NATAL,' The region now forming the colony of Natal derives its name from its being discovered by the Portuguese on Christmas day 1497. It was visited about 1822 by several white traders from the Cape, who found the country in of the Zulu chief Chaka, who ruled in a most sanguinary manner over all the tribes from the Umzimeuhi to the St. Lucia river. He was killed and succeeded by his brother Dingaan in 1838, but the latter having treacherously murdered a party of emi grant Dutch Boers,.who had paid him a friendly visit by invitation to buy kmd, he was attacked and finally destroyed by the Boers, who at that time had emigrated from the Cape Colony in large numbers, and who made his brother Panda paramount chief in his stead, and then settled themselves down in the country as his lords and masters. The British government, however, now interfered, and, after a severe struggle on the part of the Boers, the country was formally proclaimed a British colony on .jay 12, 1843, since which time it has progressed very satisfactorily. In 1856 it was erected into a distinct and seperate colony, free from the control of the governor of the Cape. In 1873 Lawn libalele, a chieftain of Zulus within the n. frontier, was on suspicion treated very !u n marily by the colonial government, and banished. The English government decided that the proceedings were illegal, and sir Garnet Wolsdey was sent as temporary governor. It was mainly because the security of Natal was menaced by the warlike forces and equip ments of Cetewayo, nephew of bingattn, king of the free Zulus, thnt the Zulu war of 1879 broke out. Zululand was invaded by the British. and after a fierce defense was finally parceled out amongst various chieftains, nominally independent, but under the supervision of British residents.
The colony of Natal is on the s.e. coast of Africa, about 800 in. c.n.e. of the cape of Good Hope, between the 29th and 31st parallels of south latitude. Its n.e. boundary is the Tugela or Buffalo river, which divides it from Zululand, and its saw. boundary is the Umzimeulu and Umtamouna rivers, separating it from Kaffraria proper. A lofty and rugged range of mountains called the Quathlamba, or Drachenberg, divides it from the Free State and Basutoland, and it contains a well-defined area of 20,212 square miles.
These mountains are composed of a confused mass of granite, gneiss, sandstone, basaltic veins, and shale, and present both the flat top and serrated summits of the chain, of which they arc a continuation, so well known in the Cape Colony as the Sneeuwberg and Stormbergen. About let. 28° 30' these mountains seem to reach their culminating point, and probably attain a height of 10,000 ft., forming a summit line of watershed, from which flow to all points of the compass the waters of the Orange, Umzimvoobo, Vaal, Tugela, and other large South African streams. Towards the coast these mountains present a scarped and almost inaccessible face; towards the interior, however, they adually tlie.away into the Mtn-tense rolling plain's ig the Free State. Many offshoots mountains traverse the colony, dividing it into a series of steps or plateaux, gradually rising from the coast region to the foot of the mountains, and forming so many zones of natural productions.
The coast region, extending about 25 m. inland, is highly fertile, and has a climate almost tropical, though perfectly healthy. Sugar, coffee, indigo, arrowroot, ginger, tobacco, and cotton thrive amaAngly, and the pine-apple ripens in the open air with very little cultivation. The midland terrace is more fit for the cereals and usual European crops; while on the higher plateau, along the foot of the mountains, are immense tracts of the finest pasturage for cattle and sheep.
The climate is very salubrious; the thermometer ranges between 90° and 38°, but the I heat, even in summer, is seldom oppressive. The mean annual temperature at Pieter maritzburg, the capital, is 71'. The winter begins in April and ends in September; the average number of rainy days being 13. In the summer season the thunder-storms are very frequent and severe. The annual rainfall on the coast is about 35 inches. Inland it varies a good deal in different districts, and is greatest in summer. The south-east is the prevailing wind here in the summer months, as in the Cape Colony. Occasionally the sirocco or hot wind from the north-west is felt, which generally termi nates in a thunder-storm.