Natal

Returning south, Pretorius and his commando were surprised to learn that Port Natal had been occupied on Dec. 4 by a detach ment of the 72nd Highlanders. 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 the possibility of complications with other European powers. After remaining at the port just over a year the Highlanders were withdrawn, on Christmas Eve 1839. Meanwhile the Boers had founded Pietermaritzburg and made it the seat of their volksraad. 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. Dingaan was utterly defeated and soon afterwards perished, Panda becoming king in his stead by favour of the Boers.

Had the affairs of the Boer community been managed with prudence and sagacity they might have established an enduring state. But their impatience of control, reflected in the form of government adopted, led to disastrous consequences. Legislative power was vested, nominally, in the volksraad (consisting of members), while the president and executive were changed every three months. But whenever any measure of importance was to be decided a meeting was called of het publiek, that is, of all who chose to attend, to sanction or reject it and, naturally enough, the result was a condition of anarchy. While such was the domes tic state of affairs the settlers cherished large territorial views. They had declared themselves an independent state under the title of "the republic of Port Natal and adjacent countries" (commonly called the republic of Natalia or Natal), and sought (Sept. 1840) from Sir George Napier at the Cape an acknowledg ment of their independence by Great Britain. Sir George, being without definite instructions from England, could at first give no decisive answer. 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 Brit ish settlement, upon their receiving a military force to exclude the interference with or possession of the country by any other European power," Sir George communicated this decision to the volksraad in Sept. 1841. The Boers, who strongly resented the contention of the British that they could not shake off British nationality though beyond the bounds of any recognized British possession, after very brief consideration firmly rejected Napier's overtures.

An incident which happened at this time greatly encouraged the Boers to persist in their opposition. In March 1842 a Dutch vessel sent out by G. G. Ohrig, an Amsterdam merchant who sym pathized warmly with the cause of the emigrant farmers, reached Port Natal, and its supercargo, J. A. Smellekamp (a man who subsequently played a part in the early history of the Transvaal and Orange Free State), without any authority, concluded a treaty with the volksraad assuring them of the protection of Holland. The Natal Boers were firmly persuaded that Holland would aid them in resisting Great Britain.

Dick King's Ride.

On May 4 following Captain T. C. Smith with a force of 263 men who, at Sir George Napier's orders had marched overland from Cape Colony, reached Durban without op position, and encamped at the base of the Berea hills. The Boers, cut off from their port, called out a commando of some 30o to 400 men under Andries Pretorius and gathered at Congella at the head of the bay. After repulsing an attack on their camp the Boers cap tured the harbour and settlement, and on May 31 blockaded the British camp. Meanwhile an old Durban resident, Richard (com monly called Dick) King, had undertaken to convey tidings of the perilous position of the British force to the commandant at Graham's Town. He started on the night of the 25th, and escap ing the Boer outposts rode through the dense bush and across the bridgeless rivers of Caffraria at peril of his life from hostile natives and wild beasts, and in nine days reached his destina tion—a distance of nearly 600m. by the route to be followed. This remarkable ride was accomplished with one change of mount, obtained from a missionary in Pondoland. A comparatively strong force under Colonel A. J. Cloete was at once sent by sea to Port Natal, and on June 26 Captain Smith was relieved. Within a fortnight Colonel Cloete had received the submission of the volks raad at Pietermaritzburg. The burghers represented that they were under the protection of Holland, but this plea was per emptorily rejected by the commander of the British forces.

The British Government of the day, the second Peel adminis tration, held that the establishment of a colony in Natal would be attended with little prospect of advantage, but in deference to the strongly urged views of Sir George Napier, Lord Stanley (Secretary of State for the Colonies), in a despatch of Dec. 13, received in Cape Town on April 23, 1843, consented to its annexa tion. The institutions adopted were to be as far as possible in accordance with the wishes of the people, but it was a funda mental condition "that there should not be in the eye of the law any distinction or disqualification whatever, founded on mere difference' of colour, origin, language or creed"—a condition not kept in later years. Sir George then appointed Henry Cloete (a brother of Col. Cloete) as special commissioner to explain to the Natal volksraad the decision of the government. Cloete whose task was one of great difficulty and delicacy behaved with the utmost tact and on Aug. 8, 1843, the Natal volksraad unanimously agreed to the terms proposed by Lord Stanley. Many of the Boers who would not acknowledge British rule trekked once more over the mountains into what are now the Orange Free State and Transvaal provinces. At the end of 1843 there were not more than 50o Dutch families left in Natal Although proclaimed a British colony in 1843, and in declared a part of Cape Colony, it was not until the end of that an effective administration was installed with Martin West as lieutenant-governor, and the power of the volksraad finally came to an end. 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.