The Historiographical Development of the Concept “mfecane” and ...

hand, to gather geographical, biological, botanical and geological information in
the “blank space”, with particular attention to ascertaining the flow of the major
rivers (Gariep, Vaal, Marico, Maputo, Caledon). On the other hand, to report on
the African population in the “blank space”, by describing ‘an exact portrait of
their life as respects their condition, arts and policy, their language, their
external appearance, population, origin, and relation to other tribes … resources
or stores or agents of commerce or their preparation to receive Christianity’,
which reflected the interest of a large part of the Institution’s membership. 109
The scientific motive was thus entwined with the commercial from the
beginning. It is interesting that this same Cape Town merchant elite had sent a
”Memorial” to the British government in January 1834, urging it to annex Natal,
based on information obtained during Smith’s journey to Natal in 1832. 110 Even
though this was an unofficial expedition, Governor D’Urban ordered Lt. Eddie of
the 98th Regiment and seven soldiers to accompany it. 111 D’Urban’s
predecessor had given Smith secret political instructions on the eve of his
scientific expedition to Natal in 1832, which raises the question as to whether
such instructions were also given to Smith in 1834. 112
By the time Smith’s expedition left the colony in the middle of 1834, he had
been made aware through the press that missionaries lived amongst certain
chiefdoms in the Caledon Valley, of whom very little was otherwise known. 113 In
October 1834 the French missionaries introduced him to Moshoeshoe, as the
Morena of the “Bashootoo”, at his capital Thaba Bosiu. Smith followed the
French missionaries in his very positive assessment of the Morena and his
state. Moshoeshoe informed Smith of the invasions of the Ngwane and Hlubi
109 'Instructions Addressed to the Director of the Expedition into Central Africa', The South
African Quarterly Journal, 2 (April-June 1834), 9.
110 A. Smith, ‘Historical Précis of Natal, May 1834’, in Kirby, Andrew Smith and Natal, 145-76.
111 'Association for Exploring Central Africa', 31.
112 Kirby, Andrew Smith and Natal, 1.
113 [Wesleyan Minister], 'Letter of 10 December 1833'. ‘Investigatus’, 6 February 1834. Edwards,
'Extract from a Letter, 17 March 1836', 349-50. See also J. Edwards, 'Extract from a Letter from
the Rev. J. Edwards, dated Mantatees, March 17th 1836', Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, 15
(October 1836), 789-790.
62