A ZULU VERSION OF ISANDULA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 16, 19 January 1881, Page 4

A ZULU VERSION OF ISANDULA.

A Zulu account of the battle of Isandula, differing considerably from any that have previously appeared, has recently been published in a Natal newspaper. All accounts constructed by officers who were not present make the attack upon the camp a continuous affair from beginning to end. This ia the case with Lord Chelmsford's account, as given in his recent speech in the Hcuae of Lords, and equally so ; with the very able description given in Captain Parr's readable little book Tlie only piece of evidence in contradiction of such an idea that has yet been obtained is an entry in Lieutenant Pope's diary which was picked up , on the field months after the disaster. The entry referred to .speaks of an attack made in the morning, after which tho enemy retired in all directions, the men of the 24th Eegiment falling out to their dinner. This statement, of course, leaves it to be implied that the attack in which the camp was taken occurred at a later hour. This ; is exactly what the Dative's description asserts. The Zulus were lying at some i little distance from the camp, not expecting to attack that dny, when the ; mounted men of the British force ap- t peared on the neighboring hills. "If," says the Zulu, " you are barked at or bitten, you must bark or bigte in return." Thoi Zulu regiments, accordingly, advanced towards the camp, driving in the forces they met with. Then there was a pause. The Zulu advance ceased while manoeuvres were being carried out for completely surrounding the camp. When these arrangements were completed, the Zulus cloßed in on the camp from all sides at once, and found its defenders entirely unprepared. " All the whites ', were not armed when we broke in upon them —that is, when we stood up " — the narrator's regiments had been lying down in the long grass—"and went in among the tents and the cattle and the waggons, when the great killing took place, b'ome of the white soldiers were in their shirts ; others came out of the white tents eating." The statement is worth attention for three reasons : — First, it comes from an eye-witness; second, it confirms the evidence given in the entry of Lieutenant Pope's diary; and third, it has a great air of probability about it. Lying down in the grass was a ruse practised by the Zulus on more than one occasion during the war, and the effect of the sudden appearance of a large body of the enemy close at hand is eaßy to imagine. If this story is trustworthy, the whole ; history of the day has to be re-written ;