Sir Bartle Frere does not seem to have thought very much of the matter at first, for Sir M. Hicks-Beach, when acknowledging his despatch reporting it, says (2220, p. 320): “I concur with you in attributing no special importance to the seizure and temporary arrest of the surveyors, which was partly due to their own indiscretion, and was evidently in no way sanctioned by the Zulu authorities.” But a little later—although with no fresh facts before him—Sir B. Frere takes a very different tone (2222, p. 176). “I cannot at all agree with the lenient view taken by the Lieut.-Governor of this case. Had it stood quite alone, a prompt apology and punishment of the offenders might have been sufficient. As the case stands, it was only one of many instances of insult and threatening, such as cannot possibly be passed over without severe notice being taken of them. What occurred,” he says, “whether done by the king’s order, or only by his border-guards, and subsequently only tacitly approved by his not punishing the offenders, seems to me a most serious insult and outrage, and should be severely noticed.” There is no sign that it was ever brought to the king’s knowledge, and when Sir B. Frere speaks of its being “only one of many instances of insult and threatening,” he is drawing largely on his imagination, as there is _no other recorded at all_, unless he means to refer to the “notices to quit” in the disputed territory of which we have already treated. We must now consider the points connected with the internal management of the Zulu country, which have generally been looked upon as a partial excuse for our invasion. Foremost amongst these is the infraction of the so-called “coronation promises,” of which we have spoken in a previous chapter. Frequent rumours were current in Natal that the king, in defiance of the said promises, was in the habit of shedding the blood of his people upon the smallest provocation, and without any form of trial. Such stories of his inhuman atrocities were circulated in the colony that many kind-hearted and gentle people were ready to think that war would be a lesser evil. Yet, whenever one of these stories was examined into or traced to its source, it turned out either to be purely imaginary, or to have for its foundation some small act of more or less arbitrary authority, the justice of which we might possibly question, but to which no one would apply the words “barbarities,” “savage murders,” etc.