Chapter Seventeen.
A brief historical sketch of the Transvaal from 1825 to 1877.
It will only be necessary to touch very lightly on the principal and most important events that have occurred from the commencement of the invasion of the Kaffir chief, Moselikatze (pronounced Umseligas), to the time when the country was taken over by the British Government, as it is my intention to go into the history of this Republic only so far as will throw light on its physical geography.
In 1820 the powerful chief Moselikatze fled from Chaka, the king of Zululand, with all his people, and crossed the Drakensberg mountains to the north, into what is now the southern portion of the Transvaal and Free State. There he found the country thickly populated by various native tribes, living independent of each other in large kraals along the river-banks, fountains, and pans—many of these stone kraals are still in existence, but in ruins—the principal tribes being Makatees or Mahows, Bapedi, Bakala, Basutos, and some Bechuanas, Bushmen, also Hottentots, where they must have lived in peace for many generations, from the remains of extensive gardens now grown over with grass, proving, I think, they were not a wandering tribe, but a peaceful people, as the country was most suitable for agricultural purposes, being free from bush and comparatively level, with numerous streams of good water flowing in every direction. Moselikatze, with his several hundred warriors, soon cleared the country by the death and flight of these people; and eventually spreading northwards and towards the west, crossed the Vaal river, and occupied all the south part of what is now the Transvaal. Moselikatze, in 1825, pushed on his conquests where he found the country occupied by the Bahurutse tribe of Bechuanas, on the west of what is now Klein Marico, and fought a great battle with them at their station named Mosega, situated on a small branch of the Klein Marico river, above where Sindling’s post is now built, and defeated them with great slaughter, occupying the country, and taking possession of the station—situated in 25 degrees 40 minutes South latitude, 26 degrees 26 minutes East longitude, south of several picturesque hills, that appear by every indication to have been a volcano—and there he collected his forces, and there he seems to have remained until he was, in 1836, attacked by the emigrant Boers under one Potgieter, who suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Zulu chief, who nearly destroyed the Boer commando. Those who escaped fled to the Orange Free State on to Thaba Nchu, then occupied by the Barolong tribe of Bechuanas under the great chief Moroka, who died in 1880.
When the Boers reached Moroka’s town, they were reduced to the greatest extremity, and were received with the greatest hospitality and kindness by the natives; they remained until the following year, getting supplies and fitting out another commando at Thaba Nchu. Again they started on an expedition to attack Moselikatze, accompanied by a large force of Moroka’s people under his own command, whilst Gert Maritz commanded the Boer contingent. The present chief Montsioa, then a young man, also aided the Boers in person with men, and a small Griqua force, under a petty chief Bloem, completed the little army. A great part of Moselikatze’s warriors were killed, and he had to fly north with the remnant of his army, and eventually settled in the country his people now occupy called Matabeleland, showing that the main success of the Boers in gaining a footing in the Transvaal was through the Barolong tribe, of which the chief Montsioa was a captain.
In the same year Potgieter took possession of the south part of the Transvaal, then, as it is now, an open uninteresting country—rolling grass plains, with a few isolated hills; and he laid out the town of Potchefstroom, in 1839, which is partly called after his name and partly after the river upon which it is built, on an extensive open plain, as all towns were then built, that no enemy could advance to it without being seen, and it became the capital of the country until the seat of Government was removed to Pretoria in 1860. At that time the country was full of large game—elephants, rhinoceros, and giraffe browsed on the banks of the Vaal, down to the Orange river.
Soon after, Potgieter left Potchefstroom and went north-east, and laid out the village of Origstad, now a gold-field. Other Boers in 1847 followed, and being mounted on horses with rifles, had no difficulty in destroying the natives, who had only the assagai and arrows, as they advanced into the country.
Another party went south from Origstad, and built the town of Lydenburg, that district being formed into a republic, separate from the republic at Potchefstroom; but, by common consent, in 1860 they were united into one.