The Case of the Wandering Corpse: Major Gask Mysteries, #2

One

Dingaan

Zululand, South Africa - February, 1838

A horseman looked out across a vast, fertile land towards the Drakensberg mountains of Natal. At 57 years of age, he had become a relatively wealthy man and a leader of men and now he looked to bring to a conclusion his search for land on which to establish an independent Boer homeland free from British rule. In his mind vague comparisons with Moses reaching the promised land flitted by. He looked well-suited to the terrain, a lithe, compact figure wearing a broad-brimmed hat, dusty clothes and riding boots.

He sat easily on his horse, taking in the scene. His hair was well-groomed with sideburns and a trimmed black beard that encircled his chin, clean shaven under his lower lip. A neat moustache finished at the ends of his mouth, not touching the beard, and his eyes were piercing in their intensity. This was Piet Retief, the leader of this group of Boers.

Night had fallen and the air was fresh and warm with the heat of the dying day. A mile away, two black Zulus approached a stack of logs and thatch, each carrying a torch that left invisible trails of smoke in the darkness as they moved. They thrust their torches into the anxious pyre and it leapt to life, hungrily devouring dry twigs and leaves, crackling and sparking as the flames roared.

About 25 yards away, the King of the Zulus, Dingaan sat in all his pomp and circumstance at the head of a large ring of seated elders and warriors looking onto an open ‘parade ground’ where a body of warriors were now filing. He had a witch doctor to his left - a shrunken, wizened, ancient man with bones in his hair - his captains at his back and his Great Wife to his right. Around the open centre ground ranged hundreds of beehive-shaped huts, home to the Zulu at this ‘place of the elephant’, UmGungundlovu for the night’s events. Perhaps 2,000 Zulus looked on, maybe more. They were a savage, impressive sight.

Dingaan’s greased, black skin reflected the light of the fires that had been lit soon after night had fallen, their flames piercing the utter blackness of the night, relieved in part by the silvery moon rising in the night sky. The crackle of logs being consumed by the devouring blaze of frenzied flames could be heard in the background as the conversation and general noise of the gathering rose and fell.

Dingaan was an imposing figure, a muscular man, although his belly was now showing the signs of excess. He wore a leopard’s skin around his waist and beaded armlets, the traditional intricate patterns signalling his strength and power. Over his shoulders hung a beaded cross-belt; blue, white and yellow, and around his neck a multi-ringed, beaded choker set him apart from lesser mortals. He had a square face with an almost permanent scowl and around his forehead he wore a beaded band with a semi-precious blue jewel in the centre. He wore his black hair short apart from a top knot that was encircled by yellow and blue feathers.

Dingaan was not a man to be trifled with, he had assumed the title of King by killing his predecessor, his half-brother, the great, feared Shaka, and as a result and because of his unpredictability and untrammelled authority over life and death, no-one ever felt totally comfortable in his presence. He was deemed immortal, one who was neither born, nor would ever die. When asked when his reign started, his subjects would reply hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

Into this impressive setting, Piet Retief arrived with his men and their servants, a body about 100 strong in all. As the Boers entered the Royal Kraal, they were instructed to lay down their arms - normal protocol when appearing before the king and a protocol that had been observed for centuries in European courts so it was not totally unexpected by Retief.

Despite some of his men protesting, Retief ordered them to comply as he didn’t want to jeopardise the agreement that they had worked so hard to obtain. He was welcomed by Dingaan and given a place of honour with his men to the right of the King’s party.

As he squatted down with his men around him, he took in the scene. He thought that Dingaan looked the part; a ‘noble’ savage, all-powerful in his kraal. Strangely he reminded him of a black version of a prize fighter with his muscled body and pugnacious face. Even though Dingaan had welcomed them warmly, this was a strange place to the Boers and the massing of Zulu warriors meant that he could not suppress a feeling in his bones of impending trouble.

As he waited for the celebrations to begin, Retief reflected on what had brought him to this point. About two years earlier he had led thousands of Boer trekkers from the British-controlled Cape colony, across the untraveled Dragon Mountain, the Drakensburg to the north-east of the colony, seeking new land where they could be free. He had explained himself in a letter that he had written to the British governor in Grahamstown:

"We despair of saving the colony from those evils which threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of native vagrants who are allowed to infest the country in every part; nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in a country thus distracted by internal commotions.

"We complain of the continual system of plunder which we have for years endured from the Kaffirs and other coloured classes, and particularly by the last invasion of the colony, which has desolated the frontier districts and ruined most of the inhabitants.

"We complain of the unjustifiable odium which has been cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons under the name of religion, whose testimony is believed in England, to the exclusion of all evidence in our favour, and we can foresee as a result of this prejudice nothing but the total ruin of the country.

We are now leaving the fruitful land of our birth, in which we have suffered enormous losses and continual vexations, and are about to enter a strange and dangerous territory; but we go with a firm reliance on an all-seeing, just, and merciful God, whom we shall always fear and humbly endeavour to obey.

In his party were men, women and children (including Paul Kruger, a boy of 10 years of age who was destined for great things later in life).

Jan Pienaar, a 15 year old orphan and 25 years’ old, Willem Nel, of whom we shall hear later, were also part of this emigrant group. After many skirmishes with the natives, they reached Port Natal where they were welcomed by about 60 British settlers who had established themselves on the edge of Zululand as a self-governing enclave. They had been welcomed on the whole because they added to the quasi-military capability needed to defend the settlers from native predations.

The Boers realised that if they were to settle peaceably in this fertile land they would need to come to terms with their neighbours, the war-like native Zulus, whose chief was Dingaan, so Retief had negotiated an agreement to settle on land between the Tugela River in the north and the Umzimvubu river in the south on condition that Retief and his men retrieve 700 head of cattle stolen from Dingaan by a rival, Sikyonela, the Tlokwa chief. The raid had been a success, so much so that they had also seized additional horses, guns and cattle from Sikyonela beyond what had been stolen from Dingaan.

Dingaan had welcomed the returning raiding party with open arms and after several meetings to scope out terms in detail, he had agreed that the Boers could settle on territory from the Tugela to the Umzimvubu, from the Dragon Mountain to the sea, a large territory in the south of Zululand. In retrospect it was hardly a fair exchange but men can fool themselves if they want something desperately enough…..

In the course of these discussions, Dingaan found out that Retief had also recovered more than the stolen cattle and he had demanded that this be handed over too - which Retief had refused to do, arguing the this was not what had been agreed.

After a heated exchange and much debate, Dingaan had apparently accepted the situation and, after the agreement had been hammered out, in a show of goodwill, he invited Retief and his men to this farewell celebration.

Which brought Retief back to the present.

Seated around the open ground to the side of the Royal party, Retief and his Boers waited for the next step in the evening’s celebrations. About 100 warriors formed up in the middle of the open ground. They were an impressive body of men. Black, muscled torsos gleaming as the light of the fires shone on them. They were barefooted and wore loin skins. Their bodies were embellished with head-rings, ceremonial belts, ankle rattles and they carried lozenge-shaped, black and white cowhide-covered shields, iwisa (a wooden club with a large, heavy knob at one end) or iklwa, the short stabbing spear introduced to the Zulus by Shaka (so called because of the sound it made as it both entered the body and as it was pulled out after the killing blow).

Behind them the izigubhu began to beat, angry, insistent, deep, powerful blows on the drums urging the dancers on. The indlamu, a dance intended to imitate the frenzy and thrill of going into battle, had begun.

The men moved in unison, forming three straight lines, advancing and retreating, then lifting one leg as high their shoulders then, as one, they hammered them down to the ground, throwing dust in the air and shuddering the earth with reverberations that reached all looking on, including Retief and his men; a spine-tingling physical impact that was impossible to ignore.

They repeated the stomping with both feet, stabbing imaginary enemies with their iklwa in sharp, vigorous motions. After a minute or so, they fell on their backs before standing up again and continuing the aggressive ‘dancing’. The drums thundered and war-like cries and whistles showered the night air. Again and again the earth shook with the power of the choreographed stomping and the tense air vibrated like a taut wire with each beat of the izigubhu.

Then. Suddenly. The drums stopped beating and the line of warriors froze, the whites of their wide eyes piercing the night, shields protecting their left arms, iklwa in their right hands. Bodies quivering, breathing deep. The drumming stopped and silence fell on the kraal.

Two

Impi

Zululand - 1838

Dingaan suddenly stood up and into the hushed night air cried out, Bulalani abathakathi ¹. With this pre-arranged signal, his warriors immediately advanced on and surrounded the Boers, defenceless apart from some who carried knives. One of the Boers threw a punch at a warrior who pushed him to get him to move and, for his trouble was unceremoniously clubbed to the ground with an iwisa. Unconscious, he was picked up by two warriors who carried him behind the melee. The others had their hands bound with thongs.

Retief, his son, men, and servants, about 100 people in all, were herded by the overwhelming force of Zulus in a shuffling, disorganised rabble out of the kraal towards a nearby hillside, called Kwa-Matiwane by the Zulus. The noise of triumphant Zulu voices and the renewed drumming began to sound like an orchestral climax.

What are they going to do with us? one of the younger Boers asked of Retief, the fear shaking his voice.

I don’t know, my friend but in God we must place our trust he replied.

The armed Zulus, stirred up and energised by the sounds, sights and emotions that they had just witnessed, pressed the Boers and their servants forward until eventually they had reached the summit of Kwa-Matiwane. Retief and his entourage turned to face the threatening horde who outnumbered the defenceless Boers 10-1 and surrounded them. They stood, hands tied, helplessly dreading, anticipating what was to come.

What is this? Retief called out to Dingaan, We came in peace and have done what we agreed

Dingaan raised his hand and, with a grim scowl on his pugnacious face shouted back, "Bulala amadimoni amhlophe" ².

At this, his men surged forward and immediately launched into an uncontrolled chaos of clubbing and stabbing. The Boers, despite being bound, tried to fight back but it was hopeless and the hill became a mass of killing black devils and helpless men, the night air repeatedly split by the crack of breaking bones, the horror of crushed skulls, a bloody trail of death. In a matter of moments mutilated, bloodied bodies littered the hill, corpse upon corpse, death delivered with unremitting frenzy by the bludgeoning iwisa. The last man to fall was Piet Retief, himself - Dingaan had ordered that he be left to last to witness the slaughter.

When it was done, Dingaan turned and walked back to the Royal Kraal with a thin smile on his face, his warriors following, still screaming defiance and vengeance, the blood lust hardly sated. The bodies were left to be picked over by vultures and other scavenging wild animals.

Back at the kraal, with the warriors celebrating their extermination of the invading Boers, Dingaan called his chief advisor, Ndela kaSompisi to his side. He was an experienced war leader who had served under Shaka. They agreed that they would send an impi ³ come morning to seek out the remaining Boers in their camps on the Tugela and Mtzhezi Rivers from where Retief had come. They would keep their main force available for another action - they were going to end this invasion before it could take hold.

Before leaving to conclude the agreement, Retief had told his fellow Boers that the Zulu had agreed to cede this land to them provided they recovered Dingaan’s stolen cattle. Reassured, they had made no preparation for hostilities. Indeed, most of the men had left the camp on hunting trips to feed the families in the encampment while they waited for Retief and his deputation to return with the anticipated good news.

However, unbeknown to the Boers, the impi assembled and headed in high spirits for the Boer camps at Doringkop, Blaauwekrans, Moordspruit, Rensburgspruit and any other sites along the Mtshezi (Bushman river) where the Boers were encamped. ⁴ They had only killing in mind, aiming to eradicate this invading threat before it could take hold.

The impi moved swiftly over hills and plains, firing up memories and tales of the irresistible impis of Shaka who had gloriously carved out the Zulu kingdom a decade before.

They swept down the hills and descended on the Boer camps by night like a swarm of locusts devouring everything in their path. They spared no-one and nothing; men, women and children, cattle, goats, sheep and dogs—all were brutally put to death by pitiless Zulu warriors wielding assegai, iklwa, iwisa with bloody, brutal effect. It was reckoned that more than 500 died including many women and children in that awful, treacherous assault.

The bloody scenes of chaos and confusion did, however, offer a few a chance to escape the massacre including Hans van Rensburg and thirteen men and boys who took refuge on a hill ⁵. The location was a strong one with cliffs protecting their rear and the hill would take the momentum out of any frontal assault. While waiting for the impi to find them, they frantically improvised a laager ⁶ to provide cover. The men took up position with their muskets and the boys prepared to assist by reloading to allow the camp to keep up a steady fire.

There was little respite. No sooner had they created the laager as best they could, than the advance party of the impi appeared at the foot of the hill and before long the charging black tide fell upon them in relentless waves. Hour after hour the Boers kept the Zulu at bay with a steady stream of musket fire. But they all knew it couldn’t last. They were running low on ammunition and none were surprised to hear the command to use the powder and ball sparingly.

It was nearing the end when Willem Nel, a 25 year-old who had been born in the Cape colony and had trekked north with Retief to find land on which to make his fortune, noticed a white man on horseback observing the scene at the rear of the massed Zulu warriors. Nel picked up an empty ammunition pouch and raised it in one hand with his musket in the other. He yelled out that they needed ammunition, although his voice would probably not carry.

The horseman, Marthinus Oosthuyse, quickly grasped the situation. He had passed some abandoned Boer wagons about half a mile away on his ride to the siege and he was almost certain that he had seen ammunition boxes there. Even if they were empty, what was there to lose? He turned his horse about and galloped away at full speed, two assegai that had been launched at him falling short as he put distance between himself and the attacking Zulus.

Across the veld he spurred his horse on, not sparing him until he reached the abandoned wagons. He pulled his lathered horse up, secured the reins to an overturned wagon and, carrying his saddle bags, ran over to another wagon, still upright. A few bodies lay still around the wagons, Boer and Zulu, including pitifully two small children in the arms of a woman, large pools of blood drying on their clothes. But he ignored them. There was no sign of life.

Clambering into the wagon he breathed a sigh of relief and said a short prayer when he saw what he was looking for. Breaking open a box, he recovered powder and ball, as much as he could possibly carry, and remounted, urging his gallant horse at full speed back to the laager, the drumbeat of his horse’s hooves ringing in his ears. He just hoped that he would make it in time.

Upon nearing the laager, he could hear the sound of steady musket fire and the cries of Zulu warriors. At that very moment the Zulus had taken cover and were preparing for their next assault on the laager.

Oosthuyse took a deep breath and kicked his heels into his horse, urging it to run like the wind through the scattered Zulu fighters. He jumped over a rock, narrowly avoiding a flailing iwisa and then had to swerve to avoid three Zulus who were turning at the sound of the oncoming horseman.

Closer and closer. The shouts of those he had passed had now alerted the Zulus near the front but the defenders had seen him too and were laying down covering fire to keep them occupied.

With a final surge he broke through and galloped up to a place in the laager where the defenders had created an opening for him. He raced through and the defensive barrier was replaced.

Oosthuyse was welcomed with delight by the besieged men and he quickly disgorged the powder and ball that he had retrieved. This was rapidly distributed to the defenders and as this was happening the Zulus made another charge to overwhelm the laager. A withering fire of musket balls cut down the leading warriors. Gunpowder clogged the very air with the concentration of fire and the explosions of muskets rolled into the valley below like a righteous thunder.

This proved to be the final straw. The Zulu retreated out of musket range leaving the hill covered by dead and dying Zulu warriors who had tried to use their bodies and their weapons to overcome modern muskets and determined men, and failed. The gunpowder smoke drifted into the sky and a comparative silence settled onto the hill. It stayed that way until nightfall.

Through the black hours of a warm night, the defenders kept a wary watch - but there was no further assault.

When the first light of morning dawned, there was not a single living Zulu to be seen. Van Rensburg and his men would live to fight another day.

1 kill those who use medicine to kill others

2 Kill the white devils

3 Zulu war party

4 near the present day town of Weenen

5 Since named Rensburg kop

6 a defensive camp, usually protected by a circle of wagons.

Three

Laager

Ncomi River, Zululand - 1838

Not satisfied with killing Retief, Dingaan and his main force set out to hunt down and destroy the main body of Boers, which was still encamped on the Dragon Mountain awaiting the return of Retief and his party.

However, by now news of the betrayal and the rampaging Zulus had reached the main body where the two leaders, Pieter Uys and Andries Potgieter wasted no time in forming up a Kommando to go to the aid of their countryman and to wreak their vengeance. In all a force of some three hundred and fifty men, all expert horsemen and equipped with modern firearms was raised and this set out about 6 weeks after Retief and his men had been murdered, in the month of April. The strategy was to find Dingaan and launch an assault on him and his army, using their firepower and mobility to outfight the Zulus.

The Boers travelled rapidly across the veld, stopping each mid-day to shelter from the autumn sun and keeping watch through the night before setting out again before the sun had risen. It did not take long. The Zulu army was soon enough found near the King’s Great Kraal and the relatively small force of Boers rode to within twenty yards of the impi before stopping, the horses jostling and champing; powerful beasts carrying vengeful men and death on their backs.

The Zulu were no longer dancing but the drums were beating and the van of the impi began stamping their feet as they built up their courage, banging assegai and iklwa against their shields. They had formed up in the traditional Zulu battle formation - the horns of the bull - the head made up of more seasoned warriors armed with the iklwa who would bear the brunt of a frontal attack, the chest behind held as a reserve and fast-moving encircling horns consisting of younger, fitter warriors carrying several assegai, throwing spears. The aim was to outflank the Boers before the three bodies of warriors converged in a bloodlust of slaughter.

On a single command from their induna ¹, the horns began their encircling manoeuvre and, when within range hurled their assegai to disrupt the enemy forces, at the same time the front ranks in the head started moving forward like an unstoppable solid wall, their momentum and pride propelling them onwards.

Pieter Uys, at the front of his guerrilla fighters, had been anticipating just such an approach and had organised his men into three sections. They were looking to him, their muskets primed and ready to fire. Men in the front ranks watched for his command and then, his raised arm dropping, they fired a withering barrage into the advancing impi. While the front rank reloaded their muskets, the second rank fired again bringing the charging warriors to a shuddering halt. This continued, again and again, the occasional warrior making their way through the deadly hail of leaden balls and even inflicting some damage before being cut down.

Uys himself was wounded in one such assault and his son, trying to save him, was pierced by an assegai and fell. However, the overwhelming superiority of firepower proved impossible to withstand and before long Dingaan and his warriors had broken and were fleeing the battle, leaving a pile of dead, black bodies, their pride shattered, the threat dissipated.

With the Zulus in retreat, the Boers, sensing a famous victory, began to race after them, cutting them down in their flight but this proved to be less well conceived. There were still more than a thousand warriors and, having lost their cohesion, the Boers became separated and small groups of horsemen ended up having to fight their way back through superior numbers of the enemy to the main camp as best they could.

Following this battle, Dingaan retreated to his fortified base at UmGungundlovu while the Boers, wanting to press home their advantage and seek vengeance for Retief and his men, regrouped and formed a fast-moving Kommando to strike at Dingaan in his capital and eliminate the Zulu threat. The force was placed under the command of Hendrik Potgeiter.

The main entry point to UmGungundlovu, Dingaan’s royal residence, was through a narrow gorge that could be defended with a small force and the kraal itself was naturally protected by surrounding hills and rocky terrain. A cautious commander might have thought twice about a frontal assault but Potgeiter felt that, moving fast, they could break through via the Italeni valley and fall on the encampment.

He was wrong, and it resulted in much loss of Boer life. With his tail between his legs, and under criticism from other Boer leaders, he abandoned any hope of overcoming Dingaan and migrated north, leaving Natal to the Zulus.

With two of the Boer leaders dead (Uys and Retief) and Potgeiter gone, the remaining Boers decided to seek out reinforcements and better leadership to face down Dingaan and claim the land as their own.

They called on a respected, toughened 60 year-old Cape Colony Afrikaaner, Andries Pretorius to join them with more men to defend this new independent homeland. With Sarel Cilliers as his second-in-command, he also brought two pieces of artillery - a six-pound naval carronade mounted on a gun carriage (improvised from a wagon axle), which his men had named Grietjie and a three pound smoothbore cannon (which was by then obsolete in most European armies but would serve against the Zulus). The carronade would be loaded with grapeshot, which would be a devastating weapon against massed foot soldiers. The smooth bore could fire cannon balls up to a mile and more.

Pretorius was a canny man. He realised that unless the Boers could find allies, they would not have the strength to beat the Zulu so he decided to exploit schisms within the Zulu nation and early December he met with friendly Zulu chiefs at Danskraal with a translator. The meeting went well - Dingaan was also perceived as a threat to these men - and with the intelligence that he obtained at this meeting, Pretorius felt able to move to forward.

He was appointed as Kommandant of 64 wagons and more than 450 heavily armed Boer guerrillas with Sarel Cilliers as his second in command. They were charged with taking the fight to Dingaan at his base in UmGungundlovu.

The force that rode out of the Boer camp included a reluctant Willem Nel and a 15 year-old orphan boy, Jan Pienaar. Nel went along telling himself that he would do his best to stay out of trouble. He had no intention of giving up his life in an escapade that seemed to offer no personal reward. Besides as a wagon driver he would be able to stay out of harm’s way.

Pretorius let the Kommando recover for a few days before moving in easy stages closer to Dingaan’s force centred on UmGungundlovu. Each day for a week they took time every evening to practise laager defence tactics. Scouting parties sent out ahead kept Pretorius informed of what lay ahead and he also took time to look for a place to bring Dingaan to battle, for he had no intention of walking into the same trap as Potgeiter.

About three weeks later, after he had taken his men and his wagons across the Buffalo River, he sent out another party to make contact with the Zulus and they advanced to less than 50 miles from UmGungundlovu. It was there that they saw a large body of warriors, probably part of an impi being readied to do battle.

Making sure that they never came within range of this group, the troop commander surveyed their strength then turned their mounts and hurried back to report. After an hour of hard riding, the dozen horsemen rode into the Boer laager at a gallop and pulled up in a flurry of dust and a jangling of steel upon steel in front of Pretorius and the commander gave his report, Daar is 'n groot impi na die ooste. Hulle is in gebreekte heuwels en dit lyk asof hulle kwesbaar is as ons hulle kan oortref (There is a large impi to the east. They’re in broken hills and they appear to be vulnerable if we can outflank them).

Cilliers urged Pretorius to attack while they had the chance but Pretorius was having none of it, Halle probeer ons in 'n lokval lok - net soos hulle met Potgeiter gedoen het (they’re trying to lure us into a trap - just as they did with Potgeiter) he replied and then, Die enigste manier waarop ons hulle gaan verslaan, is deur op ons grond en ons voorwaardes te veg (the only way we are going to defeat them is by fighting on our ground and on our terms).

Pretorius had already chosen a defensible position close to an 8-foot drop into a deep donga ² on a spur running off the Ncombe River. He planned to draw up his wagons into a defensive D-shaped laager with the straight line parallel to a swampy area leading to the swollen river (to the east) and his left flank drawn up about 30 yards from the donga (to the south) which would provide protection from attack on two sides and limit any attack to the north and west. The laager was not set right against the drop to keep it far enough away to counter the threat of thrown assegai. In front of them there would be a large open space with firm ground that would give no cover for the charging Zulu and an unrestricted field of fire for the Boers.

With the decision made,