Mpande's - University of Zululand Institutional Repository

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land through legal negotiations with Mpande. He was convinced that they
would leave the area ifthe new British proclamation was implemented.'38
On 27 September 1847 West sent Harding to the Klip River area to
conduct the investigation. The Voortrekkers gave their co-operation to
Harding. n9 Spies and Hans de Lange sent an invitation to Mpande
requesting him to send his delegates Two emissaries, Sigagela and Vobo,
came with a message from Mpande that he had granted the Klip River
country to the Voortrekkers."o Mkhonto also confirmed that Mpande had
previously told Shepstone and Kyle that the Klip River area had never
been given to the British.'"
Harding argued that no value could be placed on statements uttered by the
delegates ofMpande. He concluded that Mpande:
239
''0
241
242
"has practised, and is practising the
grossest deceit towards the British
Government and his proceedings with
reference to the Boers, amounts to the
crime ofdeliberate fraud. ,..,,,
G.E. Cory: The Rise ofSouth Africa, p. 79.
M.C. van Zyl: Luitenant-Goewemeur Martin West en die Natalse Voortrekkers,
1845 - 1849, p. 162.
M.M. Bebn: The KJip River Insurrection, 1847. (Unpublisbed MA Dissertation,
Natal, 1932), pp. 28 - 30.
C.J. Uys: In the Era ofSbepstone, p. 37.
U. van Heerden: Die Kornmandant-Generaal in die Geskiedenis van die Suid­
Afukaanse Republiek, p. 86.