seems to have been well content to reign in peace, only killing enough
people to keep up his authority. Two of his sons, Umbelazi and Cetywayo,
of whom Umbelazi was the elder and Panda's favourite, began, as their
father grew old, to quarrel about the succession to the crown. On the
question being referred to Panda, he is reported to have remarked that
when two young cocks quarrelled the best thing they could do was to
fight it out. Acting on this hint, each prince collected his forces,
Panda sending down one of his favourite regiments to help Umbelazi. The
fight took place in 1856 on the banks of the Tugela. A friend of the
writer, happening to be on the Natal side of the river the day before
the battle, and knowing it was going to take place, swam his horse
across in the darkness, taking his chance of the alligators, and hid in
some bush on a hillock commanding the battlefield. It was a hazardous
proceeding, but the sight repaid the risk, though he describes it as
very awful, more especially when the regiment of veterans sent by Panda
joined in the fray. It came up at the charge, between two and three
thousand strong, and was met near his hiding-place by one of Cetywayo's
young regiments. The noise of the clash of their shields was like the
roar of the sea, but the old regiment, after a struggle in which men
fell thick and fast, annihilated the other, and passed on with thinned
ranks. Another of Cetywayo's regiments took the place of the one that
had been destroyed, and this time the combat was fierce and long, till
victory again declared for the veterans' spears. But they had brought it
dear, and were in no position to continue their charge; so the leaders
of that brave battalion formed its remnants into a ring, and, like the
Scotch at Flodden--

"The stubborn spearmen still made good
The dark, impenetrable wood;
Each stepping where his comrade stood