Meantime, the largest and best organized of the three pioneering expeditions, under the capable leadership of Pieter Retief—a man much respected by all Africanders to this day—trekked eastward and then southward into the warmer and more fruitful country lying between the Quathlamba range of mountains and the Indian Ocean. Here they found a region practically emptied of native inhabitants, save a not very numerous tribe of Zulus. Native wars had nearly depopulated the country in 1820. They also found a small English settlement at Fort Natal, where the flourishing town of Durban is now situated. These few Englishmen had obtained a cession of the narrow maritime strip they occupied from King Tshaka, and were maintaining a little republic as a temporary form of government until they could obtain the status of a British colony. They had applied for that standing in 1835, with the request that a legislature be granted them. The British government was still considering their request, and was in doubt as to whether it should occupy the fort and establish a colony there, when the Africanders arrived. The settlement was so insignificant, and the prospective action of the British authorities so uncertain that the emigrants paid little attention to it. Desiring to live on terms of peace with the Zulus the Africanders applied to their king, Dingaan, for a cession of territory, rashly visiting his kraal for that purpose. The king made the grant readily enough, but the next day when they were about to depart after drinking a farewell cup of native beer, he treacherously ordered his warriors to slay his guests, alleging that they were wizards. Pieter Retief, with all who had accompanied him on the embassy perished that day, and the deed was followed up with an attack on a small body of emigrants camped near by. The surprise was complete, and every soul was massacred without mercy.