[Footnote 3: The notorious Zulu King Tshaka's catastrophic reign began about 1814. Great tribes were, at quick intervals between then and 1820, driven headlong into Natal, only to sweep the peaceful inhabitants of the land away with them into the Cape Colony and elsewhere. Three or four of these appalling exoduses, taking place by no means only on the south-west boundary of Zululand, soon denuded Natal, and other adjacent territories, of the greater portion of their aboriginal population. The country was transformed into a howling wilderness, overrun with lions, hyænas, and wolves; and any stray wight, who had succeeded in evading the Zulu fury and was eking out an existence on wild-roots or shell-fish, was hunted by members of his own species, so far de-humanized, within half-a-dozen years, as to have become converted into expert and voracious cannibals.] [Footnote 4: It was after this kraal that Mzilikazi, "the lion of the North," named his own principal kraal--a name subsequently adopted by the Chartered Company of Rhodesia for the already well-known town established on the site of the kraal.] [Footnote 5: Bird, _Annals of Natal,_ 194.] [Footnote 6: _Ibid._ i. 326.] [Footnote 7: Much of the earlier history of the Colony will be found in the following works: N. Isaacs, _Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa_, 2 vols. London, 1836; Capt. Allen F. Gardiner, _A Journey to the Zoolu Country_, London, 1836; H.F. Fynn, _Papers_, printed in part on pp. 60-124, vol. i. Bird's _Annals of Natal_, Pietermaritzburg, 1888. Up to the day of his death, Fynn, the friend of Isaacs and the source from which the latter drew much of the information in the work above quoted, was the final authority on all matters appertaining to the Natives of South-East Africa. He, fortunately, left a number of valuable manuscripts. These are being prepared for the press by the author. They include a large quantity of matter connected with early Zulu history, customs and habits hitherto unpublished.] [Footnote 8: Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal, was laid off by them.] [Footnote 9: Among these were the _Natal Frontier Guards_, _Weenen Yeomanry_, _Victoria Mounted Rifles_, _Alexandra Mounted Rifles_, _Natal Hussars_, _Royal Durban Rifles_, Natal Carbineers, Natal Mounted Rifles, Border Mounted Rifles, Natal Field Artillery, Durban Light Infantry, Natal Royal Rifles, also the Natal Mounted Police and _Natal Native Police_. (The corps in italics have either ceased to exist or been merged in those printed in ordinary type.) The last-named corps, organized in 1848, and about 150 strong, was disbanded by the Government in 1854, without any reasons being given as to why such action had become necessary. To this day, Natives wonder what the reasons could have been. Mr. (later, Sir) Theophilus Shepstone, was its captain-in-chief.] [Footnote 10: Often wrongly spelt "laagers." See Glossary.] [Footnote 11: Known as Bushman's Pass.]