PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION E. £ If) 



5. The Native Peoples Concerned. 



At this stage it is necessary to draw attention to a remark- 

 able fact. In the main the native population consists of Fingoes, 

 Tembus, Pondos, and Pondomisi. though there are other smaller 

 peoples also living in the Territories. All of these are now 

 emerging from barbarism. The Fingoes were the first to come 

 into contact with the white pioneers as these latter gradually 

 pushed eastwards; and the west-flowing tides of native invasions 

 beat upon the rock of white resistance, only to be flung back 

 whence they came. Into the details of the conflicts as between 

 white and black ii is impossible to enter, suffice it to say that the 

 Fingoes were refugees frot->T various tribes cast adrift by the 

 upheavals caused by the great Tshaka, Chief of the Amazulu, 

 some hundred years ago. This chief, living west of Delagoa 

 Bay, trained his hordes and fought east, west, north and south 

 over an area of more than 100,000 square miles. From Delagoa 

 Bay to the Griqua Country near Orange River, and from the 

 Barutzee country in the north to that of the Amampondo on the 

 south, was one scene of war and desolation — i.e., 1820- 1835, 

 about. The Rev. Wm. Shaw, in his book, " The Story of My 

 Mission," published in i860, tells us that : — 



Multitudes perished by famine, while in some cases small tribes became 

 cannibals, in consequence of the impossibility of obtaining the ordinary 

 means of subsistence. There is reason to believe that during a period 

 of about 18 years, terminating in 1835, not less than one-half of the 

 entire population of the immense region described above was destroyed 

 by these terrific native wart;. 



An earlier document, the petition drawn up by the House- 

 holders of the Town of Durban in 1^35, and forwarded to the 

 Governoi; urging the annexation ot iNatal, gives us a valuable 

 insight -into the conditions of atlairs m Natal so far back as 

 that date. We learn there ■ ttiHc. 



In consequence of the exterminating wars of Chaka, late Kmg of tne 

 Zuloos, and other causes, the whole country included between Umzin- 

 coola and Togala Rivers is now unoccupied by its original p^lSsessor^ 

 and, with a very few exceptions, is totally uninhabited. Numbers ot 

 natives from time to time have entered this settlement (i.e., Durban) for 

 protection, the amount of whom at this present moment cannot be less 

 than 3,000. 



From these two quotations it will be gathered that there was 

 a radical redistribution of the various native tribes concerned in 

 this great upheaval, and the displacement of the tribes ver}^ much 

 complicated the whole general position. Fleeing before the 

 conqueror, the refugees were put to the necessity of fighting the 

 peoples into whose country they had fled for sanctuary. If 

 they were beaten off they had to try elsewhere to secure the 

 means of subsistence, and if they were victors those over whom 

 they had gained ascendancy were compelled in turn to fly for 

 refuge, and in this way the Fingoes were eventually thrown up 

 against the white man. This picture from the pages of early 

 native history is given here designedly, for it has no slight value 

 in relation to the rest of our study. 



