The main object of this book is to describe the military operations of the Rebellion of 1906-08, a rebellion in which a considerable section of the Zulus of Natal and Zululand took up arms against the Government of Natal. Such conflict was, of course, between a race of savages on the one hand, and a number of Europeans or representatives of Western Civilization on the other. An account of the campaign that ensued might, indeed, succeed in holding the reader's attention and even afford information of practical value. However that may be, whenever great and sudden outbursts of hostility occur in human society, no one is quite satisfied unless he can, at the same time, learn something of the inner or underlying circumstances under which they came to take place. Particularly is this the case when, as in the present instance, the hostilities were planned by people with whom the British race had been in close contact and on terms of amity for upwards of eighty years. This aspect of the matter will, therefore, be kept carefully in view, in the hope that some of that fuller information, which, it is assumed, every reader naturally desires to have, may be afforded. In order that this better understanding may be obtained, it is necessary to begin with the first coming into contact of the colonists with the Zulu people. It was in May, 1824, that the first group of European settlers arrived in Natal by sea from the Cape Colony.[2] They found large tracts of country about Port Natal almost uninhabited.[3] Learning that the King of that important section of the Bantu family, the great and terrible Tshaka, then residing in what is now called Zululand, claimed the territory as his, they immediately repaired to the royal headquarters, Bulawayo,[4] obtained from the despot permission to take up their abode at the Port and enter into commercial dealings with his people. Notwithstanding the ease with which a footing was obtained, their position was, for many years, one of very considerable insecurity, which, indeed, was inevitable under the prevailing mode of government. The circumstances might have been different had the Zulu dynasty been long in power. As it was, for barely a decade had any kingdom existed in those parts, its existence having been brought about by Tshaka himself by means of a newly-created and remarkable military system, to be described in a later chapter, under which practically every man and youth capable of bearing arms was bound to serve. As, through the King's aggressive tactics, the borders of the country were being rapidly expanded, it can be seen his forces were constantly being augmented in proportion.