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.

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.

Dingaan—"poor fellow!"—was no doubt secretly encouraged by a large portion of the Zulu people. A number of the principal captains and friends of the late monarch fled, and several were put to death. The new capital was removed from the Umvati river to the White Umvolosi river, distant 45 miles in a direct line from the sea, and about 160 miles from D'Urban. The favour that had been extended by Chaka to the few Englishmen who arrived in Natal with Mr. H. Fynn was a sufficient reason for the adoption by his successor of an exactly opposite policy. An army of 3000 men was sent to D'Urban, and the few English settlers escaped with the utmost difficulty. Every vestige of property was destroyed. Quietness was, however, restored in a few years afterwards, and in the year 1833 Dingaan sent down spies to find out what progress had been made by the intruders.

Captain Allen Gardiner arrived in 1835, and proceeded to the great place of the king. This missionary traveller mentions incidentally that, according to treaty, he brought back several men who had fled from the cruel despotism of the Zulu monarch. These captives fully calculated upon being put to death. Captain Gardiner pleaded for them, and was able to assure them that the king had promised to spare their lives. Nowha, one of the unfortunate prisoners, mournfully replied, "They are killing us now;" and they were all cruelly tortured to death by starvation.[2]

In consequence of various causes, among which discontent with British rule requires prominent mention, a number of Dutch farmers left the Cape Colony in 1835, and, under the command of Pieter Retief, crossed the Drakensberg Mountains in 1837, and entered Natal. Their leader proceeded to Dingaan's capital, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty of peace and obtaining a formal cession of territory. In the last week of January, 1838, Pieter Retief, accompanied by seventy picked horsemen, crossed the Buffalo river, and on the 2nd of February arrived at Dingaan's kraal. The Zulu monarch fixed the 4th of February as the day for signing a formal cession of an immense district in Natal to the emigrant Boers. The necessary document, drawn out by the Rev. Mr. Owen, missionary, with Dingaan, was duly signed, and business having been satisfactorily concluded, the Dutchmen were invited into the king's kraal to take leave of Dingaan. As requested, Retief and his followers left their arms outside. The Zulu monarch, surrounded by his favourite regiments, conversed in the most friendly manner, and while a "stirrup cup" of maize beer was in course of being drunk, suddenly cried out, "Bulala matagati!"—"Kill the wizards!" These words were the signal for a cruel massacre. More than 3000 savages beat to death, with knobkerries, the unfortunate Dutchmen who had been weak enough to trust to Zulu promises and Zulu honesty. The corpses of the slaughtered men were dragged out of the kraal to an adjacent hillock, and there allowed to become the prey of wolves and vultures.

Dingaan looked upon the massacre of the farmers who had vainly trusted to his honour as only a commencement of hostilities. Ten regiments were immediately ordered out to exterminate all the Dutch emigrants. While these people were, without suspicion, waiting for the return of their husbands and relatives, a Zulu army crawled up to their nearest camp, near the Blaauwkrantz river, close to the present commemorative town of Weenen, or "Weeping." A sudden surprise at the dawn of day was effected, and then ensued the barbarous murder in cold blood of every man, woman, and child. Other detachments surprised other parties, and few escaped. The destroying army moved swiftly southward and towards the sea. Wherever the "laager" plan was adopted, it was successful; and at "Necht Laager," on the Bushmans river, a few determined men succeeded in defending themselves against an overwhelming force of savages. The engagement lasted all day, but when the farmers' ammunition was nearly exhausted, the fire from a 3-pounder, rigged at the back of one of the waggons, killed several Zulu chiefs, and caused a precipitate retreat. The men who were afterwards able to visit the principal scenes of slaughter discovered frightful scenes of horror and misery. Waggons were demolished, and by their ruins lay the corpses of men, women, and children abandoned to the wild beasts. Among the heaps of dead found at Weenen two young girls were picked out, one of whom had been pierced by nineteen assegai stabs, and the other by twenty-one. Both survived, although they remained cripples for life. It is estimated that in one week 600 white settlers were sacrificed as victims to the savage treachery of Dingaan.

Vengeance was determined upon by the Dutch emigrants, and a party of 400, having placed themselves under the command of Piet Uys and of Hendrik Potgieter, advanced from the Klip River Division against Dingaan. This took place in April, 1838; but unfortunately, shortly before, a party of Englishmen from D'Urban, with 700 friendly Zulus, having crossed the Tugela river near its mouth and destroyed a native town, the army of Dingaan, which had been kept in reserve, suddenly surrounded them and killed nearly every European.[3] The conquerors followed up their success as far as D'Urban, and forced the few white people then resident there to take refuge on board a vessel named the Comet, fortunately lying at anchor in the bay. Dingaan, with his principal forces, watched the Dutch emigrants, and learned that Piet Uys and Hendrik Potgieter had placed themselves at the head of 400 men, with the object of invading Zululand. The wily savage allowed the Dutchmen to advance to a place closed in between two hills, within a few miles of his capital, and thence led them to a valley, where a desperate hand-to-hand combat took place. The farmers had been accustomed to fight by firing from horseback, and then falling back rapidly to reload. They were so hemmed in by their position, that this mode of procedure was impossible, and they were at last, in desperation, compelled to concentrate their fire on one portion of the Zulu host. They then charged through the gap thus