Boer History1861 in South Africa: Grey, Adam Kok, Umtonga, Philippolis, and Ichaboe
The Dock of the Session, the Royal Albert and the Sedgemoor, and 741 — Colony 1861
Sir George Grey was again governor of the Cape Colony and high commissioner for the territories beyond it. He had arrived in Simon’s Bay in the frigate Forte on the 4th of July 1860, after the duke of Newcastle let him come back on the condition that he would not resume British authority over the Orange Free State. The breakwater in Table Bay was already under Arthur Thomas Andrews, appointed at the request of John Coode on the 12th of April 1859. Parliament had approved Coode’s plan in 1860 and voted £200,000 to begin the breakwater. Prince Alfred tipped the first stones on the 17th of September 1860. In the session of this year parliament resolved to begin the large dock that was part of the same plan, and raised the funds for it. The dock was a closed basin inside the stones, not another mole into the bay. The vote mattered because Table Bay still had to take the wool and the passengers, and because Grey’s second term was the first chance since 1858 to put colonial money to Coode’s water after London had refused an interest-free advance. [3]
The extra spending was possible because revenue and exports had grown, and because that growth made it easier to borrow. Customs, which had stood at £270,328 in 1860, stood at £278,535 in this year. The whole revenue, which had been £499,052 in 1860, stood at £546,474. Wool, which had been £1,446,510, stood at £1,458,310. The whole of the exports, which had been £1,920,279, stood at £1,806,598. Wool still paid the roadstead. The total of the exports had fallen a little from the year of the Forte and the first stones. Land revenue, auction dues, stamps, and postage still fed the same chest that had to carry the dock, the lights, and the reduced immigration vote. [3]
The vote for state-aided immigration had been cut in 1860 to £25,000 after drought, the oidium in the vineyards, and smallpox. In this year the Royal Albert and the Sedgemoor brought to Capetown 480 people, and 44 others were sent out in a freight ship. The Bride, the Rajasthan, and the Coldstream brought to Port Elizabeth 746 men, women, and children. The six transports of 1860 had landed 675 at Capetown from the Maria Somes, the Wellington, and the Royal Charlie, and 709 at Port Elizabeth from the Tudor, the John Masterton, and the Sedgemoor. The reduced vote still filled the depots at Capetown and Port Elizabeth under the boards that corresponded with William Field in London. The ships mattered because public works and farm labour still needed hands, and because the colony had decided in 1857 that only Europeans would be introduced under that act. [3]
From Amsterdam in this year 139 arrived under the agency that Beelaerts van Blokland had set on foot in 1856. They were partly children and partly families. Some settled in the colony; others moved north to the republics. In a few years the Dutch mixed with the rural population until they were hard to tell from old residents. From Hamburg 741 men, women, and children of an agricultural class, disappointed in not being sent to the annexed territory, paid their own passages and came out in little parties in cargo vessels. In 1860 267 had come by the same road. The Germans added to the European count of the colony without a further charge on the reduced vote. [3]
In Belgium the former colonial secretary Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Bird died at 91. When the pension was offered he chose £600 a year for his own life and £300 for his wife should he die first, rather than £800 for his own life alone. He lived in retirement after Sir Richard Plasket took the secretariat on the 31st of August 1824. The death mattered because Bird had been the Cape’s civil secretary under Somerset, and because the pension he chose in 1824 outlasted him by the widow’s £300. [4]
The Light of the 1st of June, Ichaboe of the 21st, and Currie for Grey — Colony 1861
Three lighthouses were in course of erection on the colonial coast. One on the Cape of Good Hope had first shown a revolving light on the 1st of May 1860. One on the hill at Port Elizabeth opened for use on the 1st of June of this year. One on the Roman rock in Simon’s Bay, meant to replace the old lightship, opened for use on the 16th of September. The Simon’s Bay landing wharf and patent slip had been ready in August 1860 and was of service for repairing small vessels. Courthouses and prisons were still being provided at the seats of magistracy; rivers were being bridged; roads were being improved. The new Somerset hospital at Green Point, begun in 1859, was still rising in its open position. The lights mattered because Port Elizabeth shipped the bulk of the wool, hides, and skins, not only from the colony but from the country beyond the Orange, and because Simon’s Bay still needed a fixed light in place of the lightship. [3]
Ichaboe is a rock less than a mile in circumference, the highest point of which is only 30 feet above the sea. It had been found covered with penguins and other seabirds, and had had upon it a deposit of guano varying from 40 feet at the northern to 10 feet at the southern end. Captain Benjamin Wade of the barque Douglas took possession for the queen on the 11th of November 1843, but that act was not followed by annexation. Except by that unauthorised taking, Ichaboe was not annexed to the British dominions until the 21st of June of this year, when it was taken in possession for the crown of England by authority of the government. After the original mass had been cleared, merchants of Capetown caused the fresh deposits to be removed whenever the birds were not breeding. The taking mattered because the rock had fed a private guano rush in 1843–1845 without becoming British territory, and because the crown now claimed the fresh deposits as well as the rock. [3]
Early in this year Grey set out to visit Nomansland in person, to make arrangements for locating the Griquas in the uplands, and to find the cause of the constant commotions among the clans nearer the sea. At King William’s Town he fell ill, and had to send someone in his stead. Sir Walter Currie, commandant of the frontier armed and mounted police, was the man chosen. He went on the mission, and as a first step paid a visit to Faku. The reverend Thomas Jenkins and the councillors of the tribe were present at the interview. Grey’s ride, and then Currie’s, mattered because the high commissioner had offered Adam Kok a tract along the head waters of the Umzimhlava and Umzimvubu, and because that offer could not be settled without knowing who actually held the uplands. [3]
Faku said he wanted peace, and accused the Pondomisi, Bacas, and others living between him and the mountains of being the cause of the perpetual disturbances. He thought the colonial authorities would keep them in better order than he could, and he offered to cede the land between the Drakensberg and a line which he named, extending from the Umtata river to the Umzimkulu, on condition that the government of the Cape Colony would rule it. The line he named is the south-eastern boundary of what would later be called Griqualand East, excluding the district of Mount Ayliff. Currie went carefully along it, and on his return reported that he found the clans on the upper side anxious to be taken under protection, so as to be freed from attacks by the Pondos. The offer mattered because Faku would keep more land than he had ever actually controlled, and because the alien clans on his side of the line would be left at the mercy of the Pondos. [3]
The imperial authorities were at this time opposed to any enlargement of the Cape Colony, or any increase of England’s responsibilities in South Africa, and the condition named by Faku could not be carried out. But the Maitland treaty of 1844 was from this time treated as applying only to the country between the sea and the line named by the Pondo chief. Grey had offered Kok a large and fertile tract along the head waters of the Umzimhlava and Umzimvubu. That offer, and Currie’s ride after Grey’s illness at King William’s Town, were the colonial side of the same year’s work that closed at Philippolis on the 26th of December. By September Grey himself had left South Africa. The departure mattered because Moshesh had long stood in awe of Grey’s eye, and because the high commissioner’s chair was empty when the Free State sent a landdrost to Thaba Bosigo in September. [3]
Mabolela of April, Jacobsdal of February, and Reddersburg — Orange Free State 1861
President Pretorius held the Bloemfontein oath, not the northern one. He had taken that oath on the 8th of February 1860, after Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof resigned and an election chose Pretorius. At the beginning of April another conference took place between Pretorius and Moshesh, which lasted 3 days and was conducted in a very friendly manner. It was held at Mabolela, the residence of Moperi, near Platberg. The establishment of a mixed court on the border was referred to again, when Moshesh professed once more to fall in with the president’s views, but asked that some other place than Merumetsu should be selected. Pretorius made no objection, and the chief and his councillors promised to give effect to the late treaty. The three days mattered because the treaty of Aliwal North of 1858 still had no mixed court, and because Moshesh’s professions at Moperi’s house were the Free State’s last friendly reading of that paper before Van Soelen rode in September. [3]
The Basuto were then in occupation of many farms in the district of Winburg, and ignored the boundary of the treaty of 1858. This was discussed at Mabolela, and Moshesh undertook to recall his people from farms belonging to burghers of the Free State, but he was careful not to admit that he had any knowledge of the line. The boundary between the Free State and the Lesuto from Jammerberg Drift to Paul Smit’s Berg was, however, arranged between the two parties, by a slight modification of the old line of Major Warden, in favour of Moshesh. In this instance Moroko felt himself aggrieved, and complained that land equal to 2 full-sized farms had been taken from him. Pretorius, in his desire not to offend Moshesh, had placed some restrictions upon Moroko’s obtaining ammunition. The volksraad, as soon as these matters were brought before it, took steps to rectify them, for the members were anxious to keep on good terms with the Barolong. The farms mattered because Winburg was Free State ground under the 1858 paper, and because Moshesh’s undertaking to recall his people was given without admitting the line. [3]
Notwithstanding the disturbed Basuto border, the country was making rapid advances in prosperity. In the west the population was increasing so steadily that in February the volksraad resolved to form another district south of Boshof, to which the name Jacobsdal was given. Bethulie had been declared a district on the 15th of February 1860; Bethlehem’s first lots had been sold on the 3rd of March of that year. Jacobsdal was the next western court on the same advance: more farms, more dues, another landdrost’s seat between the Riet and the Vaal. The new district mattered because the west was filling faster than the Caledon border would settle, and because a landdrost south of Boshof meant the Free State now counted courts on the Riet as well as on the Caledon. [3]
A little later the second congregation of the Separatist Reformed Church was formed at Vlakfontein in the Orange Free State. That church had existed as an independent body in the South African Republic from the 1st of August 1859, when Dirk Postma’s consistory rejected the Potchefstroom resolutions and kept only the psalms and paraphrases of 1773 in public worship. In February of this year the church place at Vlakfontein took the name of Reddersburg, and in November the reverend Mr. Beyer arrived from Holland and became the first resident minister. From that date the communion had its second congregation and its first Free State clergyman south of the Vaal. The naming mattered because the hymns that Postma’s consistory had refused in August 1859 were still refused at Reddersburg, and because a Holland minister now sat in a Free State pulpit of that church. [3]
Van Soelen of September, the Ambush of June, and Venter of November — Orange Free State 1861
In February Nehemiah again asked Grey to “concur in his retention” of the district in which he had settled, but the governor made no reply. Nehemiah’s settlement in Nomansland had brought the Basuto into collision with the section of the Pondomisi tribe under Umbali, between whom and Faku, the ally of Moshesh, there was a long-standing feud. In 1860 hostilities had broken out, but the operations had been on a very petty scale. In June of this year Masupha and Poshuli went to Nehemiah’s assistance with a large body of warriors, but were drawn into an ambush, and lost nearly all their horses, many guns, and 30 or 40 men. The jealousy of his brothers felt by Letsie prevented further assistance being sent across the Drakensberg, and Nehemiah’s influence there was much weakened from this time. The ambush mattered because Grey’s unanswered letter of February left Nehemiah without colonial paper, and because Letsie would not reinforce a brother beyond the mountains. [3]
Since Casalis, Arbousset, and Gossellin had first made their appearance in the Lesuto, a generation had grown up, and the results of the teaching of these missionaries and those who followed them were perceptible everywhere in the country. Clothing, ironware, and saddlery of English manufacture had come largely into use. A considerable trade was carried on by colonists who exchanged goods imported from England for wool, hides, millet, and even wheat. The French missionaries and English traders were not the only Europeans in the Lesuto. A number of renegades, deserters from the army, vagrants, and men of abandoned character had taken up their abode in the country. They were engaged in various kinds of fraud, carried on a contraband trade in guns and ammunition, manufactured gunpowder, trafficked in stolen horses, and generally set a wretched example of debauchery and crime. The trade mattered because the same passes that brought saddlery also brought rifles, and because Moshesh’s people were supplied with as many guns as they required when Van Soelen arrived in September. [3]
In September Mr. Van Soelen, landdrost of Bloemfontein, was sent to Thaba Bosigo as a special commissioner from the Free State government to ask Moshesh when he would keep his promise to remove the Basuto from the district of Winburg, and whether he agreed to certain regulations drawn up by the Free State attorney-general for the establishment of the mixed court on the border. Moshesh felt himself at that time in a position of security. Grey, of whose penetrating eye he had always stood in awe, had left South Africa. The Basuto were supplied with as many rifles and as much ammunition as they required, and though they had not succeeded in an attempt to manufacture cannon, they had been able to procure several serviceable field-pieces. With all the neighbouring tribes of any consequence they were on terms of close friendship. Van Soelen’s commission mattered because the three days at Mabolela had produced a promise, and because that promise was now to be tested in Grey’s absence. [3]
Under these circumstances Moshesh spoke what he meant without reservation. He would not acknowledge a boundary line, nor had he any intention of withdrawing his subjects from the Winburg farms. As for the court at Ha-bo’ Khotso, he rejected it altogether. Pretorius, he said, was free to have a police force in his own country and among his own people if he wished; but no courts except those of their own chiefs were needed by the Basuto. The reply signified not only that he set the Free State at defiance, but that he would keep neither treaties nor promises when it suited him to break them. The Republic was quite unable to enforce its rights. The answer mattered because Aliwal North of 1858 and Mabolela of April now stood as paper against a landdrost’s unanswered commission. [3]
In November a murder took place in the district of Winburg. The young man was named Philip Venter, and a son of Moshesh’s brother Mohali was implicated in it. The sixth clause of the treaty of 1858 had required that such a charge should be given up for trial by the Free State courts. Van Soelen had been told that no courts except those of their own chiefs were needed by the Basuto. The murder mattered because the treaty’s sixth clause was the Free State’s paper for a burgher killed on the northern line, and because Moshesh’s September answer had closed that paper. [3]
Adam Kok of the 26th of December, £4,000, and Nomansland — Orange Free State 1861
Grey had felt that he was morally bound to do something for Kok and his Griquas. He therefore offered them a large and fertile tract of country along the head waters of the Umzimhlava and Umzimvubu rivers. This was part of the territory placed under Faku by the Maitland treaty of 1844, but Faku had no other claim to it than that which the treaty gave. No clan of his tribe had ever resided in any portion of it. Along the base of the Kathlamba mountains San were the only inhabitants, and nearer the sea were Bantu clans of various names, who were constantly fighting with each other and with the Pondos. Natal had held Faku responsible for stock-lifting by the upland San; in 1850 that nominal dignity cost him 1,000 head of cattle. From that time the upper portion of the Pondo treaty state was regarded as being at the disposal of the high commissioner, and was usually called Nomansland. The offer mattered because Clerk’s cancellation of the treaties in 1854 had left Kok without the Queen’s paper, and because Grey now gave him a road east of the Drakensberg. [3]
Ever since 1854 individual Griqua proprietors in the district between the Riet and the Orange had been selling farms to Europeans. The new occupants, who were mostly emigrants from the Cape Colony, came immediately under the jurisdiction of the landdrost of Fauresmith, and after 6 months’ residence became burghers of the Free State. Adam Kok retained exclusive control over the Griquas in the district, and his government kept possession of all the unappropriated land. A Griqua who made little or no use of the 6,000 or 7,000 acres which he called his farm could rarely refuse a couple of hundred golden sovereigns or a lot of showy merchandise which he could at once enjoy. The time was thus quickly approaching when the Griquas must be poor if they remained where they were. The sales mattered because each farm that passed to a Cape emigrant passed, after six months, under Bloemfontein’s burgher roll, while Kok’s government still held the unsold ground and the sovereign rights. [3]
The Griquas sent a party to inspect the district that Grey offered to them, and upon receipt of a favourable report they prepared to move. There was no lack of purchasers for the farms that were left between the Riet and Orange rivers. There was such competition for them, indeed, that in many instances they brought remarkably high prices, for their position was far from native locations. After all the ground in possession of private individuals was sold, the Griqua clan, numbering about 3,000 souls, including a good many blacks of different tribes who had recently joined them, stood ready to move off in a body toward the new home. The inspection mattered because the move was not a flight: the clan sold first, then prepared to go as a body, with Grey’s tract as the destination. [3]
On the 26th of December Adam Kok and his council, through their agent Henry Harvey, signed a document whereby all the unappropriated land, together with the sovereign rights over the whole of their possessions north of the Orange, were ceded to the Free State, in consideration of a payment of £4,000 sterling. This purchase gave the Free State a great accession of strength, and it solved a question that had been a cause of irritation for 20 years. Clerk’s cancellation of the treaties in 1854 had left Kok without the Queen’s paper; Grey’s offer of Nomansland had given him a road; Harvey’s signature on the 26th gave Bloemfontein the unappropriated ground and the sovereign rights that Kok’s government had kept. The paper mattered because Philippolis had been the seat of Kok’s government north of the Orange, and because the cession of the 26th did not yet station a landdrost there: that court would be a question for the next session of the volksraad. [3]
Schoeman of the 14th of January, the 13th of February, and Quiet at the Close — South African Republic 1861
Civil strife in the South African Republic had commenced in September 1860. Pretorius had resigned the northern presidency on the 10th of September 1860, when the volksraad at Pretoria held that no one could be president of both republics at once. A mass meeting at Potchefstroom on the 8th and 9th of October set that volksraad aside. Of 1,000 burghers more than 700 approved the resolutions of that meeting. Stephanus Schoeman assumed duty as acting president; Willem Janse van Rensburg became acting commandant-general; Philip Coetzer of Lydenburg became a member of the executive council. A committee of five — D. Steyn, Preller, Lombard, Spruyt, and Bodenstein — was appointed to see the resolutions carried out. Pretorius had the Bloemfontein oath and not the northern one. The October meeting mattered because Schoeman held the chair by a popular vote that had dismissed the raad he now had to face. [3]
On the 14th of January the volksraad that had been dissolved by the revolution met at Pretoria on the summons of Acting President Schoeman. He held his office by the same authority that had dismissed this body, yet he now acknowledged its legal existence. The council of war of the Republic met at Pretoria at the same time. The committee appointed by the Potchefstroom meeting was there also. Antagonism to the volksraad was so strongly expressed by most of those who were thus drawn together that the majority of the members resigned after a session of a couple of hours. The sitting mattered because Schoeman had called a body his own revolution had abolished, and because that body lasted only a couple of hours before it broke. [3]
If the acting president had been a man of sound judgment he would after this at least have let matters rest. Instead, with his countenance, the volksraad came together again under protection of an armed force, and ordered legal proceedings against the Potchefstroom committee. On the 13th of February the members of the committee were brought to trial for sedition. The court consisted of two landdrosts, one of whom was Cornelis Potgieter of Lydenburg, their bitterest political opponent. The accused were found guilty by a jury, when Messrs. Steyn, Preller, Lombard, and Spruyt were sentenced to pay each a fine of £100, and Bodenstein to pay a fine of £15. The trial mattered because a court packed with a political opponent treated the Potchefstroom committee as seditious, and because those fines, not a new election, were Schoeman’s answer to the 700 votes. [3]
This proceeding caused great commotion throughout the Republic. A court of 12 members was elected by the people to settle matters, but beyond making some changes in the executive council it did nothing. Then Acting President Schoeman, to support his authority, assembled an armed force, which he placed under the orders of Mr. J. C. Steyn. Upon this Commandant Paul Kruger of Rustenburg called out the burghers of his district, and marched to Pretoria with a determination to drive out Schoeman and establish a better government. Kruger’s march mattered because two armed parties now faced each other at the seat of government, and because the fines of February had not closed the question they were meant to close. [3]
In order to prevent civil war, a number of influential men living in and near Pretoria interposed. At their recommendation, 3 men were elected from each of the commandoes to form a court to decide what should be done, and Pretorius was requested to act as its chairman. This court resolved that a new volksraad should be elected, to whose decisions all must bow; that the existing government should retain office until the meeting of the new volksraad; that the prosecutions for political offences should cease; and that the armed burghers should immediately return to their homes. These resolutions were acted upon. The commandants disbanded their forces, and at the close of the year 1861 all was again quiet. The court mattered because Pretorius, who held Bloemfontein and not Pretoria, was the man both commandoes would still take as chairman, and because quiet at the close of the year left Schoeman in the chair until a new raad could sit. [3]
Umtonga of February, Sirayo of the 28th of March, and Panda of the 5th of August — 1861
In February Umtonga, a son of Panda, fled from Zululand and sought protection from the landdrost of Utrecht, as Cetewayo had just put two members of the ruling family to death, and he feared for his life. He had with him another son of Panda and two indunas. In June 1860 J. H. Grobbelaar had appointed a commission to arrange with the Zulus for the erection of beacons along the boundary, and to acknowledge Cetewayo as heir to the chieftainship. The commission had also been to endeavour to obtain a cession of land around St. Lucia Bay, and of a roadway to that port. It consisted of Nicholas Smuts, landdrost of Utrecht, Andries Spies, Cornelis van Rooyen, Pieter Lavras Uys, and W. H. Uys. It had taken no immediate action in those matters, but it continued to be the recognised authority on the border for dealing with the Zulus. The flight mattered because a son of Panda was now in a republican drostdy, and because Cetewayo’s killings had made Umtonga a piece that Pretoria might use as Panda had once been used against Dingaan. [3]
A few weeks later Cetewayo sent a message to Landdrost Smuts thanking him for “detaining the fugitives,” and offering to make the people of Utrecht a present of a tract of land if they needed it. The object of the chief was apparent. He wished to prevent Umtonga’s being used against him in the same way that his father Panda had been used against Dingaan. The people of Utrecht had more land already than ten times their number could profitably occupy, but they were very willing to extend their border. Upon receipt of Cetewayo’s message, the commission called a public meeting, which was held at a place named Waaihoek. The meeting resolved to send Cornelis van Rooyen to learn what the chief wanted and what he proposed to give. The offer mattered because Utrecht could take a strip without a war, and because the price named was the fugitives, not a battle. [3]
Van Rooyen proceeded to the kraal Ondini, where he met Cetewayo, who offered to cede a strip of land along the border of Utrecht as far as a certain line which was named, if the fugitives and their cattle were given up. Van Rooyen was inclined to regard the proposal favourably, provided the lives of the fugitives were spared. Cetewayo promised that no harm should happen to them. It was then arranged that Van Rooyen should return and report to the Utrecht people, and that Cetewayo should await a reply at the kraal of the captain Sirayo, where he had assembled a large force. Upon the delivery of Van Rooyen’s report, the border commission went to Sirayo’s kraal, and, on the 28th of March, in the name of the South African Republic, formally acknowledged Cetewayo as heir to the Zulu chieftainship, and treated with him as the actual ruler of Zululand. They agreed to surrender Umtonga and the other fugitives, upon Cetewayo’s promising himself and sending two men of note to Utrecht to promise publicly that their lives would be spared, and Cetewayo agreed in consideration thereof to cede the land he had named. The 28th mattered because the Republic treated with the son, not with Panda, and because the heir’s mark was to be paid for with the brothers in Utrecht. [3]
Cetewayo sent Gebula, who had for 20 years been the recognised official Zulu messenger, and the captain Sirayo, to make the formal promise required by the border commission. On the 1st of April a meeting of the people of Utrecht took place at Waaihoek, at which the Zulu messengers were present. Cetewayo, with a strong army, was not far off, and it was generally believed that he would invade the district if his brothers were not placed under his surveillance. On the other hand, the safety of the refugees was promised, and a valuable strip of territory was offered, if they were surrendered. It did not take long to decide which course should be followed. Umtonga and his retinue were sent to Cetewayo, and to the honour of the Zulu chief he strictly kept his word and did no harm to any of them, though a careful watch was maintained over their movements. A deputation from the Utrecht meeting visited him, and on the 3rd of April he attached his mark to a formal deed of cession of the land agreed upon. Three of his brothers — Uhamu, Siwedu, and Siteku — also attached their marks to the document. The 3rd mattered because the strip was now on paper under Cetewayo’s mark, and because the fugitives were back in Zululand alive. [3]
While these events were taking place, the people of Natal were in a state of excitement, as they did not know for what purpose the large army under Cetewayo was massed so near their border. A military force was being got in readiness to repel an invasion, when the Zulu chief sent a peaceful message to the effect that it was only a big hunting party that he had with him. All this had happened without Panda, the nominal head of the tribe, being consulted or even made acquainted with it. The Utrecht people now considered that the validity of the cession might be questioned at some future time if any accident should happen to Cetewayo, and that it would therefore be advisable to obtain Panda’s approval. The man who was likely to have most influence with him was President Pretorius of the Orange Free State; for the Zulu chief could not comprehend republican institutions, but had a deep-seated respect for the son and heir of the famous commandant to whom he owed his life as well as his position. Through the medium of the acting government at Pretoria, it was arranged that a deputation, consisting of Advocate Proes and Messrs. Steyn and Viljoen, should visit Bloemfontein, nominally to discuss terms of union between the two republics, or, failing that, to decide the dispute concerning the Vaal river boundary, really to request Pretorius to accompany them to Panda’s kraal. The deputation mattered because Panda’s mark was the missing paper, and because only Pretorius was thought able to obtain it. [3]
On the 17th of May President Pretorius, accompanied by Messrs. Proes, Steyn, and Viljoen, left Bloemfontein. At Harrismith a commission from the Free State joined them, and a futile attempt was made to come to an agreement whether the Klip river or the upper Vaal should form the boundary between the two republics. The president and his associates then went on to Panda’s kraal, and had an interview with that chief. After an exchange of assurances of friendship, the object of the mission was made known, when Panda gave his consent to the arrangement concerning the land. The deed of cession signed by Cetewayo had not been brought with the deputation, but Panda promised to affix his mark to it whenever it might be sent to him. The president then returned by way of Potchefstroom to Bloemfontein, where he arrived on the 31st of July. A few weeks later a commission, consisting of Messrs. T. Potgieter, J. F. van Staden, and C. J. van Staden, visited Panda, and on the 5th of August the chief affixed his mark to a document ratifying the cession made by his son. Whether any discussion took place concerning St. Lucia Bay has never been known; but if a proposal to cede land there was made to the Zulu chief, it was certainly rejected. The line forming the boundary of the land added to the district of Utrecht ran from Rorke’s Drift on the Buffalo river, by a range of hills, to a point on the Pongolo. It was not beaconed off in 1861. The 5th of August mattered because Panda’s mark closed the paper that Cetewayo had signed on the 3rd of April, and because the strip from Rorke’s Drift to the Pongolo still had no beacons when the year ended. [3]