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.
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
A 000097186 1
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388
Return this material to the library
from which it was borrowed.
tJniversit
