,.. ..

~ ' t,

THE NAfAL SOCIETY OFFICE BEARERS, 1975-76

President Cr. Miss P. A. Reid

Vice-Presidents Prof. A. F. Hattersley (deceased, July 1976)
M. J. C. Daly, Esq.
A. C. Mitchell, Esq.

Trustees A. C. Mitchell, Esq.

Dr. R. E. Stevenson
M. J. C. Daly, Esq.

Treasurers Messrs. Dix, Boyes and Co.

Anditol'S Messrs. R. Thornton-Dibb and Son
Chief Librarian A. S. C. Hooper
Secretary P. C. G. McKenzie

COUNCIL
Elected Members Cr. Miss P. A. Reid (Chairman)
M. J. C. Daly, Esq. (Vice-Chairman)
Dr. F. C. Friedlander
R. Owen, Esq.
D. D. Croudace, Esq.
Dr. J. Clark
Mrs. S. Evelyn-Wright
W. G. Anderson, Esq.
D. E. Schauder, Esq.
F. Martin, Esq., M.E.C.

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF NATALIA

Dr. J. Clark
Dr. B. J. T. Leverton
Miss M. P. Moberly
Mrs. S. P. M. Spencer
Miss J. Farrer

, . ~f

Natalia 6 (1976) Copyright © Natal Society Foundation 2010

 SA ISSN 0085 3674

Printed by The Natal Witness (Pty) Ltd.

 Contents

Page
EDITORIAL 5
OBITUARY

U. E. M. Judd (1917-1976) - I. Whitelaw and

I. Farrer 9

ARTICLE

Colenso's Greatest Sermon - I. Clark . 12

REPRINT

What doth the Lord require of us? - I. W. Colenso 15

SERIAL ARTICLE

The Origins of the Natal Society: Chap 6, 1851­

U. E. M. ludd . 24

ARTICLE

A Curiosity of Natal Settler Literature - I. Clark 28

NOTES AND QUERIES

D. H. Strutt, M. P. Moberly .. 34

REGISTER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL

I. Farrer . . . . . . . 49

REVIEWS AND NOTICES

53

People of the Eland 53

Catholic Beginnings 54

Fashion in South Africa 55

Dictionary of English Usage in Southern Africa 56

The Bent Pine . . 57

The Historian of Victorian Natal 58

REGISTER OF SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS

M. P. Moberly . 62

SELE= LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS

I. Farrer . 64

 Our Next Issue

Next year's Natalia (1977) will contain a reprint of an almost
unknown pamphlet, namely, a series of letters written by a Perth­
shire ploughman who arrived in Natal by the Byrne emigrant-ship
Ina in March 1850. His name was Thomas Duff and he first settled
on the former lands of the defunct Natal Cotton Company seven
miles (about 11 km) from Verulam and later at the Umhlanga.
His first earnings came from working as one of a gang of other
emigrants hired to dig a ditch across the sandbar at Durban. His
letters headed from 'The Emigrants' Shed, Durban' reveal interest­
ing social and economic facts of the 1850s.
 5

Editorial

In the year that has elapsed since the publication of Natalia No. 5 we have
suffered the loss of Professor Colin de B. Webb as chairman of the editorial
board consequent on his appointment to the post of King George V Professor
of History, University of Cape Town. We are glad that Professor Webb
has been found worthy of this prestigious position but at the same time
regret that we have lost the companionship and active help of an unusually
gifted man. During his five years as editor he has seen this magazine grow
in readership year by year until a stage has been reached when Africana
dealers are already searching for the earliest copies. Energetic and con­
scientious, Professor Webb set high standards not only in the selection of
material but also in the production and printing of the magazine. No one
worked harder in the search for original material, the result being that
historical material, previously unknown and unpublished, has appeared for
the first time in the pages of Natalia. Because of the quality of the magazine
it has been found that highly regarded writers are not averse to their work
appearing in its pages, despite the fact that no remuneration is as yet
possible.
We shall remember, too, with pleasure the editorial meetings held by
Professor Webb and the lively discussions on future articles, themes,
illustrations, and additional features for the benefit of our readers. What
ordinary editor, for example, would have conceived the idea of printing an
entire index for Professor Hattersley's useful but unindexed book Portrait
of a City? It is true to say that Professor Webb's ideas for Natalia were not
only academically sound but original, stimulating, and always relevant.
The members of the editorial board wish him happiness and success in his
new academic appointment and trust that although he has vacated his post
as editor of Natalia he will in the near future assume an equally valuable
role - that of contributor.

Alexander Beale, Librarian, Natal Society, 1865-1901

He was a short, sturdily built man with a wooden leg and a most
genial manner. Much as he loved the books over which he presided,
he was not a learned man, and he once defined 'autobiography' to a
perplexed subscriber as 'a book by an author unknown'.
- Alan F. Hattersley

This man, the subject of the picture on our front cover, was a tailor who
emigrated to Natal from Weymouth, England, in the 1860s and became the
part-time librarian of the Natal Society when he was 25 years of age. He
was one of 19 applicants. Since the salary was minimal, one can guess that
Natal was suffering one of the worst of its frequent financial depressions.
Beale combined his duties with running an outfitting business in Pieter­
maritzburg, advertising himself in the Natal Almanac for five successive
6 Editorial
years as of 'Weymouth House', Timber Street, Pietermaritzburg, tailor,
clothier, and outfitter, offering a 'Choice Selection of Ready Made Clothing
and every Other article requisite for a Gentleman's Outfit.'
In 1865 he started as librarian and in 1878 abandoned the tailoring business
to work full-time at the library, small though his salary must have been.
After his appointment his first action was to close the library so that he could
catalogue the books and bring them into a semblance of order. His cata­
logue, greatly enlarged of course, remained in use until 1906 when his
successor John Ross reclassified all the books according to the Dewey
decimal system and made new catalogue cards.
Beale, as mentioned by Professor Hattersley, had a wooden leg as a result
of an accident previous to arriving in Natal. Despite this handicap he was
active and thought nothing of walking out to Town Bush Valley to spend the
evening with friends. Also interested in swimming, he was treasurer of the
local swimming club from 1875 to 1886. Horticulture was his hobby and
here again he acted as secretary of the Horticultural Society from 1875 to
1905 and as secretary-treasurer of the Agricultural Society from 1888 to
1892.
In 1872 he married a Scots girl from Musselburgh and of their children
four reached adulthood. Some descendants remain in Pietermaritzburg.
On his retirement the Natal Society council toasted him in champagne
and presented him with a cheque for £70. Thereafter he worked as an
accountant for some years. At the time of his death in Pietermaritzburg
in May 1918 he was over 77 years of age.

* * *
Round him there has gathered a number of humorous anecdotes passed
on by the late Mrs. Fincken, a Pope-Ellis by birth, who was related to
Dr P. C. Sutherland, second surveyor-general of Natal. Sutherland, a mem­
ber of the Natal Society council, had a quaint Victorian sense of humour
and loved teasing people.
On one occasion he was standing in the library room discussing some
matter with Bea1e. In a fit of absent-mindedness Beale scratched his wooden
leg.
'What's the matter, Beale?' enquired the doctor. 'White ants?'
Another anecdote describes how the museum department of the Natal
Society was anxious to get a specimen of a python. Eventually in 1888 John
Pope-Ellis shot a large one with a shotgun, put it into a bag with a silk
handkerchief tied round its neck, and brought it into the committee-room
for examination. When it was pulled out by the handkerchief and displayed.
it turned out to be only stunned and began writhing over the floor. As one
man, the board members jumped on to the solid table, all except Beale, who
remained standing impregnable on his wooden leg.
The last story concerns Sutherland again. On a visit to the library he
asked Beale for a book whose title, shall we say, was Locke on Gold.
Beale replied, 'No, I haven't got Locke on Gold but what I have got is
Browne on Knowledge, and knowledge is better than gold.'
Such were the stories that delighted our Victorian great-grandparents in
the Natal of a century ago.
Editorial 7

Beale's memory lingered in the old library building in Theatre Lane until
the 1975 move to the modern block in Churchill Square. Apparently on
certain occasions a tapping noise, perhaps caused by water hammering in the
pipes, made itself heard in the century-old building. Some imaginative
teenage girl on the staff of the library connected this noise ",ith the story
of Beale's wooden leg and so created the legend that it was Beale's ghost
stumping around the rooms where he had spent half a lifetime.
If it is Beale's ghost, no nervous girl need have any fear - it will be a
talkative, genial spirit.

Professor G. S. Nienaber
Many of his friends, former students, and colleagues in Pietermaritzburg
gathered at functions last year to bid farewell to Professor 'Gawie' Nienaber
on his departure to take up a post in Pretoria with the Human Sciences
Research Council. So an association of almost 50 years with the University
of Natal comes to an end. He took up his new appointment, which is for
three years on an annual basis, in April this year. His work is connected
with the Placenames Centre of the Human Sciences Research Council and
involves the professor in the compilation of about 2 000 to 3 000 Khoe-Khoen
placenames derived from Hottentot sources. Already 3 000 names have been
collected, annotated, and prepared for the press. These words will appear
at the end of 1976 in two volumes comprising over 1 000 pages. Naturally
the Human Sciences Research Council is anxious to obtain the remainder.
The collection of material has meant for the professor years of work and
extensive travel to obtain accurate information from Namas and Europeans
on the spot. He calculates that he has motored thousands of kilometres
through Namaqualand and South and South West Africa. His interest in
the subject was first aroused by his earlier study of the Afrikaans language
up to 1800. There he found that many Hottentot words had influenced both
Afrikaans and English.
Words like quagga, buchu, dagga, gogga, canna (root), kaross, kierie, and
oribi which are found in both Afrikaans and English are derived from the
Hottentot language, and there are hundreds more. It is interesting to know
that the first list of Hottentot words, 31 in all, was made in 1620 by the
Englishman Thomas Herbert. In 1655 Etienne de Flacourt, French governor
of Madagascar, visited Saldanha Bay, where he collected about 400 words,
and so the search continued.
Professor Nienaber is the latter day successor to these early etymologists
and is one of the most distinguished of that small group of South African
scholars who have made this branch of philology their life work. In addition,
he will long be affectionately remembered as one of the great teachers of the
University of Natal.

A Natal historian from overseas

Earlier this year some of the history-minded people in Natal had the
pleasure of meeting Dr Shula Marks. She was on a visit to Pietermaritzburg
to carry out research in the Natal Archives. Dr Marks is a member of the
history department of the School of Oriental and African studies at the
8 Editorial
University of London. She is also the author of Reluctant Rebellion: the 1906­
1908 Disturbances in Natal, one of the volumes in the series Oxford Studies in
African Affairs, published by the Clarendon Press in 1970. This well­
researched book made something of a stir by its revelation of the ugly face
of Natal colonialism and its unflattering assessment of political figures of
the time. Dr Marks is at present writing another book, on twentieth century
Natal.

Another visiting historian

During April of this year Donald R. Morris, a reserve officer of the
us. Navy, visited Durban to see some friends. At the same time he visited
a large bookshop and was photographed holding a copy of his best-selling
book. It was, of course, The Washing of the Spears, regarded by many as
the definitive account of the 1879 Zulu War and a work which occupied its
author for eight years. During this time he carried out his main research
in Britain ("since 90 per cent of South Africa's story is in that country")
and spent a total of only six weeks in Natal and Zululand, where people
like Ian Player and the late Killie Campbell gave him considerable help.
He made two extensive tours through Zululand. His book appeared in
Britain in 1960 and received acclaim for its scholarship, encyclopaedic
information, range, and narrative style. Indeed, South Africans will always
remain puzzled that an American could write so well-documented a book
about the Zulus and the 1879 war. But it must be remembered that it was
almost exclusively to Britain that the early settlers and soldiers sent back
the best descriptions of the colony in their personal correspondence, and
Mr Morris (then stationed on the Continent) was able to spend more time
in Britain than in Africa. We publish elsewhere a newspaper picture of
Mr Morris taken during his brief visit.
Professor G. Nienaber
Professor C. de B. Webb

Dr. S. Marks
Donald R.
(Photo: The Daily News)
 The late Miss U. E. M. Judd
Chief Librarian of the Natal Society 1950-74
(Photo: The Daily News)
 9

Ursula Evelyn Mabel Judd (1917-1976)

- a Tribute

On the 4th January 1976 Ursula E. M. Judd, Chief Librarian and Secretary
of the Natal Society Library, passed away. She had been appointed to the
post in September 1950 and held it for 24 years with outstanding success.
From 1974 until her death she was employed by Messrs. Shuter and Shooter,
publishers and booksellers.
During her 24 years' service she saw the Natal Society Library grow from
a subscription library serving only a minority of the White population of
Pietermaritzburg to a dynamic free lending library serving all race groups.
Soon after her arrival Miss Judd set about the considerable task of re­
organising the book stock, setting about this with the energy which was to
mark her service throughout. The task involved the complete re-cataloguing,
reclassifying, and overhauling, of some 60 000 lending library books in order
to maintain a live collection. She approved of the construction of the actual
premises (built 1930) which were 'neither unsuitable nor unpleasing' and noted
the soundness of the basic book stock but felt that a modernisation of the
entire library was necessary, despite the shortage of funds. 1

COPYRIGHT
One of her most important contributions to the Natal Society, was the creation
of the Reference and Copyright Department. The Copyright Act of 1916 gave
the Natal Society 'legal deposit' privileges but before Miss Judd's arrival
little attempt was made to collect or preserve this material, as much of it
was discarded through lack of space.
In 1953 the Members' Room was converted into the new Reference depart­
ment and a librarian and staff were appointed. This development was an
important landmark in the history of the Natal Society. It was now not only
possible to offer proper reference library facilities, but to organize and
preserve the copyright material and many valuable works in stock, and
also to pursue relentlessly all copyright publications prior to 1951, in an
endeavour to replace discarded material. An efficient classified catalogue,
now one of the best in the country, was begun at this stage.
Through Miss Judd's awareness of the Pietermaritzburg public's needs, and
the co-operation of a sympathetic library Council, other developments were
soon under way. In March 1958 the Market Square Branch opened its doors
to Non-white users, with a book stock of 6000 volumes. This was the first
free library service.
In 1954, on the occasion of the official opening of the new entrance in
Longmarket Street, Miss Judd's hard work was commended by an appre­
ciative Library Council. The then President, the late J. W. Hudson, wrote in
a letter dated 27.11.54:
10 Obituary
I would like you to know how much I congratulate you personally on
the culmination of your fine efforts for the library. It was a fortunate
day for the Council when it engaged you as Librarian. I hope you will
feel that the work has been worth while and that you will want to
stay with the Society for many more years. 'By their deeds shall we
know them.' These improvements at the Library might well be known
as the 'Judd developments'.

A FREE LIBRARY
These words were indeed prophetic. Miss Judd's untiring efforts, together
with the support of a sympathetic Library Council, came to fruition on the
occasion of the opening of the new library building on 17th June 1975. In
1967 the library had become free to all residents or workers in the city. This
new library building now opened its doors to all races, offering a free service
comparable to any in South Africa.
In June 1974, however, Miss Judd resigned. Sadly she was never to see
over the new completed library building on Churchill Square but it may well
stand as a memorial, incorporating as it does so many features specifically
planned by her. In recognition of her service to the Natal Society the third
floor of the new building was named the Judd Floor.
Miss Judd's early career was interesting. She obtained the University of
London School of Librarianship Diploma in 1941, and in 1942, became a
Fellow of the Library Association of England. Her first posts were in public
libraries, as library assistant. After qualifying, she worked for the Westminster
Public Libraries in London. Her ability was such that she was put in charge
of the Buckingham Palace Road Library immediately after the premises
had suffered serious air raid damage. The Chief Librarian of this complex
of libraries was the well-known librarian and author of standard works on
librarianship, Lione1 R. McColvin. In a letter dated 30.8.45, he had this
to say:
... she possesses great adaptability, initiative and a fine sense of
responsibility.

FINLAND, JAMAICA, NIGERIA

In 1948 she joined the British Council on the condition that she serve any­
where in the world as directed by their head office. Her first post was
Helsinki. Finland; three months later she was appointed to the post of
Assistant Director of the newly formed Jamaica Library Service, a scheme
to provide library facilities for the whole island and a post which involved
new and interesting pioneer work. Her duties included numerous talks and
broadcasts of a literary nature. In 1949 she accepted a post as head of the
British Council Books Department and Chief Librarian of the Lagos Public
Library in Algeria. The following year, equipped with considerable organisa­
tional ability and experience, she took up the post at the Natal Society Library
to which she was to devote the rest of her professional career.

1. JUDD, U. The Reorganization of the Natal Society Library, 1950-1954. In: South
African Libraries, Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 63.
Obituary 11
Her competence and integrity won her a respected place in the library
world. She was an active member of the South African Library Association.
From 1952-1955 she was chairman of SALA, Natal Branch, and served on
the council of the Library Association for a number of years. She was
nominated vice-president of SALA three times. In 1974 she accepted an
invitation to serve on the Censorship board, and with the true librarian's
insistence on objectivity of judgement, she filled the post admirably. From
1971 she served on the editorial board of Natalia, and as hon. secretary until
she resigned her post as Chief Librarian. She worked tirelessly to help ensure
the success of each edition.
Miss Judd's interests were varied and she was active in many circles.
She was a member of the now defunct Liberal Party and a Foundation
member of the Black Sash and in 1975 was made an honorary member. She
served on St Saviour's Cathedral Parish from 1971-1974. In 1975 she served
on the book review panel of the Natal Witness. Her hobbies included golf
and philately and her interest in history was reflected in her considerable
private collection of books and documents. She was considering writing a
work on notable Natalians.

HER LOYAL STAFF

Miss Judd's qualities evoked an unusual degree of loyalty in her staff,
particularly those who had been with her for many years. She will be
remembered with affection by many of her colleagues. At the time of her
death, one former staff member now working in Johannesburg wrote:
... for myself, she taught me an attitude to work that will never change,
an integrity and responsibility that I am glad she was there to teach.
In her conclusion to an introductory talk at a symposium held by the
Natal branch of the South African Library Association in 1954, she made
some remarks which have a strangely prophetic ring:
Some of us have more to give than others both in our jobs and as
members of the branch. One can only work to the best of one's
capacity, and this may not be very large. One may seldom be singled
out and congratulated; but if one's purpose is sufficiently sustained,
one does not need a lot of praise. For my part, I would be happy to
have said of me, like the woman in St Mark's gospel, 'She hath done
what she could:

JENNIFER WHITELAW
JUNE FARRER
12

Colenso's Greatest Sermon

Ninety-seven years ago on a Wednesday morning of March crowds of men

and women dressed in mourning black filed along the streets of Pieter­
maritzburg towards the cathedral church of St Peter's. Not only in the capital
but throughout Natal, all shops and places of business were closed as a
result of a proclamation by the Governor, Sir Henry Bulwer, that this
particular weekday should be observed as a 'Day of Humiliation and Prayer,
in consequence of the great Disaster at Isandhlwana, on January 22nd, 1879'.
In scores of churches the preachers delivered solemn addresses in which
they referred to the tragic deaths in battle of young Natalians and Imperial
troops. Of the 150 European volunteers who died at Isandhlwana eighty of
the dead were Natalians and thirty of them - officers and men of the Natal
Carbineers, Newcastle Mounted Rifles, and other colonial units - were
members of the best families in the colony.
So many a heart turned over and many an eye filled with sudden tears
as parents, wives, and sweethearts sitting in the pews thought of the unburied
dead still scattered round that Zululand hill. It was an emotional day through­
out the colony, a day on which the majority of the officiating clergymen did
not attempt anything more than a pious memorial service for the young men
lost.
One clergyman, however, was to be different - the Right Reverend J. W.
Colenso, D.D., Bishop of Natal - and it was to hear the service in his own
church that the worshippers were making their way along the Pictermaritzburg
streets.
The sermon which he delivered - printed by P. Davis & Son, Longmarket
Street, that same year - was long remembered by the congregation. The copy
which I have, yellow with age and stained in places, runs to 15 pages, in all
about 5 000 words. It is a brilliant example of Colenso's pulpit style - logical
and well-arranged, with an infrastructure of aggressive argument and illustra­
tion that still gives it the power not simply to hold attention but almost to
compel it.
Although only seven weeks had elapsed since the battle Colenso spoke
hardly one word of comfort to those bereaved and for some of his listeners
the pangs of sorrow must quickly have been replaced by feelings of indigna­
tion. As for the 'my-country-right-or-wrong' types seated in front of him, he
had nothing but harsh words: 'vainglorious ... reckless ... ready to triumph
boastfully .. .' To speak in this style to a congregation bereaved, saddened,
and apprehensive of worse disasters to come was a very chancy thing. Donald
Morris, author of The Washing of the Spears, considers that Colenso's sermon
on this occasion was 'perhaps the bravest act of a courageous lifetime .. .'
He entitled the sermon 'What doth the Lord require of us?' His text came
from Micah vi., 8: 'He hatlz shewed thee, 0 man, what is good! And what
doth the Lord require of thee, but to walk humbly with thy God?' In a short
introduction he said that he responded most heartily to the call of the
Colenso's Greatest Sermon 13
Governor who, he doubted not, himself felt deeply a sense of those sins
which as a people all had committed.
The people of Natal had been rash and hasty in giving public approval
- or at all events silent consent and encouragement - to many things which
they had half-suspected or even felt in their heart of hearts to be wrong.
These things were at variance with the eternal laws of truth and righteous­
ness, with their Christian profession, and with their character and reputation
as Englishmen:
It is of no use merely to lift up our hands - to make vague professions
of penitence, if we do not amend our doings - to keep a day of
humiliation and prayer, if it leaves us as thoughtless and headstrong,
as regardless of the good, the true, and the just, as vain-glorious and
self-confident, as reckless of blood-shedding and deeds of violence
done in our name, as ready to triumph boastfully in acts of slaughter
and plundering, ravaging and burning as before ...
Then in words which must have rung defiantly through the little church,
Colenso said:
I am called this day as a minister of religion to take my part with
you in this solemn service. And I will not prostitute my sacred office
by speaking peace to you when there is no peace ...
He then moved directly into the political field. No colonist had any doubt
that what led to the Zulu war and thus to the late great disaster had been
the annexation of the Transvaal by which, as the Boers complained, the
British had come by stealth, deprived them of their rights, and taken pos­
session of their land. The apparent agreement to this act had not come from
the great body of old Dutch residents but chiefly from newly-arrived
Englishmen.
By this act of annexation, said Colenso, Britain inherited the quarrel
between the Zulus and the Boers over the Disputed Territory, i.e. the land
south of the Pongola, which the Boers claimed and which they encroached
upon, despite increasing protests from the Zulus, who had asked for a strip
of neutral country to be set between them and the Boers. Britain, as the
dominant power, neglected a settlement of this question for fifteen years,
during which time the Boers built farmhouses and little townships, eventually
annexing the disputed land.
Then in 1877 Sir Henry Bulwer, the then Governor, appointed a
Boundary Commission which reported in favour of the Zulus' claim. But
here again the British did 'unjustly'. In a special clause they reserved all
private rights given under the Boer government, including land-grants. The
result was that the Zulu king had no real possession over the land for occupa­
tion, grazing, or settlement.
From these acts of injustice, claimed Colenso, this war had come. Then,
referring again to his text, he asked the silent congregation: 'Wherein, in our
invasion of Zululand, have we shown that we are men who love mercy?'
Already 5 000 human beings had been killed and 10 000 cattle plundered:
It is true that, in that dreadful disaster, on account of which we are
this day humbling ourselves before God, we ourselves have lost very
14 Colenso's Greatest Sermon
many precious lives, and widows and orphans, parents, brothers,
sisters, friends, are mourning bitterly their sad bereavements ...
Next, bending that accusatory eye of his on the listeners he asked:
But are there no griefs - no relatives that mourn their dead - in
Zululand? Have we not heard how the wail has gone up in all parts
of the country for those who have bravely died - no gallant soldier,
no generous colonist, will deny this - have bravely and nobly died in
repelling the invader and fighting for their King and fatherland?
As for the spirit of revenge:
Shall we kill 10 000 more to avenge the losses of that dreadful day?
Will that restore to us those we have lost? Will that endear their
memories more to us?
He had a word of castigation for the home government:
Alas! that [a] great English statesman could find no nobler word, at
such a time as this, than to speak of 'wiping out the stain', if he really
meant that the stain on our name was to be 'wiped out' with the
blood of a brave and loyal people, who had done us no harm, nor
threatened to do us harm, before we invaded their land ...
He concluded his sermon with the prophecy:
If we will go on killing and plundering those who have never seriously
harmed us, or threatened to harm us, until we made war upon them
- treating his [Cetewayo's] message of peace with contempt and
neglect, even with ridicule, ascribing it falsely to the promptings of
men in our midst, judging unfairly and misrepresenting the Zulu king,
both in the Colony and in words sent to England - if we will do
these things - then indeed there will be reason to fear that some
further great calamity may yet fall on us, and perhaps overwhelm us
- by the assegai, famine, or pestilence - in what way we cannot tell,
but so that we shall know the hand that smites us ...
So ended that memorable address, long to be remembered by those
fortunate enough to hear it. Many of his listeners were indignant, some were
saddened, a number accepted the castigation, and a few were admiringly
antagonistic, but whatever the reaction to his words, such was the overall
effect exercised by Colenso's strong and sincere personality that he was heard
through to the end in silence.

JOHN CLARK
 15

-bat botb tbe Jrorb require of us?

ASERMON,

PREACHED IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. PETER'S,

MARITZBURG,

ON

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1879

(The day appointed by authority to be kept as a Day of Humiliation and

Prayer, in consequence of the great Disaster at Isandhlwana,

on January 22nd, 1879,)

BY THE

RIGHT REV. J. W. COLENSO, D.D.,

BISHOP OF NATAL

P. DAVIS & SONS, LoNGMARKET STREET, PmTERMARITZBURG.

1879.
16

Wbat botb tbe lLorb require of us?

He hath she wed thee, 0 man, what is good! And what doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?­
Micah vi., 8.

This day has been appointed by him who rules in the Queen's name over us
'to be a day set apart for the purposes of prayer and humiliation'; and, as a
'minister of religion,' I have been specially 'invited' by him, with 'others, Her
Majesty's loving subjects,' to 'join in observing the same accordingly.'
Most heartily do I respond to the call of our Governor, who has spoken,
I am sure, out of the fullness of his own heart. He has done, we believe, his
utmost, as a Christian man, a lover of peace, a lover of justice, to prevent by
wise and friendly measures this dreadful war. And we know also that his
hopes have been disappointed, and all his efforts to settle the matters in dispute
amicably and righteously, keeping good faith, the faith of Englishmen, even
with a savage King and People, have been made in vain. And, I doubt not,
he feels deeply himself what he calls upon us to express before God, a sense
of those sins which, as a people, we have committed, and to the consciousness of
which our late disaster has roused us-a sense of 'our manifold transgressions,'
not in our private, but in our public, capacity. Truly, the 'great calamity
which has befallen us as a Colony' has brought home these sins to us sharply,
having filled many homes, both here and in England, with mourning and
woe, and spread over us all a gloomy cloud of dread and anxiety, which,
though for the moment lightened by the recent news from England, has by
no means as yet been cleared away.
It is true that our personal sins are doubtless the source of our public
transgressions-that, if we had been more faithful and good, just and upright,
God-fearing and God-remembering, more considerate for our brother's
welfare as well as our own, in our private intercourse with one another, we
should not have been so rash and hasty in giving our public approval from
time to time-or, at all events, our silent assent and encouragement-to many
things which we have half suspected, or even felt in our heart of hearts, to
be wrong, to be at variance with the eternal laws of truth and righteousness,
with our Christian profession, and with our character and reputation as
Englishmen. But we are summoned here to-day by the voice of our Governor
to humble ourselves before the Most High God, and confess, not our private
sins, but our national and public faults and transgressions, the sins which
we, as a People, and our rulers have committed, and on account of which,
he implies, as do those who asked him to appoint this day, we have been
so sorely smitten. It is as if he said to us 'Let us search and try our ways,
Bishop Colenso
What doth the Lord require of us? 17

and turn again to the Lord, let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God
in the heavens.'
Yes, indeed! 'let us lift up our heart!' It is of no use merely to lift up our
hands-to make vague professions of penitence, if we do not amend our
doings-to keep a day of humiliation and prayer, if it leaves us as thought­
less and headstrong, as regardless of the good, the true, and the just, as vain­
glorious and self-confident, as reckless of blood-shedding and deeds of violence
done in our name, as ready to triumph boastfully in acts of slaughter and
plundering, ravaging and burning, as before. I am called this day, as a
'minister of religion,' to take my part with you in this solemn service. And
I will not prostitute my sacred office by speaking peace to you when there
is no peace-by hiding the sins which we are bound to confess, and telling
you of faults which are not the real burden that weighs us down. Rather,
I will not dare to provoke the Most High God with such cowardly delinquency
in duty. such base hypocrisy, in pretending to lead your prayers and your
confessions, while yet, like Ananias, I keep back the substance of those con­
fessions, 'lieing not unto men, but unto God.' Let us beware lest we 'agree
together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord.'
This day is indeed a day of great meaning, and, it may be, of grave results
for us all. It will be a day of blessing for us if we use it rightly-'we, our
kings, and princes, and priests, and prophets,' in other words, our rulers and
governors, as well as ourselves-if we lay to heart the chastisement we have
received and profess to feel, and set ourselves seriously to consider in the
light of God, with the candle of the Lord, what faults we have committed
in the past, and how we must act in the future, so as best to please Him who
has called us to His Kingdom and Glory, and to the knowledge and the faith
of Christians.
But, if we have no such thoughts as these-we, our kings and princes and
priests and prophets-if we come here merely to ask that 'God in His mercy
may prevent any further serious disasters from coming upon us, and for
success to our arms against the common enemy,' when we have not honestly
confessed our sins nor resolved to amend our ways-then God be merciful
to us sinners!-for verily our worship this day will have been in His sight
a profane and impious mockery. Let us beware lest He say to us, as He did
to His people of old by the mouth of Isaiah, 'Bring no more vain oblations!
It is a grief to me, even the solemn meeting! When ye spread forth your hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not
hear.' Let us beware lest of us it should be said 'It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the Living God.' For I tell you, brethren, that there is a
Living God, 'a God of truth and without iniquity, Just and Right is He!'
And, as we do believe in this Almighty Being, who searches the hearts and
watches all the doings of the sons of men, let us remember that by this act
of ours to-day we challenge Him to take account of us, we virtually swear
'So help us God, as we are sincere this day!'-and, if we are not sincere, we
virtually pray that God's heavy judgment may fall upon us, that 'in His
mercy' He may suffer to come upon. us, in some way or other, yet more
serious calamities, and bring us to our senses by chastisement.
'Let us search, then, and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.' 'And
what doth the Lord require of us, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with our God?'
 18 What doth the Lord require of us?
I.

Have we then been 'doing justly' in the past? What colonist doubts that
what has led directly to this Zulu war, and thus to the late great disastcr,
has been the annexation of the Transvaal. by which, as the Boers complain,
we came by stealth, 'as a thicf in the night,' and deprived them of their rights,
and took possession of their land. We all know that, while the Secretary of
State on April 23, 1877, was saying in his place in the House of Lords that
'as to the supposed threat of annexing the Transvaal, the language of the
Special Commissioner had been greatly exaggerated,' it had already been
annexed on April 12th, under authority issued months before by himself.
No doubt, he had been beguiled by the semblance of great unanimity, of the
general desire for annexation, among the Transvaal people; whereas the
expression of such a desire, we know, came chiefly from Englishmen, most
of them recent arrivals in the land, and not from the great body of old Dutch
residents. He had also been, of course, very deeply impressed by the reports
which had reached him about the state of the country. the weakness of the
government, its empty exchequer, its failure in warlike measures against the
natives, and the cruel outrages committed by individual Boers in some of
those conflicts. But those outrages were reprobated by their own fellow­
countrymen. And the friendly services, advice, and aid, which were at first
supposed, and were, in fact, professed to be offered, might have done much
to straighten what was crooked, and strengthen what was weak, in the
machinery of government, and rectify the other evils complained of. And
thus would have been laid at the same time the foundation of a deep and
lasting friendship between the two white peoples, which before long would
have resulted-if not in a willing Union, yet, at all events-in a happy
Confederation under the British flag, an event to be desired by all when the
time is ripe for it. But no! we could not wait; Confederation was desired at
once; it was the idol of the hour. It would have been too long to look for it
to be brought about, in the ordinary course of things, by those gradual, though
sure, processes of change which nature loves. And so the deed was done,
and we sent some of our officials to help in the work, and twenty-five of our
Mounted Police, a small body indeed in appearance, but quite enough of
armed force for the purpose in view, with a body of soldiers stationed within
call on our northern frontier, and with the armies of England at their back;
for we know full well, and the Boers knew, that, if one single shot had been
fired in anger at that escort, the violent subjugation, and perhaps desolation,
of their land would have surely and speedily followed.
So we annexed the Transvaal, and that act brought with it as its Nemesis
the Zulu difficulty, with respect to the territory disputed with the Boers. Have
we 'done justly' here? I assume what is stated in the published Award that
the three English Commissioners have reported their opinion that the land
in question south of the Pongolo~almost identically what was claimed by
the Zulus'--belongs of strict right to them, and not to the Boers. I assume
that our Commissioners conscientiously discharged their duty in the matter,
heard and considered carefully all the evidence produced on both sides, and
produced in the presence of the representatives of both, an essential requisite
in such an enquiry, and came to the deliberate conclusion that the Transvaal
claim had not been sustained, and that the Zulu claim was justified. But how
What doth the Lord require of us? 19

have we been acting all along in respect of this matter? From the year 1861,
in which the Boer claim was first made, and in which also the Zulus first
complained to this Government of Boer encroachments, sixteen years were
allowed to pass before we took any effectual steps to settle the dispute~we,
the Dominant Power in South Africa. During all that time, with one exception,
we quietly looked on, allowing these alleged encroachments upon the land
of those, who were looking up to us for justice, to grow and be established,
as if they were acknowledged rights. while the Zulu King and People were
sending to our Government continually their complaints and protests, as shown
by offlcial documents. From year to year we allowed this question to smoulder
on, the feelings of both peoples getting hotter and hotter, but we did not 'do
justly,' as from our commanding position we were bound to have done~we
did not interfere in the interests of peace, and insist on settling equitably this
difference between our white and black neighbours. And in 1876, the 15th
year, our Secretary for Native Affairs reported as follows:-'This Govern­
ment has for years past invariably and incessantly urged upon Cetshwayo
the necessity for preserving the peace. and so far with great success. But
messages from the Zulu King are becoming more frequent and more urgent,
and the replies he receives seem to him to be both temporising and evasive.'
In those fifteen years eighteen messages were sent by the Zulu King on
this subject, the fourth of which, on July 5, 1869, nearly ten years ago,
contained these words:­
'The Heads of the Zulu People have met in Council with their Chiefs, and
unanimously resolved to appeal to the kind offices of the Government of
Natal, to assist them to avert a state of things which otherwise appears
inevitable.
'They beg the friendly intervention and arbitration of this Government
between them and the Boer Government.
'They beg that the Lieutenant-Governor will send a Commission to confer
with both sides, and decide. with the concurrence of the Zulus, what their
future boundary shall be, and that this decision shall be definite and final
as regards them.
'They beg that the Governor will take a strip of country, the length and
breadth of which to be agreed upon between the Zulus and the Commissioners
sent from Natal, so as to interfere in all its length between the Boers and
the Zulus, and to be governed by the Colony of Natal, and form a portion of
it, if thought desirable.
'The Zulu People earnestly pray that this arrangement may be carried out
immediately; because they have been neighbours of Natal for so many years,
separated only by a stream of water, and no question of boundary or other
serious difficulty has arisen between them and the Government of Natal; they
know that, where the boundary is fixed by agreement with the English, there
it will remain.
'Panda, Cetshwayo, and all the Heads of the Zulu People assembled,
directed us to urge in the most earnest manner upon the Lieutenant-Governor
of Natal the prayer we have stated.'
Our then Lieutenant-Governor, the late Mr. Keate-all honour be to his
memory!-on the receipt of this request, promised to take steps in the matter,
and did so. For two years and a half a correspondence was carried on with
the Boer Government on the subject; arbitration was agreed to, Lieutenant­
20 What doth the Lord require of us?

Governor Keate himself to be the arbitrator; the requisite papers were

promised to be sent, the time for the arbitration was settled. But all came
to nothing; the promised papers were never sent; the arbitration never took
place; Lieutenant-Governor Keate's term of office came to an end in 1872;
and on May 25, 1875, the Acting President issued a Proclamation annexing
the land in dispute to the Transvaal!
And thus this matter, which might have been settled easily in 1861, was
allowed to grow into very serious importance. Farm-houses were built and
small townships founded within the Disputed Territory; and we-the
Dominant Power-did nothing to check these proceedings, which were certain
to embarrass greatly any future attempt to settle the dispute. At last, our
present Governor, with a true Englishman's sense of right and justice, took
the matter in hand. and at the end of 1877 proposed, and in due time
appointed, the Boundary Commission, which reported in favour of the Zulus.
Did we even then 'do justly?' I must speak the truth this day before God,
and honestly say that in my judgment we did not. Some time before the
Commissioner's Report was made, the High Commissioner had said that we
must be 'ready to defend ourselves against further aggression,' that 'the delay
caused' by the Commission 'would have compensating advantages: that 'it
appeared almost certain that serious complications must shortly arise with
the Zulus, which will necessitate active operations'-when all the while the
Zulus were only claiming, south of the Pongolo, land which has now been
declared to be 'of strict right' their own, and, north of it, land east of the
Drakensberg, which may as justly be their own, but respecting which no
inquiry has yet been made. And we know that, before the Award was given,
large bodies of troops had been collected on the frontier, our volunteers
called out, our native levies raised; and that Award, which might have been
the herald of peace, was converted, by the demands coupled with it, into a
declaration of war. Nay, the Award itself was, in my judgment, stripped of
almost all its value for the Zulus by a clause of the Memorandum, reserving
under British guarantee all private rights acquired under the Boer Govern­
ment, which had granted out in farms, it is said, the whole land in question,
though it had no right to grant any of it. The Zulu King would have had no
control over it; he would not have been able to send any of his people to
live on it, or any of his cattle to graze on it, or even to assign places in it
to any Zulus who might have elected to move from the Transvaal to the
Zulu side of the boundary.

11.
'What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy?'
Have we shown ourselves in the character of men who 'love mercy'? Truly
it would have been a noble work to have used the power and influence of
England for improving the social and moral condition of the Zulu people.
Having first 'done justly' in respect of the Award, we should have had a
vantage-ground from which much migQt have been done by peaceful means
in this direction. A Resident might have been placed in Zululand, with the
hearty consent of the King and People, who had asked more than once for
such an officer to be appointed on the border. to keep the peace between
them and the Boers. His presence would have had great effect in forwarding
 What doth the Lord require of us? 21

such changes in the Zulu system of government as we all desire, being known
to be backed by the whole power of England, then mysterious, untried, and
therefore more to be respected; and his influence would have had the
additional weight of that traditionary reverence for the English nation, which
has been handed down among the Zulus from Chaka's time. Such changes
usually, as the High Commissioner has said, 'like all great revolutions, require
time and patience.' But even if, instead of waiting for the gradual improve­
ment of the people, as wise men would do, we determined to enforce them
at once, there was a way of doing this which at one time indeed was talked
of, as if it had been really contemplated, viz., by advancing into the country
slowly and gradually, entrenching at short stages, neither killing people nor
plundering cattle, but repeating our demand from time to time, showing thus
that we had only the welfare of the Zulus ut heart, that we were Christian
men, who loved justice and mercy, and only wished to bring about reforms
which we knew to be good. Of course, if we took such a work in hand at
all, we were bound not to heed any additional expenses such delay would
entail, which, in point of fact, would have been as nothing to that which
must now be incurred. The success, however, of such an experiment would,
obviously, have greatly depended on our receiving daily the surrender of
Chiefs and people in large numbers, wishing to shake off the yoke of the
Zulu King and coming to seek our protection. And of such surrenders, so
confidently expected at one time, we have seen as yet no sign whatever.
J repeat the question, Wherein, in our invasion of Zululand, have we shown
that we are men who 'love mercy'? Did we not lay upon the people heavily,
from the very moment we crossed their border, the terrible scourge of war?
Have we not killed already, it is said, 5000 human beings, and plundered
10000 head of cattle? It is true that, in that dreadful disaster, on account
of which we are this day humbling ourselves before God, we ourselves have
lost very many precious lives. and widows and orphans, parents, brothers,
sisters, friends, are mourning bitterly their sad bereavements. But are there
no griefs-no relatives that mourn their dead-in Zululand? Have we not
heard how the wail has gone up in all parts of the country for those who
have bravely died--no gallant soldier, no generous colonist, will deny this­
have bravely and nobly died in repelling the invader and fighting for their
King and fatherland? And shall we kill 10 000 more to avenge the losses of
that dreadful day? Will that restore to us those we have lost? Will that endear
their memories more to us? Will that please the spirits of any true men, true
sons of God, among the dead? Above all, will that please God, who 'requires
of us' that we 'do justly' and 'love mercy'? Will such vengeance be anything
else but loathsome and abominable in His sight, a pandering to one of the
basest passions of our nature, bringing us Chdstians below the level of the
heathen with whom we fight? Alas! that great English statesman could find
no nobler word. at such a time as this, than to speak of 'wiping out the
stain,' if he really meant that the stain on our name was to be 'wiped out'
with the blood of a brave and loyal people, who had done us no harm, nor
threatened to do us harm, before we invaded their land,-if he did not rather
mean that our faults in the past should now, when our hands are made
strong again, be redeemed with acts of true greatness, acts worthy of English­
men, acts of Divine power, the just and merciful actions of Christian men.
22 What doth the Lord require of us?
Ill.

'What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?'
Ah! 'to walk humbly with our God!' Our mother-country has wakened up
at the cry of distress and terror which has reached her from Natal, when
friends in England, and many here, were thinking but of a pleasant march,
a military promenade, into Zululand. They are sending us vast reinforcements
with all speed. To human eyes our power will be overwhelming, our victory
triumphant and sure. But do we really believe in the Living God, who requires
of us, if we would receive His blessing, 'to do justly, and to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with Him'? And have we left him out of our calculations,
the Lord of the spirits of all flesh, to whom the Zulus belong, as well as the
English? Let those, who will, bow down and worship their dumb idols, brute
force, and proud prestige, and crafty po[,icy. But we believe, I trust, in the
Living God, and, if so, then we are sure that, not His blessing, but His judg­
ment, will rest on us, if we arc not just and merciful now, whatever we may have
been in the past-now. when we have come into His Courts with a profession
of sorrow for the wrongs we have done, and with prayer 'that no further
disaster be allowed to befal us, and that peace may be speedily restored.'
The Zulu King, it is well known, has sued at our hands for peace. It may
be that he has done this, as some think, because his army has suffered much
-because his counsels are divided-because he fears that some of his great
chiefs will desert him-because he is laying some deep plot against us. But
it may be, as I trust and believe, that he is sincere in his expressions of
grief for the present war, and the slaughter at Isandhlwana. As far as I can
read the obscure and evidently confused and incorrect reports of his message,
which have appeared in the newspapers, he seems to say-'This war is all
a dreadful mistake-a horrible nightmare! Is it possible that I am fighting
with my English Father, with whom I have lived all along in unbroken
friendly intercourse? I have no wish whatever to do so. My young men did
wrong in crossing at Rorke's Drift; I ordered them not to cross, and, when
I struck, I struck only in self-defence; and as before, in my own and my
father's time, so ever since that bloody day, the Zulus have never invaded
Natal. As Englishmen, speak the word that no more blood be shed; let the
war be brought to an end; and give me only such terms as I and my people
can accept.'
I say that, with the very possibility of such feelings having impelled the
Zulu King to send this message-and it closely agrees in tone with the last
message which he sent before the Ultimatum was delivered-if we would
'walk humbly with God,' and put our trust in Him, and not in the god of
force-we are bound to meet the Zulu King on the way, when he comes with
a prayer for peace-to propose to him, from our higher and stronger position,
such terms as it shall be within his power to accept-to show him that we
Christians trust more in our strength Divine, as a just and merciful nation,
than in mere military power-and. having done this, to leave the rest with
God.
But if, after this solemn day, we will not do this-we, our kings and
princes and prophets and priests-will not do what the Lord requires of us,
will not 'do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with our God'-if we
What doth the Lord require of us? 23
will go on killing and plundering those who have never seriously harmed
us, or threatened to harm us, until we made war upon them-treating his
message of peace with contempt and neglect, even with ridicule, ascribing
it falsely to the promptings of men in our midst, judging unfairly and mis­
representing the Zulu King, both in the Colony and in words sent to England
-if we will do these things-then indeed there will be reason to fear that
some further great calamity may yet fall on us, and perhaps overwhelm us
-by the assegai, famine, or pestilence-in what way we cannot tell, but so
that we shall know the hand that smites us.
For 'Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might; but let him that glorieth glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord who exercise
loving-kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth; for in these
things I delight, saith the Lord.'

Printed by P. DAVIS & SONS, Longmarket Street, Maritzburg

24

Origins of the Natal Society

CHAPTER 6

THE PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE

MAY - JUNE, 1851

Two meetings of the provisional committee 1 of the Natal and East African
Society took place. Fears about the size of the meeting proved groundless;
seventeen of the forty-six nominated members attended the first meeting and
twelve attended the second. Members attending the first meeting, held on
26 May at the Court house, were Henry Cloete (in the chair), D. Moodie,
the Rev. James Archbell, the Rev. William Campbell, the Rev. R. Dickson,
G. Macleroy, A. T. Caldecott, T. Robertson, D. B. Scott, J. Moreland, R.
Moffat, J. P. Hoffman, one of the Zietsmans, Dr. Toohey, G. Robinson,
Dr. Johnston and Dr. Torry.
The meeting was informed that the Lieutenant-Governor had accepted the
office of patron of the Society; also that John Bird had accepted office on
the provisional committee but that C. Behrens, D. D. Buchanan and D.
Marquard had declined. G. Robinson was requested to act as secretary for
the provisional committee. The following constitution was drawn up:
1. The Society shall be called "The Natal Society" and its object shall be
the development of the physical, commercial, agricultural, and other
resources of Natal and Eastern Africa, including the general and natural
history of the Colony.
2. All persons subscribing lOs or upwards annually to the funds of the
Society shall be ordinary members thereof; but none shall be eligible
for the Council who does not subscribe at least one guinea per annum.
Donors of five guineas at one time, or of books or specimens of the
value of ten pounds and upwards, shall be life-members of the Society,
and shall be eligible for the Council.
3. The Society shall be under the management of a Council which shall
consist of a Patron, President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and
seven other members, all of whom, with the exception of the Patron,
shall be chosen annually by ballot.
4. Voting papers must be presented personally by the members, except in
the case of persons who reside at a distance of at least three hours' ride,
or twenty miles, from Pietermaritzburg, and such persons may send in
their voting papers by another member, provided the papers be authen­
ticated by the signature of the subscriber, and also specify in his own
handwriting the names of the persons voted for.
S. The Council shall meet at least once a month, and shall have power to
frame bye laws, having effect until the next Annual or Special Meeting,
which shall confirm or disallow them, in manner hereinafter provided.

1. Natal Society records, Vol. 1, pp. 9-16.

Natal Society History 25

6. In the event of parties elected to the Council declining to act, or in the

event of vacancies occurring by death, resignation or otherwise, during
the year, the persons next in number of votes on the ballot list for the
year, shall be deemed to be chosen on the Council, and summoned
accordingly.
7. His Honor the Lieut. Governor for the time being shall be requested
to be Patron of the Society.
8. The property of the Society shall be vested in three Trustees, to be
chosen by ballot at a General Meeting. They shall be removable only
by non-SUbscription, non-residence in the district, insolvency, or by a
vote of at least three-fourths of the subscribers present at a meeting
specially called for that purpose.
9. The Trustees shall not have the authority to purchase any landed or
other property (that power being solely vested in the Council for the
time being) but are required to form a perfect inventory of all the effects
of the Society and to present it at the annual general meeting of sub­
scribers or whenever called upon by the Council.
10. The annual meeting of the Society shall be held on the third Tuesday
of the month of June on each succeeding year, at which the accounts of
the Society duly audited shall be presented; the Council for the ensuing
year chosen, and the general business of the Society transacted. In the
absence of the President and Vice-President any general meeting may
choose a Chairman for the occasion.
11. Special meetings of the Society may be called at any time by the Council
or by any ten members on giving at least fourteen days' notice, in some
one of the public newspapers, stating the objects thereof; and no busi­
ness shall be transacted at such special meetings unless so notified.
12. The means employed in prosecuting the objects of the Society shall be
the collecting of authentic information, and the delivery of lectures or
papers, on the physical capabilities of the district of Natal, and the parts
bordering thereon, including their Geography, Zoology, Geology,
Mineralogy and Botany; the peculiarities of climate and soil, with special
reference to the purposes of Agriculture and Commerce; also the history,
national characteristics, and social condition of the native tribes; together
with opinions and suggestions as to the best practical methods of
developing the varied resources of this portion of the African Continent,
so as most effectually to promote the interests of Agriculture, Commerce
and Civilization.
13. The Council shall have the power to publish the whole or any part of
its proceedings as they shall deem fit. And the publication of all papers,
being part of the proceedings of the Society, shall be under the entire
direction and control of the Council.
14. A Library and Museum, illustrative of the objects of the Society, shall
be formed as soon as practicable.
15. No alterations or additions shall be made to the Laws, except at an
Annual or a Special General Meeting; notice of all such alterations or
additions shall be included in the circular or advertisement calling the
meeting; and the consent thereto of at least three-fourths of the sub­
scribers present shall be indispensable.
26 Natal Society History
This constitution caBs for one or two comments. It will be noticed that
already 'The Natal and East African Society' has been shortened to 'The
Natal Society'. The net, however, was not to be cast merely over Pieter­
maritzburg; arrangements were made (Rule 4) for the voting arrangements
of persons residing three hours' ride away. Above all (in view of the way
matters developed) it is interesting to note that the Library came at the end,
almost as an afterthought, and then it was to be 'illustrative of the objects of
the Society'.
The Committee met again next day at the Court house," Henry Cloete
taking the chair. The rules were carefully considered and amended, and it
was then resolved that they be submitted to subscribers at a meeting to be
held on 17 June. An interesting argument now enlivened the meeting;
Dr. Johnston moved that a sub-committee be appointed to recommend for
election at the General Meeting certain eligible office-bearers. However:
The Rev. Dickson and A. Walker strongly objected to the proposal
as virtually superseding the election by ballot already determined on;
as infringing the liberty of choice by members generally, and as imply­
ing a reflection on their common sense and judgment. The Chairman
emphatically expressed his concurrence in the objections made and
pronounced the proposal to be not only injudicious and invidious but
so contrary to the basis laid down by the public meeting of the 9th
inst., that if it had met with a seconder he should still have felt it
to be incompetent for him to put it to the vote.
The idea was hurriedly dropped. The next resolution, however, had something
of the same idea; editors were to be asked to publish the draft rules together
with the list of subscribers. (This would obviate having people nominated who
had not paid.) The meeting closed with a sub-committee formed to canvass
subscriptions; nominated were Dickson, Archbell, Walker, Macleroy and
Robinson.
One absentee from the provisional committee meetings is notable. Where
was J. M. Howell? He had moved a stirring resolution (the first) at the
inaugural meeting, and was to be a tremendous live-wire once the Council
started work. However, he was a man of wide interests and concerns. His
name frequently appears in the papers, and at this period we have proof
that he was worried by reports from the Cape of barbarous murders by
Hottentots and Kafirs on the Eastern frontier. He was:
prepared at an hour's notice, at my own expense, without any remu­
neration, and in the meanest capacity, to fight again the battles of my
country. Say but the word and you will find me ready.3
The general meeting called for 17 June duly took place 4 with Henry Cloete
in the chair. The rules, with a few slight amendments, were approved
unanimously.
The next business for the meeting was the election of the officers,
when some discussion took place as to whether the nomination of
candidates would not be the more regular mode of procedure. The
2. Natal Society records, Vo!. 1, p. 15.
3. Natal Independent, 22.5.1851.
4. Natal Society records, Vo!. 1, p. 17.
Natal Society History 27

discussion was conducted with some warmth, but finally terminated

in the reading over of the list of subscribers eligible for office, from
which everyone was at liberty to vote ...
A ballot then took place, and the results were as follows; Cloete was
elected president, Moodie was elected vice-president, and the treasurer was
to be J. Archbell. The secretary was to be J. C. Toohey and the trustees
elected were C. R. Sinclair, J. Archbell and J. P. Hoffman. The council
members were the Rev. W. Campbell, R. Thomson, G. Macleroy, P. H.
Zietsman, C. R. Sinclair, P. DUo, and J. M. Howell or A. Walker.
Business then turned on offers of books. It was J. M. Howell who made
the very first offer: fifty books to be presented as soon as the Society was
ready to receive them. The Rev. Mr. Campbell then rose to say that Mr.
Moffat would present fifty volumes on South Africa (a gesture he apparently
later regretted). The Recorder said he parted from his books as from dear
and valued friends, but after such munificence, he would also donate fifty
volumes.
The Chairman was gratified to see the interest His Honor the
Lieutenant-Governor had taken in the welfare of the Society, and
regarded it as a prelude to the able support that would be rendered
to it by His Honor, both in his public and private capacity - especially
in the granting of a suitable site for an appropriate edifice in which to
conduct the Society's affairs.
The meeting closed with votes of thanks to Mr. Robinson, which he
acknowledged 'with great feeling', and to the Recorder. Needless to say, the
last word rests with the likeable and industrious Archbell, but recently elected
to two offices. In his Natal Independent for 19 June he writes:
The formation of this Institution having been brought so far as now
to be regarded as a consummated and perfected Society with ample
machinery for promoting its objects, and liberal funds for accelerating
its progress, its aspect may be viewed in its immense bearing upon
the interests of Natal, as magnificently grand, and peculiarly pro­
pitious, and loudly and unmistakably announcing an onward move­
ment, which must advantageously tell upon the varied sources of
social happiness, and general welfare, or it will demonstrate that we
are wanting in the performance of the duties we owe to the common
weal of our adopted country. It has been suggested, and we perfectly
concur in the view, that the union of the library establishment with
this institution will be highly advantageous to both. Several truly
spirited persons have signified their intention, should such union take
place, to make to the society munificent presents of books, etc. This
is right, and if we may record another advantage, it is that which
will be derived from the union of this and the D'Urban Agricultural
Society. The mutual benefits will be obvious to all.
The 'library establishment' was indeed soon to be swallowed up, but the
idea regarding union with Durban Agricultural Society never came to
anything.
U.E.M. JUDD
28

A Curiosity of Natal Settler Literature

'... comfort and Natal have yet to form acquaintance .. .'
-- Coventry, VIA TOR, p. 95-6.

In a corner of the library of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, there

sits on a shelf a strange little book. Its title is Viator: A Poem of a Voyager's
Leisure Hours, (London, 1854). The author was an English surgeon who had
sailed to Natal aboard a 390-ton barque named Amazon in the year 1850.
His name was John Coventry and he seems to have been a dashing young
man. There were 46 adult passengers and 14 children, most of them 'un­
approved' emigrants, i.e. not entitled to any Government land because they
had not before leaving deposited the stipulated amounts of cash with the
Colonial Land & Emigration Commissioners. Some of the passengers later
became well-known Natal figures, e.g. David Slatter, John Meek, and George
A. Cope, but a number of them saw no future in Natal and within a year
or two had sailed for the Australian goldfIelds. Dr Coventry himself stayed
only a short time in Natal before returning to England.
The poem 'Viator' is not a work of great literary merit but simply a piece
of minor narrative verse redeemed by vivacity, humour, and a dexterous
style. It begins in pseudo-ballad vein:
All in the Docks a gallant barque was moored;

The Maranon 'twas easy to perceive:

And outward bound too - by the stir on board;

Her native country just about to leave

To cross the boundless Atlantean sea,

For the swart shores of arid Africa;

A wandering wight had come on board that day

Bynempt Viator - he right buoyantly

Pacing the busy deck - ~trung forth a roundelay; ­

A bad start, pedantic and pretentious, but in a short time the poem
recovers and come down to earth with lists of articles that the emigrants
were shipping to Natal. The list of items is valuable to historians because
it gives an idea of what the emigrants imagined they would need in Natal:
Wirehouses, awnings, tents, ploughshares, saddles,

bridles, boxes, chairs, tables, 'fierce cut-throat

bowie-blades', stilettos, spears, baking girdles,

wooden ladles, silver spoons, cradles, guns, pistols,

fowling-pieces, carbines, swords, ammunition, mosquito

curtains, calico, cotton, rods and reels, lines,

shark-tackle, clothes-props, pegs ...

Natal Settler Literature 29

Next come the luxuries of the well-ta-do cabin passengers:
Portraits by Beard, choice polkas, grand pianos,

prime Havanas, eau de vie in kegs, malt beer in

bottles and firkins, Devon cider ...

Lastly, the foodstuffs:

potted milk, tripe, pickled eggs, salt beef, bouilli,

broths, soups, patent potatoes, bacon, flitch,

gammon, dried haddock and cod, salmon, tea, coffee,

sweets, fruits, marmalade, jellies, spices ...

At Gravesend the ship anchors in the Thames to receive more passengers

as well as some visitors. Ladies are swung aboard from a small boat by
means of a 'nautical armchair' suspended from a sling. The ship then weighs
anchor for Falmouth where the last contact with old England is made - the
author and his friends go ashore for a final meal at Dingley's - and then
the ship sets off on its ocean voyage.
Twenty-five days later the Maranon enters tropical waters and Viator, at
the taffrail one day, sees his first shark following in the wake:
With serrate teeth full armed, his horrid jaw

Displayed he fearfully as he swam askew:

His squalid carcase spreads a changeful tinge

Throughout the wave - as he ascends or falls;

Now grey, now brown, blue, green his trunk; his fins

Glimmer livid yellow as he sprawls.

But now th'alarm has spread -loud grow the calls.

The crew bait a huge hook which transfixes him in the jaw so that after a
struggle he is hoisted aboard and hacked to death - 'Embowelled through,
beheaded and betailed ...' It is the standard incident of the emigrant ship
diaries.
At the end of the sixth week of the voyage the ship crosses the Equator,
an event which causes Viator to think deeply of the old world he has left:
... yon thick, fleecy sky
Of the north hemisphere, may well pourtray
Struggles of ardent souls - who vainly try
To burst the cerement clouds of dark obscurity ...
However, his youthful optimistic spirit looks forward to his destination,
the auspicious East, 'The land of promise. hope. expectancy .. .' He even
forgets the ever-present danger of sailing by wooden ship - 'Your mortal life
depending on a plank.'
In the long good weather days that follow he notes the myriad creatures
of sea and air - the suckerfish clamped to the shark's skin, the boobyl bird
flapping 'his slouchy wings', the sea-swallow alighting on the rattlins, the
flying fish with 'his curious piscine wing'. and the bonito 'in hue and shape
a tropic mackerel.'
At last having left the doldrums behind them, they reach Natal and
exchange signals with the flag station on the Bluff. The return message is
that a storm is on the way and that the ship must make out to sea. Viator
blesses Marryae the sailor-novelist:
30 Natal Settler Literature
To whose inestimable signal code
This night our safety mainly was assigned ...
All night the ship runs before the storm but in the morning it returns to
Port Natal and takes aboard the port captain Bell and Archer the pilot. As
the ship threads its way into the harbour, the passengers gaze on the
wreck of the emigrant ship British Tar 3 lying on the beach. On the bar itself
their own ship suffers some 'odd scrapes and delves' but no real difficulty
since there is a depth of 14 feet of water and the Maranon draws only
11 feet.
Once ashore at the Point they see their first black man and then climb into
an ox-wagon for the two-mile journey to the town. D'Urban itself is a great
disappointment:
The one great feature from the point you land

Until to dusty D'Urban you arrive,

Is all summed up. in-sand! sand!! sand!!! sand!!!!

Pity more varied phrase is not at our command ...

Viator notes that the buildings, all of one storey, are scattered over the
sandy plain. One of them, 'Mazeppa Cottage', has a galvanised iron roof.
Of the hotelkeeper of the town, Hugh McDonald, he speaks well 'A better
heart ne'er beat 'bove Scottish kilt.'
The author looks with interest on the black man:
The Natal Kafir has our sympathy,­
To 'Baas' or 'Master' simply looking forth
For the two facts of his rude dictionary,
His 'skof' or food, and 'sabenza' or work.
As for the white men at D'Urban in 1850, Viator regards them with dis­
pleasure. To him they seem a degenerate society.
Viator and his friends obtain horses and ride to the newly-established
Wesleyan settlement of Verulam 4 about 30km north of Durban. There they
observe fields of tall mealies and crops of indigo, fig, senna,5 castor, tamarind,S
cotton, coffee, and capsicum. 7 The poet is moved to prophesy, though not
quite successfully:
Natal's grand source of future wealth and power,

One plain perceives will be that yellow cotton flower ...

Leaving Verulam, the party of horsemen arrive at Mount Moreland, the

Byrne settlement a mile or two east of Verulam, where they climb the hill,
then covered by bush, to view the prospect. The undulating land around,
not yet cleared, has little value, says Viator, mainly because there is no bridge
across the Umgeni. 8 Consequently when the river comes down in flood the
traveller runs the risk of being swept to his death if he tries to cross. The
alternative is to endure up to two months' quarantine until the waters subside.
Another hazard in wading across the Umgeni is the watchful alligator. 9 This
bridgeless river is therefore the reason for the lack of buyers of land situated
beyond the Umgeni.
Digressing a little at this point, the poet blames promoters like James
Erasmus Methley, J. C. Christopher,'° and Joseph Charles Byrne" for
Natal Settler Literature 31
publishing over-enthusiastic accounts of the land of Natal. One might think
from their books that Natal flowed with milk and honey instead of being
a place of storms, floods, and hurricanes of driving sand, a region where
vermin of all shapes and sizes flourish:
A purgatory of flies - a paradise

Of ticks, fleas, scorpions, spiders, centipedes,

Cockroaches, pismires, beetles, and all lice ...

As for Natal beef and mutton, also praised by Methley in his book
The new colony of Port Natal (London, 1850), Viator maintains that one
good English rumpsteak is worth all the meat in Natal:
'tis wretched stuff, rancid, rank, coarsest-grained ...
Poultry, too, is inferior in the new colony:
Your Natal fowl we manfully maintain

About just equal to a tough blackbird ...

But he returns to his subject, the party's visit to Verulam:

Some thirty miles the Zulu land lies off ­
Wallowing in fat and fierceness Panda there ­
Dread relic of the fearful Dingaan stock! -­

Rages like some fierce tiger in his lair,

His bloated body seamed and studded o'er

With that fierce form of ulcer so well known

By the much dreaded name of Natal sore ... 12

After these rather superficial observations on Mpande (whom he had not

seen) Viator returns with his friends to D'Urban. He does not seem to have
travelled much inland for he admits that he has never visited Pietermaritz­
burg, though he has heard much about it:
'Tis quite a paradise say some, elysian

Its site, and fair its dwellings, some aver ...

The poem ends with his discovery that the schooner Douglas, a ship well­
known to him in England, is lying in the bay, ready to sail. He therefore
makes arrangements to accompany the ship on its return voyage to England.
His long narrative poem concludes with a five-verse L'Envoi to Natal:
Adieu! ye streets of D'Urban sand!

Ye swampy shores and rough!

Adieu! thou would 'twere happy land!

Adieu! thou blusterous bluff!

Adieu! ye haunts where baseless hope

Too oft deception rues!

Where mourns full many a hapless dupe

Of speculatists' views.

But further comment here we cease,

Fair let our parting be;

Natal! we wish thee health, hope, peace,

And more felicity!!!

32 Natal Settler Literature

Dr Coventry returned to England and thereafter disappears from literary
history. A well-read and intelligent young man, with a fund of energy and
plenty of spending money, he should have done well for himself in his
profession, but the biographical dictionaries are silent. Unknowingly, how­
ever, he achieved his niche in Natal history, mainly by arriving at the end
of that dynamic year 1850 when some 2500 Byrne settlers were starting life
afresh in a new and strange country. An observant man with a scientific
bent, Coventry noted Natal's vegetation and its varied wild flowers, shrubs,
and trees. He observed, too, crops like cotton, sugar, coffee, and indigo which
the emigrants had planted experimentally in Durban and along the coast.
He even cast an enquiring eye at the bright stars that adorned the Natal
night-sky. As for the Port itself, he speaks of its defects - 'the extremely
dangerous and uncertain entrance of its harbour,' with the depth on the bar
in 1850 varying from 4 or 5 feet to 16 or 18 and no safe passage for vessels
upwards of 300 tons.
Other features of the colony mentioned were the dramatic thunderstorms
that built up, especially towards the Zulu country, the absence of surface
rivers, the abundance of poisonous reptiles, insects and vermin in general,
the prevalence of the Natal sore and horse-sickness, and the misery caused
to the inhabitants of Durban by sand blowing everywhere.
He mentions also the expense of house-rents in Pietermaritzburg and
Durban and the extreme dearness of the necessary provisions of life, for
example, bread. Another standard complaint he noted among the settlers was
the difficulty of obtaining and retaining good labourers and servants.
For much of his information about Durban, Verulam, and Natal generally
he was indebted to Messrs Chiappini ('whose glorious cotton plantations are
amongst the pride of the Colony') and Mr Elliott of Natal.
Wherever he went he observed the small detail. For example, in houses
he visited he saw chameleons moving about on boughs suspended from the
ceiling. They were 'as common and used for the same purpose as paper fly­
catchers were in England ... We long had one in the cabin of the Douglas
schooner .. .'
Coventry apparently had no desire to settle in the young colony. Neither
the climate nor the European inhabitants appealed to his temperament and
he was shrewd enough to see that the country lacked capital and consequently
would have a slow growth rate. The unfortunate settlers who had too eagerly
read the books of the emigration promoters had simply to make the best
of it by hard work and the slow acquisition of capital.
Professor A. F. Hattersley read the poem and in 1956 wrote a letter about
it to Dr Maple (recently deceased), then the University of Natal librarian
at Pietermaritzburg. He says:
I never paid much attention to 'Viator', chiefly, I suspect, because I
distrust narrative in verse but also since the author described the
voyage only and not Natal. But I may have missed something good ...
One hesitates to differ from this wise and distinguished Natal historian
but if there is 'something good' in the poem Viator it may well be the
atmosphere of 1850 settler-Natal created in words by a talented visitor.
JOHN CLARK
Brig on the Waters. A very early photograph (1856) showing the kind of ship used for the transport of emigrants to America, Australia, and Natal
in mid-Victorian times.
(See article: 'A Curiosity of Natal Selller Literature')
Natal Settler Literature 33
Notes
1. A seabird of the gannet tribe, absurdly easy to catch.
2. Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), captain in Royal Navy, novelist, adapted Popham's
signalling system to the mercantile marine.
3. The British Tar, a Byrne emigrant-ship, ran ashore on the South Beach, Durban, OD.
Sunday, 29 September, 1850, during an easterly gale. No lives were lost and the
baggage was saved.
4. Verulam, founded 13 March 1850, had been in existence for about eight months
when Coventry saw it.
5. Senna: a shrub (Cassia) whose leaves were used to prepare a kind of tea with
purgative powers.
6. Tamarind: a large tropical tree whose pod produces a pleasant acidulous pulp.
7. Capsicum: a tropical shrub which produces cayenne pepper.
8. In 1864, fourteen years after Coventry's visit, a bridge was built across the
Umgeni. The bridge lasted only four years before being swept away in a flood
but was soon replaced.
9. Alligator: for many years the settlers referred to crocodiles by this name. The
alligator belongs to a mainly American family of reptiles and has a broader snout
than the crocodile.
10. J. C. Christopher was a brilliant but wayward personality. He wrote an emigration
book-Natal, Cape oj Good Hope (1850)-but his plans for Natal came to
nothing.
11. J. C. Byrne's book, Emigralzt's Guide to Port Natal, was widely read when it
appeared in 1848. It seems that he had not visited Natal and that his material
was a compilation from many sources.
12. In his Notes Coventry says: 'At Verulam on my road to the Zulu Country I saw
some scars or pits of the Natal sore in which one might bury the top of the
thumb, and this on the person of a delicate English lady.'
34

Notes and Queries

Hunting for History
Documents are to the historian what the elements are to the chemist or field
specimens to the botanist; without them history as a scientific study is
impossible. It is pleasing, therefore, to be able to report that the search for
Natal documents of all kinds is being actively pursued. Chamber's Dictionary
defines a document as a paper or other material thing affording information,
proof, or evidence of anything, and we urge our readers to spread this inter­
pretation wherever they can; although there is undoubtedly a growing aware­
ness of the importance of preserving things from the past. there are still too
many people who think that historians are only interested in the very old
and the very important, consequently many fascinating and potentially
valuable items are being neglected or destroyed. Some of the people and
organizations pursuing and recording documents are described in these pages
and we are always glad to receive news of other activities of this kind.

Natal Historical Documents Project

Professor K. McIntyre, Department of History, University of Natal, Durban,
is once again appealing to people to preserve family papers. His assistants
have travelled the length and breadth of the Province and have succeeded
in directing the attention of a number of people to the value of their family
papers. The aim of this Project is not the collection of documents so much
as the identification and location of them and the intention is to compile a
guide to private papers in Natal. Natalians who are still in touch with their
overseas relations might find it rewarding to try and trace the letters that
were sent home by the first generation of immigrants.
Our readers will hardly need to be reminded of the wonderfully detailed
and human picture of the life of the Byrne Settlers that emerges from Ellen
McLeod's letters, published in Dear Louisa. We are delighted to hear that
this work, which has been out of print for some time, is to be republished.

The Killie Campbell Africana Library

The Killie Camp bell Africana Library remains the University's premier
depository for Africana and Nataliana, and continues to offer to students of
Natal history a service of immeasurable value. All who recognise the great
debt of gratitude which Natalians and scholars owe to the late Dr. Killie
Campbell will welcome the news that the Natal branch of the South African
National Society has decided to establish a Dr. Kil1ie Campbell Bursary Fund
to assist deserving students in their historical research work.
Mrs. Daphne Strutt, our Durban correspondent, writes:
It is something which would have been very near to her heart, and will
stand as a memorial to the splendid way in which she always gave
Notes and Queries 35
unstinted help to students of history of all ages and at all times. No
one will ever know how many Africana books could not have been
written at all without her assistance and encouragement. The trustees
who have been appointed for this Fund are:
Prof. F. E. Stock, Principal of the University of Natal.

Mr. T. M. Downie, President of the South African National

Society in Natal.

Mr. Guy McDonald, Past President of the South African

National Society in Natal.

Mr. P. J. M. Burton-Moore, representing Syfret's Trust and

Executor S.A. Ltd.

A target figure of RIO 000 has been set, to which the South African
National Society has contributed RI 000. To publicise the KiIlie
Campbell Bursary Trust a garden party was held on the afternoon of
the 16th June at Muckleneuk, 220 Marriott Road, Killie Campbell's
home and now the repository for the University's Campbell Collec­
tions. Miss Jenni Duggan, the Librarian in charge of the Collections,
gave a splendid and moving address, telling the story of Killie's life
and recounting episodes in her collecting adventures. The party was
held on the wide terrace below the house and the weather was perfect.
Some guests came in Victorian dress, and many ladies wore long
gowns and, in the midst of our troublous times, it was a strangely
nostalgic scene. After tea on the terrace the staff of the Library con­
ducted parties through the house where everything glowed with well­
being and intensified the feeling that Natal's beloved KiIlie Campbell
was very near that day. The gathering was the National Society's idea
but without the enthusiastic assistance of the University of Natal, the
Campbell Collection staff and in particular Miss Duggan, it would
not have been the memorable occasion it undoubtedly was.

Camp bell, Stuar!, Webb and Wright

1976 has seen the completion of the first stage of a documentation project
of immeasurable importance. In March the first volume of the lames Stuart
Archive of recorded oral evidence relating to the history of the Zulu and
neighbouring peoples appeared under the joint imprint of the University of
Natal Press and the Killie Campbell Africana Library. The editors and
translators, Prof. Colin Webb and Mr. John Wright, need no introduction
to readers of this journal and it seems probable that Webb and Wright will
soon be a household word, like Brookes and Webb, among all those interested
in Natal and Zululand history. Recording of oral information about the
African past is very largely a development of the late twentieth century. In
the case of the Zulu and neighbouring peoples, however, it began much
earlier, with the work of James Stuart. A Natal colonial civil servant. Siuart
had a deep interest in the African peoples of Natal, Zululand and Swaziland,
and an appreciation, unique for his time, of the need to record not only their
customs, beliefs and oral literature, but also their historical traditions before
they disappeared under the impact of a transplanted Western culture.
From the late 1890s, when he was about 30 years of age, until his departure
36 Notes and Queries
for Britain in the early 1920s, Stuart, a Natalian born and bred, used the
extensive contacts with Africans which he acquired as a magistrate and as
an official of the Natal Native Affairs Department to seek out informants
with historical knowledge, and to record their statements in writing. A fiuent
Zulu linguist, he was able to gain unusual insights into local history and
customs. In his methods of inquiry and recording he anticipated by more
than half a century many of the techniques today regarded as standard in
the scientific collection of oral evidence.
The statements which Stuart took from a total of nearly 200 informants
are now housed, together with his notes and writings on Zulu customs,
language and oral literature, in the Killie Campbell Africana Library, Durban.
The value of the collection has long been known to scholars, but the virtual
impossibility of sorting the mass of documents into any meaningful order
makes research from the originals a slow and haphazard business. In 1970
the Department of History and Political Science of the University of Natal,
Pieterm:lritzburg, decided to launch a project aimed at extracting the historical
evidence from the collection and publishing it in printed form.
The first volume of what is envisaged as a five-volume work is now avail­
able. It contains statements, ranging in length from less than one page to
more than fifty, of 39 informants. Among the many topics commented on
are Shaka's military campaigns and methods of rule, the court life of Dingane
and Mpande, the reactions of Africans in Natal to colonial rule, and the
'Bambatha' disturbances of 1906. To make the volume as useful a research
tool as possible, the editors have translated into English those passages
originally recorded in Zulu, and have provided comprehensive annotations,
as well as an index.

No stone unturned
The compilation of the James Stuart Archive involved the editors and trans­
lators in countless hours of desk work, deciphering the manuscripts and
poring over Bryant's Zulu Dictionary and other reference works. But research
into Zulu history has another, less sedentary, side. Archaeological fieldtrips
organized by the Natal Museum give Natal history students the opportunity
to learn a great deal about the methods of a closely-allied discipline, and to
see at first hand another dimension of the search for 'information, evidence
or proof' of the life of the past. The calloused hands, the thorn-torn legs,
the wading through crocodile-infested waters, the sunburn and the tick-bites
are a small price to pay for the interest and excitement of an excavation.
These discomforts also have the effect of making the sufferer feel he is going
back in time, for he is experiencing almost exactly what the first pioneers
had to endure in their early struggles to subdue virgin country and turn it
into agriculturally productive land.
Mr. Martin Hall, a member of the Natal Museum Archaeology Depart­
ment, has sent this report on the 1976 field excursions:
Archaeologists at the Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg have been
involved in two important excavations this year. The first fieldtrip was
to Babanango in Zululand, where a complex of cattle enclosures, built
by Iron Age farmers probably between one hundred and fifty and
two hundred years ago, was investigated. It would seem that the people
Notes and Queries 37

who built the settlement kept both cattle and sheep and grew a
variety of crops. Using new recovery techniques remains of maize were
found; which is particularly important, since the prehistory of this
crop is virtually unknown in Natal and Zululand.
On the second expedition, which was to the Umfolozi Game Reserve
in Zululand, a line of game pits, dug by Shaka in the l820s was
mapped and excavated. Information on the method of construction
and utilization was obtained, and valuable additions were made to our
knowledge of Zulu history.
In June the University Library in Pietermaritzburg presented an exhibition
on the theme, Mgungundhlovu. Archaeologists from the University of Cape
Town, working in conjunction with the Natal Museum, have mapped the
whole of Dingane's settlement, and investigated in detail selected zones of
the site. The display of books and photographs demonstrated dramatically
the valuable inter-relationship of literary and archaeological sources.

Maps and Mapmakers

So geographers, in Afric maps,

With savage pictures fill their gaps;

And o'er uninhabitable downs

Place elephants for want of towns.

The tone of Swift's verse seems to suggest that there is something inherently
inferior about the habitats of elephants and that Africa would have been a
better place if its maps had been full of towns. Wildlife enthusiasts would
certainly disagree with this point of view but no one would dispute the value
of the modern cartographer's more scientific approach. Nonetheless it is to
be hoped that those of us who enjoyed the elements of whimsy and fantasy
in old maps, may be allowed a few sneaking regrets that to-day there seems
to be so little mystery about the face of the once Dark Continent. With or
without elephants and dolphins, maps are indispensable documents for all
scientists (and once again we include historians in that term) and we are glad
to hear that a bibliography of Natal maps, comprising 36 items, published
in 1972 by R. A. Brown, former Librarian of the University Library, Pieter­
maritzburg (see Natalia 2 pp 34-36), is being expanded by Mr. Christopher
Merrett of the Natal Society Library. The bibliography now covers maps of,
or parts of, Natal and Zululand, in sheet form or in books, from 1820 to
the present. Excluded are maps wider in scope than Natal and Zululand
alone, sketch maps with no academic value, and large scale building plans.
Entries are made by area, qualified by subject and date, and each is annotated
to outline the scope and content of the map. Cross references are made from
a name index of important Natal cartographers. The bibliography currently
numbers 300 entries, and the compiler would be interested to hear from
anyone possessing relevant maps.

Paintbrush Commando
In Natalia 2, 1972, Mrs. Jennifer Verbeek of Pietermaritzburg asked if readers
could supply her with information on the Natal paintings of Frans Oerder.
38 Notes and Queries
More facts have now been uncovered, and she writes:
Frans Oerder who was 'Official War Artist' to the Boer forces 1900­
1902, is known to have worked in Zululand just before the War.
None of his Natal paintings was traced in my investigations, but the
mystery has now been solved. Oerder's war pictures are very rare
indeed and for a very sad reason. According to his son, Oerder was
teaching in the Transvaal after the Anglo-Boer war and had all his
pictures displayed for a history class when the small schoolhouse
burned down and his invaluable pictures and records were all
destroyed. A few of his Magersfontein pictures have survived; some
are housed in the War Museum, Bloemfontein, and nine sketches were
put up for sale at Sotheby's, Johannesburg, on October 31 1975.

Of Bricks and Mortar

In Natalia 5, ] 975, we drew attention to the Liaison Committee for the
Preservation of Historical Amenities and its preliminary list of Durban's
historical buildings and amenities of value to the civic community. This
project continues and work has also begun on recording notable buildings
in Pietermaritzburg. From the Natal Provincial Library and Museum Services
comes news of complementary documentation activities. In collaboration with
local authorities, local experts and local enthusiasts, the condition of Natal
historical sites such as battlefields and forts is being examined and recorded.
A register of buildings erected before 1939, excluding Durban and Pieter­
maritzburg, has been started.
Detailed news of two fine old Durban homes comes from Mrs. Strutt:

Murchie House
The news that 'The House that Withstood Elephants', 745 Ridge Road,
is to be preserved and restored is a light in the darkness as far as
Durban is concerned. This house, believed to be the first built on the
Berea (in about 1849 by Mr. Bishop) was the home of the family of
Mr. Alexander Murchie from 1881 until Miss Lillian Murchie, the last
of the daughters and now aged 92, recently moved to Gillitts. Murchie
House was one of those given top priority rating in A First Listing of
the Important Places and Buildings in Durban, drawn up by the Liaison
Committee in 1974. It was saved because its new owner, Mr. Brian
Agar, is a forward-thinking man and recognised its importance. He
bought it to save it from the demolishers and is restoring it, at the
same time making it a functional home. May this be an example to
other Durban property owners or property seekers.
Cato Manor House
Alas, Cato House, built in 1842 for George Cato, first Mayor of
Durban - and probably the oldest existing building along the Natal
coast - is still unrestored and hovering on the brink of disintegration.
It, too, was on the priority listing of buildings worthy of preservation.
It was in the hands of the Community Development Department but
a Stay of Demolition was obtained some five years ago although not
Notes and Queries 39

before the roof and all the woodwork and flooring had been removed.
Now it is mercifully, but very temporarily, protected from vandals by
the scrub which has grown up around and inside the old building.
The brick walls were originally unplastered and where the later plaster­
ing has flaked away pieces of shell are clearly visible in the lime
cement. Still flapping on some of the interior walls are remnants of
the six layers of wallpaper that have superseded each other over the
years. The house was built on a drystone foundation and was a typical
Natal verandah house. The verandah floors are of brick and slate and
the posts - now gone - were of wood. The house was added to in
about 1860 and the addition was roofed with iron. Possibly the plaster­
ing was done at that time.
Cato House was fortified by means of walls connecting the out­
buildings with the main structure and there was a well within this
enclosure. It seems completely senseless that this interesting skeleton
of a most historic house should be allowed to disintegrate.
While on the subject of buildings, Natalia notes the pUblication of a second
collection of pen and ink drawings by Harold Bailey, Pietermaritzburg and
the Natal Midlands. There is no doubt that the regular appearance of
Mr. Bailey's drawings in the Natal Witness has helped to open the eyes of
many Natalians to the charm of the old buildings around them. The technical
skill and artistic merit of the sketches should not, however, mislead us into
taking them for reliable historical documents. For example, in the first collec­
tion, published last year, there is a drawing of the Christian Science Church
at the corner of Loop and Chapel Streets. The church appears to be flanked
by a two-storey building which actually stands at the corner of Leighton
Street, about a hundred yards further up Loop Street. It is also a pity that
both books have been published with exactly the same title.

Charles Dickinson
The upheaval of moving house is something which everyone dreads, but it
is when the movers are at the door that forgotten papers turn up in cup­
boards and corners. When the Natal Society Library moved to its new build­
ing last year many treasures were rediscovered, including several albums of
old railway photographs and a portfolio of water-colour paintings. The latter
find is described by Mrs Verbeek:
Mr Tony Hooper, Librarian of the Natal Society Library, recently
brought to my attention a valuable collection of water-colours painted
by Charles Dickinson during the 1850s. The paintings are in excellent
condition.
The collection was donated in 1938 by Mrs Wood, wife of Dr Willy
Wood, then M.O.H. for Pietermaritzburg, and a member of the Natal
Society Council. With the pictures is a newspaper cutting dated 24.9.39
which notes, 'An interesting collection of water-colours, made in Natal
from 1853 to 1857 has been given to the Natal Society and is now on
exhibition in the Public Library. The pictures are the work of Mr C.
H. Dickinson who lived in Natal from 1853 until 1870. Mr Dickinson
40 N oles and Queries

had an eye for a picturesque bit of landscape and he made many

sketches as he wandered about the country. He must surely have been
the first artist to paint the Valley of a Thousand Hills, although to him
it was only the "View of Inanda from the Durban-Maritzburg road".
From an historical point of view the most important are those showing
.Durban and Maritzburg. There is an interesting picture of the Point
and Bluff painted from Salisbury Island and also a view of 'Maritzburg
"from the road to the Bishop's station". This was obviously painted
from Mountain Rise on the road to Bishopstowe . . . showing fairly
clearly the extent to which the town had spread in 1857 .. .'
Charles Hammond Dickinson arrived in Natal in the early 1850s. In
Pictorial Africana Gordon-Brown notes that a C. Dickinson painted
scenes of the Cape in the early 1850s, and if this should be the same
Dickinson, (and there is no reason to suppose otherwise), then it is
probable that he arrived in Natal after a short stay in the Cape.
Marianne Churchill Gillespie refers to having met a friend of her
brother Frank, 'Charlie Dickinson', who was about the same age as
her brother (25?), and that he was 'engaged to be married in two
years'. Mrs Shelagh Spencer's Register of Natal Families notes his
marriage in 1858.
Another newspaper clipping of the same date, this time from the
Natal Witness, describes Charles Dickinson as an 'old resident of
Pietermaritzburg.' Descendants of Dickinson who still live in the
Capital have informed me that he first earned his living as an iron­
monger at 23 Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg, and then went
farming near Baynesfield. He retired to England before the Anglo­
Boer War, and many of the inscriptions on the backs of the paintings
which read, 'C. H. Dickinson, Ilfracombe', were probably inserted at
a later date. He did not return to Natal, and died at Ilfracombe 'some­
time near the turn of the century'.

Postscript
It is to be hoped that among all the documentary treasures which Natalians
are uncovering, some of the earliest Natal postage stamps will be found.
A local philatelist, Mr E. C. Wright, urges the greatest care with old stamps:
no attempt should be made to remove the stamp, and the whole envelope
should be preserved intact. An article by Mr Wright on the first Natal postage
stamps will appear in the next issue of Natalia.

The Duke's People

The attention of the Editorial Board has been drawn to the fact that some of
the settlers mentioned in this article in Natalia 5 were not Buccleuch settlers.
William Payn came on the Edward and was from St Lawrence in Jersey,
while John and William Nicholson were both born in the East Riding of
Yorkshire. They did have connexions with Hampshire as both married Hamp­
shire girls, two sisters, the Misses Harrow of Alton, and John, prior to
emigrating, had been living in the same parish as the Duke's tenants. The
Nicholsons arrived with their families on the Sandwich more than two months
Notes and Queries 41
after the Lady Bruce had reached Port Natal. Mrs John Nicholson's first
letter home in 1850 describes how her husband set out, two days after landing
in Durban, for the Illovo in order to see the Beaulieu people, and at the
same time to look for suitable land. She recounts that he was impressed with
the area where the Buccleuch people had settled, and was able to get per­
mission to have his allotments and his brother's, situated in the same district.
The full list of the Duke's people taken from lists received by John More­
land from Byrne & Co. (which can be seen in the Moreland Papers in the
Natal Archives) is as follows:
CROUCH, John 46, Frances 45, Priscilla 23, George 21, Stephen 19,
Eliza 14.
CROUCH, William 29, Sarah Jane 23, Ann 6, William 3, John 1.
GREGORY, Charles 18.
GODDEN, John 41, Anne 44, John 18, George 11.
GODDEN, Isaac 38, Sarah 35. William 9, Mary 7. Emma 3. Jane 1.
STOTE (or STOTT). James.
FOSS. Ambrose 36. Mary 40, Anne 16, Wyatt 14. Elias 12. Richard
10, Eliza 2.

WARN, John 20.

WILLIS, William 19.

WESTBROOK, James 19, Henry 17.

HOUSE, Charles 18.

BURGESS, William 16.

BOUND, Charles.

The New Cathedral Centre

Natalia, 1, 1971, included an article by Kenneth B. Hallowes, Bishop Suffra­
gan of Natal, entitled A New Cathedral Centre for Pietermaritzburg, which
discussed the modern concept of a Cathedral and outlined the many factors
to be taken into account by the Pietermaritzburg Cathedral-Centre
Committee.
Now, five years later, many of the problems have been solved and the
detailed planning has been completed. The latest news of the project comes
from Bishop Hallowes:
On the evening of July 16th, 1976, the result of the Architectural
Competition for the new Anglican Centre in Pietermaritzburg was
announced. The first prize went to two Cape Town architects. Mr E.
Kammeyer and Mr N. Rozendal whose design was described as having
'an outstanding conceptual clarity which set it apart from other schemes
submitted.'
The winning design expresses very clearly the relationship of the
Church to the world and the community in which it is situated. It is
a 'sanctuary', but, at the same time, looks out and reaches out to the
community around it, thus expressing something of the function of a
Cathedral in the world of to-day.
There is also a clear distinction between the structural building area,
and the natural 'parkland'. In the words of the assessors 'It is the
42 Nates and Queries
relationship between parkland and the accommodation structure which
is one of the significant qualities of this design. The minimum area
of this fine urban site is built upon.'
'St Peter's Church remains untouched by this development', the
assessors' report continues, 'and it is used as an historical entrance
foil to the new Place of Worship which is directly behind it. The
height of the Place of Worship is the same as the height of St Peter's
Church.'
The architects have also fitted their design to the proposed designs
of the City planners, and the 'Bells Mall' is a feature of it.
It will be noted that we have spoken of a 'Cathedral-Centre', rather
than of a 'Cathedral'. The Centre is designed to give accommodation
for purposes of Worship, Fellowship and Administration.
For Worship there will be the Worship Hall to seat 750 with the
possibility of extending to 1 000 on special occasions.
For Fellowship there will be a refectory for 80 people, extending to
a hall for bigger occasions; a lunch room to seat 30 people; a common
kitchen to serve both rooms; a lecture hall with raking floor seating
200; ten rooms for smaller meetings, Sunday School, etc., and a
resource centre and library.
For Administration, there will be various offices for the Bishop, the
Dean and other personnel, a flat for a caretaker, together with storage
facilities for cleaners, etc.
Many local people were disappointed that one or other of our Pieter­
maritzburg architects did not win the competition, but the anonymity
of the competition must be stressed. No one knew who the authors
of the design were until the envelopes of winning designs were opened.
It is hoped that building will commence by the middle of 1977, but
there is a great deal of work to be done by both the Architects and
the new Cathedral Building Committee before the final details are
completed, and the project is put out for tender. We trust that the
Centre will not only play an important functional role in our city, but
will also grace it aesthetically.
The new Cathedral-Centre is to be called the Cathedral Church of the
Holy Nativity, a choice of name which has not passed without comment.
The correspondence columns of The Natal Witness carried a number of letters
regretting the submersion of the names of the two historic Cathedrals into
a name which revealed nothing of the origins of the new Cathedral parish.
The inaccuracy of the story that Natal was discovered on Christmas Day
was also pointed out. One of the correspondents expressed his 'sadness at
the abandonment of names which have been part of the fabric of Church
and community since 1857 in the one case and 1869 in the other, a move
which one cannot but regard as an act of historical vandalism' (12.3.1976).
Another correspondent suggested that the retention of the names, St Saviour
Notes and Queries 43

and St Peter, would 'symbolise and emphasise the unity of the two churches
in the new Cathedral'. The choice of name has been defended on the grounds
that it would be inappropriate to link the Saviour's name with that of His saint,
Peter. The question of historical inaccuracy notwithstanding, it is argued, the
name 'Natal' is with us, and the Star of Bethlehem is incorporated in the
diocesan coat of arms; hence the suitability of 'Nativity' for this diocese.

Steam Power
Encore!
It was after we went to press last year that Pietermaritzburg people were
invited to say 'Farewell to steam', marking the end of local steam-driven
passenger services with a ceremonial jaunt to Howick, organised by the local
Branch of the S.A. Railway Society. The response was so overwhelming that,
even though an extra coach was added, many would-be travellers were
disappointed.
It was a happy day, flavoured with a spicy mixture of excitement and
nostalgia, smoke and cinders, sunshine and steam, energy and high spirits.
There were many children in the party but it was undoubtedly the adults
who responded to the sense of occasion and felt a twinge of sadness at the
passing of the age of steam.
So successful was the outing that it has been repeated twice and shows
every sign of becoming a regular Pietermaritzburg entertainment. Those of
us who took part in the November farewell may be forgiven for feeling a
little cheated that what was supposed to be 'the last steam train' turned out
to be the first of a series! On the other hand, no one really minds seeing the
grand old engine, like a retiring stage star, returning for more and more
curtain calls.

Railways - 'The greatest civilizing agency'

The 'Steam Specials' to Howick have given local photographers some superb
opportunities for railway photography and we hope that someone will organise
an exhibition of these pictures. Those who rode in the trains would be
pleased to see how they looked to those who crowded the crossings and the
embankments, while the photographers would welcome the chance to compare
their pictures.
Many magnificent railway photographs of an earlier period were recently
displayed at the Local History Museum, Durban. The exhibition was unique
in that these photographs, many from private sources, had never before been
shown together. The railway exhibition in August and September was
organised by the South African National Society to mark the centenary of
the ceremony on January I 1876, when the first sod was turned to initiate
the building of the line from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.
This was, of course, not Natal's first railway, for the line between Durban
and the Point built by the Natal Railway Company, had been opened as
early as 1860; the extension to Umgeni had begun operations in 1867. The
N.G.R. was conceived in 1875 when the Natal Government was empowered
to take over the existing lines and raise a loan to finance the construction
44 Notes and Queries

of the Pietermaritzburg line, and in January 1877 the Natal Government

Railways officially came into being.
Among the exhibits were a wooden model of the Durban station, examples
of early surveying equipment, the first survey maps, and a number of fascinat­
ing printed items such as brochures, timetables and menus. The exhibition
was opened by Mr J. C. B. Trving. Natal System Manager of the South
African Railways, who gave an interesting resume of Natal railway
development.

Pollution-free puffer
Technicians in the Physics Department, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg,
have recently rescued and lovingly restored an old Stirling engine. This was
probably acquired in 1910 when the N.U.C's first science equipment was
bought. At that stage the infant College had no premises of its own and
was sharing the Maritzburg College labs. Mr Roger Barker has sent this
Note about the engine:
This type of external combustion engine, invented by Robert Stirling
in 1816, contributes little or nothing to air pollution, and is entirely
quiet in operation. Its virtues make it a possible alternative to the
internal combustion engine. It can run on any fuel, including sunlight.
Research on Stirling-principle engines has been done in Sweden and
the Netherlands, and prototype engines have been installed in boats
and buses. Unfortunately the production costs of the engine could not
be reduced to meet the competition of other engines.
Operation of the engine depends on change in volume of the air
enclosed between the piston and cylinder. The increase in volume of
the trapped air is effected by the application of an external heat source,
in this case Propane gas. The air is cooled again by water circulating
in the green water jacket.
The strong virtue of this type of engine in the present state of affairs,
is its cleanness of operation. The external combustion takes place
continuously in a hot walled chamber. There is obviously no limit on
the amount of air that can be supplied for combustion purposes. As a
result, the unburnt residual gases characteristic of internal combustion
engines are eliminated.
It seems probable that sociological pressures will soon force the addi­
tion of a pollution control device for petrol and diesel engines. This
financial pressure on the internal combustion engine would make the
economics of the Stirling engine appear better than they do at the
present time .

. . . Horse Power
In his review of Patricia Vinnicombe's People of the Eland (see p. 53)
Mr David Lewis-WiIIiams has drawn attention to the large number of horses
which figure in the Bushman paintings of the Drakensberg. The Bushmen
Notes and Queries 45

were quick to appreciate the usefulness of horses and the colonists within
reach of the raiding parties from the mountains suffered heavy losses. These
nineteenth century Natal horses must have been tough, hardy beasts but
Daphne Child in Saga of the South African horse says little about them.
The history of the horse in Natal might be an interesting topic to pursue.

Horses for the Jameson Raid

Dr B. J. T. Leverton has uncovered some information about a Natal horse
breeder:
As a body of colonists the Natalians were not vcry much directly
affected by the Jameson Raid of 1896 and many suspected that behind
it all was the hand of that arch opponent of theirs, Cecil Rhodes.
Many of them wanted nothing to do with antagonism towards the
Transvaal, but yet there was one who was called in to play his part
in the planning of the ill-timed sortie. This was a Boston farmer by
the name of Joseph Jardine, one of Natal's foremost horse breeders.
On his farm 'Calderwood' from the late 1870s he bred horses of all
kinds and types, for the race track and hardier horses for other
purposes. For the Jameson raid a very hardy type of horse was needed
which could go longish periods of time without water or proper forage.
For this type of animal Jardine was approached and, as usual, he was
able to produce the goods. All the horses supplied by him were quietly
moved through the Free State to their ultimate destination. In the
raid itself Jardine's animals proved their worth and it was not on their
account that it was aborted. In the fighting in Natal which followed
the 1899 Boer invasion hundreds of horses were needed and Joseph
Jardine once again came to the fore with help. Unlike many horse
breeders in Natal Jardine immediately saw the threat of motorised
power after the turn of the century and abandoned his breeding of
horses in time for him to turn to something else.

Natal's Astronomer Extraordinary

For most people astronomy is a subject of only the remotest interest, but
two events in 1976 have brought it somewhat nearer to the man-in-the­
armchair: the coming of television has brought Patrick Moore's extensive
knowledge and vivid accounts of the heavens right into our homes, and the
Viking spacecraft has landed on Mars.
Astronomical observation in Natal goes back well over a hundred years
and its story is now being pieced together by Mr. M. A. Gray, Secretary
and Historian of the Natal Centre of the Astronomical Society. He writes:
Upon the recent rediscovery of a 3" diameter Transit telescope
which is now residing in the Local History Museum, Durban, it was
decided to embark upon a research project - to trace the history of
this 1880 instrument, and of the Natal Observatory which was built
in 1882 in the Botanic Gardens, Currie Road, Durban, and finally
demolished in 1950.
The search for old information has proved fascinating and naturally,
46 Notes and Queries
frustrating as there are inevitable gaps. Some of these gaps could well
be filled by your readers. The period from 1850 onwards until 1912
has been almost completed and the work has broadened to include
the whole of the works of the man who was invited out to the old
Colony by Sir David Gill (Astronomer Royal, Cape Town) and
Mr. Harry Escombe (Durban) in 1882 to observe the December 1882
transit of Venus; this was Edmund N. Nevill- or, as he preferred
to be known - N eison.
Apart from astronomical observations, Neison's work soon extended
itself to include meteorology (he set up 46 observing stations in Natal),
chemistry, toxicology, agriculture, assaying and the compiling of
Natal's tide tables.
Neison was frequently in the centre of many stormy debates as to
'why such a person as a mere Astronomer, who spends much of his
time playing tennis and at night reclines under a telescope for no
apparent good purpose' should receive any salary at all! During his
thirty year sojourn in Durban, he actually had to forego his salary on
several annual occasions but stolidly kept on churning out invaluable
data concerning our weather, and the heavens about us and answering
many rude letters in the Press.
He married one of his assistants, Miss Maud Grant (Grant's Grove,
Durban) and changed his name back to Nevill. He and his spouse
were forced to live in a small ramshackle hut where all the computing
had to be done, until the Colonial Government finally relented and
acceded to a ten-year-old request that a house be constructed. The
Nevill family then moved in, but not before he had finished off the
plastering and installed the plumbing at his own expense! Their third
child was born in this house-- which is presently occupied by the
Department of Health. Eventually he gave up the unequal struggle
and retired to England, arriving in Southampton the day before the
Titanic was sunk in 1912. He eventually died in England in 1946 and
was survived by his wife for a few years.
What of the Observatory after 1912? A fully trained assistant (Mr.
Hodgson) was to take over the work, but he suddenly became seriously
ill within a month of Nevill's departure and, being 'a most intractable
and irascible patient' he and his Maker finally came to terms and he
died in a Natal nursing home, leaving the Observatory without any
trained staff. The Observatory was forced to close down but fortunately,
the meteorological and chemical work had by then been taken over
by the new Union Government. The place became a ghost of its
former self but was still equipped with some superb and very costly
instrumentation - a lot of whieh had been purchased and donated to
Natal by Nevill.
The Union Government then offered the Observatory to the City of
Durban which accepted with alacrity. The City Council soon found
this possession embarrassing as there was nobody around who knew
how to operate any of the equipment and in 1916/7 the Council offered
it to the new Technical College, which, some years later, gave it all to
the University of Natal. The 4" refractor telescope is now in the care
Notes and Queries 47
of the Department of Physics, Pietermaritzburg, and the transit tele­
scope eventually came to rest in the Local History Museum, Durban.
Of the six that were specially constructed only one other is known to
have survived, and is now in the Observatory at Greenwich. The 8"
Grubb telescope which had been purchased in 1881 at a cost of £600 by
Mr. Escombe and paid for out of his own pocket was sent to the
University but has unfortunately not been preserved.
In 1924, under the presidency of Dr. Sam Campbell (Technical
College, Natal University, etc.) a local Astronomical Society was
formed and this ran successfully for a number of years. Eventually
the old guard died off and so did the Society until it was reconstituted
round about 1946. Since then it has had its ups and downs but is a
strong society at the time of writing.
Any reader who has old photographs or memories of the Observatory
- especially for the period from 1912 onwards - is asked to contact Mr.
Gray at P.O. Box 2704, Durban 4000. All assistance will be very greatly
appreciated and all original material will be returned after suitable copying.

The Caxton Connection

1976 is the five hundreth anniversary of the year in which William Caxton
brought the art of printing to Britain. It seems an appropriate opportunity
for us to draw attention to the life and work of Peter Davis, whose name is
synonymous with printing and publishing in Natal.
A compositor by trade, Peter Davis came to Natal in 1850 to work on
the printing staff of The Natal Witness in Pietermaritzburg. Two years later
he and a man named John May purchased the paper. The partnership of
May and Davis lasted until 1860. By 1863 Peter Davis had been joined by
his sons and they were able to expand the business and open a second
printing works in Durban. It was under the direction of Peter Davis Jnr
that the firm reached its peak and it ceased to exist after his death in 1919.
In 1922 Davis' widow presented to the N.U.C. Library nearly 4000 of
her late husband's personal collection of books. This had the effect of more
than doubling the size of the College library which, at that time, was housed
in the Main Hall.
A bibliography of publications with the Davis imprint, which was begun
by the late Dr H. L. Maple, a former librarian of the University of Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, is being continued by Mr. Brian Spencer. He will be glad to
receive information about Davis publications and can be contacted at the
University Library, Pietermaritzburg.

Supernatural Natalians
The story about Alexander Beale's supposed haunting of the old Natal
Society Library building started us wondering whether Natal has any other
ghosts. While we admit that the supernatural is not the province of the
historian, it is true that it is not only fact but also legend that make up the
many-textured fabric of the past. Our readers might care to send in ghostly
anecdotes.
48 Notes and Queries

Tailpiece
A number of people responded to our appeal for information about the
earlier distribution of baboons in Natal (Natalia 5), and there seems little
doubt that they were widely distributed in the Natal midlands. There are
records of encounters with baboons at various times in the Karkloof, the
Mid-Illovo district, near Table Mountain, on the Ntabamnyama at Rosetta
and on the farm New Forest in the kloof leading up to the headwaters of
the Umgeni. This evidence certainly shows that our enquirer was misled in
his assumption that they had been confined to the Berg and the coastal bush,
but suggests that they usually chose to live within reach of rugged country.

DAPHNE H. STRUTT

M. MOBERLY
 49

Register of Research on Natal

The following does not pretend to be complete. It has been compiled from
the Human Sciences Research Council Research Bulletin and from individual
submissions.
It is a supplementary list to the 'Register' published in Natalia 5. Persons
knowing of research work that has not been listed are asked to furnish
information for inclusion in the next issue. For this purpose a slip is provided.

ANTHROPOLOGY
Economic and Sociological aspects of the
development of centralized Nguni communi­
ities in Zululand M. J. Hall
Secondere groepvorming onder die Bantoe van
Thaba Nchu O. C. J. Bertram

BANTU LANGUAGES
B. W. Vilakazi as Zuludigter ... L. C. Posthumus
Die Invloed van Afrikaans op die woordeskat
van Zulu en Suid-Sotho S. D. Ngcongwane
Konjunksie met na in Zoeloe B. du P. Goslin
Preliminary survey of Zulu dialects in Natal
and Zulu land I. S. Kubeka
A Survey of Zulu riddles S. B. Hadebe
Die Wereld van Tjaka (deur Thomas Mofolo)
- 'n strukturele en stilistiese ondersoek C. F. Swanepoel

BIOGRAPHY
Henry Francis Fynn J. Todd Ellison
Frances Ellen Colenso (1849-1887) P. L. Merrett

BOTANY
Botanical collectors in Natal R. G. Strey
The Curators of the Botanical Garden, Durban R. G. Strey
The History of botany in Natal till 1916 R. G. Strey

BUSINESS ECONOMICS
Analysis of the income and expenditure pat­
terns of shopping in the central business area
of Empangeni and to determine their response
if similar facilities were provided in their
respective areas J. J. Potgieter
50 Research
EDUCATION
An Analytical study of the development of
higher education for the Bantu ... N. Katiya
Benutting van klaskamerruimtes in Natal Navorsingsburo
A Comparative study of selected approaches to
the use of closed circuit television in teacher
training in Western Europe and the applica­
tion of closed circuit television in Natal Z. G. Swanepoel
The Concept of compulsory and free education
in relation to KwaZulu A. J. Thembela
The Creation and development of Indian high
schools in Natal Hp to 1975 v. S. Tewary
The Dev:.;\opmcnt of German schools in Natal H. E. Struckmann
Die Duur van die s:.<ooldag v:m leerlinge in
Natal Navorsingsburo
Field studies in the teaching of geography in
secondary schools in Natal ... A. S. Webster
Formal education for Indi~m girls in Natal,
1868-1966 ... K. Naiker
lndian education in Verulam since 1870 to
1976 ... K. C. Surajlal
The Life-world of the Indian child with special
reference to the innu~nce of Western techno­
logy in uprooting his world D. Munsami
The Metabolic nature of the educational aim
of the Zulu people P. C. Luthuli
Die Natalse Onderwyserunie en sy doelstel­
lings ... H. J. Janse van Vuuren
Onderwysbeplanning vir ontwikkelende volke ...
met spesiale verwysing na KwaZulu A. J. Vos
The Philosophical bases of education in rela­
tion to KwaZulu E. P. Ndaba
The Planning of tertiary education for the
Zulus ... H. T. Madonsela
Psychic needs and problems of the Zulu adoles­
cent in a changing society H. J. Dreyer
A Study of objectives for mathematics learning
at the senior secondary level in Indian high
schools M. Moodley
The Teaching of history in Indian secondary
schools in Natal K. Moodley
'n Verantwoorde beroepsorienteringspraktyk
vir Indierjeugdiges J. Coetzee

FAMILY HISTORY
The Tathams in Natal Mrs J. C. Gie

(nee Tatham)

Research 51

GEOGRAPHY
Some social and physical implications of the
preliminary stages of growth in a planned
urban centre - the case of Richards Bay /
Empangeni M. D. Lincoln

HISTORY
Alexander Biggar Mrs Sheila Henderson
Ben Viljoen's Fortress Helpmekaar attack on
Britte's Pass 11 May 1900 Mrs Sheila Henderson
Boom Street Model Infants' School Dr R. E. Gordon
British Imperial, and South African Sub­
Imperial policies with reference to the Zulu
people, 1879-97; a study in collaboration and
conflict P. J. Colenbrander
The Catholic Church in Natal 1886-1925 with
special reference to the work of the Oblate
of Mary Immaculate Mrs J. B. Brain
Development of the Durban City Council,
1854-1904 A. C. Bjorkvig
Early history of Southern Natal M. E. Neethling
General Durnford A. Player
The Hlubi people in Natal to 1849 J. B. Wright
Langalibalele Rebellion A. Player
Mcupe Fort - Biggarsberg 1881 Mrs Sheila Henderson
Natal and the Union, 1918-1923 E. Haines
The Transformation of Natal society 1820­
1850 J. B. Wright
Die Verhouding tussen Natal en Transvaal,
1872-1888 J. R. J. Uys
Die Vestiging van Blankes in Zoeloeland
sedert 1902 M. van der Merwe
Mr. Ronald R. Butcher, Box 1004, Durban 4000, has in his possession the
Hunting Diaries of Dr Robert Briggs Struthers, who emigrated to Natal in
1849. He died in 1892. He was Collector of Excise, Berea, during the 1860s­
1880s. He hunted in Zululand and Tongaland in 1852-6. Information is
sought regarding his character and career and a photograph, if possible.

LIBRARY SCIENCE
Biblioteekdienste van Indiers met besondere
verwysing na die situasie in Natal M. C. Barnard

MAPS
Maps of Natal and Zululand, 1820 to the present C. E. Merrett

MUSIC SCIENCE
A Comparative study of music education
available in South Africa, with specific
52 Research
reference to Natal Province M. A. Ramsay
Teaching Western music to Indian primary
school children E. M. Lutge

ONOMATOLOGY
Ondersoek na die ontwikkeling van persoons­
naamgewing in die Afrikaanse gemeentes
van Durban E. D. Durand
Riglyne vir straatnaamgewing na aanleiding
van 'n diachromiese en sinchromiese onder­
soek in Natal G. V. Durow

PHILOSOPHY
A Comparative study of Bantu and European
proverbs and sayings ­ a dialectical study Z. P. de Beer
'n Ondersoek na die moontlikheid van 'n
Zoeloefilosofie C. S. de Beer

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
A Comparison of the level of performance of
White and Indian school boys in the Durban
area ... R. J. Kelder

PSYCHOLOGY
An Assessment of some group dynamics
amongst Zionist type of Zulu churches P. T. Sibaya
An Enquiry into the attitudes to school and
the study habits of Standard 7 Indian pupils
in the Greater Durban area B. J. Beck
A Comparative study of work attitudes of
African workers in centralised and border
industrial areas E. W. Motsepe
Copying the diagonal. Comparative data from
rural Zulu children A. M. Nzimande

TOWN AND REGIONAL PLANNING

Journey to work survey in the Momingside
community of Durban P. H. W. Johnston
Residential development in Durban in 1974 R. Dyer
Residential mobility of Whites in Durban J. L. Jones
Socio-economic survey of flat dwellers in the
central business district J. B. Mitchell
Study of Indian applicants for Council housing G. C. Carboni

Compiled by J. F ARRER
Reviews and Notices 53

Reviews and Book Notices

PEOPLE OF THE ELAND
Rock paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a reflection of their life and
thought. By PATRICIA VINNICOMBE. (Univ. of Natal Press, 1976) R63.00.
People of the Eland is aptly titled. It is not just another book about rock
paintings; it focuses our attention on the people who made the paintings and
explores the fascinating problem of what the paintings might have meant
to their original viewers.
Pat Vinnicombe, born and brought up in the Underberg district, has lived
in close proximity to the paintings: there is, indeed, an intriguing painted
shelter within yards of the Vinnicombe homestead. It is not, therefore, sur­
prising that she should have developed an interest in this art; but she soon
came to recognise that collecting tracings and photographs of the paintings
was not enough. The work would have to be tackled in a more systematic
way.
To accomplish this greater accuracy she developed a system of quantitative
recording that permitted her to make objective numerical statements about
the paintings. General impressions are not enough: verifiable facts should be
the basis for any serious study of the art. Using a system largely of her own
devising, she recorded the staggering total of 8478 individual paintings. Before
she started her work, thirty-two sites had been recorded in her research
area; by the end of her survey she had located 308 sites. It is on this firm
foundation that her attempts at interpretation of the paintings are based.
Before she leads the reader to consider this, the ultimate goal of the book,
she places the Bushmen of the southern Drakensberg in their ethnological
and historical background. The survey area is characterised by a large number
of paintings of domestic animals, including 558 horses. It was some of these
paintings that led her to a detailed study of the official and archival records
of the nineteenth century Bushmen's stock raids. From these records she was
able to trace in the field the routes taken by the fugitive Bushmen and their
pursuers. In some cases she found paintings depicting groups of mounted
Europeans, the details of which suggest that they might have been painted
by Bushman eyewitnesses.
Apart from the pattern of interaction between the Europeans and the
Bushmen, Miss Vinnicombe considers the meaning and motivation of the
art. It is this, the larger part of her book, that will give rise to some contro­
versy. In considering her work it is important that we distinguish between
principles and specific points of interpretation; it should be possible for us
to accept her approach to the paintings as entirely valid and still disagree
on specific points.
The basis of her approach is that the paintings were not simply an
aesthetic exercise, art for art's sake, but that they were associated with ritual
and expressed, as Bleek suggested a century ago, 'ideas which most deeply
moved the Bushman mind and filled it with religious feelings.' Miss Vinni­
54 Reviews and Notices
combe is able to demonstrate, from her quantitative research, that the paint­
ings do not reflect the daily pursuits and environment of the Bushmen, as
is commonly supposed: certain subjects are stres~ed while others, known to
have played a prominent part in the Bushmen's lives, are excluded. This
situation she interprets in terms of modern anthropological theory as
expounded by writers like Victor Turner and Radcliffe-Brown. In the light
of these views Miss Vinnicombe sees the painters' emphasis on and exclusion
of animal species as a reflection of a symbolic structure which gives expression
to social values and relations. The evidence which she adduces to support
this assessment of the rock paintings should convince those who have hitherto
been reluctant to abandon the traditional standpoints. This book should
establish once and for all an approach that is less naive than the one we
have come to expect in books on the South African rock art and should
place the study of our rock paintings on an equal footing with the work of
anthropologists in other parts of the world.
Working from the premise that the paintings are (to use Turner's definition
of ritual) 'a periodic restatement of the terms in which men of a particular
culture must interact if there is to be any kind of coherent social life', Miss
Vinnicombe examines what is known of the lore of the now-extinct painters
and also the work of contemporary social anthropologists in the Kalahari in
an endeavour to explicate the meaning of the art. It is to her credit that she
draws a careful distinction between the facts of the paintings as revealed by
her quantitative analysis and her speculations; the hypotheses, she admits,
will remain untested as the artists are no longer alive to answer our questions.
But this, she rightly maintains, is no reason to abandon the enquiry.
It is this section of the book that will provoke most reaction. As the title
of the book suggests, a great deal of attention is given to the eland, the most
frequently painted antelope. The eland, amongst other things, was, Miss
Vinnicombe claims, 'the medium through which the opposition of life and
death, of destruction and preservation, were resolved ... The eland was the
focus of the Bushman's deepest aesthetic feelings and of his highest moral
and intellectual speculations.' Whether one agrees with this interpretation and
the interpretation of other representations or not, is not of great consequence.
What is important is that Miss Vinnicombe has established a mode of dis­
cussing the paintings that will be difficult to discredit.
In accomplishing this significant contribution to the study of rock art, she
has placed before her readers a great many of her meticulous and often
exquisite tracings. The book contains over two hundred and fifty illustrations,
many of which are in full colour. This collection of paintings in itself forms
a notable contribution to our knowledge of the art.
D. LEWIS-WILLIAMS

CATHOLIC BEGINNINGS IN NATAL AND BEYOND

By J. B. BRAIN (T. W. Griggs & Co.) R15,00
This is an account of the Natal vicariate of the Catholic Church which was
established in 1850. Its boundaries were vast - the Tropic of Capricorn, the
Kalahari desert, and in the South the Orange and Kei rivers. The development
of the diocese is traced until its partition into more manageable proportions
The Southern Bushmen believed that their creator deity had a special relationship with eland, and that he was with them
as they lay dying. The curious creature with tusked snout, feathered arms and a tuffed tail which crouches at the eland's
hind leg may represent this special protecting spirit.
The hunter is painted in a slight recess in the rock. His head and part of of his bow are unfortunately missing through
exfoliation.
(See review: 'People oj the Eland' by Pat Vinnicombe)
This 16-boned corset of heavy grey cotton advertised in The Natal Mercury
of September 1891 was one of Izod's special 'Long Waisted Corsets',
highly regarded by women everywhere in South Africa. (See review:
'Fashion in South Africa. 1652-1900' by Daphne H. Strutt.)
Reviews and Notices 55
in 1885. The first Bishop, Allard, arrived in Durban in 1852 with a small
party of the missionary order of Oblates of Mary Immaculate. From the
beginning the energies of the missionaries were divided between serving the
scattered and small White Catholic population, and efforts at what was
considered their more important role, that of spreading the Gospel among
the African tribes. Details of these two ministries are given, firstly in the
difficult pioneering days under Bishop Allard, then during the period of
expansion in the first ten years of office of his successor Bishop Jolivet - who
had far greater resources in money, 2.nd particularly manpower.
New ground is broken in this book. Not only is it the first detailed work
on the Catholic Church in NatLll, but also the author draws from sources
hitherto untapped in the writing of Natal history, such as the Arch-diocesan
Archives of Durban and Cape Town, the Vatican Library, and the archives
of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Holy Family Sisters in Rome.
This is a scholarly work with an extensive bibliography and numerous
footnotes. It is well illustrated 'Nith both photographs and maps, and will
be appreciated by both the researcher and the general reader.
S.P.M.s.

FASHION iN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1900

An illustrated history of styles and materials for men, women and children,
with notes on footwear, hairdressing, accessories, and jewellery.
By DAPHNE H. STRUTT (BaIkema, 1975). R28,50.
In our last issue of Natalia we mentioned that this study of South African
costume over three centuries was about to appear. Now that it has come
into the bookshops we realise what an important work it is. It contains 411
pages, eight colour plates, hundreds of photographs and sketches, and took
six years of research and writing. Mrs. Strutt has traced the development
of costume in South Africa as it appears in early sketches and paintings and
as described in written or printed records such as letters, diaries, newspapers,
advertisements, etc. Naturally, fashions came from Europe in the first place
but as the South Africans spread and colonised from the Cape eastward and
their numbers increased by immigration and population growth, they
evolved styles in footwear, clothing, and headgear that were their own.
The veldschoen and the kappie are examples. The author shows, for instance,
how the kappie evolved from the plain white linen hood of the first Cape
women into a quilted decorative cap fit to be worn by the finest ladies. As a
cursory glance will reveal, this is not merely a picture book of costume but
a scholarly examination of the social dynamics of clothing. The Cavalier
poet Robert Herrick understood clothes very well:
Whenas in silks my Julia goes
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
On the other hand, Thomas Carlyle, that grim Scot, felt no great love for
clothes, as witness his bitter taunt against the aristocracy of his time­
"Idlers, game preservers, and mere human clothes-horses ..."
 56 Reviews and Notices
Despite Carlyle, clothes are among the most important things in life and
Mrs. Strutt has done well to make us reflect on their significance in human
affairs.

DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH USAGE IN SOUmERN AFRICA

Edited by D. R. BEETON and HELEN DORNER. (O.u.P. 1975) R3,70.
As English is the first language of most of the White and Indian inhabitants
of Natal, and the second language of most of the rest of the Province's
population, we may expect the recently-published Dictionary of English
Usage in Southern Africa to be welcomed and well-used in Natal. It is dis­
appointing, therefore, to find that the editors have dealt inadequately with
some Natal words and usages.
For a start, we believe that their explanation of the term Indians is so
inaccurate that it will give people in South Africa and overseas, a completely
false picture of this sector of our population.
The dictionary entry is quoted in full:
Indian
the majority of the Indians in S Afr are descendants of indentured
Hindu labourers brought fr India in 1860 to work for the sugar industry
in Natal: many of the descendants of these immigrants are today still
in the sugar industry, others have found employment as laundrymen,
market gardeners & waiters; many Hindu & Moslem Indians are
merchants & quite a number of these have settled in the Transvaal;
in Amer & Canadian E Indian = Red Indian, the Indian ff India is
referred to as an East Indian.
This account might have been largely true seventy or eighty years ago, but
to ignore the part played by Indians today in industry, commerce and the
professions is, to say the least, misleading.
We should have thought the fact that most Indians speak English as their
first language was worth mentioning, since this is undoubtedly one of the
factors affecting English usage in South Africa and contributing to the
emergence of a South African English that is different from, but not
necessarily inferior to, Standard British English.
The Dictionary lists hundreds of Afrikaans, Bantu, Hottentot and
Portuguese words for which there are no English equivalents and this liberal
borrowing from other languages is nothing to be ashamed of. It is surprising,
then, to find no mention of either sambals or samoosas, dishes which are
just as much part of the South African way of life as bi/tong and bredie.
A glaring example of the editors' lack of knowledge of Natal usages can
be found in the definition of togt boy. Again, we quote the entry in full:
togt boy
Afr in Natal who works in urban areas & is licensed as a labourer &
messenger; a badge & number indicate his status.
We have consulted a number of fellow-Natalians about this term and there
is unanimous rejection of this definition. Togt labour is universally under­
Reviews and Notices 57
stood in Natal as casual, daily labour, and the word probably comes from
the German, Tag meaning day.
The explanations of the terms K,vaZulu and Zulu are also unsatisfactory.
Anyone who looks at a map showing the boundaries of the homeland can
see that it includes more territory than the former Zululand. Similarly, to
define Zulu as an African tribe in north Natal . .. and as the language spoken
by these people is far too limited.
In his review of the Dictionary in the Times Literary Supplement (21 May
1976) Anthony Delius doubts the use of the term meter maid, questioning
whether 'a nation of angry and ruthless motorists would ever seriously call
a female traffic warden anything so sucrosely whimsical'. Here we find our­
selves at one with the editors of the Dictionary and in disagreement with
the reviewer. Generally, however, we share Delius' view that this publication
is a 'useful, rough beginning'.
We have been told that one cannot buy a ticket for the Pullman in the
Cape or Transvaal; there the S.A.R. officials will happily sell you a seat on
the railway bus. We would be interested to hear of other Natal words and
usages and readers' comments on the Dictionary.

THE BENT PINE

The trial of Chief Langalibalele. By NORMAN HERD
(Ra van Press, 1976). R6,95.
John Shedden Dobie, the Scottish traveller and expert on sheep, described
Langalibalele as a big pudding-headed beast - 'as like a king as any lout of
a porter'. Bishop Colenso, a friend and defender, saw him as a tall man in
good physical trim, 'with that dignity and grace in his actions which so
commonly, amid the most savage nations, proclaim the king'.
Langalibalele was also a distinguished rain-maker, a semi-sacred person
in tribal society. In addition he challenged the authority of Theophilus
Shepstone, the Diplomatic Agent for the native tribes, and that was an
unheard-of thing.
The results of the rebellion that came about in the Natal of 1873 were
manifold: Sir Benjamin Pine, the governor of Natal, was recalled by the
home government and never employed again; the friendly relationship
between Cetewayo and Shepstone was damaged; Bishop Colenso and his
strong-minded womenfolk entered black politics with a vengeance; Shep­
stone moved into the twilight phase of his great career, and so on.
A curse even rested on the disposal of the amaHlubi cattle confiscated
and auctioned off cheaply to the white farmers - they infected the herds
of their new owners with various diseases.
The trial of Langalibalele (chapter four in the book) as seen by the author
is a most interesting section. For the first time the average reader begins to
understand the carelessness and folly of Sir Benjamin Pine, governor of
Natal, in presiding as the judge in a trial conducted according to Native Law.
Yet Pine was a legal man himself and should have known the procedure.
For example, the accused was not allowed a defence lawyer until the third
day of the trial. Again, further evidence was led after the trial had reached
its end.
58 Reviews and Notices

All this was grist to Colenso's mill. He sent pamphlets and letters to the
home government, the newspapers, and influential public figures. It was a
publicity campaign mounted with an efficiency that could not be bettered
today.
It ruined Pine and some of his friends but it did not help Langalibalele ­
he served his sentence in prison-exile at the Cape for 13 years, returned to
Natal in 1887, and died in 1889. But some of the injustices done to the
amaHlubi tribe were annulled, thanks to Colenso and his friend Anthony
Durnford.
Mr. Norman Herd is a professional writer and consequently the book
has a narrative drive unusual in academic biographical writing. It is readable
to the last page. Considerable research has gone into the book and has been
used in trenchant style to illustrate the argument. Mr. Herd's skill in the
selection and arrangement of his material has given the work not only unity
but considerable impact. Illustrations arc unusually good and interesting.
The intriguing title refers to Pine's palpable injustice in handling the trial
of Langalibalele and in destroying the amaHlubi and their kindred­
neighbours the amaPutini.
J.C.

THE HiSTORIAN OF VICTORIAN NATAL

- ALAN FREDERICK HATfERSLEY

With the death of Professor Hattersley in July this year at the age of 83,
Natal has lost the doyen of its historians. For 60 years he lived in Natal
and of the 23 books which he wrote during this period most deal with its
history, particularly the British settlement.
He was born in Leeds of good Yorkshire stock in the year 1893. One of
his forebears, great-grandfather George Hattersley, was a manufacturer of
machinery and was commissioned to build a power loom in the early 1830s,
a dangerous time when the handloom weavers regarded the mechanisation
of their craft as certain ruin. The completed machine was transported from
Keighley to Bradford in a horse-drawn cart but never reached its destination,
for a gang of weavers with hammers and cudgels waylaid the cart, drove off
the carter, and smashed the machine to pieces. However, the Hattersley
firm continued the manufacture of looms and other textile machinery and
is still in existence today.
Alan Hattersley attended Leeds Grammar School, one of the great English
grammar schools, and came under Cyril Norwood, who taught him Latin.
Norwood was later knighted and became head of Harrow. In his final year
(1910) the young Hattersley carried off the Henderson history prize, three
volumes of Bishop Stubbs's Constitutional History of England, a highly
regarded work in its clay.

FIRST PUBLICATION
Thereafter he went to Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied
under a number of well-known professors of history. One of them was
J. Holland-Rose, an authority on Napoleon and Reader in Modern History.
The late Prof. A. F. Hattersley, well-known historian of the British settlement of Natal. He is looking at an oil-painting
of the ship Haidee which brought about 246 settlers to Na tal under the 1850 Boast emigration scheme. They settled at
York. The ship was later lost at sea.
(Photo: John Clark)
Reviews and lVotices 59
However, it was another tutor, G. E. Green, who suggested that Hattersley
should submit a rather good essay to a magazine called History edited by
H. F. B. Wheeler. The article, entitled The real position of the Duke of
Norfolk in 1529-30, appeared in the issue of October-December 1914, but
made little or no impact on a world more concerned with the outbreak of
World War I than with tile political career of Ann Bo1eyn's uncle. However,
it was his first published piece and no doubt played its part in obtaining his
first teaching post at Natal University College in 1916. Another success was
that he graduated with a double-first in history.
In lieu of something better to do, he had already started studying law at
Cambridge when the Natal post was offered, and so in April 1916 he sailed
for Durban to teach history. The entire staff of the College, situated in
Pietermaritzburg, consisted of ten people who ministered to 36 students.
It was not until the war ended that lecturers and students returned in a flood
to the College. In 1923, when the Chair of History and Political Science
was established, Alan Hattersley became the first head of that department,
a post he retained until his retirement in 1953.
One of the first things he did on arrival in Pietermaritzburg was to join
all available libraries. For a historian the Natal Society library was the
nearest and best. It contained useful items like the records of the Cape
Colony, the printed catalogues of the British Museum, the W. J. Irons letter­
book (1849-50), the Kit Bird collection of settler narratives (1896), Donald
Moodie's rare works, the Bishop Colenso collection of pamphlets and school
texts printed at Ekukanyeni, etc. There were files of the early Natal news­
papers rescued from the Colonial Office and runs of valuable periodicals
like Punch, the illustrated London News, the Graphic, Vanity Fair, etc.
Later on he was to discover hundreds of scarce volumes of Nataliana, books
by G. H. Mason, Charles Barter, George Russell, the Col en so daughters,
the Shepstones, Dr R. J. Mann, W. C. Holden, Aldin Grout, etc., etc., many
of which were to provide him with material for his work on the early
British settlers. Of vital importance, too, was the fact that the Natal Society
library is one of the five great copyright libraries of South Africa. By law a
copy of every book published in the Republic must be sent to these libraries.
This cherished privilege makes a library immensely useful to researchers,
students, and members of the public. All in all, Prof. Hattersley regarded
the Natal Society library as holding 'the most valuable collection of Nataliana
in the Republic'.

EARLY BOOKS
In due course his early books began to reach the public. One was his Short
History of Western Civilisation (Cambridge, 1926), which went into a
number of editions, also appearing in a Spanish edition and an American
reprint. As a textbook it had the largest sale during his lifetime of any of
his books. Gradually there followed More Annals of Natal (1936) and Later
Annals of Natal (1938) which were an extension in a much more interesting
and modern form of John Bird's Annals of Natal (1888). The second of
these books, the Later Annals, is scarce because the bulk of the edition was
destroyed during World War 11 when immense stocks of books stored in
60 Reviews and Notices
warehouses in Paternoster Row went up in flames after a German fire-bomb
raid. Only the consignment of Later Annals sent previously to Natal
survived.
Then followed Portrait of a Colony (1940), which is one of his best works
on Victorian Natal. That and Oliver the Spy (1959) were his favourite
pieces. \Vith these two books he knew that his own gift lay in the evocation
of the Victorian era. A book which cost him a great deal of labour and
expense Vias The British Settlement of Natal (1950) in which he drew
together threads of information concerning the individual settlers, the
emigration-schemes, the ships, the trades and skills which they brought, and
the contribution they made to the Colony in following years. In its fine
detail it is one of the best reference books for the student of Natal settler
history.
A great deal of the material for this book came from the professor's last
visit to Britain in 1947. It was a particularly bad winter, with the worst
snowstorms for many years, but be persisted in travelling by train and bus
to county record offices, parish churches, and local archives for details of
people who had emigrated in the late 1840s and 1850s. He had to read thick
files of provincial newspapers in order to trace references to people \vhose
origins were so humble that often only the briefest mention was made of
them. In speaking of this time, Prof. Hattersley said, "In fact, I should
think that historical research is sometimes very close to the work done by
the criminal investigation department".

AN OIL PAINTING
Two interesting things happened on this trip. First, he found a man who
had in his possession an oil-painting of the emigrant-ship Haidee. This was
the replacement vessel for the Pal/as which the Hull emigration-officer found
unseaworthy for the transportation of 246 settlers organised under a
co-operative scheme by Henry Boast and Benjamin Lund. The party arrived
safely in 1850 and settled in York, Natal. The professor bought the painting,
thus ensuring it for Natal.
The second discovery arose from a lecture on the York settlers which he
delivered at Beverley in the East Riding. A lady stayed behind to talk with
him about the passengers on the Haidee. Apparently her grandparents
emigrated with their four eldest children, leaving behind a child of two
years and a baby. They were brought up by relatives. The child of two was
the lady's mother. Bitterness arose in the family because of the abandon­
ment of the young children. The lady wanted to know why such a thing
had been done. The professor then explained that owing to the mortality
among very young children on the ships the authorities laid down the
condition that where there were more than four children in a family, those
under the age of fourteen were prohibited from accompanying their parents
until they were older. Measles, especially, was the cause of many deaths
among the youngest children. The lady was glad to have this explanation
- it helped a little in understanding what at first seemed a callous action.
For himself the professor felt cheered that his lectures on the 1850 emigra­
tion were still relevant in 1947.
Reviews and Notices 61
The capital city of Natal and its environs remained of great interest to
him - he dwelt there for 60 years - and in a number of books he docu­
mented its growth. Pietermaritzburg Panorama (1938), a centennial
publication, traced its history from the Voortrekker period and Portrait of a
City (1951) took the story up to recent times. In 1955 appeared A Hospital
Century: Grey's Hospital, Pietermaritzburg, an excellent account of the
foundation and growth of this great institution. He wrote Hilton Portrait
(1945), which was the first history of this famous boys' school, and also a
history of Merchiston School (1953) which will serve as a foundation for a
later and fuller account. The Victoria Club, too, was the subject of an
interesting monograph (1959). All of these works showed the writer's
careful research, familiarity with the period, and professional arrangement
of his material. In September 1972 the City of Pietermaritzburg recognised
the years of patient research that he had given to the writing of its history
and conferred on him the Freedom of the city.

HONOURED BY NATAL SOCIETY

Another honour came to him in connection with the Natal Society, the
121-years-old cultural institution to which he gave much of his time and
interest. He served on the council from 1926 to 1953 and was president
from 1930 to 1933. He was also vice-president from 1954 to 1976. In
November 1970 the council elected him first Fellow of the Natal Society,
an honour which particularly pleased him. It is believed that, according to
his wish, a part of his valuable library will be given to the Society, to be
kept separately as the Hattersley Collection.
His last work was An Illustrated Social History of South Africa, which
took many years to write. One difficulty here was the research and collection
of illustrations, since a great part of the book's value lay in meaningful
pictures, but with the help of the publisher and his own friends he was able
to gather enough good material to supplement the text. By this time, he was
gravely incapacitated in his walking.
The book, published by A. A. Balkema, appeared in 1969 and was
favourably received. It covers three centuries of South African social life.
On every page are facts that could only have been obtained during a lifetime
of historical study in books, diaries, letters, early newspapers, and other
sources. It would seem that as he read, he recorded in separate notes the
facts of everyday life at different periods. Over the years he must have
built up a considerable body of facts, with the idea that some day he would
incorporate them in a book. In due course he classified his notes so that
he could achieve a continuity of narrative. Thus it came about that he could
tell when water-closets were introduced, how the cricket bat evolved in
shape, how emigrants were treated by brutal ships' officers, and why young
men everywhere in South Africa dropped their work to go to the diamond
fields and the gold-diggings. It is indeed a great legacy of South African
social life that he has left behind.
But this is true of the majority of the books he has written. They are the
starting-point for scholars yet to come. Meticulously researched, they should
wear well, serving as signposts for future generations.
J.C.
62

Register of Societies and Institutions

Each of the previous issues of Natalia included a list of the numerous
organisations engaged in preservation, documentation, conservation and
research, and in the promotion of scientific, artistic and creative endeavour
in Natal.
This year it has been necessary to economise and the Editors have decided
not to publish the full Register; instead, we list only those bodies and
institutions which have notified us of changes in activities or the names and
addresses of office-bearers, and those which we have not recorded previously.
Our readers are asked to comment on this new policy, and to keep us
informed about amendments which should be included in the next issue.
From time to time a consolidated, up-to-date list will be published.

1. Astronomical Society of South Africa. (Natal Centre): Mr M. A. Gray,

Box 2704, Durban. (Midlands) c/o Mrs S. Dale, 17 Yalta Road, Pieter­
maritzburg.
2. Eshowe Historical Society. c/o Miss Estelle Gericke, P.O. Eshowe. This
is a new organisation, established in August this year.
3. Historical Association of S.A. (Natal Branch). Secretary: Mrs M. Smit,
c/o 4 Nicolai Crescent, Glenmore, Durban, 4001. Telephone 815168.
The Association offers a home to all who are interested in history.
Publications: "Historia" and "Historia Junior".
4. Maritzburg Philatelic Society. Chairman: Mr. J. S. Dominy, 5 Primula
Road, Pietermaritzburg, 3201.
5. Natal Historical Documents Project. Dept. of History and Political
Science, University of Natal, Durban. The aim of this project is to
locate and list family papers and other historical documents in private
hands. (See Notes and Queries p. 34)
6. Natal Performing Arts Council. P.O. Box 30086, Mayville, 4058. Tele­
phone 211385.
7. National Monuments Council. Natal representative: Mr G. A. Chadwick,
4 Nicolai Crescent, Glenmore, Durban, 4001. Telephone: 815168. The
Council's main function is to preserve the heritage of South Africa in
respect of: (a) geological features; (b) biological associations; (c) archaeo­
logical phenomena; (d) historical sites; (e) important buildings; (f) relics.
8. Railway Society of Southern Africa. (Pietermaritzburg Branchline).
Mr W. H. Bizley, c/o Dept. of English, University of Natal, P.O. Box
375, Pietermaritzburg, 3200.
9. South African Association for Marine Biological Research. 2 West Street,
Durban. The S.A.A.M.B.R. incorporates the Oceanographic Research
Institute, the Centenary Aquarium and the Dolphinarium.
Societies and Institutions 63
10. South African Military History Society. (Durban Branch). Secretary:
Mrs Tania van der Watt, P/B X 54310, Durban, 4000.
11. South African National Society. (Natal Branch). President: Mr T. M.
Downie; Chairman: Mr T. W. ElofI; Hon. Secretary: Mrs M. P. Reid;
Hon. Treasurer: Mr N. B. Page. Contributions to the Killie Campbell
Bursary Trust, (See Notes and Queries p. 34) should be sent to the
Hon. Treasurer.
12. South African War Graves Board. Secretary, 698 Church Street East,
Arcadia. Pretoria, 0083. Telephone 421656.
13. Tatham Art Callery. City Hall, Pietermaritzburg. Curator: Miss L. A.
Ferguson.
14. University of Natal. Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Many of the academic
departments of the University are engaged in research relating to the
natural and human resources of Natal, its environmental conditions and
its history. In addition to the academic departments, the following
research institutes are run by or in association with the University:
Centre for Applied Social Sciences (Durban); Medical Research Council
Institute for the Study of Disease in a Tropical Environment (Durban);
Oceanographic Research Institute (Durban); Sugar Milling Research
Institute (Durban); Wattle Research Institute (Pietermaritzburg). The
various libraries of the University and, in particular, the Killie Campbell
African Library, have large holdings of works relevant to Natal subjects.
15. University of Natal Archives. Pietermaritzburg and Durban. This is a
new organisation collecting documents, photographs, etc., relevant to
the University's own history and the achievements of its members.
16. Wilderness Leadership School. Chairman: Mr. M. MacKenzie, P.O. Box
15036 Bellair, 4006.
17. Wildlife Heritage Trust Fund. P.R.O. Mrs K. W. Hookins, clo Wildlife
Society, 100 Brand Road, Durban, 4001.
18. Wildlife Society of Southern Africa. (Natal Branch). Secretary: Mrs
Esme Siddall, 100 Brand Road, Durban, 4001. The monthly magazine,
'Natal Wildlife' contains a list of outings and activities.
M. P. MOBERLY
64

Select List of Recent Natal Publications

BALLANTINE, C. J. Music and society: the forgotten relationship: inaugural
lecture ... Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal Press, 1974.
BERGLUND, Axel-Ivar. Zulu thought-patterns and symbolism. Cape Town,
Philip, 1976.
BRAIN, J. B. Catholic beginnings in Natal and beyond. Durban, Griggs, 1975.
BROWNLEE, W. T. Reminiscences of a Transkeian. Pietermaritzburg, Shuter
and Shooter, 1975.
CHICK, J. K., and Johanson, S. K. English workshop (integrated English
studies for Stds. 9 and 10). Pietermaritzburg, Shuter and Shooter, 1975.
CHICK, J. K., and Johanson, S. K. English workshop (integrated English
studies for Stds. 9 and 10): (teacher'S manual). Pietermaritzburg, Shuter
and Shooter, 1975.
CILLIERS, H. S., and BENADE, M. L. Company law: practitioners edition;
1975 cumulative noter-up. Durban, Butterworths, 1975.
CLAASSEN, C. J., compiler. Dictionary of legal words and phrases; Vol. 1
(A-D). Durban, Butterworths, 1975.
DHLOMo, Oscar Dumisani. A Survey of some aspects of the educational
activities of the American Board of commissioners for foreign missions
in Natal as reflected in the history of Amanzimtoti Institute, 1835-1956.
Kwa-Dlangezwa, Univ. of Zululand, 1975.
DIEMONT, Marius, and Diemont, Joy. The Brenthurst Baines: a selection of
the works of Thomas Baines in the Oppenheimer collection, Johannesburg.
Johannesburg, Brenthurst Press, 1975.
DoDDS, David A. A Cradle of rivers: the Natal Drakensberg. Cape Town,
Purnell, 1975.
ELLISON, P. A., and others. The 'Poverty datum line' debate in South Africa:
an appraisal. Durban, Univ. of Natal, Dept. of Economics, 1975.
FEILDEN, Eliza Whigham. My African home; or, Bush life in Natal when a
young colony, 1852-7. New ed. Durban, T. W. Griggs, 1973.
GIBSON, Janet M. Wild flowers of Natal (coastal region). Durban, Natal
Publishing Trust Fund, 1975.
GLOVER, Michael. Rorke's drift: a Victorian epic. Cape Town, Purnell, 1975.
GREYLING, J. J. C. The Squatters' market. Univ. of Durban-Westville, Durban,
1976.
Recent publications 65
HARMS, Theo. The Loskop killer; and Who killed Kharwa?: a documentary
investigation, by John Lucey. Pietermaritzburg, Shuter and Shooter, 1975.
HUNTER, D. R. Geology in the next two decades. Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of
Natal Press, 1975.
HUNT, LEUCHARS AND HEPBURN LTD. Firm. 125 years of progress: 1850-1975.
(Durban), the Firm, 1975.
JEPPE, Barbara. Natal wild flowers. Johannesburg, Purnell, 1975.
JONES, B. M. Man must measure: inaugural lecture ... Pietermaritzburg,
Univ. of Natal Press, 1974.
JONES, Len. Natal coast fishing guide. 5th impr. (Congella, Jarvis pr., 1975.)
JOUBERT, G. R. Computers and the quality of life: inaugural lecture ...
Pietermaritzburg, Unlv. of Natal Press, 1974.
LEVERTON, B. J. T., and PRINGLE, J. A. The Pioneers of Vryheid. Pieter­
maritzburg. Natal Museum, 1974.
LUGG, H. C. Life under a Zulu shield. Pietermaritzburg, Shuter and Shooter,
1975.
NATAL. Town and regional planning commission. The Archaeology of the
Drakensberg region of Natal, by A. R. Willcox. Pietermaritzburg, the
Commission, 1975.
NATAL. Town alld regional planning commission. Your home in the Drakens­
berg. Pietermaritzburg, the Commission, 1975.
NATAL. University. Wattle research institute. Insect pests of wattle; No. 2:
the wattle bagworm. (Pietermaritzburg), the Institute, 1975.
NATAL. University. Wattle research institute. Insect pests of wattle; No. 4:
cutworms. (Pietermaritzburg), the Institute, 1975.
NDABA, Edward Philip. A Psycho-pedagogical study of differentiated
secondary education and its significance for education in KwaZulu. Kwa­
Dlangezwa, Univ. of Zululand, 1975.
NESER, L., compiler. Zulu ethnography: a classified bibliography. (Kwa­
Dlangezwa), Univ. of Zululand, 1976.
NGCONGWANE, S. D. The Influence of the traditional praise-poem on modern
Bantu poetry. (Kwa-Dlangezwa), Univ. of Zululand, Dept. of Bantu
Languages, (1975).
NrcHoLsoN, J. M., and others. Guided social studies; Std. 6. Pietermaritzburg,
Shutcr and Shooter, 1975.
OPERATION UPGRADE OF SOUTHERN AFRICA. Uhlu lwamagama asctshenziswa
kakhulu esizulwini. Durban, Operation Upgrade, 1974.
ORTON, R. D. No man is an island: inaugural lecture ... Pietermaritzburg,
Univ. of Natal Press, 1975.
66 Recent publications
PATON, Alan. Knocking on the door: shorter writings; selected and edited by
Colin Gardner. Cape Town, David Philip, 1975.
PLESSIS, 1. J. duo The Historical-critical method - its necessity and limita­
tions: inaugural address ... Kwa-Dlangezwa, Dniv. of Zululand, 1975.
PLESSIS, S. 1. M. duo Dialogue and bigotry: inaugural lecture ... Pietermaritz­
burg, Dniv. of Natal Press, 1975.
RAAD VIR GEESTESWETENSKAPLIKE NAVORSING. Instituut vir sosiologiese,
demografiese en kriminologiese navorsing. Sosio-ekonomiese opname van
Indiers in Natal; Deel 2: die gebruik van tabak en alkoholiese drank, deur
J. M. Lotter. Pretoria, die Raad, 1975.
RAAD VIR GEESTESWETENSKAPLIKE NAVORSING. Instituut vir sosiologiese,
demografiese en kriminologiese navorsing. Sosio-ekonomiese opname van
Indiers in Natal; Deel 3: werkloosheid by mans, deur J. M. Lotter en
G. H. J. Snyman. Pretoria, die Raad, 1975.
RAAD VIR GEESTESWETENSKAPLIKE NAVORSING. Instituut vir sosiologiese,
demografiese en kriminologiese navorsing. Sosio-ekonomiese opname van
Indiers in Natal; Deel 4: opvoedkundige peil en skoolbywoning, deur D. C.
Groenewald en H. J. Groenewald. Pretoria, die Raad, 1975.
ROODE. M. c., en Combrinck, C. Energie-inhoud van die Bentos en Epifauna
uit die Pongolarivier, Natal. Potchefstroom, Dniv. vir C.H.O., 1975.
SHARP, Gerald. The Siege of Ladysmith. Cape Town, Purnell, 1976.
SHAW, Charles Scott, compiler. Celebration of the 125th anniversary of the
arrival in Natal of the Rev. Charles Scott and his family, 28.9.1957:
(programme). (Adelaide, the Author, 1975.)
SLABBERT, F. van Zyl. Dse the freedom you have to work for the freedom
you want: the eighth E. G. Malherbe academic freedom lecture ... Durban,
Dniv. of Natal; Students' Representative Council; Academic Freedom
Committee, 1975.
SOUL, Teboho Victor. A Comparative study of rural and urban Africans on
their attitudes towards amagqira (witchdoctors) ... Fort Hare, Fort Hare
Univ., 1974.
SOUTH AFRICAN SUGAR ASSOCIATION. Experimental station. Mount Edge­
combe. Golden jubilee ... : commemorative brochure. (Mount Edgecombe),
the Association, 1975.
SUGDEN, M. A. Socio-economic conditions in Verulam. University of Durban­
Westville, Durban, 1976.
THEMBELA, Alexander Jabulani. A Socio-pedagogic description of some factors
which influence the quality of a didactic situation in urban and rural
African schools in Natal (a comparative study). (Kwa-Dlangezwa, Dniv.
of Zululand, 1975.)
TYSON, P. D., and others. The Climate of the Drakensberg. Pietermaritzburg,
Town and Regional Planning Commission, 1976.
Recent publications 67
VINNICOMBE, Patricia. People of the Eland: rock paintings of the Drakensberg
Bushmen as a reflection of their life and thought. Pietermaritzburg, Univ.
of Natal Press, 1976.
WERB, C. de B., and Wright, J. B., editors. The James Stuart archive of
recorded oral evidence relating to the history of the Zulu and neighbouring
peoples. Vol. 1, Pietermaritzburg, Univ. of Natal Press, 1976.
WHYTE, R. A. Preston. Climate and urban man: inaugural lecture ... Pieter­
maritzburg, Univ. of Natal Press, 1975.
WILKINSON, Mrs. A Lady's life and travels in Zululand ... Pretoria, State
Library, 1975.
Compiled by J. FARRER

CORRESPONDENCE

15th February, 1976.

Dear Sir,
Ref. 'Monkey Business' in NATALIA No. 5 of December 1975: there
used to be at least two large troops of baboons in the krantzes of the Small
Noodsberg and in the krantzes along the Umgegu River reaching to within
11- miles (2,4 km) from the village of Harburg. I hunted the baboons on
many occasions in the 1930s as they did a lot of damage to the ripening
mealies. In the late 1950s a European farmer of that area told me he had
seen a lone 'outcast' - a big chap - but I have had no reports of sightings
for the last ten years.
E. S. ERSKINE
Kingscliff Farm,
P.O. Glenside 3477,
via Dalton.
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 NATALIA No. 5

Contents
Page
EDITORIAL 5
UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT

From the Cape to Natal and back, 1846 7

REPRINT

The defence of Ekowe - Lieut. W. N. Lloyd . 15

ARTICLES

A one-time Mecca for ornithologists - P. A.

Clancey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Previous homes of the Natal Society Library ­
U. E. M. Judd ...... . 36
The Duke's People - Jean Nourse . . . . . . 39
SERIAL ARTICLE

The origins of the Natal Society: Chap. 4 1850-1851

Chap. 5 May. 1851
- U. E. M. Judd . . . . . . . . 42

INDEX

Prof. A. F. Hattersley's Portrait of a City - H. M.

Baudert . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
NOTES AND QUERIES

C. de B. Webb, M. P. Moberly . . . . . . . 59
REGISTER OF SOCIETIES AND INSTlTU110NS

M. P. Moberly . . . . . . . . . . . 69

REGIS1' ER OF RESEARCH ON NATAL

J. Farrer . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
SELECT LIST OF RECENT NATAL PUBLICATIONS

U. E. M. Judd . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

This page is sponsored by

ALOE BOOK AGENCY (PTY) LTD.,
P.O. Box 4349, Johannesburg, 2000
 UNIVERSITY OF NATAL PRESS

NEW PUBLICATIONS

The James Stuart Archive of recorded oral evidence relating

to the history of the Zulu and neighbouring peoples. Volume I.
Edited and translated by C. de B. Webb and j. B. Wright. 381 pp.
Full Cloth. R14,40. Killie Campbefl Africana Library Manuscript
Series No. 1. ISBN 0 86980 073 6.
This compHation of 'invaluable original source material contains
statements by 39 Zulu informants, recorded by James Stuart,
an official of the Natal Native Affairs Department, between the
late 1890sand early 1920s. The editors have translated into
English those passages originally recorded in Zulu, and have
provided comprehensive annotations and an 'index. Four further
volumes are planned.

People of the Eland by Patricia Vinnicombe.

388 pp., 253 illustrations, many in colour, 5 maps, tables, biblio­

graphy. 21,6 x 26,7 cm. Limited edition of 1000 numbered copies.

R63,00. ISBN 086980054 X.

The author recorded and analysed thousands of Bushman

paintings 'in the Southern Drakensberg. She demonstrates that
these are concerned not so much with the commonpl'ace,
material aspects of life, but with the deeper philosophies which
govern relationships between man and the world he lives in,
between man and man, and between man and the Creator
Spirit. In this, South African rock art is unique for there is
no comparable body of data on the thought-systems of hunter­
gatherer peoples anywhere in the world. Miss Vinnicombe's
conclusions are supported by the evidence of the numerous
paintings reproduced in the book, many of which have never
been published before.

Theoria. A Journal of studies ,in the Arts, Humanities and

Social Sciences. Published in May and October. Price R1,00.
Number 46 (May 1976) contains two articles of particular
Natal interest.

William Plo mer, soul of reticence, by Alan Paton

'Sabela Zulu': a Zulu praise-poem, by E. Mathabela and A. T. Cope.

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