Letter of Pieter Retief.
“That this abandonment of our native country has occasioned us enormous and incalculable losses, but that notwithstanding this we on our side will not show any enmity towards the British nation.
“That consequently all trade and commerce between us and the British merchants will on our part be free and uninterrupted, as with all other nations, with this understanding that we desire to be considered as a free and independent people.
“That we have learnt with grief that almost all the native tribes by whom we are now surrounded have been instigated to attack us; but although we feel ourselves fully able to resist all our enemies, we would however beg of your Excellency to prevent, as far as lies in your power, such hostilities, so that we may not be compelled to spill human blood, which has already been the case with Moselekatse.
“That we will prove to the world by our conduct that it never has been our intention unlawfully to molest any nation or people; but that on the contrary we have no greater satisfaction than in the general peace and amity of all mankind.
“That, finally, we confidently trust that the British government will allow us to receive the amount of all the just claims and demands which we still have within the colony. I have &c.
“P. Retief.”
This letter seems to have taken a long time to reach the governor. On the 25th of October 1837 he wrote the following note upon it:
“A little time must be suffered to elapse before any answer be sent to this, and this of necessity, because there are three contending chiefs: Retief, Maritz (sic, it should be Potgieter), and Uys; and although Retief has now the greatest influence, yet it does not extend over the whole of the emigrants, nor is there any positive certainty that it will continue. Before the government condescends to treat with them at all, it must at least be certain that it treats with an acknowledged and undivided authority; this matter must lay by, therefore, for a while, which also may afford time for an answer to the dispatch of July last, in which the question is asked of his Majesty’s government ‘What are the relations to be in future kept between the emigrants and the colonial government?’ And in the meanwhile the emigrants are moving far out of contact with the Colony, to the eastward, so that there can arise in the interim no collision between them and the colonial authorities or inhabitants.—B. D’Urban.”
Historical Sketches.