establishing an independent community northwards free from
British restraint.

The British authorities appeared at that time not to fully realize that
that movement was rife with future dangers and complications to their
own colonial interests, that it meant the creation of a nucleus of a
people openly averse to the English, and who would independently carry
out practices in near proximity, especially in dealing with aborigines,
which would seriously compromise them and become a standing menace
against peaceful expansion and civilization.

It was, on the other hand, anticipated that the movement could only end
in disaster, the people being too few to make a successful stand against
the numerous hostile Kaffir tribes. The Government, therefore, refrained
from preventive measures, and confined its efforts to discouraging the
emigration and to reconcile the malcontents. Those efforts, however,
proved fruitless; the people held to their project with resolute
fearlessness and self-confidence, and were even content to sacrifice
their farms and homesteads, their sale being in some cases forbidden by
special enactment.

The terms of "Boer" and "Boer nation" do not convey or mean anything
disparaging, rather the contrary. Boer simply means farmer, as a rule
the proprietor of a farm of about 3,000 to 10,000 acres, who combines
stock-breeding with a variety of other farming enterprises as well,
according to the soil and locality. As a national designation, the term
"Boer" conveys the distinction from the recently arrived Dutchman, who
is called "Hollander." Hollanders, again, delight of late to claim the
Boer nation as their kith and kin, but prefer to ignore the existence of
the French Huguenot factor.

The great "trek," with families and movables, as the emigration movement
is called, occurred in 1836; some families started even before, and
other contingents followed shortly afterwards. After many vicissitudes
and nearly twenty years of wanderings, and a nomadic life attended with
untold hardships and dangers, intermittent conflicts with native tribes,
and at times also contests with British forces, they were eventually
permitted, under treaty with England, to settle down and to constitute
the independent Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics. That was in
1854 and 1852 respectively.

But, until then, progress in the British colonies and peaceful relations
with the several Kaffir nations had at times been sadly impeded b