The Sun.
London, England, 1825-08-11 00:00:00

AN AFRICAN CITY.

Three naval officers and a party of the Andro
macho's men,- in the 'York tender, visited tha
enterprising officer, Lieutenant FAREWELL, lt.N
and party, at the third point Natal, commonly
Called Port Natal. Chaca, King of that part of
the eastern coast of Africa, had given Lieutenant
Farewell a grant of the harbour .and territory
surrounding, demonstrated every civility.aod at-
tention, frequently soliciting Lieut. Farewell to
visit his hutted cry, distance about two days'
walk from the coast. Chaca's force about him
consists of from 1,3,000 to 15,000 well-made fine
young men, who are in a state of perfect nudity,
and hardly one of them but appears to have been
' wounded. Their instrument of warfare is simply
a shield and spear, of a larger size than are used
by other clans, and only one of each is permitted
to each warrior ; if in action a man returns with-
out either, he is instantly put to death. Their
mode of fighting, therefore, differs in some mea-
sure from the rest of :the savage tribes in
Africa, since with 'this shield they dexterously
avoid the thrown arrows of their enemies,
whose practice is to carry numbers, and then
rush in. Chaca's marauding routs and attacks
are generally nocturnal. The kraaled city is
situated on a hill, the foot is walled in with a
composition of manure, clay, and earth, which
cements and beComes durable. The huts re-
semble bee-hives, with no other aperture than the
One to creep in at, differing widely from those of
their opposite neighbours, the Madagasses,,whose
are constructed of bamboo and palm-leaves, a
floor risen. something from the earth, and mats to
repose upon. Chaca is a well-made man, and
above the common stature of his subjects ; he
does not allow of a plurality of wives, gives to
each as he thinks fit, one ; none dare ask—none
dare seek another. his own concubines are
numerous hitherto, so soon as they prove preg-
nant they are put to death, saying that he is too
young to have children now, though he is between
30 and 40 years old ; but soexceedingly averse is he
to an overgrown population, that lie frequently
orders the infants of those whom he has united
.by his own mandate to be destroyed. When his
subjects do not approach him with the bow
and toss of the hand (the accustomed ceremony
in his presence), or appear to be seeking other
wives, nay—for numerous other minor offences,
he orders them instantly to be speared to death.
The deaths of those unfortunate subjects since
Lieutenant Farewell has been at Natal, average
at least fifty a week. There has not been dis-
covered or heard of, from the commencement
of the Caffre country on the frontiers of Cape
Colony, taking the whole extent of the coast
to the third degree of south latitude, so con-
summate, cruel, and perfect a tyrant. So
extraordinary was the appearance of that
noble animal the horse to Chaca and 'his tribe,
that when Lieutenant Farewell first arrived
among them, and Chaca sac the horse gallop,
mounted, he offered and actually gave Lieutenant
Farewell six live bullocks to gallop him again.
He holds the animal in the greatest terror and
fear, nor could he be reconciled to approaA it.
He has an abundance of bullocks, and to prevent
their destruction, from the intrusion Of the nume-
rous quadrupeds, they are kraaled in every night.
Since our enterprising countryman had been at
Port Natal, Chaca has established two kraals on a
rising ground, commanding a view of Lieutenant
Farewell's location, containing about fifty blacks
(as Chaca says), for the purpose of protecting
him. Much it is feared,. although this officer is
at present a favoured participant of his grant and
attention, that these blacks will be ordered to
' embrace an unengaged moment, and himself fall
a victim to the blood-thirsty appetite of this bar-
barian. Lieutenant Farewell, while bartering
for ivory, is also employed in fortifying himself,
having already completed a wall eleven feet high,
trenched without, and mounted on. it four four-
pounders ; and is erecting a house in the centre,
of the materials of- the country, manure, clay, and
earth; his party now consists at Port Natal of
two Englishmen and four Hottentots. There is
allot her enterprising young man of the name of
Flynn in the service of Lieutenant Farewell
about 30 miles from Port Natal. The natives
seem much attached to him. He has adopted the
custom of the country by going naked, except a
piece of cloth round his waist down to the knees,
and is qualifying his skin to the lubricity of the
natives : he is also collecting ivory. Chaca says he
is going into the interior, for some moons, to
destroy a nation—that when he returns, he will
proceed in the direction of Delagoa Bay, then he
will return, and slay all before him, till he meets
the " White King," pointing in the direction of
our Cape Colony, as hepbserves, he knows there
is a white King, and there shall be but one white
King and one black King. He will, however,
find a powerful enemy in Gaika, King of the
Cafires. The vessel Julia, which left Port Natal
last December, with ivory, obtained in barter for
beads and Dungaree, with eleven of the settlers
returning to the Cape, had not been heard of.—
Lieutenant Farewell having been without a com-
municatioo for some time, and having made him-
self proficient in the language, had requested, and
Chaca had allowed him, a party, with one of
Lieutenant Farewell's men, to traverse an im-
mense country, crossing the territories of Chief
Macusama and Samba, who are under subjection
to him, and possessing the country near to the
banks of Delagoa Bay, to intimate to such En-
glish vessels as might be there his exact situation.
The last accounts from the remainder of Lieu-
tenant Farewell's party are of the 25th of May
well.

Tiie country above Natal is beautiful, without
the necessity of any artificial aid to assist nature
—nay, the eastern coast of Africa is almost
Paradisaical—i.he foliage rich and green, grass
thick, high, and rich, interspersed with
pictu-
resque woods, abounding with game ; climate sa-
lubrious ; not one even of Lieutenant Farewell's
original party was ever sick ; and, from the trial
and appearance of the soil, proves admirably
adapted for the reception of all the vegetable
productions of every part of the habitable globe.
But the voracious tiger and wolf are innumerable,
exceeding all belief, attacking the Blacks when
alone, even in thy open day ; but what is re-

'markable, not an instance is known of their at'
tacking any white man, even in his shootia4
excursions for daily food. • The country aboutl4s
.
also with hippopotame. The skin of a large size.
male hippopotamus was preserved by Lieut. Fare;
well for the British Museum, when the tigers an
wolves destroyed the feet. Isolated as he is from
his native country, still that tie which everl
loyal Briton feels, however distant from his hol
anticipated the gratification of giving some pili°
of his patriotic feeling and enterprising gentnui:
to so celebrated a national institution. .
wolves here, of which a great number /101"
been caught in traps,- are indiscriminately her;
maphroditical, and yet generative. Lieutella!l•'
Farewell, on proceeding .eastward from thef
first located spot in. the neighbourhood 19
Middle Point, to Port Natal, discovered jamall
among the rocks, eight guns and a quantity
pig ballast, thrown considerably up ou,the beach'
and as they appeared like Indiamen's guns, II: •
was led to believe them to be part of the Wrece
of the Grosvenor, which was lost many years fig
on this coast, it being in a parallel line wit11;11'
place in the interior to which the celefiratedN"l;
Reenen penetrated, when the natives about L 11.2
period informed him of a great ship beineit
shore, and some white people having passed t"
hut Van Reenen was in.—(Portsmouth Paper),