Durban

“ It gravels me to think what a goose I was to make Livy and Clara remain in Durban; but I wanted to save them the 30-hour railway trip to Johannesburg. And Durban and its climate and opulent foliage were so lovely, and the friends there were so choice and so hearty that I sacrificed myself in their interests, as I thought. It is just the beginning of winter, and although the days are hot, the nights are cool. But it's lovely weather in these regions, too; and the friends are as lovely as the weather, and Johannesburg and Pretoria are brimming with interest. ”

“ Even those of us who preferred quieter pleasures were not without companions, and I know of no more delightful journey in the whole world than a trip by tram-car to the Zoo or out along the Berea. Durban has certainly one of the most picturesque situations of any city in the world, and the art of man has been used with taste to reinforce nature: there are no homes in more delightful surroundings with lovelier shrubbery and gardens than here. ”

“ Durban, although not the capital, is the largest town in the colony, and is remarkable for the cosmopolitan character of its population, including considerable numbers of Zulu Kafirs, Hindus, Arabs, Chinese, English and other Europeans. The island of Salisbury in the bay is inhabited by over two hundred Hindus, who are almost exclusively engaged in the capture and curing of fish for the market of Durban. Other Hindus occupied with gardening supply the city and neighbour- hood with fruits and vegetables. ”

“ From its situation and the character of its buildings Durban is one of the finest cities in South Africa. The climate is generally hot and humid, but not unhealthy. Although nearly half the citizens are British, the large number of Indians engaged in every kind of work gives to Durban an oriental aspect possessed by no other town in South Africa. The town is built on the E. side of a bay (Durban Bay or Bay of Natal) , the entrance to which is marked on the west by a bold cliff, the Bluff, whose summit is 195 ft. above the sea, and on the east by a low sandy spit called the Point. ”

“ A man of Chinese nationality, who had been thirteen years in the Colony, was refused a licence for no other reason, I am convinced, than because he was a Chinaman. The statistics of Durban show that the town has more than doubled in extent and population within the past ten years; and’ yet, this man who had linked his fortunes with the Colony, a man of unblemished character—who arrived when there were only about 40 human beings for every 100 there are today—this man’s character and long residence were ignored, and a means of earning an honest living in Durban was denied him. ”

“ There is, however, good reason to hope that the bar difficulties may ultimately be overcome, as they have already been greatly reduced: and the harbour, once you are within it, is perfectly sheltered.
Durban is a neat and, in some parts, even handsome town, incomparably superior to Lourenço Marques, with wide and well-kept streets, to which the use of slender jinrickshas (drawn by active Zulus or Indians) instead of cabs, as well as the number of white-clad coolies in the streets, gives a curious Eastern touch, in keeping with the semi-tropical vegetation. ”

“ I am bound to say that on leaving Durban I felt that I had visited a place at which the settlers had done the very utmost for themselves and had fought bravely and successfully with the difficulties which always beset new comers into strange lands. I wish the town and the sugar growers of its neighbourhood every success,—merely suggesting to them that in a few years’ time a Zulu may become quite as handy at making sugar as a Coolie. ”

“ With a population of a hundred thousand, Durban is the chief seaport of South Africa. Located on the Indian Ocean, it is known also as Port Natal. Among the inhabitants, colored people of varied races comprise two-thirds of the population. With the native black there is the Indian, or Hindu, Arabs, Malays and half-castes from islands located near the East African coast. The phrase "Darkest Africa" is even more emphasized by the presence of the dark races that are not natives of the country. ”

“ The only considerable indentation is at Durban, about two-thirds of the distance from the Umtamvuna to the Tugela, where there is a wide and shallow bay, covering with its islands nearly 8 sq. m. The coast, though low and sandy in places, is for the most part rocky and dangerous. The warm Mozambique current sweeps down from the N.E., setting up a back drift close in shore. The southern entrance to Durban harbour is marked by a bold bluff, the Bluff of Natal, which is 250 ft. ”

“ It would probably be difficult to find a single commercial house of any standing in Durban which has not scores of Indians as “clients”. The coolie “farmer” is encouraged and maintained by the Europeans in two ways: he has to rent or buy his land from the original European possessor, and his products are, for the most part, consumed in the European households. If it were not for the coolie marketgardeners and hawkers, the people of Durban (and other parts of the Colony) would find themselves very badly off for many kitchen requisites. ”

“ They trotted off smartly, lest their passengers should discover that they had paid double fare and take steps of vengeance.
The hotel was cool and spacious, with big rooms and wide verandahs. Norah’s window looked out upon the sea, stretching to the misty horizon over which they had come. Beneath her, the life of the beach surged. War, people said, had made Durban quiet; few of the up-country settlers had followed their usual custom of coming down for the bathing, since most of the men were fighting, and every one else was busy guarding property. ”

“ The population of Durban is a little in excess of that of the capital of the Colony, the one town running the other very close. They each have something above 4,000 white inhabitants, and something above half that number of coloured people. In regard to the latter there must I think be much uncertainty as they fluctuate greatly and live, many of them, nobody quite knows where. They are in fact beyond the power of accurate counting, and can only be computed. ”

“ The sunny prospect of a triumphal procession to Pretoria which had been still in men's minds at Durban had vanished altogether. In rather less than a fortnight of stubborn fighting we had displayed a strategy that was flighty rather than brilliant, and lost a whole battery of guns and nearly twelve hundred prisoners. ”

“ Pieter Maritzburg is about 55 miles from Durban, and there are two public conveyances running daily. The mail cart starts in the morning, and what is called a Cobb’s coach follows at noon. I chose the latter as it travels somewhat faster than the other and reaches its destination in time for dinner. The troubles of the long road before me,—from Durban through Natal and the Transvaal to Pretoria, the Diamond Fields, Bloemfontein—the capital of the Orange Free State,—and thence back through the Cape Colony to Capetown were already beginning to lie heavy on my mind. ”

“ History.—The early history of Durban is closely identified with that of the colony of Natal. The first permanent settlement by white men in the bay was made by Englishmen in 1824, when Lieutenant F. G. Farewell, R.N., and about ten companions went thither from Cape Town in the brig “Salisbury,” from which circumstance the island in the bay gets its name. In 1835 a township was laid out and the colonists gave it the name of D’Urban, in honour of Sir Benjamin D’Urban, then governor of Cape Colony. ”

“ Almost every man in Durban has signed signifying his intention to prevent those on board your ship and the Naderi landing in the Colony, and we are most desirous there should, if possible, be avoided a conflict between the men of Durban and your passengers which will most assuredly happen if they attempt to land. As your passengers are ignorant of the state of feeling, and have come here in ignorance, and we have it from the Attorney-General that if your people are willing to return to India, the Colony will pay the expense. ”

“ And then at last comes Durban, and I am surrounded with war activities and what was sinister has vanished in the wholesomeness of sacrifice and strenuous work.
To hundreds here war work has become their daily life. The town is always full of soldiers—Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans—coming and going. ”

“ In Durban, as in Pieter Maritzburg, every thing is done by the Zulus,—or by other coloured people;—and when anything has to be done there is always a Zulu boy to do it. Nothing of manual work seems ever to be done by an European. The stranger would thus be led to believe that the coloured population is greater than the white. But Durban is a sea port town requiring{278} many clerks and having no manufactures. Clerks are generally white, as are also the attendants in the shops. It is not till the traveller gets further up the country that he finds a Hottentot selling him a pockethandkerchief. ”

“ If Durban wishes autonomy, Durban will get it for the asking; but its people cannot expect the British Isles to countenance illegal action, or encourage unconstitutional agitation. —Digger’s News, 12th January, 1897. The Natalians appear now to have lost their heads; and in their hysterical indignation have become desperate and contemplate violence against the much-maligned ‘coolie’. A demonstration has been organized, headed by a local butcher, and the whole town and Colony has taken up the hue and cry. ”

“ Durban has become a beautiful, well managed and growing town of 30,000 people—half natives and coolies from India—while Pietermaritzburg is a small but pleasant capital with a cultivated society and agreeable natural surroundings. The population of the Colony includes nearly half a million Zulus, who are increasing in number by leaps and bounds; 50,000 immigrants from India of the coolie and artisan type, with an intermixture of Mohammedan traders from Bombay or Zanzibar who conduct a prosperous retail business with the natives ”

“ A man from Umzimkulu, and men from other districts outside Durban, got such certificates at Durban. The question was fully argued before Mr. Walter before such certificates were ordered to be issued.
There is absolutely no foundation for the fear that the Indians who land at Delagoa Bay enter the Colony in defiance of the law. I will not take it upon myself to say that not one new arrival has attempted to cross the border at Charlestown, but, so far as I know, not one has yet successfully escaped the eagle eye of Sergt. Allan, at Charlestown. ”

“ The danger for Natal was great. Captain Percy Scott of the Terrible landed with a large number of guns and bluejackets to defend Durban; works were erected at Pietermaritzburg, the capital of the Colony, and volunteer forces were raised with all possible expedition. The Imperial Infantry Corps, 1,000 strong, was enrolled at Durban and Pietermaritzburg; Murray's Mounted Volunteers, Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry, the Umvoti Mounted Volunteers, and the Durban Light Infantry were among the other regiments raised by the Colony. ”

“ Pretoria is about 450 miles from Durban, which at present is the seaport it uses, and the road to Durban is but half made and unbridged. The traffic is by oxen, and oxen cannot travel in dry weather because there is no grass for them to eat. They often cannot travel in wet weather because the rivers are impassable and the mud is overwhelming. If any country ever wanted a Railway it is the Transvaal.
But whence shall the money come? Pretoria is about 300 miles distant from the excellent Portuguese harbour at Delagoa Bay, and it was to this outlet that President Burgers looked. ”

“ Durban is not east of Suez, being situated on nearly the same great circle; but the Durbanites seem to enter into the category of those among whom ‘there aint no ten commandments’, to say nothing of the Imperial Statute-book. It is not a method of civilized men to bring about reform by shooting one another in the streets. If the principles of economy are too hard for them, let them at least sail inside the law, which will be found a better friend than rioting, and the ‘thousand armed men’, that one imaginative agitator conjured up. ”

“ Nature has divided that part of Africa lying south of the Zambesi River into three distinct and well-defined regions. A strip of lowland skirts the coast of the Indian Ocean all the way from Cape Town around to Natal, Delagoa Bay and still northeast to the mouths of the Zambesi. Between Durban, the principal port of Natal, and Cape Town this strip is very narrow in places—the hills coming down almost to the margin of the sea. Beyond Durban, to the northeast, the low plain grows wider. ”

“ In 1842, however, a British military force reoccupied Durban, and on the 15th of July of that year a treaty was signed in which the Dutch recognized British sovereignty (see further Natal: History) . From that date Durban, though not the seat of government, became the principal town in Natal. In 1850 there were 500 white inhabitants, and in 1853 the town was granted municipal government. The first mayor was Mr George Cato (c. 1810-1893) , one of the earliest settlers in Natal. In 1860 a railway from the Point to the town, the first railway in South Africa, was opened. ”

“ The while English faces suggested pleasant reminiscences of the little island across the sea. It would be difficult to imagine a more lovely spot than Durban, or more hospitable people than his citizens. But, apparently, there was no welcome for an Indian. Evidences of a radical difference of treatment between white and coloured people startled the new arrival, and cut him to the quick.
He himself was a high-caste Hindu, the child of an ancient and noble race. ”

“ No doubt the Boers have spies at Durban, and we might have difficulty in hiring a craft to take us to St. Lucia, and our starting with horses and five or six natives would be safe to attract the attention of someone looking out for news to send to the Boers. I think the best plan will be to keep a little to the east of the road to Greytown, where no doubt there are some Dutch, and strike the road that runs from there to Eshowe. A little west of Krantzkop there must be either a drift or a bridge or a ferry where it crosses the Tugela. ”