Originally, at the time of the great Trek, a small portion of land was seized from natives who fled before the pioneers, and settled in what is now known as Matabeleland. Other Boers soon joined their comrades, and, by applying the steady policy of "grab and hold" (a policy that, unfortunately, has not been imitated by ourselves), they gained strip on strip and acre on acre of land till the Transvaal became the vast province it now is. It expanded first into a portion of Zululand; later on, lapped over into Swaziland. By degrees it encroached on the British boundaries, and most probably would have gone on encroaching had not active steps been taken to save the north from the invaders.
The original Voertrekkers, or pioneers, came in three detachments. British-born subjects, but discontented with British civilisation, they moved on from Natal, whence they were chased by the Union Jack, and settled themselves first in land captured from King Umziligatze, secondly in Lydenburg and Dekaap, and thirdly in the Zulu country. The history of this Zululand expansion remains to be told. At present it is interesting to follow the geographical growth of the state which has become so troublesome, and whose self-assertion has increased according to its size.
Originally each Boer was entitled to a farm with a minimum of 6000 acres of the "Transvaal," and this custom of apportioning 6000-acre farms lasted as long as the Kaffir lands lasted. The Boers, always working on the principle that "God helps those who help themselves," helped themselves freely, sometimes with bloodshed and sometimes without, until they became owners of vast tracts of country, whose boundaries had never been discussed, far less fixed.
Land was apparently cheap at that time, for trustworthy authorities declare that it was purchasable at from a farthing to a penny per acre.
The area of the Transvaal before the Boers began to migrate there has been eloquently described as the hunter's Arcadia. Mr. Gordon Cumming gives a graphic account of the scene:—
"It was truly a fair and boundless prospect. Beautifully wooded plains and mountains stretched away on every side to an amazing distance, until the vision was lost among the faint blue outlines of the distant mountain ranges. Throughout all this country, and vast tracts beyond, I had the satisfaction to reflect that a never-ending succession of herds of every species of noble game which the hunter need desire pastured there in undisturbed security; and as I gazed I felt that it was all my own, and that I at length possessed the undisputed sway over a forest, in comparison with which the tame and herded narrow bounds of the wealthiest European sportsman sink into utter insignificance."
The number of elephants and lesser game bagged by Mr. Gordon Cumming after this touching meditation fully bore out his hopes.
But the most interesting account of the Transvaal, before the invasion of white men, is to be found in Captain William Cornwallis Harris's account of his expedition into the interior of South Africa in the years 1836 and 1837. He paints the new country in colours lively and alluring:—
"Instead of the dreary waste over which we had lately passed, we might now imagine ourselves in an extensive park. A lawn, level as a billiard-table, was everywhere spread with a soft carpet of luxuriant green grass, spangled with flowers, and shaded by spreading mokaalas—a large species of acacia which forms the favourite food of the giraffe. The gaudy yellow blossoms with which these remarkable trees were covered yielded an aromatic and overpowering perfume—while small troops of striped quaggas, or wild asses, and of brindled gnoos ... enlivened the scene.
"I turned off the road," he continues, "in pursuit of a troop of brindled gnoos, and presently came upon another, which was followed by a third still larger—then by a vast herd of zebras, and again by more gnoos, with sassaybys and hartebeests pouring down from every quarter, until the landscape literally presented the appearance of a moving mass of game."