Zulu War, 1879; Zululand (South Africa) -- History -- To 1879
of view, is evident from the description of the boundary furnished
by Major Charters, military secretary to Sir George Napier. This
able officer says: "The line of frontier is all in favour of the
Kafirs; a dense jungle—the medium breadth is about five miles—torn
and intersected by deep ravines, a great part impenetrable except
to Kafirs and wild beasts, occupies about one hundred miles of
frontier, following the sinuosities of the Great Fish river. The
whole British army would be insufficient to guard it." In fact,
this country comprised what, by analogy, may be styled the Kafir
quadrilateral, or combination of almost impregnable fortresses.
British and colonial blood had to be poured out as water in the
wars of 1845 and 1852 to recapture this country; but fanaticism
and prejudice are always impervious to argument. "Their blood be
upon us and upon our children" is a sentence often repeated in
history, so when the Waterloo veteran and gallant British soldier,
Sir Benjamin D'Urban, was dismissed for doing his duty, Lord
Glenelg defiantly wrote, "You announce to me the abandonment of the
province of Adelaide and cast on me the responsibility of all the
consequent disasters you predict. I am perfectly ready to take upon
myself the sole and exclusive responsibility on this occasion."
It is difficult to find language sufficiently strong to stigmatize
the base perfidy and fatuous incompetency of the Glenelg policy.
A colony is acquired and its people exchange allegiance for
protection; later on 5000 British emigrants are placed in its
frontier districts. The savages in and beyond the borders of this
country are numerically far superior to our own subjects, and
systematically send in plundering bands who devastate the country
and impoverish the farmers. It is these savages who make war, and
in defence it is at last absolutely necessary either to repel the
invaders or to abandon the country. The case, let it be remembered,
is not one of emigrants seizing a country and then applying for
protection. It is the British Government which established its
sovereignty first and sent its emigrants afterwards. With immense
exertion, and at the cost of much blood and treasure, the savage
tide is pushed back—and then Lord Glenelg deliberately makes it
flow again over the conquered country, perfidiously becomes the
ally and friend of the savages and creates a cruel necessity—no
other than that of doing the work over again in the bloody wars
of 1845 and 1852. There is scarcely anything in history to form a
parallel to this gross injustice and perfidy. Yet at the present
moment a large party of fanatical "philanthropists" in England are
crying out for a repetition of the same policy in Natal. The tide
will be pushed back to Cetywayo's kraal, but we must abandon the
country after we conquer it. The Zulu King made the war, and it
is as purely one of righteous self-defence as any ever waged in
the world; yet we are told that the colonists provoked it and are
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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