settled government and payment of taxes--The Dutch patriotic party--Form
of government previous to the annexation--Courts of law--The commando
system--Revenue arrangements--Native races in the Transvaal._

The Transvaal is a country without a history. Its very existence
was hardly known of until about fifty years ago. Of its past we know
nothing. The generations who peopled its great plains have passed
utterly out of the memory and even the traditions of man, leaving no
monument to mark that they have existed, not even a tomb.

During the reign of Chaka, 1813-1828, whose history has been sketched
in a previous chapter, one of his most famous generals, Mosilikatze,
surnamed the Lion, seceded from him with a large number of his soldiers,
and striking up in a north-westerly direction, settled in or about what
is now the Morico district of the Transvaal. The country through which
Mosilikatze passed was at that time thickly populated with natives
of the Basutu or Macatee race, whom the Zulus look upon with great
contempt. Mosilikatze expressed the feelings of his tribe in a practical
manner, by massacring every living soul of them that came within his
reach. That the numbers slaughtered were very great, the numerous ruins
of Basutu kraals all over the country testify.

It was Chaka's intention to follow up Mosilikatze and destroy him,
but he was himself assassinated before he could do so. Dingaan, his
successor, however, carried out his brother's design, and despatched
a large force to punish him. This army, after marching over 300 miles,
burst upon Mosilikatze, drove him back with slaughter, and returned
home triumphant. The invasion is important, because the Zulus claim the
greater part of the Transvaal territory by virtue of it.