NATAL 



401 



between Boers and natives were very frequent. In 

 1838 an embassy of Boers were massacred by Din- 

 gaan, and a force of Boers proceeded to Ziiluland 

 to avenge their friends. The country was at this 

 time divided into two factions, one supporting Din- 

 gaan, and the other his younger brother Umpande 

 (Panda). The Boers entered into a secret treaty 

 with the latter, and a combined attack was made 

 on Dingaan, who fled and was killed. Panda suc- 

 ceeded him as king, and the Boers were recognised 

 as lords of the soil of Natal. In December 1838 

 Sir George Napier, the Cape governor, had sent a 

 detachment of Highland troops to take possession 

 of the inland territory and Port Natal ; but owing 

 to the Cape Kaffir disturbances the Highlanders 

 were withdrawn, and the Boers at once hoisted the 

 flag of 'the Republic of Natalia.' Two British 

 ships of war were sent from the Cape to force a 

 landing at Durban. After a short struggle there 

 the Boers gave up the j>ort, and fell oack on 

 Pieterinaritzburg, the capital, the name of which 

 is a compound of the Christian name of Pieter 

 Belief and the surname of Gert Maritz, two 

 leaders of the Boers. Civil negotiations were then 

 entered on by Mr Cloete, and manv of the Boers 

 accepted British rule and settled down in Natal, 

 form ing there, as a portion of them and their 

 descendants still do, an important and loyal 

 section of the Queen's subjects in that colony. 

 Those of the malcontents who crossed the Drakens- 

 ln-i L' Mts. ami struck north soon found themselves 

 lighting against Moxilikatze (father of Lobengula 

 of Matabeleland) in the territory now known as 

 the Transvaal. In 1843 Natal was officially 

 declared to be a part of the British dominions, 

 and the colony was formally annexed to the 

 Cape of Good "Hope on the "31st of May 1844. 

 At that time the natives nnml>ered about 150,000, 

 although in the previous century their total 

 was nearly a million. But intertribal fights and 

 the straggles for supremacy of Tyaka scattered 

 the clans of Natal far and wide. Subsequent 

 to the annexation by the crown and ita attend- 

 ant peace the aborigines of Natal gradually re- 

 turned from distant places, and their numbers are 

 now nearly half a million. In 1855 there was a 

 great Hood in the colony and Ziiluland, and in the 

 following year a very sanguinary fight for the Zulu 

 succession took place on the Natal northern border, 

 between two sons of Umpande viz. Cetewayo and 

 Umbulaze. After a bloody battle on the Tugela 

 Kiver the forces of the former won the day and 

 I'iiibiilaze'8 beaten men took refuge in Natal. On 

 the 15th of July 1856 Natal was declared to ! a 

 separate British colony, and it was then given 

 a limited form of representative institutions. Dur- 

 ing the decade ending with 1800 considerable 

 immigration from Great Britain took place, and 

 the immigrants of that time and their descend- 

 ants occupy the most of the land of the colony 

 to-day. 



In 1873 friction arose between Langalibalele, one 

 of the chiefs on the north-west boundary, and the 

 next magistrate. Some of the chief's young men 

 disobeyed the mandate of the magistrate to give 

 up their guns. Orders were issued to apprehend 

 the chief and certain of his followers. Ihey re- 

 treated before the crown forces, but some of the 

 Natal volunteers and mounted police cut them off 

 in one of the mountain-passes ; bloodshed ensued, 

 and three well-known young colonists were killed. 

 Langalibalele escaped to Basutoland, but was 

 captured and brought back, tried very summarily 

 in Maritzburg, and banished to the Cape Colony. 

 KignrouR measures were adopted by the governor 

 against Langalibalele's trilie and a neighlMniring 

 trilx-. The home government, however, interfered 

 and emlcd the injustice which had been done to 



the natives by the colonial authorities while under 

 a feeling of panic. Langalibalele remained in 

 the Cape Colony till 1885, when he was allowed to 

 return to Natal as a prisoner on parole ; he died 

 near Maritzburg in 1889. 



In 1875 there being in the colony much dissatis- 

 faction with the methods of Downing Street rule, 

 Sir Garnet Wolseley was sent out to settle matters. 

 He promulgated a new constitution providing for 

 an extension of the representative system with the 

 check of certain eminent colonists, selected by the 

 crown, having seats in the Legislative Council as 

 nominee members. Sir Garnet Wolseley was suc- 

 ceeded by Sir Henry Bulwer. During the gover- 

 norship of the latter a feeling of disquiet was 

 shown in some quarters at the strength of the 

 colony's neighbours, the Zulus under Cetewayo. 

 Sir Bartle Frere, Her Majesty's High Commissioner 

 for South Africa, visited the colony and came to 

 the conclusion that in the interests of the British 

 colonists in South Africa it was necessary to break 

 the power of the Zulus. Despite the protests of 

 the Natal government and Sir Henry Bulwer, the 

 governor, an ultimatum which in itself was cal- 

 culated to precipitate hostilities was served on the 

 Zulu king, and war ensued (see ZULUS). In this 

 war Natal suffered severely in the lives of its young 

 colonists, in its treasure, and in the paralysis of its 

 trade. For several years the colony was a camp- 

 ing-ground for British troops, for in 1881 the Trans- 

 vaal Boers invaded Natal to anticipate the advance 

 of English soldiers being sent to support those 

 l>eleaguered in the Transvaal garrisons ; and the 

 fights of Schuin's Hoogte, Ingogo, Laing's Nek, and 

 Amajuba (see MAJUBA HILL) were all fought on 

 British soil. 



Natal is situated between- 29 W and 31 10' S. 

 lat., and covers an area of 18,750 sq. m. more 

 than a third of that of England. Durban lies 800 

 miles ENE. of the Cape of Good Hope, and the 

 colony has a seaboard on the Indian Ocean of 

 180 miles. It is bounded on the N. by the 

 Tugela and Buffalo rivers, which separate it from 

 the Zulu Reserve and the Transvaal ; on the 

 NW., \V., and SW. by the Kwathlamba or 

 Drakensberg Mountains, and on the S. by the 

 Umtamvuna River, separating it from Pondoland. 

 Towards the coast the Drakensberg Mountains 

 present a scarped and almost inaccessible face ; 

 they gradually die away, however, into the 

 immense rolling plains of the interior. Many 

 offshoots from these mountains traverse the colony, 

 dividing it into a series of steps or plateaus, rising 

 from the coast region to the foot of the mountains, 

 and forming so many zones of natural productions. 



The coast region, extending for 30 miles inland, 

 is highly fertile, the climate lueing subtropical and 

 healthy. In 1856 the cultivation of the sugar-cane 

 was introduced on the coast, and as an industry it 

 has thriven more or less ever since. Besides sup- 

 plying all South Africa with the staple, the value 

 of the sugar exported by the colony to England in 

 1894 was 75,6-29. The culture of the cane requir- 

 ing that continuous and arduous lalwuir which the 

 natives did not supply, the Legislative Council had 

 to take steps to introduce immigrants from British 

 India. This immigration l>egan in 1863, and in 

 1891 there were 35,000 coolies in the colony with 

 their attendant traders who followed them from 

 India. The Assam tea-plant was introduced in 

 1877, and steady progress has been made with the 

 industry, the annual yield l>eing about 150,000 Ib. ; 

 this is consumed locally, and as yet the colony 

 still imports tea largely. Coffee and tobacco have 

 been reared, as have also indigo, arrowroot, and 

 ginger. All tropical fruits thrive well. The mid- 

 land terrace is more tit for the cereals and usual 

 European crops; while on the higher plateaus along 



