e Cape colonists were
exceedingly hard hit; and though the owners of slaves were
compensated to the tune of a million and a quarter (the slaves were
valued at three millions sterling), they continued to maintain a
simmering resentment. Added to this came the intervention of the
missionaries, who attempted to instil into the Boer mind a sense of
the equality, in the sight of Heaven, of the black and the white
races.

At this time 12,000 Kaffirs had crossed over the border and invaded
the settlements, dealing death and destruction wherever they went.
They were finally repulsed by the British, and Sir Benjamin D'Urban,
the Governor at the Cape, proclaimed the annexation of the country
beyond the Keiskamma, on the eastern boundary of the Colony, as far
as the Kei. But no sooner had he accomplished this diplomatic move
in his wise discretion, than orders came from the British Government
to the effect that the land was to be restored to the Kaffirs and
the frontier boundary moved back to its original place--Keiskamma.
Sir Benjamin D'Urban carried out these orders much to his disgust,
for he deemed the annexation of the province to be necessary to the
peace of all the surrounding districts. But this was neither the
first nor the last occasion in the history of Cape government on
which men of practical experience have had to give way before wise
heads in Downing Street arm-chairs.

This action on the part of the Government was as the last straw to
the overladen camel. The patience of the Dutch Boers broke down. The
introduction of a foreign and incomprehensible tongue, the abolition
of slavery, and finally the restoration to the despised Kaffirs of a
conquered province, were indignities past bearing. There was a
general exodus. Off to the neighbourhood of the Orange and the Vaal
Rivers lumbered the long waggon trains drawn by innumerable oxen,
bearing, to pastures new and undefiled by the British, the irate
Boers and their household gods. It was a pathetic departure, this
voluntary exile into strange and unknown regions. The first
pioneers, after a long and wearisome journey to Delagoa Bay, fell
sick and retraced their steps to Natal only to die. The next great
company started forth in the winter of 1836. Some went to the
districts between the Orange and the Vaal Rivers--the district now
known as the Orange Free State; others went into the country north
of the Vaal River--the district now called the Transvaal; while
others