d
him, was like a wild beast baulked of its prey. He was anxious for
an occasion for his young warriors "to wash their spears" in the
gore of his enemies, and was naturally disappointed to find them
under the protection of the white man. The Natal Government
attempted to soothe him--to promote peace. He remained sullen and
simmered. He vented his spleen by putting several young women to
death for having refused to marry his soldiers. On being
remonstrated with by the Natal Government, he expressed himself with
engaging candour. His own words, without comment, describe the
character with which we had to deal.

"Did I ever tell Mr. Shepstone," his Majesty cried, "that I would
not kill? Did Mr. Shepstone tell the white people I made such an
arrangement? Because if he did he deceived them. I do kill; but I do
not consider that I have done anything yet in the way of killing.
Why do the white people start at nothing? I have not yet begun. I
have yet to kill. It is the custom of our nation, and I will not
depart from it. Why does the Governor of Natal speak to me about my
laws? I shall not agree to any laws or rules from Natal, and by so
doing throw the large kraal which I govern into the water. My people
will not listen unless they are killed, and while wishing to be
friends with the English I do not agree to give my people over to be
governed by laws sent to me by them. Have I not asked the English to
allow me to wash my spears since the death of my father, Upandi, and
they have kept playing with me all the time, treating me as a
child?" ... A good deal more followed in this strain. Since his
accession the gallant Cetchwayo had decided to "wash his spears" in
the blood of his neighbours, and whatever the British might have to
say in the matter, wash them he would. It was obvious, therefore,
that a ruffian of this kind, backed by a bloodthirsty following, was
a permanent danger to our Colony of Natal and to its white
inhabitants. Something must be done to remove the disquiet caused by
the utterances of the savage. Sir Henry Bulwer (the Governor of
Natal)--to conciliate the king and to allay his fears lest his
territory, like that of the Boers, should be annexed--proposed that
a commission should investigate the rival claims of Boers and Zulus
on border questions, and settle them by arbitration. But what Sir H.
Bulwer proposed Sir Bartle Frere, High Commissioner in South Africa,
disapproved. He felt that Cetchwayo and his ho