Evening star., 1909-05-23

lish. The chief proved himself so apt
pupil that when the second lawyer came
out he was able to speak with his client
in English and to take his evidence with
out an interpreter.
When the trial came off Dinizulu was
deprived of every advantage, and was
allowed only such concessions as his law
yer and Miss Colenso were able to nsht
permitted to sit facing his counsel and
was so placed that he could not see Miss
Colenso while giving his evidence. Dur
ing the whole period of Dinizulu's In
generation martial law had been pro.
claimed in Zululand. in order to prevent
her. Miss Colenso claims, and her legal
adviser from summoning witnesses on his
behalf.
On the other hand, the same applca-
ton of martial law in the country per-
mitted government officials to resort to
all sorts of harsh measures in order to Sc
cure evidence against the prisoner Ma
tives were rounded up into compounds
and put through species of third de-
gree" Evidence was obtained by means
of the lash in many instances: and Miss
Colenso has recently discovered that vari-
Gus forms of torture were resorted to in
order to make native witnesses give evil
dence against the chief.
When these natives came into court
Miss Colenso cross-eXamined them in such
a way that in many cases startling reve-
latiOns were made as to the manner in
which they had been treated in order to
obtain their evidence. By skillfu cross
examination she made most of these wit
nesses contradict themselves again and
again.
Not only did Miss Colenso bear the en-
tire expense of Dinizulus defense in his
last trial out of her own pocket, but she
paid various fines imposed upon Dinizulu
in other and earlier trials. One of these
amounted to S1OO-a huge sum for a ma
little actual money In the country. An
idea of the scarcity of money may be
gathered from the fact that the total sum
collected irs money from entire district
in Natal was two half-crown pieces.
amounting in American money to about
60 cents. Miss Colenso also expended
large sums of money in seeking out wit
nesses and keeping them near at hand
while waiting for the trial to come off.
She formed various camps of her own.
into which native witnesses-in many
cases consisting of entire families-were
rounded up and kept for weeks at time.
tives. cooked for them amused them and
succeeded in keeping them faithful to her
interests, despite the attempts made by
the government to get rid of them in
various ways, mostly by bribery or send
ing them away under the mandates of
martial law.
The natives of Natal have come in time
to adore Miss Colenso and her sister. and
to realize that they are spending their all
in trying to rescue Dinizulu from his per-
secutors. Native Natalians look upon
Dinizulu as their great leader. and when
he occupied an important post under the
British government the country was in
state of almost absolute peace. With the
exception of one or two unimportant dis
putes, there was no trouble with the ma
tives. Dinizulu kept them in peace, but,
at the same time, he guaranteed to them
a certain amount of freedom and auton-
omy. Feeling that their liberties were
safe under his rulership, the natives re-
posed confidence in the British govern
ment, whose deputy Dinizulu then was.
The English residents in the country,
however-and particularly that class who
look upon Zululand as a legitimate field
for white exploitation-became dissatisfied
with the leadership of Dinizulu. They
want the blacks driven out or reduced to
the position of serfs: and particularly
they wish to break up the system' of 4andr
ownership by which the natives hold all
property in common This system pre-
vents the private monopoly of lands in
the hands of white traders and gives the.
natives an independence which enables