History of the Zulu war and its origin

by Frances Ellen Colenso

The object of this message was “to establish a standing menace, and to bring formidable pressure to bear in that quarter upon the Zulus.”

The barbarity of the 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 guide and control the movements of our ally the Swazi king, who, it was imagined, would be stanch to us 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 Garnet sent a message to the Amatongas that he might “possibly ascend the Maputa River with a force and use their territory as a base of operations against the Zulus from the north” (ibid. p. 149).

On the 30th, after a long conference with General Clifford and Commissary-General Strickland, Sir Garnet Wolseley had an interview with about seventy Natal native chiefs, who had been assembled at his request, and addressed them, through an interpreter, to the effect that the great English Queen had sent him to carry on 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 as many armies as are necessary, if the troops sent were not sufficient. “They may depend upon it, and the past history of our nation is a guarantee thereof, that when we give a promise 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 Garnet 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: “Our war is not against the Zulu people!”

These “carriers” were taken from the Tugela Valley, which had lately suffered from the Zulu raid, and where many of the men had belonged 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 with their customs[175] and prejudices.