These remarks already show the change in sentiment, on Sir T. Shepstone’s part, which was more markedly displayed at the Blood River meeting between him and the Zulu indunas. The conference proved an utter failure, as also did several other attempts on Sir T. Shepstone’s part to persuade the Zulus to relinquish to him, on behalf of the Transvaal, the claims upon which they had so long insisted. On December 5th, 1877, two indunas came from Cetshwayo to the Bishop of Natal with a request that he would put the Zulu claim in writing, to be sent to Sir H. Bulwer and the Queen. The same indunas, a few days later, with Umfunzi and ’Nkisimane—messengers from Cetshwayo—appointed, before a notary public, Dr. Walter Smith and Mr. F. E. Colenso to be “diplomatic agents” for Cetshwayo, “who should communicate on his behalf in the English language, and, when needful, in writing,” and especially to “treat with the British Government on the boundary question” (2000, p. 58);[75] which appointment, however, Sir H. Bulwer and Sir T. Shepstone refused to recognise; and the former, having proposed the Border Commission before receiving notice of this appointment—though the Commissioners had not yet started from ’Maritzburg—did not feel it advisable, as “no such appointment had been made by the Zulu king,”[76] to communicate to Messrs. Smith and Colenso Lord Carnarvon’s despatch (January 21st, 1878), which said: “I request that you will inform Mr. Smith and Mr. Colenso that the desire of Her Majesty’s Government in this matter is that the boundary question shall be fully and fairly discussed, and a just arrangement arrived at, and that you will refer them to Sir T. Shepstone, to whom has been committed the duty of negotiating on the subject.”[77] Meanwhile, however, Sir T. Shepstone’s “negotiations” had proved unsuccessful, and Sir Henry Bulwer writes to Sir Bartle Frere (2000, p. 68): “It seems but too clear, from all that has now happened, that the prospect of a settlement of the question by direct negotiations between the Government of the Transvaal and the Zulu king is at an end. The feeling against the Boers on the part of the Zulu king and people is too bitter, and they are now scarcely less angry against the new Government of the Transvaal than they were against the old Government.” He then suggests arbitration as a way by which the Zulu king “can escape the alternative of war, by which he can obtain justice, and by which, at the same time, he can avoid direct negotiations with the Government of a people whom he dislikes and distrusts.” The diplomatic agents were never recognised by the colonial authorities, or allowed to exercise their functions; but a visit which Mr. Colenso paid to the Zulu king in connection with the appointment is worth recording for the sake of the glimpse it gives of Cetshwayo’s habits and daily life, as told by a disinterested eye-witness.