T3RS AND BANTU: 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Brings and Wars of the Emigrant Farmers 
 
 FROM THEIR LEAVING THE 
 
 APE COLONY 
 
 ilifornia 
 
 ;ional 
 
 ility 
 
 ROW OF DINGAN. 
 
 EORGE McCALL THEAL. 
 
 ed from "South African Illustrated News."] 
 
 CAPE TOWN : 
 
 SOLOMON k CO., HUN '
 
 
 BOERS AND BANTU; 
 
 A HISTORY OP THE 
 
 
 
 Wanderings and Wars of the Emigrant Farmsrs 
 
 FROM THEIR LEAVING THE 
 
 CAPE COLONY 
 
 TO THK 
 
 OVERTHROW OF DINGAN. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE McCALL THEAL. 
 
 [Reprinted from " South African Illustrated 
 
 
 
 CAPE TOWN : 
 
 SAUL SOLOMON & CO., PKIXTERS, 
 1886.

 
 BOERS AND BA.NTTJ : 
 
 A HISTOEY OP THE 
 
 Wanderings and Wars of the Emigrant Farmers 
 
 FEOM THEIR LEAVING THE 
 
 CAPE COLONY TO THE OVERTHROW OF DINGAN 
 
 BY 
 GEORGE MeCALL THEAL. 
 
 [Reprinted from "South African Illustrated News."'] 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 COMPARISON OF BANTU TRIBES. 
 
 The whole of Central and South-Eastern Africa is 
 occupied by a section of the human race which 
 European writers now usually term the Bantu. This 
 word in the dialects spoken along the coasts of the 
 Cape Colony and Natal simply means people. In 
 the division of mankind thus named are included all 
 those Africans who use a language which is inflected 
 principally by means of prefixes, and which in the 
 construction of sentences follows certain rules depend- 
 ing upon harmony in souud. The Bantu family is 
 
 * In the language of the Xosa, Tembn, Pondo, Zulu, and 
 other coast tribes : UMNTD a person, plural ABANTU people ; 
 diminutive UMNTWANA a child i.e. a little person, plural 
 ABANTWANA children, abstract derivative UBUNTU the qualities 
 of human beings, diminutive UBUNTWANA the qualities of 
 children. In the language of the Basuto MOTHO a person, 
 plural BATHO persons. The pronunciation, however, is nearly 
 the same, the h in batho being sounded only as an aspirate 
 and ihe o as oo, baat-hoo. 
 B 
 
 1333139
 
 divided into numerous tribes politically independent 
 of each other. Each tribe is composed of a number 
 of clans, which generally have traditions of a common 
 origin at no very remote date ; in some instances, 
 however, the tribes consist of clans pressed together 
 by accident or war, and whose relationship is too 
 remote to be traced by themselves. 
 
 The individuals who make up the Bantu group vary 
 in colour from light bronze to deep black. Some have 
 features of the lowest negro type : thick projecting 
 lips, broad flat noses, and narrow receding foreheads ; 
 while others are almost Asiatic in appearance, with 
 prominent and in rare instances even aquiline noses, 
 broad upright foreheads, and lips but little thicker than 
 those o Europeans. Among the southern tribes these 
 extremes may sometimes be noticed in the same 
 village, but the great majority of the people are of a 
 type higher than a mean between the two. 
 
 Ordinarily they present the appearance of a peace- 
 able, good-natured, indolent people ; but they are 
 subject to outbursts of great excitement, when the 
 most savage passions have free play. The man who 
 spends the greater part of his time in gossiping in 
 idleness, preferring a condition of semi-starvation to 
 toiling for bread, is hardly recognizable when, plumed 
 and adorned with military trappings, he has worked 
 himself into frenzy with the war dance. The period 
 of excitement is, however, short. In the same way 
 their outbursts of grief are very violent, but are soon 
 succeeded by cheerfulness. 
 
 They are subject to few diseases, and are capable 
 of undergoing without harm privations and sufferings 
 which the hardiest Europeans would sink under. 
 Occasionally there are seasons of famine caused by 
 successive droughts, when whole tribes are reduced 
 to eat wild roots, bulbs, mimosa gum, and whatever 
 else unaided nature provides. At such times they 
 become emaciated, but as long as they can procure 
 even the most wretched food they do not actually die, 
 as white people would under similar circumstances. 
 Nor does pestilence follow want of sustenance to the 
 same extent that it would with us.
 
 It is probable that no people in the world have less 
 of what Europeans would term the necessities of life 
 than the Balala or Bechuana slaves. They are tribes 
 broken in war, who have lost everything but life. 
 They can cultivate no grain, for their home is the 
 desert, and every ear grown at a watering-place would 
 be taken by their masters. The choicest portions of 
 all the wild animals they kill and all the peltries are 
 appropriated by their lords. Garbage, such as the 
 poorest European would turn from with loathing 
 would be to them a luxury. Yet they thrive and 
 multiply, and, when a favourable opportunity occurs, 
 can emerge from this condition, make gardens, breed 
 cattle, and inflict upon other tribes the evils they have 
 themselves undergone. 
 
 At the beginning of the present century the great 
 range of mountains which forms the eastern rim of 
 the central basin of South Africa was a dividing line 
 between two sections of Bantu that have many charac- 
 teristics in common, but between whom there are some 
 remarkable differences. The section on the outer side 
 of the rim, and occupying the lower terraces* between 
 it and the sea, comprised the following tribes : 
 
 1. The Amaxosa, bordering on the Cape Colony, 
 
 and inhabiting the district betwepn the Great 
 Fish and Bashee rivers. This tribe was the 
 advance guard of the Bantu race, and was in 
 contact on the south and west with Europeans 
 and Hottentots. 
 
 2. The Abatembu, occupying the district between 
 
 the Bashee and Umtata rivers. 
 
 3. The Amampondomisi. 
 
 4. The Amampondo. 
 
 5. The Amaxesibe. 
 
 * Until this century was well advanced the greater part of 
 the highest terrace, or that adjoining the Drakensberg, was 
 almost uninhabited except by Bushmen. The coast tribes 
 fancied that it was too cold for them in the winter months ; 
 and the mountain tribes, who were accustomed to a much 
 severer climate, had never been so pressed for space on the 
 inner side as to necessitate a surplus population crossing the 
 barrier. 
 
 B 2
 
 6. A number of tribes the Amabele, the Amazizi, 
 
 the Amahlabi, the Abasekuaene. and many 
 others of less importance occupying the terri- 
 tory that is now the Colony of Natal. The 
 Amamfengn or Fingos of the present day are 
 descendants of these people. 
 
 7. The Amabaca, who also occupied at that time 
 
 a portion of Natal, and whose descendants are 
 now to be found in Griqualand East. 
 
 8. The Arnangwane. 
 
 9. The various tribes that were welded together by 
 
 Tshaka and have since formed the Amazulu or 
 Zulus. With these must be included the Mata- 
 bele, who under Umsilikazi migrated into the 
 interior, and are now to be found near the 
 Zambezi. 
 10. The Amaswazi. 
 
 Peyond these, or from Delagoa Bay northwards, the 
 coast region was thickly populated, but the tribes 
 there were too remote to need mention in connection 
 with the subject of these chapters. 
 
 This group, from the Amaxosa to the Amaswazi, 
 may conveniently be called the Coast Tribes of Southern 
 Africa. 
 
 On the other side of the great mountain range 
 which, at a distance of about one hundred and twenty 
 miles, runs nearly parallel with the margin of the 
 Indian Ocean, the most advanced tribe on the south 
 was the Baphuti, whrse origin will presently be told. 
 They were thinly scattered over the district stretching 
 southward from Thaba Bofcigo to the Orange River. 
 
 Next came a group of five tribes terming the;, 
 the Mayiane, the Makhoakhoa, the Bamonageng, the 
 Batlakoana and the Baramokhele. They spoke the 
 same dialect, and claimed a descent from common 
 ancestors, which, however, they could not trace ; but 
 politically each was independent of the others, except 
 when accident or the abilities of some chief gave 
 supremacy for a time to a particular ruler among them. 
 They occupied the valley of the Caledon from about 
 the parallel of Thaba Bosigo northwards. It will be
 
 well to regard them with particular attention, for their 
 descendants form the nucleus of the present Basuto 
 tribe. 
 
 Adjoining them to the north, and occupying the 
 country along the banks of the Sand River, was a tribe 
 named the Batanng, the members of which could not 
 be distinguished by any custom or peculiarity of dialect 
 from the five tribes, but which had never yet in its 
 traditional history been politically connected with them. 
 
 Along the southern bank of the Vaal. between the 
 district occupied by the Bataung and the Drakensberg, 
 were various clans of kindred blood, the remnants of 
 which are now to be found intermingled with the 
 Basnto. It is unnecessary to give their titles, as then- 
 individuality has been completely lost, and none of 
 them have ever taken an important part in events since 
 Europeans became acquainted with the country. 
 
 To the north-east at n- great distance was a tribe 
 known as the Batloku :, celebrated among their neigh- 
 bours as skilful workers in iron and traders in imple- 
 ments made of that metal. They occupied the country 
 along the slopes of the Quathlamba, about the sources 
 of the Wilge and Mill rivers, in the present district 
 of Harrismith. Closely allied with the Batlokna and 
 mixed up with them by intermarriages were the 
 Basia, whose villages were built along the Elands 
 River. Mokotsho, chief of the Batlokna, about the 
 begitning of the century took as his great wife 
 Monyalwe. daughter of Mothage, chief of the Basia. 
 Their eldest child was a daughter, Xtatisi, after whose 
 birth Monyalwe, according to custom, was called Ma 
 Ntatisi, a name which subsequently acquired great 
 notoriety. Their second child was a son, Sikonyela, 
 who will frequently be met with in these pages. 
 
 There is no necessity to enumerate the tribes that 
 then occupied the inland mountain slopes further to 
 the northward, for they will not appear in the course 
 of this history. 
 
 The group here mentioned, consisting of the 
 Baphuti. the Mayiane, the Makhoakhoa, the Bamona- 
 geng, the Batlakoana, the baramokhele, the Batanng, 
 the Basia, and the Batlokua, may for convenience
 
 sake be termed the Basuto or the Mountain Tribes of 
 Southern Africa. 
 
 The country which they inhabited is to South Africa 
 what Switzerland is to Europe. It lies along the 
 inner slope of the highest portion of the Drakensberg, 
 and the lowest point of it is more than five thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea. It is almost destitute 
 of trees, but is covered with good pasturage, and its 
 valleys, especially those drained by the streamlets 
 that feed the Caledon, contain excellent soil for agri- 
 culture. During the winter months, or from Mny to 
 August, the mountain tops are frequently covered 
 with snow, and in summer violent thunder storms 
 pass over the country and cause it to produce food in 
 abundance for man and beast. The land along the 
 head waters of the numerous streams that flow into 
 the Vaal is thus capable of supporting a very dense 
 population, as is also the narrow belt between ihe 
 Caledon and the Maluti range, but eastward of that 
 chain the surface is so rugged that it is considered to 
 be uninhabitable. la summer, however, it is used as 
 grazing ground for horned cattle, which are then 
 driven up from the villages in great herds. 
 
 Parts of this territory have been made by nature 
 almost impregnable. Isolated mountains abound, 
 some of them with their sides of naked rock so nearly 
 perpendicular that the summits are only accessible by 
 two or three narrow paths between overhanging cliffs, 
 where half-a-dozen resolute men can keep an army at 
 bay. The tops of such mountains are table lands well 
 watered and affording good pasturage, so that they 
 can be held for an indefinite time. 
 
 The western limits of the Mountain Tribes were not 
 defined in any other way than that the people, being 
 agriculturists, spread themselves out no further than 
 they could make gardens, which they could not do on 
 the great plains of the present Orange Free State. 
 Over those plains roamed Bushmen preying upon the 
 countless antelopes, and Koranas with their herds of 
 horned cnttle and flocks of sheep. 
 
 Some ninety or a hundred miles north-west of the 
 last kraals of the Mountain Tribes the outlying villages
 
 of a third section of the Bantu race were to be found. 
 The most southerly tribe in this direction was the 
 Batlapin, who were, however, not pure Bantu, for in 
 their veins was a mixture of Korana blood. Next to 
 the northward were the Barolong, a tribe that will 
 frequently appear in these pages. Beyond the Baro- 
 long were the Bahurutsi, the Bangwaketsi, the 
 Bakwena, and many others whose titles need not be 
 mentioned. This group may be termed the Bechuana 
 or the Central Tribes of Southern Africa, as the territory 
 which they occupied is about midway between the 
 Atlantic and Indian Oceans. West of them lay the 
 great Kalihari Desert. Between them and the Moun- 
 tain Tribes was an arid plain, not so formidable a 
 barrier, however, as that separating the Mountain 
 Tribes from those of the Coast. 
 
 There is less difference between the last two groups 
 here described than between the first two, though the 
 customs of the Mountain Tribes are in many respects, 
 like their geographical position, intermediate between 
 the others. They speak three dialects of a common 
 language, but while a Mosuto, for instance, and a 
 Morolong understand each other without difficulty, a 
 Mosuto and a Zulu cannot converse together. 
 
 The religion of the Bantu, which all of these tribes 
 not only profess, but really regulate their conduct by, 
 is based on the belief that the spirits of their ancestors 
 interfere in their affairs. Some of them have a very 
 dim conception of the existence of a supreme all- 
 powerful being, but they offer no sacrifices to him, 
 nor do they speculate upon his attributes or regard 
 
 * Explanation of terms : 
 
 MOSUTO, a single individual of the tribe. 
 
 BASCTO, two or more individuals or the tribe collectively. 
 
 KKSUTO, the language of the Basuto. The Basuto use the 
 word also to denote characteristic customs. 
 
 LKSUTO, the country belonging to the tribe. 
 
 BASUTO, used by Europeans also as an adjective signifying 
 pertaining to the people so called. A Mosuto would use the 
 expression " of the Basuto." 
 
 So with MOROLONG, BAROLOXG, SEROLGNG, MOTLOKUA, 
 BATLOKCA ; fec., &c., <EC.
 
 him as interesting himself in their troubles or their 
 joys. Every man worships the spirits of his own 
 ancestors, and offers sacrifices to avert their wrath 
 when he deems that they are angry with him. The 
 clan worships in the same wy the spirits of the 
 ancestors of its chief. Where all the clans which 
 compose a tribe are under chiefs descended from a 
 common ancestor, the bond of religion tends to keep 
 them together. There is an individual recognized by 
 them all as the tribal priest, who offers sacrifices on 
 important occasions to the spirits of their dead chiefs, 
 and who exercises enormous influence over every 
 member of the tribe. 
 
 But this powerful element of union is wanting when 
 a tribe is composed of clans of different origin, unless 
 time and favourable circumstances have welded them 
 together. The religion of the people is of the same 
 nature, but the object of propitiation is different. The 
 influence of the individual who offers the sacrifices 
 does not extend beyond the clans whose chiefs are 
 descendants of one family. There are in fact as many 
 such individuals as there are ruling families whose 
 relationship cannot be traced. The alien clan consults 
 only temporal interests, and is not prevented by 
 religious scruples from rebelling against its paramount 
 chief. A tribe so constituted may be kept together by 
 the nominal head preserving a balance of power among 
 the sections, but it has little military strength. 
 
 The Bantu have no definite idea of the mode of 
 existence of their deities, but the southern tribes sup- 
 pose them to inhabit dim underground caverns. They 
 regard the unseen world in which they believe with 
 unmingled dread, and drive reflection concerning it 
 from their thoughts whenever it is possible to do so. 
 Before their intercourse with white men it had never 
 struck them that the acts of this life could have any 
 effect upon the spirit after death. They are in no sense 
 an imaginative or speculative people, but direct their 
 entire attention to such material objects as immediately 
 affect their welfare. 
 
 In such a condition progress towards a higher kind 
 of life, unless directed by some external agency, is
 
 9 
 
 nearly impossible. In other words, self-development 
 must be a very slow process, if it can be accomplished 
 at all. For, first, their greatest dread is that of offend- 
 ing the spirits of their ancestors, and they hold that 
 any departure from established customs will assuredly 
 do this and therefore bring evil upon them. Next, 
 their belief in witchcraft is opposed to progress of 
 any kind. For a man who is not a chief, and who 
 differs from his fellows by being mentally in advance 
 of them, inevitably draws suspicion upon himself of 
 being a wizard, and where there is no foreign control- 
 ling power, surely falls a victim to their fury. 
 
 The belief in witchcraft is to this day the cause of 
 a terrible amount of suffering among the tribes that 
 are independent. All events that cannot be readily 
 comprehended sickness in man, murrain in cattle, 
 blight in crops, even casual accidents are by them 
 attributed to the agency of wizards and witches, and 
 not the slightest compassion is felt for any unfortunate 
 wretch whom the recognized witchfinder of the com- 
 munity points out as guilty. Confiscation of property, 
 torture, death, are the penalties of being charged with 
 this ideal offence. It is believed that one man can 
 bewitch another by means of any such thing as a few 
 hairs from his head, a clipping of a finger nail, a piece 
 of clothing, or indeed anything whatever that belongs 
 to him, or can be brought into contact with him, or 
 can be concealed in or about his hut. Occasional 
 cases of real poisoning undoubtedly occur, and each 
 such case is additional proof to them that their belief 
 is correct. 
 
 They have strong faith in the power of charms to 
 turn aside evils, believe in the efficacy of certain medi- 
 cines to give them courage or to make them invul- 
 nerable in battle, divine the issue of warlike operations 
 by revolting cruelties practised on animals, have an 
 intense fear of meeting with ghosts, and a firm belief 
 in the existence of malevolent water spirits. All this 
 is common to the different sections of the Bantu in 
 Southern Africa, but in gome respects the Mountain 
 Tribes are even more superstitious than those of the 
 Coast. The former are actually guided in half their
 
 10 
 
 actions by the position in which some bones of the 
 character of dice fall when they are thrown. 
 
 All of these tribes, when first encountered by Euro- 
 peans, were acquainted with the use of iron, which 
 they smelted for themselves, and of which they made 
 implements of war and husbandry. The occupation 
 of the worker in this metal was hereditary in certain 
 families, and was carried on with a good deal of 
 mystery, the common belief bein^ that it was necessary 
 to employ certain charms unknown to those not 
 initiated. But the arts of the founder and blacksmith 
 had not advanced with them beyond the most elemen- 
 tary stage. They made clumsy hoes for turning up 
 the ground, but instead of an opening for a handle 
 these were provided with a spike which was driven 
 into a hole burnt through the knob of a heavy piece of 
 wood. The assegai was common to all, and in addition 
 the Mountain Tribes made crescent-shaped battle-axes, 
 which were fastened to handles in the same manner as 
 the hoes. On these implements of war they bestowed 
 all their skill, and really produced articles almost as 
 neatly finished as a European workman could have 
 made them. They worked the metal cold, and were 
 unable to weld t o pieces together. 
 
 In manufactures of wood they displayed about the 
 same ability. Out of a single block they would carve, 
 with the aid of fire, such an article as a spoon or a 
 heavy knobbed stick, and by dint of time and patience 
 could cut out on it fairly executed images of animals ; 
 but the construction of a box, or anything that would 
 require more than one piece of wood, was entirely 
 beyond them. 
 
 Of the use of stone for building purposes the Coast 
 Tribes knew nothing, and the Mountain Tribes very 
 little. None of them had ever dressed a block, but the 
 cattle folds, which along the coast where wood was 
 plentiful were constructed of branches of trees, in the 
 mountains were made of round stones roughly laid 
 together to form a wall. The quern, or handmill for 
 grinding corn, which was in common use, consisted of 
 undressed stones, one flat and the other round or oval. 
 
 All had great skill in dressing the skins of animals,
 
 11 
 
 of which their scanty clothing was composed. The 
 Interior Tribes excelled in this art, and equalled, if 
 they did not surpass, the neatest European furriers in 
 making robes, which they stitched with sinews by the 
 help of an awl. They manufactured strong earthen- 
 ware pots, plain rush mats, and serviceable baskets. 
 The Coast Tribes preserved their grain in pits excavated 
 beneath cattle folds, but the Mountain Tribes used for 
 this purpose enormous baskets, which were perfectly 
 watertight, and which could be exposed to the air 
 without damage to their contents. 
 
 The people of all the tribes are inheritors of a system 
 of common law admirably adapted to the circum- 
 stances in which they live. It has come down to them 
 from a period so remote that its origin is lost in the 
 mists of antiquity. Not only its salient points, but 
 its minutest details, have been transmitted from 
 generation to generation by means of the care taken 
 by certain individuals in every clan to make themselves 
 acquainted with it, the custom of all trials being held 
 in open coiirt, the perfect freedom of speech which 
 every individual enjoys, the habit of always deciding 
 cases according to precedent, and the conservatism of 
 the people, who would not permit a change from the 
 customs of their ancestors. 
 
 This common law is adapted to people in a rude 
 state of society. It holds every one accused of crime 
 guilty unless he can prove himself innocent, it makes 
 the head of a family responsible for the conduct of 
 all its branches, the village collectively in the same 
 manner for each resident in it, and the clan for each 
 of its villages. There is no such thing under it as a 
 man professing not to know anything about his neigh- 
 bour's doings ; the law requires him to know all about 
 them, or it makes him suffer for neglecting a duty 
 which it holds he owes to the community. Every 
 individual is not only in theory but in practice a 
 policeman. 
 
 In some respects it is cruel. The most serious 
 offence under it is dealing in witchcraft, and it allows 
 the use of torture to force confession from a person 
 charged with the commission of this crime. Its
 
 12 
 
 punishments are, in rare cases (treason, acts involving 
 the tribe in war, &c.) death ; in ordinary cases (murder, 
 theft, assault, &c.) fines, varying from a single head 
 of cattle to everything a man possesses. Many offences 
 that in a European code would be classed as criminal 
 are by it regarded as civil only, and the comparative 
 magnitude of crimes differs considerably from the 
 standard we have adopted. In the case of chiefs doing 
 wrong the law is often impotent, for these privileged 
 individuals act as if they are above it, and are some- 
 times so regarded by the commonalty. 
 
 The system of land tenure is a very good one, for 
 it allows individuals to have private rights in as much 
 ground as they can make use of, and leaves all that is 
 not cultivated or built upon in possession of the public. 
 The great chief of each trib - is in theory the owner of 
 the whole of the territory pertaining to his subjects. 
 He holds it for the benefit of the tribe, and draws no 
 revenue whatever from it. He caa permit a foreign 
 community to reside upon any unoccupied portion of 
 it, but this permission holds good only for his own life, 
 and his successor may require such a community to 
 leave without any one feeling that he is acting unjustly. 
 The great chief can only alienate ground permanently 
 with the consent of the whole of his councillors and 
 of the leading men. 
 
 The sub-chiefs of a tribe, or the heads of the diffe 
 rent clans of which it is composed, have no other 
 power over the ground in their respective districts 
 than the right of allotting gardens to such of their 
 people as need them. Each family has its own recog- 
 nized garden, which it retains without interference as 
 long as the ground is kept in cultivation, but it cannot 
 be sold, nor can it be even lent to another without the 
 consent of the chief of the clan. Footpaths are 
 everywhere free to all. The pasture lands are common 
 property, but certain portions are marked out by the 
 chief for use in winter only, and anyone permitting 
 cattle to graze there at other seasons is liable to 
 punishment. In this way pauperism and the acquisi- 
 tion by individuals of unduly large areas of land are- 
 alike prevented.
 
 13 
 
 It is no uncommon occurrence for small and weak 
 tribes, or fragments of tribes, to seek protection from 
 some powerful ruler, and to have a tract of country 
 assigned to their use within his domains. They 
 give in such cases a few head of cattle as a mark of 
 recognition of their subjection and of his sovereignty. 
 Such clans are viewed as vassals, their chiefs posses- 
 sing indeed full power of government of their own 
 adherents, but bound to acknowledge the head of the 
 tribe from whom they hold their land as their superior 
 in all matters affecting the combined communities. 
 
 In comparing the Central and the Mountain with 
 the Coast tribes when Europeans first came in contact 
 with them, the former are found to have attained a 
 somewhat higher degree of perfection in such 
 handicrafts as were practised by them all. Their 
 government was less despotic, for matters of public 
 importance were commonly submitted to the decision 
 of a general assembly of the leading men. The males 
 were found aiding the females in agriculture, though 
 the hardest and most constant labour was by them also 
 left to the women. Their habitations were vastly 
 superior. The house of a Mochuana had perpendicu- 
 lar walls, and consisted of a central circular room, 
 with three or four apartments outside, each being a 
 segment of a circle. It was surrounded with an 
 enclosed courtyard, and was, with the exception of 
 being destitute of chimney or window, as capacious 
 and comfortable as the cottage of an ordinary European 
 peasant. The hut of a native of the coast region was 
 a single circular room, covered by a low dome of 
 thatched wickerwoik, and no effort was made to 
 secure the slightest privacy. Midway in convenience 
 between these was the hut of a resident in the mountain 
 land. 
 
 But with these exceptions, all comparisons between 
 the tribes must be favourable to those of the coast. 
 The Bantu of the interior are smaller in stature and 
 much less handsome in appearance than the splendidly 
 formed men who live on the terraces between the 
 Drakensberg and the sea. In all that is comprised 
 in the word manliness they are vastly inferior.
 
 14 
 
 Truth is not a virtue that one who knows what 
 savage life is would expect to find in any Bantu tribe. 
 The late Mr. J. C. Warner, in his day one of the ablest 
 officials in the Native Department of the Cape Govern- 
 ment, a man who had been for years a mission teacher, 
 and who was selected for an important office solely 
 on account of his devotion to the work of improving 
 the Tembus among whom he was living, in a report 
 to the Colonial Secretary dated 13th of November 
 1867, tersely summed up the views of veracity enter- 
 tained by the Coast Tribes. He wrote : " False- 
 hood is not even considered a disgrace. In fact, 
 if a man could extricate himself from diffi- 
 culties, escape punishment, or gain some other 
 advantage by lying, and did not do so, he would be 
 thought a fool." Instances, however, have not been 
 rare of Zulu and Xosa chiefs making promises and 
 adhering faithfully to them, but the word of the very 
 best of the interior chiefs has always been found to be 
 worth absolutely nothing. 
 
 The deceptive power of all these people is something 
 wonderful to Europeans. But there is one member 
 which the coast native cannot control, and while with 
 a countenance otherwise devoid of expression he 
 relates the grossest falsehood or the most tragic event, 
 his lively eye betrays the passions he is feeling. 
 When falsehood is brought home to him unanswerably, 
 he casts his glances to the ground or around him, but 
 does not meet the eye of the man he has been attempt- 
 ing to deceive. The native of the mountains and of 
 the interior, on the contrary, seems to have no concep- 
 tion whatever of shame attached to falsehood, and his 
 comparatively listless eye is seldom allowed to betray 
 him. 
 
 In 1868, when the country of the Basuto under 
 Moshesh was annexed to the British Empire, Governor 
 Sir Philip Wodehouse requested several highly com- 
 petent officers to draw up papers for his use upon the 
 customs of the people. The best of these papers is 
 from the pen of the late Mr. John Austen, who was 
 afterwards magistrate of the southern district of 
 Basutoland. Mr. Austen had little education from
 
 15 
 
 books, but he was shrewd and observant, and had long 
 experience to guide him. In his younger days he had 
 been for ten years connected with mission work. 
 Then as Superintendent he had kept order for fifteen 
 years among the mixed clans in the Wittebergen 
 Reserve (now the District of Herschel), where he had 
 administered a rude but effective kind of justice. His 
 knowledge of native customs, habits, thought, and 
 motives of action, was very extensive indeed, as is 
 shown by his reports, which almost invariably cor- 
 rectly forecast events. He drew his information from 
 native sources, and thoroughly understood how to sift 
 native evidence. In the Reserve he had been a trader 
 as well as Superintendent, and though that employ- 
 ment was not justifiable so far as his magisterial duties 
 were concerned, it gave him an additional standpoint 
 for observation. With all this he had a good deal of 
 kindly feeling and sympathy for the people among 
 whom the greater portion of his life had been spent. 
 Here is his description of the mountain chiefs in a 
 paper carefully compiled for the information and 
 guidance of the Government : 
 
 "The Basuto chiefs differ from the frontier Kaffir 
 chiefs only in deceit and plausibility. There is not 
 that manliness of character so often met with amongst 
 Kaffir chiefs. They are either most arrogant or abject, 
 and have very little sense of honour, which virtue you 
 will find to some extent among Kaffir chiefs. They are 
 subject to the most degraded forms of superstition and 
 (belief in) witchcraft, which applies to the tribe gene- 
 rally. I am not speaking of those under the influence 
 of the missionaries, who are looked upon by the chiefs 
 and their heathen followers as having lost caste and as 
 enemies of their tribe and the customs of their fore- 
 fathers. The Basuto chiefs as a whole are much more 
 morally degraded than the chiefs of any other tribes." 
 
 The above graphic paragraph is quoted because of 
 the authority of the writer, and because it contains in 
 a few words the substance of a large amount of trust- 
 worthy evidence that has not yet been published, all 
 tending to show that in falsehood and plausibility the 
 coast tribes are surpassed by those of the interior.
 
 16 
 
 The native of the coast is brave in the field, as our 
 forces have over and over again experienced : his 
 inland kinsman is in general an arrant coward. The 
 one is modest when speaking of his own exploits, 
 the other is an intolerable boaster. The difference 
 between them in this respect is very great, and is 
 exemplified in many ways, but a single .illustration will 
 give an idea of it. Faku, son of Gungushe, chief of 
 the Pondos, by no means the best specimen of a coast 
 native, once wished to show his regard for Mr. Henry 
 Fynn, who was then residing with him in the character 
 of diplomatic agent of the Colonial Government. He 
 brought him a hundred head of cattle and presented 
 them with this expression, " You have no food to eat, 
 and we desire to show you our wishes towards you, 
 take this basket of corn from the children of Gungushe." 
 An inland chief presents a half-starved old goat to his 
 guest with the expression " Behold an ox !" 
 
 There is a very important difference in their marriage 
 customs. A native of the coast region will not marry 
 a girl whose relationship by blood to himself can be 
 traced, no matter how distantly connected they may be. 
 So scrupulous is he in this respect that he will not 
 marry even a girl who belongs to another tribe, if she 
 has the same family name as himself, though the 
 relationship cannot be traced. He regards himself as 
 the protector of those females whom we would term 
 his cousins and second cousins, but for whom he has 
 only the same name as for the daughters of his own 
 parents, the endearing name of sister. In his opinion 
 union with one of them would be incestuous, some- 
 thing horrible, something unutterably disgraceful. 
 The native of the mountains almost as a rule marries 
 the daughter of his father's brother. The sons of 
 Moshesh, the present chiefs of Basutoland, are nearly 
 all married to their own full cousins. It keeps wealth 
 and power in the family, they say. There is nothing 
 else in their customs, not even the fearful depravity 
 which is yet to be mentioned, that creates such disgust 
 as this intermarriage does in the minds of the coast 
 natives. They attribute to it the insanity and idiotcy 
 which are prevalent in the mountains, and they say
 
 17 
 
 the Basuto deserve to have idiots for children, as their 
 marriages are like the marriages of dogs. 
 
 The circumcision rites of the tribes are also different. 
 On the coast there is nothing secret about the ceremony. 
 The youths of a clan wait until a son of the chief is 
 sixteen or seventeen years of age, when all are circum- 
 cised at the same time. The retaineis are held to be 
 bound by the very strongest ties to the young chief 
 who is their associate on this occasion, and as a rule 
 they are found through life always ready to do or to 
 suffer anything and everything for him. This ceremony 
 gives them the privileges of men. At its close they 
 are lectured and instructed in their duties by their 
 elders, their friends make them presents to start them 
 in life, and as soon as convenient after it they conclude 
 the marriages which their fathers or guardians have 
 arranged. 
 
 With the mountain tribes, there are ceremonies 
 by which the youths are formed into guilds or 
 lodges with passwords. The members of these lodges 
 are bound never to give evidence against one another. 
 The rites of initiation are kept profoundly secret, but 
 certain horrible customs performed on some of these 
 occasions have become known. One of these customs 
 is that of infusing courage, intelligence, and other 
 qualities. Whenever an em-my who has acted bravely 
 is killed, his liver, which is considered the seat of 
 valour, his ears, which are considered the seat of 
 intelligence, the skin of his forehead, which is con- 
 sidered the seat of perseverance, and other members, 
 each of which is supposed to be the seat of some 
 desirable quality, are cut from his body and baked to 
 cinders. The ashes are carefully preserved in the horn 
 of a bull, and during the circumcision ceremonies are 
 mixed with other ingredients into a kind of paste and 
 administered by the tribal priest to the youths, the 
 idea being that the virtues which they represent are 
 communicated to those who swallow them. This 
 practice, together with that of using other parts of the 
 remains of their enemies for bewitching purposes, 
 accounts for the mutilation of the bodies of those who 
 fall into their hands in war, a practice which has more 
 c
 
 18 
 
 than once infuriated white men whose friends have 
 been thus treated, and caused them to commit deeds 
 from which they would otherwise have shrunk. 
 
 The corresponding ceremony through which young 
 females pass, as practised by the coast tribes, might be 
 deemed the most degrading rite that human beings 
 have ever been subject to, if it were not known that 
 among the mountain tribes it is even more vile. All 
 that the most depraved imagination can devise to 
 rouse the lowest passions of the young females is here 
 practised. A description is impossible. 
 
 Chastity in married life can hardly be said to exist 
 among the coast tribes. By custom every wife of a 
 polygamist has a lover,and no woman sinks in the esteem 
 of her companions on this becoming publicly known. 
 The law allows the husband a fine from the male 
 offender and permits him to chastise the woman, pro- 
 vided he does not maim her. but in the opinion of the 
 females the offence is venial and is not attended with 
 disgrace. Favoured guests have female companions, 
 who are, however, generally widows, allotted to them. 
 Still, chastity has a value in the estimation of the men, 
 as is proved by the care with which the harems of a 
 few of the most powerful chiefs are guarded. It 
 might be thought that the framework of society 
 would fall to pieces if domestic life were more immo- 
 ral than this, but in point of fact a Zulu or Xosa vil- 
 lage is a scene of purity when compared with the 
 kraal of a mountain chief. Here is a description taken 
 from a paper drawn up by the Rev. E. S. Holland in 
 1868 for the information and use of Sir Philip Wode- 
 house. Mr. Holland was born and brought up in 
 Basutoland, was strongly attached to the Basuto tribe, 
 and there was no man living more competent to 
 describe the manners of the people. He wrote : 
 
 "The possession of a large number of women is a 
 great source of wealth and influence to a Basuto chief. 
 Each wife or concubine has her own hut and establish- 
 ment, and enriches her husband by the produce of her 
 gardens and labour, and by her children, the boys 
 being servants and cattle herds, and the girls being 
 available for sale. A polygamist is thus able, from
 
 19 
 
 the abundance of food which he po-sesses, to exercise 
 hospitality to a great extent, without any expense ; 
 and as a visitor or faithful retainer is entertained not 
 merely with food and lodging, but also by the loan of 
 a wit during his stay, he is induced to come often 
 and to remain long, all the while tendering his services 
 in return fr the benefits he enjoys, and which are of 
 a nature to be highly appreciated by a sensual and 
 barbarous people. 
 
 " The chief also secures the services and adherence 
 of many young men who are too poor to purchase 
 wives, by bestowing one of his own concubines upon 
 them either temporarily or permanently. In either case 
 the children belong to the chief, who is considered as 
 the nominal father and owner. 
 
 " On account of the number of wives and the abun- 
 dance of food at the kraal of a wealthy chief, he 
 cannot fail to assemble around him a number of 
 retainers. The feasts and dances which are constantly 
 going on furnish an ever recurring opportunity for 
 sensual indulgence." 
 
 Another revolting custom of the mountain tribes is 
 that of polyandrous marriages. A man who lias not 
 the requisite number of cattle to procure a wife, and 
 whose father is too poor to help him, goes to a wealthy 
 chief and obtains assistance from him on condition of 
 having joint marital rights. 
 
 By all the tribes polygamy is practised. Marriage 
 is an arrangement, without any religious ceremony, 
 by which in return for a girl cattle are transferred to 
 her relatives by the husband or his friends. It does 
 not make of a woman a slave who can be sold from 
 hand to hand, nor does it give her husband power to 
 maim her. In its best aspect this method of marriage 
 is a protection to a woman against ill usage. If her 
 husband maims her, or treats her with undue severity, 
 she can return to her father or guardian, who is allowed 
 in such cases to retain both the woman and the cattle. 
 In its worst aspect it permits a father or guardian 
 to give a girl in marriage to the man who offers 
 most for her, without the slightest reference to her 
 inclinations, and with a certainty that she is being 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 consigned to what elsewhere would be termed a life 
 of infamy. 
 
 To this day the position of more than nine-tenths 
 of the females of the southern Bantu tribes is such as 
 is here described, but it is not so easy now as it was 
 sixty or seventy years ago for a stranger to become 
 acquainted with the worst features of the system under 
 which they live. Through contact with Europeans 
 they have come to know that we look with loathing 
 upon many of their habits ; and in the desire to stand 
 well with strangers, which even the lowest share, they 
 are careful to conceal all that is most offensive in our 
 eyes. The teaching of missionaries has elevated a 
 small section of the people very greatly above the 
 general mass, though the morals of the majority of the 
 converts may still seem low when compared with a 
 European standard. It is this section that strangers 
 are most likely to come into contact with and form 
 their impressions from, and by them departure from 
 the rules which the missionaries have established is 
 studiously concealed. 
 
 The most prominent virtue of the Bantu tribes of 
 South Africa is devotion to their chiefs. Unques- 
 tionably this devotion retards their civilization, 
 unquestionably also it has caused enormous loss of 
 blood and money to Europeans in this country, never- 
 theless it is a virtue in them. It is the bond that 
 holds society logether. Its strength consists in its 
 being of a religious as well as a political nature. To 
 offend the spirits of the dead chiefs by rebellion 
 against their representative is something that a tribes- 
 man will hardly dare to do, so that a chief who has no 
 rivals in his own family will be obeyed implicitly. 
 Among the coast tribes this feeling of devotion to the 
 chief is perhaps not stronger than it is in the moun- 
 tains, though, owing to their more manly character, 
 it is usually more prominently exhibited. 
 
 Another noticeable feature is their hospitality to 
 equals and superiors. To so great an extent is this 
 carried that it may almost be said that food is common 
 property. They have two meals in the day, the 
 principal one being at sunset. Anyone passing by at
 
 21 
 
 that time, friend or stranger, provided only that he is 
 not inferior in rank, sits down without invitation or 
 ceremony and shares in the meal. In most villages 
 there is a hut set apart specially for the accommodation 
 of strangers, though it is usually in a dilapidated 
 state, owing to its being the business of the com- 
 munity and not of any particular person to keep it in 
 repair. 
 
 Whether these people as a whole are capable of 
 rising to as high a stage ot civilization as Europeans 
 have attained is as yet doubtful. For nearly three- 
 fourths of a century the agents of numerous missionary 
 societies have been labouring zealously among them, 
 and large sums of money have been expended in efforts 
 to educate them, but the great mass of the population 
 at the present day exhibits very few signs of mental 
 improvement. Ploughs, axes, woollen blankets, and 
 several other articles of European manufacture have 
 come into general use, and there has been a ready 
 adoption of European weapons of war, but as far back 
 as can be traced no individual among the Bantu of 
 South Afcrica has invented or improved a useful imple- 
 ment. The desire of at least nine-tenths of them is to 
 live as their remote ancestors lived, and if it were 
 possible to accomplish this, they would cheerfully 
 renounce the use of all the products of European skill. 
 
 But while the great body of the southern Bantu 
 remains mentally unimproved, numerous individuals 
 have emerged from the mass and have shown abilities 
 of no mean order. A score of preachers might be 
 named equal to the average European in the kind of 
 intellect required in their calling. Mnsters of primary 
 schools, clerks, and interpreters, many of whom are as 
 well qualified for their duties as the white men who 
 usually fill such situations, are to be met by hundreds. 
 As agents in courts of law many of them would 
 undoubtedly equal Europeans, but practically this 
 sphere of occupation has not hitherto been open to 
 them, and their best friends do not desire that it should 
 be. One individual of this race has translated Bunyan's 
 Pilgrim's Progress into the dialect of the Xosa tribe, 
 and the translation is as faithful as any that have been 
 made in the languages of Continental Europe. Another
 
 22 
 
 has composed plaintive music, such as the converts at 
 the mission station? love to sin-r, for a considerable 
 number of hymns and songs in the sme dialect. As 
 mechanics they do not succeed so well. A few among 
 the many who are trained in the different industrial 
 institutions continue for some years to labour as black- 
 smiths, carpenters, typesetters, &c. ; but they are 
 almost without exception very far inferior to European 
 workmen, and generally abandon such occupations 
 after a short trial. They take little or no pride in 
 doing what falls to them in a proper manner, and are 
 therefore unable to compete with white men. 
 
 The Bantu of South Africa are probably the most 
 prolific people on the face of the earth. Their actual 
 rate of increase cannot be given, because no census 
 has yet been taken except in small localities ; but it is 
 certain that they have more than trebled in number 
 within the last half -century. All the females are 
 married at an early age, very few women indeed are 
 childless, and in most of the tribes provision is even 
 made by custom for widows to add to the families of 
 their deceased husbands. 
 
 The foregoing brief description of these people is 
 necessary to give the reader sufficient knowledge of 
 their characteristics to understand the following 
 chapters. A full account of their government, language, 
 religion, traditions, manners, customs, and laws, would 
 fill several volumes. The most complete information 
 concerning them is to be found in still unpublished 
 manuscripts in the different Government offices in 
 Cape Town, but printed works upon the subject are 
 plentiful and obtainable without difficulty. For the 
 guidance of those who may desire to consult such 
 works, a list is here given : 
 
 De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika, Natuur en Geschied 
 l.-iiinlig beschreven. Door Lodewyk Alberti. voormaals Land 
 drost van het Distrikt Uitenhage. One volume octavo 
 Amsterdam, 1810. 
 
 Travels in the fnterior of Southern Africa. By William J. 
 Burchell. Two volumes quarto, London, 1822 and 1824. This 
 admirable and trustworthy work is profusely illustrated with 
 coloured plate? and woodcuts equal in accuracy to photographs. 
 
 Travelt and Researches in Caffraria ; describinq the character, 
 customs, and moral condition of the Tribes inhabiting that nor-
 
 23 
 
 tion of Southern Africa ; with Historical and Topographical. 
 Remarks illustrative of the, state and prospects of the Bi itisli 
 Settlement on its Borders, the introduction if Christianity, and 
 the Progress of Civilization. By the Rev. Stephen Kay. One 
 volume crown octavo, London, 1833. 
 
 Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of Southern 
 Africa. By Ajidrew Steedmun. Two volumes octavo. London, 
 1835. 
 
 Caffres and Caffre Missions ; with Preliminary Chapters on 
 the Cape Colony as a Field for Emigration and Basis of Mis- 
 sionary Operation. By the Rev. H. Calderwood. One volume 
 crown octavo. London, 1858. 
 
 The Story (if my \lissionin South- Easern Africa : comprising 
 some Account of the European Colonists: with Notices of the 
 Kaffir and other Native Tribes. By the Rev. William Shaw. 
 One volume crown octavo, London, 18iiO. 
 
 The Basutos ; or Twenty-three Years in South Africa. By 
 
 the Rev. E. Casalis. One volume crown octavo, London, 1861. 
 
 A Popular Account of Missionary Travels and Researches in 
 
 South Africa. By the Rev. Dr. Livingstone. One volume 
 
 crown octavo, London, 1801. 
 
 A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs. Compiled by 
 
 direction of Colonel Maclean, Chief Commissioner in British 
 
 Katt'raria. An octavo volume of 164 pages, Cape Town, 18(56. 
 
 The Past and Future of the Kaffir Knees. By the Rev. 
 
 William C. Holden. One volume octavo, London, 1866. 
 
 Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, in their 
 own looi'ds, with a Translation into English, and Nvtei. By the 
 Rev. Canon Callaway, M.D. One volume octavo, Springvale, 
 Natal, 1868. 
 
 Kaffir Folklore, or a Selection from the Traditional Tales 
 current amoi<g the People living on the Eastern Border of the 
 Cape Colony. By Geo. McCall Theal. One volume octavo 
 London, 1882.. 
 
 Proceedings oj, and Evidence taken by, the Commission on 
 Native Affairs. A Government Blue-book printed at Graham's 
 Town in 1865. 
 
 Report and Evidence of Commission on Native 1-aws and Cus- 
 toms of the Basutos. A Blue-book printed at Cape Town in 
 1873 by order of the House of Assembly. 
 
 Report and Proceedings, with Appendices, of the Government 
 Commission on Native Laws and Customs. A Blue-book printed 
 at Cape Town in 1883. 
 
 Annual Blue-books on Natite Affairs since 1874, being 
 reports of officers of the Cape Government throughout the 
 native territories. 
 
 Numerous Grammars and Dictionaries in the different 
 dialects, the work of missionaries of various denominations 
 and nationalities. 
 
 And a large number of books the titles of which will be 
 given in the following chapters.
 
 24 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DEVASTATIONS OF TSHAKA AND MOSELEKATSE. 
 COMMENCEMENT OF MOSHESH'S CAREER THE 
 BAROLONG TRIBE. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FRENCH 
 MISSION IN THE LESUTO, AND THE LONDON 
 SOCIETY'S AND WESLEYAN MISSIONS TO THE 
 BECHUANA. 
 
 About the year 1783, or perhaps a little later, one of 
 the inferior wives of Senzangakona, chief of a tribe 
 living on the banks of the river Umvolosi, gave birth 
 to a son who was destined to tower high in fame 
 above all his contemporaries. The boy who had come 
 into the world was Tshaka, the terrible Zulu conqueror 
 of later years. At the time of his birth the Zulu tribe 
 was small and without influence. It was not even 
 independent, as it was tributary to the Abatetwa. The 
 only reputation the Zulus had then acquired was that 
 of being keen traffickers, expert pedlers.of such wares 
 as constituted the basis of commerce in South-Eastern 
 Africa. 
 
 Tshaka grew up to be in person one of the hand- 
 somest of the splendidly formed men that composed 
 his tribe. In all the feats of agility in which the 
 youths of his people take so much delight he was 
 unequalled, if native traditions are to be believed. At 
 that time white men had no intercourse with any of 
 the Coast Tribes beyond the Amaxosa, and our know- 
 ledge of Tshaka's early life is therefore drawn entirely 
 from native sources. But from 1824 to the date of his 
 death he was frequently visited by Europeans. 
 Among these, Messrs. F. G. Farewell, J. S. King, H. 
 F Fynn, and Nathaniel Isaacs have given accounts of 
 him, and they all describe him in similar terms. In 
 1825 Mr. King wrote of him as " upwards of six feet 
 in height and well proportioned, the best pedestrian in 
 the country, and exhibiting in his exercises the most 
 astonishing activity." He appeared then to be about 
 thirty-six years of age, but he must have been several 
 years older. 
 
 While Tshaka was still quite a youth he excited the 
 jealousy of his father, and was compelled to flee for 
 his life. He took refuge with Dingiswayo, chief of
 
 25 
 
 the Abatetwa, his father's feudal lord. This Dingiswayo 
 was a man who had gone through some curious 
 adventures, and had seen some strange vicissitudes of 
 fortune. In his younger days he had been suspected 
 of treasonable designs against his father Jobe, and only 
 escaped death by the devotion of one of his sisters. 
 With her aid he managed to get away from the execu- 
 tioners who were sent to kill him, and then for many 
 years he was lost sight of by his people. They 
 believed him to be dead, instead of which he was 
 wandering from tribe to tribe until at length he 
 reached the border of the Cape Colony. While he 
 was there a military expedition was sent to the frontier, 
 either the small one sent by Lord Macartney to the 
 village of Graaff-Reinet in 1797, or the much larger 
 one sent by General Dundas in 1799. If it was the 
 latter, the chief topic of conversation among the 
 Amaxosa would certainly be the engagement between 
 General Vandeleur's forces and Cungwa's clan, in 
 which a few trained soldiers drove back a large body 
 of natives and inflicted upon them tremendous loss. 
 At any rate Dingiswayo came to hear something about 
 the Europe m military system, and he reflected a good 
 deal upon what he heard. 
 
 Prior to this date the method of conducting war by 
 all the South African tribes was very simple but not 
 very effective. The chiefs led their followers and 
 were obeyed by them, but the army was really an 
 undisciplined rnob. It was divided into two bands, 
 the veterans who wore plumes, and the young men 
 whose heads were bare. Each -warrior was trained 
 from early youth to the use of his weapons, but was 
 never drilled to act in concert with his fellows or to 
 perform the simplest military evolution. A campaign 
 was a sudden swoop upon the enemy, and seldom 
 lasted longer than a few days. 
 
 While Dingiswayo was gathering information his 
 father Jobe died, and the Abatetwa, believing that the 
 rightful heir had perished, raised the next in succession 
 to be their chief. But by some means the wanderer 
 came to hear of his father's death, and sent word to 
 the tribe that he intended to return. The message
 
 26 
 
 was followed by news of his approach, and it was 
 announced that he was mounted on an animal of 
 wonderful strength, beauty, and speed. The Abatetwa 
 had not yet seen a horse, BO that the eclat of their lost 
 chief's return was considerably heightened by his 
 making his appearance on the strange animal. There 
 was no doubt as to his identity, and he was received 
 with rapture by the majority of his late fathers 
 subjects. His brother made a feeble resistance, but 
 was easily overcome and put to death. 
 
 Dingiswayo now set about turning the information 
 he had gained to some account. He formed his men 
 into regiments, and appointed officers of various grades 
 to command them. When this was accomplished he 
 made war upon his neighbours, but was satisfied with 
 conquest, for though ambitious he was not particularly 
 cruel. 
 
 Such was the chief under whose protection Tshaka 
 placed himself. The Zulu refugee became a soldier 
 in one of Dingiswayo's regiments, from which position 
 he raised himself by courage and ability to a situation 
 of command. 
 
 When Senzangakona died the Zulus feared to 
 acknowledge his legitimate heir as his successor, as 
 by doing so they migl.t displease their paramount 
 lord. They therefore applied to Dingisw.-iyo, who, 
 trusting to the fidelity of Tshaka, nominated him to 
 the vacant chieftainship. As long as Dingiswayo 
 lived, Tshaka and he worked harmoniously together. 
 But at length, in a skirmish with a tribe which he 
 had made war upon, the chief of the Abatetwa was 
 made prisoner, and was put to death by his captor. 
 
 The army then did vvh t armies in such circum- 
 stances are prone to do : it raised its favourite 
 general to supreme power. Tshaka now conceived 
 schemes of conquests on a vast scale, and devised a 
 much more perfect system of organization and dis- 
 cipline than had before existed. The males of the 
 united tribes with their vassals that acknowledged his 
 sway were divided into regiments, each of which had 
 its own kraal or portion of a kraal when several were 
 stationed together. The soldiers were not permitted
 
 27 
 
 to marry without the consent of the chief, and this 
 WHS only given to a regiment after long and meri- 
 torious services. The regiments were distinguished 
 from each other by the pattern and colour of their 
 shields, and a spirit of emulation between them was 
 encouraged and kept up by various devices. 
 
 As soon as a youth was fit to bear a shield he was 
 required to join the army, and thereafter he had no 
 companions but soldiers until the chief's permission 
 to marry was obtained by his regiment. The practice 
 of circumcision was abolished, as being useless now 
 that another mark of manhood had taken its place. 
 The army was provided with food mainly from the 
 herds captured in war, and the female portion of the 
 community furnished what grain was needed. Con- 
 stant drilling, reviews, and mock fights occupied the 
 time of the soldiers when they were not engaged in 
 actual war. 
 
 The weapon previously in use was the assagai, or 
 light javelin, which wa-< thrown at the enemy from a 
 distance. Tshaka substituted for it a heavy short- 
 handled spear. The warrior who returned from battle 
 without his weapon forfeited his life. To protect his 
 person, he carried an enormous shield of stout ox 
 hide, upon which he received the assagais hurled 
 against him. 
 
 The world has probably never seen men trained to 
 more perfect obedience. The army became a vast 
 machine, entirely under command of its head. There 
 was no questioning, no delay, when an order was 
 issued, for to presume upon either was to court instant 
 death. Most extraordinary tasks were sometimes 
 required of a regiment to prove its efficiency in this 
 respect. At a review an order would sometimes be 
 given which meant death to hundreds, and the jealousy 
 between the regiments was so great that if one hesi- 
 tated for a moment the others were ready to cut it 
 down. 
 
 When attacking an enemy, the army was drawn up 
 in two divisions. The division in advance was in the 
 form of a crescent, the ends of which were termed the 
 horns, the centre being known as the breast. The
 
 28 
 
 rear division was the reserve. Its formation was that 
 of a square or parallelogram, and its place was behind 
 the breast, as the best position from which to strengthen 
 any weak point. 
 
 With an army of forty or fifty thousand men thus 
 highly disciplined Tshaka commenced a series of wars 
 which did not terminate until between Delagoa Bay 
 and the Umzhnvubu River there was no tribe left to 
 withstand him He was not satisfied with mere con- 
 quest, in his opinion an enemy was not subdued unless 
 it was exterminated. His soldiers were ordered utterly 
 to destroy the people they marched against, to kill all 
 the old and all the children of both sexes, to reserve 
 none but a few lads to be their carriers and the corne- 
 liest girls who were to be brought to him. These 
 orders were literally carried out. The tribes passed 
 out of sight, and the country beyond the Zulu military 
 kraals became a desert. A few only of the neighbour- 
 ing clans saved themselves by begging to be incor- 
 porated with the Zulu power, and conforming in all 
 respects to the Zulu system. 
 
 Tshaka governed his people with such cruelty as is 
 hardly comprehensible by Europeans. Every one who 
 displeased him in any way was put to death. All 
 who approached him did so unarmed and in a crouching 
 posture. He never admitted any woman to the rank 
 of wife, though at his various places of residence over 
 twelve hundred females were maintained. His custom 
 was to distribute to his favourite officers such of these 
 women as he no longer cared for, when their places 
 were supplied by captives. To prevent rivalry by 
 members of his own family he suffered no son of his 
 to live. And yet his people were devoted to him, 
 so proud were they of the military fame which his 
 genius had enabled them to acquire. 
 
 When Tshaka commenced his career the lower 
 terraces of the territory that is now the Colony of 
 Natal were the most densely peopled districts of South 
 Africa. The soil was rich, the water plentiful, the 
 climate such as the coast natives love. If the tribes 
 there had united for defence they might have succeeded 
 in holding their own, but combination in time of dan-
 
 29 
 
 ger, apparently so natural, appears seldom to be 
 resorted to by barbarians. Frequently, on account 
 of some petty jealousy, they rejoice at the downfall 
 of neighbours and lack the foresight to see that their 
 own turn will come next. It was so with the tribes 
 of what is now Natal. One after another they were 
 attacked, and though several of them fought despe- 
 rately, all were overpowered and ruined. Some 
 instances of obstinate defence by isolated parties are 
 still preserved in the memory of Ihe aged, of which 
 the following may serve as a specimen : 
 
 Umjoli, chief of the Abasekunene, had taken to wife 
 a woman named Gubela, of the Amabele tribe. She 
 was a person of most courageous disposition, and as 
 her husband's character was just the reverse, she placed 
 herself at the head of his warriors, and resolved to die 
 rather than flee. For a long time she succeeded in 
 defending herself aud the portion of the tribe that 
 adhered to her, for after her first achievements, she 
 separated from her craven husband, and the people 
 were divided between them. Her name soon grew so 
 famous that a song was composed in her honour, two 
 lines of which read as follows : 
 
 At Gubela's they don't use bars to kraals. 
 But for gates make heaps of heads of men. 
 
 Valour, however, did not prevail, and in the end 
 Gubela's people shared the fate of all the rest. Rem- 
 nants of the Amabele, the Amazizi, the Abasekunene, 
 the Amahlubi, and a fe*' others of less note managed 
 to escape by fleeing southward and taking refuge with 
 the tribes on the border of the Cape Colony. Their 
 descendants are the Fingos of the present day. 
 The Amabaca, now living in Griqualand East, are 
 descendants of the remains of another fugitive tribe. 
 The only people left in the greater part of the present 
 Colony of Natal were the remnants of a few clans who 
 had adopted cannibalism as a means of existence. 
 
 One section of the Amahlubi demands particular 
 notice. The original home of this tribe was the district 
 between the Buffalo and ' ugela rivers, where the}' 
 were living in the year 1820. Their great chief at that
 
 30 
 
 time was named Bungane, and as from him some men 
 have descended who have played ;>n important part in 
 South African history, a genealogical table of the 
 family is here given. 
 
 Bungane 
 
 i i 
 
 Umtimkulu Umpangazita 
 
 Langalibalele Ludidi Sidinane Metblomakulu 
 
 Zibi. 
 
 The Amablubi were not attacked directly by 
 Tshaka's armies, but by Matiwane, chief of the 
 Amangwane, who was himself endeavouring to escape 
 from the Zulu spear. The Amahlubi were driven 
 from their homes with dreadful slaughter, in which 
 their great chief Bungane and his principal son 
 Umtimkulu both perished. Some clans of the defeated 
 tribe, as has been already stated, fled southward. Oue 
 division, under Umpangazita, the second son of Bun- 
 gane in rank, endeavoured to escape by crossing the 
 mountains to the westward. An incident strikingly 
 illustrative of savage life caused them to set their 
 faces in this direction. Some fifteen or eighteen 
 months previously a quarrel had taken place between 
 Umpangazita and his brother-in-law iviotsholi, who 
 thereupon left the Hlubi country with two or three 
 thousand followers, and took refuge with the Batlokua. 
 The chief Mokotsho was then dead, and his widow 
 Ma Ntatisi, was acting as regent during the minority 
 of her son Sikonyela. 
 
 Ma Ntatisi received Motsholi with hospitality, and 
 for about a twelvemonth the intercourse between the 
 Batlokua and the strangers was o a friendly nature. 
 But Motsholi, when visiting Ma Ntatisi, would never 
 partake of food presented to him, and was always 
 accompanied by some of his own followers carrying 
 provisions for his use. He assigned as a reason that 
 what was offered to him was the food of the deceased 
 Mokotsho, as if he would say that he suspected Ma 
 Ntatisi of having caused Mokotsho's death by poison,
 
 31 
 
 and feared to eat what she prepared lest he might share 
 the same fate. This came at length to be considered 
 a gross insult by the regent and her people. 
 
 In the winter of 1821 Sikonyela, then about 16 or 
 17 years of age, was circumcised, when he determined 
 to notify his entrance into the state of manhood by a 
 deed becoming a warrior. With a band of youthful 
 adherents be fell by stealth upun Motsholi, killed him 
 and about twenty of his people, and drove off the 
 cattle. The murdered chief wore a necklace without 
 a fastening, and to obtain this Sikonyela cut off his 
 head. 
 
 Some of the adherents of Motsholi fled to Umpa- 
 ngazita, and informed him of what had taken place. It 
 was just then that the Amahlubi were compelled to 
 leave their own country. Umpangazita thereupon 
 resolved with assagai in hand to demand the resto- 
 ration of the well-known necklace from the treacherous 
 Batlokua, and to avenge the death of his brother-in- 
 law while escaping from his own antagonist. It is 
 owing to this circumstance that the natives accuse the 
 Batlokua of being the cause of the wars of extermina- 
 tion west of the Drakensberg. 
 
 The Amahlubi were closely followed by the Ama- 
 ngwane, and so hot was the pursuit that the aged and 
 feeble with thousands of helpless children were of 
 necessity abandoned on the way, that the more vigo- 
 rous might escape. They crossed the Drakensberg 
 and fell upon the Batlokua, who were dispersed and 
 compelled to abandon all their possessions to their 
 conquerors. Under Ma Ntatisi the defeated tribe fled 
 southward. The district between the Drakeneberg 
 and the Sand River was almost depopulated. The 
 Basia disappeared entirely. The great wave of war 
 that was rolling onward passed over the Bataung 
 country also, and the greater portion of that tribe 
 perished. One division, however, under a chief named 
 Molitsane, who will frequently appear in these pages, 
 escaped by fleeing across the plains to the Bechuana 
 country beyond the Vaal, where its adventures will 
 presently be related. Another small division, under 
 a chief named Makwana, who was of higher rank than
 
 32 
 
 Molitsane, also escaped the general destruction by 
 hiding away for a time. 
 
 The Batlokua pursued by the Amahlubi, and the 
 Amahlubi pursued by the Amangwane, then fell upon 
 the country occupied by the five tribes of the Mayiane, 
 Makhoakhoa, Bamonageng, Batlakoana, and Baramo- 
 khele. At that moment, just when these tribes most 
 needed an able head, there was not a single man of 
 note among them. Motlomi, chief of the Bamonageng, 
 whose name is still held in great veneration by the 
 Basuto, had exercised paramount power over them all 
 during his lifetime, but he had died in 1814 or 1815, 
 and there was no one of sufficient ability to take his 
 place. It was therefore not as one strong determined 
 people that the fi\e tribes met the torrent of invasion, 
 but as little bands, each trying to hold its own, with- 
 out a common plan of action. 
 
 Vast numbers of people of all ages died by the club 
 and assagai. In a short time the cattle were eaten up, 
 and as the gardens ceased to be cultivated, a terrible 
 famine arose. Thousands, tens of thousands of people 
 perished of starvation, other thousands fled from the 
 wasted land, and many of those who remained behind 
 became cannibals. It is impossible to iorni an estimate 
 of the number of individuals belonging to the Moun- 
 tain Tribes who perished at this time. The only tribe 
 whose losses can be even approximately computed is 
 that of the Batlokua. They were reduced from about 
 one hundred and thirty thousand to fourteen or fifteen 
 thousand in number, only a small proportion of the 
 loss being from dispersion. If the destruction of 
 human beings in what is now the Lesuto and in the 
 north-east of the present Free State be estimated at 
 three hundred thousand, that number must be greatly 
 under the mark. And on the other side of the moun- 
 tains at least half a million had perished. Compared 
 with this, the total loss of human life, occasioned by 
 all the wars in South Africa in which Europeans have 
 engaged since first they set foot in the country, sinks 
 into insignificance. 
 
 While these devastations were taking place, a young 
 man, son of a petty chief of the Baramokhele, began
 
 33 
 
 to attract attention. His name was Moshesh. His 
 family was one of so little note that in a country 
 where the genealogies of mea of rank have been care- 
 fully handed down for twelve or fifteen generations, 
 antiquarians cannot trace his lineage with absolute 
 certainty beyond his great grandfather. Some of them 
 indeed, since Moshesh's rise, pretend to give the names 
 of several of his more remote ancestors, but these 
 names are disputed by others, and all that is generally 
 agreed to is that the family was in some way related 
 by marriage to the ruling house of the Bamonageng. 
 Certainty begins with Sekake, a petty chief who died 
 about the middle of last century leaving a son named 
 Mpiti. 
 
 If the custom of his people had been followed, after 
 Sekake's death his brothers should have taken his 
 widows ; but either by accident or design his great 
 wife fell to one of his friends who was a stranger, 
 being a native of the coast region. By this man the 
 woman had a son, who was named Pete. According 
 to European ideas Pete would certainly have no claim 
 to represent Sekake, but his mother having been 
 Sekake's wife, by Bantu custom he was considered 
 Sekake's son. His elder brother Mpiti was, however, 
 held to be the heir. Pete lived until the year 1823, 
 when he was killed and eaten by cannibals. He left 
 two sons, Dibe the elder and Mokatshane, the younger. 
 About the year 1793 Mokatshane's wife gave birth to 
 a son who on attaining manhood took the name of 
 Moshesh, and subsequently became the most prominent 
 individual in the mountain land. Moshesh was thus 
 by birth only the heir of a younger son of a younger 
 son " by cattle " of a petty chief, a position of very 
 little note indeed. The following genealogical table 
 will show his descent at a glance : 
 Sekake 
 
 Mpiti Pete 
 
 Masotwane Dibe Mokatshane 
 
 i i i 
 
 Makwai Ramakha Moshesh 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 Many yeans later the official praisers, a class of men 
 who attend upon every native chief, related that 
 Motlomi. the last paramount ruler of the five tribes, 
 had named Moshesh as his successor and had predicted 
 his future greatness ; but their statement rested upon 
 flattery alone. Motlomi was dead long before Moshesh 
 had an opportunity of emerging from obscurity. 
 
 The family of Mokatshane was a large one. Among 
 his sons who were born after Moshesh were Mukhabane 
 (father of Lesawana or Ramanela as now called), 
 Poshuli, Mohali, Moperi, and Lelosa (or Job), all of 
 whom will appeal in these pages. 
 
 Moshesh first saw the light at Lintshuaneng, on the 
 Tlotsi. where his father's clan was living. He grew 
 up to be a man of commanding appearance, attractive 
 in features, and well formed in body. In his youth 
 lie was an ardent hunter of the elands and other large 
 animals that were then to be found at no great distance 
 from his home, and this exercise developed his 
 strength and activity. 
 
 Dpon the invasion of his country, Moshesh, then a 
 vigorous young man of eight or nine and twenty years, 
 collected a party of warriors, chiefly his former com- 
 panions in the chase, and made a stand at the strong 
 position of Butabutc, but was attacked there by Ma 
 Ktatisi, and was defeated, when his followers were 
 brought to great distress. During the winter of 1824 
 lie removed some distance to the south-west and took 
 possession of Thaba Bosigo, a mountain so formed by 
 nature as to be a fortress of great strength, and which 
 has never yet been taken by a foe. None, a Baphuti 
 chief, had a village at the foot of the hill, but he was 
 plundered of his provisions by Moshesh's chief warrior 
 Makoniane, and was then driven away by the new- 
 comers. 
 
 Moshesh now conducted various expeditions against 
 the Hatlokua and the Amahlubi, and owing to tilt- 
 adroitness with which his plans were formed, he was 
 invariably successful. His fame as a military strate- 
 gist rapidly spread, and from all parts of the moun- 
 tain land men came to Thaba Bosigo to join him. 
 With an impregnable stronghold in his possession, in
 
 35 
 
 which the families and effects of his retainers were 
 secure, it was easy for the rising chief to make sudden 
 forays and fall upon his enemies at unguarded points. 
 Each successful expedition brought new adherents, 
 until the Basuto of Moshesh became a strong party, 
 devoted to their leader. For two or three years the 
 Amangwane were the most poAverful people in the 
 country, and durinsr this time Moshesh paid court to 
 their chief, professing to be his vassal, and paying 
 him tribute from the spoil taken in his excursions. 
 
 After a time the most formidable of the invaders 
 perished or left the ravaged country. \ great battle 
 was fought on the banks of the *Caledon between 
 Umpangazita, or Pakalita as he was called by thu 
 Basuto, and Matiwanc, in which the Amahlubi were 
 defeated with great slaughter. The chief and those 
 who escaped fled to a mountain, but were followed by 
 the enemy and driven from the stronghold. In the 
 last stand that they made, near Lishuane, Umpanga- 
 zita was killed. Most of the young men were then 
 taken to be carriers for the Amangwane, and such as 
 remained placed themselves under the protection of 
 Moshesh, and with his consent settled in the district 
 of Mekuatling. These people and their descendants, 
 together with some fragments of the Amangwane and 
 other tribes subsequently broken, are the Fingos of 
 recent Basuto history. 
 
 After the destruction of the Amahlubi, an army 
 which was sent by Tshaka fell upon Matiwane, who 
 was defeated and compelled to retire from Basutoland. 
 Crossing the Orange River and the Quathlamba Moun- 
 tains in a southerly direction, he then attacked the 
 Abatembu. This tribe applied to the Colonial Govern- 
 ment for assistance, and to save the natives on the 
 frontier from annihilation or dispersion, a combined 
 military and burgher force was sent against the 
 Amangwane. The Galekas also joined the Tembtis 
 against them. In August, 1828, Matiwarie's power was 
 completely broken. He with a few of his adherents 
 fled northwards to Diu^an, Tshaka's successor, by 
 whose orders they were all put to death. Those of 
 his people that were left in Kaffirlaud then lost their 
 D 2
 
 36 
 
 distinguishing name and weie absorbed in other tribes, 
 some of them even becoming mixed with the Fingos 
 of the frontier. 
 
 The Batlokua, reduced to one eighth or one tenth of 
 their original number, now settled along the Upper 
 Caledon, and began to resume the occupations of an 
 agricultural and pastoral people. Sikonyela, son of 
 Ma Ntatisi, was their recognised chief, but his mother, 
 who was considered a person of ability, still exercised 
 supreme control over the tribe. 
 
 The government of Moshesh was mild, and he had 
 sufficient wisdom and prudence to spare and protect 
 all who submitted to him, whether they had been 
 previously friendly or hostile. Even parties of 
 cannibals left their caves, placed themselves under 
 him, and began ajjain to culiivate the ground. By a 
 couple of successful forays upon some Terubu clans 
 below the mountains, he acquired considerable wealth 
 in cattle. Most of the adult individuals of high rank 
 among the mountain tribes had perished, so there was 
 no obstacle to the people adopting as their head the 
 young chief, whose abilities as a ruler as well as a 
 military leader were soon widely recognized. Moshesh 
 thus became the central figure round whom the 
 scattered and impoverished Basuto rallied, with a view 
 of recovering and retaining the territory that had been 
 occupied by their fathers, or more, correctly a portion 
 of that territory together with the district between 
 it and the Orange River which had been previously 
 inhabited partly by the Baphuti, but chiefly by Bush- 
 men. He had already become by conquest the para- 
 mount chief of the Baphuti, a tribe of mixed blood, 
 an account of whose origin will show how easily in 
 times of peace bordering people become blended 
 together. 
 
 About the beginning of last century a band of 
 refugees calling themselves Bamaru, or people of the 
 clouds, migrated from Zululand to the country south 
 of Thaba Bosigo. These people adopted Basuto cus- 
 toms and intermarried with the Bamonageng, by whom 
 they were termed Mapethla, or the pioneers. 
 
 After the establishment of the Bamaru, some
 
 37 
 
 Bahalanga, or people of the sun, crossed the mountains 
 from the district which is now Natal, bringing hoes 
 and red ochre to exchange for peltries. These Baha- 
 langa were of the Amazizi tribe. They took back 
 such a favourable account of the country that a party 
 of their friends resolved to migrate to it, and accord- 
 ingly left their ancestral home on the head waters of 
 the Tujjela tmd established themselves in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the present Morija. These immigrants 
 were under the leadership ot a chief from whom the 
 late Morosi traced his descent. They also, like the 
 Mapethla, mixed freely with the tribes to the north- 
 ward, intermarried with them, and adopted their cus- 
 toms. In course of time the descendants of these immi- 
 grants spread over the district between Thaba Bosigo 
 and the 0/ange River, remaining, however, politically 
 independent of their neighbours. By these they were 
 termed Baphuti. 
 
 At the time of the great invasion, the Bamaru dis- 
 persed in the Cape Colony, but the chief Mokuane and 
 his son Morosi went no further than the present dis- 
 trict of Quthing, on the left bank of the Orange River, 
 where they established themselves. 
 
 Early in 1825 a band of Basuto under command of 
 Mohali, a brother of Moshesh, fell upon the Baphuti 
 and plundered them of nearly everything they pos- 
 sessed, carrying off even their women and children. 
 Some of these were subsequently redeemed with beads, 
 but others were taken as captives to Thaba Bosigo. A 
 few months later Mokuane madeMibmission to Moshesh, 
 and was received by that rising chief as a vassal. In 
 the tribute which on this occasion he paid was a famous 
 yellow ox of immense size, with horns artificially 
 trained to meet over its nose, the transfer of which 
 was regarded by the contracting parties in the same 
 light as civilized nations would look upon the affixing 
 of seals to a formal treaty. When this was accom- 
 plished the prisoners were restored to their relatives. 
 
 From that time Moshesh was regarded as the supreme 
 chief of the Baphuti, and consequently the territorial 
 lord of the land on which they lived. Somewhat later 
 the scattered members of the Bamaru returned from
 
 the different parts of the colony where they hud taken 
 refuge, placed themselves under Mokuane, and became 
 incorporated with his people. Thenceforth they also 
 took the name of Baphuti. 
 
 The first wave of invasion that rolled over the 
 mountain land had now spent itself, and where 
 numerous tribes living iu plenty had once been, there 
 were only left a few wretched Bataung under 
 ilakwana between the Vet and Sand rivers, the 
 remnant of tlie Batlokua under Sikonyela on the 
 Upper Caledon, and the remnants of all the rest 
 gathered together under Moshesh. whose seat of 
 government was the stronghold of Thaba Bosigo. To 
 prevent the chief of the Zulu* sending an army into 
 the country, Moshe>h pn>iv>ssed to be his most 
 obedient vassal, and appeased him by sending frequent 
 subsidies of plumes ami peltries. 
 
 The avt' of war that followed spent its chief fury 
 upon the tribes inhabiting the territory now com- 
 prised in the South African Republic, but it did not 
 altogether spare the mountain people. We are now 
 to make the acquaintance of the terrible Umsilikazi, 
 whose fame as an exterminator of men ranks second 
 only to that of Tshuka. 
 
 His father, Matshobuie by name, had been iu his 
 early years an independent chief, but to save himself 
 and his people from annihilation lie had voluntarily 
 sought admission into the Zulu tribe. After his 
 death his son became a favourite with Tshaka, and 
 was raised in time to the command of a large and 
 important division of the Zulu army. In person he 
 was tall and well-formed, with searching e3~es and 
 agreeable features. The traveller Hariis described 
 him in 1836 as being then about forty years of age, 
 though as he was totally "beardless it was difficult to 
 form a correct estimate. His head was closely shorn, 
 except where the elliptical ring, the distinguishing 
 mark of the Zulu tribe, was left. His dress consisted 
 merely of a girdle or cord round the waist, from 
 which hung suspended a number of leopards' tails ; 
 and as ornaments he wore a single striicj; of small blue 
 beads round his neck and three green feathers irom
 
 the tail of a paroquet upon his head. Such in appear- 
 ance was Umsilikazi, or Moselekatse as he was called 
 b}- the Bechuana. 
 
 He had acquired the devoted attachment "f that 
 portion of the Zulu army under his command, wheii a 
 circumstance occurred which left him no choice but 
 flight. After a successful onslaught upon a tribe 
 which he was sent to exterminate, he neglected to 
 forward the whole of the booty to his master, and 
 Tshaka, enraged at the disrespect thus shown by his 
 former favourite, despatched a great army with orders 
 to put him and all his adherents to death. These, 
 receiving intimation of their danger in time, imme- 
 diately crossed the mountains and began to lay waste 
 the country that is now the South African Republic. 
 
 The Bechuana looked with dismay upon the athletic 
 forms of the Matabele, as they termed the invaders. 
 They had never before seen discipline so perfect as 
 that of these naked braves, or weapon so deadly as 
 the Zulu stabbing spear. All that did not flee to the 
 desert were exterminated, except the corneliest girls 
 and some of the young men who were kept to carry 
 burdens. These la*t \vere led to hope that by faithful 
 service they might attain the position of soldiers, and 
 from them Moselekatse rilled up the gaps that occurred 
 from time to time in his ranks. The country over 
 which lie marched was covered with skeletons, and 
 literally no human brings were left in it, for his 
 object was to place a great desert between Tshaka and 
 himself. When he considered himself at a safe 
 distance from his old home he halted, erected military 
 kraals after the Zulu pattern, and from them as a 
 centre commenced t send his regiments cut north, 
 south, and west to gather spoil. 
 
 It is impossible to iiive the number of Moselekatse's 
 warriors, but it was probably not greater than ten 
 thousand. Fifty of them were a match for :r.ore than 
 five hundred Bechuaua. They pursued these wretched 
 creatures even when there was no plunder to be had, 
 and slew many thousands in mere wantonness, in 
 exactly the same spirit and with as little compunction 
 as a sportsman shouts snipe.
 
 40 
 
 During several years the Matabele bands made 
 occasional raids into the Lesuto, and they kept its 
 people in a constant state of terror. Their last visit 
 was in 1831, when an army sent by Moselekatse 
 besieged Thaba Bosigo, but could not capture the 
 stronghold. When the besiegers were reduced by 
 want of food to retreat, and were in great distress, 
 Moshesh sent them a supply of provisions, with a 
 message that he desired to live in peace witli all men. 
 They went away singing his praises, and never 
 attempted to take Thaba Bosigo again. 
 
 At this time the country along the Onmge was 
 infested by Griquu and Korana marauders. These 
 vagabonds would have been altogether despicable if 
 they had not been mounted on horses and armed with 
 guns, animals and weapons not as yet possessed by the 
 followers of Moshesh. They belonged to the Hottentot 
 race, a people physically inferior to the Basuto, and 
 much below them in civilization. Bands of Griquas 
 and Koranas were in the habit of swooping down 
 upon parts of the Lesuto where they were least 
 expected, and carrying off whatever they took a fancy 
 to. The assagai and battle axe afforded no protection to 
 the victims of these raids against the firearms of the 
 plunderers. Men and women were shot down without 
 pity, often through a mere passion for cruelty, and 
 children were carried off to serve their captors as 
 slaves. To ravages of this nature the Basuto were 
 subjecf for some years* until the Griqua robber bands 
 were exterminated or dispersed among communities 
 living further to the westward, and the Koranas 
 suffered reverses which taught them to respect their 
 neighbours. 
 
 About the time of the last Matabele inroad wonder- 
 ful accounts were beginning to be told in the Lesuto 
 of the great power of certain people called mission- 
 aries. Ten years earlier, or about the close of 1821, 
 Moshesh had tirst seen white men, a party of colonial 
 hunters, among whom were Messrs. Gerrit Kruger 
 and Paul Bester, having penetrated to the banks of 
 the Caledon and met him there. These hunters had 
 been eye-witnesses of the terrible sufferings of the
 
 Basuto at that time, they had even seen instances of 
 cannibalism, and they had been so affected that they 
 distributed whatever food they could spare and shot 
 all the game they could reach for the starving people. 
 Conduct like this, so different from the actions of 
 men of his own colour, had created a favourable 
 opinion regarding Europeans in the mind of Moshesh. 
 From this data onward white men occasionally visited 
 the country along the Caledon for hunting purposes, 
 and their intercourse with the Basuto was of such 
 a nature as to confirm the first impressions of the 
 chief. 
 
 The accounts of the missionaries which reached the 
 Lesuto about 1831 were to the effect that they were 
 not only benevolent, courageous, and provided with 
 terribly destructive weapons, like other white men, 
 but that they possessed magical powers. In short, they 
 were believed to be the medicine-men of the Kuropeans. 
 When an individual among the Southern Bantu 
 wishes to gain the favour of a chief, he fumigates 
 himself with the smoke of a certain root before 
 making his appearance, in the belief that it will cause 
 the heart of the chief to open to him. The stories 
 told of the Rev. Mr. Moffat, missionary among the 
 Batlapin ;it Kuruman, Jed to the belief that he 
 possessed a knowledge of some exceedingly powerful 
 medicine of this kind. About the close of 1829 he 
 had visited Moselekatse, who was then living some 
 hundred miles east of Mose-a, and had acquired 
 such influence over that dreaded conqueror that when 
 during the following two years the Bahurutsi, 
 Bangwaketsi, Bakwena, Barolong, and other Bechuana 
 tribes were nearly exterminated by the Matabele, the 
 Batlapin were spared. The Basuto concluded that 
 Mr. Moffat could only obtain such influence by means 
 of magic, and they became most anxious to obtain 
 a missionary who would impart such valuable know- 
 ledge to them. They were told also of the astonishing 
 effects produced by missionaries fit (jriquatown and 
 Philippolis. The wild, savage Griquas, wanderers 
 who knew nothing of agriculture, people who were 
 without property or law, had been collected together
 
 42 
 
 at these places, and had become comparatively wealthy 
 communities, formidable by reason of their possession 
 ef horses and guns. In the estimation of the Basuto, 
 the horrible cruelty of tiiese people and their propen- 
 sity to plunder did not detract from, but rather added 
 to, the merits of what they believed to be the effect 
 of missionary instruction. 
 
 Moshesh acted in this matter exactly as a native 
 chief to-day would act if he desired to obtain the 
 services of a reputed powerful rainmaker resident in 
 the territory of another chief. He sent two hundred 
 head of cattle to Adam Kok, the captain of Philippolis, 
 with a request that lie might be supplied with a 
 missionary in return. On the way the cattle were 
 seized by a band of K'-rana marauders, but the circum- 
 stance Cdrne to the ears of the Rev. Dr. Philip, Super- 
 intendent of the London Society's missions in South 
 Africa, who was then on a tour of inspection, and it 
 led to one of the most important events in the history 
 of Moshesh's tribe, the establishment ot missionaries 
 of the Paris Evangelical Society in the Lesuto. 
 
 The first missionaries of this Society arrived in 
 South Africa in 18'29. They were three in number. 
 One of them, the l!ev. Mr. Bisseux, took up his resi- 
 dence at Wellington, in the Cape Colony ; and the 
 oth: r two, the Kev. Messrs. Samuel Holland and Prosper 
 Lemue, proceeded to the Bechuana country and 
 endeavoured to found a station at Muscga, which was 
 then occupied by the Bahurutsi tribe under the chief 
 Mokatla. On their way they were joined by the Rev. 
 Jean Pierre Pellissier, who had followed them from 
 France. Their stay at Mo.sega was 1 >rif f. The advance 
 of Moselekatse and the destruction of the Bt-chuana 
 compelled them to abandon that part of the country, 
 and they then founded a station at- Motito, not far 
 from Kuruman, where they collected together a 
 number of fugitives from the north. 
 
 Meantime two clergymen, Messrs. Eugene Casalis 
 and Thomas Arbousset, and a missionary artisan, Mr. 
 Gossellin, were on their way out to reinforce the sta- 
 tion at Mosega among the hahumtsi. On their arrival 
 at Cape Town they learned what had transpired in the
 
 43 
 
 interior, and on Dr. Philip's recommendation they 
 turned their attention to Moshesh's people. In June, 
 1833, these missionaries reached Thaba Bosigo, and 
 were warmly welcomed by Moshesh, who gave them 
 permission to settle wherever they chose in his coun- 
 try. They selected a fertile and well-watered valley 
 about twenty-five miles from Thaba Bosigo, and there 
 established a station which they named Morija. The 
 valley when they first visited it was uninhabited, but 
 Moshesh sent some members of his own family, among 
 whom were his sons Letsie and Molapo, with a large 
 party of people, to take up their residence close to the 
 white men and be instructed by them. 
 
 The subjects of Moshesh were very willing to learn 
 from strangers the arts which made the white men so 
 rich and so powerful. Their views, of course, were at 
 first limited to potent charms and medicines, as the 
 principal means of advancement ; but they showed 
 that they were not deficient in brain power, so that 
 the missionaries had good hope of being able to raise 
 them speedily in the scale of civilization. 
 
 Messrs. Arbousset, Casalis, and Gossellin found the 
 strip of country about thirty or forty miles in width 
 along the north- western side of the Caledon from 
 about latitude 29 to 29 30' thinly inhabited by Basuto. 
 On the opposite or south-eastern side of the river, a 
 similar belt, extending to the Malnti or Peaked Moun- 
 tains, was much more thickly peopled, though its 
 inhabitants were few compared with the number 
 reached at a later date. Game of many kinds was 
 abundant, which of itself was proof of a sparse and 
 poorly armed population. Along the head waters of 
 the Caledon the Batlokui, were living, between whom 
 and the Basuto of Moshesh there was a bitter feeling 
 of enmity. 
 
 At nearly the same time the Rev. Mr. Pellissier, 
 finding that the services of three missionaries were 
 not needed at Motito, was looking for a suitable site 
 further southward for another station. Mr. Clark, 
 one of the London Society's teacheis, had been for 
 some time engaged in a fruitless effort to instruct 
 some Bushmen and to induce them to settle perma-
 
 44 
 
 nently at a place just below the confluence of the 
 Caledon and the Orange. Dr. Philip handed thc- 
 so-called Bushman School over to Mr. Pellissier, who 
 named the place Bethulie, and induced a fugitive 
 Batlapin clan from the neighbourhood of Kuruman, 
 under the chief Lepui, to settle there. These were 
 afterwards joined by some refugee Barolong. Bethulie 
 was not peopled by Basuto, nor was a claim to its 
 ground ever made by Moshesh, but from this date 
 there was a close connection between it and the 
 stations of the same Society in the Lesuto. 
 
 A few months later the population of the country 
 along the western bank of the Caledon opposite Thaba 
 Bosigo was largely increased by the arrival of several 
 bands of refugees under the leadeiship of some 
 Wesleyan missionaries. The settlement of these 
 people makes it necessary to give an account of the 
 Barolong tribe. 
 
 According to the traditions of the Barolong, their 
 ancestors nineteen generations ago migrated from a 
 country in the fiir north. They were then under a 
 chief named Morolong, from whom the tribe has its 
 name. The country which they left was a moun- 
 tainous and well watered land, where the sun at one 
 season of the year was seen on their right when they 
 looked towar Is the east. This description corresponds 
 fairly well with the region of the great lakes, and if 
 a quarter of a century be allowed as the average length 
 of a chief's rule, the Barolong left it about the year 
 1400 of our reckoning. 
 
 Exactly as in the case of the Kaffirs on the eastern 
 frontier of the Cape Colony, it is not the first chief of 
 the tribe, but one of his immediate descendants, who 
 is the great hero of their legends. What Tshawe is 
 to the Amaxosa, Noto, the son of Morolong, is 
 to the B'irolong. It was he who taught his people the 
 use of iron for weapons of war and the chase, who 
 gave them the hoe as an implement of agriculture, 
 and who adorned their persons with metal trinkets. 
 These legends prove that the traditions of the tribes 
 are not chronologically accurate, for it is certain that 
 the use of iron was known to the ancestors of the
 
 45 
 
 Amaxosa, Barolong, Basuto, &c., before their separa- 
 tion. 
 
 During four generations the tribe was migrating 
 southward, but then it reached the river Molopo, and 
 fixed its permanent residence in the region which is 
 nearly encircled by that stream. At this time the 
 Bahurutsi separated from the main branch, and became 
 independent. And now during the government of 
 many successive chiefs, all of whose names have been 
 preserved, the tribe enjoyed peace and became con- 
 stant'y stronger and wealthier. Occasionally a swarm 
 would migrate eastward or north- west ward, but this 
 loss was more than made good by accessions of desti- 
 tute alien clans. 
 
 In the time of Tao (the lion), fourteenth in descent 
 from Morolong, the tribe reached the zenith of its 
 greatness. Its outposts extended from the Molopo 
 southward to the junction of the Hart and Vaal rivers, 
 and from the desert eastward to Schoon Spruit. This 
 extensive region was not occupied solely by the 
 Barolong and their dependents. There were in it 
 Bechuana clans who did not acknowledge their supre- 
 macy, independent hordes of Koranas with whom the 
 Barolong were frequently at war, and numerous Bush- 
 men, the real aborigines. It is frequently the case 
 that Bantu tribes, though quite independent of each 
 other, live with their clans intermingled. Their 
 government in such instances is more tribal than 
 territorial. It is only when the white man comes to 
 interfere with them that they desire to have boundary 
 lines laid down. Then, naturally, each independent 
 chief claims the whole region in which his adherents 
 are living, and immediately contentions arise. In this 
 way the Barolong of the present day maintain that 
 " the country of Tao " was that bounded by his most 
 distant outposts, which when reduced to geographical 
 terms means the Molopo on the north, the Vaal on 
 the south, Schoon Spruit on the east, and the Kalihari 
 Desert on the west. 
 
 Tao died at Taung, on the Hart River, about the 
 year 1760, and with him the power of the Barolong 
 ended. Feebleness of character in his descendants of 
 the gieat line, untimely deaths, and personal feuds
 
 46 
 
 combined to break up the tribe. Civil war followed, 
 and the next generation witnessed a number of clans, 
 each really independent of the rest, though all admitted 
 a supremacy of rank in the house of Ration. The 
 line of descent of those chiefs who have since attained 
 celebrity is here given, as without a knowledge of 
 their names and relationship to each other later events 
 cannot be understood. 
 
 Tao 
 
 Ration 
 
 Seitshiro 
 Mokoto 
 Gontse 
 
 Tsili 
 
 Th'utloa 
 i 
 Tawane 
 
 Montsiwa 
 
 Seleka 
 i 
 Koikoi 
 i 
 Moroko 
 
 Sifunelo 
 
 Rapulane 
 
 Molekane 
 i 
 Makhowe 
 
 Matlabi' 
 
 Moshete Mornko 
 
 Tsepiuare 
 
 It was not alone a division of the Barolong proper 
 that followed the death of Tao, but the adopted clans 
 took advantage of the favourable opportunity, and 
 made themselves independent. Among these were 
 the Batlapin. who occupied the southern part of the 
 country. From this time until 1823 the different 
 divisions of the Barolong were continually moving 
 about from place to place, and it was seldom that all 
 the sec' ions were at peace. 
 
 In 1817 the London Society founded the mission 
 station of Kuruman with the Batlapin, who were then 
 under the chief Mothibi, and absolutely independent. 
 In 1821 the Rev. Mr. Moffat went to reside at Kuru- 
 man, and very shortly made the acquaintance of the 
 Barolong. He -was an eye-witness of the disastrous 
 events of the next few years, and has given a graphic 
 
 * The Rev. John Campbell trarelled through the "country 
 of Tao' in 18-20, and reached the chief kraal of the Bahurutsi, 
 then some distance north of the Molopo. The general con- 
 dition of the people at that time may be ascertained by 
 referring to his work entitled Travels in South Africa under- 
 taken at flit request of the London Mitsii.nary Society., beiny a 
 Narrative </' a Second Journey in the Interior of that Country. 
 Two vols, Svo., London 1822.
 
 47 
 
 account of them in his Missionary Lalovrs and Semes 
 in So'tithern Africa, a volume published in London in 
 1842. 
 
 In 1823 the waves of war which originated in Zulu- 
 land began to roll over the Barolong country. One 
 great horde consisting principally of Batlokua, after 
 devastating a vast region, when near Kuruman was 
 turned back in its course of destruction by a body of 
 Griqua horsemen under Andries Waterboer. Mr. 
 MofEat witnessed the engagement. Then Sebetoane, 
 who was born of humble parents on the banks of the 
 Caledon, but whom Dr. Livingstone found at the close 
 of his life the head of the powerful Makololo on the 
 Zambezi, with a band of Basuto attacked and plundered 
 the people of Tawane. After these came the fugitive 
 Bataung under Molitsane, who have been already men- 
 tioned, and fell upon the wretched Barolong, 
 
 One clan, under the chief Sifunelo, had already 
 migrated southward, and early in the year 1823 was 
 fortunate enough in its wanderings to fall in with two 
 Wcsleyan missionaries, the Rev. Messrs. Broadbent 
 and Hodgson, who were seeking a field of labour in 
 Bechuanaland. These gentlemen took up their resi- 
 dence with the clan, which shortly atterwards tried to 
 find a resting place at Makwasi, on the northern bank 
 of the Vaal On one occasion, during the ternpoiary 
 absence of the missionaries, Makwasi was attacked by 
 Molitsanc's Bataung. and a considerable amount of 
 spoil was taken, among which were a few cattle I elong- 
 ing to Mr. Broadbent. Thereupon the Griqua chief 
 Andries Waterboer, constituting himself protector of 
 the missionaries, proceeded with an armed party to 
 Makwasi, pretended to hold an investigation, found 
 Sifunelo guilty of seizing the cattle, and fined him six 
 hundred oxen. The fine was paid, as the Griqua band 
 was armed with muskets and was too strong to be 
 resisted. Jt was subsequently ascertained that Sifunelo 
 was entirely guiltless, and through the influence of 
 the missionaries the Colonial Government brought such 
 pressure to bear upon Waterboer that he restored the 
 six hundred oxen. This was the first occasion on 
 which our Government had any dealings with the 
 Barolong.
 
 48 
 
 In 1826 Sifunelo's clan left Makvvasi, and, moving 
 about a hundred and twenty miles to the south-west, 
 halted at Platberg, on the southern bank of the Vaal. 
 There they remained until the close of the year 1833, 
 when the Rev. Messrs. James Archbell, John Edwards, 
 and Thomas Jenkins, Wesleyan missionaries who suc- 
 ceeded Messrs. Broadbent and Hodgson, led them to 
 Thflba Nchu, a mountain west of the Caledon and 
 distant from Thaba Bosigo about fifty or sixty miles. 
 
 The pressure of circumstances brought the remain- 
 ing Barolong clans together, and in 1824 Mr. Moffat 
 found the chiefs Gontse, Tawaue, and Intshi residing 
 together in one large town, which contained some 
 twenty thousand inhabitants, including clans of the 
 Bahurutsi and Bangwaketsi. Each chief governed his 
 own section of the town. Gontse had the largest 
 following, though Tawane was considered the strongest 
 of them. 
 
 The great tribe of the Bangwaketsi under the chief 
 Makaba was not yet broken. Mr. Moffat went to visit 
 Makaba, and found him living north of the Molopo. 
 The missionary estimated the number of the Bangwa- 
 ketsi at seventy thousand at the lowest computation. 
 
 The condition of the whole country north of the 
 Orange and west of the Drakeosberg at this time was 
 such that the Griqua and Korana marauders, who have 
 already been described as devastating the Lesuto, had 
 the Bantu population entirely at their mercy. Little 
 bands of these ruffians, mounted on horses and carrying 
 firearms, rode at will from the Caledon to the Molopo, 
 plundering wherever there was anything worth seizure 
 and shooting all who offended them. 
 
 After all these came Moselekatse at the head of the 
 terrible Matabele. In 1830-31 he fell upon the 
 Bangwaketsi and nearly exterminated them, their chief 
 Makaba perishing at the head of his warriors. Next 
 followed the destruction of the Bahurutsi and Bakwena. 
 After this the Matabele chief fixed his head-quarters on 
 the banks of the Marikwa and sent his warriors against 
 the Barolong. 
 
 * See A Narrative of the First Introduction of Christianity 
 amonrjst the Barolong tribe of Beckttanas, by the Rev. Samuel 
 Broadbent. A small 12rno* volume, London, 1805.
 
 49 
 
 Some of these then fled to the desert, where they 
 became Balala, poor wandering wretches, with no 
 cattle or gardens, but living like Bushmen on game 
 and wild plants. Part of one clan, with Matlabe its 
 young chief, was incorporated with the Matabele. 
 Gontse and Tawane with a few followers fled south- 
 ward. Just at that time the Wesleyan missionaries 
 were preparing to conduct the clan under Moroko, 
 Sifunelo's son, from Platberg on the Vaal to Thaba 
 Nchu. Gontse and Tawane joined Moroko, and moved 
 onward with him. In the country of the Bahurutsi, 
 Bangwaketsi, Bakwena, and Barolong, to use the 
 expressive words of one of the chiefs when giving 
 evidence many years later at Bloemhof , there was now 
 no other master than Moaelekatse and the lions. 
 
 * The utter desolation of the territory between Moselekats6's 
 outposts and the neighbourhood of the Caledon is known to 
 us not only from native accounts, but from the published 
 works of a number of English travellers who visited it during 
 the next few years. The extracts which follow will indicate 
 where more complete information is to be obtained : 
 
 In 1835 an exploring expedition under direction of Dr. 
 (afterwards Sir) Andrew Smith left the Cape Colony and 
 penetrated the interior as far as the Limpopo. The expedi- 
 tion went up and returned through the " country of Tao." 
 In his published Report (1836) Dr. Smith states that between 
 Kuruman and the Kalahari Desert, that is in the territory 
 respected by Moselekatse on account of Mr. Moffat, he found 
 " some large kraals of Batlapin, Barolong, and Batlaro." On 
 the border of the desert he found "a small community of 
 Barolong trusting entirely for support to the spontaneous pro- 
 ductions of nature." These and the following are the only 
 references to the Barolong which he makes : " After leaving 
 the neighbourhood of Latakoo we met with few inhabitants 
 till we reached the country of the Matabele, distant about two 
 hundred miles in a north-east direction. In former days this 
 intervening district was inhabited by Batlapin and Barolong, 
 but at present it is only the resort of the poor of those tribes 
 and of the Bahurutsi." 
 
 Captain (afterwards General) William Cornwallis Harris 
 travelled and hunted in this territory in the year 1836, when 
 he visited Moselekatse. His account of the country and the 
 people is one of the most valuable works on that part of 
 South Africa ever published. It is entitled The Wild Sports 
 of Southern Africa, being the Narrative (fa Hunting Expedi- 
 B
 
 50 
 
 It was in December 1833 that Gontse, Tawane, and 
 Moroko, the heads of three of the divisions of the 
 Barolong, being the descendants and representatives 
 of three of the sons of Tao, with their respective clans 
 were led by the Wesleyan missionaries to Thaba 
 
 tion through the territories of the Chief Moselekatsc to the 
 Tropic of Capricorn. The fifth edition was published in 
 London in 1852. Captain Harris says : " We continued to 
 advance to the northward by marches of ten and fifteen miles 
 each day, over extensive rugged tracts strewed with nume- 
 rous stone walls, once thronged by thousands, but now pre- 
 senting no vestige of inhabitants. Wherever we turned the 
 hand of the destroyer was apparent. ' The locusts' wasting 
 swarm which mightiest nations dread' is not more destructive 
 to vegetation than he (Moselekats6) has been to the popula- 
 tion of this section of Southern Africa. We frequently 
 travelled for days without meeting a solitary human being, 
 occasionally only falling in with the small and starving 
 remnants of some pastoral tribe of Bechuana that had been 
 plundered by Moselekatse's warriors. These famished 
 wretches hovered around us, disputing with vultures and 
 hyenas the carcases we left, which they devoured with such 
 brutish avidity as scarcely to leave a bone to attest the 
 slaughter." 
 
 In 1844 Mr. Henry M. Methuen travelled through the "coun- 
 try of Tao," and hunted in it. In his Life in the Wilderness 
 or Wanderings in South Africa (1846), though he gives much 
 information concerning other tribes, he never mentions the 
 Barolong, thus showing by negative evidence how few of them 
 were left in the land of their fathers. 
 
 The Rev. J. J. Freeman passed through the " country of 
 Tao "in 1849. At Setlagole he found a Barolong kraal of 
 considerable size, the first he saw after passing the French 
 mission station of Motito. Of the country between Setlagole 
 and the Molopo he says in his Tour in South Africa (1851) : 
 " We found all this immense tract of country, this seemingly 
 interminable plain, absolutely and literally unoccupied." 
 
 Mr. Roualeyn Gordon Gumming made five hunting expedi- 
 tions into the interior, as far as the Bamangwato mountains, 
 between 1843 and 1849. He passed through the " country of 
 Tao " several times and hunted in it, but one searches in vain 
 for any mention of the Barolong in his Five Years' Adventures 
 in the far Interior of South Africa, with Notices of the Native 
 Tribes and Savage Animals (1850). 
 
 The same may be said of Mr. James Chapman, who was 
 frequently in the country after 1849, and yet makes no mention 
 of the Barolong in his Tiavels in the Interior of South Africa. 
 (Two large volumes. 18t>8.)
 
 51 
 
 Nchu. They were accompanied also by small parties 
 of Koranas, Griquas, and half breeds, who had no 
 settled home, and for whom the missionaries were 
 desirous of obtaining ground in some place where 
 they could attempt to civilize them. At Thaba Nchu 
 the strangers found a petty chief named Moserne 
 governing a few small villages, but he informed them 
 that he was subordinate to Moshesh and had no 
 power to give them permission to settle. 
 
 The Basuto, so long accustomed to regard all 
 strangers as enemies, were somewhat alarmed when 
 tidings were carried through the country that a body 
 of unknown people, among whom were Koranas, had 
 appeared at Thaba Nchu. Two of the French clergy- 
 men immediately proceeded to ascertain particulars, 
 and having learnt the object of the strangers, com- 
 municated it to Moshesh. The fact that Europeans 
 were the leaders of the immigrants sufficed to dispel 
 the fears of the Basuto, and Moshesh, glad to get 
 friendly settlers on his border and hoping they would 
 become incorporated with his own people, cordially 
 consented to their location on the vacant land west of 
 the Caledon. A document purporting to be an absolute 
 sale to the Wesleyan Missionary Society of a tract of 
 ground about Thaba Nchu, several hundred square 
 miles in extent, was drawn up on the 7th of December 
 1833, and signed by Moshesh and Moseme on the one 
 part and Messrs. Archbell, Edwards, and Jenkins, on 
 the other. The price paid is said therein to have been 
 seven young oxen, one heifer, two sheep, and one 
 goat. But there was no competent interpreter present 
 when the arrangement was made, and it is very evident 
 that Moshesh did not regard the transaction in the 
 light of a sale, as he must at that time have been 
 entirely unacquainted with any other system of dis- 
 posing of land than that practised by tribes of his 
 own race. He could not have comprehended the 
 nature of the document, and in after years he con- 
 stantly maintained that he had never intended to 
 alienate the ground. On the other hand the Wesleyan 
 missionaries have always held that the ground was 
 not his at the time to alienate, that it was reallv opea 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 for any one to settle upon, and that the deed of sale 
 was only drawn up to prevent any claim to it there- 
 after being made by the Basuto. 
 
 With the same object in view, on the 17th of July 
 1834 they purchased from Moshesh and Sikonyela 
 jointly an extensive tract of land round Platberg and 
 bordering on the Caledon. In the deed of sale, which 
 is signed by both the chiefs, it is stated that eight head 
 of horned cattle, thirty-four sheep, and five goats were 
 given in payment, but the view of the missionaries 
 some years later, when Moshesh claimed to be their 
 feudal lord, was that the purchase had been concluded 
 as a friendly arrangement to prevent either the Basuto 
 or the Batlokua from interfering with them or making 
 pretensions to the ownership of the land. 
 
 The whole of the Barolong were located by the 
 Wesleyan missionaries at Thaba Nchu, where a town 
 was built and a mission station established. Matlabe 
 was still a subject of Moselekatse, but shortly after 
 this, hearing that his kinsmen had found a place of 
 comparative safety, he made his escape and joined 
 them. Of the four Barolong chiefs then at Thaba 
 Nchu, Gontse was the highest in rank ; but so 
 thoroughly impoverished was he, and so completely 
 had his followers been dispersed or destroyed, that his 
 name hardly ever appears in the numerous documents 
 written at that period by European residents at the 
 station. Being without talents of any kind, he was of 
 no note whatever. Tawane, the next in rank, has left 
 more traces of his residence at Thaba Nchu, because 
 he had sufficient energy to turn his followers into a 
 band of robbers, and was one of the wasps that 
 Moshesh afterwards charged with having dared to 
 sting him. Matlabe was entirely sunk in obscurity. 
 
 * James Backhouse, a missionary of the Society of Friends, 
 who visited Thaba Nchu in 1839, iu his Narrative of a Visit to 
 tlie Mauritiiis and South Africa, gives a brief notice of Tawane. 
 In the Rev. Mr. Broadbent's book already referred to, his name 
 is mentioned three or four times. Traces of his residence at 
 Thaba Nchu are also to be found in ihe Journal of the French 
 Missionary Society, and in the three volumes of Basutoland 
 Records published in 1883. In no instance is much informa- 
 tion given concerning him, but he is represented as a petty 
 chief with less power and influence than Moroko.
 
 53 
 
 Moroko alone, owing partly to his clan having fled 
 before the great disasters and partly to the guidance 
 of the missionaries, was a man of power and influence. 
 The other natives who were brought by the Wes- 
 leyan missionaries at this time to the western bank of 
 the Caledon were : 
 
 1. A clan of Koranas under a leader named Jan 
 Hanto, who died shortly after this and was succeeded 
 by Gert Taaibosch. These were Hottentots, with habits 
 ill-fitted for a settled life, as they were still a purely 
 pastoral people. In disposition, language, and 
 customs, as well as in colour, they differed greatly 
 from all the members of the Bantu family. The least 
 stable in character of any people on earth, without 
 attachment to locality of birth or residence, so impa- 
 tient of restraint that their chiefs possessed little or 
 no power, indolent to the last degree, careless about 
 the future so long as immediate wants were supplied, 
 regardless of the rights of others, callous to the suffer- 
 ings of human beings or dumb animals, these Koranas 
 yet surpassed the Bantu in power of imagination and 
 in speculations upon the workings of nature. The 
 clan under Jan Hanto migrated from beyond the Vaal 
 River, the grazing grounds on which they had pre- 
 viously tended their herds being far away to the 
 north-west. They were now located at Merumetsu. 
 
 2. A small party of half breeds, of mixed European 
 and Hottentot blood, under a' captain named Carolus 
 Baatje. These people, who were located at Platberg, 
 came from the northern districts of the Cape Colony. 
 
 3. A small party of Griquas under a captain named 
 Peter Davids. This was the remnant of a compara- 
 tively large body of Hottentots and people of mixed 
 European, Hottentot, Bushman, and negro blood, who 
 had lived for many years by hunting and by plunder- 
 ing defenceless tribes, but who had recently met with 
 fearful punishment. In 1831 Barend Barends, who 
 was then their head, sent nearly the whole of his best 
 fighting men on a plundering expedition. The band 
 left Boetchap (in the present Colonial Division of 
 Barkly West), and by making a long detour to the 
 eastward fell unexpectedly upon the principal Matabele
 
 54 
 
 cattle post and swept off nearly the whole of Mosele- 
 katse's herds. The Matabele warriors were at the time 
 engaged in a distant expedition. Only some old men 
 and boys could be got together, to follow the Griquas, 
 who were retreating with their booty in such fancied 
 security that they did not even post sentinels at night. 
 Just before dawn one morning they were surprised by 
 the Matabele, when only two Griquas escaped to 
 return to Boetchap and tell the tale of their exploit 
 and the fate of their companions. Those who had 
 remained at home then placed themselves under the 
 guidance of the Wesleyan missionaries, and accom- 
 panied them to the Caledon. They were located at 
 Lishuane. 
 
 At all the settlements mentioned above, and also at 
 Imparani among the Batlokua, Wesleyan missionaries 
 were henceforth stationed. 
 
 Immigrants of still another race were now making 
 their appearance. As early as 1819 small parties of 
 European hunters began to penetrate the country 
 between Cornet Spruit and the Caledon, and a few 
 years later they occasionally went as far north as 
 Thaba Bosigo. In their wanderings they encountered 
 no other inhabitants than a few savage Bushmen, and 
 they therefore regarded the country as open to occu- 
 pation. About the same time some nomadic Boers 
 from the district of Colesberg were tempted to make 
 a temporary residence in the district between the 
 Orange and Modder rivers, on ascertaining that grass 
 was to be found there during seasons of drought in 
 the colony. They did not, however, remain long, nor 
 did they come within several days' journey of the 
 Basuto outposts. But from this period they continued 
 to cross the river whenever pasturage failed in the 
 south, and gradually they made their way eastward. 
 
 At length a party of fourteen or fifteen families 
 settled at a place which they named Zevenfontein, on 
 the western bank of the Caledon, with the intention of 
 remaining there permanently. They found no people 
 in that neighbourhood but Bushmen, and no one 
 objected to their occupation of the land. With this 
 exception, hardly any of the Boers who moved into
 
 55 
 
 the district along the Caledon at this early date con- 
 templated settlement. They merely sought pasturage 
 for a few months, or they visited it in hunting expe- 
 ditions, in either case coming and going as suited their 
 convenience. 
 
 About this time the Basuto who had fled from their 
 country heard in the distant districts in which they 
 had taken refuge that a chief of their own race was 
 building up a nation, and that his government afforded 
 protection without being tyrannical. They began 
 therefore to return to the land of their fathers, and 
 every year now saw a great increase in the population. 
 These refugees brought more than mere numerical 
 strength. Many of them came from the Cape Colony, 
 where they had been in service, and these took back 
 with them as the most valued of all possessions the 
 weapons of the white man, weapons which they 
 believed would protect them against suffering again 
 such awful calamities as those they had formerly gone 
 through. Other native refugees were also swelling 
 the population of the Lesuto. Fragments of different 
 broken Bechuana clans, hearing of the wisdom and 
 generosity and valour of Moshesh, came and asked to 
 be taken under his protection. 
 
 And so the power of Moshesh was growing rapidly. 
 The Boers when they returned to the banks of the 
 Caledon, after an absence of only a few months, often 
 found a Basuto village where they had grazed their 
 herds on their previous visit, and questions began to 
 be asked as to who had the best right to the ground. 
 At first, however, this was a question of little impor- 
 tance, for there was still so much vacant land that by 
 one or the other moving a little further, room could 
 be found for all. 
 
 In 1835 the residents at Zevenfontein were called 
 away to assist in the protection of the border of the 
 colony against the Kaffirs, and when the war was over 
 and some of them returned, they found that the ground 
 they had occupied had in the interval become a Mission 
 Station. The Rev. Mr. Holland, of the French 
 Missionary Society, had left Motito to the sole care of 
 Mr. Lemue, and had moved to Zevenfontein with a 
 horde of refugees, composed partly of Bahurutsi who
 
 56 
 
 had once lived at Mosega and partly of the remnant 
 of a Barolong clan under a petty chief named Moi. 
 For agricultural purposes Zevenfontein was vastly 
 superior to any locality that could be selected in the 
 Bechuana country, it was close to the other stations 
 of the French Society, and it was a long way from 
 Moselekatse. For these reasons it had been selected 
 by Mr. Holland. It was not at that time within 
 Moshesh's jurisdiction, but Mr. Holland considered it 
 convenient to acknowledge his authority as paramount, 
 and the station became a kind of semi-independent 
 fief of the Basuto chief. Subsequently also several 
 little clans of Basuto origin settled there. Mr. Holland 
 changed the name of Zevenfontein to that of Beersheba. 
 
 Though portions of the territory formerly occupied 
 by the Mountain Tribes were in this manner again 
 becoming peopled, the inhabitants, descendants of the 
 former owners and new settlers alike, were kept in 
 constant alarm. If there had been a disposition to 
 forget that a growth of prosperity would certainly 
 induce a fresh invasion either of the Zulus or the 
 Matabele, an occasional raid by the last named served 
 as a reminder of the dangerous situation in which they 
 were living. 
 
 In 1834 a band of Matabele, while scouring the 
 country along the Vaal to prevent its occupation, 
 came upon a little party of Griquas who had impru- 
 dently ventured on a hunting expedition in that direc- 
 tion. Peter Davids, the captain of Lishuane, was 
 with the party, and with the thoughtlessness charac- 
 teristic of his race, he had taken his family with him. 
 The consequence was that one of his daughters and a 
 nephew were made prisoners, though the others, 
 having horses, managed to escape. The lives of the 
 captives were spared. Captain Harris in 1836 saw the 
 girl in Moselekatse's harem at Mosega, and ascertained 
 that the boy was still alive. 
 
 In addition to the books mentioned in the body of this 
 chapter, the following works may be consulted by those 
 desiring further information upon the Zulu and Matabele 
 conquests : 
 
 Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa. comprising a View 
 of the present state of the Cape Colony. By George Thompson.
 
 57 
 
 Two volumes octavo, London, 1827. Also in one volume quarto 
 with maps and plates. A most trustworthy and valuable 
 work. 
 
 Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, 
 and Madagascar, performed in II. M. Ships Leven and Barra- 
 coota, under the direction of Captain W. f. W. Owen, R.N. Two 
 volumes octavo, London, 1838. This work contains with other 
 information Mr. Farewell's account of Tshaka. 
 
 Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, descriptive of the 
 Zoolus, tlteir manners, customs, etc., with a Sketch, of Natal. By 
 Nathaniel Isaacs. Two volumes crown octavo, London, 1836. 
 
 Relation d'un Voyage d 'Exploration au Nord-est de la Colonie 
 du Cap de Bonne-Esj>erance, entrepris dans les mois de Mars, 
 Avril, et Mai, 1836, par MM. T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, Mis- 
 sionaires de la Societe des Missions Evangeliques de Paris. An 
 octavo volume of 608 pages, with map and plates, pnU : shed at 
 Paris in 1842. This work contains an account of a journey 
 from Morija to the Vaal River and back by another route, 
 with a description of the country traversed and the various 
 clans encountered. It gives a vivid picture of the desolation 
 and misery caused by the wars in those regions a short time 
 previously. It also contains a large amount of informatioa 
 upon native customs. There is an English translation pub- 
 lished at Cape Town in 1846, but it is without the chart or 
 plates. An edition published at London and Aberdeen in 1852 
 contains the chart. 
 
 Zululand, or Life among the Zulu Kafirs of Natal and Zulu- 
 land, Smith Africa. By the Rev. Lewis Grout, for fifteen 
 years a Missionary of tne American Board in South Africa. 
 One volume octavo, London, 1862. 
 
 Ten Years North of the Orange River. By the Rev. John 
 Mackenzie. A crown octavo volume of 523 pages, Edinburgh, 
 1871. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT EMIGRATION. THE 
 EMIGRANT FARMERS AND MOSELEKATSE. 
 
 The emigration from the Cape Colony of many 
 thousands of substantial burghers, with the determi- 
 nation to seek a new home in the wilderness where 
 they could be free from what they regarded as intoler- 
 able oppression, is an event unique in the history of 
 modern colonization. 
 
 No people not of British descent ever presented 
 such favourable material for the formation of a depen- 
 dency loyal to Britain as did these South African
 
 58 
 
 colonists when forty years before they came by con- 
 quest under British rule. They were men of our own 
 race, of that sturdy Nether Teuton stock which peopled 
 England and Scotland as well as the delta of the Rhine. 
 With the main stream of their Batavian blood had 
 indeed mingled many rivulets not of Batavian source, 
 but the stubborn current had flowed on unchanged, 
 absorbing and assimilating them all. First and most 
 important was a tributary of Huguenot origin. At 
 one time it had made up about a sixth of the whole 
 blood, but before the middle of the eighteenth century 
 it was completely absorbed. Larger in volume, but 
 even more easily assimilated, was a tributary from 
 lands now included in the German Empire. Upon 
 close examination, however, it is seen that nearly the 
 whole of the Germans, so termed, who made their 
 homes in South Africa in the early days of the settle- 
 ment were from the border land, where the High and 
 Low Teutons were intermingled, so that much of this 
 blood was probably akin to the Batavian. Denmark, 
 Sweden, even Scotland, supplied rills, but so tiny that 
 they were lost at once. One family, now widely 
 spread, traced its origin to Portugal. 
 
 These South Africans spoke a dialect which our 
 great Alfred would have understood without much 
 difficulty, which is nearer to the language of the men 
 who fought under Harold atSenlac than is the English 
 tongue of to-day. Their religion was that of the 
 people of Scotland, of a large proportion of the people 
 of England. That there was nothing of the nature of 
 race antagonism between them and us is shown by the 
 readiness with which intennarriages have taken place 
 ever since the Colony came under our flag. Even 
 the feeling of dislike which long commercial rivalry 
 engendered between the English and Dutch in Europe 
 was not shared to any appreciable extent by the 
 colonists of South Africa. There is in truth hardly 
 any difference in sentiment between these men and a 
 body of Englishmen or Scotchmen of equally limited 
 education that can not be referred to what hereditary 
 instinct would create between a purely agricultural 
 and pastoral people living for nearly two centuries in
 
 59 
 
 seclusion from the rest of the world and a people 
 chiefly engaged in manufactures and commerce with 
 the working of modern ideas all around them. 
 
 Why then did these men abandon their homes, 
 sacrifice whatever property could be carried away, and 
 flee from English rule as from the most hateful 
 tyranny ? The causes are stated in a great mass of 
 correspondence addressed by them to the Colonial 
 Government and now preserved with other colonial 
 records, in declarations published by some of them 
 before leaving, in letters to their relatives and to news- 
 papers, and in hundreds of pages of printed matter 
 prepared by friendly and hostile hands. The declara- 
 tion of one of the ablest men among them assigns the 
 following as the motives of himself and the party that 
 went with him : 
 
 Graham's Town, 22nd January, 1837. 
 
 1. We despair of saving the Colony from those evils which 
 threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrantSj 
 who are allowed to infest the country in every part ; nor do 
 we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in 
 a country thus distracted by internal commotions. 
 
 2 We complain of the severe losses which we have been 
 forced to sustain by the emancipation of our slaves, and the 
 vexatious laws which have been enacted respecting them. 
 
 3. We complain of the continual system of plunder which 
 we have for years endured from the Kaffirs and other coloured 
 classes, and particularly by the last invasion of the Colony, 
 which has desolated the frontier districts and ruined most of 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 4. We complain of the unjustifiable odium which has been 
 cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons, under the 
 name of Religion, whose testimony is believed in England to 
 the exclusion of all other evidence in our favour ; and we can 
 foresee, as the result of this prejudice, nothing but the total 
 ruin of the country. 
 
 5. We are resolved, wherever we go, that we will uphold the 
 just principles of liberty; but whilst we will take care that no 
 one is brought by us into a condition of slavery, we will 
 establish such regulations as may suppress crime and preserve 
 proper relations between master and servant. 
 
 fi. We solemnly declare that we leave this colony with a 
 desire to enjoy a quieter life than we have hitherto had. We 
 will not molest any people, nor deprive them of the smallest 
 pr operty, but, if attacked, we shall consider ourselves fully 
 justified in defending our persons and effects, to the utmost 
 of our ability, against every enemy.
 
 60 
 
 7. We make known that when we shall have framed a code 
 of laws for our guidance, copies shall be forwarded to this 
 colony for general information ; but we take the opportunity 
 of stating that it is our firm resolve to make provision for th . 
 summary punishment, even with death, of all traitors, with 
 out exception, who may be found amongst us. 
 
 8. We purpose in the course of our journey, and on arrival 
 at the country in which we shall permanently reside, to make 
 known to the native tribes our intentions and our desire to 
 live in peace and friendly intercourse with them. 
 
 9. We quit this colony under the full assurance that the 
 English Government has nothing more to require of us, and 
 will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in 
 future. 
 
 10. We are now leaving the fruitful land of our birth,in which 
 we have suffered enormous losses and continual vexation, and 
 are about to enter a strange and dangerous territory ; but 
 we go with a firm reliance on an all-seeing, just, and merciful 
 God, whom we shall always fear and humbly endeavour to 
 obey. 
 
 In the name of all who leave this colony with me. 
 
 P. RETIEF. 
 
 But formal declarations such as the above are not 
 in all instances to be trusted. It is much safer to 
 compare numerous documents written at different 
 times, by different persons, and under different circum- 
 stances. For our subject this means of information 
 is as complete as can be desired. The correspondence 
 of the Emigrants witli the Cape Government was the 
 work of many individuals and extended over many 
 years. The letters are usually of great length, badly 
 constructed and badly spelt, the productions, in short, 
 of uneducated men ; but so uniform is the vein of 
 thought running through them all that there is not the 
 slightest difficulty in condensing them into a dozen 
 pages. When analysed, the statements contained in 
 them are found to consist of two charges, one against 
 the Imperial Government, the other against the agents 
 in South Africa of the London Missionary Society. 
 
 The Imperial Government was charged with exposing 
 the white iuhabitants of the Colony without protection 
 to robbery and murder by the blacks ; with giving 
 credence in every dispute to statements made by 
 interested persons in favour o savages, while refusing 
 to credit the testimony no matter how reliable of
 
 61 
 
 colonists of European extraction ; with liberating the 
 slaves in an unjust manner ; and generally with such 
 undue partiality for persons with black skins and savage 
 habits as to make it preferable to seek a new home in 
 the wilderness rather than remain under the English 
 flag. 
 
 The missionaries of the London Society were 
 charged with usurping authority that should properly 
 belong to the civil magistrate ; with misrepresenting 
 facts ; and with advocating schemes directly hostile 
 to the progress of civilization and to the observance 
 of order. And it was asserted that the influence of 
 these missionaries was all powerful at the Colonial 
 Office in London, by which the Colony, without a 
 voice in the management of its affairs, was then ruled 
 absolutely. 
 
 In support of the charges against the Imperial 
 Government, the Emigrants dwelt largely upon the 
 devastation of the Eastern Districts by the Kaffir 
 inroad of December 1834, which was certainly unpro- 
 voked by the colonists. Yet Lord Glenelg, who was 
 then Secretary of State for the Colonies, justified the 
 Kaffirs, and not only refused to punish them,but actually 
 gave them a large slip of land including the dense 
 jungles along the Fish River that had long been part 
 of the Colony, and made no other provision against 
 the recurrence of a destructive invasion than a series 
 of treaties with a number of barbarous chiefs who 
 had no regard for their engagements. This event is 
 the most prominent feature in the correspondence of 
 the Emigrants, it is fairly recorded, and the language 
 used is in general much more moderate than that 
 employed by the English frontier colonists when 
 relating the same circumstance. 
 
 Next stands the removal of all restraint from the 
 coloured population of the Colony, without the pro- 
 tection to the whites of even a Vagrant Act. Several 
 of the Colonial divisions had been for ten or twelve 
 years overrun by fugitives from the Basuto and 
 Bechuana countries, who had been driven from their 
 own homes by the troubles already recorded. These 
 people were usually termed Mantatees or Makatees
 
 62 
 
 from the supposition that they were all subjects of 
 Ma Ntatisi. Towards the Eastern Frontier, Kaffirs, 
 and after the war Fingos, wandered about practically 
 wherever they chose. In the remainder of the Colony, 
 Hottentots, free blacks, and mixed breeds came and 
 went as they pleased. How is it possible, said the 
 farmers, for us to cultivate the ground or breed cattle 
 with all these savages and semi-savages constantly 
 watching for opportunities to plunder us, with no 
 police, and no law under which suspicious characters 
 can be arrested and made to account for their manner 
 of living ? 
 
 Much is said of the reproofs of Sir Benjamin D'Urban 
 by the Secretary of State, and, after 1838, of the dis- 
 missal of that Governor. The Emigrants asserted 
 that he was the best Governor the Colony had had 
 since it became subject to England ; they dwelt upon 
 his benevolence, his ability, his strict justice, his 
 impartiality to white and black, his efforts to promote 
 civilization ; and then they complained, in words more 
 bitter than are to be found when they referred to any 
 other subject, that the good Governor had been reproved 
 and finally deprived of his office because he had told 
 the plain truth regardless of the London Missionary 
 Society, and had endeavoured to mete out to black crimi- 
 nals the same justice that he would have meted out had 
 they been white. There is now no one in South Africa 
 who does not agree with the Emigrants in this matter. 
 Nearly half a century has passed away since Sir 
 Benjamin D'Urban was forced into retirement by Lord 
 Glenelg, and during that period the principal measures 
 which he proposed have been approved of and adopted, 
 while the successors of those missionaries who were 
 his bitter opponents are at present among^the strongest 
 advocates of his system of dealing with the natives. 
 
 Concerning the liberation of the slaves there is 
 less in this correspondence than one might reasonably 
 
 * Sir Benjamin D'Urban remained in South Africa after 
 being deprived of office until the reversal of his policy towards 
 the natives was admitted by most people even in England to 
 have been a mistake. He did not leave the Cape until April 
 1816, just after the commencement of the War of the Axe.
 
 expect to find. Many scores of pages can be examined 
 without any allusion whatever to it. Nowhere is 
 there a single word to be found in favour of slavery 
 as an institution, the view of the Emigrants with 
 hardly an exception being fairly represented in the 
 following sentence taken from a letter of the Volks- 
 raad at Natal to Sir George Napier : " A long and 
 sad experience has sufficiently convinced us of the 
 injury, loss, and dearuess of slave labour, so that 
 neither slavery nor the slave trade will ever be per- 
 mitted among us." It is alleged, however, that the 
 emancipation, as it was carried out, was an act of 
 confiscation. It is stated that most of the slaves 
 were brought to the Colony in English ships and 
 sold by English subjects ; that when in 1795 
 the Colony was invited by English officers of high 
 rank to place itself under the protection of England, 
 one of the inducements held out was security 
 in slave property, at the same time those 
 officers warning the colonists that if France obtained 
 possession she would liberate the slaves as she had 
 done in Martinique, thereby ruining this colony as she 
 had ruined that island ; that the English Government 
 had recently and suddenly changed its policy, and 
 required them to conform to the change with equal 
 alacrity, whereas they were convinced that gradual 
 emancipation, with securities against vagrancy, was the 
 only safe course. The emancipation had been sudden, 
 and the slaves had been placed upon a perfect political 
 equality with their former proprietors. The missionaries 
 applauded this as a noble and generous act of the 
 Imperial Government, and they were told that by every 
 one in England it was so regarded. But at whose 
 expense was this noble and generous act carried out ? 
 Agents of the Imperial Government had appraised the 
 slaves, generally at less than their market value. Two- 
 fifths of this appraisement, being the share apportioned 
 to the Cape out of the twenty million pounds sterling 
 voted by the Imperial Parliament, had then been 
 offered to the proprietors as compensation, if they 
 chose to go to London for it, otherwise they could 
 only dispose of their claims at a heavy discount. Thus
 
 64 
 
 in point of fact only about one third of the appraised 
 amount had been received. To all slaveholders this 
 had meant a great reduction of wealth, while to many 
 of those who were in debt it was equivalent to the utter 
 deprivation of all property. 
 
 Their case against the missionaries of the London 
 Society, briefly stated, was this : 
 
 In the month of March 1799 the first agents of this 
 Society, Dr. J. T. Vanderkemp, Mr. J. J. Kicherer, Mr. 
 Jas. Edmonds, and Mr. Wm. Edwards, landed at Cape 
 Town from the Hillsborough, a convict ship bound to 
 Botany Bay, in which they had taken passage from 
 England. "The Moravian Society was already working 
 in South Africa, but on a small scale, and was then, 
 as it has been ever since, on the most friendly terms 
 with the colonists. The four missionaries of the 
 London Society, who announced that they would 
 speedily be followed by others, were received witli 
 enthusiasm. Ffty-seven years earlier the Established 
 Church had driven from the Colony a foreign teacher 
 who had ventured to administer the sacraments to his 
 converts, but now the ministers of that church were 
 among the foremost to welcome the agents of the 
 London Society. Two of these were laymen, and 
 within a few weeks after their arrival they were 
 ordained in the Dutch Reformed church at Tulbagh. 
 The South African Missionary Society, which is yet 
 in existence, was formed at this time with a view of 
 cooperating in the work of converting the heathen. 
 Nothing indeed could surpass the kindly welcome 
 which the missionaries received from the colonists, 
 nor the expectations of cordial assistance which they 
 were induced thereby to entertain. 
 
 But in a few years all this was changed, and the 
 most prominent missionaries of the London Society 
 and the colonists had no other feeling towards each 
 other than that of direct antagonism. It had come to 
 be seen that their views and interests were so diver- 
 gent that concord was hardly possible. The mission- 
 aries desired that the blacks should be collected 
 together in villages, the colonists were unwilling that 
 they should be thus withdrawn from service. Teach
 
 them the first step in civilization, to labour honestly 
 for their maintenance, and add to that oral instruction 
 in the doctrines of Christianity, said the colonists. Why 
 should they be debarred from learning to read and 
 write, and as there can only be schools if they are 
 brought together in villages, why should they not be 
 collected together ? replied the missionaries. 
 
 Then came another and a larger question. By whom 
 should the waste places of the land, the vast areas 
 which were without other occupants than a few roving 
 Bushmen, be peopled ? By the white man, said the 
 colonists ; it is to the advantage of the world in 
 all time to come that the higher race should 
 expand and be dominant here ; it would be treason 
 to humanity to prevent its growth where it can 
 grow without wrong to others, or to plant an 
 inferior stock where the superior can take root and 
 flourish. By Africans, said the missionaries ; this is 
 African soil, and if mission stations are established on 
 its desolate tracts, people will be drawn to them from 
 the far interior, the community will grow rapidly, 
 those who are enlightened by Christianity here will 
 desire in their turn to enlighten their friends beyond, 
 and thus the Gospel teaching will spread until all 
 Africa stretches out its hands to God. Coupled with 
 such arguments, which were constantly used by mis- 
 sionaries in the early part of this century, before their 
 enthusiasm was cooled by experience, were calculations 
 that appealed strongly to the commercial instincts of 
 people in England. A dozen colonial farmers required 
 something like a hundred square miles of land for 
 their cattle runs ; on this same ground, under mission- 
 ary supervision, three or four hundred families of 
 blacks could exist ; these blacks would shortly need 
 large quantities of manufactured goods ; and thus it 
 would be to the interest of trade to encourage them 
 rather than the colonists. Already, said they, after 
 only a few years training many blacks can read as 
 well or better than the ordinary colonists, and are 
 exhibiting a decided taste for civilization. 
 
 There was thus a broad line of demarcation between 
 the colonists and such of the missionaries as held these
 
 66 
 
 views, and the tendency on each side was to make it 
 still broader. It was deepened into positive antipathy 
 towards those missionaries who, following Dr. Van- 
 derkemp's example, united themselves in marriage 
 with black women, and proclaimed themselves the 
 champions of the black population against the white. 
 Everyone acquainted with South African natives 
 knows how ready they are to please their friends by 
 bringing forward charges against any one whom those 
 friends dislike. Unfortunately the missionaries Van- 
 derkemp and Read were deceived into believing a 
 great number of charges of cruelty made against 
 various colonists, which a little observation would 
 have shown in most instances to be groundless ; and 
 thereupon they lodged accusations before the High 
 Court of Justice. In 1811 between seventy and eighty 
 such cases came before the Circuit Court for trial. 
 There was hardly a family on the frontier of which 
 some relative was not brought as a criminal before 
 the judges to answer to a charge of murder or violent 
 assault. Several months were occupied in the trials, 
 and more than a thousand witnesses were examined, 
 but in every instance the most serious charges were 
 proved to be without foundation. Only a few con- 
 victions, and those of no very outrageous crimes, 
 resulted from these prosecutions, which kept the entire 
 colony in a ferment until long after the circuit was 
 closed. 
 
 Thus far every one will approve of the sentiments 
 of one party or the other according to his sympathy, 
 but in what follows no unprejudiced person who will 
 take the trouble to study the matter thoroughly can 
 acquit the anti-colonial missionaries of something 
 more faulty than mere error of judgment. For years 
 their writings teemed with charges against the colo- 
 nists similar to those they had brought before the 
 High Court of Justice. These writings were circulated 
 widely in Europe where the voice of the colonists was 
 never heard, and they created impressions there \vhich 
 no refutation made in South Africa could ever counter- 
 act. The acts, the language, even the written peti- 
 tions of the colonists, were so distorted in accounts
 
 67 
 
 sent home that these accounts cannot now be read by 
 those who have made themselves acquainted with the 
 truth without the liveliest feelings of indiguation 
 being excited. 
 
 The great bulk of what was thus written in 
 prejudice never indeed came to the notice of the 
 colonists, but occasionally a missionary report or 
 letter was translated into Dutch and circulated 
 among them. Dr. Philip's Researches in South Africa, 
 published in 1828, added greatly to the bitter- 
 ness already existing. Some extracts from Dr. 
 Vanderkemp's letters, quoted in that work, were 
 specially irritating. In one letter, after grossly mis- 
 representing certain public events, Dr. Vanderkemp 
 had written that " it was not so easy to eradicate the 
 inveterate prejudices against our work among the 
 heathen out of the stony hearts of more barbarous 
 inhabitants ; and it was evident that our relation to 
 English benefactors was only a pretext to give vent 
 to a deeper rooted enmity against God, his Christ, and 
 the extension of his kingdom of love and grace among 
 the heathen." By the " more barbarous inhabitants " 
 Dr. Vanderkemp meant a body of colonists, and his 
 dreadful accusation against them was made because 
 they held different views concerning the best means 
 of civilizing the Hottentots. In another extract it was 
 seen that Dr. Vanderkemp had proposed to the 
 Government that " no boer may engage such a member 
 (i.e. one whose name was inscribed on the books of 
 the Bethelsdorp station) in his service, by annual 
 contract, except in presence and with consent of the 
 missionary, and that no fieldcornet have any authority 
 within the institution." The Rev. Mr. Read was found 
 petitioning that the missionaries and residents at 
 mission stations should be exempted from payment of 
 the ordinary taxes. These and many more quotations 
 of a similar tendency were all endorsed and eulogized 
 by Dr. Philip. 
 
 The colonists learnt that in England they were 
 
 regarded as cruel barbarians because they refused to 
 
 permit Hottentot herds swarming with vermin to be 
 
 seated in their front rooms at the time of family 
 
 F 2
 
 68 
 
 prayer. They found themselves pictured astlie harshest 
 of taskmasters, as unfeeling violators of native rights. 
 And of late years it had become plain to them that the 
 views of their opponents were being acted upon at the 
 Colonial Office, while their complaints were wholly 
 disregarded. 
 
 Although the expression London Missionary Society, 
 without the names of individual missionaries, is fre- 
 quently found in the correspondence of this period, 
 it was really only a section of its agents that was in 
 collision with the colonists. Instances were not rare 
 of missionaries of this Society commanding the highest 
 esteem and affection of the population of European 
 descent. Among these may be mentioned Mr. Kicherer, 
 who, while continuing the work which he came to this 
 country to perform, ministered as a clergyman of the 
 established church to a large European congregation ; 
 Mr. Pacalt, the founder of the station close to George, 
 whose earnest devotion to duty, blameless life, and 
 Christian love for white and black alike, caused him 
 to be regarded almost as a saint ; and Mr. Brownlee, 
 the founder of the first permanent Kaffir mission ; 
 without referring to very many of later date. With 
 the agents of the other Societies, Moravian, Wesleyan, 
 Scotch, German, and French, the colonists were in 
 general on friendly terms, though they were far from 
 being in accord with all of them on all subjects. 
 
 Several causes of dissatisfaction besides those above 
 mentioned contributed to the impulse for emigration, 
 but all in a very slight degree. Judge Cloete, in his 
 Five Lectures, mentions the severe punishment inflicted 
 upon the frontier insurgents of 1815 as one of them, 
 and there is no doubt that it was so with some fami- 
 lies, though no trace of it can be found in the corre- 
 spondence of the Emigrants. The substitution in 1827 
 of the English for the Dutch language in the colonial 
 courts of law was certainly generally felt as a 
 grievance. The alteration in 1813 of the system of 
 land tenure, the redemption in 1825 of the paper 
 currency at only thirty-six hundredths of its nominal 
 value, and the abolition in 1827 of the courts of land- 
 drost and heemraden unquestionably caused much
 
 69 
 
 disaffection, though all of these measures are now- 
 admitted by everyone to have been beneficial. The 
 long delay in issuing titles to farms, the cost of which 
 had been paid to Government years before, is 
 mentioned as a grievance in some of the declara- 
 tions. 
 
 Some years later when, owing to the internal weak- 
 ness of the different Emigrant Governments coupled 
 with security against violence by natives, it became 
 possible for runaway debtors and rogues of different 
 descriptions to live and thrive upon the borders of 
 their settlements, it was frequently asserted by their 
 enemies that the farmers had left the Colony princi- 
 pally to free themselves from the restraints of law. 
 But this charge was as untrue as it was ungenerous. 
 The early Emigrants constantly maintained that they 
 left the Colony to free themselves not of law but of 
 lawlessness?. A few men of indifferent character may 
 have gone with the stream, but the boast of the 
 Emigrants as a body was that they left in open day 
 and after their intentions had been publicly announced. 
 That they should be followed by men whose motives 
 were different was quite natural, but they cannot in 
 justice be blamed for it. 
 
 On leaving the Colony the Emigrants maintained 
 that they ceased to be British subjects. They asserted 
 that the Cape having become an English possession 
 by conquest and subsequent cession by its former 
 sovereign, they were English subjects while they 
 remained within its bounds, but that no allegiance 
 was due to the King by them when they left it, as 
 they were not His Majesty's subjects by descent. 
 This claim, however, was not admitted by either the 
 Colonial or the Imperial Government, who dented 
 their right to throw off their allegiance in this way. 
 
 Most of the Emigrants abandoned the Colony in 
 parties or bands, each party under an elected leader 
 termed a commandant. The first to leave was a little 
 band of forty-nine individuals from the Division 
 
 * Louis Triechard with wife and four children, Carei Trie- 
 chard with wife and two children, Hendrik Botha with wife
 
 70 
 
 of Albany, under a leader named Louis Triechard. 
 Triechard was a man of violent temper, and had given 
 vent to his animosity to the Imperial Government in 
 such blustering language that he was regarded by the 
 Colonial Authorities as capable even of joining the 
 Kaffirs against the English. At the close of the war 
 of 1834 5 Colonel Smith offered a reward of five 
 hundred head of cattle for his apprehension, which 
 led to his leaving at once. 
 
 This party was joined before it crossed the colonial 
 border by another of equal size under Johannes Rens- 
 burg. 
 
 Together they had thirty wagons. Travelling slowly 
 northward, in May 1836 they reached the Zoutpans- 
 berg, where they halted for a while. After a short 
 delay, Rensburg's party moved on again, and soon 
 afterwards encountered a tribe of natives, by whom it 
 was believed they were all murdered. Many years 
 later, however, it was ascertained that, two of the 
 children had been spared, and had grown up among 1 
 the savages. 
 
 With a view of ascertaining the distance of Delagoa 
 Bay and the nature of the intervening country, a few 
 months later Triechard's party also left the Zoutpans- 
 berg, though with an intention of returning and form- 
 ing a permanent settlement there. Their design 
 was frustrated by fever, which attacked them and 
 carried off several of their number, and the tsetse fly, 
 which destroyed nearly the whole of their cattle. In 
 April, 1838, feeble and impoverished they reached the 
 Bay, where they met with most unbounded hospitality 
 
 and five children, J. Pretorius with wife and four children, 
 G. Scheepers with wife and nine children, H. Strydom with 
 wife and five children, J. Albrecht with wife and five children, 
 and a young mau named Daniel Pfeffer. 
 
 * Johannes Rensburg with wife and four children, S. Bronk- 
 horst with wife and six children, G. Bronkhorst the elder 
 with wife and one child, G. Bronkhorst the younger with wife, 
 Jacobus de Wet with wife, F. van Wyk with wife and two 
 children, P. Viljoeu with wife and six children, H. Kraukamp 
 with wifi and three children, N. Prins with wife and eight 
 children, and M. Prins.
 
 71 
 
 from the Portuguese authorities. There they remained 
 for more than a year, during which time their number 
 was constantly diminishing by fever. At length their 
 friends, hearing where and in what condition they 
 were, chartered the schooner Mnseppa to proceed to 
 Delagoa Bay to their relief, and in July, 1839, the 
 remnant of the party, twenty-five in number,* were 
 landed in Natal. One young man, a son of Louis 
 Triechard, had gone to Mozambique in a Portuguese 
 vessel before the Mazeppa reached the Bay, but in the 
 following year he managed to travel overland to his 
 friends in Natal. Thus of the ninety-eight individuals 
 who formed the first body of emigrants, all had 
 perished except the twenty- six who reached Natal in 
 a state of destitution and the two still more wretched 
 who were living with the savages. 
 
 During the winter of 1836 preparations for emigra- 
 tion were being made all over the Eastern and Midland 
 Districts. The Government was perfectly helpless in 
 the matter. The Attorney-General, Mr. A. Oliphant, 
 was consulted by the Governor, and gave his opinion 
 that " it seemed next to an impossibility to prevent 
 persons passing out of the Colony by laws in force or 
 by any which could be framed." On the 19th of 
 August, Sir Benjamin D'Urban wrote to the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, Sir Andries Stockenstrom, that " he could 
 see no means of stopping the emigration except by 
 persuasion and attention to the wants and necessities 
 of the farmers." In that direction the Governor had 
 done all that was in his power, but he could not act in 
 opposition to the instructions of the Secretary of State. 
 Sir Andries Stockenstrom himself, in replying to an 
 address from the inhabitants of Uitenhage, stated that 
 " he was not aware of any law which prevented any 
 of His Majesty's subjects from leaving his dominions 
 and settling in another country, and such a law, if it 
 did exist, would be tyrannical and oppressive." 
 
 Before this time the second party of Emigrants had 
 
 * Mrs. H. Botha and five children, Mrs. G. Sc^eepers and 
 five children, Mrs. J. Pretorius and two children, three young 
 men, and seven orphan children.
 
 72 
 
 left. It consisted of fanners from the Tarka, and was 
 under Commandant Andries Hendrik Potgieter, a sub- 
 stantial burgher of kindly disposition and moderate 
 views. Attached to this party, and ai knowledging 
 Potgieter as Chief Commandant, was a body of burghers 
 from the district of Colesberg. The subsequent 
 sufferings of this section of the party and the events 
 which those sufferings gave rise to entitle it to parti- 
 cular notice. It consisted of Carel Cilliers with his 
 wife and six children, Johannes du Toit with his 
 family, Johannes Botha with his family, three families 
 Kruger, eight families Liebenberg, four families Brook- 
 huizen, four families Brits,and three families Rensburg. 
 These did not all move out in one body, but about 
 half of them joined Potgieter and went on in advance, 
 and the others followed as fast as they could git away. 
 
 Commandant Potgieter directed his course north- 
 ward past Thaba Nchu until he came to the Vet River. 
 On its banks close to the site of the present village of 
 Winburg, he found a remnant of the Bataung tribe 
 under the chief Makwana. Makwana darned the whole 
 country between the Vet and Vaal rivers as having 
 been in possession of his tribe before the recent wars, 
 but he was ihen in an abject condition, poor, power- 
 less, and afraid to do anything that might draw upon 
 Lim the notice of Moselekatse. Under these circum- 
 stances lie was very ready to enter into an arrange- 
 ment with Potgieter, by which he ceded to the 
 Emigrants all the land between the Vet and Vaal 
 rivers, except a tract which he reserved for the 
 use of his own people, upon condition of being 
 protected from the Matabele and provided with a 
 small herd of cattle. This arrangement having been 
 concluded, the Emigrants in fancied security scattered 
 themselves over the vacant country, and some of them 
 even crossed the Vaal and went down along its 
 northern bank to the junction of the Mooi. 
 
 On the 24th of May a party consisting of the Com- 
 mandant Hendrik Potgieter, his brother Hermanus 
 Potgieter, Messrs. Carel Cilliers, J. G. S. Bronkhorst, 
 R. Jansen, L. van Vuuren, A. Zwanepoel, J. Roberts, 
 A. de Lange, D. Opperman, H. Nieuwenhuizen,
 
 73 
 
 and C. Liebenberg, left the Sand River for the pur- 
 pose of inspecting the country to the northward as 
 far as Delagoa Bay. For eighteen days, or until they 
 reached Rhenoster Poort, they met no natives, but 
 from that point they found the country thinly inhabited. 
 On their way they visited Louis Triechard's camp at 
 the Zoutpansberg. The distance proving greater than 
 they anticipated when they set out, they turned back 
 before reaching Delagoa Bay, and on the 2nd of 
 September arrived at the spot where they had ieftthe 
 last Emigrant encampment on their outward journey, 
 where they found that a dreadful massacre had just 
 taken place. 
 
 The massacre had been committed in the following 
 manner. Mr. Stephanus P. Erasmus, a fieldcornet 
 living on the Kraai River in the present Division of 
 Aliwal North, had got up a party to hunt elephants in 
 the interior, and had gone some distance north of the 
 Vaal River for that purpose. The hunting party con- 
 sisted of Erasmus himself, his three sons, Mr. Pieter 
 JBekker and his son, and Messrs. Johannes Claasen and 
 Carel Kruger. They had with them a number of 
 coloured servants, five waggons, eighty oxen,and about 
 fifty horses. They had not been very successful, and 
 were slowly returning homewards, still hunting by 
 the way. One morning they left the waggons and 
 cattle as usual in charge of the servants, and forming 
 three small parties, rode away in different directions. 
 In the evening Erasmus and one of his sons, who were 
 together during the day, returned to the waggons and 
 found them surrounded by five or six hundred Mata- 
 bele soldiery being a band sent out by Moselekatse to 
 scour the country. It was ascertained long after- 
 wards that the other two sons of Erasmus and Carl 
 Kruger, who formed a separate hunting party, had 
 been surprised by the Matabele and murdered. The 
 Bekkers and Claasen were out in another direction, 
 and when the Matabele came upon them they were 
 some distance from each other. The first two escaped, 
 the last was never heard of again. 
 
 Erasmus and the son who was with him rode for 
 their lives towards the nearest party of Emigrants,
 
 74 
 
 who they knew were not further off than five hours 
 on horseback. They obtained the assistance of eleven 
 men, aud wore returning to ascertain the fate of the 
 others when they encountered a division of the Mata- 
 bele army, and turned back to give notice to those 
 behind. The families furthest in advance had hardly 
 time to draw their waggons in a circle and collect within 
 it, when the Matabele were upon them. From ten in 
 the morning until four in the afternoon the assailants 
 vainly endeavoured to force a way into the lager, and 
 did not relinquish the attempt until fully a third of 
 their number were stretched on the ground. Of thirty- 
 five men within the lager only one, Adolf Bronkhorst, 
 was killed, but a youth named Christian Harmse and 
 several coloured servants, who were herding cattle 
 and collecting fuel at a distance, were murdered. 
 
 Another party of the Matabele had in the meantime 
 gone further up the river and had unexpectedly fallen 
 upon the encampment of the Liebenbergs. They 
 murdered there old Barend Liebenberg, the patriarch 
 of the family, his sons IStephanus, Barend, and Hendrik, 
 his son-in-law Johannes du Toit, his daughter, Du 
 Toit's wife, his son Hendrik's wife, a schoolmaster 
 named Macdonald, four children, and twelve coloured 
 servants ; and they took away three children to present 
 to their chief. The two divisions of Matabele warriors 
 then united and returned to Mosega for the purpose 
 of procuring reinforcements, taking with them large 
 herds of the Emigrants' cattle. 
 
 Six days later Erasmus, in his anxiety as to the fate 
 of his sons, rode to the spot where his waggons had 
 stood and found there nothing but the bodies of five 
 of the servants. His waggons were seen at Mosega 
 by Captain Harris a few days later, and the same 
 traveller learnt that two of the captive children, being 
 girls, had been taken to one of Moselekatse's residences 
 further north. He does not seem to have heard of 
 the captive boy. At that time the Emigrants them- 
 selves were ignorant that the children were still alive, 
 as until Captain Harris's return they believed that all 
 had been murdered. 
 
 As soon as the Matabele were out of sight the
 
 75 
 
 farmers hastened across the Vaal, and formed a lager 
 at the place since known as Vechtkop, between the 
 Rhenoster and Wilge rivers. The lager was con- 
 structed of fifty waggons drawn up in a circle, firmly 
 lashed together, and every opening closed with thorn 
 trees. 
 
 The month of October was well advanced when one 
 morning a few frightened Bataung rushed into the 
 camp and announced that a great Matabele army was 
 approaching. Immediately the horses were saddled, 
 and after a short religious service conducted by Mr. 
 Carel Cilliers, the farmers rode out with Commandant 
 Potgieter at their head, and encountered a division of 
 Moselekatse's forces, about five thousand strong, under 
 Kalipi, Moselekatse's favourite captain. Riding close 
 up, they poured a volley into the mass of savages, 
 and then retired to reload their clumsy guns. This 
 manoeuvre they repeated, constantly falling back until 
 the lager was reached. The Matabele now thought 
 they had the farmers in a trap, and encircling the 
 camp, they sat down at some distance from it and 
 feasted tlieir eyes with a sight of their supposed 
 victims. After a while they suddenly rose, and with 
 a loud hiss, their ordinary signal of destruction, they 
 rushed upon the lager and endeavoured to force an 
 entrance. There were only forty men, all told, 
 inside, but luckily they had spare guns, and the 
 women knew how to load them. The assailants were 
 received with a deadly fire, and they fell back, but 
 only lo rush on again. The waggons were lashed 
 together too firmly to be moved, and finding it 
 impossible to get to close quarters, the foremost 
 Matabele soldiers abandoned their usual method of 
 fighting and hurled their heavy assagais into the lager. 
 One thousand one hundred and thirteen of these 
 weapons were afterwards picked up in the camp. By 
 this means they managed to kill two of the defenders, 
 Nicholas Potgieter and Pieter Botha, and to wound 
 more or less severely twelve others. Still the fire 
 kept up by those who remained was so hot that Kalipi 
 judged it expedient to retire, and in less than half an 
 hour after the first rush, the Matabele turned to
 
 76 
 
 retreat. They, however, collected the whole of the 
 cattle belonging to the Emigrants and drove them off, 
 leaving not a hoof except the horses which the 
 farmers had been riding, and which were within the 
 camp. Potgieter with his little band followed them 
 until sunset, and managed to shoot a good many, but 
 could not recover any cattle. On their return to the 
 camp they counted a hundred and fifty-five corpses 
 close to the waggons. Altogether, the Matabele had 
 now killed twenty whites and twenty-six persons of 
 colour, and they had swept off a hundred horses, four 
 thousand six hundred head of horned cattte, and more 
 than fifty thousand sheep and goats. 
 
 Just at this time the first families of the third party 
 of Emigrants from the Colony arrived in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Thaba Nchu. This party came from the 
 division of Graaff-Reinet, and was under the leader- 
 ship of Mr. Gerrit Maritz, who had previously been 
 the proprietor of a large waggonmaking establishment 
 and was a man of considerable wealth. They had not 
 less than one hundred waggons with them, and as their 
 flock? and herds were very numerous they were 
 obliged to travel slowly and to spread over a great 
 extent of country. Almost the first information of the 
 earlier Emigrants which came to their ears after they 
 crossed the Orange was brought by Hennanus Pot- 
 
 fieter to Thaba Nchu, to which place he was sent by 
 is brother to seek assistance for the families at 
 Vechtkop, who were left in a helpless condition by the 
 loss of their cattle. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Archbell, Wesleyan missionary at 
 Thaba Nchu, spared no exertions to procure aid for his 
 suffering fellow Christians. Through his influence 
 Moroko lent some oxen, the missionary sent his own, 
 the farmers in the neighbourhood went with their 
 teams, and by these combined means the whole of 
 Potgieter's camp was brought back to Thaba Nchu. 
 Upon the arrival of the distressed people, Moroko 
 treated them with great kindness. He gave them 
 corn, and even lent them cows to supply their children 
 with milk 
 
 As soon as possible the Commandants Potgieter
 
 77 
 
 and Maritz assembled a force for the purpose of 
 punishing Moselekatse. The Griqua captain Pieter 
 Davids eagerly tendered the services of his followers, 
 in the hope that the expedition might effect the release 
 of his daughter and his nephew. Matlabe, the petty 
 Barolong chief who had once been a soldier in the 
 Matabele a mi ay, volunteered to be the guide. A few 
 Koranas and Barolong engaged their services with a 
 view to sharing the spoil. As ultimately made up, the 
 force consisted of one hundred and seven farmers on 
 horseback, forty of Peter David's Griquas and five or 
 six Koranas, also on horseback, and sixty natives* on 
 
 * This does not agree with statements made of late years 
 on behalf of Montsiwa, in which Tawane is represented as 
 having entered 1 into alliance with Potgieter and as having 
 furnished a powerful contingent on the express understanding 
 that he should have the whole '' country of Tao " restored to 
 him. (See among numerous other statements to this effect 
 Par. 38 of Captain Barrel's Memorandum in Imperial Blue- 
 book C 3635 of 1883.) The authority on which I give the 
 total numbe; 1 of Barolong that accompanied the commando is 
 the following : 
 
 Mr. G-errit Maritz, who having quarrelled with Mr. Potgieter 
 took the whole credit of the expedition to himself, in a letter 
 which he wrote to a friend on the 17th of March 1837, and 
 which was immediately published in several of the Colonial 
 newspapers, says, "ik beu uitgetrokken tegen Masselikatse 
 met 107 man Burgers, benevens -jO Bastaards, en 60 man van 
 de Marolesen." 
 
 Captain Harris, who had just returned from Moselekatse's 
 country and who was acquainted with all the circumstanced, 
 in his account in The Wild Sports of Southern Africa, states it 
 as " sixty armed savages on foot." 
 
 Judge Cloete, in his Five Lectures on the Emigration of the 
 Dutch Farmers, delivered in Natal in 1852 and 1855, and pub- 
 lished in Cape Town in 1856, gives the number of the entire 
 commando as two hundred, without saying in what propor- 
 tions the force was composed. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Grout, in his Zululand, follows Harris and 
 says "sixty armed savages on foot," and as he like Judge 
 Cloete had the very best means of information concerning this 
 event, while the sources of their knowledge were different, if 
 this was an error and the party had been a large one he would 
 most likely have corrected it. 
 
 Mr. Card. CUliers, who accompanied both this and the next 
 expedition against Moselekatse, in his journal published in H.
 
 78 
 
 foot belonging in about equal numbers to the clans 
 of Gontse, Tawane, Moroko, and Matlabe. 
 
 Under Matlabe's guidance the commando pursued 
 its march through a country so desolate that after 
 crossing the Yaal not a single individual was met, and 
 the approach of a hostile force was quite unknown to 
 the Matabele. At early dawn on the morning of the 
 17th of January 1837 the military camp in the valley 
 of Mosega was surprised. This camp consisted of 
 fifteen separate kraals, and was under command of 
 the induna Kalipi, who happened at the time to be 
 away at Kapayin fifty miles further to the northward. 
 
 Seven months earlier three American missionaries, 
 Dr. Wilson and the Rev. Messrs. Lindley and Venable, 
 had taken up their residence at Mosega with Mosele- 
 katse's permission. The chief had met Christian 
 teachers before, but he had never comprehended even 
 the first principles of the doctrines which they endea- 
 voured (o expound. As soon as he ascertained that 
 the preaching of the American missionaries was against 
 
 J. Hofstede's Geschiedenis van den Oranje Vrijstaat ('s Graven- 
 hage, 1876), never once mentions auxiliaries. He says : "En 
 de nood drong ons dat wij met 107 man het ondernam om 
 tegen de magtige vijand op te trekken, en onze God gaf hem 
 in onze handen, dat wij hem een groot nederlaag gaf en 6,000 
 beesten van hem catnen, en niet een van ons gemis." 
 
 Mr. J. G. van Vuuren, who was with the commando, in his 
 evidence before the Bloemhof commissioners in 1871 says, 
 " about forty coloured people with us under Matlabe." 
 
 Matlabe himself, in his evidence on the same occasion says, 
 " Tawane gave two sons, Gontse also gave two of his sons ; 
 Tawane's sons took a small number of Kaffirs with them, 
 also Gontse's sons, and I took fourteen, including myself; 
 Moroko did not send any men, but three of his men joined us 
 afterwards." 
 
 Against all this evidence, in addition to the overwhelming 
 testimony of subsequent events, the advocates of Montsiwa 
 have to support their views nothing but a letter from Mrs. 
 Erasmus Smit, who was in the Emigrant camp at the time 
 and who wrote to her son in overdrawn language of hundreds 
 of the A arolese helping them; the evidence of Moroko at 
 Bloemhof, in which he says " we mustered a great many 
 men ;'' and the assertions of some of Montsiwa's followers 
 made for the first time more than a quarter of a century after 
 the event.
 
 79 
 
 his actions he forbade his people to listen to them, 
 and shortly afterwards he left Mosega and went to 
 reside at Kapayin. The missionaries had been attacked 
 by fever, and some members of their families had 
 died ; but they still continued at their post, hoping 
 and praying for an opportunity of carrying on the 
 work to which they had devoted themselves. On the 
 morning of the 17th of January they were awakened 
 by the report of guns, and rushing out of their hut 
 they saw clouds of smoke rising above the entrances 
 of two of the passes into the valley, indicating the 
 position of the farmers under Potgieter and Maritz. 
 
 The Matabele soldiers grasped their spears and 
 shields, and rushed forward ; bat volleys of slugs 
 from the long elephant guns of the farmers drove 
 them back in confusion. Their commanding officer 
 was away, and there was no one of sufficient authority 
 to restore order. The soldiers took to flight, and were 
 hunted by the farmers until the sun was high over- 
 head, when it was computed that at least four hundred 
 must have been slain. The commando then set fire 
 to the military kraals, and having found in the valley 
 most of the waggons that had belonged to their 
 murdered friends and six or seven thousand head of 
 cattle, it was considered advisable to return to the 
 Caledon. Not a single individual, European or native, 
 had been hurt on their side. The missionaries and 
 their families returned with the commando. The 
 native contingent acted as herds, and received payment 
 in cattle for its services. Matlabe, in his evidence at 
 Bloemhof, stated that he " got forty-seven head, and 
 Tawane's and Gontse's sons each thirty-seven head * 
 he received the most cattle because he was the leading 
 man and the guide." 
 
 After returning from Mosega, Potgieter removed 
 his camp from the neighbourhood of Thaba Nchu to 
 the Vet River, about where Winburg has since been 
 built, where he was strengthened by numerous families 
 from the Colony. Unfortunately jealousy of each 
 other, that evil which was afterwards so prominent 
 among the Emigrants, had already begun to appear. 
 Potgieter and Maritz quarrelled, and party feeling was 
 bitter and strong.
 
 80 
 
 In April, 1837, another band of Emigrants arrived 
 in the neighbourhood of Thaba Nchu. It consisted of 
 twenty-six families from the Winterberg,* in all one 
 hundred and eight individuals, besides servants, and 
 was under the leadership of Mr. Pieter Retief, a man 
 of great worth. Mr. Retief, who traced his descent 
 from one of the Huguenots who fled from France 
 after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and came 
 to South Africa in 1688, was born and brought up 
 near the present village of Wellington, but had removed 
 to the Eastern Frontier, and in 1 820 when the British 
 Settlers arrived he contracted with the Government for 
 the supply of provisions to them. In this capacity he 
 was brought into close contact with the leading Settlers, 
 and soon acquired their confidence and esteem. Subse- 
 quently heavy losses in building contracts reduced 
 his circumstances, and he then went to reside at the 
 Winterberg, where the war of 1834-5 still further 
 impoverished him. At this time he was Field Comman- 
 dant of his Division. His remonstrances against the 
 policy pursued towards the Kaffirs after the war 
 brought him into disfavour with Lieutenant-Governor 
 Stockenstrom, who wrote to him in such a style as to 
 increase his irritation. He then resolved to leave the 
 Colony, and was immediately elected by the intending 
 Emigrants from the Winterberg to be their head. A 
 document embodying the reasons for emigrating was 
 then drawn up, and was published in the Graham's 
 Town Journal, upon which the Lieutenant-Governor 
 officially announced that he had struck Mr. Retief 's 
 name out of the list of Field Commandants because 
 he had signed it. 
 
 Upon his arrival at Thaba Nchn, Mr. Retief was 
 elected Commandant-General of all the Emigrants, 
 then numbering over a thousand souls. His first task 
 was to compose the quarrel between Potgieter and 
 Maritz, and he apparently succeeded in restoring friend- 
 ship between them, though it only lasted a short 
 
 families GreyJi 
 fan 
 
 Joubert, 1 family Dreyer, 3 families Van Staden, and a school- 
 master named Alfred Smith.
 
 81 
 
 season. His next care was for the observance of 
 public worship. There was no ordained clergyman 
 among the Emigrants, but there was an old missionary 
 teacher, by name Erasmus Smit, and he was engaged 
 to conduct the services. Mr. Maritz was recognized as 
 landdrost or magistrate. Mr. Retief then visited the 
 chiefs Moroko, Tawane, Moshesb, and ^ikonyela, and 
 entered into agreements of mutual friendship with 
 them. 
 
 \\hi'e these arrangements were being made the 
 number of the Emigrants was rapidly increasing. 
 They were arriving by single families as well as in 
 parties. One large band under Mr. Pieter Jacobs came 
 from the division of Beaufort. Another under Mr. 
 Jacobus Uys came from Uitenhage. This last num- 
 bered more than one hundred souls, and was composed 
 entirely of Mr. Uys's sons and daughters with their 
 wives and husbands, children and grandchildren, for 
 the leader was nearly seventy years of age. He was 
 one of the most widely respected men in South Africa. 
 His son Pieter Lavras Uys had won the admiration of 
 the British Settlers by his gallant conduct in the 
 Kaffir w ar, and when the party reached Graham's Town 
 on its way towards the border, the residents of that 
 place testified their sympathy by a public deputation 
 which in the name of the community presented a large 
 and very handsome bible to the old man. 
 
 By the end of May there were more than a thousand 
 waggons between the Caledon and Vaal rivers, and 
 Mr. Hetief resolved early in June to send another 
 expedition against the Matabele. He had already sent 
 word to Moselekatse that if everything taken from the 
 Emigrants was restored he would agree to peace, but 
 no answer had been returned. Sikonyela, Moroko, 
 and Tawane, seeing the farmers in such strength, 
 offered their services, which Mr. Retief declined with 
 thanks, as he knew from experience how impossible it 
 would be to satisfy the demands of native allies. The 
 expedition, however, was prevented from proceeding 
 by rumours that the Griquas of Waterboer and Kok 
 were preparing to attack the Emigrants. 
 
 About this time, possibly a month earlier or a month 
 c
 
 82 
 
 later, Dingan. Tshaka's successor, sent an army against 
 Moselekatse. The Matabele were defeated by the 
 Zulus in a great battle, in which one of their regiments 
 perished almost to a man. They saw their cattle in 
 possession of the conquerers : but they had courage 
 and discipline enough to rally, and by another engage- 
 ment they managed to recover some of their herds. 
 The Zulus then retreated to their own country, taking 
 with them among the captured cattle some oxen and 
 sheep that had once belonged to the Emigrant 
 
 During the winter of 1837 the quarrel between 
 Potgieter and Maritz was revived, and the whole of 
 the Emigrants were affected by it. Retief found it 
 impossible to restore concord. From this time onward 
 for some years jealousies were so rife and party feel- 
 ing ran so high that it is not safe to take the state- 
 ment of an\ individual among the Emigrants as an 
 accurate version of occurrences. Even the account of 
 Mr. J. N. Boshof, the calmest and best writer among 
 them, is distorted by partisan feeling. These jealousies 
 caused the secession of a large number of the farmers 
 from the principal body under Mr. Retief. The parties 
 of Potgieter and Cys resolved to set up distinct 
 governments of their own, the first on the ground 
 purchased from Makwana. the last somewhere in the 
 territory that is now the Colony of Natal. To Natal 
 also Retief determined to proceed, and in October he 
 paid a preliminary visit to that district. While he 
 was absent the second expedition against the ilatabele 
 took place. 
 
 The commando consisted of two divisions, mustering 
 together three hundred and thirty farmers, one divi- 
 sion being under Hendrik Potgieter, the other under 
 r Uys. It was also accompanied by a few native 
 herdsmen, exactly how many it is impossible to ascer- 
 tain, as they are not even mentioned in any of the 
 contemporary accounts. Matlabe, in his evidence at 
 Bloemhof . said that " he did not go himself, he sent 
 three of his brothers with twenty men, but none of 
 the other captains did that he s roko may 
 
 have furnished two or three men, but no record can
 
 83 
 
 be traced of a single man having been sent by either 
 ijontse or Tavvane. 
 
 In November 1837 this expedition found Mosele- 
 katsc on the Marikwa. about fifty miles north of 
 Mcsega, where it attacked him, and in a campaign of 
 nine days inflicted such loss that he fled far away 
 beyond the Limpopo, never to return. The accounts 
 as to the number of the Matabele killed on this 
 occasion are very conflicting, both in the documents 
 of the time and in the relations of the actors many 
 years after the event. Mr. Carl Cilliers, who was 
 with the expedition, in his journal set it down as over 
 three thousand. The Kev. Mr. Lindley, who obtained 
 his information from members of the commando and 
 who wrote immediately after the event, evidently 
 thought four or five hundred would be nearer the 
 mark. His words are : "On returning to his encamp- 
 ment Mr. Relief found that a considerable number of 
 the farn ers were absent on an expedition against 
 Moselekatse. . . . The expedition against Mosele- 
 katse had about the same success as the one in 
 January, 1837." Between these extremes there are 
 many accounts, no two of which agree in this respect. 
 The fighting or rather the chase of the Matabele 
 army, for no farmer was killed took pl^ce over a 
 lar^e extent of ground, and the dead could not have 
 been counted. This matters little, however, for the 
 fact remains that the punishment inflicted upon 
 Moselekatse was so severe that he found it necessary 
 to abandon the country he had devastated, and flee to 
 the far north, there to resume on other tribes his 
 previous career of destruction. 
 
 yix or seven thousand head of cattle were captured 
 by the expedition, and given over to the native herds- 
 men to take care of. One night these were surprised 
 by a small party of Matabele, when several of the 
 
 *His words are : " Daarea gingen wij andermaal met 330 
 man tegen hen, en op deze keer gaf de Heer onze God hein 
 wedcr in onze handen dat wij i em ten onder bragitn, en over 
 de o.OOO van heu sneuvelden, zoo dat zij toen hun land yer- 
 lieten, en wat de zijne was is de OEZC gewoiden." 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 Barolong lost their lives, and some of the cattle were 
 retaken. In the division of the captured stock the 
 native herdsmen were very liberally dealt with, 
 Matlabe's people receiving sixty-nine head for their 
 services. 
 
 After the flight of Moselekatse, Commandant 
 Potgieter proclaimed the whole of the territory which 
 that chief had overrun arid now abandoned forfeited 
 to the Emigrants. It included the greater part of the 
 present South African Republic, fully half of the 
 present Orange Free State, and the whole of Southern 
 Bechuanaland to the Kalahari Desert except the district 
 occupied by the Batlapin. This immense tract of 
 country was then almost uninhabited, and must have 
 remained so if the Matabele had not been driven out. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE OVERTHROW OF THE ZDLU POWER BY THE 
 EMIGRANT FARMERS. 
 
 In order to understand the events that took place 
 when the Emigrant Farmers entered Natal in 1837, it 
 is necessary to go back several years, to cast a glance 
 at a little settlement of Englishmen on the shores of 
 the Bay, and to resume the thread of Zulu history. 
 
 In 1822 some merchants at Cape Town formed a 
 joint stock company for the purpose of trading with 
 the natives on the south-eastern coast, and with that 
 object fitted out a brig named the Salisbury, of which 
 Mr. James Saunders King, who had once been a mid- 
 shipman in the Royal Navy, was then master. The 
 supercargo and principal agent of 'he company was a 
 man of great energy, named Francis George Farewell, 
 formerly a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and a close 
 friend of Mr. King. The Salisbury put into Algoa 
 Bay on her passage up the coast, and found there His 
 Majesty's exploring and surveying ship Leven, under 
 command of Captain Owen. Mr. Farewell went on 
 board the Leven, and obtained from Captain Owen a 
 good deal of information concerning the coast. i^even 
 Kaffirs had been selected by the Cape Government
 
 85 
 
 from the convicts on Robben Island and given to the 
 exploring expedition as interpreters, and two of these, 
 named Fire and Jacob, were transferred with their own 
 consent by Captain Owen to Mr. Farewell. Fire was 
 shortly afterwards accidentally shot, and Jacob 
 managed to run away, but wassubsequeutly met under 
 strange circumstances. 
 
 The Salisbury visited Delagoa Bay, St. Lucia Bay, 
 and Port Natal, but the voyage was an unfortunate 
 one for the company that fitted her out. Mr. Farewell, 
 however, was so impressed with the capabilities of 
 Natal for colonization, and of its port as a gateway 
 for trade with the interior of the continent, that he 
 resolved to return and establish himself there. He 
 induced several others to join him in this enterprise, 
 among them being Mr. Henry Francis Fynn, the son of 
 an English trader in Cape Town whose business had 
 been suppressed by the Government in 1806 owing to 
 his having exported some specie contrary to law. In 
 March 1824 Mr. Fynn and twenty-four other indivi- 
 duals sailed from Table Bay for Natal in a sloop 
 named the Julia, leaving Mr. Farewell behind to 
 await the decision of the Government upon their 
 application to be taken under its protection. They 
 reached their destination safely, but the hearts of 
 most of the adventurers soon failed them, and they 
 returned to the Colony in the sloop. On the second 
 voyage of the Julia Mr. Farewell proceeded to Natal, 
 taking with him several Hottentot servants. The party 
 of Europeans there then consisted of Messrs. Farewell 
 and Fynn, with two seamen named John Cane and 
 Henry Ogle, and a boy named Thomas Holstead. 
 
 A wilder venture can hardly be conceived than that 
 of these few Englishmen. All that they knew of the 
 country around them was that its soil seemed rich, 
 that it abounded with elephants, that it was almost 
 uninhabited, and that Tshaka claimed it. In August 
 Mr. Farewell, accompanied by Mr. Fynn, Henry Ogle, 
 three of the crew of the Julia, and two Hottentots, 
 visited Tshaka at his principal military kraal, where 
 no European had ever been before. They were sur- 
 prised to find there the interpreter Jacob, who had
 
 86 
 
 run away from the Salisbury the year before at St 
 Lucia Bay, and WHS supposed to be dead. Jacob, who 
 had received from the Zulus the name of Hlamba- 
 manzi, was high in Tshaka's favour, and had already 
 a large drove of cattle and several wives. He was 
 obliging enough to commend his former master to 
 his present one, and Mr. Farewell was therefore well 
 received. He had taken as a present with other articles 
 some ointments and simple medicines, which greatly 
 pleased the Zulu chief, whose high opinion of their 
 value was enhanced by a wound from which he was 
 suffering healing very rapidly when dressed by his 
 visitors. In return Tshaka presented to Mr. Farewell 
 a number of oxen, and attached his mark to a formal 
 document in which he " granted, made over, and sold 
 unto F. G. Farewell and Company the entire and full 
 possession in perpetuity to themselves, heirs, and 
 executors, of the Port or Harbour of Natftl, together 
 with the islands therein, and surrounding country," 
 which is described as running about a hundred miles 
 inland and embracing the coast ten miles to the south- 
 west and about twenty-five miles to the north-east of 
 the harbour. This deed was dated the 7 h of August, 
 1824. Besides the mark of Tsliaka himself, it had 
 upon it the marks of four of the indunas or officers of 
 rank, among whom Jacob appeared under his Zulu 
 name, and it was signed by the whole of Mr. Farewell's 
 party. c 
 
 In the following year Mr. King was in Cape Town 
 again, where he heard from the master of a small 
 vessel which had just come down the coast that his 
 
 * There are two copies of this deed in the Colonial records. 
 One is attached to a memorial of Mr. Eric Gustaf Aspeling, of 
 Cape Town, dated 13th of May 18 J3, in which he asked the 
 Governor for compensation for the ground therein described, 
 on account of his having married Mr. Farewell's widow. The 
 other is attached to a n.emorial of Messrs. J. 11. Thomson & 
 Co.. merchants of Cape Town, of nearly the same date, also 
 asking for compensation, as the deed had been lodged with 
 them as part security for poods sold on credit to Mr. Farewell. 
 In neither case was the application mcressful. My account of 
 these transactions is taken from original letters of Messrs. 
 Farewell and Fynn in the Colonial Office.
 
 87 
 
 friend, Mr. Farewell, was in need of assistance at 
 Natal, and lie resolved to go to his aid. He was then 
 in command of a trading brig called the Jlary, and he 
 had with him a young man named Nathaniel Isaacs, 
 whose Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, 
 published in 1836, contain a very complete account of 
 the events of the next six years. On the 1st of 
 October 1825, the Mara was wrecked while attempting 
 to cross the bar at Port Natal, and her crew, with 
 Messrs. King and Isaacs, were involuntarily added to 
 the little community. 
 
 The circumstances in which these Europeans were 
 placed were not favourable to the growth of a civilized 
 community. They were under the dominion of Tshaka, 
 and though they kept him friendly by frequent pre- 
 sents, they were obliged more than once to accompany 
 his armies to war. On one of these occasions, of 
 which Mr. Isaacs has given the particulars, that adven- 
 turer himself was severely wounded. They endea- 
 voured to induce the Home Authorities to recognize 
 their settlement as a British possession, but failed in 
 their applications. Meantime a few natives who had 
 been living concealed in thickets ventured to place 
 themselves under the protection of the strangers, and 
 very shortly they became practically petty chiefs, each 
 with his own following. 
 
 * Mr. Pynn set the example in this respect. In his account 
 of these transactions he says that upon their arrival at Port 
 Natal some three or four hundred natives were found in a 
 famishing condition in the thickets around the bay. Tshaka 
 allowed him to collect these poor wretches together, and after- 
 wards permitted him to receive some refugees from Zululand 
 upon his reporting each case. Tshaka would not permit any 
 trade whatever with his subjects, and all their business trans- 
 actions were with him in person. They made him presents, 
 rarely of less value than 100 at a time, and in return he gave 
 them large quantities of ivory and grain and droves of cattle. 
 Mr. Fynn says he frequently received fifty and sometimes a 
 hundred head at a time, and corn in sucn abundance that he 
 had no use for it. The Kolo tribe had once owned the country 
 between the TJmzimkulu and Umtentu rivers, but it was 
 reduced to a few wretched wanderers. Its chief, Umbanti by 
 name, was a soldier in Zululand. Tshaku allowed Mr. Fynn 
 to locate the Kolos on a part of their old territory and at his
 
 88 
 
 Bitter feuds soon arose between Messrs. Farewell 
 and King. They had obtained a considerable quantity 
 of ivory, when a trading vessel put into the bay and 
 gave them an opportunity of exchanging it for 
 merchandise, principally muskets and ammunition, 
 with which they armed some of their followers. 
 
 The crew of the Mem/, under the guidance of the 
 carpenter, Mr. Hatton, built a small schooner on ihe 
 southern ehore of the lagoon, in which in April 1828 
 Tshaka Rent an emb issy with Mr. King to the Cape 
 Government. But the little vessel, on putting into 
 Algoa B.iy, was not permitted to proceed further, and 
 after three mouths detention she returned to Natal. 
 The Zulu ambassadors were sent back in a man-of-war 
 without any treaty, such as Mr. King desired, having 
 been entered into, the policy of our Government at 
 that period being an avoidance of anything like 
 responsibility for a new settlement on the coast. 
 
 The Zulu Chief had for some time determined to 
 destroy the tribes between the Umzimvubu and the 
 Cape Colony, and while his ambassadors were at Port 
 Elizabeth he sent an army against them, which 
 marched unopposed to the Bashee. Tshaka himself, 
 with one regiment as a body guard, remained at the 
 Umzimkulu. There Mr. Fynn, by persuading him 
 that the Colonial Government would certainly protect 
 the frontier tribes, induced him to recall the army 
 until 1he result of Mr. King's mission to the Cape 
 could be known. 
 
 Just at this time the Amangwane under Matiwane, 
 having crossed the mountains from Basutoland, were 
 
 request gave Umbanti hi< liberty. Mr. F\ nn says that he then 
 fenced two establishment, one near the Port, and one west 
 of the Umzimkulu. To the people of each of these establish- 
 ments he gave cuttle and grain, which he derived Irom 
 Takaka's liberality. Affr a time the Zulu chief granted him 
 the whole country between Mr. Farewell's district and the 
 Umzimkulu, a.- d attached his mark to a document to that 
 effect. Over that large tract of country he was the chief, 
 being responsible to Tshaka for the conduct of the people 
 residing iu it. He estimates the number of natives ultimately 
 collected under the different European chiefs at over five 
 thousand souls.
 
 89 
 
 despoiling the Tembus. The Authorities at the Cape 
 were appealed to for assistance, and a mixed burgher 
 and military force was sent against the intruders, 
 which destroyed the Amangwane. Tshaka's warriors 
 had fallen back before the colonial commando crossed 
 the Kei, or an English and a Zulu army would have 
 met in battle half a century before our struggle with 
 Cetywayo. 
 
 Early in September 1828 Mr. King died at Natal, 
 and was within a few months followed to the grave 
 by Mr. Hatton, tlie builder of the little vessel. There 
 had been no additions to the European party since the 
 wreck of the Mary, but about this time Mr. Fynn was 
 joined by his brother William McDowell Fynn, who 
 had been sent from the Cape to Delagoa Bay at the 
 instance of the Government to search along the coast 
 for a small vessel named the Buckbay Packet, which 
 was supposed to have been lost. Having obtained 
 tidings of the wreck, he made up his mind to cast in 
 his lot with his brother. Subsequently he was joined 
 by his father and another brother, both of whom died 
 at Natal after a short residence there. 
 
 On the 23rd of September 1828 Tshaka was assas- 
 sinated at Tukusa, a military kraal on the river Umvoti, 
 within the present Colony of Natal, and about fifty 
 miles from the Port. The mother of the chief had died 
 a few months before, and such great numbers of 
 people had been butchered for not participating in his 
 grief, as he said, that even the most bloodstained of 
 the Zulus were appalled. A large part of the army, 
 after returning from the Bashee, had been sent against 
 a tribe beyond Delagoa Bay, but had not been success- 
 ful. Several thousand men had been slain, thousands 
 more had fallen victims to dysentery, and the survivors 
 were retreating in the greatest distress from hunger. 
 At this juncture Dingan and Umthlangana, two of 
 Tshaka's half brothers, and Umbopa, his most trusted 
 attendant, entered into a conspiracy to put him to 
 death. 
 
 From his brothers, Tshaka seems never to have 
 
 * Memorial of William McDowell Fynn, dated 3rd July 
 1843, in the Colonial Records.
 
 90 
 
 anticipated any danger. Dingan was according to 
 native ideas of higher rank by birth, but the original 
 Zulu tribe was such a small fraction of the nation then 
 existing, that he was not suspected of ambitious 
 designs. Tshaka was sitting conversing with several 
 of his attendants when the conspirators attacked him. 
 Dingan struck the first blow, but it was his treacherous 
 servant who gave the death wound. His body was 
 left uncovered on the ground, but the next day it was 
 buried, tlie residents of the place having been struck 
 with superstitious dread when they saw that the hyenas 
 had not devoured it. 
 
 Shortly after the death of Tshaka, Dingan with his 
 own hand murdered Umthlangana, his brother and 
 fellow conspirator. Another brother with several 
 sub-chiefs refused to acknowledge him as their head, 
 and a short civil war followed, which resulted in the 
 flight of one of Dingan's principal opponents and the 
 extermination of all the others. The one who fled 
 was named Qeto. He had with him a horde called 
 the Amakwabi, with which he crossed the Umzim- 
 vubu and committed dreadful ravages south of that 
 river. 
 
 The remnants of the conquered tribes far and near 
 hailed Dingan as a deliverer, and for a year or two 
 after his accession his government really was an 
 improvement upon that of his predecessor. But 
 gradually he began to display the vilest qualities. 
 The favourites of Tshaka were the ablest men in the 
 country, for that chief appreciated talent in his officers, 
 and even had sufficient magnanimity to spare the men 
 of rank in clans that sought incorporation with the 
 Zulu power. Most of these were murdered by order 
 of Dingan. Tshaka delighted in a display of force, 
 Dingan in gaining his ends by treachery. The devas- 
 tations of the latter were trifling in comparison with 
 those of the former, only because there was so little 
 left within his reach to destroy. Five years after his 
 assumption of power his people felt his tyranny as 
 much as they had felt that of Tshaka. 
 
 * Captain Allen F. Gardiner, of the Royal Navy, vbo 
 visited him in 1835, in his Narrative of a Journey to tht Zulu
 
 91 
 
 The Europeans at the bay were invited by Dingan 
 to remain there under his protection for commercial 
 purposes, and they were well pleased to do so. On 
 the 1st of December 1828 Messrs. Farewell and Isaacs 
 sailed from Natal in the little schooner built there, 
 with a view of procuring goods in the Colony. All 
 that were left of the crew of the Mary went with 
 them, so that there remained at Natal only Messrs. H. 
 and W. Fynn, John Cane, Henry Ogle, and Thomas 
 Holstead. Upon the arrival of the schooner at Algoa 
 Bay she was seized and detained by the Authorities, 
 and of all who had embarked in her, only Mr. Isaacs 
 saw Natal again. In April 1830 he returned in an 
 American trading vessel. 
 
 Mr. Farewell a second time interested a good many 
 people in his scheme of colonizing Natal, and, after 
 an absence of several months, in September 1829 he 
 was returning overland with a party of young English- 
 men and some waggons loaded with merchandise 
 when his career was terminated. He with two com- 
 panions named Walker and Thackwray, and some 
 native attendants, left the waggons one afternoon, and 
 rode on horseback to pay a visit to Qeto, with whom 
 he had been acquainted in Zululand. They were 
 received with apparent friendship, but Qeto did not 
 conceal his annoyance at their intention of proceeding 
 to trade with his enemy Dingan. A hut was given 
 them to sleep in, and at a late hour they lay down to 
 rest. Just before dawn next morning a band of 
 
 Country in South Ajrica (London, 1836) gives several instances 
 of the despot's ferocity which fell under his observation. 
 William Wood, who lived with the Great Chief for some time 
 when nothing unusual was taking place, in his Statements 
 respecting Dingaan, King of the Zoolahs (a pamphlet of 38 
 pages, Cape Town, 1840), asserts that the executions at the 
 kraal where he was residing were at the rate of fourteen a 
 week. Staff Assistant Surgeon Andrew Smith, who was the 
 head of an exploring expedition, in his report, dated 6th of 
 May 1834, says : " As characteristic of his (Dingan's) system 
 of proceeding, I may only mention that when I was at his 
 kraal I saw portions of the bodies of eleven of his own wives 
 whom he had only a few days previous put to death merely 
 for having uttered words that happened to annoy him."
 
 92 
 
 Amakwabi fell upon them and murdered the three 
 Europeans and five of their native servants. They 
 then proceeded to the waggons and plundered them. 
 The remainder of the party managed to escape. After 
 Mr. Farewell's death John Cane and Henry Ogle 
 divided his people between them, and a few years 
 later, owing to constant accessions to their clans, they 
 were the most powerful chiefs in Natal. 
 
 Early in 1829 Dingan was visited by an exploring 
 expedition from the Cape Colony. The members of 
 this expedition were Dr. Cowie, district surgeon of 
 Albany, and Mr. Benjamin Green. They left their 
 waggon and most of their Hottentot servants at Dingan's 
 residence, and proceeded on horseback to Delagoa Bay, 
 where they found fever raging so severely that the 
 European inhabitants of Lorenzo Marques had been 
 reduced from forty to six in number, and one hundred 
 and fifty corpses had been thrown overboard fromt\\o 
 ships in the harbour. Their horses died, and the 
 explorers were compel!' d to leave on foot. On the 
 4th of April Dr. Cowie died, and was followed a few 
 hours afterwards by one of the Hottentot servants. 
 Four days later Mr. Green died, after having given 
 the journal of the expedition to the interpreter, who 
 brought it to the Colony. 
 
 Mr. Farewell's enthusiastic desciiption of Natal and 
 of the extensive trade in ivory and skins of wild 
 animals that might be carried on there had the effect 
 of inducing several young men to follow him, so that 
 a year or two after his death the European community 
 at the Port was larger than ever before. Mr. James 
 Collis, after visiting the Bay in 1830 in an overland 
 journey from Graham's Town, returned in 1831 and 
 established himself as a trader. He took with him 
 several assistants, among whom were the parents of 
 William Wood, who was afterwards Dingan's inter- 
 preter. Several men also, who had no other occupa- 
 tion than elephant hunting, made Natal their place of 
 residence about this time. 
 
 Dingan's promise of protection did not relieve the 
 Europeans of anxiety as to their safety. They placed 
 greater confidence in their firearms and in the dense
 
 93 
 
 thickets into which they could retire in case of neces- 
 sity. In 1831, owing to a regiment being sent by 
 Dingan in a fit of passion to destroy John Cane and 
 his people, they all fled in alarm, Isaacs never to 
 return, though the others soon went back. Again in 
 June 1834 they all fled over the Umzimkulu, being 
 apprehensive of: an attack. On this occasion, however, 
 their alarm was due to a mistake ; and Dingan, to 
 restore confidence, withdrew all his soldiers from the 
 country south of the Tugela for thirty-five or forty 
 miles upwards from the sea, which has never since 
 been occupied for more than a few days by a Zulu 
 army. In September 1834 Messrs. Henry and William 
 Fynn left Natal not to return, and they both soon 
 afterwards took service in the Native Department of 
 the Cape Government. 
 
 In this year, 1834, Natal was visited by a party of 
 farmers from the Colony, who travelled overland with 
 fourteen waggons. Among them was Mr. Pieter Uys. 
 They inspected the Bay, where they met with a very 
 friendly reception from the European residents, and 
 they thoroughly explored the uplands, where they were 
 charmed with the luxuriant pasturage and fertile well- 
 watered soil. The district seemed to them to invite 
 settlement. Having satisfied themselves as to its 
 capabilities, they returned to the Colony to find that 
 the Eastern Districts had been laid waste by the 
 Amaxosa during: their absence. 
 
 In January 1835 Captain Allen F. Gardiner paid a 
 visit to Natal, having travelled overland from the 
 Colony, his object being to prepare the way for the 
 establishment of Christian missions among the Zulus. 
 He states, in his Narrative of a Journey to the Zulu 
 Country, that there was then at the Bay but one house 
 constructed after a European model, and that was 
 built of reeds and mud. It was occupied by Mr. 
 James Collis, the principal trader at the place, who 
 lost his life by an explosion of gunpowder a few 
 
 * Just before this event the interpreter Jacob, or Hlamba- 
 manzi, ended bis career. He was put to death by Haory Ogle, 
 acting under order of Dingan.
 
 94 
 
 months later. There were about thirty Europeans, a 
 few Hottentots, and some two thousand five hundred 
 blacks resident in the immediate vicinity, but as their 
 huts were all carefully concealed in the thicket, the 
 place presented a wild and deserted appearance. 
 
 Captain Gardiner was present when a site was 
 selected for the township of Durban, 23rd of June 
 1835, an event of which he gives the following 
 interesting account : 
 
 This afternoon a very characteristic meeting was held in 
 one of Mr. Berkin's huts, for the purpose of selecting the site 
 for a town. Ou my arrival I found the hut filled with indivi- 
 duals expressly convened for this purpose. Almost total 
 silence was observed, the subject was not even hinted at, 
 nor had any chairman or leading person been appointed to 
 introduce the busin- SF. 
 
 At length a voice cried out, " Now let's go and settle the 
 bounds," on which I risked a questio", hoping it might elicit a 
 programme of the contemplated proceedings : -'Are all present 
 agreed as to the expediency of building a town ?" to which 
 it was replied that their presence on this occasion was a prtof 
 that they were unanimous on this point. 
 
 Thus began and ended this important conference, and off 
 they all scampered in a posse to inspect the ground, some 
 walking, others seated on the floor of a waggon without either 
 tilt or sides, which was drawn at a stately pace by ten oxen. 
 Short pipts, an indispensable accompaniment, were in full 
 action on all sides. Being the winter season, it was a s-ort of 
 reunion of hunters, who, tired of chasing sea-cow and buffalo, 
 were now sighing for town houses and domestic cheer. The 
 appearance of any one of these forest rangers would have 
 gained the medal for any artist who could have transfixed 
 his tout ensemble upoa canvas. At length a pause was made. 
 
 " This'll do," cried one. 
 
 " That's the spot," exclaimed another. 
 
 After some minutes of such like random conversation, the 
 whole party were compactly collected and the business was at 
 length entered upon and conducted in a rational manner, 
 every proposition being subjected to the vote* of these who 
 were present and carried or negatived accordingly. 
 
 It was in this impromptu manner that the town of 
 D'Urban was named, its situation fixed, the township and 
 church lands appropriated, and, in short, as much real busi- 
 ness gone through as would have required at least a fort- 
 night's hard writing and debuting in any other quarter of 
 the globe. 
 
 * The site first selected was a little further up the shere of 
 the lagoon than where the present town is built.
 
 95 
 
 The regulations for the new town, with the provi- 
 sion for a church and a hospital, show the little 
 European community to have been an intelligent and 
 progressive one. Including Captain Gardiner, his 
 interpreter, George Cyrus, and his waggon driver, 
 Richard King, the whole white population did not 
 amount to thirty-five souls. They held advanced 
 views upon representative government, as is proved 
 by the following petition to Sir Benjamin D'Urban : 
 May it please your Excellency. 
 
 We, the undersigned British subjects, inhabitants of Port 
 Natal and its vicinity, have commenced building a town, called 
 D'Urban* in honour of your Excellency. 
 
 We hold in our possession extensive tracts of excellent 
 land, a considerable portion of which has long been under 
 cultivation. Many of us are occupied in conducting a 
 valuable trade in hides and ivory, the former of which is 
 almost exclusively obtained within the limits which by 
 mutual consent of surrounding chieftains have been 'conceded 
 to us. 
 
 In consequence of the exterminating wars of Tshaka, late 
 King of the Zulus, and other causes, the whole country included 
 between the Umzimkulu and Tugela rivers is now unoccupied 
 by its origical possessors, and, with a very few exceptions, 
 is totally uninhabited. 
 
 Numbers of natives from time to time have entered this 
 settlement for protection, the amount of whom at this present 
 moment cannot be less than three thousand. These all 
 acknowledge us as their chiefs, and look to us for protection, 
 notwithstanding which we are living in the neighbourhood of 
 powerful native states, without the shadow of a law or a 
 recognized authority among us. 
 
 We therefore humbly pray your Excellency, for the sake 
 of humanity, for the upholding of the British character in the 
 eyes of the natives, for the well being of this increasing com- 
 munity, for the cause of morality and religion, to transmit this 
 our petition to His Majesty's Government, praying that it 
 may please His Majesty to recognize the country intervening 
 between the Umzimkulu and Tugela rivers, which we have 
 named Victoria in honour of our august Princess, as a Colony 
 of the British Empire, and to appoint a Governor and Council 
 with power to enact such laws and regulations as may be 
 deemed expedient by them, in concert with a body of repre- 
 sentatives chosen by ourselves to constitute a House of 
 Assembly. 
 
 And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 
 
 *Now usually written Durban.
 
 96 
 
 There was one ever present cause of irritation 
 between Dingan and the European settlers. Fugitives 
 from his tyranny were continually placing themselves 
 under the protection of the white chiefs at the Bay, 
 and naturally the Zulu despot was incensed at any 
 interference between him and his subjects. On the 
 other hand, the Europeans found it difficult to turn 
 away the poor creatures who applied to them, and 
 whose only fault might be that they were relatives or 
 dependents of some one that had incurred the wrath 
 of Dingan, who in many instances condemned to death 
 not only an offender but his entire family. The danger 
 the Europeans were in from this circumstance was, 
 however, so great that they consented to a proposal of 
 Captain Gardiner, which was embodied in the following 
 treaty: 
 
 Dingan from this period consents to waive all claim to the 
 persons and property of every individual now residinsr at Port 
 Natal, in consequence of their having deserted from him, and 
 accords them his full pardon. He still, however, regards them 
 as his subjects, liable to be sent for whenever he may think 
 proper. 
 
 The British residents at Port Natal, on their part, engage 
 for the future never to receive or harbour any deserter from 
 the Zulu country, or any of its dependencies, and to use every 
 endeavour to secure and return to the Fing every such indivi- 
 dual endeavouring to find an asylum among them. 
 
 Should a case arise in which this is found to be impractic- 
 able, immediate intelligence, stating the particulars of the 
 circumstance, is to be forwarded to Ding^n. 
 
 Any infringement of this treaty on either part invalidates 
 the whole. 
 
 Done at Oongella this 6th day of May, 1835, in presence of 
 TMTHI-ELA > Chief Indunas and Head Coun- 
 TAMBCZA ) cillors of the Zulu nation. 
 G. CYRUS, Interpreter. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the British residents at Port Natal. 
 ALLEX F. GARDISER. 
 
 Under this treaty Captain Gardiner himself conveyed 
 a party of four fugitives back to Dingan, by whose 
 orders they were starved to death. The Captain was 
 now considered so trustworthy that Dingan gave him 
 authority over the whole of the Natal people, with 
 permission to establish a mission station at the Bay
 
 97 
 
 and also in the district along the northern bank of the 
 Tugela, which was under the induria Nongalaza. 
 Captain Gardiner thereupon returned to England as 
 speedily as possible, with a view of procuring men to 
 occupy these posts. 
 
 In 1835 the first American missionaries, six in 
 number, arrived in South Africa. Three of them 
 went northward to Moselekatse's country, and the 
 others, Dr. Adams and the Rev. Messrs. Champion 
 and Aldin Grout, proceeded to Natal. They visited 
 Dingan at his residence, Umkunguuhlovu, and obtained 
 permission to establish themselves in his country. 
 In February 1836 their first station was founded about 
 eight miles from the Bay, on the river Umlazi ; and 
 in November of the same year they commenced 
 another, which they called Ginani, on the Umsunduzi, 
 about ten miles north of the Tugela. In July 1837 
 the three who had been compelled to abandon Mosega 
 joined their colleagues in Natal, and shortly after- 
 wards commenced two other stations, one thirty miles 
 south-west of the Bay and the other about the same 
 distance beyond Ginani. 
 
 In June 1837 Captain Gardiner reached Natal again, 
 having brought with him from England the Rev. Mr. 
 Owen of the Church Missionary Society. By dint of 
 coaxing, Dingan's consent was obtained to Mr. Owen 
 being stationed at Umkungunhlovu. The missionary 
 had his wife and sister with him, and was accom- 
 panied by an interpreter named Hulley. Captain 
 Gardiner took up his residence at the Bay, at the 
 station which on his former visit he had named Berea, 
 where he endeavoured to act in the double capacity 
 of a missionary and a magistrate under the Imperial 
 Act of August 1836, "for the prevention and punish- 
 ment of offences committed by His Majesty's subjects 
 within certain territories adjacent to the Colony of the 
 Cape of Good Hope." 
 
 This Act extended the colonial criminal law to all 
 British subjects within any territory adjacent to the 
 Colony and south of the twenty-fifth degree of latitude, 
 and made crimes committed by such persons cogniz- 
 able in colonial courts. It empowered the Governor of
 
 98 
 
 the Cape Colony to grant commissions as magistrates 
 to persons in such territories to arrest, commit to 
 custody, and bring to trial before colonial courts His 
 Majesty's subjects charged with crime. The Act, 
 however, was not to be construed as investing His 
 Majesty with any claim or title to sovereignty or 
 dominion over such territories. 
 
 The Europeans in Natal, upon being informed of the 
 authority claimed by Captain Gardiner by virtue of a 
 commission which he held under this Act, immediately 
 resolved not to submit in any way to his control. 
 They desired, they said, to be recognized as a British 
 Colony, and to have proper courts of law established ; 
 but to submit to the operation of an Act which took 
 no cognizance of offences committed against them, 
 which left them without protection to be robbed or 
 murdered, while it tied their hands even against self 
 defence, was something which as free men they could 
 not consent to. 
 
 This was then the condition of affairs when Pieter 
 Ketief visited Natal. Dingan claimed the whole coun- 
 try between the Drakensberg and the Sea as far 
 south as the Umzimvubu, but did not practically 
 exercise direct authority south of the Tugela. There 
 were six mission stations, three north of the Tugela 
 and three south of that river, occupied by five ordained 
 clergymen (four American Presbyterian and one Church 
 of England), two medical men, and one Captain of the 
 Royal Navy, nearly all of whom had families with 
 them. At Durban and in its vicinity there were about 
 thirty Englishmen residing either permanently or in 
 the intervals between hunting excursions. The lead- 
 ing man and largest trader among them was Mr. 
 Alexander Biggar, whose fate, with that of his two 
 sons, will presently be told. Several of these Euro- 
 peans were living as chiefs of native kraals, and 
 exercised power even of death over their followers. 
 The actual number of blacks between the Tugela and 
 the Umzimvubu cannot be accurately given. No esti- 
 mate of that period rises as high as ten thousand, yet it 
 would not be safe to say that there was not fully that 
 number between the two rivers. They were living in
 
 99 
 
 the most secluded places, and kept out of observation 
 as much as possible. 
 
 Early in October 1837 Pieter Relief in company 
 with a few of the leading Emigrants set out from the 
 neighbourhood of Thai a Nchu for the purpose of 
 examining the capabilities of Natal and obtaining 
 Dingan's consent to its occupation. On the 19th the 
 party arrived at the Port, without having met a single 
 individual after they crossed the Drakensberg. The 
 residents of Durban were greatly pleased on hearing 
 that it was the desire of the Emigrants to settle in 
 their neighbourhood. They presented Mr. Retief with 
 a warm address of welcome, and did all that was in 
 their power to assist him. A messenger was imme- 
 diately sent forward to announce his intended visit 
 to Dingan, and some days were then spent in exam- 
 ining the harbour and the country around it. 
 
 On the 27th the party left the Port for Umku- 
 ngunhlovu, accompanied by John Cane and Thomas 
 Holstead, two of the oldest inhabitants of Natal, 
 in the capacity of guides and interpreters. Thnr 
 reception by Dingan was outwardly as friendly as it 
 was possible to be. He seemed to agree with what 
 Mr. Retief said concerning the advantages to his 
 people of a European settlement in their neighbour- 
 hood, and he promised to take the request for land 
 south of the Tugela into consideration and give a 
 decisive reply in a few days. In the mean time he 
 entertained the farmers with exhibitions of dances, in 
 one of which nearly two hundred oxen, all of the 
 same colour, were mixed with the men of a regiment 
 and went through certain manoeuvres with the most 
 perfect accuracy. Among the stock recently captured 
 from Moselekatse were home of the sheep taken by 
 the Matabele from the Emigrants on the Vaal. Dingan 
 informed Mr. Retief that most of these were dead, 
 
 * A list of the titles of thp fragments of tribes then occupy- 
 ing the present Colony of Natal, furnished by Sir Theopbilus 
 Shepstone, is given in an Appendix to the Report and Proceed- 
 ings of the Commission on Native Laws and Customs, printed at 
 Cape Town in 1883. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 
 
 but he restored one hundred and ten as a present, and 
 offered the skins of the ethers. 
 
 On the 8th of November, Mr. Eetief arranged to 
 return to his friends. On leaving, Dingan gave him 
 a document written by the Rev. Mr. Owen, in which 
 the Zulu chief stated that he was willing to grant the 
 land asked for, but the farmers must first recover and 
 restore certain cattle that had recently been stolen 
 from one of his outposts by a party of horsemen 
 clothed as Europeans and armed with guns. He 
 asserted that some of his people suspected the robbers 
 were farmers, and he wished them to prove their 
 innocence. It was, however, certain that the Zulus 
 knew the plundering band to be some of Sikonyela's 
 Batlnkua. 
 
 The conditions seemed to Mr. Retief very easy of 
 fulfilment. The stolen cattle were only about seven 
 hundred in number, and the Batlokua, by driving 
 them through an Emigrant encampment and thereby 
 bringing the trail upon the farmers, had made them- 
 selves liable to be called to a reckoning. Mr. Retief 
 therefore returned to the Caledon, sent for Sikonyela, 
 and when that chief appeared informed him that he 
 would be detained as a prisoner until the cattle stolen 
 from the Zulus were given up. They were at once 
 surrendered, and the great body of the Emigrants 
 thereupon moved off to Natal. In the course of a 
 few weeks nearly a thousand waggons crossed the 
 Drakensberg. 
 
 The Emigrants spread themselves out along the 
 Blue Kraus and Bushman rivers, and Mr. Retief then 
 prepared to visit Dingan again to deliver the cattle 
 recovered from Sikonyela. But by this time many of 
 the farmers had acquired such a feeling of uneasiness 
 as induced them to urge their leader not to venture 
 again into the Zulu despot's power. A man whose 
 life was of less value to the community they thought 
 should be sent, and there were not wanting many 
 who nobly volunteered to fulfil the dangerous task. 
 Mr. Maritz offered to go with only three or four 
 others. Put Mr. Retief objected to anything that 
 might lead Dingan to suspect that they distrusted
 
 101 
 
 him, and he therefore determined to go himself and 
 take a suitable escort of volunteers. Some sixty of 
 the best men among the Emigrants offered to accom- 
 pany him, and several of these imprudently allowed 
 their sons boys from eleven to fifteen years of age 
 to go also. Before they left, Thomas Holstead and 
 George Biggar arrived at the Bushman River. The 
 last named was a young man who had been residing 
 in Natal since 1834, and who came up from the Port 
 as his father's agent to ascertain the requirements of 
 the Emigrants in the way of irade. He remained for 
 this purpose after Mr. Relief 's party had left. Thomas 
 Holstead, who had been thirteen years in Natal, and 
 who spoke the Zulu language as readily as the English, 
 went agdn with Mr. Retief as interpreter. There 
 were also about thirty Hottentot servants leading 
 spare horses with the party. 
 
 On their arrival at Umkungunhlovu, 3rd of February 
 1838, Dingan expressed himself highly satisfied with 
 their conduct, regretting only that they had not 
 brought Sikony la bound to him to be put to death 
 for having dared to plunder a Zulu cattle post. He 
 asked for some firearms and horses which the Batlokua 
 chief had been required to give up, but appeared 
 satisfied when he was informed that these had been 
 restored to their legitimate owners. As on the former 
 occasion, the farmers were entertained with exhibitions 
 of dances and sham fights. The day following their 
 arrival Dingan requested the Rev. vr. Owen to draw 
 up a document to show that he had given the farmers 
 a country to live in. Mr. Owen thereupon drafted a 
 paper in the English language, which met with Din- 
 gan's approval after it had been thoroughly explained 
 to him. The document was then signed, and the chief 
 handed it to Mr. Retief. It was as follows : 
 
 Umkunkinglove, 4th February, 1838. 
 Know all men by this, 
 
 That whereas Pieter K^tief, Governor of the Dutch 
 Emigrant Farmers, has retaken my cattle which Sinkonyella 
 had stolen from me which cattle he the said Retief now 
 delivered untj me: I, Diagaan, KinK of the Zoolas, do hereby 
 certify and declare, that I thought fit to resign unto him,
 
 102 
 
 Retief, and his countrymen, the p^ce called Port Natal, 
 together with all the land Annexed ; that is to say, from the 
 Togela to the Omsovoobe R vers Westward, and from the Sea 
 to the North, as far as the Land may be useful and in my 
 possession. 
 
 Which I did by this, and give unto them for their everlast- 
 ing property. 
 
 Mark x of King Dingaan. 
 Witnesses, 
 
 il. OOSTHVIZEy, 
 
 A. C. GREYLTXG, 
 
 B. J. LIES !-;s BERG, 
 MOAKO x Great C uncillor. 
 JULIAVIUS, x L)o. 
 MANOXDO, x Do. 
 
 Grants similar to this, and covering the same ground 
 or portions of it, had been previously made by Tshaka 
 and Dingan himself successively to Messrs. Farewell, 
 Fynn, King, Isaacs, and Gardiner ; and under no 
 circumstances would such a cession, in nat've estima- 
 tion, mean more than permission to occupy the 
 ground during the lifetime of the reigning chief, 
 whose supremacy as feudal lord would be assumed. 
 But Dingan from the first was only seeking to lure 
 the farmers to destruction, and never intended his ces- 
 sion to mean anything. 
 
 The farmers were entirely thrown off their guard 
 by the trouble tliat was taken apparently to entertain 
 them. On the morning of Tuesday the 6th Mr. Ketief 
 and his party prepared to return to their friends, and 
 went to take leave of Liingan, whom they found, as 
 usual, surrounded by warriors. Great care had been 
 taken to show them that according to Zulu custom no 
 one could approach the chief armed, and consequently 
 when they were requested to leave their guns outside 
 the kraal, they did so without suspicion of danger. 
 They were received in the ordinary manner, and were 
 pressed to seat themselves and partake of some beer, 
 which was being handed round freely. While in this 
 defenceless position, into which they had been so 
 carefully entrapped, Dingan suddenly called out 
 " seize them," when instantly the Zulu soldiers rushed 
 upon them. Thomas Holstead, the interpreter, cried
 
 103 
 
 out " we're done for," and added in the Zulu language 
 " let me speak to the king." Dingan heard him, but 
 waved his hand in token of dissent, and called out 
 repeatedly " kill the wizards." Holstead then drew 
 his knife, and mortally wounded two of his assailants 
 before he was secured. One of the farmers also suc- 
 ceeded in killing a Zulu, but the others were seized 
 before they could spring to their feet. They were all 
 dragged away to a hill where executions were com- 
 monly performed, and were there murdered by having 
 their skulls bioken with knobkerries. Mr. Retief was 
 held and forced to witness the death of his com- 
 panions before he was murdered. His heart and liver 
 were then taken out and buried in the path leading 
 from Natal to Umkungunhlovu, but no other mutila- 
 tion of the bodies took place, nor was their clothing 
 removed. 
 
 Some of the servants had been sent for the horses 
 when the farmers went to take their leave. These 
 were surrounded by a party of soldiers, and were also 
 put to death. One ot them nearly made good his 
 escape by the fleetness of his [feet, but eventually he 
 was run down and killed like the rest. In all there 
 perished on this memorable morning sixty-seven 
 Europeans and about thirty Hottentots, f 
 
 * Their names were Dirk Aukamp, Willem Basson. Johannes 
 de Beer, Matthys de Beer, Barend van den Berg, Pieter van 
 den Berg the elder, Pieter van den Berg the younger, Johani. ea 
 Beukes, Joachim Botha, Gerrit Bothnia the e'der,Gerrit Bothnia 
 the younger, Christian Breidenbacb, Johannes Britz, Pieter 
 Britz the elder, Pieter Britz the younger, Pieter Cilliers, 
 Andries van Dyk, Marthinus Esterhuizen, Samuel Esterhuizen, 
 Hermanns Fourie, Abraham Greylinp, Rynier Grobbelaar, 
 Jacobus Hatting, Thomas Holstead, Jacobus Hugo, Jacobus 
 Jooste, Pieter Joidnan, Johannes Klaasen, Abraham de Klerk, 
 Jacobus de Klerk, Johannes de Klerk, Balthazar Klopper, 
 Coenraad Klopper, Lukas Klopper, Pieter Klopper, HeLidrik 
 Labuschagne, Barend Liebenberg, Daniel Liebenberg, Hercules 
 Malan, Carel Marais, Johannes van der Merwe, Pieter Meyer, 
 Barend Oosthuizen. Jacobus Oosthuizen, Johannes Oosthuizen, 
 Marthinus Oosthuizen, Jacobus Opperman the elder, Jacobus 
 Opperman the younger, Frederik Pre< orius, Johani.es Pretorius 
 Marthinus Pretorius, Matthys Pretorias toe elder, Matthya 
 Pretorius the younger, Pieter Retief, Isaac Roberts, Johannes
 
 104 
 
 While the massacre was taking place, Mr. Owen sat 
 in his hut, not knowing but that any moment he 
 might hear the footsteps of the messengers of death. 
 Dingan sent word to him that the farmers were being 
 killed because they were wizards, but that he need 
 not fear for himself. Notwithstanding this message, 
 he felt that his life was in imminent danger, as the 
 chief appear d to delight in nothing so much as in 
 treachery. His interpreter, Mr. Hulley, was absent at 
 the time, but his wife a> d his sister were with him. 
 Another European who was present was a youth 
 named William Wood, who had been living for 
 several months at Umkungunhlovu in the capacity ot 
 interpreter to Dingan. Both Mr. Owen and Wood 
 
 Roberts, Christian van Schalkwyk, Gerrit Scheepers, Johannes 
 Scheepers, Alarthinus Scheepers, StepLanus Scheepers, Stepba- 
 nus Smit. Pieter Taute, Gerrit Visagie, Stephanus van Vuuren, 
 Hendrik de Wet ind Joham.es de Wet. 
 
 t It was at one time generally asserted, and is even yet 
 believed by some persons, th^t John Cane instigated Dingan 
 to commit this massacre. In the Colonial Records I have 
 found only one letter bearing upon this subject. It is dated 
 20th of July 18:8. and was written frum Port Natal by Mr. 
 Edward Parker, a recent arrival there, to Major Charters, 
 Military Secretary to Sir George Napier. Mr. Parker accuses 
 John Cane of having caused the massacre of Retief's party by 
 treacherously sendi g a message to Dingan that the Boers, 
 who had run away from the Colony against the wishes of the 
 English Government, would try to drive him from his country, 
 and that the English would not assist them. Parker states 
 that Daniel 'J oohey, a clerk in Maynard's business at the Bay, 
 informed him he had it from Cane's own mouth that he had 
 sent such a message. On the other hand, in none of the 
 statements by Zulus concerning the massacre is any such 
 charge brought against Cane, though if it had been correct 
 they would almost certainly have mentioned it. Neither Mr. 
 Owen nor William Wood, boih of whom would most likely 
 have heard of such a message and been questioned by Dingaa 
 concerning its accuracy, say anything of it. Cane's subsequent 
 conduct also is inconsistent with the commission of such an 
 act. The real evidence against him, apart from popular belief, 
 being very weak, and the probabilities of the case being all 
 in his favour, I have not referred to this charge in my relation 
 of the massacre. A similar charge was made against Henry 
 Ogle, and even against the Rev. Mr. Owen, by a, few prejudiced 
 persons, but failed to obtain credit.
 
 105 
 
 have published accounts of the massacre. They 
 remained at Umkungunhlovu a few days in order that 
 Dingan might not suspect them of having lost confi- 
 dence in him, and then they retired to Natal. Before 
 they left, Dingan asked Mr. Owen for his best waggon 
 and most of his household effects, which the missionary 
 did not think prudent to refuse. 
 
 A few hours after the massacre two other Europeans 
 arrived at Dingan's kraal. They were the Rev. Mr. 
 Venable and his interpreter, Mr. James Biownlee. 
 The indunas at the different stations had shortly 
 before this issued orders that no person whatever was 
 to attend the mission services or schools, and Mr. 
 Venable was deputed by his colleagues to visit the 
 chief and endeavour to get these orders counter- 
 manded. But when he learned what had happened, 
 he thought it best to say nothing of the object of his 
 journey. As soon as he could prudently leave he did 
 so, and gave notice to his colleagues at the different 
 stations, all of whom retired immediately to the Bay. 
 
 At noon on the same day some ten thousand Zulu 
 warriors marched towards Natal, with the intention of 
 falling upon the Europeans before they could hear of 
 what had happened and prepare for defence. Having 
 divided themselves into several bands, at early dawn 
 on the morning of the 17th they burst upon the fore- 
 most parties near the present village of Weenen, which 
 has obtained its name, meaning wailing or weeping, 
 from the events of that day. Men, women, and chil- 
 dren were barbarously murdered, and every European 
 in that part of Natal must have met with this fate had 
 not, fortunately, two or three-young men escaped, 
 who hastened to inform those further on of the immi- 
 nent danger in which they were. These at once made 
 the best possible preparations in their circumstances, 
 by forming lagers or camps by drawing their waggons 
 in circles about them, llardly had they time to effect 
 this simple arrangement when they were were assailed, 
 but in no instance were the Zulus able to penetrate 
 these camps, though great numbers perished in the 
 attempt. At one place on the Bushman's River they 
 persevered for a whole day in the endeavour to reach
 
 106 
 
 the farmers, whose ammunition was nearly exhausted 
 when a shot from a three-pounder, in ploughing through 
 a mass of the assailants, struck down several of their 
 leading men, which caused the remainder to retreat 
 precipitately. In the defence of the lagers the women 
 were nearly as serviceable as the men, by loading spare 
 muskets for their husbands and brothers. 
 
 As soon as the Zulus retired, the farmers hastened 
 to learn the fate of their friends in front, when they 
 found that all who had not had time to take shelter in 
 lagers had been murdered. All their cattle had been 
 swept off, and their household goods had been 
 destroyed. The waggons had been broken to pieces 
 and burnt for the sake of the iron in them, and beside 
 the ruins lay the corpses of men and women, boys and 
 girls, in some cases horribly mutilated. In one place 
 two girls, named Johanna van der Mervve and Catherina 
 Prinsloo, about ten or twelve years of age, were found 
 still living, though one had received nineteen and the 
 other twenty-one stabs of the assagai. They were 
 tended with care, and recovered, though they ever 
 after remained cripples. In another place, on a heap 
 of corpses lay the mangled remains of George Biggar, 
 the young Englishman from the Bay. Altogether 
 forty-one men, fifty-six women, one hundred and 
 eighty-five children, and about two hundred and fifty 
 coloured servants were thus cut off wilhout warning. 
 
 * Their names were Christian de Beer, Stephanns de Beer, 
 Zacharias de Beer, Josua van den Berg, Andries Bester, 
 Wynand Bezuidenbout, George Bigger, Johannes Botha the 
 elder, Joh^uues Botha the younger, Roelof Botha, Abraham 
 Bothma, Louw Bothma the elder, Louw Bothnia the younger, 
 Jacobus Coetsee, Gerrit Engelbreeht the elder, Gerrit Engel- 
 brecht the you- ger, Willem Enfrelhrecht, Laurens Erasmus, 
 Michiel Grobbelaar, Stephanns Giobb-laar. Willem Jacobs, 
 Johannes Joubert, Josua Joubert the elder, Josua Joubert the 
 younger, Laurens Klopper, Frederik Kromhout, Christian 
 Lochenberg, Hendrik Lochenberg the elder, Hendrik Lochen- 
 berg the younger, Marthinus van der Merwe, Willem van der 
 Merwe, Joachim Prinsloo, Carel Roos, Johannes Roos the 
 elder, Johannes Roos the younger, Adrian Russouw, David 
 Viljoen, Willem Wagenaar, Pieter de Wet, Frans van Wyk, 
 and Cornells van Zyl.
 
 107 
 
 The survivors of this fearful massacre, after ascer- 
 taining the full extent of their loss, held a consulta- 
 tion to decide upon what was to be done. One or two 
 proposed to withdraw from the country, but they were 
 put to shame by the women, who declared that they 
 would never leave Natal till the blood of their relatives 
 was aveneed. Their earnest, deep seated religion 
 supported them in this hour of distress, and gave a 
 tone to all their proceedings. What had happened, 
 said one, was in punishment for their sins, but let them 
 call upon God and He would certainly help them. 
 And then from that sorrow-stricken cimp went up 
 their cry to the God of heaven, that He would not for- 
 sake His people nor lei the heathen triumph over them. 
 The discussion was not so much what was expedient 
 for them to do, as what was it their duty to do. The 
 resolution they arrived at was that it was cJearty their 
 duty to punish the murderers of their friends. For 
 this they were then too weak, but they were not left 
 long without assistance. 
 
 Commandants Potgieter and Uys, upon hearing of 
 these events, hastened across the Drakensberg to the 
 support of their countrymen. The Englishmen at the 
 Bay, having ample proot from the late of Thomas 
 Holstead and George biggar that they were in the 
 same danger, offered to raise a native commando to 
 attack Dingan from one direction while the farmers 
 should do the same from another. This was decided 
 upon, but even in this juncture the jealousies which 
 were the bane of the Emigrants prevented that action 
 in obedience to a single will which alone could com- 
 mand success. After Mr. Relief's murder, Mr. Maritz 
 became the head of the whole of the parties in Natal, 
 and they desired that the expedition against Dingan 
 should be under his command. But neither Hendrik 
 Potgieter nor Pieter Uys would serve under him, nor 
 would one of these serve under the other. At last it was 
 arranged that Mr. Maritz should remain in command of 
 the lagers in Natal, while Messrs. Potgieter and Uys 
 should proceed against Dingan, acting in concert, but 
 each having independent control over his followers. 
 
 Early in April the two expeditions set out. The
 
 108 
 
 one from the Port consisted of about twenty English 
 traders and huntsrs, the same number of Hottentots, 
 and Jrom a thousand to fifteen hundred natives. These 
 last were nearly all fugitives from Zululand, so that 
 their fidelity could be depended upon. The whole 
 expedition was nominally under command of Mr. 
 PkObert Biggar, a brother of the young man who had 
 been murdered ;' but in reality each white chief, 
 such as John Cane and Henry Ogle, had absolute 
 authority over his own people and obeyed only such 
 orders as pleased him. Four days after leaving the 
 Port this commando reached a Zulu kraal, from which 
 most of the men were absent. They secured here the 
 whole of the cattle, variously estimated from three to 
 seven thousand head, and a considerable number of 
 women and girls. The bonds of discipline were too 
 weak to stand the strain of this success. Cane's people 
 raised a quarrel with Ogle's as to the division of ihe 
 spoil, and a combat with sticks took place in which 
 the latter were badly beaten. The English leaders 
 saw that they could not advance further until the 
 plunder was disposed of, and they therefore returned 
 to Natal. 
 
 In the meantime Commandants Potgieter and Uys 
 were advancing towards the Zulu capital. Between 
 them they had three hundred and forty-seven men. 
 Take the fact of their being mounted and armed with 
 muskets into consideration, and this expedition must 
 still remain one of the most daring events on record, 
 considering that Dingan could bring into the field at 
 least a hundred limes their L umber of warriors, trained 
 to despise death in battle, disciplined to move in 
 concert, and armed with the deadly stabbing assagai. 
 The loss of their horses at any moment must have 
 been fatal to the commando. For five days their 
 march was unopposed, the country which they passed 
 through appearing to have been abandoned. 
 
 On the llth of April they came in sight of a division 
 of the Zulu army, which they attacked impetuously, 
 
 *He had been resident in Natal since 1833. His father and 
 brother arrived in 1834.
 
 109 
 
 and were drawn into a skilfully planned ambuscade. 
 Before them were two parallel ranges of hills, between 
 which was a long defile, and into this the farmers 
 were led by the Zulus apparently retreating before 
 them. Uys's division was in advance. When in the 
 narrowest part of the gorge they found themselves 
 surrounded by an immense force which had been lying 
 in ambush, and by which they were so hemmed in 
 that they could not fall back rapidly after firing and 
 again load and charge, as was their mode of fighting 
 with Moselekatse. The horses of Potgieter's division 
 became almost unmanageable through the din created 
 by the Zulus striking their shields. There ^ as but 
 one course open. The farmers directed all their fire 
 upon one mass of the enemy, when, having cleared a 
 path by shooting down hundreds at once, they rushed 
 through and escaped. They left their led horses, 
 baggage, and spare ammunition behind. 
 
 The loss of the farmers in this engagement was tea 
 men, among them the Commandant Pieter Lavras 
 Uys. He was assisting a woundtd comrade when he 
 received an assagai stab. As he fell he called out to 
 his followers to leave him and fight their way out, for 
 he. must die. His son, Dirk Cornelis Uys, a boy of 
 fifteen years of age, was some distance off, but looking 
 about he saw his father OQ the ground, and a Zulu in 
 the act of stubbing him. The gallant youth turned 
 his horse and rode to help his parent, but could only 
 die at his side. Englishmen will remember how 
 bravely another son of the same Commandant Uys 
 conducted himself forty-one years later in our war 
 with Cetywayo, and the manner of his death at 
 Hlobane on the 28th of March 1879. 
 
 While this event was taking place, the Englishmen 
 at the Port were abcut to leave for the second time. 
 The quarrel concerning the division of the spoil taken 
 on the first occasion was, however, not altogether 
 made up, so that neither Ogle, nor his people, nor his 
 partizans, would go again. The second expedition 
 
 *Pieter Larras Uys, Dirk Cornelia Uys, Joseph Kruger, 
 Francois Labuschaprne, David Malac, Jacobus Malan, Johannes 
 Malan, Louis Nel, Pieter Nel, and Theunis Nel,
 
 Ill) 
 
 consisted of seventeen Englishmen, about twenty 
 Hottentots, and fifteen hundred natives, of whom 
 between three and four hundred were armed with 
 muskets. It was nominally under command of Mr. 
 Robert Biggar, as before. A few miles south of the 
 Tugela the commando carne in sight of a Zulu regi 
 ruent, which pretended to take to flight, left food 
 cooking on fires, and even threw away a number of 
 shields and assagais. The Natal army pursued with 
 all haste, crossed the Tugela, took possession of a 
 kraal on the northern bank, and then found it had 
 been drawn between the horns of a Zulu army fully 
 seven thousand strong. 
 
 The battle that was fought, on the 17th of April, 
 was one of the most desperate contests that ever took 
 place on that blood-stained soil. Three times in 
 succession the Natal army beat back the regiments 
 that charged furiously upon it. Then a strong Zulu 
 reinforcement came in sight, and renewed the enemy's 
 courage. Another rush was made, which cut the 
 Natal army in two, and then all hope of successful 
 resistance was over. One of the divisions tried to 
 escape, but the only open path was down a steep bank 
 of the Tugela and across that river. A Zulu regiment 
 hastened to cut off the retreat of the fugitives, and 
 many were killed in the water ; but four Englishmen, 
 two or three Hottentots, and about five hundred Natal 
 natives managed to get through. The other division 
 was entirely surrounded. But no lion at bay ever 
 created huch havoc among hounds that worried him as 
 this little band caused among the warriors of Dingan 
 before it perished. The young regiments \\ ere selected 
 to charge upon it, while the veterans looked on from 
 a neighbouring hill. Whole masses went down before 
 the withering fire, the survivors recoiled, but again 
 they were directed to charge. At last a rush of a 
 regiment, with another in reserve close behind, carried 
 everything before it, and the stubborn fight was over. 
 A thousand Natal natives had perished, and probably 
 three times that number of Zulus. Thirteen English- 
 men lay dead on the field of battle. Robert Biggar, 
 Henry Batts, C. Blanckenberg, William Bottomley,
 
 Ill 
 
 John Cane, Thomas Garden, John Campbell, Thomas 
 Campbell, Richard Lovedale, Robert Russell, John 
 Stubbs, Richard Wood, and William Wood. 
 
 After this victory Dingan's army marched leisurely 
 to Durban ; but tortunately the Comet, a small vessel 
 bound to Delagoa Bay, had called at Natal and was 
 then lying at anchor there. The American missiona- 
 ries, except Mr. Lindley who had volunteered to 
 remain behind and report occurrences, had already 
 left in a vessel bound to Port Elizabeth. Mr. Uwen 
 and his family, with Mr. Lindley, and the surviving 
 residents of Durban, took refuge on board of the Comet 
 at night and on one of the islands in the lagoon during 
 the day. The natives retired to the thickets. The Zulus 
 remained nine days at the Bay, during which time 
 they destroyed all the property they could find, leav- 
 ing not even a dog or a fowl alive. They then re- 
 turned to Umkungunhlovu to report themselves. 
 
 Some eight or nine Englishmen, among them 
 Alexander Biggar, Henry Ogle, Daniel Toohey, 
 Charles Adams, and Richard King, now resolved to 
 try their fortune once more in Natal, and accordingly 
 they left the island ani sought out the natives in the 
 thickets. The missionaries sailed in the Comet to 
 Delagoa Bay and thence to the Cape Colony. They 
 and most of their colleagues intended to return as 
 soon as prospects should be favourable ; but of them 
 all only Mr. Lindley, Dr. Adams, and Mr. Aldin Grout 
 saw Natal again. 
 
 Commandant Hendrik Potgieter with his adherents 
 also left Natal at the same time. Party feeling was 
 running so high that there were not wanting those 
 who attributed the disaster in -which Pieter Uys lost 
 his life to mismanagement on Mr. Potgieter's part. 
 He had the country purchased from Makwana, and 
 that abandoned by Moselekatse, to fall back upon ; 
 and he did not therefore care to remain in Natal, 
 where the opposing faction was much stronger than his 
 own. A large party recrossed the Drakensberg with 
 him. On the 16th of May an officer sent to make 
 inquiry by the Civil Commissioner of Colesberg met 
 them two clavs march on the inland side of the
 
 112 
 
 mountains, moving towards Sand River. There they 
 remained until the month of November following, 
 when they proceeded onward to Mooi River and 
 formed on its banks the tirst permanent settlement of 
 Europeans in the present South African Republic. To 
 the town which they built there they gave the name 
 Potchefstroom in honour of their chief. Henceforth 
 until September 1840 this party had a government of 
 its own, separate from and independent of that of the 
 other Emigrants. Its Volksraad claimed jurisdiction 
 over the whole territory north of the Vaal and also 
 over the northern half of the present Orange Free 
 State. 
 
 The secession of Mr. Potgieter's adherents was, 
 however, more than compensated by the arrival at 
 Natal of fresh paities from the Colony. The largest 
 of these consisted of thirty-nine families who carre 
 from Oliphants Hoek and were under the leadership 
 of Mr. Carel Pieter Landman. In May Mr. Maritz's 
 camp was visited by Fieldcornet Gideon Jonbert, of 
 the division of Colesberg, and Mr. J. N. Boshof. Mr. 
 Joubert's object was to endeavour to induce the 
 Emigrants to return to the Colony. Mr. Boshof was 
 Civil Commissioner's clerk at Graaff-Reinet, and visited 
 Natal from sympathy with his countrymen, whom he 
 joined shortly afterwards. Both of these gentlemen 
 drew up reports upon the condition of the people and 
 the country. 'I hat of Mr. Boshof has been published, 
 and that of Mr. Joubert is still in manuscript in the 
 Colonial Office. The Emigrants were found to be fully 
 resolved to remain in Natal and to punish Dingan as 
 speedily as possible. Mr. Landman had been appointed 
 Commissioner, and was absent on a visit to the Port, 
 near which in compliance with a request of the English 
 settlers a camp was about to be stationed. At this 
 time there were in Natal about six hundred and forty 
 male Europeans capable of bearing arms and three 
 thousand two hundred women and children. 
 
 On the 16th of May Mr. Landman, with the con- 
 currence of the few remaining Englishmen at Durban, 
 issued a proclamation taking possession of the Port in 
 the name of the Association of South African Emi-
 
 113 
 
 grants. lie appointed Mr. Alexander Biggar lauddrost 
 and Mr. William Cowie fieldcornet. Mr. Biggar, who 
 was suffering under great depression of spirits con- 
 sequent upon the loss of his sons, did not care to 
 perform the duties, and therefore a few weeks later 
 Mr. L. Badenhorst was appointed landdrost in his 
 stead. He, in his turn, after a very short tenure of 
 office was succeeded by Mr. F. Roos. 
 
 In July Sir George Napier issued a proclamation 
 inviting the Emigrants to return to the Colony, pro- 
 mising them redress of well founded grievances, 
 stating that they could not be absolved from their 
 allegiance as British subjects, and announcing that 
 whenever he considered it advisable he would take 
 military possession of Port Natal. It had previously 
 been announced that " the determination of Her 
 Majesty's Government w->s to permit no further 
 colonization in this part of Afiica, nor the creation 
 of any pretend d independent State by any of Her 
 Majesty's subjects, which the Emigrant farmers con- 
 tinued to be." But proclamation and announcement 
 alike fell upon deaf ears, for those to whom they were 
 addressed were resolved not to return. 
 
 In August Dingan's army attacked the camp on the 
 Bushman's River again, but was beaten off with very 
 heavy loss, though only one farmer, Vlodman by name, 
 was killed. 
 
 Most of the Emigrants were at this time in great 
 distress from want of proper food and other needs of 
 life, so much property having been destroyed and so 
 many cattle swept off. Disease, in the form of low 
 fever, broke out among them, probably induced by 
 insufficient nourishment and clothing ; and many must 
 have perished if supplies of medicine and other neces- 
 saries had not been forwarded by their countrymen at 
 the Cape. This winter was indeed one of such suffer- 
 ing and hardship that it was long remembered as 
 the time of the great distress. Mr. Landman was now 
 the nominal head of the Emigrants in Natal, for the 
 health of Mr. Maritz had completely broken down, 
 though he lingered in life until early in October. 
 
 In November a Commission gent by Governor Sir
 
 114 
 
 George Napier visited Natal. Its object was to 
 ascertain exactly the condition and number of coloured 
 apprentices with the Emigrants, these being entitled 
 to full freedom on the 1st of December, and to 
 demand that they be permitted to return to the Colony. 
 Mr. Gideon Jcubert, the Commissioner, found no 
 difficulty in carrying out his instructions. In most 
 instances the farmers had already freed their appren- 
 tices, and where this was not the case they were 
 without exception offered the choice of returning with 
 Mr. Joubf-rt or of remaining as servants with wages. 
 Nearly all of them preferred to remain, so that Mr. 
 Joubert brought back with him only eight men, eleven 
 women, and twenty-one children 
 
 In November Mr. Andries W. J. Pretorius, a man 
 whose name was often to be heard during the next 
 fifteen years, arrived in Natal, and was immediately 
 elected Commandant General. Mr. Pretorius had 
 visited the country on a tour of inspection just before 
 the massacre of Mr. Retief's party, and had been so 
 well satisfied with its appearance that upon his return 
 to Graaff-Reinet he and his friends resolved to remove 
 to it. The new Commandant General was a man of 
 considerable wealth and of high character. His family 
 traced its descent through many generations to Johannes 
 Pretorius, son of a clergyman at Goeree in South 
 Holland, who arrived at Cape Town in the early days 
 of the settlement ; and they prided themselves upon 
 having preserved an unstained reputation for integrity 
 during that long period. Mr. Pretorius, like most of 
 the farmers of that day, had received so little education 
 from books that he had no knowledge of modern 
 history or the condition and relative strength of 
 European nations, but in bible history he was as well 
 versed as his remote ancestor could have been. His 
 knowledge and his opinions indeed, as well as his 
 virtues and his failings, were those of the seventeenth, 
 not of the nineteenth century. At this time he was 
 in the noontide of life, being thirty-nine years of age, 
 and was in full vigour of mind and body. 
 
 Early in December a strong commando was ready 
 to take the field against Dingan. It was under direction
 
 115 
 
 of Mr. Pretorius as Commandant General, Mr. Landman 
 being the officer next in rank. Guided by experience, 
 the farmers determined to take a considerable number 
 of waggons and some artillery with them for defensive 
 purposes. Mr. Alexander Biggar, whose grief for the 
 loss of his tons was inconsolable, joined the burgher 
 army with a small party of naiives to act as scouts. 
 Altogether four hundred and sixty-four men mustered, 
 exclusive of the Commandants. 
 
 The march towards Umkungunhlovu was conducted 
 with the greatest caution, so as to prevent a surprise. 
 Scouts were continually out in all directions, and every 
 night a lager was formed by drawing the waggons up 
 in a circle and lashing them together. The commando 
 resembled an itinerant prayer meeting rather than a 
 modtrn army on the march, for the men were imbued 
 with the same spirit as the Ironsides of Cromwell, and 
 spoke and acted in pretty much the same manner. There 
 was no song, no jest heard in that camp, but prayers 
 were poured forth and psalms were sung at every halting 
 place. The army made a vow that if God would give 
 them victory over the cruel heathen, they would build 
 a church and set apart a festival day in every year to 
 commemorate it. The church in Pietermaritzburg stands 
 as a sign that they kept their vow. They did not wish 
 to fight merely for the sake of revenge. On three 
 occasions the scouts brought in some Zulus whom 
 they had captured, and Mr. Pretorius immediately sent 
 these to Dingan to inform him that if he would restore 
 the property taken from the Emigrants they were pre- 
 pared to enter into negotiations for peace. 
 
 Dingan's reply came in the shape of an army ten or 
 twelve thousand strong, which attacked the camp at 
 early dawn on Sunday the 16th of December 1838. 
 The camp was on the bank of a river, which here 
 formed a long and deep reach, giving complete protec- 
 tion on that side. Another side was also well pro- 
 tected by a water drain, then dry, with steep banks 
 about fourteen feet deep, which opened into the 
 stream. The Zulus attempted to effect an entrance 
 into the camp by sheer pressure of numbers on the 
 two open sides, and they persevered in their efforts 
 I 2
 
 116 
 
 for two full hours, notwithstanding the terrible havoc 
 created among them by the fire of the artillery and >f 
 the farmers' guns, which carried slugs three ounces in 
 weight. At hist they concentrated their strength on 
 one point, when Mr Pretorius led a body of horsemen 
 out and attacked them in the rear, while they were 
 being mown down in front. This movement decided 
 the action, for the Zulus, finding themselves between 
 two fires and utterly unable to reach either, broke and 
 flea. There were four or five hundred in the water 
 drain and along the bank of the river, and these were 
 all shot down. The farmers had three men slightly 
 wounded, Mr. Pretorius himself being one of them. 
 They estimated the number of Zulus lying dead around 
 the camp at over three thousand. The ground was 
 covered with corpses and gore, and even the water 
 was discoloured. From this circumst nee the stream 
 on the bank of which the carnage took place received 
 the name of the Blood River. 
 
 On the 17th the commando moved forward, and on 
 the 21st reached Urnkungunhlovu, when it was found 
 thnt Dingaw had set fire to his capital and had fled 
 with his at my to the thickets and ravines skirting the 
 Umvolosi River. The first man to enter the still 
 burning town was Mr. Jacobus Uys, brother of the 
 late Commandant, and next to him was young Jacobus 
 Uys, the late Commandant's son. Mr. Carel Cilliers, 
 the most earnest preacher and at the same time one of 
 the very best warriors in the camp, was not far behind. 
 But they found nothing living in that awful place 
 which had been the scene of so many murders and BO 
 much woe. On the hill outside of the town they 
 discovered the skeletons of Mr. Retief and his com- 
 panions, who ten months before had fallen victims to 
 Dingan's treachery, and who^e murder they were then 
 avenging. The bodies appeared never to have been 
 disturbed since the day of the massacre, iheriems 
 with which the victims had been dr igged to the place 
 were still attached to the skeletons. All the skulls 
 were broken, showing how thoroughly the murderers 
 had done their work. The skeleton of Mr. Retief was 
 recognized by some fragments of clothing and a
 
 117 
 
 leather despatch bag which he had suspend.-d from 
 his shoulder. In this bag was found the deed of 
 cession of Natal, written by Mr. Owen, in a perfect 
 state of preservation. 
 
 After the interment of the remains, a carnp was 
 formed some miles further on, and then Mr. Pretorius 
 sent a patrol of two hundred and eighty horsemen in 
 pursuit of Dingan. A Zulu army was found in an 
 extensive and broken valley having rocky and precipi- 
 tous sides, and here for nearly a whole day the farmers 
 were skirmishing. Towards evening they found that 
 another body of Zulus was closing them in from 
 behind, when they resolved to turn at once and cut 
 their way out. In doing so they were (>bliged to cross 
 a swollen rivulet, and here the enemy got among them 
 and killed Mr. Alexander Biggar, five Emigrants, 
 named Gerrit van Stadeu, Barend Bester, Nicholas le 
 Koux, Marthinus Goosen, and Johannes Oosthuizen, 
 and iive of the Natal natives. The others got away in 
 safety. 
 
 The commando then commenced its return inarch. 
 When it reached the Buffalo River a patrol was sent 
 out, which was fortunate enough to fall in with a herd 
 of four or five thousand cattle guarded by only a 
 hundred men. The guards were shot and the cattle 
 seized. 
 
 During the absence of this commando, a military 
 detachment arrived from Port Elizabeth and took 
 possession of the Bay of Natal. It consisted of a 
 company of the 72nd Highlanders and a few gunners, 
 altogether about a hundred men, and was under com- 
 mand of Major Samuel Charters of the Royal Artillery. 
 Mr. (now Sir) Theophilus Shepstone accompanied it 
 in the capacity of Kaffir interpreter. After landing 
 the troops, on the 4th of December Major Charters 
 proclaimed that he had taken military possession of 
 all the ground surrounding the Bay within two miles 
 of high water m;irk, and declared martial law in force 
 within these bounds. There was standing near the 
 Point a substantial stone building, recently erected as 
 a store for Mr. Maynard, with a small wooden building 
 close by belonging to Mr. John Uwen Smith of Port
 
 118 
 
 Elizabeth. These wore obtained from their occupants, 
 and were converted into storehouses for provisions, 
 magazines for arms, &c. Three guus were landed and 
 mounted on neighbouring sand hills which commanded 
 an extensive range. The troops were provided with 
 tents, which they occupied until wattle and daub 
 barracks could be erected. The whole encampment 
 was enclosed as soon as possible with stockades cut in 
 the mangrove thickets, and it then received the name 
 of Fort Victoria. 
 
 The objects of this military occupation a- e stated 
 by Sir George Napier in a despatch to Earl Glenelg, 
 dated 16th of October 1838, to have been 
 
 1. To prevent all supplies and warlike stores from 
 
 entering the Port, by which means alone he could 
 prevent aggression against the native tribes by 
 the Emigrant Farmers, and thus put a stop to 
 further bloodshed. 
 
 2. To prevent the Emigrants establishing an indepen- 
 
 dent Government, by being iu possession of the 
 only seaport through which gunpowder and other 
 necessary supplies could be conveyed to them ; 
 and by which means he was sanguine enough to 
 hope that emigration would cease. 
 
 In a proclamation dated the 14th of November 1838, 
 His Excellency declared his determination to seize the 
 harbour of Port Natal, erect a fort, and keep possession 
 of the same until otherwise directed by Her Majesty's 
 Government, in consequence of the disturbed state of 
 the native tribes in the territories adjacent to the Port, 
 arising in a great degree from tlie unwarranted occu- 
 pation of paits of those territories by certain Emigrants 
 from the Colony, being British subjects. In this 
 proclamation it was stated that 
 
 " The said occupation shall be purely military and 
 of a temporary nature, and not partake in any degree 
 of the nature of colonization or annexure to the 
 Crown of Great Britain ; wherefore the paid Port 
 shall be, and the same is hereby declared to be, closed 
 against all trade except such as shall be carried on 
 under the special licence and permission of the Govern-
 
 119 
 
 ment of this Colony, uny clearance or permission 
 granted by any British, Colonial, or Foreign Custom 
 House to the contrary notwithstanding. And in 
 order to ensure the maintenance of this prohibition, I 
 do hereby authorize and require the officer who shall 
 be in command of the said fort to prevent, by force 
 of arms if necessary, the entiy of any vessel into said 
 harbour for the purpose of trade, or the landing from 
 any vessel of any cargo of what description soever on 
 the coast adjacent to the said fort, unless such vessel 
 be provided with such licence as aforesaid." 
 
 The proclamation gave the commander of the fort 
 power to expel or confine any persons whom he might 
 consider dangerous. It directed him to search for, 
 seize, and retain in military possession all arms and 
 munitions of war which at the time of the seizure of 
 Port Natal should be found in possession of any of 
 the inhabitants, care being taken that the same should 
 be kept in proper order, and receipts being granted to 
 the owners thereof. 
 
 This action on the part of Sir George Napier was 
 regarded in a very unfriendly light by the Emigrants, 
 but neither he nor any other Englishman could look 
 with indifference upon their design of establishing an 
 independent republic upon the sea coast, with a har- 
 bour through which access to the interior could be 
 had. Even those who sympathized most deeply with 
 them approved of the Governor's taking possession 
 of the Port, but would have been better pleased if it 
 had been declared a permanent British possession and 
 the safety and welfare of the Emigrants had been 
 provided for. 
 
 Major Charters took possession of a large quantity of 
 ammunition which was found in the stores of Messrs. 
 Maynard and John Owen Smith, as well as the con- 
 tents of ( small magazine belonging to the Emigrants. 
 Upon the return to Natal of the commando under Mr. 
 Pretorius the Volksraad deputed Mr. Landman to con- 
 fer with Major Charters, and to receive from him the 
 ammunition which they hoped he would not detain 
 after full information concerning them Lad been 
 given. The Major, however, declined to release it
 
 120 
 
 without a pledge from the leading Emigrants that they 
 would not again cross the Tugela and would only use 
 it for defensive purposes. This pledge they declined 
 to give, on the ground that they were a free people 
 and the ammunition was property which they had a 
 right to. 
 
 At this time there were three small Emigrant camps 
 close to the Port. One consisting of about five and 
 twenty or thirty families, under Mr. L. Badenhorst, was 
 near the head of the Bay. A second, rather larger, 
 was at the Umlazi ; and the third, of about fifteen 
 families, was ten or twelve miles beyond in the same 
 direction. The last two were under Andries de Jager 
 and Jacobus Uys. 
 
 Major Charters returned overland to Cape Town as 
 soon as the troops were settled, leaving Captain Henry 
 Jervis of the 72nd in command. 'Ihis officer held a 
 commission under the Imperial Act for the prevention 
 and punishment of offences committed by British 
 subjects within the territories adjacent to the Colony 
 of the Cape of Good Hope. Under it he summoned a 
 farmer who was accused of assault to appear before 
 him, but the farmer declined to attend, alleging that 
 he was a member of an independent community and 
 responsible only to the landdrost appointed by the 
 Volksraad. Thereupon Captain Jervis referred the 
 case to Sir George Napier, by whom he was informed 
 that it would be inexpedient to press the matter. 
 Thus began and ended the attempt to exercise judicial 
 authority over the Emigrants at Natal, for in no other 
 instance was the slightest effort made to interfere 
 with their civil government. In the absence of 
 instructions from the Secretary of State, which were 
 repeatedly solicited, but in vain, the Governor could 
 do nothing more than inform them on every opportu- 
 nity that they were still regarded as British subjects, 
 and officially ignore their Volksraad and courts of law 
 while all the time they were acting as an independent 
 people. 
 
 At this time Pietermaiitzburg was laid out. It 
 
 * Now usually termed Maritzburg for the sake of brevity.
 
 121 
 
 received its name from the late Commandants Pieter 
 Ketief and Gerrit Maritz. Here from this date onward 
 the Volksraad, or Governing Council of the Emigrants, 
 met. It consisted of twenty-four members, elected 
 annually, who met every three months, and not only 
 exercised supreme legislative power, but appointed .all 
 officials, the Commandant General included. 
 
 Early in 1839 an attempt was made by Captain 
 Jervis to bring about an agreement of peace between 
 the Emigrants and Dingan. He obtained a messenger 
 from Henry Ogle, whom he sent to Dingan to ask that 
 he would appoint delegates and direct tkem to proceed 
 to Natal to talk matters over. As afterwards seen, 
 Dingan had no intention of concluding peace. He 
 had lost about ten thousand men in all the engage- 
 ments, but his army was still so large that he was by 
 no means humbled. He was, however, quite ready to 
 enter into an arrangement which would enable him to 
 keep a constant watch upon the Emigrants' proceed- 
 ings. He therefore sent delegates to Natal with three 
 hundred and sixteen horses and a message indicating a 
 wish for peace. 
 
 On the 26th of March Dingan's delegates had a 
 meeting close to the fort with Mr. Pretoriiis and some 
 ether leading Emigrants, in presence of Captain Jervis, 
 when they were informed that peace would be made 
 on the following terms : 
 
 1. That the cession of land by Dingan to the late Mr. 
 
 Retief for the farmers should be confirmed and 
 ratified by him. 
 
 2. That Dingan should restore all the cattle, horses, 
 
 arms, ammunition, and other property which his 
 aimy had stolen from the C'-imps and the farmers, 
 and make good on demand all the damage sustained 
 by the Emigrants from his people. 
 
 3. That any Zulu passing the boundary of the land 
 
 ceded by Dingan, and thus coming within the 
 acquired territory of the farmers, should be shot, 
 and vice versa. 
 
 * In Captain Jervis's report of this meeting (manuscript in 
 the Colonial Office) the conditions are stated differently, but 
 imply almost the same. The above is the wording of the 
 terms as subsequently signed.
 
 The Zulu delegates professed to consider these con- 
 ditions fair and reasonable, but said they would require 
 to be approved of by Dingan. They accordingly 
 returned home, and shortly afterwards came back to 
 the Bay with a message to Captain Jervis to the effect 
 that the farmers' property had been collected and 
 would be delivered to them it' they would send for it. 
 Captain Jervis hereupon communicated with the 
 Emigrants at the nearest camps, and they with the 
 Volksraad at Maritzburg. Upon this Mr. Pretorius 
 assembled a commando of three hundred and thirty- 
 four burghers near the junction of the Mooi and Tugela 
 rivers, where he formed a camp, and then sent a Com- 
 mission consisting of Messrs. William Cowie, J. A. 
 van Niekerk, and J. P. Koscher, to Dingan for the 
 property. 
 
 Dingan was found by the Commission at a new 
 town built about four hundred yards from the site of 
 the one that had been burnt six months before. He 
 stated that much of the farmers' stock hud died, and 
 that many of the guns had been lost, but he sent back 
 with the Commission thirteen hundred head of horned 
 cattle, about four hundred sheep, rifty-two guns, and 
 forty-three saddles, which were delivered at the camp 
 on the 7th of June. To the Commission Dingan 
 expressed himself as very anxious for peace, but 
 circumstances that indicate the still unbroken spirit of 
 the people are noted in the report of the interview 
 which Mr. Cowie, furnished to Captain Jervis. The 
 great indunas were not sent to the Emigrant camp, on 
 the alleged giound of fear, but two petty captains 
 were deputed to arrange matters. These informed the 
 Emigrant leaders that Dingan was quite willing to 
 agree to the terms delivered to the Zulu delegates in 
 presence of Captain Jervis at the Bay, to which Mr. 
 Pretorius replied that there was then no obstacle to 
 peace, that they estimated the losses and damages 
 still due at nineteen thousand three hundred head of 
 cattle, but part of that might be paid in ivory if more 
 convenient. The captains then affixed their marks to 
 the conditions of peace, and promised on behalf of 
 their master that delegates of rank should ratify their 
 acts and that a quantity of ivory which had already
 
 123 
 
 been collected should immediately on their return 
 home lie sent to Mr. Pretorius on account. 
 
 As soon as the conditions were signed, the Com- 
 mandant General wrote to Captain Jervis, requesting 
 the delivery of the ammunition belonging to the Emi- 
 grants, on the ground that there could be now no 
 pretence for detaining it. Captain Jervis replied that 
 he would give it up immediately upon the following 
 declaration being signed : 
 
 " We the undersigned, Leaders of the Emigrant 
 Farmers, parties to the late treaty of peace with the 
 Zulus, and others, do hereby solemnly declare that 
 provided the ammunition which was seized by the 
 troops on the occupation of Port Natal is restored to 
 us, it is not the intention of ourselves and people to 
 turn our arms against the Zulus or any other of the 
 native tribes, but to restrict ourselves to measures of 
 self defence alone, on the territory which we now 
 occupy." 
 
 Neither Mr. Pretorius, nor any other of the principal 
 leaders, however, would admit the right of an English' 
 officer to impose any conditions whatever, and so the 
 powder and lead remained in the magazine of Fort 
 Victoria. That there was no scarcity of ammunition 
 among the Emigrants was well known, and if other 
 evidence had been wanting it was proved by a fire 
 which broke out on the evening of the 3rd of June 
 in one of the camps nenr Pietermaritzburg, in which 
 nine individuals lost their lives, ten others were 
 severely injured, and the waggons and household 
 effects of twenty-nine families were utterly destroyed. 
 The principal damage was caused by the explosion 
 of the gunpowder stored in the different waggons. 
 
 On the 30th of June two messengers arrived at 
 Maritzburg from Dingan. They brought no ivory, but 
 said they had come to ratify the terms of peace and 
 to enquire when the cattle would be taken over. But 
 the Volksraad ascertaining that they were persons of 
 no rank, declined to confer with them further than to 
 direct them to inform Dingan that he must send some 
 of his chief captains within twelve days, otherwise 
 they would treat with him no longer, but settle
 
 124 
 
 matters with a commando. On several occasions after 
 that messengers arrived, but they did nothing else 
 than deliver compliments, make promises, and apolo- 
 gize for mistakes, until it became evident that 
 Dingan's only object was to ascertain whether the 
 farmers kept in lager or were dispersing over the 
 country. 
 
 At this time the Emigrants were agitated by a 
 rumour that a large body of English colonists would 
 shortly be landed at Port Natal with the object of 
 overturning their Government. Great as was the 
 danger from Dingan, they regarded this as greater. 
 On the 31st of July the Commandant-General and the 
 Volksraad wrote to Capt. Jervis : " we shall never 
 allow people to establish themselves here without 
 subjecting themselves to the jurisdiction of this com- 
 munity." "The bones," wrote they, "of our inno- 
 cent and treacherously murdered relatives and friends 
 at the Bushman's River will remain a lasting evidence 
 of our right to this land until another beacon of similar 
 materials shall overshadow ours." On the llth of 
 November the Volksraad passed a resolution to oppose 
 the landing of immigrants without its previous con- 
 sent, and if such immigrants should be attended by a 
 military force too great to tie resisted on landing, to 
 carry on a guerilla warfare agaist them. 
 
 But their fears were groundless. The Home Gov- 
 ernment was indisposed to add another acre of land 
 in South Africa to the Empire. Sir George Napier 
 could get no instructions how to act. The 72nd 
 Highlanders were expecting orders to embark for 
 Euiope. and the Governor therefore made up his mind 
 to withdraw the little garrison from Fort Victoria and 
 to leave the Emigrants entirely to themselves. His 
 own opinion, often repeated and urgently pressed 
 upon tlie successive Secretaries of State, was that 
 Natal should be constituted a British Colony, but, as 
 he stated in a despatch to Lord John Russell, dated 
 22nd of June 1840, "the reiterated expression by 
 Lords Glenelg and Normanby of their merely tempo- 
 rary and conditional approval of the military posses- 
 sion of the port, their observations on the expense
 
 125 
 
 attending it, and the apparently fixed determination 
 of Her Majesty's Government not to extend Her 
 Colonial possessions in this quarter of the world, made 
 him feel confident that the colonization of that country 
 would never be sanctioned, and therefore he felt the 
 further retention of the post might give rise to hopes 
 or even fears which it was probably the wish of Her 
 Majesty's Ministers not to foster." 
 
 On the 24th of December 1839 the troops embarked 
 in a vessel that had been sent for them. The ammu- 
 nition of the fanners was at last restored without any 
 guarantee as to its use, and they saw all the symbols 
 of English sovereignty disappear, though in a friendly 
 farewell letter of Captain Jervis he stated that they 
 were still considered British subjects. Under such 
 circumstances, however, they might reasonably con- 
 clude that the Imperial Government had practically 
 abandoned its claim to their allegiance. 
 
 About four months before the departure of the 
 troops a very important event took place in the Zulu 
 country. Umpande, or Panda as he is usually termed 
 by Kuropeans, one of the younger sons of Senzanga- 
 kona, entered into a conspiracy against Dingan. In 
 ability he was far inferior to either of his brothers, 
 and almost immeasurably lower than his son Cetywayo 
 in later years. But he possessed a large amount of 
 low cunning, and he was clever enough to seize the 
 opportunity that then occurred to improve his position. 
 A great number of the incorporated Zulus, the rem- 
 nants of tribes that had come under Tshaka as the 
 only means of saving themselves, were ready to rally 
 round any leader who couid give them reasonable hope 
 of deliverance from incessant bloodshed and tyranny. 
 The incluna Xongalaza declared for Panda, and they 
 joined him. The rebel chief with a very large follow- 
 ing then crossed the Tugela, and sent three messengers 
 to Landdrost Roos at the bay to ask protection from 
 the Europeans. These messengers arrived on the 14th 
 of September and stated that Panda was accom- 
 panied by Nongalaza, totobe, and six other great 
 indunas. 
 
 The E migrants at first regarded Panda with suspicion,
 
 126 
 
 as it was by no means certain that his flight was not 
 merely a pretence to draw them to destruction. But 
 in an interview which he had with the Volksraad on 
 the 15ih of October, he convinced the members of his 
 sincerity, and permission was given to him to occupy 
 for the time being a tract of land between the Tugela 
 and Umvoti rivers. On the 26th of the same month 
 he was installed " Beigning Prince of the Emigrant 
 Zulus " by a Commission from the Volksraad, of 
 which Mr. F. Roos, landdrost of the camps around 
 the Bay, <vas President. An arrangement was soon 
 afterwards entered into that the Volksraad should 
 demand from Dingan immediate payment of their 
 losses, and that in the event of Dingan's BOH com- 
 pliance the Emigrants should assist Panda to depose 
 his brother, in which case he undertook to pay the debt. 
 It was understood on both sines that the first clause 
 was a mere matter of form, and Panda therefore paid 
 about two thousand head of cattle at once. 
 
 In accordance with this arrangement, on the 4th of 
 January 1840 the Volksraad directed Commandant 
 General Pretorius to march against Dingan, to demand 
 from him forty thousand head of horned cattle, and if 
 they were not given, to take them by force. Ten 
 days later a burgher commando of four hundred men, 
 supported by five or six thousand of Panda's adherents 
 under Nongalaza, set out for Zululand. Their approach 
 was made known to Dingan by his spies, and recog- 
 nizing the gravity of the position in which he was 
 placed, he attempted possibly in earnest to come to 
 terms with the Emigrants. There were two officers 
 immediately under him whose advice he frequently 
 sought, and through whom he carried on his govern- 
 ment. Iheir names were Tambusa and Umthlela. 
 The first named of these he now sent to the Emigrant 
 camp to renew negotiations for peace. 
 
 Upon Tambusa's arrival he and his servant Komba- 
 zana were made prisoners, and contrary to all law and 
 justice were brought to trial before a court martial. 
 Panda and some of his officers were kept by Mr. 
 Pretorius in his own camp as security against treachery, 
 the column under Nongalaza being at some distance
 
 127 
 
 and marching in a parallel line. These persons, who 
 would assuredly do all in their power to cause the 
 death of one of Dingan's magnates, were allowed to 
 take part in the mock 1rial. Panda acted indeed in 
 the double capacity of prosecutor and judge. He 
 attributed the massacres of the Emigrants to the 
 advice given to Dingan by Tambusa, and accused the 
 chief prisoner of many other enormities. Tambusa, 
 finding himself in the hands of those who were deter 
 mined on his death, acted with the utmost calmness 
 and dignity. He admitted the truth of what Panda 
 asserted against him, and without asking mercy for 
 himself, demanded the release of his servant on the 
 ground that he was bound to obey any orders given 
 to him. But Kombazana, on his part, displayed equal 
 pride by refusing to be separated from his master 
 even in death. They were both condemned to be 
 executed, and the sentence was carried out a few 
 hours later on the same day, 31st of January 1840. 
 
 This act of Mr. Pretorius, for the chief blame must 
 rest upon him, was a great mistake HS well as a great 
 crime. It gave those who were jealous of his influence 
 an opportunity to attack him, which they at onjce 
 availed themselves of. In the Volksraad he was 
 accused of having exceeded the authority entrusted to 
 him by creating a tribunal with power of life and death. 
 His partisans, however, were so strong that after a 
 time the charges against him were allowed to drop. 
 
 Immediately after this event a messenger from 
 Nongalaza brought word to the burgher column that 
 on the day preceding, 30th of January, he had fought 
 a great battle with Dingan's army, and had won a 
 complete victory. 
 
 This battle proved to be a decisive one. At its com- 
 mencement Dingan's army was superior in number, 
 but a body of his troops went over to Panda's side, 
 and turned the scale. Those who were faithful stood 
 their ground, and fell as became Zulu warriors. The 
 slaughter on each side was enormous. The two best 
 regiments of Dingan perished. The veterans who 
 had won their plumes under Tshaka preferred to die 
 rather than show their backs to the traitors who had
 
 128 
 
 deserted their cause, and the issue of the day was still 
 doubtful when the cry echoed along Nongalaza's ranks, 
 " the Boers are coining." It was not so, but the belief 
 that it was answered Nongalaza's purpose. The rem 
 nant of Dingan's army, the men who could not 'flee 
 from a foe armed with spear and shield, gave way in 
 their fear of those dreaded horsemen who had power 
 to deal out death without meeting it themselves. A 
 bushy country spread out before them, and favoured 
 their escape. The battle was over, and the terror 
 which the Zulu name had inspired for twenty years 
 as a thing of the past. 
 
 Dingan fled northward to the border of the Swazi 
 country, where he built a kraal in a secluded and 
 tolerably secure position. There he was eoon after- 
 wards assassinated by a Swazi who stole upon him 
 unawares. Those who had adhered to him in his 
 misfortunes then tendered their mbmission to Panda, 
 by whom they were received with every mark of 
 favour. 
 
 After the decisive battle, an enormous booty in 
 cattle fell into the hands of the conquerors About 
 forty thousand head were delivered to Mr. Pretorius, 
 and were subsequently distributed among the Emigrants 
 in proportion to their losses. 
 
 On the 10th of February Mr. Pretorius formally 
 installed Panda as King of the Zulus, but in vassalage 
 to the Emigrant Yolksraad, to which he promised 
 fidelity. It was arranged that he should remove his 
 followers to the north side of the Tugela, but that the 
 ground on which he was to reside should be an appan- 
 age of the Republic of Natal. To this end the 
 following proclamation was issued by Mr. Pretorius 
 on the 14th of February 1840 : 
 
 In the name of the Volksraad I take possession of all the 
 land from the Tugela to the Black Umvolosi: and ourboun- 
 daiy shall in future be from the sea along the Black Umvolosi 
 River to where it runs through the double mountains near its 
 source, and so on along the Randberg in the same direction to 
 the Drakensberg, including St. Lucia Bay, as also all sea 
 coast* and harbours already discovered or that may yet be 
 discovered between the mouths of the Umzimvubu aud the 
 Black Umvolosi rivers.
 
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