The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-10

The massacre of Rorke's- Drift 4. was
the other tragedy of the Zulu war In
that terrible affair, which occurred
shortly after the commencement of hos
tilities, the entire Twenty fourth regi-
ment was annihilated. The regiment
was on it's way to the front, and its
officers, not dreaming that a Zulu was
within so miles of them, had camped
for the night in a Clearing" In the
dead of night, and unheard and Unseen
by the sentries, out of the tall grass
poured tens of thousands of Cetewayo' S
saVages, armed with their poisoned ar
rows or "assegais," which they begun
throwing in deadly shower on the
sleeping soldiers. Bugle calls came
loud and quick, and the officers, as
soon as possible. steadied the terrified
men into disciplined resistance, but the
odds We're awful, and the butchery
was complete
The news Of the terrible surprise and
its startling consequences was brought
to civilization by Archibald Forbes, the
war correspondent of the London Daily
News. When the tidings reached Lon
don by cable the utmost excitement
arose. Twenty thousand additional
troops We're sent on their way to South
Africa as fast as transports could be
provided. Sir Garnet Wolseley (now
Lord Wolseley) was sent out as COM
mander-in-chief to replace Lord
Chelmsford, at whose door, rightly or
wrongly, was laid the slaughter of
Rorke's Drift.
The war that ensued was simply a
campaign of reprisal. The Zulus were
given horrible taste of Civilized
warfare, as battle after battle was
forced upon them so quickly that they
were scarcely given time to breathe
They We're whipped from pillar to
post and backagain, until finally in one
great encounter at Isandula, King Ce-
teWayo was taken prisoner and his ar
my cut to pieces and destroyed. The
poor old savage chief was an elephant
on the hands of his captors for several
months. They brought him to England
to bewilder him with the magnitude of
London and give him an idea of the
power and greatness of the enemy he
had been bold enough to contend with.
much in the same way that Aguinaldo
will probably be brought to Washing
ton one of'those days, to bewilder him
with the magnificence of Washington
and send him home marvelling at his
own rashness in fighting so big a foe
as Uncle Sam.
Civilization, with its clothes, and its
uillIItTS, anu It's leather DeQS, We're too
much for Cetewayo. He was sick when
they put him on the steamer to take
him home; the voyage was rough
which made him worse, and he reached
Cane Town more dead than alive.
Parliament vas debating one evening
as to what was the proper thing to do
with Cetewayo-who had become a
ward of the nation" as the result of
the war-whether it was best to keen
him in Cape Town or let him go home
to his native country on parole. While
the debate was in progress the colonial
secretary was handed a dispatch. He
opened and read it. Then he arose and
read it to the house, ard the debate
was Immediately ended The cable
was from the governor of South At
RIGA. 1t simply said "Cetewayo is
dead" That was the end of the Zulus
and their king. 1t was a short war, but
it produced many sensations and made
some history. The war that England is
now threatened with in the Transvaal
will be with a different type of foeman,
and before its end is seen it may pro-
duce it's own sensations and perhaps
also make some stirring history.
G. OConnell Calvin.