A little later, though, the Boers found another, more woeful significance for the blazing of the Comet. Under the leadership of Piet Relief, a thousand Boer families had trekked across the Drakensberg Mountains into Natal. A solemn treaty of peace with the Zulu warriors was entered into with Dingaan, the chief of the Zulus at Dingaan’s Kraal. Suddenly the Zulus pounced upon the unsuspecting Piet Relief and his sixty-five Boer followers and massacred them to a man. Then the Zulus, numbering some 10,000 warriors, swept out into the veldt and made for the Boer wagon trains. Near Colenso, at a spot called Weenen (weeping), in remembrance of the dreadful tragedy there perpetrated, the Zulus overwhelmed the Boer laager and slaughtered all its inmates—41 men, 56 women, 185 children and 250 Kaffir slaves. After this bloody massacre, equalling in horror the Massacre of the Alamo on the other side of the world, the Comet of 1835-36 was seen no more. 1758-1759 This was the first return of the Comet predicted by Halley. Hence it must be reckoned as the first appearance of “Halley’s Comet” under his name. It was first seen on Christmas night, 1758, by John Palitsch, a Saxon farmer, near Dresden, who was looking for it with a self-constructed telescope of eight-foot focus. The Comet did not become visible to the naked eye until well into 1759. It passed around the sun on March 12, 1759. After that it was seen throughout Europe during April and May, appearing at its brightest during the first week in May. Later it was seen to advantage in the Southern Hemisphere. In Germany, where it was seen at its fiercest, the Comet was taken as a token of the bloody Seven Years’ War, which was then being fought between Frederick the Great and his enemies on all sides. The ominous Comet had scarcely vanished from view when all Germany was overrun by marching armies from France, from Austria, from Russia. The French, under the Duke of Broglie, overthrew the Germans, under the Duke of Brunswick, at Bergen, and seized the city of Frankfurt. Then came the bloody battle of Minden, in which two large French armies were beaten. Meanwhile the Russians were marching into Prussia, and another bloody battle was fought at Kay in midsummer. Within a fortnight King Frederick the Great and his whole army were overthrown by the Austrians and Russians in the disastrous battle of Kunersdorf. Another Prussian army was overcome at Maxen, where 13,000 Prussians were taken. Altogether, during this year’s campaigns, several hundred thousand soldiers lost their lives. It was the worst year of the Seven Years’ War for Frederick the Great and his soldiers, who attributed their bloody defeats to the ill omen of the Comet. In other parts of the world, likewise, the coming of the Comet was followed by widespread war and bloody fighting.