. Natal province : descriptive guide and official hand-book . T he Early Historyof Natal CHAPTER I The Early Days. .WHEN Natal was first seen and named by Vasco da Gamathe course from Europe to India by sea was stillunknown. The discovery of that course had been theobject of several voyages along the Western coast ofAfrica, undertaken at an earlier date by direction of thePortuguese Government. From these the navigatorshad returned without success, and (distrusting thereports then current in Lisbon derived from Arabseamen) without any confidence that the African con-tinent did not extend south
. Natal province : descriptive guide and official hand-book . T he Early Historyof Natal CHAPTER I The Early Days. .WHEN Natal was first seen and named by Vasco da Gamathe course from Europe to India by sea was stillunknown. The discovery of that course had been theobject of several voyages along the Western coast ofAfrica, undertaken at an earlier date by direction of thePortuguese Government. From these the navigatorshad returned without success, and (distrusting thereports then current in Lisbon derived from Arabseamen) without any confidence that the African con-tinent did not extend southwards to the pole. Diaz,indeed, had gone beyond the Cape of Good Hope as faras the Great Fish River in Kaffraria ; but he was unconscious of the fact thatthe ocean in an easterly direction now lay unobstructed before him, and hesteered back to Portugal in 1487 without attaining the great purpose of theexpedition. Ten years later, 1497, Vasco, doubling the Cape, felt his way alongthe land to the east and north-east. On Christmas day he passed near theshores of the country which, in honour of the Nativity, he c
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