The Washing of the Spears: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation Under Shaka and its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879

841 Pages·1988·3.92 MB·English

by  Donald R. Morris

Table of Contents
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREFACE
PART ONE
PROLOGUE
THE BANTU
THE RISE OF THE ZULU NATION
PORT NATAL
DINGANE
MPANDE
PART TWO
CONFEDERATION
THE COMING OF THE WAR
PREPARATIONS
INVASION
ISANDHLWANA
THE DEFENCE OF RORKE’S DRIFT
THE FLANKING COLUMNS
AFTERMATH
THE LEFT FLANK COLUMN
THE SECOND INVASION
THE PRINCE IMPERIAL
ULUNDI
THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS DEPART
EPILOGUE: THE RUIN OF ZULULAND
NOTES ON ZULU ORTHOGRAPHY
SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE WASHING OF THE SPEARS

Donald R. Morris

First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd 1966
Copyright by Donald R. Morris 1965
ISBN 0 7474 0194 2
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREFACE

Part One
Prologue
The Bantu
The Rise of the Zulu Nation
Port Natal
Dingane
Mpande

Part Two
Confederation
The Coming of the War
Preparations
Invasion
Isandhlwana
The Defence of Rorke’s Drift
The Flanking Columns
Aftermath
The Left Flank Column
The Second Invasion
The Prince Imperial
Ulundi
The Captains and the Kings Depart
Epilogue: The Ruin of Zululand

NOTES ON ZULU ORTHOGRAPHY SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY

FOREWORD
I first came across the tale of Rorke’s Drift in a long-forgotten
collection of stirring deeds written for children. I could not
have been more than ten years old at the time; I certainly did
not know who the Zulus were, nor even where Natal was. It
stuck with me as the story of a fight, however, and it always
seemed to me a more satisfactory battle than such better-
known events as the Alamo or the Little Big Horn. Many years
later Michael Leigh’s novel Cross of Fire — even more than T.
H. White’s Farewell, Victoria — brought home to me that
Rorke’s Drift and Isandhlwana were the stuff of high drama,
and by 1955 I was planning a magazine article on the two
battles. The following year Ernest Hemingway pointed out to
me that there had never been a readable account of the Zulu
War of 1879, nor, indeed, any account published in the United
States, and that it would be a pity to throw the two battles
away on a magazine. He was, of course, right, and the present
volume is the result.
It soon became apparent, however, that it made little sense to
tell in detail the fall of the Zulu nation without explaining who
they were or why they had to fall, and this in turn brought me
to Shaka and the rise of the Zulu nation fifty years earlier. Then
came the realization that the history of the Zulus was also the
history of the colony of Natal, and that the framework would
also have to include much of the history of southern Africa in
the nineteenth century. Although the material was fairly
cohesive, the ground thus delineated was extensive, but Robert
Gottlieb of Simon and Schuster swallowed hard and bade me
proceed. How extensive it was to prove neither he nor I
suspected at first; I certainly had no idea, for example, that the
story of the Zulu nation would take me as deeply into the
history of the schism in the Anglican community as I at one
time found myself.
The bulk of the digging was done while I was a naval officer
stationed in Berlin between 1958 and 1962. I could hardly have
picked a worse vantage point; what materials that were not in
England were in Natal, and I was forced to purchase virtually
all of my secondary sources. (And I here wish to acknowledge
the services of two book firms — C. Struik of Capetown and
Charles Sawyer of London — who were frequently able to
locate Africana when other sources failed.) A score of libraries
and their staffs played their usual indispensable roles. I am
particularly grateful to Mr. D. H. Simpson and Mr. D. E. Dean
of the Royal Commonwealth Society, to Mr. O. H. Spohr of the
University of Capetown, to Professor Vernon Tate of the United
States Naval Academy, to Mr. Eben Gay of the Boston
Athenaeum and to Mr. J. A. Tuckson of the Art Gallery of New
South Wales, as well as to personnel of the University of Natal,
the Durban Municipal Library, the London Library, the British
Museum, the Navy Department Library and the Library of
Congress.
I was both astonished and deeply touched by the number of
people who came to the aid of a total stranger to provide
documents and information about their immediate ancestors.
Their response was invariably generous and unstinting. The
Right Honourable the Viscount Chelmsford not only gave me
access to his grandfather’s papers but also rallied his family to
my support, and His Honour Arthur Thesiger, Mr. Justice
Gerald Thesiger and Mr. Richard Thesiger were all most kind
and provided valuable help, as did Admiral Sir Bertram
Thesiger. The family was not able to locate one particular
collection of papers concerning General Lord Chelmsford
despite an intensive search. (It fortunately was quoted
extensively elsewhere.) The institution they thought might
house it denied possession, but was most helpful in directing
my inquiries elsewhere. Only after the manuscript had been
submitted for publication was the collection finally located — in
the original institution.
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Benjamin Bromhead provided much
valuable information concerning his great-uncle, including
Gonville Bromhead’s personal copy of The Zulu Army and the
hitherto unsuspected fact of his deafness, which resolved a
number of mysterious references. Margaret Stewart Roberts,
great-niece of Colonel Arthur Harness, sent me the whole of his
correspondence from the Perie Bush and Zululand in 1878 and
1879, which helped to flesh out the bones of the campaign. Mr.
Charles M. Wynne and his two brothers provided information
and excerpts from the journal their father, Brevet Major W. R.
C. Wynne, R.E., had kept during the siege of Eshowe. Mrs. W.
Oxford provided information about her father, Private Hitch,
V.C.; and Lieutenant Colonel P. R. Butler about his father,
Major William Butler. Mrs Muriel Durnford, the widow of
Anthony William Durnford’s nephew, was most helpful in
providing information about his family, and Mr. Dennis Pratley
and Mr. William Fielding provided information and documents
about their grandfather, John Williams Fielding, who enlisted
under the name John Williams and won a V.C. at Rorke’s Drift.
Colonel H. C. Lugg, a distinguished Zulu linguist and historian,
provided letters his father, Harry Lugg, had written from
Rorke’s Drift and showed me the carbine and the hunting knife
he had carried during the battle.
The editors of the Illustrated London News kindly gave me
permission to use several woodcuts from 1879, provided
information about Melton Prior — and showed me the helmet
he had worn during the Zulu campaign. Mr. Ralph Varns,
Secretary of the Capetown Branch of the World Ship Society,
traced early ship movements for me; and Dr. R. E. Stevenson of
the National Monuments Commission provided information
about the battlefields of Zululand. Mr. T. V. Bulpin, historian,
helped to sort out several generations of Henry Francis Fynns;
and Barbara Tyrrell, whose magnificent work records a rapidly
vanishing native garb, provided information about Zulu dress.
Many people freely made available the fruits of their own
labours. Miss E. G. F. Eastwood, biographer of Cetshwayo,
placed the results of her own researches at my disposal and
was invaluable in tracing the antecedents of John Dunn. Mr. C.
T. Binns, also a Cetshwayo biographer, helped to interpret the
geographical complexities of early Natal and Zululand. Thomas