Natalia 01 (1971) complete

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THE NATAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1970-71

President Miss P. A. ReidVice-Presidents ProI'. A. F. Hattersley

M. J. C. Daly, Esq.A. C. Mitchell, Esq.

Trustees I. M. Frascr, Esq.A. C. Mitchell, Esq.Dr. R. E. Stcvenson

Treasurers Messrs. Dix, BllYCS and Co.Auditors Messrs. R. Thornton-Dibb and Son

Secretary and Chief Librarian Miss U. E. M. Judd, B.A., F.L.A.

COUNCILElected ,\1emhers Mi" P. A. Reid (Chairman)

M. J. C. Daly, Esq. (Vice-Chairman)Profcssor J. W. MacquarrieMr,. M. DyerP. K. Moxley, Esq.Mi" \1. I. FridayDr. J. ClarkR. A. Brown, Esq.D. H. White-Cooper, bq.C. O. Smythe. Esq.

City Conncil Representatives Cr. C. W. Wood (Mayor)(the late) Cr. E. Wright (Deputy Mayor)Cr. Mrs. G. E. TerryCr. H. Lundie

EDITORTAL COMMITTEE OF NATALI.-\Professor C. de B. WebhMiss P. A. ReidDr. J. ClarkMiss U. E. M. Judd

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ContentsPages

EDITORIAL . 5 John Bird

REPRINT 7 Natal 1846-1851---John Bird

ARTICLES 23 H. W. D. Manson. poet and playwright. and his conllec-tions with Natal--C. l 'all JieyningenPerception of landscape in Natal: the geographer'spoint of view-N. C. PollockA new Cathedral-Centre for Pietermarillburg---KcllnefhB. Ha/!o1l'es

OCCASIO"iAL LISTS 35 Select list of reccnt Natal pllblications --U. E. Af . .IuddA first list of Natal artists, 1824-1910--J. A. Verbeck

'-:OTIS ;\ N f ) OUFR II;S 39

REGISTER OF SOCIETIES ANI) INSTlHITlOI';S 40


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EDITORIALJohn Bird

FOR MORI tha:1 three-quarh:rs ora ccntury "Bird's Annals" has remained a richmine ror scholars and r l ~ a l k r ~ \\ith an interest in the early h i ~ t o r y of Natal. It isthus Jilting that a journal. dcdicall:d [0 the preservation of the Natal heritageshould, in ih lirsl nUII!!x:r, hGllOlIr tht: melllory or John Bird-a pioneer preserver, whose great I.'l'1l111iimioll of documents ie; now, in its own right, an integralpari of the heritage l l f this rroVll1ce,Born on Ig April j ti 15. John Bird was only 22 when Queen Victoria came tothe throne. He died agl'd ti I 011 2::\ J\1ay 10')6, just jive years before her long reignended. He was. in a worJ, a Vicforiall--- not just in the narrow temporal sense,but also in the wider sense that he epitomised a breed of men who gave to theVictorian age a part of its ~ r e c i a l character: respectable men of gentlemanlybreeding but 1 1 l 0 d C ~ l mcans, forced by e i r c u I l 1 ~ t a l 1 c e to make their own way intile world: mel1 who elevah:d initiative and :.elC-rcliance into leading virtues, andwhose ~ o l i d achievements and ~ o b e r lives were the bed-rock upon which some ofthe more spectaclllar attainments of the age arose.

In G. D. H. Cole's words, "the Victorian age, and particularly the early part ofit, was an age of 'self-made men"', but it was also an age in which "the competitive struggle w a ~ a i \ \ a y ~ hard". That it was so was because initiative and selfreliance still had h) Ct)ntend against patronage and jobbery. John Bird was toknow this at first hand. Like his father, Christopher Bird, who had been sent as aspecial envoy to the French Directory in 1795, and who had later served asColonial Secretary at the Cape, it was through scrrice that John Bird sought tomake his way in the world. But he found on more than one occasion, that thepath to advancement was blocked by those more powerfully connected than he.First employed in the Colonial Secretary's department at the Cape, he laterqualifieJ as a government surveyor. and in 1846 was one of a number selected forthe original survey of Natal. In 1851, he acted as Surveyor-General, and in thefollowing year, with the establishment of a separate revenue department, wasprovisionally appointed Treasurer-General. The post did not remain his, however. In London there were others with stronger claims to favour; and it was notBird, but one Philip AlIen, who gained the office. Not until 1876 was Bird tocontrol the Department which he had helped to establish; and by then, in his ownopinion, it was "too late". In the interim he had served as Chief Clerk in theColonial Office, as Private Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor, and asResident Magistrate for the City and COllnty of Pietennaritzburg; he had also,on the death of the Surveyor-General in 1854, done a second stint as acting headof the Survey Department, and had twice temporarily resumed charge of theTreasury: in 1857, and again from June 1870 to March 1872.

In 1878, after only two years in the post which he had aspired to for so long,his health failed and he resigned. For a while, thereafter, he served as Judge of5


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the Native High Court; but he found it impossible to reconcile his Catholictenets with the law on divorce, and in November 1879 retired from the bench andfrom government service.He knew that he was at odds with many of his fellow-colonists, not only on the

matter of divorce, but also on the question of the relations between master andservant. To him it seemed that the law was too rigorous and should be softenedby principles of common humanity. As a magistrate he had been linable, :nconscience, to conform to "the belief of the European inhabitants ... that thenatives wouid be more inspired with respect and be made Illore diligent byseverity". A man whose integrity was everywhere recognized, he was forthrightin the expression of his views. In 1869, while still in the colonial service, he hadpublished a 30-page pamphlet entitled The Form of Constitutional Governmentexisting in the Colony of Natal Considered as Affecting the Safety and Welfare ofthe European and Native Inhabitants; after his retirement. in addition to his workon the Annals, he published two further tracts: An Enquiry into the Causes of theZulu War (Pietermaritzburg, 1880,40 p.), and Natal 1846-51, a 27-page pamphletwhich appeared pseudonymously in 1891 as the work of "An Old Inhabitant".It is the latter which we republish in this first issue of Natalia. This pamphlet isnow an extremely scarce piece of Nataliana, rarely found anywhere but in majorlibraries. I t represents the viewpoint of a man closely associated with the Colonyfrom its early days and involved in the setting up of the earliest administration.We feel that readers will find much of interest in a pamphlet reflecting theopinions and memoirs of such a man.

Although it is chiefly through the association of his name with the Annals thatJohn Bird is now remembered, he served Natal richly in a variety of ways. Wehope that this journal will do likewise, publishing material relevant not only tohistorical scholarship, but also to artistic endeavour, to the conservation of thenatural environment, and to studies of the physical and human resources of thisprovince.Such catholicity, John Bird himself would almost certainly have approved. Hewas an early Secretary and Council Member of the Society under whose aegisthis journal appears, and was a Trustee in 1865 when a set of rules was adopted,formulating as objectives of the Society: "The acquisition and preservation orinformation of local value and interest, and the general encouragement of habitsof study, investigation and research".

That tradition this journal seeks to perpetuate. C. DE B. WEBB

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NATAL: 1846-1851 This article wasfirst published as a pamphlet by P. Davis and Sons in 1891.MORE THAN forty-four years have passed away since, in December, 1846, Ilanded in Natal. Notwithstanding the long lapse of time it is not difficult to remember, it would be almost impossible to forget, many of my first experiencesand impressions.The inhabitants were at that time so few, their circumstances solittle favoured by fortune, the local events of the period have left so little trace onthe position of the Colony at this day, and intercourse with the world beyond itsborders was so restricted, that any account of things as I found them can onlyhave the interest that may attach to what was very novel and unusual, and to acomparison of the deficiencies in the past with the measure of success attained atthe present day.The new country was almost a desert; and it may be well to advert at the outset to the first thing noticed by a new corner-the paucity or absence of population in a land the beautiful aspect of which bespoke its being rich in naturaladvantages.There were few English residents then or for some years later, and these werenearly all at D'Urban, a remnant of the adventurous men who had come duringthe preceding twenty years as explorers, or for the sake of sport or profit in thedestruction of elephants, then numerous, now never seen, in the woods near thecoast; or to deal with the Zulus in furs or ivory. Three or four mercantile menwere watching events that might favour commercial enterprise. D'Urban had notthen more than two hundred inhabitants, in cottages far apart from each otheron the site of the now well-built seaport town.The African-Dutch inhabitants, always spoken of as "Afrika:lders" or "boers",were more numerous, but none lived at D'Urban. Their only possessions weretheir flocks and herds, and they believed the coast to be less favourahle to thehealth of stock than the higher country inland. They were with few exceptionsthe descendants of a pastoral and nomadic people who for nearly a hundred andfifty years had occupied first the central, then the northern, portion of SouthAfrican territory, subject until 1806 to Hollil.nd, and since then to England. Alarge proportion of these boers, seeking new pastures, crossed the borders of theCape Colony in 1835 and 1836, and wandered far and wide north of the OrangeRiver. In 1838 very many of these came over the mountain range of the Drakensberg. After deducting the number treacherously slain by Dingaan, there wereprobably not fewer than 3,500 who occupied Natal. Their position here beingregarded by the British Government as likely to lead to disturbance with tribes inthe neighbourhood of the Kaffrarian frontier, it was thought expedient to insiston their submission to our authority. They submitted in August, 1842; but withintwo or three years nearly half of the boers, dissatisfied with their condition andaverse to our rule, withdrew into the tracts now known as the Free State andTransvaal, where many of their countrymen already were. The rest, with theexception of about 300 who remained at Pietermaritzburg were dispersed over

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the face of the district. In some few instances, two or three families, influenced bya feeling of insecurity in absolute solitude, built their cottages near the homesteadof a friend or relative. This, however, gave the neighbourhood an even moredeserted appearance than it would otherwise have had. The grants of land thathad been allotted by the Volksraad, in 1839-1840, not only to every boer, but toeach of his sons who had attained the age of manhood, even though he might stillcontinue to share his father's abode, were each of an area of 8,000 acres; and,when the owners settled themselves on property not their own, these largeextents remained wholly unoccupied. 'Then there were the Kafirs. The country had for very many generations beenoccupied by tribes that kept themselves separate, but between whom there hadrarely been any keen feeling of hostility. Tshaka, early in the century, having repeatedly invaded Natal and killed countless thousands of natives, at lengthexpelled all the survivors, and kept the territory vacant. After his death, Dingaanhad allowed a number, about 3,000, to attach themselves to the English atD'Urban, to whom they were in many ways useful, and who protected them.These lived in the neighbourhood, within a radius of a few miles from the port.When Dingaan had been defeated by the boers and then assassinated by atreacherous follower, about 100,000 kafirs came back to Natal, not all at once,but as occasion from time to time favoured the return of several fragments oftribes; and, perhaps because the boers claimed all the open country, more probably because the sufTerings they had undergone made them prefer to hold themselves aloof, and remain as much as possible unseen and unnoticed, they chosethe very broken tracts, almost fastnesses, that still form the greater part of thekafir locations. A stranger might not even hear of these: I did not, for some timeafter my arrival.In 1842, Natal had become virtually subject to British power, but three yearspassed before initial steps were taken to establish a regular government. It wasnot then a colony even in name, but a district of the Cape; and the inhabitantsbeing so few, though the necessity for supervision and for an occasional exerciseof authority had for some time been felt, there could' be but little public business,and the arrangements for its transaction were very simple. Commerce hadscarcely begun to exist, there was little of export, little that could be subject totaxation. There was no revenue, and in every thing Natal was dependent on theparent colony. The Cape itself had little superfluous wealth, and when it wasconsidered indispensable to appoint a few officials here, their numbers werelimited as much as possible, and no more of emolument fell to their lot thansufficed for the most modest maintenance. A port-captain and collector ofcustoms had from the first been stationed at D'Urban. Lieutenant-GovernorMartin West arrived in December, 1845. The recorder, the colonial secretary, thepiplomatic agent (in charge of native affairs), the surveyor-general, and thecrown-prosecutor, came either with Mr. West or nearly at the same time.Pietermaritzburg had been the seat of government under the Volksraad, andremained so under the English. The site had been well chosen. I t was not quitethe centre of the district, but had such an extent oflevel ground or gentle slope aswould not easily be found elsewhere in a very hilly country; and quite spaciousenough for a city that might in days to come contain hundreds of thousands ofinhabitants. I t had been well laid out in 1839. The streets were to be broad, andall at right angles to each other. In 1846, there were not more than seventy oreighty cottages. There had been no construction of any roadway in the streets,

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Ytt,.., .. ...

A view of Church Street, Pietermaritzburg, in the 1880s from the COl ner of Timber StreChurch and Market Square. This is the main street as John Bird knew it. The centrthe early mUllicipal offices. The unpaved street is rutted by waggon-wheels. On the prails. (Photo hy


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John Bird, b. April 18, 1815. d. May 28, 1896 (Photo by courtesy of his grandson, Mr A. C. Mitchell)


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The old Colonial Office building in Church Street, Pietermaritzburg, where John Bihis career. The building was demolished in 1897 to make way for the existing Coloni(Photo


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An interior view of a room in the old Colonial Office showing John Bird's son Chrishis desk. He appears to be writing with a form of quill-pen. By the side of his benpicture was taken in 1897. (Photo b


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which were not mac-adamized or otherwise hardened, and were overgrown byrank grass, except where it had been cleared away to a breadth of ten or twelvefeet by the frequent passage of heavy wagons, Here and there two or three littledwellings were near enough to each other to give some indication of the directionof the streets, which, however, was made more noticeable by rows of seringatrees planted at their edges. and which had grown rapidly. But for these trees,every town in its first stage would have a similar appearance to that of our city in1846. A traveller in America might almost at any time during the last fifty years,have seen a few houses dotted, just as they were here, over the space destined tobe occupied by buildings and a dense population. But there would be this greatdifference in the cases. Time could not be given there for a growth of trees; ourcousins beyond the Atlantic would not even have allowed the grass to grow. Herethings had remained in outline for nearly seven years, and were destined so tocontinue for some years more.

As before noticed there were between two and three hundred "Afrikander"inhabitants in the town, whom difference of language and less cultivated habitsseparated from the English: but there was no aversion between them. The boersdisliked the government, but bore no grudge to individuals merely because theywere not of their own race; and were quite ready to oblige and be useful to them.

The position of the English in Pietermaritzburg was indeed singular andunusual. With exceptions so few that they need scarcely be adverted to, theirnumber consisted wholly of the civil servants and their families. In the strangeland and in very new surroundings they necessarily became intimate, meetingdaily in friendly intercourse. Some years passed before the circle of acquaintancebecame widened by the influx of immigrants from England, and intimacies grewmore restricted. The garrison-an infantry regiment-was quartered on a hill ata short distance from the town. Beyond the precincts of Fort Napier, the officerscould have no association except with the civilians, and they soon took their partin social amenities. But even with this addition from the garrison there were notmore than fifty or sixty English residents.Amusements were few-no theatre-no opera. A carriage, a gig, a spring-cart,were unknown luxuries. But, thrown on their own resources, they made the mostof the little at their command. The regimental band often placed its melody attheir disposal. In more than one home there was no lack of musical abil ity; andat least in one there was an excellent library. But the chief pastime was riding.Everyone rode. Horses cost little. Their provender was procurable from nativesat an almost nominal price. To the men, sport in quest of the antelope was withineasy reach on horseback. The most frequent and enjoyable diversion was theafternoon ride, and in this the fair sex took quite an equal share. But ajourney toany distance was attended with some difficulty to a lady. Iffor instance any thingmade it indispensably necessary for her to travel to D'Urban, a distance of fiftyfour miles, the ox-wagon was the only mode of conveyance:--the strong wagonwithout springs, jolting heavily, which has been fitly called the "pioneer ofcivilization"; for it had carried the boers for some generations in their wanderings in every direction, before roads existed; and every site in the interior ofsouthern Africa that has attracted commerce and social institutions owes its discovery to them. Long practice had taught the wanderers to construct the wagonfirmly and symmetrically. Exposed in the wilds to inclement weather, great heat ,mud and dust, it had a rude appearance: but the boer in the town kept his wagonclean, neatly pai nted, covered with a white well-shaped tilt, impervious to rain or

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sunshine; and he allowed it to be used at a moderate charge by anyone whoneeded it. I t was drawn by twelve handsome oxen, but was slow in its progress.The distance to D'Urban is now traversed by the train in five hours; but thewagon could not reach its destination in less than three days and a haIr. Therewas but one roadside cottage in all the length of the fifty-four miles. For the fairtraveller, therefore, her meals had to be prepared and taken in the open air, whellat intervals the journey was interrupted to give rest to the oxen and set them freeto roam for an hour in the abundant pasture everywhere adjoining the road.Usually a sister or lady friend travelled with her, and for their rest at night afeather-bed was spread in the wagon. A protector, her father, husband, orbrother, always accompanied her, and a lent was pitched for his use at the evening "outspan". The driver and leader screened themselves. as best they might,under the wagon. There was something rude, and much of discomfort in such ajourney; but necessity, the hard task-master, would make no distinction betweenthe mode of travelling of the nomadic boer and that of the gentlewoman. It wasof course much more often necessary for men to go to and fro between the townand port. They always did so on horseback, and a kafir porter was sent ill advanceto carry the indispensable carpet bag, and await the traveller's arrival.Novelty and an absence of many of the restraints imposed by crowded civilization may have compensated the residents for some disadvantages; but a sense ofisolation was kept alive by the difficulty of communication with the outer world.Used as we now are to receiving letters brought in less than a month by weeklymail steamers, and to less regular inteI1igence that may arrive by numerous otherships; knowing daily, often hourly, by the instantaneous telegram, the principalevents of each day in other lands; and also, in any special emergency, occurrencesof a private nature that may affect the friends from whom we are separated, itmay easily be imagined how sensibly the pain of remoteness was felt, when onlyonce in a month or six weeks 1 a letter would be delivered here, which, howeverimportant it might be that news should come soon, had not been less than threeor four months on its transit by sea.But, whatever may have been the attractions or discomforts of life ill the littletown, it was not my privilege at first to share them for more than a few days. Ihad been sent by the Cape Government to be employed on the survey of thecountry, and very soon received the surveyor-general's instructions to commencemy work at the Bushman's River, sixty miles further inland, in a part of thedistrict of which Estcourt has since become the centre.The preparations for my journey were soon made. I had to adopt the mode oftravelling before described. The wagon carried my baggage. I rode beside, or alittle in advance of it. The simple bell-tent was my habitation at night. There wasno risk of missing the way, the only track being that by which the boers hadoriginally come from the Drakensberg near the source of the Tugela. No dwellings were in sight from the road; I met no one, spoke to no one, till 1 halted, atthe end of the fourth day at the Bushman's River, \\ here two boer families hadtaken up their abode.The loneliness of the journey is not the only thing that the traveller would notnow notice. The rivers have all been bridged. I t is no longer necessary on arrivingat the banks of a stream to know whether or not it had more than its ordinaryvolume of water, to ascertain its depth, to find where its bed is shallow and freefrom rocky unevenness. The scenery is still attractive, often beautiful. From thesummit of a hill or rising ground, the sight of the great chain of western moun

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tains must always be imposing. But, whether because the country has now beenlong the pasture-land of numerous flocks and herds, or from a decrease in theannual rainfall, as is the belief of all still living who were here in 1845-1846,2 it iscertain that the growth of grass is no longer so luxuriant nor so brightly green asit was then. The view. however, would now only beguile the time and be interesting to one who had not often to travel in that direction. Whether by train orcarriage the object is only to traverse a certain distance and reach a speciallocality. In the early days. it being quite certain that the wagon would not moveon at a rate a little more rapid than two miles an hour, an agreeable distractionwas far more necessary; and it was at once afforded. Natal having been long uninhabited. game of every kind had multiplied without let or hindrance. It was soabundant that the love of sport was roused in almost everyone not too old foractive enjoyment. Man must originally have been a hunter; and the instinct remains. It is seldom quite dormant, and is usually stirred with no little keenness inthe young and strong. when opportunity prompts and favoUls the excitement.Often, before the European population had increased, and the first settlers hadfound it a \\ ise economy not to lessen the increase of their flocks by slaughteringthem, but rather to supply household needs by the use of their guns; often, inriding from Pietermaritzburg to the Umgeni, a distance of fourteen miles, have Iseen as many as twenty or thirty "orobis" (the antelopes most prized by thesportsman), that started up here and there singly or in pairs. alarmed by thepattering of the horses' hoofs on the hard road. How many more must have lainhid in the rank grass all over the face of the country. Absolutely countlessnumbers! At the present day one may traverse the fields in every direction, yet,even with the help of hound, pointer, or other finder, perhaps not a singleantelope will be seen.

My arrival at Bushman's River was of direct utility to the boers, and was soongenerally known. Living at distances of five or ten miles apart, they yet visitedeach other frequently. Whether to prevent their herds from straying too far, or inpursuit of game. or to while away unoccupied time, their lives may be said tohave been spent on horsehack. This very much promoted companionship withfriends and acquaintances whose ahodes were far beyond the range of a pleasantwalk. By men in the saddle any "bit of news" was at once and quickly divulged.The commencement of the survey was an important item of intelligence. Soonall knew that at last maps and diagrams would be availabJe, on which the issue oftheir title-deeds depended. To those who had no wish to leave the country, againto wander in the wilds. these deeds would give a sense of secure possession whichthey had long wished for; to others, and they were the more numerous, who disliked the fetter of government and contact with civilization, the title in due formwould make it more easy to dispose of their claims to land; for from the firstthere were a few speculators who would give a moderate, very moderate, pricefor prorcrty of which the value might, or might not. at a future time becomeconsiderable.

A sketch may vcrv prnperly bc given here of the circumstances that had influenced the cha raeler a I ld ha hits or the boers in a generation that has now passedaway. Informtltinll 011 this subject may of course be very copiously found in anyhistory of the Care colony, hut the reference would be an interruption, and thenarrative I al11 110W giving would he less clear without a brief mention of antecedent occurrences.

The Afm.:an colonists, from the date of their earliest settlement at the Cape, in11


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1652, had been ill-used by the Dutch government. The ruling power in Hollandhad induced them to leave their mother-country, not with any view to their ownbenefit, but to make them useful in providing supplies for the shipping engagedin the important commerce with eastern regions. The settlers toiled hard, butcould earn little by their labour. They were not allowed to make any remunerative charge for their produce; it could only be sold at the very low price fixed bythe government. This could not but be felt as oppressive. I t was endured for awhile, and then they began to withdraw from the neighbourhood of Cape Town,and to restrict themselves to providing only for their own sustenance. They became almost at once a pastoral people. A few were agriculturists, and from thesethe corn for daily bread was sent for, often from long distances, by their unsettledcountrymen. Passing over the range of mountains stretching from beyondStellenbosch to Cape Hanglip, they withdrew gradually-and almost exactly inproportion to the efforts made by the government to overtake and keep themsubject to control-into remote inland tracts. The migration began a little beforethe year 1700. They came of course in contact with natives who resented their intrusion, and sought to check it by robbery, sometimes by sudden and murderousattacks. But fire-arms made it easy for the boers to subdue or destroy a peoplearmed only with the spear or bow, of whom the survivors, if Hottentots, becameservants, virtually in a condition of slavery; if Bushmen, withdrew into the fastnesses and caves ofthe mountains. There were always among the "Afrikanders",a few, who, disinclined to constant wandering, and finding here and there a spotof inviting fertility, gave up an unsettled mode of life, tilled the soil, and lived inhouses, or cottages. The rest had huts of the simplest construction, the sides androof being of reeds or rushes with wooden supports or poles. Such an abodeoften sheltered them for many years, but might be quitted without loss when theowners felt the impulse ofa love ofchange and of seeking more distant solitude. 3Then for a while the wagon and the tent became their domicile, the tent beingusually a canvas awning thrown over the tilt of the wagon and stretched on upright props at either side. As the agricultural boers by degrees became morenumerous, villages of very insignificant proportions sprang up here and there;and in these a magistrate, known as the "Landdrost", was appointed by theauthorities at the Cape. Little power as the magistrate might have, his appointment was the signal to the greater number of the shepherd-boers to stray fartheraway, and to shun all intercourse with the villages, excepitsuch as was indispensable for obtaining clothing and other necessaries; and once or twice in a yearthey would repair to the shop or store, spending perhaps a month in their slowjourney, going and returning. Ultimately, when the coulltry had become aBritish possession, and when the "voor-trekker"-a name literally rendered "theforemost in the march"-by which those were spoken of who led the way intoremoteness, had reached the Orange River and the limit of the eastern frontier,they came in contact with the Kafirs, who were both more numerous and morewarlike than the aboriginal tribes they had before met. who resented intrusionmore resolutely, who stole more numerously from their flocks, and on whom theEnglish government would not permit them to make the same exterminatingretaliation as they had found expedient in dealing with the Hotlentots and Bushmen. Their aversion to any authority ot her than that of leaders chosen by thelllselves then reached its highest point, for the two-fold reason that they helievedthemselves to be wronged, and that they were thus wronged by those who had nonational sympathies with them. A general exodus was resolved upon. Of their

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n:n tU W liS ad \,;, nct' Illlt tlllatl oi"nulllhefs illflickd 1ll1them by his periidiol!s midnight : t ' ; ~ ~ \ U 1 1 . of theirultimate triumph ll\'l'!" lite Zulus. their s u b l l l i s ~ i ( ) n to England. and their subsequcnt withdrawal in large numbers into (ile interior. ne;jrly every history of'c\'e'lls in South Africa. and quite recently lhe graphic and agreeahle volume."The Land and ih Story'. havc give:l an accoullt. All tell the varied tale ()hazard. ,uffering. and SUCLCSS. It is \lbvillllS that experiences such as these, prolonged through four or live generations, could 110t 1 ~ l i l to afTcct. and cven tomould. lhe character of the African b\lers. All indep';lldent spirit. a power orcndurancc gained frlllll heing used to privations and hardships, courage stimulatedhy danger, self-reliance by freqllent triumph over (!ifficultie


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Blit th(;y are not in the same simple and pov(;rty-strickcn conditioll in which Jfound thc hoers in the beginning of 1847. Their abodes were then of rude construction. Necessity had taught thel11 to have few wants, and these \\cre suppliedby the cul!ivati,ln or vcgetables. :lnd of a liLtle wheat, and the annual increase oftheir cattle and horses: blltthc incn:a,>e though not inconsidcrable afforded veryscanty means or procuril1)2 even ordinary comfort. There was as yet no market:the demand ror their p r n d u c l ~ or stock was limited to the requirements for themaintenance at the se:lt or government of a single regiment or infantry anda troop of cavalry. The SlIll1 ,0 expended, divided among the rural population, could hardly more than suffice ror the purcha,c of a rew indispensablecLlml1lodities. This notwithstanding, there was an attention to neatness thatcould not but be noticed by a stranger; and their hospitality, though simpleand inexpensive, was olTered in a very frank spirit to those who sought orneeded it.

Anyone who had seen much of their countrymen in the Cape colony could notbut observe a difference in the appearance and bearing of those who hademigrated. Though resolute and self-reliant, they had something of dejection intheir aspect, which may have been wholly due to the want of prospcrity and theabsence, as yet, 01' any bright promise in the future. BLIt it was probably ahocaused by their experience or revCl'SCS, and very specially by the memory or thestill somewhat recent disaster of 11th February, 1838, when a contingent ofDingaan's army camc stealthily upon them in the dead of the night, and killedvery ma ny men, women and children. The IH ! II I ber h:l s been va r i o u ~ l y esti matedat from fivc hundred to seven hundred: either number constituted a large proportion of all who had crossed the Drakensberg. Nearly all who escaped, or who hadbeen at a distance from the encampment that was attacked, had to deplore thedeath, under circumstances of singular cruelty, of friends or relatives, murderedas they lay in their beds, or stabbed, as, starting from their sleep, they struggled torush away. Remembrance of the calamity was kept alive in many ways. It oftenformed a subject for discourse whell a traveller came among them. The namesgiven to several localities were so many echoes that recalled the event. I t hadoccurred in thc immediate neighbourhood of the part of the district in which Ifirst met the boers. At a distance of five miles there was the "Moordsprui t"-the"rivulet of murder". In anothcr direction, a little farther away, the site of avillage, showing as yet little sign of occupation, had been marked out; and to thisthe name of "Weenen", i.l ' . , "lamentation", had been given; and many a spot inthe direction of the Little Tugela was connected with some specially afflictingincident. In the "Annals of Natal", there are several graphic narratives of theevents of the night of 11 th February. These are written in artless and almost rudelanguage, a defect much less observed in a translation, but which in itself lendsimpressiveness to the original. One from the pen of Charl Celliers, anotherwritten by Daniel Bezuidenhout, are full of stirring interest. A third, a letterwritten to her relatives by Elizabeth Steenkamp is womanly and much the mostaffecting.

It was only during the preparations for the survey, and whilst the work at theoutset was in the neighbourhood of the two homesteads at Bushman's River, thatI saw a few of the Afrikanders collcctively and often. As the triangulation extended and receded into distance, only one or two would come once a week toset up the beacon points of land to which they had a claim. Once a month the"Ficldcornet", who had been some years previollsly appointed under the Volks

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raad to apportion the extents originally allotted to the claimants, came to mewith a few attendants to point out the landmarks.

My mode of life "under canvas" was in nearly every respect that of anytraveller or sportsman who had to spend some time in the wilds. The chiefdifference would be in the length of the time. His excursion was seldom for alonger period than a few weeks; but my sojourn in tents lasted for four years. Noone now visiting the same tracks would find game in the same profusion: hemight see none. Nor could he now be in the same lonely seclusion: some dwelling, some fellow-mortal would be near. He would not have to be upon his guardagainst danger, which, if not actually threatening. could not be regarded asremote or unlikely to occur. Every year, when the winter set i n ~ i t is more severein the higher region beyond the borders than within the district- great numbersof quaggas and of various ki nds of antelopes that may properly be classed as deer.came over the mountain range into the lower and warmer country and werefollowed by lions that more than satisfied the craving of hunger by devouring theweaker creatures. Springbuck and elands are now seldom seen, and the quaggashave wholly disappeared. This. however. has been much less due to their destruction by the fiercer animals than to the guns of the Afrikanders in the Free Stateand Transvaal. The skin of the gnu is easily converted into leather. not of excell-ent quality, but by no means valuele')s. It became an article of commerce, andhundreds of thousands of skins were for some years annually exported. This ofcourse would come to an end. The abundance of prey made the lion of SouthAfrica far less formidable to man than its fellow in 0Jumidia, \\hich being astarveling never spares a human being in the desert; whereas here it was commonly noted that the lion seldom molested men unless it were in some wayirritated. The king of beasts would watch and rush upon the wild herd at night,but during the day kept out of sight in h i ~ lair on the skirt of a wood, or in longsedge or rushes at the edge of a brook. The owners of cattle \eldom lost any byhis depredations, if they kept their stock at night near their homesteads. wherethe wakeful dogs would give warning of his approach. Nevertheless it was obviously wise to guard against ri,k. The sporbman at his out-span would havc hisoxen driven up before daylight disappeared. and secured by being tied to thedrag-chain of the wagon, and his faithful guards, the hound, or pointers, wouldgive any necessary warning during the night. It was usual, whenever there wasreason to s u p p o ~ e that a leopard, or hyena, I or lion, was near. to have lights inevery tent, in the helief, probably not without good reason. that the brightness inthe dark hour had the effect of keeping fierce creatures aWay. G

From the Free State and Transvaal. chiefly from the latter. small numhers ofthe Afrikanders have at intervals continued to yield to the roaming propensity ofgoing into tracb more remote not occupied by the white man. Recent rumoursmake it possible that a considerable exodus is now contemplated, and that per-haps a thousand will soon emigrate northwards. But far the larger proportion ofthe residents of European descent have acquired landed property. and have solong had the advantage of a permanent abodc that the wandering spirit wOllldnaturally become less active. The same efTect must a]c,o in no little measure havebeen produced by the disappearance of game, which, year by year. made it lesseasy for a wanderer, always accompanied by his family. to provide for their sus-tenance in the wilds. or to make sport a daily occupatioll, to the exclusioll oranysteady industry.r had not been more than a few months employed on the survey when evellts

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gave me two unusual opportunities of personally observing and knowing theeffect of "a will to wander" on minds ready to obey it. There were many boers inthe country around mc-two or three hundred were then reckoned to be "not afew"-who were averse to British controL yet wished to remain in the district.The t\\ 0 objects were not attainable without a risk of overt disloyalty; and this,they thought. would be more safe in proportion as they went farther away fromthe seat of government. They withdrew beyond the Tugela, and occupied thecountry within our boundary, north of the river. Several of their number hadclaims there for land allotted to them by the Volksraad. A rumour reachedPietermaritzburg that they were in concert with the Zulus to overrun the colonyand drive out the English. How far this may have been true will never be knownwith certainty. The Zulu King denied it. Governor West informed one of theleaders of the disafTected that the design was known, and that measures would betaken for its frustration. The reply to this was that the rumour was quite unfounded, but that Panda claimed as his own the tract north of the Tugela. Inorder to leave no room for doubt that the claim did not exist and could not berecognized, I was instructed to make it known that the survey would be proceeded with beyond the Tugela at an early date. In a few weeks (August, 1847), Icrossed the Tugela, and in more than one locality met influential boers who wereauthorized to speak on behalf of their fellows. They left no room for doubt as totheir intention of frustrating the purpose contemplated by the government. Allwere in concert not to accept land-grants that would imply a recognition ofterritorial authority, and refused unhesitatingly and repeatedly to point out anybeacons of the extents allotted by the Volksraad: and without a knowledge ofthese a survey would be useless. Advice and warning were of no avail; and as aplea that must fully justify them. they insisted on the real or pretended difficultyin which they were placed by Panda's assertion of right to the part of the districtsince known as the Division of Klip River. I could not do otherwise than reportolTIcially that my errand had been a failure. To all appearance disturbances wereimpending: but the risk passed away. The Lieutenant-Governor issued a proclamation. annollllcing that 110 title to land in the Klip River Division would beissued except to claimants who had taken, or would consent to take, the oath ofallegiance. To this the disaffected were averse, and towards the close of January,1848. they quitted Natal. with the intention of settling in vacant tracts beyond theDrakenshl'rg.On their way. hO\\'l'ver, they were met by Sir Harry Smith, the Governor of theCape, who had come overland for the purpose of gaining local information, andforming his 0 \\ 11 opinion on local matters here. Meeting the boers in rainyweather. and the rain falling:n tropical abundance, Sir Harry Smith saw them ina deplorclhle condition of discomfort, and felt and expressed much commiseration for thelll. did all he could to soothe them, and promised that if they wouldreturn to the district. grants of land should be made to them without any strict ordisadvantage'oll, conditions. The greater number returned, but within the nexttwo or three years. many still prderrcd to be free from control of any kind, andagain \vithdrew l'c\ und the mountains.

1\1y connection with the executive government being limited to a position undert he surveyor-general. I had not in remote loneliness, any knowledge of the incidents jllst mentionl'd until some time after their occurrence, excepting those with\"hich I had been pl'Nmally concerned in August, 1847. Early in January, 1848,a bocr came from some distance to tell me that reliable information had been re16


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ceived that Panda \\as :Ibout to selld :1I1 army i11[0 the distril'l, that It \ \ .h 11 il';\\ay and at no great distanc'e fronl the b o r d e r ~ : and that the h u e r ~ \ \e iL I' ; greatalarm, and had resolwd to collect their 1111111beh :It f)norllf.l1p. :1 littk


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a thousand men were sent to act with the native police. It was evident thatthough there might be little comparison between the regularity of their movements and the superior action of drilled troops, yet there was much of militaryorder and discipline among them. Each regiment had its distinctive shield,covered with the skin of ox or deer, and the diversity of colour in the shield,wholly black, or mottled, or white, denoted the troop to which it belonged. Thehead-gear, a tuft of long feathers, the soft plumage of beautiful birds, was alsodistinctive. The weather was \Varm, and except the strips of fur, numerouslyattached to a waist-belt, and descending to the knee, the men wore no raiment,having laid aside the "kaross", the mantle of skin or fur required for protectionagainst cold by day, or for covering at night. The array was handsome, and, seenfor the first time, very striking. As they came near, they were drawn up, eachregiment in triple line ("three deep"), and, at a signal from someone in command,gave the royal salute ("Bayete") to the diplomatic agent. They had arrived in theafternoon, and till night the war dance, and songs evidently inspiriting in whichall took part, kept them in animated occupation. Very early on the followingmorning, the force set out on their march. I accompanied them. We were not longin finding the huts of the transgressing tribe, but they had been deserted. I t wasknown that they had been occupied, until evening on the preceding day; and asthe tribe, in removing, included numbers of women and children, it was not unreasonable to suppose that we should overtake them without a very long pursuit.Evidently, too, they had gone off without their cattle; for many herds that couldhave had no other owners, were seen in the open field in every direction. We hadnot gone far when either intelligence was received, or the traces of a multitudetraversing the long grass made it plain, that they had gone for safety to thesummit of a high hill, that might well be ranked as a small mountain,-the"Imbulane", not far from the banks ot the Klip River, where Ladysmith hassince been built. The hill rises several hundred feet above the plain, is steep inascent, and flat on the summit, all round which on every side there is a crest ofprecipitous crag. We had expected that, on gaining the top of the hill, the tribewould be in sight; but again the expectation was vain. Had they descended on theother side? A halt ensued, a pause for consultation. But it was not of long duration; for voices were heard from underground; and soon an Induna, 6 deputed byMr. Shepstone, was in conversation with leading men of the fugitive tribe. Theywere in a crevice, the opening of a cave of gieat dimensions; in fact, according tothe description given by the natives the crest of rock is hollow in nearly the wholeof its circuit. I had before been several times on the summit of the hill, and neversuspected that so capacious a den was immediately beneath me; but the people ofPutili (the hereditary chief of the tribe) having lived quite near had long knownthat it was there. From the height they had watched the approach of the policeand their auxiliaries, and must have felt that resistance would be unavailing. Theparley therefore was not protracted. The chief men did not hesitate to submit,and to ask to be forgiven; and their offence was pardoned on the condition thatthey were to be obedient to British authority, that they were to be located nearthe Drakensberg, and should avoid all encroachment on the property of theEuropeans. The terms were accepted without demur; and then the tribe swarmedout from the dark recess into sunlight and open air. There cannot have beenfewer than twelve hundred of all ages. 7 I t took no little time for them to comesingly or in pairs through the narrow entrance of the cave. We stayed on theheight, till they had all begun to descend. They were placed in charge of a res

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ponsible Ind una, and' in a few days were settled in their kraals at the base of themountain range.

Few of the changes wrought by time in our colony are more noticeable thanthose in the mental condition and propensities of the natives.

Undoubtedly in their first intercourse with the "white man" they at oncerecognized a superior, one of greater intellectual power and attainment,-l1ot ofcourse as regards culture, of which they had not even an idea and were wholly incompetent to judge-but in the inventive faculty, the skill with which he achievedany purpose, great or small, tending to safety, advantage, or comfort. The use ofgunpowder, the construction of cannon or muskets, would naturally impressthem deeply, since besides the evidence of clever workmanship there \\as a warning of the hopelessness of coping with the European in war on any even terms:but the impression was coupled with the thought of physical force, and was notso suggestive of superiority of mind, as many an ordinary and even triflingappliance of skill to very minor uses. A traveller might halt for a while at a kraalwhere a lucifer match had never been seen or heard of: and the result of its friction against sand-paper was watched with wonder. To set fire to spirits of wine,which they supposed to be water or a watery liquid, seemed to them to be littleshort of sorcery. In either case there would be an ejaculation of admiration orbewilderment. Gradually, as they found themselves more habitually among acivilized population, things strange were so constantly witnessed or spoken ofthat novelty and artful contrivance lost much of their fascination. Rarely now dothey express or show astonishment at any marvel of art.In the wars that ended in the overthrow of Dingaan, the boers had shot downand overcome the Zulus but SOOI1 after the same boers submitted to our troops.Hence the deference felt by the natives for the power of Great Britain wasgenuine and deep. To those placed over them by that power they were respectfuland obedient, and they are so still. This respect, however, was influenced by son,cthing more than the conviction that the European was a superior being, or thatour military fllrce \\as pre-eminent.

Many years, perhaps hundreds of years, before Tshaka's invasion the nativeshad lived in a state of tribal separation, and, though there was no frequent orrancorous h o ~ t i l i t y between the tribes, experience had taught them that they weresafe from wrong or disadvantage only under their own chief and in fellowshipwith their own people. I n the long period of suffering and danger, when they wereeither driven out of their o\\n country, or could remain in it only by lurking inwoods and caves, this feeling naturally became more acute. In adversity orutlamity they \\ere more than ever distrustful of strangers. The suspicion oft r e ~ l c h e r y haunted them, and they attached themselves very exclusively to thosewhose interests and sympathies were bound up with their own. Loyalty to theirchief. and a regard for their fellows, became a second nature to them. When thecourse of events enabled them to live in, or return to, the country in safety, theyknew from the first that the intervention of Britain, in the concerns of the landthat had been t hei r own, was full of evidence of a desire to protect and be just tothe natives; and instinctive loyalty easily extended itself to officers appointed bythe Crown to control them. The respect for "white men", was also somewhatgeneral; but-a change for the worse much to be regretted-it cannot be said tobe so now.

It has been almost exclusively in the capacity of servants that the natives havestood in any relation to the colonists. That the Kafirs are bad servants, that they

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are lazy and unwilling to work, is a current phrase; and in this there is but atrifling inaccuracy. Idleness, not laziness, is their great defect, the result of theircondition in former days. Far from being lazy there is no kind of activity in whichthey would be found wanting if actuated by any sutlkient inducement. In theirtribal state, the men were not servants or labourers; they were warriors, sentinels,and hunters; work, even laborious work, fell to the lot of the women. But themen could not be always hunting, or fighting, or on the watch, and in periods ofinaction they were idle. They have therefore no inborn inclination to be labourers,partly from the love of idleness, partly from their dislike of the mark of inferiority which labour appears to them to bear. When first it was an object to gaina little money, they looked on a master as in some degree a chief. No onc whothen employed them can fail to observe that they work less willingly, even lesswell, now than formerly. But even then they worked only for short periods, notlong enough to attain any proficiency; and shook off the yoke, reverting toexemption from occupation. It cannot be doubtful that working, as the greaternumber have done, in the towns, they have been placed in frequent contact with,and even often have o t h e r w i ~ e gained a knowledge of, the failings and vices ofmen and women of bad character among the Europeans; this has tended todiminish respect. Nor was it long before they became aware that their labour wasof more importance to the colonists than wages were to themselves. The imposition of the annual hut-tax made it an object to every head of a kraal and toevery parent that their young men should go into service, and earn the amount ofthe tax. For a while this was a very useful stimulus. But, as time passed on, thegreat demand for labour at the Diamond fields, and more recently at the goldfields, induced speCUlative men to ofTer a very much higher emolument to thelabourer than it would be worth while, or in most cases even possible, for an employer here to pay either for agricultural lahour or domestic service. The greatdistance to Kimberley or Johannesburg did not at all deter the Kafirs; they wentin thousands. The opportunities of earning large sums there added greatly 10 thedifficulty of procuring servants within the colony.

Apart from unwillingness to work, and diminished respect for his employers,the character of the Kafir has sensibly deteriorated. I f they have gained anyknowledge, whether from casual observation and experience, or from efTorlsmade by zealous men to instruct them, the proverb that "a little knowledge is adangerous thing" receives a direct confirmation. In many of the natives it hasvery much unsettled their instinctive ideas of right and wrong, before better principles have had time to take root in them. But this is not the fault of the instructor; and it is wholly unreasonable to blame him, as is very usually done, for thatwhich results from a merely natural cause. The more con"tantly and earnestlytheir tuition is attended to, the better prospect will there be, that the Kalirs willbecome less untrustworthy and more diligent.

In the year 1850, the influx of emigrants from Britain, which had begun somewhat earlier on a small scale, set ill in earnest. J was called away from the remotewilderness, and the task was assigned to me of locating large numbers of cmigrants on the banks of the IIIovo, where the villages of Richmond and Byrne havesince sprung up. Of the circumstances that attended their arrival and settlement,it is for several reasons scarcely necessary that any detailed account should begiven by me. The new corners were of various grades in the social scale; but thelarger portion were peasant-farmers, and their habits and character as a class inthe mother-country are too well known to need a definition. Being British, they

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at once claimed attention and notice in the newspaper-columns; and the localjOllrnab gave many particulars of their early experiences and of the difficulties towhich they \\crc for Sllll1e time subjected.

The Dutch-Africans in Natal had no capacity for writing; and, moreover, littlecared that thcir posititlll and views should be known or understood: they neversought- -!lcver pcrhap" thought of seeking-the intervention of the press for theadvocacy ofthei r intere,h. Sti II less could the ignorant kafir-savage have recourseto any such means of bringing his condition to notice. In relation to both theseclasses of our population-as regards the "Afrikanders" forty years ago; as tothc natives up to a much more reccnt date-circumstances have given me very~ p e c i a l opportunities of becoming intimate with matters not very generallyknown: and there is almost a direct claim on anyone conversant with these toassist in securing for them a place in our records.It is otherwise as regards the English emigrants of whom, therefore, I must

speak but briefly. They came to a new. strange country; they were set down in alucality then almost uninhabited in mid-winter, in a very cold season. But thenational spirit bure thcl1l triulllphantly over difficulties, privations. and hardships; and they \Icre not ,10\1 in discerning anything that might be turned to advantage. A few only. disheartened or dissatisfied, quitted the colony; and bent onseeking their fortuile, elscwhere. again migrated, chiefly to Australia. Of thosewho remained far the larger Ilumber have had little reason to be discontentedwith their lot in the land of their adoption, and have lived in comfort. Many havebeen very p r o ~ p e r o u s .

The immigration from Europe speedily changed the aspect of things in thecolony, The stride of advance was rarid in commerce, in revenue, and in the importance of business and of public affairs. And when, in 1851, I became an inhabitant of our chief town, I found at once that things in the political and socialsphere were no longer in the very primitive. simple, and unusual state, in which Ihad found them in IB46. To place briefly on record a short narrative of what wasUIl usual or I l 0 : generally k nCl\\n \\as the motive for writing these few pages: theyare properly brought to a cio:.;e. \vhen, though the progress then evident may onlyhave been relatively considerable. the stage has been reached of a condition ofthings habitual and ordinary in any civilized community.

JOHN BIRD

Notes:1. [have known more than two months to elapse v"ithout a mail.2. No register of the rain["ll was kept till many years later; but the belief that it has greatlydiminished is quite in accord with the record of floods in which every river overflowed itsbanks. There was a great flood in March, 1848; the greatest ever known in Apri l, 1856; thenat intervals partial and minor flood" until Cl great and general flood occurred in August,1868. There have been none since. So that floods were numerous enough to saturate thecountry, and replenish every source and spring in the first twenty-two years after 1846; therehave been none in an equaJJapse of years since 1868.3. In 1843, 1844, I was eml,loyed on the survey in the "Great Karroo", the Roggeveld, and theborders of the Nieuw-vcld, in the Cape Colony; and the proportion of dwellings in all thatgreat extent of tel'ritnry that had the appearance of having been built with a view to permanent occupation was vel')' small indeed.4. The leopard and hyena med always to be locally called the tiger and the wolf. They still aregenerally so misnamed.5. Hunters specially in quest of a I ion seldom failed of finding one; but I never had an opportunity of joining them, and never saw a lion in the wilds; yet very probably lions were often

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not far from me. Upon one occasion, when a young moon gave a pale light some time aftersunset, I had to pass near a bank covered with tall bulrushes; there was a stir among therushes; my horses trembled in evident alarm, and then rushed away in ungovernable terror.On the next day an old boer told me that on the preceding evening, at an earlier hour, and atthe very spot to which I refer, he had narrowly missed a dangerous encounter with lions,having seen three at a short distance from the road.It was long before lions wholly withdrew from the district. Several years after the periodhere referred to a lion came in broad daylight into a farmyard-not in the wilds, but in theimmediate neighbourhood of Pietermari tzburg-and tried to make his way into the stable.The owner of the property, Mr. WaIter Harding, afterwards chief Judge of the SupremeCourt, was absent from home, having gone to his office in the town. The terrified servantsand family bolted every door and secured every window; and the lion after a leisurely inspection of the cow-shed (fortunately the cows were in a pasture two miles away) went off at aquiet stately pace. As soon as it could be safely done, a messenger was despatched to Mr.Harding to inform him of the alarming occurrence; and he at once organised a party to go inquest of the formidable monster on the following morning. I was one of the number. Wefound many distinct tracks of this lion, in mud and soft ground, and followed these forfifteen miles-- to the neighbourhood of Table Mountain-and turned back without successwhen we found that it had gone down into the broken country of the Inanda, and was

probably too far in advance to afford any reasonable chance of being overtaken before nightfall.6. The Induna is a man chosen by a chief, and employed upon occasion to act with delegatedauthority.7. The submissive demeanour of the men, the dejected aspect of the women, and the terror ofthe children, presented a scene that could never in such number be shown on any stage, andwhich even if imitated by the most skilful actors, on a smaller scale, would fall short of anysuch vivid effect as that of the reality immediately before us.

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H. W. D. MansonPoet and Playwright, and his connections with NatalTHOUGH BORN in Tanganyika and educated in England, Grahamstown andJohannesburg, H. W. D. ("Cake") Manson spent the maturest and best years ofhis short life in the Capital of Natal. Before that time, he had held brief temporary lectureships (the first at Pietermaritzburg under Professor Durrant),resigning constantly to write a new play. Later when appointed to the permanentstaff at Pietermaritzburg, he discovered that the University would give him leavewithout pay whenever he needed to write, and he would save up for those leanyears. He seemed to regard himself as a Natalian more than anything else, andwhen history has done its often belated justice, he will be regarded as onc of theglories of Natal, for he is, in my opinion, one of the outstanding English languagepoets of the twentieth century, and probably one of the best English playwrights(when onc considers the quality, depth and variety of his work) for severalcenturies.When at the age of seventeen he joined up, his regiment was the NatalCarbineers, and he always had a special loyalty to that body. I t was at seventeenthat he wrote his earliest surviving poem, on the flyleaf of a poetry-anthologythat he carried with him throughout the War. The technique of this boyish workis still clumsy, but the essential man is already expressed in it. A footnote, inManson's still unformed hand, reads: "Written on the day of the SpringOffensive. Caprara taken, and Mt. Sole too. To-morrow is our day. Objective, aridge on the other side of Mt. Sole." The gist of the poem is that the lilacs are inbloom on this lovely Italian spring day: to-morrow he may be killed, and hewould be sorry to die, but in the meantime he will enjoy this day to the full. Theutter fearlessness of death, the deep delight in life expressed here, developed as hegrew older, and enormously increased in human understanding, extreme sensibility, and that reverence of life and nature that was almost religious in its depthand joyousness. Yet for all his sunny gaiety he could also be (as someone says ofPat in his Pat MullwUalld's Day):

Suddenly terrible,As full of grief as God himself sometimes.Only ten of his poems are extant, and of these four are largely about Natal,showing a strong love and close intimacy with its landscape. The last three longstanzas of Prologue to Fat Mulholland's Day describe with exquisite beauty and

precision the slow coming of dawn, obviously near a Natal stream, and the details of them make us feel that, though in the context of the Universe our earth isa ridiculously "tiny spinning ball" that may explode any day like millions beforeit, what matters to liS is the life, even the infinitesimal life, on it-"running waterand the croak of frogs". Unposted Lefler, one of the most moving poems in allEnglish literature, about two brothers, one with both his legs blown off and theother killed in the war, is largely pure Natal. and so arc Triple-Deckcr Sandwich.and LOl/don Letter to Jonati1an and Kathie, two very dear friends then at sea on

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their first visit to England. This is mainly a most lovely, subtle and delicate description of the view, especially as dusk begins to gather, from Qtto's Bluff, whereManson had lived for several years, latterly with his wife and baby. He loved theplace. As he said to his wife one day, "But this is Paradise".

Manson's plays are all poetry, too, in the fullest sense. None are set in SouthAfrica, except possibly Pat Mu/holland's Day. They are, as Ben Jonson said ofShakespeare's, "Not for an age, but for all time", for though mostly occurring inremote times and imaginary places they are all peculiarly relevant to to-day, andsometimes particularly to South Africa. They have all been published, and produced or broadcast, mostly in South Africa but also in Great Britain andCanada, except the very first, The Fight at Finnsburgh, which, being too long forproduction, is being published as a dramatic poem by the University of theWitwatersrand, where Manson wrote it as an ex-serviceman student. The NatalUniversity Press has just finished publishing the three posthumous plays, as wellas The Festival, which was out of print. We hope soon to get his poems published,with detachable extracts from the plays, and also, separately, the large fragmentof his only novel.Being a close friend of Manson's was a hazardous matter. As Professor Harveyonce said: "He was like a bomb that might go off in your hand ". After someinnocent remark, you would suddenly find yourself looking up, with considerable alarm, into the face of a furious lion (the tawny-gold hair and beard helpedtowards this effect), and rising without a word from the lunch-table, he wouldstride out of your house. You would tremble, and spend a restless night wondering if he would ever speak to you again. But next morning he would be backagain, beaming like the sun, not a word needed or spoken on either side. For allhis violent fiery temper and violent speech many people knew that there neverwas, and never may be, a more reliable friend and a kinder heart, nor a moredeeply and patiently (though critically) understanding one. Another contrast wasthat though he told many unimportant lies (chiefly to amuse himself and entertain his friends) at the same time he had the courage to perceive and to tell thetruth, however unpleasant and alarming, at a level of perception and significancefar deeper than most people can conceive of.

He had all the gifts a playwright needs as well as the honesty very few have.These gifts made his daily conversation delightful, for suddenly, as he was talking, the room would be filled with half a dozen people you knew, or as manyimaginary ones, each speaking in his own character, voice, idiom and accent; andquite often (i f there were time) an amusing extempore play would emerge, plotand all.His favourite pub was "the Imp.", where his beloved dachshund, Dunkel,would often make part of the company, for Manson had so developed him bysheer affection and interest that he seemed almost human. But alas! he died ofold age some years before his master. When Manson was killed in a crash at theage of 43 (on 29th M ay, 1969) one of his erstwhile companions at the I mp. said tohis brother: "Now everything will be ordinary again. We shall never again seehim come in at the door, and know that now we are going to be lirled right out orourselves for a few hours into a greater and more interesting world."Vigorous exercise had helped to make him almost prodigiously strong, agileand quick in reaction, and it seems especially ironic that a body so powerful anda spirit so necessary to humanity and this age should have been blotted out in amoment or less. PROFESSOR C. VAN HEYNINGEN, Pietermaritzburg

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H. W. D . Manson(photo by courtesy of Mrs. H. W. D. Manson)


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Manson's works in chronological order as written:1. The Fight at Finnsburgh (being published by the Witwatersrand University Press).2. The Green Knight (Human & Rousseau).3. The Noose-Knot Ballad (Human & Rousseau).4. The Counsellors (posthumously published by the Natal University Press).S. The Festival (first published by Balkema-republished by the Natal University Press.).6. Captain Smith (Human & Rousseau).7. The Magnolia Tree (Nasion ale Boekhandel).8. Pat Mulholland's Day (Nasionale Boekhandel).9. Potluck (posthumously published by Natal University Press).

10. Magnus (posthumously published by Natal University Press).11. Poems, and Passages from the Plays (being prepared for the press).12. Karl Gunter Hoffmann (large fragment of unfinished novel-being prepared for the press)

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Perception of landscape in Natal:the Geographer's point of viewTHE DIFFERING perception of landscape in Natal has had a profound effect.onsettlement, and it is the purpose of this article to study landscape evaluation fromthe point of view of historical geography, largely during the nineteenth century.Historical geography employs both the historical and geographical approaches toa study of a region in the past and should not be confused with geographicalhistory, where the historian examines historical events in relation to theirgeographical setting. The geographer is interested in studying the physical andhuman elements-relief, climate, vegetation, soils, settlement patterns, communications, agriculture and other economic and social activities-that react oneach other in a given area.Geography is a many-sided subject that enlists the aid of specialists in suchdiverse fields as geology, meteorology, soil science, economics, anthropology andparticularly history. Many people are sound amateur geographers and have afairly good eye for landscape, although their concepts of landscape may beclosely conditioned by the type of society from which they have come. Youngchildren are very poor geographers and have a limited view of space and distance;their world is circumscribed and vital to them, with little place in it for anyonebut the immediate family. I t is only as we grow older that our horizons widen.How many of us have returned in later years to a house or garden familiar to usin youth only to find it small and unimportant, where before it had the magic andsize of a world that could be expanded indefinitely when manipulated by childishimagination. The appreciation of distance, shape and size even in the adult isconditioned by culture; for example Eskimo maps show accurately the numberofloops and turns in a river but neglect distances. Many Africans, accustomed toround and not square shapes, find it difficult to draw a straight line.Physical and biological factors restrict human perception and many speciesmay have keener sight or a better sense of smell than the human, although compared with most species the visual world of the human is full of colour. Nevertheless, a concept like colour is conditioned by cultural background, and to somepeople colour conjures up emotions, so that red is warm and comfortable andblue is cold and remote, although to the Navajo ofNorth America red is bad andblue is good. The Xhosa maiden conveys a message to her lover by her arrangement of coloured beads in a bracelet or belt. In Western society there arenumerous expressions in which white connotes goodness and black evil. Mantends to build up stereotypes and myths and in the whole field of human relationscolour, shape, size and other physiological characteristics of the human bodyhave cultural significance. For example, a dark skin and hooked nose is associated with Semites, while to many Englishmen, foreigners are strange becausethey are not English. Relief is viewed in different ways at various periods; theeighteenth century traveller regarded mountains with dread and Gilbert White,the Selborne naturalist, talked about the mountains of Sussex. During the nine

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teenth century a number of intrepid Englishmen pioneered the sport ofmountaineering in the Alps and during the last twenty years there has been a new appreciation of snow-covered mountain slopes in winter, with a resultant boom inskiing.According to R. Williams, 1 man's version of the world he inhabits is a form ofinteraction with his environment which allows him to maintain his life andachieve greater control over his environment. We see in certain ways accordingto certain rules which are not constant. In each individual the learning of theserules through inheritance and culture is a kind of creation. Particular culturescarry particular versions of reality which they create.So the earth is shaped for individuals and viewed through cultural and personal spectacles coloured by our customs, experience, memory and imagination.The effect of our cultural environment, the books we read, the pictures we see,the shibboleths and traditions we inherit from the past are all important agentsin moulding our concepts of the world around us. In order to develop the potential of a region to the full, man's reaction to environment must be flexible so thathe can adapt to the challenge of a new scene and a changing situation. Whereattitudes are preconceived and unchanging man is unable to respond to thestimulus of a new challenge and society tends to stagnate.There is little record ofman's occupation ofNatal in pre-Bushman days, apartfrom artefacts, and even the Bushmen, besides their paintings, have not left manytraces of their 8-10,000 years' sojourn in Natal. To the Bushmen the landscape ofNatal must have meant teeming herds of game that could easily be hunted ingrassland areas where there was an abundance of wild plants and bulbs togather. I t is conjectured that South Africa may have been able to support only10,000-20,000 of these hunter-gatherers exploiting the environment so extensively. The Bushmen perceived landscape in terms of hunting potential and so,partly through a sense of sympathetic magic, partly through the sheer joy ofcreativity, recreated that potential in visual form in their fine paintings and rockengravings. But the tragedy of Bushmen society was that it was unable to adaptin time to the encroachments of invading Hottentot, Bantu and White pastoralists, although John Wright interprets cattle raids by Natal's Mountain Bushmenas a sign of cultural change and appreciation by the Bushmen of the value ofcattle for exchange in order to obtain guns, tobacco and other commodities. 2To the invading Bantu arriving in Natal 600 years ago or more, the grasslandsand rivers of Natal would have meant good grazing and an adequate supply ofwater for they viewed landscape largely in terms of cattle and crops. The mainarea of settlement must have lain in the lower, warmer parts of Natal with atleast 25-30 inches of rainfall a year. During the seventeenth century it must havebeen a fruitful environment. Consequently movement in search of fresh pastureand water was unnecessary for long periods. The land gave most of what wasneeded in the form ofmud, wood and reeds for hut and kraal, and soil, water andgrass for crops and livestock, with a bonus in the form of great herds of gamesupplying meat and skins for clothing and other purposes. The land was held incommon; the men herded and hunted and the women tilled the fields and lookedafter hearth and home. I t is very difficult to estimate the size of Natal's Bantupopulation in the eighteenth century; even in the nineteenth century statisticswere highly unreliable, although it must have been many times greater than thatof the Bushmen. 3 The superiority of the pastoral-cultivating organisation of theBantu meant that Natal's fertile environment could support increasing numbers

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until the balance between numbers of people and livestock and the natural resources was disrupted. The supply of land may have seemed inexhaustible, but bythe eighteenth century pressure for space was already developing and relationsbetween the tribes became strained. The struggle for new land seems to havecontributed to the Zulu wars of the early nineteenth century.The nineteenth century was a most significant period in the settlement of Natal.

It is interesting to contrast the opposing views of landscape held by Voortrekkersand English settlers, both in terms of their physical approach by land and sea,andin terms of their mental approach from two widely differing cultural backgrounds. The Voortrekkers came over the Drakensberg into Natal via the dryLadysmith basin and therefore assessed the potential of the grasslands of theNatal Midlands in terms of large farms and pastoralism. The concept of the3,000-6,000 morgen farm, necessary in the dry areas of the Eastern Cape, wasadopted by the Trekkers as their standard of farm size regardless of climate andsoil. The pastoralist looked for good pastures and sufficient water and, despitethe sourgrasses of the Midlands, the Trekkers sought this region out in preference to the sweetgrasses of the northern areas as the Midlands were betterwatered. The dense vegetation of the coastal belt and the dissected terrain ofZululand and the Tugela Valley were rejected by the Trekkers. Another criterionin their scrutiny of land potential was accessibility to the coast at Port Natal,because, although they were a land-borne people, they were fully aware of thenecessity for coastal access, as shown by attempts on the part of the Transvaal toobtain a corridor to the sea in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The bestquality land in Voortrekker eyes thus lay in a broad swathe from the Drakensberg to the coast at Port Natal, and they established their capital at Pietermaritzburg nearly halfway between the mountains and the sea. Land to north and southof this belt was of decreasing value because of distance; in the north the ruggedness of terrain and the possibility of Zulu attacks were further disadvantages.Natal's environment can likewise be viewed from the agricultural and arablepoint of view and both British officials and English settlers visualised Natal'slandscape and its potential value for farming rather in the light of experiencegained in Western Europe than in South Africa. Most emigrants had preconceived ideas as to the type of farming they wished to pursue, that is small intensive arable farms with some livestock. Most West Europeans farms were small. atthat time, and the majority of French farms are still considerably less than 50acres in size, so that the promise of 20 acres to the Byrne settlers seemedgenerous. Also land at 4/- an acre appeared cheap compared with the price ofland in Britain. Coming from a previously forested environment in Europe theBritish settler judged the value of agricultural land partly by its tree cover. Thusthe dense vegetation of the coastal forest was assumed to have developed on richsoils that would offer far better prospects for arable farming than the interiorgrasslands. In North America the unfamiliar problem of exploiting the apparently limitless expanses of prairie halted the westward advance for more than adecade after the pioneers had emerged from the familiar wooded landscape ofthe Appalachians onto the western plains.The Byrne and other seWers realised very quickly that a 20-acre plot washopelessly inadequate when even the Voortrekkers did not appear able to make aliving from farms hundreds of times larger in size. Most of the 20-acre lots werenot taken up and the British government's desire for closer settlement forsecurity reasons could not be achieved. It was a long time before the idea per

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colated through to officials in Britain that European concepts could not beapplied to Natal, although the coast was better suited to small farms and closersettlement than the interior.

The final clement in the population structure of Natal was provided by thearrival of many thousands of indentured Indian labourers to work on the Natalsugar plantations after 1860. Coming largely from impoverished Hindu ruralareas in South India the warm coastal lands of Natal would not be wholly un-familiar, and reality not too remote from their perception of the new land. Aftertheir indentures were over the majority of them chose to stay, so that for themNatal must have fulfilled to some extent their vision of a better life.

A major problem in the differing approach to landscape perception wasignorance of the local environment. The Trekkers had become well adapted tothe physical and human milieu in South Africa over a period of 150 years. Theywere extensive pastoralists with free ranging herds tended only by the occasionalBushman or Hottentot herd. With his ox wagon serving as mobile home and fort,and equipped with gun and horse. the Trekker could subsist in a sub-humidregion and provide for most of his o\\n wants. However. the prospective settlercoming to Natal \\as usually a man \\ ith some capital and hailing from an Englishtown-therefore, with a far wider range of expectations than the Trekkers in re-gard to what might be achieved in the new environment. The immigrant wasenticed by the attractive wording of pamphlets, books and reports encouraginghim to ~ e t t l e in a land that \\as as promising to him in the 1850s as it seemed tothe Trekkers in the 1830s. Even the earnest Or. Bleek J succumbed to the lure ofNatal and wrote " I do not see why German immigrants should not selectNatal as their ne\\ home . . . the fare is of course much more than that toAmerica. Natal is certainly a better proposition than Australia. Wages here arevery high, whilst at the same time provisions are cheap".

Although the early reports were promising enough to attract about 5,000settlers to Natal in the early 1850s. the country was at a grave disadvantage compared to North America, Australasia and even the Cape Colony, so that theEuropean population of Natal grew very slowly. By 1859 there were 11,580Europeans in Natal of whom 8.000 were in the rural areas, at a density of littlemore than one white person per square m ile. By 1880 the white population wasstill only 22.564 which, however, had nearly quadrupled by 1909. This was therailway age of Natal when her increased value as a route to the interior becamemore significant. Perception of landscape had broadened from its agriculturalbase to embrace more fully Natal's rolc as a corridor to the Transvaal, a role thatwas commented on long before by Thomas Phipson: "Natal is now little morethan a road tu the interior and almost the only way for its inhabitants to get aliving is to be more or less connected with trade and transport." 5 The size ofNatal's white popUlation prior to World War I compares unfavourably with thatof Western Australia, which had only 3,853 Europeans in 1843, but 282,114 in1911. O b v i o u ~ ; ] y this is not the whole ,tory and if one compares the total populatioll of Natal, about I t million in 1910, it is over four times that of WesternAustralia. Nevertheless, for the development of Natal it was fortunate that mis-taken environmental perception encouraged 5,000 white settlers to leave Britainand settle in a land that, although it did not come up to expectations, eventuallyassured them of a modest competence.

N. C. POLLOCK, Fellow of St. Edmond Hall, Oxford29


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Notes:I. R. Williams, The Long Revolution. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1961.2. John Wright, Lecture to the Natal Historical Association on the Mountain Bushmen ofNatal,22.4.71.3. T. J. D. Fair, Natal Regional Survey Vol. 3. Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1955,

p.17.4. O. M. Spohr (ed.), The Natal Diaries ofDr. W. M. I. Bleek, 1855-56. Balkema, Cape Town,1965, p. 3.5. R. N. Currey (ed.), Letters of a Natal Sheriff. Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1968,p.150.6. Useful additional references not specifically mentioned in the text are: D. Lowenthal,Geography, Experience and Imagination: Towards a Geographical Epistemology, fromCultural Geography-Selected Readings, ed. by F. E. Dohrs and L. M. Sommers. New York,!967. A. J. Christopher, Natal: A Study of Colonial Land Settlement. Unpublished, Ph.D.Thesis, University of Natal, 1969.

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A new Cathedral-Centre for Pietermaritzburg ABOUT 1946 it became apparent that the fabric of St Saviour's Cathedral andParish Church was in a bad state and that maintenance was likely to become, asit has indeed, a great problem. There had to be built, some time, a new StSaviour's, and so a new Cathedral.That's how the story started, but the rapid change of social life and outlook inthe twenty years since then has led to equally rapidly changing concepts in churchlife and thought. Certainly scientifically and technologically, life has changed asmuch in those twenty years as in the previous two hundred which, in their turn,had produced greater change than in the previous two thousand years!The church itself, being on one side a human institution, is under greatpressure from the changing society of which it is a part. I t is evident that the ideaof a Cathedral as being just a huge church in a city is outmoded and seen to bealmost irrelevant. The New Cathedral Committee has moved out at an increasingly rapid tempo of thought to present an idea which it believes will meet moreadequately the contemporary needs of society in which the Church is called towork.Marked changes in the Committee's development of thought began only a fewyears ago. In 1946 the major concern was with building a large hall of worshipand little else. The main preoccupation was with the possible design of this hall ofworship. There were even discussions on how various designs would be displayedfor inspection. In October, 1946, it was recommended that the building shouldseat 1,500 to 2,000 and on the site "in addition to the Cathedral itself, its chapelsand vestries, etc., it is desirable to provide for parochial ancilliary accommodation, accommodation for a verger and accommodation for four servants". Therethe discussion largely ended. Enthusiasm was lukewarm.Much of the new thought came into being as a result of the preparation by theArchitectural Sub-Committee in early 1965 of a statement of theological presuppositions in the building of a modern Cathedral. This was further stimulatedby members of the Committee reading various books on the Coventry Cathedralundertaking.The vision of our project has as a result undergone the following radicalchanges:

From the sole idea of a large hall of worship to the concept of a diocesancentre with a hall of worship seating not more than 750-1,000 people. From the emphasis on buildings as such to emphasis on "people with amission" .

From the idea of an authoritarian structure in the diocese to the concept of"adult" shared responsibility.

Allied with the above, from parochial self-centredness to interdependencein Diocesan Life.31


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From a view of the total activity of the Diocese being expressed almost entirely through the parochial system, to a wider view of the Church'smission in society, expressed in additional forms as well.In all ages a Cathedral is the place in which a Bishop has his chair and in which,

to use a phrase found in medieval charters, "perpetual adoration is made". ACathedral should still maintain these functions and it should set the higheststandards in such matters as Church music and experiments in worship.A Cathedral, however, needs to be something more than that; the Bishop couldhave his chair in any sizeable church where high standards of worship and controlled experimentation could be maintained. But no, in addition to the Cathedralbeing intimately linked with the Bishop, it should form a permanent foundationupon which the whole mission of the Diocese to society is built.Largely out of its conscious failure to communicate with contemporary society(e.g. 1%to 2%of the workers of England go to

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