Note 36 — Chapter VIII

The following information is from a colonist whose character and experience render him an unexceptionable witness. He says, "As a resident of many years in Zululand, I have had some experience and means of observation. The year before the Commission sat at Rorke's Drift, the chief Usirayo built his head kraal at Usogexe, and a strong stone wall with loopholes round it; and his people often told me that they hoped to use them against the white men. They often talked about war; and I more than once remonstrated with Usirayo and his people, telling them that they should take care not to bring about a war with 'abelungu' (the white men), as it would be worse for themselves, but in vain, as they felt confident in their guns and their numbers. Cetywayo once sent an ox-hide to Sir T. Shepstone, and said, if he could count the hair on it, he would perhaps be able to form an idea of the number of the Zulu warriors; but I do not think the hide reached its destination. When the Commission was sitting at Rorke's Drift, Usirayo threatened to destroy the men and tents, if they came across the Buffalo to inspect the border line, near Usirayo's head kraal, where you still see the stone heaps left since the beacons. I warned the Commission through a missionary, and the late Colonel Durnford noted it. The Zulus have bought their thousands of guns, for the purpose of using them against the whites; have bought most of their ammunition with the same intention; have engaged people from Basutoland to teach them to make powder; and they have had a good deal of training in shooting. When Umbellini committed his first massacre at Umpongolo—I think in 1877—he went to the king, who adorned him with the usual sign of an 'iqawe' (a plucky and brave fellow); so it seems to be little use in saying the king did not agree with the rascal in his doings, as somebody seems to mean. Why did the king allow Usirayo and his people to steal horses, cattle, and sheep from the Boers, year after year, without punishing them? Why did he not at once punish Usirayo and his men, for crossing the border with arms last winter, and dragging away the poor women, who had fled for their lives? Why has he tried to rouse other tribes against the whites? Why did he not care for the promises made at the coronation? He wished for war, and he has got it; and that which brought him to that madness is chiefly this: First, that he despised the Gospel, of which he knows a good deal, and would not allow his people to become Christians; secondly, because the Christian Government would not allow him to make war upon other tribes, as his forefathers had done; and thirdly, his strong belief that he should succeed in exterminating the whites, because he thought them only a handful, and his own soldiers as plentiful as grass—which phrase he often uses with regard to them in conversation. Could he but get rid of the whites, he would soon subdue the black tribes—that has been his hope. And now we must be thankful to God, who sent such a man as Sir Bartle Frere to save the colonists from such a blow as Cetywayo intended to have aimed at them."