Our earliest evidence of human settlement on the Bluff derives from limited archaeological work and the records of survivors of shipwrecks in the vicinity of the Bay of Natal and along the coast.
- IRON AGE SETTLEMENTS – There has been no systematic archaeological study of Iron Age settlements in the Durban area, but various sites have been found by amateurs and by chance. They indicate that Iron Age agriculturists were living in the vicinity of the Bay of Natal for much of the last 1600 years. At least two iron production sites have been identified in the southern part of the Bluff and it is therefore not unlikely that the iron workers would have used the woodlands of the Bluff to obtain hard timber from the Olea woodii and Acacia caffra for their charcoal.
- UMNINI AND THE AMAMPOFANA – Sometime during the 18th century the Ntuli sought refuge on the Bluff under their chief Amatubane and in the process forcefully removed the previous occupants the Amampofana. At the time of the first arrival of the white people, whom they called Abalumbi, their chief was Umnini; his clans had taken over the fishkraals and fishing traditions of their predecessors. The devastating impact of the Mfecane under Chaka in the early part of the 19th century led to a widespread and local displacement of peoples throughout Southern Africa. Accounts indicate that at the time Umnini’s people were driven to hide their settlements and crops under the Bluff bush. Some sought even safer refuge at the very end of the Bluff on the beaches under the headland. In 1852 the Ntuli were moved further south to the Illovu River by the Natal Colonial Government.
- EARLY SHIPWRECK SURVIVORS – On the 16th of February 1686 the Dutch East India Company’s ship the Stavenisse was wrecked 110 km south of the Bay. Some of the survivors met up with a party of Englishmen who had been wrecked in their vessel the Good Hope on the 17th of May 1685 while entering the Bay of Natal.
- THE CENTAURUS – The combined party settled on the Bluff where they built a small vessel from the remains of the Good Hope and local timbers such as milkwoods. The work was led by John Kingston, a carpenter, who achieved this task without a saw. They lived in a small timber house on the shores of the Bluff facing the Bay. Early in 1687 they were joined by another party of shipwrecked men from the Bona Ventura which had been lost at St Lucia. The boat was named the Centaurus and sailed for the Cape on the 17th of February 1687, reaching Cape Town on 1st of March where it was purchased by Simon Van Der Stel.
- ENGELSCHE LOGIE – Some 2 years later the Dutch East India Company ship, the Noord arrived at the Bay to investigate the country and chart the Bay. Their craft was warped along the Bluff channel by local inhabitants. The little house on Engelsche logie (Englishman’s lodge) was still there and they used it as a navigational beacon when departing the Bay on January 23rd 1689.
- KING, FAREWELL AND FYNN – The SALISBURY and the ELIZABETH AND SUSAN. Francis Farewell, Henry Fynn and Lieutenant King arrived in the brig Salisbury in 1824 to establish a commercial station at Port Natal and to chart the Bay. In a later voyage in the Mary they arrived on October 1st 1825 and were wrecked on the bar. King and Isaacs ‘squatted’ on the Bluff at a place they called Townsend dockyard where they constructed a vessel from the remains of the Mary. This was called the Elizabeth and Susan and was launched in 1828. King died the same year and was buried at a place on the Bluff now called King’s Rest.
