ward to intimidate the nearest African chiefdoms in that direction, and
during 1841, the Volksraad decreed that not more than five African fami-
liesshould liveon one farm and that "surplus" Africans should be removed
to the south. Although the emigrants lacked the means to giveeffectto that
decision, it was the beginning of the end for their Natal Republic.f"
The British authorities learned of those developments with mixed feel-
ings. During the second quarter of the nineteenth century, British politi-
cians were averse to incurring the cost of further territorial expansion, since
92