Such was the situation when the first British settlement was made in Natal, Cape Colony having passed meanwhile from Dutch to British possession. In 1823 Francis George Farewell, formerly a lieutenant in the British navy, with other merchants of Cape Town, formed a company to trade with the natives of the south-east coast. In the brig "Salisbury," commanded by James S. King, who had been a midshipman in the navy, Farewell visited Port Natal, St. Lucia and Delagoa Bays. He was so impressed with the possibilities of Natal both for trade and colonization that he resolved to establish himself at the port. He went thither with ten companions, among them Henry Francis Fynn. All the rest save Farewell and Fynn speedily repented of their adventure and returned to the Cape, but the two who remained were joined by three sailors, John Cane, Henry Ogle and Thomas Holstead, a lad. Farewell, Fynn and others went to the royal kraal of Chaka, and, having cured him of a wound and made him various presents, obtained a docu ment, dated Aug. 7, 1824, ceding to "F. G. Farewell and com pany entire and full possession in perpetuity" of a tract of land including "the port or harbour of Natal." On the 27th of the same month Farewell hoisted the Union Jack at the port and declared the territory he had acquired a British possession. In 1825 he was joined by King, who had meantime visited England and had obtained from the Government a letter of recommenda tion to Lord Charles Somerset, governor of the Cape, granting King permission to settle at Natal. Farewell, King and Fynn made independent settlements at various parts of the bay, where a few Amatuli still lingered. They lived, practically, as Kafir chiefs, trading with Chaka and gathering round them many refugees from that monarch's tyranny. Early in 1828 King, accompanied by two of Chaka's indunas, voyaged in the "Eliza beth and Susan," a small schooner built by the settlers, to Port Elizabeth. He appears to have been coldly received by the authorities. Soon after his return to Natal King died, and in the same month (Sept. 1828) Chaka was murdered by his brothel. Dingaan. In the December following Farewell went in the "Eliza beth and Susan" to Port Elizabeth. On this occasion the author ities confiscated the schooner on the ground that it was unregis tered and that it came from a foreign port. Farewell was not daunted, and in Sept. 1829 set out to return overland to Port Natal. He was, however, murdered in Pondoland by a chief who was at enmity with the Zulus. Fynn thus became leader of the whites at the port, Dingaan declaring him to be his representative and "great chief of the Natal Kafirs." 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 next step was taken by the settlers at the port, who in 1835 resolved to lay out a town, which they named Durban, after Sir Benjamin d'Urban, then governor of Cape Colony. The settlers, who numbered about 5o, sent a memorial to the governor calling attention to the fact that they were acknowledged rulers over a large tract of territory south of the Tugela, and asking that this territory should be proclaimed a British colony under the name of Victoria and that a governor and council be ap pointed. To all these requests no official answer was returned. The settlers had been joined in the year named (1835) by Cap tain Gardiner, a naval officer, whose chief object was the evangel ization of the natives. With the support of the traders he founded a mission station in the hills (which he named Berea) overlooking the bay. In 1837 Gardiner was given authority by the British Government to exercise jurisdiction over the traders. They, how
ever, refused to acknowledge Gardiner's authority, and from the Cape government he received no support.' It was not until their hand was forced by the occupation of the interior by Dutch farmers that the Cape authorities at length intervened.
The British settlers had, char acteristically, reached Natal mainly by way of the sea ; the new tide of immigration was by land—the voortrekkers streamed through the passes of the Drakenberg, bringing with them their wives and children and vast herds of cattle. The reasons which caused the exodus from the Cape are discussed elsewhere (see SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF, and CAPE COLONY) ; here it is only necessary to point out that those emigrants who entered Natal shared with those who settled elsewhere an intense desire to be free from British control. The first emigrant Boers to enter the country were led by Pieter Retief (c. 1780-1838), a man of Hu guenot descent and of marked ability, who had suffered severely in the Kafir wars. Passing through the almost deserted upper regions Retief arrived at the bay in Oct. 1837. He went thence to Dingaan's kraal with the object of securing a formal cession of territory to the Dutch farmers. Dingaan consented on condi tion that the Boers recovered for him certain cattle stolen by another chief ; this task Retief accomplished, and with the help of the Rev. F. Owen, an Anglican missionary then living at Dingaan's kraal, a deed of cession was drawn up in English and signed by Dingaan and Retief on Feb. 4, 1838. Two days after the signature of the deed Retief and all of his party, 66 whites, besides Hottentot servants, were treacherously murdered by Dingaan's orders. The Zulu king then commanded his impis to kill all the Boers who had entered Natal. The Zulu forces crossed the Tugela the same day, and the most advanced parties of the Boers were massacred, many at a spot near where the town of Weenen now stands, its name (meaning wailing or weeping) com memorating the event. In one week after the murder of Retief 'Captain Allen Francis Gardiner (1794-1851) left Natal in 1838, subsequently devoting himself to missionary work in South America, being known as the missionary to Patagonia. He died of starvation in Tierra del Fuego.
600 Boers—men, women and children—had been killed by the Zulus. The English settlers at the bay with a following of some 70o natives, made an attempt to aid the Boers, but in a fight on April 7 they were overwhelmed and only four Europeans escaped to the bay.
After the Zulus retired, fewer than a dozen Englishmen re turned to live at the port ; the missionaries, hunters and other traders went back to the Cape. Meanwhile the Boers, who had repelled the Zulu attacks on their laagers, had been joined by others from the Drakenberg, and about 400 men under Hendrik Potgieter and Piet Uys advanced to attack Dingaan. On April 11, however, they fell into a trap and with difficulty cut their way out. Among those slain were Piet Uys and his son Dirk, aged 15, who rode by his side. Towards the end of the year the Boers received reinforcements, and in December 46o men set out under Andries Pretorius to avenge themselves on the Zulus. On Sunday Dec. 16 (1838) while laagered near the Umslatos river, they were attacked by over io,000 Zulus. 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 a dozen. (This memo rable victory is annually commemorated by the Boers as Dingaan's Day, while the Umslatos, which ran red with the blood of the slain, was renamed Blood river.) Dingaan fled, the victorious Boers entered the royal kraal, gave decent burial to the skeletons of Retief and his party, and regarded themselves as now undis puted masters of Natal.