Nil Desperandum is the biographical story of the Bazely family, starting with John Bazely who came to Natal in 1850 as a Byrne settler. He was the first man to pitch his tent at Richmond and established the sugar cane estate, Nil Desperandum in the Ifafa area, wild and untamed in these early years. John's son William opened the Umzimkulu River at Port Shepstone to shipping, after years of blasting and toil the channel was eventually deep enough for small steamers to enter the river. This is a historical family epic with many focuses, there is the basic settler story, involvement with the Zulus, the sugar milling pioneering efforts as well as the construction of the harbours and the engineering that went into that. The story also touches on the founding of the Natal Mounted Rifles and the Anglo-Boer War.