Mpande's - University of Zululand Institutional Repository

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During the course of the battle E.F. Rathbone and other Colonial settlers
organised a military force responsible for the protection of White women
and children, cattle and wagons, near the Thukela.'9 In the initial stages
ofthe battle the settlers under John Dunn fired heavy rifles at the Usuthu.
This had little effect and they were compelled to retreat. SO John Dunn
accused the Afrikaner part of the Colonial forces of "cowardice". The
commissioners examining the complaints of the traders regarding their
loss ofcattle during the war, however, made the following comment:
"It seems certain that had Mr. Dunn's
party not crossed the Tugela, Umbulazi
(Mbuyazi) would have retreated nearer
this colony against the banks of the
Tugela ... A most dire calamity might have
occurred to this colony if Mr. Dunn's
presence had not kept Umbulazi's army
and the battle 10 miles beyond the
Tugela. "51
During the battle some of the traders were compelled to leave their cattle
behind on an island in the Thukela. Some ofCetshwayo's amabutho took
these cattle away with them." The Colonial establishment feared that the
removal ofthese cattle might lead to further complications to the strained
'9
so
"
'2
G.H. 1055: The ataI Mercury (cuning), 31 March 1880, p. 134.
S.J. Maphalala: The Participation ofWhite Sen1ers in the banIe ofNdondakusuka,
2 December 1856, and its consequences up to 1861, p. 9.
S.N.A. 1/1/5: Report ofCommission to investigate the traders' claims, 17 January
1857, p. 85.
CO. 48/381, P.RO.: Scon to Grey, 0.4, 9 March 1857, encl. in Grey to Labouchere,
0.32, 14 March 1857.