This ready acquiescence is fully accounted for by the fact, 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. Shepstone 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 Zululand, 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 misunderstood the real nature of the proposal, or he is 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 on just as well without it; all the apprehensions of disturbance and disorder having 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 instructions from Sir T. Shepstone himself; as appears 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 2nd, 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 a beginning 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 favour of a crowned robber, murderer, and breaker of his word, who knows as well as we that he is claiming a thing which does not belong to him ... for which reason we are sure that such arbitration is an absurdity and an impossibility. We therefore hereby protest against all proposed or to be undertaken arbitration; 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 from which these phrases are taken, “because it is impossible for us to remain 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. Shepstone. They request His Excellency “to commence without any further delay defending” their “rights and property and lives;” and should His Excellency “not be inclined or be without power” to do so, they further signify their intention of requesting him to assist them with 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 sympathising despatch, but Sir Henry Bulwer remarks upon it and upon a subsequent memorial[80] of the same description—February 23rd (2100, p. 67):
“Of course, if the object of the memorialists is war, if what they desire is a war with the Zulu nation, it is 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 war, is it to be expected that they should be favourable to arbitration, though I find it difficult to reconcile the expression of the apprehensions of the memorialists that arbitration would decide against them, with the unanimous expression of opinion, previously given to your Excellency by some of the leading men of the district, that the proposal made by me was a Christian, 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, when 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 farms 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 Zulus,’ and that, although the whole of it has been apportioned in farms to Transvaal subjects, it has not been occupied by them.’”