hey all perished
after his departure.

Deserters, as Gardiner called the fugitives to reconcile the surrender to
his loyal English conscience, were hardly such as these: they were the
only ones ever sent back, and the loose wild traders, who he ought to
have known would never be bound by treaties, were at that very time
enticing Kaffirs, who could be useful as herdsmen and labourers, across
the frontier. This led to great indignation from Dingarn, and he
declared that no Englishman save his favourite great chief should come
near him.

Meantime Gardiner was assisting an assembly of traders and hunters who
had decided on building a town--all shaggy, unkempt, bearded men of the
woods, who decided the spot, the name, the arrangements, the spot for
church and magistrate's house, by vote, on the 25th of June, 1835, the
birthday of the town of Durban, so called after Sir Benjamin D'Urban,
Governor of the Cape, while the Portuguese name of Natal passed to the
entire territory.

The dispute with Dingarn continuing, the Captain was again sent to
negotiate. This time he was received in the royal mansion, a magnified
beehive, where the king was lying on a mat with his head on one of the
little stools made to act as pillows, with about fifty women ranged
round. As to the matter in question, Gardiner was able to declare that,
in the white settlement itself, no deserters had found a home since the
treaty, and that none should do so; Dingarn said he considered him the
chief of the whites there, and should look to him to keep them in order.
Gardiner explained that he had no authority. "You must have power," said
Dingarn. "I give you all the country of the white people's ford." This
was a piece of land extending from the Tugela to the Nouzincoolu, from
the Snowy Mountains to the sea--in fact, the present whole colony of
Natal. A smaller portion, including the district about Natal, was to be
his own immediate property. Dingarn was perfectly in earnest, and thus
intended to make him responsible for the conduct of every individual of
the motley population of Natal, declaring that he should receive no
trader who did not bring credentials from him. It was as curious a
situation as ever commander in the navy was placed in. All he could do
was to return to Durban, explain matters to Mr. Collis and the other
traders, and then set out for the Cape to consult Sir Benjamin Durban.

His journey across the mountains was very perilous an