Cetshwayo’s Dutchman: Being the Private Journal of a White Trader in Zululand During the British Invasion by Cornelius Vijn
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Overview: Mr.Vijn is a young Dutchman, who crossed into Zululand for the purpose of trading just before the outbreak of the war, and fell into the hands of the Zulus. He kept a journal during his stay with his captors, and the Bishop of Natal has encouraged him to publish it, as giving the king’s account of the late war and of the circumstances which led to it.
Mr. Cornelius Vijn is a young Dutchman —he is not more than twenty-three—who started on a trading tour in Zululand in the autumn of 1878, was detained by the Zulus about January 1, 1879, and was an eye-witness of many of the events in the war, especially of the battle of Ulundi and of the greater part of the pursuit of the king. It is not, however, for any fine descriptions of battle or march, or for any new ideas on the politics of South Africa, that the reader will find his journal valuable and interesting. It is poor in literary style, but simple, and seemingly trustworthy. The trader himself is not, by his own showing, a magnanimous man, though brave, cool, and shrewd; but his pages throw a vivid light on the character of Cetshwayo himself, and on the proceedings connected with the abortive negotiations for peace which took place between Lord Chelmsford and the Zulu king before the battle of Ulundi. It was Vijn who was sent for to interpret Lord Chelmsford’s letter of June 4, 1879, and who had to write, in very indifferent English, three letters from Cetshwayo to the English general, two of which at least must now be in possession of the War Office. It was Vijn also, who after Ulundi came off to Sir Garnet Wolseley, by the king’s own wish, with the message that the king had no longer an army, and was ready to submit. But the English leader wanted to get hold of the Zulu king, and at once offered the Dutchman 250 L. if he would bring him in in two days. . .
Genre: Non-fiction; biographies, memoirs
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