Change text size here:

At this point in the affairs of the highveld Voortrekkers, Sir Harry Smith enters the arena.

Sixty at the time, he was a man of distinguished military pedigree and bloated ego. Although Boer and Brit alike had admired him at one time (during a term in South Africa ten years previously), he was soon despised by the former.

Exceeding even his extravagant bounds, he summarily annexed all the land between the Orange and Vaal rivers and called it the Orange River Sovereignty. He then dispatched Major Warden to set up post at a farm called Bloemfontein.

Next . . . Final settlement and the end of the Great Trek.