulders from the hill-sides 
overhangiug the roadway, and in many places water- 
courses become torrents after an hour's rain. 

" Beyond this camp towards the Izipezi Hill (my 
first objective point) the road will require great labour 
to make it passable ; but strong working-parties have 
already been at work. The transport difficulties are 
augmented by the great mortality in oxen ; this is 
inevitable, but it will probably decrease in a few weeks' 
time " {ibid. p. 47). 

It is believed that the first project of operationa was 
to advance in three lines on Ulundi — frH3m the Lower 
Tugela, Rorke's Drift, and Blood Biver — the columns to 
move forward by short marches, entrenching strongly 

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266 THE ZULU WAR. 

at each halting-place, doing no injtuy to the Zulu 
people, aud thus inducing them to submit quietly. 
Thia wise and consistent idea was unfortunatdy never 
even attempted. 

On the 8th January, 1879, Lord Chelmsford writes : 
" AU the reports which reach me tend to show fhat the 
Zulus intend, if possible, to make nuds into Katal* when 
the several columns move forward. . . . The strength 
of the three columns, Nos. 1, 3, and 4, is only just 
sufficient to enable them to advance." — (P. P. [C. 2242] 
p. 26). 

The directions for the various columns were, briefly 
— No. 1. To cross the Tugela at Fort Pearson and 
encamp on the Zulu side ; when ordered to advaace, to 
move on Etahowe, and there, or in its neighbourhood, 
to form a depfit, well entrenched. 

No. 2. To form a portion of No. 1 Column, but act 
separately, reporting to Colonel Pearson ; to remain on 
the Middle Tugela frontier till an advance ia ordered, 
and Colonel Pearson has reached Etshowe. 

The defence of the frontier was to rest with the 
Colonial Qovemment ; but on the 8th January the 
General altered the instructions for No. 2 Column, and 
directed two-thirds of it to move up to the Sand Spruit 
Valley for the protection of the Umsinga border, and to 
operate in conjunction with No. 3 Column. The third 
battalion to remain at Middle Drift. 

No. 3 Column to cross at Borke's Drift when the 
thirty days expired; to move forward and form an 

* After-erente piored the fidlacy of these " leportB." Even vhen 
tlw Zolua could hare swept NRtal with fatftl affect, the; la&uiad. 

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THE ultimatum: and DEOLASATION of war. 267 

advanced depAt, atrongly entrenched, as found advisable 
from the nature of the country, etc. To aflsist in clear- 
ing the border south-east of Rorke's Drift, and to keep 
up conununication with the columns on left and right 

No. 4 Column to advance to the Blood River. 
*' The civil authorities on the border will take every care 
to warn the Zulus Uiat our first advance need not be 
deemed hostile, but that no collection of armed natives 
in the vicinity of our forces can be permitted ; no act on 
our part to unnecessarily bring on hostilities should be 
permitted."— (P. P. [C. 2222] p. 223). 

In &e event of a fiurther advance, the advanced 
dep6t of this column to be near the intersection of the 
roads from Utrecht to Ulundi, and Borke's Dn£t to 
Swaziland; but "to delay its advance toward the 
Umvolosi River until the border is cleared, and to 
move in a southerly direction towards Colonel Glyn's 
column to assist it against Sirayo." — (P. P. [C. 2242] 
pp. 27, 28). 

On January 11th, the General met Colonel Wood, 
and arranged with him that he should " occupy himself 
with the tribes in his front and left flank," till the 
Genial was "ready to advance to Izipezi Hill" {ibid. 
p. 42). 

By this unfortunate change of plan, the left of No. 3 
Column was exposed, of which the Zulus took fatal 
advantage. 

We must now return to Sir Bartle Krere, who, 
considering that he had " eihausted all peaceable means 
for obtaining redress for the past, and security for the 
future," " by a notification dated the 4th of January, 

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268 THE ZULU WAM. 

1879, placed in tlie haiicU of lient-General . Lord 
Chelmaford, K.C.B., commaDding Her Majesty's forces 
in South A&ica, the further enforcement of all demands;" 
and remarks, " it only lemains for us to await the issue 
with perfect confidence in the justice of our cause. 
The contest has not been proroked by the British 
Government. That GoTemment has done its beat to 
avoid war by every means consistent with honour." 
An absolute truth as r^ards the Home Government. 
" That " Government, as Sir B. Frere cleverly remarks, 
"had done its beat to avoid war," and did not see the 
necessity, or, at all events, the immediate necessity, 
of that war into which ita servant, contrary to its 
instructions, plunged it 

The period allowed to Cetshwayo having expired, 
on the 11th January, 1879, the following notification 
was published in both English and Zulu : 

NOTIFICATION. 

January Utk, 1879. 

The Erititli forces aie crossiiig into Znloland to exact from 
OetyvaTO repsiatioD for Tiolations at Eritish territory canumtted by 
the sons of Sirayo and otlien ; and to enforce compliance with the 
pTomisea, made hy Cetywayo at his coronation, for the better govern- 
ment of hia people. 

The British Government haa no quarrel vrith the Zulu people. 
All Zulus vho come in unarmed, or irho lay dovn their arms, irill 
be provided for till the troubles of their country are over ; and will 
then, if tiiey please, be allowed to return to their ovm land ; but all 
who do not so submit will be dealt with as enemies. 

When the war is finished, the British GorenimeDt will make 
the be«t arrangements in its power for the future good government of 
tiie Zulus in their own country, in peace and quietness, and will not 
permit Hk killing and oppression they have suffered from Cetjwayo 
to eontinue. -^ H. B. E. Fbebx, 



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THE ULTIMATUM AND DEOLABATION OF WAR. 269 

(This is followed by a translation in the Zulu 
language.) 

" This," Sir B. Frere says, is " a message to the Zulu 
population which the General will make as widely known 
as possible."— (P. P. [C. 2242] p. 24). 

On December 29th, Mr. Fynney/Border Agent, writes 
at the request of the Lieut-General Commanding to 
the Lieut -Governor of Natal that the General " has 
taken the opportunity offered by the return of Sintwangu 
and Umpepa to send the following message to the Zulu 
king: 

" ' That, in the event of the cattle demanded as a 
fine, together with Sirayo's sona and brother, not being 
delivered before the expiration of the time allowed, Her 
Majesty's troops will occupy Zulu territory without delay. 

" ' 2. That no forward movement into Zululand will 
be made till the expiration of the thirty days; but 
at the end of that time, if all the demands are not 
complied with, the troops will advance. 

" ' 3. That such advance will not be directed agtunst 
the Zulu nation, but against the king, who has broken 
the promises he made at his coronation. So that in the 
event of hostilitieB, all Zulu subjects willing to lay down 
their arms, and wishing to take refuge in British 
territory, will be fed and protected till such time as 
peace is restored, when they will be at liberty to return 
to their homes ; but that all who remain in Zululand 
will be considered as enemies. 

" ' 5. That these are His Excellency's instructions, 
which he intends to carry out to the best of his ability.' " 
(P. P. [C, 2308] p. 39). 

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270 TEE ZULU WAR 

On the 11th January, Lord CheliUBford, with No, 3 
Column, crossed the Buffalo River at Rorke's Drift, the 
infantiy crossing on a barrel-raft, a pact, and a small 
boat ; the cavaliT^ and natives by a ford lower down the 
river. The force encamped in the Zulu country where 
it crossed. 

The Genoal, with the cavalry, rode to the left to 
meet Colonel Wood — commanding No. 4 Coliunn, which 
was at Bemba's Kop — about thirty-five miles off. They 
met about halfway. Colonel Wood, on his return, com- 
menced operations against the Zulus by seizing some 
2000 cattle belonging to Inkomi and Sihayo, the Zulus 
only making "a show of resistauce." In addition to 
this. Colonel Wood reports, on the 13th January, that he 
had also captured 2000 or 3000 head of cattle from the 
Sondolosi tribe, and on the same day an attack was 
made on a petty chief, Mbuna, whose men refused to 
disarm, and seven Zulus were killed. — (P. P. [C. 2242] 
p. 45). 

Colonel Wood crossed the Blood River on the 6th 
January, and here we must leave Na 4 Column for the 
present. 

No. 1 Column had some difficulty in effecting the 
passage of the Tugela, the river being in flood. The 
fortunes of this column will be followed in a future 
chapter. 

Colonel Dumford, No. 2 Column, reported to the 
General (on his return to camp on the 11th) that the 
country in his front was quite quiet He then returned 
to his command widi further instructtons as to its dis- 
poution, when " he and the mounted men and rocket 

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THE nLTIMATirU AND DECLARATION OF WAB. 271 

battery were to join me with No. 3 Column," writes the 
General on January 14th.— (P. P. [C. 2242] p. 47). 

On the 11th, the General writes: "Both Colonel 
Wood and Major Eossell took a good number of Sirayo's 
cattle this morning, which we found quietly grazing 
along our line of advance." And again : " Several 
hondred head of cattle, etc. were taken by Nos. 3 and 4 
Columns on the 11th. This I considered desirable on 
pditic^ grounds, aa they all belonged to Usirayo, as 
well ae from military necessities " {ibid. pp. 43-46). It 
is rather difl&cult to reconcile this commencement of 
operations with the words " The British Government has 
no quarrel with the Zulu people ; " or with the General's 
message to the Zulu king (through Mr. Fynney, Border 
Agent, and the Zulu messengers Sintwangu and Umpepa, 
December 29th, 1878) .... "if all the demands are 
not complied with the troops will advance. That such 
advance will not be directed against the Zulu nation, but 
against the King. . . ."—(P. P. [C. 2308] p. 39). 

On the 12th January, No. 3 Column first came 
into contact with the Zulus. The General made a 
reconnaissance in the Bashi Valley and towards Izipezi 
HilL Sihayo's people were seen driving the cattle to the 
shelter of the hills, " as, however," the General says, " it 
is well known that we had made a distinct demand for 
the punishment of the sons of this chief, and that his 
clan was one of the bravest and most warlike of the Zulu 
nation, I considered it very desirable to punish them at 
once by capturing theur cattle." 

The Ingqutu Mountain was occupied by infantry, when 
" a fire was opened upon them by the Zulus, who were 

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272 IBB ZULF WAB. 

occnpying very strong positions in the caves and rocks 
above. " An officer present states that the actual first shot 
was &om the side of the British, but this is not of great 
importance, as it is impossible to imagine the Zulus 
could have been expected to look calmly on, whilst their 
cattle were being captured. After about half-an-hour's 
fight the cattle and horses were ttJcen, The monnted 
force was likewise engaged higher up the mountain. 
Our loss, 2 Native Contingent killed and 12 wounded. 
The loss inflicted on the enemy, 30 killed, 4 wounded, 
and 10 prisoners ; the cattle, etc. taken, 13 horses, 
413 cattle, 332 goats, and 235 sheep.— (P. P. [C. 2242] 
pp. 47, 48). 

These first steps in Zululand have been given in con- 
siderable detail, as they afford much food for reflection 
on the contrast between " words " and " deeds." 



izedtyGOO^IC 



CHAPTER Xni. 

ISANDHLWAKA. 

Havino crossed into Zululond, the " difGcoIties .... in 
the way of those who are endeavouring to move for- 
ward into an enemy's country, over tracts which have 
never been traversed, except by a very few traders' 
waggons,"* began to declare themselves; and Lord 
Chelmsford remarks, January 16th : "No. 3 Column at 
Rorke's Drift cannot possibly move forward even eight 
miles until two swamps, into which our waggons sank 
up to the body, have been made passable. This work will 
occupy us for at least four days, and we shall find 
similar obstades in front of us in every march we are 
anzions to make." 

We find Lord Chelmsford, on January 27th, stating . 
" The country is far more difficult than I had been led 
to expect, and the labour of advancing with a long 
train of waggons is enormous. It took seven days' 
hard work, by one half of No. 3 Column, to make the 
ten miles of road between Borke's Drift and Insalwana 
Hill practicable, and even then had it rained hard I 

* Loid Chelnufoid, Juaaiy 16tli, 1879. (P. P. [C. 2263] p. 6S.) 



D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



274 THE ZULU WAM. 

' feel sure that the convoy could not have gone on. 
The line of communication is very much exposed, and 
would require a party of mounted men always patrolling, 
and fixed intrenched posts of infantry at intervals of 
about ten miles."— (P. P.— C. 2252). 

Under these circumstances we can only wonder that 
the advance with cumbersome trains of wagons was 
undertaken, and the apparent want of knowledge of 
the invaded country is almost equally surprising. All 
previous experience goes to prove that a general moving 
in an enemy's country with his " impedimenta " should 
form a defensible camp at every halt ; and this Lord 
Chelmsford apparently recognised when he promulgated 
the " Regulations for Field Forces in South Africa ;" 
but we shall find how fatally he neglected the most 
ordinary precautions. 

A hint for the advance might well have been taken 
from Sir Garnet "Wolseleys campaign in Ashantee, and 
the various columns moved on Ulundi — about eighty 
miles — in the lightest possible order, and without a 
ponderous waggon train. Rapid movement was t^e 
more imperatively necessary, the enemy being in force, 
and able to make most rapid concentratdona Guns 
(7-pounders) could have been moved over very difficult 
ground with comparative ease, and even carried along 
piecemeal if necessary. 

The strangeness of the situation is shown plainly in 
Lord Chelmsford's despatch of the 16th January, written 
at Rorke's Drift — on the very borders of Zululand— at 
the very outset of the war. Having spoken of " diffi- 
culties " (as already quoted), he says : " Acoeptiitg Uie 

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ISANDHLWANA. 275 

attoation, thoefore, it remains for me to determine what 
modification of the plan of campaign at first laid down 
will be necessary." ffia idea still is to drive, "as far aa 
possible, all the Zulus forwml towards the norUi-east. 
part of their country," and " with Nos. 1, 2, and 3 
Colnmna, to thoroughly clear or subjugate the country 
.... by means of expeditions made by those columns 
from certain fixed positions," and this, he hopes, will 
"have the effect of removing any dangerously large 
body from the Natal borders." Colonel Wood, with 
No. 4 Column, to act independently. " By these move- 
ments," he continues, " I hope to be able to clear that 
portion of Zululand which ia utuated south of the 
Umhlatoosi River ; " and remarks that Cetshwayo will be 
obliged " to keep his army mobilised, and it is certain 
that his troops will have difficulty in finding sufficient 
food. If kept inactive, they will become dangerous to 
himself; if ordered to attack us, they will be playing 
our game." 

How these plans answered, one week sufficed to show. 

The first step in advance from Rorke's Drift was to 
push forward four companies of the 2-24th Regiment, a 
battalion of Natal Native Contingent, and a detachment of 
Natal Native Pioneers 'into the Bashi Valley on the 14th 
January, for the purpose of repairing the road. This 
detachment remained encamped there until the 20th, 
five miles from the remainder of the column at Rorke's 
Drift, and with no attempt at " laager " or other defence, 
Lord Chelmsford did not see the need of precaution, 
and his instructions to the officer in command were, 
" Use the bayonet " if a night attack took place. 

t2 

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276 TEE ZULU WAR. 

On the 17th the General made a reconnaissaDce as 
far aa Isaodhlwana ; and on January 20th No. 3 Column 
moved from Rorke's Drift and Baahi Valley, to the spot 
selected for the camp to the east of Isandhlwana Hill. 
The post at Rorke's Drift (where the Buffalo was crossed) 
— of vital importance to the safety of the column — - 
was left with a garrison of one company of l-24th. 
Regiment, hut without any attempt whatever at 
entrenchment; nor were any defensive precautions 
taken at Helpmakaar, the store depdt in Natal, twelve 
miles from Rorke's Drift. The march to Isandblwana 
was accomplished " without much difficulty," but " half 
a battalion 2-24th was obliged to halt short of this 
camp owing to the oxen being fatigued." They 
bivouacked for the night in the open. 

The position of the camp is thus described : "At the 
spot where our road crossed ... we had a small kopje 
on the right, and then about fifty yards to our left rises 
abruptly the Isandblwana Mountain . . . entirely unap- 
proachable from the three sides nearest us, but on the 
farther, viz. that to the north, it slopes more gradually 
down, and it is there connected with the large range of 
hills on our left with another broad neck of land. We 
just crossed over the bend, Uien turned sharp to the 
left, and placed our camp facing the valley, with the 
eastern precipitous side of the mountain behind us, 
leaving about a mile of open country between our left 
flank and the hills on our left, the right of the camp 
extending across the neck of land we had just eonie 
over, and resting on the base of the small kopje 
described beforehand." 

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.I8JNI>HLWANA. 277 

The camp was formed in the following order from 
left to right : 2-3rd Natal Native Oontingent, l-3rd 
Natal Native Contingent, 2-24th Regiment, Royal 
Artillery, moimted troopa, and l-24th Regiment. 
" The wagons wen all placed between tLe camp 
and the hill at the back, and behind them, imme- 
diately against its base, the bead-quarters' tents were 
pitched with their waggons beside them." . . • . " Not a 
single step was taken in any way to defend our new 
position in case of a night or day attack from the 
enemy." * 

On the same day (20th) the General reconnoitred 
on the " waggon- track, which skirts Inhlazatye Mountain, 
as far as a place called Matyana's Stronghold," at a 
distance of about twelve miles, but saw nothing of the 
enemy. "Not having time to properly examine the 
country round this peculiar stronghold," the General 
ordered that next day two separate parties should move 
out from the camp at an early hour ; one of mounted 
men under Major Dartnell to reconnoitre on the road 
he had taken, whilst two battalions of Native Contingent 
under Commandant Lonsdale worked round the Malakata 
Mountain : the orders being that these officers were to 
effect a communication on the Inhlazatye range, and 
then return to camp.— (P. P. [C. 2252] pp. 74, 75). 

At about ten o'clock the Zulus were found in force 
by the mounted men ; the contingent being on a range 
of hills distant about fiv^ milea The enemy appeared 
anxious to fight, but Major Dartnell did not think it 
prudent to engage without supports. The Zulus occupied 
* Captain IT. Newman. 

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278 mE ZULU WAS. 

a large kloof, and whenever the mounted men ap- 
proached they came out in large nombers. A Hmall 
hodj were sent up close, under Mr. Mansel, to try and 
make the Zulus show their force, when they advanced 
throwing out the " horns," and tried to soironnd the 
par^, following them down into the open, where Major 
Dartnell and the remainder of the mounted troops were. 
The whole then retired and joined the contingent, about 
three miles from Ike kloof 

In the evening, says Major Clery, " a message arrived 
iiom Major Dartnell that the enemy was in considerahle 
force in his neighbourhood, and that he and Commandant 
Lonadale would bivouac out the night," which they were 
permitted to do.* 

The wisdom c£ this may be doubted, as the Native 
Contii^iit seemed particularly liable to alarm ; twice 
they " were seized with panic, rushing about every- 
where, the night being very dark. They knocked us 
down," writes an officer, " and stampeded our horaes, 
causing the greatest confusion. If the Zulus bad come 
on we should all have been cut to pieces." 

" That night Major Dartnell sent off messengers to 
Lord Chelmsford that he had marked the Zulus down in 
a kloo^ and asked for two companies of in£antry to be 
sent, out aa a support, and that he would attack tibe 
Zulus in the morning." 

Major Glery says : t "About 1.80 A.U. on the 22nd, a 
messenger brought me a note irom Major Dartuell to 
say t^at the enemy was in greater numbers than when 

* Some ZuIoB (a chief lumed Gendama, tnd othen) came into tlw 
camp on the 21st^ saw the General, and were allowed to depaii — 
(P. P. [C. 2454] p. 182). 

t P. P. (C. 2260) p. 81. .- I 



ISAimSLWANA. 27d 

lie laat reported, and that he did not think it prudent to 
attack unless reinforced by two or three companies of 
the 24th Begiment. The General ordered ^e 2nd 
Battalion 24th Kegiment, &e Mounted Infantry, and 
loor guns, to be under arms at once to man^" The 
Natal Native Pioneers, about 50 strong, accompanied 
the force, which " marched out &om the camp as soon 
as there was light enough to see the road." Lieut.- 
Colonel Pulleine, l-24th Kegiment, was instructed to 
take "command of the camp during the absence of 
Colonel 61yn " — the force left with him consisting 
of 5 companies l-24th and 1 company 2-24th Regi- 
ment ; 2 guns Boyal Artilleiy ; about 20 Mounted In- 
£uitry and Volunteers ; 30 Natal Carbineers, 31 Mounted 
Police, and 4 companies Natal Native Contingent. 
An Older was also despatched to Colonel Dniuford 
(at Sorke's Drift) to move up to laandhlwana. Lieut- 
Colonel Pnlleine's instmctions for the defence of the 
camp were, briefly, to draw in his " line of defence " 
and "infantiy outposts," but to keep his cavalry vedettes 
" still far advanced."* We may here note that the only 
country searched was that direct to the front and right 
fix>nt — the direction otihe waggon-traek — although it is 
stated " the Lieut. -General had himself noticed mounted 
men in one direction (our left front) on the 2lBt, and in 
this diiectioD he had intended to make a reconnaissance, " 
(P. P. [C. 2260] p. 99). 

After the departure of the advance column nothing 
unusual occurred in camp until between seven and eight 
o'clock, when it was reported from the advanced picquet 
(on the Ingqutu range of hills, about 1600 yards to t^e 

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380 THE ZVLJJ WAR. 

north) that a body of the enemj could be seen approach- 
ing from the north-east : and variouB small bodies were 
afterwards seen. Lieut. -Colonel PuUeine got his men 
tinder arms, and sent a written message off to head- 
quarters that a Zulu force had appeared on the lulls 
on his left &ont This was received "between 9.30 
and 10 A.if." 

Colonel Dumford received the General's order when 
on an expedition into Natal to obtain waggons, but at 
once returned to Borke's Drift, and marched for 
Isandhlwana. Lieutenant Chard, RR, who had ridden to 
camp for orders, "met Colonel Dumford about a quarter 
of a mile &om the camp at the head of his mounted men " 
abont 10.30 A.M., and told him the' troops were in column 
outside the camp, and Zulus showing " on the crest of 
the distant hills," "several parties" working round so 
far to the left that he " was a&aid they might be going 
to make a dash at the Drift." He took orders to Major 
Russell to hurry up with the rocket battery, to detach a 
company of Sikali men to protect the baggage, and for 
all to " look out to the left." 

Colonel Dumford reached the camp, and rec^ved 
all the information Lieut-Colond FuUeine could afford, 
finding the situation to be : — Lonsdale's natives on out- 
post duty on the hUls to the left, the guns in position 
on the left of the camp, and the infantry under anus. 
The oxen were driven into camp and — Mr. Brickloll 
says — tied to the yokes, but not inspanned. Constant 
reports were coming in from the hilla to the left — 
"The enemy are in force behind the hUls." "The 
enemy are in three columna" " One column is moving 

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laANB^LWANA.. 281 

to the left rear, and one towards the General" " The 
enemy are retiring in every direction." The enemy's 
force was given at 400 to 600. 

On hearing these reports, Colonel Dumford sent one 
troop Natal Native Horse to reinforce hia baggage 
guard; two troops to the hills to the left (under 
Captains 6. Shepstone and Barton) — one to move along 
the creet of the range, one to search t^e valley beyond 
— and determined himself to go out to the front " and 
prevent the one column joining the ■ impi,' which was 
BOpposed at that time to be engaged with the troops 
under the General;" he asked Lieut. -Colonel PuUeine 
for two companies of the 24th, to which Colonel 
Pulleiue replied, "that two companies could ill be 
spared, but that if Colonel Dumford ordered them, of 
course they should go." On consideration, Colonel 
Dumford decided only to take his own men,* and 
moved out with his remaining two troops Natal Native 
Horse, followed by Major Russell's rocket battery, with 
its escort of a company of Native Contingent, under 
Captain Nourse. 

A company l-24th, under Lieutenant Cavaye, was 
sent out as a picquet to the bills about 1200 yards north 
of l^e camp, and the remainder of the troops dismissed 
to their private pwades, where the men were to lie 
down in readiness to turn out if required. At this 

* " There were no high worda," Lieutenant Cochrano aaya, of any 
kind between the colonels, aa some would lead the public to BUppoee. 
The above remaika are taken from lieutenant Cochtane's accoimt 
of what passed ; and he says : " I think no one lives who was present 
doling the conversation but myself ; so that anything said contradictory 
to my statement is invented." 

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282 THE ZULU WAR. 

time there was no expectation of an attack darmg tiie 
day, and no idea had been foTmed regarding the 
probable strength of the enemy.* 

The two troops sent on the hills to the left "to 
aacertain the enemy's moTements," had proceeded 
"about five miles from the camp," when "the Zulu 
army came forward, advancing straight on towaids the 
camp." Captain Shepstone ordered a retreat on t^e 
camp, and himself rode in with the warning that the 
"whole Zulu army was advancing to attack it."t 
Captain Shepstone met Captain Gardner on reaching 
the camp, and both of&cers then went to Colonel 
Pulleine, but, saya Captain Gardner, the enemy were 
" already on the hill on our left in lai^e nmnberB." 

Colonel Dumford, having despatched his two troops 
to the left, had moved out to the front at a canter, fol- 
lowed at a foot's pace by the rocket battery, eta About 
five miles out, a trooper rode down from the hills on the 
left, and reported an immense " impi " behind the hills, 
and tdmost immediately the Zulus appeared in force 
in front and on the left, in skirmishing order, ten or 
twelve deep, with supports close behind. They opened 
fire at about 800 yards, and advanced very rapidly. 
Colonel Dumford retired a little way — to a donga — and 
extended his men, then fell back, keeping up a steady 
fire, for about two miles, J when he came upon the 
remains of the rocket battery, which (it appeared) had 
turned to the left on hearing firing on the hilla, be«i 

* Captain Eaaex, 7fith Begiment 

t Lieutenant Baw, "Saltal. ITatiTe Eone. 

X Lieutenant Cochrane, 32nd Begiment. 

Dig-izedtyGoOgle 



I8ANDHLWANA. 283 

cut otf, and broken up. Fighting waa still going on 
here, but the Zulus were speedily driven back. 

Colonel Dutnford retired slowly ou the camp, dis- 
puting every yard of ground, until he reached a donga 
about 800 yards in&ont of the right of the camp; there, 
prolonging the line of the camp troops, and the right 
being reinforced by between thirty and forty mounted 
men, under Captain Bradstreet, a stand was made. 

"This gully," Mr. Brickhill, interpreter to Na 3 
Column, says, " the motmted force held most tenaciously, 
every shot appearing to take efiFect," and with the havoc 
caused by the guns, " a thousand Zulu dead must have 
laid between the conical hill and the gully. They lay 
just like peppercorns upon the plain." 

The two troops of native horse sent to reconnoitre 
the Ingqutu Hills, retired fighting before the enemy in 
good order "to a crest in the neck which joiua 
Sandhlwana to Ingqutu. I^eaving their horses well 
sheltered here, they held this crest splendidly, keeping 
up a steady galling fire." * They were eventually com- 
pelled to retire, with the loss of Captain G. Shepston&t 

We must now consider what had taken place at the - 
camp. All was quiet till about twelve o'clock, when 
firing was heard on the hill where the company on 
picquet waa stationed ; the troops were immediately 
turned out and formed on the left &ont of the camp. 
About this time Captain Gardner, 14th Hussars, arrived 
with an order &om the General, addressed to Lieut- 
* ICr. Brickhill. 

t HBTing disengaged bis men. Captain G. Shepetone said : " I must 
go and see vbere mj Chief is," and rode in again. His deTotion cost 

tiim t>i« life. 

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284 THE ZVW WAR. 

Colonel Fulleiiie, " to send on the camp equipage and 
supplies of the troops camping out, and to remain him- 
self at his present camp and entrench it"* Captain 
G. Shepstone reached the ctunp with hb warning about 
the same time. Colonel Pulleine decided it was 
impossible to cany out the General's order, as the 
enemy were already in great force on the hills to the 
lefL Captain G^ardner sent off a message to head- 
quarters, saying that '* our left was attadted by about 
ten thousand of the enemy. A message was also sent 
by Colonel Pulleine." 

One company (Captain Mostyn's) was moved up to 
support the picguet ; the enemy distant about 800 yards, 
moving "towards our left." Orders to retire were 
received almost immediately, and the whole retired 
to the foot of the slope, the enemy rushing forward to 
the crest of the hill as our men disappeared. Captain 
Younghusband's company was at this time in echelon 
on the lefLt 

The guns came into action about 100 yards on 
the left front of the camp, "where they were able 
to throw shells into a large mass of the enemy that 
remained almost stationary about 3400 yards off."J 

The three advanced companies of ^e 24th retired 
on the main body, when the situation was this : The two 
guns and the whole of the 24th in line, about 300 
yards &om the left front of the camp ; the' natives 
took post on the right of the 24th; then came 
Dumford's Basutos ; and the extreme right was formed 

* Captain Gudnei. t Captain Eaaex. 

% Lieotenant Cuiluig, E.A. 

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J8ANBSLWANA. 285 

by about forty mounted Europeans* — ^the force holding 
the only position that afforded any shelter, viz. broken 
ground and a "donga" in front of the camp; the 
infantry " in good position among the stones and 
boulders to the left and left centre of the camp, and 
vho stood their ground most gallantly."t The enemy 
approached to within about 400 yards, the two guns 
firing case. The heavy fire &om the line told so 
upon the Zulus that they wavered and lay down ; 
they are said to have covered the valley in detached 
groups to the depth of about three-quarters of a mile.| 

The enemy now began to work round the rear 
(which they could do with impunity owing to the 
formation of the ground), and Captain Essex says : " I 
rode up to Lieut. -Colonel Domford, who was near the 
right, and pointed this out to him. He requested me 
to take men to that part of the field, and endeavoTur to 
hold the enemy in check ;" but at this moment, be says, 
" those of the Native Contingent who had remained in 
action, rushed past us in the utmost disorder, thus laying 
open the right and rear of the 24th, the enemy dashing 
forward in the most rapid manner." The ammimition 
of t^e mounted troops failing (supplies had been re- 
peatedly sent for, but none came). Colonel Dnmford 
retired them towards the right of the camp (where the 
waggons and ammunition of the Native Horse were), 
and himself galloped off to the 24th, having previously 
told Captain Gardner that the position was too ex- 
tended, and he desired to concentrate the force. Colonel 
Dumford's intention undoubtedly was to withdraw all 
* Captain Essex. t Lieutenant Cochrane. % Ui. Brickhill. 

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288 THE ZULU WAR. 

the troops to the rising grotrnd on the right of the camp, 
to which point he had retired his Native Hoise. 

The Zulus rushed on the left in OTerwhelming 
numbers, completely surrounding the 24tb. The guns 
limbered up, and made for the Rorke's Drift Road, but 
found it blocked by the enemy ; they therefore " foUowed 
a crowd of natives and camp-followers, who were running 
down a ravine ; the Zulus were all among them, stabbing 
men as they ran." Down this ravine the fngitives 
hastened, the enemy round and among them, the assegai 
doing its deadly work. 

Lieirt.-Colonel Fulleine was said by Lieutenant CoghiU 
to have been killed,* and during the flight Major Stuart 
Smith, R.A. (who had been wounded), Surgeon-Major 
Shepherd, and many a man, mounted and on foot, were 
kiUed. The Buflalo was gained at a point about five 
miles below Rorke's Drift, and nimibers of the fugitives 
were either shot, or carried away by the stream and 
drowned. Lieutenants Melville and Coghill rode from 
the camp, on its being carried by the Zulus, the former 
with the Queen's colours of his regiment. These he bore 
into the river, but lost his horse, and was left struggling 
in the swift current ; Lieutenant Coghill, who bad safely 
crossed, rode in to his assistance, when his horse was 
shot. These brave young officers succeeded in gaining 
the Natal shore, but were soon overtaken by the enemy, 
and died fighting to the last The Natal Native Horse 
escaped with little lose ; they assisted many in the 
retreat, which they covered as well as they could, 
especially under Captain Barton on the banks of the 
* Lieutenant Curling. 

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I8ANDSLWANA. 287 

Bofialo. Captun Esaez puts the time of tiie retreat from 
the camp at " about 1.30 p.h." 

After this period no one living escaped from 
laandhlwana, and it was supposed that the troops had 
broken, and, falling into confusion, that all had perished 
after a brief aianiggle. 

Nothing was known of the after-events of that fatal 
daj for months, till, on the 2 1st May, the scene of the 
disaster was revisited, and the truth of the gallant stand 
made was established. This will be treated of in 
another chapter. 

We must now turn to the movements of the column 
under Colonel Glyn, with the General ; and it will be 
most convenient to take the occurrences of the day as 
described by Lord Chelmsford and his military flecretary 
(Lieut.-Colonel Crealock). 

Leaving camp at daybreak,* the General "reached 
Major Dartnell about 6.30 A.H., and at once ordered 
him to send out his mounted men to gain intdligence 
of the enemy, whose whereabouts did not appear to be 
very certain." (P. P. [C. 2252] p. 75) The enemy 
shortly after showed in considerable strength at some 
distance, but retired without firing as the troops 
advanced. Lieut-Colonel Crealock says : " Between 
9.30 and 10 A.M. we were off-saddled some twelve miles 
from camp. During the three previous hours we had 
been advancing with Colonel Glyn's column against a 
Zulu force that fell back from hill to hill as we advanced, 

* TbiM moauted Zulu seoute veie aeen oa the hills on th« rigiit 
from the raw goud, by an officer, who pointed them oot to one of the 
■tkfl; 

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288 TEE ZULU WAS. 

giving up, without a shot, most commanding portions." 
(P. P. [C. 2260] p. 99.) It waa at this time ("about 
9 A.M.," the General says) that the message waa received 
&om Lieut. -Colonel Fulleine, that a Zulu force liad 
appeared on the hills on his left front. The General says 
he at once sent his aide-de-camp. Lieutenant Milne, RN., 
to the top of a high hill, from which the camp could be 
seen. He had "a very powerful telescope, but could 
detect nothing unusuaL"* Lieut.-Colonel Crealock says 
that all the nevB he gave " was that the cattle had 
been driven into camp," and he acknowledges "our 
own attention was chiefly bent on the enemy's force 
retiring from the hills in our front, and a party being 
pursued by Lieut. -Colonel Russell three miles off." 

The kloof where the enemy bad been waa found 
deserted, but a large body of Zulus were seen beyond it, 
and a portion of the mounted force sent after them, Major 
Dartnell and the rest of his men moving off to the right 

* SoniB Kmarks made by lieutenant MUse, B.N. (aid»de-csmp), 
are worthy of notice : " January 2itt. — We then rode np to the high 
land to the left of onr camp, the ascent very steep, but poadble for hotaei. 
On reaching the summit of the highest hill, I counted fourteen Zola 
horsemen watching neat thedUtance of about four miles; they ultimately 
disappeared otct a slight rise. Two vedettes were stationed at the 
spot from where I saw these horsemen ; they said they had seen theae 
men several times during the day, and had reported the fact. . . . We 
then returned to camp, the General having determined to send out a 
patrol in this direction the next day." — (P. P. [C. 2454] p. 183), 

January 22ru2.— ^Lientenant Milne was sent to the top of ahill to bm 
what was doing in camp, and says : " On reaching the summit I could 
see the camp ; all the cattle had been driven in dose aionnd the tents. 
I could see nothing of the enemy on the left " {ibid. p. 184). 

" We are not quite certain about the time. But it is just possiU* 
that what I took to be the cattle having been driven into camp m^ 
possiUy hare been the Zulu ' Impi ' " {ibid. p. 1 87). 

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ISA^DffLWANA. 289; 

in the direction of another body of Zulus. These turned 
out to be Matshaoa's people, with the chief himself 
present : they were engaged, their retreat cut off, and 
then driven back on the Native Contingent Of thiS' 
party Matshana and one or two of his people alone 
escaped. 

"Having no cause, therefore, to feel any anxiety 
about the safety of the camp," the Greneral ordered the 
mounted infantry to sweep round " to the main waggon- 
track,' whilst a portion of the infantry went over the hill- 
top to the same point, and the guns, with an escort, 
retraced their steps," with imtructioas to join Colonel 
Glyn near the Mangane Valley, where the General 
proceeded with Colonel Glyn to fir upon a site for a 
new camp. Captain Gardner, 14th Hussars, was sent, 
back to camp "with the order to Lieut -Colonel PuUeine 
to send on the camp equipage and supplies of the troops 
camping out, and to remain at his present camp, and 
entrench it"— (P. P. [C. 3260] p. 101). 

The Ist Battalion Native Contingent was ordered to 
march back to camp across country, and examine 
dongas, etc. en route. 

" Not a sign of the enemy was now seen near xia" 
says Colonel Crealock. "Not a suspicion had croesed 
my mind that the camp was in any danger, neither did 
anything occur to make me think of such a thing until 
about 1.15," when it was fancied firing was heard (the 
natives were certain of it). " We were then moving back 
to choose a camp for the night about twelve miles from 
Isandula." About 1.45 P.M., a native reported "heavy 
firing had been going on round the camp. We gidloped 

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290 TEE ZULU WAR. 

up to a high spot, wh^ice we conld see the camp, periiape 
10 or 11 miles distant. None of us conld detect any- 
thing amiss; all looked quiet This most have been 
2 F.H. The General, however, probably thought it 
would be well to ascertain what had happened himself, 
but not thinking anything was wrong, ordered Ccdonel 
G-lyn to bivonac for the night where we stood; and 
taking with him some 40 mounted volunteers, proceeded 
to ride into camp. Lieut. -Colonel Cecil fiuasell, 12th 
Lancers, now joined us, and informed me that an officer 
of the Natal Native Contingent had come to him (aboat 
12 noon, I think) when he was off-saddled, and asked 
where the General was, as he had instructions to tell 
him that heavy firing had been going on close to the 
camp. . . . This officer, however, did not come to us. 

" This information from Colonel Russell was imme- 
diately followed by a message from Commandant Brown, 
commanding the 1st Battalion Natal Native Contingent, 
which had been ordered back to camp at 9.30 A.U. — 
(the battalion was halted a mile from us, and probably 
eight miles from camp) — to the effect that large bodi^ 
of Zulus were between him and the camp, and that his 
men could not advance without support. The General 
ordered an immediate advance of the battalion, the 
mounted volunteers and mounted in&ntry supporting it. 

" I am not aware what messages had been Bentfirom'"' 

* One messags only is mentioned by the General oi his mHiUiy 
secretaiy as having been received from the camp. But an offieer 
(of rank) leho had teen them, says that five oi ax meosagea iran 
received from the camp during the day by the General or Ua atalT- 
and ha says distinctly that the messages vrere in the poneaaion o< 
LienL-Coloael Ciealock. 

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JSANDBLWANA. 291 

flie camp and received by Colonel Glyn or his staff; but 
I know that neither the Genend nor myself had up to 
this lime received any information but that I have 
mentioned. 

"At 3,15 the General appeared to think that he 
would be able to brush through any parties of Zulus 
that might be in his rood to the camp without any 
force further than that referred to, viz. lat Battalion 
Native Contingent and some eighty mounted white 
men. 

"At 4 P.M.,* however, the native battalion again 
halted," when within about six miles of the camp, " and 
shortly after — the General aays — 4^onmiandant Lonsdale 
rode up to report that he bad ridden into camp and found 
it in possession of the Zulus." The General at once sent 
word to Colonel Glyn to bring back all the troops, and 
advanced about two miles, sending Ijieut.-Colonel 
Russell forward to reconnoitre; — ho fully confirmed 
Commandant Lonsdale's report. Colonel Glyn rejoined 
the General about 6 p.m., when the troops were formed 
in " fighting order," and advanced across the plain ; " but 
could not reach the neighbourhood of our camp until 
after dark." 

It may properly be here remarked that from the 
outskirts of the force firing had been seen at the camp 
as late as nearly four o'clock ; and about six, large bodies 
of the enemy were seen retiring fiom the camp, through 
openings in the Ingqutu range. 

When a move was first made by the General in the 
direction of the camp, an officer who was in advance 

* Aboat ttuB hour the tents in camp suddenly disappeared. 

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292 TSE ZULU WAB. 

nutates what he Baw when he came to a riaigg ground 
from which the camp was first seen : 

" There certainly were some tents standing then, but. 
seemed very few, and avnj to t^e left front of the camp 
there was some smoke, though not much, and it -was 
high up, just as if there had been musketxy fire and the 
smoke had floated away; but there was certainly no 
musketry fire going on then. A few seconds afterwards 
a sergeant .... said: 'There go the guns, sir.' I 
could see the smoke, but we could hear nothing. In a 
few seconds we distinctly saw the guns fired ag^, one 
after the other, sharp. This was done sevetal times — a 
pause, and then a flash — ^flashl The sun was shining 
on the camp at the time, and then the camp looked 
dark, just as if a shadow was passing over it. The guns 
did not fire afier that, and in a few minutes all the tents 
bad disappeared. The sergeant said, ' It's all over now, 
sir.' I said, ' Tes, and I hope it is the right way.' We 
could see there was fighting going on, but of course did 
not know which way it had gone. The men all thought 
the Zulus had retired, but I felt doubtful in my own 
mind, but had no idea really of the catastrophe that had 
taken place. . . . This must hare been about 3 p.u." 

"'^thin two miles of camp," Lieutenant Hilne 
says, "four men were seen slowly advancing in &ont 
of us; a few mounted men were sent out; the men 
in front previously seen then took cover behind some 
roeks, but were fired upon by our men ; one fell, the 
remainder ran out in the open, throwing up their hands 
to show they were unarmed. On being taken prisoners. 



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ISANBELWANA. 293 

they were found to be Native Contingent, escaped from 
the massacre."— (P. P. [C. 2454] p. 185). 

On nearing the camp it was nearly dark, but it was 
olwerved that waggons were drawn up across the neck ; 
the guns were therefore brought into action and shelled 
them. Then, no sound being heard, Major Black, with 
a wing of his regiment, moved forward to occupy the 
small hill close to Isandhlwana. No enemy was seen, 
and the camp was found tenanted by those who were 
taking their last long sleep. 

A halt was made for the night amidst the dibris of 
(the proper right of) the camp, on the " neck ;" the 
in&ntiy covering the west, and the mounted troops and 
gnns the east side. During the night there were one or 
two false alarms, and the whole force, at early dawn, 
moved off towards Eorke's Zhiil, as the Grenetal was 
amdons about the safety of that important post; .also 
the troops had no spare ammunition,* but little food, 
and " it was certain that daylight would reveal a sight 
which could not but have a demoralising effect upon the 
whole force."— (P. P. [C. 2253] p. 76). 

In Lord Chelmsford's despatch of 27th January, he 
gives a narrative of the attack on the camp, but remarks 
"the absolute accuracy of which, however, I cannot 
■vouch for " (pp. 76, 77). On comparing hia " narrative " 
with the facts, it wUl be found to be absolutely in- 
accurate. But Lord Ohebnaford makes some remarks 
which cannot be passed over in silence. ' He says : 
'* Had' the force in question but taken up a defensive 
* "So ipue ammimitiioii ins Ukm by tlie form irith the G6n«nL 



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2d4 TBB ZULU WAB. 

position in the camp itself, and utilised tKen the 
materials for a hasty entrenchment ; " but he does not 
point oat how t^e " force in question " was to know of 
the near approach of the Zulu army, he himself having 
Neglected to search the country where that axmj lay. 
He had prepared no " defensive position ; " but he had 
selected a fiatal spot for Ms camp, which, covering a 
front of about half a mile, was utterly indefensible as it 
stood ; and he had " pooh-poohed " tJie su^^estion of 
taking defensive precautions when made by Colonel 
Glyn ; and, further, it does not appear that there waa 
any time wkcUever for the " force in question " to do 
anything but fight Lord Chelmsford then says : " It 
appears that the oxen were yoked to the wagons three 
hours before the attack took place, so that there wsa 
ample time to construct that waggon-laager which the 
Dutch in former days understood so well." This 
remark comes with peculiar ill - grace from Lord 
Chelmsford, who not only had not taken any fxe- 
cautions, but had not permitted any laager or other 
defence to be made; and whose reply to a so^estion 
of a laager at Isandhlwana was, " It would take a week 
to make." Also it must not be forgotten that the attack 
on Isandhlwana was ivithout wamir^. 

He next says : " Had, however, the tents been strack, 
and the British troops placed with their backs to the 
precipitous Isalwana HiU, I feel sure that they could 
have made a succeasful resistance." Here again he would 
blame the dead to cover the faults of the living t But 
even had the troops been thus placed (as some eventually 
appear to have been), how long could they keep at 

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I8AK1)HL\^ANA. 295 

\»j, wlien ammumtion failed,* an enemy anuecl with 
veapons they could use with &tal effect out of reach of 
the bayonet "i 

And lastly, Lord Chelmsford speaks of rumours 
" that the troops were deceived by a simulated retreat," 
and thus " drawn away fiom the line of defence." The 
Jaets prove the exact contrary. The only person de- 
ceived by a " simulated retreat " was Lord Chelmsford 
himself, whose troops during three hours had advanced 
"i^inst a Zulu force that fell back from hill to hill. . . . 
giving ap without a shot most commanding positions." 
And where was their "line of d^encef" We do not 
find one word of Lord Chelmsford's own want of the 
most ordinary precantions — ^his want of " intelligence," 
and neglect to obtain it— of his seeing the enemy's 
mounted scouts on the left front, and intending (but not 
making) a reconnaissance in that direction — ^bis fixed 
belief that the enemy could only be in force in his front 
— ^the transparent way in which he was drawn off farther 
horn, the camp — the absence of any attention to the signs 
that something was wrong at the camp — the prevention 
of assiatance reaching the belei^ured camp when one of 
his officers had recognised the emei^ency, etc. ; to which 
must be added that we do not find one word cf regret 
for the untimely fate of the gallant men who fell doing 
their duty. In justice to Colonel Glyn, commanding 
Na 3 Column, it must be remarked that the General 
himself gave the orders for the various movements, etc. 
And in justice to Lord Chelmsford also, we note it 

* The xesaire ammunitioii ia said to hare been poclud in iraggoiu, 
whkh wen {ken filled np with sbnu. 

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296 THE ZULU- WAIt. 

is asserted that the shock he experienced told severely 
upon him at the time; and he may not have very 
carefully studied the despatch, which was the work of 
his military secretary. 

Before finally leaving the events of the 22nd 
Jianuary, we most fully notice an important episode that 
occurred, and which had a serious bearing on the disaster . 
we have to lament. 

We have seen that " the gnns with an escort " were 
ordered to retrace their steps .... to join Colonel Gljn 
at the rendezvous near the Mangane Valley. We will 
now follow their movements: 

When Lord Chelmsford discovered that the enemy 
he bad come in search of had disappeared, 4 guns Royal 
Artillery, 2 companies 2-24th Regiment (Captains Church 
and Harvey), and about 50 Natal Native Pioneers, the 
whole under the command of Lieut-Colonel Harness, 
R A., were ordered to march to a rendezvous in advance 
by a different route to that taken by the remainder of the 
column ; this was necessary, as the guns could not go 
over the ground taken by the latter. To carry out the 
order, they had to reliace for over two miles the route 
by which they had come in the morning, and then bear 
to the left Tins was done (a short halt having first been 
made, to let men and horses have a rest), and about 
twelve o'clock they reached some rismg ground, when 
they again halted, not being certain of the direction of 
the rendezvous, to await Major Black, 2-24th, Assistant 
Quartermaster-General, who had gone on to find it 
Almost immediately after this halt the firing of cannon 
was heard, and looking towards the camp, about eight 

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ISANDHLWANA. 297 

miles off, th«y saw sheila buisttng against the hills to 
the left of it. Soon afterwards a body of about 1000 
natives saddenly appeared in the plain below, between 
them and the camp ; the Native Pioneers thought they 
were Zulus. Captain Church told Colonel Harness if ho 
would let him have a horse he would go and find outi 
Colonel Harness at once gave him one, and sent a 
mounted sergeant with him. As they galloped towards 
the natives, a European officer rode out, and whea they 
inet stud : " The troops behind me are Commandant 
Browne's contingent, and I am sent to give you this 
message : * Come in. every man, for God's sake ! The camp 
■is surrounded, and will he taken unless helped at once.' 
Captain Church rode back as fast as he could, and found 
Colonel HameBB in converBation with Major Gosset (aide- 
de-camp) and Major Black, both of whom had come up 
during his absence. Colonel Harness promptly said : 
" We will march back ; " but Major Gosset ridiculed the 
idea, and advised him to carry out his orders. Colonel 
Harness then asked Major Black and Captain Church 
their opinions. They both agreed with him without 
hesitation. Colonel Harness gave the order to return, 
and started without a moment's delay; Major Gosset 
riding off in the direction of the General. About 1.80 p.m. 
lieut. -Colonel Harness was on his way to the camp, 
and had got over about two miles of ground when he 
was overtaken by Major Gosset with orders from the 
General to march back to the rendezvoas. The order 
Was obeyed. 

Now the startling reflection comes home that to this 
most important fact, bearing on the events of the day 

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JS8 TRS ZULU WAM. 

(for even if too late to Bare life, Colonel Hameis would 
have saved the camp), there is not a hint even in the 
despatches of Lord Chelmsford, or the official statement 
of his military secretaiy.* The latter goes so far as to 
say, in paragraph 17 of his statement (P. P. [C 2260] 
pi 100) : " I am not aware what messages had been sent 
from the camp and received by Colonel Glyn or his staff ; 
but I know that neither the General nor myself had up 
to this time received any information but that I have 
mentioned." This statement refers to a time c^ier the 
General bad arrived at a spot about a mile from where 
Commandant Browne's battalion of natives were halted, 
ajler be had received the message, " Come in, every man, 
for God's sake," etc., and (ifler he had met Colonel Harness 
on his return march to the rendezvous ; and not only that, 
but apparently (^ter the receipt of a moat important 
message from Lieut-Colonel Falleine, described as follows 
by the special correspondent of The Timea of Katal 
(Captain Norris-Newman) : "We did halt there, and 
foun4 the staff there as well, looking on through the field- 
glasses at some large bodies of Kafirs [Zulus]^ who were 
in close proximity to our camp about ten miles o£ The 
Mounted Police were ordered to halt and off-saddle ; 
I}ut Captain [T.] Shepstone and his volunteers had orders 
to proceed back to camp to see what was up. I joined 
them, and we hod not gone far on the road when a 

* The Jirtt official mention of this appears in a Blne-book of 
Augiu^ 1879, There Lieutenant Kilne, B.N. (aid&de-camp), s^si 
" In the meantime, news came that Colonel Harness had hoard the 
firing, and was proceeding with his guns and companies of infanbijr 
escorting them to camp. Orders were immediately sent to him to 
ntum and rejoin C<donel Qljn."—{F. P. [G. 21fi4] p. 184). 

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JSANDELWAITA. 899 

mounted mefisenger came up with a note &om Colonel 
PuUeine to the General, saying that the camp was 
attacked hy large numbers of Kafirs, and asked him to 
rettum with all the help at his command. With this 
we halted, and awaited the up-coming of the General^ 
who came along at once, and proceeded up the valley 
to reconnoitre. About three miles had been got over, 
during which we passed the four guns under Colonel 
Harness, and some of the 24th .... on their way to 
encamp at the new ground. A mounted man was then 
seen approaching, and was recognised as Commandant 
Lonsdale. He brought the dreadful news that, having 
chased a Zulu on horseback, he got separated &om his 
men, and had ridden quietly back to camp;. but on 
arrival there, witliin about three hundred yards of it 
(at about 2 P.M.), he found large bodies of the enemy 
surrounding it and fighting with our men. He had 
just time to discover his mistake, turn, and fly for bia 
life, when several bullets were fired at him, and many 
Zuloa started in chase." — Natal Colonist, January 30th, 
1879. 

The above message is undoubtedly that mentioned 
l^ Captain Gardner as having been despatched from the 
camp at or soon after twelve o'clock. (P. P. [C. 2260] 
p. 81.) And there still remains the &ct A&t, not only 
as regards Colonel Harness, does t^ere appear to be an 
nnacconntable omission in the " statement "* alluded to, 
but also we find mention of only one message from the 

* By the General's diiections this Btatement waa to be "of the 
iaeta which came under Ms cognizance on the day in qaestion." — 
{P. P. [C. 22«0] p. 80). 

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SM TEE ZULU WAS. 

camp ; whereas other mesBages are knovm to have been 
received, and to have been in the possession of the 
Assistant Military Sectetaiy. 

" Here also we mnst allude to Sir Bartle Frere's 
despatches of January 27th, and February 3rd and 12th> 
In. tha first he says : " In disregard of Lord Chelmsford's 
instructions, the troops left to protect the camp were 
taken away from the defensive position they were in at 
the camp, with the shelter which the waggons, parked, 
would have afforded. ..." We know that the troops 
did the best they could, left as they were by their 
general in an open camp — we know they had no 
" defensive position " — and we know that the waggons 
were not " parked," but drawn up in rear of their own, 
camps. 

Sir Bartle says, February 3rd : '* It is only justice 
to the General to note that his orders were clearly not 
obeyed on that terrible day at Isandhlwana camp." 

And on February 12th, he says : " It is impossible 
to shut one's eyes to the fact that it was, in all human 
probability, mainly due to disregard of the General's 
orders that so great a disaster occurred " (a little 
qualifying his sweeping assertion of February 3rd). 

But yet again Sir Bartle returns to tiie chaxge, and 
Says, June 30th : " It is difBcult to over-estimate the 
effect of such a disaster as that at Isandhlwana on both 
armies, but it was clearly due to breach of the General's 
order, and to disregard of well-known maxims of militaiy 
science."— (P. P. [C. 2454] p. 138). 

On what grounds Sir Bartle Freze bases those 
assertions we know not — ^ao known orders were dis- 

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ISANDELWANA. 801 

obeyed — and, in spite, of the special pleading in these 
despatches, we must come to the coaclusion that Sir 
Bartle Prere's remarks were penned in utter ignorance of 
facts, and that the accusations concerning " disregard of 
well-known maxims of military science" shoiild have 
been applied, not to the soldiers who fell at Isaudhlwana^ 
but to those who placed them' in that fatal position. 



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CHAPTER XIV, 

EOEKE's DEIFT — HELPMAKAAE — COURT OF INQDIEY, BTC. 

The garrison of the Rorke'a Drift post conaisted of 
B Company 2-24th Regiment (Lieutenant Bromhead), 
and (with officers and casuals) was of a total strength of 
139. It was encamped on the Natal side of the Buffalo, 
■where there was a mission station, one building of which 
was used as a hospital and one as a commissariat store. 
The crosung of the river was effected hy what are called 
*' ponts " — boats used as a kind of " flying bridge " — 
and there were drifts, or fords, in the vieinity. Major 
Spalding, Deputy -Assistant -Adjutant - General, and 
Lieutenant Chard, R.R, were stationed here. The 
former rode off to Helpmakaar at 2 p.m., 22nd January, 
" to bring up Captain Rainforth's company, Ist Battalion 
24th Re^ment, to protect the pont," leaving Lieutenant 
Chard in command of the post. 

About 3.15 P.M., Lieutenant Chard was at the ponts, 
when two men came riding from Zululand at a gallop, 
and shouted to be taken across the river. They were 
-Lieutenant Adendorff, Natal Native Contingent, and a 
carbineer, who Inought tidings of the disaster at 
Isandhlwana and the advance of the Zulus towards 

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ROBKE'S DRIFT, BTO. 808 

Rorke's Drift. Lieutenant Adendorff remained to assist 
in the defence of the post, and the carbineer rode on to 
take the news to Helpmakaar. 

Lieutenant Chard at once gave orders to secure the 
stores at the ponts, and rode up to the commissariat 
store, when he found a note had been rec^Ted from the 
3rd Column, saying the enemy were advancing, and 
directing them to strengthen and hold the post at all 
cost. Lieutenant Bromhead was actively at work pre- 
paring for defence, ably assisted by Mr. Dalton, of the 
Commissariat Department, loopholing the buildings and 
connecting them by walls of mealie-baga and two wagons 
that were there. Lieutenant Chard then rode down to 
the pont, and brought up the guard and stores. 

An officer, with about a hundred of " Domford's 
Horse," now arrived, and asked for orders. He was in- 
structed to throw out men to watch the drifts and ponts, 
to check the enemy's advance, and fall back on the post 
when forced to retire. These men had, however, been 
in the saddle since daylight, and had gone through a 
heavy engagement : they were qmte exhausted (besides 
being dispirited by the loss of their beloved leader), and, 
after remidning a short time, retired to Helpmakaar. A 
detachment of Natal Native Contingent also left the 
post. 

Lieutenant Chard now commenced an inner work — 
" a retrenchment of biscuit-boxes." This was two boxes 
high when, about 4.30 p.m., 500 or 600 of the enemy 
came in ugbt, and advanced at a run against the south 
walL Hiey were met with a well-BUStained fire, but, in 
spite of their loss, approached to within about fifty yards. 

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804 , TSE ZULU WAB. 

Here they were checked by the cross-fire froin the 
attacked front aflA the etore-house. Some got under 
cover and kept up a heavy fire, but the greater number, 
without stopping, moved to the left, round the hospital, 
tmd made a rush at the wall of mealie-bags. After a 
short but desperate stm^le the enemy were driven back 
with heavy loss into the bush around the post. The 
main body of the enemy coming up, lined the ledge of 
rock, caves, etc., overlooking the work, at a distance of 
about 400 yards to the south, and from whence a constant 
fire was kept up, and they also occupied in great force 
the garden, hollow road, and bush. 

The bush not having been deated away enabled the 
enemy to advance under cover close to the wall, and a 
aeries of desperate assatdts were made, extending from 
the hospital along the wall as far as the bush reached; 
each assault was brilliantly met and repulsed with the 
bayonet, Corporal Scheiss, Natal Native Contingent, 
distinguishing himself greatly. The fire from the locka 
took the work completely in reverse, and was so heavy 
that about 6 f.h. the garrispn was obliged to retire 
behind the entrenchment of biscuit-bozes. 

During this period the enemy had been storming the 
hospital, and at last succeeded in. setting fire to thQ 
roof The garrison defended it most gallantly, bringing 
out all the sick that could be moved ; Privates Williams, 
Hook, E. Jones, and W. Jones, 2-2 4th Regiment, being 
the last men to leave, and holding the doorway with 
the bayonet when their ammunition was expended. The 
want of communication and the burning of the house 
rendered it impossible to save all the sick. 

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BOBKS^a DRIFT, BTO. 805 

It was now found necessary to make another 
entrenchment, which was done with two heaps of 
mealie-bags, Assistant-Commissary Dunne working hard 
at this, though much exposed. As darkness came on 
the little garrison was completely surrounded, but gal- 
lantly repulsed sevo^ serious assaulte ; it was, however, 
eventually forced to retire to the inner entrenchment, 
which it held throughout the night The attack con- 
tinued vigorously till midnight, the men firing on the 
asBailants with the greatest coolness, aided by the light 
aflForded by the burning hospital. A desultory fire was 
kept up by the enemy throughout the night, but this 
ceased about 4 A.H. on the 23rd, and at daybreak the 
enemy was out of sight. Lieutenant Chard at once set 
about patrolling round the post, collecting the Zulu 
arms, and strengthening the defences. 

About 7 A.M., a lai^e body of the enemy appeared 
on the hills to the south-west, and Ijieutenant Chard 
Bent off a note to Helpmakaar asking for assistance. 
About 8 A.U., No. 3 Column appeared in sight, the 
enemy &lling back on its approach. Thus ended a most 
gallant defence, reflecting the utmost credit on all 
concerned. 

The loss of &B garrison was 15 non-commissioned 
ofiScera and men killed, and 12 wounded (of whom 
two died almost immediately). The attacking force 
was estimated at 3000 men, of whom upwards of 350 
were killed. 

Lord Chelmsford, with the remains of No. 3 Column, 
had moved off &om Isandhlwana, as we have already 
described, at daybreak that morning. It had been 

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SOO TEB ZULU WAB. 

thought noceasaiy to imnst up(m absolute inaction 
through the night ; no attempt was allowed at identi- 
fying the dead, or even at making sure that no life 
remained in the camp; and men Iaj down to rest, 
ignorant whether a careless hand might not fall on the 
lifeless form of a dead comrade or, mayhap, a brother. 
The remainder of the Natal Carbineers, as they sitex- 
wards discovered, bivouacked that night on the right of 
the camp, upon the very " neck " of land where ao 
gallant a stand was made ; their captain recognising 
the body of Lieutenant Scott, and therefore being able 
afterwards to identify the spot That life might exist 
without its being known to the returning column is 
proved by the &ct that a native groom lay for dead, 
although unwounded, in the camp throughout the night. 
The man had feigned death when the camp was taken, 
and did not dare to move on the return of the General's 
party, lest he ahould be taken by them for a Zulu, and 
should share the fate of the few actual Zulus found 
intoxicated beneath the waggons, and bayoneted by our 
soldiers. He crept out in the morning, and followed 
tlie retreating column to Borke's Drift at a distance, 
meeting on the way with narrow escapes of losing his 
life from both friend and foa 

On coming within sight of Borke's Drift, heavy 
smoke was seen rising &om it, and Zulus retiring ; this 
caused the liveliest apprehensions for the safety of the 
post. However, to the intense relief of all, on nearing 
the Buffalo River the waving of hats was seen from a 
hastily-erected entrenchment, and the safety of the 
little garrison was known. 

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BORKB'8 DRIFT, BTO. 807 

lieut-CoIonel Kussell was aeut with a mounted 
escort to Helpmakaar, to see if tlie road was open and 
all safe there ; but some officers of Major Bengough's 
battalion Natal Native Contingent rode in and reported 
the road open, Helpmakaar laagered, and no attack 
made on it. Some men of the Buffalo Border Guard 
also rode in £com Fort Piae and reported all well there. 

The General and staff hurried down to Pietermaritz- 
buig vid Helpmakaar, while the garrison at Rorke'a 
Drift was left in utter confusion,* as testified by many 
of those present at the time. No one appeared respon- 
sible for anything that might happen, and the result 
was one disgraceful to our English name, and to all 
concerned. A few Zulu prisoners bad been taken by 
onr troops — some the day before, others previous to the 
disastCT at Isandhlwana, and these prisoners were put 
to death in cold blood at Rorke's Drift. It was in- 
tended to set them free, and they were told to run for 
their lives, but they were shot down and killed, within 
sight and sound of the whole force. An eye-witness — 
an officer — described the affair to the present writer, 
saying that the men whom he saw killed numbered 
"not more than seven, nor less than five." He said 
that he was standing with others in the camp, and 
bearing shots close behind him, he turned, and saw the 
prisoners in question in the act of falling beneath the 
shots and stabs of a party of our men.t The latter, 
indeed, were men belonging to the Native Contingent, 

* " The panic and confiuion ware fearful," aays one of themaelTea. 
t The number of prisoneis thus killed ie aaid to haTe been about 
twenty. 

X 2 

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808 TEE ZULU WAS. 

bat they were supposed to be under white control, and 
should not have been able to obtain possession of the 
prisoners under any circttmstauces. Scenes like these 
were not likely to impress the savages with- whom we 
were dealing with our merciful and Christian qualities, 
nor to improve the chances of Kuropean piisouera who 
might fall into their hands during the campaign. 

Ab soon as order was a little restored, the cover round 
the post of Eorke's Drift was cleared away, barricades 
built, the thatched roof taken off the house, and the 
four guns placed in position within the enclosure. 

The General and staff reached Pietermaritzburg early 
on January 26th. There, as everywhere else, panic 
reigned, and gloom spread over all. From the city 
especially many a son and brother had gone out to 
fall upon that fatal day, and grief was mingled there 
with terror ^or what might come next. It was long 
before any accurate information could be gained as to 
what had happened, and who had fiJlen ; and, owing 
to the hurried retreat of No. 3 Column &om Isandhlwana 
before daybreak on the 23rd, the great burden of 
uncertainty was laid upon many heavy hearts botii 
upon the spot and at home in England. 

At first all who had had friends at the camp hoped 
they might be amongst the saved, since it was known 
that some had escaped by " The Fugitives' Drift," a spot 
some five miles from Eorke's Drift, where those flying 
from Isandhlwaoa crossed the river ; and day by day 
the lists of killed and missing appeared with the names 
gradudly removed from the latter to the former Well 
had an hour's daylight been spent that morning to spare 

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BOBSM'8 DRIFT, ETO. 809 

the ancertainty that hxrng over many an English and 
Sooth AMcan home for days and weeks, and eveu 
monthB. 

No tune was now lost in making such preparations 
for defence as the principal towns afforded. An invasion 
of the colony by the Tietorioua Zulu army was hourly 
expected, and with some reason, since retaliation for 
our invasion might naturally be feared. Sir Bartle 
Frere himself remarks, on February I2th (C. 2269) : 
"It has become painfully evident that the Zulu king 
has an army at his command which could almost any 
day unexpectedly invade Natal ; and owing to the great 
extent of frontier, and utter helplessness of the un- 
discipliiied hordes of Natal natives to offer effectual 
resistance, the Zulus might march at will through the 
country, devastating and murdering, without a chance 
of being checked, as long as they abstained from 
attacking the entrenched posts of Her Majesty's troops, 
which are from 50 to 100 miles apart. The capital and 
all the principal towns are at this moment in ' laager,' 
prepared for attack, which eveu if successfully resisted, 
would leave two-thirds of them in ashes, and the 
country around utterly desolated."* 

Whatever reasonable fears of retaliation were enter- 

* Yet Sir B. Fieie, on the 30tih June, writes : " The poritaon of 
Wood's and PeaiBon's colnnma eSectually checked the execation of an 
attempt at itiTasion." These two colaimiB, heing some ninety miles 
apart and Becnie in theii own positions only, would hare been of little 
avail had the Zulu kii^ desired to make " an attempt at invasion." 
It needed no better strategists than Cetshwayo and his chiefs to have 
masked each of the poata at Kambula and Etahowe with some 6000 
man, and then " ^e Znlna might march at will tbrongh the conntijr." 

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310 THE ZnW WAB. 

tained by the people of Natal, they soon rose to panic- 
height in consequence of the great alarm displayed by 
the chief authorities, both military and civil. By their 
orders, the central part of "Maritzburg, including the 
CoTirt House, was barricaded with loopholed boarding, 
as a refuge for the citizens in case of attack, wells were 
dug inside the Court House, and notice given that the 
usual guns, announcing the arrival of the English mails, 
would be discontinued for the present, but t^at three 
guns would be fired as a signal for the citizens to go 
into the laager within three hours, while four guns 
would signify that the danger was urgent, and they 
must fly into it at once, taking stores of food, which 
they were to have ready beforehand, beside what the 
borough council had provided, and they must then 
comply with an elaborate series of roles, which was 
published in the Government- Gazette. So great, in- 
deed, was t^e scare that some of the citizens of 'Maritz- 
burg did actually take refuge one night in the laager, 
and others hurriedly left the colony, while many natives, 
living near the city, slept out, with their wives and 
children, some nights in the open field. On t^t night, 
when terror was at its height, it is said that the bedding 
of the Qovemors and their staff, together with the official 
records of Government House, was removed to the 
neighbouring gaol, a strong stone building, just under 
the guns of Fort Napier, whidi was chosen as a place of 
refuge for their Ezcelleucies. It is also said that Lord 
Chelmsford's horse was kept saddled and bridled all 
night ; and a stretcher was placed, by express order, 
outside the window of a lady iu delicate health, without 
her knowledge, so as to be ready in case of emeigeney — 



kOBES'S DmPT, ETC. 811 

M if a Zulu impi could drop Budduily, at a momant's 
notice, into the middle of the city, the frontier, at the 
neareat point, being sixty miles off. 

Whether or no the High Commissioner was really in 
such a state of alarm as he appeared to be, the existence 
of such a scare in Natal would, no doubt, help to support 
iaa policy in the eyes of those at home, as an actual 
inrcod of Zulus at that time would have still more 
effectually justified the duu^es he had made against 
Cetshwayo, and the strong measurea he had taken in 
invading Zululand, for the good of the Zulus themselves 
and the safety of the colony. After the disaster at 
Isandhlwana, Sir R Frere of course reiterates his 
charges against the king of intending to invade the 
colony (C. 2269). But these charges are sufficiently 
answered by the mere &ct that although, as Sir R Frere 
himself points out. Natal lay at his mercy for some 
months after the dissster, he made no attack whatever 
either upon 8wazis, Boers, or English. After Isandhl- 
wana, if ever, such invasion was to be dreaded, yet not 
only was none attempted, but even the Zulus who, in 
the flush of victory crossed into Natal at Borke's Drift 
aa the 22&d, were called back by their officers with the 
words, " Against the orders of your king I " 

In startling contrast to i^e panic which reigned after 
the 22nd January was the ignorance and carelessness 
shown by the authorities beforehand. At the very time 
of the disaster to No. 3 Column there was a train of 
fifteen waggons, with sbcty-five boxes of ammunition 
each, moving unguarded up to Helpmakaar, upon a road 
eight miles from and parallel to the Zulu border 1 

With the exception of Rorke's I>rift, no militaiy 

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312 TSS ZULU WAB. . 

station was at this time more open to attack than 
HolpmakaaT, distant from it about twelve miles. The 
fugitives &om Isandhlwana, Captains Essex and Gardn«, 
lieutenants Cochrane, Curling, and Smith-Dorrien, with 
about thirty others, reached this place between 5 and 
6 P.M., and at once set about forming a waggon-laager 
round the stores. The garrison of two companies of the 
]-24th Regiment had marched towards Rorke's Drift 
during the day ; but Major Spalding says : " On reaching 
the summit of a hill from which the misdon-house is 
visible it was observed to be in flames ; this confirmed 
the statement of the fugitives that the post had been 
captured. This being the case, it was determined to 
save, if possible, Helpmakaar and its depdt of stores " 
.... and the column reached Helpmakaar by 9 p.m. 
(P. P. [0. 2260] p. 88.) Captain Gardner, soon after 
reaching Helpmakaar, left for Utrecht, it having occurred 
to him to carry the news of the disaster himself to 
Colonel Wood. Our loss at Isandhlwana is given as 
689 officers and men Imperial troops, and 133 officers 
and men of Colonial Volunteers, Mounted Police, and 
Natal Native Contingents— Europeans (P. P. [C. 2260] 
pp. 93-98) ; but the actual loss was slightly in excess of 
those numbers. 

The Zulu army appears to have consisted of the 
following regiments : 'Kandampemvu (or Umcityu), 
'Ngobamakoai, Uve, Nokenke, Umbonambi, Udhloko, 
Nodwengu, and Undi (which comprises the Tulwana, 
'Ndhlondhlo, and ludhlnyengwe), whose full nominal 
strength reaches a total of 30,900 men ; but the actual 
numbers are estimated at from 20,000 to 26,000. 

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EORKE'S DRIFT, ETC. 813 

The Zulus acknowledge to having sufEered heavily, 
and their loaa is estimated at 3000. 

Cetahwayo's yoongeBt brother, Nugwende, who sur- 
rendered on 27th April, said he was present at Isandhl- 
wana. That the front and left flank attack was beaten, 
and fell back with great loss until the fire of the white 
troops slackened ; the right flank entering the camp, the 
attack was renewed, the English being unable to prevent 
their onset &om want of ammunition. The Zulu army, 
he says, numbered 20,000 of the king's best troops. 

A court of inquiry, composed of Colonel Hassard, 
C.B., RR, Lieut-Colonel Law, II.A., and Lieut- 
Colonel Harness, R.A., assembled at Helpmakaar on 
the 27th January, when the following officers gave 
evidence: Major Clery; Colonel Glyn, C.B. ; Captain 
Gardner, 11th Hussars ; Captain Essez, 75th Regiment ; 
LieutenanltCochrane, 32nd Regiment ; Lieutenant Smith- 
Dorrien, 95th Regiment; Captain Nourse, Natal Native 
Contingent ; and Lieutenant Curling, RA, 

The evidence taken consisted of statements made by 
the above officers, not one of whom appears to have been 
questioned. The (so-caUed) inquiry seems to have been 
strictly limited to the occurrences at the camp, as we 
find Majcv Clery's evidence finish abruptly, "I saw the 
column out of camp and accompanied it" Colonel Glyn 
merely corroborated Major Clery's statement; and the 
other officers gave their respective versions of the 
occurrences at the camp ; Captain Essex giving a 
Tety clear and detailed account of the movements of 
the 24th Regiment 

The proceedings were forwarded on the 29th, with 

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8U TEE ZULU WAR. 

these remarks : " Tbe conit has examined and recorded 
the statements of the chief witnessea. 

"The copy of proceedings forwarded was made by a 
confidential clerk of the Soyal Engineers. 

" The court has refrained from giving an opinion, as 
instructions on this point were not given to it" 

The proceedings were forwarded from Dorban to the 
8ecreta:y of State for War on Febraary 8th by Lord 
Chelmsford, who said : " The court has very properly 
abstained from giving an opinion, and I myself refrain 
also from making any observations, or from drawing any 
conclusions from the evidence therein recorded." 

He regrets that more evidence has not been taken, 
and has directed his military secretary " to append a 
statement of the &cts which came under his cognizance 
on the day in question."— (P. P. [C. 2260] p. 80). 

On this officer's " statement " some remarks have 
been made in tiie previous chapter ; and we moat now 
quote one or two passages from the public prints, which 
appeared when Colonel Harness's share in the proceed- 
ings of t^e 22nd January first came to light. 

The Daily News of April 8th, referring to this episode 
and the court of inquiry, says : " Lord Chelmsford seems 
to have been as unfortunate in the selection of his ataff- 
ofiicers as he was in everjrthing else." 

Lieut rColon el Crealock's " statement " is stigmatised 
as "palpably written to establish a preconceived 
theory;" and The Daily News says most justly that 
" Colonel Harness should not have sat as member of the 
court of inquiry. How it could have been supposed 
that an officer who had taken so prominent a part in 

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BORKE'S DSIFT, ETC. 815 

the doings of the 22nd January was a fit and Boitable 
memlier of a court assembled even to take evidence 
merely, is more than we can understand. Besides, the 
very fact of his being a member, we are told, precluded 
Colonel Harness from giving his own valuable evidence." 

Hie Natal Witness of May 29th, 1879, makes some 
reflections on the same subject, which are very pertinent. 
We need not repeat its criticisms on the court of 
inquiry, etc. but it says ; " It is notorious that certain 
members of Lord Chelmsford's staff— there is no need 
to mention any name or names — came down to 'Maritz- 
burg after the disaster, prepared to make Colonel 
Dumford bear the whole responsibility, and that it 
vas upon their representations that the High Com- 
missioner's telegram about ' poor Dumford's misfortune ' 
was sent." 

How a court of inquiry, assembled without the 
power, apparently, of asking a single question, was to 
throw much light on the causes of the disaster, does not 
appear. Its scope was limited to the doings at the 
camp ; and under any circumstances it could not well 
criticise the faults of the General. The proceedings of 
this court of inquiry can therefore only be considered 
as eminently unsatisfactory. 

We might here leave this painful subject, were it not 
for the undisguised attempts that have been made to 
throw the blame on the dead. 

In considering the question of blame, we must first 
put before us the circumstances in which the camp 
defenders found themselves when they were required 
" to defmd the camp." 

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818 TSS ZULU WAB. 

Now the orders given to Lieut-Colonel Fnlleine are 
stated by Major Clery, senior stoflF-officer of No. 3 
Colunui, thus : — 

" Before leaving the camp I sent written instructions 
to Colonel Falleine, 24th Kegiment, to the following 
effect: 'You will be in command of the camp daring 
the absence of Colonel Glyn; draw in (I speak from 
memory) your camp, or your line of defence '■ — I am not 
certain which — ' while the force ia out ; also draw in the 
line of your infantry outposts accordingly, but keep 
your cavalry vedettes still far advanced,' I told him to 
have a waggon ready loaded with ammunition ready to 
follow the force going out at a moment's notice, if 
required. I went to Colonel PuUeine's tent just before 
leaving camp to ascertain that he had got these instruc- 
tions, and again repeated them verbally to him." — (P. P. 
[C. 2260] p. 81). 

As regards the force left to defend the camp, there 
were no iostructions to form a defensive post; the 
General did not think it necessary, though to him was 
the almost prescient remark made : " We should be all 
right if we only had a laager." He saw no danger; he 
was about to move his camp on, and a laager would be 
useless work, so he put the suggestion on one side with 
the remark: "It would take a week to make." Thria 
Lieut. -Colonel Fulleine was left, and he had no reason 
to anticipate danger, till, almost without a moment's 
warning, he found the camp threatened by an over- 
whelming force ; he then, after trying in vain to check 
the enemy's right, endeavoured to hold the donga and 
broken ground close in front of the camp, where his 

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BOBKE'3 DRIFT, BTO. 817 

men found some cover ; the camp itself being absolutely 
indefensible.* Colonel Dumford, as we have seen, 
reached the camp about 10.30 A.M., before which time 
Major Chard says : " The troops were in column. . . . 
but of camp," and he saw Zulus " on the crest of the 
distant hills," and several parties moving to the left 
towards Borke's Drift. Colonel Dumford takes out his 
mounted men to (as he thinks) assist his General, and to 
see what the enemy is aboutt 

Again, some assert that the action was brought about 
by Colonel Dumford's Native Horse in the Ingqutu Hills. 
Even had it been so, yet this officer's duty distinctly 
was to feel and reconnoitre the enemy.t When the Zulu 
army moved forward to the attack, he^ with his handful 
of men, fell slowly back, gaining all the time possible for 
l^e camp defenders. 

Taking the whole of the circumstances of the day, 
we may conclude that, had the enemy remained hidden 
on the 22nd, we should probably have lost the entire 
column instead of part ; but the account given by an 
English Officer with one of the troops that first saw the 
enemy, and other accounts from Zulus, seem to make it 
clear that ihe Zulus were moving on the camp when 
they came in contact with the horsemen. That they 

* Some officera irho vere with the advuice colnttm, and who 
aft«nrarda visited Isandhlwana, Bay that they appear to have " tried 
to get the waggons together to form a laager," but there wbb not time. 

f With lespect to this, Lord Gbehnsfonl lays down a principle 
(lelative to the border ndds, but even more strongly applicable here) 
that if a force remains " on the passiTe def ensive, without endeaToniing 
by means of scoatii^; In small bodies or by raiding in large ones, to 
diacover what the enemy is doing in its immediate front, it deserTes 
to bo nuprised and overpowered."— (P. P. [C. 2318] p. 80). 

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818 THE ZULU WAR. 

had no iotentioii of lenuiniiig ludden is nhn wn by their 
unconcealed moTementB on the hills thronghoat the 
morning.* 

Nov, whether these defenders did or did not take 
the best measures " to defend the camp " when it was 
attacked, the primary canses of the disast^ were 
nndoabtedly these : 

1. The fatal position selected for the camp, and the 
total absence of any defenmre precautions. 

2. The absence of systematic scooting, whereby an 
army of upwards of 20,000 Znlus was enahled to approach 
Isandhlwaoa on the 21st, and remained nnobaerred till the 
22nd, although their mounted scouts were actually seen 
by the General and staff on the 2l8t, watching them. 

* It is stated tlut on the previoua evening there was no intentioil 
on the part of the Znliis to attack the camp upon the 22iid, vhich 
was not thought by them a propitious day, being that of the new 
moon. It ia alao said that the Znln annj came with pacific intentioiis, 
in order to give up Sihayo's sons, and tiie cattle for the fine. In all 
piobabihty they left t/te king with such oiden — that is to ny, to 
make terms if possible, but to fight if forced to it, and if the P-nglJah 
intentions were plainly hostile. This hostility was thorooghly proved 
before the morning of the 22nd, when the depaituie of Lord Chelms- 
ford's force from the camp must have been a strong temptation to tbe 
Zulus to attack the latter. 

Warning of the Zulu army moving against Nos. 1 and 3 Colnmna 
was received on the border, and communicated to Ur. Fannin, BtaHet 
Agent, on January 20th. The warning stated that the whole Zulu 
army, over 35,000 strong (except about 4000 who remained with tbe 
king), was marched in two columns, the strongest against Colonel 
Glyn's column, the other against Colonel Pearson ; this was to take 
up its position on the 20Lh or 21st January at the royal kraal n«at 
Inyczane, and the first to approach Eorke's Drift. The writer com- 
plains of the little and inadequate use mode of the information, which 
might have been communicated from Fort Pearson to Borke'a Drift 
in time to have averted the fearful disaster of the 22nd January. — 
(P. P. [C. 2308] pp. 69, 70.) 



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BOSKE'8 DRIFT, BTO. S19 

3. The subdivision of the force, and the absence of 
proper commtmications by signalling or otherwise. 

4. The neglect of warnings given by the events of 
the day, and messages from the camp ; also the with- 
drawal of a force actually on the march to the relief of 
tiie camp. 

For t&ese principal causes of the dkaster, none of 
those who fell were responsible. 

Hiat Lord CSieknsford was shaken by the tragio 
events of Januaiy is evident from his letter to the Secre* 
tary of State for War, dated " Durban, Natal, Februaiy 9th, 
1879," and which ran as follows; "I consider it my 
duty to lay before you my opinion that it is very 
desiraUe, in view of future contingencies, that an officer 
of the rank of major-general shall be sent out to South 
Africa without delay. In June last I mentioned privately 
to His Boyal Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding- 
in-Chief that the strain of prolonged anxiety and 
exertion, physical and mental, was even then telling on 
me. What I felt then, I feel still more now. His 
Excellency Sir Bartle Frero concurs in this representation, 
and pointed out to me that the officer selected should be 
fitted to succeed him in his position of High Commissioner. 
In making this representation, I need not assure you 
that it will be my earnest desire to carry on my duties 
for Her Majesty^s service up to the fullest extent of my 
poweiB."— {P. P. [C. 3260] p. 79). 

The exact meaning of this letter has never been made 
clear. No doubt Lord Chelmsford was feeling " the strain 
of prolonged anxiety and exertion, physical and mental," 
but His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief said 

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820 THE ZULU WAR. 

that he had no previous knowledge of it. Students of 
Greek history will note the strildng parallelism of this 
case with that of Nicias, who, when commanding before 
Syracuse in the year 414 B.C., applied to be superseded. 
*' Such was the esteem which the Athenians felt for this 
union of good qualities, purely personal and negative, 
with eminent station, that they presumed the higher 
aptitudes of command," and " the general vote was one 
not simply imputing no blame, but even pronouncing 
continued and unabated confidence." — Grote's " History 
of Greece." 

But of all the strange and incomprehensible circum- 
stances connected with that sad time, the one which 
struck Natal as the strangest was the utter desertion of 
the battle-field and the long neglect of the dead who 
lay there. On the 4th February Major Black, 2-24th 
Begiment, with a small party, found the bodies of 
Lieutenants Melville and Coghill about 300 yards from 
the river on the Natal side, near the Fugitives' Drift, 
and they were buried on the spot, the colours which 
they had striven to save being found in the river, 
and returned next day to the Begiment at Help» 
makaar. 

The fatal field of Isandhlwana was not again seen till 
the 14th March, when Major Black, 2-24th, with a 
small mounted party, paid a flying visit to the spot, 
a few shots only being fired at them firom a distance. 
No attempt was made to bury the dead, and until the 
21st of May that ghastiy field remained as it was leffc 
on the 23rd of January, although there does not appear 
to have been any period since the disaster when a 

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BOBKE'8 DRIFT, STO. S21 

moderate force might not with perfect safety have done 
all that was necessary. 

On the morning after the letnm of Colonel Olyn'a 
Colamn to Korke's Drifts "Commandant Lonsdale 
mustered the Contingent and called out the indanas, 
and told them in the hearing of all that he wanted to 
find out the men who were courageous and would stuid 
by their officers and die with them if necessary, and 
that those who were willing to do this were to come 
forward. At this time the mounted infantry and 
TolimteeTB were moving off to Helpmakaar. The 
general reply of the Contingent was that they were 
willing to go over to fight along with the white people, 
their shield against Cetywayo ; but that now that they 
eaw their shield going away they would not go over by 
themselves, and that no one could say he was not 
afi^d." * 

"They were then dismissed, but in the afternoon 
they were all disarmed (of their guns),' and their belts 
and puggaries and blankets taken from them by 
their officers. Each company had a flag, which they 
asked to take home with them ; some were allowed to 
do so, but others were not. They were then all told 
to go home, and to keep t<^etber till Uiey reached the 
TTmBinga, and then to divide each for his own home." 

On January 24th, Colonel Glyu wrote to Lord 
Chelmsford: "The whole of the Native Contingent walked 
off this morning. Their rifles were taken from them ; 
all the hospital-bearers then went, and now the Native 
Pioneers are going. I am now left without any natives." 
* P. P. (C. 2318) p. 12. 

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322 THE ZULU WAR. 

The General immediately forwarded Colonel Gljn's 
letter to Sir Henry Bulwer, with the remark : " noless 
these men are at once ordered back to their re^ments^ 
or punished for refusing to go, the most serious 
consequences will ensue " {ibid. p. 3). 

Sir Henry Bulwer very properly abstained &Qm 
taking any strong measures as to punishing the men 
until he had inquired into the causes which led to their 
desertion. Eventually, indeed, he discovered that most 
of tbem had not deserted at all, but had been disbanded 
by their leader, Commandant Lonsdale. But meanwhile 
there was a great deal to be said, and on January 29th 
Sir Henry writes, pointing out that " the great disaster 
which happened to our force at Isandhlwana Camp on 
the 22nd inst., the circumstances under which these m^i 
passed the night of the 22nd, and the retirement of the 
remainder of the column on Rorke's Drift and back into 
Natal, were all calculated to have their effect on the 
natives who belonged to this colmnn ; " and proceeds : 
"I am told, too, that whilst the European force at 
Borke's Drift on the night of the 23rd were entrenched, 
the Native Contingent was not entrenched ; and further 
I am told that, on an alarm being given that nighty the 
European officers and non-comnussioned officers who 
were with the Native Contingent left their men and took 
re&ge within the entrenchments. On the following 
morning, the 24th, the General and his staff left the 
camp ; and this circomstance, those acquainted with 
the native character tell me, may very probably have 
had a further depressing effect upon the natives." — 
(P.P. [0.2318] p. 4). 

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BOBKE'S DRIFT, ETC. 323 

On February 7th, Sir Henry Bittwer writes again 
that he has received answers &om the magistrates whom 
he had directed to make inquiries into the causes of the 
dispersion of the men. These reports speak of the 
cheerful spirit and loyal tone of the chiefs, and of very 
many of the men having reported themselves to their 
magistrates on their return from the front. The accounts 
given by the different magistrates are unanimous as to 
the causes of the dispersion. Some of the men declared 
that officers of the Contingent told them to return home 
and await further orders, as provisions were short ; 
others, to use their oym. words, said : " We saw that 
the Government was driven out of Zululand, and the 
wind blew us back also." They thought also that the 
Commander-in-Chiefs hasty departure from Rorke's 
Drift was .a flight from the enemy. Another reason 
for their retreat, and to them a very strong one, was the 
necessity of going home and performing the rights of 
purifying after shedding blood* It was also stated 
that some of them were led by their officers in their 
retreat. Others saw their officers killed, were left 
without control, and fled. Their friends were now 
lang^iiitg at them, and they were eager to return to 
the front under proper guidance. 

These, indeed, were ample explanations for the fact 
of the dispersion of the 3rd Begiment Natal Native ' 
Contingent, but they were followed by many and serious 
complaints, made by the men and reported by the 

* !Ebd Lord ChelmsfoTd been acquunted with this peculkrit^ of 
the Zuliu, he might sot have thought it neceeeaiy to hurry avaj iumi 
IsandhliTBiia on the 23id. There vaa no fear of the same force 
attacking again for eome days to come, 

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824 THE ZULU WAR. 

magistrates, of the manner in wiuah the former had 
been treated since the campaign began. These com- 
plaints comprised insufficiency of food, flc^gings for 
disobedience to orders which they had either never 
heard, or had not tmderstood, and bad officers.* These 
were the most important items, the rest leferring to 
their preference fot their own methods of fightdng, to 
which, as we have already shown, there were the 
strongest objections. 

These reports referred solely to the contingent 
attached to Colonel CMyn's column, with the exception 
of one, which was concerning the remnant of the Zikali 
men, escaped &om Isandhlwana. 

It was finally decided that the men of the con- 
tingents belonging to No. 1 Column might " be allowed 
to leave in batches, but they must be made to under- 
stand that they are required for the defence of Natai" 
(P. P. [C. 2260] p. 22.) The contingent forming No. 2 
Column remiuned steadily seiving throughout the war. 
Major Bengough's battaUon had a narrow escape of 
sharing in the disaster of Isandhlwana, and the men 
were somewhat shaken and disheartened at seeing the 
contingent of No. 3 Column dispersing ; but this ill-eSect 
soon passed away. 

Colonel Pearson's remarks on the company of Native 
Pioneers belonging to his column are concise and valu- 
able. He says : " The men worked cheerfully. They 
bad eyes like hawks, and they did all their scouting to 
perfection. It convinced me that the Natal Zulus, under 
proper management, would make excellent troops." 
* P. P. (C. 2318) pp. H-17. 

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CHAPTEK XV. 

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINSr SIEUKmn. 

Wb have already, in a prcTious chapter, explained 
the ciicomstances which led to the war between 
the TransTaal Boers and Sikuknni, independent chief 
of a mixed race of natives commonly called the 
MaJnatisi, more properly the Bapedi, tribe. The im- 
mediate cause of the war was a border dispute between 
some of the gradually encroadiing Boer farmers and 
the natives whom they had displaced, which ended in 
the latter t^ing possession of some cattle belonging to 
the former. 

This affidr took place during a temporary absence 
of Mr. Burgers (then President of the Republic), who, 
on his return, demanded the cattle at the hands of 
Siknkuni, and the restraint of his people within the 
limits assigned to them by liheir Boer neighbours. 
Sikokuui expressed his willingness to make the required 
restitution, but took the opportunity of reminding the 
President that he laid claim to a considerable piece of 
tenitoiy already occupied by Boers, to whom he denied 
having ever willingly relinquished it. This reply was 
the signal for a declaration of war against Sikukuni on 

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326 TEE ZULU WAR. 

the part of the President and Volkaraad, and a large 
" commando," or volunteer force, was called out to 
attack him early in Jtilj, 1876. 

This force, consisting of some 3000 Boers and over 
4000 of their Swazi allies, made its way throagh the 
country, ravaging and destroying as it went, until it 
reached the famous stronghold known as " Sikukani'a 
Town," upon which it made an unsuccessful night attack, 
on August 2nd. 

A single reverse was sufficient to dishearten the 
gallant Boers, who immediately discovered various 
reasons which made their return to their homes 
absolutely necessary. The commando dispersed, leaving 
a force of volunteers composed of stray Englishmen, 
Germans, and half-bred natives to occupy a couple of 
posts (Fort Burgers and Fort Weber), which they built 
for the purpose. From these posts they carried on a 
system of raiding expeditions upon Sikukuni's people, 
which effectually prevented the cultivation of their land, 
and finally produced a scarcity of food amongst them. 
This state of things was too harassing to last, and 
Sikukuni sued for peace, which was granted him early 
in 1877, conditionally upon his paying a heavy fine in 
cattle. 

A month later, and before the fine had been paid. 
Sir T, Shepstone had annexed the Transvaal, and, as we 
have already described, took over, with the country, its 
quanels and demands. He tried to enforce the fine 
imposed by the late Boer Government upon Sikukoni, 
while remitting the war-tax levied upon the whites. 
After having been subjected to so long a coarse of 

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TBE CAMPAION AGAINST SIKTfKUNJ. 327 

marauding on the part of the Dutch, it is not impossible 
that the chief really had some difficulty in procuring, at 
a moment's notice, the 2000 head of cattle demanded by 
Sir T. Sh^tone.* At all events, the fine was not paid 
BO promptly as the administrator expected ; and the 
whole country being in an unsettled condition, perpetual 
disturbances still took place between Sikukuni's people 
and the border farmers, and also between the former and 
petty chiefis who had placed ■ themselves under British 
protection. 

The most restless of the independent native rulers 
Beams to have been a woman, Legolwaua, a sister of 
Sikukuni's, who had her own 'clan, and whose head- 
quarters was a mountain stronghold, called Masellaroon. 
In February, 1878, her people had a quurel (nor was it 
for t^e first time) with a neighbouring native chief under 
our rule, from whom they took some cattle. Whether 
or no tiiere were two sides to the question, the despoiled 
chief was our subject, and it so happened that Legolwana's 
people were met in the act of driving off the cattle by a 
patrol of Transvaal volunteers, who promptly interfered. 
This occurrence led to a general outbreak of hostilities. 
Legolwana's men attacked the two forts simultaneously, 
and the officers in command, Captain Clarke and 
Lieutenant Eckersley, with their men, escaped from them, 
and retired to Lydenburg. From thence Captain Clarke 
sent embassies to the Swazi king and another inde- 
pendent chief, asking for assistance against Sikukuni. 

* Who, it is said, inaisted upon the animala being fine and in 
good condition, letuming agme which were sent in helow tiie leqniied 
mtric 

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S28 TSE ZULU WAS. 

His inTitations, howerer, were politely dedined, the 
chiefs in question not caring to intetfere, although 
wishing to rennia upon friendly terms with the English. 

Having obtained reinforcements from the gold-fields 
and Pretoria, Captain Clarke marched back to Pent 
Weber, and re-occupied it with a force consistiiig of 
40 mounted volunteera under Captains Van Deventer 
and Ferreira, 150 Natal Zulus under Lieutenants Lloyd 
and Dacomb, and 300 Bechuanas under Mr. Tainton. 

Captain Clarke's first intentions were to attack 
Legolwana and reduce her to submission. Caption 
Lacon Hervey, 71st Regiment, gives the following 
description of her stronghold in his account of "The 
Secocoeni War " : 

"The town, or kraal, of Legolani consisted of a 
number of straw and wattle-and-daub huts, beehive- 
shaped, situated at t^e base and on the terraces of a 
mountain of rocks and huge boulders 700 feet high, 
covered over with thick clumps of bush. The huts 
at the base of the mountain were surrounded by an 
impenetrable hedge of priddy pear ; a single entrance, 
baEiicadedwith timber, led through an avenue of pri(^y 
pear and cactus into the group of huts surrounded by 
palisading, wattle screens, and stone walls. Each group 
of huts was commanded by the rocks above ; from bdiind 
these a direct, flanking, and enfilade fire could be poured 
on the attacking party, which, on account of the intricacy 
of the ground, would be compelled to advance in single 
file along the tortuous goat-pat^s leading up to the 
mountain. In addition to the cover afforded by the 
caves and fissures in the rocks, schanzes, or low stone 

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TSE CAMPAIGN AGAINST SIKVKUNI. 829 

whHb, were built up wherever favourable positions 
with safe means of retreat presented themselves. The 
paths leading from, one rock entrenchment, or terrace, 
to the one above it, were so concealed by rock and bush 
as to be difficult to find. Finally, the Kafirs' most 
valued treasure, the cattle, was placed on the summit 
of the mountain, on a level plot of ground, surrounded 
by a stone wall." 

This stronghold was attacked by Captain Clarke's 
ordeiB on the 5th April, and, " after about two hours' 
sharp work, the north of the hill was carried."* The 
fightmg force, not being sufficient to complete its work, 
was ordered to withdraw, after having swept all the 
cattle from that side of the hill {277 head of cattle and 
2X1 sheep and goats). A considerable number of 
Legolwana's people are supposed to have fallen in this 
assault, the -loss on our side being 10 killed and 12 
wounded, amongst the latter Captain Van Deventer 
slightly, and Lieutenant Lloyd severely. These two 
officers are reported as having led the attack with great 
gallantry. 

The partial success gained by the storming of Masel- 
laroon (with the loss of life on our side — considerable 
under the circumstances) was not such as to encourage 
Captain Clarke in the tactics with which he had com- 
menced his operations. He therefore abandoned all idea 
of seizing the native strongholds, and "established a 
cordonoffort8,about twelve miles from each other .... 
with a view of harassing the Kafirs by preventing them 
from cultivating the Indian com." 

* Captain Clarke'a report (C. 2144), p. 37. 

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330 THE ZULU WAIt. 

" Legolwana had eued for peace, but Captain Clarke 
would not listen to anything except unconditioiial 
surrender, with the guarantee that all life should be 
spared."* 

Thus, with the usual notion that " no terms can be 
made with savages," which has again and again produced 
such disastrous consequences for them and for ns, a tsyatem 
of petty warfare was kept up, tedious, unnecessary, and 
by which no good could be done nor honour gained. To 
the Tolunteers, many of whom; says Captain Harvey, 
were "gentlemen by birth and education," there may 
have been some amusement in what that officer speaks 
of as " actions of daring individual enterprise," and which 
he describes as follows : " Volunteers went out and lay 
ambuscades at night, to surprise and cut off Kafirs pro- 
ceeding &om kraal to kraal, or to cultivate their fields, 
and ' cattle-lifting ' expeditions were planned and boldly 
carried out;" but the life must have become monotonous 
in the extreme before July, when the native auxiliaries 
became so discontented with it that some of them were 
allowed to return to their homes, while a troop of 
mounted infantry was summoned from Pretoria to ke^ 
order amongst those who remained. 

It was about this time that Colonel Eowknds, V.C, 
come upon the scene. This excellent officer, of whose 
services in 1878-79 so little mention has been made, was 
sent out on " special service," and was for a short time 
attached to the staff of Lord Chelmsford (then General 
Thesiger) during the Kaffrarian war. He was subse- 
quently sent by the High Commissioner to Pretoria, 
• Sit T. Shepstone to 6ir H. Bulwer, April IGth, 1876 {C. 2144). 

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TSE OAMPAIQN AGAINST 8IKUKUNL 331 

which he reached on May 6th. He employed the two 
following months in an inspection of the northern and 
eastern frontiers of the Tranaraal,* and by dint of con- 
siderable personal exertion was enabled to supply 
valuable information to head-quarters. Towards the end 
of July, Colonel Rowlands was appointed Commandant 
of the Transvaal At this time the regular forces in the 
Transvaal consisted only of the 13th Light Infantry, a 
few engineers, and departmental staff — quite inadequate 
for the work required of them ; but the Commander-in- 
Chief, in signifying hia approval of the manner in which 
Colonel Rowlands proposed to distribute the troops 
thready under his command, informed him that he was 
about to reinforce the Transvaal with the 80th Regi- 
ment add Frontier Light Horse, with a view to active 
operations against Sikukunl 

The promised reinforcements arrived by degrees from 
Natal, and meanwhile there were Pretoria, Middleburg, 
Lydenburg, and Standerton, where considerable stores of 
ammunition, etc. were collected, to be gainsoned, as 
well as the cordon of forts, already mentioned, along 
the Leolu Mountains, which left no large proportion of 
the troops — about 800 of the 13th, and under 300 
volunteers and Zulu police — for service in the field. 

However, by the 29th August Colonel Rowlands 
£>and himself in a position to leave Pretoria for the 
confines of the Transvaal, and reached Fort Weber on 
the 13th September. From thence to Fort Burgers was 
a long and tedious march through a di£&cult and track- 
less country. The column was forced to make its own 
♦ Upon the Znla border. 

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382 THE ZULU WAS. 

toad as it went, and had .Beveral sktrmiBhes vith 
Sikukuni's people en route. Beinforced by the Froiitier 
Light Horse under Major Buller, and a party under 
Major Russell from Pretoria, Colonel Rowlands at last 
reached Fort Burgers, and, after a few days' halt for 
repairs, patrolling, and scouting the country, recom- 
menced his march towards " Sikaknui's Town," distant 
about twenty-five miles. 

On the 3rd October he advanced with 338 mounted 
men (Mounted Infantry, Frontier Light Horse, and 
Transvaal Volunteers), X30 infantry, and 2 7-pounder 
mountain guns ; his intention being to establish himself 
before Sikuknni's town, thoroughly reconnoitre it, and, 
should he find that there was a chance of success, and 
that the position could be afterwards held, to attack it 
when he had brought up reinforcements. 

The position was one of extreme difficulty, greatly 
increased by the singular drought which was experienced 
at the time, both in the Transvaal and NataL 

From Fort Burgers to Sikukuni's Town, the approach 
lay chiefly through a defile commanded by " kopjes " 
(piles of rock and boulders, often some hundred feet in 
height), of which the enemy did not fail to take advan- 
tage. The weather was intensely hot, the thermometer 
standing daily at over 100 in the shade, and the unusual 
drought had dried up the springs and small watercourses 
to an extent previously unknown. 

The camp was fired into on the night before the force 
sighted Sikukuni's Town, but from a considerable distance, 
causing no damage beyond one horse wounded, and a 
general stampede of the slaughter cattle ; a determined 

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THE OAMPAIQN AGAINST SIKUKUNI. 383 

advance of the piquets, ranforced by their supports, 
quiokly driving back the enemy, who did not advance 
again. 

The stronghold was sighted upon the following day, 
bnt it soon became apparent to Colonel Rowlands that, 
while to attempt its captore with the small force at his 
disposal woold be a mere reckless sacrifice of the troops 
under his command, it was equally impossible to carry 
out his original intention of establishing himself before 
it, under the existing circumstances of absolute want of 
water and forage. Deeply disappointing as was this 
discovery, Colonel Rowlands was convinced that his only 
course under the circumstaQces was to retire, and, his 
opinion being confirmed by the senior officers present, 
he reluctantly commenced his return march on the 6th 
OctobCT. 

Encouraged by the retreat of the force, the enemy, 
now in large numbers, followed and harassed it, almost 
until it reached the bivouac, eight miles from Fort Burgers. 
Thirteen thousand rounds of ammunition were expended 
in keepng off the foe during the march, and both man 
and beast sufiered severely fifom want of water and the 
intense heat of the sun. The force reached Fort Burgers 
the following day, with the loss of 1 man wounded ; 
5 horses were killed, 10 died of horse sickness, and 
4 horses and 1 mule were wounded. Here they 
remained for several weeks, in hopes that the summer 
lains, which it was natural to expect should fall at this 
time of year, would enable them to make a second 
advance upon Sikukuni's Town. Meanwhile mounted 
patrols, under Major Bnller, Major Russell, Captain 

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SS4 THE ZULU WAR. 

Clark^ and Lieutenant Eckerslej (in comioand of Swaa 
levies), swept the country in every direction, harrying 
the natives and capturing their cattle, but without 
meeting with any armed opposition. Horse sickness now 
set in — ^that South African scom^, from which the force 
had hitherto suffered but slighdy, and in single cases, 
but which at this time became an epidemic, deaths 
occurring daily, sometimeB but a few hours after the 
animal was attacked by the disease. This nnfortunate 
citcumstance added greatly to the difficulties of the 
situation. 

After the retreat of the force from before Sikukoni's 
Town, the enemy made several determined attacks npon 
the forts in the Mamalubi Valley, especially upon Fort 
Faugh-a-Ballagh ; and although these attacks were in 
eveiy case successfully resisted, they necessitated the 
strengthening of the garriaona of the forts along this 
line. 

Lord Chelmsford (then General Thesiger) had pe- 
viously given notice to Colonel Bowlands that a column 
fix>m the Transvaal, under the command of the latter, 
would be required to co-operate with the Ama-Swazi in 
the invasion of Zululimd. The 13th Begiment, Fronlser 
Light Horse, and Lieutenant Nicholson's guns, were all 
to be available for that pnrpose as soon as the Sikukuni 
affair (which was then lightly considered) should be 
settled. By this arrangement, the 80th Regiment and 
volunteers alone were reserved for the defence of the 
Transvaal. As the season was now for advanced. 
Colonel Rowlands was obliged to make the best arrange- 
ments he could for the defence of the border with the 

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THE CAMPAIQN AGAINST SIKXIKUNI. 835 

foroe — an absurdly small one, considering the distuibed 
state of the couutay — ^which would be left after the 
withdrawal of those intended by the General for the 
Zola inTaaioiL His chi^ adviser. Captain Clarke, was 
of opinion that a precipitate retirement from the valleys 
of the Steelport and Speckboom rivers would be unad- 
visable. These valleys contained large numbers of Kafir 
gardens, and, by holding them a little later, the natives 
would be prevented from sowing their crops for another 
season, and starvation would ensue. With this object 
in view, Fort Burgers was garrisoned with 100 of 
the I3tii Begiment, and some 50 mounted volunteers, 
while Colonel' Rowlands himself retired to Speckboom 
Drift, about thirteen miles from Fort Burgers, where he 
constructed another fort in such a position as to cover 
the junction of four important roadways Having com- 
pleted this work, he determined to attack some native 
strongholds in the Steelport Valley, into which he 
marched, with 3 guns, 140 mounted men, 340 infantry, 
and 250 natives, on the 26th October. Moving before 
daybreak the following morning, he commenced the 
attack, at 7 a.h., upon a large kraal, built upon a 
mountain spur. Here there was some sharp work, 
difficult positions seized, and the vaUey finally cleared. 
Several kraals were biimt, about 12,000 lb. of grain 
destroyed, and 100 head of cattle taken. Sixteen of 
the enemy were " accounted for," the lose on the side of 
the attacking party being 1 killed and 10 wounded. At 
10 o'clock the same morning the Commandant returned 
to his camp on the Steelport, and, a few days later, 
to the new fort at Speckboom Dri& Despatches from 

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386 THE ZULU WAR. 

head-quarters awaited him here, instructing him to 
withdraw altogether, and as speedily as poauble, from 
the enemy's country. 

Arrangements were immediately made for t^e evacua- 
tion of Fort Burgers, which was the advanced post oa 
the direct road to Sikukuni's Town, the withdrawal of 
troops and stores being masked by a strong patrol under 
Captain Carrington, composed of mounted volunteers and 
native foot levies, who were sent, vid Fort Burgers and 
Origstaadt Valley, to the Oliphaut River. The head- 
quarters of the 13th Regiment (340), Russell's Motmted 
Infantry (63), and Lieutenant Nicholson's two mountain 
guns, left camp for Lydenbarg — the whole under t&e 
command of Lieut. -Colonel Gilbert, 1 3th Light Infantry 
— immediately ; and in a few days' time Fort Burgers 
was emptied and demolished. Captain Carrington's patrol 
having returned, after capturing 345 head of cattle, and 
meeting no enemy except a small guard and the cattle- 
herds, Colonel Rowlands marched from Bpeckboom about 
the 7th November, leaving at that fort a sufficient force 
to guard the ammunition and stores which remained 
there. About thirteen miles firom Lydenburg he halted 
and constructed a small fort, to cover the principal road 
leading to that town, and which he purposed to garrison 
with a detachment of volunteers. 

Considerable difficulty was now experienced by 
Colonel Rowlands in arranging the small force to be left 
at his disposal, so as to efficiently protect tiie great 
length of frontier, extending from Fort Mamalubi (under 
the west side of the Leolu range, and about twenty-five 
miles from Oliphant's River) to Eruger's Post on the 

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TSE OAMPJJGN AGAINST SIKUKUNL 337 

east, besides ganisoning Pretoria, Middleburg, and 
Lydenboi^, in which were large quantities of supplies 
and war mat^iel. His plans were laid with due con- 
sideration for t^e nature of the country and the enemy, 
and afler careful consultation with tliose officers who 
were supposed to be most fully acquainted with botL 
Nevertheless they did not meet with full approval from 
head-quarters, from whence Colonel Rowlands finally 
received j;>rders to remain where he was, and be responsible 
for the arrangemente he had made, instead of proceeding 
at the head of No. 5 Column to the eastern border for 
the invasion of Zululand, as originaUy intended. Shortly 
afterwards Lieut-Colonel Gilbert was directed to proceed 
with the 13th Light Infantry and Lieutenant Nicholson's 
guns to Berby, Lieut. -Colonel Buller having preceded 
him to that place, which was now removed from under 
Colonel Rowlands's command and placed under that of 
Colonel Wood. 

The attention of the former officer was now turned 
to the disposition of the force that remained to him, and 
to the raising of new corps of volunteers and strengthen- 
ing th<we already formed, which he deemed necessary 
for the security of the Transvaal To this work he set 
himself with great energy and considerable success, 
stifling thereby the disappointment which it was but 
natural that he should feel at being excluded from the 
Zulu campaign. Towards the dose of the month, how- 
ever, he received a letter from the General, asking him 
to spare two companies of the 80th Regiment to take the 
place of the force under Colonel Gilbert, which had been 
moved to Luneburg, and which shortly after joined 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



338 THB ZULU WAR. 

Colonel Wood's column. Somewhat to his surprise, he 
waa reminded that Derby was in his command, and was 
told that the General commanding would be glad if he 
would proceed there in person to reassure the Swms. 
That same day the two companies of the SOth^ imder 
Major Creagh, were put in orders to march as directed, 
and Ck)lonel Rowlands followed a week later, leaving the 
forces defending the northern border under the able 
command of Major Carrington, who, however, took such 
instructions from Captain Clarke as he considered 
necessary to give as Commissioner of that district under 
His Excellency the Administrator of the TransraaL 

At Derby there was, not unnaturally, some alight 
confusion owing to this double appointment of (^Bcers 
in command; but having overcome this difficulty. Colonel 
Bowlands set himself seriously to conader the dtuation, 
which was by no means a promising one. A force 
composed of two companies of Europeuis and 250 
natives, collected from the neighbouring country, was 
clearly useless for any a^;resBive pnrpoees, while the 
Swazis, though ready and willing to co-operate with an 
Bnglish force large enough to support them, were 
evidently far from satisfied with the number collected 
at Derby. That town, or hamlet rather, omaistuig of 
but two houses in point of fact, is situated from twenty 
to five-and-twenty miles from the Zulu border of a part 
of Zululand peopled by some of the most warlike tzibes 
of that nation, and so small a garrison as the above did 
but invite attack and disaster. Upon these conader*- 
tions Colonel Rowlands determined to reinforce himself 
from Pretoria and Lydenbni^. He sent instructiuis 

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TEE OAMPAIQN AQAIN8T 8IKUKUNI. 8S9 

to Majoz Tyler, 80th Regiment, to Bend him tiuee 
companies of the 80th, two AmiBtTong guns, and a 
troop of Weatherle/a Bolder Horse, but directing him 
to consult the colonial authorities as to whether the 
troops could be safely spared, before complying with the 
order. 

At this time, about the middle cf January, the 
Zulus throughout this northern and thickly-populated 
part of the country were perfectly quiet and even 
friendly. There was still a possibility that the difficulty 
between their king and the English might be settled 
without bloodshed, and the people were evidently 
anxious to avoid giving cause of offence. Colonel 
Bowlands, who employed his time while waiting for his 
reinforcements (which would take some weeks to arrive) 
in reconnoitring the country, found the roads opem 
and the inhabitants inoffensive. At this period he also 
attempted to organise a frontier force of farmers — 
Englishmen, Boers, and Germans — whom he summoned 
to a meeting for consideration of the question. Fnmi 
fifty to sixty attended, and, after hearing his address, 
their spokesman responded to the effect that they were 
willing to take service for the defensive object proposed, 
but that it was to be clearly understood that by uniting 
Uiemselves to a common protective cause (course ?), they 
did not thereby acknowledge allegiance to the British 
crown. But a committee, subsequently formed to con- 
aider details connected with the proposed force, fell out 
amongst themselves, and the scheme was abandoned. 

On the 26th January, Colonel Rowlands received 
frtHU Sir T. Shepstone the news of the disaster at 

z 2 

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340 TEE ZULU WAR. 

Isandhlwana ; and firom this time nothing but contra- 
dictory orders and imposaible commands seem to have 
reached him at his distant post He heard of the troops 
he had intended for special purposes being ordered else- 
where; he was directed by Lord Chelmsford to take 
orders from his junior, Colonel Wood ; he received 
diflFerent instructions, entirely opposed to each other, 
concerning the calling out of the Swazi allies ; never- 
theless, in spite of the confusion which reigned at that 
unhappy epoch, he kept his head, and went steadily on 
with the plans he had formed. By the second week in 
February he had, with some difficulty, collected a force 
of something under a thousand Europeans and natives, 
and was prepared to operate. It seemed, however, 
impossible to get any distinct orders or definite instruc- 
tions from those in command, either military or civil ; and 
representations having been made to him by the border 
Boers that a Ztda impi was about to attadi them from 
the Tolaka Mountains, he marched out with a portion of 
his force in that direction, leaving Major Tucker (80th) 
in command of the rest. While halted at the Ass^ai 
Kiver upon this expedition, he received a despatch firom 
Colonel Wood, requesting him to nmrch his force from 
Derby to Luneburg to his support. Sending a note to 
Major Tucker, directing him to start for Lunebtu^ next 
morning, he continued his march, attacked and took 
the Tolaka Mountain, and then proceeded towards 
Luneburg with his own force. He was now about 
eighteen miles from where his head-quarters camp under 
Major Tucker would be, with a broken and hilly country 
to pass through, over which he had great difficulty in 

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TEE CASEPAION AQAIN8T SIKUKmi. 341 

conveying his wonnded (fortunately but few), and the 
captured women and children. These captives were, on 
this account, offered their freedom, but refused to accept 
it, which, perhaps, was not unnatural, seeing that their 
homes and crops were destroyed, and they had no longer 
any means of livelihood. 

The force passed through the Intombi Valley, laying 
the couatty waste for miles on either side of the road as 
it went, and met on its way messeDgers from Colonel 
Wood, requesting the immediate presence of the mounted 
corps. But upon the 23rd February, Colonel Rowlands 
received a memor^idum to the effect that the Lieut.- 
General, by desire of the High Commissioner, wished 
him to proceed at once back to Pretoria, to prepare 
some defence against the Boers, who had assumed a 
threatening attitude. Upon the receipt of this order 
he quitted the Luneburg district, and arrived on the 
6tii of March at the capital of the Transvaal. Here 
there were but 200 infantry and some few mounted 
volunteers; but by Colonel Eowlanda's exertions the 
number was soon swdled to 600 or 700, by the addition 
of city corps and other volunteers. 

A considerable number of Boers who had never 
willingly accepted the annexation of their country by 
the English, had taken the opportunity, offered by t^e 
general confanon which reigned after the disaster of the 
22nd January, of endeavouring to regain the inde- 
pendence of their state. Mass meetings were held to 
discuss the subject, and finally a large body of armed 
men formed a camp at no great distance &om Pretoria. 
The rituation appeared a very serious one ; and the 

D,3-,zedbvG00g[e 



&42 TSB ZULU WAS. 

High Commiasioner himself tiarelled to Fietotia to 
endeavour by his honeyed words to calm an agitation 
which might prove so ungularly inconvenient shoold 
the angry feelings of the indignant Boeis find vent in 
blows. On the 12th of AprU, jost two years £rom the 
day of the annexation, Sir B. Ftete met a deputation of 
the Transvaal fimuers at Erasmus Spruit, aboot six miles 
from Fretona* and held a long discussion with them 
upon the subject ci their n^ta and wrongs. They 
repeatedly and plainly asserted that Sir T. Shepstone 
had coerced the people into submission by threatening 
them with the Zulus, and declared nnanimonsly that 
nothing would salasfy them bat the recoveiy of their 
liberties. Sir Bartle Frere gave them to understand 
in return that this was the only thing for -wiuah they 
might not hope. He assured them that he looked upon 
the voorirekkers as an honour to their race, and that 
he f^t proud to belong to the same stock. The Queen, 
he told them, felt for them " as for her own children ; " * 
and he hoped to tell her that she had "no better subjects 
in her empire," than amongst them. The committee, how- 
ever, retired in complete dissatisfaction, and addressed a 
petition to Her Majesty, in whi<^ they remark, "unwilling 
subjects but faithful neighbours we will be ; " and mcure 
than hint that they are prepared to " draw the aword " 
to prove how much they are in earnest l^e ezdtemeut, 
however, cahned down for t^e time beings and Sir Bartle 
Frera departed. 

During his stay in Pretoria, he desired Colonel Bow- 
lands to make preparations to resume hosfaJitdes against 
» C. 8867, p. »0. 

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TES CAMPAIGN AGAINST SiKUKUNI. 343 

Sikuknni, and accordinglj, by the end of May, that 
officer had increased the numbei of his mounted volun- 
teera by 450. He then made a vain attempt to induce 
Lord Chelmsford to spare him another regiment of 
r^^olar troops ; but finding that this was decidedly refused, 
and that no operations were likely to take place in the 
Tnmaraal for some time, he accepted the Greneral's offer 
of a brigade in the lower column. 

On the arrival of Su* Garnet Wolseley at Port Dum- 
ford, he applied to that general for the command in case 
operations ^ould be resumed in the TransTaal To tiiis 
he had a strong claim, both on account of his experience 
and of his laborious services there ; but the request was 
lefiiBed. 



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CHAPTER XVI. 

HO. 4 COLUMN — mrOMBI — INDHtOBANB— KAMBUUl — 
KTSQ'b MEaSENaEB& 

Oh January 6tb, No. 4 Column, under Colonel Wood, 
V.C, C.B. — strength previously detailed — crossed the 
Blood River (the Zulu boundary according to the award 
of l^e Commission) and advanced to Bemba's Kop. 

On the 11th, Colonel Wood met the General half- 
way to Rorke's Drift, and received instmetions "to 
occupy himself with the tribes on his front and left 
flank, notably Seketwayo," until No. 3 Column was 
ready to advance to Isipezi Hill, when he was to proceed 
to Ingwe, both columns to establish advanced depdts, 
bring up supplies, and then move forward. Colonel 
Wood induced the Zulu chief Bemba to give up his 
arms and come in, which he did on the 10th, bringing 
with him about eighty of his people and 1000 head of 
cattle, sheep, and goats ; they were sent to Utrecht 

On the 11th, Colonel Wood, who had advanced wili 
a portion of the force from Bemba's Kop towards Rotke's 
Drift to meet the Qeneral on his return march, seized 
about 2000 head of cattle, the owners of which were 

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INTOMBI—mBELOBANB—KAMSVLA. 345 

quietly tending them as usual (these were supposed to 
be Sihayo'a), and next day attacked a petty chief, who 
was said to have "given considerable trouble to the 
Transvaal farmers, with the result of seven Zulus 
killed and upwards of 500 head of cattle captured. 

Some 2000 to 3000 head of cattle were also taken 
from the Sondolosi tribe,* a slight resistance being 
offered by the Zulus, of whom one was killed. Colonel 
Wood (hua endeavoured to induce Seketwayo's people 
to be pacified, and was "therefore most anxious to 
refrain from taking any steps which might discourage 
these men from coming in 1 " 

The General, on entering Zululand, finding the 
difficulties greater than he had anticipated, instructed 
Colonel Wood " to act altogether independently, about 
the head waters of the White Umveloosi River " 
(16th January, 1879), and when Seketwayo had either 
surrendered or been defeated, to "take up a position 
covering Utrecht and the adjacent Transvaal border, 
wherever he considers his force can be most usefully 
employed," and not to "attempt to advance towards 
the Inhlazatye Mountain until an advance by the other 
three columns across the Umhiatoozi River has become 
possible." (P. P. [C. 2252] p. 63.) Colonel Wood, from 
Bemba's Kop, communicated with TThamo — a brother of 
Cetshwayo — who had asked for a way to be pointed out 
by which he might escape. 

No. 4 Column now moved towards Intemgeni Biver, 
and encamped there on 18th January, Colonel Wood 
reporting " many of the natives are giving themselves 
* Sondolod, deceased btoUier of Seketwayo. 

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U6 THE ZULU WAR. 

up to me ; I have captured about 4000 head of cattle." On 
the previouB day a party of Wood's " irregulara " attacked 
some Zulus, killing 9, wounding about 20, and taking 
5 prisoners and 100 sheep; with a loss to themselves 
of 2 wounded {ibid. p. 66). On the igth and 20th 
there were skirmishes with some of Tinta's people, of 
whom about 12 were killed. A prisoner was brought in 
by the Native Contingent on the 19th, whom they 
gravely asked permission to kill in the evening, " think- 
ing they had done their whole duty in obeying orders 
and bringing the man in." 

The column encamped at Tinta's kraal, on the left 
bank of the Umvolosi Biver, and a stone fort was com- 
menced. A reconnaissance across the Umvolosi to 
Zinguni Mountain met the Zulus in force, and was 
compelled to retire with a loss of two wounded, the 
enemy not being checked until the river was recroaaed. 
January 22ad, the Zinguni Mountain was patrolled l^ a 
strong force, the enemy retiring hastily, and leaving 
about 600 head of cattle. In the distance a large force, 
estimated at 4000, was seen, and it apparently ascended 
the Indhlobane Mountain. The column had a smart 
engagement with the enemy on the 24th, and drove 
them off with a loss of about &£tj killed ; but on receiv- 
ing intelligenee of the disaster to No. 3 Column, retired 
to Fort Tinta. 

At Luneburg a laager was fanned by the Dutch 
farmers, under Commandant Schermbmcker, and Colonel 
Wood moved his force to Eambiila Hill, to cover Utrecht 
and the neighbouring border, and there firmly enteenched 
]iiw>ga1f, The situation chosen was a conunanding and 

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intombi—indslobane—kambjUjA. 347 

central position between the TTmvolosi and Pevana 
rivers on the Jagt-pad (Hunter's path), covering the 
coontry northward to Lnnebuig, eastward to the Ama- 
qulaa, southwaid to the Umvolosi, and westward to 
Baltc's Spmit and Utrecht. 

The Zulus abandoned the open, and remained in the 
mountains and broken country, where rocks and caves 
afforded them secure positions. 

On February Ist, Lieut-Colonel Buller, with 140 
irregular cavalry, made a dash at the Amaqulisini (or 
Amaqulufii) kraal, thirty miles distant This was a 
military stronghold, deemed by the Boers to be im- 
pregnable. It was situated in a baedn at a distance of 
nearly two miles from the summit of the ru^ed heights 
by which it was surrounded, and almost hidden from 
view,although about 300 yards in diameter and containing 
at least 250 huts. 

Leaving thirty men as a covering party, Ckilonel 
Boiler moved with the remainder down the almost 
precipitous slopes, the horsemen frequently obUged to 
dismount and lead their horses. However, the kraal 
was not occupied in force, and, after a few shots, the 
inmates fied. Six Zulus were killed, 270 head of cattle 
taken, and the kraal burnt, the force returning from this 
daring exploit without casualty, after a hard day's 
w«rk of twenty hours. 

A small fort was finished and armed on February 3rd, 
and, <m the 10th, lieut-Colonel Buller, with 400 irre- 
gular cavalry, reconnoitred the Indhlobane Mounttdn, 
and, after a sl^ht skirmish, captured 490 head of catUe. 

A new fort was commenced at Kambola, about two 

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348 TEE ZULU WAR. 

miles higher np the spur, and the camp moved to this 
spot on the 13th, the fort being gairisoned hy two 
companies of infantry and two guns. 

It was reported that Manyonyoba (an independent 
native chief) had been kUling and plundering in the 
Intombi Valley, so Colonel Buller was aent with a force 
to the spot. The Swazi <^ef Umbilini was also 
reported by Commandant Schmnbracker to have raided, 
in combination with Manyonyoba, (ud done much mia- 
chi^ to life and property ; however, a force sent from 
Limebnrg had a succesefii) ftlrirtniwh with them. 

The king's brother, Uhamo, came in to Captain 
McLeod from the Swazi border with 300 of his people 
and 1000 cattle, and reached Derby on February 4th, 
hie following increased to about 600, and was moved 
down to Luuebutg, where he arrived on March 7th. 

A sad disaster occurred on the Intombi River to a 
detachment of the 80t^ Regiment on the 12th March. 
Captain Moriarty, with 104 men of the 80th, was 
escorting a convoy from Derby to Luneborg. On 
reaching the Intombi Drift (about four miles from 
Luneburg) the river was found to be rising, and by 
the time the advanced guard (thirty-five men, under 
Lieutenant Harward) had crossed, it was impossible 
to take the waggons over. They were therefore 
laagered on the river-bank in the shape of a triangle ; 
and there they remained next day. About 4 A.U. on 
the 12th a shot was fired, and the troops tamed out, 
remaining under arms for half an hour, when, all being 
quiet, they returned to their tents (it transpired after- 
wards that the outlying sentries had been surprised and 
killed by the enemy). Suddenly the fog lifted, and a 

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INTOMBI—INDHLOBANM—KAMBULA. 349 

large body of ZuIob without any warning rushed on and 
took the laager, driving the troops into the river. The 
party under Lieutenant Harward, which was encamped 
on the opposite bank, opened a brisk fire, but were soon 
broken, and obliged to fly towards Luneburg ; Lieutenant 
Harward, galloping in, gave the alarm. Only forty-fottr 
men of this detachment survived. 

Major Tucker sallied out from Luneburg, when the 
enemy slowly retreated. The waggons were saved, and 
the bodies of Captain Moriarty and his unfortunate 
men buried. 

The comparatively quiet time at Eambula was passed 
thus : Colonel Wood was up with the first in the early 
moming, and often out with the patrols who daily scouted 
the country round for miles ; his force securely entrenched ; 
himself a very strict but kind commander, who had the 
fiiU confidence tmd goodwill of his troops. Sports were 
got up for the amuBement and occupation of the men. A 
band played in the evening, and the singing and laughter 
in camp showed that all were in excellent spirits. The 
daily business was cutting wood &om the mountain-side 
some three miles distant, escorts, patrols, and piquet- 
dnty. One of the night piquets (eight men) posted at 
some distance from camp was termed " the forlorn hope ; " 
its special duty was to give early warning of an enemy's 
approacL But the most impleasant feature in this camp- 
life was the absence of comfort at night. The troops 
necessarily " tamed in " dressed, armed, and ready for 
instant work, with tiie personal discomfort illust^ted by 
this soldier's joke — that it was " Cetshwayo outside and 
Catcb-away-o t insida" 

Lieut -Colonel Buller, having returned to Kambula, 



850 THE ZULU WAB. 

patrolled Uhaxao's district, and in the diiection of tiie 
Indhlobane range; and on the 16th brought into camp 
968 of Uhamo'a people. 

On March 28th, a reconnaissance by the whole 
cavahy force waa made towards Indhlobane. The Zulus 
were in possession of the mountain, which was ascended 
in skirmishing order as rapidly as possible, the enemy 
keeping up a heavy fire from caves and from bdiind 
huge rocks. The summit was reached with the loss of 
one officer — Lieutenant Williams — and serious fighting 
was kept up for some time in the endeavour to dislodge 
the Zulus from their secure positions. Captain the Hon. 
R Campbell was killed, also Lieutenant von Sticenstron, 
and Colonel Wood himself had a very narrow escape. 

WhUst eng^ed in this struggle a Zulu army was 
moving up to seize the approaches to the mountain, and 
cut off the force from the camp. Immediately on this 
being ol^erred a retreat was made in rapid but good 
order, untU a very steep and stony krantz was reached, 
where the men could only move in single file ; here the 
enemy got in amongst the troopers, causing utter con- 
fusion. The officers did their best to steady their men, 
but it became a case of sauve qui peuL 

Captain Barton's troop was sent down the mountain 
to recover the body of Lieutenant Williams, and retomed, 
having been joined by Mr. Vya. On the flats they 
came up with Colonel Weatherley's troop, and found 
the enemy in front and on the right and left. BetJeat- 
ing a short distance they were surrounded, so, opening 
out, they charged through the enemy and OTet the neck, 
which was lined with Zulus. But few were enabled to 

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INTOMBI—INDELOBANE—KAMSVLA. S51 

win their way through this perilous pass, and of those 
who did nuuiy were overtaken and killed on the plain. 
Of Captain Barton's troop but e^ht men returned to 
camp that night. 

The broken force fought its way to the camp, 
followed by the enemy for several miles. Many a 
man's life was saved by a comrade halting and taking 
him np on his own horse, a petaonal instance of which 
Captain D'Arcy ^ves. His horse had been killed under 
him in the descent of the mountain, and he ran for 
his life for some 300 yards, when a man named 
Francis caught a horse for him, which, however, he 
shortly relinquished to a wounded comrade, running on 
himself on foot Colonel BuUer picked him up when 
nearly exhausted, but when he recovered his breath he 
dismounted ; he was a second time in difficulties, and 
assisted by Lieutenant Blaine, and again, a third time, 
by Major Tremlett, S.A. Indeed, most of the men got 
into camp with comrades mounted behind them. The 
loes was 12 officers and 84 non-commissioned officers 
and men killed, and also Colonel Wood's stafif-officer, 
Capt^ the Hon. B. Campbell ; Captain Barton, Cold- 
stream Guards ; and Mr. Lloyd, Political Assistant 
Colonel Wood's horse was shot under him. 

Mc Piet Uys, the leader of the Burgher force, wa 
likewise amongst those killed in action this day. 

Small patrols were sent oat next morning to endea- 
vour to find any men who might have escaped. 

Warning of an intended attack on Kambula was 
brought in by a native — one of Uhamo's men — and, 
about 11 A.U., dense masses of the enemy were seen in 

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352 THE ZULU WAS. 

the distance, when all the force was assembled aiul 
the cattle driven into their laager. At 1.30 f.u. the 
action commenced by mounted troops, uoder Colonels 
BuUer and fiusaell, engaging the enemy on ihe north of 
the camp. They were speedily forced to return into the 
laager, followed by the Zulus until they were within 
300 yards, when a heavy fire &om the 90th Be^ment 
checked their advance, and they opened out round the 
camp. 

At 2.15 the right front and rear of the camp were 
attacked by heavy masses of the enemy, who, apparently 
well supplied with Martini-Henry rifles, occupied a hill 
commanding the laager, enfilading it bo that the company 
of the 13th posted at the right rear of the enclosure had 
to be withdrawn. TTie front of the cattle-laag^ was, 
however, stoutly held by a company of the 13th; but 
the Zulus coming boldly on, Major Hackett, with two 
companies of the 90th, was directed to clear the slope. 
They sallied out into the open, driving the Zulus back 
in a gallant manner under a heavy fire, untdl ordered to 
retire by Colonel Wood. 

While bringing his men in. Major Hackett was 
dangerously wounded. 

The two guns in the redoubt were admirably worked 
by Lieutenant Nicholson, 'R, A., until he was mortally 
wounded ; when Major Vaughan, R.A., replaced him. 

MajorTremIett,B.A, with four guns, renuuned in the 
open during the engagement. 

The attack began to slacken about 5.30 p.m., 
enabling Colonel Wood to assume the offensive ; the 
Zulus were driven from the cattle kraal into which they 

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INTOUBI—INSHLOBANE—KAMBTILA. 358 

penetrated, and from the immediate vicinity of the 
camp, the infantry doing great execution among the 
retreating masses. 

The pursuit was taken up by the mounted men 
under Cktlonel BuUer, and continued for seven miles, 
" killing great numbers, the enemy being too exhausted 
to fire in their own defence " {vide Colonel Wood's 
despatch -of March 30th). All agreed in admiring the 
pluck of the Zulus, who, " \mder tremendous fire, never 
wavered, but came straight at us." 

The loss of No. 4 Column was 2 officers killed, 
5 wounded, and 80 men killed and wounded. The 
strength of the enemy was thought to be about 20,000, 
of whom XOOO are supposed to have been killed. Colonel 
Wood's operations at Indhlobane were for the purpose of 
"making demonstrations against the enemy," as directed 
by the General, who had reason to believe at that time, 
that he should find the whole Ziilu army between his 
force and Etahowe. (P. P. [C. 2367] p. 35.) One 
trooper, a Frenchman named Grandier, had a very 
remarkable escape from Indhlobane, of which the follow- 
ing is his accoimt : On coming down the mountain we 
were met by a large Zulu force, and fell back across the 
neck assailed on all sides. I was about the last, having 
put a comrade on my horse whilst I ran alongside, when 
a Kafir caught me by the legs, and I was made prisoner. 
I was taken to Umbilini's kraal and questioned ; after 
which, I passed the night tied to a tree. Next day 1 
was taken into the middle of a large "impi," where T 
was threatened with death, but the leader said he would 
send me to Cetywayo. Next day I started for Ulundi, 

2 A 

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354 TEE ZULU WAM. 

in charge of four men, who were riding, hut I had all my 
clothes taken &om me, and had to walk, canying their 
food. On the evening of the fourth day we reached 
Ulundi, and I was kept tied in the open till about noon 
next day, when Cetywayo sent for me, and qaestioned 
me about what the English wanted, where Shepstone 
was, etc. A Dutchman acted as interpreter, and I saw 
a Portuguese, and an English-speaking Zulu, who could 
read.* Cetywayo had a personal guard of about one 
hundred men, but I did not see any large numbers of 
men at his kraal, but there were two small cannons there. 
During my stay I was fed on mealies, and frequently 
beaten. At last messengers arrived reporting the deatli 
of Umbilini, and Cetywayo said he would send me to 
his Kafirs to kill. On 13th April I started in charge 
of two Kafirs, one armed with a gun and both with 
assegais. About midday we were lying down, the Kafirs 
being sleepy, when I seized an assegai and killed the 
man with the gun, the other running away. I walked 
all night guided by the stars ; nest day I saw an impi 
driving cattle towards Ulundi, so had to lie still. 
After this I saw no Kafirs, and walked on at nights 
On the morning of the 16th I met some of our own 
people and was brought into camp. Trooper Grandier, 
when brought in, was dressed in an old corduroy 
coat, cut with assegai stabs, and a pair of r^imental 
trousers cut off at the knee; these he had picked 
up on the Veldt. He had strips of cloth round his 
feet. 

The independent chief Umbilini, who was such a 

* Trooper Giandier's atorj of ill-treatment lias emoa been con- 
tradicted by Ibis Dutohman. 

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INTOMBI—INDELOBANB-KAMBVLA. S55 

thom in the side of the Transvaal, was killed early in 
AprU. Small parties had raided into the Pongblo Valley 
from Indhlobanc, opposite Luneburg, until they were 
said to number some hundreds, when they came upon 
two compajiies of the 2-24th on the mardi ; these at 
once laagered, and the enemy moved on ; Umbilini, 
Assegai's son, and four horsemen, going back with 
twenty horses. They were pursued by Captain Prior, 
80th Begiment, with seven mounted men (80th), uid 
another European, when Assegai's son was killed, and 
UmbUini mortally wounded. 

The raiders were attacked by some parties of natives, 
but went. off to the Assegai River with several beasts and 
sheep.— (P. P. [C. 2374] p. 51). 

Meanwhile, many attempts were made by the Zulu 
king to arrest the tide of invasion, and to bring about a 
more peaceable solution of the difficulties between him 
and the English Government. 

When Lord Chelmsford first crossed into Zululand, 
messengers were sent by the king to the column on the 
Lower Tugela asking for an explanation of the invasion, 
suggestmg that hostilities should be suspended, that the 
British troops should re-crosa the Tugela, and that 
talking should commence.* These men did not return 
to the king, but remained at the Lower Tugela, Sir 
Barlle Frere says by their own desire, since they dared 
not return with an unsatisfactory answer. 

And Bishop Schreuder narrates on March 3rd that — 

" Two Zulus arrived here yesterday with a message from 

the king .... The king says : ' Look here, T have taken 

care of the deserted misBion-statioDS, and not allowed 

• C. 2374, p. 109. 

^ifiz^ty Google 



356 TUB ZTHjU WAH. 

them to be destroyed, thinkiDg that the missionaries in 
time would return to them, such as Mr. Eobertson^s at 
Kwamagwaza, and Oftibro's at Ekhowe, but we now see 
what use the missionaries make of the station-houses ; 
Robertson has come with an impi (army) to the Ekhowe 
mission-station, and there has made a fort of it, the houses 
being turned to advantage for our enemies.. Seeing this, 
my people have of their own accord destroyed the other 
mission-stations ; and although I have not ordered this 
destruction, still I cannot complain of it, seeing that the 
houses on the stations will serve as a shelter for our 
present invading enemy. I am in a fix what to do with 
your station Entumeni, for it is reported . . . that the 
column at Miltongambill is to . . . march to Entumeni, 
turn the station into a fort, like Robertson has had the 
Ekhowe turned into a fort In that case I will, much 
against my wish, be obliged to destroy the house at 
Entumeni, as a matter of self -protection, the last thing 
I ever thought of doing, as I have no grudge against 
yoQ or your station.' This is the substance of the king's 
message to me with respect to my station, Entumeni; 
it, therefore, now will entirely depend on the deci^ou of 
the General Lord Chelmsford, whether die Entumeni 
Btation-housea are to be destroyed or not." Bishop 
Schrender says : " The messengers also report that the 
king has sent, through a certain Ikolwa Klass \ (not 
known to me), that copy of Sir T. Shepstone's report 
which I, on behalf of the Natal Government, handed 
over to him from Her Majesty Queen Victoria, August, 
1875. • ■ • 

" Already Umavumendaba had requested the king to 
fiend that book with the deputation that met at Tugcla, 

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INTOilSI—INDHLOBANE—KAMBULA. 357 

nth December, 1878, in order that there might be 
proved fix)m that book wherein the king had sinned, 
since the English had put forth such warlike demon- 
strations ; but Umavumendaha's request was not then 
acceded to. The king now sends this book that from 
the contents of it may be proved wherein he has broken 
the compact made at his installation, 1st September, 
1875 " [1873}— (P. P. [C. 2318] pp. 35-37). 

Bishop Schreuder requested Mr. Fannin, the border 
agent, " to receive the message from the messenger's 
own lips, and communicate it to His Excellency." He 
reported that Cetshwayo wished to explain to the 
{Government that he had never desired war. He had 
not, he said, refused the terms proposed at the Lower 
Tagela; he had collected 1000 head of cattle to pay 
the demand made on him, and would even have delivered 
up Sihayo's sons to the General, but " any Zulu that 
showed himself was immediately fired upon." The 
attack upon Sandhlwana, he protested, was not made by 
his orders, and his induna was in disgrace for having 
made it. As regards Inyezane, the king contended 
that Colonel Pearson provoked the attack made on him 
by burning kraals, and committing other acts of hostility. 
He asked that both sides should put aside their arms, 
and resume negotiations with a view to a permanent 
settlement of all questions between himself and the 
Government He would, he said, have sent in a 
message some time since, but was afrtud, because the 
last time, when he sent eight messengers to the Lower 
Tagela, they were detained, whom he now begged might 
be sent back to him (ibid. pp. 40, 41). 

Mr. Fannin, on the 22nd March, reports the arrival 



S58 TBE ZULV WAR. 

of the messengers with the book, and says : " Cetywayo 
sends by the mesaengera the book containing the laws 
promulgated at the time of his coronation, and pre- 
sented to him by Her Majesty the Queen. 

" It will be remembered that this book was handed 
to the Zulu king by Bishop Schreuder at the request of 
the Natal GoTemment some time after the coronation 
took place. The king now returns it, and asks him to 
cast his eye over its contents, and say in what way he 
has transgressed its provisions " (ibid. p. 47). 

On March 28th Mr. Fannin reports that "three 
messengers have arrived with a message from Cetywayo. 
Their names are Johannes (a native of Entumeni), 
Nkisimana, and Umfimzi. On approaching the ferry 
they were fired on by the Native Contingent. . . . The 
message is very short ; it is simply to say, Cetywayo sees 
no reason for the war which is being waged against him, 
and he asks the Government to appoint a place at 
which a conference could be held with a view to the 
conclusion of peace." They further brought a message 
from Dabulamanzi, that "a few days ago he sent a 
white flag with two messengers to Ekhowe, to ask for a 
suspension of hostilities, until the result of this mission 
was known, but the men have not returned. He asks 
that the men may be released." Mr. Fannin saja : 
"Four other Entumeni men have arrived with these 
messengers," and he suggests, "that the Entameni men 
should not be allowed to return to Zultdand" [ibid. 
pp. 44, 45). 

" Owing," says Sir R Frere, on June l7th, " to some 
misunderstanding between the various civil and military 

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INTOUBI—IKDKLOBAtm—KAMBJjLA. th^ 

authorities, these messengers also were detained for 
aeyeral weeks, and have only lately been sent back." 

"I do not for a moment suppose," he continues, 
" that either the civil or military authorities were aware 
of this, or could have prevented it by bringing their 
detention to notice at an earlier period, but it shows the 
difficulties of intercourse on such subjects with the 
Zulus, where such things could occur without the 
slightest ground for suspicion of bad faith on the part of 
either the civil or military authorities." * 

It is not easy to discover what unusual and mys- 
terious difficulties the civil and military authorities can 
have found in communicating with the Zulu messengers 
(men who had been employed for many years in carry- 
ing the " words " of Government and the Zulu king to 
each other), and it is stUl more inexplicable to whose 
notice the said authorities could have brought their 
detention. The whole matter is about as comprehensible 
as the statement which appeared at the time in tiie 
Natal papers, that when these same messengers' — a 
small party — approached our camp, bearing a white 
flag, "we Jked upon it (i,e. the flag) to test its 
sinoerity." 

The detention of these messengers as prisoners at 
Krauz Kop came to the knowledge of the Bishop of 
Natal about the middle of April, and he at once brought 
the fact to the notice of the civil and military authorities. 

* Keveitlielesa, during tliQ end of Maich and beginning of Aptil 
communications took place betveen the Ueut-GoTflmoi and the 
Geneial commanding, on this subject (C. 2318, p. 46); thetefote both 
th« militai; and dvil anthorities ven airaie of it. 

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S60 THE ZULU WAR. 

On the 20tli April he saw Lord Chelmsford in Pieter- 
maritzburg, and spoke to him on the subject The 
Grcneral infonued him that he had alreadr ordered them 
to go back to Cetahwayo, and to say that he must send 
indunas to meet him (Lord Chelmsford) at General 
Wood's camp, to which he was then bound. Neverthe- 
less the General's message, which woxdd take but two 
days on the road, had not reached Kianz Kop on the 
29th, nor were the men actually released until the 9th 
of May. When finally set at liberty they carried with 
them a message calculated to discourage any further 
attempts on the Zulu king's part at bringing about a 
peaceful issue to the war, being merely that if " Oety- 
wayo sends any more messengers he must send them to 
the Upper Column (Dundee)." 

Nevertheless on the 12th of June the same two old 
men appeared again, brought down, bearing a white 
flag, to 'Maritzburg by policemen from Mr. Fynn, 
resident magistrate at the Umsinga. Apparently they 
had been afraid to cross at Erauz Kop, where the 
"sincerity" of theur white flag had been "tested" 
before, and were sent, not to the military authorities, 
but to the civil magistrate, who sent them down to Sir 
Henry Bulwer. He would have nothing to say to them, 
and transferred them to General Clifford, who examined 
them on the 13th, and sent them off on the following 
day to Lord Chelmsford. Th^ had already walked one 
hundred and fifty miles from XJlundi to 'Maritzburg with 
their message of peace, and had then still further to go 
in order to reach the General, before they could get any 
kind of answer. Meanwhile the campaign was prosecuted 
without a pause. -. , 

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INTOMBI^INDSLOSANE—KAMBULA. 361 

General Clifford's account of this is as follows : 
" I began by informing them that I was only going 
to ask them such questions as would enable me to judge 
whether I should be justified in sending them on to my 
Chief, Lord Chelmsford, now in Zululand carrying on the 
war. The headman, Umfundi, then made the foUowiDg 
statement : ' We are Umfundi and Umkismana, Zulu 
measengera from Cetywayo. I am sent here by Cetywayo 
to ask for time to arrange a meeting of Chie& with a 
view to arranging peace. We did not go to the head 
white Chief, because Fynn at Rorke's Drift, whom I 
knew, told me the Great Whit« Chief was in Zululand, 
and we had better see Shepstone and the second White 
Chie^ who were at Fietermaritzburg, so we came on 
"here advised by Fynn. I have been here about twice a 
year for the last six years as King's messenger, but not 
as Chie£ I am nothing but a messenger, and 1 have no 
authority from the King to treat for peace, or to do any- 
thing besides delivering my message, asking if time will 
be given to assemble a meeting of Chiefs. I know 
Mr. Shepatone, Mr. Gallway, and Bishop Colenso, and 
I have seen Bishop Colenso in this town, and also at his 
place in the country, but I do not wish to see him now, 
and I have not asked to see him.' {This, according to 
their custom, merely implied that they had no message 
for him.) 'I want to see the Great Chief,, aa the King 
ordered me to da I only came here to deliver my 
message and because Fynn told me. This is the 
seventeenth day since I left the King's kraal. Am an 
old man and cannot go so fast as I could when I was 
young, and heavy rain detained mo three days. The 
King told me to hurry on and return quickly. , It 



862 THE ZULU WAM. 

will take us seven days to get &om here to Ibabamango 
Moimtain if we go by Rorke's Drift. We only know 
of two other messengers sent by the King; one is 
Siotwango, the name of the other we do not know. 
They have been sent to the lower column because 
Cetywayo thinks there are two Chiefs of equal power, 
one with the upper column and the other with the 
lower column. They are sent Uke ua to ask for time to 
get out by the door. The King does not know the name 
of your big Chief, and we do not dther. We are the 
same messengers the King sent to Fort Buckii^^iam. 
with the same message we have now. Only then 
our orders were not to go to your Chief as now, 
but to go to Fort Buckingham and wait for the answer 
there. We delivered our message to the military Chief 
there, and he sent the message on. The Chief was at 
Etshowe fighting, and the answer did not come for two 
months ; when it came it was that the great Chief was 
surprised we were still there. He thought we had 
gone back to the King long a^ The officer at Fort 
Buckingham advised ub to go to the great white Chief, 
but we said: "No, those are not the King's orders; 
our orders are to come here, and now we will return 
and tell the King ;" and it was half of the third month 
when we got back to him. We told him what had 
taken place. He consulted his great Chiefe, and then 
sent us with the orders we now have to go and see the 
great white Chief, and that is now what we are trying 
to do. 1 have no power given me but to ask for tim& 
The King sends his messengers first, because it is the 
custom of the country to do so, and not to send a great 

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INTOMBI-^INDHLOBAim—KAMBULA. 863 

Chief till arrangements have been made where the Chiefe 
are to assemble to talk about peace. We have no 
power to talk about terms of peace. None but 
messengers have yet been sent. The messengers sent 
to the lower column went before the fighting began; 
they were detained and did not return to the King's 
kraal till we did' I said I was satisfied they ought to 
be sent on at once to Lord Chelmsford. 

*' I would give a letter, written by me to Ijord 
Chelmsford, to Umfiinzi, to be given by him with his 
own hand to Lord Chelmsford, and outside the letter 
I would say that no one but Lord Chelmsford was to 
open it This appeared to please them much. I said I 
would write to the commanding officers along the road 
they were going to look after them, and to the officer 
at Borke's Drift to see them safe to ' Ibabamango.' 
* Would a white man be safe going with them 1 ' 
' Yes,' they said, ' quite,' and they widied one could 
be sent with them ; but still more, the King would be 
pleased if a white man was sent to him. I said I would 
not send a white man alone into Zululand with them, 
because my Chief did not approve, still less could I send 
one to the King, because I was only under the big 
Chief Anything they wished to say about peace or 
anything else they must say to the big Chief when they 
saw him."— p*. P. [C. 2374] p. 111). 

At no time during the war, indeed, did we encour^ 
the Zulu king in his persistent efforts to get peace ; bat 
more of this hereafter. Here we will only add one 
further instance, namely, that of two messengers sent 
to Colonel Pearson at Etshowe, who, ^though brought 

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664 THE ZULU WAR. 

blindfold into the camp, were kept as prisoners in irons 
until the garriflou was relieved. The pretext for this deten- 
tion was that they were su^f^posed to be spies ; but officers 
present were satisfied that there were no grounds for the 
supposition, or for the treatment which they received. 

Sir Rartle Frere of course inclines to the opinion 
that all Cetshwayo's messengers were spies, his entreaties 
for peace but treacherous pretexts to cover his evil 
intentions. Some of the men sent were old accredited 
messengers to the Government, whose names are fre- 
quently mentioned in earlier Blue-books, yet Sir Barde 
Frere says of them : " In no case could they give any 
satisfactory proof that they really came from the king."* 

But the High Commissioner's habit of finding evil 
motives for every act of the Zulu king, made the case 
of the latter hopeless from the first. 

Meanwhile the despatches received from Sir Michael 
Hicks-Beach contained comments amounting to censure 
upon the High Commissioner's proceedings in forcing 
on a war with the Zulus. He is plainly told that he 
should have waited to consult Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment upon the terms that Cetshwayo should be called 
upon to accept, and that "they have been unable to 
find in the documents you have placed before them that 
evidence of urgent necessity for immediate action which 
alone could justify you in taking, without their fiiU 
knowledge and sanction, a course almost certain to 
result in a war, which, as I had previously impressed 
upon you, every efibrt should have been used to avoid." 

* John Dunn is onderatood to have come back from his intemew 
vith the last peace mesaengen, and to have reported that the message 
was bond fide, and that Cetshwayo " means to have peace if possible." 



INTOMBI—INDSLOBANE—EAMBULA. 865 

"The communication which had passed between 
us," continues the Secretary of State, " as to the objects 
for which the reinforcements were requested and sent, 
and as to the nature of the questions in dispute with 
the Zulu king, were such as to render it especially 
needful that Her Majest/s Government should under- 
stand and approve any important step, not already 
suggested to them, before you were committed to it ; 
and if that step was likely to increase the probability 
of war, an opportunity should certainly have been 
afforded to them of considering as well the time as the 
manner of coming to issue — should it be necessary to 
come to issue — with the Zulu king. And though the 
further correspondence necessary for this purpose might 
have involved the loss of a favourable season for the 
operations of the British troops, and might have 
afforded to Cetywayo the means of further arming and 
provisioning his forces, the circumstances rendered it 
imperative that, even at the risk of this disadvantage, 
full explanations should be exchanged." 

The despatch &om which the above is quoted was 
written on the 19th March, and another, dated the 
following day, expresses the writer's "general approval 
of the principles on which the boundary award was 
based," as intimated in a previous despatch, but gives a 
very qualified assent to Sir B. Frere's emendations by 
which he seeks to secure the " private rights " of settlers 
on the wrongfully appropriated land, and remarks that 
he is disposed to think that the recognition of these said 
private rights of European settlers in the district declared 
to be Zulu territory should have been restricted as far 
■as possible to those coses in which hond-jfide purchasers 



366 TEB ZULU WAR. 

had improved their fiirnos bj building, planting, or other- 
wise, which restriction would have limited them to a very 
small number indeed. Sir M. Hicks-Beach also reminds 
Sir B. Frere that Her Majesty's Government had dia- 
tinctly said beforehand that " they could not undertake 
the obligation of protecting " the misaiooariea in Zululond. 
His comments upon the terms of the ultimatum, he says, 
are intended for Sir B. Frere's guidance when the time 
for once more propoaing terms should arrive, and he con- 
cludes : " It is my wish that, as far as possible, you should 
avoid taking any decided step, or committing yourself to 
any positive conclusion respecting any of them untal'you 
have received instructions from Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment"— (P. P. [C. 2260] pp. 108-111). 

Again, upon April 10th, after receiving Sir Bartle 
Frere's explanations. Sir M. Hicks-Beach writes as 
follows : 

" Since I addressed to you my despatches of the 19th 
and 20th March, I have received yout two despatches 
of February 12th and March 1st. furtJier explaining the 
considerations which induced yon to decide that the 
demands made upon Ketshwayo must be communicated 
to him without delay. The definite expression of the 
views and policy of Her Majesty's Government con- 
tained in my despatches already referred to, which 
will have reached you before you receive this, makes 
it unnecessary that I should enter into any examination 
of the ai^uments or opinions expressed in your present 
despatches. It is sufficient to say that Her Majesty's 
Government do not find in the reasons now put forward 
by you any grounds to modify the tenor of the in- 
structdons already addressed to you on the subject of 

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JNTOMBI—INDSLOBANB—KAMBULA. 367 

affairs in South A&ica, and it is their desire that you 
should regulate your future action accotding to these 
instructions. 

" But t^ere is one point alluded to in your despatch 
of March Ist which I feel it necessary at once to 
notice, in order to prevent any misunderstanding. 
You refer, in the thirty-second paragraph of that 
despatch, to * much that will remain to be done on the 
northern Swazi border and in Sekukuni's country,' and 
to the probability that 'the Tranavaal, the Diamond 
Fields, Basutoland, and other parts now threatened 
with disturbance, will not settle down without at least 
an exhibition of force.' I entertain much hope that 
in each of these cases, including that of Bekukuni, the 
troubles now existiug or anticipated may disappear, 
either independently of or as a consequence of that 
complete settlement of the Zulu difficulty which I join 
with you in trusting to see speedily effected. But, if 
this expectation should unfortunately not be fulfilled, 
you will be careful to bear in mind that Her Majesty's 
Government are not prepared to sanction any further 
extension, without their specific authority, of our 
responsibilities in South AArica ; that their desire is 
that the military operations now proceeding should be 
directed to the termination, at the earHest moment 
consistent with the safety of our colonies and the 
honour of our arms, of the Zulu question ; and that any 
wider or larger action of the kind apparently suggested 
in your despatch, should be submitted to them for 
consideration and approval, before any steps are taken 
to carry it into effect."— (P. P. [C. 2316] p. 36). 

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CHAPTER XVII. 

THE LOWER TUGELA — INTEZANE — ETSHOWB. 

The first step taken towards preparing for the campaign 
and advance of a column on Ulundi by the coast road 
was the landing of a "Naral Brigade" from H.]tt.S. 
Active, m November, 1878, under the command of 
Commander Campbell, RN. The "Actives" at once 
marched up to Lower Tugela Bnft, and commenced 
preparations for the crossing of the river. A "pont" 
was established, and boats collected preparatory to the 
passage of the troops. Fifty men from the Tenedos, 
under Lieutenant Kingscote, RN., joined the Naval 
Brigade on January 7th, 1879, but remained at Fort 
Pearson and took charge of the pont, etc., when the 
** Actives" moved up with No. 1 Column. 

The passage of the Tugela was a difficult and rather 
hazardous undertaking, the river being nearly 300 yards 
wide, with a strong current flowing. The preparations, 
including taking across a wire hawser for the working of 
the pont, were conducted in a very business-like and 
satisfactory manner by Commander Campbell and the 
Naval Brigade 

The Navy had received early ■ notice of impending 

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TEE LOWES TUaELA—INTEZANE—ETSHOWE. 369 

hostilities, and, aa early as April, 1878, Sir Bartle Frere 
had requested Commodore SuIUvan, C.6. (the naval 
chief), to remain in Natal, "in order to render such 
assiBtance by sea and land as may be practicable," " as it 
appeared almost certain that sraious complications must 
shortly arise with the Zulu tribe .... which will 
necessitate active operations." — (P. P. 2144, p. 32). 

The coast was explored by the Commodore aa far as 
St. Lucia Bay, and every possible assistance willingly 
rendered, by. bim and the force under his command 
before and throughout the campaign. Valuable assist- 
ance was also given by Captain Baynton, commodore 
of the Union Steamship Company's fleet. The force 
detailed for Colonel Pearson's command — styled No. 1 
Column' — concentrated on Fort Pearson, on the Lower 
Tugela ; its det^ has been previously given. 

It was directed that this column should cross the 
river and encamp on the Zulu bank, under the guns of 
the fort, there to await further ordere ; but, irom the 
flooded state of the river and other causes, the passage 
was not effected till the 12th January, when the 
principal part of the force crossed and encamped in 
Zululand. 

The 2nd (CaptainWynne's) Company Boyal Engineers 
arrived at Fort Pearson on the 12th, and crossed on the 
1 3th. It immediately set about the construction of Fort 
Tenedos on the left bank, about 600 yards from the river, 
to cover the crossing, protect stores, etc. 

The Naval Brigade were constantiy at work, day and 
night, working the boats and pontoon across the river, 
with the exception of the night of the 14th, when a 

2 B 

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870 THE ZULU WAR. 

heavy flood swept away the wharres. Twice the pontoon 
was upaet, aod one of the Active's men waa drowned. 

Reconnaissances were made in the Zulu countiy, and 
a few pmoners taken, but there were no signs of any large 
body of the enemy. One of John Dunn's men reported 
on the 17th that "the whole of his neighbourhood "was 
" now deserted and the cattle driven into the interior." 

Everything being carefully prepared, the advance 
was made on the 18th, a strong advanced guard and the 
Natal Native Pioneers* preceding the column. Every 
precaution was taken to prevent a surprise, extra vigilance 
being necessary on account of the long waggon-train 
carrying tents, rations for fifteen days, and a lai^e 
quantity of food and ammunition destined for an advanced 
dep6t to be formed at or near Etehowe. 

We may here say a few words on the extreme diffi- 
culties of South African transport— difficulties so serious 
and full of danger that they should have been eliminated 
from the plan of the campaign. 

The waggons used were, as a rule, the ordinary South 
A&ican ox-waggons, clumsy and heavy to move, each 
drawn by a team of fourteen to eighteen oxen. The Zulu 
oxen are much superior to the up-country oxen, as they 
stand more work, and will swim rivers ; they even swam 
the Tugela, whilst the remainder had to be ferried over. 

* Tbia company of KstiTe Fioneeis (one of tliose organued Iij 
Colonel Bumford, K.K, before the wai) tras laisad from the em- 
ployis of the Colonial Engineei Department, and commanded by 
Captain Beddoes of the Bame department ; thia officer being hi^f 
commended b; his chief. The company worked under ths anper- 
visioh of Lieutenant Main, RE., and rendered excellent servicer Colonel 
Pearson remarked: "The men worked cheerfully. They had eyes 
like hawks, and they did their scouting to perfection." 

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THE LOWER TUQSLA—INYEZANE—ETSHOWH. 871 

The pace of the ox-waggon is about a mile and a half 
an hour, and drifba and hills cause frequent delays. Take 
for instance the train of No. 1 Column : it accomplished 
the march to Etshowe, a distance of thirty-seven miles, 
in between five and six daya — from daylight on the 
18th to 10 A.M. 23rd — having only been detained by 
the enemy at Inyezane for about two hours : the train 
was necessarily some six miles in length, an element of 
the utmost danger had the swift- footed Zulus been a little 
more enterprising. Two or three thousand Zulus might 
easily have prevented Colonel Pearson reaching Etshowe 
with his train, in spite of all the precautions he might 
and did take. The commanding officers of the various 
columns had no option in the matter of waggon-train, 
and as far as they were concerned the transport under 
their control worked welL 

Tlie difficulty of moving with a long train of waggons 
during the summer, or rainy season, can scarcely be 
exaggerated. Double spanning over drifts and soft 
places, maldng bad places good with brushwood, oxen 
getting tired owing to the length of time they were yoked, 
rather than from the distance travelled, all gave endless 
trouble and anxiety, and entirely upset all calculation^ as 
to distances to be traversed. The transport duties of 
No. 1 Column were admirably carried out by Captain Pelly 
Clarke and Assistant-Commiasary Kevill Davis.* 

The force advanced from the Tugela in two columns — 
the first crossed the Inyoni and encamped — weather 
very wet and trying. The second column started on the 

* One of tlie hardest workers in this department was CommUsaiy 
J. W. Elmea, who distu^iuBhed himself hj his untiring zeal and 
energy. 



872 THE ZVIjU WAB. 

following day (I9tli) and joined its leader at Umsunduei 
At this camp the troops remained during the 20ti. 
The reconnoitring parties had reported the Amatikulo 
impassable, and Colonel Pearaon pushed forward enginea^ 
(native pioneers), with a strong working-partiy and guard, 
to render the drift practicable, which, after a da/s 
hard work, was done. On the 21st the column again 
advanced, and, crossing the Amatikulu, encamped in 
the evening at Kwasamabela, four miles from Inyezane ; 
during the day a reconnoitring party burnt a mihtary 
kraal near Ngingindhlovu. Up to this time only a few 
of the enemy's scouts had been seen, and nothing had 
occurred beyond an occasional nocturnal alarm. 

On the 22nd the column marched at 5 A.U., crossed 
the Inyezane Eiver, and halted for break&st, and to 
outspan the ozon for a couple of hours, in a fairly open 
spot, though the country round was a good deal covered 
with bush. The halt here was unavoidable, as there 
was no water for some distance beyond, but the country 
had been previously carefully scouted by the mounted 
troops under Major Barrow. 

At eight o'clock piquets were being placed, aad the 
waggons parked, when a company of the Native Con- 
tingent — who were scouting in front, under the direction 
of Captain Hart, staff-officer attached to the regiment — 
discovered the enemy advancing rapidly over the ridges, 
and making for the adjacent clumps of bush. The Zulus 
now opened a heavy fire upon this company, and almost 
immediately inflicted a loss upon it of 1 officer, 4 non- 
commissioned officers, and 3 men killed. 

The Naval Brigade (with rockets), under Captain 

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THE LOWER TUOEIA—TNTEZME—ETSSOWE. 373 

Campbell, the gnns of the Royal Artillery, two com- 
paniea of " The Bufia," and the Native Pioneera were at 
once pcBted on a knoll close by the road, from whence 
the whole of the Zulu advance was commanded. From 
this knoll the bosh near was well searched with shell, 
rockets, and musketry. 

The waggons continuing to close up and park, two 
companiefl of " The Buffs," who moved up with them, were 
ordered to clear the enemy out of the bush, guided by 
Captain Macgregor, Deputy- Assistant- Quartermaster - 
Greneral. This they did in excellent style, driving the 
Zulus into the open, which again exposed them to a 
heavy fire from the knoU. 

The engineers and mounted troops were now 
enabled to move up from the drift, and, supported by a 
half company of " Bufia " and a half company of the 
99th, sent on byLieut.-Colonel Welman {99th) from the 
rear of the column, cleared the Zulus out of the bush 
on the right flank, where they were seriously threatening 
the convoy. The Catling gun also moved up from the 
rear, and came into action on the knoll. The enemy 
now endeavoured to outflank the left, and got possession 
of a kraal about 400 yards from the knoll, which assisted 
their turning movement. This kraal was carried by 
Captain Campbell with his Naval Brigade, supported by 
a party of officers and non-commissioned officers of the 
Native Contingent under Captain Hart, who were posted 
on high ground on the left of the road. Lieut -Colonel 
Pamell with a company of " Buffs," and Captain 
Campbell with the Naval Brigade, now attacked some 
heights beyond the kraal, upon which a considerable 

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374 TEE ZJTLU WAR. 

body of the enemy was still posted. This aetion was 
completely successful, and the Zulus fled in all directions. 
About half-past nine the last shot was fired, and the 
column was re-formed, and resumed its march at noon. 

The loss sustained in this action was 2 privates ("The 
Buffs") killed, 2 officers, 4 non-commissioned officers, 
and 4 natives killed, and 1 officer and 15 men wounded. 
Colonels Pearson and Parnell had their horses shot under 
them. 

The enemy's force was estimated at 4000— the 
Umxapu, Udhlambedhlu, and Ingulubi fiegiments, and 
some 650 men of the district — and their loss upwards of 
300 killed. The wounded appear to have been either 
carried away or hidden. 

Four miles beyond the scene of this engagement the 
column bivouacked for the night ; and, moving off at 
5 A.M. nest day, reached Etshowe at 10 A.M. ; the rear 
guard not getting in till the afternoon. 

Etshowe was a mission station, abandoned some 
months before, but now selected for au entrenched post, 
in preference to more open and commanding ground to 
the north, in consequence of the necessity of utilising the 
buildings for the storage of supplies. The station consisted 
of a dweUJng-house, school, and workshop, with i^re- 
rooms — three buildings of sun-dried brick, thatched; 
there waa also a small church, made of the same 
materials, but with a corrugated iron roof ; and a stieaia 
of good water ran close by the station. Here the column 
encamped, and preparations for dearing the gronnd and 
establishing a fortified post for a gaixison of 400 men 
were made. 

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TES LOWER TUGELA^lNrEZANE-ETSSOWK 375 

Two companies of "Buffs," two companies Native 
Contingent, and some mounted men, were sent back to 
reinforce Lieut. -Colonel Ely, 99th Regiment, who, with 
three companies of his regiment, was on the march to 
Etahowe with a convoy of sixty waggons. 

On the 25th, Major Coates was sent down to the Tugela 
with a strong escort and forty-eight empty waggons, for 
a further supply of stores ; and next day a " runner " 
arrived with news tiiat a disaster had occurred 
on the 22nd. On the 28th a telegram was received 
from Lord Chelmsford, hinting at disaster — that he 
had been compelled to retire to the frontier — ^that 
former instructiona were cancelled, and Colonel Pearson 
was to hold Etshowe or withdraw to the Tugela, also 
that he must be prepared to bear the brunt of an 
attack from the whole Zulu army. 

Colonel Pearson, at once assembled his staff and 
commanding ofheers, when it was finally decided to hold 
the post, sending back to the Tugela the mounted 
troops and Native Contingent. These marched, unen- 
cumbered with baggage, and reached the Tugela in ten 
hours — a contrast with the upward march I The various 
buildings were loopholed, and the church prepared for 
use as a hospital, all tents struck, and the entrench- 
ments supplemented by an inner line of waggons. In 
the evening Colonel Ely's convoy arrived safely. 

The mounted men were sent back from Etshowe, 
because a large proportion of the horse forage consisted 
of mealies, which it was thought might be required 
for the use of the garrison, as eventually was the 
case. 

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3V6 TSE ZVW WAM. 

To replace the mounted mai, a small vedette corps 
was formed under Lieutenant Rowden, 99th Raiment, 
and Captain Sherrington, of the Native CkintJogent, and 
(lid ezcelloit service. 

These vedettes were constantly under fire. One was 
killed at his post Another was attacked by some dozen 
Zulus, who crept upon him through the long grass ; he 
lost two fingers of his right hand, had a bullet through 
each leg and one in his right arm; his horse was 
assegaied ; yet he managed to get back to the fort, 
retaining his rifle. 

The vedettes being much annoyed in the early 
morning by the fire of some Zulus from a high hill, 
Captain Sherrington and dz of the men went out one 
night and lay in wait for them, behind some rocks near 
the top of the hill, wounding three and putting an end 
to the annoyance. 

Colonel Pearson felt it to be necessary to reduce the 
bread and grocery rations of the troops, but was enabled 
to increase the meat ration by a quarter of a pound, as 
a large number of cattle had been brought up with 
Colonel Ely's convoy. The waggons of the troops sent 
back to the Tugela were ofiScially searched, and a 
quantity of food, medicines, and medical comforts thus 
added to the stock, the two latter subsequently proving 
of the utmost value. AU articles of luxury were 
eventually sold by auction, and fetched almost fabiJous 
prices : matches were sold for 4s. a box, bottles of 
pickles 15s. each, and tobacco SOs. a poimd I 

The water supply was excellent, both in quality and 
quantity ; and in the lower part of t^e stream bathii^- 

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THE LOWER TTTGELA—JKYEZA^E—ETSEOWE. 377 

places for' both officers and men were confitructed ; and 
all sanitary arrangements moat carefully attended to. 

A waggon-laager was formed for the cattle, and every 
effijrt made to provide for the security of the fort, as 
we may now call it — deepening ditches, strengthening 
parapets, erecting stodiadea — all moat energetically 
carried on under the direction of Captain Wynne, R.E. 

So things went on, tUl, on February 9 th, Zulus were 
observed to be collecting ; but nodiing occurred beyond 
an occasional alarm. 

On the 11th two "runners" arrived from the Lower 
Tugela with a despatch* &om the General, almost 
requiring Colonel Pearson to retire with half his force 
to the Tugela, leaving the remainder to garrison the 
fort. This, after a council of war, was decided not to be 
practicable, the country being occupied by the Zulus in 
force. A flying column, however, was organised, in case 
it became necessary to cany out what the General 
seemed to desire. 

Having questioned the messengers, and ascertained 
that they were willing to return on the following 
Saturday, Colonel Pearson sent a despatch, asking for 
further instructions, and saying he would be prepared 
to start on Sunday night at twelve o'clock if necessary. 

This message was twice repeated on different days, 
but no reply received. 

Alterations and improvements in the defences, to 

enable the fort to be held by a smaller garrison, went 

steadily on in spite of bad weather ; ranges from 600 to 

700 yards were marked round the fort, and trom-de- 

* P. P. (C. 2260) p. 104. 

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378 TUB ZULU WAR. 

loups and wire entanglemeQts formed on the north, 
south, and east faces. 

On March let an expedition was led ont by Colonel 
Featson to attack a militarj kraal (Daholamaozi's) six 
miles distant ; this was done and the kraal burnt, a 
smart stdnnish being kept up with the Zulus during tbe 
homeward march. 

On the 2nd it was noticed that heliograph mgnals 
were being flashed from the Lower Tugela, but no 
message was made oat. 

Next day further signalling, though vague, was taken 
to mean that a convoy was to he expected on the 13th 
instant with 1000 men, and that on its approach Colonel 
Pearson was to sally out and meet it A heliograph was 
improvised by Captain Macgregor, Deputy-Assistant- 
Quartermaster-General, by means of a small looking- 
glass, and efforts made to flash back ugnals, but bad 
weather ensued, preventing further commimication till 
the 10th. 

A new road to Jnyezane, shortening the distance by 
about three miles, and avoiding much of ihe bush, was 
commenced, and reported fit for use on the 13th, though 
the work had been hindered by very bad weather, and by 
the working-parties being constantly under flre. Fortu- 
nately no one was hit, except Lieutenant Lewis, of 
" The Buffo." 

On March 23rd two Zulus came up with a white 
flag, and were brought in to the fort each with a mealie- 
bag over his head ; they are said to have come with a 
message from the king to the effe^^ that if our force 
would return to Natal he would order the officers com- 

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TEE LOWER TUGELA—mrEZANE—ETSHOWE. 379 

manding his large armies not to touch it These men 
were detained as prisoners in irons, and interviewed by 
Lord Chelmsford on his arrival at Etshowe ; but of 
their subsequent disposal nothing appears known. 

At first the health of the troops was extremely good, 
but before the end of February the percentage of sick had 
lai^ly increased, there being 9 officers and upwards of 100 
men on the sick-list when it was relieved. The principal 
disorders were diarrhoea, dysentery, and fevers, aggra- 
vated by the want of proper medicines and medical 
comforts, which had been soon exhausted. The church 
was used as the hospital, and both officers and men 
lived under the waggons, over which the waggon-sails 
were spread, propped up with tent-poles ; thus the troops 
actually lived at their alarm-posts. 

The relief took place none too soon, there b^g then 
but six days' further supply of reduced rations available 
for the garrison. 

" From first to last, the men showed an excellent 
spirit, the highest discipline was maintained, and the 
reduction of the food was never grumbled at or regarded 
in any other light than a necessity and a privation to be 
borne, and which they were determined to bear cheer- 
fully."— (P. P. [0. 2367] p. 39). 



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CHAPTKR XVIIL 

NGINGINDHLOVU — EEUBF OP ETSHOWB — BOBDEB BAIDUFG. 

liOKD Chelhsfobd, havi&g moved down to Durban, 
reports (February Sth) that No. 1 Column is secure at 
Etshowe ; that he is about to forward troops to the 
Lower Tugela ; and that Durban, Stanger, Pietermaritz- 
bu^, and Greytown are prepared for defence, " with 
garrisons which should prevent panic among those 
living around ; " the frontier quiet, and the road from 
Greytown quite open. 

The £rst reinforcement for Natfd was brought by 
H.M.S. jSftoA, which chanced to be at St. Helena (on 
her voyage home irom the Pacific), when the news of the 
disaster in Zululand arrived. Captain Bradshaw, R.N., 
immediately decided to proceed to Natal with his ship ; 
the Governor, after consultation with the officer com- 
manding the troops. Colonel Philips, R.R, arranging to 
send in her all the available force that could be spared 
from the island. Accordingly she sailed on February 
12tb, with 3 officers and 52 men of the Royal Artillery, 
and 2 officers and 109 men of the 88th Regiment 

H.M.S. Boadicea also arrived on the station, 

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NQimiNVSLOYU—BELIEF OF ETSSOWE. 381 

bringing Commodore Richards, who relieved Eear- 
Admiral Sullivan, C.B. 

Communications had been established with Etshowc 
by means of flashing signals, which were conducted by 
Lieutenant Haynes, R.E., who, after some fiwlure and 
discouragement at first, persevered until complete 
success was attained. 

Previous to this there had been no communications 
with Colonel Pearson for a considerable time, but on 
March 11th a cypher message from him (dated 9th) 
said that the flashing signals had been \mderstood, and 
that as officers and men were generally sickly, it would 
be desirable to relieve the whole of the garrison, and 
that any relieving force should bring a convoy and be 
prepared to fight.— (P. P. [0. 2316] p. 81). 

On March 16th the signals &om Etshowe were first 
made out, and one of the messages received was : " Short 
rations until 3rd April. Breadstufis until 4th April. 
Plenty of trek oxen. Captain Williams, "The Bufis,' 
died at iElkowe on 13th March " {iMd. p. S3). 

Reinforcements arriving from England, Lord Chelms- 
ford determined to effect the reHef of Etshowe, and 
assembled a strong force on the ]Jowelr Tugela for that 
purpose. The column to be in two divisions : the first, 
under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Law, R.A., com- 
posed of the Naval Brigade of iSAoA and Tenedoa, 
67th Regiment, 2 companies "Buffs," 5 companies 
99th Regiment, mounted infantry, volunteers, and 
natives, and 5th Battalion Natal Native Contingent ; 
artillery — 2 9-pounder8, 2 34-pounder rocket-tubes, aad 
1 Oatling gun ; also 1 50 of John Dunn's people as scouts. 

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382 THE ZULU WAR. 

The second division — Lieut. -Colonel Pemberton, 60th 
Rifles, commanding — ^Naval Brigade of H.M.S. Boadicea, 
Koyal Marines of Shah and Boadicea, 60th Bifles, 
Olst Highlanders, and 4th Battalion Natal Native Con- 
tingent; artilleiy, 2 24-ponnder rocket-tubes and 1 
Gatling gun ; makiog a total fighting strength of 3390 
white troops and 2280 natives. The Lieut. -General 
dedded to take command of the column himself, and 
directed that it should advance by the coast road, so as 
to avoid the busli country ; to advance without tents, 
and with only a blanket and waterproof-sheet for each 
man. The convoy, taking one month's provisions for 
the garrison and ten days' supplies for the column, con- 
sisted of about 100 waggons and 44 carts. — (P. F. 
[C. 2318] pp. 74,75). 

The BBBembling of this column and preparation for 
an advance occupied some weeks, and on the 23rd March 
Lord Chelmsford assumed the personal command, the 
force being assembled on the left bank of the Tugela and 
organised in two brigades, as already detailed, by the 
28th. Next day, at 6 A.M., the column marched from 
the Tugela and encamped at Inyone, reaching next day 
the Amatakulu River. Now, profiting by bitter ex- 
perience, every precaution was taken, and an entrenched 
waggon-laager formed before nightfall at each halting- 
place. 

IhB crossing of the Amatakulu River took nine 
hours, and the column encamped a mile and a half beyond 
it. Nothing had been seen of the enemy until the Slat, 
when the scouts noticed small bodies of Zulus near the 
Amatakulu bush. ' Captain Barrow, with a mounted 

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NQISaiNDELOVU—RELTEF OF ETSSOWE. 883 

force, reconnoitred towards the Engoya Forest, and 
burnt the kraal of one of the king's brothers. 

On April Ist, the column marched to Ngingindhlovu, 
and about a mUe from the Inyezane River a laager was 
formed in a &Tourable position. From this point to 
Etshowe, the track, afber crossing swampy ground, winds 
through a bushy and difficult country for about fifteen 
miles, the country covered with high grass, and thus 
affording easy cover. 

Etahowe could be plainly seen from the laager, and 
flash signalling was at once established. 

As this laager was destined to be the scene of an 
important engagement, we will describe the disposition 
of the troops : Front face (north), 60th Bifles ; right 
flank, 57th Regiment ; left flank, 99th Regiment and 
"Ba&;" rear &ce, 91st Regiment; the angles manned 
by blue-jackets and marines, and armed with the guns, 
Gatlings, and rocket-tubes. The night passed without 
alarm, and the troops stood to arms at 4 a.u., the 
mounted men being sent out scouting as usual at earhest 
dawn. From scouts and piquets came reports, at 
5.45 A.M., that the enemy was advancing, and at six the 
attack commenced on the north &ont The Zulus 
advanced with great rapidity and courage, taking 
advantage of every bit of cover; they even pushed 
forward to within twenty or thirty yards of the 
entrenchments, but were checked by the steady fire of 
the 60th and the GatUng gun. Lieut.-Colonel Northey, 
3-60ik Rifles, received a dangerous wound, but cheered 
on his men to the end of the engagement. 

The attack, checked here, rolled round to the lefb 

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384 THE ZULTT WAS. 

face ; and, whilst this was being developed, a fresh force 
came up against the rear, probably anticipating that all 
the faces of the laager could not be defended at the 
same 'time. Here they obstinately held their ground, 
finding cover in the long grass' and undulations. 

The mounted troops were now sent out, the mounted 
infantry and volunteers to clear the front &ce, and 
Captain Barrow to attack the enemy's right flank. On 
their appearance the Zulus commenced to retreat. It 
was now 7.30 A.H. ; and the Natal Native Contingent, 
clearing the ditch of the rear face, dashed out in pursuit, 
which, led by Captain Barrow's horsemen, was carried 
on for several mdes. 

The loss of the enemy in this engagement is 
estimated at 1000 : 671 bodies were actually counted. 
The attacking torck ia said to have numbered about 
11,000 men. 

Colonel Pearson, who had watched the fight through 
a glass, telegraphed his congratulations to the General 

The loss of the coliunn was 2 officers and 9 men 
killed (including Lieut-Colonel Northey, 60th Riflea), 5 
officers and 57 men wounded. 

On the 3rd April, leaving a garrison in the laager. 
Lord Chelmsford pushed on to Etshowe with a convoy 
of fifty-eight carta with stores. The advance was 
unopposed, but the difficulties of the country were such 
that it was nearly midnight before the rear-guard had 
traversed the fifteen miles and entered Etshowe. 

The garrison had suffered severely from sickness 
during the preceding month, losing by disease 4 officers 
and 20 non-commissioned officers and men ; and when 

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NGINOINDHLOVU— BELIEF OF ET8S0WE. 385 

relieved there were sick in hospital, 8 officers and 44 
uon-conunissioaed officers and men, and attending 
hospital, 1 officer and 78 non-conunissioned officers and 
men — out of a total force of 53 officers, 1289 non- 
conmuBaioned officers and men, and 121 natives. 

The constant wet weather and close quarters in the 
fort, with little or no shelter, the want of medicines, aud 
insufficient food, might well have caused even heavier loss. 

The General determined to evacuate Etshowe, as he 
found it so difBcult of approach : future operations 
being planned to be carried on hj the coast road. On 
the 4th Colonel Pearson evacuated the fort he had so 
tenaciously lield, taking with him his waggons and all his 
stores that were of any use ; unserviceable tools and 
metal-work were buried, but the fort was not destroyed. 

Colonel Pearson's march to the Tugela was performed 
without any interruption &om the enemy. 

On the 4th a kraal of Dabulamanzi's on the 
Entnmeni Hill was destroyed by a patrol from Etshowe, 
and on- the Sth the relieving column left, and bivouacked 
near the Infuchini mission station. Early next morning 
an unfortunate alarm occurred, causing the death of three 
men. A sentry fired at what he thought was a. body 
of tlie enemy, and the piquet on the opposite side of 
the entrenchment retired into shelter, together with 
native scouts who were out in front. Although it was 
a bright moonlight night, and no mistakes should have 
been made, fire was opened from the entrenchment, and 
five of the 60th were wounded and nine natives 
bayoneted as they attempted to gain the shelter of the 
laager, 

2a 

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386 THE ZULU WAR. 

On reaching Ngiugiudhlova a new laager was formed, 
about a mile &om the old one ; this was garrisoned on 
the 7th, the colomu moving on to the Tugela. 

The small mounted force under Captfun Barrow, 
19th Hussars, rendered excellent service, both during 
the engagement at Ngingindhlovu, and by the miumer 
in which the scouting duties were carried out. 

A party of Mr. John Dunn's people (natives), 150 
in number, were also of the greatest utility in scouting 
and outpost duties. Mr. Dunn himself accompanied the 
General ; his knowledge of the country and sound 
advice being of much use (ibid. p. 122). 

John Dunn was an Englishman, resident in Zululand, 
where he had lived for many years and adopted many 
Zulu customs. He amassed a considerable jffoperty, 
and had an extensive following. He invariably received 
the greatest kindness and consideration &om the Zulu 
king, and was frequently employed by him in various 
communications with the English Government When 
the danger of war between English and Zulus appeared 
imminent, John Dunn appealed to the English for 
protection for himself, his property, and people, who 
were ready, he said, to fight on the English side. At 
the same time Cetshwayo sent him a message to the 
effect that he saw the English were going to attack him, 
and therefore Dnnu had better leave his country, witii 
his people and cattle, and go to a place of safety. This 
John Dunn did, crossing the Tugela about the Sid of 
January, and settling near Fort Pearson. 

At the time the General determined to move to the 
relief of Etshowe he " sent secret instractiona to 

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NGINQINDELOVXJ— RELIEF OF ETSHOWE. S87 

the different commanders along the border, from the 
Lower Tugeht up to Kamhula Hill, requesting them 
to make strong demonstrations all along the line, and, 
if possible, to raid into Zululand in order to make a 
diversion in favour of the relieving column," thinki n g 
he "might possibly have to meet the full strength of 
the Zulu army."— (P. P. [U 2318] p. 56). 

On the 2nd of April a small force of Native Con- 
tingent crossed the Tugela and burnt two large kraals, 
no resistance being made. On the next day a force 
crossed again and burnt an unoccupied kraal, ex- 
changing a few shots with Zulus, of whom a 
considerable number were seen at a distance. On the 
following day the natives refused to cross, and the 
Border Agent, Mr. Fannin, remarks : " I think it is 
fortunate it was not attempted, as the Zulus had 
assembled a considerable body of men to resist." — 
(P. P. [C. 2367] p. 104). 

The reserve native force had co-operated in these 
movements by being assembled and placed in position 
along the Tugela, but the colonial commander declined 
to proceed over the border, or send any of his force into 
Zululand, without the sanction of the Lieut. -Governor. 

The Government of Natal had placed at Lord 
Chelmsford's disposal a number of natives (over 8000) . 
for service in the Zulu country. Some of these were 
intended for fighting purposes, and formed what we 
have already described as the Natal Native Contingent. 
The rest were supplied for transport, pioneer, and 
hospital-corps services, and all were expected to cross 
the border. 

2 c 2 

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388 TEE ZULU WAB. 

But besides these men, native levies were called ont, 
when the yrax began, for service tn the colony — that is to 
say, for the defence of the border under colonial distnct 
commanders. These levies were to be used solely as a 
border-goard, and were not intended to cross into Zolu- 
land at alL Sir Henry Bulwer, in permitting them to 
be raised, had been carefol to protect as far as possible 
the interests of both the white and the native population 
of Katal, and had made very proper stipulations as to 
the services for which he placed these levies at the 
disposal of the General The latter, indeed, expressed 
it as his opinion that every available fighting native in 
the colony should be called out ; but Sir Henry, with a 
greater comprehension of consequences, demurred to this 
rash proposal, and a personal interview between the two 
resulted in the above-mentioned arrangement, 

Consequentiy the Lieut.-Govemor was not a little 
surprised to learn on the 8th April that the native levies 
had been ordered, in conjunction with the other troops, 
to m^e raids across the border into Zululand. To this 
he objected, writing to the High Commissioner on April 
9th in the following terms : " I venture to suggest for 
your Excellency's consideration the question of the 
policy of raids of this kind. The bnming of empty 
kraals will neither inflict much damage upon the Zulus, 
nor be attended with much advantage to us ; whilst acts 
of this natm* are, so it seems to me, not only calculated 
to invite retaliation, but to alienate from us the whole 
of the Zulu nation, men, women, and children, inclading 
those who are well disposed to us. We started on 
this war on the ground that it was a war against the 

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NamGINDELOnr—BBLmF op ET3E0WE. 38d 

king and the Zain GoTemmeut, and not against the 
nation. . . ."—(P. P. [C. 3367] p. 103), 

A correspondence ensued between the Lieut. -Governor 
and the Lieut -General, in which the two differed in a 
very decided manner. Lord Chelmsford complained that 
the action taken by the Lieut. -Governor, " in refusing to 
allow the orders iaeued by " him to the native forces to 
be carried out, appeared to him "fraught with such 
dangerous consequences " that he considered it necessary 
to refer the question to the Home Government. (P. P. 
[C. 2318] p. 56.) He implied that this interference had 
(in conjunction with the state of the Tugela Kiver) 
prevented a general raid being made, which might have 
proved an important diversion in favour of the column 
relieving Etshowe, and he declared, in behalf of the 
raiding system, that "it would be madness to refrain 
from inflicting as much damage as possible upon our 
enemy" {ibid. p. 56). 

It was a well-known fact that the fighting men of 
ihe Zulu nation were with their army, and that the only 
occupants of the kraals to be raided were the women, 
children, and the infirm and other non-combatants; 
therefore the General's following remark, " I am satisfied 
that the more the Zulu nation at large feels the strain 
brought upon them by the war, the more anxious will 
they be to see it brought to an end," was of a highly 
Christian, wise, and soldierly nature, hardly to be 
matched by anything attributed to the Zulu monarch 
bimselfl 

Sir Henry Bulwer's replies were temperate but de- 
cided. He pointed out that the statement contained in 

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390 THE ZULU WAR. 

Lord Chelmsford's despatch to the Secretary of State for 
War, implying that the Govemor'a interference had (or 
might have) seriously interfered with the relief of 
Etshowe, was erroneous ; Etshowe having been relieved 
on the 3rd of April, five days before Sir Henry even 
heard of the order for the Natal natives to make raids. 
To the Gen^ial himself he observes that his interference 
had been limited to approval of the action of the district 
commander, who declined to employ his force in a 
manner contrary to the express stipulations under which 
they were raised, and concludes ; " The views of this 
Government are very strongly against the employment, 
under the present circumstances, of the native levies or 
native population along the border in making raids into 
the Zulu country, as being, in the opinion of the Govern- 
ment, calculated to invite retaliation, and also as being 
demoralising to the natives engaged in ndding" (ibid. 
p. 65). 

The Lieut.-Govemor's views were that these native 
levies "were called out expressly and solely for service 
in the colony, and for the defence of the colony, and 
were placed under the colonial district commanders for 
that purpose only," and that no authority had been 
given to employ these native levies " on any service in 
the Zulu countiy " {ibid. p. 54). 

And it seems that raids along the border had been 
ordered c^ler the relief of Etshowe was eflfected. 

Sir H. Bulwer writes, X6th April, that he had re- 
ceived, on the 7th, a copy of a miUtary telegram written 
after the relief of Etshowe, showing that the General 
had "ordered raids to be made acroas the bolder 

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NQINaiNDELOVJJ—TtMjtEF OP BTSSOWS. 391 

wherever feaaible," and, on the following day, a copy of 
a memotandum, written from Etehowe by Colonel 
Crealock, the Assistant Military Secretary, and addressed 
to the officer commanding at the Lower Tugela, and, 
among other things, it contained the following instruc- 
tion : " Send word up to the frontier to raid across the 
river wherever the river permits." And the same even- 
ing he heard of the native levies having been required 
to cross {ibid, p. 53). 

The question of the employment of the native levies 
in making raids across the border was referred by the 
Lieut-Governor to the Eiecutive Council of Natal, 
which, on the 23rd April, expressed itself as " strongly 
opposed to the employment, in making raids into the 
Zulu country, of the native levies, who .... have 
been called out for the defence of the colony only." 
But, in view of the Lieut. -General's 8trongly-e3j)resaed 
opinions, the Council felt there was no alternative but 
that the General " should have the power of so employ- 
ing the native levies on the border. At the same time, 
the CoimcU desires .... to record emphatically its 
objections to the course proposed, and to such employ- 
ment of the levies."— (P. P. [C. 2367] p. 132). 

This decision of the Executive Council was commu- 
nicated to the General on Ajail 25th by the Lieut- 
Governor, with the remark : " Your Excellency will 
therefore have the power to employ the native levies 
across the border in the way named by you, should you 
think it imperatively necessary for military reasons. 
Your Excellency wUl not fail to perceive, however, that 
such employment of the sative levies is against the 

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392 TEE ZULU WAR. 

decided opinion of this colony as to its inexpediency " 
(ibid. p. 133). 

On the 20th May raids were again made into 
Zaluland from three different points, under Major 
Twentymau's command. One party crossed at the 
Elibomvu Drift, and btunt fifteen kraals and large 
quantities of grain; another burnt three kraals and 
captured a large herd of cattle; and the third burnt 
two kraals, and then, seeing the Zulus assembling in 
force, beat a hurried retreat across the Tugela. — (P. P. 
[C. 2374] p. 91). 

Sir Henry Bulvrer, on the 24th May, writes to the 
High Commissioner: "Major-General the Hon. H. H. 
Clifford, commanding the base of operations .... was 
wholly unaware that any such raid was being organised 
by Major Twentyman, who, I believe, acted under 
general instructions received from head -quarters. . . . 
The views of the Government of Natal on the subject 
of t^ese raids, your Excellency is already acquainted 
with. The material advantage to be gained by the work 
of destruction or of plunder of Zulu property can be at 
the best but trifling and insignificant, and on every 
other account I fear our action will prove positively 
injurious to us, to our interests, and to our cause. We 
are absolutely provoking retaliation. Already, I am 
informed, since the raid reported in these papers took 
place, some native huts on the Natal side of the Tugela 
have been burned by Zulus ; and to what extent this 
work of revenge and retaliation may be carried, with 
what losses of property, and even of life, inflicted on 
our border natives, it is impossible to say. . . . What 

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NGINGTNDELOrU— BELIEF OF ETSHOWE. 393 

result we have gained to justify even the risk of such 
retaliation against us, and of such a sacrifice to our own 
native population, I know not " {ibid. pp. 89, 90). 

The fears of the Lieutenant-Governor were in some 
measure realised on the 25th June, when he writes : " A 
raid was made by two bodies of Zulus, numbering, it is 
estimated, about 1000, into the Tugela Valley, below 
the Krans Kop in this colony. The Zulus destroyed 
several kraals, and carried off a number of cattle. I 
regret to say also that several of our Natal natives, 
including women, were killed, and some women and 
children carried off." 

" There can be little doubt that this raid has been 
made in retaliation for the one that was made into the 
Zulu country opposite the Krans Kop by a force under 
Major Twentyman, of Her Majesty's 4th Regiment, on 
the 20th May, and which was reported to you in my 
despatch of the Slat of that month."— (P. P. [C. 2454] 
p. 150). 

Thus the opinions expressed in Sir H. Bulwer's 
despatch of 24th May were to some extent justified, with 
the probability of a blood-feud being set up between the 
two border populations, and widening the breach between 
ourselves and the Zulu people ; and with it the increased 
difficulty of obtaining a satisfactory settlement for the 
future. 



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CHAPTER XIX. 

REIMFORCBMENTS — laUTOHLWAHA RBVISTTBD. 

DuRUfG the latter part of March mid April remforce- 
ments kept steadily poaring into Natal, and with them 
four general officers — Major-General the Hon. H. H. 
Clifford, V.C., C.B., who was stationed at Pietermaritz- 
burg, to command at the base of operations; Major- 
General Crealock, C.6., to command No. 1 Division, 
concentrating on the Lower Tugela; Major-General 
Newdigate, to command Na 2 DivisioD, head-quarters 
Dundee ; and Major-General Hanhall, to command the 
Cavalry Brigade attached to No. 2 Division ; Brigadier^ 
General Wood, V.C, C.B., retaining his previous com- 
mand — to be styled the Flying Column. 

By the middle of March the available force consisted 
of an effective strength of non-commisBioned officers and 
men — Imperial troops, 7520 ; volunteer cavaliy, etc, 
1367; Europeans, attached to native contingents, 495; 
making a total of 9382 Europeans, with 5769 natives.-— 
(P. P. [C. 2316] p. 85). 

No operations of any consequence took place beyond 
concentrating troops and forwarding supplies. On 
the 20th April, Lord Chelmsford reported that Majoiv 

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ISANBSLWANA REVISITED. 39S 

General Crealock had taken up his command and, if 
transport arrangements permitted, would shortly com- 
mence operatiouB. Major-General Newdigate was on 
his way to his command. 

The reinforcements alone considerably exceeded the 
strength of the force with which the war was so rashly 
undertaken. They consisted of the Ist Dragoon Guards, 
17th Lancers; 21st, 57th, 58th, 60th, 88th (one com- 
pany), 91st, 94th Foot; two batteries Royal Artillery, 
and detachments from St. Helena and Mauritius ; one 
company and half C troop Royal Engineers ; drafts for 
various regiments ; detachments of Army Service and 
Army Hospital Corps ; etc. etc. ; — a total (including the 
staff embarked in February &om England) of 387 
officers and 8901 men. 

But even after the arrival of this enormous accession 
of strength, farther reinforcements of three battalions 
were demanded " for reserve and garrison purposes." — 
(P. P. [C. 2367] p. 162). 

At the end of April the efifective force was : 

First Division, M^jor-General Crealock : 
- Imperial and irr^ul&i troops .... 6508 
Native Contingent (151 mounted) . . 2707 

Second Division, Mt^or-Ueneial Ifewdigate : 

Imperial and irregular troops .... 6867 

N^atives (243 mounted) 3371 

Flying Colomn, BrigadierGenersl AVood : 

Imperial and iiiegnlar troops .... 2385 

Natives (75 mounted) 807 

Making a total strength of 22,646 men available for the conquest 
of ZalnlondL 

On the I4th May, Lord Chelmsford reported: "The 
troops axe in position, and are only waiting for sufficient 

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896 THE ZUITJ WAS. 

supplies and ttansport to advance." — (P. P. [C. 2374] 
p. 97), 

The transport difficulties natiuallj increased with 
the increasing force. The colony did not eagerly press 
forward to the rescue, and although transport for 
service in the colony could be obtained, that for ttans- 
frontier work was not procurable in any quMitity on any 
terms. 

The colonial yiew somewhat appeared to be, "No 
government has power, either legally or morally, to 
force any man to perform acts detrimental to his own 
interest." No doubt the colony felt itself more secure 
whilst the troops remained within its borders, and 
naturally was not anzioua to assist in their departure ; 
and it may have thought the war "was an Imperial 
concern, brought about by an Imperial functionary;" 
and therefore the Empire should be left " to worry out 
the a£fair for itself; " as remarked by a colonial paper at 
the time. 

On the other hand, it mast be acknowledged that 
the necessities of the troops, during this campaign, taxed 
the resources of the colonists to the utmost. If some 
profited in a mercantile point of view,, and were un- 
patriotic enoogh to try to make every penny they could 
out of the army intended for their protection, there were 
others who acted in a very different spirit The sacrifice 
and loss of both life and property through the Zulu war 
has been as great, in proportion, to Natal as to the mother 
country ; and if the former was weak and wicked — or 
perhaps only thoughtless — enough to wish for war, she 
has now received a lesson which will prevent ha: evw 

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ISANSSLWANA REVISITED. 397 

mnking so great a mistake again. While upon the one 
side we hear atones of transport riders and others who 
lost no opportunity of fleecing at every turn both 
Government and military in their necessity, on the other 
hand we have equally well-authenticated accounts of 
strict honesty, and even generosity, on the part of other 
Natalians. One story is told of a transport rider who 
had earned the sum of X1500, which was to be paid by 
instalments of X500 each : after he had received two of 
these the officer who paid him was removed, and his 
successor, unaware of previous payments, handed over 
to the transport rider's messenger the whole £1500. 
The honest fellow at once returned the XIOOO overpaid. 

It is also a well-known fact that many of the 
principal tradesmen permitted their shopmen to join 
the volunteer corps to which they belonged, still con- 
tinuing to pay them their respective salaries during their 
absenc& 

The colony was not revelling in a shower of gold, 
as some at home imag^e : a few individuals, doubtless, 
thought to "make hay while the sun shines," but 
to the population at large the war was certainly not 
advantageous. For some months fresh provisions were 
almost at famine prices, or even unattainable by 
private pereons. 

Many farmers were with the army, either as volunteers 
or with the transport train ; others again had sold their 
waggons and oxen, and thus had no means of bringing 
in their produce. The market supply was consequently 
very small, and generaUy at once bought up for the 
garrisons. 

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398 TEE ZULU WAR. 

Transport difficulties, we have said, increased with 
' the increasing force. The 9000 Impeiial troops sent as 
reinfoTcementa had to he fed, and their food con- 
veyed to where they were stationed. Three or four 
thousuid horses and mules also had to be fed in a 
country &om which grass was disappearing, and in 
which supplies of forage were small The larger part of 
the troops and horses were sent up-country — some two 
hundred miles from the coast — ^where winter grass fires 
might be expected, and nature's stores were certain soon 
to be exhausted ; and thus arose the terrible strain in 
the transport resources of the country. 

But much more was required than was necessary. 
In place of the ponderous train accompanying each 
column — a fruitful source of difficulty and danger on the 
march by day, if a protection when halted at night — 
the advance should have been made from entrenched 
dep6ts in the Ughtest possible order. A rapid advance 
on the king's kraal in compact formation, and, where- 
ever the enemy might stand, a decisive battle fought — 
the result of which, with the most ordinary care, could 
not be doubtful — and the war woidd be virtually over. 
There need have been no weary inactivity, with its 
foUowing of disease and death, and the saving to the 
country would have been enormous. 

Supplies were pushed forward from the Lower 
Tugela to the Inyezane, where a fort was constructed 
(Fort Chelmsford) ; and from the base up to Conference 
Hill — the supplies required by Lord Chelmsford before 
an advance could be made being two months' with the 



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ISANDELWANA REVISITED. 899 

forces adTaucing, and one month's at the advanced 
depdts.* 

But httle farther was done through this period of 
indecision and vacillation, in -which plans were made 
only to be changed, and orders given one day to be 
countermanded the next. Sickness laid its heavy hand 
on many a man — exposure and inaction in the first place, 
then want of proper care and nursing, gradually sweUing 
the death-rolL Before the war, and throughout its course, 
a body of ladies of Natal were most anxious to place them- 
Belvea under the orders of the medical staff as nurses for 
the sick and wounded ; but their offers, though repeatedly 
pressed upon the authorities, were declined. 

It was at this period that the following message was 
telegraphed by Lord Chelmsford to the High Com- 
missioner : 

"May 16th, 1879. — General Crealock telegraphs: 
Messengers firom king are at His advanced post. King 
sues for peace. John Dunn sent to see them. Message 
as follows : ' White man has made me king, and I am 
their son. Do they kill the man in the afternoon whom 
they have made king in the morning ? What have I 
done ? I want peace ; I ask for peace.' King asks for 
a black man or white man to return with his messengers 
to say message delivered rightly. Undwana, one of the 
messengers, states that he has sent to Dabulamunzi to 
order him to go to the king. Message had been de- 
livered to him by Undwana, and he ought to have 
reached king yesterday. All principal chiefs have been 
* P. P. (C. 2374) ^ 116. 



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400 TEE ZULU WAR. 

sent for to the king. He says army is dispersed. Chiefe 
have been urging peace on king. General C. has only 
informed Clifford and Lieutenant- Governor of the above. 
I have telegraphed back to Crealock : ' Tell messengeia 
I informed king's messenger at ^tehowe that any message 
must be sent to me at Colonel Wood's camp, I am ready 
to receive any messenger under flag of truce. Tell them 
something more than words will be required. Supply 
them with flag of truce ; relax no preparations or pre- 
cautions.'" End of quotatioEL "I shall be glad to 
receive your Excellency's early instructions. I consider 
the king should not be allowed to remain on the lihroae, 
and that the terms of peace should be signed at Ulundi 
in presence of British force. I shall not make any 
change in my arrangements in the meantime." — (P. P. 
[C. 237i]pp. 100, 101). 

To Major-General Maiahall belongs the credit of per- 
forming the long-neglected duty of revisiting the fatal 
battle-field of Isandhlwana, and burying as many as 
possible of those that fell there. With General Newdi- 
gate's permission, the Cavalry Brigade under Gfeneral 
Marshall made a reconnaissance of the Bashi Valley 
and Isandhlwana, having moved down to Korke's Drift 
for that purpose. 

The left column of the brigade proceeded up the 
Bashi Valley, and moving round the Ingqutu raoge, 
joined the right column at Isandhlwana. 

The reconnaissance was proposed to include bmry- 
ing the dead, bringing away the waggons, etc. ; but an 
order was received prohibiting touching the 24th, who 
were to be interred by their own comrades, 

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I8ANDELWASA REVISITED. 401 

The battle-field was a fearful sight — though softened 
maeh by the kindly hand of nature. There plainly lay 
revealed the widely-spread camp (or rather line of 
camps), the hopeless position in which it was placed ; 
the absolute impossibility, circumstanced as it was, of 
any iresult but the sad one we hare already chronicled. 
And there, too, were the evidences of a gallant resistance, 
and a stand made by men " &ithfal tmto death." 

It was well said : " The field of Isandhlwana ia begin- 
ning to give up its secrets ; the mists of fiction are being 
dispersed by the dry light of fact. It has not been 
through mere idle curiosity that there has been a desire 
to know what passed during the final moments of that 
fatal stra^le. There were difficulties to be explained, 
reputations to be cleared, allegations to be contradicted. 
There was the desire to know how those who were lost 
had died. To be sure that they died with their faces to 
the foe ; to be satisfied that their death was not attended 
with any excess of cruelty or sufieiing. And there can 
be little doubt that it is the very anxiety to be assured 
of all this that stands responsible for the numerous 
fictions — as we must now hold them to be — which have 
been circulated with regard to what passed on that 
memorable day." — Natal Wiinesa, 29th May, 1879. 

A short description of the spot, taken firom that 
written by Mr. Archibald Forbes, may be of interest : 
At the top of the ascent beyond the Bashi we saw, 
on our left firont, rising above the surrounding country, 
the steep, isolated, and almost inaccessible hill, or 
rather crag, of Isandhlwana ; the contour of its ru^ed 
crest strangely resembling a side view of a coucbant 

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402 TEE ZXJLV WAR. 

lion. On the lower neck of the high ground on its 
right were clearly visible up against the aky-Iine the 
abandoned waggons of the destroyed column. Now we 
crosBed the rocky bed of the lltUe stream and were 
cantering up the slope leading to the crest on which 
were the wagons, and already tokens of the combat 
and bootless flight were apparent. The line of rekeat 
towards Fugitives' Drift, along which, through a gap in 
the Zulu environment, our unfortunate comrades who 
thus far survived tried to escape, lay athwart a rocky 
slope to our right front, with a precipitous ravine at its 
base. In this ravine dead men lay thick. All the way 
up the slope could be traced the fitful line of flight 
Most of the dead here were 24th men ; single bodies 
and groups where they seemed to have gathered to 
make a hopeless gallant stand and die. On the edge of 
a gully was a gun-limber jammed, its horses hanging in 
their harness down the steep face of the ravine ; a little 
&rther on a broken ambulance-waggon, with its team of 
mules dead in their harness, and arooud were the bodies 
of the poor fellows who had been draped &om the 
intercepted .vehicle. Following the trail of bodies 
through long grass and scattered stores, the crest was 
reached. Here the dead lay thick, many in the uniform 
of the Natal Mounted Police. On the bare ground on 
the crest itsei£ among the waggons, the dead were leas 
thick ; but on the slope beyond, on which irom the crest 
we looked down, the scene was the saddest and more 
full of weird desolation than any I bad yet gazed upon. 
There was none of the horror of a recent battle-field ; 
nothing of all that makes the scene of yesterday's battle 

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ISANDELWANA REVISITED. 40S 

so rampantlj ghastly shocked the senses. A stxange 
dead calm reigned in this solitude ; grain had grown 
loxuriantly round the waggons, sprouting from the seed 
that dropped from the loads, falling on soil fertilised by 
the life-blood of gallant men. So long in most places 
had grown the grass that it mercifully shrouded the 
dead, whom four long months to-morrow we have left 
unburied. In a patch of long grass, near the right 
flank of the camp, lay Colonel Dumford's body, a 
central figure of a knot of brave men who had fought 
it out around their chief to the bitter end. A stalwart 
Zulu, covered by his shield, lay at the CJolonel'a feet 
Around him layfourteen Natal Carbineers and their officer, 
Lieutenant Scott, with a few Mounted Police* (twenty). 
Clearly they had rallied round Colonel Bumford in a 
last despairing attempt to cover the flank of the camp, 
and had stood fast from choice, when they might have 
essayed to fly for their horses, who were close by their 
side at the piquet-line. With this group were about 
thirty gallant feUows of the 24th. In other places the 
24th men were found as if fallen in rallying square, and 
there were bodies scattered all along the front of the 
camp. 

The fallen were roughly buried, except those of the 
men of the 24th Regiment. These were ordered to be 

* Mr. Mb'^'"'\ the office conmiaiiding ^i* tooop of Ifatol 
Mounted Police, says: "WLen wb went out the moiniiig before 
tbo fi^t we left thirtj-oaa mea behind, men whose hoises hsd sore 
bscke, etc. Xbofle men were in charge of only a corporal. Seven 
men escaped, and we buried all of the tweoty-foor that were killed. 
Twanty were killed just around Colonel Domfoid. Three about two 
hundred yards away, and one at the Fngitivae^ Drift. 

2 D 2 

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404 TES ZULU WAR. 

left untouched. Oeneral Marshall had uouiiBhed a 
natural and aeemly wish to p.ve interment to all the 
dead who so long had lain at Isandhlwana, but it 
appeared that the 24th desired to perform the ceremony 
themselves in presence of both battaliona. One has much 
sympathy with the regiment, but General Marshall 
offered to convey a burial-party with tools from Rorke'a 
Drift in waggons, and it seemed scarcely right to post- 
pone longer than absolutely necessary what respect for 
our honoured dead required. Thus, the Zulus, who have 
carefully buried their own dead, will return to find we 
visited the place, not to bury our dead, but to remove a 
hatch of waggons I 

In the desolate camp were many sad relics, and the 
ground was strewn with them and the spoil of the 
plundered waggons. Scarcely any arms were found, and 
no ammunition — a few stray rusted bayonets and 
assegius only were to he seen. 

Teams of horses were hitched on to the soundest of 
the waggons, till forty fit to travel were collected on the 
crest, and sent under escort to Rorke's Drift, and mean- 
time scouting-partiea had fired the kraals around, bat 
found no Zulus. 

"I shall ofier few comments on the Isandhlwana 
position. Had the world been searched for a position 
offering the easiest facilities for being surprised, none 
could have been well found to surpass it. The position 
seems to offer a premium on disaster, and asks to be 
attacked. In the rear laagered waggons would have 
discounted its defects ; but the camp was more defence- 
less than an English village. Systematic scouting could 

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ISANDSLWANA REYI8ITED. 4.05. 

alone have justified such a position, and this too clearly 
cannot have been ctoried out" — Daily News, 20th June, 
1879. 

On the 20th, 23rd, and 26th June the burial of the 
remainder of those who fell at Isandhlwana was com- 
pleted by a force under the command of Lieut. -Colonel 
Black, 24th Begiment. He carefully noted the signs of 
the fight, and reported that the bodies of the sltun lay 
thickest in the l-24th camp, in which 130 dead lay (in 
two distinct spots), with their officers, Captain Wordell, 
Lieutenant Dyer, and a captain and a subaltern not re- 
cognisable ; close to the place where the bodies of Colonel 
Dumford, Lieutenant Scott, and other Carbineers, and men 
of the Natal Mounted PoUce were found. This is described 
as being a " centre of resistance," as the bodies of men 
of all arms were found converging as it were to the spot. 
About sixty bodies, with those of Captain Younghusband 
and two other officers, lay in a group under the southern 
precipice of Isandhlwana, as if they had held the crags 
and fought tUl ammunition failed. The proofs of hand- 
to-hand fighting were frequent. The fugitives' track, 
too, told its tale : " Here and there around a waggon, 
here and there around a tree, a group had formed and 
stood at bay ; shoulder to shoulder they fired their last 
cattxidge, and shoulder to shoulder they plied the steel ; 
side by side their bones are lying and tell the tale." 

Eight hundred yards from the road the guns had 
come upon ground no wheels could pass, and from here 
the bodies were more and more apart till, about two 
miles jErom camp, the last one lies and marks the Hmit 
reached by white men on foot 

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406 TSE ZULU WAR. 

The fatal trail again began near the river's bank, 
where Major Smith, B.A., and others reet, a river's 
breadth from Natal ; across the river it runs until the 
graves of Melville and CoghUl nearly mark its end. 

The Standard and Mail of September 16th says : 
" It is a noticeable fact that Cetywayo declares that his 
men were completely disheartened by Isandula, and that 
as a matter of fact he was never able to get them 
thoroughly together again after that event He says 
that a large part of the forces engaged on that occasion 
were actually retreating when another part made the 
fatal rusk ... Of course these statements are of in- 
terest as showing what Cetywayo said, but they must 
be accepted with reservation, as he has throughout taken 
up the theory that he and his men had no intention of 
inflicting so much injury upon us as they did." 

Bishop Schreuder, on the 3rd March, says : *' The 
Zulus' version of the Isao'lwana story tells us some 
meat remarkable things with respect to the battle and 
the effect of it on the Zulus. The Zulus, afber 
having ransacked the camp, bolted ofif with the booty as 
fast as they could when the English army was seen 
returning to the camp, even at a great distance. The 
detachment of the Zulu army seen by Glyn's column 
on its way, the 23rd January, back to Rorke's Drift, 
was a part of the Uadi corps and Utako (Udhloko) 
retreating horn the unsuccessfiil attack on the Com- 
missariat stores at Rorke's Drift. Among the horsemen 
was Udabulamanzi, who says that they were so tired, 
and glad that Grlyn's colanin did not attack them, for if 
attacked they would have bolted every one. Compaza- 

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I8ANDHLWANA BEVI81TED. 407 

tively few and inferior oxen were brought to the king, 
as the izinduna appropriated to themselves the best and 
most of the captured oxen ; Udabulamanzi, for instance, 
took home twenty good oxen. The Zulus say that the 
affair at laanlwana commenced with a victory and 
ended with a flight, for, as it is the case after a defeat, 
the whole army did not return to the king, but the 
soldiers dispersed, making the best of their way with 
what booty they had got to their respective homes, and 
to this day they have not reassembled to the king, 
who is veiy much displeased with his two generals, 
Umnkingwayo (Tsingwayo) and Umavumengwane 
(MaTumengwana), and other izinduna." — (P. P. [C. 
2318] p. 37). 

Some of Hie Zulu and native accounts of Isandhlwaua 
are worth noticing. One says the engagement " lasted 
till late in the afternoon," (P. P. [C. 2374] p. 24.) 
Another speaks of the fighting when die 24th retired 
ou the tents, and of their ammunition failing. Another 
(Nugwende, a brother of Cetshwayo) says that the main, 
or front and the left flank attack of the Zulu army 
were beaten find fell back with great loss until the fire 
of the white troops slackened. The right flank entering 
the camp, the main body was ordered to renew the 
attack, wMch the English were unable to prevent from 
want of ammunition. 

The following " Statement of a Zulu Deserter regard- 
ing the Isan'lwana Battle " was taken by Mr. Drummond, 
head-quarter staff : 

Ths Zula army, oonaiating of the Ulnndi coips, about 3000 
strongs the Nokenke Segiment, 2000 strong; tho NgobamokoBi 

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408 TEE ZULU WAR. 

Begiment, mcluding the Ure, &boat 5000 strong; th« TTmcitya, 
about 4000 strong; the Kodwengu, 2000 strong; the Umbouambi, 
3000 strong; and the Udhloko, about 1000 atrong, or a total of 
about 20,000 men in all, left the military kraal of !Nodwengu on the 
aftemoan of the 17th of January. It was first Eiddiessed by the 
King, who said ; 

"I am sending you out against the whites, who have invaded 
Zululand and driven away our cattle. Tou are to go agaiuat the 
colunuL at Botke'a Drift, and drire it back into ^at^ ; and, if the 
state of the rirer will allow, follow it up through Natal, right up 
to the Diaakenabuig. You will attack by daylight, as there are 
enough of you to * eat it up,' and you will match slowly, so as not to 
tire yourselTOS." 

We accordingly left Nodwengu late in the afternoon, and marched 
in column to the west bank of the White Umfolosi, about six miles 
distant, where we bivouacked for the night. Next day we marched 
to the Isipezi military kraal, about nine miles o£f, where we slept ; 
and on the 19th we ascended to the table-hind near the Isihlunga 
hills, a march of about equal duration with that of the day pieviona. 
On this day the army, which had hitherto been marching in single 
column, divided into two, marching parallel to and within sight of 
each other, that on the left consisting of the ITokenke, Umcityn, and 
Nodwengu Uegiments, under the conmiand of Tyii^wayo, the other 
commanded by Mavumingwana. There were a few mounted men 
belonging to the chief Usirayo, who were made use of as scouts. On 
the 20th we moved across the open country and slept by the Isiperi 
hill. We saw a body of mounted white men on this day to our left 
(a strong reconnaissance was made on the 20th, to the west of the 
Isiperi hill, which was probably the force here indicated). On the 
21st, keeping away to the eastward, we occupied a valley running 
north and south under the spurs of the Ngutu hill, which concealed 
the Isandlana hill, distant from us about four miles, and nearly due 
west of our encampment We had been well fed during our wbole 
march, oui scouts driving in cattle and goats, and on that evening we 
lit our camp-fiiea as usual. Our scouts also reported to us that they 
had seen the vedettes of the £i^;liah force at sunset on some hill« 
west-sou^-west of us (Lend Chelmsford with some of his staff tode up 
in this direction, and about this time, and saw some of the mounted 
enemy). Our order of encampment on the 21st of January was 
as follows : On the extreme right were the Nodwengu, Nokenke, 
and XTmcityu; the centre was formed by the Ngobamakoei and 
Mbonambi ; and the left, of tiie TJndi Corps and the Udhloko 



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I8ANDSLWANA REViaiTED. 409 

K^iment. On the moming of the 22iid of January there iras no 
intention whateTer of making any attack, on account of a auperatition 
regarding the state of the moon, and we were sitting resting, when 
firing waa heard on our right (the narrator waa in the Nokenka 
Regiment), which -we at first imagined waa the Ngobamakosi eng^ed, : 
and we armed and ran forward in the direction of the sound. We 
were, however, soon told it was the white troops fighting with 
Matyana's people some ten miles away to onr left front, and retomed 
to onr original position. Just after we had aat down again, a small 
herd of cattle came past our line from onr right, being driven down 
by soma of our aoonts, and just when they were opposite to the 
Umcityu B^imen^ a body of monnted men, on the hill to the west, 
were seen galloping, evidently trying to cut them off. When several 
hundred yards oS, they perceived the Umcityu, and, dismaunting, 
fired one volley at them and then retired. The Umcityu, at once 
jumped up and charged, an example which was taken up by the 
Xokenke and Nodwengu on their right, and the Ngobomakoei and 
Mbonambi on the left, while the Undi Corps and the UdMoko fonned 
a circle (as is customary in Zulu warfare when a force,, is about to be 
engaged) and remained wheiv they were. With the latter were the 
two comtoaading ofScers, Mavumingwona and Tyingwayo, and several 
of the king's brothers, who with these two corps bore away to the 
north-west, after a short pause, and keeping on the northern side of 
the Isandlana, performed a turning movement on the right without 
any opposition from the whites, who, from the nature of the ground, 
could not see them. Thus the original Zoln left became their extreme 
right, while their right became their centre, and the centre the left. 
The two regiments which formed the latter, the Ngobamakosi and 
Mbonambi, mode a turning along the front of the camp towards the 
English right, but became eng^od long before they could accompliah 
it; and the Uve B^ment, a battalion of the Kgobamakosi, was 
repulsed and had to retire until reinforced by the other battalion, 
while the Mbonambi suffered very severely from the artillory lire. 
Meanwhile, the centre, consisting of the Umcityu on the left centre, 
and the If okenke and Nodwengu higher up on the right, imder the hill, 
were makii^ a direct attack on the left of the camp, llie Umcityu 
suffered very severely, both from artillery and musketry fire; the 
Nokenke from mnsketry fire alone ; while the Xodwcngu lost least. 
When we at last carried the camp, our regiments became mixed up ; 
a portion pursued the fugitives down to the Buffalo Biver, and the 
remainder plundered the camp ; whUe the Undi and Udhloko Regi- 
ments made the best of their way to Borke's Drift to plunder the post 



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410 TEE ZVW WAR. 

there — in which tiiey foiled, and lost -veirj hesnly, ftftor fighting all 
the af temoon and night. "We stripped the dead of all their clothei. 
To my knowledge no one was made prisoner, and I nw do dead body 
carried away or mntUated. If the doctors earned away any dead 
bodies for the parpose of afterwards doctoring the army, it was done 
without my knowing of it ; nor did I see any priaoner taken and 
afterwards killed. I was, however, one of the man who followed the 
refugees down to the BufEalo River, and only retnnied to the FnglMK 
camp late in the afternoon. (This portion of the prisoner's statement 
was made very lelactantly.) The portion of the army which had 
lemaijied to plunder the camp did so thoroughly, eanyiiig off the 
maiEe, breadstnfb {etc), and stores of all kinds, aad drinking sneh 
spirits as were in camp. Many were dmnk, and all laden with theii 
booty; and towards annset the whole force mored back to the sn- 
campment of the previous night, hastened by having aeen another 
English foice approaching from the south. Next morning the greater 
part of the men diapeised to their homes with their plunder, a few 
accompanying the principal ofGcers to the king, and they hare not 
leassembled since.— 7%e Timet, March 22nd, 1879. 

Another account, taken by the interpreter of one of 
the colunm commanding ofScers (a version of which has 
appeared in the columns of The Aitny and Navy Gaselte, 
of nth October 1879, and is described as a " full and 
accurate account "), is selected as being corroborated in 
all main points by survivors of the British force, and 
by the battle-field itself. It is the story of Uguku, a 
Zulu belonging to the Kandampenvu (or Umcityu) 
Regiment, who says : " We Mrrived at Ingqutu aght 
regiments strong (20,000 to 25,000 men) and slept in 
the valley of a small stream which rung into the 
Nondweni river to the eastward of Sandhlwana. The 
regiments were Kandampenvu (or Umcityu), Ngoba- 
makosi, Uve, Nokenke, Umbonambi, Udhloko, Nod- 
wengu (name of military kraal of the Inkulutyane 
Regiment), and Undi (which comprises the Tulwana, 
Ndhlondhlo, and Indhluyengwe). The army was under 

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ISAIWHLWANA EEVISITED. 411 

the joint eommand of Mavumengwana, Tsiogwayo, and 
Sihayo. It was intended that Matshana ka Mondisa 
was to be in chief command, but he having been a 
Katal Kafir, the other three were jealous of him, and 
did not like him to be put over them ; they therefore 
devised a plan of getting him out of the way on the 
day of the battle. They accomplished this plan by 
getting him to go forward with Undwandwe to the 
npindo to reconnoitre, uid promised to follow. As soon 
as he bad gone they took another road, viz. north of 
Babanango, while Matshana and Undwandwe went 
south of it, being accompanied by six mavigo (com- 
panies). It was our intention to have rested for a day 
in the valley where we arrived the night before tie 
battle, but having on the morning of the battle heard 
firing of the English advance guard who had engaged 
Matshana's men, and it being reported that the Ngoba- 
makosi were engaged, we went up from the valley to 
the top of Ingqutu, which was between us and the 
camp ; we then found that the Ngobamakosi were not 
engaged, but were quietly encamped lower down the 
valley. We saw a body of horse coming up the hill 
towards us from the S^dhlwana side. We opened fire 
on them, and then the whole of our army rose and came 
up the hilL The enemy returned our fire, but retired 
down the hill, leaving one dead man (a black) and a horse 
on the field. The Uve and Ngobamakosi then became en- 
gaged on our left with the enemy's skirmishers, and soon 
afterwards we were all engaged with the skirmishers of 
the enemy. We were not checked bythem"(i.e. stopped), 
" but continued our march on the camp until the artillery 

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412 TEE ZULU WAR. 

opened upoa us. The first shell took effect in the raaks 
of my regiment, just above the kraal of Baza. The 
Nokenke then ran out in the shape of a horn towards tie 
kraal of Nyenzani on the road between Isandhlwana and 
Rorke's Drift (the continuation of the road, to the east- 
ward of the camp). The engagement now became very 
hot between the Mangwane (mounted natives) and us, the 
Mangwane being supported by the infantry, who were 
some distance in their rear. We were now fialUng veiy 
fast. The Mangwane had put their horses in a donga, 
and were firing away at us on foot. We shouted 
' Izulu I ' (' The heavens I ' )* and made for the donga, 
driving out the Mangwane towards the camp. The 
iufantry then opened fire on us, and their fire was so 
hot, that those of ua who were not in the donga retired 
back over the hill. It was then that the Nokenke and 
Nodwengu regiments ran out towards Nyenzani's kraaL 
We then shouted ' Izulu I ' again, and got up out of the 
dongas. The soldiers opened fire on ua again, and we 
laid down. We then got up again, and the whole of my 
regiment charged the infantry, who formed into two 
separate parties — one party standing four deep with tJieir 
backs towards Sandhlwana, the other standing about 
fifty yarda from the camp in Hke formation. We were 
checked by the fire of the soldiers standing near Sandhi- 
wana, but charged on towards those standing in front of 
the camp, in spite of a very heavy fire on our right flank 
from those by Sandhlwana. As we got nearer we saw 
the soldiers were beginning to fall from the effects of 
our fire. On our left we were supported by the Umbo- 
* Properly TJzulu— th« Zulu sation. 

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laAlWHLWANA BEVI8ITED. 418 

nambi, half the Undi, Ngobamakosi, and Uve. Behind 
ns were the other half of the Undi and Udhloko, who 
aerer came into action at Sandhlwana, but formed the 
leserre (which passed on and attacked Korke's Drift). 
As we rushed on the soldierB retired on the camp, fight- 
ing all the way, and as they got into the camp we were 
intermingled with them. It was a disputed point as to 
which of the following regiments was the first in the 
English camp, viz.: Undi, Kandampenvu, Ngobamakosi, 
and Umhonambi; bat it was cTentually decided that the 
Umbonambi was the first, followed by UudL 

"One pfuty of soldiers came out from among the tents 
and formed up a little above the ammunition-waggons. 
They held their ground there until their ammunition failed 
them, when they were nearly all assegaied. Those that 
were not killed at this place formed again in a solid 
square in the neck of Sandhlwana. They were com- 
pletely surrounded on all sides, and stood back to back, 
and surrounding some men who were in the centre. 
Their ammunition was now done, except that they had 
some revolvers which they fired at us at close quarters. 
"We were quite unable to break their square untU we had 
killed a great many of them, by throwing our assegais 
at short distances. We eventually overcame them in 
this way," * 

* The ftbove ia conoboiated on &11 main points by Mehlokazulu, 
■on of Sihay o, wbo Btatea that he was sent with three other indunas 
(mounted), on the moining of the 22iid, to see what the English were 
doing. On reporting to Tshiogwayo, he said, " All right, we will see 
what they ore going to do," " Presently," says Mehlokazulu, " I 
heard Tshingwayo give orders for the Tulwaua and Ifgyaza raiments 
to asaemble. When they had done bc, he gave orders for the others 

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414 THE ZULU WAM. 

When all we have natrated was known in Natal, t^e 
question was aaked in the public prints : " Who, in the 
light of these recently-discovered facts, were the real 
heroes of that day ? Surely the two officers who com- 
manded in that narrow pass at the rear of the camp. . . . 
Surely, too, no smaller heroism was that of the fourteen 
carbineers .... who, mere boys as they were, gave their 
lives away in order to afford their comrades-in-arms a 
chance of retreat. . . . Any one of these men might have 
had a chance for his life, had he chosen to follow the 
example set by so many. They remained, however, and 
they died, and only after four months of doubt, contra- 
diction, and despatch-writing, is it made known to the 
world who they were who have moat deserved the 
coveted decoration ' For Valour.' " 

" ' The dead shall live, the living die ! * Never was 
this well-known line of Dryden's more strikingly illus- 
trated than by the events of the past fortnight," writes 
The Natal Witness of June 7th, 1 879. " ' The dead shall 
live,' the mists of doubt, overclouding many a reputa- 

to assemble and adronce in tlie direction of the English camp. We 
were fired on fiiat by the mounted men, who checked our advance for 
Bome little time." He says the soldieis were at fiist " in loose order,' 
but afterw&rda he saw them " massing together," when " tiiey fired at 
a fearful rate." When the Zulva broke the infantry and closed in, 
they "came on to a mixed party of mounted men and infantry men," 
about one hundred, who " made a despeiata resistance, some firing 
with pistols and others using swoids, and Z repeatedly heard the word 
* Fire ! ' given by someone. But we proved too many for them, and 
killed them oil where they stood. When all was over I had a. look at 
these men, and saw a dead officer, with hia arm in a sling and a big 
moustache (Colonel Dumford, B.E.), aunounded by dead carbineen, 
soldiers, and other men whom I did not know," — Vide A E. Jaanud, 
Feb. 1880. 

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J8ANDELWANA REVIBITED. 415 

tion, have been cleared up by a visit to the now sacred 
£eld of Isaodhlwaoa. 

" ' The living die ; ' the hopes of a large party in an 
Soropeaa nation have been extinguished by the assegais 
of a mere handful of savages." (Alluding to the death of 
the Prince Imperial of France.) "The two events stMid 
aide by side in startling contrast, and suggest thoughts 
which eren the wisest might with advantage ponder. 
Turn, for instance, to the story of the field of 
Isandhlwana, as now told in plain though interrupted 
and awful characters by the remains found resting 
near the 'neck.' Could it have been guessed that, 
while human recollection and human intelligence fuled 
80 utterly to convey to the world a history of the events 
of that too memorable day, Nature herself would have 
taken the matter in hand, and told us such a story as no 
one who hears it will ever forget ? Four months, all but 
a day, had elapsed since the defenders of the field stood 
fiieing the Zulu myriads — ^four months of rain and sun, 
of the hoveling of slow-sailing birds of prey, and of 
the predatory visits, as it might well be deemed, of 
unregarding enemies. Four months ! and during all 
that time, while the world was ringing &om one end to 
t^e other with the news of a terrible disaster, while 
reinforcements were crowding on to our shores, and 
special correspondents were flooding the telegraph-wires 
with the last new thing, all through those four months 
the dead slept quietly on, waiting almost consciously, as 
one might think, for the revelation which was to 
establish their fame, and, where necessary, relieve their 
unjustly sallied reputation. For four months was there 

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418 THE ZULU WAR. 

a sleep of honour slept upon that bitter field — a aleep 
unbroken by any of the noise of the war that rolled both to 
southward and to northward. The defeat of Indlobane 
had been suffered ; the victory of Kambala had been 
gained; the defenders of Rorke'a Drift had been re- 
warded, at least with a nation's praise ; the imprisoned 
column had been released from Etshowe ; all the roada 
in Katal had rung to the tread of men and the rolling of 
waggon-wheels, as the force which was to "wipe out" 
the disaster of Isandhlwana moved up to the firont Yet 
still the honoured dead slept in silence. Only the grasses 
that waved round them in the autumn breeze mnrmured 
to them of their coming resurrection ; only the stars that 
looked down on them, when the night wind even had 
ceased, and the hills loomed black and silent in the 
morning hoars, bade them be patient and wait. There 
were many and varied fates entwined in tiiat quiet 
group : there was the trained officer, there was the 
private soldier, there was the man who had come to find 
employment iu a colonial service, there were the lads 
from the colony itself; all these were there, waiting till 
the moment should come when their heroism should be 
recognised, when the vague slanders of interest or of 
cowardice should be dispelled, and the wreath of un- 
dymg fame hung round each name in the historic 
temple. And the moment, long waited for — long 
promised, as it might almost seem, by the beneficent 
hand of Nature herself, who held firmly to some unmis- 
takable tokens of recognition — the moment at last 
arrived. There could be no mistake about it Those 
lying here were those who had often been called by 

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ISANDHLWANA REVISITED. 417 

name by those 'who found them. If one means of re- 
cognition was absent, another took its place. If the 
features were past identification, there was the letter 
from a raster, the ornament so well known to com- 
panions, the marks of rank, the insignia of office. 
G-hastly tokens, it wiU be said, making np the fore- 
ground of a ghastly scene. Yes, ghastly tokens, but 
glorious tokens also — tokens enablmg many a family to 
name those that died with a regret no longer mingled 
with doubt or with pain ; tokens that will long be 
cherished, and which will be shown to children as pre- 
serving the memory of lives that are to be imitated. A 
black cloud has, by these revelations, been lifted from 
the rocks of Isandhlwana, and many whom we deemed 
dead are living again — living as examples, never to be 
d^iced, of t^e honour which tradition has so fondly 
attached to a British soldier's name." 



ized by Google 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE PRINOE IHFERIAL. 

Eablt in April the South African commuuity was 
greatly impressed and interested by the arrival of the 
young Prince Imperial, who came out to Nattd, to take 
hJ8 share in the fortunes of war, and to see something 
of active service against the Zulus. The colonists were 
not a little gratified by the fact of thia young hope of 
an ilJustriouB house having come to fight for and with 
them against tbeir dreaded foes ; yet amount them all 
there was hardly one, great or small, gentle or simple, 
whose second thought was not one of sincere regret that 
he, who, besides being of such importance in the fiiture 
of Europe, was also his widowed mother's only son and 
sole comfort, should be allowed to risk his life in a 
savage warfare. Many a thought of kindly sympathy 
was directed from Natal towards that royal mother for 
whom English men and women have always had so 
sincere a feeling, whether in prosperity or adversity; 
and many a warm-hearted woman's eyes filled with 
tears at the eight of the gallant youth, and at the very 
thought of what his loss would be to her who remained 
to pray for him at home, the home which she had found 

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TEE PBINGB IMPERIAL. 4X9 

amongst our coaDtrymen in Eagland, On every side 
anxious hopes were expressed that the Prince would be 
carefully guarded from danger, and not ^owed need- 
lessly to throw away his precious young life ; all these 
hopes and anxieties were redoubled when he arrived, 
and, by his winning ways and gallant bearing, won the 
hearts of all who came in contact with him. Had Natal 
been asked, he would have been sent straight home 
again instead of across the borders, and yet it woidd 
have been hard to resist and thwart the eager wish to 
be of use, to work, and to see service which characterised 
him throughout his short campaign, and which, com- 
bined with gentleness and humanity as it was, proved 
him to be a true soldier to the hewt's core. 

Since he bad come to Natal he could not, of course, 
be kept away from the front, and the day he left 
'Maritzburg good wishes from all classes attended him 
aloDg the road. It was thought, indeed, that in all human 
probability he was safe, except in the event of some 
such battle as would make the chances equal for all, 
from general to drummer-boy. "At all events," it was 
said, " Lord Chelmsford will keep him by his side." 
Others, again, opined that the General would find it no 
easy task to restrain the eager young spirit that scorned 
to be treated with more care than others of his age. 
But this doubt was answered by one who knew the 
Prince, and who said that he was too good a soldier ever 
to disobey an order. Throw himself in the way of 
difficulty and danger he might wherever possible, bat 
any distinct order would be promptly and fully obeyed. 

For some little time the Prince acted as extra aido-de- 

2 K 2 

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420 TRE ZULU WAB. 

camp to Lord ChelmBford, and accompanied him in that 
capacity to Colond Wood's camp at Kambula, and back 
to Utrecht. Colonel Harrison, B.K, was also of the 
party, and during the journey very friendly relations 
were established between him and the Prince, wMch 
lasted to the end, and were drawn closer by the former's 
careful attendance during an indispo»tion which befell 
the latter. 

Whilst at Kambula the General reconnoitred the 
Indhlobane Mountain on May 4th, and on return to 
camp was joined by the Prince Imperial, when, to show 
him the defence of a laager, the alarm was sounded. In 
three minutes every man was at his allotted post, and 
an inspection of the camp, with its double tier of rifles 
ready for work, was made by the General and staff. 
Next day the camp was broken up, and the column 
moved to about a mile from the White Umvolosi, near 
the Zinguin range — Lord Chelmsford and staff, with 
the Prince, proceeding to Utrecht. 

On May 8th, the General, having appointed Colonel 
Harrison, R.E.,'As8istant-Quartermaster-General of the 
army, and Lieutenant Carey, 98th Regiment, Deputy- 
Assistant-Quartermaster-General, requested the former 
" to give some work to the Prince Imperial, as he was 
.anxious for it, and did not find enough to do in the 
duties of an extra aide-de-camp." This request was a 
verbal one, and the words used may not be letter for 
letter, but of the purport there is no doubt ; and such a 
request from the Commander-in-Chief was, of coarse, 
an order which was immediately carried out The 
Prince was directed to collect and record information 

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THE FRINOE IMPERIAL. 421 

respecting the distribution of troops, location of depdts, 
and the like, and he worked hard at this for some 
days. Lord Chelmsford shortly afterwards left for 
Newcastle, but before his departure Colonel Harrison 
suggested that it would be advisable, during his lord- 
ship's absence, to make a reconnaissance into Zululand, 
on the borders of which they had been hovering so long, 
BO as to determine the exact line of route which the 
columns ought to take in the impending invasion. 

Lord Chelmsford accepted the suggestion, asking 
Colonel Harrison to take the Prince with him on the 
expedition, and appointing an intelligent officer to 
accompany them. The reconnoitring party started with 
a strong escort, and reached Conference Hill on May 
13th. Here they were joined by Colonel BuUer and 200 
horsemen, and were engaged on their reconnaissance till 
May 17th, bivouacking at night with horses saddled 
and bridled, and marching at dawn, scouring the 
country, and sweeping Zulu scouts before them. The 
Prince was delighted with the life, the simple fare of 
the officers — ^his comrades — cooked by themselves at 
their camp-fire, the strange country, the sight of the 
enemy, the exhilarating gallops over the grass up hiU 
and down dale after fleet Zulu spies, the bivouac under 
the star-lit heavens. All this pleased him immensely ; 
as he told Colonel Harrison : " Made him feel that he 
was really doing soldiers' work such as he had never 
done before." Always anxious to be of use, he made 
most carefiil and copious notes and observations on all 
they saw or did. 

On the 17 th the party returned to Conference HUl, 

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m THE ZULU WAM. 

Colonel Harrison and Colonel Buller having arranged 
for a combined and further reconmussance of the 
conntry from that place and Brigadier-General Wood's 
camp ; but as the special duty to which the Prince and 
the intelligence officer had been assigned was over, 
Colonel Harrison would not allow them to accompany 
him farther, but directed them to return to Utrecht. 
They obeyed; but, on the 18th, after Colonel Harrison 
had started on his expedition and was already in Zulu- 
land, he was surprised by the appearance of the Prince 
Imperial, who had galloped all the way from Balte 
Spruit by himself to overtake him, bringing with him 
the permission, for which he had sent a messenger to 
Lord Chelmsford, to go on the new reconnaissance. The 
party now consisted of Colonel Harrison, the Prince, 
Lieutenant Carey, one officer and five men Bettington's 
Horse, and one officer and twenty men Natal Native 
Horse (Basutu). The escort would have been 8lax}nger, 
but that the junction with Colonel Buller from Wood's 
camp was looked for to add to it. The first day waa 
occupied in searching the conntry as before, and in 
looking out for Buller; and the party bivouacked at 
night with vedettes and sentries posted all round, as 
Zulus had been seen on the hills, although they did not 
molest the reconnoitring party. 

On the following day (the 19th), whibt exploring a 
deep rough valley, the party was suddenly confronted 
by a number of Zulus, who came down the hill at (Hie 
side of the donga, and spread out in the usual way in 
two wings or horns, in order to overlap or outflank it, 
firing as they advanced. The officer in command of the 

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THE PBINCE IMPERIAL. 428 

advance at once put spurs to hifi horse aud rode straight 
up the hill at the weak centre of the Zulu detachment, 
followed by the rest of the party. They pushed right 
through the centre of the Zulus, and the horns at once 
broke away, and escaped among the rocks with some loss. 
Smaller bodies of Zulus were met with subsequently, but 
did not attempt to try conclusions with the horsemen, 
who were obliged to keep on the move the greater part 
of the night, as the enemy was all around them. 

Next morning they reached Conference Hill, without 
meeting Colonel Buller; Colonel Harrison and the Prince 
proceeding to Utrecht to report to Lord Chelmsford. 

Lord Chelmsford now informed Colonel Harrison 
that "He was to consider the Prince Imperial as attached 
to the Quartermaster-General's staff for duly, but it was 
not put in orders, in consequence of the Prince not 
being in the army." The Prince lived, as before, with 
the General's personal staff, and Colonel Harrison, there- 
fore, only saw him when he came for work or orders, 
which was very frequently. 

On May 25th — the head-quarters having been 
established at Landman's Drift — the Prince, having called 
for work as usual, was directed to prepare a plan of a 
divisional camp. . That evening Colonel Harrison was 
spoken to by Lord Chelmsford, because the Prince 
Imperial had gone outside the lines without an escort, 
but replied " That the work he had given the Prince to 
do referred to the camp inside the outpost lines." The 
General then told Colonel Harrison "To take care that 
the Prince was not to go out without an escort when 
working for him, and in the matter of escort to treat 



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424 THE ZULU WAR. 

him, not as a royal person, but the same as any other 
officer, taking all due precautions." 

Colonel Harrison then said that " He would see the 
Prince, and tell him he was ner^ to leave the camp 
without a suitable escort, and that he was to apply to 
him for one when it was wanted ; " and Xx)rd Chelmsford 
replied that "That would do." 

The same day Colonel Harrison saw the Prince, and 
told him this, and to make the matter quite sure, he 
then and there gave him the instructions in writing. 

He next directed him to make a map of the country, 
from the reconnaissance sketches of Lieutenant Carey 
and others. This work the Prince executed veiy wdl, 
and so eager was he for employment, so desirous to be 
always up and doing, that he went, not once or twice, 
but often every day to Colonel Harrison's tent asking 
for more. 

On the 28th of May, liead-quarters were at Kopje 
AJlein, and on that and the two following days recon- 
naissances were pushed far into the enemy's country, 
but no enemy was seen. Small parties, even single 
officers, rode about unmolested all over the district 
round, and went beyond the spot where so sad a scene 
was shortly afterwards enacted. 

On the 31st of May the Prince went to Colonel 
Harrison's tent with a report which he had written, and, 
as usual, asked for some more work. He was told that 
the army was to march next day, and that he might go 
out and report on the roads and camps for the day 
following ; with which instructions the Prince was 
greatly pleased. Kext day the 2nd Division (with 

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TEE.FRINOE IMPERIAL. 425 

which were Lord Chelmsford and the head-ciuarters' 
Btaflf) were ordered to march towards Uluudi ; Wood's 
column being in advance some miles, ou the other side 
of the Blood Eiver, 00 a road which would take it out 
eventually on the line of march of the head-quarters' 
column. Lieutenant Carey, whilst conversing on duty 
matters with Colonel Harrison, expressed a wish to go 
out with the Prince, as he desired to verify a sketch he 
had made on the previous day ; and, although Colonel 
Harrison had intended to ask one of the General's 
personal staff to accompany the Prince, he said, when 
Lieutenant Carey volunteered to go ; " All right ; you 
can look after the Prince 1 " At the same time he 
told Lieutenant Carey to let the Prince do the work 
for which he was going out, namely, a detailed report 
on the road and the selection of a site for the camp. 
Lieutenant Carey was known to Colonel Harrison as a 
cautious and experienced officer, who had been frequently 
out on patrol duties with Colonel Buller and.others, who 
was acquainted with the nature of the work he had to 
do, the precautions to he taken, and the actual ground 
to be gone over ; and there was every reason to believe 
that he thoroughly understood his position, and would 
make, as he had done before, the proper arrangements 
for an escort 

On the morning of ihe 1st, Colonel Harrison, hearing 
that no escort had arrived at the hour fixed for the 
departure of the reconnoitring parly, went over to 
General Marshall's tent, and obtained from him the 
order for the number of men he thought sufficient — 
" six Europeans and six Basutos ; " and, having informed 

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426 THE ZULU WAR. 

I'ieutenant Carej of this, he rode off to attend to hia 
OWE duties — euperintending the march of the army, 
inspecting the fords, and moving on in advance (in 
company with Major Grenfell) to select the wte for 
watering-places and the next camp. On a ridge in front 
of the column Colonel Harrison and his companion 
presently found the Prince and Lieutenant Carey halted 
with the European troopers only, and heard from them 
that they were waiting for the Basutos, who had not 
joined them in camp ; but some were now in sight on 
the hillside flanking the line of march, and moving in a 
direction which would briog them upon it a little in 
advance of the spot where the party was waiting. 

As Lieutenant Carey had been already over the 
country, he was asked by Colonel Harrison to point out 
the place where the water supply for the next camp was, 
and the whole party rode slowly along a donga towards 
the supposed stream or ponds. Colonel Harrison did 
not think the water sufficient for their purpose, and rode 
back to the high ground, where he was rejoined by Major 
GrenfeU, who told him that the Prince's party had just 
discovered a better supply a little farther on. There 
was a ridge in front of them which they considered 
marked the end of the day's march, and the officers 
dispersed to attend to their own duties, not imagining 
for an instant that the reconnoitring party would go on 
without the Basutos, who, fixim their wonderful power 
of sight and hearing, and qnickness at detecting the 
approach of danger, were always regarded as essential to 
an escort. 

Unhappily, however, such was the case. The party 

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TSE PMINOE IMPERIAL. 427 

rode on until they came to a deserted kraal, situated 
some 200 yards from the river, and consistiDg of 
fire huts, one with the usual small cattle enclosure. 
Between the kraal and the river stretched a luxuriant 
growth of tambookie grass, five or sii feet in height, 
with mealies and Kafir com interspersed. This dense 
covOTt, however, did not completely surround the kraal, 
for in front there was an open space, apparently used by 
the Zulus, judging from the ashes and broken earthen- 
ware strewn about, as a common cooking-ground. 

Here the party halted, and the Prince, having first 
sent a native guide to make sure that the huts were all 
iminhabited, gave the order that the horses should be 
off-saddled and turned out to graze. Some of them lit a 
fire and made coffee, while the Prince and Lieutenant 
Carey, afrer the latter had taken a look round with his 
glass, proceeded to make sketches of the surrounding 
country. It is stud that the Prince's talent with pen 
and pencil, combined with his remukable proficiency in 
military surveying — that great gift of recognising at 
once the strategic capabilities of any spot which dis- 
tinguished the First 5S^apoleon — made his contributions 
to our knowledge of the country to be traversed of great 
value; and he never lost an opportunity of making 
himself of use in this and every other way. 

It was about 3 F.u. when the party halted at this 
deserted kraal, the Prince deciding that they should 
leave again in an hour's time That the Zulus had been 
upon the spot not long before was apparent from signs 
of freshly-chewed imji (native sugar-cane) upon the 
ground, while a few dogs lingering about might have 

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428 THE ZULU WAR. 

suggested tliat their masters were not tax oS. Before- 
the hour was over, however, the native guide came in 
to report that he had seen a Zulu coming over the 
hill, and it was now thought prudent to retire, the 
Prince giving directions to collect and up-saddle the 
horses, followed by the order to. " Mount." 

Some of the men were already in the saddle, others 
in the act of mounting, when a sudden volley fired upon 
them from amongst the tall stalks of the mealies (Indian 
com) which grew on every side, betrayed the presence 
of a numerous armed foe, who had returned unseen to 
those who were in temporary occupation of their kraals. 
The distance was not twenty yards, and the long grass 
swayed to the sudden rush of the Zulus, as with a 
tremendous shout, they charged towards the Prince and 
his companions. The horses all swerved at the sudden- 
ness of the tumult, and one broke away, its rider being 
shot before he could recover it and mount. The young 
Prince was riding a fine gray charger, a gray of sixteen 
bands, always difficult to mount, and on this occasion, 
frightened by the firing, it became restive and coxdd not 
be controlled. Lieutenant Carey, apparently, had at 
this moment been carried by his horse in a direction 
which brought one of the huts between him and the 
Prince, of whose difficulties be was therefore unaware. 
IVom the moment of the attack no man seems to have 
known much of what the rest were doing; to gallop 
away was the only chance for life, and all hurried ofi", 
the Prince in vain endeavouring to mount his restive 
steed unaided. He was passed by Trooper Letocq •.. 
iez vous, s'il vous plait, Monsieur! "he cried, 

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THE PRINCE IMPERIAL. 42fl 

as he dashed past, himself only lying across his saddle, 
bat the Prince made no answer ; he was already doing 
his ntmost, and in another minute he was alone. He 
was seen endeavouring to mount his rearing charger, as 
it followed the retreat, while he ran beside it, the enemy 
close at hand. He made one desperate attempt to leap 
into the saddle by the help of the holster-fiap ; that gave 
way, and then he felL The charger dashed riderless 
past some of the mounted men, who, looking back, saw 
the Prince running after them on foot, with the Zulus but 
a few paces behind him. Alas 1 not a man turned back, 
they galloped wildly on, and carried back to camp the 
news that the gallant young Prince, for or with whom each 
of them should have died that day, lay slain upon the 
hillside where he had made his last brave stand alone. 
Two troopers fell besides — one was struck down by a 
bullet as he rode away ; the other was the man who had 
lost his horse. Trooper Rogers, and who was last seen 
in the act of levelling his carbine at the enemy. The 
native guide was killed as well, after a hard fight with 
the foe, witnessed to by the blood-stained and broken 
weapons found by his side neit day. The fugitives rode 
on for some distance, when they met General Wood and 
Colonel Buller, to whom they made their report. From 
the brow of an adjacent hill these oflScers, looking 
through their glasses, could see the Zulus leading away 
the horses they had taken — the trophies of their successful 
attack. 

That evening Colonel Harrison was in his tent, 
engaged in writing orders for the next dajr's march, 
when Lord Chelmsford came in to tell him " The Prince 

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430 TffB ZULJT WAB. 

is killed I " and Lieutenant Carey soon after confiimed 
the dreadftd, well-nigh incredible news. He said 
they w^re off- saddled at a kraal, when they were sur- 
rounded and fired into, and that the Prince must have 
been killed, for no one had seen him afterwards. 

Colonel Harrison asked the Greneral to let him take a 
few men to the kraal, and see if, by any chance, the 
Prince were only wounded, or were hidden near at hand, 
but his request was not granted, and the testimony of 
the Burvivors extinguished all hope 

Next day General Marshall, with a cavalry patrol, 
went out to search for the Prince, being assisted by 
scouts of the Flying Column. The bodies of the 
troopers were soon found, and shortly afterwards that 
of His Imperial Highness was found by Captain 
Cochrane, lying in a donga about 200 yards from the 
kraal where the party had halted. The body was 
stripped with the exception of a gold chain with 
medallions attached, which was srill round his neck. 
Sword, revolver, helmet, and clothes were gone ; but in 
the grass were found the Prince's spnrs and one sock. 

The body had eighteen assegai wotmds, all in front, 
and the marks on the ground and on the spurs indicated 
a desperate resistance. 

The two white troopers were laid together beside a 
cairn of stones, which was erected to mark the exact 
spot where the Prince, was found, and later in the day 
they were buried there, the chaplain on duty with the 
column performing the funeral service. 

But for the Prince himself a true soldiers' bier was 
formed of lances lashed together and hwae blankets, 

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THE PRINOS IMPERIAL. 431 

and, bome thus, tho body of the noble kd was carried 
up the hill towards the camp which he had left the 
previoua day so ftdl of energy aud life. 

The melancholy news was telegraphed throughout 
the colony, causing universal grief and consternation. 
Every heart was wrung with sympathy for the mother ; 
aad even those to whose homes and hearts the war had 
already brought desolation, felt their own grief hushed 
for awhile in the presence of a bereavement which 
seemed to surpass all others in bitterness and depth. 

What citizen of 'Maritzburg will ever forget the 
melancholy Sunday afternoon, cold and storm-laden, 
when, at the first distant sound of the sad approaching 
funeral music, all left their homes and lined the streets 
through which the violet-adorned coffin passed on its 
way to its temporary resting-place. 

In Durban, too, the solemn scene was repeated ; tho 
whole colony being deeply moved at the sad and un- 
timely death of the gallant Prince. H.M.S. Boadicea, 
flag-ship of Commodore Richards, had the honour of 
conveying the body to Simon's Bay, when it was trans- 
ferred to H.M.8. Orontea with every possible mark of 
respect for conveyance to England. 

A court of inquiry was at once assemUed by Lord 
Chelmsford, and reported that Lieutenant Carey had 
not understood the position in which he stood towards 
the Prince, and, as a consequence, failed to estimate 
aright the responsibility which fell to his lot ; also that 
he was much to blame for having proceeded on the 
duty in question with a portion only of the escort; 
and that the selection of the kraal where the halt was 

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432 THE ZULU WAB. 

made, surrounded as it was by cover for the enemy, and 
adjacent to difficult ground, showed a lamentable want 
of military prudence. And, finally, the court deeply 
regretted that no e£Fort was made after the attack to 
rally the escort and to show a front to the enemy, 
whereby the possibility of aiding those who had failed 
to make good their retreat might have been ascertained. 

Lieutenant Carey was then tried by court-martial 
and found guilty. The home authorities decided, how- 
ever, that the conviction and sentence could not be 
maintained, and consequently ordered this officer to be 
released from arrest and to return to his duty. 

In juBtice to Lieutenant Carey it must be said that 
the Prince appears to have been actually in command 
of the party ; Lieutenant Carey accompanied it, by 
permission, for the purpose of completing some of his 
own work, taking advantage of the protection of the 
escort to enable him to do so ; he received no order 
about the command of the escort, or other instructions 
beyond the words, "You can look after the Prince," 
which were evidently interpreted aa advise him, but 
could scarcely warrant controlling his movements. 

The Prince's written instructions from Colonel 
Harrison were lost with him. 

On dangerous duties pertaining to the Quarter^ 
master-General's Department in an enemy's country 
the Prince Imperial should never have been employed ; 
as long as he remained with the British forces he should 
.have been retained on the personal staff of the General 
commanding. 



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CHAPTER XXL 



Before entering on the history of tLe advance of the 
mtan column on Ulundi, we will glance at the doings of 
No. 1 Division, which was to operate against Ulandi 
&om the eastward. 

During May entrenched posts had been estabhshed— 
Fort Crealock, on the left bank of the Amatikulu River 
and close to John Dunn's Road, about foiirteen miles iiom 
Fort Pearson, on the Tugela ; Fort Chelmsford, on the 
right bank of the Inyezane, also on John Dunn's Road, 
and eight miles from Fort Crealock ; and, in Jime, Fort 
Napoleon, on the left bank of the Umlalazi River, between 
Fort Chelmsford and Port Dumford, where a landing- 
place was established — a brief account of which may be 
interesting. The spot is described as a straight sandy 
coast near the mouth of the Umlalazi River, always 
having a boiling surf rolling in on the beach. The land- 
ing operations were carried out by means of large decked 
surf-boata of about forty tons burden each. 

The mode of working them was as follows : One end 
of a long hawser was made fast to an anchor dropped 
some distance outside the surf, and the other end taken 



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484 THE ZULU WAR. 

on shore hy a small line, hauled taut, and Becored to 
shore moorings. 

Bj means of this " warp " the surf-boat travels to 
and &om the beach. Having picked up the warp by 
the buoy-rope, it is placed in grooves in the bow and 
stem of the boat, and there retained by pins. The roll 
of the surf takes the boat in, large rope-stoppers b^g 
used to check her should she be going too fast. 

In this way some 3000 tons of stores were landed, 
at a very great saving of expense over land transport. 
The landing operations were at all times difficult, some- 
times impossible ; they were conducted by Commaudei 
Caffin, K.N., and to him and the Kaval Brigade there 
stationed is due the entire credit of the ezceUent work 
done. 

Forwarding supplies and bridging the Tugela was 
the work of the 1st Division through May and well into 
June ; everything miUtary, except convoy duty, appeared 
at a standstill. There was a great deal of sickness 
amongst the troops, but General Crealock did much in 
providing proper hospital accommodation and imjffoviog 
sanitary arrtuigements. 

Fort Pearson was converted into an extenave 
hospital, where there were as many as 400 patiotts 
at times, and whose garrison, after the advance of 
the division, was composed of the convalescents. At 
this hospital some wily patients managed to appropriate 
X5000 of the public moneys ; but this fortunately was 
all recovwed, except about £33. 

Telegraphic commimication was established by the 
Royal Engineers between Fort Chehnsford and the 

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ULUNDL 436 

Lower Tugela ; and Colonel Walker, C.B., Soots Guards, 
was appointed to the command of this portion of tho 
baae, and stationed at Fort Pearson. 

On the 18th June the long-expected move was made 
by No. 1 Division, and Greneral Crealock, with the 
advanced portion of the force, left Fort Pearson and the 
Lower Tugela. Moving by Fort Chelmsford, he reached 
the Umlalazi River on the 22nd. The river was bridged 
by the train under Captain Blood, RE., and a work 
commenced on the left bank called " Fort Napoleon." 

The General was engaged reconnoitring on the 23rd 
and following days, capturing a few cattle, one of which 
appeared to resent its capture, charging tiie General, and 
severely injuring, his horse. On the 28th the foroe 
encamped near Port Dumford. 

But little interest attaches to tMs division, which had 
great opportunities before it. An earHer advance and a 
little dash would have given the laurels of the second 
campaign to the 1st Division, which at the beginning of 
May consisted of upwards of 9000 men — 6500 being 
Europeans — a sufficient force to have accomplished the 
destruction of Ulundi with ease ; but it was not to be. 

Many absurd stories are told as to causes of delays, 
one being the want of so many rations of pepp&r ; and 
the whole ending in the well-known telegram, " Where 
is Crealock?" 

We may here devote a few remarks to the Naval 
Brigade, which rendered such good service throughout 
the campaign ; and, had opportunity offered, would have 
largd^y added to the laurels it won. 

After the relief of Etshowe, the Naval Brigade was 
2 r 2 

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436 TSE ZULU WAS. 

divided between Lower Tugela and Fort Chelmsford, 
Commander Brackenbuty in command at the latter post. 
Captain Campbell in chief command. The main force 
advanced with General Crealock — 545 officers and men 
of Active, Boadicea, and Shah, with 3 9-pounder gnns, 
6 rocket-troughs, and 5 Catling guns. At Port Dam- 
ford they remtdned disembarking stores till July 21st, 
when, after being reviewed by Sir Garnet Wolseley, 
the Active's and Shah's men embarked, leaving the 
Boadicea's to continue temporarily the duties of the 
landing station. 

Captain Bradshaw of the Shah, and Captain Adeane 
of the Tenedoa, rendered good service at Durban and 
Simon's Bay respectively. 

The Royal Marines of .the squadron served with the 
NavalBrigade. Lieutenant Dowding,RM.L.L,wa8atfir8t 
the senior officer, and advanced with Colonel Pearson's 
column to Etshowe, remaining there until its relief. 
Captain Phillips, R.M.L.L, and Captain Burrowea,RJt A., 
were landed jfrom H.M.S. SJuxh, the former senior 
officer, and in command of the Marines at the battle of 
Ngingindhlovu. 

"We must now return to the 2nd Division and Flying 
Column, which at last began to move in the right direc- 
tion. Zulnland had been carefully reconnoitred to the 
Babanango Mountain by Colonel Buller, and the advance 
of the 2nd Division, with the head-quarters, in this 
direction was covered by the Flying Column, which was 
always within striking distance. 

The troops now were carefully protected at night by 
laagers ; the ordinary form being a rectangle in three 

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VLUNBI. 437 

compartments, with a shelter trench two yards outside 
the waggona, so that there might he a second Kne of 
fire from the top of the waggons, without risk to the 
defenders of the shelter trench. 

The Flying Column bore the brunt of work in the 
advances, scouting the country in every direction, the 
most reliable " eyes and ears " of the force the " Natal 
Native Horse," then commanded by Captain Cochrane. 
These men (Edendale men and Basutu) in small numbers 
crowned the summit of every hill right and left of the 
route, and miles in front they were pushed to feel the 
way. On the 4th June the scouts reported a consider- 
able number of the enemy, these, after the exchange of a 
few shots, Colonel BuUer tried to draw towards the camp, 
but in vain, and the patrol, not being strong enough to 
risk an engagement, returned to camp. There three 
messengers from Cetshwayo were being received by Lord 
Chelmsford. 

They were sent back on June 6th with the following 
message : " He must at once give proof of being earnest 
in desiring peace, proof to be — Ist. Two 7-pounder 
guns, and the oxen now with him taken from us to be 
sent in with the ambassadors. 2nd. A promise from 
Ketchwayo that all the arms taken during war, etc., when 
collected shall be given up. 3rd. One reg^ent to come 
to my camp and lay down its arms as a sign of 
submission. Pending Cetywayo's answer, there will 
be no mDitary operations on our part ; when he 
has complied with them, I will order cessation of hos- 
tilities pending discussion of final terms of peace." — 
{P. P. [C. 2374] p. 107). 

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438 TffB ZULU WAR. 

On the previous day (5th June), Colonel Buller took 
a force of about 300 men to reconnoitre the proposed 
route. The Zulus seen the day before came out irom 
their kraals, and formed as if for an attack. The ground 
in their rear was broken and covered with thorny bush, 
the kraals large, apparently belonging to a chief ; and 
beside one of them were four waggons, evidently taken 
from Isandhlwana. Colonel Buller determined to bum 
the kraals, but as he approached the enemy broke and 
retired into the cover, opening a heavy fire. A portion 
of the force engaged the Zulus from the edge of the boab 
whilst the remainder set fire to the kraals, which was 
accomplished with the loss of two men wounded. 

Uajor-General Marshall came up with a portion of 
the Cavalry Brigade, and, with a view to ensuring ihe 
safety of Colonel BuUer's retreat, advanced three troops 
of the 17th Lancers under Colonel Dmry-Lowe to hold 
the enemy in check. 

The enemy was found to be very atrongly posted in 
the thorns, and the ground being impracticable for 
cavalry, the Lancers were ordered to retire. Their 
Adjutant, Lieutenant Frith, was in this fruitless skimuBh 
shot through the heart. 

During this affair an incident occurred (told by an 
officer present at the time), showing the individual 
bravery of the Zulus : A single wamw, chased by several 
Lancers, found himself run down and escape impossible. 
He turned and faced his enemies ; spreading his anns 
abroad he presented his bare breast unflinchingly to the 
steel, and fell, face to the foe, as a brave soldier should. 

On the 6th a post called Fort Newdigate was estab- 

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lisKed, and on this evening the warmth of the double 
line of fire from the laager of the 2nd Division was 
unpleasantly experienced by the 5 th Company Royal 
Engineers. This company had marched up that after- 
noon in advance of the Hying Column (which waa going 
down-country for supplies), and had camped close to one 
of the unfinished redoubts outside the laager ; an alarm 
was given in the laager, and a heavy fire opened there- 
from. The Engineers coolly lay down flat on the ground, 
and waited till the excitement was over. It was due 
entirely to their own steadiness that the casualities were 
not greater ; as it was, one sergeant was wounded and 
two horses killed. 

On the 7th, the division advanced, clearing the 
country of Zulus and burning their kraals, and encamped 
at tiie Upoko Eiver ; remaining there till the arrival of 
Brigadier-Qeneral Wood's Column with a large convoy of 
supplies for which it had been sent The time was 
usefully employed in reconnoitring, examining the road 
in advance, making drifts practicable, etc. 

A line of telegraph was laid by the half Telegraph 
Troop (C) Royal Engineers, from Quagga's kraal (on the 
road between Newcastle and Ladyamith), where it joined 
the colonial line to Doomberg vid Dundee and Landt- 
mann's Drift, thus placing head-quarters in communica- 
tion with Fietermaritzburg, etc. ; fl^-signalling being 
employed to communicate with Doomberg. 

On the 16th June the correspondent of The Times 
wrote : " We are wandering towards Ulundi much as 
the Children of Israel wandered towards Canaan, with- 
out plans, or even definite notions for the future. It 

Dig-izedbyGoO^It: 



4M THE ZUin WAB. 

would seem not impossible to form some plan of cam- 
pai^ — something, at any rate, more definite than the 
hand-to-moath mamier in which we are now proceeding. 
Deep science and tactical skill are not necessary to 
contend with savages; a simple method and plain 
common-sense suffice, if backed by enei^, decision, and 
determination. " 

The intelligence now telegraphed that Sir Garnet 
Wolseley was on his way to Natal to unravel the various 
tangled skeins of civil and military policy, doabtless 
acted as the " spur in the head " which expedited Lord 
Chelmsford's movements. 

On the 17th, Brigadier-Greneral Wood arrived with 
the supplies, and next day the force advanced to the 
Upoko River, where the road &om Rorke's Drift to 
Ulundi crosses it Here there was a halt for a day, and 
a depdt formed, called Fort MarsbalL Colonel CoUing- 
wood was left in charge of the two posts, Forts 
Newdigate and Marshall ; and the whole line of com- 
munication in the enemy's country, and such of the 
garrison as were left in frontier-posts for the purpose of 
patrolling, were placed under the command of Major- 
General Marshall. 

Fort Marshall was about twenty-five miles from 
Borke's Drift, and sixteen &om Fort Newdigate ; from 
this post to Koppie AUein (on the Blood River) the 
distance was twenty-one miles. 

Having struck down into this road, which runs into 
Zululand in an easterly direction, a glance at the map 
will show how needless was the waste of time and money 
spent in concentrating stores at Conference Hill — so 

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ULVNDI. 441 

far removed from the line of communications with 
Pietermaritzburg. 

The combined colunm reached the Umhlatuai River 
on the 2l8t, having traversed difficult and mountainous 
ground, where in many places the train was obliged to 
pass by single waggons. 

The Zulus took no advantage of the many oppor- 
tunities for attack that presented themselves, and the 
march to Ulundi was practically unopposed. At this 
halting-place Fort Evelyn was built ; and on the 34th 
the march was resumed. 

Oetshwayo's mesBenga:8, 'Mftum and 'Nkisimane, 
came up &om Pietermaritzburg on the 24th, and next 
morning were sent to the king with Lord Chelmsford's 
reply to his messf^e. 

A very awkward drift on the Uvulu River was 
passed by the column, after crossing which a day's halt 
was made, when a cavalry patrol was sent out to destroy 
some military kraals. Two more indunas came in to 
ask for peace, and were sent back to Ulundi in the 
evening. On the 27th the force arrived at Entonjaneni, 
where the arrangements for the final advance on Ulundi 
were made, tents and all imnecessary baggage left 
behind, and a strong post formed with the aid of 
waggons. Four hundred waggons, 6000 oxen, and 800 
mules were left entrenched here ; the remaining 200 
waggons, with ten days' provisions, accompanjring the 
advancing force. This evening two more messengers came 
in from the king with elephant tusks, some hundred 
head of ozen, and two trunks, the, property of Lord 
Chelmsford. The messengers were sent back next day. 

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442 THE ZULU WAH. 

The Natal Cohnist of June 28th says : " Ag^ 
we hear that Ketshwayo has sent to GoTemment, asking 
why Lord Chelmsford contdnues to advance. He (the 
king) hopes t^e Greneral will not persist in advancing, as 
in that case he will be forced to fight, and what he 
wants is peace. This, we believe, makee the eleventh 
message he has sent in to the same efiect The G^eral 
affects to doubt his hona^fides. How is this to be 
established? Can his lordship think of no better 
guarantee than one which the most vigorous supporters 
of the war cannot term anything but childish ? " This 
latter question is explained in another issue of the same 
paper, in which the editor remarks : " It is ai^ed that 
the Zulus or the Zulu king cannot be sincere in desiring 
peace, because when the chance offers our troops are 
fired upon. If people would but consider for a moment, 
that until there is a truce or armistice agreed on we are 
living in a state of war ; that our troops are in the Zulu 
country, making war upon its inhabitants, missing no 
opportunity of inflicting dam^e and injury upon them, 
bnming their kraals, destroying their grain, ravaging 
their gardens, and firing on the natives themselves at 
every chance, what right, they would ask themselves, 
have we to expect that the Zulus should refrwn from 
retahatdon, however desirous they may be of seeing 
peace restored, and an end put to all the devastation 
and horror of prolonged warfare ? We do not profess 
to be otherwise than deairona of peace — peace with 
honour and security for the future — and yet are we not 
invading their country, and ahnoet vaunting that we 
shall dictate its terms only when our invading colomns 

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ULUm)!. 443 

liave met at Ulandi, and planted the Englisli flag 
there ? " 

On the 30th the descent into the valley of the White 
UmTolosi was commenced, through a country covered 
with scattered bush and oloea Two indunas were 
escorted in during the day, one bearing a letter from 
Cetehwayo to Lord Chelmsford,* and the other the 
sword of the Prince Imperial, which the king sent in 
immediately on learning the value attached tb itt 

Sir Garnet Wolseley — having been ordCTed out to 
Natal as Governor of Natal and the Transvaal, and Her 
Majesty's High Commissioner for the eastern portion of 
South A&ica — landed at Durban on the 28th June. 
On the 30th Lord Chelmsford sent him the following 
message : " Five miles &om Entonganini ; ten miles 
from TJmvolosi Biver. King's messengers have juat left 
with message from me. I must advance to position on 
left bank of river. This I do to-morrow, but will 
stop hostilities, pending negotiations, if communicated 
demands are complied with by 3rd July, noon. There 
are indunas come with cattle and guns. I have con- 
sented to receive 1000 captured rifles instead of a 
regiment laying down its amiB. As my supplies will 
only permit of my remaining here until the 10th July, it 

* Writtea for him hj a Dutch trader, residing with him. 

t This infotmBtim he oltuned through hia messengen 'Kfniui 
and 'Kkiaimane, who were in Fietermaiitzbuig in June. The 
moaBHge (sent by Ki. Colenso) being, that the young ofBcer 
killed at the Styotyozi liver was a Prince; that his sword would 
be desired by bis family, and that if Cetshwayo wanted to make 
peace he had better return it. IThs result was that, as soon as 
the king receired the meaaage, he sent the sword on to Lord 



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444 THE ZULU WAR. 

is desirable I ahould be informed by you of the con- 
ditiona of peace to be demanded. White man with 
king states he has 20,000 men. King a,Dxious to fight ; 
Princes not ao. Where is Crealock's column ? Signal." 

On the 1st July the Flying Column and General 
Newdigate'a division reached, without opposition, the 
Bouthem bank of the White Umvolosi, within five or 
six miles of the royal kraals of Ulimdi. Defensible 
laagera were at once formed, and the position made 
secure before night. Large bodies of Znlus were seen 
in motion at Ulundi. Next day the 2nd Division closed 
up their laager to that of the Flying Column, and a 
etone redoubt was erected on knoll in rear ; so that a 
small garrison might hold the post, leaving the main 
force imencnmbered to operate as desired. The Zulu 
army waa not seen, and no messengers arrived from the 
king; but a large herd of white (royal) cattle waa 
observed being driven from the king's kraal towards the 
camp, and shortly afterwards driven back again. 

On the 3rd, as the Zulus were firing on watering- 
parties at the river, and no message had come in, a 
reconnaissance on the farther side was ordered. At 
noon, the cattle, sent in with the last messengers from 
the king, were driven back across the river, and about 
the same time Colonel Buller crossed lower down with 
the mounted men of the Flying Column to reconnoitre 
towards XJlundi. Detaching parties to cover his flank, 
he advanced rapidly to within about 200 yards of the 
Ulundi river, and about three-quarters of a mile from 
Ulundi, when he came upon about 5000 Zulus con- 
cealed in the river-bed, who at once opened fire, while 

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ULUKDI. 445 

htgb bodiea of the enemy, moving down on each fiank, 
eadeavoured to cat off his retreat. 

Colonel Bnller, having effected the purpose for which 
he had gone forward — feeling the enemy and recon- 
noitring the ground — retired with a loss of three men 
killed and four wounded. Many officers distinguished 
themselves in endeavouring to save the men who were 
lost, as well as in bringing in dismounted men : Com- 
mandant D'Arcy, Lieut. -Colonel Buller, Captain Prior, 
Lord WUliam Beresford, Lieutenant Hayward, and also 
Sergeant Kerr are mentioned. 

On the 4th, at 6.45 A.M., the force crossed the river, 
leaving the camp garrisoned by the l-24th Kegiment, a 
company of Engineers, and casualties (about 900 Euro- 
peans, 250 natives, with one Catling gun). 

Lieut. -Colonel Buller, with the light cavalry of the 
Flying Column, crossed in advance, and occupied the 
high ground in front without opposition ; the main body 
following, marched up the broken ground out of the 
valley, and formed a hollow square, the ammunition- 
carts, etc., in the centre, and the guns in position ready 
to come into action without delay. The Flying Column 
formed the &ont half, and the 2nd Division the rear half 
of the square; front, flanks, and rear covered by the 
cavalry. In this formation the troops advanced to the 
spot selected by Colonel Buller, which was about 700 
yards beyond the Nodwengo kraal, and about the same 
distance &om a stream that crossed the road halfway to 
XJlundi ; high ground, commanding the adjacent country, 
and with little cover beyond long grass, near it. 

The guns were posted in the angles and in the centre 

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44« TEE ZULU WAB. 

of each' face of the sqtuure, and each face had a company 
of infantty in reaerre. 

Lai^e numbers of Zidus were now seen cmnmg &om 
the hills on the left and left front, and other masses on 
the nght, partly concealed by the mist from the liver, 
passed the Nodwengo kraal to sunomid the square. 

• The cavalry on the right and left became engaged at 
8.45 A.U., and, slowly retiring as the enemy advanced, 
passed into the square, which immediately opened fire. 

The Zulu advance was made with great determina- 
tion, but their movements appeared to be without order. 
Some individuals managed to reach within thirty or 
forty yards of the rear face, where there was some cover, 
but the main advance on all etdes was checked at some 
distance by the heavy artillery fire and steaiiy volleys of 
the infantry. These were so effective that within half 
an hour the enemy wavered and gave way, when the 
cavalry dashed out to complete their discomfiture. 
Passing out by the rear face of the square, Colonel Drury- 
Lowe (who had bera already wounded) led the 17th 
Lancers in the direction of the Nodwengo kraal, dis- 
persing the enemy and killing those that could not reach 
the shelter of the kraal or the bush below ; then wheeling 
to the right, he charged through the enemy, who were 
endeavouring to reach the mountains beyond. 

In this manner the whole of the level ground was 
cleared. Lieut-Colonel BuUer's command also took up 
the pursuit, doing much execution until l^e enemy 
mounted the slopes of the hills and were beyond their 
reach. But even then a place of safety was not gained. 
for some guns were moved out from the square, and got 

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the laDge of the enemy retareatiug over the hills. The 
bFont of this day's work fell on the cavalry. Even in 
the pursuit the greater pait of the Zulus turned and 
fought for their lives. Overtaken by a Lancer, a Zulu 
would stop just before the fatal thrust was deUvered, 
and, :dodging like lightning, evade the lanice, sometimes 
fieiang it and holding on till the Lancer was relieved by 
a comrade. 

The Irregular Horse, Mounted Infimtry, and Native 
Horse (Captain T. Shepatone's Basutu and' the 'Natal 
Native Horse under Captain Cochrane), thoroughly 
searched the ground, disposing of the enemy who had 
taken refuge in dongas, bush, and long grass, 600 Zulus 
are said to have fallen before the cavalry alone — 150 of 
them being credited to the Lancers. 

Thus was fought the battle of Ulundi. 

It was impossible for the ill-armed enemy to pass the 
belt of fire that encircled the square, even had they not 
been shaken by the accurate artillery fire whilst yet at 
a distance. 

The ease with which the attack was repelled may be 
gathered horn the fact that the average number of 
rounds fired by the infantry actually in the ranks was 
less than siz-and-a-half rounds per man (6'4 rounds). 

The troops certainly were very steady, and the firing 
— generally volley-firing by sections— was as a rule 
under perfect command. 

We have heard of an officer calmly smoking his 
pipe whilst in command of his company during the 
engagement. 

As soon as the wounded had been attended to, the 

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448 TEE ZULU WAR. 

force advanced to the banks of the stream near Ulimdi, 
whilst the cavaby swept the country beyond, Ulundi 
was fired at 11.40 A.H., and the adjacent kraals shortly 
afterwards. At 2 p.m., the leturn march to the camp 
commenced. Every military kraal in the valley that 
had not previously been destroyed was in flames ; and 
not a sign of the Zulu army was to be perceived. 

The British force engaged consisted of 4062 
Eoropeans and 1103 natives, with 12 guns and 2 
Gatlings. The loas : killed, 2 oflScera (Captain Wyatt- 
Edgell, 17th Lancers, and the Hon. W. Drummond, in 
charge of the Intelligence Department), 13 non-com- 
missioned officers and men, and 3 natives; wounded, 
19 officers, 59 non-commissioned officers and men, and 
7 natives. 

The Zulu force is estimated variously ; some put it 
at 12,000, some at 20,000. Being scattered over a large 
extent of country, and some of the raiments engaged 
having akeady suffered heavily, it is not easy to arrive 
at a rebable conclusion. It is probable that the correct 
number lay between 15,000 and 20,000. 

As regards the Zulu loss, Lord ChelmBford says : 
" It is impossible to estimate with any coirectnesa 
the loss of the enemy, owing to the extent of countiy 
over which they attacked and retreated ; but it could 
not have been less, I consider, than 1000 killed." — 
(Despatch, 4th July). 

Using the same reasoning on the 6th, Lord Chelms- 
ford says : " But judging by the rqwrts of those 
engaged, it cannot be placed at a less number than 
1500 killed." 

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ULUNDI. 449 

From the statementa of prisoners it would seem that 
the attacking force was about 15,000 strong, 5000 
being in reserve. At a meeting of the Zulu Council 
on the 2nd July, it appears that it was resolved by the 
King to send in the royal coronation white cattle as a 
peace-oflfering ; but as they were being driven towai^ 
the English camp on the 2nd, they were turned back at 
Nodwengo by the Umcityu Regiment, who refused to 
let them pass, saying, as they could not fulfil all the 
demands, it was useless to give up the cattle, and 
therefore they would fight The king was then at 
Ulundi ; he said that "as the Inkandampemva (Umcityu) 
Regiment would not let the cattle go in as a peace- 
offering, and as we wished to fight, the white army 
being now 'at his home, we could fight, but we were to ' 
fight the white men in the open, and attack before the 
Nodwengo and Ulundi kraals, where we were on the 
day of the fight. . , . The army is now thoroughly 
beaten, and as it was beaten in the open, it will not 
reassemble and fight again. No force is watching the 
lower column, and none has been sent there. How 
could there be, when all were ordered to be here to-day ? 
We mustered here by the king's orders at the beginning 
of this moon, about ten days ago. We have not been 
called out before." 

The natives belonging to the British force were 
exceedingly struck at the idea of their being brought 
into the square, whilst the soldiers formed " a laager " 
of their bodies round them. 

The special correspondent of The Daily News, 
Mr. Archibald Forbes, performed a very g^lant act 



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450 THE ZULU WAR. 

after the battle of Ulundl Finding that no deapatcli 
was being sent off by the General to announce the 
victory, he determined to take the news himself, and, 
" taking his life in his hand," set out alone to ride right 
through the Zulu country. This he did, riding the 
whole night, having frequently to dismount and actually 
/eel his way — the tracks of the waggons on the upward 
route. 

Next day, after a ride of nearly a hundred milea, 
he reached Landtmanu's Drift (in fifteen hours), and was 
enabled to telegraph to Sir Garnet Wolseley the news of 
the victory of the 4th. 

A few brief remarks on the return maxdh are all 
that arc necessary. The day after the battle of Ulmidi 
(5th July) the whole force retired to Entonjaneni, and 
remained there till the 9th, when the Flying Column 
moved on the road towards the coast to Kwamagwasa, 
en route to meet Sir Garnet Wolseley. 

On the 1 0th the 2nd Division marched from Enton- 
janeni, and arrived at the Upoko River on the 15th. 

Lord Chelmsford accompanied the Flying Colomn. 
We cannot leave Brigadier-General Wood's command 
without a word of notice. From the be^ning to the 
end of the campaign its work was done in a thoroughly 
soldierlike manner, leaving little or nothing to be desired 
There was a thorough reciprocal confidence between 
commander and men, and a total absence of thoae 
" scares " which were occasionally beard of during the 
campaign. 

Where all did well, it may seem a little invidious to 
single one out for mention, but we wUl quote the con- 

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ULTim>I. '451 

clnding words of Brigadier-General Wood's despatch of 
5tb July, lefernng to Lieut. -Colonel Redvers Buller, not 
only on account of this officer's merit, but "to point 
the moral" as to where was the neglect which led 
primarily to the disaster to the Head-quarter Column in 
January : 

" He has never fuled to cover the column with his 
mounted men, for from ten to twelve miles in front, and 
on the flanks. 

" Constitutionally fearless, he is prudent in counsel, 
and though resolute, is very careful of the lives of his 
troops in action. He possesses, in my opinion, all the 
attributes of a perfect leader of light cavalry." 

It is stated {Standard, August 22nd, 1879) that, 
on reaching the White Umvolosi, despatches arrived 
from Sir Garnet Wolseley, requesting Lord Chelmsford 
to fall back and meet hizu at Kwamagwasa-^a mission 
station, where it had at one time been proposed that the 
1st and 2nd Divisions should effect a junction. 

On the 4th, Lord Chelmsford sent a despatch to 
Sir Garnet Wolseley, in which he said : *' As I have 
folly accomplished the object for which I advanced, I 
consider I shall now be best carrying out Sir Garnet 
Wolseley's instructions by moving at once to Entonja- 
nini, and thence to Kwamagwaza." 

Why the blow struck at Ulundi was not followed up 
it is difficult to say. If Lord Chelmsford's instructions 
permitted him to advance and engage the enemy, they 
would be sufficiently elastic to enable him to follow up 
the victory. The king was known to have a new kraal in 
a strong position at the junction of the White and Black 

2 a2 

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452 TEE ZULU WAR. 

Umvolosi Rivera, within a day's march of TJlundi ; the 
Zulu army was thoroughly beaten and dispersed, and 
there was absolutely nothing to prevent an advance for 
the destruction of this stronghold, the moral effect of 
which on the native mind would have been very great 
There was an ample force, willing hearts, and no lack of 
supplies. The solution of the problem must be sought in 
Lord Chelmsford's words : " I have fiUly accomplished 
the object for which I advanced." He withdrew at 
once from the scene of his victory, and — ^resigned his 
command. 



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CHAPTER Xill. 

Snt OAKNBT WOLSELET — CAPTURE OP CETSHWAYO. 

Sib Babtle Fbebe, whose coatiniied popularity spoke 
somewhat of colonial approval of the war, had returned 
to the Cape in June, and hia reception at Cape Town 
"capped the climai of an uninterrupted triumph," 
according to The Natal Mercury. That he thought 
himself deserving of the honours due to a conqueror 
returning home in triumph we may gather from the fact 
that he sent no instructions to suppress any demonstra- 
tions of delight at his return, although at that very time 
the latest and perhaps the saddest tragedy of all the sad 
results of his policy had just been enacted, and Natal, 
as with one voice, was lamenting the Prince Imperial's 
death. 

" So he it," says The Natal Witness of June 12th, 
1879, commenting upon this text; "Sir Bartle Frere's 
reception capped the climax of an uninterrupted triumph. 
We are quite ready to believe this, and, as we have swd, 
we are glad at last to have so decided an intimation of 
what Sir Bartle Frere has intended to do. There are 
triumphs of various kinds. There is the triumph which 
surrounds the statesman, who, by gentle persuasion, by 



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■iSl TSE ZULU WAR. 

cautious reforms, by a personal example of uprightuess 
and unaelfishness, has reduced thieatening elements of 
danger, and evolved peace and security out of storm 
and terror. There is the triumph which is his who, 
impressed with a deep sense of the value of haman 
life, lays his head upon his pillow every night in the 
happy confidence that never through his means, either 
directly or indirectly, has a human life been needlessly 
sacrificed There is the triumph of the philanthropist, 
who, feeling deep in his heart the claims of an aboriginal 
people to the consideration of a civilised power, has, in 
his deaUngs with that people, been careful rather to 
strain doubtful points in their favour, than to take 
advantage of their presumed simplicity. There ia the 
triumph of the Christian legislator, who regards the 
authority entrusted to him as entrusted with a solemn 
injunction to use that authority in the name of his 
divine Master, for the purpose of spreading and confirm- 
ing the kingdom of peace and good wUL There is the 
triumph of the diplomatist, who, in respect of hia deal- 
ings with state questions, can lay his hand upon his 
heart, and affirm that he never misled his superiors, 
. . . . never wrote a line which he did not believe 
to be tnie. All these triumphs we doubt not will be yet 
achieved by Sir Bartle Frere, if only the fatigue caused 
by his * troubles and jonmeyiDg ' does not suggest an 
early return to Europe." 

Wotdd Sir Bartle Frere be supported by the Home 
Government 1 and would Lord Chelmsford be upheld 
by his military superiors in England ? Such were the 
questions perpetually asked in the colony, to which 

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OAPTmS OF 0ET8EWAY0. 455 

there seemed no full and sufficient answer. True, both 
had received messages of sympathy and confidence ; but 
these were sent palpably on the spur of the moment, and 
long before all the facts of the case had been brought to 
light ; and, on the other hand. Sir Bartle Frere had re- 
ceived a very severe rebuke in the despatches mentioned 
in Chapter XIL Still the tide of events was per- 
mitted to flow on, and many doubted the reality of the 
condemnation. 

From the time of the disaster at Isandhlwaoa, pro- 
phecies were current that Lord Chelmsford would be 
recalled, and as misfortune pursued our arms the 
prophecies were renewed. Many were the conjectures 
as to who would be sent to replace Lord Chelmsford 
should he be recalled, and a general idea was prevalent 
that the sprightly Sir Garnet Wolaeley and his " bril- 
liant staff" would once more grace the shores of Natal. 
The despatch announcing his approach reached the 
colony in the middle of June, and the telegram to Lord 
Chelmsford announcing his appointment ran as follows : 
" Her Majesty's Government have determined to send 
out Sir Garnet Wolseley as Administrator in that part 
of South'Eastem Africa in the neighbourhood of the 
seat of war, with plenary powers, both civU and military. 
Sir Bartle Frere, instructed accordingly by Colonial 
Office. The appointment of a senior officer is not 
intended aa a censure on yourself, but you will, as in 
ordinary course of service, submit and subordinate your 
plans to his control. He leaves this country by next 
mail" (sent vi& St. Vincent, 29th May, 1879). 

Sir Oamet Wolseley landed at Durban on the 28th 



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456 TEE ZTfLU WAU. 

Jane, and proceeded direct to Fietermaritzburg, where 
he was the same day sworn in as QoTemor of NataL 
Certainly Sir Garnet did not let the grass grow under 
his feet. On Sunday, the 29th, he telegraphed to 
Colonel Walker at Fort Pearson : " Send back Zulu 
messengers immediately to the king with following 
message from me: 'If the king wants peace he must 
send Umnyamana, Umfanawendhela, and Yumandaba 
to General Crealock's column, where I will depute an 
officer of rank to hear what the king has to say. I 
alone have power to make peace. All the other 
Generals are under my orders.' Explain to the mes- 
sengers who I am. They are to tell the king, and 
remind him that I was here as Grovemor before, and 
had many communications with him then." — (P. P. 
[C. 2454] p. 149). 

The message from Cetshwayo was delivered by two 
Zulu messengers at the Lower Tugela, on June 25th, 
to Mr. Fyiiney, Administrator and Border Agent. 

"We are sent by the king straight to you, We 
were ordered not to^o to the troop at the Umlatazi, 
as other messengers (Sintwangu) will go there. . . . 
The king asks yon to speak to the great white Chief 
with the Upper Column, and ask to stay the advance of 
the troops tm he (the king) can hear plainly what he 
has done, what great sin he has committed. If he ever 
killed a white man or white woman, or ever took cattle 
&om a white man before the war ? Did he ever walk 
over the words spoken at the Umlambongwenya Kraal 
by Somtaeu ? (Sir T. Shepstone). The king wished us to 
say if he is to be destroyed he could die happy if he 

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CAPTURE. OF CETSHWAYO. 457 

knew first really what wrong he had done. The king 
begs you will apeak to the great white Chief with the 
Upper Column to atay a further advance till chosen 
representatives from both sides can meet and hear, 
really the cause of the war, and what wrong he has 
done. The king does not ask for favour if it is 
proved he has been wrong. He wants to hear, and he 
wishes the troops not to advance till he can hear ; for 
if they do he cannot help fighting, as there will be 
nothing left but to try and push aside a tree if falling 
upon him." 

" This is our message^&om the king to you, and he 
ordered us to tell you that it is from himself ; even the 
induuas do not know he has sent it " {^nd. p. 1 54). 

On the same day (29th) Sir Garnet sent the following 
order to Captain McLeod : " Make arrangements at once, 
with Swazis, for massing north of Pongolo River, with 
view to invading Zululand. Spread abroad news that 
the invasion will take place immediately, but do not let 
them cross river without my orders. When they are 
ready to cross let me know, and 1 will send yon further 
instructions. Impress urgently upon them that women 
and children must not be murdered, but promise them 
all cattle they take. This promise to be made as public 
as possible. I am now High Commissioner, with full 
powers to decide all terms of peace. All reports must 
be sent to me, care of General Clifford, 'Maritzbui^ " 
(ibid. p. 150). 

The object of this message was " to establish a stand- 
ing menace, and to bring formidable pressure to bear in 
that quarter upon the Zulus." 

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458 THE ZULU WAS. 

The barbarity of tha Swazis in warfare, and the keen 
delight with which they would have found themselves 
let loose upon their hereditary enemies the Zulus, whose 
army was either scattered or destroyed, was a well- 
known fact, and many wondered that such a course 
should be proposed. 

Captain McLeod, a hardy soldier and brave man, 
had been for many months in about as unenviable a 
position as can well be imagined — in an unsettled border 
district in war time, threatened both by Boers and 
Zulus. He had been posted at Derby, to gnide and 
control the movements of our ally the Swazi king, who. 
it was imagined, would be stanch to aa or not, according 
to the fortunes of the Zulu war. 

Captain McLeod knew the Swazis well, and how 
little chance there would be of keeping them under 
control if once let loose upon the helpless Zulu people ; 
he therefore begged that they might be used only as a 
last resource. 

With the view of still further spreading alarm 
through the Zulu country, Sir Qamet sent a message to 
the Amatongas that he might "possibly ascend the 
Haputa Biver with a force and use their territory as a 
base of operations against the Zulus from the north " 
(ibid. p. 149). 

On the 3bth, after a long conference with General 
Clifford and Commissary-General Strickland, Sir Gamet 
Wolseley had an interview with about seventy Natal 
native chiefs, who had been assembled at his request, 
and addressed t^em, through an interpreter, to the effect 
that ihs great English Queen had sent him to cany on 

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CAPTTmE OF OET8SWAY0. 469 

the war against Cetshwayo, and to thank them for what 
they had already done. That the chiefs need have no 
fear but that the Queen would send aa many armies as 
are necessary, if the troops sent were not sufficient. 
" They may depend upon it, and the past history of our 
natiott is a guarantee thereof, that when we give a pro- 
mise we will perform it. Our war is not against the 
Zulu people, but against Ketshwayo, who has broken all 
his promises. We have no wish to rob the Zulu people of 
their property or their land ; but tell the chiefs this, that 
I say this war is going to be finished by us, and finished 
in a satisfactory manner. The Queen is most anxious 
that the war in Natal should be finished." Then (as 
there was a scarcity of grass for draught-oxen) Sir 
Gamet requested the chiefs to furnish a certain number 
(2000) of their young men to carry provisions for the 
troops ; the men to carry their arms whilst so employed, 
and to be paid and fed by him. 

Once more, then, we hear the words : " Owr war ia 
not c^ainst the Zulu people ! " 

These " carriers '' were taken from the Tugela Valley, 
which had lately sufiered from' the Zulu raid, and where 
many of the men had bdonged to the native levies 
raised for the defence of the border ; they naturally did 
not appreciate an employment which removed them 
from the protection of their families, and which was at 
variance yiith their customs* and prejudices. 

* Amongst the wild natiTefl of South Africa it ia thought that 
the carrying of burdens is not a manly task. In a family of tiavelling 
Zoltu the women and lads perform the duties of carriers, while the 
man of the pai^ marches ahead, xmenenmlMred except by his weapons, 

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460 THE ZULU WAR. 

There waa not much work for these "carriere" after all ; 
they were aasemhied at the Lower Tugela, and marched 
up to Fort Chelmsford, each man with a fifty-pound 
mealie-bag on his head.* Their commander, Major 
Schwabe, left the loads there, and took the men on to 
Fort Dumford, where they were employed aa required. 
Having, after some time, received their pay, the 
" carriers " quietly walked o£F to their homes. 

The Commander-in-Chief remained but two days in 
Fiet^maritzbui^, returning to Durban on the Ist of 
July. The same evening he embarked on board H.M.S. 
Shah, intending to land at Port Dumford, and tiius 
reach the scene of action. For once in his life Sir 
Garnet's good fortune deserted him ; the heavy surf 
on the beach prevented his landing, and the Shah 
brought him back to Durban. Here he received the 

ready if necesa&iy to defend his flock agaiiut the attack of man or 
beast An officer, traTelling in the eaatem province Bome yean ago, 
met and questioned a party proceeding in this faahion. " Why," he 
asked the leader of the little band, "do yon allow these women and 
girls to cany heavy loads, while you, a strong able-bonlied man, have 
nothing but youi assegais and knob-kerries in your hand T " Such 
questions are not seldom resented when they touch on native cttBtomB, 
and are asked in an overbearing manner. This officer waa oniforroly 
kind and courteous to the natives, and the man smilingly replied, 
" It is oui custom, and the women prefer it ;" referring hie queatiooer 
to the women themselves for their opinion. The chief of these latter 
thereupon replied, with much grace and dignity : " Does the vbil« 
chief think we would let our man do woman's workt It ia our 
work to cany, and we should not like to see him do it." 

* The appearance of the native carrier on the march was vet; 
ludicrous. Picture a stalwart Kafir carrying his sleeping mats, pnr 
visions, cooking-pot, drinking-gonid, shield, bundle of assegais and 
knol>-kerrie8, and perched on top of all, on his head, a fifty-poosd 
mealie-b^ ; the lesolt was likened to a CSuistmaa-trea. 

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OAFTUBB OF 0ET8SWAY0. 461 

news of the battle of Ulundi, telegraphed to him by 
Mr. Archibald Forbes. 

No one quite knew what Lord Chelmsford was 
about, but everyone understood that he would try and 
end the war before he waa superseded ; and the general 
feeling in the colony was certainly one of hope that 
" poor Lord Chelmsford " might get a chance, win a 
battle, and have his bonfire in the enemy's city of straw. 
Some few, indeed, Eu^ued that as Lord Chelmsford could 
not possibly, in the time left him, settle the Zulu ques- 
tion by the Bword, it might occur to him at last to pay 
some attention to the hard-pressed Zulu monarch's re- 
peated messf^es imploring peace, and propose some 
conditions possible for Cetshwayo to accept and fulfil 
Without further bloodshed an honourable peace might 
thus have been concluded before Sir Garnet Wolseley 
could step upon the scene. 

We left the Ist Division at the Umlalazi Biver, close 
to the landing-place. Fort Dumford. There the force 
remained, General Crealock occupied in receiving the 
sabmifision of the neighbouring Ziilus, who were flocking 
in fix»m every direction. 

But whilst Lord Chelmsford, on his approach to 
XTlondi, was inquiring, " Where is Crealock ? " Crealock 
was quietly established near the coast, his military 
activity being displayed in the burning of Empangeni 
and other kraals north of the Umlatuzi Kiver. As the 
Zulus all round were coming in, and no "impi" was 
even heard of, the object of this exhibition of force 
seems a little doubtful. As was remarked by The Ca-pe 
Times : " Why the British soldier was ordered to destroy 

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462 TBE ZULU WAR. 

the ahelt^, and, with the shelter, the store of grain food 
of some thousands of poor women and children whose 
husbands and fathers were making their submission, we 
can no more understand than we can compr^end the 
strategy by which a large British force was held back for 
months at the edge of the enemy's country, while com- 
missariat supplies were accumulating sufficient to support 
a long campaign, the whole work before them being to 
march a hundred miles, and with one fight close np the 
war. If they were beaten they could &11 back on the 
base ; but with caution and generalship defeat was out 
of the question." However, Major-Gteneral Crealock 
must have the credit of quieting the eastern portion of 
Ziilidand before the termination of the war. From his 
despatches of the 5th July we gather that the " district 
people are all wanting to come in," that he was " sending 
back the people to their districts ; difficulty of feeding 
them would be great." His division paraded under arms 
to receive the " official submission " of " Mabilwuia, 
Manyingo, and other chiefs," who, with some 250 mon. 
double that number of women and children, and their 
cattle, etc, -had come in — these people belonging tt» 
the coast district, but were not strictly speaking warriors, 
or necessarily belonging to the Zulu army; nor could 
their submission be looked upon as any desertion of 
their king by the fighting-men of the nation. They 
were told that the General accepted their sulmiasiQB, 
and should look to them in future to keep peace in that 
district. If any Zulus were found in arms, thdr chief 
or headman would suffer; but, If they behaved *h*m- 
selves well, he would give them back their cattle and 

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CAFTUBE OF 0ST8HWAY0. 463 

his protection. The men then received passes (or tickets) 
and were permitted to return to their districts.* 

Sir Garnet Wolseley crossed the Tugela with his 
staff and escort on July 6th, and proceeded to the 
head-quarters of the Ist Division, near Port Dumford, 
which he reached on the 7&. He at once set to work 
" to reduce the excessive rate of expenditure which has 
so far been maintained in connection with this war/' and 
" arranged with the Commodore to embark the Naval 
Brigade at the earliest opportunity," and also "dispensed 
with the services of some of the colonial troops." Re- 
inforcements of all kinds were stopped, including a fine 
battalion of Marine Infantry and strong detachment of 
Marine Artillery, just arrived at the Cape in H.M.S. 
Jumna. 

On July 10th, Sir Garnet also put on one side " the 
plan of a Swazi invasion." (P. P. [C. 2454] p. 163.) 
All the chiefs np to St. Lucia Bay tendered their 
submission, and sent in their arms. 

Sir Garnet Wolseley and Lord Chelmsford met at 
St Paul's on the 15th July, the latter arriving with 
Brigadier-General Wood's Flying Column. This Six 
Garnet inspected on the following day, taking the 
opportunity of decorating Major Chard, RE., with the 
Victoria Cross, awarded him for his gallantry at Borke's 
Drift 

Lord Chehnsford left St Paul's on the 17th, on his 

* A splendid elephant'a tuk (the Zola emblem of international 
goodwill and sincerity) hod been tent by Cetahwayo, with one of his 
laeswgeB, to Oeneial Crealock ; this Sir Garnet Wolseley aent home 
to the Queen, who thna haa receired a ralnable preaent from her 
dnaky antagonist. 

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464 TSE ZULU WAJR. 

way home. Hia " brilliant victory " had turned the tide 
of popular favour somewhat in hia direction, and he 
found that (aa he aaid) " noUiing succeeds like success." 

Id Durban he waa accorded a reception which must 
have been highly gratifying to hia feelings. One of his 
last remarks in Natal, in reply to a speech made as he 
was about to embark, was to the following effect : " I 
think I may say confidently that we have now seen the 
beginning of the end of this campaign, and any success 
which has attended my efforts, I feel, is due to the 
prayers of the people, and the kindly ordioations of 
Divine Providence ; for I am one of those who believe 
firmly and implicitly in the efficacy of prayer and in the 
intervention of Providence." 

In this comfortable frame of mind Lord Chelmsford 
passes from the scene. 

Sir Garnet Wolseley completed the chain of forta 
across Zululand, commencing with 8t Paul's, an English 
mission station on the coast road a little north of where 
it crosses the Umlatosi. Fifteen miles west of thia is 
Kwamagwasa. Twenty miles a little south of west lies 
Fort Evelyn, on the road from Rorke's Drift to Ulundi. 
Fort Marshall about twenty miles west-south-west of 
Fort Evelyn, Fort Newdigate, twelve milea north-west 
of Fort Evelyn, and a fort on Itelezi Hill completes the 
chain to the Blood Kiver. Some of these forts were 
constructed on the upward march of the 2&d Division 
and Flying Column, to keep open their communications. 
In addition to these, Fort Cambridge was built near 
where the road from Conference Hill crosses the White 
XJmvolosi ; and a little later an entrenched post (Fort 

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CAPTUBE OF 0ET8BWAY0. 465 

Geoi^e) was thrown up near Enhlongana mission station, 
thus thoroughly, by these detached posts, commandiog 
the country. 

Patrols were pushed out in various directions, by one 
of which the two guns lost at Isandhlwana were found 
between Dlundi and Maizekanye. They had not been 
spiked, but the Zulus had screwed rifle-nipples into the 
vents, and had also apparently tried to load the guns 
by ramming home shells, but without cartridges. 

The Cavalry Brigade was broken up, and a fresh 
disposition of the troops made. Sir Garnet visited 
various posts, interviewing the Zulu chiefs who had 
surrendered themselves. Some of the most importaat, 
however, of those who came in, and were supposed to 
have submitted and deserted their king, had, in point of 
fact, no such intention, appearing merely to make their 
often and vainly repeated attempt at procuring " terms " 
for Cetshwayo and themselves. It had always been 
prophesied that the Zulu nation would desert their king. 
Before the war began, some of those who professed to 
understand the people best, declared that they would be 
thankful to throw off the yoke of one whom, it was 
alleged, they regarded with fear and hatred, and would 
side with the English as soon aa the latter crossed their 
border. 

The fallacy of this idea was discovered to our cost. 

It was then asserted that the Zulu army had g^ven a 
temporary strength to the authority of their king, which 
would last until we had beaten his troops and proved 
our superiority, and this assertion was used by those 
who insisted that no peace must be made, however 

2 B 

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466 TEE ZULU WAS. 

earnestly desired by the Zulus, until we had beaten them 
and shown them that we were their masters. 

After Ulundi, it was argued that the people would 
be glad to procure peace by giving up their king, whose 
unconditional subnussion, or capture, -vaa announced by 
us to be the only possible conclusion to the war. 

The Zulus had ceased to struggle with their powerful 
conquerors, and it now ouly remained to find Cetshwayo, 
who was said to bo north of the Black Umvolosi Kiver, 
with a very small following. A flying column, under 
Lieut,-Colonel Baker Russell, was sent out from Fort 
Newdigate early in August, but his patrols were not 



On August 14th, a cavalry force under Major Barrow, 
with Lord Gifford, started from Ulnndi to try and find 
Cetshwayo, who had hitherto eluded all attempts to 
capture him. Day after day it was reported that the 
pursuers were close upon the fugitive : they had come to 
a kraal where he had slept the previous night, they 
reached another where he had been that very morning, 
and then they lost " the scent," and for some time could 
trace him no farther. They tried in vain to persuade 
his people to betray him, but this " hated tyrant," 
although beaten and powerless, flying through the laud 
now in the possession of his conquerors, had still such a 
hold over the loyalty and affection of his people, that 
they were true to him in his adversity, and refused to 
give him up or to set his enemies on his track. 

Severe measures were taken to procure by force the 
information which could not otherwise be obtained. 
Orders were given to one party of the pursuers that at 

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CAPTURE OF OETSEWAYO. 467 

each kraal they reached, if the inhabitants refused to 
speak, so many huts should be burnt, so many principal 
men and women taken priBoners, and all cattle con- 
fiscated. Many kraals were thus treated, and so many 
prisoners collected in this manner, that the number to be 
taken at each kraal had to be reduced from eight to fottr, 
then to two, and at last to one of each sex ; thus proving 
how steadfast were the people generally in their loyalty to 
their king. On approaching some of these kraals, the 
headmen came out and offered the passes or papers 
promising protection, given them on surrendering their 
arms ; but the unhappy people received another lesson 
on the text, " When we give a promise we will perform 
it," and were told that their papers were worthless now ; 
they must tell where the king was, or suffer like the rest. 
One of the officerfl concerned in carrying out these orders, 
exclaimed at the time with natural indignation : " I don't 
care what may be said of the necessity of catching 
Cetshwayo ; necessary or not, we are committing a crime 
in what we are doing now !" 

These measures proving useless, five prisoners were 
flogged to make them speak — yet they held their peace. 
An interpreter, who accompanied Major Barrow's party, 
writes : " I had been a long time in Zululand. I knew 
the people and their habits, and although I believed they 
would be true to their king, I never expected such 
devotion. Nothing would move them. Neither the 
loss of their cattle, the fear of death, or the offering of 
large bribes, would make them false to their king." 

For many days this work of trying to persuade or 
force the people to betray their king was continued, and, 

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468 THE ZULU WAS. 

at last a woman was fnghtened into giving a due, 
which resulted in taking prisoners three brothers, at 
whose kraal the king had slept the night before, 
"They were questioned," saya the interpreter, "but 
denied in the most solemn way that they knew any- 
thing about the king. "We threatened to shoot them, 
but they said : ' If you kill us we shall die innocently.' 
This was about nine o'clock at night, a beautiful moon- 
light night, and the picture was rather an effective one. 
There were all our men sitting round at their fireplaces, 
our select tribunal facing the three men, who were calm 
and collected, whilst we, as a sort of inquisition, were 
trying to force them to divulge their secret. As a last 
resource we took one man and led him away blindfolded 
behind a bush, and then a rifle was fired off to make 
believe that he was shot. We then separated and blind- 
folded the remaining two, and said to one of them: 'You 
saw your brother blindfolded and led away ; we have shot 
him. Now we shall shoot you. You had better tdl the 
truth.' After a good deal of coasdng (?) one told us 
where the king had slept the night before, and which was 
about fifteen miles away, and also where he had seen him 
that very morning .... it was now eleven o'clock. 
Lord Gifford gave orders for our party to saddle up, 
which was smartly done, and we started off with the 
two brothers as guides. We left the one brother behind 
so as to keep on the screw, to make the two believe he 
had been shot. They took us over aa ugly a piece of 
country as ever horse crossed, and at daybreak we sur- 
rounded the kraal. But disappointment was again in 
store for us, for our bird had flown about twelve hours 
previously." 

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CAPTTTRE OF CETSSWAYO. 46& 

The direction he had taken being pointed out, the 
party followed until they got within four or five miles 
of a kraal, where the king had halted for the day. 
Lord Oifford sent off a note addressed to Captain 
Maurice, saying he was on the track and hoped for 
speedy capture ; and, finding the kraal could not be 
approached without his being seen, seems to have made 
up his mind to wait till nightfall. It is perhaps fortu- 
nate that this arrangement was not carried out, as, in 
the darkness and hurry of a night attack, it is possible 
that we might have had the additional wrong laid upon 
us of having shot the Zulu king. 

Amongst other patrols sent out to look for Cetshwayo 
was one under Major Marter, King's Dragoon Guards, 
consisting of one squadron Dragoons, ten men Mounted 
Infantry and Lonsdale's Horse, and one company Natal 
Native Contingent, their orders being to get on the 
king's track and capture him, if possible, and to recon- 
noitre the Ngome Forest, and report if it could be 
traversed. 

This force started on the 27th August, Major Marter 
sending two natives on in the direction of the Ngome to 
impress upon the people that until the king was captured 
they could not have rest, as troops would be constantly 
on the move amongst them, and require supplies, etc^ 
and to suggest it would be to their advantage to give 
him some hint or sign about the king. He had found 
the natives friendly, but they said feankly that if they 
knew the king to be close by they would not tell him ; 
he, therefore, remembering the language of symbols was 
pleasant to the native mind, endeavoured, by indirect 

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.i70 THE ZULU WAR. 

means, to obtain the informatioa he sought. Having 
got over about twenty-four miles of rough country, the 
little column halted on the summit, of the Inenge 
jMountaio, and, starting at daylight next morning, bad 
crossed the Ibuluwane lUver about ten o'clock, when a 
Zulu came from the bill in front, sent by a headman to 
whom the scouts had been, and began to talk on indifferent 
subjects, not appearing to wish to speak about the king. 
After some time he casually remarked : " I have beard 
the wind blow from this side to-day," pointing to the 
Ngome Forest, " but you should take that road until 
you come to Nisaka's kraal," showing a track leading 
upwards and along the side of the range. 

About half an hour afterwards a native brought a 
note addressed to Captain Maurice. As this ofiBcer was 
out in another direction on the same service. Major 
Marter opened and read it It was from Lord Gifford, 
who said he was on the track again and hoped for a 
speedy capture of the king, but gave no information as 
to where either the king or Lord Gifford were. Sending 
the man on in Captain Maurice's direction, Major Marter 
proceeded to Nisaka's kraal, some distance, up the 
mountain. After some talk a suggestion of guides 
was made to Nisaka, who said they had better go 
to bis brother's kraal on top of the mountain, and 
called two men to go as guides. On reaching this 
kraal the guides made signs for the party to halt 
where trees hid them from being seen from below, 
and then took Major Marter on to the edge of the 
precipice, crawling along on hands and knees ; they 
then stopped, and told him to go to a bush a little 

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CAPTmtE OF CET3SWAT0. 471 

farther on and look down. He did so, and saw a kraal 
in an open ep&ce about 2000 feet below, in a basin, three 
sides of which were precipitous and covered with dense 
forest. He considered it would be useless to approach 
the kraal from the open side, as one minute's warning 
would enable the king to escape to the nearest point of 
the forest ; and therefore decided to venture down the 
side of the mountain under cover of the forest, feeling 
that the importance of the capture would warrant the 
risk. 

Having rejoined his men, Major Marter ordered the 
natives to take off their uniform, and, with their arms 
and ammunition only, pass down the precipitous moun- 
tain to the lower edge of the forest nearest to the kraal, 
and remain concealed till the cavalry were seen coming 
from the forest on the other side ; they were then to 
rush out towards the open side of the kraal and surround 
it The cavalry left led horses, pack-animals, and 
every article which could make a noise or impede their 
progress, and followed Major Marter, leadiag their 
horses down the descent in single file. They left the 
upper part of the mountain at 1.45 p.m., and, after 
a scramble over rocks and watercourses, floundering in 
bogs, and hampered everywhere by trees and gigantic 
creepers, reached the foot about three o'clock, having lost 
two horses killed in the descent, and one man having 
his arm badly hurt. In a litde dell they mounted, and 
at a gallop dashed out — one troop to the right, one to the 
left, the irregulars straight to the front — over boulders, 
through high grass and every impediment, up to the 
kraal ; the natives reaching it at the same moment 

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472 TSE ZULU WAR. 

Seeing that the men in the kraal were anned with 
guns as well as assegais, Major Marter desired his in- 
terpreter to ctJl out that if any resistance were offered 
he would ahoot down every one and bum the kraal ; and 
then dismountiiig, with a few of his men, he entered the 
enclosure, which was strongly stockaded. A chief — 
Umkosana — met him, and was asked where the king 
was ; after some delay, seeing it was a hopeless case, he 
pointed out a hut on the farther side of the endoaure. 
Major Marter called on the king to come out, but he 
insisted the officer should go in to him. A threat of 
setting fire to the hut was then made, when t^e king 
asked the rank of the officer, and, after some further 
parley, came out and stood erect and quite the king, 
looking at Major Marter, saying ; " You would not have 
taken me, but I never thought troops could come down 
the mountain through the forest." 

Besides the Chief Umkosana, there were with Cetsh- 
wayo seven men and a lad, fire women and a girl, of his 
personal attendants. 

There were twenty guns in the kraal, four of them 
rifles that had belonged to the 21th Eegiment, much 
ammunition, some belts of the 24th, and many assegais, 
one of which — the king's — was sent by Sir Garnet 
Woleeley to the Queen. 

Taking the most open line of country, the party set 
out for Ulimdi, Major Marter taking personal charge of 
the king, who was in good health, and showing no signs 
of over- fatigue. 

On the evening of the second day three men imd a 
woman sprang suddenly into the thick bush through 
which they were passing and tried to escape ; hut two 



CAPTURE OF 0ET8SWAY0. 473 

of the men were shot Tbey had been repeatedly 
warned that anyone trying to escape woold be shot. 

On the morning of tiie Slat August, Major Marter 
safely reached the camp at Ulundi with Cetshwayo ; 
who is described by his captor as "a noble specimen of 
a man, without any bad expression, and the king aU 
over in appearance and manner," 

Sir Garnet Wolseley did not receive the fallen king 
himself, or accord him any of the signs of respect to 
which he was entitled, and which at least generosity 
demanded. That this was deeply felt is apparent from 
the words of an eye-witness, the interpreter attached to 
Major Barrow's force. " Cetywayo," he says, " who 
appreciates nicely the courtesies due to rank — as those 
who knew him , tell me — felt this keenly. Sir Garnet 
Wolseley did not see him at all, and Mr. John 
Shepstone only had an interview with him to tell him 
that he would leave under the charge of Major Poole, 
RA., for — no one knew where. The instructions to the 
Major were, on leaving Ulundi, to proceed to Pieter- 
maritzburg vid Korke's Drift, but the camp had not 
been left many miles behind before a messenger to the 
Major from the General gave Fort Domford as the port 
of embarkation. 

" Cetshwayo spent less than three hours amidst the 
ruins of Ulundi, and when he left them he was not 
aware of his destination. His hope was that he was 
going to Pietermaritzbm^. . . . This be believed was 
where he was going until he came to Kwamagwasa, and 
he said, " This is not the way to the Tugela." He grew 
moody after this, and used to moan, " It was better to 
be killed than sent over the sea." ^- i 

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474 TEE ZULU WAR. 

The party reached Port Dumford on the 4th Sep- 
tember, and was immediately embarked for Cape Town. 
There the king met with a fitting reception, and was 
conveyed to the castle, where he remained under strict 
surveillance in the custody of Colonel Haasard, C.B., RE., 
Commandant at Cape Town. 

One peculiarity regarding the treatment of Cetshwayo 
may be illustrated by tiie following personal anecdote ; 

A Bon and daughter of the Bishop of Natal, on their 
way to England, called at Cape Town on board a steamer 
at the time of the king's arrival. They asked permission 
to see him, feeling that if anything could be a solace to 
the captive it would be an interview with members of a 
family which he knew had kindly feelings towards him.* 
This request was refused by Sir Bartle Frere, who 
regretted that he could not "at present ^ve anyone 
permission to visit Cetewayo," and said that " all inter- 
course with him must be regulated by the orders of the 
General Commanding H. M. Forces in the Field, to whom 
all applications to communicate with the prisoner should 
bo referred." After this communication, it was rather 
surprising to find that several of the passengers on 
board the mail-steamer, leaving the Cape the next day, 
had not only seen the king, but had found no difficulty 
in so doing.t 

* Mr. GolenBO iras acquainted with bim, liaving, aa oltesdy 
ruUted, paid him a visit in 1877. 

t At the Batne time many reeidents in Cape Town obtained, from 
mere motivea of curiosity, that interview which, to those who had 
desired it for hnmanity's sake, had been refused, while all who know 
his language, or are likely to sympathise, ate rigidly excluded. Orders 
were given afterwards that the name of the Bishop of Natal should 
not he mentioned to Cetshwayo, "because it excited the prisoner." 

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CONCLUSION. 

The fall of TJlimdi was looked upon by some as the 
finishing touch to the Zulu power and the end of the 
war, while others considered peace ensured only and 
completely by the capture of the king. Much, however, 
remained to be done before Natal could be thought of as 
at peace with her neighbours and heraelf, and what has 
been commonly called the " Settlement of Zululand," 
was a task which required the gravest consideration and 
the most careful handling. 

Sir Garnet Wolseley's first act in this dii-ection was 
to call together as many of the principal Zulu chiefs 
and ofEcials. as could be found, and to address them 
upon the situation. This meeting took place at Ulundi 
on the 1st of September, the day after the captive 
king's departure for Port Dumford. About 200 Zulus, 
including two of Cetshwayo's brothers, and his prime 
minister Mnyamana, had responded to the summons; 
and seating themselves in rows four deep, with the 
principal chiefs in front, a few paces from the flagstaff 
at Sir G. Wolseley's tent, waited in perfect silence. 
When Sir Gramet, with his staff, at last appeared, he 
addressed the assembled chiefs through Mr. John 

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THE ZULU WAR. 

»De, who accompanied him as interpreter. He 
informed them that it was six years that very day since 
Cetshwayo was crowned king of the Zulus, and that he 
was now carried away never to return. This, he told 
them, was in consequence of hia having broken bis 
coronation promises, and having failed to make and 
keep such laws amongst his people as the Qaeen of 
England could approve, therefore his kingdom was 
taken from him ; and would now be divided amongst 
a number of chiefs, who would be expected to rule 
with justica In future no life was to be taken 
without trial, and trivial offences were to be punished 
by fines ; no standing army would be allowed, nor the 
possession of guns and ammunition by any Zulu ; 
nor would any stores be permitted to be landed on the 
Zulu coast, in case, under the guise of merchandise, 
arms should be brought into the country. The young 
men would be allowed to marry when and whom they 
pleased, provided they had sufficient for the support of a 
wife, and could obtain the consent of the girl's parents, 
and " smelling out " for witchcraft was to be put down. 
Nevertheless, the Queen had no wish to force our laws 
and customs upon them. By their own rules of war and 
conquest, Zululand now belonged to her; but she had 
already enough land in Africa, and had therefore no 
intention of depriving the Zulus of theirs. Finally, the 
missionaries were not to be forced upon them, and the 
Zulus were even forbidden to encourage their settling 
amongst them. 

To secure the fulfilment of all these commands, 
Sir Cr. Wolseley told the chiefe that he intended to 

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00N0LU8I0N. 477 

leave an English officer as resident, to be the eyes and 
ears of England, to watch over the people, and to see the 
laws observed and that the chiefs ruled with justice and 
equity. With what machiueiy the officer in question 
was to perform so wide a task does not appear. Whether 
his position is to be a real oue, requiring several British 
regiments to support it, or whether it is to be a mere 
farce, a fine-sounding pretence, remains yet to be 
proved. 

At the conclusion of the General's discourse he pro- 
duced a document, the purport of which, he said, he had 
now told them, and which was to be signed by all the 
chiefs whom he had chosen as rulers of the land, to each 
of whom a duplicate copy would be given, while he 
retained a similar one himself. 

The first to sign his name was Mr. John Dann, 
whose chieftainship was by far the largest; and after him 
the Zulu chie& touched the pen whUe Mr. Shepstone 
made their crosses for them, in place of the signature 
which they could not form. 

For once in the history of Natal, all classes, from 
whatever widely differing motives, were united in con- 
demning the arrangement. 

"The so-called settlement of Zululand," says ITie 
Cape Times, on September 16th, " is regarded with any- 
thing but satisfaction in Natal, if we may accept the press 
of that colony as representative of public opinion. Sir 
Garnet Wolseley was probably acting under instructions 
in making peace on a barbarian basis ; such a peace, 
however, has no guarantee for continuance, but on the 
contrary an inherent weakness, forbidding any hope of 

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478 THE ZULU WAR. 

permanence. A savage nation is now divided into a 
number of savage nations, each leaning to the other with 
all the force of common blood and common traditions, 
while to check the impulses of that force there ia 
absolutely nothing beyond the influence of two or three 
British residents, unsupported by any armed retinue, 
and clothed with no more than a shadow of authority. 
And as the embodiment of BritiBh civilisation, aud as 
Her Majesty the Queen's own representative in Zululand, 
is placed Mr. John Dunn. . . . But whatever John 
Dunn's merits may be, his appointment as Chief Resident 
in Zululand is a shock to civilisation. His ways are 
Zulu ways ; his associations, Zulu associations ; his very 
habits of thought imbued with the Zulu character. A 
white man who for twenty years or more has lived the 
Zulu life, wedded Zulu wives, and chosen their society in 
preference to that of such women aa a white man should 
love and honour, is not the man to represent the Queen 
of England in a nation of savages. The settlement of 
Zululand means simply the appointment of a dozen 
Cetywayos, with a white man to look after them, who is 
a Cetywayo in all but colour. And now Sir Garnet 
Wolseley skips off in his light and airy fashion to the 
Transvaal, flattering himself that he has made things 
pleasant in Zululand. It is a miserable delusion. . . ." 

The "engagements" into which the Zulu chiefe 
entered are : 

" i. 1 will observe and respect whatever boundaries 
shall be assigned to my territory by the British Govern- 
ment through the Resident of the division in which my 
territory is situated. 

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CONCLUSION. 479 

"2. I will not permit the existence of the Zulu 
military system, or the existence of any military system 
of organisation whatever, in my territory, and I will 
proclaim and m^e it a rule that all men shall be 
allowed to marry when they choose and as they choose, 
according to the good ancient customs of my people, 
known and followed in the days preceding the establish- 
ment by Chaka of the system known as the military 
system ; and I will allow and encourage all men living 
within my territory to go and come freely for peaceful 
purposes, and to work in Natal and the Transvaal and 
elsewhere for themselves or for hire. 

" 3. I will not import or allow to be imported into 
my territory by any person, upon any pretext or for any 
object whatever, any arms or ammunition from any part 
whatsoever, or any goods or merchandise by the sea-coast 
of Zululand, without the express sanction of the Resident 
of the division in which my territory is situated ; and I 
will not encourage or promote, or take part in, or 
countenance in any way whatever, the importation ■ in 
any other part of Zululand of arms or ammunition from 
any part whatever, , or goods or merchandise by the 
sea-coast of Zululand, without such sanction, and I will 
confiscate and hand over to the Natal Government all 
arms and ammunition, and goods and merchandise, so 
imported into my territory, and I will punish by fine or 
by other sufficient punishment any person guilty of or 
concerned in any such unsanctioned importation, and 
any person found possessing arms or ammunition, or 
goods or merchandise, knowingly obtained thereby. 

" 4, I will not allow the life of any of my people to 

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480 TBIS ZULU WAR. 

be taken for any cause, except after sentence passed in a 
council of the chief men of my territory, and after fair 
and impartial trial in my presence and after the hearing 
of witnesses ; and I will not tolerate the employment 
of witch-doctors, or the practice known as smelling-oot, 
or any practices of witchcraft. 

" 5. The surrender of persons fugitive in my territory 
from justice, when demanded by the government of any 
British colony, territory, or province, in the interests of 
justice, shall be readily and promptly made to such 
government ; and the escape into my territory of 
persons accused or convicted of offences against British 
laws shall be prevented by all possible means, and every 
exertion shall be made to seize and deliver up such 
persons to British authority. 

" 6. I will not make war upon any chief or chiefs, or 
people, without the sanction of the British Government, 
through the Resident of the division in which my 
territory is situated. 

- " 7. The succession to the chieftainship of my territory 
shall be according to the ancient laws and customs of 
my people, and the nomination of each successor shall 
be subject to the approval of the British Government 

"8.1 will not sell, or in any way alienate, or permit, 
or countenance any sale or alienation of any part of the 
land in my territory. 

" 9. I wiU permit aU people residing in my territory 
to there remain, upon the condition that they recognise 
my authority as chief, and any persons not wishing to 
recognise my authority and desiring to quit my territory 
I will pennit to quit and to pass unmolested elsewhere. 

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OONCLUaiON, 481 

" 10. In all cases of dUpute in which British subjects 
are involved I will appeal to and abide by the decision 
of the British Resident of the division in which my 
territory is situated. In all cases when accusations of 
offence or crime committed in nay territory are brought 
against British subjects, or against my people in relation 
to British subjects, I will hold no trial and pass no 
sentence except with the approval of such British 
Reeident 

" 11, In all matters not included within these tenns, 
conditions, and limitations, and in all cases provided for 
herein, and in all cases when there may be doubt or 
uncertainty as to the laws, rules, or stipulations applicable 
to matters to be dealt with, I will govern, order, or 
decide in accordance with the ancient laws and usage of 
my people." 

The following letter, addressed to the Right Hon. 
W. El Gladstone, and published in 7%e Guai'dian of 
December 10th, 1879, by the Dean of 'Maritzburg, 
contains such valuable and important matter that we 
quote it verbatim : 

TttI DbABSBT, "MiBITZBIIBG, Katai^ 

Sepiemfter 27(/i, 1879. 

Sib, — Tbotigli I hare not the honoor of being knovn to you, 
yet, as the sffiuts of Soath Africa mnst necessarily engage tho atten- 
tion of Fariiament when it next meete, I venture to hope you will not 
consider it an intrusion if I lay hefore yon some of the conclusions 
I have anired at after thirty years' residence as a clergyman in 
HataL 1 do so as I know from experience how extremely difficult 
it is for those who have passed their lives in the midst of a highly 
organised society, to realise the conditions of a colony, and especially 
of oae which is brou^t into contact with the undeveloped races of 
South Africa. The first question that presents itself is. What is the 

2 I 

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482 THE ZULU WAR. 

meaniitg of the apparent antagoniatu of the native races, at the present 
time, to the white niant I attribute it immediately to the oatlTeB 
aaddenly and unexpectedly finding themselTes in the possesaioii of 
liiearms. When the Diamond Fields were first opened out, no 
rostriotiona were placed on the gun-trade by the Cape Government, 
and BO soon as this became known the nstirea flocked there in 
thousands from all parts of South Africa, hiring themselvee out to 
work, and stipulating to be paid in rifies. Young men everywhere 
will aim themselves if they can, and especially in a country in which 
there is abundant room for hunting, and atill more so when the young 
men are savages, and know of no distinction except that which comes 
from exhibitii^ prowess in war. I do not myself think they were 
influenced by any feelings of hatted to the wMte man, or that there 
existed any deep4)eated conspiracy amongst the chiefs or old men. 
But the young men suddenly discovered they could obtain firearms, 
so got them ; and having got them, they then desired to use them. 
Everywhere they were armed, and so everywhere they began to talk 
of fighting ; the leaven had been put in and the whole lump worked. 
The war which arose is now over, and the Gape Government is 
engaged in steadily disarming the natives onder its rolej its loyal 
subjects, the Fingoes and the Basutoa, as well as the recently con- 
quered tribes. Sir Garnet Wolseley told the Zulus also to bring 
in their guns ; but they have treated his order with contempt, and 
be has made no attempt to enforce it ; the Zolna themselves, I am 
afraid, will soon adduce this as evidence that they were not beaten. 
I may say, also, the Natal Governor alwaya placed restrictions on 
the natives possessing firearms, and, so far as he could, enforced 
those restrictions on his own natives retnming from the Diamond 
Fields, and they have proved perfectly loyal Whilst at the time 
I deprecated the reckless trade allowed by the Cape Government 
still it seems to me rather hard, after having allowed the natives to 
purchase guns, to set to work to disarm them. The wisest course I 
consider would be to impose a tax on the possession of firearms 
generally, granting privileges to members of volunteer corps, etc In 
that way, without drawing invidious distinctions between white and 
coloured, our own young men would be exempted from paying by 
serving as volunteers ; and if the tax were a heavy one the natives 
would be deterred from keeping guns, and, further, the Government 
would know exactly to what extent they were armed. 

To leave, however, the native races in general, and to confine 
ourselves to the Zulus. They never went to war with us, but we 
with them ; they have always been excellent neighbours ; for tiiiity 



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aONOLVSIOn. 483 

yean they hare never been accused of stealing a sheep, or aii ox, 
or a hone from the Natal side. Natal had no quarrel with them 
nor Cetjwayo with ns ; it has been oar misfortune that it has been 
found convenient to cany on Uie war from Natal ; hut Sir H. Bulwer, 
oar Grovernor, has been tme to the colony in insisting that it was no 
war of 0TU9. If there was any justification of the war, it most be 
sought in the interests of Transvaal, and than it can only be accepted 
as a judgment. The Crown had not a shadow of right to annex the 
TransTsaL True, they were not govemii^ themselves very well 
in that State \ neither, perhaps, is Germany, but we do not annex 
Germany. We did take over the Transvaal, however, in direct 
violation of engagements which had been entered into with the 
Dutch Boers. Shepetone, in his proclamation, was obliged to eay 
that we moat read between the lines of that engagement — i.e. the 
promises of the British Government were worth nothing. The simple 
' fact was that the Cape and Transvaal merchants had been over- 
ttading in that republic; it was bankrupt, so many of them were on 
the brink of insolvency. I cannot say more without mentioning 
names, but there was no difficulty in seeing what influences were 
brought to bear on Lord Carnarvon. The Bepublic was annexed;, 
farms were accepted at a nominal price in payment of debts, and 
resold again in London, say at sixpence per acre, which amply repaid 
the merchant, who thus saved himself, whilst the Boers were left 
without their independence, and poorer than ever. Had we stayed 
our hand, hading themselves hopelessly bankrupt, in a few months 
they might probably have sought our assistance, and then we could 
have annexed them without their having a grievance ; as it is they 
cannot forget it I em sony for them, for they are a simple people. 
Shepstone went up as Governor, and Cetywayo at once asked to have 
his old disputes with the Boers arranged— in former days both he 
and his father, whenever they had had any difference with the Trans- 
vaal, always sent messengers in to the Natal Government to advise 
with it — and Shepstone, the Secretary for Natal Affairs, according to 
his wont, always temporised, admitting in a half-and-half way that 
they were right, but advising patience. When, however, he found 
himself at the Transvaal he suddenly sided with the Dutch, and 
Cetywayo became greatly incensed and declared himself betiayed. 
I believe he would at once have invaded the Transvaal, but from 
fear of us in Natal. He hedtated, however, and according to the old 
maxim, he who hesitates does not fight ; but before he had quieted 
down Sir B. Frere interfered with his uUimalam, and Cetywayo stood 
grandly on the defensive. He is a savage, and Ms ambition was to 



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484 THE ZULU WAR. 

lio a great siavage ; I do not mean a crael one, but a powerful, influen- 
tial aaTage. He was ambittoos, but disliked progress, and such men 
must fail; so lie has fallen, but with dignity. He has never attacked 
a neighbour, white or black ; he has defended his country bravely, 
and has been guilty of no excesses. It has been our war, not his. 
Sir B. Trere says most truly that almost everyone he spoke to 
eucoor^od him to go to war ; but I am afraid ho avoided those who, 
he was told, were against war — and when will not Englishmen advise 
warl No argument was used, except the one that Cetywayo might 
overrun N^atal at any moment ; but he had never shown a disposition 
to do 30, and we were stronger than men would allow. Men who do 
not trust in the arm of God do not see the defences which sntroond 
them. The Tugela, the river which separates Ifatal from Zululand, 
was a great protection, as in summer-time, even if fordable, the Zulus 
would not cross it, lest it should rise in their rear ; and in the winter, 
our dry season, they cannot keep the field, as their naked bodiea are 
qoite unable to bear exposure to the cold nights. Moreover, thoi^ii 
our own army will never acknowle<^ it, Cetywayo's force did not 
exceed 30,000 naked savages. Of course we are told they were 
60,000 or 80,000 strong ; but if you casually inquire of any officer 
who has been in Zululand whether the kiaals were thickly dotted 
over the country, he will tell yon artlessly, " No, quite the contrary." 
I bare a:gain and again inquired of traders as to the density of the 
population relative to Natal. I have inquired of those who have 
lived at Ulundi, and have seen Cetywayo'a regiments mustered, and 
I am confident that 30,000 is the very outside at which the Zulu 
force could be put. I may return to this. I mention it now to show 
why I do not agree with Sir Bartle in his view of our position ; and 
certainly I cannot admit, because a neighbour is powerful, that there- 
fore we are justified in going to war with him. 

But, now that we have been at war, on what terms is peace to be 
arranged 1 In the Cape Colony the natives^as the Basutos, the 
Fingoee, and otheis — live in districts to themselves, not intermingled 
with the white man. The young men leave their homes, and go into 
the colony, and work for a time in the towns or on the farms ; bnt 
their home is in Basutoland, Fingoland, etc The same holds good in 
the Transvaal The natives there are on the border ; but Natal is the 
one exception to this rule ; in this colony we live inl«rmingled ; and 
a few years aqo we were regarded as living in the crater of a volcano. 
It was thought that the Natal natives, who outnumber the European 
settleis eighteenfold, might at any moment overwhelm us, so that 
Cape politicians and others refused to be connected with this colony. 



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CONCLUSION. 485 

In 1876, hoirever, before the rUing of the nativoa on the frontier, I 
vaa bold enough to point out to my fellow-coloniats that our supposed 
vreaknesa vaa in reality one strength. And so it has proved. During 
the last two years Xatal has been the oasis of South Africa ; every- 
where eke the natives have either been in arms, or shown themselves 
diaafiected, if we except the Fingoes ; but the position in which they 
stand to the Kafir tribes around them compels them to be loyal, so 
they are scarcely to be taken into account. 

Whilst, then, throughout South Africa the natives have been a 
source of uneasiness, the overwhelmiug native population of Natal 
(360,000, against 22,000 whites) has been perfectly true to the 
GoTommeitt, and the grounds of their loyalty are now, I think, re- 
ct^nised in NataL They are these: 1. The natives are not, like 
Englishmen, self-reliant, but naturally dependent ; consequently, they 
use the machinery of Govcmmeiit much more than we do. An 
Englishman dislikes appealing to a magistrate, as it implies a want 
of power to take care of himself or to govern his dependents. !Not 
so the native; he habitually leans upon the magistrate. Thirty years 
^0 in !Natai the native leant upon his chief ; now he has become 
familiar with the magistrate, who has become a necessity to him. I 
argue, therefore, that a people will not plot or even desire to throw 
off an authority which enters into their daily life. 2. Natives who 
have resided amongst white men fee! the need of their presence. The 
native races cannot develop themselves — nor, when in some degree 
developed, can they stand by themselves — as their wills are weak, 
and intellectually they are lawyers, fond of aigument, but without 
imagination; so they can neither plan nor construct. In their inde- 
pendent state they have no criminal law, no commercial code, no 
municipal one, no law of tenure of landed property ; they possess 
only a few customs regulating marriage and the division of their cattle 
amongst the family ; but, scattered amongst white men, they are able 
to expand. The effect is seen in many ways — amongst others, in the 
increase of their families. 3. They are naturally fond of trading; 
In many ways they may be compared to the Celtic race, as they 
cannot riae above the tribal organisation ; but, unlike the Gelt, they 
ore not intellectual ; and, unlike him, their natural bent is towards 
trading. They are good soldiers, but they prefer trading to every- 
thing; consequently, on this account, they are unwilling to separata 
from the white man. 4. The natives never go to war unless they can 
first send their cattle to the rear; but this they cannot do when dis- 
tributed amongst the Europeans, and this operates alone as a great check. 
During the thirty years I have been in Natal we have only had three 



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486 THE ZULU WAS. 

chiefs give tiie slightest trouble, and these three h&re &11 been on the 
hordera, and so have been abl« to send their cattle away. I am con- 
vinced, therefore, that, if the Govenunent wishes to maintain peace 
and to develop the native races, it should intermingle them with the 
KuropeoDB. The Aborigines Society at home will probably object. 
It is easy to say the white man seeks only to dispossess the native, 
but whatever the individual motive, the white man is the benefactor 
by his presence. He may have hunted down the North American 
Indian and the Aborigines of Anstralia, bnt not so in South Africa. 
Here not only does the magistrate protect him, but the Kafir is a 
worker, which the North American Indian and the native of Australia 
is not. The white man wants the Kafir's labour, and to secnre it has 
to bo just and kind. A farm-servant in England is by no means so 
independent as a Kafir out here. Mix up the races therefore, and to 
some extent at least the problem of governing and impioving the 
native race is solved. After the defeat at Isandhlvana, new-comers 
like the military thought our natives might rise; but their wives, 
children, wagons, catUe, etc, wer« in the colony, so they made 
common cause with ua, and showed themselves zealously loyaL I 
consider it, therefore, to be most foolish to try and keep the races apart ; 
we must intermingle them. It was Alexander's principle and the 
iLoman rule; the present European families have been founded on 
this method — 30 we must go on mingling, not separating. 

I send you a copy of Six Garnet Wolseley's conditions of peace, 
as published in 17te Kaial }Vitne»». They ore universally condemned 
here. 1. The chiefs are to be under British Residents, and tbey must 
be supported by a force. But who is to pay 1 It b said tlie Zulus 
are sot to be taxed, as that would amount to annexation ; or, rather, 
it would test Sir Garnet's arrangements. If he is afraid to tax the 
Zulus the Besideuts will be afraid to control them. The test of 
defeat with Kafirs is the loss of cattle — they do not estimate the loss 
of life; but wc have not taken cattle. Indeed, the balance is on 
ihcii eide : they have carried off more than we havcL* The test of 
submission is obedience, and they have with one accord disobeyed the 
order to give up their guns. The test of the Queen's authority in 
(South Africa is tiie payment of taxes. Even Cetywayo offered to 
j>ay a hut-tax ; and if Sir Garnet does not impose one, all the young 
men in Zululand, before a year is over, will point to their cattle, their 
guns, and their Immunity from taxes, and boast that they were not 
beaten. If the Zulus are to be controlled by British Besidents they 

* We tbiok this itatement ii Iiardlj oorreet. 

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OONOLUaiON. 487 

should pay a hat-taz. Onr natiToa pay a hut-tax of lis, pei hut. 
I hare tmderstood that the Cape Qorenunent wish it to be uniform 
throughout South Africa, and to be fixed at £\. We estimate the 
population at thiee-and-a-half persons to a hut, and at 148. it amounts 
to 4b. per head. Besides that the natives on farms pay rent to the 
farmer, and the more they adopt our habits the more do they pay 
through the Customs. The Zulus could readily pay £1 per hut, or, 
say £36,000 per anaum, Cetyrayo's Government was an expensive 
one. His commissariat alone was a heavy drain upon the resources 
of the people. Savages, as well as civilised persons, understand that 
they must support their Government ; the Zulus, therefore, would 
recognise the justice of being taxed ; and not to tax them is, I con- 
sider, to abandon one of the duties of Government. Moreover, it is 
said we are to be taxed to pay our quota of the recent expenditure. 
But out natives will hardly understand first fighting the Zulus, and 
then having to pay for it. It will seem to them as if they wore the 
offending party, if they, and not the Zulus, are taxed. 2. The con- 
ditions diacour^^ trade. It oi^ht to be encourt^ed to the utmost 
Instead of forbidding importation by sea, a Custom-house should be 
estabUshed at the one port or landing-place. 3. The alienation of 
land is forbidden, in order to keep out the white man ; but he should 
be encouraged to enter, and so long as the land is held in common by 
the whole tribe there will be no improvement in agriculture. Or, to 
take the conditions in order — 2 is impossible; the young men will 
be quarrelling with one another at weddings and other gatherings, 
tribal £(^ts will ensue, and the chiefs must have a force at their 
eommand. 3 I have touched upon. 4 ia nugatory; if a chief 
wishes to put to death he can give a man a mock trial and have 
done with it, 6 overlooks that wars often do not begin with the 
chiefs; the young men bring them about. 8 I have touched upon. 
The whole implies the active and constant superintendence of the 
Sesident, and that will be resisted: some kraal or kraals will be 
disobedient to orders, the chief will be unable or unwillii^ to enforce 
obedience, and the Resident must call in other assistance at great 
expense ; and at whose 1 There is nothing enduring, nothing practical 
in this settlement, if it deserves to be called such. It is not likely to 
last, and everyone expects, after a short interval, more bloodshed 
and more reckless expenditure. The burden cannot be thrown on 
the Colony, as the Government has not been consulted on the terms 
of peace. The whole thing is a cruelty to the Zulus, to the colonists, 
and to the suffering home population, for there will be another 
X3,000,000 or more to be voted yet; but during the whole time 



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488 THE ZULU WAB. 

meat was 8d. and bread 4d. per pound. Is. 6d. per diem was con- 
sequently ample allowance for the keep of a soldier ; of course I am 
aware tliere were numetoua other sources of expenditure, hut it is 
extreme folly to send an army out to a distant place, with power to 
draw upon the Treasury at will ; it is too great a trial for human 
nature. Aa a blind, all sorta of things are s^d about the colonists ; 
a great de«l or oven aU may be true, but it does not explain half. 
That, however, is by the way ; but I must mention, before concluding, 
that one of the newly-appointed chiefs is a whit« man named John 
Dunn. He left home when about fifteen or sixteen, and has since 
lived with the Zulus, takii^ to himself a number of wives. This 
appointment is looked upon as an outrage to public morals and as an 
insult to the colonists. I say nothing about the misaionaries, as I do 
not wish that they should lean upon the civil power ; the Church 
must do her proper work in her proper way. I simply write as an 
Englishman, to one who largely guides the counsels of the nation, to 
lift up my voice against what has been done, and is being done, 
in this part of the empire. Trusting you will excuse my thus 
trespassing upon your time, believe me to remaia yours most 
respectfully, 

Jambb Green, 

DeoH of 'Maritzlmrg. 



But at all events we had gained one definite result 
by all the blood and money spent in the Zulu war. The 
most important and earnestly insisted on immediate 
cause of our attack upon Zululand was the invasion of 
our soil, and the violation of our sanctuary, committed 
by Mehlokazulu and his brother, sons of Sihayo, when 
they seized and carried off two women who had taken 
refuge in Natal. We " requested " the Zulu king to 
deliver up the young men to us for judgment and for 
punishment, and he begged us to accept a fine in lieu of 
the persons of the offenders. We declined this proposal 
and repeated our request, which suddenly became a 
" demand " when it appeared in the ultimatum, and as 
such remained. 



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OONOimiON. 489 

It was said at the time that, had the young men 
been given up even after the troops had crossed the 
border, hostUities would have been suspended until the 
rest of the demands could be complied with. But they 
were not, so we went to war. 

And now, at last, the war was over^ one of Sihayo's 
sons had Mien in battle, and Mehlokazulu, the other, 
was in our hands. Here was what we had fought for, 
and obtained 1 What would be done with him ? By 
the military authorities he could only be treated like any 
other prisoner of war, and released unharmed amongst 
the other Zulus. He was therefore handed over to the 
civil authorities at Pietermaiitzburg to be tried by them, 
although he was denied the same advant^ea of counsel 
which are accorded by law to other civil prisoners. 

This denial was commented upon unfavourably by 
those who desired justice to be done, but, apparently, 
Mehlokazulu required no cotmsel, for he was not tried. 
He had committed no offence on British soil punishable 
in a Zulu subject by British law. His own king could 
have punished him by our request, but we had deposed 
and transported that king, and there was no law by 
which we could have inflicted anything beyond a trifling 
fine for trespass upon the man whom we had compassed 
heaven and earth, and shed so much of England's 
noblest blood, to seize. The magistrate declined to 
commit him for trial, and Mehlokazulu was permitted 
to return to his home. "Doubtless," remarks The 
Natal Colonist of October 27th, "the legal adviser 
of the Crown was concerned in the case, and framed 
the chatge which there was the best chance of being 

3 E . - I 



490 THE ZULU WAR. 

substuitiated. And this is the reanlt—* there was 
no evidence to maintain the chai^' . . . It is a 
miseiable conclusion to a most miserable affair. . . . 
The charge which, as we have seen, is almost made the 
chief occasion of the war which has desokted so many 
homes, and cost millions of money, completely breaks 
down when brought to the test of legal trial, and the 
prisoner is, of necessity, set at liberty. - We never 
believed much in tiie other pretexts for the war put 
forward by Sir Bartle Frere, but we confess that we 
always thought the outrage by Sihayo's sons was one 
to be visited with ocmdign punishment, whether it 
was one which would justify war or not; and evea though 
we knew it was only a pretext, seeing that it only tocJc 
place long after war had been determined on, and 
prepiuatdcma for it had been begun to be made." 

" But the ultimatum and its demands are things of 
the post. Rivers of blood have flowed to enforce these 
demands, and now they are put oa one side as utterly 
valueless, both by the settlement of Zululand and the 
release of Sirayo's son."* 

With this humiliating !ac% we must close our record 
of the Zulu War. In doing so, we feel that too many of 
the circumstances which we have thus recorded reflect' 
no credit on the name of England — that name which as 
English men and women we most deeice should he 
honoured by the world at large ; and we realise with pain 
that, 80 far as our work may be perused by dweUeia 
upon other shores, so far have we Irascned t^e glory 
of our motherland in their eyes. But, however much 
* The Daap Nem, 30th October, 1679. 

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OONGLWSION. 491 

we may regret the necessity, we do not therefore think 
it a less imperative duty to bring to the light as much 
as possible whatever wrong and injustice has been com- 
mitted and concealed by those to whom England has 
entrusted her power and her fame. That the light of 
publicity should be thrown upon them is the first Btep 
towards their cure, or at least towards the prevention of 
any further .wrong, and it is with the truest loyalty to 
our Sovereign, and the deepest love and reverence for 
our country, that we have undertaken the task now 
completed 



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J. A. SYMONDS. 

W. T. THORNTON. 

HON. LIONEL A, TOLLEUACHE. 

ANTHONY TROLLOPE. 

PROFESSOR TYNDALL. 

THE EDITOR. 



The Forthiohtlv Review u puMUhed at u. 6J. 



CHAPMAN & HALL LIMITED, 193, PICCADILLY. 



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