祖鲁王国的末日(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
祖鲁王国的末日
in the 1860s, the discovery of gold and diamonds in southern africa made the british, who already had two colonies there, consider annexing the local state of zululand. in 1878, they magnified a small conflict with the zulu king cetshwayo, which ultimately escalated to cetshwayo being given an ultimatum to disband his army.when cetshwayo, as expected, ignored the ultimatum, the british invaded zululand with an army of 13000 men, expecting on easy victory. they were met with an army of 20000- 25000 zulu warriors, who, armed with spears against british guns, beat the british resoundingly on 22 january 1879. nearly 1200 redcoats were killed.sadly, this was to be the last victory of the zulu nation. the british returned in july, and the zulus were utterly routed.

cetshwayo was captured and taken to london. the zulu kingdom came to an end.
一八六○年代，英国在非洲南部已有两个殖民地。由于当时这个地区发现黄金、钻石矿藏，英国人就想把区内的祖鲁国都并入版图。一八七八年，他们和祖鲁国王塞奇瓦约有小冲突，乘机把事情越闹越大，终于向塞奇瓦约发出最后通牒，要他把手下军队解散。塞奇瓦约一如所料，不理会这最后通牒。英国于是派一万三千人的军队入侵祖鲁国，以为可轻易取胜。迎敌的祖鲁战士有二万至二万五千人，以长矛对抗英军的火枪，一八七九年一月二十二日，大败英军，英军阵亡者将近一千二百人。
可惜这是祖鲁国最后一场胜利了。同年七月，英国卷土重来，祖鲁军一败涂地。塞奇瓦约被俘，押送伦敦。祖鲁王国从此灭亡。