24 MRS MARY ROSS COOPER ON 
exodus, or emigration, was chiefly the result of dis- 
satisfaction on the part of the Dutch with English rule at 
the Cape. The discontentment had been steadily growing 
for years, and it culminated in the resolution to leave their 
homesteads and seek pastures new in some other part of the 
then still dark and unknown continent, and what is known 
as the great Northward Trek began in 1834. The Dutch 
approached Natal from the north and west, and met with 
great resistance from the natives. 
The few English settlers had remained in the south, at 
the bay. They were at first friendly to the Boers, but on 
the latter asserting their right to the land in which they 
had gained a footing, the English Governor of the Cape 
sent troops to occupy it in 1858. From that time till 1843 
the Dutch and English fought for the mastery, and it was 
only after much strife and bloodshed that the English took 
ultimate possession. 
Natal was annexed to the Cape in 1845, constituted a 
separate colony in 1856, and has had responsible govern- 
ment since 1893. 
Natal is mainly a pastoral and inland trading colony 
(although its mineral resources, especially the coal-beds, are 
being rapidly developed), and it is consequently but thinly 
populated. It has 585,000 inhabitants (about 4th of the 
population of London). The natives number 503 ,000, the 
whites 46,000, and Indians 36,000. The white population 
is European, and chiefly consists of English, Dutch, and 
German. The Americans, nevertheless, have been instru- 
mental in establishing and carrying on many of the most 
successful mission stations in the colony. 
Coming to the flora of the country, it will be necessary, 
first of all, to consider its geographical position, its physical 
features, and its climate, for by these conditions the char- 
acter of the vegetation is always in a large measure in- 
fluenced. Natal, as may be seen from the map, lies outside 
the tropics, and is in the south temperate zone. Its 
latitude is between 274 and 31 degrees south, and its 
longitude between 29 and 314 degrees east (in round 
numbers, about 2000 miles south of the equator and east 
from Greenwich). It is bounded on the west and north- 
