Chaka not only led his army in person, but was accustomed himself to seize the first victim, and to kill him with his spear. After subduing the petty tribes around, he bore his victorious arms further, and carried fire and sword along the slopes of the Drakenberg Mountains. One of his greatest conquests was over the Undwandwa people, and this was followed by the destruction of the Umtetwas. An attack was then made upon the brave Amaquabi, who occupied both sides of the Tugela river, which forms the present boundary of Natal. Merciless slaughters followed victory, and the tide of conquest only ceased on the banks of the Umsimvoboo. In the year 1828, Lieutenant Farewell, Mr. H. Fynn, and a few others, were permitted to visit Chaka, who then resided at a distance of about 150 miles in a north-north-east direction from D'Urban, Port Natal. The Englishmen were received by the mighty Zulu potentate with great ceremony. Nine thousand armed warriors stood around, and the despotic character of the monarch was reflected in the servile submission with which he was treated by his subjects. Chaka munificently granted a large tract of country to Mr. H. Fynn, and subsequently conferred a similar favour upon Lieutenant King. These grants—and all grants of this nature—were, strictly speaking, mere feudal investitures, paramount rights being retained by the monarch. The first European settlement in Natal was thus formed. An act of treason on the part of one of Chaka's greatest lieutenants alienated him from his native land, and became the means of carrying fire and sword north of the Drakenberg Mountains as far as Bamangwato. Moselekatsi, whom Captain Harris styles the "Lion of the North," was this lieutenant. Wherever he moved destruction and death marked his path, and he soon succeeded in rearing another cruel military despotism over the graves of those whom he had conquered. [Sidenote: _Assassination of Chaka._] The last army of Chaka which went forth to destroy was itself destroyed by one of those strange judgments which bear analogy to that inflicted on the hosts of Sennacherib. A nation dwelling close to the Palula river had to be conquered, but before this place was reached a frightful disease, styled "blood sickness," broke out, and was so fatal in its results that only a few men of the great army were able to return to tell the tale. Scarcely had this event occurred, when the tyrant was himself assassinated. Chaka was seated peacefully in his kraal, near the Umvoti river, surrounded by his councillors and principal officers, when a band of desperate men, headed by his brother Dingaan, rushed among them, and each, seizing his victim, plunged a spear into his heart. Thus perished the Napoleon of the Zulu race, by the hand of his own nearest relative, and at a moment when he did not suspect treachery or dream of any insurrection against his well-consolidated power.