ITS PRESENT CONDITION AND PROSPECTS.

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addition to it of British Kaffraria, whose inhabitants, so long hostile to our Government, have now become peaceable subjects.

The most noteworthy fact in the recent political history of the colony is the re-shaping of its constitution in 1852. In lieu of the old military government, responsible only to the English Crown, the management of affairs is now vested in a civil governor, aided by a Legislative Council of sixteen members, and a House of Assembly, comprising forty-six representatives elected by the towns and country districts.

Cape Colony and British Kaffraria now comprise an area of 200,610 square miles, nearly as large as Spain and Portugal. Cape Town, the metropolis, is a well-built and thriving city; and Graham's Town, Port Elizabeth, and other towns, are vieing with it in importance. In them trade prospers, and agricultural and pastoral pursuits make steady progress in the interior districts, which, if their scenery is less attractive than that of some other of our colonies, are healthy and fertile. The value of the imports, which in 1836 was £541,038, had risen to £1,277,101 in 1850, and to £1,942, 281 in 1866. The exports, worth £362,280 in 1836, amounted in 1850 to £637,252, and in 1866 to £2,599,169. That last sum represented, among other articles, 35,231,607 pounds of sheep's wool, 1,018,296 sheep-skins, 678,364 goatskins, and 21,220 cowhides, with 40,969 pounds of ivory, 15,144 pounds of ostrich feathers, and 93,164 gallons of wine. Gold, which has recently been found in so many other parts of the world, was discovered in Cape Colony in 1868, and, later still, a pro

mise has been given of a considerable supply of diamonds.

But without these glittering prizes the colony is rich enough in solid advantages. "In addition," we are told, "to a vast extent of upland soil, park-like downs, and sheltered vales, and a climate well adapted to the English constitution, and so fine and dry as to necessitate no winter provender or shelter for sheep or cattle, it affords suitable temperature for an endless variety of culture, by means of proximity to the ocean on either shore, and by the diversified elevation of its lofty mountains and immense plateaux. Here wheat, bringing nearly the best price in the London market, may be grown to an incalculable extent. There two crops of maize or millet may be annually reaped. The vine flourishes over large tracts, and where the grape ripens the olive and mulberry will thrive. Animal food of the best quality abounds; and the fishery on L'Agulhas bank is scarcely inferior to that of Newfoundland. The sugar-cane, tea and coffee plants, flax and cotton, may be eventually added to the present staple colonial products."1

1 Martin, vol. iv. p. 153.

CHAPTER XIV.

NATAL.

THE KAFFIRS-FIRST ENGLISH VISITS TO THE EASTERN COAST OF SOUTH AFRICA-THE SETTLEMENT OF PORT NATAL-ITS EARLY TROUBLES AND LATER PROGRESS-THE PRESENT CONDITION AND

RESOURCES OF THE COLONY. [1683-1869.]

T

HE various tribes of South African Kaffirs are supposed to be of the same stock as the Kaffirs of Persia, and to have emigrated

four or five thousand years ago from the neighbourhood of the Tigris or Euphrates, passing northwards through Egypt, and carrying with them the language, habits, and religious practices of their forefathers. In all these respects their affinity with the Asiatic race is still traceable. They differ essentially from the Hottentots and other yet more degraded inhabitants of Africa. "The physical conformation of the body is fine. The men ordinarily stand about five feet ten inches to six feet high, slenderly built, but compact and wiry. Not unfrequently the head is well developed, displaying considerable mental power; and amongst the men the numerous ways in which they are called to engage in intellectual gladiatorship impart an intelligence and expressiveness to the whole contour which are far removed from the low savage or the sordid barbarian." Many of their customs and institutions are savage and bar

1

1 Holden, "The Past and Future of the Kaffir Races," p. 174.

barous enough; but even their vices often show traces of a perverted worth never possessed by their neighbours. These are the people with whose southern tribes the Dutch and English residents in Cape Colony have been in contact and conflict during upwards of a century, and with whose northern tribes, especially the Zulus, we have lately been brought into relationship by our colonization of Natal.

Port Natal-so called because he entered its harbour on Christmas Day-was discovered by Vasco de Gama in 1498. But for more than three centuries the eastern shores of South Africa were rarely visited by Europeans, unless they were shipwrecked on the coast or forced to pay it a brief visit in search of provisions for their onward voyages to the East Indies.

The first English intercourse was in 1683, when a trading vessel was lost near Delagoa Bay, about a hundred leagues north of Natal. "The natives," says the old chronicler, "showed the shipwrecked men more civility and humanity than some nations that I know who pretend much religion and politeness; for they accommodated their guests with whatever they wanted of the product of their country at very easy rates, and assisted what they could to save part of the damaged cargo, receiving very moderate reward for their labour and pains. For a few glass beads, knives, scissors, needles, thread, and small lookingglasses, they hired themselves to carry many things to a neighbouring country, and provided others, who also served as guides towards the Cape of Good Hope, and provided eatables for their masters all the while they were under their conduct. And, having carried them

ITS FIRST EUROPEAN VISITORS.

177

about two hundred miles on their way by land, they provided new guides and porters for them, as the others had done, for seven or eight hundred miles farther, which they travelled in forty days, and so delivered their charge to others, till they arrived at the Cape. And, some of the English falling sick on the way, they carried them in hammocks till they either recovered or died; and out of eighty men there were only three or four that died; but how long they journeyed before they got to the Cape I have forgotten. This account I have from one of the travellers. He told me that the natural fertility of those countries he travelled through made the inhabitants lazy, indolent, indocile, and simple. Their rivers are abundantly stored with good fish and water-fowl, besides sea-cows and crocodiles; their woods with large trees, wild cattle and deer, elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, tigers, wolves, and foxes; also many sorts of fowl and birds, with ostriches."1

It was probably by the report of the travellers, who certainly had no reason to charge their kind friends with being "lazy and indocile," that a few years afterwards, in 1689, the Dutch colonists at the Cape sent a vessel to explore the eastern coast. "One may travel two or three hundred miles through the country," said one of the party, "without any cause of fear from men, provided you go naked, and without any iron or copper; for these things give inducement to murder those who have them. Neither need one be in any apprehension about meat and drink, as they have in every village a kraal, or house 1 Chase, "Natal Papers," vol. i. p. 2.

M