Natal Sentence Examples

Natal proper has a seaboard of 166 m.

During the rebellion of the natives in Natal and Zululand in 1906 the Basuto remained perfectly quiet.

The Natal natives have preserved their tribal organization to a considerable extent.

The works which have made Port Natal the finest harbour in South Africa are described under Durban.

Land lines connect Natal with every part of South Africa and with Nyasaland and Ujiji.

The schism arose out of the alleged heterodox views of Bishop Colenso (q.v.), who had been created bishop of Natal by letters patent in 1853.

The larger animals which abounded in Natal in the first half of the 19th century have been exterminated or driven out of the country.

Before that period the natives of what is now Natal proper were estimated to number about 10o,000.

Of the tribes who were in Natal before the Zulu invasion about 1812, the two largest are the Abatembu (who are in five main divisions and number about 30,000) and the Amakwabe (seven divisions and about 20.000 people).

On this, the normal South African gauge, all the Natal railways, save a few 2-ft.

The Natal horse is small, wiry, and has great powers of endurance.

Natal makes an annual contribution of £35, 00 0 towards the upkeep of the British navy.

Jealous, however, of the preference shown by the Dutch farmers in Natal to another commandant (Gert Maritz), Potgieter speedily recrossed the Drakensberg, and in November 1838 he and his followers settled by the banks of the Mooi river, founding a town named Potchefstroom in honour of Potgieter.

Eventually the difficulty was overcome by the device of an educational test based on the provisions of an act in operation in Natal.

Others thrive in a greenhouse; such are C. asiaticum, a widely distributed plant on the sea-coast of tropical Asia, C. capense and C. longiflorum, from the Cape, and C. Macowani and C. Moorei from Natal.

On every side it is surrounded by British colonies, north by the Orange River Colony, south-west and south by Cape Colony, and east by Natal.

It is the centre of a thriving agricultural district and has a considerahle trade in wool, grain, cattle and horses with Basutoland, Pondoland and the neighbouring regions of Natal.

It lies north-east of Natal.

The terrace formation of the land characteristic of other coast regions of South Africa prevails in Natal.

This is the case in the Mont-aux-Sources (11,170 ft.) and Cathkin Peak or Champagne Castle (10,357 ft.); the top of the third great height, Giant's Castle (9657 ft.), is in Basutoland, but its seaward slopes are in Natal.

Of Cycadaceae the Stangeria paradoxa is peculiar to Natal.

Greytown (2436), a wool and wattle trading centre, is in central Natal.

Port Shepstone, at the mouth of the Umzimkulu river, is the natural outlet for south-west Natal.

Rinderpest in1896-1897swept through South Africa, and probably carried off in Natal from 30 to 40% of the stock of Europeans, while the natives' losses were even heavier.

This wattle thrives well in most localities, but especially in the highlands of central Natal.

For 1909-1910, the last year of Natal's existence as a colony, the revenue, £4,035,000, again exceeded the expenditure.

The Roman-Dutch law, as accepted and administered by the courts of Cape Colony up to 1845 (the date of the separation of Natal from the Cape), is the law of the land, save as modified by ordinances and laws enacted by the local legislature, mostly founded upon imperial statute law.

The Anglicans are divided into two parties - those belonging to " the Church of the Province of South Africa," the body in communion with the Church of England, and those who act independently and constitute " the Church of England in Natal."

In 1863 the metropolitan of Cape Town, as head of the Church of the Province of South Africa, excommunicated Dr Colenso and consecrated a rival bishop for Natal, who took the title of bishop of Pietermaritzburg.

Dr Colenso, who obtained a decision of the privy council confirming his claim to be bishop of Natal and possessor of the temporalities attached to the bishopric, died in 1883.

Moreover, an act of the Natal parliament passed in 1909 placed the temporalities into commission in the persons of the bishop and other trustees of the Natal diocese of the Provincial Church; reservations being made in favour of four congregations at that time unwilling to unite with the main body of churchmen.'

For higher education provision was made by the affiliation of Natal to the Cape of Good Hope University and by exhibitions tenable at English universities.

An act of the Natal legislature, passed December 1909, provided for the establishment at Maritzburg of the Natal University College, the course of studies to be such as from time to time prescribed by the Cape University.

The first newspaper in Natal was the Natalier, a Dutch print published at Maritzburg; it was succeeded by the Patriot.

The first English paper was the Natal Witness, started in 1845 and still one of the leading organs of public opinion.

In 1851 the Natal Times appeared, and is now continued as the Times of Natal.

Another leading paper, the Natal Mercury, dates from 1852.

The Natal Advertizer is a Durban evening paper.

Sir John Robinson, the first premier of Natal under responsible government, was the editor of the Mercury from 1860 until he became prime minister in 1893.

Da Gama made no landing here and, like Discovery the rest of South Africa, Natal was neglected by the and early g Y his tory.

Perestrello states that Natal has no ports but otherwise he gives a fairly accurate description of the country - noting particularly the abundance of animals and the density of the population.

In 1683 the English ship " Johanna " went ashore near Delagoa Bay and the crew made a remarkable journey overland to Cape Town, passing through Natal, where they were kindly received by the natives.

About the same time (in 1684) an English ship put into Port Natal (as the bay cthrie to be known) and purchased ivory from the natives, who, however, refused to deal in slaves.

In May 1685 another English ship the " Good Hope " was wrecked in crossing the bar at Port Natal and in February 1686 the " Stavenisse," a Dutch East Indiaman, was wrecked a little farther south.

Survivors of both vessels lived for nearly a year at Port Natal and there built a boat in which they made the voyage to Cape Town in twelve days.

This fact and their reports of the immense herds of elephants which roamed the bush led Simon van der Stell, then governor at Cape Town, to despatch (1689) the ship " Noord " to Port Natal, with instructions to her commander to open up a trade in ivory and to acquire possession of the bay.

Thereafter for nearly a hundred years Natal was again neglected by white men.

When in 1824 the next attempt was made by Europeans to form a settlement at the bay, Cape Colony had passed from the Dutch into the ' possession of Great Britain, while in Natal great changes had come over the land as a result of wars between the natives.

Chaka between 1818 and 1820 ravaged the whole of what is now known as Natal, and after beating his foes in battle, butchered the women, children and old men, incorporating the young men in his impis.

Such was the situation when the first British settlement was made in Natal.

King, who had been a midshipman in the navy, Farewell visited Port Natal, St Lucia and Delagoa Bays.

The voyage was not successful as a trading venture, but Farewell was so impressed with the possibilities of Natal both for trade and colonization that he resolved to establish himself at the port.

Farewell & Company entire and full possession in perpetuity " of a tract of land including " the port or harbour of Natal."

In 1825 he was joined by King, who had meantime visited England and had obtained from the government a letter of recommendation to Lord Charles Somerset, governor of the Cape, granting King permission to settle at Natal.

Soon after his return to Natal King died, and in the same month (September 1828) Chaka was murdered by his brother Dingaan.

On this occasion the authorities were more hostile than before to the Natal pioneers, for they confiscated the schooner on the ground that it was unregistered and that it came from a foreign port.

Farewell was not daunted, and in September 1829 set out to return overland to Port Natal.

Dingaan declared Fynn his representative and " great chief of the Natal Kaffirs."

In 1834, however, Fynn accepted a post under the Cape government and did not return to Natal for many years.

It was in this year that a petition from Cape Town merchants asking for the creation of a British colony at Natal was met by the statement that the Cape finances would not permit the establishment of a new dependency.

The British settlers had, characteristically, reached Natal mainly by way of the sea; the new tide of immigration was by land - the voortrekkers streamed through the passes of Arrival the Drakensberg, bringing with them their wives and of the children and vast herds of cattle.

The Zulu king then commanded his impis to kill all the Boers who had entered Natal.

The Boers had firearms, the Zulus their assegais only, and after a three hours' fight the Zulus were totally defeated, losing thousands killed, while the farmers' casualties were under 1 Captain Allen Francis Gardiner (1 79418 5 1) left Natal in 1838, subsequently devoting himself to missionary work in South America, being known as the missionary to Patagonia.

They had recovered from a leather pouch which Retief carried the deed by which Dingaan ceded " to Retief and his countrymen the place called Port Natal together with all the lands annexed.

Returning south, Pretorius and his commando were surprised to learn that Port Natal had been occupied on the 4th of December by a detachment of the 72nd Highlanders sent thither from the Cape.

The emigrant farmers had, with the assent of the few remaining Englishmen at Port Natal, in May 1838 issued a proclamation taking possession of the port.

In sanctioning the occupation of the port the British government of the day had no intention of making Natal a British colony, but wished to prevent the Boers establishing an independent republic upon the coast with a harbour through which access to the interior could be gained.

They rendered their power in Natal absolute, for the time, in the following month, when they joined with Panda, Dingaan's brother, in another attack on the Zulu king.

They had declared themselves a free and independent state under the title of " The Republic of Port Natal and adjacent countries," 1 and sought (September 1840) from Sir George Napier at the Cape an acknowledgment of their independence by Great Britain.

Sir George, being without definite instructions from England, could give no decisive answer, but he was friendly disposed to the Natal farmers.

This feeling was, however, changed by what Sir George (and many of the Dutch in Natal also) thought a wilful and unjustifiable attack (December 1840) on a tribe of Kaffirs on the southern, or Cape Colony, frontier by a commando under Andries Pretorius, which set out, nominally, to recover stolen cattle.

Having at length received an intimation from London that the queen " could not acknowledge the independence of her own subjects, but that the trade of the emigrant farmers would be placed on the same footing as that of any other British settlement, upon their receiving a military force to exclude the interference 1 Commonly called the Republic of Natalia or Natal.

Napier, therefore, on the 2nd of December 1841, issued a proclamation in which he stated that in consequence of the emigrant farmers refusing to be treated as British subjects and of their attitude towards the Kaffir tribes he intended resuming military occupation of Port Natal.

Boshof (afterwards president of the Orange Free State), by far the ablest of the Dutch who had settled in Natal.

The Natal Boers believed the Netherlands to be one of the great powers of Europe, and were firmly persuaded that its government would aid them in resisting England.

Cloete was at once sent by sea to Port Natal, and on the 26th of June Captain Smith was relieved.

The British government was still undecided as to its policy towards Natal.

In April 1842 Lord Stanley (afterwards 14th earl of Derby), then secretary for the colonies in the second Peel Administration, wrote to Sir George Napier that the establishment of a colony in Natal would be attended with little prospect of advantage, but at the same time stated that the pretensions of the emigrants to be regarded as an independent community could not be admitted.

Sir George then appointed Mr Henry Cloete (a brother of Colonel Cloete) a special commissioner to explain to the Natal volksraad the decision of the government.

There was a considerable party of Natal Boers still strongly opposed to the British, and they were reinforced by numerous bands of Boers who came over the Drakensberg from Winburg and Potchefstroom.

On the 8th of August 1843 the Natal volksraad unanimously agreed to the terms proposed by Lord Stanley.

At the end of 1843 there were not more than 500 Dutch families left in Natal.

Hitherto the Tugela from source to mouth had been the recognized frontier between Natal and Zululand.

Panda gave up to Natal all the territory between the Buffalo and Tugela rivers, now forming Klip River county.

In that year the external trade of Natal, almost entirely with Cape Colony, was of the total value of 42,000 - of which 32,000 represented imported goods.

Sir Harry Smith, newly appointed governor of the Cape, met, on the banks of the upper Tugela, a body of farmers preparing to recross the Drakensberg, and by remedying their grievances induced many of them to remain in Natal.

Andries Pretorius and others, however, declined to remain, and from this time Pretorius (q.v.) ceased his connexion with Natal.

Dr Colenso, appointed bishop of Natal, arrived in 1854.

In 1856 the dependence of the country on Cape Colony was put to an end and Natal constituted a distinct colony with a legislative council of sixteen members, twelve elected by the inhabitants and four nominated by the crown.

While dependent on the Cape, ordinances had been passed establishing Roman-Dutch law as the law of Natal, and save where modified by legislation it remained in force.

But in 1860 and for many years afterwards these consequences were not foreseen, and alone among the South Africa states Natal offered a welcome to Asiatics.

The newly acquired territory was named Alfred county in memory of a visit paid to Natal by Prince Alfred (afterwards duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha).

Neither was Natal faced with the Cape problem of a large half-caste population.

The Natal natives were left very much in the state in which they were before the advent of the white men.

Permitted to return to Natal in 1886, he died in 1889.

This rebellion drew the attention of the home government to the native question in Natal.

For some years Natal, in common with the other countries of South Africa, had suffered from the absence of anything resembling a strong government among the Boers of the Transvaal, neighbours of Natal on the north.

These promises were not kept for long, and by 1878 his attitude had become so hostile towards both the Natal and Transvaal governments that Sir Bartle Frere, then High Commissioner for South Africa, determined on his reduction.

And the treaty of retrocession was never regarded in Natal as anything but a surrender.

In justice, however, to the colonists of Natal it must be recorded that, finding their protest with regard to the Transvaal settlement useless, they made up their minds to shape their policy in conformity with that settlement.

As the London Convention had stipulated that there should be no trespassing on the part of the Boers over their specified boundaries, and as Natal had been the basis for those operations against the Zulus on the part of the British in 187 9, which alone made such an annexation of territory possible, a strong feeling was once more aroused in Natal.

In 1884 the discovery of gold in De Kaap Valley, and on Mr Moodie's farm in the Transvaal, caused a considerable rush of colonists from Natal to that country.

Railways were still far from the Transvaal border, and Natal not only sent her own colonists to the new fields, but also offered the nearest route for prospectors from Cape Colony or from Europe.

Durban was soon thronged; and Pietermaritzburg, which was then practically the terminus of the Natal railway, was the base from which nearly all the expeditions to the goldfields were fitted out.

Natal colonists were not merely the first in the field with the transport traffic to the new goldfields; they became some of the earliest proprietors of mines, and for several years many of the largest mining companies had their chief offices at Pietermaritzburg or Durban.

The demand which the growing trade made upon the one port of Natal, Durban, encouraged the colonists to redouble their efforts to improve their harbour.

The leader of the party which sought responsible government was Sir John Robinson (1839-1903) who had gone to Natal in 1850, was a leading journalist in the colony, had been a member of the legislative council since 1863, and had filled various official positions.

The year that witnessed this change in the constitution was also notable for the death of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, Natal's most prominent citizen.

Sir John Robinson remained premier until 1897, a year marked by the annexation of Zululand to Natal.

In the following year Natal entered the Customs Union already existing between Cape Colony and the Orange Free State.

For some years Natal had watched with anxiety the attitude of increasing hostility towards the British adopted by the Pretoria administration, and, with bitter remembrance of the events of 1881, gauged with accuracy the intentions of the Boers.

So suspicious had the ministry become of the nature of the military preparations that were being made by the Boers, that in May 1899 they communicated their apprehensions to the High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, who telegraphed on the 25th of May to Mr Chamberlain, informing him that Natal was uneasy.

The governor expressed his views to the prime minister that the Natal government ought to give the British government every support, and Colonel Hime replied that their support would be given, but at the same time he feared the consequences to Natal if, after all, the British govern m ent should draw back.

In July the Natal ministry J Y Y learnt that it was not the intention of the Imperial government to endeavour to hold the frontier in case hostilities arose, but that a line of defence considerably south of the frontier would be taken up. This led to a request on their part that if the Imperial government had any reason to anticipate the breakdown of negotiations, " such steps may be at once taken as may be necessary for the effectual defence of the whole colony."

Sir William Penn Symons, the general commanding the British forces in Natal in September, decided to hold Glencoe.

The first act was the seizure by the Boers of a Natal train on the Free State border.

On the 12th Laing's Nek was occupied by the Boer forces, who were moved in considerable force over the Natal border.

In this engagement the advanced body of British troops, 3000 strong, under Symons, held a camp called Craigside which lay between Glencoe and Dundee, and from this position General Symons hoped to be able to hold the northern portion of Natal.

There is no doubt that this policy strongly commended itself to the governor and ministers of Natal, and that they exercised considerable pressure to have it adopted.

The relief of Ladysmith soon led to the evacuation of Natal by the Boer forces, who trekked northwards.

As the war progressed the Natal volunteers and other Natal forces took a prominent part.

The Imperial Light Horse and other irregular corps were recruited in Natal, although the bulk of the men in the forces were Uitlanders from Johannesburg.

As the nearest colony to the Transvaal, Natal was resorted to by a large number of men, women and children, who were compelled to leave the Transvaal on the outbreak of the war.

As one result of the war, an addition was made to the territory comprised in Natal, consisting of a portion of what had previously been included in the Transvaal.

It was proposed that the following districts should be transferred to Natal, viz.

In consideration of the advantage to Natal from this addition of territory, Natal should take over £70o,000 of the Transvaal debt.

It was proposed to include in Natal such portions of the Harrismith and Vrede districts as were comprised by a line following the Elands river north from its source on the Basutoland border to its junction with the Wilge river, and thence drawn straight to the point where the boundaries of Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony meet on the Drakensberg.

In consideration of this addition to her territory, Natal should take over a portion of the Orange River Colony debt, to be raised at the end of the war, to the amount of £ 200,000.

On the contrary, the districts in question have invariably formed part of the state from which it is now proposed to sever them, and they are separated from Natal by mountains which form a welldefined natural boundary.

The districts added to Natal contained about 6000 white inhabitants (mostly Dutch), and some 92,000 natives, and had an area of nearly 7000 sq.

An act authorizing the annexation was passed during 1902 and the territories were formally transferred to Natal in January 1903.

A railway to the Zululand coalfields was completed in 1903, and in the same year a line The attitude of the natives both in Natal proper and in Zululand caused much disquiet.

The chief concern of the Natal government was to remodel their native policy where it proved inadequate, especially in view of the growth of the movement for the federation of the South African colonies.

The commission also called attention to the numerical insufficiency of magistrates and native commissioners in certain parts of Natal.

An incident which marked the beginning of this rebellion brought the Natal ministry into sharp conflict with the Imperial government (the Campbell-Bannerman administration).

Thereupon the Natal ministry resigned, giving as their reason the importance of maintaining the authority of the colonial administration at a critical period, and the constitutional question involved in the interference by the imperial authorities in the domestic affairs of a self-governing colony.

The Natal ministry thereupon remained in office.

Mr Chamberlain on his visit to South Africa came first to Natal, where he landed in the last days of 1902, and conferred with the leading colonists.

In August 1903 the Hime ministry resigned and was succeeded by a cabinet under the premiership of Mr (afterwards Sir) George Sutton, the founder of the wattle industry in Natal and one of the pioneers in the coal-mining industry.

There were moreover special local causes such as undoubted defects in the Natal administration.'

As time went on, however, the Natal government, alarmed at a series of murders of whites in Zululand and at the evidences of continued unrest among the natives, became convinced that Dinizulu was implicated in the rebellious movement.

The intercolonial commission had dealt with the native question as it affected South Africa as a whole; it was felt that Native a more local investigation was needed, and in August Affairs' 1906 a strong commission was appointed to inquire Corn- into the condition of the Natal natives.

This commission reported in 1909, its general conclusion being that in the interests of Natal the importation of indentured Indian labour should not be discontinued.

But the evidence was practically unanimous that the Indian was undesirable in Natal other than as a labourer and the commission recommended compulsory repatriation.

Nothing further was done in Natal up to the establishment of the Union of South Africa, when all questions specially or differentially affecting Asiatics were withdrawn from the competence of the provincial authorities.

Not long after the conclusion of the war of1899-1902the close commercial relations between the Transvaal and Natal led to suggestions for a union of the two colonies, but these suggestions were not seriously entertained.

But at the close of 1906 the Cape ministry formally reopened the question of federation, and at a railway conference held in Pretoria in May 1908 the Natal delegates agreed to a motion affirming the desirability of the early union of the self-governing colonies.

In Natal, especially among the older colonists, who feared that in a united South Africa Natal interests would be overborne, the proposals for union were met with suspicion and opposition, and the Natal ministry felt bound to submit the question to the people.

Meantime it was agreed by the Cape, Transvaal and Natai governments that, subject to Natal entering the Union, its share of the Rand import trade should be 25% before and 30% after the establishment of the Union.

Previously Natal had only 221% of the traffic, and this agreement led to a revival in trade.

The closing months of Natal's existence as a separate colony thus found her peaceful and prosperous.

On that date the Union of South Africa was established, Natal becoming one of the original provinces of the Union.

Twentieth-Century Impressions of Natal (London, 1906) deals with the peoples, commerce, industries and resources of the colony; the Census of the Colony of Natal, April 1904 (Maritzburg, 1905) contains a large amount of authoritative information; The Natal Almanac is a directory and yearly register published at Maritzburg.

Bird, The Annals of Natal, 1 495 to 1845 (2 vols., Maritzburg, 1888), a work of permanent value, consisting of official records, &c.; Shepstone, Historic Sketch of Natal (1864).

The most important alteration was made in January 1903 when the districts of Utrecht and Vryheid, which then formed the south-eastern part of the country were annexed to Natal.

Like that of Natal the Transvaal coal burns with a clear flame and leaves little ash.

Eventually they proceeded by boat to Natal.

The first permanent white settlement north of the Vaal was made by a party under Potgieter's leadership. That commandant had in March 1838 gone to Natal, and had endeavoured to avenge the massacre of Piet Retief and his comrades by the Zulus.

This party instituted an elementary form of government, and in 1840 entered into a loose confederation with the Natal Boers, and also with the Boers south of the Vaal, whose headquarters were at Winburg.

In 1842, however, Potgieter's party declined to go to the help of the Natal Boers, then involved in conflict with the British.

In June Sir Garnet Wolseley went to South Africa as commander of the forces against the Zulus, and as high commissioner " for a time," in the place of Sir Bartle Frere, of the Transvaal and Natal.

Sir George Colley, with about 1400 men, marched towards the Transvaal frontier, but before reaching it he found, on the 24th of January 1881, that the Boers had already invaded Natal and occupied Laing's Nek.

An attempt was made in 1888, after the conference held between Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Natal, to induce the Transvaal to enter a customs union.

Certain departmental details were despatched to South Africa to form a working nucleus for military bases, and early in September the cabinet sanctioned the despatch to Natal from India of a mixed force, 5600 strong, while two battalions were ordered to South Africa from the Mediterranean.

Sir George White was nominated to the chief command of the forces in Natal, and sailed on the 16th of September, while active preparations were set on foot in England to prepare against the necessity of despatching an army corps to Cape Town, in which case the chief command was to be vested in Sir Redvers Buller.

The plan of campaign which found favour with the Boers, when they determined to put their differences with Great Britain to the test by the ordeal of the sword, was to attack all the principal British towns adjacent to their own borders; at the same time to despatch a field army of the necessary dimensions to invade and reduce Natal, where the largest British garrison existed.

But the departmental executive could not launch the Natal invading force as early as had been anticipated, and it was not until the 9th of October that the ultimatum was presented to Sir (then Mr) Conyngham Greene, the British agent at Pretoria.

The northern part of Natal presented two faces of a triangle to the two enemies, the short base being formed by the Tugela river.

The engagement was disastrous to the British, who had undertaken far too comprehensive an attack, and the Natal Field Force was obliged to fall back upon Ladysmith with the loss of 1500 men, including a large number of prisoners belonging to the left column under Lieut.-Colonel F.R.C. Carleton,who were cut off at Nicholson's Nek and forced to surrender by a mixed force of Transvaalers and Free Staters under Christian de Wet.

From that day the role of the Natal Field Force was changed from that of a mobile field army into that of a garrison, and two days later it was completely isolated, but not before General French had succeeded in escaping south by train, and the naval authorities had been induced by Sir George White's urgent appeals to send into the town a naval brigade with a few guns of sufficient range and calibre to cope with the heavy position artillery which Joubert was now able to bring into action against the town.

In Natal practically the whole of the available defence force was swallowed up by the steady success of the invasion; on the western frontier two British towns were isolated and besieged; and Boer commandos were on the point of invading Cape Colony, where the Dutch population seemed on the verge of rebellion.

Clery and some brigades were sent to Natal; Gatacre with less than a brigade, instead of a division, was despatched to Queenstown, Cape Colony; while Lord Methuen, with a division, was sent off to relieve Kimberley.

The situation in Natal seemed so serious that on the 22nd of November Sir Redvers Buller left Cape Town and sailed for Durban.

He had collected at Chieveley in Natal a brigade of mounted men, four brigades of infantry and six batteries of artillery, and he carried with him the trust alike of the army and the nation.

On the 6th of January the Boers in Natal made a desperate attempt to storm Ladysmith.

On the 3rd of February he ordered a demonstration against the right of the Boer position at Spytfontein-Magersfontein to cover the withdrawal of General French and the cavalry from before Colesberg, and the concentration of his army at Modder River, disregarding another set-back in Natal to Sir Redvers Buller, who had against his advice made a third attempt to relieve Ladysmith on the 5th of February, and failed to make good the purchase which he secured across the Tugela.

It was part of Roberts's purpose to relieve the pressure in Natal by his own operations.

The Natal invaders fell back to the mountains which enclose the north of the colony; Oliver and Schoeman retired from Cape Colony before the small forces of Gatacre and Clements; and the presidents of the republics, realizing that the British Empire was capable of more resistance than they had calculated upon, put forward feelers aiming at the restoration of the status quo before the war.

Four days later he reduced a detachment at Reddersburg, and then went south and invested Colonel Dalgety and a mixed force at Wepener, which was relieved after ten days by General Hunter's Ladysmith division, brought round to Aliwal North from Natal.

The same day the Natal Field Force under Buller moved up into the Biggarsberg and occupied Dundee.

On the 8th of June Sir Redvers Buller, who had made a long halt after the relief of Ladysmith and reorganized his army and its line of communication, forced his way over Alleman's Nek, and on the following day occupied Laing's Nek, the Natal gate to the Transvaal, while the field marshal fought a widespread battle against Botha, De la Rey and Kemp at Diamond Hill, 20 m.

As the British line of operations now extended eastward from Pretoria, the advance of these Boers to the Magaliesberg threatened their rearward communications, and as Buller had moved far more slowly than the main army there was not as yet an alternative line through Natal.

In the south-eastern Transvaal Botha made a new effort to invade Natal, but, although he captured 300 men and three guns in an action on the 17th of September at Blood River Poort near Vryheid, his plans were rendered abortive by his failure to reduce the posts of Mount Prospect and Fort Itala in Zululand, which he attacked on the 26th, and he only escaped with difficulty from the converging columns sent against him.

With the example of Natal before them as a warning, it was (they argued) to the whites a question of life and death, and unless registration were enforced they could not prevent the surreptitious entry of new-comers.

Natal is the starting-point of the Natal and Nova Cruz railway, and is a port of call for coastwise steamers, which usually anchor outside the bar.

Natal was founded in 1597 as a military post to check an illicit trade in Brazil-wood.

Particular questions of importance, the Jerusalem bishopric, the healing of the Colenso schism in the diocese of Natal, the organization of native ministries and the like, occupied much of his time; and he did all in his power to foster the growth of local churches.

North and north-west it is bounded by the Utrecht and Vryheid districts of Natal and by Swaziland.

The Umkuzi which rises in the Vryheid district of Natal forces its way through the Lebombo Mts.

The Tugela is crossed by well-known drifts, to which roads from Natal and Zululand converge.

There is telegraphic communication between the magistracies and townships and with Natal.

There is a considerable trade with the natives in cotton goods, &c., and numbers of Zulu seek service in Natal.

It was formerly represented in the Natal legislature by three members, one member sitting in the Legislative Council, and two being elected to the Legislative Assembly, one each for the districts of Eshowe and Melmoth.

Their selection and election were governed by the same laws as in Natal proper, and on the establishment of the Union the franchise qualifications - which practically exclude natives - remained unaltered.

The survivors met with hospitable treatment at the hands of the natives of Natal, and afterwards proceeded up the coast to St Lucia Bay.

McCall Theal states that the ancestors of the tribes living in what is now Natal and Zululand were acquainted with the regimental system and the method of attack in crescent shape formation in the 17th century.

Chaka next attacked the tribes on his southern border, and by 1820 had made himself master of Natal, which he swept almost clear of inhabitants.

He ruled from the Pongolo river on the north to the Umkomanzi river on the south, and inland his power extended to the foot of the Drakensberg; thus his territory coincided almost exactly with the limits of Zululand and Natal as constituted in 1903.

Arrival Farewell and a few companions, and to them he made of the a grant of the district of Port Natal.

King, one of the Natal settlers, to be conducted on an embassage to Cape Town, Sotobi being commissioned to proceed to the king of England.

Before this embassy started, news came that Chaka had been murdered (23rd of September 1828) at a military kraal on the Umvote about fifty miles from Port Natal.

The British settlers at Port Natal were alternately terrorized and conciliated.

In 1835 Dingaan gave permission to the British settlers at Port Natal to establish missionary stations in the country, in return for a promise made by the settlers not to harbour fugitives from his dominions.

Owen, of the Church Missionary Society, to reside at his great kraal, and Owen was with the king when in November 1837 he received Pieter Retief, the leader of the first party of Boer immigrants to enter Natal.

After agreeing to Retief's request Dingaan caused the Boer leader and his companions to be murdered (6th of February 1838), following up his treachery by slaying as many as possible of the other Boers who had entered Natal.

After two unsuccessful attempts to avenge their slain, in which the Boers were aided by the British settlers at Port Natal, Dingaan's army was totally defeated on the 16th of December 1838, by a Boer force under Andries Pretorius.

His power was greatly weakened and a year later was overthrown, the Boers in Natal (January 1840) supporting his brother Mpande (usually called Panda) in rebellion against him.

When in 1843 the British succeeded the Boers as masters of Natal they entered into a treaty with Panda, who gave up to the British the country between the upper Tugela and the Buffalo rivers, and also the district of St panda.

That chief was not, however, as warlike as his brothers Chaka and Dingaan; and he remained throughout his reign at peace with the government of Natal.'

The Zulu country continued, however, excited and disturbed until the government of Natal in 1861 obtained the formal nomination of a successor to Panda; and Cetywayo was appointed.

In 1873 the Zulu nation appealed to the Natal government to preside over the installation of Cetywayo as king; and this request was acceded to, Shepstone being again chosen as British representative.

The boundary was beaconed in 1864, but when in 1865 Umtonga fled from Zululand to Natal, Cetywayo, seeing that he had lost his part of the bargain (for he feared that Umtonga 1 might be used to supplant him as Panda had been used to supplant Dingaan), caused the beacon to be removed, the Zulu claiming also the land ceded by the Swazis to Lydenburg.

In September 1876 the massacre of a large number of girls (who had married men of their own age instead of the men of an older regiment, for whom Cetywayo had designed them) provoked a strong remonstrance from the government of Natal, inclined as that government was to look leniently on the doings of the Zulu.

Cetywayo (who now found no defender in Natal save Bishop Colenso) was in a defiant humour, and permitted outrages by Zulu both on the Transvaal and Natal borders.

Lord Chelmsford had under him a force of 650o Europeans and 8200 natives; 3000 of the latter were employed in guarding the frontier of Natal; another force of 1400 Europeans and 400 natives were stationed in the Utrecht district.

In the meantime the right column under Colonel Pearson had reached Eshowe from the Tugela; on receipt of the news of Isandhlwana most of the mounted men and the native troops were sent back to the Natal, leaving at Eshowe a garrison of 1300 Europeans and 65 natives.

The left column under Colonel (afterwards Sir) Evelyn Wood, which had done excellent work, found itself obliged to act on the defensive after the disaster to the centre column.2 For a time an invasion of Natal was feared.

The Zulu, however, made no attempt to enter Natal, while Lord Chelmsford awaited reinforcements before resuming his advance.

By the middle of April nearly all the reinforcements had reached Natal, and Lord Chelmsford reorganized his forces.

When Frere's ultimatum was delivered to Cetywayo, Dunn, with 2000 followers, crossed the Tugela into Natal (loth of January 1879).

The British government intervened, took formal possession of St Lucia Bay (to which Germany as well as the Transvaal advanced claims), caused the Boers to reduce their demands, and within boundaries agreed to recognize the New Republic - whose territory was in 1888 incorporated in the Transvaal and has since 1903 formed the Vryheid division of Natal.

Seeing that peace could be maintained between the Zulu chiefs only by the direct exercise of authority, the British government annexed Zululand (minus the New Republic) in 1887, and placed it under a commissioner responsible to the governor of Natal.

Large numbers of natives sought employment in Natal and at the Rand gold mines, and Zululand enjoyed a period of prosperity hitherto unknown.

At the close of 1897 Zululand, in which Tongaland had been incorporated, was handed Natal.

In September 1901 Louis Botha made an attempt to invade Natal by way of Zululand, but the stubborn defence made by the small posts at Itala and Prospect Hill, both within the Zulu border, caused him to give up the project.

At the close of the war the Natal government decided to allow white settlers in certain districts of Zululand, and a Lands Delimitation Commission was appointed.

In 1905 a poll tax of £1 on all adult males was imposed by the Natal legislature; this tax was the ostensible cause of a revolt in 1906 among the natives of Natal, who were largely of Zulu origin.

After an arduous campaign, the Natal force (about 5000 strong) being commanded by Col.

Dinizulu had been accused of harbouring Bambaata, and in December 1907 the Natal government felt justified in charging him with high treason, murder and other crimes.

Colenso (a daughter of Bishop Colenso) constituted herself his champion in the press of Natal and Great Britain.

C. Molteno, and the authorities cited under Natal.

Though cultivated in sub-tropical countries such as Natal and the Southern states of the Union, it is essentially tropical in its requirements and succeeds best in warm damp climates such as Cuba, British Guiana and Hawaii, and in India and Java in the Old World.

Natal and Cape Colony have also industries of considerable local importance.

It is the chief place in a district of the same name, originally settled in 1848 by emigrant Boers from Natal.

In 1858 the district was united with the republic of Lydenburg, and in 1860, with Lydenburg, became part of the South African Republic. In 1903 it was, with the neighbouring district of Vryheid, annexed to Natal.

Among other missionary labours of his later years, he helped the Free Church mission on Lake Nyassa, travelled to Syria to inspect a mission at Lebanon, and assisted Lady Aberdeen and Lord Polwarth to establish the Gordon Memorial Mission in Natal.

In Durban the Present Century was started in 1903, and the Natal Magazine was issued at Pietermaritzburg in 1877.

The Civil War of the United States interrupted the movement, but 1 Of these, 77,409 went to the Cape of Good Hope and Natal.

The principal passenger steamers sailing from the port are those of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company for the West Indies and the Pacific (via Panama) and for Brazil and the River Plate, &c., and the Union-Castle line for the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, East Africa, &c., both of which companies have their headquarters here.

In Natal, indeed, where the first independent census was taken in 1891, the Kaffir population was not on that occasion enumerated at all.

Though rugged in places, with outlying spurs and secondary chains, the westward slopes of the Drakensberg are much gentler than the eastern or Natal versant of the chain.

Of the 142,679 white inhabitants in 1904, 85,036 were born in the province; 29,727 in the Cape; 3116 in the Transvaal; 1835 in Natal; and 18,487 in the _United Kingdom.

They may be divided into two systems, (I) those connecting the province with the Cape and the Transvaal, and (2) those linking it with Natal.

The second system is formed by a line leaving the Natal trunk railway at Ladysmith which crosses the Drakensberg at Van Reenen's Pass and is continued thence through Harrismith to Bethlehem.

The bulk of the direct trade of the country is with the Cape and tharansvaal, Natal, however, taking an increasing share.

Dissensions speedily arose among the emigrants, whose numbers were constantly added to, and Retief, Potgieter and other leaders crossed the Drakensberg and entered Natal.

The year in which the treaty with Moshesh was made several large parties of Boers recrossed the Drakensberg into the country north of the Orange, refusing to remain in Natal when it became a British colony.

The majority of the white farmers in Kok's territory sent a deputation to the British commissioner in Natal, Henry Cloete, asking for equal treatment with the Griquas, and expressing the desire to come on such terms, under British protection.

Boshof, one of the voortrekkers, who had previously taken an active part in the affairs of Natal.

Mr. Boshof again tendered his resignation (February 1859) and retired to Natal.

A year after the addition of the Conquered Territory to the state another boundary dispute was settled by the arbitration of Mr Keate, lieutenant-governor of Natal.

Natal at this time had not seen its way to entering the Customs Union, but did so at a later date.

In 1898 the Free State also acquiesced in the new convention arranged with regard to the Customs Union between the Cape Colony, Natal, Basutoland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate.

Special attention was also devoted to the development of the resources of the country by building new lines of railway traversing the fertile south-eastern districts and connecting Bloemfontein with Natal and with Kimberley.

The loss of their independence was, however, felt bitterly by the broken out the Free State began to expel British subjects, and the very first act of war was committed by Free State Boers, who, on the 11th of October, seized a train upon the border belonging to Natal.

Here was a display, not only of Englishmen, Scotsmen, Irishmen, Welshmen, but of Mounted Rifles from Victoria and New South Wales, from the Cape and from Natal, and from the Dominion of Canada.

Propitiatory abstinences were recommended when the natal asterism was menaced by unfavourable planetary conjunctions.

It set forth, there is reason to believe, the natal scheme, not of the emperor Tiberius, as had been conjectured by Lauth, 15 but of the building it served to decorate.

Keate, lieutenant-governor of Natal, and his award placed Montsioa's territory outside the limits of the Transvaal.

The Bechuana were entirely unaffected by the Kaffir rebellion in Natal.

In the war of 1899 he served at first under Lucas Meyer in northern Natal, but soon rose to higher commands.

The linking of the town in 1906 with the Natal system made the route via Kroonstad the shortest railway connexion between Cape Town and Durban.

It is a small barbel discovered in Natal by Max Weber, and described by him under the name Barbus viviparus.

In 1814 the Wesleyans began work among the Namaquas and Hottentots, and afterwards went into Kaffraria, Bechuanaland and Natal.

In the west coast lands European influence, fertile soil, comparatively good roads, agriculture, timber, and coalfields have created populous settlements on the coast at Padang (the capital of the west coast, with 35,158 inhabitants in 1897, of whom 1640 were Europeans), Priaman, Natal, Ayer Bangis, Siboga, Singkel, and also on the plateaus at Fort de Kock, Payokombo, &c. In the east coast lands it is only at the mouths of rivers - Palembang at the mouth of the Musi, with 53,000 inhabitants, and Medan in Deli, the residence of the highest civil and military officials of the east coast, in which a fine government house has been erected - that considerable centres of population are to be found.

It has direct railway communication with Natal and an extensive trade.

Natal has now about 5000 acres under tea giving a fairly large yield, but of quality pot highly esteemed outside of South Africa, where it benefits to the extent of 4d.

The station, formerly called Elandsfontein Junction,, is the meeting-point of lines from the ports of the Cape and Natal, and from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Delagoa Bay.

In 1865 it adjudged Bishop Gray's letters patent, as metropolitan of Cape Town, to be powerless to enable him "to exercise any coercive jurisdiction, or hold any court or tribunal for that purpose," since the Cape colony already possessed legislative institutions when they were issued; and his deposition of Bishop Colenso was declared to be "null and void in law" (re The Bishop of Natal).

Immediately after the ultimatum Natal and the Cape Colony were invaded by the Boers both of the Transvaal and the Free State.

There is a striking difference between the Cretaceous faunas of the two areas, the fossils from the north being closely allied to those of Europe, while those of the south (Pondicherry and Trichinopoly) are very different and are much more nearly related to those from the Cretaceous of Natal.

There is also frequent communication with Madagascar, Reunion and Natal.

Pietermaritzburg was founded early in 1839 by the newlyarrived Dutch settlers in Natal, and its name commemorates two of their leaders - Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz.

From the time of its establishment it was the seat of the Volksraad of the Natal Boers, and on the submission of the Boers to the British in 1842 Maritzburg (as it is usually called) became the capital of the country.

He took part in the earlier battles of the Boer War of 1899 in Natal as a commandant and later, as a general, he went to serve under Cronje in the west.

Cetywayo was a young man when in 1840 his father was placed on the throne by the aid of the Natal Boers; and three years later Natal became a British colony.

Cetywayo was, however, suspicious of the Natal government, which afforded protection to two of his brothers.

The feeling of distrust was removed in 1861 by a visit from Mr (afterwards Sir) Theophilus Shepstone, secretary for native affairs in Natal, who induced Panda to proclaim Cetywayo publicly as the future king.

Friendly relations were then maintained between the Zulus and Natal for many years.

Cetywayo's attitude became menacing; he allowed a minor chief to make raids into the Transvaal, and seized natives within the Natal border.

Intent upon accomplishing this cherished project, he embarked for Portugal, and after he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, and captured by pirates, arrived at Lisbon.

At Port Natal, however, the removal of the sand bar at its entrance has made available a third magnificent harbour, while at Table Bay (Cape Town) and at other places ports have been constructed.

The great majority of the coloured inhabitants are Bantus of pure blood, but the total coloured population includes in the Cape province 298,334 persons of mixed blood (chiefly white and Hottentot) and in Natal 100,918 Asiatics.

The chief cities are Cape Town (pop. 1904, 77, 66 8), Port Elizabeth (32,959), East London (25,220) and Kimberley (34331) in the Cape province; Durban (67,847) in Natal; Johannesburg (155,642) and Pretoria (36,839) in the Transvaal; and Bloemfontein (33,883) in the Orange Free State.

In the Cape, Natal and the Transvaal coal mining is largely developed; in the Transvaal and the Cape tobacco is grown extensively; sugar, tea and other tropical and sub-tropical produce are largely cultivated in Natal and the Portuguese territory, and, since 1905, mealies have become an important article of export.

In Natal an act of 1904 gave power to the government to forward irrigation schemes.

It is divided into the dioceses of Cape Town, Graham's Town, Maritzburg (Natal), Kaffraria, Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Zululand, Mashonaland and Lebombo.

Bishop Colenso of Natal and other Anglicans did not accept the authority of the provincial synod, regarding themselves as in all respects members of the Church of England.

This was, especially in Natal, the cause of prolonged controversy among the members of the Anglican community.

The Roman Catholics are a comparatively small body; the majority of their adherents are found in the Cape and Natal.

At the head of their organizations are vicars-apostolic for the Cape (eastern district), the Cape (western district), Natal, Orange River, Kimberley and the Transvaal, and prefects-apostolic for Basutoland and Zambezi (or Rhodesia).

There are some thousands of Mahommedans in the Cape (chiefly Malays) and larger numbers in Natal, where there is also a large Hindu population.

By the statute law of Natal post-nuptial agreements between spouses are permitted under certain conditions, to which it is not possible now to refer at length.

Of these members the Cape Province returns 51, the Transvaal 36, and Natal and Orange Free State 17 each.

In Natal (q.v.) there is a low property qualification.

Thence he pushed on round the coast, landed in Mossel Bay, then sailing up the south-east coast he sighted land again on the 25th of December 1497, and named it in honour of the day, Natal.

During that period no fewer than 7000 Boers (including women and children), impatient of British rule, emigrated from Cape Colony into the great plains beyond the Orange river, and across them again into Natal and into the fastnesses of the Zoutspanberg, in the northern part of the Transvaal.

Since 1824 a few traders had been settled at Port Natal, and in 1834 formal petition was made that their settlement should be recognized as a British colony.

Retief, like his English predecessors at Port Natal (known also since 1835 as Durban), sought a formal grant of territory from the chief of the Zulu nation, the Zulus being the acknowledged overlords of the tribes living in Natal.

Troops were then sent to the country, and finally a settlement was made by Henry Cloete, the British commissioner, with the Boer leaders, and Natal constituted a British colony in 1843.

Natal shortly afterwards received a considerable number of emigrants from England, and the white inhabitants have since been predominantly British.

At first Natal was dependent on Cape Colony.

It had taken the British government nearly ten years to decide on the annexation of Natal; its policy towards the Boers settled north of the Orange was marked by the same hesitation (see Orange Free State).

At the beginning of that time there was but one civilized government in South Africa - Cape Colony; at its close there were five separate states or provinces, three, the Cape, Natal and British Kaffraria, owning allegiance to Great Britain, and two forming Boer republics - the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

Whether or not a wiser policy on the part of Great Britain would have secured the continued allegiance of all the Boers it is impossible to say; the fact that numbers of Boers remained in Natal under British rule, and that the majority of the Boers who settled between the Orange and the Vaal desired to remain British subjects, points to that conclusion.

But in 1854 a definite standpoint appeared to have been reached - Great Britain would confine her energies to the Cape and Natal, leaving the republics to work out their own destinies undisturbed.

Up to the year 1870 the Dutch considerably outnumbered the British inhabitants; indeed, save in Natal, in the eastern province and in Cape Town, the British inhabitants were cornparatively few.

Froude landed at Cape Town on the 21st of September 1874, and having visited Natal, the Free State and Pretoria as well as Cape Colony, sailed for England on the 10th of January 1875.

The Basuto and Kaffir tribes were giving trouble, and the 40,000 trained Zulu warriors under Cetywayo threatened the peace both of Natal and the Transvaal.

At that time Paul Kruger and Piet Joubert, delegates from the Transvaal Boers, were in Cape Town, and they used their influence to prevent the acceptance of the proposals, which were shelved by the ministry accepting " the 3 Serious troubles with the Basutos which began in 1879 reacted on the situation in the Transvaal and Natal.

The new administration, notwithstanding Mr Gladstone's public utterances, declared their intention of retaining British sovereignty in the Transvaal, coupling with that decision a pious hope for the speedy accomplishment of confederation so as to allow of free institutions being given to Natal and the Transvaal.

It is at all events abundantly clear that had the Boers not resorted to arms they would not have gained the support of the cabinet.4 Sir Evelyn Wood, who had succeeded Colley as general in command and governor of Natal, under instructions from home, concluded a treaty of peace on the 22nd of March.

The introduction of this large alien element, leading from 1895 onwards to the passing of restrictive measures in Natal, was a mistake which South Africans elsewhere had no desire to repeat.

Hence there was jealousy and competition between the Cape and Natal and a tendency to use the railways (which were state owned), by means of rebates, to counteract the effects of common customs dues.

The delegates at the conference were all representative of the parties in power; that is, with the exception of the Natal delegates, they all represented Dutch ideals in politics.

The greatness of the opportunity was rightly stated by the governor of Natal (Sir Matthew Nathan), who declared that the convention might create a commonwealth which should add to and not draw upon the strength of the empire - a commonwealth which in culture as in power would be among the foremost nations of the world.

Federation was supposed to afford protection to the smaller communities--Natal and the Orange River Colony - and in Natal there was much anxiety lest its interests should be overborne.

The Orange River parliament also approved with only slight alterations; the Natal parliament made some amendments, but they were of a minor character.

The opposition to union among an influential number of old Nataliansintensely zealous for local independence - was however so marked that it was decided that before Natal was committed to union a referendum on the subject should be taken.