regions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. McDonald says, "There
has probably never been a more perfect system of discipline than that by
which Chaka ruled his army and kingdom. At a review an order might be
given in the most unexpected manner, which meant death to hundreds. If the
regiment hesitated or dared to remonstrate, so perfect was the discipline
and so great the jealousy that another was ready to cut them down. A
warrior returning from battle without his arms was put to death without
trial. A general returning unsuccessful in the main purpose of his
expedition shared the same fate. Whoever displeased the king was
immediately executed. The traditional courts practically ceased to exist
so far as the will and action of the tyrant was concerned." With this army
Chaka fell on tribe after tribe. The Bechuana fled before him and some
tribes of them were entirely destroyed. The Hottentots suffered severely
and one of his rival Zulu tribes under Umsilikatsi fled into Matabililand,
pushing back the Bechuana. By the time the English came to Port Natal,
Chaka was ruling over the whole southeastern seaboard, from the Limpopo
River to Cape Colony, including the Orange and Transvaal states and the
whole of Natal. Chaka was killed in 1828 and was eventually succeeded by
his brother Dingan, who reigned twelve years. It was during Dingan's reign
that England tried to abolish slavery in Cape Colony, but did not pay
promptly for the slaves, as she had promised; the result was the so-called
"Great Trek," about 1834, when thousands of Boers went into the interior
across the Orange and Vaal rivers.

Dingan and these Boers were soon engaged in a death struggle in which the
Zulus were repulsed and Dingan replaced by Panda. Under this chief there
was something like repose for sixteen years, but in 1856 civil war broke
out between his sons, one of whom, Cetewayo, succeeded his father in 1882.
He fell into border disputes with the English, and the result was one of
the fiercest clashes of Europe and Africa in modern days. The Zulus fought
desperately, annihilating at one time a whole detachment and killing the
young prince Napoleon. But after all it was assagais against machine guns,
and the Zulus were finally defeated at Ulundi, July 4, 1879. Thereupon
Zululand was divided among thirteen semi-independent chiefs and became a
British protectorate.

[Illustration: Ancient Kingdom of Africa]

Since then the best lands have been g