188 Black Population of Natal. 



tinder the tiger's tail.-" Through a series of years the parties 

 of the young chieftains have been waxing in strength, and the 

 old king has been left more and more to his gout and'his old 

 councillors. The young chiefs have, of course, been growing 

 more jealous of each other as they have waxed in power, and 

 more especially as it has come to be known that Umpanda 

 has inclined to favour his younger sons in preference to his 

 first-born. In the year 1856 there was a great fight between 

 the party of the elder son, Ketchwayo, and that of the younger 

 brothers, in which Umbulazi and five others of the younger 

 sons were slain. Since then the fortunes of Ketchwayo have 

 been in .the ascendant. The person of the old king is re- 

 spected, and he continues to live, surrounded by his old men, 

 at his kraal ; but it is understood that he is now too old " to 

 move/' and is only to do " the thinking." Umpanda is " the 

 head " of the tribe, but Ketchwayo is its "feet." Two others 

 of the younger sons of Umpanda escaped with their mothers 

 from Zululand at the time of the great fight, and are now 

 living as refugees in Natal under the British Eegis. The 

 brothers who remain on the Zulu side of the Tugela are con- 

 sidered to be adherents of Ketchwayo. 



One important consequence of this curious passage of 

 Zulu history is, that the 10,000 Natal Kaffirs of 1836, have 

 grown into 200,000 Natal Kaffirs in 1866. Year after year, 

 more and more of the men who had primarily sided with the 

 younger brothers, and more and more of the middle-aged and 

 sedate Kaffirs who have longed for quiet and peace, have 

 passed over the border as opportunity served them, and settled 

 themselves down among the black subjects of the British 

 Queen. These refugees are required to enter upon three 

 years' term of service, whenever their presence is recognized ; 

 but sooner or later they all become absorbed into the following 

 of one or other of the petty chieftains who are distributed 

 over the land. There are certain districts set apart as reserves 

 for these clans, where they are allowed to live under the con- 

 dition of paying a small yearly hut tax to the Government, 

 and yielding obedience to the magistrates and laws. But 

 many of them have built their kraals on the lands held by 

 private proprietors, or on the lands yet in possession of the 

 crown. In the former case they pay a small rent to the land- 

 lord, or furnish an equivalent in the form of personal service. 



The black population of Natal thus consists of numerous 

 small tribes, living under their own separate chiefs, and scat- 

 tered abroad over the face of the land, either in reserves which 

 are set apart by the Government for their occupation, or as 

 squatters upon the crown land and private estates. These 

 tribes are primarily formed of the original natives of the 



