“How do you know that?” I inquired, for he had started upon a fresh account of horrors relating to the time at which he 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 Zululand 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 warriors. All he could tell of a later date he had himself learnt from “white people” in the town, who, again, had gathered their information from the newspapers; and Bishop Schreuder, long resident in Zululand, says: “I had not with my own eyes seen any corpse, and personally 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 the latter to which it refers:
“You have repeatedly acknowledged the house of England to be a great and powerful house, and have expressed yourself as relying entirely upon the good-will and power of that house for your own strength and the strength of the country over which you are king; in fact you have always looked towards the English Government.
“Which way is 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?”
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 the 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 the 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 hands. The English nation is a just one, and we are together” (we are at one with each other). “I admit that people have been killed. There are three classes of wrong-doers that I kill—(1) the abatakati—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-doers 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 Somtseu.”
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 Cetshwayo, 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 said they had committed no actual wrong, but they did no good, and that the tendency of their teaching was mischievous; he added that he did not wish to harm them, that they might take all their property with them and go in peace.