AFRICANWARSAND WHITEINVADERS
During the early 1830s, some bold spirits among the Afrikaner popula-
tion began to canvass the idea of trekking out beyond the colony and
running their own affairs in their own way beyond British colonial limits.
By 1836, reconnaissance expeditions had revealed a crucial consequence of
the Mfecane-the
existence of fertile and apparently unpopulated
land in
two localities: on the highveld beyond the Orange River and below the
escarpment south of the Tugela River. During the next few years, several
large, organized groups trekked out of the colony with their wagons, cattle
and sheep, and personal possessions (map 5). By 1840, about six thousand
Afrikaner men, women, and children had migrated-about
one-tenth of
the white population
of the Cape Colony. Most of them were pastoral
farmers from the eastern districts, which lost about one-fifth of their white
population.
Accustomed to mobility, they had the skills necessary for the
migration. They took with them about as many Khoikhoi servants and
former slaves-the
unregarded members of their movement.
In the statement that Piet Retief sent to the Grahamstown Journal to
explain their decision, he said that they hoped that the British government