ABSTRACT
During the 1820s catastrophe struck many of the inhabitants of the high veld area between the Drakensberg mountains, the Kalahari desert, and the Limpopo river. Some of the hunters and traders who travelled in the high veld left accounts of their experiences; and Dr. Andrew Smith, who led a large official expedition from the Cape Colony to the high veld in 1834–6, wrote copious notes. The Hlubi then split, some fleeing southwards, others, under Mpangazita, crossing the Drakensberg to the south-eastern high veld. By that time the Ndebele conquest state had become the dominant power on the entire high veld. Internal divisions bedevilled the history of the Natal Republic; they also bedevilled the history of the Voortrekkers on the high veld. Effective Voortrekker settlement on the high veld began with the arrival of the treks led by Potgieter and Sarel Cilliers early in 1836.
