, my brothers--dogs of mine own house
whom I have fed, thinking to possess the land? I tell you that I hear
the sound of running feet, the feet of a great white people, and they
shall stamp you flat, children of my father.'

After the death of Chaka his brother Dingaan reigned who had murdered
him. In due course he was murdered also, and his brother Panda succeeded
to the throne. Panda was a man of peace, and the only one of the four
Zulu kings who died a natural death; for though it is not commonly
known, the last of these kings, our enemy Cetywayo, is believed to have
met his end by poison. In 1873, Cetywayo was crowned king of Zululand in
succession to his father Panda on behalf of the English Government by
Sir Theophilus Shepstone. He remained a firm friend to the British till
Sir Bartle Frere declared war on him in 1879. Sir Bartle Frere made war
upon the Zulus because he was afraid of their power, and the Zulus
accepted the challenge because we annexed the Transvaal and would not
allow them to fight the Boers or the Swazis. They made a brave
resistance, and it was not until there were nearly as many English
soldiers in their country armed with breech-loading rifles as they had
effective warriors left alive in it, for the most part armed with spears
only, that at length we conquered them. But their heart was never in the
war; they defended their country against invasion indeed, but by
Cetywayo's orders they never attacked ours. Had they wished to do so,
there was nothing to prevent them from sweeping the outlying districts
of Natal and the Transvaal after our first great defeat at Isandhlwana,
but they spared us.

And now I have done with dull explanations, and will go on to tell of
the disaster at Isandhlwana or the 'place of the Little Hand,' and of
the noble defence of Rorke's Drift.

On the 20th of January, 1879, one of the British columns that were
invading Zululand broke its camp on the left bank of the Buffalo river,
and marched by the road that ran from Rorke's Drift to the Indeni
forest, encamping that evening under the shadow of a steep-cliffed and
lonely mountain, called Isandhlwana. This force was known as number 3
column, and with it went Lord Chelmsford, the general in command of the
troops. The buildings at Rorke's Drift were left in charge of sixty men
of the 2nd battalion 24th regiment under the late Colonel Bromhead, then
a lieutenant, and some volunteers and others, the whole garrison being
co