st would be a standing
menace to the borders of Natal. Nevertheless he agreed to a
discussion of the vexed boundary question between Boer and Zulu, in
which the commissioners declared unanimously against the claims of
the former. Certain land only to west of the Blood River, held by
the Boers and unchallenged by the Zulus, was confirmed to the Dutch
settlers in their occupation of the same. But to this decision Sir
Bartle Frere considered it expedient to add some saving clauses.
These demanded, first, that Cetchwayo should adhere to the
guarantees he had given and not permit indiscriminate shedding of
blood; second, that he should institute from his existing military
system the form of tribal quotas; third, that he should accept the
presence of a British Resident; fourth, that he should protect the
missionaries and their converts; and lastly, that he should
surrender certain criminals and pay certain fines. His Zulu Majesty
was given thirty days to consider the subject. Instead of
considering he flouted it. The result was war.

THE ZULU WAR

According to the opinion of Sir Bartle Frere there was, and for a
long time had been, a growing desire on the part of the great chiefs
to make this war into a simultaneous rising of Kaffirdom against
white civilisation. A spirit of mutiny had been in the air since the
terrible events in India in 1857, and there was a general conviction
among the native tribes that the authority of Great Britain would
eventually be overthrown. Now the most powerful of all the native
tribes in South Africa were the Zulus, whose military organisation
had long been celebrated, and who had earned a great reputation
since the days of Gaika, and more especially in the time that
followed when Chaka, who was a born warrior, brought the gigantic
army into a state of marvellous efficiency.

A few words regarding the career of this great chieftain may be
found interesting, for to him is accorded the credit of the
indubitably warlike and brave disposition of his countrymen. This
man, who has been at times called the Attila and the Napoleon of
South Africa, was born in 1783. He became chief officer to
Dingiswayo, a man of remarkable ability, who studied European
military systems and modelled on their principle a highly efficient
army. Chaka, heir to a chieftainship of the Amazulu tribe (the Zulus
proper), took the fancy of Dingiswayo, who elevated him first to a
post of high command, and eventually to the