HISTOEICAL SKETCH
 

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THE  COLONY  OE NATAL.
 

Natal lies upon the south-east coast of Africa,
in latitude 29 to 31 degrees. It derives its name,
Terra Natalis, from the fact of its having been
discovered by the Portuguese navigator, Vasco
di Gama, on Christmas-day, A.D. 1497. Its ^
extent of surface is about 18,000 square miles,
or just one-third of that of England and Wales.
The country may be described, generally, as
rising rapidly from the coast of the Indian
Ocean, in four distinct steps or terraces, each
about twenty miles in average width, and each
having its own peculiarity of soil and climate.
Along the coast the heat is greatest, and though
scarcely, in the height of summer, to be called
" tropical,^^ it is yet sufficient to allow of the
growth of cotton, sugar, 005*06, pine-apples, and
other productions of the tropics. There is a
good deal of woqdland and park-like scenery in
this region; but further inland, as the country
rises in elevation, the temperature is diminished,

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