100 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XII. 



he discoursed freely on war, and talked with con- 

 fidence of routing his enemies — being withal ex- 

 ceedingly wary, and using every precaution to 

 conceal, even from his generals and chiefs, the real 

 power with which he designed to contend ; pre- 

 cluding, by this crafty discretion, the possibility of 

 his enemies being in readiness for the march. 

 Should he not lead the army in person, his plans 

 were confided to a general-in-chief, who, however, 

 was never selected for command on a second occasion. 

 It was his invariable policy also to harangue his 

 warriors at their departure, in language calculated 

 to raise their expectations, and elate them in the 

 hour of battle ; but in order to prevent any trea- 

 cherous communication with the enemy, the true 

 object of the expedition was still studiously con- 

 cealed, and the soldiers induced to believe that they 

 were about to attack any but the devoted tribe. 

 Achieving a signal triumph, the spoils were liberally 

 divided amongst them, as a stimulus to further 

 exertion ; but defeat, under any circumstances, was 

 the watchword for a scene of woe and lamentation, 

 and for a massacre of no measured description — 

 numbers of brave men being hurried off, upon the 

 fiat of their ruthless and unappeasable master, to b^ 

 impaled as a warning beacon to future expeditions. 

 In all civilized countries cowardice in the army 

 is very properly punished with death, the testimony 

 of guilt having first been fully established ; but 

 Chaka was neither remarkable for his nice discri- 

 mination, nor for his minute investig-ation of a 



