438 Kaffir Promise and Capability. 



The most remarkable instance of the industrial' capability 

 of the Kaffir that has come within the writer's own personal 

 experience yet remains, however, to be given. At the mis- 

 sionary station of the Amanziintote, on the southern coast, and 

 sixty miles away from the Umvoti station, there lives a Kaffir 

 named Nembulo. This man, having heard of the wonders 

 which the sugar-mill at the Umvoti was working, one day took 

 his staff, and walked off to look into the matter with his own 

 eyes. He returned home from the Umvoti, pondering upon 

 what he had seen. When he had completed his deliberations, 

 he went to a native intimate, named Uncaijana, living close by, 

 and proposed to him that they two should buy a sugar-mill for 

 themselves, and grow and manufacture sugar at the Amanzim- 

 tote ! His overtures being well received by his companion, he 

 next visited a white planter, Mr. Sidney Piatt, residing near 

 Durban, and bargained with him for the purchase of a small 

 steam-mill, that Mr. Plate was wishing to replace by a larger 

 one, the exact terms of the bargain being that Nembulo was 

 to begin to pay for the mill one year after he had commenced 

 operations, that all the sugar made was to be devoted to the 

 payment until the debt was cleared, and that the price was to 

 be £500. In the year 1864, the writer chancing to hear of 

 this spirited proceeding when he was in the neighbourhood, 

 sent for Nembulo, and questioned him about his plans. The 

 only doubt about them seemed to be whether the Kaffir would 

 be able really to get his mill fairly started, to make the money 

 which was to pay the debt. After due consideration of all 

 the features of the case, the writer brought the affair under the 

 notice of the Lieutenant-governor, and procured a loan of £100 

 from the Government, to be expended in removing the mill to 

 Neinbulo's place, and in setting it to work there. In the 

 month of June, 1865, the writer again visited Nembulo, to see 

 how he had succeeded in his enterprise. He found the Kaffir 

 stripped to the waist, driving the steam -machineiy of a pretty 

 little mill, the rollers of which were being fed with cane by the 

 women of his family. There was no white man near him. He 

 was " monarch of all he surveyed," and master of the position. 

 When questioned, he gave the writer a very lucid explanation 

 of the safety-valve, and some other parts of the machinery. 

 He had just manufactured five tons of very excellent sugar. 

 His Kaffir neighbours had already planted a considerable 

 stretch of cane, and he stated that he expected to be able to 

 pay off his entire debt, which then, including the advance from 

 the Government, amounted to £700, within two or thn a 

 He found that he was able to manufacture twelve hundred- 

 weight of sugar (worth from £12 to £15) per day. His first 

 year's crop was estimated at about seven tons. The history of 



