in a
serious war with the Kafirs of the south coast, and could spare no
troops for these northern troubles. So when Pretorius intimated that he
and the northern Boers wished to make some permanent and pacific
arrangement with Britain, which, though it did not claim their
territory, still claimed their allegiance, commissioners were sent to
negotiate with him and those of the northern or Transvaal group of
emigrants who recognized his leadership, for there were other factions
who stood apart by themselves. Thus in 1852 a convention was concluded
at Sand River with "the commandant and delegates of the Boers living
beyond the Vaal," by which the British government "guaranteed to the
emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal River the right to manage their own
affairs, and to govern themselves according to their own laws without
any interference on the part of the British government," with provisions
"disclaiming all alliances with any of the coloured nations north of the
Vaal River," permitting the emigrants to purchase ammunition in the
British colonies, and declaring that "no slavery is or shall be
permitted or practised by the farmers in the country north of the Vaal
River."

From this Sand River convention the South African Republic, afterward
slowly formed out of the small communities which then divided the
country, dates its independence; and by the same instrument it
practically severed itself from the Boer emigrants who were left in the
Orange River Sovereignty south of the Vaal, conduct which the republican
party among these emigrants deemed a betrayal. That Sovereignty remained
British, and probably would have so continued but for an unexpected
incident. It was still vexed by the war with the Basutos, and when
General Cathcart, who had now come out as Governor of the Cape, attacked
Moshesh with a considerable force of British regulars, he was drawn into
a sort of ambush in their difficult country, suffered a serious reverse,
and would have been compelled to invade Basutoland afresh with a larger
army had not Moshesh prudently asked for peace. Peace was concluded. But
the British government was weary of these petty and apparently unending
native wars, and soon after the news of the battle with Moshesh reached
London, the Duke of Newcastle, and Lord Aberdeen's government, in which
he was colonial secretary, resolved to abandon the Sovereignty
altogether.

To those who look back on 1853 with the eyes of 1899 this seems a