mostly bought up by speculators at absurdly low prices, and the farmers then put their household effects and their families into their wagons, and went off in search of new homes elsewhere. The Colonial authorities desired to check the movement, but found themselves helpless in the matter, Sir Benjamin D'Urban writing, on Aug. 19, 1836, that " 'he could see no means of stopping the emigration except by persuasion and attention to the wants and necessities of the farmers." The various reasons which have been given for the movement may be thus summarised: Wandering habits acquired from the earliest days of the settlement, partly from discontent with the ruling powers, whether Dutch or British, and partly because of the periodical droughts, the wealth of the settlers consisting of flocks and herds with which they could wander as they pleased; the system of land tenure; the heavy financial burdens, owing to the cost of the military expeditions and the high salary of officials; the action of the missionaries in, as was alleged, usurping the authority of the civil magistrates, and making misrepresentations, and the effect of the missionary settlements in depriving the farmers of native labour, and in indirectly increasing the evils of vagrancy (already sufficiently great, owing to the native troubles); the attitude of the home Government towards the Kaffirs, as shown by Lord Glenelg's letter of Dec. 26, 1835; the bad feeling engendered by the Black Circuit [see 1811] and Slachter's Nek [see 1816, March 6]; but, above all, and as a last straw to this camel-load of grievances, the abolition of slavery, which made the farmers long more than

ever to go where they would be free from the control of the British Government. The earliest of the 1836 trekkers were a party of 200, from the Colesberg district, under Hendrik Potgieter as Chief-Commandant. They proceeded north to the Vet River, and there, close to the present town of Winburg, they arranged with the chief of the Bataung tribe, Makwana, that they should take over the whole country between the Vet and the Vaal (except a small portion which the chief reserved for his people), the Boers, in return, undertaking to protect him from the Matabele. They found it trouble enough, however, to protect themselves, for a large hunting party of the Boers, having crossed the Vaal, was attacked by the Matabele, many of them being killed. The survivors re-crossed, warned the others, and a laager was formed at Vecht Kop, between the Rhenoster and the Wilge Rivers, in Oct. 1836. This was attacked by about 5,000 Matabele, and there was a desperate fight. The Matabele were at last driven off, though they took all the live stock of the emigrants, representing 4,600 cattle and 50,000 sheep and goats. Other parties of trekkers arrived in due course, and on Dec. 2, 1836, the first emigrant Volksraad, consisting of seven members, who were to exercise supreme legislative and judicial powers, was set up. An expedition to punish the Matabele was formed, and on Jan. 17, 1837, the Boers surprised the military camp in the Valley of Mosega, north of the Vaal, killed 400 of the Matabele, drove off the remainder, burned the kraals, recovered the stolen wagons, and took 6,000 head of cattle. On their return

they established their camp at Winburg, so called from the recent victory, and the camp speedily became a village on the arrival of fresh emigrants. These, indeed, trekked in such numbers that by the end of May there were more than 1,000 wagons between the Caledon and the Vaal Rivers. Among those who took part in the Great Trek was Paul Kruger, then a boy of about twelve.

1837. JAN. 22. The grievances of the trekkers.Statement published at Grahamstown by Piet Retief, one of the leaders of the Great Trek. They despaired, he said, of saving the Colony from the evils threatened by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants, who were allowed to infest it in every part. They complained of severe losses from emancipation of slaves, and vexatious laws respecting them; of the plunder and the invasion of the Colony by Kaffirs and other natives; and of "the unjustifiable odium which has been cast upon us by interested and dishonest persons under the name of religion."

"We solemnly declare," he further said, "that we leave this colony with a desire to lead a quieter life than we have hitherto had. . . . 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. 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 our all-seeing, just, and merciful God, whom we shall always fear and humbly endeavour to obey."

- APRIL. Piet Retief Commandant-General.-Piet Retief arrives at Thaba Ntshu [to the east of the present town of Bloemfontein] as leader of a party of 108 trekkers, and is elected Commandant-General of all the emigrants, numbering over 1,000.

- Nov. The Boers defeat Moselekatze.-The Boers send a further expedition against Moselekatze. After a campaign lasting nine days he is so thoroughly defeated that he flies far to the north of the Limpopo. [He remained on that side of the river for the rest of his days. The territory he had devastated, and now abandoned-representing the greater part of the Transvaal, half of the present Orange Free State, and the whole of Southern Bechuanaland to the Kalahari Desert, except the part occupied by the Batlapin— was declared by the emigrant farmers to be forfeited to them.]

1838. FEB. 6. The fate of Piet Retief.-Massacre of Piet Retief and his party by Dingaan. [Retief had the idea of building up a great Boer Republic in South Africa. Not satisfied to remain in the new state set up on the north of the Orange River, he conducted a party across the Drakensberg Mountains into Natal. There he visited the Zulu king, and asked for a grant of land. Dingaan promised it if the trekkers would recapture some cattle taken from him by another tribe. This they did. Dingaan received them favourably on their return, gave Retief the desired grant, but caused him and his 65 companions, together with about 30 Hottentots, to be massacred at a farewell

feast which he gave them. In the meantime other trekkers, with about 1,000 wagons, had also crossed into Natal, and of these 282 white people-men, women, and children—and 252 natives, were slaughtered the same day by Dingaan's troops at a place since known as Weenen ("the place of weeping"). The remainder of the party, being warned in time, formed a laager, and successfully resisted the attack subsequently made on them.]

APRIL 11. Boers defeated by Zulus.-Repulse of a Boer expedition against the Zulus. [On hearing of the massacre of Piet Retief's party, Commandants Hendrik Potgieter and Piet Uys crossed the Drakensberg, and, with a force of only 350 Boers, 17 English, and 1,500 natives, marched boldly on the Zulu capital. They were, however, led into a trap, from which they had to force their way out with the loss of 10 men, including Piet Uys, baggage, led horses, and spare ammunition. After his defeat, Hendrik Potgieter recrossed the Drakensberg with a large party, and, seceding from the other immigrants, owing to the dissensions which prevailed, set up the town of Potchefstroom on the Mooi River, with an independent government of its own. Its Volksraad claimed jurisdiction over all the territory north of the Vaal, and also over the northern half of the present Orange Free State. The withdrawal from Natal of Potgieter's party was soon more than made up by fresh arrivals of trekkers from Cape Colony.]

- 17. Another Zulu victory.-The Zulus defeat an expedition sent against them from Natal. [It con