It is, as you say, respected Sir, a tribute, and a magnificent one, to England’s just policy to the Zulus.  I dare to assert it is even a finer tribute to the natives’ appreciation, not only of benefits already conferred, but of the spirit that actuated England in her dealings with him.  I may disagree as to the lessons taught by Maxim guns, hollow squares, and the ‘thin red line.’  I think no one can have read Colonial history, chronicling as it does, the rise again and again of the native against Imperial forces, without feeling that he is influenced far less by England’s prowess in war than by her justice in peace.  My Zulu fellow-countrymen understand as clearly as anyone the weakness and the strength of the present time.  If the Zulu wished to remember Kambula and Ulundi, this would be his supreme opportunity to rise and hurl himself across the Natal frontier.  But I, having just returned from my native country, have been able to report to the Government at Pietermaritzburg that there is not the slightest symptom of disloyalty, not the idea of lifting a finger against the white subjects of the great and good Queen.

There is among the Chiefs and Indunas of my people an almost universal hope that the Imperial arms will be victorious, and that a Government which, by its inhumanity and relentless injustice, and apparent inability to see that the native has any rights a white man should respect, has forfeited its place among the civilised Governments of the earth, and should therefore be deprived of powers so scandalously abused—­formerly by slavery, and in later years by disallowing the native to buy land, and utterly neglecting his intellectual and spiritual needs.  There are wrongs to be redressed, and we Zulus believe that England will be more willing to redress them than any other Power.  There is still much to be done in the way of educating and civilizing the mass of the Zulu nation.  We Chiefs of that nation have observed that wherever England has gone there the Missionary and teacher follow, and that there exists sympathy between the authority of Her Majesty and the forces that labour for civilization and Christianity.  We Zulus have not yet forgotten what we owe to the late Bishop Colenso’s lifelong advocacy, or to Lady Florence Dixie’s kindly interest.  These are things that are more than fear of England’s might, that keep our people quiet outside and loyal inside.  This is not a passive loyalty with us.  Speaking for almost all my fellow-countrymen in Zululand, I believe if a great emergency arises in the course of this history-making war, in which England might find it necessary to put their loyalty to the test, they would respond with readiness and enthusiasm equal to that when they fought under King Cetewayo against Lord Chelmsford’s army.  Again assuring you that the Zulu people are turning deaf ears to Boer promises, as well as threats, I remain, with the most earnest hope for the ultimate triumph of General Buller—­who fought my King for half a year.  Your humble and most obedient servant,