The Diary of the Rev. F. Owen, Missionary with Dingaan, together
with the accounts of Zulu affairs by the interpreters, Messrs. Hully and Kirkman.
Edited by Sir Geo. E. Cory.
Owen wrote one of the best-known descriptions of life
in Dingaan’s kraal, including a report of the death
of Retief and his followers, of which he was the only
white witness. For the first time the diary has been published in full, apart
from the
Sir George Cory was
Professor Emeritus of
Owen’s Diary.
Missionaries. He
then gave an order, that no one in furture, neither
man nor woman should go to be taught, and that the children should not go and
learn to sew. Mr. Venable intended coming to see the king in this business, but
yesterday morning about 10, four messengers arrived who
had been travelling all night from the capital, in order to bring James Brownlee, the Interpreter, to interpret for
the king. They said that William as well as Mr. Hully, my own
Interpreter, were not here and that Thos. Halstead, the Beers Interpreter was
at Capt. Gardiner’s, a palpable lie, for he was here when the messenger left on
Sunday evening, and I tremble to say is now amongst the number of the slain: so
the natives to say tho’ Dingarns servant this morning informed me he was not to
be killed. The reason for this call from James Brownlee is mysterious, he is a
boy and the king likes him; for what end he should have sent in so
unaccountable a manner and with such haste is surprising. On Mr. V’s arrival he
was surprised to see the Doer guns under the trees and the natives handling
them freely, but they themselves not to be found. but
described as having gone a hunting, etc. At length Umthlela the Indoona told
him that the Beers were killed. Mr. Venable made no reply, and the savage,
remorseless Indoona asked him if he did not thank the
king for having killed them. Before this conversation, Mr. V. had told him for
what purpose he had come to see the king, and Umthlela had asked him what they
wanted to teach. Being told the “Book,” he asked, cannot you teach us to shoot,
or to ride? At length our friend left and came to the station where as he saw
no one about as usual he expected to find us
also gone. Our conversation has been partly on the wisest course to be
adopted in the present exigency. We agree that we have no security for life.
The man who brings our milk informs us that the army went out to-day against
the Beers. We tremble for the result. In the evening the king sent to me for
some medicine to heal a man who had been wounded by a spear in a quarrel with
another Zoolu.
February 7th.—In
the morning two Indoonas with an attendant called. One of them patted his
breast, a common gesticulation of friendship. No Indoona had ever been to the
station before and they asked to see the hut, waggon, etc. They were remarkably
civil. They had been sent by the king to inform me that it was not his
intention to kill either me or the other missionaries, for we had come into his
country by few and fews he
could live in peace with us, for we were his people. All George’s peoples
meaning the British were his, i.e., he liked them, but the Amaboro were not his
people: nor where they George’s. He said that all the armies that
came into his country should be killed, that the Amaboro (Boers) were going to
kill the king: they had come like an army and had fallen into a passion with him. Many other causes were then
assigned for their slaughter, as that they had not brought Sinkoyella and his
people prisoners. Some of the other reasons I could not well understand nor did
I trouble myself about them as there was but one true reason, the dread of
their power and that the whole was a premeditated preconcerted plan of Dingarn
who was anxious to see in order that he might butcher them all at once, I
cannot now have a reasonable doubt, tho’ I could not imagine previously that
his designs were so treacherous. The thought frequently entered my mind but I
rejected it. I said little in reply to the king. I remarked that I had come
into his country only to teach the Book: that I was not a fighting person, as
those who taught the Book in my country did not handle the gun.
I did
not give an adequate description of the dreadful carnage yesterday. I omitted
to state that many of the Boers had children with them, some under
11 years of age, as I am informed, as these were all
butchered. They also had their Hottentot servants and these were likewise
slaughtered besides their Interpreter and his servant. The number of slain
must have been nearer a hundred than sixty, but if there had been ten hundred
it would have been all the same. Dingarn afterwards sent for Mr. Venable and
his interpreter. He set the latter to unhalter some of his newly acquired
horses which were knee haltered. As he never possessed.
a horse before, none of his own people were as yet
adequate to this office. The usual
messenger who comes to the station was thrown yesterday and seriously injured,
nevertheless, he was obliged to come this morning, tho’ apparently in great
pain. When the above task was performed the sun was too hot: the king went into
his hut and there was no conversation. The thermometer to-day in our hut is at
1010, higher that it has ever been. In the evening, Mr.
Venable went down again to the king. He professed that he had given orders that
Thos. Halstead, the Boers interpreter, should be saved, but his people were not
able to distinguish him. This is Dingarn’s usual method when he does a thing of
which he is ashamed, he throws the odium of it upon
his people. So he professed great surprise that Mungo should have prohibited
the people from attending the teaching, and said he should send a messenger to
him. He lamented that the Port Natal people should be afraid of him and said
that they had built a fort. He observed that Capt. Gardiner and he had fallen
out. He said that he should never send us away or drive
us out, but if at any time the teachers should