Synopsis
The Emigrant's Guide To The Colony Of Natal. Illustrated With A Map by Robert James Mann provides a detailed 1860s-era handbook for prospective settlers in Natal, a British colony on the southeastern African coast. The work blends geography, climate, history, and practical guidance for immigration, land settlement, and agricultural enterprise. It opens with geographical position and physical features, then surveys rainfall, temperatures, and seasonal patterns that shape farming. It traces early Natal history, the aborigines, Dutch and English immigration, and the establishment of colonial governance, before turning to commercial progress, land policy, and government plans for immigration and homesteads. The volume offers actionable advice for new settlers—from making huts and cultivating maize to diversifying crops (coffee, arrow-root, tobacco, sugar-cane), breeding cattle and sheep, and constructing homes. It also describes voyage logistics, port procedures, and the realities of settler life, underscoring Natal as a destination for disciplined, self-reliant homesteaders and outlining the economic and social framework of the colony.
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