One of the Boer's statements for leaving his Transvaal home may give some idea of the feeling that pervaded these trek Boers at the time:--"I found myself among the commandeered. On my farm nothing had as yet been put in the ground, and as no one could be got to go as my substitute, there was nothing for me but to go on the commando. My waggons and cattle had also to be given up for the use of the commando. In my absence my wife had to plough, in order to obtain sufficient food for the year. I returned from the commando, having lost several of my cattle on the way. I went to the field-cornet of Moi river, in whose district I lived, with the view of obtaining compensation, but I was informed that nothing could be done in the matter. Under the old law compensation could be obtained for damage to what had been lent, but there was nothing mentioned about this in the new commando laws. It appeared the waggons and oxen were commandeered at the owner's own risk. I was so struck with the unrighteousness of this mode of proceeding that I felt myself compelled, with all my belongings, to join the trek for which a party of Boers were already prepared, and with them I then threw in my lot; and on the 2nd of March, 1877, we left the Transvaal. Our party consisted of 600 souls, large and small, with 100 waggons, under the command of Du Plessis, and arrived at the Crocodile river or Limpopo, where we remained a fortnight, and then went forward into the wilderness." Very few ever reached their destination. They were attacked by the natives, and had constantly to form themselves into laager to defend themselves. Their cattle died of lung-sickness and thirst, many of them were stolen, some lost in the bush; waggons and property had to be abandoned; women had to inspan the waggons and drive them; to lighten them their household goods had to be thrown from the waggons. Some few reached Damaraland, and a few went more north into the Portuguese possessions, where small plots of land were given to them; those in Damaraland were taken to Cape Town from Walfish Bay, and sent back to the Transvaal at the Cape Government expense; and this occurred during the time the Boers had the Transvaal, and their own chosen president was at the head of the republic.