Product Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899. Excerpt: ... HUNTING IN THE AMASWAZI AND GAZA COUNTRIES THE Amaswazi country, as most now know, lies on the East Coast of Africa, opposite Delagoa Bay, cut off from the seaboard by the Le Bombo Mountains. It is a small country, extending from the Usutu River on the south to the Umkomati on the north, a distance of about 100 miles, and from the Drakensberg Mountains on the west to the Le Bombo range on the east, something less. The Amaswazis are an amiable but warlike race, allied to the Zulus, and now much decimated by drink, small-pox, and other products of civilisation, and are, practically ruled by a joint commission, representing the native, the Dutch, and the English interests, while their country is overrun by mineral seekers and concession-hunters. (The country is now taken over by the Transvaal.) The Gaza country adjoins it on the north, and has an elastic northern boundary, which at one time was supposed to extend right up to the Zambesi. The nation was founded by Sotyanjaan, one of the generals whom Chaka, the great Zulu conqueror, sent to subdue the tribes to the north; but who, like Umziligazi, the founder of the Matabili nation, revolted from his chief, and set up for himself. It is now ruled by his grandson, Gungunyana, who has placed himself under the protection of the British South Africa Company. A considerable portion of his domain is, by the Anglo-Portuguese agreement, within the sphere of influence of the Portuguese; but Gungunyana repudiates the allegiance, and was only the other day with difficulty dissuaded from driving the whole of the Portuguese out of South-Eastern Africa--a feat he could easily accomplish, as his army numbers certainly not under 50,000 warriors. (This was written before the capture of Gungunyana by the Portuguese.) At the ti...