is really exceptional man and the body of his pastoral
followers.

Pretorius, bent on the punishment of the treachery of Dingaan, set
out, as has been said, with his expedition in the winter of 1838.
This expedition has been named by the Boers the Win Commando. He had
but three small pieces of cannon and a force composed of about four
hundred white men and some native auxiliaries, yet the admirable
tactics of Pretorius, the stout hearts and fine shooting of his
followers, combined to bring about a victory over the Zulus. These
were totally routed, and lost one third of their number.

The bravery and splendid persistence of the Boers filled all hearts
with admiration, particularly when, after several well-directed
attacks, they eventually succeeded in utterly breaking the Zulu
power. Dingaan was dethroned and driven into exile, and his kraal
and property burnt. A Christian burial service was read over the
place where lay the bones of the assassinated Retief and his
companions. The date, the 16th December 1838, on which the Zulu
power met its first check from white men, is one ever remembered in
Boer history. It goes by the name of Dingaan's Day, and is annually
celebrated with great rejoicings throughout the Transvaal.

The Boers had now succeeded in inspiring wholesome awe in the heart
of Panda, the new chieftain who occupied the place once held by his
brother, the exiled Dingaan. He was not a person of bellicose
disposition, and thinking discretion the better part of valour, was
ready enough to swear to keep peace with his late enemies. In these
circumstances the Boers with prayer and thanksgiving were able to
pursue the promptings of their long-checked ambition. Soon several
hundreds of waggons drawn by long teams of oxen came lumbering into
Natal, for the purpose of establishing there the Republic, which had
so often been planned out in imagination and never yet found any but
an abortive existence. This ideal State was eventually formed and
called the Republic of Natalia, and it enjoyed for several years an
independent existence.

As Natal became the first cause of armed conflict between the
British and the Boers, its then position in regard to the
authorities at the Cape may as well be reviewed. Though the new
Republic maintained its perfectly independent existence, its
inhabitants were still mentioned by the Governor of Cape Colony as
British subjects. It must be remembered that prior to the
occupation of Nat