ined quietly in the Colony. This plan was adopted.
Treaties were made in 1843 with Moshesh, the Basuto chief, and with Adam
Kok, a Griqua captain living on the Orange River, as a treaty had been
made nine years before with another Griqua leader named Waterboer, who
lived farther north (near the present site of Kimberley); and these
three states, all recognized by Britain, were intended to cover the
Colony on the side where troubles were most feared. But the arrangement
soon broke down, for the whites would not recognize a Griqua captain,
while the whole troubles between them and the natives continued.
Accordingly, a forward step was taken in 1846 by placing a few British
troops under a military resident at Bloemfontein, half-way between the
Orange and Vaal rivers, to keep order there. And in 1848 the whole
region from the Orange to the Vaal was formally annexed under the name
of the Orange River Sovereignty. The country had been without any
government, for the emigrants who dwelt in it had no organization of
their own, and did not recognize the republics beyond the Vaal.

This formal assertion of British authority provoked an outbreak among
those of the emigrants, all, or nearly all, of Boer stock, who clung to
their independence. Roused and reinforced by their Boer brethren from
beyond the Vaal, who were commanded by Andries Pretorius, the most
energetic and capable of the emigrant leaders, and the same who had
besieged the British troops at Port Natal, they attacked Bloemfontein,
obliged the Resident's small force to capitulate, and advanced south to
the Orange River. Sir Harry Smith, then Governor of the Cape, promptly
moved forward a small force, defeated the Boers in a sharp skirmish at
Boomplats (August 29, 1848), and re-established British authority over
the Sovereignty, which was not, however, incorporated with Cape Colony.
The Boers beyond the Vaal were left to themselves.

Peace, however, was not yet assured. Fresh quarrels broke out among the
native tribes, ending in a war between the Basutos and the British
Resident. Unsupported by a large section of the local farmers, who
remained disaffected to the government, and preferred to make their own
terms with the Basutos, and having only a trifling armed force at his
command, the Resident fared ill; and his position became worse when
Pretorius, still powerful beyond the Vaal, threatened to move in and
side with the Basutos. Cape Colony was at that moment involved