“In ancient times the blacks were known to be so gentle to strangers that many believed that the gods sprang from them.  Homer sings of the Ocean, father of the gods; and says that, when Jupiter wishes to take a holiday, he visits the sea, and goes to the banquets of the blacks,—­a people humble, courteous, and devout."[81]

We have quoted thus extensively from Mr. Reade because he has given a fair account of the peoples he met.  He is a good writer, but sometimes gets real funny!

It is a fact that all uncivilized races are warlike.  The tribes of Africa are a vast standing army.  Fighting seems to be their employment.  We went into this matter of armies so thoroughly in the fourth chapter that we shall not have much to say here.  The bow and arrow, the spear and assagai were the primitive weapons of African warriors; but they have learned the use of fire-arms within the last quarter of a century.  The shield and assagai are not, however, done away with.  The young Prince Napoleon, whose dreadful death the reader may recall, was slain by an assagai.  These armies are officered, disciplined, and drilled to great perfection, as the French and English troops have abundant reason to know.

“The Zulu tribes are remarkable for being the only people in that part of Africa who have practised war in an European sense of the word.  The other tribes are very good at bush fighting, and are exceedingly crafty at taking an enemy unawares, and coming on him before he is prepared for them.  Guerilla warfare is, in fact, their only mode of waging battle; and, as is necessarily the case in such warfare, more depends on the exertion of individual combatants than on the scientific combinations of masses.  But the Zulu tribe have, since the time of Dhaka, the great inventor of military tactics, carried on war in a manner approaching the notions of civilization.

“Their men are organized into regiments, each subdivided into companies, and each commanded by its own chief, or colonel; while the king, as commanding general, leads his forces to war, disposes them in battle-array, and personally directs their movements.  They give an enemy notice that they are about to match against him, and boldly meet him in the open field.  There is a military etiquette about them which some of our own people have been slow to understand.  They once sent a message to the English commander that they would ‘come and breakfast with him.’  He thought it was only a joke, and was very much surprised when the Kaffirs, true to their promise, came pouring like a torrent over the hills, leaving him barely time to get his men under arms before the dark enemies arrived."[82]

And there are some legends told about African wars that would put the “Arabian Nights” to the blush.[83]