SOUTHERN AFRICA. 811 



CHAPTER XLII. 



FALL OF UYS IN AN ABORTIVE INVASION OF THE ZOOLOO 



TERRITORIES. — ANNIHILATION OF THE NATAL 



SETTLERS,— AND DEATH OF MARITZ. 



Affairs had now reached a portentous crisis. The emi- 

 g'rants composing- the nearest reserve division on the western 

 side of the Draakenherg, were not long in resolving to make 

 an irruption into the Zooloo country, in order to retaliate 

 upon the head of the ruthless savage, the promiscuous and 

 wanton slaughter of their hapless countrymen. On the 6th 

 of April, a force consisting of nearty four hundred mounted 

 Boors from the second encampment, marched upon Unkun- 

 kinglove under the command of Piet Uys and Jacobus Pot- 

 geiter. The former of these was a patriarch, who during the 

 preceding year had abandoned the colony under peculiar 

 circumstances, with his descendants to the third generation. 

 Manj^ of these had alread}^ miserably perished, and it was 

 now the veteran's turn to mingle his bones with theirs, un- 

 buried, in a distant land. Entering Dingaan's territories 

 from the westward, the invading force found the country 

 depopulated, not the smallest opposition being' offered until 

 they arrived within sight of Unkunkinglove, when they per- 

 ceived the whole Zooloo army drawn up on the heights for 

 the defence of the capital. Two divisions were advan- 

 tageously posted on some rocks which formed a crescent, 

 throug'h a long narrow defile in which lay the road to the 

 royal residence ; whilst a third was placed in ambuscade, 

 with orders to close in upon the rear of the attacking party, 



