The "Great Trek"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23879, 1 February 1941, Page 3 (Supplement)

The "Great Trek"

Story Behind South Africa's New Stamps

many, boys and girls who collect stamps have seen copies of South Africa's recent special issue released to celebrate the centenary of the completion of the Great Trek. They and others will be anxious to hear the story behind the stamps—the story of a stirring episode, perhaps

the outstanding event in the history of the Dominion. The Portuguese were the first to discover southern Africa, but the Dutch were the first settlers. The Dutch farmers, known as Boers, settled in the provinces at the extreme south of the continent, but when the British took over the colony a century ago, the Boers decided to move further north, to new territory inhabited only by savages. The Great Trek is a story of courage and hardihood in the face of terrible, unknown perils. Dangerous animals, treacherous natives, plagues and reptiles lurked in the wild territory as they pushed on, seeking new homes. They crossed unbridged rivers, traversed unchartered territory, to establish finally a permanent home in the middle lands of South Africa. One of the leaders of the Trek was Pieter Retief, who, in October, 1837, visited the kraal of Dingaan, a Zulu chieftain, to ask for territory for the

By RONALD M. YOUNGER

wandering farmers. Dingaan promised him this on condition that Retief would recover cattle stolen from Dingaan by another native chief. Retief regained the cattle, and Dingaan signed a treaty giving him territory. But the chieftain had only treachery in mind, and Retief's party of 67 whites and their faithful Hottentot servants, were killed. Later, a party of 500 Boers were murdered by Dingaan's men. By December, the Boers had received reinforcements, and on Sunday, the 16th., 10,000 Zulus attacked them beside the Umslatos River. The whites had-firearms, the natives none, and in three hours the Zulus were defeated, and Dingaan fled. The Boers thereupon established a settlement there. Now Natal, it was annexed by the British in 1854. The designs of the special South African stamps issued recently in commoration of the Great Trek "are very interesting. The Id value, printed in blue and carmine, shows an old Boer-

trekker wheel, with Bkid applied, descending a mountain side. On the ljd value, a trekking family is shown offering prayers at dawn. Four other special stamps were issued for the occasion, and these each carry a sur-tax to raise funds for a monument to the earl; trekkors.