Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South AfricaMatthews, J. W. (Josiah Wright)
History
Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South Africa
Matthews, J. W. (Josiah Wright)
Diamond mines and mining -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
Then if we consider the refusal of Cetywayo to give up the men who made
a raid into Natal (see appendix, ultimatum, clause 10, etc.), but
instead was busy massing his warriors, and further, the recollection
still fresh in the memory of all (when my own father-in-law had to fly
for his life), how Cetywayo’s uncles, Tchaka and Dingaan, had swept
Natal time after time, until “before Tchaka was killed” by his brother
Dingaan, “he was supposed to have destroyed a million of human beings,”
who will blame the anxiety of the colonists, especially when at this
time the native tribes in the Cape Colony and Griqualand West were all
engaged in rebellion against the English government?
The next factor in this war was the annexation of the Transvaal by the
English government, professedly as a protection against the natives. The
land dispute between the Transvaal and Cetywayo (see appendix, ultimatum
clause, 3 to 10) had to be taken with the republic, and now the task of
appeasing both parties in the matter was more than any government could
possibly accomplish. The delay in settling the disputed land question
had led to an impatient act on Cetywayo’s part (see appendix, ultimatum,
clause 4). The English government, knowing well all the weary years of
waiting which Cetywayo had borne, might well overlook this action; but
when it did at last appoint a commission to settle the question,
Cetywayo received a part only of the land he claimed.
Whether the idea was right or wrong, that now the Transvaal had been
annexed the view taken by the government was changed by self-interest,
it is no less a fact that Cetywayo was disappointed, and fresh fuel had
been added to his disaffection.
At this time Sir Bartle Frere had come upon the scene, confederation
being his mission. The danger of an army of trained warriors, 50,000
strong, at the command of an uncivilized king, on the very border of
little Natal, was a very great obstacle; and considering Cetywayo’s
sullen attitude, what colony in its senses would agree to be
confederated with a little colony having such a danger upon its borders?
Time can never prove whether Sir Bartle Frere’s judgment was right or
wrong in sending the ultimatum and outrageous demands to Cetywayo which
forced the war upon him.
There was one man, Mr. John Dunn, who _might_ from his thorough
knowledge of the Zulus have averted this war; unfortunately his attempt
was delayed until too late, (See appendix—John Dunn’s letter to the
Aborigines’ Protection Society). In Mr. Dunn’s book,[81] which is very
interesting reading, he does not tell us of any effort he made with the
Natal government to prevent the war, and one cannot help wishing that he
had gone earnestly and unceasingly to work, both with the English
government and Cetywayo, with that persistency which surely tells in a
good cause. Possibly John Dunn did not realize the situation in time.
[Illustration:
CETYWAYO’S WAGON CROSSING THE INPOLOGI RIVER, ZULULAND.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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