Therefore, when Cetywayo had to settle on an enemy to attack, it was not
the English that he chose, but the Swazis, whose territory adjoined his
own, lying along the borders of the Transvaal towards Delagoa Bay. The
Swazis are themselves Zulus, and Cetywayo claimed certain sovereign
rights over them, which, however, they refused to recognise. They are a
powerful tribe, and can turn out about 10,000 fighting men, quite enough
for Cetywayo's young warriors to try their mettle on. Still the king
does not appear to have wished to undertake the war without first
obtaining the approval of the Natal Government, to whom he applied
several times for permission "to wash his spears," saying that he was
but half a king until he had done so. The Natal Government, however,
invariably replied that he was on no account to do anything of the sort.
This shows the inconveniences of possessing a complimentary feudal hold
over a savage potentate, the shadow of power without the reality. The
Governor of Natal could not in decency sanction such a proceeding as a
war of extermination against the Swazis, but if it had occurred without
his sanction, the Swazis would have suffered no doubt, but the Zulu
spears would have been satisfactorily washed, and there would have been
no Zulu war. As it is, Englishmen have been killed instead of Swazis.

Thwarted in his designs on the Swazis, Cetywayo next turned his
attention to the Transvaal Boers. The Zulus and the Boers had never been
good friends since the days of the massacre of Retief, and of late
years their mutual animosity had been greatly increased owing to
their quarrels about the boundary question previously alluded to. This
animosity reached blood-heat when the Boer Government, acting with the
arrogance it always displayed towards natives, began to lay its commands
upon Cetywayo about his relations with the Amaswazi, the alleged
trespassing on Boer territory, and other matters. The arrogance was