Boer History1837 in South Africa: Retief’s Manifesto, Mosega, Winburg, and Dingane
Mosega Surprised, Kalipi Absent, and the American Missionaries — 17 January 1837
At early dawn on the 17th of January a commando under Andries Hendrik Potgieter and Gerrit Maritz surprised the military camp in the valley of Mosega. Potgieter had led the Tarka party out of the colony in 1836. In October that year his people had held 50 waggons at Vegkop against Kalipi, lost their cattle, and been hauled back to Thaba Ntshu on oxen lent by Moroko and the Wesleyan missionary Archbell. Maritz had then arrived from Graaff-Reinet with about 100 waggons. The man they were riding against was Moselekatse, whose soldiers had killed the Liebenbergs on the Vaal and stripped Vegkop. That is why January opened with a ride north, not with another lager on the Vet: without Mosega broken, there was no country for the waggons between the Caledon and the Vaal. [3] [4] [7]
Maritz later wrote that he had gone out against Moselekatse with 107 burghers, 40 men of mixed descent, and 60 Barolong. Barolong under Matlabe’s guidance went on foot, belonging in about equal numbers to the clans of Gontse, Tawane, Moroko, and Matlabe. After crossing the Vaal the farmers marched through a country so desolate that not a single person was met, and the approach of a hostile force was unknown. The camp consisted of 15 separate kraals and was under Kalipi, who happened at the time to be away at Kapayin, 50 miles farther north. [3] [4]
Seven months earlier three American missionaries — Dr. Wilson and the reverend Messrs. Lindley and Venable — had taken up their residence at Mosega with Moselekatse’s permission. As soon as he ascertained that their preaching was against his actions he forbade his people to listen, and left Mosega for Kapayin. Fever had attacked the station, and some of their families had died, but they stayed. On the morning of the 17th they were awakened by the report of guns, and rushing out of their hut they saw clouds of smoke rising above two of the passes into the valley: Potgieter and Maritz. [3]
Matabele soldiers grasped spears and shields and rushed forward; volleys of slugs from the long elephant guns 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 until the sun was high overhead, when it was computed that at least 400 must have been slain. The commando then set fire to the kraals. Most of the waggons that had belonged to the slaughtered emigrants were found there, and 6000 or 7000 head of cattle were seized. Not a single individual, European or black, had been hurt on the farmers’ side. With this spoil Potgieter and Maritz considered it advisable to return to the Caledon rather than to follow up their victory. The missionaries and their families left Mosega with the commando, feeling that to remain with the Matabele was no longer possible. The Barolong auxiliaries acted as herdsmen and were paid in cattle: Matlabe received 47 head, and Tawane’s and Gontse’s sons each 37, Matlabe the most because he was the leading man and the guide. [3] [4] [7]
Kapayin had not been touched. The captive children taken from the Liebenbergs in the previous spring were not found. Mosega mattered because 15 kraals could be burned before the induna came home, and because a Matabele camp without Kalipi would not stand a morning — but Moselekatse still lived, and the highveld was not yet a country the farmers could sit in. [3] [7]
Retief’s Manifesto, Twenty-four Families, and Dismissal from the Winterberg — January–March 1837
At Grahamstown on the 22nd of January Pieter Retief caused a paper to be published in the Grahamstown Journal before he left the colony. He traced his descent from one of the Huguenots who had come to South Africa in 1688. He had been born and brought up near the present village of Wellington; when still young he had removed to the eastern frontier. In 1820, when the British settlers arrived, he was living in Grahamstown and was considered the wealthiest man in Albany, as also one of the most honourable. Building contracts later reduced him; he went to the Winterberg, and the war of 1834–1835 impoverished him further. He had married the widow of Commandant Greyling. He was field-commandant there, a man of ability in the field, and his remonstrances against the frontier policy irritated Captain Andries Stockenstrom, the lieutenant-governor who had taken the oaths on the 25th of July 1836 and whose work was to put Earl Glenelg’s instructions into force on the Fish. The intending emigrants from the Winterberg chose Retief as their head. The paper of the 22nd of January was why they left, written down before the waggons moved. [3] [4] [7]
The paper set out the heads on which the party stood. They despaired of saving the colony from vagrants allowed to infest it in every part, and saw no prospect of peace or happiness for their children in a country distracted by internal commotions. They complained of the severe losses forced on them by the emancipation of the slaves, and of the vexatious laws enacted respecting them. They complained of the continual system of plunder from Xhosa and other coloured classes, and particularly of the last invasion of the colony. They complained of odium cast upon them by interested persons, under the name of religion, as if every crime were theirs. They were resolved, wherever they went, to uphold the just principles of liberty, and to take care that no one was brought by them into a state of slavery. They declared that they left the colony with a desire to lead a more quiet life than they had led, would not molest any people, and would defend themselves if attacked. They quit the colony under the full assurance that the English government had nothing more to require of them, and would allow them to govern themselves without its interference in future. They were now leaving the fruitful land of their birth, in which they had suffered great losses and continual vexation, and were about to enter a wild and dangerous territory, with a firm reliance on an all-seeing, just, and merciful God. [3] [4]
Stockenstrom took the manifesto as ground enough to dismiss Retief from the field-commandantship of the Winterberg. Sir Benjamin D’Urban disapproved. He considered the lieutenant-governor had exceeded his powers in acting without the intervention of the governor-in-chief, and he referred the question to the attorney-general, whose opinion was against the lieutenant-governor. Stockenstrom wrote that he had taken his stand upon Retief’s signing and publishing the manifesto, and that he should have deserved dismissal himself if he had allowed him to act as field-commandant after the circumstance had been brought to his notice. The quarrel was on the table before the waggons had crossed the Orange: the man the Winterberg had chosen to lead them was no longer an officer of the colony that was trying to hold them. [3] [4]
Very shortly after the publication, while the lieutenant-governor was taking those steps, Retief finished his preparations for quitting his farm at the Winterberg. With a party of 24 families comprising 108 individuals, exclusive of servants, he was on his way toward the Orange. The families were named: Retief, James Edwards, 3 Greyling, 7 Van Rensburg, 2 Malan, 3 Viljoen, 1 Meyer, 1 Van Dyk, 2 Joubert, 1 Dreyer, 3 Van Staden, and a schoolmaster named Alfred Smith. Some 300 people who had congregated at the Orange waited for his party; a cavalcade of over 100 waggons then moved slowly up toward Winburg. On the 8th of April Maritz, with one of his heemraden, left his camp and rode southward to greet Retief with an official welcome, and with a request that he would consent to become the leader of the whole community. [3] [4] [7]
On the 30th of November 1834 there had been in the Cape and Stellenbosch districts 21667 slaves, 56 per cent of the whole number owned in the colony; from those districts there was no emigration worth noticing in 1836 to 1839. In Worcester, Swellendam, and George there had been 11021 slaves, 28 per cent, and the emigrants from those districts were a little less than 2 per cent of the whole. In Beaufort, Graaff-Reinet, Somerset, Albany, and Uitenhage — the part exposed to the marauding parties — there had been 6333 slaves, 16 per cent, and the people who left those districts were rather over 98 per cent of those who left the whole colony between the 1st of January 1836 and the 31st of December 1839. The paper of the 22nd of January therefore spoke from the Winterberg, not from the vineyards. Up to July the numbers obtained for those who had left as well as those intending to leave, assuming all did leave, amounted to 1327, a figure that included the parties under Trichardt, Rensburg, Uys, Retief, and Potgieter. The manifesto mattered because it was not a private letter: once it stood in the Journal, Stockenstrom could dismiss a field-commandant, and the Winterberg could leave in open day. [3] [4]
Port Elizabeth, Colesberg, Cradock, Municipal Councils, and the Cape of Good Hope Bank — 1837
On the 1st of January, by a resolution of the legislative council, the sub-district of Clanwilliam was separated from Worcester. Mr. Jan van Ryneveld, whose office was in the village of Clanwilliam, was appointed civil commissioner and resident magistrate of the new district. The eastern work sat with Stockenstrom. All laws were still made by the legislative council, in which he had no seat; but every ordinance affecting the eastern districts had to be sent to him for comment, and he could submit drafts. In appointments he recommended names to the governor, who was instructed to act on that advice unless there were very cogent reasons not to. Upon Stockenstrom’s proposal, on the 6th of February an ordinance was issued creating three districts, named Port Elizabeth, Colesberg, and Cradock. Port Elizabeth had become a free warehousing port by an order in council dated the 13th of April 1836; it had outgrown a special justice of the peace. The new district comprised only a small tract about the town, from a point on the coast about 15 miles west of Cape Recife to the source of the Little Zwartkops, thence that stream to the Zwartkops, and thence the Zwartkops to the sea. For fiscal purposes it remained connected with Uitenhage. Mr. John George de Villiers was appointed resident magistrate. The ordinance mattered because a port that had outgrown a justice of the peace now had its own magistrate, while the inland wards that had sat too far from Graaff-Reinet and Somerset got courts of their own. [3]
Colesberg was formed out of wards that had previously formed part of Graaff-Reinet — Achter Zuurberg, New Hantam, Lower Seacow River, Middenveld, Winterveld with exception of 3 farms, Upper Seacow River with exception of 3 farms, and Rhenosterberg with exception of 4 farms — together with the ward Groote River, previously included in Somerset. Mr. Fleetwood Rawstorne was appointed civil commissioner and resident magistrate, and was directed to establish his office in the village of Colesberg. Cradock was formed out of the wards Brak River, Tarka, Klaas Smit’s River, and Achter Sneeuwberg, previously included in Somerset, and the country drained by streams flowing into the Great Fish. Mr. William Gilfillan was appointed civil commissioner and resident magistrate. On the 14th of July the arrangement by which Somerset and Albany were united under the same civil commissioner was annulled. On the 9th of October the lieutenant-governor proclaimed a new boundary between Albany and Somerset along the watershed between the Koonap and the Mankazana, the eastern side to be in Albany, the western in Somerset. [3] [4]
Beaufort West has the honour of being the first town in the colony to take advantage of the municipal act of September 1836. That ordinance provided that upon a requisition signed by 25 persons living within a mile of any central point, occupying houses worth a yearly rental of not less than 10 pounds, and paying yearly taxes exceeding 6 shillings, the magistrate or justice should call a meeting of householders to decide whether the place should be a municipality. Commissioners, once elected, held office for 3 years; streets, water, drainage, police, commonage, and slaughterhouses sat with them; funds were yearly rates levied by the householders in public assembly. In January Beaufort West’s regulations were approved by the governor, and as soon as they were published in the Gazette a council was elected and began to act. In February Somerset East followed, and then in quick succession George, Grahamstown, and Cradock. Capetown was excepted; its affairs remained under the general government. On the 1st of August the Cape of Good Hope bank was opened for business in Capetown. The promoters had desired an ordinance; one was passed by the legislative council, but the secretary of state declined to advise its ratification, on the ground that in the condition of the colonial revenue it would not be wise to assist an institution that would probably draw away custom from the government bank. It was then formed under a trust-deed, with a capital of 75000 pounds in 1500 shares of 50 pounds each, two-thirds paid up, the shareholders remaining responsible to an unlimited extent. On the date of opening 1300 shares had been taken, and the capital in hand was 43333 pounds 6 shillings and 8 pence. The first chairman was Mr. John Bardwell Ebden; the first board included Hamilton Ross, Thomas Sutherland, Thomas Tennant, Roelof Abraham Zeederberg, Harrison Watson, Charles Stuart Pillans, William Dickson, and Antonio Chiappini. [3]
In a heavy storm of rain which lasted from the 28th of June to the 7th of July the Roman Catholic chapel in Harrington-street fell down, after which the ruin was sold for the benefit of the creditors. The congregation was already without a clergyman. In October the synod of the Dutch reformed communion sat. As the reverend Robert Shand promised to conform to established usages, his restoration at Tulbagh was recommended; the secretary of state’s order that would put him back in the pulpit still lay ahead. The synod also decided that all who had performed the duties of elder or deacon at any time should have the right of taking part in the elections, and after that date only the names of as many deacons as were required were submitted to the governor, instead of a double list. People of Waggonmakers’ Valley and the Groenberg decided in this year to have a church nearer than the Paarl, and elected a committee under Mr. Richard Addey. Ground and a name for that village still lay ahead. The bank, the new districts, and the first municipal councils mattered because the colony that was losing farmers over the Orange was still laying out courts, rates, and a private bank in the towns they left behind. [3] [4]
Fort Willshire Abandoned, Peddie, the Crime Ordinance, and Glenelg’s Recall — March–November 1837
Queen Adelaide had been released in December 1836. On the 18th of January Stockenstrom entered at Shiloh into a treaty of the same import with the emigrant Tembu chief Mapasa, wherein the Zwart Kei and Klaas Smit’s rivers again became the colonial boundary. As a matter of form, on the 2nd of February D’Urban issued a proclamation from Capetown repealing and annulling his proclamations of the 10th of May, 16th of June, and 14th of October 1835; on the 1st of June he signed the treaties as provisionally ratified in council. Fort Montgomery Williams had been abandoned; Fort Willshire followed in March. Mr. C. L. Stretch was required to move from Fort Cox to Blockdrift on the Tyumie as consular agent with the Ngqika; Mr. J. M. Bowker remained with the Fingos. The European agents were no longer magistrates, but ministers or consuls: through them satisfaction for wrongs on either side was to be obtained. That is why the Fish opened this year with treaties and abandoned forts, not with a commandant at King William’s Town: Glenelg’s line was the Fish and the Kat again, and the chiefs sat as equals on paper. [3]
On the 21st of June an ordinance of council “for the more effectual prevention of crimes against life and property within the colony” was published. It provided that persons committing serious offences, or suspected on reasonable grounds and refusing to surrender, could be killed; that no person should go across the boundary to recover stolen property except in accordance with the treaties, under penalty of a fine of 50 pounds or imprisonment not exceeding 6 months; that no Xhosa, Khoikhoi, or San — unless a native of the colony — should come within the border armed; that justices, commandants, field-cornets, and military officers should disarm such persons, and in case of resistance could kill or disable them; that foreigners found wandering without passes might be apprehended; that 3 or more such armed foreigners entering in a party should be regarded as enemies; and that all persons between 16 and 60 could be called upon to assist, under penalty of a fine not exceeding 20 pounds or imprisonment not exceeding 3 months. The lieutenant-governor then gave permission to such numbers to cross and reside within the colony that the distinctions were lost. [3]
During the year, when the Commercial Advertiser asserted week after week that such order had never been known before, 24 murders were committed, and the cases of theft reported amounted to 384 horses and 2403 head of horned cattle. Unreported thefts were certainly in excess of these figures. The farmers declared that it was useless to give in accounts of their losses, because under the treaties redress was not to be had. The Fingos living along the Gaga were attacked by Matwa and driven away; the lieutenant-governor then gave them a location at Zitzikama, 200 miles within the colony. On the 2nd of August a large party of armed men of the clans of Eno and Siyolo, under Siyolo in person, attacked the Fingo location around Fort Peddie, killed 10 Fingos, wounded 11 others, and drove off 500 head of cattle. Bowker, his interpreter George Cyrus, and Corporal John Porter with a small military escort hastened to the spot. In defiance of Bowker’s remonstrances the attack was continued. Corporal Porter was killed. The Fingo captain Umhlambiso was badly wounded at the agent’s side, and would have lost his life if Cyrus had not helped him upon a horse. The whole of the Fingos were obliged to take shelter under the walls of the fort. After some delay 74 head of the most wretched cattle in the country were sent to Fort Peddie, with which compensation Stockenstrom declared himself satisfied. Peddie mattered because the Fingos whom the colony had undertaken to protect had to sit under the walls, and because a British corporal could be killed inside the line while the treaties forbade a patrol across it. [3]
The emigrant Tembus plundered Somerset almost with impunity, and on the 29th of July a large armed body of them pursued some Khoikhoi far into the colony. On this occasion Colonel England by judicious management induced them to return across the Zwart Kei without doing further injury. A regiment of infantry had been withdrawn from the frontier, but the Cape mounted rifles were raised to 462 rank and file, and 300 Khoikhoi footmen were attached to the corps. Stockenstrom attempted to locate parties of vagrant Khoikhoi along the Fish, with rations, arms, tracts of ground, and 30 goats to each family at the expense of benevolent people in England. Even the inducement of rations for the adults could not keep them together. On the 18th of December he wrote that the total claim of the colony on Xhosa country was limited to 6 horses and 35 cattle. [3] [4]
The libel cases that had opened in the previous year came to judgment in the first half of this one. On the 24th of February Mr. John Centlivres Chase obtained against Mr. John Fairbairn judgment for damages of 40 shillings and costs. Lieutenant Donald Moodie followed: his case came before the supreme court on the 26th of May, when the depositions against Stockenstrom were produced; on the 30th the court gave judgment in favour of Moodie for 50 pounds damages and costs. This forced the lieutenant-governor to take action. He brought a suit against Captain Campbell for maliciously causing him to be charged with having fired at and killed a Xhosa child on Fraser’s commando in December 1818. From the 11th of November, when the case first came before the court, it was the topic of greatest interest in South Africa. Judgment still lay ahead. [3]
Men holding such opposite opinions as Glenelg and D’Urban could not long work together. On the 15th of January D’Urban became a lieutenant-general; at the same time Wade, Smith, and Hare attained the full rank of colonel. On the 29th of July the governor attributed the emigration to the insecurity of life and property occasioned by the recent measures, inadequate compensation for the slaves, and despair of obtaining recompense for the ruinous losses by the invasion. He described the Dutch farmers who were leaving as a brave, patient, industrious, orderly, and religious people, the cultivators, the defenders, and the tax contributors of the country. Glenelg’s reply was dated the 1st of May. It ended with the information that the king had thought proper to dispense with Sir Benjamin’s services as governor, and that he was therefore to consider himself as holding office only until he should be relieved by a successor. Toward the end of November that despatch reached the castle. On the 8th of September the secretary wrote further that the governor might retire whenever it suited his convenience, after transferring the administration temporarily to the military officer next in rank. The same mail brought private intelligence that Major-General George Thomas Napier had been appointed, though his commission was not dated until the 4th of November. D’Urban resolved to await his successor’s arrival. On the 18th of September the governor’s eldest grandson, returning from the races on Greenpoint common, was thrown when someone rode violently against his horse, and died in a few hours. Advocate William Musgrave was the boy’s father. The 1st of May mattered because a governor who would not mask his despatches was told in November that he held office only until a successor came, while the waggons were already over the Orange. [3] [4]
Winburg Founded, Retief Governor, Uys and Jacobs, and the Zulu Blow — February–September 1837
After Mosega, Potgieter decided to take advantage of the bargain already made with the Bataung chief Makwana and to move his camp from Thaba Ntshu to the Vet. To this place he gave the name of Winburg, in honour of the victory at Mosega. That must have been in February. In a short time some of them erected rough cottages, and the foundation of a permanent village was laid. At this time the waggons in the country were numbered in hundreds and the combined stock in thousands. The social life of the encampment was marred by a mutual ill-feeling between Potgieter and Maritz, which developed into open quarrels. It was in April when Retief’s trek arrived at Thaba Ntshu. His first task was to compose that quarrel, and he apparently succeeded in restoring friendship, though it only lasted a short season. On the 6th of June there was a public meeting at Winburg. The followers of Potgieter and Maritz were there with those of Retief. Winburg mattered because a camp named for 15 kraals in ash was the first village the emigrants founded, and because the man Grahamstown had read on the 22nd of January was now asked to govern them all. [3] [4] [7]
Retief was chosen governor and commandant-general. Maritz was elected president of the new volksraad with supreme legislative authority; E. F. Liebenberg, P. J. Greyling, L. S. van Vuuren, and M. Oosthuizen were chosen members. It was decided that Maritz should continue to perform the duties of landdrost, with six heemraden to assist him in difficult cases. Potgieter’s name does not appear among those appointments. Erasmus Smit, who had gone from Graaff-Reinet with Maritz and had married his sister, was at the same meeting appointed the head or representative of the Dutch reformed church with the emigrants. There was no ordained clergyman among them. Nine articles were agreed upon as a kind of provisional constitution. The emigrants bound themselves to show respect and obedience to the officers they had chosen, and to abide by the old Dutch laws of the colony in all matters not provided for by special enactment of the volksraad. One article demanded particular notice: every member of the community, and all who should thereafter join them, must take a solemn oath to have no connection with the London missionary society — meaning the political and social principles professed by its superintendent in South Africa, not the preaching of the gospel. The meeting was opened and closed with prayer and the singing of psalms. Retief then visited Moroko, Tawane, Moshesh, and Sikonyela, and entered into agreements of mutual friendship. [3] [4] [7]
About a fortnight afterwards, on the 21st of June, Retief issued to his field-commandants his own instructions. No one was to molest any of the native tribes or possess himself by violence of any children of San or other aborigines, the penalty for which was 150 rixdollars. All servants were to be well treated. No game was to be killed unnecessarily, the punishment a fine of 100 rixdollars. Grass fires were to be guarded against. On the 21st of July he wrote to D’Urban that the emigrants had understood with deep regret that nearly all the aborigines and tribes by whom they were surrounded had been instigated to attack them, and that they nevertheless requested the governor, as far as it might be in his power, to use his authority to repress such hostilities. A message had gone to Moselekatse: if all the property belonging to the farmers still in his possession was delivered up, peaceable relations would subsist; if not, he would be regarded as an enemy. To this no answer was received. Sikonyela, Moroko, and Tawane, seeing the white people in strength, offered their services against the Matabele, which Retief declined: he knew from experience how impossible it would be to satisfy the demands of such allies. There were now more than 1000 waggons between the Caledon and Vaal, and 400 or 500 armed men could be mustered. [3] [4]
While these arrangements were being made, the number of the emigrants was rapidly increasing. One large band under Pieter Jacobs came from Beaufort. Another, under Jacobus Uys, came from Uitenhage; it numbered more than 100 souls, and was composed entirely of his sons and daughters with their wives and husbands, children and grandchildren, for the leader was nearly 70 years of age. His son P. L. Uys had won the admiration of the British settlers in the war of 1834–1835; when the party reached Grahamstown the residents presented a large and very handsome bible to the old man. 62 families came from the Baviaan’s river. In September a party from Oliphant’s Hoek, consisting of 50 men, 41 women, and 167 children, with 60 waggons, came under J. A. Landman. The behaviour of Uys and his party on arrival was not conducive to consolidation. They issued a paper, signed by P. L. Uys, J. J. Uys, and 168 others, stating that they did not consider themselves bound by appointments and laws which may have been established by a few individuals, and that they purposed to establish their own settlement on the same principles as those adopted by the United States of America. The people were now divided into two factions, one under Retief and Maritz and the other under Potgieter and Uys. [3] [4]
About this time, possibly a month earlier or a month later, Dingane sent an army against Moselekatse. The Matabele were defeated in a great battle, in which one of their regiments perished almost to a man. They saw their cattle in possession of the conquerors; but they had courage and discipline enough to rally, and by another engagement 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 farmers. Far to the north, Louis Trichardt was still in the Zoutpansberg. By March these voluntary outcasts found themselves short of maize. Moving almost directly south they passed the site of the present town of Pietersburg, and on the 2nd of October reached the Oliphants river; in November they were in a country badly infested with the tsetse, so many of the cattle dying that it appeared likely they would have to abandon their waggons. Delagoa Bay still lay ahead of them. The Zulu blow mattered because Moselekatse was already hurt before Potgieter and Uys rode north in the spring, and because some of the farmers’ own sheep were now in Dingane’s kraals — which is why, when Retief sat at Ungungunhlovu, the restored flock would be part of the greeting. [3] [4]
Potgieter and Uys on the Marikwa, Moselekatse beyond the Limpopo — November 1837
In the spring 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. Potgieter, with his adherents, was disposed to remain in what he considered his own country, the land between the Vet and the Vaal purchased from Makwana; Retief and Maritz looked toward Natal. These jealousies caused the secession of a large number from the principal body under Retief. The parties of Potgieter and Uys resolved to set up distinct governments of their own, the first on the ground purchased from Makwana, the last somewhere in Natal. From this time onward jealousy and divisions among the emigrant farmers were a fact on the ground as hard as any river. While Retief was absent on his preliminary visit to Natal, the second expedition against the Matabele set out. [3] [4]
The expedition was under the joint command of Potgieter and Pieter Lafras Uys. The commando consisted of two divisions, mustering together 135 farmers. In October it left the Vet, and, pursuing the same course as had been followed by the commando at the beginning of the year, crossed the Vaal. Matlabe did not go himself; he sent three of his brothers with 20 men. Mongala, a brother of Matlabe, accompanied them with some Barolong under his command. Moroko may have furnished two or three men; no record can be traced of a single man having been sent by either Gontse or Tawane. In November this expedition found Moselekatse on the Marikwa, about 50 miles north of Mosega, where it attacked him, and in a campaign of 9 days inflicted such loss that he fled far away beyond the Limpopo, never to return. [3] [4] [7]
The accounts as to the number of the Matabele killed are conflicting. Carel Cilliers, who was with the expedition, set it down as over 3000. Lindley, who obtained his information from members of the commando and wrote immediately after the event, thought 400 or 500 nearer the mark, and compared the success with that of January. The fighting — or rather the pursuit of the Matabele soldiers, for no farmer was killed — took place over a large extent of ground, and the dead could not have been counted. Hundreds were slain, and not a single farmer was so much as wounded. 6000 or 7000 head of cattle were captured and given over to the Barolong herdsmen to take care of. One night these were surprised by a small party of Matabele, when several lost their lives, and some of the cattle were retaken. In the division of the captured stock the herdsmen were liberally dealt with, Matlabe’s people receiving 69 head for their services. [3] [4]
After the flight of Moselekatse, Commandant Potgieter issued a proclamation in which he declared that the whole of the territory which that chief had overrun and now abandoned was forfeited to the emigrants. It included the greater part of the highveld north of the Vaal as well as the country between the Vet and the Vaal, and the whole of southern Tswana country to the Kalahari except the district occupied by the Batlapin. That immense tract was then almost uninhabited. Up to about September no less than 249 lions were killed by the emigrants in the neighbourhood of Thaba Ntshu alone. The country through which they passed teemed with game, both great and small, and hunting parties were able to provide the encampment with abundance of fresh meat. The Matabele had suffered at Mosega in January, from Dingane’s Zulus in September, and from Potgieter and Uys in November. The Marikwa mattered because 9 days put Moselekatse beyond the Limpopo, and because Potgieter’s paper then claimed a desolation the farmers had walked through twice — while Retief was already on the road to Natal. [3] [4]
Retief at Port Natal and Ungungunhlovu, and Dingane’s Cattle — October–December 1837
In June Captain Allen Gardiner, who had been on a visit to England, again returned to the country. He claimed authority at the port by virtue of a commission under the Cape of Good Hope punishment bill, which at Glenelg’s instance had received the royal assent in August 1836 and made crimes committed by British subjects in any part of Africa south of the 25th parallel cognisable in the courts of the Cape Colony. It was not to be construed as investing the king with any claim to sovereignty beyond the colonial border. The Europeans in Natal, upon being informed of that claim, were not disposed to admit it. They desired to be recognised as a British colony, with proper courts; but to submit to an act which took no cognisance of offences committed against them, while it tied their hands even against self-defence, was something they would not consent to. Dingane claimed the whole country 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 6 mission stations, three north of the Tugela and three south, occupied by two medical men, four clergymen of the American Presbyterian church, one clergyman of the English episcopal church, and a retired captain of the royal navy. At Durban and its vicinity there were about 30 Englishmen residing either permanently or in the intervals between hunting excursions. The leading man and principal trader was Mr. Alexander Biggar. No estimate of that period of the blacks between the Tugela and the Umzimvubu rises so high as 10000, yet it would not be safe to say that there was not fully that number, living in the most secluded places. That is why Retief rode to the bay in October: Natal was claimed by Dingane, occupied by a handful of Englishmen who would not accept Gardiner’s commission, and almost empty of people south of the Tugela. [3] [7]
Early in October Retief, accompanied by Marthinus Oosthuizen, Abraham C. Greyling, B. Liebenberg, and two others, started from Thaba Ntshu to examine the capabilities of Natal. Shortly after his arrival at the Sand river he sent out a small party; they were away 25 days and returned with the news that they had discovered 5 routes or passes down which it was thought the waggons might be piloted. With the path thus far cleared, Retief and Maritz, accompanied by 13 others, with 4 waggons, set out on the 5th of October for Natal in order to interview Dingane. The Drakensberg was crossed probably by what was afterwards known as Oliver’s Hoek Pass. On the 19th of October they reached the large inland bay, without having met a single individual after they crossed the Berg. The settlers presented Retief with an address, assuring him of the sincere pleasure it gave them to welcome him. Retief in reply said that with heart and hand he declared the sentiments expressed by them were those entertained by himself. The same day he wrote to Dingane acquainting him with his intention to visit him on behalf of his countrymen who desired to establish themselves peaceably in the uninhabited parts of Natal, and to remove impressions made by certain vague rumours. Some days were then spent in examining the harbour and the country around it. [3] [4] [7]
On the 24th of October Retief and his party set out from Port Natal for Dingane’s great place, taking with them as interpreter Thomas Holstead, who had been in Natal 13 years and spoke Zulu as fluently as English, and John Cane. At the ford of the Tugela it was deemed unnecessary for the whole party to go on; Retief and Holstead with 5 others went forward on horseback. After travelling about 60 miles through the present district of Nkandhla they saw from a rocky hill the collection of huts that formed Ungungunhlovu. Retief arrived on the 5th of November. Dingane received them kindly, but could not be induced to get to business until after long delays. “You do not know me, nor I you,” he said after the first salutations, “and therefore we must become better acquainted.” He ordered sham fights and dances that lasted during the next two days. On the first day 2000 of his youngest warriors gave a representation of the manner in which the Zulus begin a battle. In one dance nearly 200 oxen, all of the same colour, were mixed with the men of a regiment and went through manoeuvres with the most perfect accuracy. [3] [4] [7]
Among the stock recently captured from Moselekatse were some of the sheep taken by the Matabele from the emigrants on the Vaal. Dingane informed Retief that most of these were dead, but he restored 110 as a present, and offered the skins of the others. His decision as to the territory was conveyed to Retief by the reverend Francis Owen in writing. Dingane was almost inclined to cede the land asked for, but a great number of cattle had been stolen from his country by a people having clothes, horses, and guns; the Zulus assured him that these people were Boers. He desired Retief to recover the cattle and restore them, and if possible hand over the thief; that proceeding would remove his suspicions, and then he would accede to the request. The stolen cattle were only about 700 in number, and it was certain that the Zulus knew the plundering band to be some of Sikonyela’s Batlokua. The conditions seemed to Retief easy of fulfilment. [3] [4]
On the 8th of November Retief arranged to return to his friends. He answered Dingane the same day, thanked him for the sheep, and asked that if discourse of a disquieting kind should occur, Dingane would inform him on his return by whom those things had been said. On the way he called at the mission station of the reverend Mr. Champion, to whom he gave an account of the interview in terms of gratification and hopefulness, and added that it was his intention to make a second visit. Champion, who had resided in proximity to Dingane for 2 years, endeavoured to impress upon him the danger and most solemnly warned him. Retief left the station and rejoined his men at the Tugela. They made their way up over the Drakensberg toward Sikonyela’s place at the Wittebergen. There Sikonyela was kept a prisoner until the stolen herds might be identified and taken for restoration to Dingane; according to one of the party he was held 3 days and compelled to assemble his cattle. They were surrendered. On the 26th of November Dingane told Owen that he might preach God’s word in the town that once, but that this should be the last time. The cattle from Sikonyela were in the farmers’ hands before the year closed; the second ride to Ungungunhlovu was not. The 8th of November mattered because Owen’s paper named a condition Retief thought easy — 700 head from Sikonyela — and because Champion’s warning was already on the road home with him, while the waggons had not yet gone down the Berg. [3] [4]