“You promised me the history of that person, Chaka.”

“You shall have it now:  he was the king of the Zoolu nation—­I hardly know what to call him.  He was the Nero and the Napoleon of Africa; a monster in cruelty and crime, yet a great warrior and conqueror.  He commenced his career by murdering his relatives to obtain the sovereignty.  As soon as he had succeeded, he murdered all those whom he thought inimical to him, and who had been friends to his relatives.”

“But are the Zoolus Caffres?”

“No; but there are many races to the northward which we consider as Caffre races.  You may have observed, in the history of the world, that the migrations of the human race are generally from the north to the south:  so it appears to have been in Africa.  Some convulsion among the northern tribes, probably a pressure from excessive population, had driven the Zoolus to the southward, and they came down like an inundation, sweeping before them all the tribes that fell in their path.  Chaka’s force consisted of nearly 100,000 warriors, of whom 15,000 were always in attendance to execute his orders.  In every country which he overran he spared neither age nor sex; it was one indiscriminate slaughter.”

“What a monster!”

“He ruled by terror, and it is incredible that his orders met with such implicit obedience.  To make his army invincible, he remodeled it, divided it into companies, distinguished by the color of their shields, and forbade them to use any other weapon but a short stabbing-spear, so that they always fought at close quarters.  He weeded his army by picking out 1000 of his veteran warriors, who had gained his victories, and putting them to death.  Any regiment sent out to battle, if they were defeated, were instantly destroyed on their return; it was, therefore, victory or death with them; and the death was most cruel, being that of impalement.  Well he was surnamed ‘the Bloody,’”

“Yes, indeed.”

“His tyranny over his own people was dreadful.  On one occasion, a child annoyed him; he ordered it to be killed; but the child ran among seventy or eighty other children, and could not be distinguished, so he ordered the whole to be put to death.  He murdered two or three hundred of his wives in one day.  At the slightest suspicion he would order out his chiefs to execution, and no one knew when his turn might come.  His will was law:  every one trembled and obeyed.  To enter into a detail of all his cruelties would fill volumes; it will be sufficient to mention the last act of his life.  His mother died, and he declared that she had perished by witchcraft.  Hundreds and hundreds were impaled, and, at last, tired of these slow proceedings, he ordered out his army to an indiscriminate slaughter over the whole country, which lasted for fourteen days.”

“How horrible!”