828 EXPEDITION INTO 



quit-rent lands ; — and the losses which the frontier farmers 

 sustained in the last Kafir war, and for which they have 

 received no remuneration. In the opinion of the colonists, 

 these great and crying evils more than counterbalance the 

 perils attendant upon self-expatriation. If the few luxuries 

 known to the South Afiican settler be sacrificed by the step 

 — like Fabricius, he is rich in having- learned to lessen his 

 wants ; and whilst he still possesses the absolute necessaries 

 of fife, he enjo3^s that greatest of all privileges to the grazier 

 — fi'esh and unlimited pasturage for his flocks and herds. 

 Upon the slope of a verdant valley some fifty miles from 

 Port Natal, the picturesque and w^ell-watered town of Pieter 

 Maritz-burgh has already reared its infant head above the 

 surrounding hillocks. Nothing can exceed the beauty and 

 fertility of the country bordering on the new settlement. 

 Lands have been allotted, gardens parcelled out, and fields 

 planted, — hundreds, with their families and household stuff, 

 daily flocking thither even from the environs of Cape Town, 

 and verifying the prediction made to Her Majesty's Colonial 

 Secretary by his Excellency Sir Benjamin D'Urban, that 

 the subversion of his measures for the protection of the 

 border, would be inevitably followed by the desertion and 

 ruin of the Colony. 



So closes the brief summary of leading- events in the 

 emigration subsequent to my return from the interior— and 

 thus, for the present at least, has ceased the mortal struggle 

 which has so sadly thinned the ranks of the \\andering 

 Boors. Theirs is not j^et a bed of roses ; and it still remains 

 to be seen to what extent the hollow professions of Dingaan 

 are deserving of the confidence they have received. Although 

 no one will have approved the unholy contest in which the 

 emigrants have been embarked, few will have failed to sym- 

 pathize in their sufferings, or withheld the meed of praise 

 due to their perseverance and indomitable courage. Un- 



