A MISSIONARY AMONG THE ZULUS.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 154, 14 June 1879, Page 3

A MISSIONARY AMONG THE ZULUS.

The following story appears in the ' Uitenhage Times,' which states it was obtained from a Zulu some time ago:— " some years since a missionary went to the king's kraal with a view of converting him and his people to Christianity. He stayed there a few days, and the king agreed to hear him on the following Sunday. The Sunday arrived, the king gathered his people together, and also called up two of his finest regiments to hear what message had been brought to him from the white men. The missionary, being told that they were ready to listen to him, rose and delivered an elegant but short sermon, in which he set forth the beauties of heaven as compared with the torments of the dark regions. He told them if they lived a good life, did not steal, always spoke the truth, and, above all, kept only one wife, they would after death go to the happy hunting grounds, where they would never miss their game, where they would never die, but be for ever and ever far happier than they were ever in their happiest moments clown here ; whereas, on the other hand, if they lived a bad life, and did what he had just told them they ought not to do, they Avould be cast into a tremendous fire, so large that it would scoi'ch up the whole of the Zulu nation, though they were as numerous as locusts, in a few moments. The chief and the people paid great attention to all the missionary said, and when he had finished the king asked him to dine with him. He accepted the invitation, but during the dinner noticed the people rushing about in all directions collecting wood, which they were pilling up in one spot. The missionary began to feel queer ; he thought it looked ominous ; and the Zulu who told the story said he noticed ho did not eat any more, but continued to take large draughts of milk, as if to cool himself. At length the dinner was over, but before rising the king turned sharply round to the now affrighted missionary and said. ' What was that you said this morning about putting the great Zulu people in a great fire after they were dead ? Come this way and I will show you what the Zulus are ; you don't know them, I can see.' He took him to the pile of wood, which had by this time reached tremendous proportions—as big as a Bay store, the Zulu said—and had it set fire to all round. When it was propeidy in a blaze, and gave out so much heat that no one could come near it, the King summoned the tworegiments who had listened to the sermon, and ordered them to charge into the burning pile and extinguish it. Naked as they were, without shoes or any covering at all, they rushed into the burning mass like madmen, raving and yelling, and did not stop till hardly a vestige of the fire remained. The King then said to the missionary, ' You have seen that. That is what we will do with your hell. The Zulus won't play with your fires, and you had better clear out of this country at once, or I will have a ' little fire' made for you to put out.' The missionary took the hint, and left the kraal the same evening. Is it any wonder, ask people, after this, that Gatling guns and rocket batteries have no terror for the. Zulus ?—and it is certain tlieV have none. The Zulus, when ordered to attack, attack ; and though they may be mown down by thousands, still come on, until they conquer or die. It is a tradition among them which Lord Chelmsford would do well to take into consideration in his future movements in ZuLuland."