On 1 January 1866 Acting-Lieutenant Governor Colonel John Jarvis Bisset, in the company of the Secretary for Native Affairs, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the Colonial Secretary, Major David Erskine, the Surveyor-General, Dr PC Sutherland, an officer and seven men from the Royal Artillery, an NCO and twelve men from the 99th Regiment and a twelve pound howitzer, assembled on the banks of the Mtamvuna river. Also present was Griqua chief Adam Kok with 200 mounted men. Following a 21 gun salute delivered by the Royal Artillery, Colonel Bisset formally declared the annexation to the Colony of Natal of the territory known as Nomansland.1 Its new name was Alfred County, named after the second son of Queen Victoria, Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha and Edinburgh, who had visited Natal in 1860. Almost 1,550 square miles in extent, Alfred County extended Natal’s southern border from the Mzimkulu to the Mtamvuna river and reached westward to the Ingeli range of mountains
DuBois2013.pdf