CHAPTER XI. The Colony of Natal. (1) The Colony of Natal, which abuts on the shores of the Indian Ocean, differs very widely in features and characteristics from the Cape Colony. Along the southeastern shores of Africa there has been for ages contact with the East, bringing Eastern trade and Eastern influences. The old Portuguese writers allude frequently to the trade and commerce of the Moors, carried on far inland and reaching along the great valley of the Zambesi. It was through the aid of Moorish pilots that Vasco da Gama, after discovering Natal on the natal day of our Lord, 1497, crossed the Indian Ocean and reached the city of Calicut. The pilots of those seas were, according to Osorio, 'instructed in so many of the arts of navigation, that they did not yield much to the Portuguese mariners in the science and practice of maritime matters 1.' In early days, however, the Port of Natal was very little used by Portuguese or Dutch mariners. The Portuguese traders gave both the Cape of Good Hope, and also the coast of Kaffraria and Natal, a very wide berth, and made for the harbour of Delagoa Bay or for the refuges of the Mozambique coast. The navigation of these seas was not learned without many experiences of disaster, the south-east gales often being accompanied with shipwreck and loss of life. In May, 1685, an English vessel called the 'Good Hope' was wrecked at 1 'Voyages of Vasco da Gama,' p. 138. Hakluyt Series. Natal with fifty hands on board, and in 1686 a Dutch vessel called the 'Stavenisse,' laden with spices from the East, ran ashore here. The survivors of the wrecks were the means of disseminating much knowledge concerning the country, and especially the natives, who were evidently of the great Bantû race, and far superior to the Bushmen and Hottentots of the south-west coast. The great Dampier has preserved an interesting account of the country gathered from the lips of a certain Captain Rogers, who had seen and visited it. (2) As the passenger sitting on the quarter-deck of one of the magnificent ocean steamers of the present day glides by the wooded and romantic shores of Kaffraria, and views at his leisure the deep and silent gorges of a picturesque country threaded by numerous streams, he little realises the dangers and difficulties undergone by the early mariners. Although the Mozambique current flows south past the eastern coasts, it has long been discovered that there is a back current flowing north, close to the shore, of which steamers going from Port Elizabeth to Natal take advantage, and so near glimpses of the country are easily procured from the deck. On the southward or return voyage steamers give the coasts a wide berth. As the steamer approaches the high point known as the Natal Bluff the environs of the Port of Natal come into view. All along the coast for many miles there have been few signs of civilisation, perhaps a few patches of Indian corn or the green sugar-cane fields appearing as little oases in the country; but here, on the spacious shores of the Bay of Natal, a beautiful city springs into view, commanding in queen-like grace the waters of the Indian Ocean. Called Durban, after the name of a former governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, 1834, it has risen within recent years to great prosperity, chiefly owing to the wealth of the Diamond Fields, and the discovery of the Gold Fields in the Transvaal. The heights of Berea, that crown the Bay, are clustered with many picturesque homes of British merchants and colonists, surrounded by all the natural wealth of a luxuriant subtropical country, built upon a series of terraced slopes that look down upon a sea as beautiful as that of the Mediterranean. Occasionally storms break with great violence upon Natal, and one of the chief obstacles to the growth of the port has been the rough and shallow bar. (3) For many years past the Natal colonists have, with untiring zeal and energy, set themselves about the task of improving their harbour. To gain this object there has been an unstinted expenditure of public money, the amount being no less than £640,729 for the years 1881-1889. But the uncertain ocean currents and the unforeseen shiftings of sand have disappointed hope. Still it is the object and ambition of Natalians to make this harbour a great eastern coast port and a coaling depôt for the Indian Ocean, and it can hardly be doubted that they will succeed ultimately. In 1878 no steamers of over 700 tons came inside the harbour, in 1889 there were 87. The channel depth has gone on increasing from year to year. In 1882 it was 6 feet 1 in., and in 1888 it was II feet 6 inches. But during the last year or two the depth of water has remained very nearly the same. The shipping, however, at Port Natal has gone on increasing at a very quick rate, owing to the impulse given by the trade with the gold fields1. In 1887 the tonnage of ships entering in was 235,485, but in 1889 it had risen to 513,360. It is worth while to compare the shipping here with that at Table Bay, as it shows the position of the Eastern harbour. In 1889 the tonnage of ships, inwards, at Table Bay amounted to 1,269,220 tons. 1 Appendix XIX. Natal Shipping Statistics. S |