THE AMAZULU NATION. 
2(1 
The Zulus, under Timka, became a very powerful nation ; they subjugated all the Bechuana tribes who surrounded 
them, and carried their devastations over a great portion of South Africa; the dread of them was so universal 
they were styled Lifakani, or those who hew down, by the adjacent people, who describe their attacks as the rushing 
of lions upon them. There is not a more powerful Kafir nation known than that of the Amazulu, and they are 
the only one who possess a monarchy, the most absolute and despotic, perhaps, to be met with in any part of 
the globe. 
Amongst the Amazulu, the boys tend the cattle, of which they have immense herds, and to obtain which they 
are constantly going to war with surrounding tribes. The men go to battle, and every male subject of the king, 
from the age of fourteen to forty, is enrolled as a soldier; -on leaving the service, after the age ol about forty, the 
men employ themselves in manufacturing weapons, pickaxes, spoons, and wooden jars for holding milk, and they 
constitute a species of veteran corps, never to be called out hut in eases ot necessity. The women make pottery, 
do all the field and garden work, and attend to the domestic duties of the “ kraal. * The troops are divided into 
distinct regiments, distinguished by the colour of their ox-hide shields; they are dispersed throughout the country and 
kept in military" towns apart from the rest of the people, who dwell in smaller kraals, and are employed in tending 
the herds of cattle, cultivating their extensive gardens of maize and millet, and preparing beer and suuff for the king. 
The regiments consist of from eight hundred to one thousand men each; a certain number ot cattle are allotted to 
them by the king, but these they dare not touch without his orders. The despot does with them as he pleases; when 
they are absent, and even when they are present, he sacrifices whom he will to his ambition. On returning from an 
expedition his soldiers are rewarded, if successful, by a share of the spoil; if, on the other hand, they have fled before 
their enemies—if they have returned without their assagais and shield, they must lay their account to certain death when 
they present themselves before their sovereign. From this reason numbers never do return to their homes, but take 
refuge in the countries around as the only means of saving their lives.f 
The military force of the nation is composed of twenty-six regiments, each commanded by an Indium, or captain, a 
lieutenant, and two sub-lieutenants. These regiments live in the military kraals, or garrison towns, which, like all the 
other kraals, are of a circular form, and surrounded by high palisades. The king usually passes a few weeks at each of 
the great military towns in Succession, but he does not lead his soldiers to battle in person. Although the king is a 
despot in every sense of the word, yet he has two great chamberlains, or Indiums, who are pretty aptly styled “ the two 
wolves of the king.” These two officers, though the highest in rank amongst his subjects, and frequently admitted into 
the confidence of the king on matters of importance, never move in the seraglio hut on their knees, and with their eyes 
to the ground, in the presence of Urapanda. 
I never have seen anything appear more truly savage than these Zulu soldiers, of athletic frame and warlike mien, 
when arrayed for battle; covered with the skins and hair of beasts, and the streaming tails of leopards and other animals, 
their heads adorned with the plumes of the crane and the ostrich, and their huge buckler of hide, above which protrude 
the bristling points of their well-sharpened assagais. The neighbouring tribes say, “ they are not men, but eaters of men.” 
In the morning they drink a kind of beer, made by fermenting millet, called outchualla , and said to be strengthening, 
which intoxicates them; and in the evening they eat plentifully of beef, without any vegetable food whatever. This diet 
renders them robust, ferocious, and capable, 1 am told, of continuing without food as long as the vultures. The war-dance 
constitutes the most important part of their military training, and in this those regiments who carry the white shields 
excel, they being the flower of the army, consisting only of picked men. If once disarmed by the enemy in battle they 
must inevitably perish; and in attack, the black shields, who are the youngest soldiers and least experienced, are always 
placed in the van, having white chiefs following near them, who have instructions to slay all fugitives without mercy, hi 
military expeditions they sleep naked; they live on pillage and on oxen driven with them as provision by the way. There 
are other oxen which they take to serve as guides to the captured cattle on their return, and, if need be, to themselves, 
so instinctively do they return to their old pastures. 
• Kraal signifies a Kafir town or village, an enclosure; it is a word of colonial origin. 
T The 13ritifli colony of Natal, which lies to the south of the Zulu country and is divided from it by the Tugala River, is thickly peopled g 
these Zulu refugees and their families; it is estimated that there arc ut least one hundred thousand of them now dwelling under the protection 
the British power. They have proved of great service to the colonists as servants and herdsmen, urn] many of them are employed in the lOttoi 
plantations, as they are willing to work for a very low rate of wages, and their diet is usually milk and Indian corn. In Port Natal they (HI ‘ 
hired ns low as four shillings per mouth, and a boy will hind himself for a year on promise of a cow at the expiration of the term. For <>) 
own part, I imagine the settlement in Natal of these refugees from King Panda's territory is not only advantageous to the settlors, but also a mean 
of protection to the colony, should it be attacked by neighbouring Kafirs, or by the Amazulu themselves: these men are now living in peace and pk'"? 
on locations granted them by Government; and were they to be captured again by their former tyrant, a cruel death would be the only prospect or 
themselves, their wives, and their little ones. These refugees have also the benefit of Christian instruction; there are no less than five American 
stations amongst the Natal Kafirs, besides schools for teaching them to read and w rite. They are an interesting people, and if the European r 
will only act towards them in a consistent manner, regarding them as fellow-creatures, 1 have little doubt but that wc shall see in Natal what we rare 
can expect to see in our colonics—the aboriginal race flourishing and happy. 
