nd all that he had taken the trouble to do was
ultimately undone. In 1852 the Government at home declared its
policy to be the ultimate abandonment of the Orange River
Sovereignty. For this pusillanimous policy there were several
reasons, the greatest being a fear of a Basuto rising and the
trouble it would entail. The British Government therefore decided to
maintain its rights over the Transvaal no further, and by the Sand
River Convention, signed on the 17th of January 1852, the emigrant
farmers beyond the Vaal River were given the right to manage their
own affairs, subject only to the condition that they should neither
permit nor encourage slavery.

About this time commenced the threatened rise of the Basutos in the
neighbourhood of the Orange River territory. The Basutos are a
branch of the Bechuana race, who had been formed by their chiefs
Motlume and Moshesh into a powerful nation, which could hold its own
against Boer or Zulu. With this race the Home Government desired to
have nothing to do, and the Colonial Office, viewing the political
game as not worth the candle, definitely withdrew from the Orange
River Sovereignty, leaving the Free State to come into being, and
devise its own plans for overawing its enemies on the other side of
the border. Accordingly, in 1854, Sir Harry Smith's programme of
annexation was entirely wiped out, British sovereignty renounced,
and the Orange Free State left to become a Republic and take care of
itself!

CHAPTER I

THE GROWTH OF THE TRANSVAAL

Fifty years ago there was no Transvaal. To-day its area is rather
larger than Great Britain. It extends over some 75,000,000 acres.

Originally, at the time of the great Trek, a small portion of land
was seized from natives who fled before the pioneers, and settled in
what is now known as Matabeleland. Other Boers soon joined their
comrades, and, by applying the steady policy of "grab and hold" (a
policy that, unfortunately, has not been imitated by ourselves),
they gained strip on strip and acre on acre of land till the
Transvaal became the vast province it now is. It expanded first into
a portion of Zululand; later on, lapped over into Swaziland. By
degrees it encroached on the British boundaries, and most probably
would have gone on encroaching had not active steps been taken to
save the north from the invaders.

The original _Voertrekkers_, or pioneers, came in three detachments.
British-born subjects, but discontented