"It is a land of perpetual greenness," Mr. Melville Chater declares in this next National Geographic Magazine article. "Whether you approach it from mountain, plain or sea - be it even in winter, when much of the Union's landscape is yellow and sere - you feel as if you were entering some embowered oasis of sylvan depths and tinkling streams" ("Natal: The Garden Province," April, 1931, p. 446).
Remember Vasco da Gama, the discoverer of South Africa? He sighted this land on Christmas Day, 1497, and announced, "Let us name it for this, the Natal Day of our Lord" (p. 446).
The province of Natal lies on the east coast of South Africa. The Drakensberg Mountains, 12,000 feet tall, separate Natal from Basutoland and Orange Free State. Some of the cities are Durban, Johannesburg, Grahamstown, and Pietermaritzburg.
Bantas (blacks) and Asiatics outnumbered the Europeans by 8 to 1 in 1931. The province's natives, the Zulu tribes, were confined to remote reservations similar to the experience of the Native Americans. The Zulus preferred to live according to their ancient traditions in round huts.
When emancipation of slaves occurred in 1860, Indian coolies were imported to work on the sugar cane plantations. The author witnessed and Indian fire-walking ceremony. "The heat is so terrific that the spectators must shelter their faces from it; yet the devotee will come through the ordeal without a blister" (p, 475).
In addition to sugar, other important Natal products are bananas, chrome, coal, and gold mining, and wool. There is a beautiful 15-page section of color photos showing the plentiful and varied flowers in Natal. On the coast is based a whaling trade.
The trip through the South African province of Natal seemed more like a vacation than a job to Mr. Chater.
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