GENERAL SIR REDVERS BULLER ON HORSEBACK.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR A. HUNTER, K.C.B., Chief of Sir George White's Staff.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL T. SHERSTON, Killed in Battle of Glencoe
Cetywayo; his Power and Character
Since the struggle with his brother in 1856, and the slaughter of the latter with about one-fourth of the Zulus of that time, Cetywayo had been the real ruler of his nation. In 1872, upon the death of Panda, he succeeded also to the nominal government and was approved by the British authorities. In appearance the great Zulu chief was, in these earlier years, handsome and dignified, besides being possessed of undoubted mental gifts. He was, however, pitiless and cruel in the extreme, as hard of heart as a piece of steel, and as regardless of human life as a lion or tiger in its native fastnesses. In organizing power he had the genius of Tshaka, and he brought out all that was best and all that was worst in the Zulu race--the most intelligent, fearless and active of South African Kaffirs, or Bantu. As time went on and Cetywayo drilled and exercised and trained his _impis_, it became evident that unpleasant results must follow and that, hemmed in as they were by the Transvaal, Natal and the sea, there were only two possible outlets for the fiery spirits of the growing Zulu force. Cetywayo would have found it hard to control them had he desired to do so. Like all native armies, and especially with such disciplined and ambitious soldiers as he now had, they were more than anxious to test their power, to "wash their spears" in blood and to taste of the fierce pleasures of war. In this connection Sir Bartle Frere wrote with vigor in a dispatch of January, 1879, justifying his instructions to Lord Chelmsford to advance into Zululand:
War Clouds Gathering
"Whether his (Cetywayo's) young men were trained into celibate gladiators as parts of a most efficient military machine, or allowed to become peaceable cattle herds; whether his young women were to be allowed to marry the young men, or to be assegaied by hundreds for disobeying the king's orders to marry effete veterans, might possibly be Zulu questions of political economy with which the British Government were not concerned to meddle; but they were part of the great recruiting system of a military organization which enabled the King to form, out of his comparatively small population, an army, at the very lowest estimate, of 25,000 perfectly trained and perfectly obedient soldiers, able to march three times as fast as we could, to dispense with commissariat of every kind and transport of every kind, and to fall upon this or any part of the neighboring colony (Natal) in such numbers and with such determination that nothing but a fortified post could resist them; making no prisoners and sparing neither age nor sex."
Demonstrations of aggressiveness were frequent. About the time when Sir Bartle Frere arrived at Cape Town a powerful Zulu force had, in the most menacing manner, paraded along the Natal frontier, and, in response to protests, was described as merely a hunting party. British officials, who had been sent into Zululand from time to time as envoys, were treated in the most contemptuous manner by the Zulu Idunas. On one occasion (in 1876) two native women were captured on Natal soil and carried back to punishment, which, in this case, meant death. Proofs were not wanting of Zulu attempts to create disturbance amongst other Bantu tribes in distant parts of the country, and, on December 10, 1878, Sir Bartle Frere wrote to the Colonial Secretary that: "Whenever there has been disturbance and resistance to the authority of the Government between the Limpopo and the westernmost limits of Kaffir population, there we have found unmistakable evidence of a common purpose and a general understanding." The first embodiment of this fact was the Kaffir war already mentioned. Sandilli, leading the Gaika tribe, and Kreli the Galekas, had revolted in August, 1877, and only prompt military measures had saved the neighboring colonists from much suffering. As it was the tribes were not entirely subjugated until eight months after their first hostile action. The general effect, of course, was to still further encourage Cetywayo and his warriors in their aggressive ambitions.
The Zulus and the Boers
An additional factor to this end was the British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877. By placing their most hated enemy, the Boer, under British control it transferred the expression of that hatred to the new Government and the English people. A part of the general restlessness of the natives in the year of the annexation had been expressed in the war between Sekukuni, a Kaffir chief to the northeast, and the Boer Republic. The chief in question was a tool of Cetywayo's, and there is little doubt was egged on by him to hostilities which the latter intended as preliminary to a general attack upon the Transvaal; in which he was further encouraged by the defeat of the Boers and the retirement of President Burgers from his invasion of Sekukuni's territory. But the British annexation temporarily averted the attack and the whole burden of Zulu hostility was practically assumed by the British; as well as the subsequent brunt of Zulu attack. The situation, therefore, was not a pleasant one for Sir Bartle Frere any more than it was for the colonists of Natal, or for the Boers of the Transvaal prior to their annexation. It had been anticipated by Sir George Grey, a quarter of a century before, when he had urged that the growth of the Zulu power be checked by the establishment of a protectorate, or watched by the placing of a permanent Resident at its capital. Zulu Declaration But his advice was disregarded, and, in 1876, when Sir Henry Bulwer, Governor of Natal, protested against some Zulu act of force upon the frontier, Cetywayo was able to reply with a temerity born of the possession of a splendidly developed fighting machine of many thousand men: "I do kill; but do not consider yet I have done anything in the way of killing. Why do the white men start at nothing? I have not yet begun. I have yet to kill. It is the custom of our nation, and I shall not depart from it." In a dispatch to the Colonial Office on December 2, 1878, Sir Bartle Frere declared plainly that, as a result of these and other more practical manifestations, "no one can really sleep in peace and security within a day's run of the Zulu border, save by sufferance of the Zulu Chief."
In the end the war really came as a result of the Transvaal annexation, and, in the main, because of the bitter feeling between the Boers and the Zulus. During the month of September, 1878, Sir Bartle Frere, as High Commissioner for South Africa, visited Natal, and examined some territory in dispute between the Transvaal (then a British dependency) and Zululand. Finally he gave his decision as arbitrator in favor of the Zulu claim; but with a view to the general well-being of South Africa attached certain requirements to the announced Award. These included the disbandment of his army by Cetywayo, the reception of a British Resident at his capital of Ulundi, the surrender of certain persons guilty of an offence upon Natal territory, and the giving of specific guarantees for the better government of his people. The proposal obviously involved the establishment of a protectorate over Zulu territory, and the only possible alternative to its refusal was war. Knowing the ambitions of Cetywayo and his army, as Sir Bartle Frere did, he could hardly have expected the acceptance of these propositions or have supposed that there could be any other result than immediate hostilities. Advance into Zululand As a matter of fact no reply was received, and on January 10, 1879, Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford, who had commanded in the Kaffir War of the preceding year, crossed the Lower Tugela with a force which was small, but generally deemed sufficient, and marched into Zululand toward a place called Isandlhwana, where camp was formed for a few days. Colonel Pearson, with a flying column of 2,000 white troops and a similar number of blacks, marched on toward Ulundi, and got as far as Etshowe, after beating back a Zulu army of about his own number. A third column under Colonel Evelyn Wood marched from another direction toward the same objective point, reached a post called Kambula, and remained there for some time after duly fortifying it and defeating a persistent attack from a large Zulu army. Incidentally, one of his patrols was surprised by the enemy, and ninety-six of the party killed, including Colonel Weatherley and his son.