CHAPTER XIV.
NATAL.—HISTORY OF THE COLONY.
The little Colony of Natal has a special history of its own
quite distinct from that of the Cape Colony which cannot be
said to be its parent. In Australia, Queensland and Victoria
were, in compliance with their own demands, separated from
New South Wales. In South Africa the Transvaal Republic,—now
again under British rule,—and the Orange
Free State were sent into the world to shift for themselves
by the Mother Country. In these cases there is something
akin to the not unnatural severance of the adult son from
the home and the hands of his father. But Natal did not
spring into existence after this fashion and has owed nothing
to the fostering care of the Cape Colony. I will quote here
the commencing words of a pamphlet on the political condition
of Natal published in 1869, because they convey incidentally
a true statement of the causes which led to its colonization.
"The motives which induced the Imperial Government to
claim Natal from the Dutch African emigrants were not
merely philanthropic. The Dutch in their occupation of the
country had been involved in serious struggles with the
Zulus. The apprehension that these struggles might be
renewed and that the wave of disturbance might be carried
