A Large Force Slaughtered
Meanwhile Lord Chelmsford had moved the main body of his forces to the capture of a large kraal near Isandlhwana, leaving about a thousand British, Colonial and native troops to guard the camp. Despite the warnings of some Dutch farmers, no attempt had been made at protecting the place by trench, or embankment, or even by the traditional and easy laager of wagons. Danger was hardly dreamed of until, on January 22d, the horns of a Zulu army of twenty thousand men were found to be closing around the devoted troops. There was practically nothing to do but to die, and this the soldiers did with their faces to the foe, fighting as long as their ammunition lasted and killing over a thousand Zulus. A few irregular mounted troops escaped, as did the bulk of the natives; but seven hundred British regulars and over a hundred Colonial troops were slaughtered by an enemy who gave no quarter and from whom none was asked or expected. Not far away from this camp, on the Natal frontier and guarding the line of communication, was a small depot for provisions and hospital work under the charge of Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead with 130 soldiers. In the afternoon of the fateful day at Isandlhwana this little post of Rorke's Drift was attacked by a picked Zulu army of four thousand men, and for eleven hours was defended so desperately, behind hastily improvised fortifications of biscuit boxes and grain bags, that the enemy retired after leaving over 300 men dead on the field. The little garrison was saved, and, more important still, Natal was saved from a sweeping and devastating raid of savage warriors. Lord Chelmsford at once fell back upon his base of supplies in the Colony, and the other columns at Etshowe and Kambula, respectively, proceeded, as already stated, to fortify themselves and await events. Further movements were slow in arrangement and reinforcements slow in coming, but, finally, Lord Chelmsford advanced again into Zululand with 4,000 British and Colonial troops and a thousand natives, and on July 4th, after relieving Etshowe and beating back the enemy at Gungunhlovu, reached Ulundi, where he defeated a Zulu army of 20,000 men.
Death of Prince Imperial
Meantime Sir Garnet Wolseley had been sent out to supersede Lord Chelmsford and to administer the regions affected by the war. He arrived on the scene very soon after this decisive conflict, and was able to report to the War Office that Zululand was practically at peace again. A few months later Colonel Baker Creed Russell went to the further rescue of the Boers in their seemingly hopeless struggle with the Bapedis, and, on November 28th, stormed and captured Sekukuni's stronghold. One of the melancholy incidents of a most unpleasant "little war" was the death of the Prince Imperial of France. The Zulus must have lost ten thousand men, all told, and their power was absolutely shattered. Cetywayo, after remaining in concealment for a time, was eventually captured and sent to live in guarded comfort near Cape Town. A little later he was allowed to visit England, where he was well received, and proved himself a dignified savage, and in 1883 was re-established in Zululand after the practical failure of Sir Garnet Wolseley's attempt to govern that region through thirteen semi-independent chiefs. Civil war followed, Cetywayo died, his sons kept up the internal conflict, the Transvaal annexed what is now called the District of Vryheid, and in 1887 what remained of the country was proclaimed British territory. Thus, and finally, was settled a question which threatened the very existence of the thirty thousand white people of Natal—surrounded within their own territory by three hundred thousand Zulus and faced upon their border by a strong Zulu nation and its army of 25,000 to 40,000 men.
Redress Necessary
Sir Bartle Frere was vigorously denounced for the war, for the disaster at Isandlhwana, and for everything connected with the matter. Yet it seems to the impartial judgment of later days that he only did what was wise in a most difficult and dangerous situation. There appears to be no doubt that Cetywayo was simply awaiting his chance to over-run the Transvaal and Natal. In writing to the Colonial Office, on March 1, 1879, Sir Bartle Frere pointed out the necessity of taking immediate action, and the difficulty, or worse, of waiting two months—in days prior to cable communication—for exact authority to move in the matter of compelling redress, and added: "The Zulus had violated British territory, slain persons under English protection, and had repeatedly refused the redress we demanded. Could a final demand for redress on this account be postponed? It seems to me clearly not, with any safety to Natal and its inhabitants." In another despatch to the Colonial Office, on January 13, 1880, the High Commissioner replied to some attacks from Mr. Gladstone by declaring that "in the judgment of all military authorities, both before the war and since, it was absolutely impossible for Lord Chelmsford's force, acting on the defensive within the Natal boundary, to prevent a Zulu impi from entering Natal and repeating the same indiscriminate slaughter of all ages and sexes which they boast of having effected in Dingaan's other massacres of forty years ago." He defended Lord Chelmsford, and incidentally stated that the disaster at Isandlhwana was due to disregard of orders. South Africa was for a time, however, the grave of Sir Bartle Frere's reputation, both in this connection and that of the Transvaal, and his recall followed a few months after the writing of the above despatch. But historical retrospect is wiser than political opinion, and time has now revived the fame of a great man and a wise statesman, and declared that there was practical truth and justice in the farewell address presented to him by the people of Albany in the Colony of the Cape:
"We have watched with the most anxious interest your career during that eventful period when the affairs of the neighboring Colony of Natal were administered by you; we perfectly understand that at that crisis the deep-laid plans and cruel purposes of the savage and bloodthirsty king of the Zulus were just reaching their full development, and that his inevitable and long-expected encounter with the British power could no longer be averted; it was, no doubt, fortunate for that colony, and for the honor of the British name, that you were on the spot ready to sacrifice every personal consideration, and to undertake one of the heaviest and most tremendous responsibilities ever undertaken by a servant of the Crown. Your excellent plans, your steady determination, your unflagging perseverance, led to the downfall of a barbarous tyrant, the break-up of a most formidable and unwarrantable military power, and the establishment of peaceful relations, which, properly managed, might have ensured the lasting peace and prosperity which you have systematically desired to secure for South Africa."
Order in Natal and the Transvaal
With the ending of this war and the temporary settlement of the Transvaal troubles there came to Natal a period of progress in both constitutional and material matters. The natives of the Province had always been well treated by the Imperial authorities, and there were none of the complexities of dual control so noticeable at the Cape; while the small number of Dutch settlers who remained after the "forties" were not important enough to create racial friction or to seriously antagonize the surrounding Zulus. The many privileges and immunities of the latter, and the possession of large tracts of land given and secured to them by the Colonial Office, seem to have made them a fairly satisfied people and to have prevented any organized effort at any time to join hands with their kin under Panda or Cetywayo. The experience of Englishmen with the Maori, the Red Indian, or the Kaffirs to the west of Natal, have not been repeated in that little Colony, and the small population of whites has lived in comparative security, though not without frequent fear, amidst the ever-increasing numbers of a savage race. Something of this has been due to the wise administration of the Colonial Governors and to their reasonable immunity from the influences which controlled the Cape and dragged the Colonial Office first one way and then the other. The local whites were also too few to claim constitutional government, to assert a right to control the natives, or to do more than occasionally protest against incidents such as the Transvaal slave-raids upon Kaffir tribes or hostility towards its general system of "apprenticeship."
In 1845 the first Lieutenant-Governor, under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Cape Colony, had been appointed in the person of Mr. Martin West. He was succeeded, in 1850, by Mr. Benjamin Pine, and, in 1856, by Mr. John Scott, who brought with him a Royal charter constituting the Colony, separating it from the Cape, and giving it an appointive Council. In 1866 an Assembly was created, with the same limitations as to responsible government which characterized all the Colonial Assemblies of that time. Mr. John Maclean, C.B., was appointed Lieutenant-Governor, and Mr. R. W. Keate became the first Governor of Natal in 1867. His successors were as follows, and their names mark several important incidents in South African history: