title: harvard cancels mens soccer season after finding sexually explicit reports continued through
text: when the river ran red arthur kemp american renaissance september  
  the year is  dodging a flurry of spears the boer commander andries pretorius rides forward to seize a zulu warrior in the midst of an epic battle between more than  warriors and just  boers pretorius has decided to take a zulu alive he wants to send the captive back to his king dingaan to convey surrender terms to the zulu nation 
  the warrior has no intention of being taken alive and jabs viciously at pretorius with his assegai this is a zulu spear normally a longshafted throwing weapon but the warrior broke its shank earlier for closequarter stabbing pretorius gives up on capturing the zulu and tries to shoot him 
  with a singleshot muzzleloading musket he has only one chance of a hit there is no time to reload in close combat to his horror pretorius sees the smoketrailing ball whiz past the zulus ear at the same time the zulu lunges forward causing pretoriuss horse to stumble backwards throwing the white commander to the ground 
  leaping to his feet he meets the attacking zulu who knows he is now on equal terms with the white man who can no longer use his magic shooting stick and carries no weapon comparable to the assegai pretorius is now fighting for his life he just manages to sidestep the spear point striking it away with the butt of his gun 
  spinning round the zulu raises his spear high above his head and thrusts down as he has been trained to do in the zulus disciplined army it is a blow that will be fatal if it strikes home but pretorius sees it coming he grabs the spear point with his left hand to ward it away from his chest the sharp point cuts deeply into his palm embedding itself at an angle that makes it impossible for the zulu to pull it out pretorius seizes the zulu by the throat with his free right hand and throws him to the ground in an attempt to strangle him 
  the zulu struggles and with the help of two good hands is about to break free when one of pretoriuss men comes upon the scene he pulls the assegai out of the commanders hand and plunges it into the zulus side ending the struggle 
  pretorius remounts and heads back to the boer camp for treatment he is not worried as he knows by now that this greatest of all battles between boers and zulus has already been won the main zulu army has been broken in two and the river that runs along one side of the boer camp is stained red with zulu blood the place and the tributary known previously as the ncome will be renamed blood river pretorius knows that the zulu defeat which will include some  killed on the battlefield is a fit revenge for the deception and murder committed by the zulus  months earlier 
  prelude to war 
  the great clash between the boer and zulu nations was not as leftist historians like to claim the result of ruthless white colonialism suppressing an indigenous people it came about because the zulus rejected an extremely reasonable attempt at negotiation by the boers 
  the boers pioneers of dutch french and german descent were the people who opened up much of what was later to become south africa their first antecedents had landed on the southernmost tip of africa in  only  years after the virginia company settled on jamestown island 
  when they arrived in the area now known as cape town whites came into contact only with hottentots and bushmen as the number of europeans increased they expanded east and north only meeting their first black tribe the xhosa some  miles away on south africas east coast the xhosas were migrating south fleeing the warlike zulu to the north who were engaged in imperialist expansion of their own 
  for just under a century white settlement halted at this eastern frontier border formed by the coast and firm xhosa settlement it was not however a time of peace as xhosa were constantly raiding the boers who lived on the border this caused much harm and discontent among the farmers who blamed the dutchruled colonial government back in cape town for the lawlessness 
  it only added to the border farmers grievances when the british took the cape colony from the dutch in  to prevent the colony from falling into french hands during the napoleonic wars it was vital to control the merchant and naval refitting station on the way to the far east the new colonial masters not only started anglicizing the colony when they abolished slavery they offered compensation that amounted to hardly a quarter of a slaves value 
  exasperated by incessant xhosa attacks and british attempts to suppress their language and culture groups of frontier farmers filled with a sense of manifest destiny not seen again until the opening of the american west set forth to the north and the east in a movement known as the great trek the trekkers they became known as voortrekkers or pioneers only after  bypassed the xhosa in search of new unsettled territory in which they could establish independent boer nations all told it was only a small minority of no more than  boers who made the trek to the future natal orange free state and transvaal regions they traveled in several waves of covered oxdrawn wagons much like the conestogas in which americans opened the west 
  the boer leader of the time piet retief had written the trekker manifesto in which he spelled out the farmers longheld grievances against the british by the boer wagons had crossed the great mountain range into natal in an act of audacity that few thought possible the range the highest in southern africa had been named the drakensbergthe dragon mountainsbecause they were said to be impassable 
  retief had identified a large piece of uninhabited land to the north of the zulu kingdom which lay open to settlement retief knew that if he wanted the land for his people he could take it unopposed however he wanted to live in peace with his zulu neighbors and before taking possession he opened negotiations with the zulu king dingaan he wanted no misunderstanding between the two peoples 
  he sent a letter to the zulu king explaining why he wanted to speak to him and first visited dingaans capitala large circle of reed and grass hutson november   retief left the main body of trekkers and went to the zulu kings capital umgungundhlovo the place of the elephant to negotiate a treaty that would allow boers peacefully to settle land adjoining the zulu kingdom dingaan said he would let the boers live in natal if they recovered cattle stolen by a tlokwa chieftain retief and his men did so and dingaan agreed to give the land to the boers 
  retief returned to umgungundhlovo on february   to finalize the agreement he arrived with  volunteers including his own son and three children of other menit was common for children to accompany their fathers on expeditions of this kind the next day retief and dingaan formally signed a treatythe zulu king made his mark by scratching an x on the documentgiving possession of the land to the boers delighted the boers sent scouts back to the main encampments to report the successful outcome and made ready to leave as retief and his party were about to saddle up a messenger arrived from dingaan inviting the boer party to a special celebration to mark the signing retief was suspicious but did not want to offend dingaan as they had on previous visits the boers stacked their firearms neatly outside the reed walls and entered the royal enclosure unarmed 
  as they ate and drank a zulu impi or warrior unit put on a dance for the guests according to the account of a white missionary who was present the dancing warriors drew ever closer to the boers till they were just in front of the seated whites when the zulu king leaped to his feet and shouted kill the white wizards the impi fell upon the surprised boers some of them drew their hunting knives and tried to fight off the attackers but they were quickly overwhelmed 
  the zulu warriors bound the whites with reed ropes and dragged them to hlomo amabutho the hill of execution near the zulu capital there they clubbed the boers to death one by one with retief kept until last and forced to watch his son being murdered after retiefs heart was extracted and presented to dingaan as proof that the boer leader was dead the bodies were left for the vultures in accordance with zulu custom 
  dingaan then gave orders for the full might of his army to attack the boer camps the settlers had received the message retief had sent earlier and believed everything had gone well they were therefore completely unprepared and badly undermanned the  men in retiefs party were all dead many other men had gone hunting leaving only a light guard for the women and children the boers were so confident there would be peace that they had not even posted sentries just before dawn barking dogs aroused the outlying wagons then thousands of zulu warriors attacked the several hundred trekkers  women children and old men  as they lay sleeping 
  the boer historian gustav preller who interviewed survivors left a harrowing account of the aftermath all around dozens and dozens of bodies  babies who had had their heads smashed open against the wagon wheels women dishonored and in some zulu custom their breasts cut off  in a wagon blood filled to a height of several inches the life blood of an entire family ebbed out where they lay  jan bezuidenhout one of the few young men who had not gone ahead with the retief party grabbed his fourmonthold baby daughter out of her crib and ran off through the undergrowth  having lost his pursuers a few miles away bezuidenhout checked for the first time on his daughter in his arms she was dead a single spear stroke had killed her 
  the slaughter became known as the weenen the dutch word for weeping and a town of that name still stands near the site of the  boers camped in the area zulus killed some  including  children the rest survived because grazing requirements for their animals meant that the boer camps had to be widely dispersed if dingaans men had scouted more thoroughly found all the encampments and attacked them simultaneously the slaughter would have been far greater 
  pretorius arrives 
  the boers now faced their greatest challenge their camps were full of wounded men orphaned children and widows the zulus had stolen an estimated  head of cattle and sheep during the weenen slaughter and ammunition was running low the zulu armies might return at any time and they were a formidable force as the boers discovered when they launched a raid to avenge the massacre on april    trekkers under a divided command of piet uys and hendrik potgieter rode into zulu territory only to be defeated by some  warriors not far from umgungundhlovo in what became known as the battle of italeni 
  this new disaster forced the boers to face reality they had to either abandon their quest for independence and return to the cape colony or find some means to fight their way through the widows and orphans argued strongly for pushing on they knew that if they fell back to the cape they would have to live on charity whereas if dingaan could be defeated they could at least recover their livestock many boers were also convinced that god favored them and that setbacks were only a test of faith 
  it was at this moment of indecision that a popular lawyer named andries pretorius answered the trekker call for reinforcements and rode into camp with  men and a brass cannon the boers appointed him commander in chief on november  and he immediately began preparing a strike against the zulu 
  his means were few a force of only about  boers including three scotsmen set out on november  seeking battle for extra protection the boer column of  wagons traveled four abreast instead of the usual single file each night they formed a circular defensive formation known as a laager 
  pretorius realized that even with two frontloading cannon his force was too weak to defeat the zulu army in an open field he therefore decided to draw the enemy into an attack on the boer encampment each day patrols and scouting parties rode ahead sometimes led by pretorius himself to make sure no unexpected surprises were waiting over the horizon 
  on december   the boer party reached the zandspruit tributary of the waschbank river it was here that the boer chaplain sarel cilliers first pledged during his nightly sermon that if god helped them defeat the zulus they and their descendents would celebrate that day in honor of god and that they would build a church in commemoration the boers repeated this oath known in afrikaner folklore as the covenant every night until they met the enemy 
  there appeared to be no movement from the zulu side on december  pretorius decided to move camp to the buffalo river hoping to provoke the zulus by moving farther into their territory that day he sent out two patrols one under the command of his deputy commandant hans de lange and another under the scotsman edward parker this latter group saw action when they came upon a small group of zulus they killed the warriors and took the women prisoner 
  pretorius drew up a message for dingaan on a white cloth explaining that he was leading a commando to punish the zulus if however dingaan was willing to cooperate pretorius wrote he was still willing to make peacea generous offer in light of the earlier betrayal he freed the prisoners and told them to give the message to dingaan he received no answer 
  on december  the boers spotted zulus and what appeared to be a large number of cattle near their camp piet uys had been tricked by such a ploy at the battle of italeni zulu warriors crouching behind toughened animalskin shields looked like cattle from a distance and uys dropped his guard he was killed in a surprise attack by the cattle 
  pretorius did not make the same mistake and he sent a strong mounted unit to investigate the cattle they turned out to be zulus and in the short fight that followed the boers killed eight warriors but suffered no casualties pretorius now suspected that the zulus were preparing for battle 
  on december  he moved the boer camp to a position alongside the ncome river itself a tributary of the buffalo river a scouting expedition that day confirmed the presence of two huge zulu armies a short distance away 
  pretorius prepared for battle his men drew the wagons into a dshaped formation one side overlooking a large hippopotamus path facing the ncome river another side facing a soil erosion ditch and the third side facing the open plain pretorius chose the site to limit the directions from which the zulus could attack 
  the laager was large enough to contain all the horses and oxen the defenders tied the wagons together with leather ropes and closed off all openings between and below the wagons with a pretorius innovation socalled fighting gates which were slatted wood fixtures through which defenders could fire they left two small openings sealed with removable fighting gates so cavalry could leave the laager finally they attached lanterns to the ends of large oxwhips planted upright in the ground these dangled in front of the laager and were to serve as forward lighting during the dark hours when zulu usually attacked zulus captured after the battle said they had believed the lights waving in the breeze above the boer camp were spirits and that fear of the spirits kept them from attacking that night 
  battle is joined 
  in pretoriuss own account of the battle he wrote that as the mist cleared on the morning of december  he saw that the boer camp was completely encircled by tens of thousands of zulu warriors even where the terrain would have made an attack difficult estimates placed the number of zulus at between  and  although no official count was possible whatever the figure pretorius wrote that it was a terrible sight 
  the boers had been ready and armed since two hours before daybreak the two cannon were in position and the fighting gates closed the defenders expected to run out of ammunition for the cannon and had stacked up suitably sized stones at strategic points along the perimeter to fire as a last resort the boers would fire stones that day 
  the front lines of the zulu force were still squatting only about  paces from the wagons waiting for the signal to attack pretorius decided to strike first at his signal three bursts of fire from the boer guns and two blasts from the cannon broke the silence the boers orders were to then hold their fire as the billows of gunpowder smoke lifted they saw that the surviving zulus had fled some  paces from their former front line leaving behind dozens of dying and dead comrades 
  the boers then heard the noise of the zulus breaking their spear shafts to make them into short stabbing weapons a frontal assault was coming a few minutes later the zulu force stormed the wagons screaming wildly shields held high and assegais in readiness withering gunfire ripped through the zulu ranks and while some managed to reach the wagons they were gunned down before they could cut through the wagon canvasses 
  another group of zulus tried to attack from inside the erosion ditch by standing on each others shoulders and scrambling over the edge pretorius ordered cilliers the fighting churchman to see off the attack he led a group of men out of the relative safety of the wagon perimeter and they proceeded to kill some  zulus one boer philip fourie was wounded when an assegai struck him in the side 
  the boers then wheeled one of their cannon out of the laager pointed it into the ditch and fired a shot that literally blew apart the assaulting party the survivors fled the ditch in disarray this sparked a temporary retreat by the zulu and marked the end of the second unsuccessful attempt to break the boer lines the wounded boer fourie returned to the wagon circle for treatment 
  as the zulus waited for new orders pretorius ordered another burst of cannon fire into their ranks provoking a spontaneous charge against the wagons although it was the longest single assault of the ninehour battle it was utterly defeated as the boers cut down wave after wave of attackers gun barrels got so hot men had to hold them with wet cloths for reloading 
  as the third attack fell back the boers launched their first surprise counterattack as the mobile fighting gates swung open and a cavalry unit charged the zulu lines shooting from the saddle the boers tried to turn the zulu lines to their left desperate zulu resistance which saw hundreds more of their number killed stopped the encircling action and the boer horsemen rode back to the wagons they regrouped and launched a second attempt driving the zulus further away a third mounted charge finally broke through the zulu lines the boer cavalry then turned and attacked the zulus from the rear pinned between the cavalry and cannon fire from within the wagon circle the main zulu force facing the open plain scattered 
  a reserve zulu force tried to cross the ncome river to attack the laager but so many warriors were gunned down that their blood stained the water red pretorius himself then led another cavalry charge from within the laager cut to pieces with thousands dead the zulu army which had courageously charged repeatedly against a betterarmed enemy finally broke ranks and fled 
  pretorius divided his cavalry into two units and sent them in pursuit mounted boers killed hundreds of warriors during a threehour chase it was during this pursuit that pretorius was wounded two other boers including fourie suffered nonfatal assegai wounds but these were the only boer casualties an estimated  zulus died on the battlefield and many more died later from wounds 
  the aftermath 
  early the next morning pretorius ordered the camp broken and marched the commando straight to the zulu kings capital he was confident the zulus no longer posed any significant threat but he hardly expected the sight that awaited him on december  at umgungundhlovo dingaan had fled with his wives and cattle leaving the circular camp of reed huts burning as a symbol of the destruction of zulu power 
  on the outskirts of the capital the boers found the skeletons of retief and his men their hands and feet were still bound fast with thongs of ox hide wrote cilliers and in nearly all the corpses a spike as thick as an arm had been forced into the anus so that the point of the spike was in the chest retief who was identified by the remains of a satin vest he had worn still had a leather bag draped over his shoulder bone in it was the treaty signed by dingaan giving the boers the unoccupied land to the north according to one of the boers who saw it the treaty was astonishingly well preservedas if it had been left in a closed box pretoriuss men buried retief and his party on christmas day  
  dingaan fled north but was captured by a rival tribe the swazis earlier he had persecuted the swazis and they murdered him in revenge the new zulu king mpande was officially installed in  and confirmed the contents of the treaty with the boers who established their first republic in southern africa also in  in fulfillment of their covenant the boers built a church to mark the blood river victory 
  the battle of blood river entered the afrikaner psyche as a divinelyinspired victory and december  became a public holiday in south africa celebrated each year with festivals church services and reenactments the battle represented the victory of european civilization over the darkness of africa of christianity over heathens it helped justify white supremacy and the selfappointed right of afrikaners to rule over not apart from the black tribes 
  yet the battle of blood river in many ways symbolized all that was wrong with the white settlement of southern africa and why that experiment failed the boers are to be praised for wanting to settle unoccupied land peacefully and for seeking the friendship of neighboring peoples but neither they nor their descendents understood that demography is the arbiter of nations those who form the majority population of a territory will rule that territory no matter how powerful a ruling elite may be they will determine its culture and society a majorityeuropean population will create a society that reflects european values and norms a majorityafrican population will create a society that reflects african norms 
  the boers never understood this even at the battle of blood river they had at least  black servants and an indeterminate number of mixedrace servants who helped load weapons parker one of the scotsman had more than  black servants 
  to the present day the overwhelming majority of afrikaners have black servants who work on farms in factories and in homes afrikaners failed to understand that by giving the native population the benefits of european civilization blacks would grow in numbers and overwhelm their society the cape colony and the original boer republics which were largely uninhabited by natives when they were settled by europeans are today home to tens of millions of africans 
  the church of the vow built by the boers in  still stands in the town of pietermaritzburg named after piet retief but pietermaritzburg supposedly the symbol of the boer victory over the zulus is today part of a municipality called umgungundhlovo named after dingaans capital it is also the capital of the south african province of kwazulu natal and its population is more than  percent black 
  the church of the vow stands alone graffitiscarred and abandoned in a dirty downtown slum its decay illustrates the fatal error made by the victors of the battle of blood river that of ignoring the demographics of race if whites had taken possession of those unoccupied lands and kept them for themselves alone the history of south africa would have been entirely different 
  if the boers had inhabited and worked their own land rather than rely on black labor the states they created might still be strong and independent today their decision to use nonwhite labor was a critical error that undid all of the sacrifices of the early pioneers 
  the only way to maintain a civilization is for the majority to occupy its own land with its own people and to do its own manual labor this law governs the rise and fall of civilizations and the victors of blood river ignored it to their cost