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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
The entry into the Zulu territory of Natal in 1837 of the Trekker leader Piet Retief; his meeting with the Zulu Chief Dingane; the resultant agreement (Retief recovers some stolen cattle in return for a concession to a part of Natal); the subsequent meeting of the two leaders; the untoward actions of Dingane (the killing in February 1838 of the unsuspecting Retief and his sixty-seven followers, and the mortifying and widespread attacks on all the Trekker encampments in Natal); the gathering of a new contingent of Trekkers; the defeat of Ding-ane's forces ten months later at ‘Blood River’; and, finally, the discovery in December 1838 (near the identifiable remains of Retief) of the agreement, the title deed to Natal--these events, tragic and dramatic, constitute a brief but special chapter of settler and, notably, of Afrikaner history.
The treaty's miraculous recovery, the eyewitness reports of its finding, the long line of historians crediting its authenticity, and the title deed's very genuineness all came under unexpected--and unwelcomed, suspicion, scrutiny and debate in the 1920s, however. To appreciate that debate it is necessary to begin at the beginning.
The French naturalist, traveler, and writer Louis A. Dele-gorgue, who was with the Trekkers during some of the time between 1838 and 1840, was probably one of the first to provide a connected published account--after the discovery of the treaty in December 1838--of the Retief-Dingane encounter. Thereafter Hendrik Cloete, who was sent by the Cape Government as a special commissioner to negotiate with the Volksraad of Natal in May 1843, set out a relatively full account of Retiefs misadventures in Natal.
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13. That is, Umgungundhlovu.
14. The area so designated covered virtually the present province of Natal and included the Port of Natal territory.
15. The treaty and certificate are reproduced from the facsimile published in Leyds, W.J., The First Annexation of the Transvaal (London, 1906).Google Scholar The treaty is also reproduced (not always in the same version) in Delegorgue, , Voyage, 2: 136Google Scholar; Chase, J.C., The Natal Papers, 1498-1843 (Grahams-town, 1843), part 2: 71–72Google Scholar; Bird, John, The Annals of Natal (2 vols.: Pietermaritzburg, 1888), 1: 366Google Scholar; Mackeurtan, , Cradle Days, 245–46.Google Scholar
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42. “I hereby certify that the above Document is a true Copy of the Original Grant made by Dingaan to the Emigrant Farmers and found on the murdered body of the late Pieter Retief, in my presence by Evert Potgleter on or about the 23rd day of December 1838” in Select Constitutional Documents Illustrating South African History, 1795-1910, ed. Eybers, G.W. (London, 1918), 149.Google Scholar
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66. See note 41 above.
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