THE RISE AND FALL OF UPINGTONIA. 355 



they can help it with Boers, British, or Germans. 

 The result of this episode is that an important trade 

 route is now practically closed for years to come. 



Out of the great "Promised Land" expedition 

 of years before, which had set forth with such high 

 hopes, such boundless possibilities of land grabbing, 

 such dreams of pastoral wealth, but a small and 

 enfeebled remnant finally arrived back at Marico in 

 the Transvaal. But though in one sense theirs had 

 been a failure complete and miserable, in another 

 sense the survivors had some reason for pride and 

 gratulation. The expedition had endured for eleven 

 long years, and in the annals of this nation of trekkers 

 it will ever occupy the foremost place. In the 

 earlier days of the Transvaal and Free State, nay, 

 even of the Old Colony, the Boers became 

 remarkable for the length and severity of their 

 wanderings. Whole families existed for months and 

 years in their waggons, moving slowly onwards with 

 their flocks and herds, and such rude household 

 belongings as they could carry with them. But 

 there is no record at all approaching that of these 

 Trek Boers, who had thus regained the Transvaal 

 after eleven years of travel in the most dangerous 

 and remote portions of South Central Africa. Even 

 the Israelites in their wanderings never trekked more 

 persistently or more doggedly than these Afrikanders. 

 The foundation of the so-called Republic of 

 Upingtonia was based upon foundations unwise, 

 insecure, and improper, and its ending was not 

 unjustly doomed to misfortune ; but the struggles 

 of these frontier farmers had been of unexampled, 

 nay, of incredible severity, and it is impossible to 

 deny to the survivors some meed of admiration for 

 their stubborn and undaunted pluck. 



