Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/249

 the Boers descending from the inland plateaux and seizing one camping-ground after another. A "New Republic" was thus constituted, with the obvious intention of soon forming it into a maritime province of Transvaal. But this open violation of their conventions with the suzerain power compelled the interference of Great Britain, which by extending its protectorate over the southern part of Zululand arrested the aggressive advance of the Transvaal Boers, who were instinctively seeking an independent outlet for their trade on the nearest seaboard to their domain.

Owing to this action of the stronger power all the coastlands from the mouth of the Tugela to the river Maputa, which flows to Delagoa Bay, belong henceforth to England. But the upland valleys of the border ranges draining to the Indian Ocean have become an integral part of the South African Republic. The superficial area of the now partitioned land, where predominate the three nations of the Zulus, Swazis, and Tongas, is estimated at 20,000 square miles, with a total population of about two hundred thousand souls. The fragment attached to the Transvaal under the name of the "New Republic" comprises a space of nearly 3,000 square miles, while British Zululand, henceforth placed under the administration of the Governor of Natal, has an area of 8,500 square miles.

The Zulus (Ama-Zulus) are far less numerous in the land where they were till recently masters than in the colony of Natal, where they are kept under strict control, but where they have every opportunity of gaining a livelihood by manual labour. In the territory limited southwards by the Tugela they are at present estimated at scarcely more than a hundred thousand. But the land has been for generations wasted by sanguinary wars of succession, followed by foreign invasions by which whole provinces were depopulated. In 1879 occurred the final struggle in which the Zulus ventured to make a stand against the English. Despite their inferior discipline and defective armaments they were victorious in some engagements, notably at Isandhlwana, a spot lying near the left bank of the Buffalo (Upper Tugela), to the east of its confluence with the Blood River. Here is situated the ford of Rorke's Drift, the possession of which was frequently disputed as one of the most important strategic points in the whole territory. The English after seizing it had occupied the eastern terraces of the Buffalo valley, were surprised by an overwhelming force of Zulus, and one wing of the invading army annihilated. This event was soon after followed by the death of Prince Napoleon, only son of the dethroned and lately deceased Emperor Napoleon IIT., who had volunteered to serve with the British forces, but who was cut off with a small party in the bush. But the first reverses were soon repaired and the Zulu army was completely routed on the banks of the Um-Volosi river, close to the very spot where, according to immemorial tradition, was born the family of Zulu, founder of the nation. After reducing the country, the English divided it amongst thirteen protected chiefs, a foolish arrangement which brought about a series of intertribal wars, followed by hopeless anarchy. Then came the encroachments of the Transvaal Boers, leading to the establishment of the British Protectorate, which has at length brought a period of repose to this distracted land, the