THE BISHOP OF ZULU LAND 285
branch of the Bantu family, race members are singularly free from many of the vices characteristic of uncivilised people. Early in the century they were united under a chief named Tshaka, and becoming a source of terror to surrounding peoples, they placed in subjection a good portion of the southern part of Africa. In the seventies Cetewayo that King of varying fortunes was the accepted chief. It will be remembered it was by Zulus under him that a section of the British Army sus tained defeat at Isandhlwana in 1879 ; but, after Rorke s Drift, he paid the penalty by being himself captured at Ulundi. Cetewayo s country was annexed by the British in 1887, and some years later, under Royal warrant, and in accordance with an Act of the Natal Parliament, Zululand was pro claimed a part of the Colony of Natal. How much Zululand has been affected by the present war may be further gathered from the fact that it is or at least was bounded on the west by the South African Republic and Swaziland.
The early religious history of the country forms an interesting story in The Spiritual Expansion of the Empire (published by the S.P.G.). " Bishop Colenso wished to resign his Diocese (Natal) and to head a Mission to Zululand," the author writes. " He paid his first visit to the country, by the aid of a grant from the Society (S.P.G.), in 1859, taking with him seven Kafirs, of whom four were Christians. A station was opened at
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