Black Population of Natal. 185 



back a band of twenty Englishmen, who proposed to acquire 

 territory there, through friendly negotiations with the native 

 chiefs. These pioneer settlers maintained varying relations 

 with the natives in the subsequent years, sometimes retiring 

 southwards to avoid the consequences of disagreements, at 

 others returning to the neighbourhood of the Bay now known 

 as the harbour of Durban. Twelve years after their first arrival 

 a party of Dutchmen came down from the mountains in the in- 

 terior and joined them. Their successors founded the towns of 

 Durban and Maritzburg in the year 1839, and from that time 

 until the year 1842, there was a period of dispute and strife 

 between the Dutch immigrants and the British Government, 

 which claimed allegiance from them in consequence of their 

 being emigrants from the Cape Colony. The dispute was 

 finally adjusted in this year, and in the year 1845, the first 

 British Lieutenant-Governor was installed in Natal. 



When the Portuguese and Dutch first visited Natal they 

 found the land thickly peopled by a black race of friendly and 

 gentle temper. The race was divided into separate com- 

 munities, which lived in a quiet orderly way under distinct 

 chieftains. When Lieutenant Farewell came to Natal, in 1824, 

 matters were greatly changed. A warlike chieftain to the 

 North had drawn together many separate clans under his 

 dominion, and formed them into an army of aggression. With 

 this army he had moved down towards the south, subjugating 

 the land, and either carrying away the remnants of the 

 conquered tribes, to incorporate them among his followers, or 

 driving them before him as scattered fugitives. The tribe 

 which first began this career of conquest and absorption, was 

 a small clan located some distance to the north of the Tugela. 

 It was then known as the Zulu tribe, and accordingly in its 

 aggrandized state it still kept the designation of Zulu. The 

 warlike chief who struck out the bright idea of extended rule 

 bore the name of Chaka, a name which remains a potent spell 

 among the Kaffirs even at the present time. Wherever there 

 was black mail to be levied, or an independent clan to be 

 eaten up, this warlike chieftain led the short javelins and 

 stealthy steps of his disciplined warriors, until by degrees his 

 sway extended from Delagoa Bay in the north to the great 

 river of St. John in the south, and Zululand became a wide 

 kingdom five hundred miles across. When Lieutenant 

 Farewell landed his small expedition in Natal, Chaka was at 

 the summit of his power, and had a large military kraal on 

 the banks of the Umhlali, twenty-five miles within the 

 boundary of what is now the colony. A few fugitives of the 

 original Kaffir tribes lurked in concealment in the bush, as the 

 sole representatives of the once teeming population ; culti- 



