“10. We purpose to establish our settlement on the same principles of liberty as those adopted by the United States of America, carrying into effect, as far as practicable, our burgher laws. Every person agreeing herewith will therefore attach his signature for the information of those who are still in doubt on the subject.
“P. L. Uys,
J. J. Uys,
J. P. Moolman,
H. J. Potgieter,
J. Landman,
And 165 others.”
Action of Pieter Retief.
At this time Mr. Retief was preparing to send an expedition against Moselekatse, to follow up the blow struck at Mosega in January 1837 by the commandos under Gerrit Maritz and Hendrik Potgieter. The Matabele had provoked hostilities by the robbery and massacre of a hunting party under Fieldcornet Stephanus Petrus Erasmus, of the Kraai river,[103] and of many emigrant families belonging to the party of Potgieter who had imprudently ventured across the Vaal. But this expedition was not carried out, Mr. Retief’s partisans assigning as a reason that they believed the Griquas under Adam Kok and Andries Waterboer would attack the camps while so many of the men were away, but the real cause probably being the dissensions between the emigrants themselves.
In October 1837 Mr. Retief, having found a pass in the Drakensbergen, with some of his followers went down into Natal, and Messrs. Potgieter and Uys determined to carry out the plan of attacking the Matabele again. Uys had no personal interest in the matter, for he had resolved to settle in Natal, but his sympathy with his countrymen led him to assist them against the barbarians who had done them so much injury. On the 19th of this month he concluded an agreement of friendship with Moroko, chief of the principal section of the Barolong at Thaba Ntshu, and immediately afterwards the two commandos set out from the camps on the border of the Caledon and at Winburg. One of the most important campaigns yet entered upon in South Africa between Europeans and Bantu had commenced.
Historical Sketches.
An account of this campaign has been given in my History of South Africa, and Dr. J. C. Voigt has entered even more fully into the details of the nine days’ struggle on the Marikwa than I did.[104] The result of this expedition was the flight of the whole Matabele tribe to the country north of the Limpopo, the opening of the territory now comprised in the Transvaal Province and the Orange Free State to European settlers, and the relief of the remnants of the Betshuana tribes from the misery in which they had been existing. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the victory on the Marikwa in November 1837 to civilisation and the happiness of both white and black people in South Africa. And yet Pieter Lavras Uys, one of the leaders of the little band of brave men who risked their lives against terrible odds and won it, is well nigh forgotten in the land he served so well.
On the 21st of July 1837 Mr. Retief had written to Sir Benjamin D’Urban a letter of which the following is a translation:
“The undersigned Pieter Retief, as conductor-in-chief of the united encampments, most humbly sheweth,
“That we as subjects of the British government during our distressed circumstances submitted our grievances to his Majesty the King; but as all our endeavours proved fruitless, we have ultimately found ourselves compelled to quit the land of our birth in order that we might not become guilty of opposition or rebellion against our government.