1. No sooner had we put down the Kaffirs and annexed their territory to Cape Colony than we had to advance into Zululand and finally add that country to the Empire. The Zulus were then under the rule of their king Cetewayo, who kept a large army, well drilled and armed with musket and assegai. This force was a standing peril to Natal, and to save this colony from the horrors it feared, a British force crossed the Tugela--which separates Natal from Zululand--to destroy, if possible, the Zulu king's "man-slaying machine." 2. The invading army crossed the river at a ford called _Rorke's Drift_ (1879), and a division of the troops suffered a great disaster, not far from there, at Isandlana. Happily, a small detachment had been left to guard the passage at the ford. The command of this post was in the hands of Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead, whose names deserve an honoured place in our memory. With a force of 104 men they made an heroic defence against a savage host of 3000 warriors, who had reddened their assegais in the blood of our countrymen, taken by surprise, at Isandlana. 3. During the fight a building used as a hospital was set on fire by the Zulus. The brave defenders gallantly repulsed every attack whilst the sick were removed. A sort of redoubt was then constructed of bags of mealies in the centre of the camp, and when hard pressed to this they retired. The vigour of the siege continued from four in the afternoon until midnight. With the first light of morning the Zulus retired, on hearing of the approach of the British main-body, leaving three hundred black corpses on the ground. Of the gallant defenders seventeen were killed and ten wounded. 4. When the British General first came in sight of Rorke's Drift and saw smoke rising from the burning hospital, he felt certain that the depot had been captured, and that Natal, at that moment, lay at the mercy of a horde of savages. But he was quickly relieved at the sight of a British flag and the sound of a British cheer, and then he learned the story of the defence of that isolated post by the undaunted resolution of a little band of heroes, by whose conduct Natal was saved from invasion and massacre. 5. After a large force had landed from England, the invasion of Zululand was renewed, and a pitched battle, fought at Ulundi, brought the war to a close. To prevent the country from falling into the hands of the Boers, Zululand was annexed to Natal, and now forms part of the British Empire. The Zulus have ever since lived in peace and contentment.