beat
back the attack. By the Zulu raids and massacres and wars, the whole
country from the seaboard of Natal nearly to the junction of the Orange
and Vaal was desolated, and the native tribes of the region almost
destroyed. Thus great tracts of land were opened to the advance of the
migrating Boers, but the push of the trekking pioneers soon brought
them in conflict with Umsilikazi and Dingaan.
Then
the remarkable traits of this peculiar people stood out in high relief.
To English immigrants, jostling the old settlers, the ordinary Boer
appeared a Dutch clodhopper, sullen and jealous, unkempt in person and
dress, immovably set in his traditional ways, pig-headed in his
obstinate prejudices, a block to every suggestion of progress,
Pharasaical in his prayers, absurd in his
