Durban Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === First European colonisers === By 1822, James Saunders King, captain of the British ship {{ship||Salisbury|1818 ship|2}}, together with [[Francis Farewell|Lt. Francis George Farewell]], both men being former [[Royal Navy]] officers from the [[Napoleonic Wars]], were engaged in trade between the [[Cape Colony|Cape]] and [[Maputo Bay|Delagoa Bay]]. On a return trip to the Cape in 1823, they were caught in a severe storm and decided to risk the Bar and anchor in the Bay of Natal. The crossing went off well and they found safe anchor from the storm. Lt. King decided to map the Bay and named the "Salisbury and Farewell Islands". In 1824 Lt. Farewell, together with a trading company called J. R. Thompson & Co., decided to open trade relations with [[Shaka]], the Zulu King, and establish a trading station at the Bay. [[Henry Francis Fynn]], another trader at Delagoa Bay, was also involved in this venture.{{cn|date=December 2023}} Fynn left Delagoa Bay and sailed for the Bay of Natal on the brig ''Julia'', while Farewell followed six weeks later on the ''Antelope''. Between them they had 26 possible settlers, although only 18 stayed. On a visit to King Shaka, Henry Francis Fynn succeeded in befriending the king by helping him recover from a stab wound that he had suffered as a result of an assassination attempt by one of his half-brothers. As a token of his gratitude King Shaka granted Fynn a "25-mile strip of coast a hundred miles in depth".{{cn|date=December 2023}} On 7 August 1824, they concluded negotiations with King Shaka for a cession of land, including the Bay of Natal and land extending {{cvt|10|mi|disp=flip}} south of the Bay, {{cvt|25|mi|disp=flip}} north of the Bay and {{cvt|100|mi|disp=flip}} inland. Farewell took possession of this grant and raised the [[Union Jack]] with a Royal Salute, which consisted of four cannon shots and twenty musket shots. Only six of the original eighteen would-be settlers remained, and these six can be regarded as the founders of Port Natal as a British colony. These six were joined by Lt. James Saunders King and [[Nathaniel Isaacs]] in 1825.{{cn|date=December 2023}} The modern city of Durban thus dates from 1824, when the settlement was established on the northern shores of the bay near today's Farewell Square.<ref name=walker7>{{cite book |title = A History of Southern Africa|author=Eric A. Walker|publisher=Longmans|orig-year = 1928|year = 1965|location = London|chapter = Chapter VII: The period of change 1823β36}}</ref> During a meeting of 35 European residents in Fynn's territory on 23 June 1835, it was decided to build a capital town and name it "D'Urban" after [[Benjamin D'Urban|Sir Benjamin D'Urban]], who was the governor of the Cape Colony at the time.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.durban.gov.za/durban/discover-durban/our-durban/history/naming |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071103144254/http://www.durban.gov.za/durban/discover-durban/our-durban/history/naming|archive-date= 3 November 2007|title= The Names and the Naming of Durban|access-date=9 July 2008|author=Adrian Koopman|publisher=Natalia, the Journal of the Natal Society}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page