more
than skin deep, from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. On
the second day he caused him to be bitten by dogs. On the third day
Sapusa said to Dingaan,' Are you still the rainmaker, greatest of men
? The sun is rising, you shall not see it set.' Then he took assagais
and bored Dingaan's eyes out, and when the sun set, Dingaan died, for
he had had no food or water for three days. Such was the end of
Dingaan." 1
So
the Boers finally stayed the sweep of the Zulu scourge which had laid
waste a great stretch of land north of the Cape settlements. Upon the
defeat and flight of Umsilikazi, the victorious commandant, Hendrik
Potgieter, proclaimed that all the territory overrun by this chief was
forfeited to the pioneer Boers. This claim covered the greater part of the
late South African Republic, and half, at least, of what is now the
Orange River Colony. In this assertion there was no recognition of any
sovereignty of Great Britain or attachment to the Cape Colony. It was
the view of the Boers that the land which they took was theirs by right
of capture and forfeit, and that they were independent adventurers with
no ties of allegiance. A simple form of republican government was
established for the Boers, north of the Orange River, by a general
assembly of the pioneers at Winburg in June, 1837, and a few years
later, on the land won from Dingaan, on the other side of the
Drakens-berg, the republic of Natalia was declared to extend from the
Umzimbulu to the Tugela. Outside of these crudely organized political
associations there were from sixteen to twenty pioneer companies,
headed by field cornets, which were practically as independent as the
native tribes north of the Drakensberg. Neither of the republican
creations was recognized by Great Britain, and, in 1842, Port Natal and
the seaboard of the republic were captured, though Andries Pretorius
repulsed the first British attack at Congella with heavy loss. In the
following vear Natal was formally declared to be a British Colony, and
several thousand British immigrants were brought in to take the
1 Of the basic fact of the assassination of Dingaan by a Swazi there is no question.
