(Nativity). The first attempt at settlement made by the Dutch about 1720 proved unsuccessful. In 1824 Captain Farewell and his twenty companions concluded a treaty with Chaka, King of the Amazulus, who had overrun the region during the first decade of the century, but in 1828 the English colony was broken up by Dingaan, the successor of Chaka. In 1835 Captain Gardiner obtained a concession of land from Dingaan and established himself with a number of missionaries at Durban. Two years later the Dutch of Cape Colony, who, in disgust with British rule, had set out in 1835 on their great trek northward, entered the confines of Natal. The first band of pioneers, numbering seventy-nine men under Pieter Maurits Retief, were treacherously murdered by Dingaan, but the tide of Boer immigration continued unchecked, the Zulu power was broken in a great battle on the Bloed River, December 16, 1838, and in 1839 the Republic of Natal was organized, comprising the districts of Pietermaritzburg, Weenen, and Durban. Great Britain, however, continued to regard the Afrikanders as her subjects, and annexed the Republic to Cape Colony in 1843. The greater part of the Boer population trekked westward and northward to found the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. In 1856 Natal was made an independent colony. In 1879 war was carried on against Cetewayo, King of the Zulus; his territory was overrun and occupied; and in 1897 Zululand was annexed to Natal. In 1881 the Transvaal Boers entered the extreme northwestern corner of the colony and defeated the British at Majuba Hill (q.v.). In 1899 and 1900 northern Natal was the scene of fierce fighting lietwcen tho British and the Boers. At Elandslaagte, Glencoe, and Ladysmith, and all along the line of the Tugela, the most obstinate and sanguinary battles of the war occurred.
Bibliography. Brooks, Natal: A History and Description of the Colony (London, 1887); Peace, Our Colony of Natal (ib., 1884); Bord, The Annals of Natal, 1495-1845 (Pietermaritzburg, 1888); Macnab, On Veldt and Farm (London, 1897); Ingram, Natalia: History of Natal and Zululand (London, 1897); Robinson, A Lifetime in South Africa (ib., 1900); Rowell, Natal and the Boers (ib., 1900); Russell, Natal, the Land and Its Story (6th ed., ib., 1900); Doyle, The Great Boer War (ib., 1900); Statistical Year Book of Natal (Pietermaritzburg); Kermode, Natal: Its Early History, Rise, Progress, and Future Prospects (London, 1882).
NATAL. The capital and chief port of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, situated on the Atlantic coast, 140 miles north of Pernambuco (Map: Brazil, K 5). The estuary which forms the harbor is obstructed by sand bars. Still the port is the chief outlet for the products of the State, and it exports cotton, leather, rubber, woods, and sugar. It is the seat of a United States consular agent. Population, about 6000.
NATALIE, nȧ′tȧ′lē̇′ (1859—). A Queen of Servia, the daughter of a Russian officer named Keshko. In 1875 she married Prince Milan, afterwards King of Servia, but their married life was unhappy, and in 1888 Milan procured a divorce. After King Milan's abdication in 1889 she returned to Belgrade and remained for some time with her son, King Alexander, but the National Assembly having requested her to leave the country in the interest of internal harmony, she withdrew in 1891, though with the masses of the people she enjoyed immense popularity, owing partly to her beauty. In 1893 she became reconciled to King Milan. In the following year she was restored by royal decree to all her rights as a member of the royal family, and in 1895 she returned to Belgrade and was received with great enthusiasm. Since then she has mainly lived in Biarritz, France. In 1902 she joined the Roman Catholic Church. After the assassination of her son Alexander, in 1903, she was forbidden to enter the Kingdom of Servia.
NA′TANT. A term in heraldry. See Naiant.
NATCHEZ, năch′ĕz (from their native name, Na'chi). An interesting tribe, constituting a distinct linguistic stock, originally residing in nine villages in the vicinity of the present city of Natchez, Miss., with a total population of perhaps 2500. Although comparatively a small tribe, they exercised a commanding influence from the Gulf to the Ohio. Their greatest religious rites were connected with the worship of the sun. They were sedentary and agricultural, expert basket-weavers and skillful potters, while their men bore a deserved reputation as proud and determined warriors. In 1716 they quarreled with the French, who had without their consent erected Fort Rosalie in their country. In 1722 a fight occurred at the post, in which several were killed on both sides. Other collisions followed, until the Natchez secretly organized a combination of several neighboring tribes to drive out the white intruders. On November 28, 1729, the Natchez fell upon the garrison and massacred two hundred men, only twenty escaping, besides making prisoners of all the women, children, and negro slaves. The war rapidly spread to the outlying settlements, but after a few weeks the Natchez, unable to oppose the French and their Indian allies, fled across the Mississippi and fortified themselves in stockade forts on Black River, La. Here they were attacked in January, 1731, by a strong French force, which succeeded in taking nearly 450 prisoners, the rest escaping during a storm at night. All the prisoners were sold as slaves in the West Indies. The remnant, made desperate by defeat, continued the war, but were obliged to give way before fresh Spanish reinforcements from the west. This ended the war, in which they had probably lost half their tribal population. The survivors took refuge with other tribes, some with the Chickasaw, others with the Creek and Cherokee. A part of them under the name of ‘Notchee’ even found their way to South Carolina and were incorporated with the Catawba.
NATCHEZ. A city and the county-seat of Adams County, Miss., 100 miles southwest of Jackson; on the Mississippi River, and on the New Orleans and Northwestern and the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley railroads (Map: Mississippi, C 7). It is built largely on a bluff, 200 feet above the river, the summit of which contains the most costly residences, and the base, or water front, the principal shipping and business houses. Among noteworthy features of the city are the fine Memorial Park, Fisk Library, Stanton College, Natchez Institute, Institute
