portion of her own
subjects as an independent Republic, but that on their receiving a
military force from the Colony, their trade would be placed on the
footing of the trade of a British possession." But the Boers flouted
authority--they refused to accept the situation. They put forth a
proclamation appealing against the oppression of man and to the
justice of God, with all the fervour of the Old Testament Christians
they were.

The arrogance of Pretorius and his crew had now so seriously
increased that Sir George Napier, seeing danger ahead, decided to
establish a camp near the border of the State, and Durban was
occupied. Captain Smith, in command of some three hundred men, made
a rapid march across country to Natal, merely to be informed that
the Boers had placed themselves under the protection of Holland.

It may be noted that when this statement reached the ears of the
King of Holland, he emphatically repudiated it. He addressed the
British Government, saying "that the disloyal communication of the
emigrant farmers had been repelled with indignation, and that the
King of Holland had taken every possible step to mark his
disapproval of the unjustifiable use made of his name by the
individuals referred to." Captain Smith, who fortunately had not
been imposed upon by what the Boers considered their neat ruse, made
preparations to attack them. But he overestimated his own or
underrated his adversary's strength. He fell into ambush and lost
heavily. He was then driven to entrench himself in Durban. One of
his men managed to escape, however, and by riding to Grahamstown
through dangerous country, contrived to convey the intelligence of
Captain Smith's misfortune, and to bring reinforcements to his aid.
These reinforcements arrived in Durban harbour on the 25th of June
1842. At sight of the British frigate and the goodly display of
redcoats, the Boers, who had been besieging Captain Smith for a
month with three guns and six hundred men, made good their escape,
leaving Pretorius no alternative but to make terms. Thus Natal
became a British possession.

In 1844 the place was declared to be a dependency of Cape Colony.
Many of the emigrants admitted themselves to be British subjects and
remained there, but the great majority took to their waggons and
lumbered back across the Drakenberg to their old settling-place.

There the original Voortrekkers had scattered themselves on both
sides of the Vaal River, and helped to f