before the complete and effectual ruin which marks the progress of a Zulu conqueror. [Sidenote: _Sir Bartle Frere._] In times of peace the army remains at military kraals, and is occasionally called up to the great place of the king for review. It is always in a state of readiness, and burning for employment. War is the pastime, glory, and wish of the men, who eagerly desire to wash their spears in blood, that they may obtain the only glory for which they care to live, and secure that plunder which can enable them to acquire wives and cattle. Nothing could be more dangerous, or a more awful threat to a colony, than an army of this description under the orders of a despotic savage, without the slightest principle, and urged on to fight by all the traditions and ideas of his race. Let it be remembered also that the country of Natal was once owned by the Zulus, and that, while held by a garrison of only 20,000 whites, there were no fewer than 300,000 savage heathen inhabitants in it of similar colour, race, and religion to the people of Cetywayo. Once let the flood-gates be lifted and a conquering "invulnerable" army enter Natal, nothing could prevent the general rising of the vast masses of natives within that colony. If that had occurred, British dominion would have set in an ocean of blood, and every white man, woman, and child in the settlement must have been slaughtered. It was one wise, good man who averted that catastrophe, and his name was Bartle Frere. Slowly, but most certainly, will the mists of prejudice be lifted from the minds of the English people, and they will learn to know that the policy they so much vilified saved the British name from dishonour, and the British people and British interests in South Africa from destruction. CHAPTER III. EVENTS PRELIMINARY TO ZULU WAR—COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. [Sidenote: _The Transvaal in danger._]