2. MARTHINIUS PRETORIUS (1819-1901), the eldest son of Andries, was appointed in Aug. 1853 to succeed his father as com mandant-general of Potchefstroom and Rustenburg, two of the districts into which the Transvaal was then divided. In 1854 he led his burghers against a chief named Makapan, who had mur dered a party of 23 Boers, including ten women and children. The natives were blockaded in a great cave in the Zoutpansberg, and about 3,00o were starved to death or shot as they emerged.
Having thus chastised Makapan's clan, Pretorius created a strong central Government, and from 1856 onward set to work to form one Boer State to include the Orange River burghers. In Dec. 1856 representatives of the districts of Potchefstroom, Rus tenburg and Pretoria met and drew up a constitution, and on Jan. 6, the "South African was formally constituted, Pretorius having been elected president on the previous day. Though the Boers of the Lydenburg, Utrecht and Zoutpansberg districts refused to acknowledge the new republic, Pretorius, with the active co-operation of Paul Kruger (q.v.), endeavoured (1857) to unite the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, and a commando crossed the Vaal to support Pretorius. The attempt at coercion failed, but in Dec. 1859 Pretorius was elected presi dent of the Free State. Pretorius had just effected a reconcilia tion of the Lydenburg Boers with those of the other districts of the Transvaal, and he assumed office at Bloemfontein in Feb. 186o. But the anarchy in the Transvaal effectually weaned the Free State burghers from any thought of immediate amalgama tion with their northern neighbours. Pretorius, however, continued to intervene in the affairs of the Transvaal and at length (April 15, 1863) resigned his Free State presidency. Acting as mediator between the various Transvaal parties Pretorius in Jan. ended the civil strife, and in May following once more became president of the South African republic—now for the first time a united community.
To Pretorius more than any other man was due the welding of the Transvaal Boers into one nation. Pretorius contemplated indefinite expansion of the Transvaal State north, east and west. In April 1868, on the report of gold discoveries at Tati, he issued a proclamation annexing to the Transvaal on the west the whole of Bechuanaland and on the east territory up to and including part of Delagoa Bay. Portugal at once protested, and in 1869
its right to the bay was acknowledged by Pretorius, who in the same year was re-elected president. The Boer claim to the whole of Bechuanaland was not pressed by Pretorius in the face of British opposition, but in 187o, when the discovery of diamonds along the lower Vaal had led to the establishment of many diggers' camps, an attempt was made to enforce the claims of the Trans vaal to that district.
Pretorius held repeated conferences with the Bechuana chiefs, but failed to persuade them to join the Transvaal to "save" their territory from the British. Finally, without consulting his col leagues, he agreed to refer the question of the boundary to the arbitration of R. W. Keate, then lieutenant-governor of Natal. The award, given on Oct. 17, 1871, was against the Boer claims. Pretorius loyally accepted the decision, but it aroused a storm of indignation in the Transvaal. The Volksraad refused to ratify the award and thereupon Pretorius resigned the presidency (Nov. 1871).
Pretorius then temporarily retired from politics, but after the first annexation of the State by Great Britain he acted (1878) as chairman of the committee of Boer leaders who were seeking the restoration of their independence. He was arrested in Jan. 188° by order of Sir Garnet Wolseley on a charge of treason. (See the Blue Book [C. 2584] of 1880 for details of this charge.) He was admitted to bail, and shortly afterwards urged by Wolseley to accept a seat, which he declined, on the executive council. In December of the same year he was appointed, with Paul Kruger and P. Joubert, to carry on the government on the part of the insurgent Boers. He was one of the signatories to the Pretoria convention, and acted as a member of the triumvirate until the election of Kruger as president in May 1883. He then withdrew from public life ; but lived to see the country re-annexed to Great Britain, dying at Potchefstroom on May 19, 1901. Within four months of his death he had visited Louis Botha and Schalk Burger, on behalf of Lord Kitchener, with the object of ending the war.
For the elder Pretorius see G. M. Theal, Compendium of the History and Geography of South Africa (3rd ed. 1878), and History of South Africa, vol. iv. [1834-54] (1893). For the younger Pretorius see vol. v. of the same series.