Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/236

 the exclusive language of the settlers, of the courts of justice and the schools, and serves as the medium of intercourse with the natives.

These aborigines have never ceased to be attracted to the colony of Natal, which after the wars of extermination offered so many unoccupied tracts with

plentiful pasturage for their herds. At the first arrival of the English in 1824 they numbered scarcely more than three thousand; by the year 1848 they had increased to no less than a hundred thousand, and since then they have augmented at least fourfold, not only by the natural excess of births over the mortality, but also by constant immigration down to the present time. The estimates, however,