106 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
native
beer were offered them to drink. But when they put their lips to the
cup, Dingaan cried out, " bulala amatagati," " kill the wizards." At
this cry his Zulus fell on their helpless guests in overwhelming mass.
A few Boers had clasp-knives, and the others met the rush with naked
hands, but all were overpowered in a moment and dragged over the ground
to a hill near by, called Hloma Mabuto, or the mustering of the
soldiers. Here their heads were crushed with knob kerries, and their
bodies were flung into heaps. Retief was forced to see the horrid
murder of all of his companions. Then his heart and liver were cut out
and taken to Dingaan, and the mutilated corpse was cast on the heap of
dead.1
None
of the Boers in the trap escaped, and after the massacre the Zulus
poured out to raid the scattered camps of the pioneers. They were
finally beaten back at Bushman's River, after they had killed many
trekkers and carried off their cattle, and the mounted Boers followed
their retreat for days. But the Zulus were quick to turn and strike
again like fierce hawks, and within two months they swooped down upon
the English settlers and native blacks of Natal and cut them off almost
to a man.
The
trekking Boers were hard pressed. Pieter Uys was killed in ambuscade,
with his son, a boy of fourteen, and a number of his men. When Uys was
fatally wounded, he urged his son to escape by spurring his horse, and
the boy rode on to a place of safety, but turned and rode back
deliberately to die with his father.2 Potgieter drove back
the Zulus after the fall of Uys, but he did not venture to hold his
ground, and withdrew across the Drakensberg. Only a determined rally
and crushing blow could free Natal from the hanging menace of the impis
that Chaka had trained for the hand of Dingaan.
In December, 1838, a force of six hundred mounted Boers
was mustered to strike this blow under the command of Andries
Pretorius. It seemed an absurdly weak force for such an attack,
but the count in numbers did not measure its strength. Every
1 "Annals of Natal," pp. 214-218. 2 Ibid. p. 374.
