e a dyke of igneous
rock, thirty feet wide, strikes up the face of the hill from the
north-north-west, cutting through the sandstone precipice. The
decomposition of this dyke has opened a practicable path, from fifteen
to twenty-five feet in width, to the top. The top is a large grassy
flat, with springs of water and plenty of good pasture.

It was this natural fortress that the Basuto chief Mosheshwe, or, as he
is usually called, Moshesh, chose for his dwelling and the stronghold of
his tribe, in A.D. 1824. The conquests of the ferocious Tshaka had
driven thousands of Kafirs from their homes in Natal and on both sides
of the Vaal River. Clans had been scattered, and the old dynasties
rooted out or bereft of their influence and power. In the midst of this
confusion, a young man, the younger son of a chief of no high lineage,
and belonging to a small tribe, gathered around him a number of minor
clans and fugitives from various quarters, and by his policy--astute,
firm and tenacious--built them up into what soon became a powerful
nation. Moving hither and hither along the foot of the great Maluti
range, his skilful eye fixed on Thaba Bosiyo as a place fit to be the
headquarters of the nation. There was good land all round, the
approaches could be easily watched, and the hill itself, made almost
impregnable by nature, supplied pasture for the cattle as well as
perennial water. By tactfully conciliating the formidable tribes and
boldly raiding the weaker ones, Moshesh rapidly acquired wealth (that is
to say, cattle), strength and reputation, so that in 1836, when the
emigrant Boers moved up into what is now the Free State, he was already
the second power north of the mountains, inferior only to the terrible
Mosilikatze. The latter on one occasion (in 1831) had sent a strong
force of Matabili against him. Moshesh retired into his hill, which he
defended by rolling down stones on the assailants; and when the invaders
were presently obliged to retreat for want of food, he sent supplies to
them on their way back, declaring his desire to be at peace with all
men. The Matabili never attacked him again. In 1833 he intimated to the
missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Society his willingness to receive
them, planted them at Morija, and gave them afterwards their present
station at the foot of Thaba Bosiyo, his own village being, of course,
on the top. Their counsels were of infinite value to him in the
troublous times that followe