PORT NATAL AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Established 18th April, 1848. Patron, His Honor the Lieutenant Governor. President, E. Morewood, esq. Vice Presidents, P. J. Jung, esq., Hyp. Jargal, esq. Treasurer, J. A. Ross, esq. Secretaries, The Hon. W. Stranger, esq. M.D., J. Tunner, esq. R. Clarence, esq., J. M. Cockburn, esq. and Jas. Proudfoot, esq. Committee, G. C. Cato, esq., At a Meeting held at D'Urban on the 14th inst., the sum of Fifty Pounds was voted for Premiums for Field and Garden Products, &c.; the Exhibitions to take place, and the Prices to be awarded in the year 1850. The Committee is preparing, and will shortly publish the List of Premiums. John Turner, Secretary. December 18th, 1848. NATAL FIRE ASSURANCE AND TRUST COMPANY. Capital £10,000. Established 11th April, 1849. Board of Directors :-The Hon. D. Moodie, esq., Chairman, P. J. Jung, esq. Auditors,-J. Henderson, esq., A. J. de Knock, esq. Secretary, C. Behrens. Special Insurances according to the nature of the Risks. Losses occasioned by Lightning will be paid. ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES, OR OTHER PROPERTY IN TRUST. This Branch of the Establishment embraces the Administration and Management of the Property of Deceased or Insolvent Persons, of Minors, Lunatics, Absentees, or others. Office, No. 22, C., Church-street, next door to Mr. Van Zweel's Dispensary. Office hours from 8 to 10, a. m., and from 4 to 6, p.m. C. Behrens, Secretary. This Company is the prelude to a Bank. DISCOVERY AND DOUBLING OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. THE following information, now generally offered to the British emigrating public, was intended to be supplied to His Excellency, the Chevalier Bunsen, Ambassador from Prussia, to the Court of St. James; who aware of my intention of visiting Natal, and being desirous of promoting emigration to other countries, besides America, which is not liked by all Germans, requested me to report to him the nature of the country. And in order that the advantages and future importance of this colony may not appear to be an exaggeration of its true merits, I will draw from the records of those who had no mercenary object in view, commencing at a very early period. It is generally supposed that the Cape of Good Hope was first doubled by the Portuguese; Vasco da Gama getting the credit of it. If the moderns will monopolize the credit of all discoveries, and allow none to the ancients, to the Portuguese belongs the honor of discovering the Cape, and of passing on to India, &c. But long antecedent to Portugal being thought of, there was such a people as the Egyptians. We must not measure the importance of that country by its present condition; Egypt has fallen as much as Rome. It was formerly a magnificent kingdom, where the arts, learning and commerce held their chief seat. A series of powerful and wise monarchs governed the country, and developed its resources. Pharaoh-necho contended successfully with the great Assyrian empire, and the Jews: upon which occasion Josiah, king of the latter, was slain. This was 620 years before Christ. Three successive kings were also subject to him, and paid him tribute. Of this king, Herodotus, the Greek historian, gives the following account: "The first person who proved that Libya, (that is Africa,) was surrounded by the sea, was Necho, king of Egypt. When he had desisted from his attempt to join, by a canal, the Nile with the Arabian Gulf, (in which work, two hundred thousand men were killed ;) he dispatched some vessels, (three hundred,) under the conduct of Phoenicians, with directions to pass by the Columns of Hercules, and after penetrating the Northern Ocean to return to Egypt. These Phoenicians, taking their course from the Red Sea, entered into the Southern Ocean; on the approach of Autumn, they landed in Libya, and planted some corn in the place where they happened to find themselves, When this was ripe, and they had cut it down, they again departed. Having thus consumed two years, they in the third doubled the columns of Hercules and returned to Egypt. Thus was Libya (Africa,) for the first time known," or circumnavigated. If it is at all useful or interesting to endeavour to trace the origin of nations, this voyage should not be forgotten. This immense fleet dropping down the coast from Ezion Geber, formerly a navy yard of Solomon's, passed Aden, Zanzibar and the Mozambique coast. Part of the fleet went to the Island of Madagascar, and then steering along the main land, they called in for water, and to cultivate corn for the next voyage. It is barely possible in doing so, that they should have passed the best harbor on the coast, Port Natal. During these sojourns on the coast, it is to be expected that a little both of the Greek and of the Egyptian character would be stamped in the next generation. Many also probably remained there. Out of three hundred fragile vessels, many must have been wrecked, and the crews in such case would probably become settlers in the country. Thus may the inhabitants of this line of coast have been indebted for their fine forms and intelligent noble countenances to this Egyptian expedition. After Natal, sailing south west, the expedition would reach Algoa Bay, the county of George, and lastly, Table Bay. Pharaoh Necho's object was discovery, and from Table Bay, the fleet, after getting and rearing a good supply of food, again set sail; encountered the broad Atlantic Ocean, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, and thus reached Alexandria. The honor, therefore, of first passing the Cape belongs to Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, otherwise called Ptolemy Philadelphus, and not to the Portuguese. SUCCESSIVE ACCOUNTS OF NATAL. In the year 1498, the illustrious Vasco de Gama, who transferred the rich commerce of the East from princely Venice to enterprising Portugal, visited the coasts of Southern Africa, on his way to India, and passing the object of our present notice, upon Christmas-day, gave to it the name it has ever since borne, in honour of the nativity of our Saviour, His Natal day. This day God came by human birth, Perestrello, a Portuguese navigator, sent by king Sebastian to explore the coasts and countries in Southern Africa, sailed from Mozambique on the 22nd November, 1575, taking the southern course, and arrived at Table Bay on the 28th January, 1576. "The first point is Of Natal, in his dispatch to the king, he thus writes :— in lat. 32. It stretches north-easterly to the third point, and occupies towards the north-east quarter north, about forty-five leagues. It may be known by a huge point of rock; and, four or five leagues from the sea, the country is covered entirely with large trees. When this point is in the north-west, three round little hills are seen about it, and one league beyond to the north-east, there is a wood which reaches to the sea. The summit of the ridge of hills is undulated, and we remarked a space without a wood, and thee others larger than the preceding. "The whole of the Natal coast is bold, with occasional sandy spots between the rocks and reefs; but none of these capable of admitting large vessels. The sea is deep, and the waters clear. There is only one little islet near the land. In the distance are seen undulating mountains, adorned with verdure and rugged. It abounds in trees; amongst them we found the wild olive; in the valleys, and on the borders of rivers, mint and beril, and other European plants. The soil is rich, and a great part is fit for cultivation, consequently, the country is populous and well stocked with animals both tame and wlld. Of this character is the coast to the last point, which is in lat. 30, distant twelve leagues from point Pescadores. In "This point of the country of Natal may be known by being not very bold, with clayey lands towards the west, and downs of sand towards the sea. coasting it, it appears to run east-north-east and west-south-west, which I remark, because Natal presents three points, viz., the two of which I have spoken, and another almost in the middle of these, and the coast runs along, forming little bays, till it reaches the two first points." The navigator, Dampier, has preserved a very interesting, and somewhat detailed description of the country and inhabitants, their manners and customs, &c., derived from his friend, Captain Rogers, who visited Natal several times about the year 1684. The country of Natal takes up about 3° and a-half lat. from north to south, lying between the lat. of 31. 30s. and 28°. south. It is bounded on the south by a small nation of savage people, called by the English, wild Bush men, that live in caves and in holes of rocks, and have no other houses but such as are formed by nature. They are of low stature, tawny coloured, with crisped hair. They are accounted very cruel by their enemies. Their weapons are bows and poisoned arrows. These people have, for their neighbours in the south, the Hottentots. Dela Goa is a navigable river in lat. 28, south, that bounds Natal on the north. The inhabitants of this river have a commerce with the Portuguese of Mozambique, who often visit them in small barks, and trade there for elephants' teeth, of which they have great plenty. Some English, too, have been lately there, to purchase teeth, particularly Captain Freak, who, after he had been in the river of Dela Goa and purchased eight or ten tons of teeth, lost his ship on a rock, near Madagascar. The country of Natal lies open to the Indian sea on the east, but how far back it runs to the westward is not yet known. "That part of the country which respects the sea is plain, champain, and woody; but within land it appears more uneven, by reason of many hills, which rise in unequal heights above each other. Yet it is interlaced with pleasant valleys and large plains, and it is chequered with natural groves and savannahs. Neither is there any want of water, for every hill affords little brooks, which glide down several ways; some of which, after several turnings and windings, meet by degrees, and make up the river of Natal, which dischargeth itself into the East Indian ocean, in lat. 30°. south. There it opens pretty wide, and is deep enough for small vessels* But at the mouth of the river is a bar, which has not above ten or eleven feet of water on it in a spring tide, though within there is water enough. This river is the principal of the country of Natal, and has been lately (1684) frequented by some of our English ships, particularly by a small vessel that Captain Rogers (formerly mentioned,) commanded. “There are also other streams and rivers which bend their courses northerly, especially one of a considerable size, about one hundred miles within land, and which runs due north. The woods are composed of divers sorts of trees, many of them are very * In 1845, an American vessel of 300 tons, and a Swede, of 400 tons, passed over the bar, and traded; and in 1849, the Gualior, 495 tons, carrying emigrants, did the same, and then loaded cattle for Mauritius. |