Page 63 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

26
1868 – 1869
war expedition. The hundreds of warriors, as soon as they
saw us whites (“abelungu”), left their work and encircled us and tried to scare our horses by hitting onto the shields made of skins. Only seldom did whites come to Zululand in those days, only travelling merchants. Müller warned us to remain calm and the commanding “indunas” called to their warriors to leave us alone, which they eventually did. We were glad that we could freely continue our journey because even then it was in no way safe in the free Zululand. We had passed the cattle the day before, when they were driven from Umpande’s kraal to Cetshwayo under the protection of warriors. Just as we read in the Bible, when Jacob sent gifts to his brother Esau, oxen, cows, heifers etc. each kind on its own. Some warriors even had Martini Henry rifles.
We rested for a few days at Missionary Fröhling. From there we could see St Lucia Bay. At Fröhlings we had bananas and pineapples. From there we came to the big Tugela River where we had to be helped across by Colenbrander in a boat. The horses had to swim through the river. Today there is the big railway bridge.
From there we continued along the coast. One evening we stayed over at the big farmer Hulett and looked at his coffee and sugar cane plantations.