Mpande's - University of Zululand Institutional Repository

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interference of the High Commissioner by instructing Natal's Diplomatic
Agent, Theophilus Shepstone to organise Natal's Africans into an
effective military force. He pushed for more Imperial troops and for
more European immigrants. ss In April 1848 the British colonial
establishment in Natal received reports that Mpande had violated borders
and purged his kingdom of rivals. West instructed the Diplomatic Agent
to organise a Zulu police force of about one hundred men. ;. In June and
September Mpande was again reported to have violated the boundaries.
West did his best to meet the Zulu challenge. He asked Mpande, through
Gebhula and Gambushe, never again to violate Natal's borders'\) He
instructed Theophilus Shepstone once again to organise Natal's Zulus
into a formidable military force. In September 1848, Shepstone had
seven divisions oftroops, each comprising of 1300, men ready for action.
The Lieutenant-Governor West reminded Smith of his long-standing
request for a military increase. He also communicated Shepstone's view
that the "tyrannical" Zulu potentate was considering a full-scale
invasion. 61 Smith replied that Natal already had the means to thwart a
ss
,.
60
61
SAAR:N: Shepstone to Moodie, 22 April 1848. II,p pp. 298-300: Diary ofTheophilus
Shepstone, March 1848, Uys Collection, UNISA
Moodie to Shepstone, 8 June 1848, Ibid., 11, pp. 301-8.
S.N.A. Ill/I, N.A.: Shepstone to (Moodie), 2 August & 6 September 1848.
C.O. 11915, P.R.O., West to Smith, D. 46, I December 1848. encl. in Smith to Grey, D.
119. 11 July 1849.