HISTORY. Before 1836 the region between the Vaal and Orange rivers was a wilderness. in habited by wandering hands of Bushmen and broken tribes of refugees from the armies of the great Zulu rulers. Chaka, Dingaan, and Slaseli kutse. In 1S36 there was a great emigration of Boers from Cape Colony, owing to dissatisfac tion with the British Government. This move ment. the 'Great Trek.' had Natal for its goal, but, the British not allowing the Boers to remain in possession of this region, a part of them set= tied in the country north of the Orange and another in the territory north of the Vaal. The republic thus established between the Orange and Vaal (1542) proved a disturbing neighbor to Cape Colony, so that after some friction it was forcibly annexed by the British in 1548. The country continued in their possession until 1554, when it was formally given up. The independ ence of the Free State was declared on February 23d and a constitution adopted on April 10th. which was revised February 9, MG, Slay S. 1579, and Slay 11. 1SOS. About the year IS62 a large number of Griquas (q.v.) sold their farms to the Free State Govern ment, and migrated in a body to the coast side of the mountains in independent Kalfraria, oc cupying a large tract of country there known by the name of No Slan's Land. In 1566 a treaty was concluded with Moshesh. chief of the Basuto., by which a 'portion of the territory known as Basuto Land was ceded to the Orange Free State. The boundaries agreed on by this treaty were, however, somewhat modified by the Governor of Cape Colony in 1569. The intimate relationship of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic established a commu nity of interests between them whenever local jealousies were put aside. and a party in each State always desired their union, or at least a close alliance. When in 1899 the jealousy be tween the Itpwrs and the Uitlanders, or foreign settlers in the two republics. together with the
pugnaeious diplomacy of President Kruger of the South African Itepublie and Joseph Chamber lain, the British Colonial Secretary, brougut On war between the countries they represented, the Orange Free State cast its lot with it. sister republic. This was in accordance with a treaty, arranged in April. IS97, for mutual support in ease of attacks upon the independence of either. After the first aggressive campaigns of the Boers, the orange Free State was overrun by the tide of British success: and an Slay 24. 1900. Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, commanding the British forces, issued at Bloemfontein, the cap ital, a proelaniation annexing the Orange Free State to the British Empire a. the Orange River Colony. The Orange Free State witnessed mueh of the guerrilla fighting after the formal annexa tion of the Boer republics; it was repeatedly traversed by British columns in 190P-1902. and its President. Stern, was one of the last to sub mit to the British. See THANsvAsz.; SOU'rit AFRICA ; Sot"ril AFRICAN \VAR.
00 RA Pit Johnson. .1fri'a (London. 1S54) : Keane, South ,tfrica. vol. ii. tilt., 18951; Theal, South Africa (ib.. 1899) : Norris-Newman, With the Boer's in the Transraal and Orange Foe slate is i i t,, 1442): Struben. Yours on the Geological Formation of South Africa and Its Mineral brsoure,s Ob., 18971: Bryce, Im pressions of South Africa fib.. 15971: Norris, The South African War tih., 10001: \Vright. Thirty Years in South Africa (ib.. 19001; Cres wicke, South Africa and th, Trawsraal Thar ( Edinburgh, 1900 ) : Keane. The Boer States, Land and People (1..aulon, 1900) : De \Vet. Igor Kampf zwischen Bur !trite (Leipzig, 1902) : id.. Int Kampf um Siitlafrika (Munich, 1902 et seq.) : Robinson, ,1 Lifetime in South Africa (London, 1900).