ound the Transvaal and the
Orange Free State. As may be imagined at this juncture, the natural
hostility to the British, which has now become part of the Boer
character, was growing apace. The voluntary exiles from Natal, on
moving to the north of the Orange River, determined to evade the
British, and proclaim the whole of that locality an independent
Republic. The authorities at the Cape, however, frustrated the new
struggle for independence. They laid claim for Great Britain to the
whole territory east of E. long. 22 deg. and south of S. lat. 25 deg., with
the exception of the land already owned by Portugal or by friendly
native chiefs.

[Illustration: CAPE TOWN, DEVIL'S PEAK, TABLE MOUNTAIN, AND LION'S
HEAD FROM TABLE BAY.

Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen]

It may be remembered that one of the causes of the great Trek was
the restoration of their province to Kaffirs, thereby according
to the blacks an independence that was not enjoyed by the Boers.
No astonishment, therefore, will be felt at the exasperation of the
Boers when they found that the Cape Government had entered into
treaties with the Griquas--treaties which seemed to them to promise
more freedom to the savage than was accorded to themselves.
Grievances of many kinds--some real and some ridiculous--continued
daily to occur. Things serious and things trivial were liable to
cause them equal indignation. According to Livingstone, the ignorant
followers of Potgieter--who were posted at Magaliesberg, a thousand
miles from the Cape--were moved to wrath merely by the arrival of
Herschel's great telescope at the Cape Observatory! What right, said
they, had the Government to erect that huge instrument at the Cape
for the purpose of seeing what they were doing behind the Kashan
mountains?

But of just grievances they had several, and these Pretorius, as
spokesman of his people, wished to lay before the Governor at the
Cape. Sir Henry Pottinger, who occupied that post in 1847,
unfortunately declined the interview; consequently affairs went from
bad to worse. In the end of the year Sir Henry Smith arrived as
Governor of the colony, and great things were expected of him. He
knew the native races, he knew the Boers, and they both knew him.
Pretorius, who was arranging a final emigration from Natal, was
summoned to confer with the new Governor. Sir Henry wished to gauge
the feelings of the farmers prior to issuing a proclamation (dated
February 3, 1848), declaring the Q