Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/235

NATAL. 179 But Dingaan, king of tho Zulus, who had at first encouraged the new arrivals to take possession of the territory depopulated hy his brother Cliaka, became alarmed at this continually increasing stream of foreign immigration. Under the pretext of a public feast to cqlebrate the cession of some lands to the Boers, he invited them to his kraal and caused them all to be treacherously massacred. Thus began a terrible war, which was carried on by both parties with relentless cruelty. In the first serious engagement on the banks of a southern affluent of tho Tugela, the Boers were routed with a loss of seven hundred men, women, and children. The name of "Weenen, or "Weeping," still marks the spot where this butchery took place. Nevertheless the survivors, entrenched within the enclosure formed by their waggons, and keeping up a deadly fire from this vantage ground, succeeded at last in repulsing the savage hordes surrounding the encampment. Firearms here got the better of the assegai, and the whites soon resumed the offensive. They even crossed the Tugela and invaded Zululand itself. In 1840 they had already gained the upper hand, and having dethroned Dingaan, secured a steadfast ally in his brother and successor, Panda. These events were followed by the establishment of tho free republic of Natalia, a name by which this region is still known to the Boers of Transvaal. To the capital of the new state they gave the name of Pieter Maritzburg, in which are commemorated the two chief pioneers of the great trek : Pieter Retief and Gevrit Maritz. But the government of Cape Colony refused to recognise the new state, and hastened to despatch some troops in order to take possession of the country in the name of Great Britain. This somewhat high-handed measure has given rise to much angry discussion, and the supreme authority has been severely censured by carping tongues for having pursued a career of ambitious conquest under the cloak of humanitarian sentiments. The English, it was said, took possession of " Natalia " professedly through philanthropic motives, in order to protect the Dutch from the Zulus and the Zulus from the Dutch, whereas the latter neither demanded nor needed protection.* But the prior rights of the English settlers at Durban hud to be considered, and it was notorious that wherever they estab- lished themselves in an independent position, the Dutch trekkers were introducing the institution of domestic slavery, which had been abolished by the Imperial Government throughout the South African colonies. In any case, after having successfully resisted the invaders in a first engage • ment, the Boers were compelled to yield to numbers, and gradually withdrew to the upland valleys. Some remained behind, and in course of time became merged in the British population. But most of the Dutch immigrants, enraged at seeing a country wrested from them which they had conquered at the price of so much blood, again set out on their wanderings in quest of a permanent home, and after retracing their steps across the Drakenberg Range, joined their fellow-country- men, who had already reached the Transvaal. At present, except in a few central districts and in the extreme north-west corner of the colony, no trace remains of the Dutch in Natal beyond a few geographical names. English is everywhere • Anthony Trollope, South Africa.